KGI Newsletter: Crunching the Numbers about Food

October 16, 2009

not vegan really, but.............

Kitchen Gardeners International Oct 15, 2009 5:58 PM ebbrewpunx KGI Newsletter: Crunching the Numbers about Food

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KGI News: October 2009

Contents:

Recent forum discussions:

-So how did your garden grow?

-Have you pickled nasturtium buds, seeds?

-Promotion of kitchen gardening in rural Pakistan

-Herbivorous Poems

-Two types of squash from the same plant

-sweet potato pest

-Do you wonder "What have I gotten myself into?"

-Growing Mushrooms

-Primary Fermenter for Sauerkraut

-What vegetables can well?

-preservation by vacuum sealed bags

-Storing vegetables over winter

-Preserving Pesto

-other discussions

Web Volunteers Sought

KGI is busy putting together a brand spanking new website built with the Drupal open-source web platform. We're looking for people to test it out, add content, give constructive criticism, suggest and help us build new features, etc. Let me know if you'd like to help with that.

Funding Contacts?

We're working hard to secure our operating funds for 2010. If by chance you have knowledge of or contacts with any foundations or trusts which you think might a good match for our work, please let us know.

KGI Poll: KG Day Date

We're considering changing the date of Kitchen Garden Date so that it works for more people and more climates. Cast your vote here.

KGI Advisory Board

We're bringing together a diverse group of people with diverse experiences and skills to help advise KGI in its future development. Click here if you'd like to help.

Live in Maryland?

Check out: http://www.growit.umd.edu/

Geographic groups:

-Adirondacks

-Appalachia

-Cape Cod

-California

-Connecticut

-Colorado

-East Lake Washington, WA

-Greater Portland (Maine)

-Hudson Valley

-Kern County (CA)

-Long Island

-Louisiana

-Michigan

-Monadnock area, NH

-New Mexico

-Mid-Atlantic

-Midwest Yard Farmers

-North Atlanta

-Oxford Hills, ME

-Ozarks

-Southern Style

-South Florida

-Tennessee

-Australia

-Belgium

-Canada

-Cape Town (South Africa)

-Hartbeespoortdam (South Africa)

-India, Sirsi

-Ontario

-Pakistan

-Nepal

-UK

Issue groups:

-Backyard herbalists

-Backyard chickens

-Home cheese making

-Front yard gardeners

-Garden book lovers

-Garden pests

-Gardening with children -Garden Poetry

-Gardening 4 seniors/challenge

-Greenhouses

-Orchards

-Permaculture

-Plant Disease ID group

-Pollinator gardens

-Master Gardeners exchange

-Kitchen garden communicators

-The Recycle Bin

-Urban farmers

-Vegan organic gardening

-Sacred gardening

-School gardens

-Container vegetable gardening

-Seed saving exchange

-Square Foot raised bed

-Community gardeners

-General gardening

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Tomorrow is World Food Day and since I can't invite you all over for a home-grown meal like the one above, I thought I'd serve up a smorgasbord of facts and figures about the way the US and the world eat or don't eat, as the case may be.

The menu isn't all bad, but I'll warn you that too much of it could lead to mental and emotional indigestion. The good news is that if you live in the developed world and you don't like what you're served, another option is only a few steps away or, in the case of online food-for-thought, mouse-clicks away. That said, I'd urge you to finish your plate and consider sharing a bite with others.

If I sound like a parent, it's because I am which is one of the reasons I feel compelled to mix these eclectic issues together in one big pot. If we can all start seeing the connections between food, health, and the environment and teaching our children to do the same, perhaps we can serve up a more palatable offering of food statistics in their lifetime.

So, let's dig in:

1: number of new kitchen gardens planted at the White House this year AP 1943: the last time food was grown at the White House White House 20 million: the number of new gardens planted in 1943 LA Times 40%: percentage of nation's produce coming from gardens in 1943 LA Times 7 million: estimated number of new food gardens planted in the US in 2009 NGA $2000: amount of savings possible per year from a 40' x 40' garden KGI 90%: percentage of fruit/vegetable varieties lost in the US the last 100 years CNN 3500: number of vegetable varieties owned by Monsanto Monsanto 18,467: number of new small farms counted in the last agricultural census USDA 4,685: number of farmers markets nationwide USDA 4,100: number of Wal-mart stores and clubs in the US Wal-mart 187,000 ft2 : average area of a Wal-mart superstore Wal-mart 60,112 ft2: average area of a farmers' market USDA 9.5 million: number of imported food shipments arriving in the US each year Huffington Post 226,377: number of establishments registered to export food to the US Huffington Post 200: number of on-site inspections of these establishments conducted by the FDA last year Huffington Post 76 million: number of people who fall ill each year due to food poisoning CDC 50 gallons: volume of sugared beverages consumed per person in the US each year LA Times 22,727: number of Olympic-sized swimming pools those beverages would fill Answers.com $15 billion: annual estimated revenue of a penny-per-ounce tax on soda LA Times $20.5 billion: Coca-Cola's gross profit in 2008 Coca-Cola 72 million: number of American adults considered obese CDC 33%: percentage of US children likely to develop obesity or Type 2 diabetes CDC 10-15 years: average number of years their lives will be shortened as a result CDC 57 years: average age of the American farmer USDA 25 days: average shelf-life of a Twinkie Snopes

350 parts per million: sustainable level of CO2 in atmosphere 350.org 390 parts per million: current level of CO2 in the atmosphere NOAA 31%: percentage of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions attributable to food and agriculture IPCC 2020: year by which many geologists feel the world will have reached "peak oil" production UK Research Centre 10 calories: average amount of fossil fuel energy required to produce 1 calorie of food energy in industrialized food systems Cornell 29,100 calories: estimated fossil fuel calories required to produce one order of Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries Men's Health 1 billion: number of hungry people in the world in 2009 FAO 9.1 billion: projected world population in the year 2050 US Census 70%: percentage increase in global food production required to feed that projected population FAO 70%: percentage of world's fresh water used for agricultural purposes UNESCO 1.8 billion: number of people expected to experience "water scarcity" in the year 2025 UNEP 0: number of new, oil-rich, water-rich, fertile and inhabitable planets we are likely to discover in the next 40 years 1: number of people needed to make a positive difference in any of the above: you!

Best wishes,

Roger Doiron

PS: The list above is also posted on CommonDreams.org here. Feel free to grab it there and republish it on your own blog if you wish.

PPS: Are you using Twitter or Facebook? Me too. Look me up/friend me up!

PPS: The Huffington Post has picked the top 10 Green Game Changers of the Year and you might be pleasantly surprised (shocked!) to see who made the list. They've got a poll open if you want to cast a vote of your own.

Home-grown smorgasbord photo credit: Kirsty McKinnon of Norway

White House Kitchen Garden update:

I finally made it to the White House for a grand tour of the kitchen garden, a tour graciously guided by Chef Sam Kass. The garden is GORGEOUS and bursting with home-grown goodies. When I was there (September 10th, my birthday!), they were barely keeping pace with the tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplants. There was a row of healthy-looking young broccoli plants that are probably being harvested later this month (eat your heart out George W. H. Bush). It was a moving experience to be able to see something up close that we worked so hard to make happen. At one point someone from my group pointed out that it was birthday at which point Sam Kass broke into song , leading the rest of the group in a happy birthday serenade in the middle of the White House kitchen garden. As birthdays go, it's hard to beat that. Best of all, I was able to bring in our "thank you" card with the names of the over 110,000 people who joined our Eat the View campaign. The "card" looked more like an Encyclopedia Britannica: over 500 pages thick, 4-columns to a page and size 8 font. I printed it all on the most environmentally-friendly paper I could find and asked Sam Kass to consider tossing it onto the White House compost pile so that we can literally become part of the garden we helped start. If you were moved by the White House Garden and want to procure yourself a lovely interpretive poster of the garden, we can recommend one: http://www.maryannpaintings.com/ We don't have any cut in the sales, but I've spoken with the artist and know that her values are well aligned with KGI's.

KGI Global Meet-Up:

Many thanks to Ian Holden and Kate Flint for organizing KGI's first ever global gathering in southwest France. Delicious food, delightful company, educational excursions, and many fruitful garden conversations. You can see some photos here. I was also able to give a few talks about KGI's work in Paris, Grenoble, and Geneva and somehow wound up on French TV.

Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in Maine, USA with friends from around the world. Our mission is to empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems. Contact info: Kitchen Gardeners International, 3 Powderhorn Drive, Scarborough, ME 04074 phone (207) 883-5341, info

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And everyone got excited about the technology. And I guess it was pretty incredible watching a missile fly down an air-vent. Pretty unbeliveable. But couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people? You know what I mean? Fly over Ethiopia, "There's a guy that needs a banana.Shooooooooooooom"

the Stealth Banana

Smart Fruit!

Bill Hicks