Edible City

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.