Tag Archives: north

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

by RubinkJoseph Posted on January 14, 2013

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

By Susie Cagle

Is soul food “the bane of African American health,” or is it a cuisine with a long and complex cultural history?

What if it’s both?

Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Soul Food Junkies premiering tonight on PBS aims to tell the history of soul food and contextualize collards, peas, and cornbread in the contemporary fight for food justice in communities of color, communities we often call “food deserts.”

Food deserts are by definition low-income communities without supermarkets or grocery stores, where fresh food is a rarity and people suffer from obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. We often blame food deserts themselves for those health problems, but that label can obscure culinary history, not to mention some basic facts. Many poor urban neighborhoods aren’t actually food deserts at all — they’re closer to food swamps full of ready-made and relatively cheap processed items. The “nutritional timberline,” as Karla Cornejo Villavicencio coins it at The New Inquiry, is a real thing.

In Hurt’s film, he interviews a woman who is upset that her local grocery only carries vegetables “that look like they’re having a nervous breakdown.” From PBS:

The idea is that if healthy choices are available, people will buy them. And that works to an extent. But old habits die hard. A 15-year longitudinal study found that upping the number of grocery stores in low-income areas didn’t result in people automatically buying healthier food.

“Just because you build it, doesn’t mean you will change people’s behavior,” study author Barry Popkin, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a Time magazine article. “Price, quality, accessibility, incentives, they matter too. Every community is different, but new efforts or supplementing existing infrastructure works if they’re accompanied with affordable prices, education, promotion or community collaboration.”

Efforts that only increase the availability of nice organic lettuce don’t do anything to address the personal food culture that drives mealtime choices in these communities. And let’s face it: A lot of food justice work in these communities is done by well-meaning but kind of patronizing white people.

Hurt hopes his film “will be used widely as a discussion starter in communities of color around food consumption, health, wellness, and fitness.” In an interview with the Smithsonian’s Food & Think blog, Hurt said, “I think the film is really resonating with people, especially among African American people because this is the first film that I know of that speaks directly to an African American audience in ways that Food, Inc., Supersize Me, King Corn, The Future of Food, Forks over Knives and other films don’t necessarily speak to people of color. So this is really making people talk.”

Soul Food Junkies airs tonight at 10 p.m. on PBS.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Cities

,

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original article – 

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

Marijuana growers endanger salmon, bears, and even dogs

by RubinkJoseph Posted on December 24, 2012

Marijuana growers endanger salmon, bears, and even dogs

By Lisa Hymas

Shutterstock

Pot: not so green.

We’ve written before about the environmental damage done by marijuana growers — massive energy consumption, indiscriminate pesticide use, dead little forest critters, both cute and uncute. Now the L.A. Times reports that pot growers in California are also undermining salmon recovery efforts, poisoning bears, and even threatening our BFFs: dogs.

The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.

Because marijuana is unregulated in California and illegal under federal law, most growers still operate in the shadows, and scientists have little hard data on their collective effect. But they are getting ever more ugly snapshots.

Here’s the bad news about salmon:

State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants — mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

“That is just one small watershed,” said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. “You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water.… This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover.”

And the bad news about bears:

Mark Higley, a wildlife biologist on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in eastern Humboldt …, is incredulous over the poisons that growers are bringing in.

“Carbofuran,” he said. “It seems like they’re using that to kill bears and things like that that raid their camps. So they mix it up with tuna or sardine, and the bears eat that and die.”

And the bad news about dogs:

Scientists suspect that nutrient runoff from excess potting soil and fertilizers, combined with lower-than-normal river flow due to diversions, has caused a rash of toxic blue-green algae blooms in the North Coast rivers over the last decade.

The cyanobacteria outbreaks threaten public health for swimmers and kill aquatic invertebrates that salmon and steelhead trout eat. Now, officials warn residents in late summer and fall to stay out of certain stretches of water and keep their dogs out. Eleven dogs have died from ingesting the floating algae since 2001.

Though California has yet to follow Colorado and Washington in legalizing pot, “[m]arijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California,” reports The New York Times, so common that it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. Gavin Newsom, California’s lieutenant governor and a likely future gubernatorial candidate, says the laws against marijuana “just don’t make sense anymore”; he’s now calling for legalization.

But with the federal government still resolutely anti-weed, even many growers in states where marijuana is legal are likely to stay in the shadows and keep using shadowy growing techniques — so get used to bad news.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on

Twitter

and

Google+

.

Read more:

Living

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Read article here: 

Marijuana growers endanger salmon, bears, and even dogs

Posted in eco-friendly, GE, LG, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Marijuana growers endanger salmon, bears, and even dogs

Americans feel less empowered to stop climate change — because they’re doing the wrong things

by biglermyrta910 Posted on December 21, 2012

Americans feel less empowered to stop climate change — because they’re doing the wrong things

By Philip Bump

Last week, the world celebrated: Americans are increasingly concerned about global warming! Hurrah! Four out of five Americans understand that climate change poses a serious threat — up 7 percent from 2009. Which means that by 2020 or so, 100 percent of Americans will be convinced, perhaps even including the 1 percent (Congress).

mulmatsherm

No one looks at these anymore.

But, alas and alack, there are storm clouds brewing. (Figuratively, in addition to whatever the North Atlantic has in store for us next year.) Another poll or survey or whatever suggests that Americans also feel impotent about being able to address the problem. That’s America for you, bouncing from hope to despair between new episodes of Three and a Half Men.

From the Times:

Americans may be buying more compact fluorescent light bulbs these days, but they are less likely to set their thermostats low during the winter than they were four years ago and have less confidence that their actions will help to curb global warming, according to a new survey.

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication found that the proportion of people who say their own energy-saving actions can make a difference in arresting global warming dropped to 32 percent in the latest survey, conducted in September, from 37 percent six months earlier.

So, following this trend, by 2015 no one at all will think we can do anything personally. That’s encouraging.

Sixty percent said energy-saving habits could help curb climate change if they were adopted by most Americans, down from 78 percent in 2008; those who say they believe that warming can be slowed by changes in personal habits across the industrialized world dropped to 70 percent from 85 percent over the same period. …

Only 15 percent of respondents say they have volunteered or donated money over the last 12 months to help reduce climate change, while fewer are avoiding buying products made by companies that oppose efforts to curb global warming, according to the survey, for which 1,061 adults across the nation were interviewed between Aug. 31 and Sept. 12.

Happily, our beloved, smart, attractive readers are in that 15 percent.

But, look, here’s the thing. These respondents are largely right! As the Energy Information Agency notes, in 2011 residential customers only used 22 percent of the nation’s energy (which includes fuels and electricity). The bulk of what America consumes is taken up by business and industry and transportation.

EIA

Even if it were just residential customers, there are still 300 million Americans. One person out of 300 million taking action is .00000003 percent. That tiny percent doesn’t make a huge difference, and thousands of accumulated tiny differences are almost impossible to see.

Perhaps the most important line in the Times coverage of the survey is the last one.

[T]he number of people who say they talk about global warming with their family and friends – 29 percent – is heavily outweighed by the 71 percent who “rarely or never” do so.

What Americans really need to do in order to make a difference isn’t only to adjust thermostats and recycle. It’s to engage on the issue politically. Not just some half-hearted petition-signing which spurs the president to nod at you, but actual political engagement and outreach.

Which we will get to right after this show.

Source

Fewer Americans Say Their Actions Can Slow Climate Change, New York Times

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

See the article here:

Americans feel less empowered to stop climate change — because they’re doing the wrong things

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Americans feel less empowered to stop climate change — because they’re doing the wrong things

America’s fastest-growing state: North Frackota

by Myrna Posted on December 20, 2012

America’s fastest-growing state: North Frackota

By Philip Bump

According to the weirdly huge text on the Census Bureau’s website, the fastest-growing state in the country in 2011 was North Dakota, which grew at a rate of 2.17 percent. The second fastest-growing state was the District of Columbia, which is not a state.

Your top ten in growth by percent and population:

You’ll notice that the growth in North Dakota was substantially higher than any other state. That’s for three reasons. First, because it had a smaller population to begin with. The state’s population in 2011 was about 684,000; if it were a city, it would be the 19th largest (and by far the least dense). Second, that great tourism ad from January.

The third reason is one we’ve talked about before: the fracking boom.

It’s impossible to argue that fracking doesn’t create jobs. A recent study in Michigan suggested that hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and oil created 38,000 direct or indirect jobs in Michigan this year. People have been pouring into North Dakota, relatively speaking — some 15,000 new residents over 12 months. What is also impossible to dispute is that this has shifted North Dakota culturally, but that’s a debate for a different day. We do, however, encourage everyone to keep arguing about what the fracking boom means environmentally.

ethankan

There was a movie made about this city.

I would take this population data with a grain of salt, however. It was released a day before winter starts, a time of year for which North Dakota is not known as an ideal destination. Though if we frack enough oil, winters will be perfectly pleasant in a few decades. Maybe that’s another reason for the population spike: real estate speculators.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Business & Technology

,

Cities

,

Climate & Energy

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Continue reading: 

America’s fastest-growing state: North Frackota

Posted in GE, LG, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on America’s fastest-growing state: North Frackota

Republicans are having lots of fun objecting to Sandy relief funding

by Myrna Posted on December 13, 2012

Republicans are having lots of fun objecting to Sandy relief funding

By Philip Bump

Oh my God, some politicians are dicks.

The federal budget for 2013 is $3.8 trillion dollars — $3,800,000,000,000. Last week, President Obama requested that some $60.4 billion be used to help the Northeast recover from Sandy. $60.4 billion is a lot of money, but it’s a small percentage of what the government spends each year. It’s under six days worth of spending — going to rebuild infrastructure and restore the lives of those displaced by the storms.

SandyRelief

But it’s also an opportunity for assholes to grandstand, and God forbid they should let such an opportunity pass. From Reuters:

Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said on Tuesday that Obama’s Sandy request was simply “too much.”

“At $60 billion? In this time when we’re trying to solve the deficit problem?” he told reporters.

The resistance could put the Sandy aid bill at risk of becoming a pawn in the tense negotiations over the year-end “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, although members of both parties have said it is essential for Congress to approve new disaster relief funds before the end of the year.

In 2010, Kyl’s home state of Arizona received $64.4 billion from the federal government without having neighborhoods wiped out by a storm. In this time when we’re trying to solve the deficit problem?!?

If you’re interested, you can see the full Senate appropriations request online. It’s a smorgasbord of requests — money to NOAA to replace damaged equipment, to the FBI for staff time, to the federal prisons — but a large amount goes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to, among other things:

… reduce future flood risk in ways that will support the long-term sustainability of the coastal ecosystem and communities and reduce the economic costs and risks associated with large-scale flood and storm events in areas along the Atlantic Coast within the boundaries of the North Atlantic Division of the Corps that was affected by Hurricane Sandy.

This has been a key consideration since shortly after the storm hit: to what extent is damage from a future, similar catastrophe addressed? From an economic standpoint, investing now to prevent future catastrophes is the most important consideration.

Even the idea of how and where to rebuild is touchy. This morning, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan — the former New York City housing commissioner – spoke about the prospect of rebuilding destroyed communities.

“I’ve seen in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, communities where the local community made the decision not to rebuild, to do buyouts, to allow people to move,” [Donovan] told reporters today following a speech at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan. “Those are very, very hard decisions, but there are discussions going on right now in communities across the region about those.

“There will be some small share of communities, though, where it makes sense — and I would emphasize, very small share — where it may not make sense to rebuild at all.”

Statements like this are much easier said than acted upon. No community wants to be the one that isn’t rebuilt; every community will argue for its right to exist, no matter how at-risk it might be. Donovan is right, of course; shifts in the environment and rising sea levels require reassessment of where people live. (His former boss disagrees.)

Such pragmatism, however politically unpopular, reveals just how cynical posturing like Kyl’s is. The role of government in a situation like this is to determine how best to serve citizens and prepare for the future — not to leverage a crisis for political posturing.

The good news is that Kyl is leaving office in January. The bad news is that he’ll be replaced by Jeff Flake — one of 11 representatives to oppose funding relief efforts after Katrina.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Cities

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

This article is from:

Republicans are having lots of fun objecting to Sandy relief funding

Posted in Citizen, GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Republicans are having lots of fun objecting to Sandy relief funding

House GOP finds perfect energy committee staffer in the energy industry

by Myrna Posted on December 6, 2012

House GOP finds perfect energy committee staffer in the energy industry

By Philip Bump

The Republican leadership of the House Energy and Commerce committee needed a staffer for the redundantly named Energy and Power subcommittee. And they found the perfect guy for the job, somehow.

From The Hill:

[Tom Hassenboehler is] returning to Capitol Hill from his role as vice president of policy development and legislative affairs with America’s Natural Gas Alliance, a trade group for gas producers.

Hassenboehler previously worked on the committee staff from 2004 until 2008, and then served three years as counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee before going to the gas trade group.

This is Hassenboehler [PDF]. If you’re wondering what a “Vice President of Policy Development and Legislative Affairs” does, the answer is lobbying [PDF].

If you’re anything like me, you’re also wondering if the House will keep Hassenboehler busy.

[Committee Chairman Fred] Upton said Hassenboehler will be busy.

“We look forward to an aggressive energy agenda in the 113th Congress as we continue our pursuit of North American energy independence and work to keep energy stable and affordable for American families through oversight of existing policy and new solutions for the future,” Upton said.

Gosh, I wonder what Hassenboehler will suggest is a good way to keep energy stable and affordable for Americans. It is a big fucking mystery.

Please sign my Change.org petition calling for a constitutional amendment that will make Congress a division of ExxonMobil. Save everyone a lot of time and money and pretending.

Appropriately ominous.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original article – 

House GOP finds perfect energy committee staffer in the energy industry

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on House GOP finds perfect energy committee staffer in the energy industry

Duke Energy hires a congressman

by Myrna Posted on November 27, 2012

Duke Energy hires a congressman

By Philip Bump

Duke Energy has a proud tradition of excellent staffing moves. So we must congratulate the company on its latest hire: a sitting congressman.

forallofus

Rep. Shuler.

From The Hill:

Retiring Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) already has a new job lined up: he’ll be a top federal affairs official with North Carolina-based Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electric utility.

The Charlotte-based company, which has more than seven million customers and plenty of interests before regulators and Congress, announced Monday that Shuler will be senior vice president of federal affairs beginning in January.

The conservative Democrat won’t vote on any matters affecting Duke Energy for the remainder of his time in Congress, the company said in a statement that touted the hiring of the one-time Washington Redskins quarterback.

That’s the commitment to ethical integrity our Congress is known for: No voting on issues related to your future employer. Strictly verboten. Hard line in the sand.

Plus, he’ll have to wait an entire year before coming back to Capitol Hill.

A Duke spokesman, citing House ethics rules, said Shuler would not be “actively lobbying” for one year but could do so after that period. Shuler will be overseeing and determining how to strengthen Duke’s D.C. office, spokesman Tom Williams said.

Tip No. 1: Hire congressmembers.

According to Politico, at least one green is enthusiastic about Shuler’s move.

Kelly Martin of the Sierra Club North Carolina Campaign — a former Shuler aide [Ed. – From 2007 until last year] — praised her former boss as a “strong environmental champion.” “He voted to curb greenhouse gas emissions and repeatedly voted to support clean energy solutions, showing his leadership on curbing climate change and building a clean energy economy that protects human health and the environment,” she said.

Yes, I’m confident that Shuler and his 71 percent environmental voting record will turn the massive ship that is Duke Energy toward a greener tomorrow. He’ll likely be as successful at that as he was in the NFL.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View post: 

Duke Energy hires a congressman

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Duke Energy hires a congressman