Why You Really Need to Give A S**T About Climate Change and Resource Issues Part 1: An Introduction of Sorts

I want to introduce you all to someone. This is Jeremy:

Jeremy Grantham of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo asset management, or GMO, to be specific.

For those of you who speak market, you may already know who he is.  For those of you who don't, let me tell you why you should be reading and listening to everything this man has to say.

GMO manages assets for clients that add up to about $106 Billion dollars.  For individuals, the minimums run between $5M and $10M dollars to even get to talk to them about managing your money.

In other words, GMO handles really big amounts of money for really wealthy individuals and institutions.  

But that's not why Grantham is important, or even what makes me think you should listen to him.  It is because not only does he speak market, he speaks with deep market knowledge of diminishing resources, and he thinks, and analyzes for the long term. 

Which leads him to say things like this in his Q2 2011 Letter to Investors about the problems facing us, and therefore our income stability and overall stability:
Overall, the best farms will have no erosion problems but, on average, soil will continue to be lost across the
globe. Together with increased weather extremes and higher input prices (perhaps much higher), there will be
increasing problems in feeding the world’s growing population.


 In particular, a significant number of poor countries found mostly in Africa and Asia will almost certainly suffer from increasing malnutrition and starvation. The possibility of foreign assistance on the scale required seems remote.


 The many stresses on agriculture will be exacerbated at least slightly by increasing temperatures, and severely by increased weather instability, especially more frequent and severe droughts and fl oods.


 These types of slow-burning problems that creep up on us over decades and are surrounded by a lack of scientific precision hit both our capitalist system and our human nature where it hurts.


 Capitalism, despite its magnificent virtues in the short term – above all, its ability to adjust to changing conditions– has several weaknesses that affect this issue.
o It cannot deal with the tragedy of the commons, e.g., overfishing, collective soil erosion, and air contamination.
o The finiteness of natural resources is simply ignored, and pricing is based entirely on short-term supply and
demand.
o More generally, because of the use of very high discount rates, modern capitalism attributes no material cost to damage that occurs far into the future. Our grandchildren and the problems they will face because of a warming planet with increasing weather instability and, particularly, with resource shortages, have, to the standard capitalist approach, no material present value.

Grantham goes on to list how we will likely respond as a society to the issues (not particularly impressively) and the specific impacts to Energy, Metals, Fertilizers such as Phosphorus and Potash (both Potash and Phosphorus are critically necessary for plants to grow - and basic elements, which means we can't manufacture them.  We run out, we don't eat.  It's really that simple),  Water and so on. 

This man, worth more than most of us probably can imagine, is talking about how Chinese farmers recycle human waste to limit their soil depletion in his letters to his investors.  Why?

Because he recognizes that we are at a tipping point.  In his own words:
Last quarter I tried to make the case that the inevitable mismatch between finite resources and exponential population growth had finally shown its true face after many false alarms. This was made manifest through a remarkably bubble-like explosion of prices for raw materials. Importantly, prices surged twice in four years, which is a most unbubble-like event in our history book.The data suggested to us that rarest of rare birds; a new paradigm. And a very uncomfortable one at that. (emphasis is mine)In short, the way we live today is a devils bargain - we have intense short term gain in, well, everything - but there is the price tag.  As with credit cards, eventually a payment becomes due, and this time the interest cost may be higher than we can manage. 

Recently, as food somehow came up in a conversation with someone I dearly love, a response to our significant increase in local and, at least - whenever not local - organic and fair trade food purchases. "Oh, I don't give that much thought".
 
As it is with many comments that one recognizes as the sort of thing where it's better to leave it lie and move on to another topic, I did just that.
 
But it bothered me. 
 
And I began to think that perhaps no one has, as yet, made a convincing argument to the general population about why it is absolutely, utterly critical that they think about that.  Because we are at a tipping point.  And what my daughter and her daughters may have available to them is likely to be less - far less - than what I have or my parents have. 
 
Those with political agendas will, by turns explain to us how everything is just fine and how we're careening into a crisis situation that is about debts or deficits.  Both are wrong. 
 
There's a crisis, but it's much more fundamental than that.  It's about water supplies, food availability, soil depletion.  It is about the ability to feed our families.  Our current level of abundance is unsustainable.  And we, as individuals, need to do something about it.
 
That box of wheat thins, that package of Pepperidge Farms whatever-it-is has implications on our future.  My choice to drive to work rather than take public transport has a price. 
 
I hardly fit the description of someone who has either the pedigree or the moral authority to dictate to others.  There are packages of Goldfish in my cabinets, Chex in my pantry, Hot Dogs in my freezer.  But I am trying - to carpool, to work from home to lower my impact.  To eat local and sustainable.  To find new ways to abundance that don't involve Pottery Barn. 
 
I have a long way to go, but I'm not alone in that - we're all a far cry from where we need to be on this.  It's kind of reassuring to have some company when I travel this road of learning how to live so that my choices don't mean some banana farmer's child  in South America goes hungry so that my child can eat. 
 
Few of us like being told we need to change, but, like when a toddler acts out, limits are needed.  There are those who would like us to never have to give up individual advantage for group benefit, but they are at odds with a sustainable future.  Where individualism gets important is understanding that the government, big business, or new technology aren't going to save us.  We have to save ourselves. 
 
So why would Jeremy Grantham, who manages more money than most of us can probably imagine, be talking about agriculture, and not the next new technology?  Talking about small farms, and European crop failure in the 1880s rather than the future trajectory of Apple and GM?

Because it's what matters.  More than anything.  It's going to be where we need to invest, where our risk lies, and where are future is.  The future is not the next IPO.  It's in the next tomato harvest. 

Bulk Food The Local Way

Most of us are used to the idea of warehouse store shopping - large quantities, often lower prices.  If you are careful, there's a lot of good deals to be had.

But if you are trying to eat more locally and sustainably, you can do that in bulk as well.  It takes a little more time and effort to suss out sources of food than it does to drive to Costco or BJs, but it's well worth it. 

We do a lot of bulk-buying out near my sister's, in Schoharie County, NY.  It's a land of rolling hills and lots of farms.  One in particular, the Carrot Barn, sells bulk tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, onions, cukes, and many other things as the season progresses.  Cheaply too, and sustainably grown.  Last year a full bushel of onions cost us $18, and lasted for almost 6 months.  That's a lot of eating for $18.

We also ordered bulk beef - really excellent bulk beef, btw from a Lancaster PA farm last year, after our visit to the area. 

But I am on a mission to find even more local food in bulk near me.  And I've lucked out a bit, and the options seem to be growing. 

Recently, Valley View Farm, just a mile or so down the road started offering boxes of peppers and 'second' peaches this year, and offer shares of maple syrup, honey and other items throughout the year.  They also recently started offering bulk meat from other local farms, serving as an aggregator of sorts for the ordering - offering beef, lamb, chicken & pork from local producers.  

The other good option is to get to know local producers.  Freqenting a farmers market, striking up conversations - "Hey, I'm looking for ___in a large quantity, do you ever do that?".  It's a no-harm, no-foul conversation.  While a bulk sale has the risk of lowering a farmer's profit, it also has the upside of ensuring a sale for their goods.  So it has the potential for being a win-win.   As they say, it never hurts to ask.

While we are nowhere near getting to the point we'd like to be at, with 1/2 of our food sourced locally, we're taking baby steps to get there.  I'd love to hear how others are doing with local sourcing as well.

How Does Garden Grow - Late August

It's been a strange year, weather-wise, and it's had a weird impact on the garden.   Which is growing beautifully (hopefully still, Hurricane Irene isn't quite finished with us yet).  But everything is very late.  We had a great lettuce season into July, since the weather was cooler and rainier, but other than that, it's a late garden year.


We picked our first ripe tomatoes this week.  The cucumbers are fruitful, but still tiny.  Only one winter squash survived the rains, but is the size of a small end table. The tomatillos, those who haven't been stolen by the chipmunks are thriving, and have vined out everywhere.


If the warm weather holds, we should be okay - I'm much more happy when I'm faced with canning jars and a hot stove in September anyway.  As long as an early cold snap doesn't roll in, it should be a pleasure to pick our veggies over the next few weeks.


We didn't pick up a lot of bulk food this year - just a half bushel of onions and & 1/4 bushel of pickling cukes out near my sister, most of which became 14 pints and 4 quarts of bread and butter pickles.   We also picked blackberries for my birthday (that, plus a picnic made for a near-perfect birthday), which are in the freezer, awaiting some further disposition - with the advent of peaches from a friend's tree, I'm thinking blackberry peach cobbler.


We've signed up for a box of peppers from a local farm, and some peach seconds as well, which will probably go into muffins and be the foundation for peach butter.  If we can swing it, we'll get a bushel of onions from my sister's when we go out in September - last year's bushel lasted us almost to February - and we use a lot of onions!   


The chickens are still pending - the coop is here, but hatcheries in the midwest stopped shipping in the July heat wave, so they just arrived in NY, and they will come home next Sunday, September 4.  Though we can fit up to 16 birds in our house, only 8 Buff Orpingtons will call it home this year.  Next year we hope to add a few more in rare breeds.  


The garden construction still goes on.  We got the 4 4x16 beds done, but my husband ended up having to build a fairly labor-intensive stone wall to hold the dirt for the remaining 4 4x8 beds.  The wall is almost done, and then the fence, arbor and remaining beds can go in - again, we're hoping the weather holds for a while longer.  


Next year I should have all 8 beds, and then hopefully a more productive garden than ever.   And egg-laying chickens...and then...


I am starting to think I need to come up with a name for our mini-farmlet.  Hmm.

Diary of a Working Mom - Late Summer Edition

As working moms go, I'm a pretty blessed one.  I get to work from home at least 1 day a week. We can afford for my husband to be home and still have everything we need and more than a few things we want.   We have supportive family and friends who step in whenever we need the help.  And I get to live in a beautiful spot, surrounded by trees and grass and flowers.


But this time of year, as summer starts to wind down, I get a bit pensive.   I like my job.  I'm pretty good at it too, and a combination of really hard work and good luck and opportunity have allowed me to have not just work, but a true career.


Still though, I wonder what life would be like if I'd taken another path.   A stay at home mom maybe, or a farm, or an entirely different part of the world.  It's not that I resent my current life, it's just that I'd like to occasionally be able to try on different roles.   And I suppose I could, but then I'd have to leave the life I do have, and I don't particularly care to do that.  At least, not yet.   The farm will come - eventually.   In the meantime, we are adapting in place, turning this slightly faerie tale-ish spot into a teeny farm - complete with chickens, fruit trees, a huge garden, and green as far as the eye can see.


And even though I know I'm bloody well blessed as all heck that I spend as much time with my family as I do, I always want just a little bit more time.   Just a little bit.


And while I really do mean that we're going to take a year off when the adorable one is 12 and travel around the world, I'm not sure that I want to live any of the places that we talk about visiting.  Okay, except the italian riviera, which I fell in love with when we visited in 2004.  I'm just lacking the 4 million or so euros (maybe down to 3.5 million by now) for a villa overlooking the Bay of Fables in Sestri Levanti.   I smuggled home a lime from the trees there, true story.  I miss it.


Still, this is the time of year I wonder.  I love our life, but the idea of trying on new ones like new hats appeals to me.  Hmmm...

How Does My Garden Grow Volume 2: June 2011

It's been a cold spring here.   Changes in the jet stream have made it a cold, rainy and windy on and off since March, making it hard to get out and work in the garden consistently.


And this is a big garden year for us.  After 3 years of 3 temporary, stone-bordered beds, we've finally decided to spend a bit of time and money and make the garden space more permanent - more beds, a fence to keep out the unwelcome locals, such as deer and rabbits, and to keep in the newest members of our family, arriving in late July - 5 chickens (5 more will come next spring).


We've finally settled in with our new budget, and so some of the money that we had saved for projects - money we were afraid to spend until now - is getting spent.  Garden updates, a chicken coop and the associated residents, and finally, work on the exterior of the house, which is in dire need of insulation and new windows, a new front door, and various other expensive maintenance.  


I didn't start as many seeds as I had hoped to, time got away from me, as usual.  But I do have a respectable number of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, bok choy, spinach and other greens.  We 
got a few pumpkins into the ground, as well as some cukes, and we might try a few late melons too.


Along with the new garden comes more long-term plantings as well.  Two dwarf apricot trees, two golden muscat grape vines to train over the arbor entrance to the garden and some more raspberries to line the garden fence are heeled into temporary locations while we finish the garden construction.  I also got my act together this spring and ordered garlic to plant in the fall, which always sells out before it crosses my mind in the summertime.


So this year should be a good year for garden produce, and in a few years we should see the literal fruits of our labors from the long term plantings - including some apples finally from our dwarf apple trees, and perhaps a cherry or two from the North Star cherry tree we planted 2 summers ago.  We still want to fit in cranberries, bayberries, blueberries and cornelian cherries, but those can wait a little longer.  There's only so much we can do in a year.


It's funny, when we moved in, we never imagined that 4 years in we would still be working on setting up a permanent garden, or have so many house projects still in-flight or not even started yet.   Sometimes I look around us and think, "We're going to be at this forever".  


We knew when we bought the house it would be a project house, and that some things would take years (not in small part because house projects are paid for in cash in MoneyPenny world).  But some of the smaller things have hung on far longer than we hoped for - pre-empted by other projects in some cases, pre-empted by lack of time in others.  


But first, the garden. Have you ever seen 15 yards of dirt in your driveway?  It looks something ...er..exactly, like this:

Although actually, this was after a yard or two was used.  Affectionally titled 'Mount Dirt', it has taken up a good chunk of the driveway for the better part of the last 8 weeks.


The garden will eventually be 8 beds of varying sizes surrounded by a retaining wall, a fence, and an arbor with golden muscat grapes growing over it, flanked by apricot trees.   So how do you build such a dream garden? (please note, when I say 'you', I mean your incredibly tolerant and accomodating husband who hasn't yet run away to a nice clean white condo where no one talks of wanting livestock).


Well, so first, you tear up a good chunk of the front yard.   
Then you buy 15 yards of dirt to level it, that is, if your yard slopes down a hill as ours does:

Then you get $500.00 worth of lumber and start building beds.  3 of the long beds are done (16' x 3').   You make the beds, drag them up the yard in the hot sun, and line them with weed-suppressing cloth.


Then you fill them with dirt.   Approximately 35 wheelbarrows of dirt fill one.   Patiently ignore wife who is fretting over how 'leggy' her seedlings are getting and she needs to plant them today, now, after you've spent hours of backbreaking labor filling aforementioned freaking beds with dirt.

Once beds are finished, then call in garden expertise to plant:

And then:

Well, okay, now we repeat it 5 more times, and then start on the fence, but you get the idea.

Food: It's What's For Dinner

It's the friday before Memorial Day, almost the start of a nice long weekend. Sander is out building me the new garden beds so that we can do some planting this weekend, I've been inside working, and the adorable one has been at 'school' - the toddler program at the local Congregational Church, which she attends 2 mornings a week.


This weekend is a bit of a milestone - last year on this Friday, Sander came home from his job for the last time.


But this year is nothing like last year.  Usually we spend Memorial Day weekend up at Moosehead Lake, but this year we're home, aside from a brief overnight trip to my inlaws Sunday to Monday.   And we're excited, because it is a garden weekend.  3 of the new raised beds are in and just about ready to plant in, the muscat grapevines and the apricot trees have arrived...and in a few more weeks, chickens!!


But before I can get to all that, I need to figure out what the heck to make for dinner.   Friday dinner is important, because Friday is date night here.  We don't get out much (although next week we have a babysitter so that we can go to 'beerfest' - should be fun even though I'm a wine drinker).  On Fridays we put the adorable one to bed, crack a bottle of wine, and relax together.  I don't dial in to work, we don't try to accomplish anything, and we don't worry about anything more than whose turn it is to sleep in on Saturday.   It's rather nice, actually.


We've tried to have a standing meal, like pizza, every Friday.  The problem with that is that the adorable one is coming into her prime pizza-eating years, and so we'd rather share that meal with her.  And other meals got sort of boring over and over.


So on Friday afternoons it is my job to come up with something.  Some weeks I am right on top of it.  Today, not so much.   


This week we took in our final CSA winter share delivery, so there are a lot of green things to be used up - spinach, kale, lettuce, leeks, scallions...that sort of thing.
We haven't been so good lately at staying on top of food before it goes bad, so I'm trying very hard this month to ensure that nothing rots.


There's plenty of food in the house, but of course, that hasn't prevented me from opening cabinets and the refrigerator and freezer and staring into them blankly.  I could go to the grocery store, but that would be a waste of time and money - I have plenty already.  I just need to figure out what the hell to do with it.


But in a tiny flash of inspiration, I remembered one of my favorite blogs: Scordo.com.   And sure enough, there it was.  Sausage (lean chicken sausage) with onions and a bunch of green things sauteed in garlic, with a bit of salt and some red pepper flakes.  


And something else.   Maybe a touch of pasta.  Maybe popovers.  Maybe.....

The Perfect Day

Today is my 3rd Mother's Day, and by far the best one yet.  Not  because of any particular gift, although my husband and daughter did give me a gift of 2 hanging plants, and my daughter potted me a petunia  at Sunday School.   Mostly because our life, while absolutely, insanely busy most weeks, seems to have hit a groove on weekends.  We seem to have finally figured out how to balance work (around the house and sometimes for me extra hours on the weekend at my paying job), errands, fun and rest.


Not always, mind you, but we're definitely getting better at it.  Mostly.


Take this weekend.  We're just back from a 4-day trip to Disney(insanity with a toddler, as well as a rediculous indulgence, but fun), and of course, everyone was unpacked but me - for the record it is after 9 pm on Sunday and there is still stuff in my suitcase. But on Friday I went to the grocery store on the way home, so that was done.  And Saturday, in and around lunch with friends, we managed to get all the housework done (okay, all the housework that we planned to do, anyway. There's always more.)  Which meant today got to be for pleasure.  In and around church, a visit to my Moms, and planting lilacs and begonias in the yard, I took a nap.  A real nap, for almost 2 hours.  


In Mommyworld, naps are the holy grail.  I slept so long this afternoon I dreamed.  And that after I got to read for an hour, uninterrupted. For pleasure, not for research.  A novel, even.  If you don't know what a treat that is, you either don't have kids or never pick up a book.  


Alert the media.  


And I finally found the time to transplant my seedlings -some, anyway - and still make a stir fry for dinner.  After which Sander did the dishes.


It might not be a perfect day by most people's standards.  There were no expensive flower bouquets, nor was there any restaurant meals or spa visits.  We all got pretty dirty in the garden - the adorable one loves to dig in the dirt as much as her parents. Our breakfast was at our church, where a small group of people spent their hard-earned time and money to make brunch to celebrate mother's day.  The waffles won't win any awards, but the food was good, and the community better.  And so went the day - family, friends, flowers, and rest.


Happy Mother's Day.