The contemplative practices from week 8 and 9 were both wonderful exercises in meditation. I have enjoyed imagining my “roots” extending into the earth, and the nurturing of earth and water on my body as it joins with the ecology underground. This kind of meditation is not new to me, as one summer I happened upon a huge tree stump… Read more »
This quarter has changed my appreciation of food forever. There are some things that I will never take for granted again, like the virtual water content of my produce, or the suffering endured to bring chocolate to my home, or the relationship of soil and water to my earthly being. As I prepare my meals I try to be considerate… Read more »
The current industry of agricultural seed production is broken into two competing sides. One is made of corporate behemoths, behaving in absolutely capitalist ways with attempts to privatize and patent living items as intellectual property. The other side are smaller scale entities, some comprised of activists and others that are simply individuals trying frame support for balanced policy. Unfortunately these… Read more »
The realities of the world food system carry emotional and moral weight. Images of hunger to the point of starvation, especially of children, is not just difficult to see, but difficult to know exist at this very moment around the world. The statistics and numbers are one aspect, but the level of suffering that is ongoing before the statistical metric… Read more »
The distance between these two cities is less than two thousand miles, about the same distance as Seattle to Detroit. Separating these capitals, and their respective countries of Italy and Mali, are a sea, a desert, and a complex system of trade, aid, and political power. As a result, the differences to a common family’s weekly food supply are vast…. Read more »
A contemplative practice that resonated with me was the exercise on hunger. My experience with hunger has always been associated with dieting or self-restriction for weight loss. My problem wasn’t the availability of food, it was the overabundance of it, and my own lack of discipline with eating. That deeply contrasts with the experience of hunger for most people in… Read more »
If we are to change the direction of our impact and start toward a balanced ecological existence, it will require something akin to a global social movement. Policy and infrastructure at all levels will need to be radically adjusted, and corporate entities as well as individuals will need to be accountable for their actions. This is true not just for… Read more »
The assignment of moral consumerism onto the individual citizen, labeled “the individualization of responsibility” by Maniates (p.33) is the popular idea that consumers can buy their way out of ecological problems through informed purchases, and shifts blame away from the product manufacturers. Maniates goes on to discredit the idea of “consumption-as-social-action” and reveals that during the 1980’s in the United… Read more »