In Search of Soil

More John Muir

2009-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

When I walked, more than a hundred flowers touched my feet, at every step closing above them, as if wading in water. Go where I would, east or west, north or south, I still plashed and rippled in flower-gems; and at night I lay between two skies of silver and gold, spanned by a milky-way, and nestling deep in a goldy-way of vegetable suns. But all this beauty of life is fading year by year, - fading like the glow of a sunset, - foundering in the grossness of modern refinement. As larks are gathered in sackfuls, ruffled and blood-stained, to toy morbid appetite in barbarous towns, so is flower-gold gathered to slaughter-pens in misbegotten carcasses of oxen and sheep. So always perish the plant peoples of temperate regions, - feeble, unarmed, unconfederate, they are easily overthrown, leaving their lands to man and his few enslavable beasts and grasses.

—John Muir, from here. Image by Arnold Genthe from the Library of Congress.

history

2009-06-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Library of Congress again. Discovering Arnold Genthe, a fellow photographic archivist. I admit I never heard about him in Photo History class. There are a bevy of mysterious dancers, none of them digitized (If anyone has a spare $120 they can buy a fiber print (and if they have extra $240 buy me one, too!)). Click on wiki link to scroll for a beautiful photograph of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

2009-06-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.

—John Muir

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.
—John Burroughs

Photograph from the Library of Congress, one of my favorite resources.

Lotte

2009-06-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

I know I started tonight from This where the animations are only available to Brits, but the link (with stills) is originally from F.A.B. Then there's youtube.

When the sun rises

2009-06-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

I go to work
When the sun goes down, I take my rest
I dig the well from which I drink
I farm the soil that yields my food
I share creation, kings can do no more

Dannal in motion

2009-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Dannal Aramburu, archeologist, studies the guts of a pre-Incan terrace. This image was doctored a little in FCP Motion (can you tell? should I add more?).

Interactive Gardeners

2009-05-14T10:47:00.001-07:00

Gardeners Index to look for answers to your gardening questions... A repository for all the info you could ever want about las plantas. It seems to be just starting up (the earliest comments are from mid April). Check out all the groups (my favorites are container gardening and compost... there are groups by zone, by plant...). It's no Twitter or Facebook but I could see it coming in handy if you had a specific Q.

Edible City

2009-04-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Foodie movie preview screening on the 9th (I'm going!)... I just found out about this group via Marion Nestle's blog. Really cool work and a whole team of people working on it. Worth checking out. www.ediblecitymovie.com.

Volunteer Day with Makani

2009-04-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've been given the thumbs up by the boss to plan a volunteer day across the base at the Alameda Point Collective Farm on Wednesday, April 22; a day outside digging in the dirt and putting things together in the name of agriculture, neighbors and the youth. Friends and family welcome, too. I'm planning to be over there most of the day but you're welcome to just spend the afternoon or an hour... If you think you can come help out email me (goldengreenbird at gmail).

Possible projects for the day as suggested by Evan, the guy who runs the farm:

1) Working on our aquaponics system (fish + veggie symbiosis) and chicken tractors (mobile coops)... these are ongoing projects which will not necessarily be finished, so much as chipped away at.

2) planting native perennials in our pollinator attracting areas

3) hand seeding winter squash in our vegetable beds

I'm putting a keg on ice for post-work beers and general jovial good times.

APC: http://www.apcollaborative.org/growingyouth.htm

Fujimori convicted of human rights abuses

2009-04-07T12:04:00.001-07:00

No doubt this is still the middle of the story, not the end, but I hear from the NY Times that Fujimori has been convicted of human rights abuses. This man exemplifies the flabbergasting politics of Perú (though Alan Garcia, the current president, is another big political puzzle).

Fujimori led Perú during some of its worst times—70,000 people died during his war on the Maoist group The Shining Path and Marxist-Leninist Tupac Amaru—and then he was caught in a corruption scandal when his intelligence chief was recorded bribing a lawmakers and businessmen. Fujimori fled to Japan and faxed his resignation. Five years later he planned to return to run for reelection (can you believe?) and instead got extradicted by Chile and then tried in Peru.

Alberto Fujimori was the president for ten years after he seized control of the government in a coup d'etat, shut down Congress and suspended the Constitution... yet in 1995 when he ran for reelection he won with a 2/3 majority. Then he ran for a dubious third term and in the hubbub that followed he fled to Japan...

Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act

2009-04-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has an interesting editorial out about farm worker's rights and what happened to them in the New Deal Era. What happened is that they were left out, with lasting consequences for the way our food system functions. Keep your eyes out for news about the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act.

The photo is mine, taken in Ccenta near Pampachiri, Peru. One heck of a gorgeous corn on the cob.

2009-03-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

The search for a good/understandable FairTrade organization continues.

IFAT-LA (international fairtrade associatio-latin america) seems somewhat promising,
unfortunately i am not a spanish speaker/reader.

so perhaps spanish lessons are in the near future for us seedling-ers?

anyhow, the Latin American IFAT has a small handful of Peruvian producers that are currently registered with them.
Major stumbling block is both the language barrier as well as their parent company's policy of accepting applications for FairTrade Organizations that are already trading.

Finding myself on facebook, yet again, i looked up World Fair Trade...
i shall now spend the day immersed in links.
so so many...
surely one will be a good thread!

giving up on a driveway

2009-03-23T11:00:00.001-07:00

Squealed to a stop to examine a driveway that has turned into a promise... Bulbs: tulips, daffodils. These will come every spring forever.

beer drinking in the afternoon

2009-03-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Pelayo and Dennis, our friends from Andamarca. We served them beer and then got Dennis to record a voiceover about the Cusichaca Trust. He has one daughter and his wife lives in the city. The voiceover said, Cusichaca rescues and restores terraces in the highlands and records and promotes use of indiginous agricultural knowledge in the terrace systems. They further encourage tourism as a sustainable alternative to development in the Andes.

Sendero

2009-03-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has a huge story up about new Sendero Luminoso activity in Peru. The organization, whose last member supposedly turned themselves in in 2000, has simply gone underground for nearly ten years and become a drug cartel. Now people in Peru are faced with the same war on terrorism that killed tens of thousands of people in the mountains and scarred an entire generation. The war is hard to fight because of the jungle terrain, and the fact that senderistas look like anyone else in the mountains and are able to disappear into the undergrowth in a split second.

The coca leaf is an important cultural item. I chewed it ALL the time when I was in the mountains. It's great for altitude sickness and there's nothing more special than offering a little bit of it to the apu (mountain peak gods) before a planting, when you are fixing an anden wall, prior to harvest... So it's hard to control it because you shouldn't just ban the plant but about 90% of the stuff gets turned into cocaine rather than sold as a plain leaf, so...

I honestly don't know how I would fight this war if I were the Peruvian government, though I am pretty sure I wouldn't do it the same way they are doing it now; searching vehicles, declaring war, killing civilians. One official is basically quoted saying that a pregnant woman who was killed deserved what she got. There's a complete lack of sympathy for the mountain people, which in a racist country like Peru is what one might expect. Even in Sendero's previous era the war against terrorism (by both the government and The Shining Path) only became a serious issue once the terrorists bombed Lima.

I am going to look at which human rights organizations are working in Peru now, and try to keep up with the news, maybe donate some money so that at the very least we know what is happening. And in terms of the Seedling Project stuff, I am convinced that the best thing to do is provide alternate sources of income for remote rural mountain people so that there is an alternative to growing and selling cocaine. How do we get fair trade yarn, woven blankets, knitted caps out of Andamarca and into the US for some economic stimulus?

International Fund for Agricultural Development

2009-03-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

A cache of documentaries produced by this unpretentious UN group is available here. This is an amazing resource... they also have a knowledge base which has an unbelievable amount of information for rural poor farmers and the organizations trying to help them. And! They just signed a loan agreement to provide support to farmers in the northern highlands of Peru. Right on. I think I will be reading this site for the next month. Here is a recent interview of the president of the organization in the Financial Times where they discuss how rich countries are realizing in order to guarantee food security they are going to have to support agriculture in other, poorer countries... we live in interesting times.

Have I mentioned?

2009-02-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

...my new favorite social network. The San Francisco garden registry. It's a Futurefarmers project and I have just posted that I have an extra asparagus crown in case anyone nearby would like it. I really hope someone does want it because I hate adopting plants just to fail them right away.

Africa!

2009-02-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

I have just read on US Food Policy the absolute most exciting news! The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says that Africa is better off if they focus on organic agriculture. Many people have said it before (even within the UN), and many people will say it again, but each time we hear it I think it gets a little more real.

Organic agriculture is a "good option for food security in Africa", UNCTAD says, citing a 116% rise in productivity on 114 African farms that converted to organic or near-organic production.

Truly, truly thrilling, and I especially love this line in the recommendations for government section: Fund research on sustainable agriculture, building on indigenous knowledge in response and in partnership with farmers. EXACTLY what needs to happen in Peru as well (and what our friends at Cusichaca were doing last I heard).

Small farmin'

2009-02-09T18:02:00.001-08:00

The number of farms in the US has increased 4% in the last five years according to the USDA's recently released farm survey (2002-2007), though most farmer's income is actually coming from other jobs (65% of farmers have other primary sources of income, vs. 55% in 2002). The small and mid-size farmers are still at a huge disadvantage because farm subsidy payments are made per acre, says FarmPolicy.com (via Amber Waves).

I did find it encouraging that in this NY Times article about the survey release Secretary of Ag Vilsack says he wants to work to create new market opportunities for small farmers! “There’s real opportunities to create a new rural economy."

And then there is this scary map from the survey that shows the decrease of land that is being used agriculturally... That's another issue altogether. In the previously mentioned NY Times article Amy Bacigalupo, program organizer for the Farm Beginnings program in Minnesota, tells Andrew Martin that the costs of land and health care are major obstacles for most would-be farmers.

Thinking and Drinking

2009-02-03T00:19:00.001-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about the new Tropicana look/feel/carbon footprint greenification campaign. Do you suppose they'll see all the carbon going into their nitrogen fertilizer and then calculate how greening themselves with a little compost and some nitrogen-fixing vetch as a cover crop in the orchard might ditch two problems in one fell swoop? I really have my doubts about a big company like Tropicana actually being very environmentally sound, but on the other hand if they don't do it, who will? Now it's up to me to decide whether or not to actually buy Tropicana because at least they are making baby steps in the right direction. I am hungry for leaps, though, aren't you?

Green Orange

2009-01-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

Via the NY Times we read that Tropicana orange juice, of all things, is calculating its carbon footprint! I'm impressed... now they just have to figure out what it means and what to do with it. It sounds like the best thing they can do is look at the number and then try to make it better (after all, more efficient = higher profits). “If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it," says Bryan Lembke, a PepsiCo manager on the project...

Food Secretary

2009-01-22T00:47:00.001-08:00

Oh, if only he were called the Food Secretary maybe he would work out all right... The new Secretary of Agriculture is seen as a good guy by such organizations as the National Pork Producers Council, which means, I think, that we aren't going to see as much change in the food system as we might have if the Food Democracy people got one of their Sustainable Dozen up in the house... Apparently the foodie people are now looking at Tom Vilsack's choice for Under and Deputy Secretary. I have to say, too, it's really a bummer to see another white guy in office. I was hoping for a lady! Or at least someone different-looking.

Bicycle Boom in the midst of a bust

2009-01-02T13:38:00.001-08:00

Bicycle stores are trying to guess whether this year will be a slump like the rest of the economy, or a boom, like it was in the 70s when people were trying to use less fuel... I am rooting for a boom! Read the NY Times article... As they say, "When people ride bikes, lots of good things happen."

Walking without buying

2008-10-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

An article in The New York times really struck me tonight, after a walk with my favorite man and the passing-by of a wine bar I've been wanting to try. The night is beautiful here in San Francisco—warm and cozy and a good presage to the chill that is coming. We walked by the bar because only one of us wanted to go in tonight, and now I am glad for a couple of reasons. I think I need to tuck in for the long haul on the money thing. I mean, I need to be more serious about saving money than I have ever been before.

And then for the planet it is also necessary to reduce. Maybe the wine bar will have to be saved for the really Special Occasion rather than the Passing Fancy. As Margaret Atwood said in her op-ed, now that the economy seems to be in the tank (at least for the time being) the bright side is that, "Perhaps we’ll have some breathing room — a chance to re-evaluate our goals and to take stock of our relationship to the living planet from which we derive all our nourishment, and without which debt finally won’t matter."

And finally I am glad because we have just made a good feast instead of drinking wine! Freshly shelled beans (cranberry beans and Italian butter beans both from Iacopi) were laced with olive oil and rice vinegar and sea salt, and then we kept adding more things! Carrots of all colors, a radish, golden cayenne chili (from Tierra Vegetables!!) and two kinds of green onions from two different growers (Heirloom Organics and Marin Roots Farm). And I thank also for the daily bread, which is from Full Circle in Penngrove and couldn't be more delicious.

My Review of REI Camp Cup with Clip Grip

2008-10-21T20:58:00.001-07:00

Originally submitted at REI

Clip this mug on your backpack and you're ready for an outdoor adventure accompanied by your favorite tasty beverage.

replaceable lid?

By seedlingproject from San Francisco, CA on 10/21/2008

Gift: No

Pros: Easy To Clean

Cons: Not durable

Best Uses: Regular living, Car Camping

Describe Yourself: Avid Adventurer

What Is Your Gear Style: Minimalist

I bought this to reduce the amount of paper cups I use for coffee, and I had big plans to use this for ten years. After a month, however, I dropped the cup and the lid broke. I would be psyched even to pay another $18 to just buy a lid, but is that an option? I don't want the energy/carbon footprint of an indestructible steel insulated cup on my conscience!

just a little crack! Please just sell me a lid!

Tags: Picture of Product

(legalese)

Shooting again

2008-10-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I shot something for this project again. It is a tradition in the highlands that the people who help a farmer with their planting are given any leftover seeds, and in this way I received some. Lee James of Tierra Vegetables is willing to plant the seeds I was given in Perú. Mine looked a little dry and aged when I gave them to her, but she thinks a few of them look likely to sprout. They are planting them soon and they are going to call me to come film when they do.

I got a secondary story today while I was filming. A man came to visit Lee James; he had given her seeds three or four years ago, and she has been growing them for several seasons. They are called Paradiso, after his ancestor who brought the seeds over from Italy in the early 1900s; all his family recipes include this pepper. Now he only has one plant of his own, but Lee is keeping the seeds going.

Glory in genetic diversity. Hurrah for heirloom plants.

Candidates

2008-09-29T00:47:00.001-07:00

I have been trolling the internet, trying to get a sense of the difference between McCain and Obama in terms of food policy, since it's the issue I feel I know the most about to begin with. It turns out this isn't so easy to find out... From Marion Nestle's blog I was directed to a posting by a graduate student at Cornell, Alexandra Lewin. I was surprised at what I learned, for instance that Clinton was the top recipient of food industry donations, Obama was fourth, and McCain was ninth. It seems to me from looking at the differences between McCain and Obama's vote that Obama is only slightly more in line with my foodie values. I still want to vote for him, because I like his tax policy and his restraint from hyperbole.

Locavore

2008-07-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hilarious article in the New York Times wherein the author seems consistently surprised yet well informed at all the locavore fuss... "A National Restaurant Association survey this year of more than 1,200 chefs, many of whom work for chain restaurants or large food companies, found locally grown produce to be the second-hottest American food trend, just behind bite-size desserts."

Santogold

2008-07-22T00:34:00.001-07:00

Totally in love with Santogold at the moment... I'm wondering if her song Creator is about the DIY movement and buying less stuff (as we all must consider doing if we are to recover from our global warming nosedive). I'm thinking more about how to make the seedling project a propaganda piece about living simply, and this song struck me as saying the same thing. Likely I'm on crack and seeing exactly what I want to see in this song!

Advertising for Andamarca

2008-07-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

I still love my handmade hat from the knitters of Andamarca, Peru.

Global food crisis and subsistence farming

2008-05-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Two days running I've read articles about people reverting to traditional methods of farming because of the tough food/ oil price situation. The New York Times has a wonderful article about Mexican farmers reclaiming barren land with traditional methods (including terracing!!). And Treehugger had an article about farmers in India trading tractors for camels which is in turn improving the breeding stock of animals that used to be used to transport royalty.

While neither of these things solve the global problem, they do secure the food supply of each person who is now farming in a sustainable way. This is something I like hearing about when most of the news is about how the people in Myanmar have no access to food or fresh water, and many thousands in China are trapped beneath rubble. I can't think that traditional farming methods shouldn't comprise at least a little bit of a solution to our global environmental emergency.

One thing that might help everyone is to put a price premium on hand-grown food. It's hard for anyone to compete with subsidized American corn.

Mysterious cities of gold

2008-03-09T01:23:00.001-08:00

A somewhat dated documentary on the Andes. Brief and inaccurate information on Peru, and some very wonderful theme music.

Trying to raise local

2008-03-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

Interesting article by a Minnesota farmer about his dilemma with the FSA and trying to meet demand for local produce. It turns out that because of the way subsidies are regulated he owes his landlords nearly 9K for growing watermelon and tomato instead of corn...

Naturally Raised

2008-02-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

The USDA is considering a new label for meat: Naturally Raised. Sounds nice, but all it means is that the meat was raised without hormones or antibiotics: not exactly the grassy green pastures kind of a thing, plus it overlaps with the 'organic' label. The Ethicurean has more about this. "USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service had previously proposed the development of "no antibiotics used" and "no supplemental hormones used" labels, both of which would provide clear and reliable signals to consumers."

I just filled in the USDA's comment form, which was very quick, and my comment is pasted below if you'd rather have something semi-personal than the talking points provided by The Ethicurean. The USDA is accepting comments from the public until March 3.

Comment: The definition of 'raised naturally' seems meaningless and appears to overlap with the definition of 'organic'. I'm not sure why you would want to confuse consumers. It seems to me that a 'raised hormone and antibiotic free' label would be more to the point.

Farm Bill: The Senate

2007-12-10T22:53:00.001-08:00

What a lot of hoopla! If you search farm bill in google today you'll wind up scrolling through a lot of seemingly disparate headlines, from "Deal reached," to "Maybe we'll see something by March." It appears that the Farm Bill might really make it through the Senate this time, since both Dems and Republicans have agreed to only tack 20 amendments each onto the Bill. That still seems like a lot to me, but they've pared it down from hundreds so they're on the right track. There are two amendments to watch for: the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment would eliminate crop subsidies entirely and replace them with free insurance for all farmers. The Dorgan-Grassley amendment would limit payments to $250,000 per farm but keep the subsidy structure intact.

I think the important thing is to just read the news so you know what's happening with the future of agriculture here in the U.S. I think we are due for change, but it's more a question of timing... If you want to get more involved, talk to your senators and keep your eye on Organic Farming Research Foundation to find out when they'll vote. Or there's always Google News!

Los Consejos de un Padre: Round 2

2007-12-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

Annabel

¿Sus dientes, sus colmillos, son poderosos?
Your teeth, your fangs/tusks, are they powerful?

Cameron

Son despreciables y ridículos: valen menos que los de un ratoncillo.
They're despicable! ridiculous! worth less than those of a little mouse!

Schulte

¿Sus uñas, son tan potentes como mis zarpas?
His nails, are they powerful like my claws?

Meara

Son mezquinas y a veces las lleva sucias; no por las zarpas no conseguiría vencerte.

Andrea

¿Tendrá melenas como éstas, que nosotros sacudimos orgullosos?
Does he have a mane like you, that shakes our pride?

Spanish Tales for Beginners: Los Consejos de un Padre

2007-09-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the first chapter of a translation we are doing as a group (a kind of exquisite corpse) where we translate a story line by line. We are of varied skills at our Spanish, but it makes no matter. The point (for me, anyway) is to use and think and learn about Spanish a little bit every day. Join us if you would like.

Dear folks,
I was thinking it might be good to try using a good old-fashioned spanish dictionary (not the online kind). The process of looking up the word will help cement it in your brain, and also you will end up shopping through and reading other words. If you have grammatical questions feel free to ask! I can probably answer or at least find someone better to tell us.

This is all from a book that was first copyrighted in 1909. This copy is from 1946. Arwen found it at Pak 'n Save in Vermont.

Andrea
El león, el rey de las selvas, agonizaba en el hucco de su caverna...
Lion, King of the Jungle, lay dying in a hollow of his cave...*

Annabel
A su lado estaba su hijo, el nuevo león, el rey futuro de todos los animales.
To his side was his son, the new lion, the future king of all the animals.

Arwen
El monarca moribundo le daba penosamente el último consejo, el más importante.

Catherine
—Huye del hombre—le decía:—huye siempre; no pretendas luchar con él.
Flee from man—he said:—always flee; do not seek a fight with him.*

Hannah
Eres señor absoluto de los démas animales, no los temas; domínalos, castígalos, devóralos si tienes hambre.
You are an absolute master of other animals, do not be afraid of them; dominate them, punish them, devour them if you are hungry.

Schulte
Con todos puedes luchar, a todos puedes vencer; pero no pretendas luchar con el hombre: te daría muerte y sin piedad, porque es cruel, más cruel que nosotros.
You can fight them all, and beat them all, but don't fight with Man: he will give you death and without pity, because he is cruel, the most cruel of all.

Meara
—¿Tan fuerte es el hombre?— preguntó el hijo.
How bouncing/strong is this man? asked the son.*

*Yoni
—No es fuerte, no —replicó el padre. —Y continuó diciendo: —De un latigazo de tu cola le podrías lanzar por los aires como al más miserable animalejo.
No-replied the father- it is not strong and continued speaking of a rotten lashing from a line of miserable animals hurled into the air.

*Andrea: El hucco is an old word, no longer commonly used. It shows up in a few obscure online texts from the Gutenberg Project, and it's translated as hollow, cavernous; subst. m., hollow, hole, niche, cavity, grave.

*Catherine is on the Pilgrimage to Compostela in Spain and so I'm translating her line for her now. She'll rejoin when she can.

*Meara: I used an on-line dictionary, word by word, and couldn't resist the fact that fuerte was defined as bouncing Or strong.

*Yoni: uhh-this could be the story but I think there are some errors. I couldn't find diciendo and animalejo in the dictionary for some reason. A little dictionary, a little improvisation, a little fantasia.

*Hannah: It's tough doing it word for word. Sorry it took so long I just didn't want to use the computer.

Farm Bill

2007-07-31T01:22:00.001-07:00

vermont_girl.jpg
Originally uploaded by andrea dunlap

A farm bill has just been passed in the House, and another one will be up for debate in the Senate in the fall. Considering all the fuss people like Michael Pollan were making about this bill for months prior I'm surprised I didn't hear more about this as it happened. I didn't sign any petitions or get any requests to call my senator... It seems to me from the reading I've done that the Farm Bill (which only comes up once every five years) is just too crowded with measures and subsidies and rules to ever get anywhere new or change in any way. Subsidies, research, conservation, marketing, food stamps, food aid... all of these are covered by the bill. It is expected that more opposition will build by the time August break is over for the Senate. There's still time to do some grassroots lobbying.

According to the New York Times this is hailed as a victory for Nancy Pelosi, but when I look it over, I'm not so sure... It looks more like she's trying to protect Democratic interests for the coming election. Maybe that's more important than a reformed farm bill, or maybe some of us will be so annoyed we'll vote for the libertarian party...

You can see something of what the liberals think of the House Farm Bill in the San Francisco Chronicle's analysis (the bottom of the article has a good summary of itself).

I just joined this action alert service that's provided by the Organic Farming Research Foundation so that I can keep up a little better with what's going to happen next in the Senate. I think it might get a little more exciting around September...

Andean Culture is Older than they thought

2007-06-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

One of the things that first excited me and inspired me to start the seedling project was the idea that history, especially the history of South America, was constantly changing in response to new discoveries about something as hard to preserve as seeds and dirt. According to an article published in Science magazine and quoted in the New York Times, squash was cultivated in the northern Andes 10,000 years ago, which makes South American agriculture nearly as old as that of the Middle East. These kinds of discoveries are slowly changing the way scholars think about the chronology of the civilization of the New World.

From the New York Times:

The researchers concluded that these beginnings in plant domestication “served as catalysts for rapid social changes that eventually contributed to the development of intensified agriculture, institutionalized political power and towns in both the Andean highlands and on the coast between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago.”

The evidence at Ñanchoc, Dr. Dillehay’s team wrote, indicated that “agriculture played a more important and earlier role in the development of Andean civilization than previously understood."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/science/29squash.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

New Photos Coming Soon

2007-06-21T02:44:00.000-07:00

I've just gotten word that the photos I took with my film camera (the little T5) are being processed. I think that the photos I took with the film camera will be the best, though I am sure they will have whittled themselves down just because the film is old and might not yield the best colors. I also continue working with the old footage, but that means working at the office (where I can use the good facilities) and where I already spend five days a week, so needless to say, it's going slowly.

walking in the footsteps of giants

2006-11-10T23:12:00.000-08:00

This New York Times article has beautiful ecology notebooks from 1930s California in its Multimedia section. Ecologists at UC Berkeley are retracing the steps of the first director of the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Joseph Grinnell, who knew that one day, one hundred years from then, we would not have the same California. He knew that we would want to know what has changed, so starting in 1904 he and his team took over 2,000 photographs from all over California, and some 13,000 pages of notes.

His work has begun to move ecology from a descriptive science to a predictive one, and it's not a second too early. According to David Tilman, the McKnight presidential chair in ecology at the University of Minnesota, “The world faces immense environmental challenges that we will only resolve if we can forecast how ecosystems respond to alternative practices and policies.” New data and old will be celebrated when the UC Berkeley has its centennial celebration.

Grinnell's vision for the collection is posted on a plaque outside the library. “I wish to emphasize what I believe will ultimately prove to be the greatest purpose of our museum,” he wrote in 1910, “and this is that the student of the future will have access to the original record of faunal conditions in California and the West, wherever we now work.”

Talk about a visionary.

Amazon grows more during the dry season

2006-11-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

The green color in this image of South America shows vegetation that is growing during during the dry season. Reddish areas "brown down" in the dry season. The black line marks the boundary of the Amazon rainforest -- red areas within the boundary indicate areas where the primary forest has been disturbed. Image courtesy of the Terrestrial Biophysics and Remote Sensing Lab, The University of Arizona.

The Amazon rainforest has been photographed from satellites, the 'greenness' been made into an algorithm, and they've found that old-growth rainforests grow more during the dry season than the wet. It is surmised that older trees have deep roots that can still reach water even during dry seasons when the sky is clear more often and thus more photosynthesis can take place.

This information is a clue in the puzzle about the global cycle of carbon, and has implications for fire regimes in the Amazon, where during El Niño years even tropical forests succumb to fire. This also provides valuable perspective on the ecological cycle of the forests and why old-growth forests are more for sustainable and promote biodiversity.

More at: Monga Bay

UN finds that organic farming might alleviate rural poverty

2006-10-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Organic farming points way to reducing rural poverty, UN says January 25 2005 UN article

Grasshoppers: A Notebook by Peter Campion...

2006-09-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

A book of poetry I read tonight contained the following poem, which struck me as interesting because of something that happened earlier while driving in the darkness to come to a friend's house. After I filled the gas tank and as I drove to the highway along roads my father bicycled as a child I saw an amber sliver of the moon falling into a black horizon from an indigo sky. On the highway I was cut off by a large truck that had just pulled into the freeway, and I had to slow down considerably. I was annoyed and staring at the truck and the cars whizzing by on my left and suddenly an enormous bird flew up and over the bridge and nearly crashed into the truck that was just in front of me, and then he flew away. He must have been a large owl. Probably a great horned owl. I've seen a couple. They are beautiful birds. I've only seen their eyes in photos because usually I see them at night, in a tree or sitting on top of a telephone pole, hunting. All I see is their silhouette, and they have very charming ear tufts that stick up on top of their head. They have a lovely deep Whoo.

It disturbed me, this owl sighting, because I do not like to think of owls crashing into trucks on the highway. And I thought of a girl I had seen that afternoon who I'd known in high school (we ran into each other at the stationary store) and how once when Arwen and I were riding with her she ran over a skunk on the highway. It was horrible. One or two of us screamed. It could have been me who screamed, I couldn't tell. I hate to see poor little things whose lives have been so altered by human existence. I once stopped to let a baby fawn with wobbly legs (newborn) cross the road after his mum. It was a rainy day and I was shaken just thinking of how close I came to hitting that baby thing. So tiny. I cried all the way to school that morning.

And then I read this (my eyes just glanced over the page).

There was dying here tonight, after
dusk, by the road: an owl,
eyes fixed and flared, breast
so winter-white he seemed to shine

a searchlight on himself, helicoptered
near a wire fence, then suddenly
banked, plunged, and vanished
into the swallowing dark with his prey.

From The Hearth by C.K. Williams

Earth & Environmental Science Journalism Dual Master's

2006-09-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

As I'm sitting here in the backyard of my mother's house and thinking, "What is the next step?" I sometimes consider going back to school to learn how to deal with all of the things I learned in Peru. Here is a program at Columbia. The Earth & Environmental Science Journalism Dual Master's Degree Program sounds like something close to what I could really use right about now. I'm overwhelmed by the task I've set myself—getting to know and then portraying people, farming techniques, and the issues facing them. I've never tried to do anything like this before, at least not on such a large scale and definitely not without some guidance (where are my teachers?).

Another program that sounds pretty awesome and on-target is the UC Berkeley Journalism school's program on Science and Environmental Reporting. I have good intentions and I really do believe that farming in the Incan way has potential to show us something about farming in the US, but what evidence do I have? I am but a humble photographer who is trying to figure out some way that photographs can do more than just observe. I need an agronomist, and an ecologist, and someone who knows about public policy.

Then again, there's the problem of how to organize what we already have into something powerful and compelling, and worth all the time and money that's been invested thus far.

What I feel right now is that I can (and have) read the studies and now I am trying to make some sort of cohesive idea about it myself, but I want someone to check it when I'm done to make sure I understood everything correctly. And that doesn't happen when you're not in school, except when the critics get ahold of you and tear you up. Eeee. That's how I feel. Squeamish.

Windwalker

2006-09-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is what I'll be wearing as the sun changes its course. I've liked Uggs too, but for now I really appreciate the handmade quality of these puppies—Windwalkers. In fact, one of these coming days I really want to drive out and see her at work, and see if she can fix mine up a little—they've worn through just a bit at the back because they're a tiny bit big. When you order yours (as I'm sure you'll do) then just make sure you send in a trace of your foot, so you're sure to get the right size, no guessing. This is what keeps me warm and cosy and feeling like I'm still wearing flip flops.

Hungry Planet

2006-09-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hungry Planet photographer Peter Menzel photographs families from around the world with a week's worth of groceries (link to photos in German magazine article) (link to NPR interview with Menzel and D'Alusio). Published by Ten Speed Press in Sept 2005.

Photographed in the same style as the Material World project (where families were photographed with all of their possesions in front of their home), the diets are sometimes astonishing, sometimes inspiring (I must eat more veggies!), and sometimes embarrassing (try Bhutan vs. Brooklyn). How much food do we need? And what are we eating?

Here's a blurb from their site (note foreword and essays by some of my favorite authors):
To assemble this remarkable comparison, Menzel and D'Aluisio traveled to twenty-four countries and visited thirty families from Bhutan and Bosnia to Mexico and Mongolia. Accompanied by an insightful foreword by Marion Nestle, and provocative essays from Alfred W. Crosby, Francine R. Kaufman, Corby Kummer, Charles C. Mann, Michael Pollan, and Carl Safina, the result of this journey is a 30-course documentary feast: captivating, infuriating, and altogether fascinating.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commision

2006-09-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

The Truth and Reconciliation Commision was put into place to resolve the discrepancies between what the government, the army, and the terrorists did, what the newspapers reported, and what people experienced in the years of Fujimori and Sendero Luminoso. An extremely important organization whose existence made it possible for the citizens of Peru to reconstruct exactly what they experienced, so that they could leave the past behind and put their energy into rebuilding their democracy.

State of Fear

2006-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

State of Fear is a documentary film focusing on Peru during the years of Sendero Luminoso and the reign of Fujimori. A good place to start if you don't know much about the terrorism of The Shining Path and the role the government played in those years. There are also interesting correlations drawn in the film between the way former president Fujimori stretched the limits of democracy through fearmongering to retain power, and the current War on Terrorism in the U.S. We could stand to learn something here... Democracy is a fragile thing.

Ancient canals discovered in Peru

2006-09-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

Evidence of ancient canals suggest that civilization began much earlier in South American than was previously thought. Here is a New York Times article about ancient irrigation canals discovered in Peru January 3, 2006 Science section

Organic farming and the UN

2006-09-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Organic farming points way to reducing rural poverty, UN says January 25 2005 UN article.
This article was something that really struck me as I researched the Peru project—organic farming could have significant impact on rural communities worldwide, helping the economy and preserving the environment.

Happy spring from the Seedling Project (May 2006)

2006-08-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

Hannah and I are back from our stint in Peru for a few months to look for funds. We will be in the U.S. until sometime in the beginning of December, when we plan to head back to the wilds and hopefully see some of you there for a visit in the next year (our publicity-person-to-be, Amy, came and loved it... she wants to go back).

The latest on the movie plot line is that we are going to be filming ourselves as we try to do what we've learned from the Peruvians. We are getting a chakra (plot of land) and we are going to plant beans (these lovely big Lima beans) and peas (delicious when fresh) and probably corn and potatoes (both usually eaten with cheese). Getting home we have been disappointed with the potato selection available in the stores, not to mention the corn (it was just harvest season when we left). Not to worry, though, we are really excited to be home and there are lots more FRUITS in the grocery store, and there's almond butter and millions of kinds of bread. And here in the US there is hot water in the faucets --I'd forgotten all about that. It's cushy here!

We are going to be giving some talks in our respective high schools at some point, which will be good practice for the NPR interviews we want to do later in the project... Any information regarding those talks will be forthcoming. At present Hannah and I can be found in NY, editing when we're not working our day jobs (for now Hannah has the only day job--she's the token breadwinner).

While Hannah's working I'm going to write some articles to start our series of instructions for everyday peruvian mountain living on the Instructables.com website, which we might do in conjunction with Make Magazine. This is meant to be the start of the project in which we teach a class of about 15 students to make a magazine with step-by-step instructions on how to do things that they do every day, like make cheese or plow with bulls or irrigate corn using the canals--things that are second nature to the older folks but that the kids don't care to learn all that much. This way we'll record knowledge that might otherwise be lost and teach people how to communicate with the developed world at the same time. For that project we're looking for digital cameras (old ones are fine) and maybe a used computer or two (preferably macintosh). If you or someone you know has recently upgraded, please consider donating your old model to our project.

Big news for newsletter readers: we now have proper newsletter software set up (thanks to Hannah's friend Dan) and you can subscribe and unsubscribe automatically. It's very easy.

That's about it for the moment. Enjoy the photographs, and as always feel free to pass along this info to anyone you think might be interested.

Andrea

The Seedling Project in March (2006)

2006-08-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello from Cusco,

The Seedling Project is going like gangbusters at present. We wanted everyone to know that we've updated the website (take a look at http://www.seedlingproject.org ) with funny new features like recipes, a dictionary of Peruvian slang, and maps and such. We've also added a new staff member. We always wanted the website to be bilingual and lo and behold Joshua Blanchard, a Spanish-British citizen of the world, showed up on Cusichaca's doorstep to volunteer this last month. He ended up signing on with us instead, and will be busily translating the whole new website in the next few months.

In the past month we've also seen a lot more having to do with chemicals in the countryside. Andamarca has a few people using chemicals on their potatoes, which we didn't know was happening. According to the agronomists at Cusichaca, the chemical (Tamaron) has been banned in the US since 1997, is about as potent as DDT, is carcinogenic, and has killed off all the toads (the very creature that kills the worms the chemical is trying to combat). This of course just makes us feel like what we're doing is vital, since organic methods are extremely effective when used properly. What we're doing will help promote organic farming here in the mountains as well as enter the international discourse on sustainable agriculture. We also found a really great poster selling chemicals (see photo).

We are looking for funds if anyone hears of any likely grants or programs that they think we ought to know about. Our information is also up on the DER website (Documentary Educational Resources) so online tax-deductible donations are now possible. http://www.der.org/ When we get back in mid-April we'll start editing what we've gotten so far and plan to have a fundraiser (likely in May).

In other fun news, Hannah and I have borrowed a chacra (plot of land) of our own from our friend Pelayo. We've got about four andenes that we'll be planting with some late-season crop to see if we can use the organic methods we've learned about. I think we'll be borrowing bulls from Pelayo and should be plowing in a few days (wish us luck). We're not sure but think it might be a sort of funny/interesting bit of the film (though I am reluctant to see myself in front of the camera).

We've gotten a lot of interviews this month, including an interview of our friend Prisco Iruri's dad, who is a 72-year old alpaquero (alpaca rancher). He laughed at me when I admitted that I didn't know how to make cheese. "It's easy! You just add casein to milk! It's best when the casein is from an alpaca! Delicious." Still doesn't explain how you make casein...

We also interviewed a man named German Marchena and his son Raul, who live in the most lovely house high in the mountains above Pampachiri. When we asked them if they considered themselves poor, they said, "No, not at all. We have everything we need, we have vegetables and fresh air and the ability to make our lives here. People in Lima are surrounded by concrete. If they have no job, they cannot eat, they have no place to live."

Oh, also we have a logo now. It's in the shape of a plot of land being used for systema laymi in the mountains (we just traced the plot of land from a photo). Check out http://www.seedlingproject.org/logo.htm for more on that.

As always, feel free to forward this along to anyone you think might be interested, or tell people to sign up for the newsletter by emailing news@seedlingproject.org . Muchisimas gracias.

That's the latest from all of us. Hope all of you are doing well and looking forward to spring.
Andrea, Hannah and Jon (and now Joshua)

PS
Let me know if you'd rather be off the list. Happy to oblige.