Here I Am

cattle - where they belong

Sorry for my prolonged absence. The thing about blogging is that one has to have something to blog about and I've been feeling decidedly unmoved in that department. I'm feeling myself less interested with what I'm putting on my plate and more concerned with whether or not people are even eating in other parts of the world. Those are grandiose thoughts, to be sure, but something I feel passionate about. I'm looking at taking my background in nutrition and chugging my caboose onto the food sovereignty track.

Cliff Swallows build their nests on, appropriately, cliffs in Alberta. I marveled at the miracle of each home, built with such architectural finesse! The natural world has so much to teach us.

Of course, I still care about what we're eating, but that stuff seems a given by now. I'm brewing up some kefir and kombucha right now and I plan on writing about that in the next couple of days. Speaking of kombucha, I need to move to New York City and sell this stuff so I can send my kids to university!

Deer on the same grasslands that the cattle graze on. There is something decidedly appropriate about that.

In the meantime, here are some things I've been reading/investigating/pondering/getting involved with:

• Agriculture and Human Values
• In Corrupt Global Food System, Farmland is the New Gold If you think eating grains shipped in from other countries is a way to save the earth, think again. Learn the reality of what happens when ecosystems are destroyed to monocrop land in unending swaths of grains and legumes. Bigger still, investigate what is increasingly becoming a crisis within our broken food system. We eat food grown on land that is stolen from peasants to grow food for the rich. This article is a good place to start. We need to buy local food from local farmers that work to sustain the biodiversity of our land if we are to leave a viable legacy for our children and their children.
• La Via Campesina - Peasant Women on the Frontiers of Food Sovereignty
• "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" by Jared Diamond. If you haven't read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Diamond, you're really missing out. This article isn't new, but it was foundational in my understanding of how agriculture destroys people, ecosystems, and the very planet we're trying to protect. It was a huge jumping off point from which I was able to explore Jared Diamond's concepts further.
• Indigenous Food Systems
• Food Secure Canada
• "The Have More Plan, A Little Land, A Lot of Living" by Edward and Carolyn Robinson. I'm really enjoying this book. Vintage, dated, and still completely relevant.
• "All Flesh is Grass" by Gene Logsdon. Just sit with that title for a bit. If you don't understand how this is, you need to read this book. If you already get it, you still need to read this book.
• Nyeleni Declaration on food sovereignty
• "Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America" by Richard Nelson. If you don't hunt, this gives you a perspective you may not have considered. If you do hunt, this book will deepen your appreciation for the incredible gift we have been given with the deer. Either way, we can all agree on the conservation of our wildlife and wild lands and Nelson argues so eloquently in favor of both.
• "The Good Life" by Helen and Scott Nearing. I just started this one so I can't say how it all pans out, but self sufficiency over sixty years in one book is good enough to spark my interest. 
• And, of course, I will read anything by the brilliant Dr. Vandana Shiva that I can get my paws on. I'm finishing "Soil Not Oil" right now. What can I say? If it wasn't profound in its intelligence, clarity, and understanding, I would be surprised. This woman is a force. My hope is to spend some time at her Earth University in the future.