On consumer choice, food deserts and variability

The matter of obesity and "food deserts" is an interesting one.  You may well have heard about the link between obesity and food deserts; you may also have heard more recently that the link between obesity and food deserts is specious.  Hard to say what the truth really is- I suspect somewhere in the middle.  The heart of the matter is indeed consumer choice, but it isn't as simple as just that.  Why would folks choose to eat fast food to the exclusion of healthier fare, all other things being equal?  I am certain that it comes down to variability: there is very little variability in the quality and taste of what one will eat at a McDonald's in Cincinnati and one in, say, Phoenix.  There is, however, a great deal of variability in the quality and taste of good healthy produce commonly available in those two cities -or even within the same city.  So if one is poor, one quite rationally spends one's limited resources on the food that will reliably yield a satisfactory (if unhealthy) meal. 

The solution?  There is no one solution, of course.  Maybe this is a benefit we can confer- giving folks an economically "risk-free" chance to get to know and like healthier foods. 

Old plot, new garden

The third gardening season at the Latonia Baptist Church garden is on.  This year's crops will include (in order from back to front) tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, bell peppers; and (along the right edge of the garden) pole beans. 

Even better than having this garden set up for the season is the fact that Harvest Stewards will be canvassing some local community gardens this season -AND we've got some new volunteers too! 

Looking forward to a productive season!

Planting seeds

Very exciting to finally feel like the season is underway.  After a peculiarly warm late-Winter, it now feels as if the season is really ready to turn for good. 

I had the opportunity to meet with some community gardeners in Highland Heights this evening, to pitch the Harvest Stewards idea.  This season, we're targeting community gardens.  We hope to take advantage of the fact that folks may have to be absent from their beloved beans and tomatoes and zucchini on account of Summer vacationing.  When gardeners are unable to make it to their plots, they let us know and we check in on the plot during the gardener's absence to harvest and donate whatever is ready to be picked.  And, of course, we hope to prevail upon the good will of the gardeners to throw some surplus produce at us as well.  One person can only eat so much zucchini in one summer, after all...

I was also able to unload quite a lot of seeds donated to me by Baker Creek Nurseries.  It is great to see those seeds going to good use!

Organic Vanity?

I read with interest the Wall Street Journal's "Weekend Interview" with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe .  The headline of the piece is a provocative question: "Can the world still feed itself?"  Brabeck-Letmathe offers a qualified affirmative answer, and one of those qualifications is one that I know will trouble many.  I refer here to his comments on genetically modified crops:

What's harder for him to understand is that Europe's policies effectively forbid poor countries in places like Africa from using genetically modified seed. These countries, he says, urgently need the technology to increase yields and productivity in their backward agricultural sectors. But if they plant GMOs, then under Europe's rules the EU "will not allow you to export anything—anything. Not just the [crop] that has GMO—anything," because of European fears about cross-contamination and almost impossibly strict purity standards. The European fear of genetically modified crops is, he says, "purely emotional. It's becoming almost a religious belief."
This makes Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe, a jovial man with a quick smile, get emotional himself. "How many people," he asks with a touch of irritation, "have died from food contamination from organic products, and how many people have died from GMO products?" He answers his own question: "None from GMO. And I don't have to ask too long how many people have died just recently from organic," he adds, referring to the e. coli outbreak earlier this year in Europe.

I have to agree with him.  Denying impoverished peoples the opportunity to at least try using GMO crops - which are more productive per unit land area than "regular" crops and organic crops- is unconscionable.  Is it not indeed a kind of vanity to insist that those starving and dying in East Africa do without the benefit of more productive crops?

Comments at FBC Mason, 31 July 2011

I had the opportunity to speak to the congregants of the First Baptist Church of Mason yesterday.  Here is a rough sketch of what I had to say.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about Harvest Stewards, a project that I have come to think of as my personal  mission.

I have been a gardener for about a dozen years.  Any of you that have a garden or know of someone that has a garden have probably heard someone say -or maybe you've said some version of it yourself- "I have so many zucchini, I just don't know what to do with'em all!".  Or maybe instead of zucchini, it was beans or tomatoes or cucumbers or some other thing.  The idea, in any case, is that even in the small garden plots that folks keep in their back yards, there is often surplus.  And in the last few years, the, "and I just don't know what to do with'em all" part of that refrain has hung heavy in my ears.  And I can't pinpoint the exact instant when the connection was made in my mind to the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, but it was; and therein lay the seed of a plan to get more people more involved in the ministry of feeding hungry folks in our area.  Let me refresh our memory about that 25th chapter of Matthew...

In that chapter, Jesus tells a parable about the ten virgins and their oil lamps, then the parable about the talents, and the chapter is closed out with a brief exposition of the Final Judgment.  I should like to point out that in one way or another, each of these three sections is in one way or another, about stewardship, about using one's God-given resources for the Kingdom of God.   In particular, in those closing passages of the chapter, Jesus commends the righteous for, among other things, feeding Him when He was hungry.  They then say, "but... we don't remember ever feeding you..."  And as we all recall, Jesus says, "ah, but whenever you fed the hungry, you fed me; whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me".  And so, in March of 2010, it dawned on me that I do know what to do with all that surplus produce, and I incorporated Harvest Stewards as a non-profit LLC - the idea behind it being so utterly simple: grow food and give it away. 

So: last year I started a small garden at my church in Latonia, Kentucky, and I set aside some space at home for growing food that I would give away.  In all, we're talking about approximately 170 square feet of garden space under cultivation. 

Now, one may say, wouldn't it be better to have Kroger or Castellini or some well-landed farmers donate from their ample supplies?  Yeah, it would be better, I suppose.  But remember the parable of the talents: the master gets after that one-talent servant; he doesn't fault him for not managing the talents of the 5- or 2-talent servants.  He says, "good grief, man, you couldn't even be bothered to deposit the money in a simple interest-bearing account?  Get out of here, you're fired"  The point the parable makes is that each of us is accountable for our own stewardship, not that of anyone else, corporate or individual. 

So: last year's gardens yielded 156 pounds of produce, mostly cucumbers, squash, corn, beans and tomatoes.  All of this went to Action Ministries and Fairhaven Rescue Mission, both in Northern Kentucky. 

This year I'm using the same garden at my church in Latonia, and I've set aside a little more space at home for growing donation produce.  A new thing I'm trying this year is a plan I call "drop off and top off", whereby I drop off a specially designed grow box (essentially a large pot with a water reservoir on the bottom) with a willing participant, whose only responsibility is to top off the water, to make sure that the grow box doesn't run dry, and then take the produce to a local food ministry.  My friend Chris, who by the way, lives right here in Mason, does not have a green thumb at all, but he's had great success with the "drop off and top off" scheme.  In the seasons to come, we'll be seeking out more and more stewards who want to help feed hungry folks -no green thumb necessary!  I've put some of my calling cards where you can find them; I'd love to be in touch with anyone who is interested in Harvest Stewards. 

Many thanks to Pastor Bill Mountsier for the chance to speak to the folks at FBC Mason.  I was pleased to hear from several folks afterwards that they would begin donating produce and some even talked about starting a garden at the church.

Seasonal update

This time last year, we had already started our donations to Action Ministries.  This year?  So far, nothing has ripened up enough to donate.  I started a different sort of cucumber this year in my grow box, "Armenian Long" cucumbers.  They're poor producers so far.  Maybe they'll come in like gangbusters later on?  I hope so. 

On the bright side, it looks as if we'll have rhubarb to harvest in a few weeks' time. 

And there will be at least a few cantaloupes too:

They're small now, so I reckon mid-August will be their pick-date. 

The tomatoes are producing, but none are ripe just yet.  Okra plants are coming along slowly, I hope they'll start producing late this month or early next. 

Another positive development is that the beans are doing SO much better this year.  Last season, we got no beans whatsoever. This season, I used a soil inoculant and I suspect that has made the difference.  A long row of beans is just about to start climbing on the garden trellis.  It won't be long before we have a big green wall of protein waiting to be harvested!

Seasonal progress, greening thumbs

The LBC garden is growing nicely.  The beans are shooting right up; hopefully we'll have better luck with them this year than last.  We put in some raspberries and rhubarb, both of which are doing well.  There are flowers on the cantaloupe, too!  Oh, and I mustn't forget the tiny okra seedlings, which I hope will produce as well in the LBC garden as the ones in my own garden did last Summer.  

Elsewhere -yes, we do have an elsewhere this year!- things are progressing nicely as well.  Up in Mason, Ohio, at the home of my good buddy Chris, we're trying out the "fire and forget" concept, whereby I drop off a grow-box (of, in this case, zucchini and cucumbers) and the single instruction to not let the water reservoir run dry.  So far, it looks like I've been able to make a gardener out of my friend: