Mangia!: NCCROW'S Italy Summer Institute Blog

Some Final Words

2009-09-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

The NCCROW Summer Institute in Bolsena was a real success for all involved. We received an excellent education in the wide-ranging and fascinating topics the course aimed to cover. The hands-on experience and the opportunity to visit such a wide range of players in the world of food was invaluable, and, I think, unique.

On a personal note, I found the perspective the Institute offered on the world of food security and food aid to be totally fascinating. As an aspirant food writer, gaining some insight into these other aspects of the food "story" was invaluable. I now know the background and some of the intricate considerations and factors that go into the production of the foods I love so dearly. It's knowledge and experience that I suspect will serve me well in my future life and in my future career.

The pleasant times all over Italy and the delicious and interesting foods we sampled provided a fine counterpoint to all that cogitation. The program served as a fine reminder that the pleasant things in life and inclusive, on-point education need not be mutually exclusive. My time in Bolsena will be a happy memory for a long time to come.

NCCROW is hoping to run the Summer Institute in Bolsena next year. If you are interested in participating next year, don't hesitate to contact Charlotte D'Ooge or Sabrina Aguiari. You may also find the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women's website interesting.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as we enjoyed creating it! Check back for continuing edits and whatever new content we may create.

Ciao,

Faine

Summer Institute Course Syllabus

2009-08-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the syllabus for the Summer Institute in Italy.

FOOD, GLOBALIZATION AND GENDER
BOLSENA, ITALY
JUNE 1-JUNE 12, 2009

COURSE INSTRUCTORS:
Nancy Mock (Organizational in New Orleans).
Nathan Morrow (On-site in Italy).

COURSE OVERVIEW:

The purpose of this course is to explore the changing role of food in the age of globalization and gender role transformation, and to analyze modern initiatives to promote healthy eating. The course reviews current controversies in food and nutrition science and the emerging concern relating to food nutrition. The course surveys the role played by politics in defining nutrition standards, the history of gender roles and construction of cultural identities around cooking and food preparation. The course analyzes global economic and political dynamics that continue to transform modern food systems and food habits and considers the role of gender role transformation in this process.

The course will involve field trips to the European Agency for Food Safety, to the Slow Food Academy and to the HQs of the: UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UN World Food Programme, UN International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Morning sessions will provide didactic sessions and case study analyses. In the afternoons students will visit local organic producers and distributors, commercial outlets, gourmet kitchens that offer traditional dishes with locally grown ingredients. Students will have the opportunity during the afternoon sessions to learn organic and permaculture techniques, slow food recipe preparation, cheese making, olive oil making and other food production and preparation techniques.

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Understand how globalization affects food systems locally

Compare and contrast various technological and traditional strategies to achieve sustainable food systems

Discuss the ecofeminism movement and its impact on food systems

Review the history of food in culture and its relationship to gender roles

Explore modern initiatives to strengthen healthy eating and food-culture

Develop practical skills in food production and preparation (optional)

STUDENT EVALUATION:

Course Participation (25%)
Written and oral presentation of course readings (20%)
(1 undergraduate, 2 graduates): first half hour of each class session will be devoted to short presentations.
Group work (25%): Analysis of gender and food initiatives of FAO, WFP and IFAD
In class exam: 3 hours for graduate students, 2 hours for undergraduate (30% for graduate students and 50% for undergraduate students)
Research Paper: Graduate students only.

GUEST LECTURERS:

Karl Marilee Louise, ISIS International (feminist organization), President
Wendy Harcourt, Editor in chief of “Development”
Prof. Claudio Sardoni, University of Rome La Sapienza
Saviana Parodi, PhD in Biology, Permaculture
Andrea Ferrante, President of Italian Association for Biological Agriculture
Jeffrey Marzili, Food and Agriculture Organization
Sean Kennedy, International Fund for Agriculture and Development
Joyce Luma, World Food Program
Gina Pattugalan - Programme Officer, Policy Unit of WFP
Aziz Arya, Economist, FAO
Elisa Visconti, Natural Resources Unit, FAO
Nicola Perullo, Didactical Coordinator of the University for Gastronomic Sciences of Slow Food

READINGS:

The course readings consist of books, journal articles and grey literature. Students are required to read the following books before coming to Italy:

Avakian, Arlene Voski. Haber, Barbara. From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies: Critical Perspectives on Women and Food. University of Massachusetts Press, 2005.

Inness, Sherrie A. ed. Cooking Lessons: The Politics of Gender and Food. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Harper Perennial, 2002.

Shiva, Vandana (ed). Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. South End Press. 2007.

Warren, Karen. Erkal, Nisvan. Ecofeminism. Indiana University Press. 1997.

COURSE OUTLINE:

DAY ONE: 6/1/09

Overview of course and course mechanics, administrative issues
Overview of the the global food system and the global food crisis

Readings:
Friedman, Harriet. "Feeding the Empire: Pathologies of Globalized Agriculture". Grew, Raymond. Food in Global History, 1999. 33 - 57.

von Braun, Joachim. The world food situation : New driving forces and required actions [In Chinese] (Food Policy Report 18) Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 18 pages. 2008.

DAY TWO: 6/2/09

Overview of global nutrition and the role of diet/food
Basics of nutrition
Controversies in nutrition

Readings:
Nestle, Marion. "Politics Versus Science. Opposing the Food Pyramid, 1991 - 1992". in Food Politics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 51 – 64.

Kristensen, Søren Tange. Holm, Lotte. "Modern Meal Patterns: Tensions Between Bodily Needs and the Organization of Time and Space". Food & Foodways: History & Culture of Human Nourishment. Jul-Dec2006. Vol.14, No. 3/4, 151-173.

"The pervasive triad of food security, gender inequity and women's health: Exploratory research from sub-Saharan Africa". in African Health Sciences. December 2005. Vol 5 No 4.

Asfaw, Abay. "Supermarket purchases and the dietary patterns of households in Guatemala". IFPRI Discussion Paper 00696 . Washington. April 2007

Nestle, Marion. "Co-opting Nutrition Professionals". Food Politics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 111 – 135.

DAY THREE: 6/3/09

Ecofeminism and the problem of food
Readings:
Allen, Patricia. Sachs Carolyn. “Women and Food Chains: the Gendered politics of food”, “International Journal of Sociology of Food and Agriculture”. April 2007, Vol. 15(1)

Shiva, Vandana. The Violence of the Green Revolution. Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics. Zed Books, 1991.

Van Esterik, Penny . "Gender and Sustainable Food Systems: A Feminist Critique". Koc, Mustafa. MacRae, Rod. Mougeot, Luc J.A. Welsh, Jennifer ed. For Hunger-Proof Cities Sustainable Urban Food Systems. Canada: IDRD, 1999.

DAY FOUR: 6/4/09

Gender and food insecurity

Readings:

Guha-Khasnobis, Basudeb. Hazarika, Gautam. "Women’s Status and Children’s Food Security in Pakistan". Discussion Paper No. 2006/03. United Nations University WIDER, June 2006.

Gundersen, Craig. Kukuand, Yemisi. Kelly, Thomas. "Differences in Food Insecurity between Girls and Boys. Evidence from Zimbabwe". Research Paper No. 2007/53 . United Nations University WIDER, September 2007.

International Land Coalition. IFAD. FAO. Rural Women’s Access to Land
and Property in Selected Countries. Progress Towards Achieving the Aims of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Rome, June 2004.

Mu, Ren. Zhang, Xiaobo. "Gender Difference in the Long-Term Impact of Famine". IFPRI Discussion Paper 00760 . Washington, March 2008.

Oniang'o, Ruth. Mukudi, Edith . "Gender and Nutrition". World Bank Brief. Washington, January 2002.

DAY FIVE: 6/5/09

History of gender roles and food preparation
Gender role transformation and its impact on eating patterns

Readings:

Beardsworth, Alan. Brynan, Alan. Keil, Teresa. Goode, Jackie. "Women, men and food: The significance of gender for nutritional attitudes and choices". British Food Journal, 2002, Vol. 104, n. 7, 470 – 491.

Haber, Barbara. "Following Food". Avakian, Arlen Voski ed. Through the Kitchen Window: Women Writers Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking, 1997. 65 – 75.

IFPRI. Women: Still the Key to Food and Nutrition Security, 2005.

DAY SIX: 6/8/09

Case Study: Review of European food security through a feminist lens
Introduction to traditional foods, organics and the healthy eating movement

Reading:

Horrigan, Leo; Lawrence, Robert S; and Walker, Polly. "How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture". Environmental Health Perspectives, May 2002. Vol.110.

DAY SEVEN: 6/9/09

Permaculture and organic food production
The Slow Food movement

Petrini, Carlo. Slow Food Nation. Why our food should be clean, good and fair. Rizzoli, 2005.

Avery, Dennis T. The Most Sustainable Farming in History Gives The World Its Finest Food Choices: A Response to The Johns Hopkins University Authors. Hudson: Center For Global Food Issues, 2002.

"Organic Foods Offer a Better Way to Farm and a Better. Way to Eat — So Why Are They Under Siege?". Food Safety Review. Washington, 14 June 2005.

DAY EIGHT: 6/10/09

Visit to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: Review and discuss FAO’s gender strategy

DAY NINE: 6/11/09

Visit to the World Food Program: review and discuss WFP’s gender strategy

Readings:

WFP. Gender Policy (2003-2007) Enhanced Commitments to Women to Ensure Food Security - (2002). Rome: World Food Programme, 2002.

DAY TEN: 6/12/09

Student group presentations
Course synthesis

Donald Link Interview

2009-08-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Donald Link is one of New Orlean's most respected chefs, helming Herbsaint, Cochon, and the new Cochon Butcher. An expert on real-deal Cajun food, old-world cooking techniques, and charcuterie, Link brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to the Big Easy's food scene. Link, a Louisiana native, began his rise to fame in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the 2000 opening of the now-famous Herbsaint in New Orleans Warehouse District, Link's personal and honest style of cooking gained considerable critical acclaim and popular notice.

Link opened the deservedly-beloved Cochon in 2006, bringing authentic Cajun and Southern food in a comfortable atmosphere to the city, including such old-school favorites Louisiana cochon du lait, rabbit and dumplings, spoon bread with okra and tomatoes, and NOLA's absolute best pineapple upside down cake. Most recently, Link has opened Cochon Butcher, a meat market inspired by the traditions and flavors of the Old World. Butcher offers house-made cured meats and sausages, as well as Cajun delicacies like andouille, tasso, and boudin - as well as sandwiches, small plates, and other delectable snacks.

We from the NCCROW Sumemr Institute asked Donald Link a few questions about his cooking techniques and his connections to the foods and cooking techniques of Italy.

How did you learn to produce European-style cured meats? Did you travel to Europe in order to do this?

We have been making our own sausage, tasso, and bacon for years now. About 5 years ago we started experimenting with salamis, guanciale and pancetta in small quantities. Through trial and error and lots of practice we now are making them for our butcher shop in larger quantities by using two cooling/aging rooms.

What, in your opinion, is the Italian influence on Cajun cuisine?

I don’t know how much Italian influence there is in Cajun food. The Sicilian influence is very present in creole food however with the use of tomatoes, garlic and pasta. Cajun food is very rooted in French and German styles.

How have Italian foods and foodways influenced the way you cook? Are there particular techniques or ingredients commonly used in Italy that have influenced your own style?

Italian food has always been a great love of mine. What I think is similar to Cajun food is the simplicity of the dishes. Simple roasts of meats with their natural juices and simple sides. One of the best meals I had in Italy was a veal roast with the pan drippings and a 4 cheese garganelli pasta. At Herbsaint we make all our pasta and gnocchi from scratch and use only our house made meats.

What charcuterie methods or products do you find most interesting from the perspective of a producer, and what are you working on right now at Cochon Butcher?

What I find most interesting about charcuterie is that it allows you to utilize the entire animal. At Butcher we are doing everything from guanciale to sopressata.

Day 11: Last Day at the Convent, Buffalo Mozzarella, Lasagna!

2009-06-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Day 11

We began today with beautiful weather. Nathan decided to give us a lecture on the agencies we would be visiting in Rome - it takes some background info to sort out eh different food-aid organizations that operate in the Eternal City. You can read the lecture here.

We spent the rest of the morning catching up on our work - we needed to finish up our herbarium project (which can be read at this link). The weather had finally become clear and beautiful again, and it was nice to hang out in the garden and enjoy our last day at the Convent.

Enzo prepared a delicious carbonara for our primi with huge amounts of cream, cheese, and lardo. A hell of a lot better then the gloppy fettucini-esque junk we get in the USA. Enzo has mastered the art of the al dente noodle.

The chicken cacciatore was great - think he used the caponata from the night before. It was tender and slightly sweet. Really liked it.

Enzo ended the meal with a dish of strawberries in lemon juice and sugar, complete with a cookie. Enzo's getting all fancy up in here.

We did have one last food adventure before us: a trip to a buffalo mozzarella factory near Bolsena. Some background first. The origin of the water buffalo in Italy is mysterious and uncertain. Some say the buffalo came from Sicily via Normans around the year 1000, the buffalo having been introduced to Sicily by Arab traders. Others maintain they were brought to Italy by the Goths during medieval migrations - and another states the buffalo actually originated in Italy and didn't arise in Asia at all. Being totally under-qualified in the field of bovine migrations, I leave the call on that up to you. In any case, the hairy and oddly adorable water buffalo has been a fixture in Italy since at least the 12th century, finding employment as a powerful draught animal in marshy and difficult areas. The buffalo were also prized for their delicious milk - which is used today for the production of Italy's justly famous buffalo mozzarella.

But how exactly is buffalo mozzarella made, you ask? Allow me to explain. First off, buffalo milk is richer then cow milk, and thus requires less to produce cheese - you need 8 kg of cow milk for 1 kg of cheese, but only 5 kg of buffalo's milk to get the same amount. Buffalo provide bang for the buck.

Fresh buffalo milk is harvested then stored in big containers. The producers we visited use VERY fresh milk - all their animals are right down the hill behind the shop. The milk is then heated, and poured into a liquid separator.

The mozzarella curd on the table. Natural whey is added to the heated milk to begin this process. You have to use it very quickly or it goes gross.

The congealed bits of curd are tossed into a bath, in order to reduce the acidification process. The liquid is removed and hot water is added, creating the stretchy pasta filata texture required in this cheese's production.

The cheese is then shaped into various forms - here, the cheese maker is turning the cheese into a long rope, which he will use to produce a large mozzarella braid.

Here the cheese guys demonstrate how those cute little mozzarella balls are made: a machine pops them out directly into a tub of water. The process is inexplicably completely charming.

Some of the products the factory turns out. Highlights include smoked mozzarella, burrata (runny goodness) and distinctive buffalo milk yogurt. We bought a big bag of made-seconds-before cheese to bring home to Enzo for supper.

A line of buffalo. Say cheese.

After our lesson in the tender art of mozzarella making, it was time to visit the buffalo themselves. The buffalo at this producer lived right down the hill, in a yard with a nice view of the Umbrian countryside below. I am no judge of buffalo well-being but they seemed pretty happy to me - they regarded us all curiously as we walked to their pen, where they were enjoying an evening meal of hay. The cheese producers have employed a Punjabi man to care for the animals - who better to maintain a buffalo herd then someone from India?

They're adorable in a hairy sort of way.

Kourtney makes a new best friend.

I imagine he is cursing the paparazzi, but who really knows the secret thoughts of a water buffalo?

In flagrant disobedience of Nathan's "Don't blog about some dog you liked" rule....here is a dog I liked at the cheese factory.

We left the cheese producer with some excellent snacks for the evening and new insight into the shaggy beasties who produced it. As the weather was great, Amanda and I decided to get off in town for some sight-seeing and gelato eating...

St Christina's Church in Bolsena. A big ol' miracle occured here in 1263, when a German priest, one Peter of Prague, took a break in Bolsena on his way to Rome. Peter found it rather hard to believe that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host - but as he celebrated the Holy Mass above the church's tomb of Saint Christina, he was astonished to find blood seeping from the host and running over his hands and the linen cloth below them. Peter, big on proof, immediately headed to nearby Orvieto, where then Pope Urban IV was living. The Pope, after conducting an investigation, decided Peter's story was truth: he commanded that the Host and the bloody linens be placed in the Orvieto cathedral, where it remains today. Pilgrims still go to Bolsena's church to recognize this long ago miracle - and in 1964, the 700th anniversary of the event, Pope Paul VI himself recognized Mass at the altar that keeps the holy Corporal. Not bad for a small town.

The church itself is as beautiful inside as it outside, comprising an interesting mixture of architectural styles: the chapel where the miracle occurred is Baroque styled, and was done over in 1693. The attractive outside facade, Florentine in style, was commissioned in 1492 by one Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici. The church is an essential sight if you're ever in Bolsena.

Time for one last visit to our favorite gelato store. Here's Amanda posing outside.

The late afternoon streets of Bolsena. These cafes will be packed around 7:00ish when people filter in for their pre-dinner espresso, snack, and gossip session.

Amanda pointed out these excellent tiles to me, implanted in the walls of Bolsena's back-allies and streets. There's quite a few more of these tiles then then the ones I've photographed here. Presumably they represent different factions and aspects of Bolsena's history - I should probably find out more, huh?

Then it was time for our last dinner at the convent. Enzo decided he'd do it up big, preparing his Lasagna Ala Enzo. Here everyone waits with bated breath (and drinks wine). Enzo popped open some of the good stuff in our honor.

Enzo prepared an antipasti plate with the mozzarella from the factory. Just as delicious as it looked. We were, however, just about prosciuttoed by this juncture - although the local melons remain completely divine.

Enzo's ginormous signature lasagna. It's actually more of a pasta bake: rotini noodles layered with a white bechamel sauce and a meaty ragu, as well as plenty of tomato. Totally rich and totally good.

A slice of the good stuff.

Enzo even had a cake made for us!

Yellow cake with cream frosting and some sort of almondy filling - delicious.

We lingered for a while, sipping wine, but the weather was getting chilly and we had to wake up early to head to Rome. We certainly had had a fitting sendoff.

Kitchenaid- For the way it's made!

2009-06-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Originally created in 1908 by Herbert Johnson for industrial baking kitchens, the kitchen aid was a feat of modern steel technology. With a few single attachments, the hard hand labor of mass production baking was solved. While it began as an 80 quart model, smaller versions were introduced until 1919 for commercial bakers. The model went on the market and introduced a specialized type of mixing, where the bowl spun one way, and the whisk the other.

The H5 home version was introduced in 1919…a miracle for the home cook. The first 5 quart model sold for $189.95, $2000 in today’s money. In 1930, Sunbeam introduced a much smaller and cheaper mixer model using similar technology, which forced Kitchen aid to redesign its product in 1936, which we are familiar with today. The price was reduced to only $55, but still sold well over price of the other competitors models. In 1955, the color range expanded as consumer demand went up. Today’s line has changed little in form or function and includes some of the original colors.

The mixer and parallel kitchen technologies really imposed the idea that women could make their men happy by purchasing products that were multi function, allowing the woman to do it all. The technology also provided a time saving aspect, which allowed the woman to focus on other aspects of the home. While this appliance was a time saver, other technologies in food had allowed for even greater time saving, such as the boxed cake mix, jell-o, and hamburger helper. The shortage of the food preparation process was happening in the home by Kitchenaid, as the industrialization of the food chain was happening on a larger scale.

Day 10: Lazy Day, Olive Oil Factory!

2009-06-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

Day 10

Today was a mercifully slow day: we needed time to work on our assignments and regroup from our rewarding but hectic visit to Bra and Parma. We woke up pleasantly late and began the morning with an overview of our visits to Slow Food, EFSA, and food producers. Some concerns about EFSA's actual activities in relation to what it says it does were raised, as well as Slow Food's occasional tendency to use gendered terms in relation to food. (It wasn't hard to miss the high incidence of men at Terra Madre in relation to women, at least judging from the documentary).

We also discussed our impending assignment, a gender analysis of a movie or book. We were provided with some tools for analyzing movies for gender. We also identified Key Industrial Locations, such as state, market, community, family and kinship.

We were to look for these elements:

Rules - how things get done, what is done, how it is done, by whom it will be done.

Activities - what is done? Who does what? Who gets what? Who can claim what?

Resources: What is used? Who has what? What is produced?

Power- Who decides? What interests are served?

Results will be posted on the blog as soon as they are graded.

As I had missed a visit to Enzo's olive-oil factory earlier in the week, Enzo decided he would have to take me and Gerarada down for a visit that morning. We jumped into his dog-hair covered car (Oliver!) and headed to the factory. Enzo works there when he's not cooking for us at the convento.

Some of the olive-oil and traditional Italian delicacies on offer. The factory is Slow Food certified and justifiably proud of their products.

Enzo posing with the goods.

A machine used for smushing olives. At least that was what I could figure out. (Attempting to communicate the notion of smushing through broken Italian and English is really, really amusing).

The factories sign. Stop in if you're in the Bolsena region!

I picked up some strawberry jam (good around here) and some of the delightful local honey. No oil, I'm afraid - I don't think it will last another month in my bag and the results will be dire if it does explode all over my clothes. Boo.

For lunch, Enzo made us some penne with cheese and peporonata - really delicious and piquant.

Most of us spent the afternoon hanging out in the poppy-strewn garden and catching up on our assignments - a nice change from the all-prosciutto all the time adventure of the day before. We did decide to head into town to seek out some good wine for Ellie and indulge in a bit of gelato.

This gelateria on Bolsena's main square serves the gelato we sampled at the factory.

Some of the excellent flavors on offer. The Santa Cristina was particularly interesting: a crunchy and tart combination of orange, lemon, and carrot. The ricotta with cinnamon and the mascarpone were also delightful. Santa Cristina is committed to using real ingredients and the benefits to the gelato's flavor are obvious.

I had some incredibly intensely flavored and rich blackberry gelato with Santa Cristina (carrot) on the bottom. This was excellent. And the photo is not excellent.

We enjoyed a walk through town - Bolsena really is an attractive place, and mercifully low on tourists.

Enzo served us some bean soup with bread. It tasted rather like an Italian riff on bean soup - I really liked this.

Our secondi was a simple summer plate of bruschetta. We had chicken and pepper pate, arugula-pesto type stuff (slightly bitter and good), and something composed of liver. There was also some fresh-made pepper caponata, some white bean salad with olive oil and pepper, and some fresh local cheese.

Finally: another nice local tart with apricot jam.

We spent the evening working, and some of us decided to watch Fast Food Nation. It got the point across, I suppose, though I wouldn't suggest watching it if you are interested in consuming fast food hamburgers ever again. (But if you could eat real food why would you want to?

EFSA, Parmesan Cheese, and Prosciutto

2009-06-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

Day 9

EFSA, Parmesan Cheese, and Prosciutto

We woke up fairly early and headed over to the European Food Safety Authority for our morning lectures. EFSA'S headquarter were conveniently located extremely close to our hotel in Parma, and we enjoyed the AM stroll through Parma's morning street scene. The super-modern new buildings hosts the European Food Safety Authority's main offices, an organization which formed in Brussels in 2002 and was recently transferred to Parma. Parma is, after all, petitioning to be granted the status of Europe's "food valley" due to its profusion of artisan producers.

A brief account of what, exactly, EFSA is may be read here.

EFSA functions as the keystone of the European Union's Food and Feed Safety risk assessment. EFSA works with national authorities and independent stakeholders, in an effort to present scientific advice and communication on issues and dangers within the food system. EFSA works in tandem with top-notch scientists and experts to produce opinions on the relative safety of the food system, in the hope of heading off the next food-related disaster. The Authority produces opinions on topics such as nutrition, GMO's, nanotechnology, zoonoses (animal born diseases) and other topics related to issue of food safety.

EFSA was formed as a response to the widespread consumer drop in confidence that occurred after the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the UK, a dreadful malady you may know as Mad Cow. The Authority's representatives presented us with three discussions, regarding how the organization functions, their review process (especially in regards to health claims from novel foods,) and some information on their nutritional review practices.

EFSA's formal headquarters in Parma.

After EFSA, it was time to leave Parma. We stopped briefly by EFSA's formal Parma headquarters - located in a very nice park - then drove out of town, heading across the rolling green hills and farmland to our next food venture. Our destination was a Parmigiano Reggiano factory, located about half an hour outside of the town itself. This valley is the only place in the world where cheesemakers may call their product "parmigiano".

When we got to the factory, an employee greeted us and presented us with a plate of (you guessed it) parmesan cheese. There were two kinds on offer. There was a fresh parmesan with a softer texture and flavor, and a harder, older version more familar to the Ameican palate. They were delicious: a clear, sharp, earthy flavor miles away from the junk in the green shaker-container. It is a shame that young parmigiano is not widely available in the USA.

We were also provided with some nice salami, some grissini (breadsticks) and a curious Italian variant on Coke.

After waiting around a while for the tour-guide to appear and sucking down all of the mysterious soda-pop, we were allowed into the factory to observe the esoteric practice of cheese making. The factory was not very large - it's a small scale cheese producer - and had an either pleasant or icky smell of incredibly strong cheese.

These are the huge copper tubs the milk is pumped into. To make real parmagiano-reggiano cheese, the milk must come from 10 KM or less away. No imported stuff is allowed. The cheese is produced with a combination of whole raw cow's milk and naturally skimmed milk, and the combination is pumped into these vats. They are copper because copper facilitates swift cooling.

Starter whey is added, the temperature is raised, and the calf rennet (don't ask) is put in. The whole mix is allowed to curdle for roughly ten to 12 minutes, whereupon the curd is broken up into tiny pieces and the temperature is risen again.

The cheese-makers let the curd hang out for about an hour, then collect it in a piece of cheesecloth and place it into molds. The infant cheeses are then put into a stainless steel mold which can be tightened to ensure the cheese remains pleasingly circular.

After a few days of this tightening process, the cheeses are placed in brine vats, where they will absorb salt for roughly 25 days.

Fresh parmesan prior to the aging process.

Once the cheeses have been brined, they are transferred to the aging room, where they will reside for a year. The aging room was an impressive sight, a veritable Presidential library of parmagiano-reggiano. There is even a nifty little cheese robot that turns the cheeses over once every two weeks, preventing human workers from throwing their backs out. Still, a human being turns the cheese over once a week as well, just to ascertain that everything is coming along nicely. Fine cheese like this can sell for incredible prices. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars is not an uncommon price to pay for a healthy-sized wheel of fine parmagiano-reggiano.

After the cheese factory, we headed to the Pio Tosini prosciutto factory, located a bit outside of Parma in the prosciutto-obsessed town of Langhirano. Langhirano is a town entirely devoted to the production and consumption of ham: there seem to be at least 20 prosciutto factories along the little burg's main drag. The factory we visited makes a particularly high quality and old-fashioned product, processing thousands of pig legs a year.

We were given a special tour of the factory, which has been turning out prosciutto di Parma since the early 1900's. Final conclusion? Prosciutto is rather like hot dogs. You may not want to know how they are made. Nevertheless it was a illuminating experience, with tasty results.

We had to put on fetching paper gowns to enter the factory for hygiene reasons. Here's Sabrina posing next to one of the tenderizing and salting machines.

After the meat is cleaned, salted and tenderized to satisfaction, it is chilled in these tremendous walk-in fridges. Here our guide is pointing out the fine points of prosciutto. I believe he was discussing the import of a large ventral vein on the side of ham.

Prosciutto fairly early on in the aging process.

The people of Parma and surrounding environs are extremely passionate about their food products. Parma likes to call itself Italy's "food valley" and it is not difficult to see why. Artisan products sprout up everywhere here, gourmet meat and cheese products hang in every shop window, and locals are always happy to expound on their favorite edibles.

Amanda posing with some prosciutti.

The hams are taken through a series of cooling and pressing processes, in an effort to drain all the blood from the meat without breaking the central bone. The hams are hung to dry in a cool environment. High quality prosciutti like these are hung for 500 days.

The prosciutto warehouse is an awe-inspiring place. It's a tremendous dark building hung with thousands upon thousands of prosciutto, and it is dark, close, and silent. We took a huge clanking meat elevator everywhere in the building, and it was a bit of an offputting experience. I found myself thinking that a horror movie set in a prosciutto factory would be so very easy to make. (It's not pigs - IT'S PEOPLE. You get the picture). The lights went out for a moment among the resplendent meat, producing a particularly bizarre moment: standing in the dark among a veritable pantheon of swinging hog legs. The place smells exactly as you might expect. It's the scent of a good ham duplicated about five thousand times. Overpowering.

After the prosciutto factory, it was off to the Prosciutto Museum, located nearby. We were, it must be said about at the point of prosciutto factory overdose. Still, I happen to really like prosciutto, and only longed for vegetables a little tiny bit.

The Museum is devoted entirely to Parma's favorite meat product, with exhibits focusing on topics such as the area's favored pig varieties, butchering tools, different curing and production methods, and the history of cured meats throughout the ages. It was interesting stuff, and the museum itself - located in the city's 1928-built cattle market, or Foro Boario - was a gorgeous piece of architecture. It is one of food-crazy Parma's four food museums. The others are a Museum of Parmesan, a museum devoted to Salami di Felino (as we sampled at Slow Food) and an institution in Collecchio all about tomatoes.

We had come for a Prosciutto degustation. This was a tasting of the area's finest meat products, accompanied with local wines and cheeses, a veritable feast of ham. The degustation was held in a lovely brick-and-ham lined room, where we were attended by a resident prosciutto expert, who bore a certain resemblance to an Italian and pig-obsessed George Clooney. He guided us through the magical world of Italian cured meats, a voyage which was accompanied by some excellent wines. You should probably do this immediately.

Decorative hams on the tasting room's walls. Meat is a form of household decoration in this part of Italy. (It's the same in Spain).

Giardinara, which are Italy's common mixed pickled vegetables. These were not too intensely vinegary and were very pleasant with the cheese. New Orleanians may recognize a relative of our beloved olive salad here.

Some very interesting hard rolls were served with the meats. These had a cracker-like exterior and a yeasty, soft interior. I liked these a lot. I have never had anything like them.

The excellent, local white wines we were served with the meats. The amadei was especially fine, with a sharp, white-fruit flavor. The other was a bit sweeter, with a taste almost like piquant honey. I'm going to seek these out when I get home.

Here we have our second taste of high-quality parmagiano-reggiano. The cheese is made by a tiny production group, who are developing their own "creme de la creme" brand - They are moving towards certifying each individual slice instead of each wheel, as is generally done. We were instructed to eat this fine cheese with millefloure honey and it was an ideal combination. The sharp, interesting bite of the cheese contrasted perfectly with the subtle sweetness of the honey. Millefloure honey, incidentally, is so named because it is made "from a 1000 flowers". It is harvested when the bees have finished their seasonal work.

The cheese was served with these delightful condiments. From left to right: walnut conserves with orange peel, strawberry and balsamic jam, and caramelized onion preserves. We went through more of these then we were necessarily supposed to. This is because they were delicious.

Everyone enjoying the tasting. The guide was extremely wordy and those of us ignorant of Italian could not catch too much of what he said. You should probably consult the English language guides to the rich history of prosciutto, conveniently sold in the museum store. I read most of the history, and it was well worth a look. It's very interesting and involves lots of warring Italian families and drama. And pork products, like all good matters of history.

You guessed it: fine, aged prosciutto di parma. Delightfully smoky, melts in your mouth, not greasy or heavy in the slightest. Yeah, this stuff deserves a museum.

Culatello, which is a particularly special variant on the prosciutto theme. If you are in any way familar with Romance languages, you may have guessed that is made from, well, the butt-regions of the pig. The meat is seasoned, lightly salted, then stuffed into a well-cleaned pigs bladder. It is then hung in a nice cool environment for 8-12 months, giving it its distinctive aged flavor. It takes an entire ham to make a culatello, and as a result, it's expensive stuff. This is fo good reason, as it is indisputably delicious.

A board covered in prosciutto and coppa. Coppa is produced from the necks of mid-sized swine, and then is "massaged" with spices. The meat is wrapped up inside a pig "bowel" (I did not inquire further) and seasoned for quite a few months. Although coppa is a form of sausage, it does not look like one. The taste is delightful: spicy and meaty, a good contrast to the subtle, buttery flavor of the prosciutto.

We were instructed to consume our prosciutto with this fine local butter. Sounded bizarre and was a bit difficult for our fat-phobic American palates, but I soon warmed up to it. Our meat curator claimed that prosciutto and butter are not actually bad for you when they are this high quality. I would like to believe him.

Salami di felino, another of Parma's iconic food products. Salami felino is produced using the first part of the small intestine, producing a larger sausage with a longer life then other varieties. The salami is produced with about 75% lean pork meat (from the shoulder) and 25% delicious pork fat, which is ground together and spiced with salt and pepper. The meat is put into the intestinal casings and ripened for a good long time. 110 days is the industry standard. It's delicious and interesting stuff.

This is a special cake. Called pasta-rossa (though I think my spelling is wrong, as I can't find it on Google), it takes three days and 17 ingredients to make. The ingredients include what tastes like cherry preserves, butter, various chopped nuts, and a big hit of campari. The cake is dense, sweet, and delicious. The recipe, like many old Italian recipes was almost lost. It was only preserved thanks to the memory of an elderly Italian lady, who passed it on to willing acolytes. We devoured this with a bottle of excellent muscato.

Slightly lit, we got into the car for the five hour drive back to Bolsena. The drive happened to be through some very attractive territory, and I enjoyed dozing in the car, looking out the window as illuminated castles, mountains, and the flashing lights of Firenze zipped by. We arrived back at the convent around midnight in the middle of a pouring rain. We were also full of prosciutto.

>Food, Globalization, and Gender Dietary Changes and Nutritional Impact due to Globalization Gina Kennedy, FAO, Rome, 6/12/2009

2009-06-13T22:13:00.002-07:00

Food, Globalization, and Gender Dietary Changes and Nutritional Impact due to Globalization Gina Kennedy, FAO, Rome, 6/12/2009
Food, Globalization, and Gender
Dietary Changes and Nutritional Impact due to Globalization
Gina Kennedy
12 June 2009

The lecture, delivered by Gina Kennedy at the FAO in Rome, intended to cover:

- The features of globalizing food systems.
- Dietary changes as seen globally.
- The drivers of these dietary changes.
- The impact of these changes on local food systems.

The lecture would discuss the nutritional consequences of changing diets with a FOCUS on gender. Many organizations capture solely data on women and children, because women have higher and more complex nutritional needs then men, when they are pregnant or lactating. Info on men, therefore, is often hard to find.

DIETARY CHANGES IN THE PAST 40 YEARS

There has been an:

Increase in energy intake.
A change in the proportion of calories derived from fat, protein, carbohydrates, and macronutrients.
A change in types of foods consumed.
A gradual increase in dietary energy intake in all regions, as tracked from the 60's to the year 2000.

This increase in dietary energy intake has affected all world regions. The data shown here was taken from FAOSTAT, our organization's comprehensive database on nutrition. You may look there for information on just about everything. FAOSTAT shows the chain from production to supply, as well as what should be available for per capita intake. The downside of this is that the figure you get are very gross. The data is still good for the purpose looking at trends. All data is produced as an average of three yeas. This smoothes out some of the year to year variation. You can see from this graph (as indicated) that Asia, North and Central America have had massive changes in the past 40 years.

Change in Macronutrients

Carbohydrate, protein, and fat are the macronutrients. From 1970 to 2000 in developing countries, diets changed from 78% carbohydrate to 69% carbohydrate. Protein stayed the same portion of the diet, rising from 9% to 10%. Fat intake produced the biggest change. Fat changed from 13% fat intake in 1970 to 21% fat intake in terms of the total diet in 2000. Overall caloric consumption also went up in the developing world.

Now, we will discuss new trends in the consumption of calories per capita per day. We will discuss how many calories are derived from sugar, vegetable oils, and animal food in developing countries.

From 1961 to 2000, starting in the 1970s and 1980's, the world saw a huge increase in availability of foods derived from animal sources. Oils and sugar also increased in availability. These increases are the main drivers of the changes seen due to globalization. Edible oil availability has tripled from 1961 to 2000 around the world.

A huge increase in availability means, in simplest terms, what is available in the county. This does not mean the new resources are spread equally among all people. This is because inequalities exist, such as between rural and urban, or poor and comparatively rich.

Throughout the planet, animal source food availability has tripled, with a tenfold increase seen in China. Much of this increase is due to a great rise in the consumption of poultry and pork.

There have been some increases in the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables. The changes are less marked then those seen for animal products and edible oils. Fruit and vegetable consumption is increasing, especially in California. However, no poplation anywhere reaches the 400 grams of fruits and vegetables recommended per capita per day.

This figure (as seen here) juxtaposes the macronutrient pie chart with carbs, and also indicates the amount of the diet devoted to protein and fat. The largest percentage changes in these consumption levels are seen in Asia and South America. Asia is eating fewer calories from cereals, and has seen a 4% surplus change in meat consumption. For the developed and developing world, we see 6% less calories derived from cereals, and between 2 and 4% more from meat.

Dietary Changes Globally

What has changed in food consumption from population group to population group?

Changes include:

The consumption of fewer traditional foods and more global or homogenized foods, such as rice, wheat, and corn. Traditional cereals or staples are used less, especially in Africa.
A dramatic increase in edible oils, especially in Asia.
An increase in meat consumption, especially in China.
An increased amount of sugar intake, mostly derived from sweetened beverages and other manufactured foods. The manufacturing process does not just take the original ingredient (a mango) and turn it into something different (a different form of mango). Sugars and artifical ingredients are added during processing. Therefore, populations are getting additional things that were not in the diet before.

Factors in Dietary Shifts

Convenience and ease of use of novel foods.
The cost of novel foods as opposed to traditional foods.
The time available for meal preparation. This time is diminishing as women increasingly join the workforce.
More out of home meal consumption, linked to growing urbanization.

Drivers of these Dietary Changes.

Economic changes. These can be due to urbanization, capital flow, an increase in incomes, and market liberalization.
Social changes. These can include rural to urban migration, the employment of women, an increased access to health services, a rise in sedentary lifestyles, and big supermarkets replacing traditional wet markets.
Food Supply changes. These include the rise of large scale intensive agriculture-based food production, longer product shelf life, and a reduced seasonality effect on food availability.
Dietary changes: These include the convergence of diets, an increase in food choice driven by affordability concerns, and an increase in the intake of fat, sugar, and salt.

Impact Vs. Outcome

The impact of dietary change is felt around the world.

Impacts include:
Changes in nutritional status, with a large percentage of the population either overweight or obese.
Rapidly increasing rates of non-communicable disease.
An increase in social inequity.
A loss of biodiversity.

Everyone loves a good deal. Around the world, people prefer to spend the least money for the most calories, a matter of simple economics. But these cheap, calorie dense foods may not be very good for you!

Trends in Urbanization

Urbanization is increasing everywhere. The World Bar in blue, as indicated on the graph, shows that we began with about 30% of people globally living in an urban area in 1950. The number of people living in urban areas grew o about 50% worldwide in urban areas by our era. This urbanization trend has been seen all over the world.

What are some environmental influences on behavior in urban regions?

Advertising, which is especially pervasive in urban regions.

The variety and appeal of imported foods is great in urban regions. People want to look modern, and do not want to be seen as traditional or old fashioned.

No significant physical effort is needed to obtain food in an urban area, as it can easily be bought.

The availability of refrigerators, cars, television, and other technology facilitating dietary changes. With the advent of the fridge, you may store your food and have it available 24 hours a day. Without a fridge, everything you cook must be fresh or non-perishable. This impacts how much you eat and what you eat. Cars have a huge impact on your daily level of activity. A television makes your leisure time more sedentary.

The appearance of supermarkets and shopping malls, complete with big inventories and lots of imported products.

Advertising on TV In Brazil

Many of the concepts we have discussed here are illustrated by the Brazilian example.

The Brazilian Food Pyramid for Infants and Children.

We are looking at a Brazilian government sponsored food pyramid. According to this pyramid, a person should get the most calories from bread or grains, preferably whole grains. These are low fat staple foods. The second largest percentage of the diet should be fruit, vegetables, and legumes. The third largest percentage is dairy, small amounts of red meat, and similar protein-based products. A person should derive the least calories from sugar, butter, lard, candy, and so on. This pyramid indicates the ideal diet from the Brazilian point of view.

Advertising Pyramid Makeup

We decided to find out how many advertisements existed on Brazilian TV for each of the food groups above. Here are the results:

Fruit and vegetables had zero ads
Meat, egg, and beans made up 8.3% of ads
Milk, cheese, and yogurt made up 12% of ads.
Bread, rice and pasta made up 21% of ads
58% of foods ads were for fats, oils, sugars and sweets. Therefore, the most advertising existed for foods that should be consumed the least. The huge quantity of advertising for unhealthy foods has had a negative effect on public health.

Out of Home Meal Consumption in Tanzania

Most schools in Tanzania have poor or non-existent school lunch programs. Therefore, children's parents send them to school with lunch money. Outside the schools, vendors sell treats such as sweet ice, doughnuts, french fries and other fried foods. Coca-Cola, as always, is available everywhere. A dietary study of school children showed that these "lunch" foods are largely starchy, deep fried, and sugary. A few of the female food vendors would sell healthy foods. However, children had to be cajoled to buy healthy foods instead of the unhealthy foods they preferred. If left to their own devices, children preferred to buy unhealthy foods.

Street Food and the Gender Dimension

Street foods in urban areas are tied to the livelihoods of many women. These women derive their income from direct sales and the sale of prepared products. They are often both producers and sellers. Women made up the majority of vendors to Tanzanian schoolchildren. Some women sold healthy food. Some sold fried or contaminated foods. Some women would function as indirect sellers. These women would get their product from a friend or family member, transport it to school, then sell it. All aspects of the street-food trade in Tanzania indicate women's heavy involvement in the system. A community effort, therefore, has to occur in order to change the standard diet.

Fast Food Companies Emerge

Fast food companies are gaining popularity and prestige all over the world. In India, KFC and Pizza Hut are extremely popular. The same goes for China. Other developing countries are following suit. Fast food provides both convenience and a "cool" factor to citizens of developing nations.

Corn, Wheat, and Rice

Despite a rise in international recognition of the importance of dietary diversity, there has been a global decrease in the varieties of food crops cultivated and consumed. Over 7000 plant species have been traditionally used for food in human history. Today, rice, wheat, and corn account for an estimated 60% of total energy intake in the human diet.

The Italians, bucking the trend, seem to have preserved much of their dietary biodiversity. This is probably because they are highly seasonally selective. The local market rarely features out of season produce . In Italy, people eat winter foods in winter and summer foods in summer. Getting food out of season is hard.

The Top 10 World Food Sources

CORN
WHEAT
RICE SOYBEANS
BARLEY
SUGARCANE
COW MILK
PORK
POTATOES
PALM OIL

A Case Study From The Pacific Islands:

The island in question is Kiribas. The trends spotted here apply to elsewhere in the Pacific Islands. The same ideas are also applicable in Africa and Asia.

The original Pacific diet was composed of fresh fish and seafood, and things such as taro and breadfruit. To survive on an isolated island, people have to eat their own food. In many of these climates, people have access to beautiful tropical fruits and vegetables. These include lime, papaya, coconut, and other varieties. Bananas function as both a sweet and a staple. Imports have risen in recent years in the Pacific islands. Imports bring food stuffs such as canned meats, white rice, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, and beer. These foods produced negative effects on the native people, as well as tremendous dietary change. Alcoholism is on the rise in Pacific Islands due to a huge increase in the availability of liquor.

You can spy this trend in many countries in urban areas. Isolated people are given access to Western "junk" food, change their dietary habits, and suffer negative health results.

These dietary changes in the Pacific have grave implications for nutrition. Deleterious effects include:

Huge rates of obesity.
A heavier reliance on rice, sugar, and other imported foods.
Far less consumption of fresh fish and local fruits and vegetables.
A jump in rates of obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Some Pacific nations have implemented "Go Local" campaigns, in an effort to reintroduce local and native foods. For example, researchers found a native banana variety rich in vitamin A, a nutrient lacking in many "junk" foods. Local groups are trying to get people to eat native, macronutrient rich foods again.

Obesity Rates in Fiji

With a rise in obesity rates, rates of non- communicable disease go up as well. These diseases include diabetes and high blood pressure.
Many people in Fiji have diabetes, high blood pressure, and suffer from common micronutrient deficiencies. When I worked in the Pacific, we focused primarily on a deficiency in Vitamin A in local diets.

Some statistics on obesity rates as divided by gender and age:

By 30-34 years old, obesity in men reaches 12-14% of the population. In women, 30% are obese by this age.
By the age of 40-44, obesity rates continue to increase. This continues until a given person's 50's and 60's.

Nutritional Benefits of Traditional Food

Today a mix of market and traditional foods is common for most people in most regions. Traditional food remains an important nutrient source in most developing countries.

In Arctic communities, diets were better in the days when both traditional and market foods were consumed, as opposed to a diet almost exclusively of market foods. When traditional foods were included in Arctic diets, many benefits were seen.

Benefits:
Less calories, which is good for weight control.
Less saturated fat, which is better for the heart.
More lean meats and fish.
More iron.
More zinc.
More Vitamin A.
More calcium.
A strengthened cultural capacity and sense of well being.

Local Food System: Gender Dimension

There has been a great loss of local knowledge about traditional foods, and how to harvest and prepare them. I saw in Bangladesh that women had more knowledge then men about the use and preparation of wild foods. Women suffer from the loss of biodiversity in foods and medicines, as many of these traditional resources particularly benefited women's health problems.

An earlier age of onset has been documented for these non-communicable disease. The the younger a disease begins the harder it will be for both the country and the individual to deal with. These are important changes, as indicated in documentaries like Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me". Portion size increases are also a big factor, especially in places like the USA, Mexico, and Latin America. Portion sizes appeal to basic human nature. People want value for money, and cheap food in large quantities appeals to a population's sense of value. The combination of low prices and big portions encourages people to overeat.

What health implications derive from dietary change?

Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, CVD (cardiovascular disease), and cancer, among others.

Dietary Factors And Their Effects.

A high intake of energy dense foods ties into the risk of obesity.
Consumption of saturated fats increase the risks of Type 2 Diabetes and CVD.
Dietary cholesterol is linked to CVD.
A high intake of dietary fiber is linked to a decrease in obesity, diabetes and CVD.
Fruits and vegetables are linked to decreases in obesity, diabetes, CVD, and cancer.
Sugar sweetened drinks, such as soft drinks and beverages, are deleterious to health.

What are the Consequences of Dietary Change?

Consequences include:
Increasing rates of obesity.
A rise in diet related chronic disease.
Some improvements in under-nutrition. It is always important to look at inequalities within a country. If you increase your calories but not your micronutrients, you will still have deficiencies.

Where are we now?

We see an accelerating rise in overweight, obesity, and non-communcitable disease.

We see the simultaneous presence of under nutrition and obesity, the double burden of disease.

We see micronutrient deficiencies high due to lack of dietary variety in poor.

Nutrition Transition

We are seeing large shifts in dietary structure, accompanied by changes in physical activity levels. These shifts often lead to dramatic and rapid changes in body composition. This leads to the "double burden" of co-existence of over and under nutrition. This also leads to higher incidences of infectious and chronic diseases.

Prevalence of an Overweight (BMI above 25) in urban and rural areas, in women 20-49 years old, in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Haiti, one of the poorest countries, 20 percent of those overweight are urban, and 8 percent are rural. In Peru, 60 percent of urban dwellers are obese, and 34 percent in rural areas. Lifestyle shifts and patterns of sedentary behavior are now becoming common in rural areas. These areas now have more cars and motor transportation, as well as piped water.

Urban and rural percentage of obesity in women in other regions

Egypt has some of the highest rates of obesity in woman. 70% of women in urban Egypt are obese, and 47% of women are obese in rural areas. That is a large percentage of the population for a rural area. In Central Asia, 30%, are obese, in about even numbers for rural and urban areas. There are some more dramatic incidences, depending on the region, but shifts are occurring in both places. These areas are still struggling with poor child growth, poor feeding practices and underweight children with poor growth, and micronutrient issues.

Non-diet Health Affects of Globalization

More alcohol
More cigarettes
More stress
More crime and violence
More sedentary work and leisure

What can be done?

Improve the nutritional status of women of child bearing age and children.
Engage in growth monitoring for all forms of malnutrition.
Create public health screening campaigns for early problem detection.
Pay attention not only to medical aspects of these problems, but to the whole environment. The environment includes food systems, city planning, school and work environment.

The Way Forward...
In the future, to positively address these dietary changes, we can implement these actions.

Pay attention to dietary quality in food assistance and education.
Begin building functional relationships with rural areas to provide traditional foods.
Implement the protection of schools and children from influences of advertising, especially for food.
Aid go-local initiatives, like the Island Food Community of Pohnpei.

Improving Food Safety Systems Globally - FAO Capacity Building Activities Mary Kenny - FAO, Rome, 6/12/2009

2009-06-13T22:13:00.001-07:00

Improving Food Safety Systems Globally - FAO Capacity Building Activities
Mary Kenny
Food Quality and Standards Service
Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FAO'S Food Safety Page

Outline of Presentation:

The FAO Mandate and Food Safety The Importance of Food Safety FAO Activities in Food Safety - Normative and Field FAO Capacity Building Activities.

The UN has stated that access to a safe and secure food supply is a basic human right.

What is the FAO mandate?

Food safety and food security are the heart of the FAO's mandate. In the FAO, we have many different departments. These include orestry, fishery, livestock, and others. At the FAO, we believe that it is not good enough simply to have food. Food must also be nutritious and safe. Food Security exists when all people at all times, have physical and social access to food.

Global Realities: Context/Challenges

There will be 1 billion hungry people in 2009, as estimated by the FAO. There are 1.8 million deaths and 4 billion cases globally attributed to diarrheal disease each year. In the USA, there are approximately 5,000 deaths from food-borne disease every year. Post harvest food losses are another serious problem, and can reach 15% or higher of possible yields. This food wastage is attributed to weaknesses in our methods of storing, handling, and transporting food. We in the USA have weak controls for safe quality foods.

When we discuss food safety hazards, what are we discussing?

We are discussing chemical and microbiological problems.

Biological hazards and chemical hazards are our primary concern. Biological hazards include zoonotic microorganisms, parasites, viruses in food, funguses, prions, giardia, and antimicrobial resistant microorganisms.

Chemical hazards include: pesticides, vet drugs, residues, and toxic metals. There are also persistent organic pollutants or POPS, which accumulate in the food chain. These include chemicals like-DDT, PCBs, dioxins, and furans. Naturally occuring toxins include aflatoxins in peanuts, ciguatoxin in coral fish, and biotoxins in filter-feeding shellfish. Radioactive isotopes (accidental release) are another chemical concern.

What are the sources of food safety hazards?

They include human and animal reservoirs, environmental sources, and food production practices.

The FAO is working to ensure a global reach on food and agriculture issues. The FAO is headquartered in Rome, and has regional and subregional offices in Cairo, Bangkok, Accra, Santiago, Harare, Tunis, Budapest, Barbados, and Apia. Other offices exist in the Africa region - in Addis Addaba, and in the Gabon in West Africa.

Our World:

Potential food safety hazards remain a challenge for the entire planet. Food safety is further complicated by the global nature of today's world. In North America, for example, a lot of our seafood is imported from Canada. To focus on food safety in today's complex world, we want to look at factors like:

The increasing volume and diversity of trade in foods.

An increasing population and demand for food.

Increasingly changing agricultural practice and climate.

Changing human/animal interactions.

Creating a system for more sophisticated detection and management of hazards. Changing hazards, like resistant microbes.

Implement greater public demands for health protection. Changing human behavior and ecology.

Our number one focus at the FAO is protecting the consumer and protecting health. We also consider climate change.

High Costs of Food Safety Incidents

The 2008 Melamine contamination of dairy products illustrates the dangers of unsafe foods. Due to the melamine contamination, the world was forced to contend with 6 deaths, 300,000 illnesses and 115 types of contaminated food products.

A recent example was the 2009 discovery of Salmonellosis in peanuts in the USA. The contaminated peanuts led to 9 deaths and 22,500 illnesses.

A Europen example was the dioxin contamination of Irish pork in 2008. The contamination forced the culling of 100,000 pigs. The culling meant the destruction of 125 million euro worth of food, and total economic losses in excess of US $1 billion for Ireland.

A recent African case involved a 2004 incidence of aflatoxin in maize in Kenya. This led to 317 cases and 125 deaths. Often people think aflatoxin related problems are chronic or long term. in this instance, because the maize was so heavily contaminated, there were lots of illnesses and deaths.

Impacts and Costs of Food Safety Problems

A decline in public health, loss of life, losses incurred by food companies, economic impact on farmers (peanut, pig, dairy), decreasing consumer confidence, and economic loss . Economic loss can derive from industry and government, food trade disruption, and food recalls.

Key Elements of FAO Work on Strengthening Food Safety?

The development of codex standards, Scientific Advice, and their use in national food control programmes.

Official food control programs include:

Government programs, using regulators and supporters to aid food producers and food industry.
A "farm to fork" approach.
A risk analysis and risk based approach for food control.
Communication with the consumer.

Best Practices in Food Industry

These are primarily responsible for...
Preventive measures throughout the food chain.
GAPs, GHP'S, HAACP.
The partnership between government and food industry (reorientation of roles).

Codex Alimentarius Commission: What is it?

The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a intergovernmental body.

"Codex Alimentarius" is Latin for Food Law. The Codex is then a set of global food standards.
The Commission was stablished 1961-63 by FAO and WHO (World Health Organization). Countries were starting to engage in more worldwide trade during this time, and needed one standard to aid the trading and movement of food. This is not to say that the Commission has successfully made everything harmonious, but that is the intention. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is headquartered in a yearly meeting in Rome and Geneva. In between the big annual meetings, there are about 20 food codex meetings a year on fish, meat, and other products. Membership in the Commission involves 180 countries and 1 organization, the European Community.

Objectives of the Codex Alimentarius:

The Codex Alimentarius has dual objectives:

Protecting consumer health.
Facilitating fair practices in food trade.
The coordination of all food standards work.

FAO/WHO Scientific Advice Programme:

The FAO/WHO work through this program to develop scientific advice. If we at the FAO think about food additives or pesticides and need to decide what is the safe level, we can't just pick a number. We have to do a study before we can act. Via the scientific advice program, we can bring together world experts to meet, discuss, and analyze the issues.

We produce ADI/MRL's for food additives, veterinary drug residues, and pesticides.

Risk Assessment of Microbiological Hazards in Foods

Microbiological hazards may be more of a challenge then chemical ones, and are thus important. We have a high global knowledge and awareness of the dangers of these organisms and their ability to cause much harm. Foods we once thought were safe, including,fresh produce like spinach, are leading to more and more challenges and hazards involving microbial hazards.

Other ad hoc issues include acrylamide, GMOs, and nanotechnology

Question from Kourtney Rusow:

We were just at EFSA - an opinion issuing body. They use metadata from companies or governments to whom they are issuing opinions. Do you at the FAO conduct primary research or not?

We do not. We work in a similar way to EFSA, in fact. We at the FAO and EFSA often have overlapping experts. The main difference is that we are at an international level and our scientific advice is the basis for coding standards. The EFSA is the fount for European Community policy. Our information and opinions will often be very much the same. We are trying to ensure that Codex and European Community levels of additives are the same. When we have a big meeting coming up, we issue a call for date or experts so we may have all the data needed for the meeting. Often we find the data and info is coming from developed countries, so we are helping developing countries develop data on their own issues like aflatoxin or so on. It is an ongoing work.

Introduction to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, Rome, 6/12/2009

2009-06-13T22:12:00.001-07:00

Introduction to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC
Luca Alinovi, Luca Russo,

FAO, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA)

The IPC is a tool for food security analysis.

It is also a PROCESS for improved coordination and transparency.

The Partnership: 8 institutional partners for IPC - Save the Children, JRC, Care, Oxfam, and other major national NGO's.

What is IPC for?

Improved analysis of food security for improved response.

The way in which the situation is analyzed determines the type of response, the allocations of resources, and the timing and the roles of interested parties.

The absence of well established standards for classifying the severity of food insecurity by all actors can affect the analysis of food needs.

These problems can lead to imprecise or gross misallocations of scarce resources, and, in the worst case, can lead to loss of life.

So what?

Building a common understanding of hunger and a consensus on the causes of food insecurity.

Comparability across space: what is the severity of food security from country to country and region to region?

Comparability across time: Maps show how the situation has evolved in Kenya or Burundi over time.

Milestones of the IPC:

Origin in EC funded project FSAU in 2004

Roll out in Kenya and East Africa, supported by ECHO, CIDA, DFID, starting in 2006. Application in Ivory Coast 2007.

International technical meeting and multi-agency parternship, March-May 2007.

CFS 2007 - commitment to IPC (2007.)

Publication of V. 1.1 of Manual (May 2008)

Creation of Coordination Unit (Janurary 2009)

2009: Training in Ethiopia, Central African Republic, upcoming application in Zimbabwe (May), and others.

Overview:

Technical: What is the IPC? How does it work?

What is the IPC? How do do you do it?

1. What is the IPC?

2. How to do IPC analysis? Step by step.
Building evidence.
Phase classification
Risk analysis
Estimating populations in each phase and so on

Issues with Food Security Analysis

No common agreed methodology for collecting food security info.
Lack of common framework for analyzing severity, scale, and causes.
Lack of institutional principles and processes to ensure agencies collate information and reach consensus.

An IPC map of Somalia. Note the differently colored regions.

IPC in the Analysis-Response Continuum

Situation Analysis - when there is a crisis, this is done with a number of tools to analyze the food security situation. A number of responses are then analyzed. Next comes response planning, followed by response implementation. During this entire process, monitoring and evaluation occurs.

The IPC brings...

1. A common technical approach.
2. An Institutional Consensual process.
3. A basis for response analysis and decision.
4. A comprehensive and holistic approach.
5. Comparability across time and space.

IPC Maps: (Examples provided).

IPC is based on five degrees of food insecurity represented by different colors.

But the IPC is NOT:

Not a data collection tool.
Not a methodology.
Not a response analysis tool.

IPC Analysis, Main Characteristics

Evidence Based: The results of the analysis need to be backed up by evidence. This is verified in a peer review process.

Multi Stakeholder: Main food security stakeolders must participate, in particular govenrment representatives.

Consensus: It facilitates reaching a general agreement on what the situation is.

Transparent: Analysis templates can be consulted after analysis.

Main Characteristics II

Comparable: Analysis is based in the same key reference outcomes regardless of where and when it is applied.

How to do an IPC Analysis:

Gathering Secondary Data:

Crude mortality rate
Acute malnutrition
Stunting
Food access and Availability
Dietary Diversity
Water access and availability
Structural
Coping
Livelihood assets
Civil Security
Hazards

FAO headquarters in Rome.

Without this tool, in one country, five analyses will get five different things, making fast track action almost impossible. What generates these inconsistencies?

Why do we need to do it by consensus? What is right and what is wrong with that? Do we do analysis by consensus in the USA government? What's different?

In a humanitarian situation, you have actors from all over working together, and different indicators from each group and actor. With no consensus or baseline of what is to be done, you will end up arguing in meetings a lot.

One of the big problems is that data and quantity of data available in poor areas is not available. This occurred in New Orleans: people had to guess, and could not guess what was needed, what could be done, and how. The consensus process is scrutiny and "best guessing" from different organizations. They try to see past agencies agendas, which are often the driver. An interesting status quo that people like - pretty much everyone recognizes the IPC indicators, but no one wanted to a scaling of the issues.

The idea of the IPC is that technically - the most sample possible within the limit of a situation where the quality and quantity of data are often far below optimal. Because of this knowledge and quality gap, we have to make sure whoever brings something to the table IS at the table. This cuts down on miscommunication - for example, maybe we need a medical doctor to ascertain a medical situation.

Reference thresholds exist of these indicators, which are specifically related to each of the phases (like acute food and livelihood crisis, famine/humanitarian catastrophe, humanitarian emergency, moderately/borderline food insecure, and so on).

We can make clear the weakness of current data, and can give the right weight to the data we use. I come from a hard data background, and I am often cynical and skeptical about data - people prefer to believe. If you have a crisis and must make a decision in two months, you have to move, you can't wait for the survey to be done.

One of the reasons you should look at the series of phases (from one to five) and then thresholds/reference outcomes. The most important column is strategic response framework. All data must be linked to a strategic response. We know certain issues are very relevant at each of the phases.

A situation goes from a food insecure situation to a famine. This is intended to cover all the possible situations, based on current understanding of application of the tool. The quality of the analysis is very different from the most extreme to the most food secure areas. The extreme areas are almost easier to analyze - you can see the application, by viewing mortality. In more general food security, changes are minimal and less clear.

Are we using the right methodology for capturing stunting, considering seasonality? Ideally the IPC is not indicated to screen indicators, but to help drive towards the best use of indicators and, if indicators are missing, push to the collection of indicators.

As I was saying, we have a number of thresholds inside each one of the phases. Driven by what indicators are available in what country. Not all indicators go in the same direction. You have a mix of indications.

Phase Classification

Evidences are used to sustain values of reference outcomes.
These values are compared to thresholds in the iPC Reference Table..
Each reference outcome is classified under one of the 5 phases with a level of confidence. To facilitate the process of convergence of evidence, results can expressed as follow: (ie, food access, livelihood assets, structural, stunting, disease) are given a confidence score of 1, 2, or 3, and a classification from 1 to 5.

Building Evidence

For reach reference outcome all relevant information is introduced in an analysis template (#1) together with its source and date. Reliability scores are also assigned at this stage for each piece of information. One analysis template is filled up for each unit of analysis. In a lot of countries, you may not have the data you want. There are a few options: you discard the indicator or the outcome, or you use a proxy indicator. We call this at the IPC "indirect evidence". Direct evidence means other more qualitative means leading to a single type of conclusion. You rank everything in here (the template,) the source, the information you have, and the phase the information gives you or puts you.

For each unit of analysis - in every place, it is different. For each district you have a different analytical template collecting all available data for district, and combine to see what phase you are in. In many situations, like in the DRC, the gaps are more then the information available -you by guessing and not by knowledge. You must make all the processes transparent - make everything public - so you can see what happened, and respond to questions. Making weakness transparent is a powerful tool for getting help and getting better.

Phase Classification (II)

Convergence of evidence leads to the classification of the unit of analysis under one phase.
The phase classification has a period of validity, after which the analysis must be done again (usually seasons). Validity can also depend on facts that can change situations unexpectedly, or deadlines for options for changes.
Results are reviewed against general phase descriptions.

Risk Analysis

Phase classification gives the current or imminent situation.
In the IPC, risk analysis is about looking at the probability of a community slipping from the current or imminent phase into a more serious phase.

Estimating Populations in Each Phase

Organize population data according to the analytical unit (administrative unit or livelihood zone).
Organize the baseline wealth ranking/poverty data in the same way as above.
Analyze any differences in the way the hazard has impacted (eg, geographic spread) in the analytical unit.

Number of people in phase is calculated using the formula D1 x X1 x X2 x X3

Where...

D1 = District or similar population
X1 = % population in a LZ or other unit
X2: % of population in a poor wealth group.
X3: % of poor wealth group affected by hazard.

How to do an IPC Analysis:

Mapping (examples of maps, such as in Somalia). Recurrencies in various areas -a difference between an acute situation for 6 months, or a serious situation recurring every 10 years, eroding people's resilency capacity and ability to respond to crisis. And there is the confidence level of the analysis: the box on the map carries the indicator of population in a scenario.

Peer Review

The IPC encourages debate and requires consensus before the final product is released.

During peer review, evidence is presented and critiqued by the whole analysis team. Templates and a provisional map are used for this.

The final goal of this stage is to reach consensus on the output of the analysis.

How does it work (IPC)?

National Level:

Technical Working Groups
Technical Standards
Institutional Standards

Regional Level:

Awareness raising, capacity building.
Technical working groups, lesson learning.
Consolidation of analysis.
Information and advocacy.

Technical Standards:

Level 1- Essential, core elements.
Level 2 - Preferred elements.
Level 3 - Optimal elements. Make use of template 2 and 3 outlining both immediate and underlying causes

Institutional Standard

The implementation of the IPC should be a consensus process facilitated by a board interagency working group, including government and key constituencies.

All efforts should be made to engage and build the capacity of government and promote ownership/strengthen the institutional process.

Institutional Standard 2

IPC process should comprise a mechanism to build an institutional commitment from government.
To promote transparency, the results of IPC analysis should be made available to the public in a timely manner.
IPC analysis should be done with technical neutrality through having a broad membership of the interagency group and through a transparent process of consensus buildings and ensuring group members participate in their technical capacity.
IPC results should be subject to an external peer review process to check quality and maintain standards.

How Does it Work? 2

At regional level:

Awareness raising and capacity building.
Technical working groups and lesson learning.
Consolidation of analysis.
Information and advocacy.

In Sub-Saharan Africa:
FSNWG
SADC-RVAC
CILSS

How does it Work 3

At global level:

Strong and permanent multi agency capability:
Develop and disseminate a global approach to allow comparison over time and space.
Provide technical support and quality assurance.
Serve as a reference for global food security monitoring.

Learning by doing, an Iterative Approach

Lessons learning
Technical development.

Progress to Date

Progress National Level

IPC piloted or rolled out in 15 countries.
Awareness raising in 13 countries.

Adopted: Burundi, Somalia, and Kenya.
Cote d' Ivoire.

Ongoing -

Roll out: DRC, Northern Sudan, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Technical Training: CAR, Ethiopia.

Others:
Pilots: Indonesia, Cambodia, others

Progress Regional Level

East and Central Africa:

FS&N Working Group
Regional training, Regional consolidated analysis, cross-fertilizationn.
Lessons learning and technical development.
Second phase of consolidation of IPC in five countries.

West Africa

Multi agency Steering Committee Cadre Harmonise.
Analytical work on integration IPC and Cadre Harmonise.
Pilot in Niger 2009.

Southern Africa

Regional workshop August 2008.
Tech working group SADC-RVAC.
Interest from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, RSA, Malawi.

International Land Coalition Talk, Rome, Italy, 6/12/2009

2009-06-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

International Land Coalition

ILC's Page on Women's Access to Land

The International Land Coalition is a global alliance of inter governmental agencies social movements, research organizations, and national and international civil society organizations. It has 84 members, and the Secretariat is based at IFAD in Rome. The ILC was created at a large conference in 1995 to counteract causes of poverty. Therefore, ILC is more concerned with the cause of poverty then its effects. We changed our name in 2003 to the International Land Coalition. We have always been based at IFAD, since the coalition was created. We then moved from 33 members to the current 84.

The structure of the coalition is a constituency. This was one of the first products of globalization. The idea was to have a coalition formed of different kinds of members. From classical NGO to farmer's organizations to research-oriented groups. We have many productive groups in agriculture as well.

The other aspect of the constituency is that it is among inter governmental agencies. We are not a monolithic group - we're more like the IFAD, FAO, European Coalition and so on. We have always kept a focus on land issues as poverty is rooted in land issues.

Our Vision (of the coalition)

Secure and equitable access to and control over land reduces, poverty, and contributes positively to identity, dignity, and inclusion.

Land is not only an economic asset, but contributes to human identity and inclusion. The worst kind of poverty is related to the loss of identity and dignity. Land is part of this complex concept. We are trying to reconcile all these ideas.

Why is land so important?

Multi-dimensionality of land:

- Economic dimension.
- Social dimension.
- Political dimension.

Increasing pressure on land:

- Population growth.
- Globalization.
- Climate change, etc.

Once people lose land, they lose a sense of respect from other people. In a village, people are not listened to if they lack land, such as in Botswana. This is why land is important to development in many ways. Land is a commodity and is finite. Bu the demands on land are expanding due to population growth, which is associated with globalization. There is, further, an increasing commercial demand for land. Climate change is also changing the way land can be used. Some land may be unusable for agriculture. Therefore land useful for people is DECREASING, while the numbers of people who want the land are INCREASING.

This creates competition for land. But it is not a competition among equals, as some are stronger then others.

Why are women's land rights so important?

We work with many kinds of organizations and one of the things we want to do is answer this question: WHO is most vulnerable to losing land? This is a targeting process, a process of identifying the population groups that may be more marginal or vulnerable to poverty then others. Women are probably the biggest group included in this, but we would also look at pastoralist, indigenous people, and so on.

Rural Women

There are 1.6 billion rural women. Women produce more then half of all food in the world, up to 80% in some countries. Twice as many rural women live in poverty today than in 1970.

Some country by country examples:

Cameroon: Women undertake more then 75% of agricultural work but own less then 10% of the land.
Brazil: 11% of land is owned by women.
Peru: 13% of land is owned by women.

Why women's access?

Human rights entail equal rights to land and related (natural and productive) resources. Poverty reduction and rural development matter. Specific obstacles for women must be addressed to achieve poverty reduction. Often women feed households by themselves, when men have migrated or died of HIV/AIDS. Therefore most people living in the original location are the women, the old people, and the very young. In many cases the men leave to do work in other places. Women are in many areas holding up rural economies. Their access to land doesn't reflect the important role they play, leaving them vulnerable.

When we talk about these problems and about trying to solve them, we need a targeted approach. Why are women's land rights not as strong as men's? What is contributing to that?

The State of Women's Access

Women lack control over land in practice. Highly inequitable land rights are the norm today. Land rights are gendered.

Pluralistic norms governing land rights.

Social,gender, and institutional obstacles exist for women attempting to gain land rights. Women often gain access to land through male relations. There are often elaborate or customary ways for people to acquire land in developing nations, but no single piece of paper stating "I'm Bob, I own this land," as might occur in the first world.

Gendered implications of socio-cultural, political economic, and natural environment changes.

Take an Islamic country: you have the formal legal system, the religious system, and the customary system all working together in regards to land rights. All of these rights work in tandem, and at times against one another. They might overlap in some ways and be different in others. Different sets of rights may be more or less discriminatory.

Who are the Hungry?
- World Development Report 2008

When we thinking through and understanding women as a segment of society and having the ability to access resources, what are the other axises of development in human society?

One billion people are hungry today. This figure has gone up from last year. It has been growing by a hundred million a year over the past three years. Half of those one billion are smallholders on family farms, producing largely for themselves. Another 20% are landless people or sharecroppers, and might be living off the land but working on other people's land. 10% of these people are pastoralists, forest dwellers, and fisherfolk. This is about 3% of the world's actual population who is vulnerable in disproportionate numbers to poverty. 20% of the hungry are urban poor.

A lot of poor people rely on land or would if they could. When you overlay the gender dimension, the effect is even more dramatic. Women make up 60 to 80% of production, and hold only 2% of land titles.

Keeping those figures in mind, we must consider two key concepts.

Situational Poverty

This is poverty resulting from changing events in people's lives - something you can move in and out of. Crises occur. You lose your job, you can't afford food, but you might get your job again. Food prices go up, but they may go down again.

Structural Poverty:

Poverty resulting from deeper social, economic, political, and institutional relationships in society. Structural poverty often is a result of eeply ingrained barriers in society, preventing an individual from reaching financial solvency.

Often, the move from situational poverty to structural poverty is a question of losing access to land. You slide into worse poverty when you have no access to a basic productive resource.

The Food Crisis

Reuters - CRB Energy and FAO Food Price Indices 1998-2000-=100

Food prices dropped off, spiked, then plummetted down again at the end of 2008. This produced lots of discussion about what the figures meant. This lead to a summit in Rome, and riots in many countries. The Haitian president was recently disposed as a result of rising food prices.

FAO Food Price Index (Graph on FAO website)

The graph on the left shows price changes in major agricultural commodities. They are usually stable and quite low. In 2007, you get a massive rise in prices, and in 2008, prices are still rising at beginning of the year. They flatten a bit, then drop again. Looking at 2009, food prices are beginning to go up again. Not a surprise. People have been saying that over the long term, food prices are going to go up despite fluctuation. By 2050, the FAO estimates that world demand for food will double as a result of population growth and consumption changes, and as a result of agricultural land being used for non-food purposes.

Compare the Kenya, Nairobi, Wholesale, USA dollar per tonne regarding Maize (from Oxfam)

This graph ndicates how much maize costs in Nairobi. You can see the recent price spike is not reflected - there is the RISE but not the DROP. This happens in many cases: the people at the end of the line who need food to survive, are not paying less money but are instead paying consistently higher prices. For them, the fluctuations down are not so eviden. As a result, for these people, there is a very real danger of decreasing food security.

How Does This Relate to Land Issues?

The Last Great Global Land-Grab

The frontier of land use is often characterized by non-intensive land use and poorly defined tenure arrangements. Many of the bottom billion of the world live in marginal areas, where there is a persistent concentration of poverty. Suddenly you have all these people wanting land for non-food uses. where will they get it? What they are doing is going into areas that have previously been used for agricultural purposes. These uses can also be related to forest issues: deforestation rates are going up exponentially, such as in the Amazon basin. The other concern is moving into areas that have not been used previously for agriculture, but rather have been used by pastoralists, grazers, etcetera. What's happening is you're getting an extending agricultural frontier for large producers. One thing to remember: There Is No Empty Land.

In any country where people live, there is no empty land. In Botswana, the population density is less then 2 people per square kilometer, with less then half the population of Rome residing in the entire nation. Even if a patch of land in Botswana looks empty, you can bet someone goes there once a year to collect firewood, medicine, run their cattle, whatever. These people are losers, because in land competitions, they simply have no "dog in the fight".

The bottom billion are the poorest people in the world, with the most food insecurity.

Small scale land users are increasingly finding themselves in direct competition for land with local, national, and global elites and investors. An estimated 20 million hectares of land was under consideration by investors since 2006. (http://www.landcoalition.org/cpl-blog/ )

This is a hard situation to address since there are such big differences in economic and political power. Many journalists have been calling us at the ICL about the "land grab". Daiwoo is currently trying to grab 1.3 million hectares in Madagascar, or half of the countries arable land, where half of the nation's people rely on agriculture. Many deals are going on quietly like this.

One of our members estimates that since 2006, 20 million hectares are under consideration in these kinds of transnational investment deals. It is hard to estimate exact figures, since these deals are happening in an un-transparent matter. These are the big multi-nationals looking for land, but at the same there are 10, a hundred, a thousand more people just at the local level out there as well. A rich guy from town goes to a rural area and decides he wants 20 or 30 hectares here or there, squeezing out the very poor.

Here's a process lots of our members are concerned about: how do you think all this is affecting women's access to land? Consider tat women are already marginal in terms of their ability to gain access to land.

Have communities blocked or contested these land deals?

There were serious riots in Madagascar over the Daiwoo case, resulting in the toppling of the nation's government. When the new president came in to Madagascar, one of the first things he did was announce that the Daiwoo case was scrapped. In Peru, 30 people were killed last week for the same reason. There is some diversity between what is happening in Africa and Latin America. In Africa, we see the privatization of commerce, of state's buying the land of other states, when food security became an imperative. For countries who know it will be impossible to improve their productivity of agriculture - such as Japan or Arabic countries - they need a way to be sure their security and access to food will be certain, to avoid social conflict. Since the 2008 increase of food prices, there have been 50 different social conflicts in the street due to food. This can be a serious problem for states, especially in the developing world.

Peru is related to destructive industry - even if Peru is showing both cases, in the selva where this happened, we encounter the same idea of industries accessing commons. The increase of re-concentration of land in Peru is high. The re-concentration process is huge, really huge.

Our prime concern at ICL is the impact on people who use the land. In the case of a shelf in the ocean, no one is living there. We don't have as many activities in the Asian regions where there is a real problem with water rights. There is not a huge demand yet for working for ocean shelf rights.

Questions: Who is speculating on food prices aside from biggies like Monsanto and Sargento, so on?

n some settings in Latin America, an increase in food prices is linked to the rise in gas prices. There is a chain there - how is energy related to food? Speculation is becoming, more and more, in a way important as well. it's all related to the market. That would be interesting - we are speaking mostly of land governance, which is not so far from food governance - but it would also be interesting to understand what the institutionality of it is. We want the best institutions to ensure fair food governance, which aids the eradication of poverty. Not the most urgent challenge we face right now, but in a way...

WTO's take on agriculture?

A lot of people have given up on the WTO. I think that they tried very hard and didn't manage. The WTO'S Corporate Measures to Address the Human Rights Challenge does touch on what could be put in place to reduce the likelihood of speculation. It is acknowledged, at least, that speculation is a problem.

There is increasing commercial pressure on land and the position of women. How would commercial pressure affect women more then men?

Men already have the rights, and women are working to get them. Matrilineal systems are often not recognized in the formal system, affecting their ability to own land even if their family has for years. The idea of plural tenure systems is important here - in other words, a legal system not formally recognizing the informal or customary system. As soon as the land increases in value, things get worse for those who do not own the land "officially." A well established process: as value increases, those with a tenuous hold on the resource to begin with lose.

FAO put out a publication on Biofuel, Demand for Land and Women with some interesting thoughts on the situation. The huge increase in demand for land will affect all poor people, some more then others.

ILC on Women's Access:

For more information on women's access to land and documents and descriptions, check out this website:

http://www.landcoalition.org/program/wrap.htm

The Speed of land grabbing

In Colombia and Argentina, corporations and other groups are moving through trees faster then any law. The legal system of the country is following the economic driver in a schizophrenic way, and things are therefore occurring with no control. Many changes have been proposed in recent legislation. Colombia wants to remove protections to make transactions easier to do.

Land use is driven by food and energy. What can you produce yourself? What can you import?

The importance of agriculture is the other side of the food security crisis, in regards to economic issues. Attention should be given to small scale agriculture. One of the debates about the commercial pressure on land generated regards the level of employment. We need activities that engage more people, not just economic activities that do not give people employment opportunities. It is important factor, and should be considered by government. It's not just a food crisis but affects the general market. Land use is complex.

Should women be proud that we are now farmers? Still agricultural is not all rentable. If men are migrating for more lucrative opportunities, and women are producing food for their families, are women really winning?

Recently we had an assembly in Nepal and it was interesting - at the border with India. I was meeting a group of women, who were organizing cooperatives to support the male part of the land movement. I was impressed by the fact that if I, as a woman, was born there, I would be given by my family to a man at the age of 7, under the idea of domestic service. I have two children, n so I was quite impressed by these women's stories. The situation is changing. With the security of one piece of land, you can keep your children without sending them off to work, and maybe send them to school. This made me realize why land is so important. Land is a safety net, an assurance of quality of life, an opportunity.

So that's to give you a more concrete sense of why it is important that there are more and more women, due to migration and the rentability of agriculture, are taking on a role in agriculture as a farmer. What is impressive is the fact that they are speaking about and changing their economic role, not just a social or familiar role.

If land is a challenge in rural development, it's even more complicated and challenging for women. The gap Mike referred to is between what is law and what is the reality of the women in their daily lives. It's important to understand. Due to the complexity of these customary, statutory, and regulatory things, it is hard to understand what is possible for women to achieve in a given place, in regards to what is given by law and social or religious contexts.

ILC has been focusing on land issues and women's access to land since we were created. It's a complementary approach: we began with a program called the Women's Resource Access Program. We supported this program, and now support programs in Asia and Africa, in an effort to have the voices of women be heard and understood by project designers and policy makers. We organized a workshop to get people to express their concern on this topic. Now we are moving to a structural research approach, what we are implementing in Africa and Latin America. We have to understand the gap between statutory law and customary law, as well as women's contribution to food security, agriculture, and so on. What are the challenges women face in this new global context?

Another important activity we do is monitor the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). This is a conventional legally binding instrument. Once a country adopts the CEDAW, it is legally obliged to adopt this convention. The 14th, 15th, and 16th articles regard women and land. This is the only international institution recognizing rural women as such. This allows women to access all services given to men, such as the access to credit, access to financial institution,and so on. Countries are thus obliged to provide services in a fair way, and ILC looks at what is given to women and men, and work out some equality in the sense of an opportunity given at the same time and in the same WAY.

The legal part of access to land is important. We are in a a way obliging states to legalize what is the land ownership in the name of women. The 16h Article is more related to the access to irrigated land.

At an international level, the importance of women's land access has been confirmed. At the governmental level, too - more and more governments are including equal opportunity in their legislation. These issues need to be recognized.

So I will bring you to the other level of activity ILC does . It's the promotion of real events, related to the resource in a sense. Even if a government recognizes equal rights for men and women, there is often a gap in implementation. What we are doing is supporting women's groups and their advocacy activity. ILC supports activities at field levels, and a local organization, as a land concerned society, is taking an active role. This creates political sustainability , due to its locality.

In Nicaragua, what we understood is that it is important to get organized. Despite the fact that a law recognizes your rights as a woman, you still have no decision making powers. You still have to get your husband's permission for a loan, or you can't be on the board of a cooperative. There are obstacles that must be addressed. What we understood is that there are a lot of contributions to the economic sphere of the family that must be supported. Once the economic achievement occurs, men will recognize it, and hopefully decrease domestic violence.

Women in Nicaragua are now leasing and buying land, a real change in their status. This gives them economic opportunity and a lot of support. The case of Bolivia is an important one - it is recognized in the equal rights for women as related to land. I remember a male Bolivian farmer who told me "I could give my life for Eva Morales but since he told me women can access land...that's too much!"

Now I understand better, and I know why men were telling me that. In the Bolivian case, there were important things emerging. In the customary structure of the people of Bolivia, there is a system giving you rights and obligations as a couple. You only acquire an identity as a human being if you are married. Rights to resources are only given to couples, and higher then individual rights as well. It is hard to separate men and women through this custom. There is fertile land and infertile land, and in the Amara culture, it's quite evident.

Also in Bolivia, even if the law gives the right - there is an increase in land entitled to women. But the men challenge them in decision making processes - the level of representation at decision making boards in their own social structure. The role of women matters on the economic side. They may have money or transportation, but who is making the final decision? That must be changed.

In the Southern part of Bolivia, there is a completely different situation. In the low-land, there is a high level of informality and in fact - an organization member of ILC in Bolivia, active on land issues - did marriage in groups for native people. There is no formalization of marriage rights. The ILC also released identity cards to local people. If you have no recognition of your civil rights, you can't recognize other rights. You must formalize marriages in these regions, and in the process, grant rights to women.

As viewed through cases in South Africa, there are many similarities on the customary side across the world. When you want to better understand how you can work on gap between customary and statuary law, we have to look for a link between therecognition of land rights for women and a decrease in domestic violence. The attitude of human beings is often in common.

What are we doing in terms of supporting local organization? It is important to understand local dynamics.

The third part is supporting legal employment. This woman in Nicaragua told me, "If you don't know your rights, you cannot defend them." Any unknown right is therefore a lost one. Land literacy is education to land rights. We believe it is important on the part of the legal system. Because we have been supporting these things in the past, we took some time to review activities, and hope to build something more coherent by the end of this year.

What are some answers to the biofuel demand?

Our role in the ILC Secretariat is to facilitate an informed discussion on these. We bring together strong research, with organizations who represent people who are directly affected by this. These include farmer's organizations, and policy makers. Next month we are organizing a conference in Utrecht with a number of Northern governments, including the Dutch and the ministry for biofuels, and people from places like India, Indonesia, and Bolivia, to come and discuss this. We try to create this space for dialogue - in something like biofuels, so much is driven by policy. If the US or European policies on biofuels changed tomorrow, things would be very different.

The Dutch have developed the Cramer Criteria, which is an effort to define for the public sector what exactly is sustainable biofuel production. This is very controversial - how would you license it? Land that palm oil is grown on in Indonesia was acquired illegally or chopped down. Part of the process of changing the status quo is generating consumer sentiment about these issues. Big Swedish companies acquiring land in Tanzania and Mozambique often sold themselves as socially responsible biofuel organizations. Awareness of these land grabs has caused many investors to pull out. It's market driven, and sometime if the people buying these products do become aware of these issues and their impact on land use and rights, it can have a big impact.

I think all our members would say biofuels - such as jatropha - are very good at a small level, such as people growing it in their backyards. Milling Jatropha is really easy. We see people making their own lighting fuel, cooking fuel, and so on. Two years ago biofuels were marketed as this new green energy, but people are realizing now that biofuel not nearly as green as we thought. Think of Richard Branson flying his plane from London to Paris on 2% biofuels (100,000 coconuts?)

For example, through IFAD we've had links with the US congress. A congress guy from Wisconsin wants to put a bill on biofuels and large scale acquisitions to the US Senate. This kind of thing is what we at ILC care about. On one hand, we have members in the South (of the world) feeling this, and we have members like IFAD with access to Western decision making. They have asked us to comment on the bill they want to propose. These are issues in the South but they are driven by policy in the North (of the world). What we are trying to do in this conference next month is bring together Northerners, Southerners (government people), investors, palm oil producers, and so on.

Fast Food Nation: Gender, Sex and Food

2009-06-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Fast Food Nation is meant to deliver a message about the problems of our current food system, particularly the major food chains that focus on cost over quality. However, the film also delivers a heaping helping of hints at other problems such as illegal immigration and gender issues. The film is sure to cover a range of female personalities and problems, as displayed by the sisters Sylvia and Coco. Both are employed at some point by the UNP plant, and both end up sleeping with the supervisor, Mike. These two characteristics are used to show just how different the sisters are. When examining gender in this film it is essential to put less emphasis on the action and more on the motives behind the action.

The UNP plant serves as a backdrop for much of the action in Fast Food Nation, mostly because the location demonstrates a clear chain of command with a very strict set of rules. Even the shockingly white surroundings and clothing bear down on the characters in an oppressive way, and the jobs appear to be assigned based on gender. The majority of the female employees are at working cutting meat while the males are shown operating machinery and using power washers. Here, Mike serves as a god who enforces the rules and pushes production along at a painfully fast rate while verbally and sexually harassing each of the female employees.

The relationship between Coco and Mike is confusingly fast paced and based entirely on lust, but even in the scene where she threatens to kill him it is clear that he is in complete control of the relationship. In the sex scene that ensues Mike promises to find a better job for his lover and provides her with cocaine, but also tells her that who he sleeps with is none of her business. Coco gets into an argument with her sister about her drug usage and “boyfriend” where she says, “Let's see who's doing better in six months.” This implies that sex is her strategy for getting ahead, and that she has little intention of working for a living.

In stark contrast, Sylvia works for love and only sleeps with the supervisor in order to get a job so that she can support her husband who has been injured. Even after compromising her own integrity she only manages to get a spot on the “kill floor” where the work is the most brutal and gruesome. Outside of work, she has taken up the role of home maker. In the scene where she argues with her sister, Sylvia is pictured with a sponge in her hand while never leaving the kitchen.

The other women in the film have their own struggles. As a young woman with dreams and aspirations, Amber has her sights set on college and hopes to become an astronaut. Her uncle, on the other hand, just wants her to make it to 21 years old without getting pregnant. Through the course of the movie viewers watch her move from the rigid rules of her job at Mickey's where she was forced to serve with a fake smile so that she could earn extra money to the college organization where she could think and plan for herself in order to stand up for her own ideals. She manages to get to the cattle farm and cut the fence, but does not succeed in freeing the cows. It does not matter though, because the fact that she was able to try for something she actually believed in is the only thing that mattered.

Amber's mother Cindy does not play an important role in the film, but she does represent Amber's future if she were to give up. Cindy does not believe in politics and claims that all politicians are corrupt, and she is also shown working a job that is not much better than the one Amber has now. This representation of a woman who did not chase her dreams serves as a challenge to Amber, in hopes that she will not be dragged into a gender based role. The end of the film leaves her future open and uncertain, which is better than any of the other women in the story can say. The rest of them are left to pay off debts or support their husbands, while the youngest female is left to decide her own fate.

Food, Gender, and Globalization in International Institutions

2009-06-11T14:01:00.001-07:00

Food, Gender, Globalization in International Institutions -

Nathan Morrow Globalization, Free Trade, and Food

Globalization, Free Trade, and Food is perhaps the most important discussion of the 21st century. Today we'll discuss food and food security, and will offer some perspective as to why the USA and other areas may differ in opinion on these matters.

I will discuss international institutions as a prep for your trip to Rome tomorrow. I will let you know how these international organizations fit into the system.

We have had perspectives from many sides but we have not had not the neo-con perspective from the World Trade Organization. Why do so many people throughout the world feel that globalization and free trade is the best way for everyone?

Nathan Morrow's Notes on Globalization, Free Trade, and Food

Disclaimer: Not necessarily Nathan Morrow's opinion.

A Different Approach.

Everyone benefits if people are allowed to do what they do best, and allowed to trade for what they want. This method is just more efficient. The convertibility of currencies and the fungibility of commodities is important. You have to know what your money is worth in the units of other currencies. We need a fixed idea of an exchange rate for your good in your own money. This is ESSENTIAL for globalization, and for countries to join the global economy.

The fungibility of commodities means that one unit of a product is exchangeable for another unit of the same commodity elsewhere. Basmati rice from India must be exchangeable with Basmati rice in Italy.

How does this work? Why do we think free trade and globalization matter so much?

Free Trade and Comparative AdvantageComparative Advantage: -

The ability to produce a service or good at a lower cost is important. This is an opportunity cost, as compared to doing something else. Many people, such as neoconservatives, think there is something "natural" about the advantage they enjoy, even if the advantage or DISadvantage was created by historical accident. If you hear them talk, there's the perception that, say, America's high production of wheat is natural and a historical accident . The belief goes that we have the land, people do what they do to produce the wheat, and so on. When people discuss comparative advantage, that is what they are talking about.

When discussing costs, we are discussing OPPORTUNITY COSTS, or what things cost in relation to the opportunity to do something else. Making parmesan is cheaper in Parma then making asiago because you have the resources, the right milk, the knowledge, and so on. How does this actually work? What is the thinking behind why this make a surplus and makes us all better?

Efficiency: Natural advantage is more efficient. If you increase your efficiency beyond "natural" advantage, as we all know you can create advantages. Governments make lots of policy and investments to increase their natural abilities. Singapore, for example, invests big time in brain surgery. How does this efficiency work?

Two ways:Specialization - Human beings or organizations focus their efforts on a limited number of tasks.

Division of Labor - Adam Smith talks about this. This involves taking a complex thing or task and breaking it down into small components, and then specializing. You've focusing on fewer products

.Up until this point, talking to Slow Food and the Washington consensus sounds similar: they agree that everyone should do what they do best. They DIFFER when it comes to getting down to products and efficiency. Small products and repetitive tasks will produce efficiency.

What are the opinions of groups controlling financial institutions, and why are they against trade barriers and transportation costs?

What takes away efficiency from this perfect market system is a TRADE BARRIER and rising TRANSPORTATION COSTS. The market system drivers want gas to be as cheap as possible, and must ensure trade barriers are not erected to distort this.

Last year's price crisis was the biggest challenge to globalization since the 50's. People put up price controls and bans on food and ONLY food. You saw governments panicking about gas prices as well. This was the first threat to this system, and a real expose of its vulnerability.

Who takes care of these issues of convertibility of currencies? How did that start?

A major national group of organizations concerned with this are the Bretton Woods Organization.

They are the ones entrusted with trying to keep the convertibility system as functional as possible. The fungibility of food commodities, the units with no qualitative differences, are kept straight by standards. Quality has certain benchmarks. The international organizations that do this are like FAOL.

Why is this so important? If you do food security work (like me) and you work in places like Haiti, this will be illustrated. In Haiti, everyone uses a cup of grain. In every village within walking distance, the cup is a different size. In the Congo, you buy a kilo of rice, but the size of the kilo changes constantly, though the price is always the same. So it's always 500 francs. The price never changes. You may call it a weight name but it actually indicates a price, and the weight you GET is negotiated always at the time of sale. So, what is 500 francs? It could be 800 grams, or it could be 1200, depending on the actual price of rice in the market. This is how markets actually ARE and have been for millennia. Local measures were used, and negotiations always occurred.

This WILL NOT WORK for globalization and will make the system fall apart. The cheese tastes better sometimes then other times, wine tastes better, you get more or less for your money. This reality flies in the face of globalization.

What is Bretton Woods?

When we discuss Bretton Woods, we're talking about a negotiated system of monetary exchange. A treaty signed prior to the end of WWII, was created when the Allies met in New Hampshire to sign a treaty on how currency would be handled after the war. Bretton Woods was established by the Reconstruction Bank and the IMF, and would set exchange rates on a currency set by the USA Dollar. Why was the DOLLAR used instead of the GOLD STANDARD?

Britain, France, Belgium, the other allies, hadall pegged THEIR currency to the US dollar. They could have just pegged it to gold. They didn't have any gold after the war. Nobody had any after the war. It was much easier to fly a plane somewhere full of 100 dollar bills then it was to fly a whole bunch of gold.

So where did the gold go?There was not enough gold to reconstruct Europe. and there never was. All the gold was in the hands of people in Switzerland, and just not enough. If you're discussing the reconstruction of an entire continent, it was not enough. And it had already been spent. The UK sent off their gold stores all over the world, and France's store was stolen and probably went to warlords.

After this, you could buy T-BILLS or Treasury Bills, which you could stick in a vault in the bottom of your reserve INSTEAD of gold. The IMF was founded to add liquidity>, short term loans, and guarantees. They in effect said, "T Bills might not be here yet, but we will insure them".

Why did they do this?

People felt financial volatility CAUSED WWII. It allowed the rise of fascism. They needed a stable financial structure to decrease their vulnerability. Globalization began before this, but the convertibility of currencies really jump started it.

What is the IMF?The IMF has a subscription service. If you look at both the bank and the IMF, they have periodic replenishments. They go all over the world, and everyone sends a chunk of T bills or gold, and they pay for their subscription. They are almost like shareholders. The IMF is very different from other UN organizations, and the USA holds more sway then any other nation, as they control almost 25% of the supplies.

HISTORY OF THE IMF

Massive loans were given after WWII from the reconstruction bank, which was a precursor of the World Bank. The USA still had most of the gold in the world, and literally did not have enough dollars to reconstruct Europe. The USA did have gold, but had to pay 28 dollars for an ounce of gold, hindering their printing. Therefore, they needed gold to replace the dollar. The solution to this problem? The bank began giving GRANTS instead of LOANS. This gave rise to our modern international aid infrastructure. Since there is not enough currency, you cannot just give loans. People will never repay them. Grants are therefore, the only way to conduct this business.

Marshall Plan:The Marshal Plan gave over 17 billion in grants. These grants changed the world financial situation from a dollar SHORTAGE to a dollar GLUT. The Europeans bought services and products from the USA in vast amounts. A glut also meant too MANY dollars in the US system. There were issues with places like Belgium buying dollars and exchanging them for gold, as gold was worth more then the official US rate. This cycle kept on going as people attempted to cheat the system. By then, gold was worth more then 28 dollars. The whole system collapsed in 1972.

After 1972, we went back to a fiat system with no world standard, but a faith that government will continue to exist, that money is worth something. Rates have been floating ever since.

International Finance Organization

The IFO gives loans to private investors. The multi investment guarantee agencies guarantee foreign direct investments. The International Settlement for Investment Disputes works to bring down barriers or worries about developing in a developing countries. They give you (the investor) guarantees you will not lose your investment if something bad happens.

Structural Adjustments

What is this?

Structural Adjustment programs are a set of policies to promote free trade and growth. They focus on lowering trade barriers and transport costs.

Countries with SA had World Bank advisors come and say, "We can readjust your loans, or we can give you forgiveness." This began in 1970 as response to oil crisis, and went from structural adjustment to "poverty reduction" as of the late 90's

.What does a SA or poverty adjustment plan look like in action?

One theory is austerity.

You reduce your public sector spending, but this leaves less money for health, education, social programs. Less money, as always, means an outsized impact on the poor. If you reduce your trade barriers, you reduce your public sector. These are the PILLARS of poverty reduction plans.

We know in practice that a reduction in trade barries increases people's vulnerability. People put up trade barriers to protect consumers and people from volatility. Trade barriers and protectionism are popular among the poor, as well as public programs and safety nets. Structural adjustment wants to promote growth in order to expose the poor to more risk. The more risk you take, the more growth you can have. The poor are risk adverse, as they lose more if something goes wrong. Thereby trade barriers and social programs are very popular among the wealthy and powerful.

.Asian Financial Crisis: The Asian Tigers made the case for free trade and structural adjustment . If you practiced free trade and structural adjustment, you could be the next Singapore or Malaysia. After the crisis, this created Bretton Woods 2. The Tigers lost 20 years of development overnight due to financial volatility. They were doing great for 20 years and then, they lost it. They decided to voluntarily repeg their currencies. China and Malaysia are still pegged to the USA dollar to decrease volatility and stability.

This is a brief overview of how UN financial organizations fit into this system. Who will we talk to in Rome?FAO and EFAD. They are part of the UN like the World Bank, but not everyone knows a lot about the UN.

Some background on the UN:The UN is an organization with five organs, which are independent subgroups of a larger organization. The UN General Assembly, which has one participant from each member country. The UN Security Council is subset of the general assembly. The UN Economic and Social Council is an organ that the agencies we will be talking to tomorrow are part of.The UN Secretariat is composed of the the secretary general, an organ in and of himself in his treaties, and in his staff.The International Court of Justice is the 5th organ. What is the UN Charter? Preamble: We the peoples of the UN are determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedoms.

Why are the UN economic and Social councils an important part of the UN System?The UN was created to promote peace, but it is not exactly clear how the cause of peace is furthered by the UN Economic and Social Council. The UN's main vehicle of peace promotion is creating social rights and standards of well being. The UN'S objectives are thereby: Peace, how do we achieve peace and, social and well being promotion. This is all done through social needs.

Charter Article 55

With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being, which are needed for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of people's, the UN shall promote: Higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of social and economic progress and development. Solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems, and international cultural and educational cooperation. Universal respect for, and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinctions as to race, sex, language, or religion.

In the charter, organizations are saying that we will promote peaceful relations through economic connectivity and social promotion. We will look at the Mandate for Food Security from a humanitarian and well-being perspective on the Universal Declaration of Human and Rights, circa 1948.

According to Article 25 of the Mandate: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and needed social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or others lacks of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in and out of wedlock, are shall enjoy the same social protection.

Food agencies get their mandate from these articles. If we look at the original UN charter and how it relates to economic and social council, it's all in the "sixties".

What does the Economic and Social Council of the UN do? The Council does studies and reports, and has meetings. This is their mandate. This is what the UN is mandated to do. While people often tear apart the UN for meeting all the time, this is actually what they were MEANT TO DO.

Where did this curious affinity for meetings come from? These articles:Article 62: Make studies and report, recommendations, draft conventions, hold conferences.

Article 64: Collect reports of specialized agencies.

Article 65: Within tech competency, implement recommendations of GA.

Article 66: Assist Security Council on request - more info on food situation in North Korea, for example - ask FAO if they have any reports and do a study if not.

The FAO is a giant building full of meeting rooms. It is their job to meet.! Enshrined in these articles is the idea of TECHNICAL COMPETENCY. People who are technically competent in these specific areas should be hired to advise everyone else

.Charter on Meetings:One is always impressed at these organizations ability to meet and TALK. The UN is supposed to have COMMISSIONS and deliberations.

. 68 - Commissions 69, 70 - Deliberations 71 - Consult non government organizations.

72 - Convene meetings

What are specialized agencies?They report directly to the UN Economic and Social council. FAO, IFAID, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, World Bank Group, and so on.There are other things in the UN System called PROGRAMMES.

Specialized agencies are the mirrors of ministries or secretariats in other countries. The FAO is the counterpart of the Department of Agriculture in the USA. What we in the USA have secretaries for, other countries have MINISTRIES. The UNDP works with PLAN and the Ministry of Finance.

If the UN doesn't just want to meet and deliberate but be operational (actually do stuff,) they start a PROGRAMME.

Specialized agencies don't have a mandate for operational work, but programmes do. The General Assembly gets together and says they want to take care of something - hunger, aids, whatever. They ask 3 or more specialized agencies to sponsor the program, organizations like the World Food Organization or UNICEF.

Take the UNAIDS program as an example.- WHO, UNICEF, and WFP were the original sponsors of the program. You need more then one specialized agency to support a programme. Programmes are created when the need exists for ACTION rather then MEETINGS.

IFAD: One of the three Rome based food agencies. A UN specialized agency and international financial institution, it was founded in 1978 as a partnership between OPEC, other developing countries, and OECD. The OECD is the "country club of the UN", the richest nations who give donations. 5 million people died the last time the oil market was volatile. Their mission is to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty, and to make a unique governance structure that gives developing countries a real voice.

What exactly does IFAD do? Low interest loans and grants to aid agricultural development. 9.5 billion currently invested in 732 programmes and projects from small grants to USA 50 million loans.

They do...Natural resources management, for improved land and water access. Promote agricultural technologies and services. Perform financial services. Provide market and Agricultural inputs. Provide rural off-farm employment and enterprises. Provide policy programming processes - local and national.They review projects to make sure they are compliant with policy on nutrition and gender.

IFAD Partners:Government

Bilateral and multilateral organizations

UN organizations

Sister agencies in Rome - FAO and WFP.NGO's and civil society.

Grassroots organizations.

Private sector/foundations.

How is IFAD financed? There are three main sources - member contributions, loan reflows, and investment income. You want to make other countries guilty. You want to ask them, "Have you given? This other guy did!" The USA put up $956 million in initial capital. There are three year replenishment cycles, and approximately 45% of IFAD's resources come from donors. IFAD does not, however, have a celebrity spokesperson. :(

FAO:Founded in 1945, the FAO was moved to Rome in 1951. Dionne Warwick is a FAO good will ambassador. Awesome!

FAO'S MANDATE:

Raise nutrition levels.

Improve agricultural productivity.

Better the lives of rural populations.

Contribute to world economic growth. Here we see two main ideas of this course playing off one another: productivity vs. well being.

"Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts." - to ensure people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives.

The FAO is voluntary funded. You can contribute to FAO and be a member or NOT. The USA has pulled out of the FAO at several points in history. This is one of the reason there are no Americans at the FAO. The Dutch, however, are over-represented in the FAO. If you are Dutch and apply at FAO, 15 points are docked from your score. The USA is a underrepresented major donor country. We give a large amount of money and are underrepresented.

FAO Activities:Gather and share agricultural information.

Hold meetings to discuss agriculture policy.

Some coordination functions like FIVIMS (Food Information Vulnerability and Security Information Mapping Service) or GTO'S. (Global Terrestrial Observations System looking at land use the world over).

FAO also deals with fisheries and woodlands.

Occasional projects to support agricultural ministries.

Will partner with governments to go out for additional fundraising, like Thailand or Bangladesh for small fish ponds. (They have stopped doing this to a large extent.) Increasingly active in emergency projects.

WFP:The other organization in Rome. It was founded in 1963, and was proposed to the General Assembly by George McGovern (still a WFP goodwill ambassador). It is a multi-lateral food aid program active in 80 countries. They are arguably the coolest good will ambassadors, featuring spokespeople like Drew Barrymore and Cesaria Evoria.

UN Rome Agencies: WFP: Largest humanitarian organization in the world.

FAO: Increasing emergency capacity and coordinating emergency information.

IFAD: Reducing vulnerability for rural poor.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth, and other statuses. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of political, jurisdictional, or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.Gender is mainstreamed, but some UN focus occurs from:UNICEFUNFPAUNAIDS

Sabrina on Sugar: Morning Lecture

2009-06-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Sabrina gave us our morning lecture, entitled The Prototype of Globalized Food: Sugar.

A Universal Treat?

Studies with infants have led researchers to conclude that humans have an inherent fondness for sugar. A study on sucrose intolerant people in Alaska shows that these people would rather suffer dire health consequences then stop eating it. The preference for sweet food may be an adaptation by ancestral populations, which favored ripe and sweet fruit. In nature, sweetness indicates a high level of edibility. The preference for sugar is not just human. Essentially all mammals enjoy and seek out sweet foods.

What is sugar?

Sugar is an organic chemical of the carbohydrate family, made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are many varieties of sugar, but we are concentrating today on sucrose. Sugar is found in all grasses, in some roots, and in the sap of trees. It is the result of photosynthesis. Sugar is also a fundamental feature of life's chemical architecture. In a sense, we are made of sugar!

Physical Limits in Sugar Production

- Tropical and subtropical regions only.
- Lots of irrigation required.
- A long cycle: the harvest can exceed 12 months.
- A labor intense crop.

See: http://ww.mefeedia.com/entry/sugarcane-factory-in-india/11133774

http://www.scgc.org/xsteps.html

Sugar beets.

The Cultivation of Sugar

Sucrose is produced from sugar cane or sugar beets, and it is thought that sugar cane appeared first in New Guinea. Sugar preparation is not really manufacturing, but it does involve more than the squeezing of liquids, and their eventual crystallization. There is no reference to sugar prior to the Christian era in Europe, although Indian literature uses it in recipes as early as 400 B.C. Romans probably got to know sugar from the Indians. Sugar really took off between 600 to 700 AD, when the Arabs spread sugar cultivation all over the Mediterranean and into Spain, thus supplying Africa and the middle east with the product. After the Crusades of the XI century, the Arab's sugar operations were taken over by Christians, who divided its production and its marketing. A decline in production ensued.

Cultivation of Sugar 2

The Spanish and Portuguese expansions into the Atlantic soon led to the planting of sugar in the Islands and in the New World. By the end of the 16th century, many sugar plantations were established, on Atlantic islands like Sao Tome, the Madeira's, La Palma, the Azores, and the Canaries. Slavery proved crucial to sugar production during this time. The Portuguese, to alleviate the labor shortage, invaded several African areas to acquire man power. The Spanish system, for its part, mixed slavery and wage labor. From the 16th to the 17th century, sugar stopped being a special or medicinal spice. Sugar remained a deluxe and popular product.

St. Croix Sugar Factories of the Past

The British Mode

1591 Quote: "English booty in West India produce is so great that sugar is cheaper in London then it is in Lisbon or the Indies themselves."

Sugar production and acquisition went from base piracy to an organized system thanks to the British. The British found a good settlement in Barbados, and quickly developed a taste for the sweet stuff. Internal sugar consumption in England ten fold from 1160 to 1753, as the English developed processing technologies. The English also began plying convenient "routes" in the sugar production cycle. The finished good went to Africa, captured slaves went to the Americas, and tropical commodities like sugar were sent to the mother land. The word "Barbadoes" function as a verb in XVII England, and was used to indicate a petty criminal with no protection, or someone unworthy of being taken into the machine of justice.

Constance Through Changes

The year 1807 ended the slave trade in the colonies, and the time between 1834 to 1838 saw a total end to slavery in the British empire. Indentured labor (not much of an improvement) became "free" labor. Further, the key ownership of means of sugar production remained unchallenged. Consumption of sugar did not diminish, but colonial production of sugar cane did. Beet sugar was progressively introduced from 1800 on.

The XIX Century

By 1800, British sugar consumption had increased 2500% in 150 years. By 1800, probably 245,000 tons of sugar reached the world market, and almost all of it consumed in Europe. By 1830, this was 572,000 tons of sugar, and by 1860 it was 1,373,000 tons of sugar (including beets). By 1890 it was 6,000,000 tons, and by World War One had reached 16,000,000 tons of sugar hitting the world market.

Sugar cane truck in Barbados.

The XX Century

From 1900 to 1970, world sugar production increased 500%. By 1970, 21 to 51 grams of sugar were available per capita per day, and 9% of available calories were produced bysucrose. Sugar consumption not only increased but functioned as substitution. Sucrose was swapped for starches.

Boring Diets in Northern Europe

The classic Northern European diet featured mostly wheat, grains, and legumes, with rare incidences of wild birds and fish. There was little dairy, and almost no fruit for the working class. Spices arrived to introduce some welcome savory flavor into what had been essential and repetitive diets, with bread as a staple food.

Sugar Consumption in England

Sugar was very little known prior to the end of XVII century. It was introduced in Europe around 1100 AD during the Crusades, and slowly spread North. Sugar was first used as a precious spice and medicine, and was often considered to be rare, tropical, and exotic. By the XVI century, sugar was no longer viewed as a spice, and was often combined with almond paste (introduced in 1200,) rice, scented waters, and gums. Sugar became increasingly to be viewed as a luxurious decoration for powerful people. By the XIX century, sugar was widely regarded as a decorative and high-status commodity.

Sugar cane growth.

Sugar as Gold

The intrinsic luxury of sugar was emphasized by elaborate creations made out of sugar, which graced the tables of the rich. These ornate statues were often allusive of power and strength: they often portrayed temples, castles, and armies. As sugar's role in the world economy expanded, its symbolism as an indicator of power began to decline.

Sugar as Medicine

Both Galen and Hippocrates discuss sugar. In 1000, in Italian Bysanthium, a Greek recorded sugar as a medicine. For Thomas Aquinas, sugar functioned as a medicine and did not "break the fast". Paracelsus, for his part, considered sugar as an ingredient incapable pharmacists used to make up useless medicinal combinations. Still, until the XVII century, the saying "Like an apothekary without sugar" indicated that something was useless. Sugar turned into a mere preservative and sweetener from the XVII to XVII century on, from the standpoint of popular opinion.

Sugar and the Poor

From the XVII century, poor people began to consume tea more then beer, which was their prior staple. Sugar became a sweetener for the poor from 1750 to 1850, as everyone in England knew about it. Sugar still did not yet function as a large caloric source. Key changes in the second half of the XIX century saw a big drop in sugar prices, a rise in use, and sugar's entrance into almost all foods, thus providing a big increase in protein. By 1900, sugar comprised 1/6 of an individual's caloric intake in England.

Sugar and the Poor III

The English pattern of sugar consumption has been repeated, with some time differences, in other locations. The USA's pattern of sugar conumption resembled that of the English , due to the State's access to tropical areas. By 1880, the USA was ahead of all sugar consumers except for the UK. All over the world, sugar has filled the caloric gaps in the diet of the laboring poor.

Sugar Daddy!

Sugar and the Poor - III

Sugar was a crucial factor of fortune in England, and was behind appeal and power-connections.

This was because of:

-The decrease in sugar costs (second half of 18th century).

-Sugar's combination with tea as sweetener.

-Sugar as a supplement to a meager and boring diet (not as popular in France, which as a nation knew how to cook!.)

-More people are able to do wage work if they have more time on their hands. Women began to spend more time working in manufacturing, and spent less time on family subsistence, leading to a rise in pre-cooked food consumption.

- Sugar was often used in combination with bread, producing high quantities of calories for little money and little time.

Epitomization of the Capitalist Process (via Sugar.)

- The use of labor (even unfree) on a world scale in the name of profit growth.
- The separation between production, and value added processing.
- A growth in production and in market coverage, with an eye toward the increase of profit.
- Controlled worldwide prices.
- The transformation of society from functional to profit-driven - wage seeking proletariat's consume more sugar.
- The commodification of food.

Uses in Processed Food

Sugar is used not only as a sweetener but also for purposes of preservation and softening. It is often used in soft drinks to make them more appealing. In the USA, per capita consumption of sugar in 1990 was around 100 pounds a year. If sugars such as high fructose corn syrup (other then sucrose) are considered, US consumption of sugar comes to around 130 pounds a person per year.

Low Input, High Outcomes

"Sugar cane and sugar beets produce larger quantities of utilizable calories per land unit in a given time then any other cultivated plant in their respective climate zones."

Per hectare, (2.47) acres, sugar cane yields 20 tons of raw, dry material (around half used to make sugar food/feed, and half as bagasse for fuel, paper products, building materials, and furfuraldehyede for nylon production.)

Out of 1 Hectare, 50 Tons of Millable Materials

- 5.6 tons of high grade raw sugar (if 40KG per capita per year), can be enough for about 140 people, providing 420KC per person per day. This can provide about 14% of a person's total daily caloric intake.

- 13.3 tons of wet sugar canematerials can produce 2.4 tons of fuel oil, 2 tons of bleached paper pulp, and 20 million calories (8 million an acre). If sugar was substituted for potatoes, it would be 4 times the extension, 9 to 12 of wheat, and 135 times for beef consumption.

When the calorie gap began to be stressed as the world began to modernize and population soared, sugar cane provided a cheap solution.

2009-06-11T13:58:00.001-07:00

Day 8

The streets of Bra.

We woke up extremely early today in order to drive to Bra for our appointment with Slow Food. This meant waking up at the distressing hour of four AM - we survived, but only barely. Luigi picked us up at 5:00, and we were on our way. Although most of us slept for the majority of the trip, the route was extremely scenic - we passed by the coast of Genova, through the alpine areas between Florence and Northern Italy, and various castles, historical areas, and villages. Not a bad way to conduct a road-trip.

Poster outside some of Slow Food's offices.

We arrived in Bra a little early for our appointment. Bra is not exactly Italy's most exciting town - it's fairly work-a-day and plain. Its primary attraction is as the HQ of Slow Food, one of the world's most powerful and pervasive organizations for the promotion of "real" food, artisan food products, and local producers. An "eco-gastronomic" organization, Slow Food's efforts include publication on various aspects of food and gastronomy, the certification and recognition of worthy restaurants in Italy and elsewhere, the creation of "networks" of food producers and other actors in the food world, promoting "taste education," protecting and aiding traditional food producers, organizing celebrations of local cuisine, and many other services and capacities. Although Slow Food remains a grassroots movement, it is growing all the time and becoming increasingly visible.

. Founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986 to combat the opening of a McDonalds near Rome's Spanish steps, Slow Food began more as a culinary club and quickly expanded outwards to many other venues and considerations. The organization now has 83,000 members in with chapters in 122 countries, with 800 convivia chapters all over the world. Italy has the greatest number of convivia, which are semi-indepnedent and conduct various events, including taste workshops, wine tastings, farmers market gathering and other efforts at promoting local foods, producers,and techniques.

Their events include Terra Madre - a huge gathering of food producers from all over the world - and the Salone del Gusto, the world's largest food and wine fair, as well as the SlowFish event conducted in Genoa. Slow Food also carries out extensive publishing on the subject of food, combining excellent design with interesting (and artistic) writing on gastronomy.

Our hosts at Slow Food elaborated upon Slow Food's aims. Briefly, Slow Food exists to "defend our right to pleasure" and to promote Good, Clean,and Fair food. Good is defined as "good to taste" - Slow Food began as a gourmet organization and still is mindful of the overwhelming import of good taste in its activities. Clean is defined as sustainable practices in production and distribution - after all, we know now that worldwide meat production is in many respects more harmful for the enviroment then the production of oil! Finally, "fair" is defined as an effort to produce good treatment, work conditions, and pay for farmers and producers the world over. To help further these efforts, Slow Food has created a Foundation for Biodiversity, which travels the world to assist people in traditional production and the sale of their wares.

We also discussed the notion of Presidia - Slow Food's local efforts to protect and further the production of distinctive foods and prevent their extinction. 120 presidia exist the world over, with the aim of aiding producers - further, the preservation of these foods also helps enhance the overall welfare of the community and preserve related cultural traditions. (Slow Food nicely illustrates how central food is to everything when you get into it). Slow Food maintains the most presidia in Italy (200)- some of the cheeses and meats we sampled are part of these programs.

We then discussed education, one of Slow Food's paramount concerns. Slow Food considers the consumer to be a co-producer of food - on other words, the consumer's decision to buy something has an effect on production and what gets produced in the first place. Slow Food would like consumers to buy good, local food - and to achieve that goal, consumers need to be educated - if you've never had good, local food (an unfortunate reality for many people,) how will you know what to buy? To achieve these ends, Slow Food conducts Taste Workshops (which we experienced) through its associations located across the world. Slow Food also conducts the aforementioned large conferences and workshops, with the intent of bringing together world producers so that they may network and pass on information.

We briefly got into the details of Terra Madre, Slow Food's biannual world food conference and food community network. Check out the video of the 2008 conference here - it's interesting viewing. Last year's Terra Madre conference featured 7000 food producers from hundreds of countries, who convened for five days to swap ideas, stories, and information about world food production. The 2008 conference also featured 200 musicians - representatives of other cultural traditions that are swiftly disappearing. The 2010 conference is proving to be an even larger event.

After the discussion, we had our Slow Food Taste Workshop, which is described in detail below. We then briefly discussed Slow Food's University of Gastronomic Sciences, Slow Food's institution devoted to the study of gastronomy. The University approaches gastronomy through a number of disciplines - students encounter anthropology, religion, fine art, sensory analysis and other areas of study to further their understanding of gastronomical principles. The University intends to teach holistically - by combining various aspects of the incredible complexity of the study of food - to create the food experts and gastronomers of the future.

Slow Food further believes that video and film are the best ways to reach a wide range of consumers - after all, ignoring a video is a lot more difficult then ignoring a book! Along those lines, Slow Food has begun the Slow Food on Film Festival in Bologna. Awards are given out for documentaries, shorts, TV series, and Best Food Feature, and screenings are held of all manner of food-related film projects. We were finally treated to a sampling of Food Inc: a soon-to-be-released documentary on our culture of industrial food. Directed by Robert Kenner with input and interviews from such big-names as Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, it looks like it will be a compelling insight into the mysterious (and unpleasant) world of our supermarket economy.

Downtown Parma.

After our Slow Food tasting, it was time to head to Parma, where we would be spending the night. The drive was quite scenic - Northern Italy has a justifiable reputation for prettiness - and we made good time to Parma. Parma, as Sabrina informed us, was occupied by the French for a good long time - who attempted to make it into a "little Paris." It's a small and pleasant town, with an old and walkable downtown and a big population of students. The university is huge and ancient looking, and the church downtown (near where we stayed) is an excellent example of old-school Italian architecure.

We convened and headed out to find somewhere for dinner. As all the restaurants the Slow Food people reccomended to us were closed for unfathomable reasons, we stumbled upon a rather hip-looking place down a side street that appeared very popular with boozing high-schoolers.

The menu featured a wide variety of pastas specific to Parma, and not being shy about heavy food consumption, we pretty much ordered them all. Have a look:

Tagliatelle with mint, zucchini, and prosciutto. Fresh, creamy, and delicious: I will try this again. It's an ideal spring or summer dish.

Tortelli filled with some sort of cheese in a creamy sauce - these were rather like UFO-esque tortellini with a delightfully puffy texture.

Tomino cheese in puff pastry with balsamic onions. This was incredibly delicious - Sabrina turned me onto it. I will be looking for this in the future. Sort of like a brie with a more complex flavor and excellent meltiness.

Macaroni in a sort of carbonara sauce with strips of eggplant. Good, but not a show-stopper.

A regional gnocchi prepared with spinach and a slightly spicy tomato sauce. This was excellent and fresher in taste then regular gnocchi.

Simple cheese ravioli in an olive oil and garlic sauce. Fresh and rather simple.

Noodles with some dried mushrooms and a bit of a cream sauce. A good earthy flavor.

Baked eggplant with asparagus and cheese, and a bit of ham. A good vegetable-riffic appetizer and something I haven't encountered before.

The dessert menu was fairly extensive, and we were happy to partake. This was the zabaglione, an Italian custard prepared generally with egg yolk, sugar, sweet wine (usually Marsala), and often cream or mascarpone. This was a very light example of the classic, with a boozy and butterscotchy taste. Excellent when dipped into with warm, nutty biscotti-esque cookies.

A classic chocolate hazelnut mousse with a sort of nut-brittle on top. This was light as air and intensely chocolaty.

Fresh mascarpone with pineapple and cookies. This was not very sweet and had a light, fruity flavor. Definitely not a common dessert in the USA and quite fresh and good.

We also tried some excellent, slightly fizzy red wine. Although it was late, the restaurant had excellent energy and was full of people - we enjoyed it a lot and cleaned our plates completely. We headed back to the hotel and slept collectively like rocks (except perhaps for Anthony, who claimed his pillow was a rock...).

Twilight: Erotic, Pornographic, Stereotypical

2009-06-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

Fans of Stephenie Meyer’s book series Twilight are really steamy for Edward Cullen, the main male character and a century-old vampire in a angelic 17-year-old body, who sweeps the average, human, teenaged Bella, off her feet in a gripping love story. Edward becomes under the influence of Bella’s sweet smell and by the middle of the first book Edward and Bella are in love and trying hard to keep their pants on. The series has created a new sub-genre of teen romance: abstinence porn, convincing the reader that self-denial is hot. Edward and Bella’s relationship is steamy and sexually charged but unconsummated until the fourth book. Abstinence porn can be seen by some readers as uplifting, and portraying what some might see as a morally sound message to the series young readers, don’t have sex until you’re married, but is Bella actually empowered by waiting?

Teens are obviously still having sex despite the efforts of virginity rings, abstinence pledges, purity balls, and Sarah Palin and before the release of the fourth book we were all asking ourselves will the two finally do it? And if so will the magic and passion be ruined? Of course for those readers who were worried about morals, they got the message they wanted for their kids, and Bella and Edward didn’t do the dirty until their honeymoon. Bella and Edwards honeymoon scene it frightening though, Edward loses control of himself and while making violent love to Bella he manages to cover her entire body in bruises, demolishes the entire headboard, and feathers from the pillows plaster the room. The best part is that Bella loves it and even tried to hide the bruises so Edward won’t feel bad and want to do it again. The abstinence message in the previous books might have been empowering but this scene changes it all. Bella’s desire for eroticism wipes the board clean of all innocence in their relationship seen in the previous books.

In the fourth book Bella’s character is the portrayal of a retro housewife. She finally gets what she wanted, and Edward turns her into a vampire, which is a throwback to the 1950’s female self-sacrifice, by Bella’s need for her human self to die in order to save her child. She turns into your typical teenage mother, which leads the book into adulthood even further. If you think about the traditional portrayal of teenage moms in the media they normally are quite boring, uninvolved in typical teenage activities, and don’t have any interesting hobbies, Bella’s character is portrayed in just that manner, even pre baby. She was never very interesting or engaged and she is not very involved in the world around her other then werewolves and vampires. Her only activity besides lusting over Edward is cooking dinner for her father. She cooks dinner for her father every night, even if she is not hungry herself, and feels guilty when she is either out having a typical teenage experience and cannot, or if she doesn’t feel up to it. Bella’s life is exactly that of our grandmothers, she married her high school sweetheart, waited until marriage to have sex, had a baby immediately after getting married, and used to cook dinner for the man in her life very night. I suppose you get out of having to cook for your husband when he doesn’t eat, maybe there are some perks to marrying a vampire!
Some might believe Bella was empowered by remaining abstinent before marriage, but honestly she had no life. All she did was hang out with Edward, who would see his own family often but mostly spent the majority of his time saving Bella from danger or watching her sleep, creepy.

Bella losing her virginity is what I see as a loss of self-identity. Bella is powerless and made simply into an object of Edward’s desire and thirst. Bella never has much say about her own actions, she is soft, fragile, and breakable, Edward always decides if things are “safe” or not and when he cannot be there to stalk her, he pegs one of his numerous siblings on her until he can return. At times the two do compromise, but it is safe to say that the majority of the time all choices are made by Edward in regards to Bella’s wellbeing. Edward holds the power.

When it comes down to it Bella’s existence is in the hands of a man, he might be a vampire, but he is a man who holds power over her. The Twilight series is most definitely about sex, identity, vulnerability, and the women’s body as an object of desire.

The Women of Mad Men; A gender analyses

2009-06-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

Background

Mad Men is a serial TV show set in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s and is produced by AMC in the United States. It follows the lives of six men who work at a fictional advertising agency in New York City on Madison Avenue. The series highlights in detail the life of the senior executive, his family, secretary, mistresses, and interactions in his life. Many of the scenes are shot at a few locations: bars, the ad agency, and the suburban neighborhoods where the men reside.
For purposes of this analysis, I will be taking highlights and observations from the first season only (it is almost in it’s third at present).

Exaggeration of typical roles

This TV show has really outdone itself with regards to traditional roles of men and women. While even after looking back at these typical roles, it seems that the idea of men has changed little, while the idea of women has progressed significantly (although some would argue otherwise.)
Men are the typical macho, whiskey drinking, sexist but kind breadwinners portrayed frequently of that era. Most of the men have extramarital affairs with the secretaries, and do the “man chores” around the house (anything involving a power tool or sweating). While women, who are portrayed far worse in this housewife role than compared to many other films/television shows, are complete shadows of male dominance. They are frequently told what to do, how to do it, and where their proper place is (which is in the home).
There are a few characters who prove to be examples of the “wrong” way to live. There is a free spirited woman artist, a single mother who is beginning to embrace on the feminist movement, and the gay man who is in the closet. These characters are usually the subject of an argument or gossip in the household and workplace circles, because they do not subscribe the typical lifestyle. Interestingly, the people who live on the fringe of the acceptable society, are actually the happiest.

A discourse on living

The series essentially attempts to disembowel the fake, marginalizing, and boring façade of the 1950’s era. It uses the marginal characters, as the option to a lifestyle that has led to extreme unhappiness. While the marginalized characters have their share of problems, they live life without the same societal constraints as the main characters. I really find it interesting how the commentary on womanhood points out that slaving in the kitchen, attending your children, and an alcoholic husband, only ensures you will have a nervous breakdown and need psychiatric help. While women have struggled to be in the workplace (as in the secretaries at the ad agency), they have made little progress to receiving respect and dignity, and instead they have become available as sexual fodder; maybe they should go back to the kitchen? Other themes present themselves, but overall, Mad Men paints a grim picture in a time warp before women were allowed to function in regular society.

Food and Desire

2009-06-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

Pleasure: a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment; enjoyment and entertainment, contrasted with things done out of necessity;
an event or activity from which one derives enjoyment; sensual gratification.

In recent years, the idea of gastronomy has taken off (and along with it a whole new field of study and thought). The ever important satisfaction of gustatory desires are being described on the internet, in blogs, and in casual speech as a new type of sexual satisfaction: Food Porn.

After 24 hours worth of face stuffing from the halls of Slow Food where every angle of the food was described to us in intimate detail, to the museum in Parma, where a beautiful man presented the plates of full and hearty meat. Food porn has turned what was once a sexual term, into a less stigmatized term applying to food. In food porn, it’s about the way food looks, tastes, smells, feels, and most importantly, how it makes you feel. Freud said it is inherent for every being to seek pleasure over pain, and this is no different for food, which in it’s best form, can bring the most delicious and gratification of all.

An introduction to food and pleasure can be found on Wikepedia, which is much more comprehensive than what I have posted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_porn

Some good resources to experience food porn are first at local restaurants, but also at the following websites:

http://foodporndaily.com/
http://www.slashfood.com/category/food-porn/

Herbarium

2009-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

Rosemary

Rosemary is a common herb in the Mediterranean, and can be easily found in the gardens of the Convento San Griglio. Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with a fragrant and distinctive smell. This makes it very popular in cooking, especially when used on roasted meats. Interestingly, rosemary is actually a member of the Lamiaceae or mint family. The name rosemary derives from the Latin term rosmarinus. This is translated literally as "dew of the sea". The herb probably was called this due to its tendency to grow near the water.

Rosemary has been used by people in Italy and the Mediterranean for a very long time. The Greek philosopher Athenaeus mentioned the herb in his writing in the 2nd century A.D. The ancient Etruscans were certainly using the herb as of 300 B.C, and would often stuff fish with it prior to grilling. The Etruscans also roasted pork with rosemary, in a preparation still enjoyed today. Rosemary was more then just a tasty spice to the Etruscans: it was believed to be capable of warding off evil spirits. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story wherein a a boat of witches, in cat-form, travel to an island to obtain the witch-herb of rosemary.

The Etruscans would place bouquets of rosemary in their necropolis to protect the dead. In Ancient Greece, meanwhile, hard-working students would wear rosemary garlands to assist their memory. Greeks would also burn rosemary sprigs at funerals, using the herb in a fairly similar way to the Etruscans. The Greeks and Etruscans had it right: rosemary really is a mental stimulant, and the essential oils present in the plant can aid respiratory ailments, anxiety, depression, and renal colic.

Rosemary has a natural affinity for pork, and is often found in Italian dishes featuring pig. A classic preparation from star chef Biba Caggiano is here:

Roasted Pork with Rosemary, Sage, and Garlic

Serves 6

6 medium boiling potatoes (2 to 2-1/2 pounds)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh sage
1-1/2 teaspoons salt plus more for taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper plus more for taste
1 bone-in pork rack roast, about 6 pounds, trimmed of excess fat and frenched
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Peel the potatoes. Cut them into thick wedges and place in a large bowl with enough cold water to cover. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine garlic, rosemary and sage, and season with the salt and pepper. Loosen the fat around each bone slightly and pierce the meat in several places with a thin knife. Press some of the herb mixture into the cavities and inside the loosened skin around the bones, and rub a bit more herbs all over the roast. Let the roast stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. Pour all but 2 or 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy roasting pan and place the roast in the pan, fat side down. Pour the remaining oil over the meat and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

5. Drain the potatoes, pat dry with paper towels, and add to the roast. Cook, basting the meat every 15 minutes or so, until the roast is golden brown and it registers 145 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour. At this point, the meat should be slightly pink.

6. Transfer the roast to a cutting board, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Check the potatoes which at this point should be tender and golden brown. If not roast them a little longer.

7. Cut the pork between the bones and serve with some potatoes and a bit of the pan juices.

Rosemary also is regularly used in roast chicken dishes, as a topper for fresh focaccia, and in the preparation of steak and beef dishes. In the rest of the Mediterranean, especially Greece, rosemary is often used in preparations of roasted lamb.

Rosemary is not just used in savory dishes. During the time of the wars between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines in Florence, rosemary began to be used in castagnaccio, a chestnut tart made with pine nuts, oil, and honey alongside the eponymous herb. A recipe for castagnaccio can be found here. Rosemary, in tandem with red wine, makes a delightful and unusual ice cream.

Rosemary is an incredibly versatile herb and one of of Italy's most beloved flavors. It is useful in a dizzying array of preparations and dishes, and may be easily found anywhere. Cook with some today!

If you are interested in the Etruscan origins of Tuscan cuisine, this is a highly informative and entertaining article.

This 1897 book on Etruscan Magic and Occult Remedies may also be of interest.

The lowly dandelion is truly a universal weed, found the world wide, and has been used as a food source, an herb, and for medicinal purposes since the beginning of recorded history.

Herbal/Medicinal Use:

The leaves, roots, and flowers of the dandelion have been used for centuries as a diuretic, and also for liver detoxification and for inflammation reduction. Because the dandelion is so high in potassium, it is considered preferable to many other diuretics, which, as a rule, deplete the body's potassium reserves. In addition, the dandelion flower contains the antioxidant luteolin. Dandelions are also used to cure breast illnesses, bloating, aching joints, and skin conditions.

Recipe:
Dandelion Tea

When life gives you lemons make lemonade. If your lawn gives you dandelions, make dandelion tea! [Common dandelion: Taraxacum officinale]

PREPARATION: Once you pick the dandelion greens, wash them thoroughly to remove dirt particles.

When clean, store them in a plastic bag which has holes punched for circulation, keeping them cold and humid. Use them as soon as possible, since greens are quite perishable.

Select young, tender leaves for the tastiest dandelion tea.

Individual portion:

Pour: 1 cup boiling water over: 1 teaspoon dried dandelion leaves

For a pot of tea:

Pour: 1 cup boiling water for each person over:1 teaspoon dried dandelion leaves for each person.

Throw in: 1 teaspoon dried dandelion leaves "for the pot."

Cover and let steep 3 minutes. Stir and let steep another minute.

Serve with your choice of: lemon, orange, mint, or honey.

Culinary Use of Dandelion:

The leaves and the bud of the dandelion have been a part of traditional Mediterranean and Asian cooking for centuries. In the United States, it is most readily associated with rural poor southern cooking. However, the dandelion has risen in popularity recently, not only used as a traditional salad green, but also braised. In temperate climates, it is found in the spring and summer.

The leaves contain considerable amounts of vitamins and minerals, including A, C, K, calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese. As a matter of fact, dandelion greens contain more iron and manganese than the notoriously iron-rich spinach.

Recipes:
Dandelion Wine
3 qts dandelion flowers
1 lb golden raisins
1 gallon water
3 lbs granulated sugar
2 lemons
1 orange
yeast and nutrient

Pick the flowers just before starting, so they're fresh. You do not need to pick the petals off the flower heads, but the heads should be trimmed of any stalk. Put the flowers in a large bowl. Set aside 1 pint of water and bring the remainder to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the dandelion flowers and cover tightly with cloth or plastic wrap. Leave for two days, stirring twice daily. Do not exceed this time. Pour flowers and water in large pot and bring to a low boil. Add the sugar and the peels (peel thinly and avoid any of the white pith) of the lemons and orange. Boil for one hour, then pour into a crock or plastic pail.

Add the juice and pulp of the lemons and orange. Allow to stand until cool (70-75 degrees F.). Add yeast and yeast nutrient, cover, and put in a warm place for three days. Strain and pour into a secondary fermentation vessel (bottle or jug). Add the raisins and fit a fermentation trap to the vessel. Strain and rack after wine clears, adding reserved pint of water and any additional required to top up. Leave until fermentation ceases completely, then rack again. Set aside 2 months and rack and bottle.

This wine must age six months in the bottle before tasting, but will improve remarkably if allowed a year.

(http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp)

Cream of Dandelion Soup
4 cups chopped dandelion leaves
2 cups dandelion flower petals
2 cups dandelion buds
1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 cup chopped wild leeks (or onions)
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups water
2 cups half-n-half or heavy cream
2 tsp salt
1. Gently boil dandelion leaves in 6 cups water. Pour off bitter water. Boil gently a second time, pour off bitter water.
2. In a heavy-bottom soup pot, sauté wild leeks and garlic in butter or olive oil until tender.
3. Add 4 cups water.
4. Add dandelion leaves, flower petals, buds, and salt.
5. Simmer gently 45 minutes or so.
6. Add cream and simmer a few minutes more.
Garnish with flower petals.
(http://www.prodigalgardens.info/dandelion%20recipes.htm)

Dandelion Salad
4 c. chopped dandelion leaves
3 hard-cooked eggs
3 slices bacon
Dressing:
1 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 c. vinegar
2 c. milk or water
Wash and chop dandelion leaves.
Fry bacon, crip then crumble.
Remove bacon from drippings.
Dressing:
Mix together flour and salt; add egg, vinegar and water.
Stir until blended.
Add to bacon drippings in pan and cook until thickened.
Cool slightly.
Pour dressing over dandelion leaves and mix lightly.
Garnish with sliced or chopped hard-boiled eggs and crisp bacon pieces.
Serve immediately.
Makes 6 servings.
( http://www.mountain-breeze.com/kitchen/dandelions/5.html)

-submitted by Gerarda J. Simmons, 06/11/09

Wild Carrot: good things come in small packages

It seems the most difficult thing about wild carrots is obtaining them. The most important part is, naturally, the root of the carrot, but because wild carrots are much smaller and paler they are more difficult to pull from the ground and identify from the mess of other roots or dirt. However, after your first carrot pulling experience it becomes much easier.

Once you have procured your seemingly insignificant prize it is pretty much ready to be tossed into some soup. Just bending the carrot releases a fresh scent that indicates the massive amount of nutrients packed into the tiny root. Saviana explained to us that the carrots contain 4 to 5 times as much fiber as a large orange carrot that can be found at any grocery store. The other difference between the two is that wild carrots are not actually eaten once they are cooked unless the cook desperately needs fiber. Rather, the wild carrot contributes its nutrients and flavor as it is boiled, and it then is removed from the soup.

Poppies: divine herb of joy, or evil weed of demons?

Poppies are wonderful cheerful plants! Vary in color from orange/red to white/pink, and even blue. The poppies in the garden are what we call in the States “California Poppies”, and are the most typical image when you think of poppies.

While not opium poppies, the ones in the garden will have a sedative effect if eaten. as they contain the alkaloids morphine and codeine. Our poppies also do not contain the common culinary ingredient poppy seed.

Lavender

This beautiful flower can be found in various places around the Convent Property. Like many other fragrant flowers, this flower can be used in teas and floral bouquets alike. The scent of lavender has a calming effect, and when steeped for tea purposes serves as a sedative.

I found this herb so fragrant and pleasing that after doing some additional research I've found various other uses as follows: (note- these uses have come from various sites listed below and I can claim no responsibility if these actually work!!!)

- Aromatic night time sedative: wrap the buds in cheesecloth and place within pillowcase.

- Aromatic Hair rinse: steep flowers in hot water and let cool. Rinse hair with solution to combat dandruff.

- Addititive to salads and other foods: as a relative to mint, sage and thyme, lavender can be used in combination or as an alternative to these herbs.

- Bath additive: buds can be placed in a cheesecloth and submerged in a hot bath for a sedative effect

My favorite recipe found combining this beautiful aromatic flower and a favorite Italian culinary treat:

Honey Lavender Biscotti

Enjoy!

- Amanda

Roses may look beautiful on tables and fill our homes and gardens with a sweet scent, but they are good for more than that! Roses are perfect for afternoon tea, producing a light and gently flavored tea that will remind you of the sweet aroma of the rose garden.

If drying your own rose petals first be sure that the variety of rose pretals you grow are sweet tasting rather than bitter, no one wants bitter tea!

To dry them follow these steps from wikihow.com:

1. Pick the rose petals and make sure they are free of dew.
2. Half fill the net bag and close with an elastic.
3. Hang the bag in a warm, dry and dark place to dry. This will take anywhere from a few days to a week, depending on the humidity of your environment.

Then once the petals have dried you can make the tea, it is however possible to make rose petal tea using just fresh rose petals.

1. Clean the petals under running water.

2. Place 1 - 2 cups rose petals in a saucepan filled with 3 cups of water.

3. Boil for five minutes, strain and pour.

4. Sweeten with honey if desired.

Roses can be consumed in a number of other ways also as described on ehow.com.

1. Add to salad by sprinkling sweet-tasting fresh petals over fruit salads. Mix petals in whipped cream for fruit topping. Sprinkle spicy rose petals on green salads. Add and shake petals with vinegar-oil dressings for aroma and flavor.

2. Freeze rose petals in ice cubes. The fast way is fill the water trays and freeze until the ice is slushy, and then tuck in a petal or two. Freeze until solid. The more elegant way is to fill trays half full of water. Freeze. Drop in a rose petal for each cube. Cover petals with a spoonful of water and freeze again. Fill trays with water and freeze. Use rose cubes in lemonade, iced tea or punch.

3. Infuse rose water by adding 2 cups rose petals to 1 quart water. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn off heat and let cool. Filter out the rose petals and bottle the water. Refrigerate the water for use in ice cubes or tea. Add rose water in place of regular water for gelatins and other desserts.

4. Garnish with dried rose petals. Spread the petals on a microwave-safe dish or paper plate. Heat them for 1 or 2 minutes until dry. Scatter the small dry petals on everything from appetizers to desserts. Add a dusting of petals to top off vanilla pudding, brownies or ice cream. Sprinkle dry petals on frosted cakes or cupcakes.

5. Prepare rose butter by mixing a half-cup to 1 cup of chopped rose petals in a cup of sweet unsalted butter. Let the blend stand at room temperature for 24 hours, then mix again and refrigerate to fully flavor the butter. Use this rose butter on bread or warm muffins. Substitute rose butter for regular butter in cookie or cake recipes. This butter refrigerates up to 2 weeks and freezes well.

-Ellie

Gelateria Sarchioni: Globally Enabled With Local Priorities

2009-06-11T06:52:00.001-07:00

A while ago the class headed to a local artisan gelato producer, Gelateria Sarchioni, which Faine wrote about for us here. However, I got a bit more history and perspective about the company in an interview with one of the proud owners, Fabio Sarchioni. In my interview with Fabio he helped me answer a few questions: is it possible for anyone to avoid the global market in today's economy, and more importantly, why would someone want to and how would they go about it?

Fabio is the owner of the company, the land, the factory, and is also in charge of everything from the day to day gelato production to the hiring of employees, so he is truly the driving force behind the company. “[It's a little firm]” he tells me in Italian “[so we really have to do everything by ourselves].” However, the advantages to being a small firm quickly became apparent once we started to talk about his priorities. Because it is such a small company Fabio is able to obtain his work force locally, and many of his employees are his friends or people that he knows personally. As a result, he told me that he has never had to scold or fire any of his employees and it is easier for him to maintain the quality of his product because he can trust his employees.

The benefits of working locally extend past employees, Fabio told me, “[90 % of our ingredients are Italian products, it may happen that they don't give us Italian products, but that is because the Italian producers don't have what we want, so sometimes we get products from Spain or other places, but the providers we look for are local. Even the machines we use to make the gelato are Italian...For us, the most important thing is the quality of the product. We are always looking for products that we like even more, so when we find a product of higher quality, we use that.]”

In the explanation of his suppliers, Fabio answered my most difficult questions about globalization without even realizing it, and it wasn't quite the answer I was expecting. Is there a way to avoid the global market in today's economy? Probably not a very reasonable one, because the global market can be made to work for both large and small producers. Perhaps by accident, Fabio Sarchioni has turned the global market into his safety net. When local suppliers fail to provide him with fresh fruit for whatever reason, he has a backup so that he can just keep churning out gelato, which means that consumers like me can just keep doing what we do best: consuming.

-Antonio

2009-06-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

A while ago the class headed to a local artisan gelato producer, Gelateria Sarchioni, which Faine wrote about for us here. However, I got a bit more history and perspective about the company in an interview with one of the proud owners, Fabio Sarchioni.
In my interview with Fabio he helped me answer two questions: is it possible for anyone to avoid the global market in today's economy, and more importantly, why would someone want to and how would they go about it?
Fabio is the owner of the company, the land, the factory, and is also in charge of everything from the day to day gelato production to the hiring of employees, so he is truly the driving force behind the company. “[It's a little firm]” he tells me in Italian “[so we really have to do everything by ourselves].” However, the advantages to being a small firm quickly became apparent once we started to talk about his priorities. Because it is such a small company Fabio is able to obtain his work force locally, and many of his employees are his friends or people that he knows personally. As a result, he told me that he has never had to scold or fire any of his employees and it is easier for him to maintain the quality of his product because he can trust his employees.
The benefits of working locally extend past employees, Fabio told me, “[90 % of our ingredients are Italian products, it may happen that they don't give us Italian products, but that is because the Italian producers don't have what we want, so sometimes we get products from Spain or other places, but the providers we look for are local. Even the machines we use to make the gelato are Italian...For us, the most important thing is the quality of the product. We are always looking for products that we like even more, so when we find a product of higher quality, we use that.]”
In the explanation of his suppliers, Fabio answered my most difficult questions about globalization without even realizing it, and it wasn't quite the answer I was expecting. Is there a way to avoid the global market in today's economy? Probably not a very reasonable one, because the global market can be made to work for both large and small producers. Perhaps by accident, but Fabio Sarchioni has turned the global market into his safety net. When local suppliers fail to provide him with fresh fruit for whatever reason, he has a backup so that he can just keep churning out gelato, which means that consumers like me can just keep doing what we do best: consuming.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Rosellla . . .

2009-06-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

(suprise it's Bruno! not Dina, silly. . . )
What's delicious, fun, and beautiful all over? If you've been following the post you may respond with life at the Bolsena Convent, here in Italy. Well, you're correct! More specifically I'm talking about the Tana Del Orso, and the two lovely owners Bruno and Rosella, who shared not only their restaurant experience with us, but also a few lovely sessions of pasta making and a heartfelt interview into the life and experience of a small restaurant owner here in Bolsena.

After a lovely, albeit messy, afternoon of making potato gnocchi (pronounced, kneeyo-key), I was able to sit down with Bruno, to talk about their experience of opening, operating and thriving in a local business. I hope that this information is as exciting to ya'll as it to me :-)

Why open an osteria?
First and foremost, an osteria (pronounced, oh-stir-ee-ah) is a small inn, usually family owned that is known for its wine and simple family food. Having previously worked running a clothing store, Bruno and Rosella had the opportunity to take over a space that was occupied by a restaurant dedicated to a faster style of food. The couple decided that this was an great business opportunity and purchased the restauruant, after a brief amount of time the couple decided that this faster style of food, in terms of food prep, duration of the eating experience, and procurement of the food was not in line with their style of working or living. Bruno and Rosella decided to run their restaurant along their beliefs, and thus, we have a slow food restaurant.

Just what is Slow Food?

The l o n g:
"Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."

The short:
Local, delicious food, that allows you to take your time eating, drinking and being merry, and has you feeling good about maintaining a short food supply chain and the practices involved in raising and acquiring the food :-)

Bruno, interested in looking up and researching local vendors, took on the task of information gather and Rosella, gifted with the experience of growing up in the fishing community, brushed up on her amazing culinary skills. Together, we have what I would call " una coppia magnificente"!

Hows about them hills?
Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the beautiful hill from which the osteria boasts it's panoramic view. As with most businesses in this touch economic times, we spoke about the ways in which the ups and downs of the economy affect their local business, and the methods in which a small business here in Bolsena overcomes these obstacles. Maintaining advertising is always a means of bringing in new business, especially for those tourists that come into town. Their websitse . . . is in the process of updating, so keep your eyes peeled!

More importantly, the Parrino's understand that like everything else in their business mindset, it is integrity, quality and locality that makes the difference. By adhering to the slow food principles, the couple seeks to serve seasonal food, which should help to keep prices affordable and bring in the locals that seek the warmth and aromas that comes lingering from their kitchen. They also maintain traditional foods which brings up an intersting discussion on perhaps the most famous dish from Bolsena, La Sbroscia.

Say Cheese . . . errr I mean Fish!
Sbroscia is a traditional soup from Bolsena made with mullet, pike, corregone, potatoes, tomatoes, wine, onion and garlic. According to Bruno, this is a food inherant in the slow food process, almost to the point of being too slow. It is a delicious soup that is served with bones still in the fish, and over a piece of bread. The soup is to be savored, eaten slowly, and with your hand, deboning as your go along. The sentiment was shared that it's a shame, this favorite dish of his, while the flavor is liked by most, will not often be served as most people do not want to spend the time needed to really enjoy the soup and the labor intensive process of eating the soup.

In summary, for an amazing, quality-made dining experience, bursting with local freshness, made with the love and attention that only an Italian family can provide, the Tana del'Orso is a prime spot to linger over your food, spirits, and community that comes to share in all that is Bolsena. And yes, I'll take the Sbroscia.

Thanks Bruno and Rosella, for extending your kindness, patience, hospitality, and recipes with us. We appreciate it!

-Amanda

Fried Green Tomatoes: Nourishment and Social Justice, Served Up HOT

2009-06-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

Delicious, decadent, and a little bit naughty. Best served with friends.

Now that I've caught your attention, lets get into the fun stuff, the movie, Fried Green Tomatos. In this post, I will discuss how in the film "Fried Green Tomatoes" food serves as a means of nourishment, both physical and emotional, and as a means of social justice.

Food as Nourishment

The film contains two stories that "feed" off of each other: at face level, is the story of Evelyn Couch, who is struggling to save her marriage, and through a series of visits at a nursing home, develops a friendship with Ninny. Within the base story is the substory, which Ninny relates to Evelyn of two childhood friends, Idgie and Ruth.

On the theme of nourishment, Evelyn is searching for emotional fulfillment from her husband and does so by feeding on candy bars to fill the void. This physical food source seems only to appease her emotional void, which she has been also trying to resolve through marriage counseling courses. Evelyn provides nourishment for her husband in the form of carefully planned dinners yet to her avail, he does not recognize her efforts to please him and connect with him through food. It is interestesting to note the gender roles portrayed in these scenes of marital distress. The women is the food provider, the food preparer, and the caretaker who is trying to weave physical nourishment with emotional nourishment. The man is the receiver of this food preparation, ignorant to the emotional nourishment that is being sought through food socialization.

Nourishment and femininity can also be addressed on the subplot level between Idgie and Ruth. Idgie is portrayed as a tomboy and more masculine in features and behaviors while Ruth is portayed as feminine on the exterior. The general gender themes are carried through when Ruth gets married and accordingly follows a subservient role to her husband. Idgie, in her masculine portrayal, saves Ruth from her destructive marriage by physically removing her from her place of malease, but in contrast, starts to assume a more feminine role by caring for her, providing her a safe home for her and her baby, a place of work, and an equal opportunity to cook and provide as shown in the kitchen scenes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. The two are both portayed in their feminity when they exchange fistfulls of condiments and flour to each others face. Though the act of fighting with food would not normally be considered feminine, the providing of food to each other for emotional nourishment is ultimately a feminine act.

The Sweet Smell of Justice: Food as Social Justice

Food and its role as social justice can also be seen within this food in various situtaions where women present food to men.

Perhaps the most transparent incident of this is the scene pertaining to serving barbeque to the crime investigator. We learn that through a community effort, Idgie helps save Ruth from her abusive husband, and there arises a need to get rid of the body. The close-knit community that Idgie developed with the workers in her restaurant prevails as they decide to start the pork barbeque season a little early. Unbeknownst to the investigator and most of the town, the remains of the abusive husband are mettled in with the barbarque. Not only does the investigator praise the barbeque, all of the town seems to gather around the amazing scent of the barbeque. Ah, the sweet smell of justice.

On a less dramatic scale, Ruth offers pie to the investigator as means of appeasement and change of topic. While this pie is not accepted, it is definitely her way of using food and feminine charm to distract the investigator. The local town cop is given his social justice when he walks in on the food fight in the kitchen between Idgie and Ruth, and her asks what they are doing. After reponding that they were teaching each other to cook, and receiving a cocky response, Ruth steps out of her traditionally feminine role, and smears a condiment on his face. Contrary to the traditional serving of food, she is in this instance serving him up a slice of "mind your own business."

- Amanda

Comments are Open

2009-06-10T12:48:00.001-07:00

I have opened up comments to all users, so have at it!

Day 7: Free Day in Orvieto

2009-06-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Day 7

The Duomo di Orvieto, a 14th century Roman Catholic cathedral.

Sunday was a free day, and we decided that it would be best to spend it in Orvieto. Orvieto is the exceedingly old hilltop town located roughly 20 minutes from Bolsena. Located on top of a craggy and rocky precipice that is often surrounded with atmospheric fog, Orvieto is one of Italy's more scenic burgs and a wonderful place to spend the day. I certainly enjoyed it: the cathederal is a singular work of art, the streets are appropriarately winding and quaint, and the views of the Umbrian countryside from the top of the hill are unbeatable. (It is said that the Romans, after routing the Etruscans from Orvieto, forbade anyone else from living there because it was too damn easy to defend. I believe it).

Before we left, we had a simple lunch ala Enzo. He prepared an excellent pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, and water mozarella, a sort of pasta-based insalada caprese. This was served with some excellent and savory pan-roasted chicken.

Neat statues on the duomo's facade.

The drive to Orvieto went quickly, as we passed through the rolling and green countryside. Thankfully for us moderns, a highway now exists to the peak of Orvieto. You may also take a funincular railway from the train station.

Gelato flavors (few zillion).

Fig and strawberry gelato.

We got out of Luigi's van, and began wandering the streets, popping into Orvieto's quaint ceramics shops and fancy-paper emporiums. It was siesta time and we decided to go for a gelato - a reccomended place was located near the cathederal, or duomo. I had fregola (strawberry) and fig, and was quite satisfied: the strawberry flavor was intense and clarified, and the fig was not too sweet, containing the complex and earthy flavor of the original fruit.

The others had been to Orvieto before and decided to go on a tour of Orvieto's complex underground - the mesa the city rests on has been dug into extensively during the town's long history. People traditionally used these caves as pigeon-roosts (pigeon being a good protein source in siege situations,) wine cellers, and arenas for food preservation. (Digging into the rock was outlawed sometime during the 50's, as people began to fear structural unsoundness as a result of all the burrowing).

Tower in Orvieto.

We walked through Orvieto's almost cliche-like quaint backstreets, and admiring the astonishing views that peeked out from seemingly every corner. We found a nice incline to rest on and watched the world go by.

Park in Orvieto.

We headed then to a nice park, where a tennis match was going on and most of Orvieto's people were looking on. I perched on the sheer edge of the cliff and looked out into the horizon: I could see the farmer below me watering his tomatoes and see the white peacocks he kept walking around, could see the Eurostar blaze below me and the little fountain that marks the Orvieto rail station - in other words, I could have watched forever.

But of course I could not. We headed back to the Duomo to meet the others for drinks, prior to dinner. We found ourselves a nice enoteca on the street and ordered some excellent, crisp white wine, which we downed two bottles of while enjoying the people watching and conversation.

After our drinks, we walked around for a while trying to locate a good restaurant. Our original destination was closed, so we consulted the mighty oracle of Rick Steve's for a second option. He directed us towards a pizzeria.

The wood-fired ovens turned out great thin crust pizzas. We enjoyed pizza with gorgonzola and walnut, prosciutto and mushroom and egg, and eggplant.

We hung out for a while longer (forcing poor Luigi to wait, but he got some wine,he would live). I hope to return to Orvieto soon.

Anthony's Presentation: Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty in the United States, Some Observations on Their Social and Cultural Context

2009-06-10T12:40:00.002-07:00

Hunger, Malnutrition and Poverty in the United States, Some Observations on Their Social and Cultural Context
Janet M. Fitchen

From the outside looking in, Americans tend to think hunger does not exist and that government food projects and stamps do reach the majority of the hungry. The "Steak Effect" - people who are hungry can buy steak or other branded foods with stamps. That contributes to overall mentality that there is not a hunger problem. The media portrays hunger as kids with matchstick legs in Ethiopia - but do not show how dismal conditions can be for Americans.

She discusses hunger and poverty which go hand in hand, especially in the USA, as we have no shortage of food. Disproportionally affected populations are women headed households, native american families on reservations (who take the brunt of poverty) - it is interesting to note that children are more affected, as 15% of households in the USA are below the poverty line, but these contain 20% of the children. (This is a statistic from 1984 to 1985).

Culturally unique aspects to USA hunger: people in the USA, especially the urban poor, are not likely to use hunting/farming/gathering (not that you can). No traditional food availability in the wild. People rarely have things in their kitchen for food and survive primarily on snacks. People below the poverty line tend to subsist on junk food. There are lots of different reasons why that happens.

Uneven distribution of food within households - who makes the money or goes to work gets more of the food. Unwillingness to let children feel deprived - with second generation and third generation poverty line families, they remember being told "there's no food" and are more likely to cave into children and buy cheap junk food. When kid asks for some commercial junk food, they will remember not being allowed to have it and buy.

Family effect: when there is no food, people are not happy. If you take an already stressful or tense family relationship, a lack of food makes things worse. People tend to eat finger/fun foods due to advertising effect - people want what they see on TV or status foods. Checking out at grocery - you do not want to seem like someone who cannot afford their own food. People prefer status foods like steak or even junk. (We are a normal American family and can choose our food). This has to do with view of poverty from the outside: upper or middle class people think poor should only buy staple foods, which just compels the poor not to do so.

Conclusion statement: the rich buy steak and the poor get cheese. The bad societal effects of how the rich view the poor severely affects buying patterns of poor people.

Taste Workshop at Slow Food Headquarters, Bra, Italy

2009-06-10T12:40:00.001-07:00

Taste Workshop

Slow Food is dedicated to the concept of "good,fair, and clean" food, and our Taste Workshop at the organizations's headquarters in Bra served as an excellent illustration of the concept. Slow Food conducts Taste Workshops through their consortia all over the world, believing that the promotion of taste education is the best way to preserve artisan and unique foods. Slow Food's taste workshops were an unusual idea at the time of their inception in the early 90's. At that time, formal tastings of products like artisan cheeses and meats were not done on a regular basis. Thanks in part to Slow Food, tasting like these are now commonplace the world over.

For our taste workshop, we sampled cheeses, cured meats, bread, and ice cream, with a focus on products local to Bra and the surrounding area.

The three cheeses we tried hailed from presidia in the Italian Piedmont.

This cheese is Robiola di Roccaverano, Italy's only characteristic goat cheese. It is produced with 100% raw goat's milk. The producer of this cheese, Arbiora, makes it in the area south of Asti, southeast from Bra. The cheese and knowledge of its production were disappearing at the beginning of the 80's. Producers were starting to make the cheese with sheep and cow's milk instead of the traditional goat. Goats produce less milk then sheep and cows and are thus less economically viable. Slow Food selected three goat herders to support, creating one of the first Presidia. Roccaverano cheese is a Slow Food success story: it is now extremely popular in Italy.

The cheese requires a month of "seasoning", so that the raw goat's milk may coagulate. The only ingredients in the cheese are milk, rennet, and salt. It is eaten rather fresh: Robiola di Roccaverano can be eaten at 10 days, to ensure the full formation of the rind. Flavor-wise, the cheese has an intense, earthy favor, which would doubtless enchant any goat-cheese fan.

The Robiola di Roccaverano was paired with Roero Arneis, a classic Piemonte white wine. The bottle we sampled was produced by Pradlupo in 2006, with Fontanta Fredda as the producer. It was delightfully crisp with a complex flavor: a great, white-fruit flavored wine for a fresh goat cheese.

The next cheese was a Montebore, a semi-firm cheese composed of 70% raw cow milk and 30% raw sheep milk. Montebore was almost lost. No one made it anymore, except for one old lady in the province of Alessandria. A young cheese producer nearby remembered eating it as a child. He was taught how to make it by the remaining old woman, thereby bringing a "disappearing cheese" back from the brink. The sheep milk gives the cheese more fat then the milk of a goat or a cow. The cheese we sampled was quite young, and the taste was undeveloped. It was quite "neat", but not very complex.

This cheese is traditionally paired with a light red wine such as a Barbera. We stuck with the white for now.

The last cheese was the Castelmagno d' Alpeggio, a strong cheese and one of Italy's most classic varieties. It is a form of blue cheese, and has a unique and crumbly texture. It is a Presidio cheese under Slow Food's strictures, and a protected product through the European Union. Considerable confusions exists around Castelmagno d' Alepggio, as large dairies recently began to make it. The true cheese, however, is only produced in the mountains, only in summer, and only from pastured animals. Slow Food selected one producer doing it the old, less-profitable way, and gave the authentic cheese a Presidio brand.

The cheese is produced from two different curds, which are cooked twice. They are then placed in a cave to season. The cheese we sampled was fresh and rather fatty, with a hint of Alpine herbs and flowers. It retained a slightly bitter taste from the rennet.

During the production of Castelmagno d' Alpeggio, it is pierced to allow in the air, to create an interior mold. As the cheese ages, it becomes increasingly dusty. Fatty and milky cheeses like Castelmagno are best with a red wine. One rule to keep in mind: the older the cheese, the sweeter and fresher is the red needed.

We sampled a red wine with this cheese, a Dolcetto d' Albo produced by Cavallotto. The producer is very traditional, and so this wine. The label indicates the cru, or the vineyard of origin. It had a good throaty taste and was excellent when taken to complement the cheeses.

The next component of the taste workshop focused on cured meats. Using the magic of Photoshop, I've labeled the meats we sampled.

We first discussed the concept behind the tasting cured meats. The famous Prosciutto San Daniele is produced with "white meat". It is not made from a "walking pig": the animals are kept in a stable.

The Iberico, or "black" pig of Spain, meanwhile, is allowed a pleasant free range existence. It is encouraged to feast on chestnuts and other woodland foods, until it is slaughtered - the Spansh believes this lends the meat an earthy and powerful flavor. When tasting cured meats, it is de-rigeur to use your hands. Utensils are mere extraneous distractions.

There are two ways to dry meat: industrial and natural. It is not hard to figure out which method Slow Food prefers. A naturally aged meat should be the same color in the middle and on the edges. The dominant taste in a cured meat will be in the fat. When assessing products like prosciutto or iberico, it is best to sample the white fatty part and the colored part separately.

This is Salame di Felino, a meat product local to Bra. We discussed how to grade a good salami before we were permitted to eat it. Here are some guidelines:

You should smell the salami to gauge its freshness. Malodors or a stale scent are not desirable. Next, you should fold the salami in half and eat the center first. This will also help you to assess the freshness of the product. A poorly aged salami will taste vinegary in the middle. You do not want to find any hard bits, which will indicate more miscellaneous meat parts in the salami then anyone likes to know about. You should also look at the casing: a good salami's casing will not be pure white. A pure white casing indicates the addition of wheat flour instead of natural mold. Finally, a good salami, when pulled, shouldn't separate, and the spices in the meat should be evident when smelled. You should pull the skin or casing off salami before cutting it for best flavor.

Next to come was the prosciutto di San Daniele. Our instructor defined ham as simply "fat, salt, and time," which I thought was rather apt. He emphasized that, when assessing cured meats, you should strive to observe how many veins of fat the product has. This is because all the flavor is in the fat. You should, in most elemental terms, be able to "smell the beast" in the product. The prosciutto we sampled was fairly young and had a relatively simple taste, as well as a mouth-feel that was in no way greasy. This was due to the quality of the product: only cheap meat leaves a greasy, unpleasant flavor in the mouth. Our instructor then told us that the taste of ham is determined by three factors: the variety of pig, the diet the pig enjoyed prior to its ineveitable end point, and the aging process.

Finally, we tried the justifiably famous Iberico ham, one of Spain's most iconic products. Iberico is an "open air" ham. 200 pigs are kept on 50 hectares of land, producing something akin to a "wild" pig. The free-range porkers feed on wild nuts during their apparently happy lives, and the earthy flavor of their all natural diet produces the distinctive flavor of Iberico ham. Iberico is aged longer then prosciutto - 24 to 30 months - and this gives its flavor more complexity and a less "fresh" smell. Iberico ham is darker in color then prosciutto and, as the pigs are smaller (all that exercise) derives from a smaller "leg". Its slightly spicy taste comes from oleic acid production. Oleic acid is present in Iberico ham in large amounts, due to its long aging process.

The remains of the meats we sampled.

Here was the bread we were served. This was an excellent chewy, rustic bread, and went perfectly with the local and fresh cheeses and meats we sampled. The bread is prepared with natural yeast in a wood oven, giving it a back-to-basics flavor.

We ended the tasting with some tangerine gelato, produced specifically for Slow Food. It was incredibly good, the sort of stuff that might make one repudiate all other frozen treats forever. The flavor was extremely clear, potent, and fresh. It is a shame we cannot buy huge tubs of this for our freezer.

We very much enjoyed the Taste Workshop. It is evident why these events are so useful for furthering Slow Food's mission. If we are to work to protect something, we must first understand it. Many modern people have not been exposed to good, real food, and have no idea how to assess the quality of such when they come across it. Slow Food's Taste Workshop's fill that gap beautifully. They are held all over the world. Try to attend one near you!

Radio Silence

2009-06-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

Hello there. There will be a brief pause in blog updates, as we have been on the road. We spent yesterday driving to Bra, then doing a taste workshop at Slow Food Headquarters. Last night we transferred to Parma, where there was no internet at the hotel (oh no!). Today, we are at European Food Safety Authority offices (where I am in fact making this post). Real blog posts and LOTS of photos to come soon.

Thanks,

Faine

day 6!

2009-06-07T14:01:00.001-07:00

Saturday was intended to be a slow day: a nice departure from the breakneck pace of the rest of the schedule. We woke up relatively late - a nice change from the usual!

The morning was spent in a gnocchi making class with our friends from La Tana Della' Orso. We produced potatoes, flour, and the relevant implements, and got down to business.

Boiled potatoes were peeled and riced, using this tool.

The riced potato was then combined with flour.

The resulting dough was worked until it attained a fairly smooth texture.

Everyone got in on the act!

The finished product.

Unfortunately, the gnocchi were prepared with the wrong kind of flour - a fact we discovered at lunch, when they became doughy and too chewy to eat. Darnit. Will remember to use the proper flour in the future. Be careful out there.

Lunch came late due to the gnocchi crisis, but it was still quite tasty. We had gnocchi and pasta in a delicious fresh pesto sauce, that Enzo had prepared himself. Fresh pesto is way better then canned stuff!

We also had a fresh fennel-riffic salad, as well as some tomato-based beef stew.

After lunch, it was time for a lecture regarding Pangea Onlus, a microfinance and micocredit group based out of Italy. Their lecture is posted on the blog.

After the lecture, it was relaxation time - very nice, considering that the weather had cleared up and the hammock was calling our names. I headed into town to check out the election going-ons - rather entertaining, as the whole town turned out to stand in line and argue about politics.

Dinner was extremely simple, and extremely good. We had a soup of chicken broth with sausage tortellini, and some buffalo mozarella, pictured above. Buffalo mozarella, by the by, is produced from water buffalo imported from Asia, and not from bison as you may have previously believed. I am sorry if I disabused you of any fantasies of eating cheese derived from shaggy high plains beasts or something.

Tired and lazy, we went to bed early - too chilly outside to hit the purported discoteques on Bolsena's shores. Another good day in Italy.

Micro-Finance, Food Security, and Gender

2009-06-06T08:38:00.001-07:00

Micro-Finance, Food Security, and Gender

Simona Lanzoni, Fondazione Pangea Onlus/Online, June 2009

Pangea is the organization where I (Simona Lanzoni) am working. We particularly work for women. This is our mission: women's empowerment and development. We use micro finance as one of the tools to achieve this goal, but of course it is just one of the tools. Today we will focus on these issues, and I will tell you about our work.

What is microfinance?

Microfinance is the supply of loans, savings, and other basic financial services to "non bankable people".

Financial services include: working capital loans, consumer credit, savings, pensions, insurance, and money transfer services (CGAP definition).

Microcredit refers specifically to loans, and the credit needs of clients.

Microfinance covers a broader range of financial services, that create a wider range of opportunities for success. Examples of these include additional financial services including: savings, insurance, housing loans, and remittance transfers.

Target of Micro finance:

In general, micro finance targets poor people, whom are defined by the World Bank as those living with less then two dollars a day.

We can divide the approach. We must ask how to approach these poor people, and how many levels of poor we have.

Three approaches exists in micro finance:

The financial self-sustainability paradigm.

This is the approach used and promoted by publications and donor agencies. This model is focused on setting the financial sustainability of the agency or organization. This is done by creating the right interest rate, by using groups to decree the costs of delivery, and by using economical scales to arrive at the highest number of micro-entrepreneurs, among other tactics. This approach separates micro-finance from other interventions, to enable separate accounting. In this paradigm, it is assumed that increasing womens access to micro-finance services will in itself lead to individual economic empowerment, well being, and social/political empowerment.

Poverty Alleviation Paradigm:

This approach underlies poverty targeted programs.

Feminist Empowerment Paradigm:

This approach underlies the gender policies of many NGO's, and the perspectives of some consultants and researchers, who are looking at the gender impact of micro finance programs. Micro finance is promoted as an entry point, in the context of a wider strategy for women's economic and socio-political empowerment.

Microcredit Standard:

A small to medium amount of money is loaned (for Grammen bank, 200 dollars is average.)

Short time loan (six months to one year)

We use a new methodology and simplify procedures. Clients don't need to provide collateral to get loans. We have a peer support system and strive to be client friendly.

We do not only offer financial services. Organizations providing financial services to the poor may also provide non financial services. These services can include business development services like training or technical assistance. They can also include social services, like health and empowerment training.

Service is focused on the individual, or on groups of people. All is based on solidarity and a trustable relationship, as well as a social capital.

Why the Poor?

Many essential problems of the poor can be alleviated by...

- Taking advantage of opportunities to accumulate and buy assets.
- Uplifting their standard of life.
- Protecting them against risks.

We have to consider a range of cash needs.

- Food
- Illness
-Special celebrations
- Education of children
- Macroeconomic fluctuations and seasonal variations in needs/availability
- Crisis
- Climate change

Why food Security?

Many studies, not only Oxfam studies, say the world has enough food for everyone. But how to redistribute it? More and more people go without adequate food supplies every year. There are different strategies economists have put up. For example, we could try rising the price of food, which will help producers make more money. But at the same time, the production and the price of the item is not growing at the same level as the numbers of people that are buying. There is no strategy or theory that solves the problem.

Why women?

85% of world microcredit clients are women, mostly poor.

Statistics prove that women are more responsible then men when given access to financial services.

- Women ensure a higher rate of repayment.
- Women work to maintain and make savings.
- The benefit is not just individual but extends to the whole family due to women's traditional gender roles.
- Micro finance programs send a strong message to households and communities, through women.

Food: A Gender Household Job and Opportunity

Due to women's traditional roles and jobs, women's work from an early age begins in domestic jobs. These jobs include cleaning the house, caring for children and the old, preparing food, cooking, getting water, raising animals and crops.

When women access credit, if they have no specific skills, their food and related activities become their first survival strategy.

Let's look at an emergency situation, as in Afghanistan. A "day by day" assistance in the form of microcredit could be offered, allowing a woman to simply survive. In this situation, we are offering microcredit for survival, not asset building. In a conflict area, the market is very slow, and you cannot do micro finance.

The result is different in a place like India, where the economy is currently in dynamic movement. The situation will be better and results stronger for a woman in India via micro credit for this reason.

The example of the Indian slums is a good one. Day to day consumption also occurs through micro credit, even in peaceful places.

Food business related to the environment.

If we are situaded in a urban or rural area, businesses approach related to food production and sales change completely.

In Kabul, the emergency/development situations in 5 years of work have resulted in:

- 5% of business is related to the production of food.
-15% of women in business are bakers, a typical female job.
- 58% of these are businesses related to food sales, like bakeries or groceries.

In rural areas, activities are divided into farming and non-farming. In rural Nepal, farming makes up 80 to 90% of business. Non farming activities like grocery shops or restaurants are 10 to 15% of business. 5% are other: beauty parlors, tailoring, decoration making and so on.

In every place in the world, there is a typical food. In Afghanistan, women make dough for flat-bread, and bring it to cook to other women.

Non-conventional food resources are needed. We must create a sustainable approach to combat malnutrition combined with micro finance.

Luckily, there are specific projects linking the micro credit system with food for nutrition. Let's look at a few of them.

MISOLA: Millet, soja, Lait (mother's mlik), Arachide (Nuts)

- The MISOLA project was born in 1982 in Burkina Faso.

- In the region of West Africa, local cereal processing by associations is working well. The project is based on women's work as constituted through UPA micro-credit. This activity of income making produces socioeconomic promotion for women, and gives value to local cereals.

Spirulina

- Spirulina is a cyanobacteria, originally hailing Nigeria, and with the scientific name of "Arthrospira Platenis". It is edible and very nutritious, and can be easily produced in warm areas. It is rich in micro-nutrients and is easily digested by people. Spirulina is rich in beta-carotene, the basis of Vitamin A, iron, Vitamin B12, and in gamma-linolenic acid and other important nutrients.

One to three grams of spirulina, taken during a duration of 4 to 6 weeks, are enough to complement the meals of children 0 to 5 years of age, saving them from malnutrition. Due to the ease of growing spirulina, it has become a great business for women from areas like India, Brasil, and the RDC.

From Microcredit to Micro Insurance:

Microcredit reaches a diverse set of borrowers with different income levels, providing smaller but more frequent payments. This option could be a great alternative to standard government credit programs, as part of a larger, more complex solution.

Microcredit or micro saving sometimes is not enough in rural areas with climate change instability.

A famine in one country could kill more then a million because of sudden unexpected disaster, or because of erosion due to poor rains.

Micro Insurance on Climate Change:

There is a need to tie microfinance tools and programs to knowledge of future climate conditions. The food and security on small farms depends on this. We also hope to connect microfinance to technologies and institutions that can help farmers survive in hard times.

Many NGO's and UN agencies are working with insurance companies to develop different "climate insurance" tools to provide support for small farmers in the event of droughts, hurricanes, or other natural disasters. These may become more common in a changing climate.

Best Practices:

Malwai is a good example. In response to climate change reports suggesting the occurrence of more regular floods, farmers switched from chickens - which drown easily - to ducks, which are good at surviving floods. With access to small loans, farmers could purchase ducks, and make more money by selling ducks to other communities.

Another pilot project targeting farmers, within collaborations with banks and insurance companies, is working to give farmers drought insurance. Beneficiaries will use the loans bundled with the insurance to get good seeds. When rains are good, improved seeds increase yields, and farmers can use a fraction of the additional profits to pay back the loans . The loans are the costsof seeds plus insurance premiums plus interest. In bad years, insurance companies will repay the loan.

Pangea Credo:

A Woman is a multiplier of well-being
in the society in which she lives;
she is the center of a social web of solidarity.
Too often, however, being a Woman
means being a victim of politically unstable situations,
of religious writs and of social prejudice.
Too often being a Woman
means being deprived of your own rights.
For this reason we of the Fondazione Pangea Onlus
want to be in solidarity with Women,
to expose and denounce every
form of violation of their Rights in Countries
experiencing situations rooted in suffering and poverty.
But Pangea is more than DENOUNCEMENT . It is, above all, ACTION .
Because it is important to help every Woman build a life full of security and hope for herself and for the community in which she lives.
Because a Woman can become a multiplier of Peace.

Day Five: Cinghiale, Gelato Making, and The Villa

2009-06-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Day 5

This morning was a bit chillier then yesterday - and, horror of horrors, we were forced to eat inside! We managed somehow, though....

After breakfast, we headed to the conference room to listen to Nathan Morrow's lecture on interview and research skills. One of the class assignments will be to interview a professional in the food or food-aid area - possible interviewees include an artisan gelato maker, cheese makers in Parma, Donald Link of New Orlean's Cochon, and Antonio Bonnanno, a researcher globalization and agro industry, among others. You can read this lecture earlier in the blog's chronology.

The second lecture of the morning was presented by Wendy Harcourt, editor in chief of the Development journal and an expert on women's role in agricultural development. She spoke about including women in the development process - her lecture may also be read below.

The weather warmed up a bit by lunch time, and we were able to sit outside again and enjoy some wine and a bit of sun. Enzo prepared for us some cork-screw pasta with a herb infused cheese and cream sauce for a primi.....

...And a tasty dish of egg and flour dredged chicken breasts with a curried pea sauce for our secondi. I really liked this: good, stick to your ribs food! Dessert was a large quantity of freshly sliced and flavorful watermelon: perfectly fresh and perfectly good.

After our repast, it was time to listen to a discussion about the HungerFree Women organization, a group that has organized to assist women in agriculture across the world. We learned especially about their efforts to help Dalit women in India secure land rights, and watched a few interesting videos about their work. Again, the lecture and links to the videos may be found below - it's engaging stuff and truly inspiring to hear about.

At 5:00, we all piled in the van for a visit to the gelato factory in Torre Alfina, a small town about 30 minutes or so from Bolsena. The ride through the country side was a treat in itself: rolling hills of wheat, flocks of sheep, and groves of olive trees and grapes provided a classical picture of the Italian countryside. That's what we came here to see!

The owners of the gelato factory were extremely friendly, and we enjoyed being led through the process of production of Italy's very favorite treat. (Italians consume gelato 24 hours a day, or at least that's how it appears.) Following are some pictures of our visit...

The owner and his son explained the complex processes behind gelato production. Artisian gelato making is a real art: the gentlemen who run the Gelateria Sarchioni are committed entirely to a high quality product, and only use the freshest and best ingredients. We were shown some of the fresh fruits - including melons, lemons, and watermelons - that go into their ice cream. They also explained some of the surprisingly involved chemistry a gelato maker needs to know. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of gelato production is keeping the humidity and temperature levels right: different flavors freeze at different temperatures, depending on their fat content. To ensure the gelato's final creaminess and flavor, the gelato maker must tweak all these variables perfectly.

Gelato still in its liquid form.

The whipping device used to infuse gelato with air - ensuring its characteristic thick and creamy texture.

The gelato is put into these freezing units, which freeze the raw material to a frozen consistency with surprising speed.

The finished product, spooned into serving tubs.

The grand finale: we got to taste it!

The chocolate gelato tasted incredible: infinitely better then the weak chocolate flavors we have become accustomed to in the states. The intense cocoa flavor was rather reminiscent of pure chocolate ganache - rich and exceedingly satisfying. As the gelato cream had literally just been made, the texture was ideal: I turned over my scoop and the gelato stuck resolutely to my dish! (That's the sign of the good stuff).

After our afternoon treat, we headed to Jeff's villa nearby the factory. Jeff, a colleague of Nathan and Sabrina, was kind enough to provide us with some excellent red and white wine, some cherries picked from his trees, and a tour of the wonderfully scenic grounds of his home. We admired his garden, full of lettuces, green onions, tomatoes, and a profusion of incredible smelling herbs. (Apparently he gets great cell phone reception from the hammock in his yard - not a bad place to conduct a business call!) I was especially take with Jeff's Nocino, a sort of walnut liqueur. Traditionally made on the 23rd of June with exactly 23 walnuts, it is extremely easy to make: walnuts are soaked with cinnamon and orange peel in some strong liquor. The final result tastes like Christmas: I'd like to import some for our family celebrations.

By the way, you can rent the place if you are so inclined. Check out La Villa di Torre Alfina. Thank me later.

A bowl of cherries from Jeff's own tree.

We finished our exceedingly satisfying apertif and got back in the van, to drive to Quintaluna, a restaurant specializing in real local food with real local ingredients. The small, homey restaurant had an excellent and casual vibe, and we soon were chatting it up and merrily imbibing the table wine.

The first course was a riff on traditional Etruscan foods. First was a piece of bread covered in lardo, the famous speciality of super-rich and fatty pork belly. This was pork fat perfection on a crostini. We also sampled a rustic and pleasing nibble of phyllo dough with a rich beef bolognese, topped with a balsamic vinegar reduction. To accompany the meats was a refreshing salad of barley, tomato, and local olives - unusual and exceedingly good.

The main course was another porky delight. The cinghiale or wild boar was reminiscent of Mexican carnitas, stewed for a long time with a delightfully gamey and fatty flavor - with just a hint of rosemary and lots of excellent olive oil. There was also roasted pork loin, with a slightly sweet and delicately meaty flavor. (A recipe for cinghiale may be found here if you are interested, and why wouldn't you be?)

The meat was accompanied by a side of roasted vegetables, including eggplant, carrot, zucchini, and potato, with olive oil and salt. This was simple and delicious - and easy to make at home! (We'll post the recipe later, perhaps?)

Finally, dessert was a rustic apricot tart - crunchy, buttery, and extremely pleasing.

The proud owner.

And our talented chefs.

We lingered over dinner for a while before making the drive back - and were treated to a view of the lights of Bolsena as we rounded the hill.

It is election time in Italy, and the town was out in force to listen to speeches and demonstrations from both the right and the left. The right had speeches from various middle-aged men in suits - the left, meanwhile, had a rock concert. People floated from side to side while eating ice cream, drinking beer, and enjoying the cool evening. I wonder who will win.

Lab 2- Research Skills!

2009-06-05T14:27:00.001-07:00

6/5/2009

Lab 2- Research Skills, from Nathan Morrow.

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is held in someone’s brain and only freed when asked about. How do we retrieve, analyze, and write about tacit knowledge?

- Wee must come up with a research question. How are research questions different from other kinds of questions? The basic idea is that it must be researchable.

There are two elements to think about.

Where on the spectrum of broad to specific do you want to be? (Do they eat food in Italy? to, What kind of cherry tree do you have in your backyard and how old is it?) In most cases, you want something you can write a page about in a couple of hours.

Avoid overly subjective or difficult to define terms. Avoid the indefinable. This is a big trap when it comes to food, as food is inherently subjective. Words or phrases like “the best” are dangerous. Don’t ask “What is the BEST ice cream in Bolsena?". Instead ask, “What are the differences between 10 ice cream shops in Bolsena?”

These qualitative themes are hard to benchmark, and might require a doctoral thesis to cover in full!

Who, What, Where: The Three “Ws".

List your questions and get rid of those that are less important. Once you decide on your research questions, brainstorm. A good number of questions for a real research project is 100. In our case, you may want to create 50. Group your questions by who, what, where. Develop an iteration of your research questions. You want a conceptual framework or a concept frame.

A concept frame is a diagram of how you think a question works. A two by two matrix is all you will probably need for this course. Let's use an example. Say we want to look at the introduction of kiwi fruit to the Bolsena area, and its effect on the Bolsena economy and food economy.

Put across the top of the matrix "economy," and at the bottom, "local cuisine". Assemble a pro/con or yes/no construct. You want something that is both negative for local cuisine and negative for the local economy elsewhere. For example, kiwi flowers stink. Then list what is a pro for the local cuisine in regards to kiwi. As an example, kiwi is harvested in December when nothing else is. This allows workers to do something in the off season. Kiwis are high in nutrition and fiber, which is good for local health.

How about the lake here in Bolsena? Local transport puts kiwi fruit into markets, and has some sort of feedback into the cash economy, which has some sort of feedback into preserving the resources of the lake. Many diagrams are circular, and feed into one another.

Produce meaningful comparisons. Refine your research questions using this technique. Perhaps while considering kiwis, you might realize you need to compare picking techniques for kiwis and olives to understand the local economy. This also helps you realize what kind of question you are asking.

Not all methods or techniques are the best for every question. You may have: how many, how much, who, where, when, how, why.

What is the best way to measure how many and how much? Find local statistics on, say, olive or kiwi workers. Find or produce a survey with a decent sample size. A healthy sample size provides accuracy.

What about finding out Who and Where? A quantitative technique works well for this. You want surveys and samples, as well as multiple interviews.

What about How, Why, and When? These questions try to describe something that is dynamic, not a static snap shot. For these, the best approaches are case studies, key informants, and focus groups. These interviews are less random then those used in quantitative research. You want to find someone with specific knowledge and know-how. You need a key informant. You also must describe how and why you chose the person you did. How did you find out who knew the most about the topic you are researching, and what was your criteria?

Case studies. A case study is: looking at a specific time bound series of events and describing them on a time-line.

Focus Groups A focus group is six to twelve people, defined by a criteria (which can be multiple). Age, gender ratios, or employment can all work as criteria. You, the researcher, talk about a single topic from multiple perspectives. A group interview is not necessarily a focus group, as is commonly believed. A good focus group needs criteria about who is in and who is out, and a single idea or object from various perspectives.

More on Methods:

Single – An interview or a case study.

Two – Doing two interviews, or doing multiple interviews.

What would you do a single interview for?

Perhaps only one person really understands the topic well. Research is all about resources, including budget and time. This keeps you at the level of the descriptive analysis or the narrative analysis.

You can compare and contrast different kinds of views using two different interviews. For example: what would a Cajun chef think about fish for lunch, and what would an Italian chef in Bolsena think?

If you are trying to generalize anything, you need multiple interviews. If you want to test your conceptual model, compare similar and different components of different case studies or interviews. In your 50 questions, you want to organize them to provide a narrative analysis.

Practical Considerations:

Do you do a transcript or not? What are the advantages of a transcript?

You can do iterations of your analysis. It will provide repeatability. You can repeat the activity. The downside of a transcript is that you have to transcribe it. If you are not going to use the transcript, don’t make one.

Skype has a transcription plug-in. It is great for evaluations of, say, a 25 million dollar program!

The Instrument:

If you are not going to do a transcript, you need the an instrument. An instrument is the tool you use to record the responses. It is a form that can be used again. The more specific your questions are and the more constrained and clear your instrument is, the better off you will be. If you want to compare two things, use two columns. A form needs to exist to record your data. It is hard to just take notes when talking to someone. You can practice an instrument on someone and see how long it takes, finding out what questions work and what questions do not work.

Analysis:

Triangulation means having at least three sources corroborate the information. This is the test of the validity of basic qualitative research. If three different perspectives tell you pretty much the same thing, you should record this in your research. You want to group similar ideas: go through the interview and look for themes or similar ideas.

Coding. You want to go through and code your transcript or your responses. These are all the things about cheese, these are all the things about Bolsena. You are going through the data and analyzing it.

Some Other Things to Keep in Mind:

Everyone loves a representative quote. The more quotes used in your research, the better. Oppositional quotes are also great. You can have a common view and then the opposite view.

Feelings! How does lunch in Bolsena make people feel? Code for feelings on lunch, score them on one to five from sort of depressed to ecstatic, then come up with a way to organize the information.

Wendy Harcourt, Editor in Chief of Development (a journal) What is Gender?

2009-06-05T14:25:00.001-07:00

Wendy Harcourt, Editor in Chief of Development (a journal)
What is Gender?

I am the Editor in chief of Development, a journal that was begun 52 years ago. I have always used the journal for gender ends. I am saying that there is not necessarily an expertise called gender, but rather that we should strive to understanding gender as a cross-cutting topic, that covers everything. Gender is related to power relations in our every-day lives. It's how we perceive ourselves, how we work with other people, and so on. Gender is an important political dimension to everything we talk about.

When we say “what is gender?”, what do we really mean? We could say: "What is gender in livelihoods? Hw do you perceive gender relations?" If someone identifies as a woman or as a man, how are they going to maintain their livelihoods and what are the differences in their livelihoods? How does the individual (male or female) perceive themselves in the community?

If you talk about gender, sexuality is a key issue. What are some terms we use when discussing sexuality?

I mention sexuality because I just published a paper on sexuality and development. I want to come back to that. When we talk abut sexuality, I do not mean the sense of if you are a man or a a woman you must behave in a certain way. I mean: how does society perceive your sexuality, and what is sexually attractive? How are you perceived as a partner? Sexuality from a gender point of view is defined by the community and expectations of how you behave.

That makes this a very political thing. In terms of the sexuality of American teenagers, the expectations are essentially that if you are in, say, “High School Musical,” you’ve got the boys sexuality expressed through basketball, being active, asking girls out. Girls, for their part, are either fighting among themselves or being very beautiful and getting the right boy. These are definitions of our sexuality, and our concepts of what is masculine and what is feminine.

In another society, like a rural village in Pakistan, it’s a system very different from that in High School Musical. In Pakistan, a girl and boy would be defined by their sexuality in a different way. The girl is in purdah and hides herself from all men, even in her family, by staying in her house. The boy is expected to go out and do what his father does. It is a different picture of masculinity and femininity.

In Brazil, there’s the phenom of transgender people. They are people who define themselves as something other, people who are living with a body in one sex and living as another. Gender, masculinity, femininity, and sexuality are important in communities, and how one sees themselves.

There is the culture of gender. This could be like the middle class represented in High School Musical. A particular culture, identity, and form of gendered selves, but we look at it in relation to Pakistan. That's a rural, closed community with a very different way of understanding sexuality. If you look at Lahore, a cultured city in Pakistan, women would be not under purdah, but would instead be driving cars. It's a different culture related to class. I think it’s important to see that there is culture and class in how you perceive gender.

In Brazil (or in India), there are groups of people who live as transgenders, who often do sex work or music/entertainment industry, or doing rites. These people are marginalized due to their sexuality, but are accepted in Brazil perhaps more so then in the USA. Transgender doesn’t appear in Highschool Musical!

When discussing identity , community, and society, we must ask: what is gender, masculinity, femininity, what is in between?

The body is clearly important in terms of the reproductive and productive body. There are other ways in which gender defines people’s lives and selves. This is where it is important to think about – when talking about women – the reproductive definition of women’s gender. Reproduction is a major defining factor of women's gender. In a sense, women’s work is in many ways at the crossroads of production and reproduction.

Within that reproduction/production role, the development discourse is placed. Care work is important. It's something people often forget, and is important in terms of masculinity and femininity. When you are talking about food, caring for people is key, and there is lots of interesting work out there on notions of care.

What I am not talking about is issues of repression, exploitation, and the violent side of how people have interpreted gender. I don't want to dwell on that, as it is maybe talked about too much. In many ways, we’ve had an iconic use of gender in the media and the academic world. For example, in the Iraq war post-2001, with all the ideas you’ve got out there – e axis of evil, veiled women, violent angry young Islamic men threatening civilization, and so forth. These are iconic, violent uses of gender that we are familiar with but I don’t need to talk about. There's a whole literature on the violence of gender.

There is a real violence used against women’s and men’s bodies, but there is also an iconic use of gender. I think this iconic use of gender is something that, when we talk about media and ideas of who the “other” is, is an important consideration. This is a fascinating area, but I feel that when discussing food and agriculture, I’ll leave it aside.

Three things: What is gender?

One is what I’ve been developing with a group of researchers: the politics of place.

Second: The use of gender in development discourse, which I personally know most about.

And contrast that in a sense with the use of gender in transnational feminism. These are two parallel tracks I have been involved in. What tools can you use in gender analysis?

The Politics of Place

This is a theoretical approach to gender which comes down to globalization and local group’s resistance to it. It’s basically a project started around 2000, when people were feeling that globalization was overwhelming certain groups. 20 years ago, people didn’t have the same concept of globalization that we do today. There was no internet, no connections that were so fast that you felt people could connect across time, across space, and in various languages. There was a sense that the whole world was moving very fast towards a global world, and lots of debates occurred about local and global. how do you hold onto the local place? How do you protect a place from the global invasion? How do you retain your place, food, culture? Many people saw the USA as leading this globalization, and there was acceptance and resistance to it.

Particularly in the global south, there was ambivalence. People were often forced to join the global ecnomy, and thus to join the Coca-Colaization of the world. Young people were feeling that the world they were born into wasn’t the world they wanted to be in. People wanted to move away from locality and notions of such into the global world. At the same time, they said, we want to retain what is ours. A lot of contestation of the policies of globalization occured. Within the place, there was a lot of resistance around environment, community,and local governments. They were trying not to reject but work out how to lift this globalization. Within that, there were many women’s governments looking at the impact of globalization.

How did women defend place and shape globalization while they were doing this governance? I am not trying to say local living is bad or good, but to look at how women in particular do it. In many places in the global south, the men areleaving to find work and the women were left behind in communities, were being forced to reshape their lives. This changed gender and power relations. We found there are places here that one can defend and change as a result of globalization.

One of the important things we said in our publications is that we need to understand the body as one of the places women are defending. Through the body and women's role as mothers, sisters, wives, through their own care work with farms, families –women were bearing the brunt of globalization on their bodies. If you go back to Brazil, many landless women were kicked off their property by big companies. Women are left with caring for the family. We look at how women are defending place with their body, environment, and family.

A framework then exists for saying globalization is not all bad, but how do we work with it? People coming from the USA often find it difficult to see that the USA was often perceived as a very negative force. The USA was seen as coming in, destroying people’s lives and people’s lands with a lot of might. Often Americans, for their part, were coming into locales overseas with a sense that they wanted to help.

We were trying to say that globalization is not all good or bad. It's more something that must be negotiated with women’s voices and women's knowledge of their own bodies, in a place where people are actually living. This convent, here in Bolsena, is a good example of how women are running things in the modern world. It is symbolic of how women are working with and valuing the place, culture, and religion. It also symbolizes how women are working with men in a negotiable way. They are working with globalization while retaining place. This is a good example of the politics of place.

Our work tries to illustrate that there are alternatives to big development. We did that project in those lines, and continue to work in small places. To some extent why I am interested in the convento is that it’s part of the same sort of project. At this moment, in an economic crisis, there are ways to connect projects and politics. We can maintain ourselves in the face of the turmoil.

Gender and Development

The notion of gender in development has been seen, since the 1970’s, as very important, especially in areas of agriculture. I emphasize these are political projecs. When you’re talking about development, you are talking about a big project of modernizing economies. A northern led agenda needs to exist, to bring Southern countries on board and into a global economy, and to improve and modernize cultures and societies along the way. As an example, there is the Food Aid Organization of the UN. They have excellent worldwide experts, who are introducing agricultural techniques, and suggesting to people the world over how to use their land, and the many ways they can modernize to make their economy profitable.

I’m talking about big projects, but I am also saying that, the surprising thing is that it was not until 1970 that people realized that there is a gender component to development and agriculture. The assumption often is that, you come in with a modern technologically sophisticated approach to agriculture, and then you give it to the government. The government comes in with a bunch of big projects, and, boom: you are in the modern economy. The USA, Europe, and other countries would come into these developing nations– they had colonial interests – and moved into these countries, produced different ways of running these countries. They did not notice that there were women and men involved in seperate tasks. They were gender neutral projects.

A Swedish economist noted that in Africa, 80 percent of farmers were women, and tech was being introduced as gender neutral. People produced techniques and technologies, and spoke to men only, ignoring the women. Many studies show the mistakes that were made because women as farmers were not taken into account. Also, these efforts at development didn’t take into account that as you change societies and change culture, it is the women’s lives will be changed most. There was little awareness of what it meant to be female in relation to family and communities. There was a lack of awareness. As in the 70’s and 80’s, women in those countries and women and development experts talked about these problems. In the 80s, gender's role in development gained importance as a cultural and health issue, a specific women’s problem. It was seen that women were often not able to join in modernization because they had children, health issues, or cultural impediments.

Many impediments to having women on board in development are due to men, who often did not see women’s roles as important. A women in development enterprise, and my society for International Development, USA, was first formed in 1957. It was the first group with a women in development program. It focused pn “soft issues” of development, not the hard issues of trade and finance. The group discussed agriculture and microprojects, not big money. In the 80s and 90, these women experts and women in the South started to say, “Well, we need to talk about rights,women’s rights specifically. We need to talk about how women can they have the right to land, the right to move in some countries. How can we give women the right to work and to find decent work, how can we give them the right to choose whether they will have children?”

In the 90’s, there was a strong push through big organizations, produced by the UN, on these topics. There were a series of conferences where women from north and south met to discuss these rights. You can see here that gender was emerging as a key issue both in soft and hard issues. Trade issues and finance issues are relevant here. In terms of development: who does the work, and who does the care work in a community? Without these programs supporting them, the very poor will never have work. You will see big projects done by elites, projects not taking into account the lives of people on the ground.

In 1990’s and into 2000, women advocates were trying to change the issues of development. Gender is a political project, and we are trying to bring women into modernity and development. We want to look at specific issues for women in a traditional development approach.

It is important when you talk about gender to look at the bigger picture and not just at the tools of "doing" gender. I'd like to bring up two key events. First was the Vienna 1994 meeting on human rights. Second was an important convention established in 1979, a convention for theelimination of all forms of discrimination against women. It was an important tool for the rights of women, particularly regarding discrimination, work, and cultural discrimination, as well as bodily discrimination. In 1979, the convention was ratified by 141 countries in Beijing. It was a huge conference, a UN conference, and the fourth conference on women. It was a platform drawn up for action, setting up 12 areas where people felt that women’s development could continue. I still ask why there was never a conference on men in development, but the answer is clear. They were basically setting the agenda.

This created a political moment for women to say: What are our issues that are not being heard in traditional development? The Beijing conference is still very important and is the basis of most material on gender and development. It is also a legal instrument. People sign to it, and you can use the Beijing conference to fight discrimination. Beijing is, however, not legally binding. The government signs to it, but you must push nations to adhere to it.

In the last 10 years, we've seen the rise of transnational feminism. Development usually means talking about governments, aid agencies, and what supports those. In relation to gender important things, we're talking about stuff like microcredit, supporting women farmers, bringing health care and reproductive care, and other important rights. Charitable organizations are often doing crucial things for poor communities, which is done as a service delivery and not as empowerment. That's a problem. Let’s say that it's more important to build the capacity for people to lead their own lives. As I said earlier, development is in many ways a very disruptive process. In a sense, these aid agencies are simply helping people with a disruption of economic development. We're not perceiving it as a political process, but rather as knowledge to be delivered, or as a tool. It's seen in a technical way that can be useful, but not always politically aware.

In relation to women’s issues, they often work at very local, small level. Small grants, little microcredit schemes, and hospitals are ways organizations can help women. These issues don't generally go to the global network.

Transnational feminism, operating alongside these organizations, points out political issues that people in small projects aren’t connecting to. The World Food Project is about making people survive day to day, but the reason why they don’t have the food in the first place is because they can’t provide their own food, for many complicated reasons. TN feminism is writing about why people need food programs. TN feminism is organizing in parallel to UN food agencies, and World Food Day/ TN feminists are leading from the global south to point out the bigger, macro economic and social picture.

It's mportant to know about TN feminism as a movement and as aresource of knowledge. It often challenges methodologies in books and often overlaps. I have just written a book called Body Politics and Development, exploring connections between TN feminism and world food groups, and the UN. It's about helping women develop power, as well as transgender people, and coming at the issues from different angles. One is politically oriented, and one is much more about technical/direct service support. Within that these are the things that TN feminists develop on different issues then those looked at in traditional women/gender in development.

We are looking at: trade in gender, finance in gender, the financial crises impact on women, changing current economic way of working, alternatives to capitalism (what development is all about), changing women’s care roles, and revaluing how women are living their lives. We are making lives more liveable by working with women and people on the ground, and working with globalization. We want to make transformation, rather then make development.

For me these things are more exciting and important. How can we face world food crisis, climate crisis, financial crisis? This approach takes into account communities and people’s knowledge.

Tools for Gender Analysis

I’m a writer and editor, not someone who goes around doing gender analysis methodologies. I wanted to create these tools, because in any of these courses, you need to understand the bigger picture as you go. A lot of this came out of this 1995 conference in Beijing where there was a platform for action, and 12 ways to empower women were put forth, women's empowerment being the aim of the event. The decision was, what we should do is gender mainstreaming. This is the most important strategy in development. What I’ve been trying to talk about is this: you don’t look at gender or women as a separate thing. You instead look at how gender links into issues in development and agriculture. You look at gender deliberately in the concept of a development project.

Asking questions in communities lets you tease out the different concerns and activities of men and women, what are the limits of gender roles. We find out what men do, what women do traditionally, and can then try to change that. How do you respect cultural differences between women and men, and how do you change traditional decision making? Most culture have some sort of scheme wherein the man makes the call, and the woman does the work.

People often go into a village, talk, and work gets done. Reality is:if you’re talking about a kind of work, it could be women’s work and you might be talking to a man who didn’t know about it. In developing a gender analysis, on must look at different gender roles practically ad strategically. We need to look at leadership, and how communities operate together. We develop this in a participatory way. It's not say, "This is what men do and women do", but an effort to understand what the villagers seem and see from your point of view how women and men need to shift their ways of doing things. This shift will empower the women, and produce another type of product, for the betterment of the whole community.

A lot of gender mainstreaming manuals have been done for development projects. I wrote one, whhich was done in 1999. It was an early manual, but brings together gender and social policy. This was done by a Canadian association called IDAC, bringing in enviromental issues aw well. The manual defines the concepts of gender and asks: How you can do gender analysis, and gender mainstreaming? How do you bring gender into any project? The manual gives a tool kit. It explains hoow you can do it, how does a team work, what sort of questions you should ask. It's very interesting reading about how people in communities received women, development, and gender issues.

Now we have a Gender in Agriculture source book. The book is very relevant to food and agriculture issues. It shows you all the different issues – food security, agriculture livelihoods, land policy – and shows you the gender dimension within them. People are starting to recognize that you have to have gender in every area of FAO’s and Efad’s work. The question is now political. You have the resources to look at gender, and people say they are doing it, but are they really?

We now have a solid knowledge of how gender impacts food aid and food security, and , a complex and interesting set of tools to bring into projects. Do we have the political will to bring about these changes?

At the moment I am putting together a European book on development. The European commission has asked where gender and development is in Europe. I have been asked along in this effort as the "gender person." Even though people are aware that you must bring in gender when discussing these issue when I talk about what the issues are, many are doing their own work as if gender just happens in the corner. I have been asked to do boxes that fit into each of the chapters of my book on gender issues. We are still at the point where there is lots of knowledge and interest about gender, but questions about: how do you bring it into reports, technical approaches, and so on.

The Transnational Feminist approach is that you work both inside major development industry (big stuff) , which has billions of dollars around it and all sorts of lives hinged on it, and also work with people outside of it, trying not to just latch into development process but work in communities and locally – support each other and not go down sink with the financial crisis.

It is important to know both about the tools and the political context in which they are being produced.

Food security, right to food, and gender. Action Aid programmes for women’s access to agricultural land

2009-06-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Food security, Right to Food, and Gender:

Action Aid programmes for women’s access to agricultural land

The Campaign

ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign is demanding "food sovereignty" for all. HungerFREE believes that people need to be able to provide for themselves in a self relient and self sufficient manner. This is the "security" that would enable Dalit women like Aswthamma, Sayamma and Subbamma to know that they can support themselves and their families, and do not have to rely on the caprice of casual labour and unjust landlords.

HungerFREE India has mobilized thousands of Dalit women to fight for land rights, and it is now a bona-fide movement. Since the campaign launched in December 2007, 7,000 acres of land has been secured for 5,000 women.

But there is still so much more to do.

According to rough estimates, only 2 to 3% Dalit women have ownership of land. Nor do they have any rights over resources. Also, they face untouchable status and sexual violence in the community at large. Centuries of discrimination by dominant castes have placed Dalit women resolutely amongst the poorest of the poor.

Working with an ActionAid partner, the Dalit Federation, HungerFREE Women is demanding that the Indian government:

* Provide 5 acres of agricultural land to every Dalit landless woman.
* Provide 5 cents of homestead land to every Dalit family.
* Stops violence and discrimination against Dalit girls and women.

At ActionFre, we want to give all women the right to education. We also wish to provide insight into gender and conflict resolution.

Films about India’s Dalit women.

Action Aid Hunger Free: The campaign launched in 2007, around the issue of the right to food. The campaign is linked to the issue of gender rights and of the right of those with HIV/AIDS to live healthful and safe lives.

Hunger Free Women : First, we will view a short video on a Dalit woman, who is speaking out about the main problems regarding gender in her country. This video highlights the issues revolving around accessing natural resources for women’s food security. What is the problem of food security and access to resources? These are highlights of the campaign. Another short video focuses on those who have been doing the Hunger Free woman campaign around the world, with a particular focus on Gambia.

Hunger Free in India has mobilized thousands of Dalit women to fight for land rights and is now a vibrant movement. Since the campaign launched in 2007, 7,000 acres of land have been secured for 5,000 women. In India, only 2 to 3% of Dalit women have access to land, and they do not have any rights over resources.

In this short film, Bhogaram Sayamma describes the importance of land ownership in Dalit efforts to secure security and dignity. For Sayamma, owning land would mean being self sufficient, as she could grow her own food. This would free her from the constant worry that, if one day she could not find work, she and her family would be unable to eat. You can watch the videos here.

60% of the world’s hungry people are women. If we take into consideration that since this year, the number of hungry has been reaching over one billion (since the beginning of 2009) we see that that 60% number is very high. There is a contradiction here. Women farmers produce between 60 to 80% of the food in poor countries. At the same time, only 1% of women farmers actually own the land they work on, and they are often excluded from farmer’s associations, services, and the acquisition of technical know-how. Although women are the main actors of food production, they have no power in decision making regarding food and land.

The biggest problem these women face is access to land.

There is also the problem of vulnerability and health linked to gender. Every year, 115,000 maternal deaths worldwide are associated with iron deficiency, which is caused by malnutrition. Rural women alone produce half of the world’s food, but receive less then 10 percent of the credit provided to farmers.

Rural women are often far from the centers of power, and thus are excluded from decision making.

The Problem:

Violations of women’s rights are largely regarded as “our culture” or “the way we have always done things in this community.” It’s not easy to advocate in the Northern/donor countries or at the international level. Women's rights are a very national issue that needs to be addressed at a local level, viaimprovements in national legislation/customary laws.

- Rural women’s economic activities are considered as just “women’s work,” and are thus not counted in national statistics. Women’s work is often undervalued, and is rarely measured.

Land represents economic, political, and social power and in many cases the ability to exercise power over those who have none. Colonialism exacerbated the problem, and post colonial governments have largely failed to redress the situation. Poor rural women with no land are citizens of nowhere.

October 15th is Rural Women’s Day (March 8th to December 1st). The holiday is yet to find its way onto the calendars of the developing world.

The Problem III: Focus on the Food Price Crisis

Since women are usually the ones who take care of the preparation of meals and the provision of basic food for the kitchen table, women suffer most from an increase in agricultural food prices. Women elaborate strategies to cop with high prices. They try to increase their income, by selling their products at the best prices in different markets, looking for cheaper food, and so on.

When food is scarce, when basic needs are not satisfied, men and male children often come first. Women's rights are seen to be optional, and are often given less priority or pushed into the background.

There is evidence of an increase in violence (especially domestic violence) during economic crisis and emergencies. This may happen because the male breadwinner model is challenged within the home and sociey at large.

Solutions identified by institutions have often worsened the conditions and livelihood of rural women. Promoting innovation and technology challenges traditional knowledge, which is commonly owned by women. Simply increasing large scale and export-led agricultural models doesn’t help.

Intersectionalities between Climate Change and Women’s Rights:

Climate Change Affects Food Security

10% crop yield reduction for each 1 C temperature increase.

Crop yields across Africa reduced by up to 50% by 2020, with more frequent and severe droughts, fires, floods, and storms.

Loss of coral reefs and fisheries.

Loss of glaciers, reduced water run-off.

Women are more affected by climate change. In case of natural disaster, women and children are fourteen times more likely to die then men. Women are not taught to swim or climb trees, and are thus at more risk when floods occur.

Women are under represented in forums and decision making processes, for adaptation and mitigation of enviromental problems(see low female presence in delegations at COPs). This is true, despite the fact that women are more environmentally friendly, and are more likely to use bikes and public transport then men.

Intersectionalities with HIV and AIDS:

Marginalized women and girls are more vulnerable to HIV, and bear the greatest burden when HIV/AIDS affects families, through illness or death. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women are 61% of people living with HIV, up from 57% in 2003. Women aged 15 to 24 are three times more likely to be infected then young men. Globally, up to 90% of care in illness is provided in homes by women and girls.

HIV prevalence is more common in the most food insecure countries, with HIV and AIDS being both a cause and a result of hunger.

Solutions Identified:

Women farmers must be given land rights, to secure their sources of food and livelihoods.

Women small-scale farmers must be supported with agricultural aid, and enabled to access resources they need to be productive, such as cheap fertilizer and agricultural credit.

Women’s rights must be respected. For example, enabling women to get an education has been identified as the single most powerful contribution to reducing malnutrition over a 35-year period.

The responses to the food price crisis and to climate change challenges must be gender sensitive, both in terms of the analysis provided and for the solutions identified. In HIV/AIDS high prevalence countries, the female face of the pandemic must be considered.

The Campaign:

The facts are well known and the problem is deeply researched, and solutions have been well ID’d and articulated. Yet from CSO’s to governments and donors, there is very little activism or concerted attempts at changing laws, policies, administrative systems or belief systems. All of these factors continue to deny and violate women’s rights. This is in spite of all commitments that most governments have made (CEDAW, the Beijing platform for Action). Someone had to do something!

Women’s right to access and control land is one of AAI’s strategic priorities in the women’s rights and food right’s themes. We produced analysis before 2007 (see Report Women’s Access to Land), and work at the community level with women’s agricultural associations, as well as women in peasant movements.

When the HungerFree campaign was conceived, we decided to have women’s access to land and the right to natural resources as one of the three main pillars in our advocacy, mobilization, and research work.

The Campaign:

When: Hungerfree began in 2007, HungerFree women was the main focus of the campaign in 2008. The hottest period of activity was between October 15th 2008 and March 8th 2009.

Where? Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Bangladesh, Gambia, Haiti, Nepal, Mozambique, Brazil, Zimbabewe, Vientma, Senegal, India, Malawi.

Who: 80,000 women marched with Hungerfree Women, many of them traveling for weeks or months.

Through our e-action on the website, our supporters took action alongside women’s farmers.

Outputs: Charters and petitions have been produced and released to relevant institutions.

Outcomes: They aredifferent depending on countries: in some of them, they are big commitments taken by leaders.

Short Video 2: HungerFree around the world.

The film of the HungerFREE women rolled out across the globe last November and December. The film shows some of the women and activists that we have met in Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Bangladesh, Gambia, Haiti, Nepal, and Mozambique.

Examples of How HungerFree Worked So Far

The Gambia:

The HungerFREE cross-country caravan toured the Gambia in October 2008, starting on Rural Women’s Day. Almost 30 delegates traveled to meetings held in each region of the Gambia. At these 8 meetings, attended by between 150 and 200 women, women farmers sharedthe difficulties they faced in producing crops, as well as the lack of permanent access to land. Strong and concrete commitments to change were made by local chiefs, governors, and religious leaders.

The caravan was made of a wide range of delegates: Gambian ational Assembly Members and a Government Representative, friends from the media, activists, the president of national women farmers association, AA staff, AA Gambia partners, and other participated. On most days, women waited by the road to welcome the caravan and to march alongside it towards the town centre, bringing with them their tools and crops.

Women expressed themselves through dances, songs, and displays of the food produced and tools used at the caravan stops. Activist school chapters entertained the crowd with dramas and songs.

The women present during the meetings, and those whom the caravan met en route to town, signed the HFW petitions, which were printed in a large banner. This banner was displayed during the FAO candlelight vigil on 21st October and hangs ouside the Gambian National Assembly builiding.

FURTHER STEPS

AA/FAO event at the UN in New York on women farmers (22/9/08).

- A lunch meeting brought together women farmers from Kenya and Cameroon, with staff UN agencies, IFI’s, NGO’s and government missions to highlight the challenges facing women farmers in the context of the food crisis.

-Nalangu Taki, a farmer, organizer, and women’s right’s activist from the Narok region of Kenya was present, as well as Magdalene Setia, manager of Action Aid’s development initative in Narok. Elizabeth Atangana from Cameroon, the President of the Peasant Organization of Central Africa (PROPAC) was there as well.

FURTHER STEPS III

Italian G8

- Agriculture Ministers Meeting (Treviso, April 2009)
- Enviromental Ministers Meeting (Siracusa, April 2009)
- Development Ministers Meeting (Rome, next week).
- G8 Summit in L’Aquila (July)

HungerFree Women Exhibition in Rome, 24th June 2008 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of AA Italy.

International Rural Women Day and World Food Day (15th to the 16th of October).

COP Copenhagen (DK) next December.

Towards 2015, we hope to achieve MDG 1.

Useful References Regarding Our Work:

Websites:
Hungerfreeplanet.org
Action Aid
Land Tenure
IFSN-Action Aid.net

Papers by ActionAid:

- Securing Women’s Right’s to Land and Livelihoods: A Key to Ending Hunger and Fighting AIDS.
- - Cultivating Women’s Rights for Access to Land.

- - 10 Point Action Plan to End Hunger.

- - Failing the Rural Poor: Aid, Agriculture, and MDG’s.

- Biting the Feeding Hand: Voices of Women on Land. Collection of stories from poor women in Uganda about their struggles.

The Tomato Commodity

2009-06-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Tomato Commodity and the Tomato Supply Chain

Politics of the Plate:

US tomatoes are largely grown in Florida and California,and 90% of domestic tomatoes are grown in one Florida town. The tomatoes are picked hard green, tossed in a truck, boxed in a warehouse, sprayed with a fixative of some sort, and then shipped by plane, truck, or train to the entire country and overseas. Mexico is another big importer, but most Mexican tomatoes go to a processing plant, which turns them into other products and sends them into the market.

The average tomato now travels thirteen hundred and sixty nine miles in the peak of winter. Other top tomato producers are China, Turkey, Italy, and India. Italy’s tomatoes are processed and sent to the USA, in the gourmet-approved form of San Marzano’s. Chinese, Indian, and Turkish tomatoes are also sent all over the world. Despite its equatorial location, South America does not grow many tomatoes.

Farm Politics in the USA:

Tomatoes are picked largely by immigrant workers, generally Hispanic, who are hired for day labor. They can at most make 50 dollars a day, and get 45 cents a bushel. The reason tomatoes are so cheap is that the labor source is not consistent, and that turnover is extreme. The tomato labor issue is a good example of a flaw in the industrial food chain. People live in squalor while working on these farms, and are underpaid to boot. The ACLU has brought up many lawsuit cases against big US tomato producers, due to exploitative labor practices. Producers often use "coyotes" to lure workers into the USA illegally, then refuse to pay them. The immigrants have no legal recourse and are helpless. The migrant workers are kept in essence as modern slaves.

The tomato supply chain is similar to that of coffee in a perverse way. Shippers and packers actually own the tomato farms. This is the exploitation of farm-direct as shippers, packers, and retailers own the farms and dictate prices to commodity setters. There is no action for the workers. People who are retailers, shippers, and packers can do whatever they want on the farms since they own them.

Tomatoes are often injected with tomato flavoring since they are not ripe enough. Whole Foods is the only organization that agrees not to use tomatoes grown using exploitative processes in Florida. Buying on the vine is better since it indicates they are grown using hydroponics. Small tomato producers do play a part in grocery stores. You can’t ship tomatoes all the way from China. Only six kinds of tomatoes are marketed in the USA. You can buy different kinds of plants from other people.

Looking at the same production chain in another country, like in Mexico, we see additional features that tell us about what globalization of the system does. How do you ship tomatoes from one place to another?

90% of the tomatoes people eat come from Mexico. To ship them, you have to freeze them. Prior to putting them on the truck they diminish the fruit's temperature, then take them back to room temperature. This allows the tomatoes to keep longer. Due to the distance, the truckers have four to four days and a half to sell them. This means you had better arrive at the Canadian border within three days, or else. These truckers drive very fast since they can’t stop for anything. If you look at production in Mexico, you will also find that the managers are men and the lower people on the totem pole are women. There is a clear gender division which corresponds to a wage difference. The mechanical movement is driven by men. They have the cars, but they don’t work harder then the women.

The people who do coffee separation, do the harvesting, which is done by hand. Women often do this, and are considered unskilled labor. They are paid less then the (probable) man, who drives the trucks. The separation of products does require some attention, but you as an unskilled employee are given less value. So if you’re doing this kind of work, for Western markets with high standards, you do add value for the person in charge of the entire chain, but are not payed for the value you add. Women are preferred in these "unskilled" tasks as they require dexterity, skill of movement, delicacy and so forth.

People are often sprayed by chemicals in this line of work. Even if they get cancer, they have no way to protest or defend themselves.

By the late 70's Mexico was not self supporting. Mexican farms do not use Mexican ground. The soil is usually imported from elsewhere. The people's detachment from the land is extreme, and the labor is more industrial in nature then agricultural. When greenhouses were used just for supplementing usual crops, the job was done by women. When greenhouses became a typical part of the process and higher wages came with that task, the job was taken by men.

GMO'S like "Flavor Saver" tomatoes are used to change the product instead of the process. You can take a seed and transform the flavor without bothering to inject. Flavor Saver is also climate resistant, and is grown mostly in China by Calgen.

Campbell’s has a web-page on sustainable agriculture practices. They claim they try whenever possible to source ingredients from farmers located within a 100 miles of processing facilies in the USA and Mexico. They do not list specific processing facilities on the website, which seems very suspect. They also claim they use fresh ingredients and eliminate shipping/support, but the products are, evidently, shipped around the world - it's hard to keep a Chinese tomato fresh and tasty on the journey to the USA. If you keep reading, you see they say that their approach begins with growers who use disease resistant seeds. That's not so local and natural. The general public, however, would probably be convinced by the slick looking and convincing sounding website.

Day Four: Pasta!

2009-06-04T23:22:00.001-07:00

Day 4 - 6/4/2009: Pasta!

Thursday was another beautiful day weather-wise. After another leisurely outdoor breakfast, we headed to the conference room to listen to a talk by Andrea Ferrante, the president of the AIAB, or the Associazione Italiana Agricoltura Biologica. You can read the lecture at this link. Andrea spoke with us all morning, as we moved our class outside to take advantage of the good weather.

For lunch, our primi was fresh gnocchi with tomato-basil sauce. Enzo bought the gnocchi in a town nearby and they were delicious: dense and pillowy soft, like little squishy puffs in your mouth. Enzo made the sauce himself, and it was very nice: full of fresh vegetable flavor with just a little kick of red pepper!

Our secondi was salami, fresh cheese, and a very diverse salad. The cheese was a gamey and earthy semi-hard cheese - reminded me of fontina - and was very tasty, especially in conjunction with the always excellent flavor of the salami. The salad was divine: Enzo had combined a whole bunch of lettuces with arugula, cucumber, radish, and, most enticingly, fennel. Tossed with some balsamic, olive oil, and salt, it was the perfect early summer salad.

After lunch, some of us decided to go into town to grab gelato and do a bit of exploring. Chiara was nice enough to give us a ride down the hill, and we cruised by the lakeside for a bit before heading to the square in town for ice cream. Italy closes down almost entirely around lunch hours - siesta is very important - and only the gelato and coffee places remain open for business.

We had some gelato, including a wonderful hazelnut-chocolate-pistachio flavor, and walked through the medieval village of Bolsena. Chiara explained that the archways in the thick brick walls were the original medieval doors: set up so the inhabitants could entirely lock the town up at night. As Bolsena attracted many pilgrims due to its convenient location in the middle of the route to Rome, the doors also served the purpose of keeping possibly disease-ridden pilgrims out of the city's confines - not a bad security system.

Amanda and I walked up to the castle which overlooks the town and the lake below it, enjoying some truly spectacular views. It's surprising that Bolsena is not better known in the USA - but not a bad thing for us!

After a rather sweaty walk back up the hill, it was time for a lesson in pasta making. Our host and hostess from La Tana Della Orso' returned to show us how to make fettucini. Everyone donned aprons and got to work with the dough - Farina brand, which is apparently quite high in quality.

Our ever-patient instructor.

Working the egg into the flour. This is harder then it looks: the ratio of egg to flour and water must be correct.

A rolled out and compete pasta sheet.

Working the pasta dough requires some serious bicep strength! Now you know why Italian women often have excellent arms.

Antonio works with the pasta, exposing his Italian roots!

Everyone got in on the act.

Completed sheets of pasta. These can be kept under cloth for a few hours, or refrigerated for no more then a day. Freezing fresh pasta is not an option!

The sheets of pasta are folded over and then cut. The motion is more akin to sawing then chopping - a fairly blunt knife is used.

The finished project - rather photogenic, don't you think?

After the pasta was finished, we had a break, then headed for the conference room, to give the presentations we had prepared the previous day on food commodities. One group discussed coffee, and the other discussed tomatoes. Details from the coffee discussion can be found here.

The weather began to cool down dramatically around dinner time - weather patterns here are definitely affected by the close proximity of the lake. We put on our windbreakers and gathered around the dinner table, after a little snack of fresh fava beans and aged pecorino - an unusual but oddly compelling flavor combination!

The evening's primi was the fettucini we had made earlier in the day, served with Enzo's excellent tomato-basil sauce. The fettucini was perfectly chewy, and had the wonderful rustic taste that only hand-made pasta can deliver.

The secondi was composed of sausage, fresh salad, and a lovely rosti-like thing made from the potatoes and carrots from lunch. This was combined with fresh egg and cooked in a pan over a griddle - excellent, especially with a bit of mustard.

Dessert was a traditional Italian torta or cake, with pine nuts and what seemed to be a bit of citrus flavoring. This was rustic, simple, and very good - a quintessential Italian country dessert.

By nine o' clock, the sun still hadn't gone down - summer days last a long time in Italy. The evening was spent watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - doubtless food and gender analysis of the film will follow!

Presentation on the Coffee Commodity

2009-06-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Presentation on the Coffee Commodity

Coffee production:

The world's top coffee exporters are Brazil, Vietnam, Columbia, and Ethiopia. Coffee production is generally centered around the equator, as the weather there is best for its production. The countries who drink the most coffee, however, are Finland, Norway, Iceland, Canada, the USA and Germany.Thus, discussing local production and community consumption doesn’t make much sense because coffee producing areas don’t drink much coffee. If you are drinking coffee in the Western World, you can be pretty certain that it’s coming from a ways away.

Fair trade practices are important. Indeed, coffee is the fair trade poster child.

Sabrina – Slow food in the form of its international organization puts effort into thinking about Fair Trade. 1.7% of the European coffee consumed is fair trade, and Europe is the best market for these products.

Amanda –Let's talk about climates and growing strategies. Coffee usually comes from biodiversity rich shade climates. Originally, coffee growers used a lot of compost, and coffee pulps with crop rotation. When the Green Revolution occurred in the 50's and 60's, the US agency for International Development gave much money to coffee plantations for the purchase GMOS. Today, people are changing back to shade areas, and are using more bio diverse means of cultivation. When looking at climate conditions, global warming’s increase in temperatures means areas producing coffee are moving North and away from the equator. High coffee consumption countries are further north as well, so it will be interesting to see how consumption patterns change.

The Roasting Process:

When coffee is raw, it is called cherries. In wet processing, cherries are put in water, fermented overnight, and the outer skin falls off. The cherries are then are laid out to dry. Areas with little water use dry processing and just peel off the skin. There are light, medium, dark, and darkest roasts. Light is cheap American coffee (think the diner stuff), darkest is espresso.

Supply Chain:

Old school and small producers grow coffee and sell it to middlemen, who sell it to exporters/importers, who sell it to roasters, who finally sell it to retailers. Producers were often ripped off and got less then market price due to these coffee "coyotes".

Coffee for a while was a fair trade product. Importers and roasters and retailers would get together, and fair trade retailers would only buy from fair trade roasters, who would buy from the producers. Producers were interviewed and went through the fair trade process. That’s how the middlemen or "coyotes" were cut out in recent years.

Recently, companies like Green Mountain Coffee and Starbucks (only 1 or 2 percent fair trade) have entered the sustainable coffee business. Starbucks pays more then 3 times the market price to their producers. As Starbucks buys so much coffee, the production chain is essentially all driven by Starbucks.

Starbucks does all the coffee production steps themselves. The 5 or 6 step process of the past has switched to a three step process. Because Starbucks goes via their own producers, they find their own people, and don’t use the old fair trade system. Thus, coffee is no longer considered a “fair trade” product, although Starbuck's process is still more then fair to the producers. They just can’t register their products as "fair trade". It's like organic farmers who aren’t officially registered organic. Perhaps we should call it “generous trade” coffee. Before this time, Starbucks got a lot of heat about their coffee buying practices. It was because of this that the anti-globalization organization CorporateWatch began. Small producers often do get shut out by Starbucks, which wants control of the entire market.

Folgers and Maxwell House are coffee companies, which means that Folgers/Maxwell coordinate with retailer roasters. The only thing Folgers and Maxwell House do is bag the product and sell it to you – that’s it! Their marketing gets you to think they do more then that.

In the original system, through all these steps, coffee sellers would work with tons of small producers – hundreds or thousands. They would then work with a few importers and exporters (five or six). They would then sell the coffee to hundreds and thousands of roasters, who would sell to a few different retailers. It was a very convoluted process.

Coffee is not considered a food commodity. Like other commodities, the producer does not have a means to market the raw product and is at an automatic disadvantage. Coffee producers don’t really have marketing abilities. There’s a huge oversupply of coffee, so the market is totally buyer driven, and keeps prices artificially low. 70% of the world’s coffee is made by small farmers with less then 10 hectares in 80 countries. In Ethiopia, coffee is 67% of the foreign exchange earnings for that country.

Ad agencies usually try to find an emotional connection between you and the product. With coffee, the link between producer and consumer is totally lost. Marketers from an advertising perspective find it almost perfect since they begin with a clean slate. The average American consumer doesn’t have any knowledge or background in coffee production. In regards to basic American coffee, advertising is still geared to older Americans. A whole generation of young people drink coffee, which is marketed strictly by image, image cultivated by companies. Coffee drinking is associated with intellectualism, is considered “cool”. However, people are becoming more educated and aware of the global environment, thus the rise of free trade. It is becoming more desirable to buy these products.

McDonalds has begun to compete with Starbucks with McCafe. A whole set of ads that they are coming out with is creating that anti-cool persona. They're basically saying,"When you go into a coffee shop, you have to be a geek, or an intellectual, or pretentious. But you can go into McDonalds and be a regular Joe." And get a cup of joe.

In the USA, the instant products are owned by Nestle. But "roast” is owned by Philip Morris!

Lecture by: Andrea Ferrante, President of AIAB

2009-06-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Lecture by: Andrea Ferrante, President of AIAB, the Associazione Italiana Agricoltura Biologica

This morning we will speak about organic farming. We will discuss what it means on a world wide level. We will also discuss the link between organic farming and food security, and the model of agriculture’s links to agriculture and food security.

We need to know: who is producing food on a world wide level? What are women’s roles in food production? What is the family farm model? (Which is more widespread in our Italian sector). Finally, we willdiscuss the future of organic farming, in both the south and north of the world. We will then discuss where we are headed. What should organic farming be in the future?

My personal background first. I am an agronomist by trade My wife and I have an organic farm near Bolsena, and we produce organic vegetables. We have a multifunctional farm. We don’t only produce vegetables but we also have agrotourism, restaurants, and so on.

What is organic? I think it is important when we discuss organic to discuss not only certified organic but un-certified organic. Organic is a model of production with a model that can be referenced on an international level at the International Organic Association. We are still a movement in organic. In the Infund definition, we are always talking about certified and uncertified.

We at AIAB often discuss techniques. We need to know how to grow and protect crops. We need a model in order to develop a new way to produce and a new way to consume. We need a new model of relation. Who produces and who consumes? The consumer in this sense is not only someone who buys something but someone who exercises their rights. These rights include the right to eat the kind of food they want, to live in the kind of environment they want, and so on.

It is clear in the organic movement that we have a very different position from the mainstream. When I talk about organic I have this model in mind. I have to be honest, it’s not the only way people see organic.

In the sense of this model, at the center is human beings. The human being is the farmer. This is crucial, because after the second World War, the know-how of the farmer was day-by-day exploited, and more and more substituted.

The know-how of the farmer was substituted with the know-how of the agro-industry. The farmer lost his capacity and his knowledge about the management of the land, making him only a worker with a technological knowledge. The farmer today often knows only how to put that kind of seed with this kind of fertilizer, only knows how to produce this plant which must be treated with this kind of herbicide. The farmer loses importance, as he, the human being, was originally the center of agriculture knowledge. He used to know what the soil was like, what was the biodiversity of his land, the micro-climates on his farm, and so on. This human knowledge is crucial in organic agriculture.

If you think as a community that this sense of organic farming is no longer important – the farmer is no longer the knowledge center, but only applying someone else’s technique – then that means you as a community are losing culture. You are losing a fundamental part of the culture of your society. In that sense it is important that organic is trying to change the patterns of reference of agriculture. What we as a world community did, from the 50’s and WWII onward, was the erasal of agriculture culture. We replaced it with knowledge far removed from the farm, and not owned by the farmer. Today, we have patterns of life, we have patterns of seeds, we have patterns of fertilizer. We have the privatization of knowledge.

When you are speaking about agriculture – with its 5000 year old history – we see that we have changed everything in only 50 years. Here's some data on our sector.

Certified organic farms account for 30 million hectares around the world. Of these hectares, the nation with the most organic land is Australia with a wide range of farms on 11 million hectares of land. Argentina, China, the USA and Italy follow behind. In Europe, we have 6 million hectares of organic certified land. In that sense, it’s interesting. This land is certainly certified land, but organic is much more then certified land. If you think about all indigenous people’s maintenance of the forest, the use of traditional African ways, the use of Andean systems and so on – these peoples are are still an organic model of production. It is important that we know that still, at the base of the model, are family farms.

Family farms still produce more food-for-consumption then any other system. The bulk of the world’s people eat from family farms. This matters, because we sometimes get the idea that the bulk of the world’s production is from the agro-industry model. This is not so essential in terms of food security . The real essentials of food security are guaranteed by these family farms. Half the world’s man power is linked to agriculture. Agriculture is still crucial to the world economy, and from the family farm model, the sense of the human being is retained.

From the agricultural policies we have discussed in the past 20 years, this is all linked to the trade in agriculture. This is then linked to the issue of fighting world hunger. We forget the bulk of production is by family farms for a local market, and we forget that family farms are also linked to an ecological mode of production.

This is important because when we think organic, we think of a model of production where the capacity to be more efficient is applied by family farms. When a farm is linked to the people at the center of the model, it is more efficient. Organic is only a mode of production. We don’t use chemical fertilizer, for example. It’s important that we stick to the family farm model, that we stick to the important role of the human being in the farm.

(One hectare is 2. something acres).

What is the minimum size of an Italian farm in Italy? We have one million six hundred thousand farms in Italy. That's a very big number for a very small country.

Family farms matter because at its center is the work of the family, although there can of course be some employees. The typical farm is linked by the family’s manpower. This is the most common world model. In the USA, for example, you have family farm networks.

How important is access to land? The debate about land reforms is a big deal. Indeed, an enormous debate exists about land reforms. Denying people access to land is a problem. In 2006, 27 years after the debate began, the Food Aid Organization has organized an international conference on land reform. It was the first time we had really talked about land reform in 27 years. It's an essential issue, but very delicate. We have two ways to see the problem: prioritization, and how we can ensure access to land for the poorest people.

Who is working on these farms, who is managing these farms, and who has the knowledge? Knowledge loss is the most important problem we face now. What happens when we lose the knowledge? In Italy, for example, we have pretty much lost our ability to make seeds at farm level. This is an essential loss in cultural and biodiversity levels. It means that all the seeds we use here are produced by the seed industry. The seed industry isn’t bad or good, but it does have to respond in a market oriented way to sell seeds. The seed companies won’t produce seed that won’t be good on the market. They will decide for you what you are going to eat. For example, all tomatoes found in the market today are linked to four, five, or six varieties. We have lost a huge capacity for agricultural biodiversity in tomato production, although we have had tomatoes in Italy for 500 years.

Why did this happen? Vegetable producers don’t do their own seeds anymore and only have a part of the growing process. They buy the actual plants elsewhere. Only a few organizations produce the seeds. This is not only a problem with the farmer but a problem with the whole of society. This comes back to the main issue: agriculture and food are linked to farmer’s problems. It’s a problem of the entire society. If you see what is the weight of agriculture and food on the international discussion - well, it’s a low priority.

How does organic play a role in the situation? It has a crucial role in letting people ask if the model we have chosen – the mainstream or agrobusiness model – is what we want. Our policies worldwide are based on an agrobusiness model.

In 1996 – 13 years ago – we had made more food available. In the 90’s, the UN organized all kinds of summits, including the 1996 World Food Summit. The world community said, at these meetings, that "We have a problem, we have 870 million people suffering hunger". The first of the new millennium’s goals was supposed to be addressing the world hunger situation. In 13 years, sadly, we didn’t even begin to address the tremendous problem of hunger. We now have one billion people in a hunger situation. It’s even worse then it was before all those lofty proclomations.

We have to ask ourselves if the mainstream model we have chosen is the model that can answer the hunger problem. One billion people still suffering hunger is pretty bad. We may be thinking on an organic and national level, but who’s thinking on an ecological level? We have to rethink the priority of our model of production and distribution.

We have to rethink our model and base it on a rights approach. Shoud there be a universal right to food? What is a right to food and how do you exercise it? What rights do we have to guarantee to people to get them access to food? If the bulk of these people suffering hunger have farms or are farmers, we will have to realize that the people producing food are the people affected by hunger. In that sense, we must review and rethink these models.

At the center of this model are organic family farms. The farmer has to have all the systems in hand, both production and distribution. You produce and you also process. All these free things have a very important role. In history, the bulk of knowledge was at the production level. Distribution was less important since the market was local. Then we have the important role of processing –when the agro-industry started to organize this in the 20th centuries. We saw a situation where farmers gradually became weaker and industry became stronger. Now, today, the bulk of the profit is in the distribution system.

Somebody else decides the price in agriculture, someone who is removed from the cost of production. Especially in the Northern part of the world, we don’t give much value to food. We don’t give food its real value, but we do think that food can arrive all over the world, and there is an enormous market for it. We need to start asking: what is the process of production, what are the costs of production? Much of our agriculture in the western world depends on migrants.

All the policies linked to millions are policies that avoid the stability of these people in their countries. They are working, but in principle they do not exist. It is clear that you will have more and more weakness from those kinds of workers. They do not technically exist, and thus they have no tribunals to help them, and no power to decide their salary. At the base of tomato sauce (for example) in a can, very often you have migrant workers. Before we buy we must ask: Who’s harvesting the tomatoes?

Perhaps someone paid 10 Euros a day who works 12 hours a day. This is by most definitions is slavery. But we want that tomato to cost very little, because we in the Western world don’t want to spend too much money on our food. Therefore, we do want a product that can only exist by way of slave labor. These are things we really have to start to think about. This is another problem linked to organic: we don’t have to have the standard (organic fertilizer only) but we do have to guarantee an organic farm cannot be staffed by slavery workers. This has to be the minimal requirements at the table.

Without this labor requirement, we cannot even discuss organic. We must claim another niche of the market – but a niche that is not technically organic and cannot be organic. More and more people are asking,"What is the origin of the food problem?"

The first question is personal health, which is big strength in organic. We can guarantee that in our produce, there will be no GMO’s, no chemicals, and nothing harmful for personal health. So many scandals are linked to the food industry and we are more and more aware of the process of production, and the dangers inherent in production.

We then have to ask, "Who made this food?" And what kind of work conditions did they experience? This is more or less the future. In the future, the woman as farmer plays an interesting role.

In the family farm based system, women play a crucial role, and the bulk of production is done by women. Women are central to this schematic. What is the added value? That is that the woman is the center of a trust system and the center of a trust based relation model.

When we are speaking about the ethical value of food, the role of the woman is becoming more and more important. Woman led enterprises and farms have a kind of perspective on the work that is based on the female role in society.

What are the main problems of the labor force in agriculture?

A family based model is becoming more and more important, and women are playing a role in the innovation of the model. In that sense we are seeing a transformation in society, especially in agriculture, in the role of women. This is very interesting. We now have a very different level of women's involvement from Africa to the USA. We are seeing women’s precedence all over the world. We have a more important role for women because we are trying to change the model, and we very much need women to be more central.

It is clear that we have many situations where women are used as slaves. But we have to see in which direction we could go. If we look forward, it is clear that the most interesting experiences give women a central role. If we go in that direction, women will be central.

So, we have an agrobusiness model that is based on trade, and a main agriculture policy that was formed by the WTO. That era is in full crisis. It hasn’t yet ended, but is in crisis. So it is clear for everybody that it is not trade that is the solution. There was a period in the last 20 years when we thought with trade we could solve all the problems, and that the main thing in agriculture was free trade.

We didn’t consider extension services and destroyed them, and we didn’t invest anymore in agriculture. If you see the amount of money invested in public aid from the North to the South, in the 80’s, 25 percent of it went to agriculture products. This trickled downwards, to only 3%. We that with a good trade policy, there would be a free market and we would solve the issue of the production of agriculture.

Now it is clear that the three big world areas – Europe, the USA and Japan – have strong internal agriculture policies. All the others couldn’t even think about these kinds of policies because their policies were free trade. This was not the solution, we finally realized. From last year – in the heart of the food crisis – we started to think about a new model of governing agriculture and food production in the food system.

The Rome international conference in June 1996 said we have to produce more food, but said nothing revolutionary. Then there was the G8 meeting in Tokyo, where people began to talk about the “global partnership," which would be a new model of rules about agriculture and food. This was not only the UN system (FAO, EFAD, World Food Program, so on) but could incorporate the private sector, the World Bank, the IMF and other institutions.

Finally, people began to think that such a "global partnership" on food issues was a good idea. There was another conference on these issues held in Madrid. We are now at this stage where we want to put everything back on the Committee of Food Security. In 1996 the center of World Food Security said that the FAO should monitor all hunger fighting policies, and should put together an agenda/plan of action (from 1996). This was used for 13 years, with little result other then monitoring.

The idea now is return to the Committee of Food Security, renew the Commitee of Food Security, and let civil society play a role. This is a major thing because it is the first time in the UN system that there has been recognition that a farmer’s association, trade unions, indigineous people, women’s organizations, fishermen, all of them - will play a role in new government policy. They will work with NGO'S and foundations to achieve their goals. They may not vote on these matters, but these small actors will definitely will play a role within government. So we realized that the solution can’t be found only between governments.

What we have done until now has given us no good answer. We must recognize we haven’t answered the big problem yet: How do we get food security? We didn’t get any answers in terms of rights or models of production. We must rethink the model of production and use the organic farm experience. It is possible to grantee food security with another model of production. The FAO website has recently had a very interesting conference and section on food security and organic farming.

The Food Security and Organic Farming conference at Michigan University, in the USA, did an important study showing that if all land in the word could be farmed organically, we could answer food security for all people in the future as well. One of the first things people say, when told about organic food in relation to food security, is that: "It's impossible to use organic farming to answer food security, organics are for rich people.”

This Michigan conference has shown this is not really true. An ecological model of production is sustainable for the South of the world, where the bulk of people live. You can use ecological production instead of agro-business. It is clear that family farms have to try to maximize the potentiality of the environment. Buying seeds and fertilizer is a source of debts. If you don’t produce and have debts, that’s a problem.

This model is also a diversification of risk, providing a big advantage. In this conference, there were interesting studies done in India and China on assuring food security with organic farming. In that sense, it is important to note there are a range of experiences that show another model of production and distribution is possible.

Where should organic go in the future?

Family farm models are important, but organic today means more then that. It is facing a big debate in this sector. In this big family of organics, we have different actors. One actor that is usually not as important in agricultural sectors are certifiers. Certifiers are usually a private economical body or company owned by a small (or at times bigger) stakeholder. They are a private company and play a major role in our sector. We have two things we are talking about in agriculture: agriculture isn’t very rich and most farmers are rather poor. So farmers have another big problem: they are rarely well organized. The Farmers Association is usually very weak, and even weaker in organic farming. Non-mainstream farmers find it hard to access the bulk of money in agriculture policies. The organization is weak.

On the other end we have the certification industry, which is one part of the model where there is money. A certifier is delivering a service to you, that in the North part of the world gives you access to the organic market. You are certified organic by this certifier, and thus certified and able to enter the arena.

Certifiers are specialized actors in organic, and don’t work in other sectors. So certification is a place where there is money and power. Another place with money is the distribution system. Historically in organic in many countries there were specialized organic distributors. Where there is commerce there is specialty, the question of how profit is divided. A big part of the organic profit is in the hands of the distribution system.

Distributors play a more and more important role in our sector, especially specialized distributors. In our movement, we have a great number of people that are the farmers and are not well organized. They do not influence policy as they should. On the other hand, we have the certification body, which is not a democratic organization but a private company owned by a stakeholder. They are very influential on other private companies and distributors.

So you have an odd situation, which is much stranger then in the rest of agriculture. In the rest of conventional agriculture, the Farmer’s Organization is much stronger and has direct access to a number of funds coming from agriculture policy that give them the strength to exercise their role. In conventional farms, you can have a quality scheme that are certified. Certifiers play little role in conventional farming and have little power over agricultural policy or standards. Theyy are only delivering service.

This is a major difference:

Where do un-certified farmers fit policy wise? Perhaps they have no money to pay for it, or choose not to.

Organic is an entire model unto itself. If farmers change their model of production, consumers will change their models of consumption. We at AIAB think of the association as a model looked at from all sides. We simply have to look at the association from all sides. At the same time, we at AIAB are known as a farmer’s organization, as a group that will represent the needs of the farmers. In organic, the farmer’s interests are the consumers interests.

Who has to lead the organic sector? Where should the organic sector go? It is clear we all have different ideas on that. We all share the method, which people are also talking a lot about. The world wide demand for organic products is growing every day. When we are in an economic crisis, this affects demand. Citizens have chosen organic using their conscience. Even if they have to spend less money in general, they will still spend on good healthy food and spend less in lower priority sectors. This means organic is not a fashion but a lifestyle.

When organic becomes a lifestyle for many, its popularity and preponderance will not change with economic crisis. It will mean you have built a real alliance between producers and consumers. It is difficult to change these things, of course. It's a process that takes time to arrive. Consumers demand their food comes from a high value process. It’s not just a pear. but a pear that is good for me and good for the environment, with an inherent ethical value.

In agriculture, we are changing our role in the society. We are not just producing beer, but we are also producing social benefits, and we are recognized by society for these social benefits. We have a generation problem right now. Farmers are aging and young people do not want to be farmers.They see the job as old-fashioned, or out of society. Maybe there is no future, and maybe you will never have young people interested in agriculture. But if you give farmers a different, central role in society, a society based on communication and the internet, networking, and so forth, then are not delinking the farmers from society at a whole. You are instead adjusting the center.

Giving the farmer a role of innovation, and developing a new relationship between producer and consumer, is essential. If you are at the center of the green economy, you are at the center of society. You are not just producing a pear. You are also providing a number of services to society, and are being recognized for this. The farmer’s role becomes not marginal but central.

Where is the knowledge? How crucial is the knowledge? The fact that organic food must be processed in a way that will leave more of the characteristics of the raw product matters. All the junk food we are eating today can be produced with any kind of raw material. It is destroyed and rebuilt, leaving nothing of the original. It is totally de-linked from production. As we are at the center of innovation, we are at the center of the process.

This is the worldwide discussion regarding organics. It is also a major debate in the USA. Organic milk is mostly produced on only two farms in the USA. Is this a good model? It means you are replaying the same model of agro-business, with a long chain and a concentrated process and production, where you have only the substitution of chemical means of production with theorganic means of production. Maybe you are answering the demand for healthy food, but are not addressing the other things we discussed this morning. You are concentrating production in a few farms, the distribution system in only a few hands, and so on.

In that sense, the big debate is: where does organic have to go? Will we in organics be just another agro-business label?

IFAP is now quite contradictory, as it has a farmer’s association from the South. But in the same organization, many things are quite different. The big wheat/cereals producers and others are more linked to family farms. Many African farmer’s associations are based on family farms. Via Campesina is more recent, having formed in the last 50 years, and is based much more on family farm organizations. It is much more homogenizes in its policies and is much more based in the South. So you now have a worldwide organization where the South is the leader. Via Campesina is a tremendous organization in India, Brazil, and Indonesia with millions of farmers – 400 million – as members. Traditionally, the bulk of farm organizations were part of IFAP.

If you want to do organic, the first thing you need is farmers and breeders, because without them, well, there's no farming! But at the same time, we are now taking in the dimension of the new idea of this movement – the ecological problem – with an answer that can really provide a world solution. You can find this experience with nomads in Central Asia. You can also find it in Indonesia, where people experienced a classic food security problem after the tsunami. On the one hand, the World Food Organization began flooding the area with food from all over the world, answering a terrible emergency. But this was done only in the coastal area of Indonesia, which is a 130 million person country with enormous food production potential.

Can we really address the hunger problem in a new way? Do we have the experience to do this? World farmer’s associations are saying, “Yes, we have the answer. Let us do our work.”

The G8 meeting, for the first time, had a section on agriculture and food. There was a meeting of the main African farmer’s associations. They produced a document that was very clear. It stated, "We have the possibility and the capacity to answer and demand food for Africa. But we need policy that makes it possible to do that." They were asking for policies, not money. They were not asking for food aid either. They were the farmer’s associations of Africa. They were not NGO's.

Organic must choose. It can have a future, if we stick always to the interests of the farmers. In that sense, the interests of the farmers are the interests of the consumers. If we stick to traders, the market related interests, more and more the standard will be weakened. A market driven approach dictates that you have to produce more at the least cost possible.

Another example: you don’t do monoculture in organic, as the rotation of culture being essential to maintain soil fertility. But the rotation of the culture is expensive, and if you want to produce at a low price, this careful rotation is against your interests. More people are asking for standards with less compulsory rotation. But if we weaken the standards, we will lose our ability to protect the environment and maintain fertility. People don’t understand consumer interest is going another way.

Consumers buying organic have very high expectations. Organics are a lifestyle You are changing your lifestyle and making an effort. You want the food you are buying to be made with the same effort you are exerting to change your habits. We in organics must stick to the high standard: with a high standard, after all, you can ask a lot from the other end. Without a high standard, you cannot ask. Being part of a community supported agriculture system – a CSA scheme – demands a lot of work from the consumer. It is easier to drive to a market, buy exactly what you want, and go back home. So you, as a consumer, are going to do something more difficult (with CSA's) that, in the end, gives you more.

If you are the farmer doing organic, you have to do a model that is difficult to do. We can’t say organic has to be easier then conventional production. If it is difficult, and it is, then it is crucial that we maintain the knowledge of the farmer. More knowledge translated into more farm efficiency. If the knowledge of the farmer becomes central, you cannot avoid the role of the farmer. A common notion today is that we can have food production sans farmers. Farmers and agricultural work are not the same things. A farmer is someone that has a farm, and with that knowledge arrives at food production.

An agro business systems involves someone with a technological package, and someone is applying that package to the land. This system is capital intensive and requires zero knowledge.

The biggest market for organics in Italy is school canteens. This is another model of production. The canteens are owned by the municipality, and are buying organics mostly at the local level. Beside tha, there is a good Italian network of direct selling, and a good specialized retail system. By the time you arrive at the market, third parties are maybe only 30% or less of the total share of food costs. This gives us democracy of the market in Italy. It means more choice, more opportunity, more stability, and more strength to the farmer’s side.

On the other end, it is clear that organic must always renew itself. We are always talking about climate change. I think that in organics, we are playing a very important role in this great debate. More fertility in the soil means the land is more of a carbon sink. In that sense it is important we are producing with less energy. One ton of cereals produced organically uses less energy then a ton produced by conventional methods.

I as the farmer have an important role in that sense. If I start to do a distribution model that makes this food travel thousands of miles to find a buyer, all these benefits become less interesting, but still important. A distribution system is linked to the local market. If I want to eat an orange I have to get it in Sicily. Coffee must come from somewhere else. We have to review and resettle the distribution system. Today, it is totally de-linked from production.

Sabrina Aguiari:

We need an alliance between consumer and producer, taking away the third party. We are trying to diminish the value of the “third man” or the salesman, the middle man. We don’t need the third in between liaison. If we envision this relationship in different terms – if we think of a scale. So maybe we organize a community that does visits, create a sort of permeability of the space of production by the consumer.

On the one hand is taste education, on the other is the education of other senses. It's a need to recognize food, and to accept that real food looks different. If we do better education on some basic knowledge, provide some basic reference as to what organic cultivation needs, people can get an idea if there is some astonishingly extraneous element in the way these things are produced. This came to mind when discussing a new model of certification: what can we do when we get back? How do we give more power to the organic producer?

We have seen that the USA organic market looks a bit like the market in the South (of the world). If it is true that there is a certification system in place, a system that has no connection to moralistic, organic frames – then that certification is irrelevant, and is not protecting the consumer.

Maybe US consumers can be clearly on this side.

Back to basics: Who is doing what? 80% of farmers are women, and farmers feed everybody. They feed not just the owners of the means of production,nbut also workers in agro-business. Since 80% of this farmwork done by women, we're seeing the long chain and theshort supply chain, like the lady in Bolsena who sells her vegetables illegally here in Italy. This has something to do with rethinking the model and putting the farmer back in the center. There is a shift, or should be. A new alliance between men and women must be developed. Women are not hijacked by the new movements for their work.

When farming became a heavy job, men stopped doing it, since they wanted to go into industry around 1900. Women took up the burden of keeping the family farm going while they did other work in the home. From that moment on, there were more female farmers then men. What does this shift really mean? Does this mean there are women in power as they control the means of production? The survival of that kind of culture of food? Or does this simply mean that women are formally the business owners, because farming is a low paying job, and men are the ones getting higher paying jobs in industry?

When you have a small business, you have less mechanical means and you do more by hand. Women use their hands more then men. Women often do the heaviest part of the job in terms of physical engagement. From the environment, the people, the national level – where do we stand in these terms? Are we really making a new alliance between men and women, or are we overlooking something?

We discussed how essential migrants are to agricultural business. Migration can be essential, in the case of Mexican tomato production across the border, in the USA. Agro-business knows no season, and tomatoes are produced all year round. You follow the sun and use greenhouses when you don’t have it.. Migrant workers are displaced, and work in agriculture without owning any land. Nomadic agriculture is indeed a new concept. What is the pattern of living and production that compels people who actually work with the land to move around to survive?

Europe doesn’t like migrants these days (if it ever did). We know these jobs are unappealing to kids. How do we keep food security in our borders? What is your feedback from the environment on these things – women and the position of migrants? Can you help us think of possibilities of actions we have as American citizens and consumers to contribute to building the lifestyle of means?

Andrea then talks about certification and other systems:

The participatory grantee system is going on all around the world. One of the things that it is linked to is the idea of action. The idea is to set together the PGS system all over the world. We want to do this in Italy as well. We want to have the experience of the participatory grantee system all over the world.

In Europe, we have a straight regulation on organic farming, that doesn’t allow certification beyond third parties. This will be a long process, because we must start with field experience, and then scale up those experiences to the national level, and to the European commission. We are working on that. These are things that can be done all over the world. North, South, no problem. This is a good action because you put together people, and are addressing the main problem. The problem being, of course, that of of how to put people together and talk on a dynamic, local level.

A pattern of women in the organization is imperative. There will be a much more important role for women in leading enterprises and assuming roles in the organization. There is till a lot of work to do, but it is adifferent way to approach things. Men tend to stick to the old rules of agriculture, and a higher percentage of women will work in alternative agriculture, and are more open to a moralist view. Women maintain the essential trust system in organic farming. They are more trusted then men in society. Women play an essential role in organics. This is something we have more work to do on, but it is important.

Migrants are the real problem here. We can’t have an agricultural system without migrants. Migrants assure us the bulk of the work in agriculture and organic farming. It is a system that needs human labor. You have more laborers on an organic farm then on an agro-business farm. We will demand more manual labor, and it is clear this will come from migrants.

Besides the young – we are addressing a lot to young people because we want to renew our farms with more young people – but beside that we will have a lot of migrants. More and more we are building new social cooperatives where, beside men and women working, we have people with disabilities, prison, handicapped, drug pasts, whatever. These new actors will have access to public lands. They often do have access to public lands and are usually not exploited. It can go to a social private organization, and it can become a social cooperative. They are playing an important role in creating new actors in agriculture.

Most migrants in Italy have no legal protection, and are clandestine. A lot of illegals are regularly paid, and the farmers would like a regular contract, but the law makes it impossible. To be regular you need to go back to your country, and you may only come back if you have a contract, and are within quotas. This system is almost impossible to put in practice. More and more with the economic crisis, migrant policies become more difficult, almost impossible to navigate.

Maybe in that sense we will guarantee migrant workers in agriculture because we can’t go on without them. People creating exclusive policy against migrants are the same people telling us how good Italian food is and so on. But they are forgetting that this Italian food is made primarily with manual labor from migrants. You need migrants for the food. We are a shrinking nation, and we are only growing due to migrants.

Making Pasta: The New Gym Membership

2009-06-04T08:43:00.001-07:00

I believe we have figured out why Italians can eat all of the beautiful foods of their land and still remain incredibly fit. All you need to do is climb hills and make pasta by hand, though I'd assume that multitasking in this instance may not be the best idea.

We just finished learning how to make tagliatelle, these beautiful strips of homemade farina pasta. First you make a volcano with flour, crack an egg in the middle and then use your fingers to beat the eggs. Then you slowly mix in the flour with the egg, again all with your fingers, until a nice dough starts to form. With the newly formed dough, roll into a ball and kneed for a good while (regard the precise italian time frame). Then comes the fun part, rolling out the dough. Using a rolling pin, flatten the flour into a cylindrical shape, making sure that all ends are even, the shape is somewhat circular, the thickness is uniform, nothing is sticking to the counter, the children are not bleeding, or lighting anything on fire, the dog has not found its way to the pantry, and the neighbors do not see the huge mess of flour you've managed to disperse everywhere.

At this time, roll the pasta out onto a towel and allow to dry for approximately 10 minutes. Then fold in the ends of the circle about 3-4 inches. Continue to fold each end in until you have a flat long shape. (NOTE- do not press down on the dough now, you will be unfolding it after you cut it). With a sharp, non serrated knife, cut the pasta along the short end into mini strips. Unfold the strips and place haphazardly on a tray dusting with flour of fairy dust, which ever is available.

If cooking within the next few hours, allow to dry uncovered. If not cooking within next few hours cover the tray with celephane and refridgerate up to a few days.

Tonight, we will see if our hard work paid off, or if we should leave the pasta making to the pros, Seniora Barilla. If nothing else, we'll have really defined biceps!

- Amanda

It just keeps getting better!

2009-06-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful day. I had my first gelato today. Thank you, Chiara! Pistachio Hazelnut - yum yum. My first venture into the town of Bolsena was delightful. As an American, it is hard for me to wrap my mind around how old everything is. Then, we learned how to make pasta. For something so basic (just flour and egg), it is harder than it looked. I look forward to tasting our efforts. Tonight, a presentation by Antonio, Amanda, and me on coffee. What a coincidence - my favorite commodity :)
Ciao...