Organic. Humane. Local.

Organic. Humane.  Local.  These are words that are finally seeping into our collective consciousness.  Our food systems problems are becoming a dinner table conversation, a topic over a beer, and conversations with our kids. Big business hasn't let this go unnoticed.  Safeway is requiring all the organic eggs it sells to be ‘certified human.’ In Brooke’s blog last week she posted the about Marriot’s commitment to eliminate the use of gestation crates in its pork supply by 2020(http://bgi-blog-brookebutcher.blogspot.com/2013/01/week-3.html). McDonalds former CEO is creating a new chain of fast food restaurants focused on healthy local food.  Chipotle continues to increase its commitment to locally sourced food.  And these are just a few examples of some of the trends in the 2012 big business restaurant food industry.  While I find it frustrating  that it will take Marriott 7 years to change its suppliers practice or that Safeway isn’t requiring ALL the eggs they sells to be humanly certified I have to step back and remind myself that all work is good work.

A locally supported regional food system will likely depend on these big name convenience and fast food restaurants getting on board with regional. Much of our American diet is based on this idea of convenience (which is another cause I hope someone takes up, Americans need to SLOW down).  In a report done by Andreyeva in 2010 “Food away from home” demand was the most elastic (.81). Meaning a small increase in restaurant/fast food meals and we are likely to just eat at home.  This makes sense when you think about the price wars between major fast food retailers; who can have the biggest $1 menu. But then again, I’m reminded of Burgerville, a Portland fast food chain, with the motto “Fresh. Local. Sustainable.”  It’s a little bit more expensive than choosing the Burger King but I would pick it every time.  I don’t think I’m the only one.  It’s not my ideal food situation. It’s still fast so we miss out on the culture part of food. It’s still delivered to you in one time use compostable containers.  Not everything is locally sourced.  BUT when I used to travel for work and found myself in Portland I loved their bean burger served up with greasy fries and a side of Dr. Pepper!  How do we convince other fast food chains that the price elasticity numbers they see historically are only that, history. Americans are changing their eating habits and providing the cheapest food to ensure you sell the most and make the most money is not the trend of the future.

So while my passion is and will continue to be finding ways to connect people with food I need to be open to ways that the current system can help support and grow the system of regional food that I’m so passionate about. The leaders of the food movement before me helped make local, humane, and organic conversations in McDonald’s board room.  I’m committed to picking up that torch and finding ways that our entire food system is sustainable. It will take combinations of approaches; a multiple of micro solution; and a dedicated bunch of future foodie leaders.


References
Tatiana Andreyeva, PhD,  Michael W. Long, MPH, and Kelly D. Brownell, PhD. The Impact of Food Prices on Consumption: A Systematic Review of Research on the Price Elasticity of Demand for Food. retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804646/

Wong, Venessa. September 2012. Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Former McDonald's Executive Serves Up Healthy Fast Food
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-14/former-mcdonalds-executive-serves-up-healthy-fast-food

Salazar, Dennis. 2012. Capitalism Is Alive and Well in the Green Community. Environmental Leader.   Retrieved from: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/07/03/capitalism-is-alive-and-well-in-the-green-community/

Safeway Requires All Cage-Free Eggs to be Certified Humane. December 2012. Environmental Leader. Retrieved from: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/12/27/safeway-requires-all-cage-free-eggs-to-be-certified-humane/

Vijayaraghavan, Akhila. June 28, 2012.  Chipotle Moves Toward Local Sourcing. retrieved from http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/06/chipotle-moves-local-sourcing/

Agriculture 2050

What will Agriculture look like in 2050 when?   Demand for food is expected to roughly double by 2050 because of population growth and increasing consumption of calorie- and meat-intensive diets. (Mueller 2012). When you consider that agriculture is currently the number one source of environmental degradation continuing with agriculture as usual for the next 40 years could have some significant and unchangeable consequences to the earth.

I’m a bit of an optimist, I do think that by 2050 we will have made some progress towards our looming agriculture crisis. What I’m most interested in at this moment, 2012, is what are the most impactful steps regarding our agriculture practices that will change our current trajectory towards climate crisis. As Mueller suggested in his report we need to stop expanding the footprint of agriculture and become more efficient in our agriculture practices (2012 Mueller). In an article in GreenBiz Gunther reviews some of the short coming of Organic; it takes up more land contributes to deforestation, water is not addressed, and organic cost more. In other words, he (and other researchers) are suggesting organic alone is not a sustainable way to farm.  Maybe the future of agriculture is indoors and up as suggested in an article in the The Future of Agriculture May Be Up.  It is also possible the future of agriculture will rely on convincing the growing population to eat a plant based diet.

As the two artciles written by Gunther in Greenbiz, One titled Why organic food isn’t as green as you think and the other The organic farming debate is about more than just yields, he presents both sides of why organic may not be enough to safe us  but also why organic may be the only way to proceed into the future. I think in the end he is correct, the solution is probably a combination of multiple solutions.  Feeding the hungry of the world is more complicated than just growing more wheat, corn, and soybeans which are the crops that when grown organically yield almost 25% less. Just making us more productive in growing these commodity grains is, in my opinion, not the solution to feed the world in 2050. It turns out for vegetable farming there is less of a difference in yield between organic and conventional. Vegetables are the foods that will provide nourishment (not just calories) to the future world. Food is medicine. If we go down that path of just increasing commodity grains in order to feed our world we are likely to to see increased hunger in some part of the world and obesity in others. Future agriculture should be sustainably grown and nutritious food. Each region needs to take more responsibility to grow their own food. If Americans ate local first, we could relieve the stress that is being put on other parts of the world. I don’t think every item eaten needs to be regional but we need to change the paradigm. What if we each of us adopted the reality that food from other regions is a treat, a splurge, and not what we should feed ourselves every day.  I still struggle with how to market the idea of constraint to a general consumer. It seems telling a consumer you should have less choice is a hard sell. That said, I don’t think it is an impossible sell. It is a path to health and personal empowerment.  Some of us are already trying hard to find  ‘food rules’ that allow us to function in our world of abundance (take for example every fad diet out there: Paleo, South Beach, Vegan.. these are all modern day solution to an abundance problem and often unethical practices in our food system). All this abundance for some while sadly others do not have enough to eat. The future of our food system must be one that values feeding individuals rather than it being cheap. Cheap, high calorie foods are designed to appeal to our animal instincts and look where that has gotten us so far.  And let me be clear, I believe we go here through no fault but our own.

As we’ve heard time and time again feeding our world is not about production (even with a growing population) it is about distribution. I, as well as others, would also argue it is about reducing waste in the system, changing American and emerging economies eating habits (yes, I’m talking about more plant based diets), creating food resilient and food dependent regions, and reducing water and nutrient waste in agriculture practices. Just growing more on more land to meet the current and future demand is only going to hasten our global warming disaster.

 My last thought for today is about empowering women around the world to be part of the agriculture of 2050. This infographic speaks for itself.  

Oh wait, one more. I also haven’t made it all the way through this series made by UC Davis but so far a fair representation of f current and possible future agriculture.  http://www.uctv.tv/series/9-Billion-Mouths-to-Feed-The-Future-of-Farming-652 


Mueller, N. D., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., Ray, D. K., Ramankutty, N., & Foley, J. A. (2012). Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature, 490(7419), 254-7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1124363860?accountid=1038

Head, Lee Ann (2012). Why 'organic' needs a re-brand. Retrieved from: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/08/03/why-organic-needs-re-brand?page=0%2C1

Gunther, Marc (2012). Why organic food isn’t as green as think. Greenbiz.com. Retrieved from: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/09/why-organic-food-isnt-green-you-think

Gunther, Marc (2012 May) The organic farming debate is about more than just yields.  Greenbiz.com Retrieved from: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/05/14/organic-farming-debate-about-more-just-yields

Fletcher, Own (2012 Oct) The Future of Agriculture May Be Up. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443855804577602960672985508.html

Backyard Chickens: Cost Analysis

So in early 2011 my housemates and I got chickens. We got them as little chicks, raised them, made them a coop, continue to feed them, and in return we get eggs. See the post on my other blog (that i don't use often) Edible Dirt:  http://www.edibledirt.com/wordpress/  You'll find some fun pictures and some of the decisions we made when our chickens where just chicks.

Top 3 questions I get about the chickens are:
(1) Do the eggs taste different?
(2)  How much does it cost to get started?
(3) How much does each egg cost you?

Questions one: YES, the taste way better. They are richer and full of flavor. Our chickens get super fancy local feed and they get to run around in the yard eating bugs so the eggs are full of good stuff. Nothing like the store bought.

Question two and three: The following graph is my attempt  to answer questions number two and three. And for fun I've also posted screenshots of the excel spreadsheet I used to calculate the information non the graph.

Some of the biggest assumptions to note are:

• Depreciation and Cost of Money are not factored in my analysis
• Buying new chickens to augment the flock as the current hens age, while a real possibility, is not factored in this analysis
• My value of the eggs is based on the most expensive eggs I can buy at the CoOp ($7 dozen) 
• Labor cost are not factored in the graph (although they are addressed as an alternative break even in the excel spreadsheet) 

Below is how I came up with the numbers.

(if anyone is interested in seeing the excel spreadsheet pdf just let me know and I'll be happy to email it to you.  Below are screen shots of the calculations if you zoom in you should be able to see the numbers, sorry they are not the easiest to read)

Economics in Context

I think economics is a great tool for understanding business and business behavior but I get frustrated when it is taken out of context. Economics is a new social science and had is kind a fluffly science at best. Economics shines when it is used as a tool to better understand our behaviors around choice AND put context. I've always thought of economist sort of like meteorologist. A meteorologist spends his educational years learning about all the different clouds, pressure systems, psychical land structures  etc and how they will affect the outcome of the weather. If you live in Southern California on the ocean you meteorologist often predicts your weather fairly accurately. They can see the storm and there isn't a whole lot of things that are going to change the outcome. But it gets more complicated when you add mountains, other bodies of water, shifting convergence zones, etc. All this applies to the economist.

The fact that if you ask 5 different economist what they think about a given situation and you get 5 different answers is something that as future business people we need to understand. I believe successful business not only considers the economics of there situation but of the psychology, history, science, etc that will affect heir business. I mean really,  McDonald put a lot of psychology and science into that Big Mac meal and super sized the fries!

Economics is not accounting. Accounting's purpose is to track and provide financial information to evaluate past performance and make future decision. Economics is a social science dedicated to figuring out how we as a complex individual make decision regarding scarcity. When an economist makes a prediction or interprets a series of recent events they have imperfect information and as a result their own belief system and education translates informs their predictions or interpretations. Accounts can spin their information as well but it is based on numbers that have been tracked and collected. Yes, 'creative  accounting' is a realy thing but somewhere there are real number gathered. The point is economist are often smart people but they are often interpreting imperfect information gathered from imperfect sources.

I'm excited to continue looking at economics through the lens of sustainability and in the context of everything else that makes us human. Keynes in 1930 thought by 2030 we would have done away with this obsessive drive to collect and gather wealth. I'm excited to continue this search for ways to use wealth as a tool for our overall well being. Economics is just a tool to be used in context.

The Good Life: Ikigai and Mortality ("well being" and mortality)
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-good-life/200809/ikigai-and-mortality

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html

What is the point of our Food System Anyway?

Is our food system meeting our expectations? What are our expectations? Do we have any? How do we measure and rate the system’s success? Is it a successful system?

I believe these are important question to ask at the individual level, at the city level, at the national level and at the global level.   If we do not put intentions behind our food decisions we are defaulting to create a system that is good at providing cheap, convenient, and shelf ready foods because that is what we are buying.  Unlike many industry sectors you can chose if you participate or not but most of us are not farmers growing everything we eat and thus are using the food system to provide for us.  As individuals we can influence the way business provide us foods and we can influence the priorities that our city and state governments set regarding food, and as cities and state can influence national policy and so on and so on up to the global level.

In the article The City that Ended Hunger (http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?sid=351) the City of Belo Horzonte in Brazil city administrators made a policy that food was a right that everyone should have access to. When the city shifted its goals around food it was able to help facilitate increased access not buy providing more handouts but encouraging direct farmer to city marketing. The City administration subsidies selected healthy produce at the farmers stands. They also created local People’s Restaurants were anyone could come eat regardless of need.  While I have gone into great detail here the shift from quantity of food to the right of everyone to had profound effects on the City. Belo used many creative and innovative ideas because it was tasks with the responsibility to ensure everyone’s right to food.

Restaurante Popular in Belo Brazil

In Norm’s blog The Processed Food Industry And Coronary Capitalism
(http://abnormalecon.blogspot.com/2012/02/processed-food-industry-and-coronary.html) he mentions that a system of “pure capitalism” doesn’t exists because if it did we wouldn't have the big market failures we see in the food system  i.e. obesity and hunger.  If pure capitalism isn't the solution because we live in the imperfect world than it is up to us as evolved human thinkers to set goals for our food system and provide it the intention and direction that it needs. It turns out that just not thinking about it and letting the magical world of business do it for us hasn't worked. This isn't to say business doesn't play a role, it actually plays a huge role it will be the driver and the foundation of the new food system but it will be guided by a higher goal that we as individual have imposed on it.

Imagine if we all decided that our food system was only successful if everyone had access to quality, nutrient dense, sustainability grown foods.  We currently would get a big fat F on our grade card. We would need to create new creative solutions to reach this goal. Food would undoubtedly become more expensive because we would begin to pay the true cost but if we pair this with the idea that food is a right and hunger is unacceptable we will get creative. We are a capable and innovative species... when we decide it matters to us.

THE FARM BILL: policy on your plate

I just got back from grocery shopping. I’ll soon be fixing a meal but first I want to take a moment to explore this idea of business and policy in the context of the Farm Bill.  After all the products available and the prices I paid at the grocery store are directly affected by this 79 year old bill. 

I am currently on the Food Team but I admit I am not intimate with every detail of the Farm Bill and doing a little research for this blog I realized why;  the 2008 Farm Bill was 1,770 pages.  The Farm Bill is a very complex policy document that covers many aspects of our food system not just farming.  The Farm Bill is updated and re-enacted every 5 years. The first farm bill was in 1933 and started by Henry Wallace, President Roosevelt’s Secretary of Agriculture. The original idea was to help mitigate the low prices of crops during the Greet Recession. The government would take of the market the commodities when prices where to low and then resold later when prices recovered. The government was able to make money on this program and many farmers benefited. This also led to farmer instituted grain reserves providing flexibility of when they sold their crops. Today the government pays directly to the farmers the difference of what food processors pay and what farmers need to be economically viable. 

The current and proposed Farm Bill covers many topics, called titles. These include: 

• Title I, Commodities : Payment and loan programs for 20 farm commodities.
• Title II, Conservation : Conservation programs, wetlands protection, grasslands protection, farmland protection and incentives for farmers to improve environmental stewardship.
• Title III, Agricultural Trade and Aid : Food aid 
• and meeting World Trade Organization obligations.
• Title IV, Nutrition : Food stamps, child nutrition and supplemental food.
• Title V, Farm Credit : Farm ownership loans and emergency credit.
• Title VI, Rural Development : Grants for rural businesses and small communities, expanding rural broadband access.
• Title VII, Research : Agricultural extension services, research on all areas of food production including biotechnology and organic production.
• Title VIII, Forestry: Funding for various U.S. forest service projects including community forestry.
• Title IX, Energy: Funding for bioenergy projects and research as well as federal procurement for biobased products.
• Title X, Miscellaneous : Includes crop insurance, disaster assistance, animal welfare/inspections and country of-origin labeling.

The largest part of the Farm Bill is our food assistance program (SNAP). The second highest funded title is the commodities support (see the info graphic below). This support of commodities has many hidden cost including the increased obesity rates in our country. (see info graphic provided by takepart.com)

Another thing I was interested in regarding this current Farm Bill was the expansion of Farm Insurance Programs.  In an article, A Risky Proposition: Crop Insurance in the Face of Climate Change, Julia Olmstead talked about the missed opportunity to tie insurance coverage and sustainable farming practices. Most farmers are interested in their soil health and long term sustainability but often the current system is working against those goals. Tying government backed insurance to the sustainable practices a farmer as incentive for farmers to take the appropriate measures to protect soils, water, and general environment.  This is currently not part of the 2012 Farm Bill.  This is a missed opportunity and hopefully we can figure out other ways to create this sort of incentive. 

There is also, although small, continued local food systems support and recognition of the value of small to mid-size farms in the current version of the unauthorized 2012 Farm Bill. These included programs to diversify crops, support small farmers marketing with marketing, creating infrastructure to help small and mid-size farmers reach urban centers, data collection regarding local food system, and programs for beginner farmers. 

The recent news around the passing of the next Farm Bill suggest it will either be passed by the end of the year as part of the larger budget discussions or the Farm Bill will not be passed until April 2013. The 2008 Farm Bill is currently expired and has not been renewed. 

References: 

A Fair Farm Bill for America: A series of papers on the 2007 Farm Bill. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.  Found at http://www.iatp.org/files/258_2_97623.pdf

Infographic reference: http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/06/07/farm-bill-infographic

A side by side comparison of the 2008 and the new 2012 Farm bill can be found http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42552.pdf

A Risky Proposition: Crop Insurance in the Face of Climate Change. Julia Olmstead. Found at http://www.iatp.org/documents/a-risky-proposition-crop-insurance-in-the-face-of-climate-change

NYT Articles: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/10/us/politics/ap-us-fiscal-cliff-farm-bill.html?ref=farmbillus&_r=0 & http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/11/05/business/05reuters-usa-politics-farmbill.html?ref=farmbillus

Creating Community does NOT equal Social Equity

so·cial

of or pertaining to human society, especially as a body divided into classes according to status: social rank.

eq·ui·ty

the quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality:the equity of Solomon. Synonyms: disinterest, equitableness,impartiality, fair-mindedness, fairness, justness,evenhandedness, objectivity; justice, probity. Antonyms:bias, discrimination, inequity, injustice, partiality,partisanship, prejudice, unfairness, unreasonableness;injustice.

com·mu·ni·ty

a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharingcommon characteristics or interests and perceived orperceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the largersociety within which it exists (usually preceded by the  ): thebusiness community; the community of scholars.

I remember not too long ago sitting around at a staff meeting with my boss and talking about our office values, goals, etc. We are a community based architecture firm on Capitol Hill. A lot of our conversation focused around our connections to our neighborhood. How we, as designers, wanted to created spaces that foster and encouraged community. We wanted to create community that was open to all and full of diversity. As a quick exercise my boss asked each team member to talk about what community meant to them. The answers were as you might expect; support, trust, shared values, shared proximity, shared goals, shared history, etc. She pointed out after we all shared that community and creating community does not equal social equity. Creating community was about finding people that often had shared values and social equity was about making space for everyone within a community.

Let’s take a moment here for a quick history lesson. Social equity is a newer word in the sustainable vernacularly and is popularly defined as equal opportunity for all in a safe and healthy environment. It has gained popularity after the President's Council on Sustainable Development, in 1996, defined Social Equity as "equal opportunity, in a safe and healthy environment" in their report.  Today it is considered vital third element in the three legged stool of the sustainability.

So if a community is people with shared histories, things in common, a family, or a group of friend then it is clear that just by creating community we are not ensuring all human beings social equity.

Creating community can foster social equity but there needs to be awareness and intention to allow all human beings to participate in the new community. I think we as future leaders in the new sustainable economy need to be aware of our own mental models of community as we strive for social equity with in our communities. I believe social equity can be at odds with our personal ideas of community. Community by its definition is about creating an ‘us’ and ‘them’ which is the opposite of a club that everyone can belong to. Before I go too far let me be clear there is absolutely nothing wrong with creating communities based on common histories, shared values, geographic location, etc., we just can’t call that creating social equity. A truly social equitable community would not be comprised of all like mined individuals or individuals who have shared histories.  In the end a truly socially equitable community would likely take many of us out of our comfort zone and challenge our mental models of community. It would be the community of the globe.

I think as individuals and as a society we need to be aware the communities we create and the barriers we place on who is allowed into them. Again, I don’t think we must always have socially equitable communities at every level of our life or at every level of society.  What we need is that every individual and every discrete community has the same social opportunity to have expression in our society.  

I realize this is a long rant for what some might consider not a big issues but I challenge you to listen to the how ‘social equity’ and ‘creating community’ are often used interchangeably. They are not interchangeable.

Oh, and how the heck does this relate to economics you ask.. well let me tell you! Fostering both communities and social equality (and understanding the difference) for individuals, groups, and communities to express themselves will develop positive human capital. Empowered expressive people are no longer liabilities but rather assets to society. They contribute to society as equals making the whole system stronger.

“Social Equity is the cornerstone of Social Capital, which cannot be maintained for a few at the expense of the many.” (wikipeda.com)