Michael Pollan Cements His Status As My Freaking Hero

I like Michael Pollan for many reasons, the obvious being that he is THE leading voice in the local, organic food movement. His books have singlehandedly brought the food policy discussion into settings where it was never before conceivable, ranging from cocktail parties to office water coolers. If it were not for Pollan, the current food movement would look absolutely nothing it does today.

Another obvious reason why I admire Pollan is that I happen to like his particular food philosophy, which he sums up in seven simple words: "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Who can argue with that? Even I, a known connoisseur of bacon in its myriad forms, and a person who consumes quantities of food at the occasional Dim Sum Sunday that no sane observer could call "not too much," can find little wrong with Pollans statement.

Which brings me to the less obvious reason why I like Michael Pollan -- Michael Pollan is Mellow. Mellow with a capital "M." Here is a guy who has devoted his entire life to the study of food policy, yet who sums up that life's work in "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Seriously. Can you imagine PETA getting a crowd rowdy with a reasonable statement like that? Now way -- they have "Meat is Murder" and "Save the Sea Kittens" (I am not even joking about that last one). Or on the other end of the spectrum -- try getting farmers and middle Americans angry over Pollan's slogan. Not gonna work. Instead, we hear hyperbole about rising food prices, our planets inability to feed the people who live on it, and how the government is trying to control us. This is the real reason why Michael Pollan is my hero. He is so mellow in his approach and policies (in addition to just plain being right, which I admit helps) that no one can successfully argue with him.

Take for example Pollan's recent NPR debate with Blake Hurst, a blogger who wrote The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals (you can listen to the interview here). The debate begins with Pollan, in his mellow, even-keeled voice, outlining his basic position. Great. Cue Hurst.

The first thing we hear from him (in a pronounced twang) is a hokey, overpracticed statement about how it is not true when Pollan says the agricultural industry hides behind farmers. Really, Hurst continues, the only person who helped him write his essay was his wife, (she needed to "help him sound out the big words" since he is no intellectual). He talked about how he wasn't really growing a mono culture since he switches between soybeans and corn every year. He talked about how it was unfair of Pollan to ask him and other farmers to go back to the farming methods their grandparents had used in the 1930's. In other words, he used some well known, cheap debating techniques to try and score points with NPR's listeners, and he did it all in that twang and using these rehearsed colloquialisms that made me want to punch him in the face. In then process however, he left himself open to about 1000 different logical attacks from Pollan, and I couldn't wait for Pollan to seize on one and jump down his throat.

But he didn't. Pollan remained calm as an organic cucumber. He just kept making his points in that same mellow tone of voice. And I eventually realized why. As the debate went on, Hurst became more and more flustered, and less able to respond to anything Pollan said. The debate wasn't going the way Hurst had planned it at all. His whole shtick was to play the part of the small farmer being yelled at by some agri-intellectual who didn't know what he was talking about. But Pollan didn't take the bait. He refused to get ruffled, no matter how little sense Hurst made. And the more Hurst realized that Pollan wasn't going to let him play his part, the less sense he started making. By the time the debate ended, all Hurst's little colloquialisms were gone, and even the twang had softened. There could be no doubt who finished on top.

Please listen to the full interview to see the master at work. We could all stand to take a lesson in mellowness from this man, not the least of which is to eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Alternative Energy Finds a New Ally... The US Military?

Yes, it's true. Alternative energy has found a very unlikely ally in the US military. While I never thought about it this way before, it actually makes perfect sense. A military needs an enormous amount of fuel to sustain itself, and getting that fuel to remote places where our troops need it is not only costly and inefficient, but extremely dangerous. After all, few things provide better targets than giant tankers filled with highly flammable liquid.

It turns out that the military has been aware of this problem for some time, but it took two big events to really underscore just how serious the problem was. The first was Hurricane Katrina, which caused a small increase in the price of a barrel of oil, but made a HUGE difference in the Department of Defense's operating budget. The second was a 2006 “Priority 1” request for emergency battlefield supplies from Marine Corps Major General Richard Zilmer. He requested “a self-sustainable energy solution,” including “solar panels and wind turbines,” to help prevent the men under his command from “[remaining] unnecessarily exposed” and “continue[ing] to accrue preventable ... serious and grave casualties.”

Since then, the military has started some serious alternative energy R&D, some of which might even have civilian applications (read: really awesome cars and clothes). While the total budget is still just a tiny fraction of the Pentagons overall spending (they expect to spend $1 billion this year), that kind of money is nothing to sneeze at.

I can't believe I am saying this but... rock on DOD?

For more information, check out this solid article on Grist.

The Tour de Fat, or Why I Love New Belgium

The Tour de Fat is one of the reasons why the New Belgium Brewing Company is on my top five list of great companies. Some of the other reasons may be found here.

Basically, the New Belgium Brewing Company was created after the founder was inspired (divinely perhaps?) while on a bike trek through Belgium visiting some of the best breweries in the world. Upon returning to the US, he made it his mission to recreate the best of the Belgian beers right here in America. He named his new brewery New Belgium, and named its first official beer after the mountain bike with "fat tires" he had used to ride across the country of his inspiration.

Now that the name of both the brewery and its flagship beer are known from coast to coast, conventional wisdom states that the company should have sold out its original intentions and realized its full potential as a money making enterprise. Not so. Fortunately for everyone involved, while the company is making more money than a 32 year old dude on a bike trek across Belgium ever could have imagined, it is still 100% true to its roots. And that means bikes.

For instance, some of the great perks of being a New Belgium employee (in addition to all the fat tire you can drink) include a free geeked out cruiser bike after you've worked there for one full year, and a parking lot with almost as many spots for bikes as there are for cars. But the coolest thing us non-employees get to enjoy (in addition to all the paid for yet delicious beer we can drink) is the Tour de Fat.

The Tour de Fat is essentially a traveling carnival dedicated to bikes. It begins with a community ride around an area, similar to Critical Mass except that it is actually licensed by the city, and then ends at a fairground complete with a corral filled with awesome art bikes for everyone to enjoy and a giant stage where bands play, contests are held, and a mock New Orleans style funeral is held for car culture.

Now, this is all free. The only thing that isn't is the beer. And when it comes to beer sales, in each major city the tour goes to, it partners with a local bike friendly non-profit (in my fine city that is the SFBC) and gives a portion of all profits to that organization.

The moral of this story? New Belgium is awesome, and everyone reading this should go to a Tour de Fat event if one is taking place near them. To all my SF brothers and sisters, that event is tomorrow, Saturday the 25th of September at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.

See ya there.

Images provided by New Belgium Brewing Co. and The Green Dude

You got that WHERE?

Chances are you've heard of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) before. In case you haven't, it is where you buy "shares" in a farm in return for a getting a portion of what that farm grows. Sometimes this is all done upfront, which gets money to farmers when they need it most -- before the growing season starts. Sometimes it is done on a weekly or monthly basis. Sometimes you go to the farm to pick your share up, and sometimes it is delivered to your door. There are many versions of this model, but what they all have in common is that they give farmers some reasonable idea of how much of their crop they will be able to sell, and let customers know they will be getting local, fresh produce all year round (or at least for as long as they bought shares for).

Sounds pretty awesome right? Well it is (I personally get a CSA from Planet Organics every week) but there is a new version making headway in the SF Area which really piqued my interest. Let me introduce the CSF, or Community Supported Foraging.

Basically, Community Supported Foraging combines the principles of a CSA with the reality of urban foraging. So instead of getting organic corn and fresh pink lady apples in your basket, you may find your box filled with mushrooms collected in a local forest along with some nettles or sea beans. When it comes to fruit, the foraging takes place in local backyards whose owners have agreed to let the foragers in to pick their crop in return for getting to keep a portion of it. This portion then gets passed along to everyone who bought into the CSF. It doesn't get more local than that.

And no, foraging is not the same thing as freeganism.

Image provided by ScottDMoose

Fish to Receive Protection at Some Undetermined Future Date

Now that I got you to click through to the whole article, let me take a step back; not in substance (the title is technically true) but in tone. In spite of the fact that the decision I am referring to really won't do anything what-so-ever for our current bankrupt fisheries, it is still a very important step. That decision is the announcement yesterday by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to prohibit the expansion of commercial fishing in federal Arctic waters until researchers gather sufficient information on fish and the Arctic marine environment to prevent adverse impacts of commercial harvesting activity on the ecosystem.

That may sound a bit wonky, so let me break it down. Basically, we all know that the ice caps are slowly melting. We know that there is currently a race in which all nations with land bordering the arctic are staking claims to the various natural resources believed to be locked up underneath all that ice. We also know that there is currently a boatload (read: many many boatloads, pun intended) of money being made by large fishing companies around the world, and that these same fishing practices are driving our fish populations and ocean ecosystems to near collapse. What you (dear reader) may not know is that when it comes to sustainable fishery management, the US is actually (for once!) a real thought leader, and that the announcement above is a reflection of that. Essentially, the US just announced that it will absolutely prohibit any commercial fishing in US arctic waters until AFTER the science dictates the most sustainable way to go about it.

The plan approved will prohibit commercial fishing in a huge swath of American waters in the Arctic that have never been fished and that nobody currently wants to fish (hence the snark in my title). HOWEVER, in reality this is a very smart move because the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change will someday make the area more accessible and more commercially more attractive, not just to oil interests, but to fishing interests as well.

The plan was developed by environmentalists and the Marine Conservation Alliance, the same group that turned Alaska from a sustainable fishing nightmare in the and 50's into the model of sustainability it is today. (As I said before, fishery management is one of the few environmental areas where the US is really a thought leader: Alaska is currently recognized as one of the worlds leading sustainable fisheries and even has a theory of fishery management named after it. More on this in another post).

In spite of this announcement, the reality is that no one knows where the borders may eventually be drawn in the arctic so there is a good chance that at least some, if not all, of the area the US wishes to protect may not be within our jurisdiction. However, this announcement is symbolic in addition to practical -- the US has signaled (finally!) that it is willing to engage unilaterally in a sustainability agreement - something it has avoided doing elsewhere, most notably on climate change itself. Hopefully, this announcement will send a signal to the other Arctic nations -- including Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark-- that while there may be an economic opportunity for fishing newly uncovered areas of ocean, it must be done in a sustainable way.

Top image provided by Alan Vernon

Review of Wild Fermentation

I have been a fan of fermentation every since tasting my first beer at what was certainly an inappropriate age. What really got me going however, was the time I spent in Belgium after graduating high school. The beers I experienced there (yes, I said experienced) were like nothing I ever tasted before -- truly wholesome brews crafted over long periods of time and filled with healthful, beneficial microbes (in addition to plain old deliciousness). I knew then that I would forever be a fan of the fermented beverage. What I didn't know is just how far down the rabbit hole this newfound love of fermentation would take me.

Later on in that same trip, I experienced real German sauerkraut. Growing up, I had always been a fan of sauerkraut (Rubens are without question my favorite sandwich). What I was unaware of however was that the sauerkraut in these sandwiches was dead -- all the healthful organisms in it were killed by pasteurization before this corporate product was shipped all over the country. Not in Germany. I still remember sitting down at my first pub there and ordering a bratwurst with sauerkraut (sauerkraut which, unbeknownst to me, was actually fermented in the back of the pub). I couldn't believe my taste buds! This sauerkraut was to the sauerkraut I loved at home what a grilled ground sirloin burger is to a happy meal. Unbelievable!

That's it - I was hooked. I still didn't trust myself to mess around with my own ferments, but as soon as I got home I sought out micro brews and home fermented krauts and yogurts wherever I could. I even had a short love affair with a Mr Beer home brew kit while in college (the kind you buy from SkyMall magazine and where you never have to deal with truly raw ingredients). My roommate and I turned out a couple good beers to be sure, but we weren't quite craft ready. So when I graduated and moved to San Francisco, I decided it was finally time. I bought myself a copy of Wild Fermentation and got brewing:

When I first started reading this book, I was amazed at how many times I stopped and just stared off into the distance, imagining all the things I was going to ferment when I was done reading. There is almost not a page of this book that I haven't marked with a post-it or a dog ear. The author provides great insight based on both science and on his own experience, and his excitement is literally contagious. He loves fermented foods, and by the time you finish reading his book, I guarantee you will too.

Since buying this book, I have made my own saurkraut (several different variations), kimchi, and dill pickles. I am working on my first batch of Kombucha right now. The beer is on hold until I can find space in my apartment to set up a simple brew station, but I feel more comfortable going into it than I ever could have without this book.

Wild Fermentions is very informative, with great recipes and very easy to follow step by step instructions. If I had to point to any negatives in the book, it would be a little too much information about the author himself and his communal living situation (not that I mind the author's hippy dippy ways, it's just that the many exploits of his house mates with single, nature-based names are besides the point).

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fermented foods, and even to people who aren't. There is some form of ferment in this book for just about anyone.

Proust!

Image provided by Wild Fermentation

NASCAR Going Green?

I should admit up front that I am no NASCAR or Indy 500 fan, and that I have a limited understanding of the sport and what goes on at these events. What I do know is that race car driving is not only the single most popular spectator "sport" in America, but that it is also not exactly “environmentally friendly.” Enter Leilani Munter. I was listening to NPR a few weeks ago and heard the following interview with Leilani, a professional race car driver. As it turns out, not only is she one of a mere handful of women in this male dominated sport, but she is also an ardent environmentalist committed to doing everything she can to “green up” this carbon intensive activity.

Listen to the NPR interview here

Basically, Leilani has been an environmentalist her whole life. She is a longtime animal lover and vegetarian, and she didn’t even get into race car driving until after receiving a degree in biology (specializing in ecology) from UCSD. When she did finally get behind the wheel of a race car, it didn’t take her long to come to the conclusion that her environmental views were somewhat at odds with her new profession. However, instead of abandoning race car driving altogether, she decided to use her platform as an important figure in the nation’s number one spectator sport to help move it in a new direction. As Leilani says, “It's a hugely popular sport, and… you can't leave behind a hundred million race fans.”

Since she started speaking out, Leilani has definitely run into mixed reactions. “Some people were telling me that they… wanted to see more people talking about our environmental problems on the racing circuit. But then, there were also others that were… very negative and kind of saying I was brainwashed by Al Gore.” Even with the mixed reaction, Leilani is hopeful, saying that “the important thing that I tried to look at is that I was getting them talking about it… to go into a NASCAR forum and see them arguing and talking about global warming and talking about climate change… Those kinds of things weren't necessarily taking place in NASCAR forums before.”

But Leilani's general awesomeness doesn't end there. In addition to bringing awareness of the green movement to racing fans, Leilani is also opening the way for smaller, green businesses to advertise in the racetrack. The way sponsorships usually work (based on my extensive research ie. Google) is that one major company will sponsor a car, meaning that each car becomes a giant billboard for that one company. Leilani’s vision is to buck that trend by breaking her car up into several smaller sponsorships placements that mid-size green companies can afford, and to have the main spot on the race car reserved as a "call to action" message for race fans: “One of the messages I wanted to send was about CFL light bulbs, and I would like to run a race car that has a CFL label on the side of it… And then the next race we'd run something different. It might be a race car that says, no more paper, no more plastic, and then I can talk about the plastic bags and how many of them aren't getting recycled.”

And as if all that wasn't enough, Leilani is also trying to take her green message directly to the fans. Apparently, another aspect of the race car world that I was unaware of is that each driver gets some space at the racetrack to sell their merchandise. Usually, this means action figures, jerseys, hats and bobble head dolls. Not at Leilani’s booth: “I'm going to be selling CFL light bulbs and canvas grocery bags and just giving them tips on things that they can do to go green.”

While I still don’t personally understand what people find entertaining about cars going around a circle for five hours, and while there is absolutely no escaping the fact that car racing will be one of the most carbon intensive sports for some time to come, I can’t help but be inspired by one woman’s efforts to bring her passion to her work in a way that will (hopefully) get all of us a little closer to a sustainable planet.

Read all about Leilani's newest actions at her blog: carbonfreegirl.com

Image provided by Wikipedia