Archive for the 'Sustainability' Category

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Pork Across the Pond and Here at Home

Published by Taylor on April 10, 2008 in Agriculture, Animals, Business, Cooking, Environment, Health and Sustainability. View Comments

hogsLast night’s winner on Top Chef served grilled shrimp with a pickled chili salad and miso smoked bacon.  The dish looked delicious, and who can blame the judges for going with the clear winner: bacon.  What self-respecting meat eater doesn’t love the salty, crispy stuff?  On a recent episode of Iron Chef America, Cat Cora referred to maple and brown sugar bacon as “pig candy,” which I find both hilarious and a little disgusting.  Regardless, one thing is clear: many of us freaking love bacon.

Here’s the bad news: Smithfield Farms, the world’s largest hog producer (based, regrettably, in my home state of North Carolina) is responsible for true environmental injustice in rural communities in NC and IA…and now they’re expanding to Europe.  Grist reports (emphasis mine):

In the 1990s, Smithfield perfected the meat industry’s infamous “vertical integration” strategy that it’s now unveiling in Eastern Europe. In an old-school meat market, packers bought livestock from independent farmers. But starting in the early ’90s in the United States, dominant meat packers began to raise vast numbers of their own animals, stuffing them into concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFOs).

In doing so, they put independent farmers in direct competition with [Smithfield's] own livestock operations — a game that the meat packer usually wins. Farms go out of business in droves, unable to sustain themselves on the low prices offered by the packers; survivors scale up, mimicking the packers’ intensive techniques. That is, they CAFOize, using debt to erect large confinement buildings into which they stuff thousands of hogs. Most of them essentially cede their independence, working under contracts wherein the packers supply the feed and the hogs.

The trends now playing out in Poland has already flattened small farmers in Iowa and North Carolina. When Smithfield first bulled its way into Poland in 1999, after buying an old state-run processing plant, it declared its intention to make Poland “the Iowa of Europe.”

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Monday Links: April 7, 2008

Published by Taylor on April 7, 2008 in Advertising, Business, Cooking, Design, Energy, Environment, Health, Monday Links, Philanthropy, Sociology and Sustainability. View Comments

Sorry for the delay in posting these links, folks. I’ve been traveling, and I’m just now getting back to bloggin’. Unlike some people, I’m determined to make it through the 826 unread items in my Google Reader. How about a few links?

Although common tracking systems, known as cookies, have counted a consumer’s visits to a network of sites, the new monitoring, known as “deep-packet inspection,” enables a far wider view — every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered. Every bit of data is divided into packets — like electronic envelopes — that the system can access and analyze for content

  • This Nick Kristof column on racial and gender bias provides links to a number of interesting online psychological tests.
  • PhilanTopic highlights a Gates Foundation initiative aimed at involving scientists who might not normally focus on global health issues, particularly those in the developing world or in complimentary disciplines. From the Gates site:

The initiative is modeled after the grand challenges formulated more than 100 years ago by mathematician David Hilbert. His list of important unsolved problems has encouraged innovation in mathematics research ever since. Similarly, the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative aims to engage creative minds from across scientific disciplines — including those who have not traditionally taken part in global health research — to work on 14 major challenges.

  • Smitten Kitchen is my new favorite food/cooking blog. This lemon blueberry yogurt cake looks amazing (due in no small part to their expert photography…and baking).
  • If you’re looking to spice up an office memo, or maybe a senior thesis, try the beard font.

That should be enough for now. Sorry to fill the links with so much random stuff, but expect more *ahem* serious blogging to follow this week.

“Green is Green:” Good Enough?

Published by Taylor on March 20, 2008 in Business, Energy, Environment and Sustainability. View Comments

greenriver.jpgJeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric, spoke at a conference I attended recently (though the conference was weeks ago, I’ve slowly written about it as I’ve digested the information). You can listen to the full audio of his remarks here. I’d like to–unfairly–use Immelt’s address as a starting point for a broader criticism of some in the corporate sector. I say unfairly, because in many ways Immelt said all of the right things; for instance:

  • he argued that a cap-and-trade system is desperately needed in the US to curb carbon emissions
  • he emphasized GE’s progress toward energy efficiency–both in their products and in their production processes
  • he repeatedly underscored the importance of innovation, investing in R&D, and the power of larger companies like GE to try new clean tech ideas; as he said, “I don’t have to pick which technologies are going to work . . . I get to invest in all of them”

But he also voiced an argument for all things green that I find troublesome:

“being another company in the corporate social responsibility [movement around] the environment had no essential interest to me fundamentally, or to the people inside our company, or to our investors . . . what we set out to say is that green is green.”

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Monday Links: February 11th, 2008

Published by Taylor on February 11, 2008 in Business, Monday Links, Philanthropy, Politics, Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability. View Comments

I apologize for the posting hiatus. Things have been busy. I was traveling for work, getting engaged, yadda yadda here I am back in blogistan. These links will be quick, but I promise lots of good material later this week–including reflections on an alternative energy forum I’m attending today and Tuesday. So, without further excuses ado, your links:

  • I can’t really summarize this post from a blog I’ve just started reading (LifeYears), but it’s an intriguing piece on “How problemsolvers can help save the world” by identifying leverage points for change and categorizing causes behind major problems. Like I said, hard to summarize but worth a read.
  • Add this to the list of topics I keep meaning to blog about: techPresident asks, “Is the Obama Campaign a Model for Online Politics?” Their assessment very much coincides with my view that truly effective online campaigning is as much about (ultimately, MORE about) simplifying and empowering offline mobilization as it is about Facebook groups and email lists. Great post, and a good time to check in on the state of the campaigns.
  • Lifehacker continues to be one of the most useful sites on the web, this time cluing us in on how to best store onions: in pantyhose.

Sorry, that’s all for now. But keep checking back all week–Jarred and I will have plenty of new material to keep you busy. Happy Monday.

Monday Links: February 4th, 2008

Published by Taylor on February 4, 2008 in Business, Energy, Environment, Monday Links, Philanthropy and Sustainability. View Comments

Welcome to February, and another week here at Tropophilia. Be sure to check out new posts (including a great guest post by Bruce) from the weekend; here are your morning links:

  • Fast Company gives us The Top 10 Websites You Never Heard Of. My personal favorite? Newsmap, “an amazing graphical representation of the constantly-changing headlines on Google News.”
  • Following up on last week’s link about green jobs, Sustainablog describes various “green employment benefits” eco-conscious companies are offering to employees both to lure new employees and to reflect their sustainability values throughout their corporate operations. Some examples include public transportation commuting subsidies, natural light buildings, local/organic food in company cafeterias, and company outings to national parks. Where do I sign up?
  • If you’ve read Tropophilia for a while, you know that I’m all aflutter about algae as fuelstock. Well, treehugger highlights exciting news of an agreement between Chevron and Solazyme (an alternative energy start-up) to ramp up testing of the green goo. What makes this particularly exciting are the particulars of Solazyme’s process (emphasis mine):

“Algae usually rely on photosynthesis for energy to consume CO2 and produce oils. Biodiesel can be harvested from the algae, which can be composed of up to 50% oily matter. But getting sunlight to the algae in industrial-scale processes is difficult. So how does Solazyme solve the problem? By growing a special strain of algae in the dark.”

  • Via lifehacker comes 10 Tips to Retain More of What You Read Online. Tip #11: comment on Tropophilia posts to continue the conversation.
  • Following up on my post a few weeks ago about Kiva.org: Sean at Tactical Philanthropy explores the challenges Kiva faces with an overwhelming supply of willing donors and a limited supply of projects. He makes a number of excellent suggestions, including some creative solutions the site could use to ensure willing donors are able to direct their funds to good causes–even if not through Kiva itself.
  • And finally, in celebration of everyone’s favorite resource, Mental Floss points out 4 Great Wikipedia Variations. Try using Wookiepedia (exactly what it sounds like….arrrrrrrrgggggggggg) on your next assignment.

That’s all for now. I’ll be traveling for work until next week, but I have faith my co-conspirators contributors will keep the wheels churning with new material. Have a great week!