WOMEN IGNORED IN CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE AT COPENHAGEN

By Wayne Roberts

Women hold up half the sky, claims an old saying, coined long before the world’s skies were filled with global warming gases. My sense is that from now on, they will have to hold up a lot more.

The absence of debate on this gendered slant to global warming is a silence piled upon silences in the warm-up to the December Copenhagen conference, where the world’s leaders will, with some fanfare, agree to do nothing positive of substance.

Women, especially women in the Global South (aka the developing world), do almost nothing to cause global warming. They keep the homefires burning in India, for example, the country with the highest percentage of the world’s poor; produces about the same amount of global warming gases as affluent Canada, which has about a billion fewer people.

Women are not causing the delays in scientists getting their act together, nor the logjam in government inability to coordinate anti-warming initiatives. The much-heralded IPCC report of 2007 presented the consensus of some 2500 scientists around the world. They agreed global warming had human causes and would cause planetary havoc, and spent half a page on special problems women would face, perhaps not surprising given that only 15 per cent of the included scientists (which presumably didn’t include their secretaries) were women. As for governments, less than a quarter of the negotiators working on a Copenhagen deal right now are women.

Yet women will pay most dearly for business and political notion-of-motion inaction, a reality which the world’s mainstream feminists and environmentalists, even such organizations as Moms Against Climate Change, have all but ignored.

The silence about women is help up by many silences that lead many people to think that global warming is some future threat or that it may disrupt Nature, but not people. According to the May, 2009 Lancet, Britain’s most respected medical journal, global warming is the “biggest global health threat of the 21st century” and also “one of the most inequitable health risks of our time” since the poorest billion people in the world will lose 500 times more years of healthy life than the rich who caused their problems. This is the century when colonialism loses all pretence of being a white man’s burden and becomes, especially in southern Africa and Asia where the harm will be worst, a brown woman’s burden. And it’s already happening; indeed, it’s ten year-old news.

Global warming’s impact is a future or distant reality only in the Global North. In the South, global warming-related or man-made “natural disasters,” such as hurricanes, typhoons, floods and mudslides are already on the rise. Small disasters are silent tsunamis, since they lack the drama of a big one, but they have doubled from 200 to 400 in the last 20 years, according to reports by the UN’s Division for the Advancement of Women. These mini-disasters led to the death or maiming of 211 million people, seven times more than were wounded or killed in wars over that time. Women and children are 14 times more likely to die during disasters than men, according to the UN’s because they’re more likely to be trapped in a home, or were never taught to swim or climb trees, or wear clothes that make vigorous movement difficult, according to the UN’s recent publication, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook.

Just as there is silence about natural disasters, many provoked by climate chaos, there is silence about women’s role as hewers of wood and water, whose work will never be done in a heated- and dried-up world.

The fuel for about a third of the world’s homes -- two-thirds in India or Indonesia -- is wood or dung gathered and carried by women. Women also find and carry home cooking and cleaning water. In Africa, already suffering from deforestation and desertification induced by climate chaos, women and children now spend 40 billion hours a year gathering water, which commonly requires them to carry a 20 to 40 kilogram load on their heads, leading to spinal injuries as they age, according to a report to the UN General Assembly last spring.

As the time and distances go up under the impact of increased desertification – almost two billion people are liable to suffer from water stress by 2025 as a result of expected levels of climate chaos – the sheer time required to carry out these essential tasks will make it almost impossible for girls to attend school or women to engage in part-time jobs that might ease the way out of extreme poverty.

Time required searching for essentials such as fuel and water also competes for time needed to maintain subsistence farms, the women’s work that provides most of the food eaten in the Global South. Just when that food production becomes more time-demanding as adaptations become necessary to ward off drought, desertification and deforestation; crop failures and famine are almost inevitable in such circumstances. Extreme poverty, farmland degradation, hunger and malnutrition, sexist discrimination and global warming will form points on an enclosed and vicious circle from which escape will be difficult.

Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai, honored for building a women’s army of tree planters who grew greenbelts throughout Kenya, has warned that the world is unlikely to achieve climate equity until it achieves gender equity.

If ever there was a cause to form a new non-profit or Non Government Organization, this is it. As Copenhagen will surely confirm, when the most vulnerable and are without voice, there is no-one to challenge the political and corporate bullies now imposing an additional historic burden on the health, well-being and rights of over a billion women.
(adapted from NOW Magazine, December 3-9, 2009; Wayne Roberts is the author of the No-Nonsense Guide to World Food)

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Foodforethought provides information and analysis to encourage dialogue and exploration of innovative trends in the global food system. The service is managed by James Kuhns, in collaboration with Wayne Roberts.

Food security can’t wait, neither can action on climate change

By FAO, United Nations

Reduce emissions, remove greenhouse
gases and ensure food security

According to the 2007 Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the agriculture and forestry sectors
are responsible for a third of green house gas emissions (GHG) and
yet these same sectors also hold an enormous potential to reduce
emissions and also absorb carbon in vegetation and soils.
Agriculture can be part of the mitigation solution and the sector
deserves to be anchored in the implementation of international
agreements. Reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture
while meeting the growing demand for food, fuel and fiber can be
done.
Some mitigation options, particularly those related to soil carbon
sequestration can contribute to both food security and adaptation
goals. Reduction and removal of carbon can also be achieved by
improving cropland and grassland management, and restoring
degraded soils.
Around 13 million hectares of forests are lost annually due to
deforestation causing 17 percent of global GHG emissions (FRA
2005, IPCC 2007). Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation (REDD) including sustainable forest management, forest
conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks also
can be an immediate answer.

Get it right
Adapt food systems to climate change

As the number of hungry in the world surpasses one billion, ensuring
adequate safe and nutritious food for all will require food systems to
adapt to climate change. Adaptation of the agriculture, forestry and
fisheries sectors to climate change will be costly but necessary for food
security, poverty reduction and ecosystem services.
Acting now rather than later could reduce the vulnerability of
hundreds of millions of farmers, and forest-dependant people who are
already food insecure especially smalholder and subsistence farmers,
pastoralists and fisherfolk, women and indigenous peoples.
No other sector is more sensitive to climate change than
agriculture and no other sector contributes so directly to the provision
of food and livelihoods of the majority of the poor in developing
countries. That’s why specific targeting of agriculture within adaptation
efforts, and their financing, is needed so that the sector can achieve its
multiple roles.
Concrete steps to face future risks of climate change impacts
include developing climate change impact assessments, encouraging
better water management, soil conservation, resilient crops and trees
and improving weather and climate forecasting as well as further
developing disaster risk management.

Capture synergies between food
security and mitigation

Potential synergies among food security, adaptation
and mitigation from land-based practices in developing
countries could generate high benefits to address the high
demands placed on these sectors.
However, some mitigation actions may not help
adaptation efforts and can sometimes conflict with food
security goals. Strategies and financing mechanisms will be
needed that enable these multiple benefits to be produced
and used by rural producers.
The most promising mitigation options include:
sustainable forest, cropland and rangeland management,
agroforestry, and restoration of degraded and organic soils.

Todmorden's Good life: Introducing Britain's greenest town

'Grow your own' fever has gripped the Pennines community, which is aiming for self-sufficiency

By Joanna Moorhead
Sunday, 29 November 2009

It's an ordinary small town in England, but its residents claim they've discovered the secret that could save the planet. And with world leaders preparing to gather in Copenhagen in just over a week's time to debate how to do just that, the people of Todmorden in the Pennines this week issued an invitation: come to our town and see what we've done.

In under two years, Todmorden has transformed the way it produces its food and the way residents think about the environment. Compared with 18 months ago, a third more townspeople now grow their own veg; almost seven in 10 now buy local produce regularly, and 15 times as many people are keeping chickens.

The town centre is dotted with "help yourself" vegetable gardens; the market groans with local meat and vegetables, and at all eight of the town's schools the pupils eat locally produced meat and vegetables every lunchtime.

"It's a complete turnaround," said Pam Warhurst, a former leader of Calderdale Council, board member of Natural England and the person who masterminded the project – called Incredible Edible – and motivated her friends and neighbours to join in. "Our aim is to make our town entirely self-sufficient in food production by 2018 – and if we can carry on at the same rate as we've done over the past 18 months since we had our first meeting and set this initiative up, we're going to make it."

And the scheme's leaders are now hoping to export their idea: two weeks ago the town held a conference on how to make Incredible Edible-style initiatives work elsewhere, and more than 200 people from across Britain attended.

They heard the story of Todmorden's transformation, starting with what Ms Warhurst calls the "propaganda planting" of vegetables around the town centre 18 months ago. Nick Green, who runs a converted mill that provides workspace for local artists, took on the job of doing the planting. He said he chose the first venue – a disused health centre – because it was in the middle of the town and would attract plenty of attention. "We wanted everyone to see what we were doing, so they could ask questions and ultimately join in," he said. "The old health centre has plenty of land in front, so it was ideal. I didn't ask anyone's permission: I just went there with my spade and my seeds and I planted cabbages and rhubarb."

Incredible Edible was originally funded out of the participants' own pockets. "We were very clear that we didn't want to look at what grants were available and mould our projects to suit them," said Mr Green. "We felt that what would work was to start with the town and what it needed. We'd look for money later on." What the project leaders found was that a lot could be achieved with small amounts of cash. And awards and grants have followed – the latest is the Kerrygold Farmers' Co-operatives Awards last week, when Incredible Edible won the "most inspirational community project" and £1,000.

One of the founding principles of the movement has been to make it as inclusive as possible; in this it differs from transition towns, said Ms Warhurst. "We are working with people who would find transition towns hard to identify with. Our project is all about finding the lowest common denominator, which is food, and then speaking in a language that everyone can understand. Plus we don't have strategies; we don't have visiting speakers; we don't have charters and documents. We just get on with things: this is all about action."

The project has been moulded to fit with where people in Todmorden are and the lives they lead. Many live in homes without gardens, and the local social housing landlord, Pennine Housing, has given out more than 1,000 starter packs of seeds and growing troughs, and invited tenants to cooking and gardening classes. "There are people here who don't own a recipe book and who don't have a garden, but we want to show them that they can still cook and grow vegetables," said Val Morris, the tenant involvement officer for Pennine Housing.

Other town-wide initiatives include a foraging course, on which participants learn how to find food for free, and then how to make preserves, jams and chutneys with their findings – and, more controversially, a workshop on how to kill and pluck your own chickens. "It's not for the faint hearted, but there's something entirely honest and right about killing the chickens you're going to eat," said Lynne Midwinter, a physiotherapist in the town who took her eight-year-old daughter along. "For my daughter, it's entirely normal to see chickens being killed and to help pluck them. "Some parents might think you can't let your kids see that, but what I'd say is, what kind of a life did the chickens your child usually eats have? Our chickens have a good life; they die a quick death, and seeing all that teaches the connection between rearing animals and eating them, which has been lost in much of the Western world today."

Ms Midwinter has also helped persuade local businesses to support Incredible Edible. "One of our early initiatives was to give all the stalls in the covered market a blackboard on which they could advertise any local food they were selling, to encourage them to sell more local food and to shout about it when they did," she said.

"And it's definitely worked. You now see most of the stalls advertising the fact that they're selling local beef and lamb, pork and bread, vegetables and even cheese – the first-ever Todmorden cheese, which is called East Lee, is now produced by the Pextenement Cheese Company at a farm on a hillside above the town."

Another venture has been the planting of apple, pear and plum trees at the town's newly built health centre. "The PCT was all set to grow the usual prickly bushes around it, and we said – hold on a second, why not food?" said Ms Warhurst. "They agreed, and we're going to encourage people to pick their fruit whenever they're passing the doctor's. Apart from giving them fresh fruit, maybe putting the trees there will help people make the connection between healthy eating, and being healthy."

Other projects in the pipeline include a 50m-long polytunnel being set up to grow bigger amounts of food and vegetables on a site just outside the town, a drop-in jam-making centre, a woodwork shop to supply chicken huts and greenhouses, and a vegetable garden at elderly people's care homes in the area which will be designed so that residents will be able to garden and pick vegetables from their wheelchairs.

There are also two herb gardens, one beside the main road and one at the new health centre. "Anyone can pick the herbs. They're a great way to get people enthused about cooking," said Helena Cook, who looks after the gardens.

She is also involved in trying to infect other local communities with the Incredible Edible spirit. "I'm a primary school teacher in a neighbouring town, Littleborough, and I've set up an Incredible Edible growing project with my pupils," she said. "The great thing is that it pulls the parents in as well, and I know some of them have already started growing their own vegetables at home. All of us who are involved in the Todmorden project try to export it to other neighbourhoods we have contact with."

The next project on the horizon is a fish farm that's being set up on land adjacent to the high school. Incredible Edible has applied for a lottery grant of £750,000 to set the farm up, and Ms Warhurst says she's confident their bid will be confirmed soon. There are also plans to offer a diploma in environmental and land-based studies to 14 to 19-year-olds, using local growing and food production initiatives as a resource. "That's fantastic because it's making our school a centre of excellence at teaching this vital skill – and it's kids who go into this kind of work who are going to be most useful to the world of tomorrow," said Ms Warhurst.

"The vital thing about Incredible Edible, and the thing that sets it apart, is that it involves everyone in the town and it's genuinely a grass-roots project. I honestly believe it's a blueprint for every neighbourhood. What we're doing here could easily be rolled out anywhere. It's all about involving people, giving them ownership, letting them realise it can be fun and interesting and that the food is delicious, and giving them space to set up their own ideas and run with them."

Ms Warhurst and the rest of the Incredible Edible team are now looking forward to their Christmas treat – a home-cooked dinner of turkey and all the trimmings in a local church centre, with every ingredient sourced locally. "We're growing the potatoes and sprouts on a special piece of land we call the Christmas dinner patch," said Helena Cook. "All the food, including the turkey, will be from Todmorden.

"There are even crumbs from locally baked bread, and local fruit, in my secret recipe Christmas pudding!"

SJ Clegg, 42

Smallholder

"Three years ago I gave up my job as a designer in London and moved to a converted barn above Todmorden to run a smallholding. So I was already here and keeping my own pigs, sheep, chicken and goats, but Incredible Edible has given a huge boost to what I do because it's made people in the town so much more aware of issues around locally produced food. The eggs I sell, for example, aren't watery like a lot of supermarket eggs: they've got big, orange yolks. And, perhaps most surprising of all, they're cheaper."

Pauline Mullarkey, 39

Mother of three

"I'd never grown a vegetable in my life and I had absolutely no idea how to do it, but when I heard about Incredible Edible from another mum in the school playground I knew it made sense. I started in my own garden by growing vegetables. It was far easier than I'd expected it to be. This year we've had potatoes, leeks, carrots, cabbage, strawberries, onions, garlic, peas, parsnips and sprouts, and I don't spend more than two hours a week in the garden.

"I also keep chickens. I've now got 15, and I'm currently putting together a map of everyone in the town who has them. The eventual aim is for every egg consumed in Todmorden to be a local one. We're working towards producing 30,000 eggs a week, and it's entirely possible that by 2018 our egg production will be at those levels. And people catch on quick – you often hear people in shops asking for Todmorden eggs."

Tony Mulgrew, 46

Catering manager at Todmorden High School

"There was some wasteland beside the school and one day I looked out at it and thought, we could grow the vegetables for the school dinners on that! I asked the governors, they agreed, and we started growing in February 2009. Year 8 and Year 10 pupils helped, and by the summer term we were able to serve tomato soup made from our tomatoes, as well as potatoes, courgettes, runner beans, lettuce, endive and chard.

"The fruit was amazing – we had blueberries, gooseberries – and the strawberries went on for ages. What was really good was the pride the pupils took in seeing the food they'd helped produce on the menu in the school dining room. I also source all our meat from local farms. I'd say that all the meat we serve here is produced within a half-hour's walk from the door. Plenty of top restaurants can't make that boast."

Nick Green, 52

Sculptor and owner of local mill that provides workspace for other artists

"In April 2008 they told me: you're our guerrilla gardener! So off I went and started planting vegetables. I started with rhubarb because the great thing about it is that people recognise it, so they know when it's ready to pick. At that stage I put up a sign inviting people to pick whatever they wanted to take home. And people did. We wanted to show that it's a project for anyone, that it's about ownership for the whole community.

"I've now got lots of food growing all over Todmorden – chard and kale as well as rhubarb – and we've recruited people from the mental health inclusion scheme to help with the planting. That's been a good move because people with mental health problems appreciate the chance to do meaningful work, and what could be more meaningful than growing food for the whole community?"

New GMO Food Additives To Be Introduced Without Full Safety Appraisal

By NISHOREN

On September 14, 2009, two new food additives from Ajinomoto were judged to be “safe” by the Expert Committee for Genetically Modified Food and Others at the Food Safety Commission (FSC). The appraisal was open for public comments and it seems likely that the two novel amino acids will be approved by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour by the end of November.

So far, several GMO food additives have been approved, but they were basically used for food processing, as in the case of enzymes like alpha amylase for improved productivity. There have been no cases of GMO food additives that are used directly as seasoning as is the case of amino acids. Thus, when Ajinomoto first submitted these GMO products, there were no established method for safety appraisal.
That was why the Food Safety Commission has published a “Directive for safety assessment of food additives which are produced using genetically modified micro-organisms and which are highly refined and have non-protein characteristics, including amino acids.” (Many studies have verified that the process of genetic engineering can produce unpredicted toxins or allergens.)
The two GMO food additives FSC Expert Committee judged as safe are L-Glutamic Acid Sodium (GLU-No. 2 strain) and Aspartame-L-Fenylalanin (PHA-No. 2 strain). In the current food-labelling legislation, the former would be labelled only as “amino acid, and others” and would be used as a food additive in many foods.
The latter would be labelled only as Aspartame which is classified as an artificial sweetener. None of these will need to be labelled as GMO or otherwise identified as genetically modified under the current rules.
For what purpose is genetic engineering used in the production of these chemicals?
In the human gut, there are a number of different bacteria, including E Coli. These help to digest the protein we eat, be it fish or meat or other sources, by breaking them down to amino acids, making it possible for the body to absorb them from the intestine. At Ajinomoto Co., Inc. they figured out how to make use of this mechanism, using artificially cultured bacteria in large tanks. Presumably, by using GMO bacteria, they claim they can increase the productivity of the bacteria.
However, for all of those who are thinking about food, this latest development for the purpose of “improving” production cannot be regarded as safe. Was there something wrong with the former production methods?
We remember the “tryptophan affair” when many people fell ill and some died due to the production methods, at a time when tryptophan was sold as a supplement. L-Tryptophan is also an amino acid that can be produced using bacteria.
This incident was caused by Showa Denko Co. in 1988 and 1989 and most victims were Americans. 38 people died and more than 6,000 people fell ill. The cause was identified as several impurities, which were found only in the product made by Showa Denko.
The harmful impurities had begun to appear when genetic engineering was introduced in the production process, and they had not been eliminated from the final mixture. It was shown that this was possibly the reason the final product had become so harmful to humans.
It is clear that consumers will be paying a high price for the lack of thorough examination of how and why the tryptophan incident happened. Before GMO food additives are approved, their safety must be carefully appraised. At the moment, the Food Safety Commission has not been able to convince us that this is the case.

Go to: http://www.opednews.com/articles/New-GMO-Food-Additives-To-by-NISHOREN-091125-203.html

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)

With the advent of the Geospatial web and Web 2.0 technology innovations, the opportunity for the public to contribute geographic data is almost endless. This new trend seems to be good news for those geographers calling for a more democratic process in creating and accessing maps, but it also raises many questions about the impact of volunteered information to the maps themselves. In the two articles by Michael Goodchild and David Tulloch, implications of spatial data provided by the public, within the wider phenomenon of user-generated content, are discussed in terms of both developments within the discipline and also to mapping in general.

In Goodchild’s article, “Citizen as sensors: the world of volunteered geography”, the term, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is posed to describe data provided by the public to services such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Open Street Map or Wikimapia. In this context, he tries to understand what drives people to volunteer information on the web and make it public; as well discussing issues around accuracy, privacy, and the impact to conventional data sources. Upon reviewing the examples of VGI, and the enabling technologies such as geotagging web content or making data using GPS, he emphasizes that VGI is filing a gap left by poorly funded mapping institutions. But while it might take the pressure of agencies, the motivation for contributors are only guessed at suggesting personal satisfaction of seeing the results or just plan self-promotion. On the same note, is the disparity between data derived from volunteers and that of mapping agencies. He points out, that mapping agencies have strict standards and methods for producing data, as well as cartographers with documented qualifications. On the contrary VGI, is often offered without references or citing of any authority, except for the assertion of its creator. But, is the pure sense of VGI egalitarianism dwarf the question of authenticity? Well, as Goodchild addresses, it is only democratic to those being able to access it with the pricey equipment and good broadband access. Although the digital divide appears to be shrinking, it still exists to much of the world’s populations. So location and place is important even on the web, as it can divide your access to the web. This brings forth one of Goodchild’s most interesting points in this article, is that perhaps the power of VGI is to address local activities in locations that go unnoticed by traditional forms of media. In this light, maybe VGI is best served as a new voice for the local rather than a replacement for underfunded mapping labs.

With lots of questions around VGI looming in its wake, Tulloch in his article “Is VGI participation? From vernal pools to video games” dives into VGI’s relationship to Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS). Drawing on two VGI case studies he addresses how VGI and PPGIS intertwine in some ways and diverge in others. The emphasis of PPGIS tends to be on participation, with the intent of contributing to a specific outcome that most often is aimed at increasing collaboration on GIS projects or empowering members of the public through their participation in the mapping process. PPGIS derives from both academics and practitioners of GIS, with a growing body of literature, and a defining language. On the contrary, VGI has largely been based on individuals creating data on their own initiative for informal purposes. VGI’s body of literature remains to be seen as well as the vocabulary it draws on. He suggests that they both rely on people investigating locations that are important to them. But, not all cases that could be viewed as VGI examples would fit nicely into the spectrum of PPGIS. As his example of Second Life, an urban planning video game hardly resembles a GIS. As well, VGI can simply be based on providing spatial information, but not the other elements of PPGIS, such as decision-making, or empowering for social change. Ultimately he suggests that VGI revolves more around applications and information, where as PPGIS concerns itself with process and outcomes. Although different, the article concludes that VGI could benefit from being aligned with a more defined PPGIS, as it finds ground in academia, as well PPGIS could benefit from the innovation and energy found in emerging areas of research. To tie it back to Goodchild’s article, aligning it with the ideals of PPGIS, could move it forward in it’s use as a voice for communities that are largely unheard.

As in many young areas of inquiry, the authors only offer glimpses of how VGI may take shape within the viewpoint of PPGIS or just floating around the World Wide Web. We seem to know for now what it is, or could be but with technology changing rapidly, and fundamentally driving VGI, the possibilities are too vast to try and pin down. For now, the wake of VGI, has barely hit the “sweet spot” and we need to hang on a little longer to see possibly where it will take us.

Musing on Neogeography

“…we are witnessing the emergence of a new geography without geographers” (Sui 2008).

With the surfacing of new Geospatial web applications and the increased access of these technologies to the public, map-making by unschooled geographer’s is on the rise. In this review, I synthesize three articles from Gupltill 2007, Plewe 2007 and Sui 2008 that touch on the implications of what some refer to as Neogeography, where non-experts are harnessing Web 2.0 technologies to not only consume but also produce an ever-growing array of geographic information. The articles suggest that these new movements in map-making pose new questions and possibly new challenges to the way geographers situate themselves and society in the geospatial world.
Stephen Guptill in his brief essay “GIScience, the NSDI, and GeoWiki’s” touches on the changing role of the U.S Geological Survey and GIScience in the age of web based mapping technologies. In his description of the array of changes in mapping technologies, from surveying in the past to the cell phone based data fusion buttons of the future. He urges a partnership between government agencies and the private sector leaders such as Google or Microsoft to deliver services. Finally he puts forward the wave of the future is in combining government data with web-based applications for a platform for a GeoWiki, in order to allow for collaborative spatial data information.
Brandon Plewe’s article “Web Cartography in the United States” divides new frontiers in geography by three service types: consumer-oriented applications, citizen oriented applications and enterprise applications. Stating that each type has undergone different changes in cartography, but each bringing the practice of map-making out to the “mainstream”(133). However, he points out that the importance of design held by cartographers has been left out of the programmer and consumer driven mapping applications. Highlighting, how the professional cartographers are increasingly left out of the map-making picture. At the same time research, in map-making has changed as well, and can be seen to fit into four categories: high-impact applications, improving performance, societal implications, and design of interactive cartography. Plewe, suggests that the later, is where cartographic research could have the most impact. Overall, he urges that cartographers and society should embrace web-based mapping, by making a valuable contribution where the can, because the benefits a spatially thinking populace are without doubt. Although it is left ambiguous what a valuable contribution would look like, maybe a good wrestle with the programmers and some lessons in php.
Sui's article, “The wikification of GIS and its consequences: Or Angelina Jolie’s new tattoo and the future of GIS” takes a look at the implications of these technologies within society. Drawing on his examples of maps made about or from celebrities’ personal information, , he highlights privacy as a an emerging implication of neogeography. Although he sites wikification has occurred in all aspects of GIS components, the most significant changes have occurred to the data side. Pointing to the formation of volunteered geographic information (VGI) prompted from the capability of GIS users to become contributors as well, VGI poses new problems, such as those explored through the example of Angelina Jolie’s, where a map was made by fans from the latitudes and longitude of her children’s birthplace that is displayed on her arm. With VGI ever on the rise, Sui suggests geographers could meet the same Web 2.0 fate of journalists. Media is moving forward without professional journalists, will the new geography lose the need for geographers? From these three articles the theme of neogeography is change. Whether it is the transformation of government Geospatial systems or the very role of cartography itself with the take over of mapmaking by everybody from amateurs to professional computer developers, one thing seems certain as geographers in this century, we can rescind technology development but never the act of critique.

Reference:
GUPTILL, S. (2007). GIScience, the NSDI, and GeoWiki’s. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 34(2):165-166.
PLEWE, B.(2007). Web Cartography in the United States. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 34(2): 133-136.
SUI, D. (2008). The wikification of GIS and its consequences: Or Angelina Jolie’s new tattoo and the future of GIS. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 32, 1-5.

CANADA’S HOUSE OF COMMONS MUST CONVENE INQUIRY INTO FOSSIL FUEL SUPPLY

by National Farmer's Union

HOWE ISLAND, Ont—A recent front-page report by the British newspaper, The Guardian, is
the latest reason why Canada needs a top-level analysis of global hydrocarbon supplies.
The Guardian’s November 9th story is headlined “Key oil figures were distorted by US
pressure, says whistleblower.” The story focuses on the world’s top energy monitoring and
forecasting body, the International Energy Agency (IEA). The Guardian quotes senior IEA
officials and explains that the US encouraged the IEA to underplay the rate of decline from
existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves. The IEA insiders
dismiss projections of significant oil production increase as “nonsense” and warn that “the
world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit.” These revelations
call into question the integrity of the world’s leading authority of petroleum reserves. Industry
analysts and governments, including Canada’s, rely heavily on IEA data to formulate policy
and business decisions.

The November 9, 2009 Guardian report is available at:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/50659
The NFU believes that there are several reasons why an independent Canadian inquiry is
needed:
1. The Guardian report is only the most recent document to question the reliability of
the IEA’s global oil supply projections;
2. There are widely acknowledged trends pointing to future oil supply problems—trends
which Canada’s politicians and our lead energy ministry are failing to acknowledge;
and
3. Energy, food, climate, water, and our economy are interlinked, so miscalculations
regarding energy supplies and prices will have dramatic effects on every aspect of
Canadian society.
“As a organization of family farmers, the NFU is acutely aware that food is tightly linked to
energy, both locally and globally. Farmers use diesel fuel to run tractors and trucks. We
require natural gas to make critical nitrogen fertilizer. Canadians depend on secure supplies
of affordable energy to import and export food, to process and package it, and to refrigerate
it. Shortage or volatility on global energy markets will rapidly turn into shortage and
instability in food markets,” said NFU energy security analyst Rick Munroe. Munroe has
recently commented on energy issues in various media venues, including CBC Radio’s
political affairs program, “The House.”

Over the past three years, the NFU has written to the government of Canada (including its
lead energy department, Natural Resources Canada), calling for a formal examination of
energy security concerns. NRCan has indicated that it sees no need for such research and
continues to actively deny that there could be any problems with Canadian or global oil
supplies.
NRCan regularly states that “there is no imminent peak oil challenge” and that “Canada’s oil
supply is secure for about 200 years.”
The NFU believes that both NRCan statements are false and that their issuance is
misleading and ultimately dangerous. In dismissing concerns regarding a global peak oil
challenge, NRCan is at odds with a growing number of experts. For example, a landmark
report conducted for the United State Department of Energy (DOE) begins with this sobering
statement, “The peaking of world oil production presents the U.S. and the world with an
unprecedented risk management problem” (Hirsch Report, 2005, p. 4,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_report )
Because of the critical links between agri-food and energy, the NFU will continue to press the
Canadian government to conduct a full and independent examination of the implications of
looming fossil fuel supply insecurity.

For more information, please contact:
Rick Munroe, NFU member and energy security analyst: (613) 546-6009 or rmj@kos.net
Darrin Qualman, NFU Director of Research: (306) 652-9465

National Office
2717 Wentz Ave.
Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 4B6
Tel (306) 652-9465
Fax (306) 664-6226

Powering up Indigenous Mapping

Cartography is no longer the sole province of princes

In this article mapping is reviewed as a powerful tool increasingly utilized by Indigenous people to gain rights to ancestral land and resources. The authors trace early projects beginning around 1960’s and 1970’s to Canada and Alaska, and subsequent branching out of mapping to the rest of North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. Across time and space different Indigenous mapping methodologies have evolved. Some of the first mapping projects emerged through land claim processes in Canada and Alaska. These were often referred to as traditional land use studies or subsistence maps reflecting societies that were thought of as hunters or fisheries. Outside of North America, the use of participatory approaches, such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA) or participatory action research (PAR) combined with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) grew in prominence. There is also a range of types of maps, such as atlas books to more technical GIS and remote sensing projects, with projects overwhelming aimed at serving a collective purpose to highlight an Indigenous presence within a region, and a desire for autonomy.

The authors say, “without doubt, GIS laboratories managed by indigenous peoples provide a number of benefits”. The benefits are mostly found in successful negotiations with non-Indigenous governments to gain back rights, and more recently communities are finding ways to use mapping to strengthen culture. Despite the promises of Indigenous mapping listed in the review, the authors also note many lingering issues. For instance, although countries like the United States Indigenous communities have afforded their own GIS teams, in many parts of the world communities continue to rely on outside organizations to facilitate and fund the mapping projects. Overall, except for some North American tribes, there is a lack of funding and support for communities to take on any kind of long-term use of technologies such as GIS. As a result, most mapping is done project-to-project with little ability for any continuity and mostly driven by outside donors. The authors conclude by posing a serious of questions that articulate the problematic nature of Indigenous mapping. These questions juxtapose the message of the article that highlights the positive effect of Indigenous mapping. In the end, the authors emphasize the uneven distribution of Indigenous mapping from North America to poorer regions such as those in the southern hemisphere, and pose this as the greatest challenge for the field of Indigenous mapping to overcome.

(Chapin et al. 2005. Mapping Indigenous Lands. Annu Rev.Anthropol 34:619-38)

Rundstrom’s Critical GIS Perspective

The institutions of assimilation that have silenced indigenous peoples throughout history have been those of the state, education, and religion. Clearly, GIS has been promoted by agents of the first two, with a missionary zeal exceeded only by agents of the third. (p.56)


Rundstrom, in his article “GIS, Indigenous Peoples, and Epistemological Diversity” makes a strong statement that the fundamental design and objective of Geographic Information Systems are incompatible with the epistemology of that found in many Indigenous cultures in North America. He argues that GIS is a mere techno-science where “technology has become the embodiment of science and its precepts”(46). In this light, GIS is constructed within a framework conducive to a particular way of knowing, that compromises the diversity within Indigenous people’s way of knowing. As a result, trying to capture knowledge from Indigenous people into a GIS is a form of cultural assimilation. In this way, GIS can destroy rather than augment non-western ways of life.

He summarizes four implications of trying to represent Indigenous knowledge in a GIS:
• The knowledge becomes accessible and tangible resulting in a fixed, de-contextualized state.
• Removes the details of expressing the geographic knowledge through personal contact, denies incorporative or performative expressions
• Every-time the information is used, it becomes more distant from its context.
• Inscribed knowledge allows the recipient & source to be separated in time & space removing personal responsibility of the knowledge.

Rundstrom’s makes the case that Indigenous people and Euro-North Americans have very different ways of perceiving, communicating and translating geographic knowledge. For example, the techno-science culture depends on a sense of time that is linear, where temporal change is often measured against technological evolution. This is problematic as it tries to capture a cyclical way of knowing time that is based on earthly patterns. At the same time, GIS does little to represent for instance the nonhuman world or the relatedness between species that is inherent in many Indigenous knowledge systems. At the root, many Indigenous cultures have had evolving oral traditions in knowledge translation that does not easily translate into a formalized GIS.

In conclusion, Rundstrom draws attention to the fundamental assumption made by technoscientists—that technology is good for all people. The problem is that contemporary western culture is marked by technological evolutions, that leads to the prominence of technoscience and it is the dominant culture. GIS comes from a technoscience and not from or for Indigenous people. Trying to “capture” a cultures way of seeing the world in a way that does not come from that culture potentially reduces and segments it into something that can be seen only by the technoscience eye. A better situation would see a knowledge translation system designed by and from an Indigenous perspective. But for now, no one wants to be left off the map.

(RUNDSTROM, R. A. (1995). GIS, Indigenous Peoples, and Epistemological Diversity. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, 22 (1), 45-57.)

Alcorn—Mapping a Process for Change

“community-based mapping isn’t ‘action research’, it is political action” (p.16).

Janis Alcorn in “Borders, Rules and Governance: Mapping to catalyse changes in policy and management” illustrates that mapmaking and maps have the power for social change—if you do it right. Community mapping can be abused as only an idea by researchers, NGO’s and consultants utilized in project proposals and reports. But Alcorn says the “real power of the approach is unleashed when the process is led by the community” (p.16). When this occurs there can be several benefits to a community, including increased cohesion, increased democracy, intra-community cooperation, and most importantly local control over land-use and resource exploitation. Several examples are given that depict how maps can influence or strengthen these things. In particular, how they can be used to negotiate with national governments that operate “outside” of local people’s interests.

Alcorn discusses community-mapping projects in Indonesia, Brazil and Philippines to demonstrate how communities can us maps to actively negotiate rights. Alcorn draws on these examples to outline steps for success in the mapping process to activate change. Emphasized in the process is that the mapmaker act as a facilitator and community members the decision-makers. At the same time, a strategic plan that provides room for continual evaluation of the process is key. Alcorn asks as the initial stage, “what is the political costs and benefits of mapping…”(p.9). Following a series of questions, this initial phase is focused on teasing out issues that may arise, and foreseeing potential conflicts with the map, before any work is done. Another step discussed is choosing from a range of technologies, recommending being open to different technologies that fit the initial goals and target audience of the map. Technologies reviewed include, sketch maps, 3D models and GIS. These different technologies may all be used to bring different information into the process, however, for communication to governments, computer generated cartographic representations tend to have the most impact.

Alcorn’s article lays out a process for engaging in community mapping for social change, emphasizing the benefits and the potential for it to go wrong. The article lays out a clear direction for practitioners including addressing issues around mapping strategies to reduce potential conflicts. She bring in several points that were addressed in Jeff Fox’s paper, including the point that many Indigenous communities like it or not, must in engage in mapping their territories or risk losing all control of their lands. Concerns with the appropriateness’ of technologies such as GIS, come to light as communities are forced to document their cultural values, in a particular way that is not necessarily conducive to their ways of knowing. Therefore, the mapping process may force communities to re-shape their knowledge to protect the very thing they seek to conserve through the map.

Conflict: Jeff Fox Maps the Commons

“…while maps can be an empowering tool, helping a local community define itself in relationship to the landscape and to the political forces that shape and influence it, maps can also be used to disinherit them” (p.4).

Jeff Fox, in his article “Mapping the Commons” explores the duality of mapping to empower people. In particular, he draws on examples of Indigenous mapping projects that seek to give cartographic power to communities. The tools of spatial information technologies, in all its various forms, can help solve land-use conflicts and boundary disputes. However, Fox illustrates there is several issues with cartographic representation within different cultural contexts.

Fox asserts that by utilizing the cartographic technologies to gain power, Indigenous people, are “telling alternative spatial stories” (p.3). However, they are trying to capture their own knowledge within a western knowledge framework. Fox discusses a fundamental aspect of western mapping--the four directions. He points to how various cultural groups do not recognize these four directions, such as the Zuni people and the Inuit who have radically different directional systems. How can western style mapping depict richly different and complex cultures? One proposal is to increase the practice of mapping with other methods in research such as participant observation that may capture the cultural and symbolic spaces that are difficult to depict.
Other issues arise in land-use mapping, where mind maps of traditional societies are transformed to paper maps, defining borders, and thus specific land rights between villages. In the communities discussed, the customary system of land representation was “fluid” which allowed for flexible interpretations of boundaries. The flexible boundaries in the peoples mind maps provided minimal conflict; the paper maps created new conflicts, and as a result in some examples resource managers, stopped the practice of mapping boundaries.
Fox concluded his review with the idea that is it a fine line between cartographies and research practices that simply reproduce power relationships, and one that works to break these down. So far, cartography has not found any definitive solutions. In this article a common end is drawn on by Fox with wisdom from Nancy Peluso that Indigenous people have to participate in mapping or they will quite literally be left off the map. Now how is that for empowerment! I will sum up with the old saying--can’t live [justly] with, can’t live [justly] without.

Facebook draws a growing crop of farmers

Many in the ag industry are using Twitter and blogs to communicate, educate.
Published online on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009
By Robert Rodriguez / The Fresno Bee

With a hand-held video camera, a computer and 800 cows, Barbara Martin of Lemoore is letting the world into her life as a dairy operator.

No, it's not a new reality television show. And Martin isn't craving her 15 minutes of fame.

But she is joining a growing number of farmers and others in agriculture who are using social media tools to communicate with each other, send out information and educate the public about agriculture.

Dairy operators have become especially skilled at launching Facebook pages, blog posting and using Twitter, a microblogging site.

Martin uses all three to tell the public about the family's 800-cow dairy. She launched her blog, "A Dairy Goddess's Blog," in late August.

When Barbara Martin shoots a video for her blog where she is known as Dairy Goddess, she just goes out and finds her favorite cow, Chica, holds the camera and narrates what is on her mind. She uses social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook to connect with dairy people across the U.S.

For Martin, using social media and blogging is a way to dispel some myths about farmers and encourage a greater understanding of the slumping dairy industry.

She's blogged about everything from fixing the pricing structure for milk to sharing her childhood memories about growing up on a farm. Her most recent post is a video diary about her heifer Chica.

Martin and other dairy operators say their critics such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have used the Internet's power to portray them as cruel, greedy and corporate.

PETA has posted videos on its Web site showing animals being neglected on a Pennsylvania dairy.

"I want people to know about the people and families who run dairies in this country," said Martin, a third-generation dairy operator. "This is not a factory farm. We are a family who cares about their animals, and I want to show that."

Cindy Zimmerman, who co-owns a Missouri-based new media company with her husband, Chuck, said much of what's driving farmers to use Twitter, Facebook and even YouTube is the desire to raise the public's awareness about agriculture.

She said many consumers still don't understand the role farming plays in the economy and the challenges farmers face, including weather, pests and low prices.

"These new tools have become a way for the individual farmer to get their story out to the public," Zimmerman said. "And for some, this has become a way to connect with people that they never would have been able to do before."

Although it may be too early to tell whether Twittering farmers are changing public opinion, the effort to use social media shows no signs of slowing.

Among those who use social media is motivational speaker and new-media adviser Michele Payn-Knoper.

More than 2,000 people follow her posts on Twitter.

Payn-Knoper of Indiana hosts a session on Twitter called AgChat every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., and she averages 100 to 200 participants. She's had as many as 500 people participating.

"Social media has become such an incredible information platform for farmers and agriculture," Payn-Knoper said. "And many are seizing that opportunity."

Payn-Knoper said more dairy operators are joining Twitter and Facebook largely because the industry has sponsored seminars on the topic. Other agricultural industries have been slower to latch onto the new technology.

Bob McKellar of Ivanhoe is a newcomer to Twitter. McKellar's Family Farm Fresh uses the site to promote its community-supported agriculture operation.

The farm delivers fresh fruits and vegetables to people who sign up and subscribe. Its Twitter site updates customers with the latest offerings or asks people whether they prefer plums soft or crunchy.

McKellar, a farmer for more than 30 years, admits he doesn't know how to use Twitter, but he fully understands its potential. One of his employees does the Twitter posts.

"I have a computer and a cell phone, and to be honest with you I know very little about either one of them," McKellar said. "But what I do know is that these new ways can help reach people like we haven't been able to do before."

University of California cooperative extension specialist Matthew Fidelibus uses Twitter and Facebook to share his research on grapes with farmers.

State budget cuts have made it tougher for some UC farm advisers to reach growers through field meetings or personal visits to farms. To reach more farmers, Fidelibus has posted Twitter updates on how to deal with a recurring problem of powdery mildew, a fungal disease common among vineyards.

And while Fidelibus has become a regular on Twitter, his raisin farmer clients haven't quite caught up.

"The demographic of the raisin farmers we deal with is skewed more toward older growers, so we are not sure if they use this sort of technology or not," Fidelibus said. "But if we can dispel some of the myths about using Facebook and Twitter, then the potential to reach people could be huge."

Harley's Ethical Dilemmas

“Maps should continue to reflect the values of society at large, as their history has shown us they have always done” (p.18).

JB Harley (1989) outlines some of the underlying ethical dilemmas in the discipline of cartography during his time. The discourse emphasizes the neglect of cartographers to engage in social discourse around map-making, and the content of the maps. He sees a “divorce” between the social and the technical aspects of cartography as underling the “crisis of representation”. In general, he characterizes cartographers as “passive reactors” rather than “active initiators”. This is because they rarely engage in the political process, but focus in on the technical aspects of mapmaking.

Society and the value norms of the time-period are reflected on the map, as they are in the history books, and the architecture. On a map this is represented through the place names. Harley, gives examples, of how place names reflect societal values, from the derogatory, racially charged names given to places such as Niggerhead mountain, to the renaming of locations in later times. Names simple published on a map gives them authority, Harley points out. On the other side, he discusses “restoring the map” for instance when the names are replaced by Indigenous pre-colonial place names (p.4). However, he reflects on what happens when the map changes, and those racist names are removed, like a history book being rewritten, he states “In seeking to destroy the past, we are in danger of destroying a witness to the roots of a racial bigotry that still divides our society” (p.15).

Harley argues for the redemption of the topographic map, claiming that it is more democratic—thus it holds higher ground than its counter-parts. In part this because it is published, on paper, and leaves little mystery to the data behind it. In comparison, geographic information systems (GIS) are non-maps, until the visual is presented, critiquing the movement of cartographers focus on GIS. The other concern he raises is the trend towards thematic maps, which represent specific kinds of information, and are ultimately—he argues—reductionist. In contrast the topographical map, is a whole “integrated picture” that has the ability to represent social, cultural and environmental artifacts.

Harley presents several interrelated arguments that relate all back to the same theme-- cartographers do not engage in ethical dilemmas enough. In his many examples of how values of society can be born, shaped and reflected through maps, he is trying to convince the cartographer to listen, watch and act. Maps are texts, as texts they allow for moral reflection.

Counter-Mapping or Counter Culture (Peluso,N.)

“Mapping gives local people the power…” (p. 403)

Nancy Peluso in her article “Whose Woods are These? Counter-Mapping Forest Territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia ” described efforts by localized NGO’s and International organizations to map out Indigenous land-use. The central concept for these mapping projects in Indonesian forestlands were to respond to maps drawn by the governments that left local peoples management and customary title off the map. Instead the government maps, threatened exploitation of forestlands. How these maps, worked to both give local people a voice in government and shift traditional ways of communicating for Indigenous people are examined.
Peluso states “mapping of forests is a political act” (p. 383). In this, she describes its history with origins in Europe, and than extending to the “New World” colonies of North Amercia, Australia and New Zealand. Here, mapping forests was used to delineate property and break-up communal areas, in the name of taking control of the resources that lie within. In the literature, little attention (at the time of this article) had been given to third world cases. However, the same control over land, and mapping out of resources was taking place.

Drawing from these experiences of history, Peluso suggests that if maps are sources of power for the powerful—as traditionally they have been—than if local groups appropriate that source of power than they can offset the “monopoly of authoritative resources”. The key point is to re-insert people onto resource maps, and put forward that maps can pose alternatives, becoming a means for empowerment. In Indonesia, maps by government left people and their claims to resources off the map, leaving there traditional lands vulnerable to drastic changes that would leave them with little to survive on as a culture and as people.

Through her example of two mapping projects she highlights some positive and problematic issues around counter-mapping. A vital outcome of mapping by local people, is if the counter-map has the chance to be properly given recognition by government. If the government gives it legitimate power than it can be used to negotiate, for different land use strategies. To increase chances, Peluso suggests that mimicking the style and technology of government maps is important. This requires outside experts, and in the two case studies presented, the use of advanced mapping technology was enabled by the International organizations. At the same time the international organization also had Intergovernmental political ties, and power in the global arena of bringing acknowledgment to the project. However, local people were reliant on the hope that the International NGO would listen to local people (as local NGO’s do), and properly take them into account in addition to conserving their lands. On the other hand, Peluso points out that mapping has the potential to impact the culture’s it is trying to empower, through creating stagnant cultural artifacts, that provide little space for the dynamic nature of cultural processes. But, Peluso emphasizes that really there is little choice for local people but to participate in mapping, if they want to be recognized.

If people are forced to map as Peluso concludes, counter-maps may also disempower as they are enforced to translate cultural significances into a foreign communication method. At the same time, people must rely on experts to help in the mapping process, which may or may not translate the needs of local people’s properly onto a map, hence the case of the International NGO. The process can be fraught with difficulty, as it does not recognize the autonomy of a people's ways of being. Therefore, even with counter-mapping power is not transferred from government to the local people, but something that is negotiated, possibly at the expense of cultural dignity.

Monmonier ‘s Lying with Maps

“…maps lie in diverse ways” (p.216).

Mark Monmonier (2005) draws on Darrell Huff’s book “How to Lie with Statistics” to show that maps are an example of the distortions highlighted by Huff with statistics. Specifically in this article he looks at how a maps scale effects feature selection and geometry, the power of data classification and how symbolization can augment the information presented on the maps. Monmonier, recognizes the difference between statistics and maps. Maps at best are “massive reductions of the reality they represent” (p.215). He points out that if a map truly tried to epitomize everything, the map would be to perplexing to be properly understood. However, that in the process of mapmaking it is up to the cartographer to select relevant information and depict it in a way that is truthful. In addition, the user-friendly mapping software can generate increasingly less scrutinized maps.

The scale needs to be matched with appropriate symbols, sounds simple, but as Monmonier points out, when you mix a scale bar with a more generalized small-scale map, it “invites grossly inaccurate estimates”. Another example, is cut-points, where a software default allocation of cut-points may make no sense to the actual data, although it may look convincing to the untrained eye. One example is statistical averages by state where varying cut-points can drastically change the message. In addition, the statistics can be manipulated greatly using the same data, but different re-organizations of the numbers can show drastic differences, making the map vulnerable to special interest groups. The third example that he discusses is bivariate correlation where pairs of chloropleth maps can falsely show bivariate correlation with only simple manipulation.

In conclusion, what Monmonier, is really trying to get at is that by doing something wrong in the depiction of the data, the mapmaker can overtly lead the user to misleading interpretations, and ultimately bad decisions. This is made simpler with software that relies less on knowing the data, and more on generating fancy maps. The software gives the mapmaker the tools to easily show seemingly powerful images with a few keystrokes, but that these images may lie. In the hopes of explaining himself for the title, Monmonier states that mostly it is not lies in the maps but “inadvertent fabrication” (222). Oh yes, I think we would all like to call it that.

Development Maps (Monmonier)

“…maps are anybody’s weapon…” (p.81)

Monmonier in this chapter on “Development Maps” depicts the role that maps play in shaping the planning process in municipalities. In particular, the focus is on how maps are a “tool of persuasion” for specific interests groups such as developers. It also points to the resource split in communities around map-making, as a community group concerned about the developer’s proposals, may not have the financial resources to present a opposing map and if they do it may not be as sophisticated as the developers, impacting the ability to communicate on equal ground.
Different types of maps are highlighted in the chapter, that are used by municipal planners to make decisions on land-use including three main types zoning, a master plan, and an official map. In addition maps of ecosystems, soil and other natural features can be brought in through environmental assessments for projects. The process of utilizing these different levels of maps is put forward to make sound decisions around land-use in communities. However, maps do not always represent adequately what is on the ground or what is actually in the development plan.
To illustrate this, Monmonier lays out eleven rules for developers to follow in order to manipulate or “polish” the maps and in turn the process of decision-making. These somewhat satiric rules, demonstrate how easy it is for interest groups to present information in a seemingly truthful format, a map. Hence the rule “generalize creatively” provides advice on how to enhance what you want to emphasize and diminish features to persuade the community. Another interesting rule is to add mundane details such as lots of tree stamps to the maps. This small act can drastically change the impression of the map, which is demonstrated in Figure 6.4. The article further explores the tax assessment process, as way to illustrate the review process, drawing on maps that specifically emphasize the points to be made. Such as drawing of houses that are over taxed, on a cadastral style map, that shows it much larger relative to tax assessments in the neighborhoods. This kind of map is a kind of a propaganda-cadastral map that provides a visual appeal to the decision-makers.
The discussion and examples within this article, provides an example of how maps can be shaped towards the interests of the mapmakers. Although the examples are hypothetical and at times slightly mocking the municipal process’s it shows how maps, can be taken for truth just because they are maps, not matter how easily manipulated, and this acceptance can drastically impact what does happen in reality, hence the quote “…maps are anybody’s weapon…” (p.81).

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-Undefined & Dangerous.

“it is a technology…closely tied to the concrete material and ideological needs and interests of certain groups”. p.639

Perkins (1995) article “Representations in an Electronic Age: Geography, GIS and Democracy”, explores the impacts of GIS as a tool, technology and social relation. His discussion of GIS, begins with the claim that GIS is not straightforward, it is fraught with different interpretations, as the technology infiltrates many different professions and ideological movements. While Geography as an academic discipline has explored and questioned the assumptions of knowledge-making since the late 1970’s; emerging from the modernist paradigm to approaches that question the objectivity of knowledge created for the people to devour rather than query. GIS has largely missed these paradigm shifts.
To brighten the discussion, Perkins draws on the many progressive possibilities of GIS. He points to the re-emergence of a civic culture that draws on the electronic airways to create a “community of dialogue” and the potential for marginalized groups to harness the power of cartographic representation. Therefore on the one hand, GIS can enable communities to better make decisions, providing access to more and better information. On the other hand, it can be used as a power tool for groups to communicate on equal playing fields of those traditional map-makers. This can occur in the face of the development and research of GIS and electronic tools primarily being funded through business, government and military elites.
Nevertheless, Perkins illustrates that the discussions around GIS largely maintain its 1960’s roots, with scientific claims to objectivity. Drawing from contemporary writings on GIS, he points out the problematic nature of inquiry. He concludes that GIS practitioners and academics are focused on the technological ability of GIS to represent reality, rather than considering how the information presents reality. In other words, the weight is on how the spatial data can be manipulated, not the end use of the map, whether this is a market analysis for business interests or mapping out military targets.
It is suggested, from Perkins article that the use and development of GIS reflects the contemporary power structures within society. So yes, it can be used to empower marginalized people, but most often it is used by elites that are acting in their own self-interests and this is mirrored within the literature of GIS. Often this results in a discussion limited to the usefulness of the tool presented within interests that diverge or compete with the proponents of progressive social change. As a result GIS practitioners, can hide behind the technology, as it is muddled between its ability to cross many areas of geographic inquiry, but it is reliant on the justice of the data that feeds it and as Perkins seems to criticize, the values and assumptions behind the data.

Critical Cartography-More Recently Known As Carto-Power

Crampton and Krygier (2006) in their paper apply a critical theoretical lense to academic cartography, tracing the origin of the post war scientific movement through to the age of Internet based geographical applications. They describe this approach as a one-two punch, where new mapping applications and a movements to highlight the polictical nature of maps were not apparent when the discipline of cartography first began, resulting in what they describe as cartography undisciplined. Through this critical lense map-making and maps are discussed to examine the assumptions of this particular field of knowledge and challenge the traditional authority of academic cartographers. The paper in general seeks to tackle the links between geographical knowledge and power relations that are ultimately political.
The Robinsonian movement of the post-war era sought to transform cartography to a pragmatic, scientific basis, where validity of data was prominent. Robinson, a cartographer that drove the transformation, was at the time responding to propaganda maps that overtly sought to promote specific interest’s of the people in power. However, this movement that dominated cartography, did not address underlying assumptions of the maps, that are argued in this paper were not value-free as once promoted, but worked to serve specific agenda’s of the map-maker’s and elites that controlled society’s cartography agenda’s. To understand what drives the maps, and what or how they communicate to the user, Crampton & Krygier argue that a challenge to academic cartography is vital to addressing the disparities in cartography the have mostly been considered a technological practice rather than a value laden text.
The technological transition now seen in cartography has, been one of the main factory that has left cartography undisciplined. Another words, maps and map-making are out of the hands of academic cartography, with new mapping application emerging through the digital age, providing the tools for the larger society to formulate maps according to anyone’s agenda. These technologies are commonly known as map-hacking, where open source Internet applications provide a platform for the public at large to become their own map-makers, putting maps in the hands of the users’ not cartographers. These applications did not-the authors point out-emerge from the discipline of cartography but from the software industry. At the same-time, imaginative mapping practices driven by artists are challenging assumptions of geographical space with ever-changing installations that ultimately work to come up against the authority of maps, finding new ways to depict reality.
Over all the authors conclude that these new mapping practices, need further attention within cartography to how they are changing the discipline and offering new possibilities for a critical perspective for society’s ability to represent place and space.

Conversations Around Town-Size Matters to the Big Box

Today, I did the forbidden for a foodie. I visited my local super dupper big box...Superstore and caused a rucus, not intentionally of course. I just asked if they had any produce grown locally, or maybe from BC... in the middle of summer. The poor guy working, gave a me a strange look, and referred me on, the next guy shrugged. I just wanted to know the origin of the lettuce and maybe the peppers, or anything else I could include in my dinner. I was polite. Eventually I was directed to an older guy, who kindly explained with a puzzled look that yes they have some local produce, the lettuce is from the coast, but labelling that is not important, in fact they even have local Okanagan tomatoes next to the Mexican tomatoes, who knew.

Upon further conversation he indicated that he has a BBA (some kind of business degree) which provided the simple explanation for why no local labelling... it went something like "Superstore is a vertical rather than horizontal operation". Now I was puzzled. However, what I gathered he meant was it all boiled down to the quantity that is needed to supply superstore, they don't label, as the local supply is small, patchy and dynamic. It is simply to much to stick a local sign on the tomatoes, when at any moment they could switch to import. But, I mean really, I think they must not think we care. Produce guy pointed out what matters, the price difference and in this case local was cheaper, that is what counts.

The other thing that struck me in my conversation with the produce guy is quality, apparently three strikes and farmer Bob is out, doesn't matter if you are from California or Armstrong, the contract is cancelled for bad quality. Ah yes quality, something Slow Food Nation raves about, my only thought upon looking at the produce section a little closer was what does quality really mean to superstore...

Research Video

Customers Prove There’s a Market for Fresh Produce

By GLENN COLLINS
But will people buy them?

Vegetables, that is. Certainly on Wednesday afternoon, an urgent line formed at a cheery new produce cart that had materialized at the corner of East Fordham Road and Decatur Avenue near Fordham University in the Bronx.

“These strawberries look great, and they’re a bargain,” said Michelle Cruz, a 38-year-old graphic designer who lives nearby and found herself jostling other produce hounds under the cart’s jaunty green umbrellas.

The cart’s debut was the centerpiece of the first public celebration of a new citywide effort to encourage street vendors to bring fresh vegetables and fruit to low-income neighborhoods that have been called “food deserts” because of the predominance of fast-food outlets offering high-fat, high-sugar fare and the dearth of healthful culinary fare.

The city has approved 1,000 new mobile food carts for neighborhoods in the five boroughs that have long been isolated from traditional supermarkets, grocery stores and farmers’ markets offering fresh produce at reasonable prices.

“There is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes among those who are poor,” said Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services.

So far, 200 Green Carts, as they are officially called, are now on the streets. “Already, people are telling us they’re glad we’re here,” said Michael Bracho, the 42-year-old proprietor of the Decatur Avenue cart, a downsized former Office Depot manager who describes his new occupation as “lucrative if you do it right.”

Some of the vendors who hit the streets last year complained about low-traffic locations, and it will take a while to determine whether there is enough demand to keep all the vendors in business in neighborhoods where processed foods are dominant. And some local merchants could see the carts as competition.

The carts do not accept food stamps, though a government-financed pilot program will soon provide $1,000 all-weather wireless terminals so 15 vendors can accept food-stamp debit cards.

The cart permits restrict operators to designated impoverished neighborhoods in the five boroughs and limit sales to raw fruits and vegetables.

The plan, approved by the New York City Council and signed into law by the mayor last year, is part of a public-private effort to make healthier food available to the poor while also providing 1,000 new jobs. Many vendors are immigrants from Latin America, Asia and elsewhere, said Karen Karp, a consultant to the project.

In low-income neighborhoods, “we know that it takes more time to build supermarkets,” said Benjamin Thomases, the food-policy coordinator for the Bloomberg administration, “but we can get carts on the streets right now.”

Even if doctors talk to their patients about eating in a more healthy way, “there is little access to these kinds of foods in minority communities,” said Dr. Peter A. Selwyn, a department chairman at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

“There’s third-rate stuff around here if you can even find it,” said Tom Johnson, a 25-year-old maintenance worker, as he stood amid the frenzy at the cart. “I can buy here now.”

People working two jobs “are not going to get on a train, or two buses, to travel to get fresh vegetables,” said Laurie M. Tisch, president of the Illumination Fund, a charity that has donated $1.5 million over two years to provide capital for Green Cart micro-loans for basic purchases, like the $2,000 food carts, through Acción New York, a nonprofit organization that helps those who do not qualify for bank credit.

But not everyone in the Fordham neighborhood was in a celebratory mood. “It may be good for health, but it’s bad for business,” said George Katehis, manager of the Splendid Deli Restaurant at 387 East Fordham Road. “A guy might buy a piece of fruit there instead of coming in here for a soda.”

Fruits and vegetables were available, but the prices were higher, at the Compare Foods market at East 189th Street and Park Avenue, a few blocks away from the Green Cart. Bananas were 99 cents a pound instead of 50 cents, strawberries were $3.99 a container instead of $1.50 and peppers were $1.89 a pound instead of $1.

“Maybe we’ll lose some customers to them,” said the manager, who gave his name only as Fabio V., adding that his produce cost more because “I have to pay utilities, high rent, employees — and he doesn’t.”

If the avid buyers at Decatur Avenue were any indication, residents of produce-poor neighborhoods may welcome the green-umbrella invasion. “Research has demonstrated that the greater the access, the more the consumption,” said Elliott S. Marcus, an associate commissioner of the city’s health department.

Mr. Marcus, who knows of no similar program in any other city, is hopeful that the Green Carts operation will inspire imitators.

Kumar Gouranga, a 45-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh who for three months has operated a cart at 165th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, said that “business is so good that we are staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Mr. Gouranga said his worst problem had been the 15 tickets he had received from the police, despite his legal permit. He said that every ticket had been dismissed in court, but that new ones kept coming.

“My other problem is that the green umbrella you get breaks easily,” he said, “especially in high winds.”

Urban Hens in Vernon

City moves ahead with pound for livestock
By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star

Published: May 12, 2009 7:00 PM

Urban hens are taking flight in Vernon, but that means officials must handle anyone breaking the law.

On Monday, council instructed staff to determine whether a private contractor is interested in setting up a pound for chickens, rabbits or any other livestock.

“Perhaps a local farmer would take on this responsibility and look after loose cattle,” said Clint Kanester, bylaw enforcement manager.

“It gives us a place where the animals can be cared for before they are disposed of through auction.”

In previous years, staff have had problems with livestock being loose in residential areas and finding someone who would capture the animals and care for them.

“Should council wish to implement an urban hen program, impound regulations and a pound may be required to ensure regulated numbers are maintained,” states a staff report.

Coun. Buffy Baumbrough supports backyard hens as a way of increasing food security among residents, and she also backs establishing a livestock pound.

“If someone is in contravention of the bylaw, what do we do with the hens?” said Baumbrough.

But Coun. Jack Gilroy is concerned that city staff will be running around town checking on animals.

“I want to make sure this isn’t going to create a bylaw nightmare,” he said.

It will cost about $6,000 a year for a livestock pound contract and it’s anticipated that the city will earn about $400 a year in permit fees from 20 properties with four hens each.

In terms of allowing backyard hens, there will be restrictions on where the chicken coop can be located in a yard and in relation to the property lines.

However, that has Coun. Shawn Lee questioning whether a building permit will be required for the coop.

“You’re not just throwing up a bunch of chicken wire. You need a decent building to do it,” he said.

Food Talk in the BC Election 2009

It is the eve of a new provincial government in BC and I am reflecting on the last 28 days of campaigning. My electoral area, Shuswap-Monashee saw some interesting topics debated, the first all candidates meeting was organized by the Food Action Society of the North Okanagan. Food is a strong topic here as a core agriculture area in BC. The meat regulations was interestingly the one topic that all candidates supported some kind of reform/review, but that was about it. The liberal candidate generally dismissed food issues, and confirmed he would not support core funding for food intitiatives. The NDP candidate was supportive of many questions, but I was so disappointed in his knowledge of most issues, he just did not know. The conservative candidate was generally against spending any money on anything, (ok predictable), but again really didn't know the food issues. The green candidate, is a well known food advocate and outspoken community leader, she spoke well on the issues overall in particular around meat regulations, funding for core local programs, and the links between food and climate change. But none of them were able to speak to the issues that linked poverty and food access.

At this moment, an ex. liberal MLA is discussing food/agriculture on cbc radio, she discussed the agricultural plan as an amazing achievement by the liberals. Hah, our liberal candidate stated he would not increase funding for the Ministry of Agriculture, it is the lowest by far in funding across Canada, and according to people within the Ministry (pers. comm.) there is no way they can implement many of the objectives of this plan, since they have no money for any of their programs.

Only a few hours till we know the fate of the next four years, but despite the outcome of the election we can all still focus on working in our communities, supporting our farmers, and working for change.

Launch of Community Food Mapping Initiative in the North Okanagan

Food Action Society of the North Okanagan and the Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice at UBC-Okanagan, launch an exciting regional food project. We are looking for community volunteers to help in developing the map and in showcasing our local food growers, producers, markets and community food projects.

We want to tell the story of our regions food and build a valuable community resource to help in building a strong regional food system. Come learn about the project and share your ideas around local food in your neighborhood.

Where: People's Place, Rm 001, 3402 27 Ave, downtown Vernon
When: Wednesday, May 13th 7pm

Swine Flu linked to Mexico's Industrial Agricutlure

After the announcement today that British Columbia has confirmed cases of Swine Flu, this came to me via a US community food security list serve I subscribe too. 68 people have now died in Mexico and it has spread into California, Texas, and yes, BC.

Please read below.

According to the swine flu time-line put together by a company called Veratect, who evidently map infection disease events for clients like the WHO & CDC:

"Residents [of La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied
responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to 'flu.' However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this
outbreak." (1)

Granjas Carroll is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods. According to the Smithfield Foods website, Granjas Carroll produced 950,000 hogs in fiscal 2008. (2)

So now it is possible that our Global Industrial Food System is responsible for unleashing a deadly pandemic, somehow I am not surprised nor do I think it is the first time...

Is Local Food Better? Yes, But There's More by Sarah DeWeerdt

Published on Monday, April 20, 2009 by World Watch Magazine
Is Local Food Better? Yes, But There's More
by Sarah DeWeerdt

In 1993, a Swedish researcher calculated that the ingredients of a typical Swedish breakfast-apple, bread, butter, cheese, coffee, cream, orange juice, sugar-traveled a distance equal to the circumference of the Earth before reaching the Scandinavian table. In 2005, a researcher in Iowa found that the milk, sugar, and strawberries that go into a carton of strawberry yogurt collectively journeyed 2,211 miles (3,558 kilometers) just to get to the processing plant. As the local-food movement has come of age, this concept of "food miles" (or "-kilometers")-roughly, the distance food travels from farm to plate-has come to dominate the discussion, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Western Europe.

The concept offers a kind of convenient shorthand for describing a food system that's centralized, industrialized, and complex almost to the point of absurdity. And, since our food is transported all those miles in ships, trains, trucks, and planes, attention to food miles also links up with broader concerns about the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-based transport.

In the United States, the most frequently cited statistic is that food travels 1,500 miles on average from farm to consumer. That figure comes from work led by Rich Pirog, the associate director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University (he is also behind the strawberry-yogurt calculations referenced above). In 2001, in some of the country's first food-miles research, Pirog and a group of researchers analyzed the transport of 28 fruits and vegetables to Iowa markets via local, regional, and conventional food distribution systems. The team calculated that produce in the conventional system-a national network using semitrailer trucks to haul food to large grocery stores-traveled an average of 1,518 miles (about 2,400 kilometers). By contrast, locally sourced food traveled an average of just 44.6 miles (72 kilometers) to Iowa markets.

In light of such contrasts, the admonition to "eat local" just seems like common sense. And indeed, at the most basic level, fewer transport miles do mean fewer emissions. Pirog's team found that the conventional food distribution system used 4 to 17 times more fuel and emitted 5 to 17 times more CO2 than the local and regional (the latter of which roughly meant Iowa-wide) systems. Similarly, a Canadian study estimated that replacing imported food with equivalent items locally grown in the Waterloo, Ontario, region would save transport-related emissions equivalent to nearly 50,000 metric tons of CO2, or the equivalent of taking 16,191 cars off the road.

What's "Local"?

But what exactly is "local food" in the first place? How local is local?

One problem with trying to determine whether local food is greener is that there's no universally accepted definition of local food. Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, authors of The 100-Mile Diet, write that they chose this boundary for their experiment in eating locally because "a 100-mile radius is large enough to reach beyond a big city and small enough to feel truly local. And it rolls off the tongue more easily than the ‘160-kilometer diet.'" Sage Van Wing, who coined the term "locavore" with a friend when she was living in Marin County, California, was inspired to eat local after reading Coming Home to Eat, a chronicle of author Gary Paul Nabhan's own year-long effort to eat only foods grown within 250 miles of his Northern Arizona home. She figured that if Nabhan could accomplish that in the desert, she could do even better in the year-round agricultural cornucopia that is Northern California, so she decided to limit herself to food from within 100 miles.

There's some evidence that a popular understanding of local food is, at least in some places, coalescing around this 100-mile limit. A 2008 Leopold Institute survey of consumers throughout the United States found that two-thirds considered local food to mean food grown within 100 miles. Still, a variety of other definitions also persist. Sometimes local means food grown within a county, within a state or province, or even, in the case of some small European nations, within the country. In the United Kingdom, reports Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network, "on the whole, organizations supporting local are now less likely to put numbers on things." Meanwhile, rural sociologist Clare Hinrichs, of Pennsylvania State University, has found that in Iowa local has shifted from signifying food grown within a county or a neighboring one to food grown anywhere in the state. For some in the agricultural community, promoting and eating "local Iowa food" is almost a kind of food patriotism, aimed at counteracting the forces of globalization that have put the state's family farmers at risk.

All of those are perfectly valid ways of thinking about local. But they don't have all that much to do with environmental costs and benefits.

Tradeoffs

In any case, warns Pirog, food miles/kilometers don't tell the whole story. "Food miles are a good measure of how far food has traveled. But they're not a very good measure of the food's environmental impact."

That impact depends on how the food was transported, not just how far. For example, trains are 10 times more efficient at moving freight, ton for ton, than trucks are. So you could eat potatoes trucked in from 100 miles away, or potatoes shipped by rail from 1,000 miles away, and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their transport from farm to table would be roughly the same.

The environmental impact of food also depends on how it is grown. Swedish researcher Annika Carlsson-Kanyama led a study that found it was better, from a greenhouse-gas perspective, for Swedes to buy Spanish tomatoes than Swedish tomatoes, because the Spanish tomatoes were grown in open fields while the local ones were grown in fossil-fuel-heated greenhouses.

That seems obvious, but there are subtler issues at play as well. For example, Spain has plenty of the warmth and sunshine that tomatoes crave, but its main horticultural region is relatively arid and is likely to become more drought-prone in the future as a result of global climate change. What if water shortages require Spanish growers to install energy-intensive irrigation systems? And what if greenhouses in northern Europe were heated with renewable energy?

Perhaps it's inevitable that we consumers gravitate to a focus on food miles-the concept represents the last step before food arrives on our tables, the part of the agricultural supply chain that's most visible to us. And indeed, all other things being equal, it's better to purchase something grown locally than the same thing grown far away. "It is true that if you're comparing exact systems, the same food grown in the same way, then obviously, yes, the food transported less will have a smaller carbon footprint," Pirog says.

But a broader, more comprehensive picture of all the tradeoffs in the food system requires tracking greenhouse gas emissions through all phases of a food's production, transport, and consumption. And life-cycle analysis (LCA), a research method that provides precisely this "cradle-to-grave" perspective, reveals that food miles represent a relatively small slice of the greenhouse-gas pie.

In a paper published last year, Christopher Weber and H. Scott Matthews, of Carnegie Mellon University, wove together data from a variety of U.S. government sources into a comprehensive life-cycle analysis of the average American diet. According to their calculations, final delivery from producer or processor to the point of retail sale accounts for only 4 percent of the U.S. food system's greenhouse gas emissions. Final delivery accounts for only about a quarter of the total miles, and 40 percent of the transport-related emissions, in the food supply chain as a whole. That's because there are also "upstream" miles and emissions associated with things like transport of fertilizer, pesticides, and animal feed. Overall, transport accounts for about 11 percent of the food system's emissions.

By contrast, Weber and Matthews found, agricultural production accounts for the bulk of the food system's greenhouse gas emissions: 83 percent of emissions occur before food even leaves the farm gate. A recent life-cycle analysis of the U.K. food system, by Tara Garnett, yielded similar results. In her study, transport accounted for about a tenth of the food system's greenhouse gas emissions, and agricultural production accounted for half. Garnett says the same general patterns likely also hold for Europe as a whole.

There's Something about Dairy

The other clear result that emerges from these analyses is that what you eat matters at least as much as how far it travels, and agriculture's overwhelming "hotspots" are red meat and dairy production. In part that's due to the inefficiency of eating higher up on the food chain-it takes more energy, and generates more emissions, to grow grain, feed it to cows, and produce meat or dairy products for human consumption, than to feed grain to humans directly. But a large portion of emissions associated with meat and dairy production take the form of methane and nitrous oxide, greenhouse gases that are respectively 23 and 296 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Methane is produced by ruminant animals (cows, goats, sheep, and the like) as a byproduct of digestion, and is also released by the breakdown of all types of animal manure. Nitrous oxide also comes from the breakdown of manure (as well as the production and breakdown of fertilizers).

In Garnett's study, meat and dairy accounted for half of the U.K. food system's greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, she writes, "the major contribution made by agriculture itself reflects the GHG [greenhouse gas] intensity of livestock rearing." Weber and Matthews come to a similar conclusion: "No matter how it is measured, on average red meat is more GHG-intensive than all other forms of food," responsible for about 150 percent more emissions than chicken or fish. In their study the second-largest contributor to emissions was the dairy industry.

Nor are these two studies unique in their findings. A group of Swedish researchers has calculated that meat and dairy contribute 58 percent of the total food emissions from a typical Swedish diet. At a global level, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that livestock account for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions-more even than all forms of fossil fuel-based transport combined.

"Broadly speaking, eating fewer meat and dairy products and consuming more plant foods in their place is probably the single most helpful behavioral shift one can make" to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions, Garnett argues.

Weber and Matthews calculated that reducing food miles to zero-an all-but-impossible goal in practice-would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food system by only about 5 percent, equivalent to driving 1,000 miles less over the course of a year. By comparison, replacing red meat and dairy with chicken, fish, or eggs for one day per week would save the equivalent of driving 760 miles per year. Replacing red meat and dairy with vegetables one day a week would be like driving 1,160 miles less. "Thus," they write, "we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than ‘buying local.'"

However, Weber acknowledges, "these calculations were done assuming that local foods are no different than non-local foods." And that's not always the case. For example, local-food advocates also emphasize eating seasonal (often meaning field-grown) and less-processed foods. Those qualities, along with shorter distances from farm to table, will also contribute to lower emissions compared to the "average" diet.

Food marketed in the local food economy-at farmers' markets and through community-supported agriculture (CSA) schemes-is frequently also organic. Organic food often (though not always) is associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally grown food, because organics don't generate the emissions associated with production, transport, and application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Organic food also has other environmental benefits: less use of toxic chemicals promotes greater farmland biodiversity, and organic fields require less irrigation under some conditions. Because local food is so frequently talked about in terms of food miles, its environmental benefits have largely been couched in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. But food's carbon footprint "can't be the only measuring stick of environmental sustainability," notes Gail Feenstra, a food systems analyst at the University of California at Davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

Finally, farmers who market locally are often relatively small in scale, and can more feasibly adopt environmentally beneficial practices such as growing a diversity of crops, planting cover crops, leaving weedy field borders or planting hedgerows that provide a refuge for native biodiversity, and integrating crop and livestock production. In short, Weber says, "the production practices matter a lot more than where the food was actually grown. If buying local also means buying with better production practices then that's great, that's going to make a huge difference."

Of course, the relationship between local food marketing and sustainable agricultural practices is far from perfect. A small farmer can still spray pesticides and plow from road to road. Not all farmers-market vendors are organic. Clare Hinrichs, who calls herself an "ardent" farmers-market shopper, nevertheless acknowledges that "the actual consequences-both intended or unintended-[of local food systems] haven't really been all that closely or systematically studied."

How Green Is My Valley?

So, is local food greener? Not necessarily. But look at the question from the opposite direction: if you're a consumer interested in greener food, the local food economy is currently a good place to find it. By the same token, a farmer who sells in the local food economy might be more likely to adopt or continue sustainable practices in order to meet this customer demand. If local food has environmental benefits, they aren't all-or perhaps even mainly-intrinsic to local-ness. Or, as Hinrichs has written, "it is the social relation, not the spatial location, per se, that accounts for this outcome."

For local food advocates like Sage Van Wing, that interaction between producer and consumer, between farmer and eater, is precisely the point. Regarding food miles, Van Wing says, "I'm not interested in that at all." For her, purchasing an apple isn't just about the greenhouse gas emissions involved in producing and transporting the fruit, "it's also about how those apples were farmed, how the farm workers were treated"-a broad array of ecological, social, and economic factors that add up to sustainability. Interacting directly with the farmer who grows her food creates a "standard of trust," she says.

Christopher Weber, who followed a vegan diet for 10 years and calls himself "somewhat of a self-proclaimed foodie," agrees: "That's one thing that's really great about local food, and one of the reasons that I buy locally, is because you can actually know your farmer and know what they're doing."

Van Wing says that her approach to local food has evolved over time-she started out trying to eat within a 100-mile radius, but now she simply tries to get each food item from the closest source feasible. Foods that can't be grown nearby are either rare treats or have disappeared from her diet altogether. "I just don't do things that don't make sense," she says. Her statement echoes journalist and sustainable-agriculture guru Michael Pollan, who in his recent book In Defense of Food offers a common-sense guide to eating ethically and well: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You could sum up the ecological case for eating locally by adding one more sentence: "Mostly what's in season and grown not too far away."

Yet there are limits to this common-sense approach. In many areas, the climate is such that eating local, seasonal, field-grown produce would be a pretty bleak proposition for much of the year. Large concentrations of people live in areas not suited to growing certain staple crops; it's one thing to forego bananas, but quite another to give up wheat. And population density itself works against relocalization of the food system. Most of the land within 100 miles of large cities such as New York is itself very built up; where will the farmland to feed us all locally come from? (By the same token, that very situation makes preservation of what farmland remains all the more important, a goal that buying from local farmers can help advance.)

In this sense, life-cycle analyses of the current food system offer a paradoxically hopeful perspective, because they suggest that, if the goal is to improve the environmental sustainability of the food system as a whole, then there are a variety of public policy levers that we can pull. To be sure, promoting more localized food production and distribution networks would reduce transport emissions. But what if a greater investment in rail infrastructure helped to reverse the trend toward transporting more food by inefficient semi-truck? What if fuel economy standards were increased for the truck fleet that moves our food? Or, to name one encompassing possibility, what if a carbon-pricing system incorporated some of the environmental costs of agriculture that are currently externalized? Local food is delicious, but the problem-and perhaps the solution-is global.

© 2009 World Watch Magazine
--Sarah DeWeerdt