A Local Food Project in Pennsylvania: First in a Series

by dooglas carl
December 11, 2017
1st in a series on local food

Locally sourced salads, cheese and beers at a small brewpub in
Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of douglas carl. 

Food. We eat it, drink it, socialize around it, enjoy it, critique it, take pictures of it, and then expel it. Food is an integral part of our existence, as we need it to survive, so it holds a place of utmost importance in our lives. Despite this central position of significance to our survival and social cohesion, people increasingly are distanced from the origins of the food that they eat. In our current era, food exists as a conundrum: it holds a central and a necessary part in human life, yet for many there is a magic to food, as it seemingly appears out of thin air in our grocery stores, quickie marts and restaurants. There exists a disconnect between what we put in our bellies and where that food originates and how it's created. There are also people, organizations and businesses working to change that lack of understanding and bridge the disconnect.

Personally, food has found a central part of my own life. Outside of need, I have worked in kitchens, bakeries, and fields, all places where food is grown, created, transformed, and made ready for consumption. As an anthropologist, my work around health issues always included the threads of food. From documenting local food practices, to studying the effects of school garden programs on students and their communities, to exploring the role of food in keeping people healthy, even when the overall study aim was something else, food always found a role in the story.

Thinking Socially: a Way Forward Out of this Capitalist Mess

Can we find a social solution to this capitalist mess?
Image courtesy of the Socialist Organizer.

by douglas reeser on june 10, 2013

My recent return to southern Belize has been a pleasant and productive revisiting to a place where I spent nearly a year and a half working on my dissertation research in anthropology. I've written much about this place and Belize more generally, and while I am plumbing the depths of my experience here in an effort to complete my dissertation, I continue to find inspiration for shorter musings and reflections. One such experience occurred the other night while I was having some drinks with some non-Belizean friends of mine. 

We were out at a local seafood restaurant, popular with expats and tourists. It's a place with good food and character, an old wooden building sitting on stilts out over the Caribbean Sea, with a large outdoor deck perfect for star-gazing and enjoying the cool sea breeze. It's also the center of social life for the younger ex-pat community, where you can run into any number of young foreigners, here doing research, volunteering or interning at local NGOs, or working in efforts to relocate to Belize. I was there with some archaeologist friends, one of whom I did my Master's schooling with, and some researchers who work with a local conservation organization, talking about different issues that come up in the world of "development."

Soon, a mutual friend walked up to say hello before leaving for the night. She runs a local company that helps to produce and export agricultural products, and has helped to develop a program that sources the product from local farmers, and connects them to "ultra-premium" producers in the US and elsewhere. It's a model in the vein of fair trade, and provides farmers with a decent price for their product, and more importantly to some, introduces a level of competition in a field that was previously dominated by one company that dictated prices and terms to the farmers. We asked her how her business was doing, and before long, I was engaged in a short conversation with one of the conservation people I was sitting with. 

This is a Global Resistance Movement. Obviously.

The road ahead is not what you are used to. It is not developed.
It must be created. Collectively.

by douglas reeser on June 3, 2013
The world has changed. It happened while nobody was looking, and in a way few thought would matter. The prominence of the nation state has receded, and taking over its place has been the multinational corporation. The global triumph of capitalism has led to unbridled confidence and blind following of the market doctrine. When capitalism won, nations lost, people lost, and the interests of multinationals were granted the power to drive policy in even the most powerful nations on the planet. It has gotten so that the multinational corporation has infiltrated not only our political system, but also our social life, our everyday. People often care less what it is to be a citizen of a nation, or what it is to be a human being, and more with the latest, greatest, fastest, coolest... product. And this change is global. In the US and other "developed" nations, such has been going on for decades now, but the penetration of the product (the many flags of the corporation) into social life has now reached every corner of the globe.

And what are the implications of this shift in attention that has become so pervasive all around us? I would argue the result is what "development" has become in the modern world: the constant erosion of the collective, the community, the whole, and the unreasoned acceptance of the individual as the point of primary concern. "Developed" society has led us to a point in history in which it is socially acceptable and desirable to promote your own interests over those of others. The capitalist ethos of competition, and the drive for profit has now been translated into a guide for action. "Do what you have to do to get that new smartphone, damn the rest." The intense rule of the product is especially pervasive in the world's youth, who are less well equipped to be critical of the constant promotion and advertising of the new rulers. It also important to remember that these new rulers - the multinational corporations - no longer have the interests of the nation in mind when calculating their next steps. Their interests are solely self-interests, primarily the drive to increase profit. No matter the cost.

All is not lost, however...

March Against Monsanto: It's About Your Right to Know

Visit Occupy Monsanto for a march near you!
http://occupy-monsanto.com/tag/global-day-of-action/

by douglas reeser on May 24, 2013
The giant agro-chemical company, Monsanto, has a long and troublesome history about which people around the globe are starting to take issue with. This Saturday, May 25, 2013, marks the first ever global protest against the company, with supporters calling on a long list of motivations for the rally. Occupy Monsanto, one of the many outgrowths of the Occupy Movement, has a list with links to over 100 cities where marches and protests are set to take place. In addition to the list, there is a short, but telling list of reasons why people are are protesting:

- Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.
- In the United States, the FDA, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the population, is steered by ex-Monsanto executives, and we feel that’s a questionable conflict of interests and explains the lack of government-lead research on the long-term effects of GMO products.
- Recently, the U.S. Congress and president collectively passed the nicknamed “Monsanto Protection Act” that, among other things, bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.
- For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.
- Monsanto’s GMO seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have caused colony collapse among the world’s bee population.

May Day and the Worker's Struggle

May 1, 2013, May Day

It's May 1st, a day that, globally, is both a holiday celebrating the worker, and a day of protest, fighting for the rights of the worker. In Turkey, Bangladesh, and Greece, along with countless other locales, citizens are in the streets, angry with where austerity measures have brought them. In solidarity, we are sharing a few posters from over the years calling for action on this day of the worker.

Debt, Discipline, and Consumerism

Education is discipline, and debt is consumerism. We learn
to consume and live by our debts.
Photo credit: beware of images

by douglas reeser on March 29, 2013
Maybe you've noticed the picture of Noam Chomsky accompanying a quote from an unidentified source that has been making the rounds on Facebook and a number of websites. I've tried to find where the quote came from, and the best I can tell is that it was from an article in the Ottawa Citizen that no longer has a working link from back in 2011. I've also found links back to the Chomsky Quotes Tumblr, but was unable to find the exact source there either. Regardless of exactly where the quote came from, or even if Chomsky said or wrote it, the message is still compelling, and fits well with the emerging movement to alleviate student debt on a national level.

The meme-ing quote reads:

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people ina system of debt they can't afford the time to think. Tuition Fee increases are a disciplinary technique, and by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the disciplinarian culture. This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy. 

In my mind, the quote is a little all over the place, and could probably use some context (hence my curiosity about where it came from). Still, I think it captures the attention for linking debt, discipline, and mindless consumerism. Again, being unsure about the context of the quote, I hesitate to offer much critique, other than to criticize those who continue to share it without including a source. At least the quote is attributed, but without the source, it retains little of its original value. What remains worth some further comment are those three primary concepts: debt, discipline, and consumerism.

Health or Debt? It's Really Not a Choice

March 21, 2013
Strike Debt, the organization that grew out of the Occupy Movement and began buying up student debt, has added medical debt to its list of targets. This great animated video explains why in a pretty clear way, and hopefully it continues to inspire solidarity and collective action. It is by helping each other that we will find our way forward through all of this...

Check out the video, and then visit Strike Debt to get involved.

Bradley Manning and Subconscious War

~ Bradley Manning ~
Photo from Wikipedia

by douglas reeser on March 1, 2013
News is again active with reports on the latest turn in the Bradley Manning case. If you've missed the story, Manning is the U.S. Army soldier arrested and accused of releasing classified material to WikiLeaks. Reuters reports that the case is the largest leak of government secrets in the history of the United States. To the surprise of many, Manning has just plead guilty to charges that he "misused classified information." However, in a slight twist to the story, he denied the top charge of "aiding the enemy" (the Iraqi "insurgents"). Manning, who has been jailed for nearly 3 years now, was able to testify:

I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general... I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience... This was the type of information...[that] should become public.

The need to have a public re-evaluation of the role of war in U.S. foreign policy is long passed (the War in Iraq started in 2003, and we've been at war for the 10+ years since). A look through the many documents on WikiLeaks helps explain why the U.S. army and government want to see Manning imprisoned for life. The counter-argument is that citizens have the right to know of the actions taken in their name by their own government. 

If you're unconvinced, take the time to watch this 30 minute documentary, Subconscious War, which was created with some of the more disturbing footage that Manning released. 

Honor the Treaties: A Native American Resistance Project

February 6, 2013
Honor the Treaties is a new and growing movement from within Native American communities in the US that aims to create a complete database of treaties signed between the US government and Native American groups, while becoming the hub of action for treaty issues facing tribes today. Learn more and take action by visiting honorthetreaties.org, and watch this moving short film that helps explain why we all need to get involved.

Awakening to a New Era: Occupy, Idle No More and the Zapatistas

Zapatistas march in southern Mexico in late December, 2012
Photo courtesy of RoarMag.org

by douglas reeser on January 2, 2012
Change is inevitable. It is a constant that we can all be sure of. Many people thought - or were hoping - that the change accompanied with the turning of the calendar from 2012 would be drastic, catastrophic even. And while there were no collapsing cities, burning bridges, or major environmental events, change is afoot. It's a matter of where your attention is focused, and if you train your eyes on the people, you will quickly see that the awakening and transformation of humanity is alive and growing. As evidence, take a look at three popular movements that have begun to find a firmer footing with the shifting calendar: Occupy, the Zapatistas, and Idle No More.

By now, most readers are familiar with the Occupy Movement that  began with protests in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan that quickly spread to cities across the U.S. and around the globe. Occupy caused a ruckus at first, but it was characterized as unfocused and disorganized in the popular press, and appeared to lose some steam. It turned out to simply be a pause, as first, a coalition of Occupy groups began the Strike Debt campaign through which they are buying up debt and abolishing it. Then, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Occupy became one of the most effective aid organizations in New York City and surrounding areas. The new year is witness to a renewal and transformation within Occupy, from simply a group of protestors, to a group of protestors that are also fulfilling basic human needs.

Occupy your Debt

The People's Bailout - a variety show in support
of the 99%. Live online and in NYC on November
15, 2012. 

by douglas reeser on November 12, 2012
In case you haven't heard, Occupy is back in the news and this time it doesn't have to do with protests, sit-ins, or police violence. And to the surprise of many, it seems that the potential for Occupy is actually growing, as the movement is working on at least two fronts, and certainly in terms of public relations, Occupy is scoring some points. The movement has shown the public a different side of itself through its relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in early November. The hurricane resulted in extensive damage throughout much of New York City and New Jersey, so much so that the traditional governmental and non-governmental relief agencies have had difficulty responding to all the needs of those affected.

With so many in need, members of Occupy were able to quickly mobilize a response that other relief organizations were unable to do. According to a piece in the Nation,

"Occupy Sandy, as the effort has been branded, arose quickly in the aftermath of the storm, setting up local community hubs to dispense water, food and aid, and form groups to help communities pump water from their houses and clean up the vast quantities of rubble left in Sandy’s wake. Distribution centers have been set up in numerous locations in New York and New Jersey, and they continue to help those in need... While federal mobilization efforts can often take weeks—sometimes months—to reach citizens, Occupy was one of the only local groups capable of quickly mobilizing to help victims. Organizing volunteers and supplies is no small task, but Occupy Sandy has been able to generate a large amount of aid. On Sunday, Michael Premo, one of the volunteers, estimated the mobilization effort included 2,500 volunteers, 15,000 meals and 120 carloads of supplies sent to recovery sites."

There's Oil in those Hills: Fracturing Land and Communities in Southern Belize

Aerial view from the sea of Sarstoon Temash National Park in southern
Belize, where US oil interests have begun to drill.
Photo courtesy of News 5 Belize.

by douglas reeser on November 8, 2012
As some of our regular readers know, I've been working and living in southern Belize for most of the last year and a half. Spending so much time in a place begins to provide insight into the day-to-day lives of the people that live there. An understanding of the strengths of the community and the challenges it must face begin to emerge. The south of Belize has historically been the region in which poverty is most concentrated in the country. In 2009, nearly half of all households (~47%) in the south were living  in poverty, and in 2010, unemployment in the district was over 21%. These statistics sound alarming, but probably remain abstract to most readers. Living in a place makes the abstract real.

During my time in Belize, the ways in which these types of economic statistics are experienced have become evident. Many of my closest friends have struggled financially, to the point that the economics of providing the basic necessities of life (food, clothing, a roof to live under) were everyday challenges. Jobs are scarce, and when they do open up, the applicant pool is always huge and usually includes more qualified or better educated applicants from outside of the region. In many cases, people are forced to turn to a more informal economy in which they may do things they may not otherwise do given the choice. I have seen people struggle immensely in this type of position, but when it's a choice between a home for you and your family or no home, there really isn't much of a choice.

A Future of Debt and Part-time Work? No Thanks.

A future of unpayable student debt and exploitative
part-time work is not the future for me.
Photo created on atom.smasher.org

by douglas reeser on October 29, 2012

Lately my days have been filled with working items off of my bottomless to-do list. A return to the U.S. after almost a year and half of field work finds me jobless and out of money. Perhaps this was poor planning on my part, but research funding never came through despite repeated and ongoing efforts that started over a year before my fieldwork and continued while I was in the field for almost a year. I thought my effort put into grant writing would pay off, and I was wrong. Still, my fieldwork needed to be done, or I would risk floundering around campus for who knows how many years. One colleague in my department wrote grants for 5 years before finally getting one that allowed her to do her research.

For me, already pushing 40, I didn't see waiting around as a real option, especially after already delaying my fieldwork for over a year. Instead I depleted my meager savings, and went further into student debt to get out into the field and get my research done. To be fair, I did receive one small research grant that basically paid for my airfare, and while this was a big help, it was really just a drop in the bucket of costs for a long-term field project. All the while, I had to pay tuition three times per year to stay continuously enrolled, a nice budget-draining touch from the university administration. 

Corporate Crime Comics

Corporate Crime Comics, 1977, front cover

by douglas reeser on October 24, 2012

"Corporate crime... Corporate crime... I could be robbed or poisoned by corporate criminals and never know it until I read about it in the papers... or maybe never know!"

And so begins Issue #1 of the 1977 publication "Corporate Crime Comics" (CCC) by the Kitchen Sink Press - the first of only two issues. From an era before personal computers, smart phones, and tablets, Corporate Crime Comics is a great example of the creative efforts of activists from the time who sought to get their message out in a way that may grab the attention of a youth-oriented readership. Issue #1 includes around 15 stories of varying length and quality that touch on controversial, unethical, and quasi-legal or illegal corporate (and government) actions, all of which have fairly dire human consequences.

The issue opens with the story of Karen Silkwood, a lab technician who worked for the Texan oil company of Kerr-McGee, which at the time was the largest producer of atomic fuel in the US. Silkwood had become active in unionizing and worker's rights, and had reportedly secured incriminating documents on the company, only to lose the documents - along with her life - in a suspicious car crash. This story was turned into the film "Silkwood" starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher in 1983.

"Global Noise" Makes a Racket around the World

by douglas reeser on October 15th, 2012
The Occupy Movement has not been in the mainstream headlines all that much lately, however that does not mean it has stalled out. Just this weekend, Occupy camps from across the US too part in the "Global Noise" rallies that are attempting to link and unite protest movements active in all parts of the globe. Check out this short video from the Real News Network on the Global Noise rallies, and continue to spread the word.

The Growth and Breadth of Campus Activism

In the Neoliberal Society, students get pepper-sprayed in the name of
debt and greed. Image courtesy of Lucas Kretch.

by douglas reeser on October 2, 2012

I recently wrote about the lack of activism and protests in southern Belize, while people elsewhere around the globe have been mobilizing against what could be characterized as the Neoliberal Society. Many may remember the original George Bush espousing the benefits of a "New World Order" (NWO), and such has come to pass. The form of this NWO has been shaped by neoliberal policies enacted the world over, and generally accepted to have been started during the Reagan and Thatcher years (during which GW the First served as Vice President). 

Briefly, in the years since the 1980, huge sums of money have been loaned to governments around the world (both developing and developed nations), on terms that required the creation and maintenance of a favorable business environment, while severely limiting government-provided social services. Such terms allowed for the rapid expansion of global manufacturing and commerce at the expense of the health and livelihood of literally billions of people. 

Having been in a rural and fairly isolated part of the globe for the better part of the last year and a half, I  didn't always catch everything that was happening in the movement to counter this new Neoliberal Society. When I have the chance, I do some online searching for updates and news to try to keep abreast of actions in an attempt to develop my understanding of what's actually going on out there. In my most recent perusal, I found an informative article by Edna Brophy in Briarpatch Magazine titled The Combustible Campus: From Montreal to Mexico City, something is stirring the University.

Views from the ANThill: Where are the Activists?

The town square is filled with parades and parties throughout the year,
but never with any protestors. Why?
photo by douglas c reeser

by douglas c reeser on September 12, 2012

On a recent morning, while writing at my computer and having some coffee, I received a surprising text message from a good friend. It read, “Belize Lodge burned last night! Folks can have a pretty nasty way of settling conflicts.”  She was referring to a foreign owned eco-lodge in a nearby village in which I have conducted research for a number of years. The lodge had fallen into financial difficulties over the past year or two, and owed back wages to many of its workers. Local authorities became involved and assisted in the negotiation of a payment plan to ensure workers would receive what was owed to them. It’s unclear what transpired after that, but less than a month later, parts of the lodge were set on fire and burned to the ground.

This wasn’t the first time I had heard of people here resorting to the use of flame to settle differences. In September 2010, a nearby group of villagers torched a foreign-owned crocodile sanctuary. Two local children had gone missing, and rumors spread that they had been fed to hungry crocs. Without an investigation, villagers decided to burn the sanctuary and chase the owners from the region. These and other stories I have heard tell me that the use of fire, while extreme, is one form of protest that people resort to here.

Academia is Dead. Now What?

Today, acedemia is not taking care of its
own, but what are the alternatives?
image by douglas reeser.

by douglas reeser on september 3, 2012
There is a lot of hand-wringing among scholars going on right now out here in cyberspace. Much of what I'm reading is from and by anthropologists, but from the comments on these articles, it sounds as if the issue goes beyond anthropology and extends to all disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities and everything in between. The issues being discussed are systemic - in other words, there's a problem with the system. The model of the university as a business, with increased administration that is embedded in a larger system that is cutting funds to education, is pinching those at the bottom the hardest. From what I can tell, most agree that this is the case, however the roots and causes of the problem have not been fully agreed upon. And so, challenge is upon us.

The problems that I am referring to here, and to which I can relate, include issues such as the lack of a job market for young scholars, the turn towards adjunct-abuse at many institutions, the decrease in tenure track positions, stressors associated with decreased institutional funding, and the increase in administrative pressures to produce, produce, produce. In the mean time, PhD holders have reached record levels, and there are declarations that we have too many - that we have devalued the degree. Simply search for "number of PhDs" and the top results include the following titles (Google search on September 2, 2012) "Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic," "Education: The PhD factory, " "The PhD problem: are we giving out too many degrees?", "From Graduate School to Welfare," and "The Number of PhDs on Food Stamps Triples." Things are not looking so great if you're one of the many pursuing your doctorate degree, a camp in which I squarely fall.

Open Access: A Movement, a Policy, a State of Mind

[editor's note: re-posted as our most popular column in the month of August]

by Lana Brand on August 10, 2012

“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. The new technology is the internet.”

– Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) 

Each time I read this my heart swells. The possibility. The hope. The sheer logic. Yes, yes, of course the internet will be the savior of scholarly communication. We shall all find the information we need to learn, to help people, to effect change. With one click, we shall access data, share ideas, find answers, solve problems. Yes, leveraging technology will remove the physical and cost constraints that print brings. We’re wide open!

Views from the ANThill: What if Everything was Free?

What if everything was free?
Photo courtesy of the Groundswell Collective

by douglas reeser on August 23, 2012
I've been thinking about the concept of "free" a good deal lately. Our recent posts on for-profit universities, Open Access (the ability to access research reports and articles for free), and internet access reflect that thinking to a certain degree. But I would like to take the idea a bit further than we have so far. If internet access is to be a human right, it needs to be free. I would argue that education - all of it - needs to be free. And the ability for anyone anywhere to access the latest research needs to be free and unhindered. All of these things are related and intertwined in that they exist in the realm of knowledge and human understanding.

What about things that we traditionally think of as goods? Products? Should these things be free? A good friend of mine just shared an article from the Wall Street Journal on the declining success of "freemium" - a strategy employed by a number of online ventures in which they offer a basic service for free, with hopes that customers will pay for premium services. Companies like Dropbox and Skype have demonstrated that the idea can work, however, others have been a bit less successful. Apparently it takes a special formula and specific criteria for such a strategy to work, especially if the end goal is to make money. But what if the end goal was different? What if everything was free?