creative project: maps, maps, maps

Here are my maps for the final project. I chose 10 random (yet regular) food items from our cafeteria (baby lima beans, Barber's milk, chicken tenders, Frito Lay potato chips, green beans, Heinz marinara sauce, honey mustard, Juicy Juice, Nestle water, and canned pineapple), and mapped a minimum distance which they traveled to get to our cafeteria (thanks to google maps, Mrs. Melissa, and a bit of research).

Some foods could be traced farther back (for example, I could trace the tomatoes in the Heinz marinara all the way back to plant and seed), while others I couldn't get information on past a certain point in shipping (like the honey mustard).
Let it be noted that all of our food from the cafeteria (excluding what occasionally comes out of our garden) comes through Sysco Food Services of Central Alabama, located in Calera. That adds an automatic 30 miles to everything coming through our doors (which seems like a miniscule amount compared to the hundreds/thousands of minimum miles most foods traveled).

I was suprised to find that the chicken tenders are local- although I admit I couldn't figure out where they had been breaded (hopefully in the same plant?). Barber's is a local milk company. All the rest were from out of state, the farthest being (not suprisingly) the pineapple- which I lost track of at its shipping port in Singapore (a mere 9,520 miles away).

so here they are (you can't read the text, so added it above):

Baby Lima Beans- 1149 miles

Barber's Milk-57 miles

Chicken Tenders- 135 miles

Frito Lay potato chips-1,877 miles

Green Beans- 1,055 miles

Heinz marinara- 3,428 miles

Honey mustard- 1,218 miles

Juicy Juice- 2,085 miles

Nestle water- 1,058 miles

Canned (port royale) pineapples- 9,520 miles (the dotted line is to Singapore)

The results are, at a basic level, incomparable because not all of the foods could be traced to their origin, ingredient for ingredient (e.g. the multiple ingredients in marinara, honey mustard, and canned produce). But, as an image of base-line transportation, I think the maps can be informative.

...Hope you find them interesting!

what produce was from the Netherlands? an interactive food game

The food and water watch may be a LITTLE anti-imported food (understatement- e.g."learn about the hidden dangers your imported produce might contain"), but they did make this interesting tool/game tracking imported foods in the average american's shopping cart.
You look through a grocery store and select the foods you would normally buy (canned, frozen, fresh)- like canned peaches, frozen spinach, and onions... and add them to your shopping cart. For each food you select, it gives you the odds that product was imported, percent increases of exports of that product from 1993-2007, and top exporters of that product to the U.S.
I "shopped" for 10 pieces of produce I would normally/feasibly buy in the store (apples, avacados, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, lemons, oranges, pears) and ended up with a 98.9% percent chance of buying imported food, an average of 47 lbs. of these imported foods my house buys annually (I'm not sure how they got that statistic), and 13 possible countries of origin (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands[?? woah], New Zealand, South Africa, and Spain).

try it out!

"sweet surprise"

Corn syrup, corn syrup...
this website displays the Corn Refiner's Association's 20-30 million dollar campaign trying "to dispel myths and correct inaccuracies associated with this versatile sweetener and highlight the important role high fructose corn syrup plays in our nation’s foods and beverages."

The site is really trying to push LOGOS and ETHOS- lots of scientifically backed, recognizable and creditable sources... but I find their advertising campaign hilarious (with a touch of rediculous on the side). Check out the video and magazine ads, the little "quizzes" (“which of the following sweeteners is considered a natural food ingredient: HFCS, honey, sugar, or all of the above”), the slogans...


.... also interesting to note:

from the CRA's website-
"Why did food and beverage manufacturers switch from sugar to high fructose corn syrup to sweeten products?
High fructose corn syrup has gained a prominent position in the U.S. food industry for many reasons: it is stable in acid systems…it inhibits microbial spoilage…it helps canned foods taste fresher…it is easy to transport and incorporate into recipes"


and the lovely wikipedia:
"The preference for high-fructose corn syrup over cane sugar among the vast majority of American food and beverage manufacturers is largely due to U.S. import quotas and tariffs on sugar. These tariffs significantly increase the domestic U.S. price for sugar, forcing Americans to pay more than twice the world price for sugar, thus making high-fructose corn syrup an attractive substitute in U.S. markets."

Hooray Bibb County!

It seems as if the "hunger" for local, fresh produce has expanded to the depths of Bibb County.
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System, along with a handful of growers and farmers, are planning to set up a farmers market this summer supporting local farmers by selling tasty peaches, beans, corn, zucchini, and other fruits/vegetables to Bibb county residents (and I guess whoever else stops by!)... Even a certified organic farmer is on the list- with herbs, fruit, and vegetables (and maybe cut flowers?)! I thought I would never see the day when local organic produce was readily available in the backcountries of Alabama... (yay!)
If my memory is correct, they are going to hold the market at the BC Chamber of Commerce? or somewhere in Centreville...
I saw this first in the Centreville Press, but here's a seperate link to an article mentioning it.

I'm also doing an internship with Jones Valley Urban Farm all summer, which includes some Saturdays selling produce at the Pepper Place farmer's market! Not to mention some quality physical labor in the hot sun through the week. (my idea of a good time!)
So- this summer, I'm going to be eating like a queen.


(if queens like fresh black-eye peas).

food vs. fuel, number two?

since we've been talking about sources of fuel across the country and different environments which support the various renewable energies, I thought I might add a fuel source that works in virtually any environment that could be utilized in every region...

you don't need fancy equipment, cellulosic converters or large amounts of space to produce it. It doesn't even require much time or labor- unless you count tossing your food scraps into a seperate container and occasionally aerating the soil "work".

We're talking compost. It's simple, it's a free source of plant nutrients for those front bushes at your house, your indoor houseplant, or even for a gardening friend or compost collector (some farms are willing to take donated compost to grow their crops). It can significantly decrease your tossed waste... and works anywhere that food is produced!

while we're at it, why not take a look at making actual fuel from food scraps?

This article adresses a process some Vermont farmers are already using, where anaerobic composting is used to produce methane gas, which can be burned (and still leaves the compost usable). These farmers tend to use cow manure, which has a lower energy value than food scraps; working a combination of these two compostable sources of energy may create a better source of fuel... although this process may not provide the bang for its buck in rural areas, it could be a way for more urban farms to follow a "zero-waste strategy".

a simple alteration

It's all the rage to have a "reusable," "earth-friendly", canvas or recycled plastic bag these days to use for groceries, library books, and anything you might need a disposable bag for.
I happen to have a few that I take to the grocery store. But it struck me when I last used them that nearly everything was wrapped in plastic- the bag of apples, carrots, the nuts, the bread, and all the produce, which I seperate into smaller plastic bags to weigh before plopping them into the grocery cart...
I throw away wads of these produce bags- normally, I tear into them instead of untying the knot, meaning they can't be used again... but if I saved a few that I just put back into the reusable bags each time I visit, I would be saving a LOT of excess plastic.
.. I have also found that if you fold the bags up (really, it could be any thin plastic) long-wise, and then cut them into strips and knot them together, you can make a "fiber"- a long thread of plastic that can be wound into a ball... It gives me my own way to recycle the material- and for all those who know any fiber art (think crochet/knitting), you've got free source of yarn that's not getting tossed into the dumpster.
here's a blog that shows the process I'm talking about.

food vs. fuel

here's an interesting comparison chart relevant to our recent discussions in class:

We've been talking about various renewable sources of energy, which brings up the food vs. fuel debate.

at what point does growing food for biomass (biofuels) take away from growing food for people who can't get enough (the homeless/hungry in our own country as well as third-world countries without sustainable food production)?

Here's a PDF from the institute for agriculture and trade policy about the production of ethanol and the issue of aggravating hunger/poverty. It claims that the US production of biofuels will NOT further hunger/poverty... while this article seems to feel the benefit of this technology is debatable.
I think that the production of biofuels have the potential to work, but currently the process is unsustainable. In the next few years, however, I sense an onslaught of technology for alterative energy sources... But clearing miles and miles of excess land to grow ethanol (the current amount of US crop land, as seen in the chart, isn't even close to meeting half our energy needs) is simply adding onto the problem..