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Corporate Sovereignty?

January 4, 2011 in Agriculture, business, food, politics, science | No comments

I’ve spent the last decade seeking alternatives to corporate lifestyles.  My first move was to investigate a small, family-owned business with a mission that was aligned with my own interests (seeking to lessen the damaging effects of corporate medicine on a traditional medical system).  After a thorough investigation of the company, the owners, and the culture of the organization, I decided to join them in 1998.  Unfortunately, they didn’t decide to hire me until 2001 – so I spent the next couple of years making the most of my decidedly corporate lifestyle at the largest purveyor of agricultural genetics at that time (no company names – I am protecting the innocent).

In those last two years of my tenure at this large ag seed company, many things happened.  One event that stood out was that the entire company was purchased by a huge multi-national chemical concern.  A quick look at the parent company’s portfolio of businesses and locations made you think that the world was more dependent on what happened in a particular company than on what happened in any particular country.  The question presented itself to me at that time:  Is there such a thing as corporate sovereignty?

With that question, several others also arose.  Two specific questions that stuck in my mind at the time: “Is there such a thing as corporate food domination?” and “How much involvement in the food distribution system by a single company is healthy?”.  My employer at the time provided roughly half of the corn seed sold in America.  A large percentage of this corn was basically grown as the bulk feedstock for animals (beef, pork and chicken).  The animals’ ultimate fate was, of course, our dinner plate.  The nutrient density of the corn, and thus, of the meat, was “programmed” genetically by this old stalwart seed company.  That in itself was acceptable – the history of the organization was shining, with a long list of good and benevolent achievements.  As time wore on and the impending purchase became imminent, however, examining the situation more deeply gave the impression of a rapidly spreading three alarm fire.

The first alarm rang out when, after a brief courting period and a joint venture, the aforementioned large chemical concern purchased the seed company outright.  Is it still a benevolent business, seeking to help farmers be more productive through the broad application of the science of genetics?  Or is it now simply a platform to sell chemical crop protection products?  At the time, we all knew that we were the same company as when we started.  But who could guess what the future held?  The second alarm, at least for me, sounded when it became evident that the new owner had deep involvement in all aspects of food processing and distribution systems, from packaging and processing all the way to contaminant testing of finished foods, from production aids to the means of delivery.  They owned proprietary products in each critical phase of food production, processing and distribution – now including the raw genetic material that formed the starting material for that food.  The third, and maybe the loudest, alarm sounded after examining the other crop products that were available to this parent company.  Their own existing genetics programs and the programs obtained thru their new purchase provided avenues to control large amounts of available germplasm for wheat, rice, corn, soybean, sunflower, canola and a myriad of minor crop germplasm bases.

Vertical integration in the food industry reached a new milestone with this “merger” of a chemical giant with what had previously been the largest and perhaps the most innocuous seed company, having no previous ties to anyone except their own shareholders.  With the new ownership, what did the shareholders cede to this large chemical manufacturer?  Did they merely hand over control of an undisputed pioneer in the agricultural genetics industry?  Or was it actually a large chunk of the food supply that they served up on a platter?  Does it matter?  Will we all someday become ‘citizens’ of this new genetics giant by virtue of simply eating?

Winter Means Gardening

January 3, 2011 in Agriculture, food, hobbies | No comments


My current favorite winter reading material

What do you do in the winter time?  Maybe you go hunting, perhaps a cross country ski weekend, or a day of snow shoeing.  It could be that you take saunas, you spend your days baking, or you enjoy a friendly visit to neighbors for coffee.  One of my favorite winter activities, when the evenings are long and days are short, is gardening.  You read that right – I said “gardening”.

Obviously I don’t spend much time working the soil when our high temp is well below freezing, but what I choose to do instead, is plan the garden and pick through the seed catalogs that start arriving mid-winter.  I think that this is just a naturally cathartic activity on cold, dreary days.  What could feel better than to think about warm spring days planting or hot summer days eating tomatoes or strawberries fresh from the garden?

This is something I remember so well from my childhood – my great grandma first showed me the Gurney seed catalog when I was probably about four years old.  She would tell me about peas and beans, how they grew on trellises; she would talk about cucumbers and ask if I remembered making pickles with her, trying to explain to me why we made pickles; she’d ask me about different fruits and then she’d describe the orchard in her back yard;  finally she’d ask me to circle the pictures of vegetables I’d like to grow and eat.  Lots of time was spent talking, thinking, and hoping for good crops.  My great grandma was a superb gardener and could make plants grow almost by her wish.

This wintertime activity always helped chase away the cabin fever if you’d been shut in by bad weather for a few days.  One thing I noticed, though, as I got older is that you can sometimes order seeds just to stave off cabin fever.  More than one time, I have done this and then found out that while it worked to cure the cabin fever, I now have much more seed than I could ever hope to grow in my garden spot.  I won’t be surprised this year if that happens.

Above, in the picture, you see the catalog of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – a Missouri company dedicated to help preserve long, lost varieties of food crops.  I am not compensated in any way to tell you that this has become one of my favorite seed catalogs simply for the wide variety of foods you can now grow for yourself.  You really have to see it to believe it – and you can see it at their website (link).

Eight Farming Links: The Ag Compilation

April 15, 2009 in Agriculture, food | No comments

Being from Iowa, it is impossible to live apart from agriculture, and it is nearly impossible to avoid professional contact with agriculture at some point.  For me, and many like me, this is a good thing!

I have compiled a group of Midnight Blogger posts from previous months on Agriculture.  Below are links to a the posts, as well as a brief description if appropriate.  Enjoy!

Be sure to drop a line in the comments and tell me what you think!

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Fall is my Favorite

October 14, 2008 in Agriculture, business, food, video | No comments

I love fall.  It is by far my favorite time of the year.  Harvest happens now.  My birthday is in the fall.  The endless heat of summer actually ends.  The bugs go away.  It’s all good.

The video above is of a harvest of a different kind than we are familiar with in the midwest.  This is the grape harvest in the Napa Valley, at a winery that bears my last name.  These guys are doing it right – check out the other videos on their YouTube list (especially the one describing biodynamic practices).  Very cool.  I’m no wine conniseur but this is some very good wine, highly regarded and quite popular in the restaurant trade.  If you’re up for something nice, pick up a bottle at www.ehlersestate.com.

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Do you have a PURPOSE??

June 4, 2008 in Agriculture, food, Soldier Iowa | No comments

I had a couple of friends in college who liked to play jokes on each other and on me. One of their (our) favorite gags was to call up the other person’s answering machine and fill up the tape with gibberish. For example, I once read pages out of the dictionary until my friend had no available tape left. This took some patience, because the machine would cut you off at two minutes, so you had to leave numerous messages. On another occasion, he was actually there and picked up, greeting me with the question “Do you have a purpose?” For those who have stuck with me so far, thanks (!) and here’s the segue: I have reached the point where I think I need to ascribe some purpose to this little blog.

My real passions are small town life (love the people), travel (because sometimes you need to get out of the small town) and food (love to eat it). I really want to make life better for the people in the little town where I grew up and then I want to be able to repeat that good turn for people in small towns all over our great country. The challenges faced in small towns that aren’t necessarily present in larger cities include adequate housing, affordable energy, transportation, accessible goods and services (including food), and cultural choices. There are more, but these come immediately to mind.

I’ve been recently inspired by Chris Brogan and his series of posts on social media, especially those posts specifically addressing small business. I’ve also been so impressed with Britt Raybould.   Her post on agriculture in Idaho really struck a chord with me. Finally, Chris Pirillo’s YouTube video about the slow way tech is being taken up in Iowa also stirred something in me.

I think much can be done to improve life in places like small town Iowa. Technology certainly has a role and the emerging class of young people with electronic connectedness – people who are being called “digerati” by the likes of Tim Ferriss) can certainly help, too. This is likely to be a major direction of my online presence as I move forward, although I may spin the effort off into its own site or community or whatever.

Note to Chris Pirillo, just in case you happen onto this somehow:  I get what you’re saying about Iowa’s need to stop exporting people and I agree.  I know that we can do more to improve creative opportunities in places like Iowa, but in fairness, you are arguably Seattle’s leading geek.  Your expectations of culture change in Iowa with regard to technology are comparable to sending Duffy Lyon to Seattle and having her wander around asking “Where are all the butter sculptors?”   Although Seattle surely doesn’t have anything against butter sculpture, it just isn’t the best atmosphere for that particular brand of culture to thrive.  Can/should we change that?

Stay tuned, much more to come. Please add suggestions or ask questions in the comments and pass this along to others who can help.

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My SFG (Square Foot Garden)

May 23, 2008 in Agriculture, food, hobbies | No comments

This year in addition to my over-the-top tomato project, I also established a square foot garden (made popular by the PBS gardening program and the books by Mel Bartholomew, with a recent revision).  I wanted to try the extreme case of gardening on my concrete driveway.  So I lost a parking space in exchange for a source of fresh veggies and salad greens.  Seems fair.

In the photos below, you can see the SFG with plants just emerging from the soil mix and then again about a month later.  What a difference a month makes!

SFG shortly after plants emerged SFG with ~1 month growth

Note to the very observant & somewhat curious:  yes, I have moved the mower since taking the first picture.  I’ve actually mowed three times.

Anybody else doing the SFG thing?  Tell me how it goes for you in the comments!

More on the plants’ progress

March 23, 2008 in Agriculture, food, hobbies | No comments

I enjoy growing vegetables. I’m not particularly good at it, and certainly not an expert. As a matter of fact, last year, I lost nearly all the plants I started in a series of unfortunate incidents including a rogue frost, a hot and dry summer, an amazingly invasive weed, hungry insects (including aphids, squash bugs, and cut worms) and even an accident involving my trusty Taurus (backed over a pepper plant, causing irreparable damages). But I still like the act of going out each year and putting plants into the soil, watching them grow, and (when I’m lucky) harvesting an edible reward.

Along with the discouraging results from last year, the fact that I rarely eat a tomato is enough to make you wonder why I bother.  Certainly I could probably get by without growing as many plants as I have going in my south window but still, I find it fun.

Many Tomatoes We have a winner! The first pepper pops up.

The pictures above include the tomatoes at left, just beginning to show their first true leaves.  These will soon be transferred to pots.  More pictures of that process will be posted, too.   The picture to the right is not too clear, but you can see the first pepper plant to poke through the soil.  This one is a serrano type (hot) pepper.  I have started several hot varieties and a few sweet peppers, too this year.

I will share a few photos of the final growing locations of some of these plants when they are in the ground, as well as an update on how many actually survived and  how they harvest goes.  So far it is looking very good with all but six plants germinating.  These six were all of one variety – a yellow tomato called “Pink Grapefruit”.  Maybe I’ll re-try, but probably not.

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What Have You Been Doing?

March 18, 2008 in Dunlap, food, hobbies | No comments

Sometimes time flies, even when you aren’t really having much fun. The last part of February and the first part of March it seems I got very ill. I don’t know what it was for sure, but it did beat me down. But I got up again. And you’re never gonna keep me down. OK, no more song references in this post.

Anyway, I am back now and thought I’d update you on March activities.

First off, I started several tomato plants from seed. This is a yearly tradition in the spring, and I set many of them out myself, while giving many away to family and friends, too. This year I have about thirty varieties growing, including numerous low-acid types.

Picture: Tomato Plants

As evidenced in the picture linked above, I use my washer and drier as heat mats to aid in germination and growth. These seedlings will soon be moved into pots with soil where they will be grown to 8-12″ tall, then transplanted outdoors. The plants got a very fast start this year, and I am going to be a little ahead of myself if I guess right, so it could get interesting in May (hope we don’t have any late frosts!). To the left of the tomato flat is a muffin tin with peppers, which have yet to poke through.

Another March item has been the beginning of the end of Christmas. I have begun, finally, taking down all of the Christmas lights outside. I meant to get to this earlier during some unseasonably warm weather in January or February, but it seems like it never came. Then the above-referenced illness showed up and I didn’t get much done. No pictures, but you get the general idea.

Finally, I recently took in the annual Dunlap St. Patrick’s Day parade. Again, no pictures (I don’t know why but I forgot to take pics!).

So if you’ve been missing me and wondering what I’ve been up to, it is summed up as follows: very ill, starting seed, un-decorating, and St. Pat’s. There, you’re all caught up.

I’ll do my best to keep up to date through the rest of spring.

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Two Can Stew: Midnight Blogger Or Midnite Chef?

February 13, 2008 in food | 1 comment

I’m stumbling thru my freezer right now, wondering how old some of those burritos are and if I should plan on taking them to lunch with me tomorrow. I normally don’t start cooking after midnight, but in a pinch, I’ve been known to start making lunch around 1:00 a.m.

That brings me to something of a rarity on this blog – a recipe. Despite my post title, I am certainly no chef. I don’t particularly like cooking, but I do like eating, so the latter forces the former. This little gem will seem juvenile to anyone with real culinary skills but for the rest of us, here’s one of my favorite winter recipes for short notice: Two Can Stew. Quick, easy, cheap and very customizable based on what you have available.

It is almost as easy as popping open a can of commercially prepared stew, and I think it tastes so much better. If you’re having company over and you like beef stew, or if you’re like me and need a quickie lunch item, you might try this (apologies to the vegetarians, but you could actually just skip the meat if you really wanted to).

Ingredients:
1 – 15 ounce can mixed vegetables (small cut vegetables)
1 – 29 ounce can mixed vegetables (large cut vegetables)
1 package stew seasoning mix
1 lb lean meat (I usually use an inexpensive cut of steak), cubed
2 tbsp oil (I use olive oil or grapeseed oil, but vegetable oil is fine)

Brown meat in oil over medium heat, turning to ensure complete browning
Add both cans of vegetables and contents of seasoning packet, stirring to mix
Simmer over low to medium heat for 10 minutes.
That’s it – serve and enjoy!

Also, if you have similar quick, simple, easy and inexpensive recipes, I’d love to hear them!

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