Down the agricultural rabbit hole!

What an amazing weekend! My father's cousin flew in from DC to celebrate Christmas with my mother and me; we have had a relaxing four days of food, wine, chocolate and conversation. This is the last Hurrah!!! of my very decadent foodie lifestyle before I embark on my elimination diet in January. I have suffered from chronic sinusitis each winter since I contracted whooping cough in 2008. After consulting with a multitude of doctors, I now know, without a doubt, that my symptoms are not physical/structural, bacterial, or viral. My skin tests as barely detectable for an allergic reaction to dust and willow tree pollen and associated management actions have done nothing to improve my condition. After a long series of prescription experiments, wherein the doctors seemed to know less than I did, I have taken a firm stand against suppression drugs. This past year I enjoyed massage therapy and chiropractics and while my body feels amazing, my sinuses remain the same. These fix-it approaches are not working enough, so now tumble down the rabbit hole in pursuit of that ultimate lifestyle question.... diet.

I feel overwhelmed in a sea of choices. There are so many food issues - local v. mass production, carnivore v. vegetarian v. other, organic and pesticide free farming, how free is free range?, types of healthful and bad fat, optimal caloric count... it makes my head spin! Armed with a precursory bit of research, I have formulated vague lifestyle and diet preferences, which scatter like dust in the wind when faced with a passionate opinion.

This no long serves me.

My relative is an agriculture journalist with a specialty in national policy and international trade relations, three distinct areas I am interested in learning more about. The last few days have provided a perfect opportunity for me to sit back and soak up 30 something years of research experience and to ask the cross cutting questions about how much of our food industry has been shaped. Armed with a few core study questions I feel empowered to jump feet first in partnership with my nutritionist, combining my own study with her knowledge, to develop my "right fit" value-added, healthful, eco-friendly dietary lifestyle! We won't see eye to eye on all the issues, but it's going to be an adventure. My exploration essays soon to follow.

Hope you too had an inspiring holiday weekend.

Cheers!

Sara, the CaliWaterGal

A Morning When Radio Teaches Me What I Don't Know

This morning on my drive to work, I did the unthinkable... I turned on NPR. Rarely do I listen to anything on what has been for the last year, a daily grind to work. I am consciously changing that mindset one day at a time. Today, my action was actively listening and engaging with the world around me through music, radio and conversation. Those 10 minutes of NPR taught me about a new aspect of water - a cultural one. Go Figure.

Diego Rivera is a world recognized Mexican muralist. His style does not match my tastes, but I remember appreciating his work, and that of his wife Frida, in my many iterations of Spanish class. Apparently Rivera considered water to be a vital social issue. I completely agree, but I never applied it to him... my mistake. Between 1950 and 1952, Rivera created an artistic fountain depicting the Aztec rain god Tlaloc which was designed to act as a gateway for water from the Lerma River to enter Mexico City's municipal water system. According to Lilia Haua of Probosque Chapultepec, "It's a very special fountain. It's one of the most important sculptures that Diego Rivera did in his life .... everything [in the fountain and murals are] related with the importance of the water." The fountain was in disrepair and was recently restored to emulate Rivera's style, while accomodating the engineering change to the existing water infrasture (i.e., the water no longer flow from the river through the fountain to the reservior, but rather thought a parallel pipe system). More about the original NPR report is found at:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/21/144028225/unusual-diego-rivera-work-restored-in-mexico-city

I consider myself to be a water expert, but I also recognize I have not been challenging myself. To explore. To Ask. To Learn. By not rising to the challenge, I began to stagnate. Which led to a bit of an emotional tail spin... Now, I am swimming towards fresh water, away from the stale pond I'd unwittingly fallen asleep in.

You don't know what you don't know. Unconscious Incompetence.
But you know what? I'm excited to know more.

Getting a handle on ewaste

Today I was reading "What’s the Truth Behind the Global eWaste Trade?" on the NerdGirls blog page and had to close my eyes in memory.... I've read the articles and seen the pictures. It makes me never want to buy new electronics (and trash ewaste) again.

In November I returned to the US after 10 days in southeast China where I was helping an industrialized city improve local water quality of a metals contaminated river. The city itself was like any modern western city. If you removed the people, the street signs and the cars/trucks/motorcycles/bikes... you could be anywhere in the world.... but if you crossed the big river into the industrial zone, you'd know you were not in a developed nation. The river I was working to help clean up was like a kid's paint set, a pallet of black, brown, white, and gold. The river banks were green with algae, small home farms and rapidly growing grasses. Yes, it was alive - I can attest to at killing at least four mosquitos as they targeted the exposed skin of my neck. Fireworks shot into the air, from a plant on the south band, on the hour, every hour... daily. It was an alien place - a river like nothing I've ever seen.

Those 10 days in China made me so grateful I was born in California in the late twentith century.

The government provided a daily news paper translated into English, which highlighted ongoing government reformed, especially related to environmental and economic policy. Since it was a government supported paper, I was surprised by some of the articles... but I came to recognize the story being told. We care about our people. We are making things better. Bigger and Better. We are advancing far and doing great!

But the starting point is ... low. There were undercover photos of the home electronic cookshops in Guiyu. Spaces smaller than most freshman college dorms would house a family of 4 - 6 and in the back room, in a poorly ventelated space, you could see women sitting over open stoves, cooking down circut boards or acid washing harddrives. The health effects described cancer, tumors, coughing up blood, permanently open wounds... A story of families moving to Guiyu to make a better living... earning money but then falling sick and becoming stuck. Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, about 80% of the recycled ewater is sent overseas for processing. Sometimes the facilities are safe and workers are well paid. Many times, home cookshops are the reality.

China has an economic model where it makes sense to push green development, sustainable products, green jobs. It is a huge market industry. There are definite societal benefits. And it will take a big shift. Let's push a little harder, with our pocket books and actions.

* Minimize unnecessary purchases.
* Donate ewaste to refurbishers not recyclers.
* If refurbishment is not an option, choose a reputable recycler that uses mechanical shredding and a high-tech separation device to take out the usable metals, which can then be sent to a smelter. Check out example smelters at: http://www.ilsr.org/pubs/plug-into-electronics-reuse.pdf