Food city area

Wordless Wednesday: Food for the Lorikeets

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPrzSdkRh41kFqCuF1Lnr47fN5Usa9KFmpHDkkiYnJYaqfEQDoTBxHFev7jSicuW1fuoQIO6tS26MLOnUGiDP4krUeyHSRvwG4niza1Vqg_88QgZHWf1BMfbNU9vyErhY8Nx7ddvoCkJER/s1600/lorikeet+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPrzSdkRh41kFqCuF1Lnr47fN5Usa9KFmpHDkkiYnJYaqfEQDoTBxHFev7jSicuW1fuoQIO6tS26MLOnUGiDP4krUeyHSRvwG4niza1Vqg_88QgZHWf1BMfbNU9vyErhY8Nx7ddvoCkJER/s1600/lorikeet+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">San Diego Zoo, Lorikeet House (unknown child)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQJ30OYXZvlO-LIGntWo_N-jyY1SBBaOqiPEbfHswUBOA0OcLTDhyphenhyphenH4fOZ-iCE7U1gXkMY0xImczFW3bccyEx_H19IfvauBvjR0B3gq8ypBU0LoLWRkd0efj9IaHJZfwaQJSdGCjpOkE1/s1600/lorikeet+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQJ30OYXZvlO-LIGntWo_N-jyY1SBBaOqiPEbfHswUBOA0OcLTDhyphenhyphenH4fOZ-iCE7U1gXkMY0xImczFW3bccyEx_H19IfvauBvjR0B3gq8ypBU0LoLWRkd0efj9IaHJZfwaQJSdGCjpOkE1/s1600/lorikeet+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Miriam</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOp4CMCtHVIVhtdypTFhcrPBFJvyPARCq80og7_qGqCvyiOyBT0C_ZC5kuBCg0nAYzir3w6caz58znhExZEdvc5CZ2N7_5q8Al0W7IpcS8Zt1WcAT5BnhQTXrL6k4W3QtaneWMuKeMHZp/s1600/lorikeet+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOp4CMCtHVIVhtdypTFhcrPBFJvyPARCq80og7_qGqCvyiOyBT0C_ZC5kuBCg0nAYzir3w6caz58znhExZEdvc5CZ2N7_5q8Al0W7IpcS8Zt1WcAT5BnhQTXrL6k4W3QtaneWMuKeMHZp/s1600/lorikeet+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Alice and Miriam</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09idJ9aJP-kk77fc1UmuJFVgUYyotEJCxtp-Ts7Ibyf2O0Lv4Pi5XUfWFq6RXKYK0snA_Ei-8tFq557ETx-XZoedYUnqVxTwQcT6MpZbAYwqMCdC_jVstze_YOYwmC2VJTho-ONOFC_L1/s1600/lorikeets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09idJ9aJP-kk77fc1UmuJFVgUYyotEJCxtp-Ts7Ibyf2O0Lv4Pi5XUfWFq6RXKYK0snA_Ei-8tFq557ETx-XZoedYUnqVxTwQcT6MpZbAYwqMCdC_jVstze_YOYwmC2VJTho-ONOFC_L1/s1600/lorikeets.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Alice</td></tr></tbody></table><br />

Wordless Wednesday: Food for the Lorikeets

San Diego Zoo, Lorikeet House (unknown child) Miriam Alice and Miriam Alice

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04.30

Sunday Brunch

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIe0LrhyphenhyphenRyEX3BjFdyXK1dESURdJrqwFzEhh2wE2lCOD7RLcqyHsQOyJAVAY6jy4_FhvM5Jg3hQfNjpQ9RBPdPyH0qRFTt04iQYCu5u2xp-0pJTQ1JGgrkALfxMiYYrcpNSSl8CE5P9zz/s1600/sunday-brunch5934.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIe0LrhyphenhyphenRyEX3BjFdyXK1dESURdJrqwFzEhh2wE2lCOD7RLcqyHsQOyJAVAY6jy4_FhvM5Jg3hQfNjpQ9RBPdPyH0qRFTt04iQYCu5u2xp-0pJTQ1JGgrkALfxMiYYrcpNSSl8CE5P9zz/s400/sunday-brunch5934.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunday Brunch at Gabi's</td></tr></tbody></table>Yesterday my book group met to have brunch and discuss the book <i>Memoir of the Sunday Brunch</i> by Julia Pandl.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0wcHgH1W_MqSxD9DbdGK9MRr-hw1KivgV-BsHDddqlhWG3V9-v4JOjtD0Dup5pRtWRyLuzCVZ2DLrefA9lycUvzW6Cl0Cyw0p_JVjaCE7jIvGh8DUlLCDolTuQnAUBZ54PBbtKX8J31E/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-01-13+at+6.47.39+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0wcHgH1W_MqSxD9DbdGK9MRr-hw1KivgV-BsHDddqlhWG3V9-v4JOjtD0Dup5pRtWRyLuzCVZ2DLrefA9lycUvzW6Cl0Cyw0p_JVjaCE7jIvGh8DUlLCDolTuQnAUBZ54PBbtKX8J31E/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-01-13+at+6.47.39+AM.png" width="200" /> </a></div>The brunch was delicious and the discussion was lively; however, most of us had serious reservations about the book. In my opinion, shared by several others, the book was awkwardly written, repetitive, full of suggestions that didn't go anywhere, and inconsistent in style. There were passages that read like writing workshop exercises, just dropped in place without any explanation. One of my friends pointed out that the theme of brunch that predominated in the beginning chapters, then was forgotten for a while, and made a brief reappearance, contributing to a lack of coherence.<br /><br />The emotions the author described were raw, clearly showing how she had been a child or young adolescent who didn't know a lot of what was happening to her, and later showing an adult floundering as she dealt with the sad deaths of her parents. Unfortunately, she did little or nothing to shape these emotional passages into a well-written narrative. Some of us felt that an editor would have helped; Gabi, our discussion leader and hostess, had researched the history of the book and thought that the editing gap was due to the original self-publication of the work. That is, Pandl published without editing herself or profiting from a professional editor. Several people in the group, nevertheless, felt that the authenticity of the emotional content made up for the lack of smooth writing. I think we all felt that the book simply failed to live up to expectations for a published memoir -- even one describing confusion and emotional issues.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday Brunch at Gabi's Yesterday my book group met to have brunch and discuss the book Memoir of the Sunday Brunch by Julia Pandl. T...

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09.13

"On Such a Full Sea"

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvl2y7GGltxXE7ugX01enqVeQsZEwBZoCWyA9gubNVXRSYSLfpQhyff8L8lV7DYqDoIbSAaV3nl4w382H8GlsK1fFd6lVNXDKeVdZ7L9Gf81AHRFWJ3t8tg8j-qfcrlEfgg3Lg9MNfQDYk/s1600/chang-rae-lee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvl2y7GGltxXE7ugX01enqVeQsZEwBZoCWyA9gubNVXRSYSLfpQhyff8L8lV7DYqDoIbSAaV3nl4w382H8GlsK1fFd6lVNXDKeVdZ7L9Gf81AHRFWJ3t8tg8j-qfcrlEfgg3Lg9MNfQDYk/s1600/chang-rae-lee.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>The <i>New York Times</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/books/review/on-such-a-full-sea-by-chang-rae-lee.html?_r=0">review on January 2</a> described Chang-Rae Lee's novel <i>On Such a Full Sea</i> as "a wonderful addition not only to Chang-rae Lee’s body of work but to the ranks of 'serious' writers venturing into the realm of dystopian fantasy." The reviewer compared it favorably to similar novels by Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Cormac McCarthy, and Anthony Burgess. I decided to read it.<br /><br /><i>On Such a Full Sea</i> was a terrible disappointment overall. The author's choice of showing a distopian future by describing a naive member of society making a road trip isn't very original as far as I'm concerned. The traveler's  discovery of a series of enclaves with varying types of people and levels of control by government is predictable. Her encounter with rapacious or pathological expressions of human nature didn't rise above the ordinary. Pointed parallels to the tendencies or dangers of our own society in fact become tedious and a bit hackneyed. I just don't agree with any of the favorable reviews I read.<br /><br />The naive traveler, a very young woman named Fan, comes from B-Mor, once the city of Baltimore, and she travels west into "The Smokes." The one unusual feature of the novel is the narration by a collective voice representing the people of B-Mor: people who came from "New China" in the nearly-forgotten past and displaced the original inhabitants. The voice relates what "we," the people of B-Mor at some unspecified future time, know about Fan and her journey, and above all how "we" don't know what her motives were or why she made each decision to move on.<br /><br />The people of B-Mor in this distopian era make a collective living by producing industrial and very hygienic food -- specifically fish raised in tanks and hydroponic, very uniform vegetables -- for more elite towns, where the people are very rich. In B-Mor people like Fan worked very hard and had little imagination or richness to their lives; they appreciated having a schedule: "it helps one to sleep more soundly, to work steadily through one's shift, maybe even to digest the hearty meals, and finally to enjoy all the free time." (p. 2; Kindle location 76)<br /><br />In fact each part of the region that hasn't been totally ruined makes a living from some collective occupation serving the rich, while out in "The Smokes" poverty and living by hook or crook prevades. Ok, sounds like <i>Hunger Games,</i> but the NYT reviewer didn't stoop to that comparison.<br /><br />Traveling in search of her disappeared boyfriend Reg, Fan discovers new sorts of people as she grows hungrier and hungrier -- she's pregnant and struggling to hide her condition from each group of people or family that take her in, mostly for terrible motives. The author does a good job using food to distinguish the old inhabitants from the "New China" interlopers, Fan's people. Food enables the author to let the reader know what he thinks of various people: vegetarians who are also murderers, poor people living on the edge, rich people obsessed with cuisine. But it's a bit predictable.<br /><br />In B-Mor the "New China" people are fond of their native food; a funeral feast illustrates this. "Homemade delicacies" included "Shanxi-style smoked pork belly, stuff you hardly ever see these days. The fatty peppery scent of the dish was absolutely transporting ... but ... it was a cloud you kept wishing would blow away, so you could taste only woe." (p. 28; Kindle location 419)<br /><br />As the collective "we" describes their view of Fan, sometimes the reader learns more about them; for example as they hear stories about old times "Auntie Virginia poured cups of iced tea to go with the boiled peanuts she'd bring out in a white plastic bowl." (p. 68; Kindle location 927)<br /><br />During Fan's final adventure, in the poorer places people eat almost exclusively from canned goods and long-lasting food pouches, which are usable as barter as well as edible. Fan often observes them eating right out of the can or pouch. An evening meal in one household in the Smokes "meant sometimes frying up eggs, or game if someone shot or trapped any, but mostly it was heating stuff right in the cans... everyone would share what they had, a potluck of diced carrots and mackerel and kidney beans, and if someone was feeling extra-generous maybe a tin of beef chili or chicken stew." (p. 86; Kindle location 1151)<br /><br />In contrast, in one of the elite compounds, she's taken to a kind of rogue fair where people dare to eat street food. It's daring to eat this rather than the very pure and artificially grown food like that raised in B-Mor: "you could get Belgian street frites, or a Hiroshima-style <i>okonomiyaki</i>, or a gravy-sopped plate of chicken and dumplings. They went to Vik's favorite, the Chinese-Korean tent, where he ordered them bowls of chive <i>jajang</i> noodles and a small platter of braised sea cucumber, which Fan could not stop eating." (p. 271; Kindle location 3517)<br /><br />Fan's final stopping place, in the high-status compound, introduces her to one of the wealthiest families of the tale, where the head of the house believes that "Eating was obviously elementary, it was what people did most of their day, literally taking in the world." He was fascinated by food preparation, and tried to involve all his children in it "from the selection of the ingredients at the village market to the chopping and measuring and cooking (the babies given a strong whiff of everything from ginger slices to cinnamon sticks, after which they'd sometimes cry), the idea being a holistic appreciation through mindful exertions that would result in the best chance for well-being." (p. 343; Kindle location 4436)<br /><br />Obviously, this noble view of food suggests that the character is out of touch with the lower classes. He too ends up not so nice, but I'll refrain from spoiling the ending. No one is nice in this distopia!

"On Such a Full Sea"

The New York Times review on January 2 described Chang-Rae Lee's novel On Such a Full Sea as "a wonderful addition not only to C...

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05.56

Food Security in 2014

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwVcBO3qssUcXD9E9YO8I7fZLQY2x3JEl3D8uJ0VXvTfehVDhfe7idhjxsTibnA5cUHhZXVyePPiwNAjgb2G3IBCdyj9EPqC0zSE2CrkhsQ7ocUJlkY1JmfQAlW5qkMsV6I8CameKBYm8R/s1600/Percentage_population_undernourished_world_map.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwVcBO3qssUcXD9E9YO8I7fZLQY2x3JEl3D8uJ0VXvTfehVDhfe7idhjxsTibnA5cUHhZXVyePPiwNAjgb2G3IBCdyj9EPqC0zSE2CrkhsQ7ocUJlkY1JmfQAlW5qkMsV6I8CameKBYm8R/s1600/Percentage_population_undernourished_world_map.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Percent of population that is undernourished, 2012 data -- Wikipedia</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">Thinking of the grim topic of hunger throughout the world, I have been trying to read about food security and insecurity in the coming year -- a very broad topic. Discussions of inequality in our own society often touch on the consequence, for the poorest Americans, of having too little food and on the political motivation that causes much of the hunger in America. Throughout the world, both climate change and population growth are already affecting food supplies in many areas. Wars and conflicts also can drastically change the distribution of food, as when a dominant group oppresses its traditional or new opponents. Certain conflicts, like those in the horn of Africa and Syria, in fact, may themselves have origins in declining supplies of food and other resources.<br /><br />Hunger will continue to be widespread in 2014, and growing: "the reality [is] that by 2050, the world will likely have another two billion mouths to feed and face an estimated 70 percent increase in global food demand." <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-upside-of-frankenfood-can-gm-crops-reduce-global-food-insecurity/256809/">source</a>  </div><br />First, what is food security? A useful and frequently cited definition from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." <a href="http://www.philstar.com/business/2014/01/05/1275175/yearender-asean-economic-community-play-major-role-sea-food-security">source</a> <a href="http://www.sustainabletable.org/280/food-security-food-access">source</a></blockquote>Who are the insecure in the US, and why are they suffering in a country that seems so prosperous? Changes to government aid to the poor (such as reductions in SNAP benefits, formerly called food stamps) are a major reason why the poorest people in America are losing ground in the struggle for food security. Poor people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds are suffering; here is one example:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Even though a large percentage of American Indians receive SNAP benefits, current data suggests that a large percentage of American Indians are food insecure. ... In total, roughly 22 percent of American Indians do not have sufficient food maintain healthy lives." <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/04/snatching-food-mouths-babies-snap-cuts">source</a></blockquote>Who are the insecure outside the US? Almost every Asian and African country suffers from the threat of food insecurity. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, the Phillipines, North African and sub-Saharan countries, and many others have been the subject of recent news articles about hunger.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"'We should expect much more political destabilisation of countries ...,' says Richard Choularton, a policy officer in the UN's World Food Programme climate change office. 'What is different now from 20 years ago is that far more people are living in places with a higher climatic risk; 650 million people now live in arid or semi-arid areas where floods and droughts and price shocks are expected to have the most impact. </blockquote><blockquote>''The recent crises in the Horn of Africa and Sahel may be becoming the new normal. Droughts are expected to become more frequent. Studies suggest anything up to 200 million more food-insecure people by 2050 or an additional 24 million malnourished children. In parts of Africa we already have a protracted and growing humanitarian disaster. Climate change is a creeping disaster.' he said." <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/13/climate-change-threat-food-supplies">source</a></blockquote>What are some of the consequences of this widespread disaster? In the underdeveloped world, the consequences are simple to grasp: many children and adults tragically starve to death; others experience terrible suffering.<br /><br />In the US, things aren't quite as grim, but there are consequences. Two examples:<br /><blockquote>"In the US, chronic food insecurity has been documented to lead to, paradoxically, obesity, especially in women and girls.  One theory as to why food insecurity leads to obesity is that episodic periods of food insecurity cause the sufferer to overeat in an attempt by the body to recoup missing calories. The type of food consumed in food insecure households may be another factor: high calorie food made from commodity crops (e.g., fast food and 'junk' food) is often cheaper and easier to access than healthful food with high nutritional value." <a href="http://www.sustainabletable.org/280/food-security-food-access">source</a></blockquote><blockquote>"Poor people with diabetes [in the US] are significantly more likely to go to the hospital for dangerously low blood sugar at the end of the month when food budgets are tight than at the beginning of the month, a new study has found." <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/health/study-finds-more-diabetic-hospital-visits-when-food-budgets-dip.html?hpw&rref=health">source</a></blockquote> The subject of food security is broad and complex. I have excerpted just a few quotations to try to grasp the breadth of the problem.