Gone in 23 seconds

That's how quickly pigs with a little experience located food whose image they could see in a mirror.

Recent studies in pig genetics and cognition are summarized in this recent article from the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10angier.html

a bummer of a news day

I didn't take an audio book in the car with me today for a trip to CDSP. Mistake. I got so bogged down listening to news that glorifies war and violence. Wasn't the original November 11 celebration a celebration of peace?

To top it all off, this item caught my attention:

The nominee for the head of US AID, Rajiv Shah, M.D., is a former Gates Foundation employee and skilled at "building public-private partnerships with major technology development firms" - like - you guessed it - ta da - Monsanto.

Obama's appointments make the White House vegetable garden look like the worst kind of gratuitous gesture.

See Shah's resume here: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM138_091110_shah.html

The True Cost of Shrimp

Great information on "The Perils of Overfishing" from Fresh Air.

Part I:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120013107

Part II:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120049590

Daniel Pauly from UBC tells it like it is: grim.

Listening reminded me that Sylvia Earle was on the Colbert Report a few weeks back and kept repeating her mantra of tilapia, catfish, carp. Darn - I wish I found farmed freshwater bottom feeders tasty.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252641/october-13-2009/sylvia-earle
The neon aquarium in the background is a particularly nice touch.

What Would Jesus Eat?

Just found this at http://www.msainfo.org/blog

- an online event - faith perspective on food...


What Would Jesus Eat?

DATE: Thursday, November 5, 2009

TIME: 8:00 PM (New York time)

LOCATION: Online.

COST: Free.

CONVERSATION: Everyone eats. But what precisely are you eating? And why are you eating it? And what is the spiritual practice of eating? Lucas Land will lead an informative and stirring conversation on the relationship of faith and food. It is called "What Would Jesus Eat?" Be sure to bring your food stories, insights, and comments. You can get to know Lucas at his website when you click here.

REGISTER: Registration is free, but you must reserve your place. You can RSVP by emailing Kevin at Kevin@presence.tv When you do, you will receive log-in instructions.

Monsanto, Microsoft and Africa

I didn't watch the News Hour much all summer - either baseball or work in the garden filled the early evening slot - and so I was surprised to see the Monsanto ad when I tuned in last week. It isn't greenwashing - it's just blatant lying.

This print version
http://www.monsanto.com/pdf/sustainability/advertisement_now_what.pdf
is tame by comparison.

The ad on the News Hour concludes:
"That’s sustainable agriculture. And that’s what Monsanto is all about."

I screamed disgust at the tv, and Moko ran under the bed.

This latest mass media lie by Monsanto has convinced me that the word sustainable is lost - I feel as though I can only use it when I know exactly to whom I am talking, and know that they share my ideas.

Vandana Shiva doesn't pull any punches in her opinions about Monsanto in this short promo for the non-profit Center for Food Safety:
https://secure.ga3.org/03/FFF_Shiva

But we've known Monsanto's game for a long time.

What was news to me was just how intertwined Monsanto and the Gates Foundation are.

A friend handed on the 21 September issue of The Nation, which had this article by Raj Patel et.al.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/patel_et_al
with a nuanced critique of the new green revolution proposed for Africa.

The writers draw on the research of the Community Alliance for Global Justice in Seattle, which reports that that they have found the Gates have given over $100 million in grants to organizations with links to Monsanto.

And what do Monsanto and Microsoft have in common? A deeply held belief in the value of intellectual property. It's not the simple belief in technology; it's the belief in who owns it, in who controls knowledge, in who profits.

This is so depressing I may have to find some silly comedies to watch before bedtime.

If Bill and Melinda really wanted to do something for the farmers of Africa, they would stop supporting GM seeds, with the monocropping and related land grabs and environmental degradation they cause. They'd find a way to use communication technology to help the small-scale farmers on that continent share the successes they are having using traditional knowledge of ecological agriculture in even better ways.

But philanthropy will condescend.

There's an exchange of letters about the article here:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090928/exchange2

The Cooking Animal

Several years ago when I was working at the NCSE, one of the things I thought about a lot was "What makes us human?" I realized that one of the reasons people resist the complex of well-established theories we call evolution is this - everybody wants to be special, and they want humanity to be special, too.

For a while laughter was my favorite distinguishing characteristic. Apes do it - but it's different, on the inhale rather than the exhale - and never loud and hearty. But still it's a continuum - and it seems like anything we can think of that distinguishes our species behaviorally has precedent somewhere among our warm-blooded kin of one sort or another.

But cooking stuck with me as a strong candidate for species specific behavior - something we do as a regular intentional behavior, not just for one kind of food in one situation - like the monkeys of Nagano Olympics fame in their hot springs. Turns out that cooking may have influenced our evolution, and be truly integral to humanity. At least Richard Wrangham thinks so:
http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/11/cooking-and-human-evolution

And if he's right, cooking may be foundational to what evolved as patriarchy, a sex-linked behavior that kept our early sisters in the kitchen. And we've adapted to cooked food, evolved with our cooking, so that raw food diets are not adequate for us. So much for all those diet books based in faux anthro.

If you, dear reader, have read the book, Catching Fire: how cooking made us human, please comment. The library waiting list is long, and I'm resisting buying books.

No More MacDonald's!

in Iceland, that is.

The franchisee there simply can't afford the imported ingredients since the big financial meltdown.

Apparently Mac requires they use certain suppliers, and the freight, literally, is too high.

Instead there will be local hamburger joints, sourcing meat and buns and all locally and selling cheaper. And of course, being a good deal more environmentally friendly. Financial crises and the straightened circumstances they cause are, apparently, not always anti-green.

The prime minister who helped set up Iceland for its financial crash was publicized eating the first Big Mac when the joints opened. Will he be the last one Mac-ing it up?

Heard on "The World" this afternoon on public radio.