Earth Day

Why is a blog originally devoted to prose and visual art taking a more obvious stance on environmental concerns? Or, alternatively, are these things really all that different?

I don't want to turn this forum into yet another manual on 'how to live green' (books which are processed, rather ironically, most often on virgin paper and printed by the tens of thousands - filling another market niche for the uninitiated), but I do want to defend my beliefs, especially when it comes to my future graduate research, which will closely combine America's consumerism habits with our potential future for food sustainability.

Anyway, what this is about is Earth Day 2008 (April 22) http://ww2.earthday.net/

The New York Times over the past few weeks has written a series of articles under the umbrella title 'Food Chain', most of which can be found at www.nytimes.com/foodchain - along with media, photo albums, and other information - and they're useful, especially when studying how American food production (and that of the first world) effects other countries. But the one thing that has been only lightly touched upon is the slowly evolving differences in food intake and desires. After living in Niger for 14 months, I was able to witness first hand how a third world country changes its views of what and how it eats in the era of mass globalization.

Niger, landlocked and bound by Africa's Sahel, has for hundreds of years subsisted on a rather simple diet of pounded grain with some form of sauce, vegetables, and proteins (usually in the forms of meat - goat and sheep most commonly - and milk). The grain most often used in Niger is millet, a hearty and substantial crop that generally has high yields even under grueling circumstances. And Niger offers its crops many grueling circumstances.

The grain is nutritious and filling and has made the bulk of Niger's diet for most of known history. How it arrived in country Jared Diamond can answer better than I, but it is in the past few years that several factors have decreased consumption (willingly and unwillingly) of millet in Niger nation-wide. One is the changing consumption interests of Nigeriens themselves; the other is climate change.

Desertification is a process by which the desert itself does not expand, but the arid land around the borders of the desert loses its nutrients and fertility. The Sahel, the broad band located directly below the world's largest desert, the Sahara (see last month's National Geographic for a great article about the Sahel and how it affects people who live on it and near it), is quickly undergoing a transformation, losing some aridity to the desert here or actually becoming greener there. Niger, in what some call a mild success story, has actually become greener (use this word liberally) in the past 30 years, primarily through the efforts of Peace Corps workers and NGOs.

But this re-greening of Niger has not led to greater food security in-country. In fact, many of the most widely publicised famines in Niger have all taken place in this exact time frame. Why is this?

The re-greening of Niger has primarily occured due to changing farming practices. Most farmers, following the procedure of their fathers and grandfathers, would burn most of the shrub and bush on their fields prior to planting season, which generally occurs from June to September. These months are the only time rains will fall in Niger. In the past three decades or so, farmers have learned the benefits of nitrogen-fixing trees and plants and have started to leave them in their fields. These trees also have the added bonus of helping stop erosion.

Some varieties, like the gao, require very little water and drop their leaves at the beginning of farming season, creating a mulch-like compost on the sand where the young millet is growing. Through efforts by Peace Corps volunteers many gaos have been planted in Nigerien farmers' fields. Farmers, specifically in the National Geographic article, have stated that they're going back to even more ancient forms of agriculture.

So Niger turns more green and the land boosts greater fertility because of all these trees, right? Unfortunately no. In most of the country the rains have decreased with such ferocity that this has resulted in a landslide of fewer crops. Ali, age 35 or so, a friend of ours in our village, Killaloum, stated that when he was a child, enough rain fell each rainy season for two harvests. Now, in 2007, hardly enough rain fell for one.

Nitrogen-fixing crops like cowpeas and peanuts grow exceptionally well, but few Nigeriens make them the core of the diet, preferring millet or sorghum or, more recently, pasta, rice, and wheat. As globalization introduces new foods into Niger's diet and tastes turn toward the luxurious (and in Niger pasta and rice is luxurious), the crop that once fed the nation due to its heartiness and sustainability falls in popularity, as does field research towards it.

The recent riots in Cairo at bread seller stands only reinforce the idea that the globalization of the food industry - or, more specifically, introducing global foods into systems that cannot support them - is causing great amounts of damage. If Cairo cannot grow the wheat to make into bread, how can getting its population hooked on this product result in a better-fed, healthier nation? If Niger becomes fond of rice - which it can only grow in its southwesternmost corner, along the Niger river - and pasta - which it does not produce at all - how can the people feed themselves if international reserves of these two things become unattainable due to supply or cost? If, for hundreds of years, Niger subsisted on a diet primarily of millet, sorghum, beans and peanuts, isn't that because, environmentally, that was what they could easily produce?

Niger has many problems facing it in the years ahead. Its population, already well above 13 million, grows at roughly 3% per year. Roughly two percent of its population is literate. As temperatures rise and the fertility of its land falls, how will the estimated population of 2025 (which is now being called at 25 million) support itself? It certainly won't be on rice and pasta.

Anyway, to bring this post to a close, celebrate Earth Day, do what you can, and here's one little tip: the days are getting warmer. Invest in a clothes line and dry your clothes outside. Tumble dryers are the SUVs of the household, gobbling up energy and giving nothing back. Thanks, New York Times!

Extremely Important Info about America's Small Farms

I never read the Hightower Lowdown before, though apparently Jim Hightower did speak at Gettysburg College a few years back and basically transformed Dickson from carnivorous distance runner to mild-mannered vegetarian. Anyway, a recent article on his webpage ( http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/1364) explains the antagonistic forces at work on America's small farms - the threat of the National Animal Identification System. Please read this and do what you can to help save America's threatened agricultural heritage.

And while you're at it, check this out as well, from Gourmet Magazine!
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/04/farmbill