tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90252562913942005072024-02-20T15:38:30.449-08:00BounceBackTHE RESILIENCE INSTITUTE BLOGIGCRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196129575896636674noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-53499329020479994762009-03-23T15:08:00.000-07:002009-03-23T15:40:55.573-07:00Slow Food<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWClQlEnJk9cMo4Bz0svXhvkPaeQlpinyPVplfUHgubga7yyMXIlpd0WhJmIpH8yYkn5KiqTyIXBd4KMSp4Wse0iTfHUvp9U8X1jTzy9ePVKqftiKm2oPWXEI__XHVtIObhLBRF6NYIxXA/s1600-h/IMG_6654.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316509025864281698" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWClQlEnJk9cMo4Bz0svXhvkPaeQlpinyPVplfUHgubga7yyMXIlpd0WhJmIpH8yYkn5KiqTyIXBd4KMSp4Wse0iTfHUvp9U8X1jTzy9ePVKqftiKm2oPWXEI__XHVtIObhLBRF6NYIxXA/s200/IMG_6654.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><div><span style="font-size:78%;">Slow Food “street,” in Bra, Italy</span> </div><br /><div>In February, WWU took advantage of the opportunity to enter into an agreement with Slow Food click <a href="http://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/1538/260907/">here</a> for details. What does this mean? Within 24 hours of the press release, already I had received e-mails from all over Whatcom county (as well as from the university) about “Well, what does this all mean?” Here’s a start: This agreement is meaningful because</div><br /><div></div><div>• it affirms Western Washington University’s commitment to sustainable and resilient farming and food cultures on campus, as well as in the larger community</div><br /><div>• it ties together our work in risk reduction in food production systems with healthy eating• it helps us to understand food security as a disruption of usual and customary ways of growing and procuring food</div><br /><div>• it highlights the importance of food appreciation and eating as a cultural as well as political act – all very important tenets of Carlo Petrini’s popular Slow Food.</div><br /><div>• it brings together business interests (e.g., agritourism) and environmental studies under a sustainable food production umbrella, and poses some new possibilities for interdisciplinary work at Western in so many areas.</div><br /><div></div><div>Slow Food in recent years, has reached out to universities. WWU now joins 135 other universities (including departments and centers) in forming a network of collaboration. WWU students, staff, and faculty are eager for such collaboration. Already at Western, there are numerous student groups centered around food issues, as well as active individuals, advocating for more food choice on campus – in terms of what I call global green (sustainable practices, worldwide) as well as true blue (local sourcing of food). This relates to ideas I’ve written about “everyday farming” see <a href="http://igcr.blogspot.com/2008/11/everyday-farming-is-food-security.html">here</a>.</div><br /><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIG_GTP0f8egT3KvWI7MNb-F8aBHZGQM8_55ywIX5DrlpzI48DaVuyStKyaEXtlGgdBqY5KkLpMkJ2wH0LXSVuY1WNWCqJ8TXoduANhw8ue05592FKB1TkNPljUdoWajFasBrqXmkj_R3/s1600-h/IMG_6694.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316510768121279522" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIG_GTP0f8egT3KvWI7MNb-F8aBHZGQM8_55ywIX5DrlpzI48DaVuyStKyaEXtlGgdBqY5KkLpMkJ2wH0LXSVuY1WNWCqJ8TXoduANhw8ue05592FKB1TkNPljUdoWajFasBrqXmkj_R3/s200/IMG_6694.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">The University of Gastronomic Sciences, in Pollenzo, Italy</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div>Student interest is huge. Look at the major commitment students and staff have put into the Outback, efforts to recycle food wastes and locally source food as evidenced by Seth Vidana’s WWU Office of Sustainability work, and other efforts on campus. In the fall, a new course I’m teaching, Ecogastronomy: The Art and Science of Food will use considerable materials and project ideas from Slow Food offices and cooperating universities. All other help, ideas, effort with, and participation in, this course is gratefully appreciated!</div><br /><div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEics5RXMZuu9MwXnCaEGDoGS3OCZMs6NqpZ3kBC7Jtn9NiCS8icXAYfe03MIedH9I8_3SjSyyZsyl9b8aUAdXU_vOGHf_sHjOjVp7PAuj0FEdk055h-iKY8tftnDkJeibAqdj13-IIvd6zQ/s1600-h/IMG_6623.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316511186635996306" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEics5RXMZuu9MwXnCaEGDoGS3OCZMs6NqpZ3kBC7Jtn9NiCS8icXAYfe03MIedH9I8_3SjSyyZsyl9b8aUAdXU_vOGHf_sHjOjVp7PAuj0FEdk055h-iKY8tftnDkJeibAqdj13-IIvd6zQ/s200/IMG_6623.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">The “presidi” translates as “garrisons” (from the French word, “to equip”), as protectors of traditional food production practices</span></div><div><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div>There are so many ideas for collaboration! I could rattle off any number of them, quickly…but we are then perhaps reminded of the Slow Food mascot here, la piccola lumaca, the snail, which elevates slow plodding, and the importance of time.It’s taken us a long time to get here, but the time is right to take advantage of the overwhelming student and faculty/staff interest and expertise throughout courses and projects in place. Forza!For more information on Slow Food, click <a href="http://www.slowfood.com/">here</a>.</div></div></div>Gigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-81883638088330825702009-03-23T11:24:00.000-07:002009-03-23T15:41:40.087-07:00Traditional FoodsThis past year, I have had rewarding opportunities to observe traditional food cultures in varied regions of the world. These are:<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Athabascan Indian</span> in the interior of Alaska (the traditional Tanana Chiefs Conference tribal lands) in July, 2008 (for more, read below);</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB29dhdNIUlmNwuk5oDgbDPrQg6UuKTYyQGpVHx6dOXR4BocVHgoCvErfqxQHTuYOgtdycUQGSkAj8ZfFWpkdsXyhNXIBOdMX6JMEXC1gJPkFUmPeNYmxAgz_WJMq5Z7YxJiS2QLSb97MX/s1600-h/IMG_5496.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316463508491994658" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB29dhdNIUlmNwuk5oDgbDPrQg6UuKTYyQGpVHx6dOXR4BocVHgoCvErfqxQHTuYOgtdycUQGSkAj8ZfFWpkdsXyhNXIBOdMX6JMEXC1gJPkFUmPeNYmxAgz_WJMq5Z7YxJiS2QLSb97MX/s200/IMG_5496.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Fort Yukon king, subsistence (gill net) fishing in Fort Yukon river</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Swahili coastal tribes in the area of <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Munje village</span> (population about 300), near Msambweni, close to the Tanzania border in December, 2008-January, 2009 (for more, read below); and,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggvDSlrTFhlhPp691SibTnxsWkZjRuIGT-b-kKM7hS2gHKhTbIY6dHKlO18sokeWVU9lkRKh6tTbIYaLKTUYJsESIBggmLpuLhgDvLJMjBjo777pZRXfGplSOZAL-s9ujgXMENbwjFfFi0/s1600-h/IMG_3538.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316451796413329954" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggvDSlrTFhlhPp691SibTnxsWkZjRuIGT-b-kKM7hS2gHKhTbIY6dHKlO18sokeWVU9lkRKh6tTbIYaLKTUYJsESIBggmLpuLhgDvLJMjBjo777pZRXfGplSOZAL-s9ujgXMENbwjFfFi0/s200/IMG_3538.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Families in Munje village</span></o:p></p>Fresh or unprocessed dairy products and non-GMO oils in the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Laikipia</span> region of Kenya (January, 2009), a <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">German canton</span> of Switzerland (March, 2009), and the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Piemonte-Toscana</span> region of northern/central Italy (images only, February-March, 2009).<br /><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2oSvEQpFrrHLhr3oA2XSh4RpLTH0qwSf-iZQtVACjqsSXYOtBQqNtF4-0uGaBMq0tOdac7mx6-K0XYU00iLRyRxYcHxYGKO0hsAtUXU-ZpMmL2YAqaeerB5caf6ReiOYnOVSSlhU8aidb/s1600-h/IMG_6821.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316467711790667442" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2oSvEQpFrrHLhr3oA2XSh4RpLTH0qwSf-iZQtVACjqsSXYOtBQqNtF4-0uGaBMq0tOdac7mx6-K0XYU00iLRyRxYcHxYGKO0hsAtUXU-ZpMmL2YAqaeerB5caf6ReiOYnOVSSlhU8aidb/s200/IMG_6821.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Vending machine for fresh, unpasteurized (and organic) cow’s milk in Bra, Italy (the home of SLOW FOOD)</span>________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">In Fort Yukon, Alaska, salmon is a mainstay of the diet. Yet, among the <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Athabascan Indians,</span> threats to subsistence foods and stresses on household economics abound. In particular, high prices for external energy sources (as of July, 2008, almost $8 for a gallon of gasoline and $6.50 for a gallon of diesel, which is essential for home heating), as well as low Chinook salmon runs for information click <a href="http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/yukon/docs/2008/YukonUpdate-July17-08.pdf"><span style="color:blue;">here</span></a>, and moose numbers. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcupk_Bk3RYSh3foStCgHdVRtpcUoS-19RB7jkj9GBGvjNg2Dhyphenhyphen76VE4cRIyIrip4URX0S5J7VDlU4N7J2bjDbhOztpoHI9oZNsrqA5CqX9LYA_1aroSBoVaYzlqefBhhW8KeL401Vbs9o/s1600-h/IMG_5346.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316453607247184930" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcupk_Bk3RYSh3foStCgHdVRtpcUoS-19RB7jkj9GBGvjNg2Dhyphenhyphen76VE4cRIyIrip4URX0S5J7VDlU4N7J2bjDbhOztpoHI9oZNsrqA5CqX9LYA_1aroSBoVaYzlqefBhhW8KeL401Vbs9o/s200/IMG_5346.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Preserving King salmon in a community kitchen in Fort Yukon</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Additional resource management issues pose threats to sustaining village life – for example, stream bank erosion along the Yukon River, as well as uneven management in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. People are worried about ever-rising prices for fuels and store-bought staples, and fewer and fewer sources of wage income. The result? Villagers are moving out from outlying areas into “hub” communities like Fort Yukon -- or another example, Bethel in Southwest Alaska – even when offered additional subsidies, such as for home heating. But, in reality, “hubs” often offer neither much employment nor relief from high prices. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">In <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Munje village</span> in Kenya, the Digo, a Bantu-speaking, mostly Islamic tribe in the southern coastal area of Kenya, enjoy the possibilities of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and fish/oils.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><?xml:namespace prefix = v /><v:imagedata title="IMG_3483" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\jensenl\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image008.jpg">With my rudimentary sentences in Swahili (to explain who I was and what I was interested in, what foods villagers eat and how much they must pay for store-bought foods…-- “I’m a teacher…” “I want to understand what you eat……”). I saw how things are changing slowly in the village, in part due to the high costs for store-bought staples of their foods -- Sh 90 for a kg of ugali, which is maize flour or ground maize, Sh 70 for a kg of rice, Sh 150 for a kg of vegetable oil, Sh 70 for a kg of dried beans, Sh 50 for a forearm’s-length of cassava, and Sh 15 for a handful of spinach-like greens (at approximately Sh 80 to a U.S. dollar). Some foods in major cities, such as Nairobi, are much cheaper -- ugali and cassava, for example, presumably due to transportation costs. Yet, much of the pricing seems counterintuitive. For more information click <a href="http://www.wwu.edu/resilience/Links/Kenyafoodblog3-09.pdf"><span style="color:blue;">here</span></a>.</v:imagedata><br /><br />Breakfast in the village typically consists of mandazi (a fried bread similar to a doughnut), and tea with sugar. Lunch and dinner is typically ugali and samaki (fish), maybe with some dried cassava or chickpeas. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">On individual shambas (small farms), tomatoes, cassava, maize, cowpeas, bananas, mangos, and coconut are typically grown. Ugali is consumed every day, as are cassava, beans, oil, fish -- and rice, coconut, and chicken, depending on availability.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">Even with their own crops, villagers today want very much to enter the market economy and will sell products from their shambas to buy staples and the flour needed to make mandazis, which they in turn sell. Sales of mandazis (and mango and coconut, to a lesser extent) bring in some cash for villagers.<br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhls3MCdA7KxkkYWjB5TNNdPRgHhk0XUXDIlHzWpeFPFIrM4cZ12WeSmDdVYvddDdOq0evhCZwE4NV3mc0jSBtgfjkArPZAXBw5y_1s_9kLyeJGK_XWl8nLSpRcyHT8ovNqc3tycOT3H3oW/s1600-h/IMG_4133.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316453038787431842" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhls3MCdA7KxkkYWjB5TNNdPRgHhk0XUXDIlHzWpeFPFIrM4cZ12WeSmDdVYvddDdOq0evhCZwE4NV3mc0jSBtgfjkArPZAXBw5y_1s_9kLyeJGK_XWl8nLSpRcyHT8ovNqc3tycOT3H3oW/s200/IMG_4133.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Fresh, unpasteurized cow’s milk in Laikipia</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkicOPIUN2Y9N4XUidGCoTJfbwTFNe1duV4jaI07j9jhrPC5VwLTs36477De2stVyIsyARzKxVlPeMGV1JSoCUiScwxcuxpeE_-iOoytRRs1pB4uhXWxTfibNIGcH1dQMdA8U1VsmE7VT/s1600-h/IMG_4663.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316453617698819266" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkicOPIUN2Y9N4XUidGCoTJfbwTFNe1duV4jaI07j9jhrPC5VwLTs36477De2stVyIsyARzKxVlPeMGV1JSoCUiScwxcuxpeE_-iOoytRRs1pB4uhXWxTfibNIGcH1dQMdA8U1VsmE7VT/s200/IMG_4663.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Fresh, unpasteurized camel’s milk in Laikipia</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA49YfIWAwoOi2NY-P8XxZJ7dhKOIAAje2Q9HpKXtH6-F4cMW5do78dCE4ejPXjCELw8Rz0SGMjPPLZGfSWSoGOLYViRTmT9Hlz-9LhkzJvPrDNaZPbBufdbCdLwEQNuvlLHdyAKFxejo/s1600-h/IMG_3483.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316461728709210818" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA49YfIWAwoOi2NY-P8XxZJ7dhKOIAAje2Q9HpKXtH6-F4cMW5do78dCE4ejPXjCELw8Rz0SGMjPPLZGfSWSoGOLYViRTmT9Hlz-9LhkzJvPrDNaZPbBufdbCdLwEQNuvlLHdyAKFxejo/s200/IMG_3483.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Villagers in Munje enjoy a wide variety of fruits</span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">A treasured food is, in fact, the coconut. This set of pictures show how coconut is used in the village. True, coconut oil now is reserved only for frying mandazi. But it also is used as a hair conditioner, and the coconut meat is eaten between meals. I noted also that dental hygiene and health were good in the village. Perhaps the coconut and fish oils influence this (as per the work of Dr. Weston A. Price). </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwEx2sfANuqJIFeJ0PPjFW0oG3p5tA6UhKfK8F7W7ZLtoNQtmzqzMwQNPmTBSs4obaCW0U89pss40DtHMzgNrMjDdzdlL8ff3Khyphenhyphen2F9rOMe-P4wPEgu3WRgFzecnAx0UR3cLI0_gXZesNP/s1600-h/IMG_3518.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316453613442134338" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwEx2sfANuqJIFeJ0PPjFW0oG3p5tA6UhKfK8F7W7ZLtoNQtmzqzMwQNPmTBSs4obaCW0U89pss40DtHMzgNrMjDdzdlL8ff3Khyphenhyphen2F9rOMe-P4wPEgu3WRgFzecnAx0UR3cLI0_gXZesNP/s200/IMG_3518.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Kimbo hydrogenated vegetable oil is replacing oils found in coconut products</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLxaqfdmFEfudhvS9soYs-viP1lIMizIjkB1xWMC3oyqJsH2ym5b3g8jUn9RLSqkNH0Gqqq36uImSHUcCGcws_VX4NYVy6eV3TtbfG5nYCqP4zo5jukHI09LA4JUQoUbdwMPc0hBsArGNg/s1600-h/IMG_3636.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316453034031655458" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLxaqfdmFEfudhvS9soYs-viP1lIMizIjkB1xWMC3oyqJsH2ym5b3g8jUn9RLSqkNH0Gqqq36uImSHUcCGcws_VX4NYVy6eV3TtbfG5nYCqP4zo5jukHI09LA4JUQoUbdwMPc0hBsArGNg/s200/IMG_3636.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLwHNswxNH66MFmytiEIzVGxFNMwyuk36lKTNi14B0P2895NORlY1_Wr3Kbe8zPzcPbzrAvEsQip3OlM9Qyeww6NeIzgsM5pPM5EHGyGm5ccz-hTQaKHA4lpF6kipH-b7DPYzzDz7UrVv/s1600-h/IMG_3644.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316506551920452258" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLwHNswxNH66MFmytiEIzVGxFNMwyuk36lKTNi14B0P2895NORlY1_Wr3Kbe8zPzcPbzrAvEsQip3OlM9Qyeww6NeIzgsM5pPM5EHGyGm5ccz-hTQaKHA4lpF6kipH-b7DPYzzDz7UrVv/s200/IMG_3644.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1W2B2dKIYaiXxs2_Kad6SGh62t5iS0rxuAdITWPaiqhg-kfLrF0kR26g4lcKy9K8PUPNwE_NTh-ILOazE7FuSYGvyPXJaWC8Iq_poYYo0K7_2BKKLluO01SCkggxNwBeLNMJYOy4eky0N/s1600-h/IMG_3487.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316506556095517250" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1W2B2dKIYaiXxs2_Kad6SGh62t5iS0rxuAdITWPaiqhg-kfLrF0kR26g4lcKy9K8PUPNwE_NTh-ILOazE7FuSYGvyPXJaWC8Iq_poYYo0K7_2BKKLluO01SCkggxNwBeLNMJYOy4eky0N/s200/IMG_3487.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>Photos L-R:</strong> Using a traditional conical basket (kikatu), coconut milk is pressed from the grated meat; Straining coconut milk from the grated meat, which is then heated to make oil; Common breakfast food (and the main source of cash income), the mandazi, is still cooked in coconut oil</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5fR1ht0QwYLLenaJqBkFH2R8F__cWIO_9ia7B0lYv5QTCsJJyv5PJbJ8gi6j4KHFYQY99KfhpJvsYeuEfp_pWn5xHtGQD_ekcunlReMBfOPzTYWn5VOUGkKBnof1Hl4flV5phchyf_58/s1600-h/IMG_3591.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316457774317243394" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5fR1ht0QwYLLenaJqBkFH2R8F__cWIO_9ia7B0lYv5QTCsJJyv5PJbJ8gi6j4KHFYQY99KfhpJvsYeuEfp_pWn5xHtGQD_ekcunlReMBfOPzTYWn5VOUGkKBnof1Hl4flV5phchyf_58/s200/IMG_3591.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Money is needed in the village to build homes </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-size:78%;"><strong>Note: All photos were taken by G. Berardi<o:p></o:p></strong></span></p><br /><br /><v:imagedata title="IMG_3483" src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\jensenl\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image008.jpg"></v:imagedata>Gigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-29203676530900343342009-02-19T10:44:00.000-08:002009-02-23T16:11:58.334-08:00Kenya — Starvation and Food Insecurity in the Land of Plenty<div>My last month in Kenya has been sobering. Ten million Kenyans were reportedly facing starvation. There were daily reports on affected districts, those most vulnerable, and the government’s mishandling of the disaster. Newspapers reported heavily on the incompetency of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), which is responsible, under the guidance of Trustees, in maintaining a Strategic Grain Reserve of about 6 million bags of maize cereal. How best to do this? An obvious way is through purchase of local grain supplies. Despite drought and resultant famine, poor infrastructure, high farm input costs, serious planting disruption after last year’s post-election violence, and destruction of grain stores in the same violence – food is available. Maize, a Kenyan staple, is available.<br /><br />Despite maize in the fields, it is widely known that farmers are hoarding stocks in many districts. Farmers are refusing the NCPB/government price of Sh1,950 per 90-kg bag. They are waiting to be offered at least the same amount of money as that which was being assigned to imports (Bii, 2009b). “The country will continue to experience food shortages unless the Government addresses the high cost of farm inputs to motivate farmers to increase production,” said Mr. Jonathan Bii of Uasin Gish (Bartoo & Lucheli, 2009; Bii, 2009a, 2009b; Bungee, 2009).<br /><br />Pride and politics, racism and corruption are to blame for food deficits (Kihara & Marete, 2009; KNA, 2009; Muluka, 2009; Siele, 2009). Clearly, what are needed in Kenya are food system planning, disaster management planning, and protection and development of agricultural and rural economies.<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.wwu.edu/resilience/Links/Kenyafoodblog3-09.pdf">here</a> for the full text.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Photos taken by G. Berardi</span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4V4A1Jw3TGkbiZlfk7zWw3VvxKhIIEDDZI00jURl4bk7Qmbx-EnYadfdX3Q7Ll9K9J0eo0-PUg5t4QEZ1keboIg7dX2epmA1MopWKTPcP1XKWvnfiFvYIVDIW_fOkWm1xcEtU2QGRTyFh/s1600-h/cabbage.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306122565658009714" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4V4A1Jw3TGkbiZlfk7zWw3VvxKhIIEDDZI00jURl4bk7Qmbx-EnYadfdX3Q7Ll9K9J0eo0-PUg5t4QEZ1keboIg7dX2epmA1MopWKTPcP1XKWvnfiFvYIVDIW_fOkWm1xcEtU2QGRTyFh/s200/cabbage.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />C<span style="font-size:78%;">abbage, an imported food (originally), and susceptible to much pest damage.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGu_2Y3c9einmqxPGev-p23brIudT-Y2FBZwi1wm_HwewaiFP0EP5l1guCzSE53BVC76NtQdGrC4qa3bdBhn6-OupaQ9fU6S7u0tVKOba0bhyz2oCXI6SI_TDF8sd6R6ibnlYy3eA4XYEh/s1600-h/tent.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306122571582417618" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGu_2Y3c9einmqxPGev-p23brIudT-Y2FBZwi1wm_HwewaiFP0EP5l1guCzSE53BVC76NtQdGrC4qa3bdBhn6-OupaQ9fU6S7u0tVKOba0bhyz2oCXI6SI_TDF8sd6R6ibnlYy3eA4XYEh/s200/tent.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Camps still remain for Kenya’s Internally Displaced Persons resulting from post-election violence forced migrations. Food security is poor.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbObcH4Zq5nmPOj1gyrdbSKPqOynO5NumsD2ZaohVIgENFMZABZFUvkyxIc4DPuEs6_WwiJk_0l2Af1pFkuclpc6NkFgCum952huVsIoz3Vhj1QCxdy8v419AEZM-qilEWRvCLB-TQ2kMY/s1600-h/office.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306122571695029394" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbObcH4Zq5nmPOj1gyrdbSKPqOynO5NumsD2ZaohVIgENFMZABZFUvkyxIc4DPuEs6_WwiJk_0l2Af1pFkuclpc6NkFgCum952huVsIoz3Vhj1QCxdy8v419AEZM-qilEWRvCLB-TQ2kMY/s200/office.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Offices of Rural Focus, an important NGO in Kenya focused on water resource development.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVy0JDml088mmHL_h1lz1_VI6AMOG44xhdANGEchyphenhyphenNUepucAQeBA5RKLVF5dxYlxNqDlgO4GFystSbCohXvtN_YcnSBIkY6celz7TZQAuCUGrjMN3Y5uZeParBCknLacub8bcybIigS-Q/s1600-h/Maize.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306149766668534930" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVy0JDml088mmHL_h1lz1_VI6AMOG44xhdANGEchyphenhyphenNUepucAQeBA5RKLVF5dxYlxNqDlgO4GFystSbCohXvtN_YcnSBIkY6celz7TZQAuCUGrjMN3Y5uZeParBCknLacub8bcybIigS-Q/s200/Maize.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Lack of sustained recent short rains have resulted in failed maize harvests.</span><br /><div></div>Gigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-15694557136319849352009-01-16T15:04:00.000-08:002009-01-16T15:42:40.732-08:00Disaster reduction and the sustainability challenge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SXEba6KLfxI/AAAAAAAAADg/JhltHTEYIvY/s1600-h/sustainable_development+(1).png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SXEba6KLfxI/AAAAAAAAADg/JhltHTEYIvY/s200/sustainable_development+(1).png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292041186239545106" /></a><br />Today I went to a lunch time discussion of sustainability. This concept promoted development with an equitable eye to the triple bottom line - financial, social, and ecological costs. We discussed the how it seemed relatively easier to discuss the connections between financial and ecological costs, than between social costs and other costs. Sustainable development often comes down to "green" designs that consider environmental impacts or critiques of the capitalist model of financing. <br /><br /><br />As I thought about sustainable development, or sustainable community management if you are a bit queasy with the feasibility of continuous expansion, I considered its corollaries in the field of disaster risk reduction. It struck me again that it is somewhat easier to focus on some components of the triple bottom line in relation to disasters.<br /><br />The vulnerability approach to disasters has rightly brought into focus the fact that not all people are equally exposed to or impacted by disasters. Rather, it is often the poor or socially marginalized most at risk and least able to recover. This approach certainly brings into focus the social aspects of disasters.<br /><br />The disaster trap theory, likewise, brings into focus the financial bottom line. This perspective is most often discussed in international development and disaster reduction circles. It argues that disasters destroy development gains and cause communities to de-develop unless both disaster reduction and development occur in tandem. Building a cheaper, non-earthquake resistant school in an earthquake zone, may make short-term financial sense. However,over the long term, this approach is likely to result in loss of physical infrastructure, human life, and learning opportunities when an earthquake does occur. <br /><br />What seems least developed to me, though I would enjoy being rebutted, is the ecological bottom line of disasters. Perhaps it is an oxymoron to discuss the ecological costs of disasters, given that many disasters are triggered natural ecological processes like cyclones, forest fires, and floods. It might also be an oxymoron simply because a natural hazard disaster is really looking at an ecological event from an almost exclusively human perspective. Its not a disaster if it doesn't destroy human lives and human infrastructure. But, the lunch-time discussion made me wonder if there wasn't something of an ecological bottom line to disasters in there somewhere. Perhaps it is in the difference between an ecological process heavily or lightly impacted by human ecological modification. Is a forest fire in a heavily managed forest different from that in an unmanaged forest? Certainly logging can heighten the impacts of heavy rains by inducing landslides, resulting in a landscape heavily rather than lightly impacted by the rains. Similar processes might also be true in the case of heavily managed floodplains. Flooding is concentrated and increased in areas outside of levee systems. What does that mean for the ecology of these locations? Does a marsh manage just as well in low as high flooding? My guess would be no. <br /><br />And of course, there is the big, looming disaster of climate change. This is a human-induced change that may prove quite disasterous to many an ecological system, everything from our pine forests here, to arctic wildlife, and tropical coral reefs.<br /><br />Perhaps, we disaster researchers, need to also consider a triple bottom line when making arguments for the benefits of disaster risk reduction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-42199411283904875522009-01-13T07:37:00.000-08:002009-01-19T17:41:00.753-08:00Civil Service In A Time Of NeedThis past week the Northwest experienced a severe barrage of weather systems back to back.<span> </span>Everyone seemed to be affected.<span> </span>Folks were re-routed on detours, got soaked, slipped on ice, or had to spend money to stay a little warmer.<span> </span>In Whatcom and Skagit Counties, there are hundreds to thousands of people currently in the process of recovering and cleaning-up after the floods.<span> </span>These people live in the rural areas throughout the county, with fewer people knowing about their devastation and having greater vulnerability to flood hazards.<span> </span><p>Luckily, there are local agencies and non-profits who are ready at a moment’s call to help anyone in need.<span> The primary organization that came to the aid of the flood victims was the American Red Cross.<br /></span></p><p>The last week I began interning and volunteering<span> </span>with one of these non-profits, the <a href="http://www.mtbakerredcross.org/index.php?pr=Home_Page">Mt. Baker American Red Cross (ARC) Chapter</a>.<span> </span>While I am still in the process of getting screened and officially trained, I received first-hand experience and saw how important this organization is to the community.<span> </span></p><p>With the flood waters rising throughout the week, people were flooded out of their homes and rescued from the overflowing rivers and creeks.<span> </span>As the needs for help increased, hundreds of ARC volunteers were called to service.<span> </span>Throughout the floods there have been several shelters opened to accommodate the needs of these flood victims.<span> </span>On Saturday I was asked to help staff one of these shelters overnight in Ferndale. </p><p>While I talked with parents and children, I became more aware of the stark reality of how these people have to recover from having all their possessions covered in sewage and mud and damaged by flood waters.<span> </span>In the meantime, these flood victims have all their privacy exposed to others in a public shelter, while they work to find stability in the middle of all the traumas of the events.<span> </span>As I sat talking and playing with the children, another thought struck me.<span> </span>Children are young and resilient, but it must be very difficult when they connect with a volunteer and then lose that connection soon after.<span> Sharing</span> a shelter with the folks over the weekend showed a higher degree of reality and humanity to the situation than the news coverage ever could.<br /></p><p>I posted this bit about my volunteer experience because it made me realize something about my education and degree track in disaster reduction and emergency planning.<span> </span>We look at ways to create a more sustainable community, and we need to remember that community service is an important part of creating this ideal.<span> </span>Underlying sustainable development is the triple bottom line (social, economy, and environment).<span> </span>Volunteers and non-profits are a major part of this social line of sustainability.<span> </span>Organizations like the American Red Cross only exist because of volunteers.<span> </span>So embrace President-elect Obama’s call for a culture of civil service this coming week and make a commitment to the organization of your choice with your actions or even your pocketbook<span>. </span><span></span>Know that sustainable development cannot exist with out social responsibility.<span><br /></span></p>Jon Loewus-Deitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01615090772507922327noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-89471373049685826542009-01-08T17:11:00.000-08:002009-01-08T17:12:36.213-08:00And Here We Flood AgainIts been two days now that schools have been closed in Whatcom County, not for snow, but for rain and flooding. This unusual event coincides with record flooding throughout Western Washington, just a year after record flooding closed I5 for three days and Lewis County businesses experienced what they then called an unprecedented 500 year flood. I guess not.<br /><br />There are many strange things about flood risk notation, and this idea that a 500 year flood often trips people up. They often believe a flood of that size will happen only once in 500 years. On a probabilistic level, this is inaccurate. A 500 year flood simply has a .2% probability of happening each year. A more useful analogy might be to tell people they are rolling a 500 sided die every year and hoping that it doesn’t come up with a 1. Next year they’ll be forced to roll again. <br /><br />But, this focus on misunderstandings of probability often hides an even larger societal misunderstanding . Flood risk changes when we change the environment in which it occurs. If a flood map tells you that you are not in the flood plain, better check the date of the map. Most maps are utterly out of date and many vastly underestimate present flood risk. There are several reasons this happens. Urban development, especially development with a lot of parking lots and buildings that don’t let water seep into the ground, will cause rainwater to move quickly into rivers rather than seep into the ground and slowly release. Developers might complain that they are required to create runoff catchment wetlands when they do build. They do, but these requirements may very well be based upon outdated data on flood risk. Thus, each new development never fully compensates for its runoff, a small problem for each site but a mammoth problem when compounded downstream.<br /><br />Deforesting can have the same effect, with the added potential for house-crushing and river-clogging mudslides. Timber harvesting is certainly an important industry in our neck of the woods. Not only is commercial logging an important source of jobs for many rural and small towns, logging on state Department of Natural Resource land is the major source of funding for K-12 education. Yet, commercial logging, like other industries, suffers from a problem of cost externalization. When massive mudslides occurred during last year’s storm, Weyerhaeuser complained that it wasn’t it’s logging practices, but the fact that it was an unprecedented, out of the blue, 500 year storm that caused it. While it is doubtful the slides would have occurred uncut land, that isn’t the only fallacy. When the slide did occur, the costs of repairing roads, treatment plants, and bridges went to the county and often was passed on to the nation’s tax payers through state and federal recovery grants. Thus, what should have been paid by Weyerhaeuser, 500 year probability or not, was paid by someone else. <br /><br />Finally, there is local government. Various folks within local governments set regulations for zoning, deciding what will be built and where. Here is the real crux of the problem. Local government also gets an increase in revenue in the form of property, sales, and business income taxes. Suppress the updating of flood plain maps, and you get a short term profit and often, a steady supply of happy voters. You might think these local governments will have to pay when the next big flood comes, but often that can be avoided. Certainly, they must comply with federal regulations on flood plain management to be part of the National Flood Insurance program, but that plan has significant leeway and little monitoring. Like the commercial logging, disaster-stricken local governments can often push the recovery costs off to individual homeowners through the FEMA homeowner’s assistance program, and off to state and federal agencies by receiving disaster recovery and community development grants and loans. Certainly, some communities are so regularly devastated, and are so few resources, that disasters simply knock them down before they can given stand up again. But others have found loopholes and can profit by continuing to use old food maps and failing to aggressively control flood plain development. <br /><br />What is it going to take to really change this system and make it unprofitable to profit from bad land use management?<br /><br /><br />Here’s a good in-depth article on last year’s landslides in Lewis County. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008048848_logging13m.html<br /><br />An interesting article on the failure of best management practices in development catchment basins can be found here: Hur, J. et al (2008) Does current management of storm water runoff adequately protect water resources in developing catchments? Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 63 (2) pp. 77-90.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-74370171129453422008-12-29T09:50:00.000-08:002008-12-29T09:51:57.191-08:00Simone Goes to the Market: A Children's Book of Colors Connecting Face and FoodIt’s difficult to imagine a more colorful book, celebrating locally-grown and –marketed foods, than David Westerlund’s Simone Goes to the Market: A Children’s Book of Colors Connecting Face and Food. This book is aimed at families and the foods they eat. Who doesn’t want to know where their food is coming from – the terroir, the kind of microclimate it’s produced in, as well as who’s selling it? Gretchen sells her pole beans (purple), Maria her Serrano peppers (green), Dana and Matt sell their freshly-roasted coffee (black), Katie her carrots (orange), a blue poem from Matthew, brown potatoes from Roslyn, yellow patty pan squash from Jed, red tomatoes (soft and ripe) from Diana, and golden honey from Bill (and his bees). This is a book perfect for children of any age who want to connect to and with the food systems that sustain community. Order from faceandfood@gmail.com.Gigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-78625698295675746192008-12-19T14:22:00.000-08:002008-12-19T14:35:07.079-08:00Food and farm security, farmland preservation, and resilienceReflections on agriculture and food security, farm living and livelihoods, and urban-rural encroachment -- Whatcom County agriculture’s biggest challenge <br />Can be found at the IGCR website (http://igcr.blogspot.com/) shortly.<br /><br />The following are some excerpts from those reflections, as they relate to Whatcom County farming, resilience and vulnerability, and decision-making in times of uncertainty.<br /><br /><br />Over the past 350 years, the North American landscape has been rapidly “tamed” from wildlands to agricultural fields, with settlers claiming, often brutally, traditional homelands of American Indians. Once appropriated, settlers cleared land by cutting forests and burning woods to cultivate plants and raise livestock for human consumption (and some export). In the last 150 years, though, another force has been claiming the land base – urban-rural development. Such development seeks the same kind of land used for much of agriculture – level, well-drained soils; it is a kind of development that is the subject of study in academic planning departments as well as in state agencies. The reader is referred to the excellent work of faculty members in the Planning and Environmental Policy degree program at Huxley College of the Environment for examples of land use planning cases and planning tools and vehicles for preserving farm land and promoting wise land use. This paper, however, highlights the implications of such development pressures as well as trends in the industrialization of agriculture. <br /><br />One consequence of such industrialization is increases in certain efficiencies, for example, related to land productivity – the production of more food on less land. Implications for the structure of agriculture also are considered, in light of the geography of place, and, lastly, the implications for food security, a term which we use to mean, quite simply, knowing with some certainty how much food one is likely to have and from where it is coming from. We also include a few case studies of farm diversification in Whatcom County. This paper is put forth for purposes of discussion only, and continued development and improvement. <br /><br />……..<br /><br />U.S. farm policy has typically emphasized intensification of cultivation and production for export, ultimately increasing agriculture’s share of U.S. exports and favorably impacting our national balance of payments. Global trade in cheaper food products sourced elsewhere to “free” American soil for other uses besides agriculture for domestic use, has made possible the expansion of the land base for residential development. The phenomenon of residential development encroaching on or consuming farmland has been known as urban encroachment, but perhaps is better described as urban-rural encroachment, as development occurs further and further outside a metropolitan core. (see Encroachment and historically agricultural areas<br />http://japr.fass.org/cgi/reprint/14/2/378). <br /><br />………<br />It is understandable that consumers want low-priced food, but such “cheap” food may come at a high price – for example, compromised environmental health. Further, across all stakeholder groups, there is increasing concern about farmers’ resilience to extreme events. We are grouping such concerns, under the umbrella of “food security” – which includes considerations of vulnerabilities to food shortages, i.e., to extreme events, as well as environmental and personal health concerns, and economic robustness of economies. For more on this, please see the excellent 2008 work titled, “Issues in Emergency Food Distribution for Whatcom County,WA.” written by Abby Vincent, Chris Phillips, Matt Hoss, and Casey Diamond (with revisions by Rebekah Green and Jon Lowes-Ditch; Dr. Green is currently working on a 3-5 page policy brief based on the longer work, which will appear on the Institute for Global and Community Resilience (IGCR) website (http://www.wwu.edu/resilience/); she can be contacted at Rebekah.Green@wwu.edu). <br /><br />A critical question here is “Can industrial farms feed us in an emergency where access to imports is denied?” and is discussed some in the Vincent et al “Issues in Emergency Food Distribution” report. This key question will be further explored in subsequent IGCR work. <br />……. <br />…..<br /><br />In our Backyards: Whatcom County?<br />………..<br />Clearly, Whatcom County acreage is being used for the production of a select number of products (other specialty crops include, for example, potatoes and nursery stock) geared primarily for exports. This is due to some combination of comparative advantage, economies of scale, history and markets, and production and reproduction of knowledge systems. However, what would happen in the county if, for any reason, we were cut off from our customary food supply? Would we be surprised to find ourselves with a food shortage, in such a highly productive agricultural area <br /><br />Hunger amidst plenty is ironic in such an agricultural county. Whatcom County, alone, is the largest producer of powdered milk in the United States, producing enough dairy to meet as much as 75% of the demand for dairy products in Washington state (http://www.whatcomcounts.org/whatcom/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1811). Yet, production is threatened due to looming poor market prices; in such an economic climate only the most resilient farms, able to adjust production practices and product mix may be able to survive (http://www.bellinghamherald.com/602/story/714074.html).<br /><br />Through Whatcom County’s farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) or subscription buying, and “Eat Local” campaigns, Whatcom County is proud of its agricultural identity<br /><br />…..What is clear, however, is that land “lost to development” is very difficult to later develop for food production. It would be exceptionally difficult in Whatcom County, for example, to recapitalize a dairy farm after the real loss of “dairy infrastructure,” upon development. <br /><br />…….<br />An important hypothesis to consider in the discussion of land productivity and development pressures in light of food security questions, is whether or not it is in the economic interest of a particular region to prioritize agriculture by preserving its farm land and diversifying crop/livestock production. But is the diversification of crops essential to a community’s food security? If so, then policymakers need to consider boosting support for small- and medium-sized farms. According to the 2002 National Agricultural Statistics Service and other sources mentioned in this paper, of the 1,485 farms in Whatcom County, 1,061 had less than $50,000 in value of sales; the value of sales category that represented the most number of farms was ‘less than $1,000,’ with 396 farms in this category. These figures reveal that the majority of Whatcom farms are small and medium sized operations. In 2002, 923 farms -- 62% of all county farms –- were less than 50 acres in size (http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2002/Volume_1,_Chapter_2_County_Level/Washington/st53_2_001_001.pdf http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/assessor/taxguides/openspace/openspace.jsp). <br /><br />An interesting consideration here also is that such small- and medium-sized farms seem to figure prominently in conservation programs. For example, such farms accounted for 82% of the land enrolled by farmers in the Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve Programs (see http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB12/EIB12_reportsummary.pdf). These farms also accounted for considerable crop diversification. It’s a trend spreading throughout Whatcom County. In the past decade, for example, roughly 100 Whatcom mid-sized raspberry growers have supplemented their revenue streams by adding blueberries and some strawberries (http://www.thebellinghambusinessjournal.com/september2007/cultivation.php) in order to mitigate unpredictable weather and the low prices offered by central distributors. <br /><br />…..<br />What can be concluded from this discussion? For one, scale matters. And policymakers need to consider an all-inclusive structure of agriculture that values place and locale, production that is environmentally sound and economically robust – i.e., able to withstand uncertainties in weather, production costs, and markets. <br /><br />What can be done? Consumers need to be interested in food and farm systems that use sustainable connections between growers and producers. As discussed in the Vincent et al “Issues in Emergency Food Distribution” work mentioned earlier, Whatcom County is no different than the other counties in the U.S. – all are vulnerable to consumer food shortfalls due to extreme events (subduction-zone earthquake to seasonal flooding, uncertain energy prices to seed shortfalls) or endemic poverty. It is ironic that Whatcom County is rich with agricultural land, but produces little food for people to eat. The dependence on one or two crops “make it vulnerable to a disease outbreak or even climate variations” (Vincent et al, “Issues in Emergency Food Distribution”). How best, then, to decrease such vulnerability? Many approaches are possible, but one thing is certain – none are likely unless farmland can be protected.<br /><br />As Whatcom County’s population grows, development pressures in farmland areas will continue to increase, especially since farmland is prime for building given its generally flat and well drained soil characteristics. Nevertheless, there are a number of tools available to protect farmland. For example, the county’s ‘preferential agricultural open space taxation’ program designates various zoning to protect agricultural lands. Further efforts to preserve farmland in Whatcom County reside with the State of Washington and its Open Space Taxation Act, enacted decades ago, which allows for differential property valuation of open space lands for the production of food, fiber, and forest crops. <br /><br />Beyond state legislation to protect agricultural land from development, there are over a dozen nonprofit organizations working on behalf of Whatcom County agriculture -- Whatcom Farm Friends, Sustainable Connections, the Whatcom County Farm Bureau, Small Potatoes Gleaning Project are notable examples. The number of small farms in the county has actually increased in the past decade, indicating a growing interest from young and new farmers to establish farming businesses. Clearly, prioritizing food security, knowing with some certainty how much food one is likely to have and from where it is coming from is one way forward – and warrants further consideration by policymakers and politicians and the constituencies they represent.Gigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-22686278782435063782008-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:002008-12-17T14:34:17.687-08:00America's "death map" - heat is the big problem<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SUl91y_ygAI/AAAAAAAAADY/bRhhgKFGZu0/s1600-h/deathmap.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SUl91y_ygAI/AAAAAAAAADY/bRhhgKFGZu0/s200/deathmap.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280890401244479490" /></a><br />I have been remiss about blogging these days, but this just out on Reuters. It comes from Susan Cutter's work on mapping disaster vulnerability. The work is a first take on creating an American death map. As such, it focuses on threats to human life, showing that heat and severe winter weather are major concerns, even as these culprits often go unnoticed on the national and global scale. A map of American "disaster-caused economic damage" showing what disasters caused the most dollar losses would likely prove to be much different. Together, the two would show what many already know - in the US, changes in codes and emergency response have lowered the loss of life from earthquakes, fires, and to a lesser extent, hurricanes. This has made it possible to put more of our stuff, houses and people, in harms way. Thus, we've lowered the death tolls, but raised the costs of earthquakes, hurricanes, fire and floods. What is left is the silent kills of extreme heat and cold where the lack of economic loss has meant little resources aimed at reducing loss of life. <br /><br />I'm sure more nuanced work will likely follow this initial death map.<br /><br />WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Heat is more likely to kill an American than an earthquake, and thunderstorms kill more than hurricanes do, according to a "death map" published on Tuesday.<br />Researchers who compiled the county-by-county look at what natural disasters kill Americans said they hope their study will help emergency preparedness officials plan better.<br />Heat and drought caused 19.6 percent of total deaths from natural hazards, with summer thunderstorms causing 18.8 percent and winter weather causing 18.1 percent, the team at the University of South Carolina found.<br />Earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes combined were responsible for fewer than 5 percent of all hazard deaths.<br />Writing in BioMed Central's International Journal of Health Geographics, they said they hoped to dispel some myths about what the biggest threats to life and limb are.<br />"According to our results, the answer is heat," Susan Cutter and Kevin Borden of the University of South Carolina wrote in their report, which gathered data from 1970 to 2004.<br />"I think what most people would think, if you say what is the major cause of death and destruction, they would say hurricanes and earthquakes and flooding," Cutter said in a telephone interview. "They wouldn't say heat."<br />"What is noteworthy here is that over time, highly destructive, highly publicized, often-catastrophic singular events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are responsible for relatively few deaths when compared to the more frequent, less catastrophic such as heat waves and severe weather," they wrote.<br />The most dangerous places to live are much of the South, because of the heat risk, the hurricane coasts and the Great Plains states with their severe weather, Cutter said.<br />The south central United States is also a dangerous area, with floods and tornadoes.<br />California is relatively safe, they found.<br />"It illustrates the impact of better building codes in seismically prone areas because the fatalities in earthquakes have gone down from 1900 because things don't collapse on people any more," Cutter said.<br />"It shows that simple improvements in building codes in high-wind environments like hurricane coasts, and the effectiveness of evacuation in advance of hurricanes, has reduced the mortality from hurricanes and tropical storms," she added.<br />"So there are some things we are pretty good at in getting people out of harm's way and reducing fatalities."<br />Cutter said there is no national database on such deaths and this was a first try at getting one together.<br />(Editing by Will Dunham)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-2920012355903091832008-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:002008-11-17T17:51:46.351-08:00Everyday Farming is Food SecuritySo many books, so little time. Having just returned from a visit at UC Santa Cruz and the 8th annual Wise Traditions conference in San Francisco, and lunched with raw milk activist, Michael Schmidt (see the Harper’s story, http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/0081992), I am even more enthused about our Everyday Farming project.<br /><br />This includes works entitled:<br /><br />Making Piece with Local.<br />Building Resilient Food Systems: Culture, Choice Change, Context.<br />A Food Sabbatical: One year. One summer. One month. One week. One day. One life.<br /><br />Our Everyday Farming project is similarly titled to work in South Australia (see Gendered Bodies, Gendered Knowledge: Information Technology in Everyday Farming by Lia Bryant, which looks at gendered interactions, understandings, and communications in everyday work practices), but includes study of the production and consumption of all aspects of sustenance – food, clothing, housing, arts. Food, however, figures most prominently in the mix. <br /><br />A top priority in the research is to look at entry points into everyday farming and the common barriers: land acquisition, start up costs, seed affordability and procurement, knowledge barriers in practices, markets and marketing, sustainable incomes. Some of the work relates to our newest grant at the Institute for Global and Community Resilience, which I’m hoping will take the form of a Food and Farm project: Everyday Farming for Resilient Community Living. One meal at a time.<br /><br />We’re certainly fortunate to be living in a community and region that has such favorable resources (energy and water issue notwithstanding), know-how, and interest in supporting agriculture and fishing. From Sustainable Connections to the Food Bank Farm, Uprising Organics to Twin Brook Creamery, Boxx Berry Farm to Edaleen Dairy, Ciao Thyme to the Whatcom County-Bellingham City Peak Oil Task Force, growers, farm suppliers, and community members are united on the need to protect farmland. The question is how. Fortunately, Whatcom farm friends weighs in heavily here; advisory boards to various non profits counsel as well. Protecting the land base is a first step in achieving system resiliency in food production (see “urban-rural encroachment” working paper from the IGCR website, forthcoming). <br /><br />Our new grant, hopefully, will help us tease out/identify factors of resilience that reduce social vulnerability. A goal of the work is to focus on what policies can reduce vulnerabilities and what economic accounting systems can validate the worth of resilient practices and systems. We also are working on case studies, and invite community members to offer stories related to how everyday farming – focused on what and where food is coming from as a part of increased community resilience – should be promoted.<br /><br />Dedicated to the Tuba <br />Guy…<br />http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/386267_robert04xx.html<br />http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/387025_Robertweb.htmlGigi Berardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05386519097116722460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-86668767508707301722008-09-25T11:07:00.001-07:002008-09-25T11:17:25.501-07:00Here's a video that will make you chuckle, but also illustrates the importance of robust, creative, and prepared communities when it comes to disaster response. We should all be looking for ways to build internal community resilience, and moving away from assumptions that rely upon external support and aid.<br /><br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwgU01rhPrFKsC-rZMucGhPhE-PPetcDmOvzq4OhhlWnAVR7Wm_WHICKNYowdDToA2PN1ikdaldf5jxzeuH6Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-1674438841676830632008-09-23T09:34:00.000-07:002008-09-23T11:33:33.653-07:00The forgotten disasterIts been a week since Hurricane Ike slammed into Galvaston and Houston, Texas. The devestation is reminiscent of the worst disaster ever in the United States, the 1900 Galvaston Hurricane that, a mere hundred years ago, leveled the island of all inhabitants.<br /><br />I've been struck by the almost complete lack of coverage of this event. Is it that after Katrina, our sense of risk has been recalibrated? A hurricane with *only several dozen deaths is great? Is it the lack of residents screaming for rescue from rooftops with its titillating specter of a modern-day, horrific replay of Swiss Family Robinson? Is it that in this looming slow-motion economic crisis? With the threat of loosing retirement savings and homes, do losses from a Hurricane seem more trivial? Do people subconsciously quip that at least the Texans impacted will get aid from FEMA? Or is it that at the end of a presidential cycle that has so blatantly mismanaged Katrina, people don't want to think about disasters until someone new is in the White House? Or is the destruction of Galvaston once a century simply an acceptable level of risk? I really don't know.<br /><br />What I do know is that we are loosing an opportunity to continue the national conversation about how our Gulf Coast will relate to it natural environment. <br /><br />Here is a slide show of images from Texas, sent to me by Diane Knutson, head of the Environmental Studies office here at Western Washington University. Unfortunately, I don't know the original source, but thanks to whomever took the photos and compiled the images.<br /><br /><br /> <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxe4AmP1-GkHzj3YZLJlIM9P4PnuPb93_63KJ5RSEFFJaoPaeXsjfZehV8mBOow2LqNVNOFwBQH3aZdHGwqIw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-50516037289906935442008-09-19T17:43:00.001-07:002008-09-19T17:51:41.231-07:00Farming and floodsThe local Seattle public radio station KUOW has been doing a series on farming and the eat local movement <a href="http://www.kuow.org/specials/sweetearth.php">Sweet Earth: Lessons from the Land</a>. The series covers a range of challenges to farming, including the relationship with government, urban encroachment, and interactions with environmentalists. <br /><br />One particularly interesting segment, <a href="http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=15667">Winter Flood's Silver Lining</a>, looks at Thurston County farmers recovering from the devastating 2007 Winter floods. The farmer interviewed speaks eloquently about the advantages but occasional shock of farming in fertile floodplains.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-21677940277692872082008-09-19T17:08:00.000-07:002008-09-19T17:40:33.497-07:00Earthquake scenario and planningThis week I participated in EERI's very engaging Earthquake Scenario Planning Workshop. It was a fascinating mix of seismologist, engineers, planners, and a smattering of social scientists and public officials. While we were all bent on using developing earthquake scenarios, there was considerable fuzziness over what these scenarios could and should do.<br /><br />Many scenarios have been developed as emergency response planning tools for massive planning exercises. The <a href="http://www.shakeout.org">Great Southern California ShakeOu</a>t - a hybrid response exercise and public awareness campaign - is an upcoming example. For these purposes, the scenario development process seems rather straight forward, though often very labor intensive. Develop your hazard model, add in your infrastructure inventory and census data, develop fragility curves, etc. The results are typically presented as maps of shaking intensity, building damage, and calculations of death, injuries, and people displaced from their homes. <br /><br />But what if the scenario is not for response planning, but for mitigation and planning? Are these outputs useful for people like city council members, majors,urban planners, and community service providers? The general assumption at the workshop was yes, but I have strong doubts. I'm not convinced that these decision makers would necessarily know what to do given maps of shaking, damage, deaths, injuries and displacement. These aren't exactly the indicators they work with on a daily basis. Nor are they, I suspect, the indicators that they consider when campaigning for re-election.<br /><br />What is probably much more salient for this crowd is indicators such as poverty rate, unemployment, housing vacancy rates, and school overcrowding. If this is the case, perhaps we should challenge ourselves to further push our scenarios and models forward into the often fuzzy areas of social consequence. While it may be much more difficult, such enhanced scenarios may catch the imagination and raise concerns among planners, policy makers and service providers. These are the very groups needed to successfully develop and implement the mitigation and community resilience policies necessary to make a massive emergency response unnecessary.<br /><br />It behooves us to think about the users of our scenarios. We should ask them early on what indicators they need...and what will jolt them into taking earthquake risk seriously.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-56446606319161395622008-09-03T17:57:00.000-07:002008-09-03T17:58:06.575-07:00Disaster as ProcessResidents of New Orleans are returning after the recent evacuations in front of Hurricane Gustav. The hurricane passed to the south and west of the city, only causing storm surge waves that occasionally splashed over the city's weakest Industrial Canal levees. <br /><br />Many people view disasters as events and will see Gustav as the disaster near-miss, the disaster that didn't happen. Other disaster researchers have come to understand disasters as a process:<br /><br />Quarantelli: "we should conceive of disasters for sociological purposes only"<br /><br />Beck: "threats are produced industrially, externalized economically, individualized juridically, legitimized scientifically, and minimized politically."<br /><br />Disaster as process means we should move away from an intense focus on disaster events. Instead we should look at the ongoing social process, power disparities, resource disparities, and cultural understandings of the environment and environmental risk that may exacerbate the consequences of a natural hazard event. With this view, disasters are no more than clarifying moments when these social processes are often most apparent. <br /><br />For New Orleans, this is certainly apparent in both Katrina and Gustav. Katrina, more than any other recent event, exposed a significant disregard for the needs and resources of the urban poor (e.g. in the planning of evacuation protocol and the development of recovery grants based upon pre-storm housing values). Both Katrina and Gustav continue to highlight a hurricane-exposed city that relies almost exclusively on levees and pumps for disaster risk reduction. Gustav’s surge again highlighted that the Lower and Upper Ninth Ward – low and moderate income African American neighborhoods – continue to be the most vulnerable. Both events continue to point to major issues of coastal erosion and the ever increasing risks of un-fettered storm surge straight in from the Gulf.<br /><br />The idea of disaster as an event may help response and emergency preparedness, but it certainly does us all a disservice when we can then ignore the everyday and ongoing social and ecological issues that are the real disaster.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-51978457535833417532008-07-30T16:49:00.000-07:002008-12-09T16:58:26.852-08:00Post-Disaster Housing Woes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SJEFwxXxElI/AAAAAAAAACY/z7drMLlsVOI/s1600-h/fema+trailers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 197px; height: 129px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_51Dq5ec0EyM/SJEFwxXxElI/AAAAAAAAACY/z7drMLlsVOI/s320/fema+trailers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228966977798738514" border="0" /></a>Its been three years since Hurricane Katrina and the FEMA has finally issued a much-awaited draft of a new disaster housing strategy, commissioned by the Bush administration. This proposed strategy is much overdue, and so I read it eagerly when it came out.<br /><br />What an utter disappointment.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />I was hoping for some innovative ideas to address the significant problems we've all seen in relation to post-disaster housing. Research on housing-related policies and outcomes after numerous U.S. natural disasters documents consistent disparities based on race, class, and gender. Peacock and Girard (1997) found that racial and ethnic minorities tended to receive insufficient insurance settlements because they are less often insured by major national carriers. Blanchard-Boehm (1997) reported that financial constraints reduce the likelihood that African-Americans made structural improvements so their houses could withstand natural disasters, resulting in more serious damage to the homes of African-Americans. Enarson (2008) pinpoints elderly women as more vulnerable during disasters. Similarly, temporary housing put in place after a disaster is often not designed with the needs of women and children in mind.<br /></span><br /><span id="fullpost">More recently, we've all heard a long string of exposes on the significant social and health costs associated with FEMA travel trailers issued to Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors. Formaldehyde levels in the trailers caused respiratory problems and made many inhabitants sick. Trailer camps were often far away from commercial and residential centers making it nearly impossible for inhabitants to find employment or other housing. Cramped conditions, isolation, and post-disaster depression created a toxic mix. Domestic violence, mental illness and suicide skyrocketed. As a nation, our approach to post-disaster housing seems to be on-par or worse than the primitive tents and survivor camps in mega-disasters overseas.<br /></span><br /><span id="fullpost">So, with all of these problems, what did the 2008 Disaster Housing Plan recommend? Almost nothing new. The plan is basically a description of a mixed-plan approach based on the rental voucher and trailer solutions used in the past. While they have now put a 6-month limit on travel trailer occupancy, they have pushed the ethical and legal issues to the states. Now it is the states who have to determine acceptable levels of formaldehyde and bear legal responsibility if anything goes wrong. More significantly, the plan leaves many of the big challenges to a currently unformed housing task force. They have left the important equity and recovery questions posed by Congress to an even later set of annexes. I'm unimpressed.<br /><br />If you want to read and comment on the proposal, you can to FEMA's press release <a href="http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=45190">here</a>.<br /><br /></span><span id="fullpost">On a brighter note, four students in our Practical Applications of Emergency Management class and over two dozen students in a complementary design class tackled the issue of post-disaster housing this Spring semester. A draft policy brief based upon their work is available on the IGCR website, <a href="http://www.wwu.edu/resilience/Links/IGCR%20Policy%20Brief%20-%20Post-Disaster%20Temp%20Housing_7-08c.pdf">here</a>, including a few innovative conceptual alternatives to travel trailers and FEMA camps.<br /><br /></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-38754325955787124172008-06-30T13:01:00.000-07:002008-06-30T13:16:38.826-07:00The solar system is endingTaking off on Scott's post below, the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/">Atlantic Monthly</a>'s July issue takes an even more extreme view of the world is ending. This month features a very interesting and informative look at space rock risk. The author discusses evidence of quite frequent meteors slamming into the earth or burning up right above the earth's surface, causing mass extinctions, dismal growing seasons, and the like. Some aren't even that long ago. The basic thesis of the article is an argument against NASA's current mission of Moon and Mars races, and a more pragmatic disaster-prevention mission. Someone needs to chart and preventative strike any space rocks that may get a bit too close to good ol' earth. The issue is out on newsstands, but should be up on the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/">website</a> soon.<br /><br />And just on a side note, if you've ever wondered how it feels to work in disaster risk reduction in many developing countries, read the Atlantic article. The incomprehensibility of dealing with a continent-wide evacuation and major, multi-year diminishing of sunlight is the same sort of overwhelm many of our colleagues feel with more earthly disasters. When faced with massive urban migration, rampant illegal construction, rapid mangrove destruction and the loom of cyclones or sea-level rise or a host of other natural hazards, mitigation and risk reduction seems just as daunting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-74946263130098282132008-06-22T09:34:00.001-07:002008-06-22T09:35:20.029-07:00The World Has EndedAccording to <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_out_of_control.html">this cheery article </a>by the AP.Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-67159425473399268052008-06-11T16:16:00.001-07:002008-06-11T16:16:32.311-07:00No More CERT At University of Washington<a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/06/uw_cuts_emergency_response_team">Story broken by The Stranger.</a><br /><br /><blockquote>According to UW Spokesman Norm Arkans, CERT, the loss of federal funding—along with CERT’s director—led to the termination of the program. “The grant expired and we don’t have the resources to pick up the funding,” Arkans says. “It’s a great thing to have if you’ve got the funding for it. It has people out who can be of assistance on the ground when you have emergencies.”</blockquote><br /><br />Next?Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-24453270343877321052008-06-07T11:14:00.001-07:002008-06-07T11:14:42.871-07:00End of Katrina Trailer Parks; New FEMA Expectations?<a href="">Here's a poignant and pointed story </a>by the NYT on the shuttering of the last FEMA trailer parks and the still-vulnerable people who are struggling to leave. The tone that reporter Shaila Dewan takes in this story with respect to FEMA is an appropriate one -- painting them as an highly imperfect agency (who isn't?) that has had egregiously unfair expectations put on them. <br /><br /><blockquote>FEMA, which ultimately is a disaster-response agency, not a social service department, endured years of blistering criticism for its failure to understand that many New Orleans residents needed more than just a roof over their heads after the hurricane. The agency now is quick to admit that other agencies are better equipped to handle persistent social ills. Its job in cases like that of Ms. August, FEMA officials say, is limited to getting her housed.</blockquote><br /><br />Now I'm the first to criticize our country's (over-)emphasis on emergency preparedness and emergency management, rather than social vulnerability reduction and sustainable development. However, I think a lot of the specific criticisms of post-Katrina/Rita FEMA were unwarranted. First, it wasn't FEMA that made cuts to itself and made it a small fish in a ginormous Department of Homeland Security pond. Second, as the above quote hints at, FEMA is an *emergency management* agency. It should be supported in this role and not overstretched to meet public demands that can be met better by other agencies and perhaps even the private sector. The point ultimately is that we as a government and society need to mainstream disaster risk reduction and sustainable development (two sides of the same coin).<br />Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-55567580089013343802008-06-05T09:14:00.000-07:002008-06-05T09:22:08.458-07:00California's unsafe schools<span style="font-family:arial;">Scott Mile's <a href="http://igcr.blogspot.com/2008/05/school-vulnerability-in-or-wa.html">earlier post on school earthquake safety </a>is interesting, especially in light of the many collapsed school structures in China's recent earthquake. I certainly agree with Yumei Wang that Oregon and Washington schools are in serious need of attention. However, the implicit argument that California has passed laws and has safe schools, is a fallacy. We need to look to California to see and hopefully emulate the successes, but we also need to be painfully aware that even California still has serious school safety issues to consider. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Here are just a few of the issues: </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">A. The Field Act, requiring higher design standards, dedicated plan reviews and continuous inspection for public school buildings does increase building resistance to shaking. However, the higher standards only bring these structures up to somewhere between "life-safe" and ready for immediate occupancy.<br /></span><span id="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Many of the Field Act school buildings will still sustain moderate structural damage and perhaps, significant non-structural damage. Many will not be able to be used for emergency community centers or even as schools until repairs are made. This is certainly better than buildings in danger of collapse, but remains far below ideal. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">B. Private schools are and school out buildings used for after-school care are not covered by the act. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">C. Portable classrooms used throughout school districts in California and other states are a significant hazard. These account for a whopping 30% of public classrooms in California. I was not able to really visualize the threat of these portable classrooms and was emailing colleagues in California about this issue. Here was the explanation of Fred Turner, a consulting structure engineer in Sacramento: </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">1) If unattached classrooms move relative to their stair systems(which can be structurally separated from the classroom) doors that open outward can be prevented from opening by creation of an offset, gap or obstruction that forms between the classrooms and the stairs during the earthquake, potentially obstructing egress. Obstructed egress coupled with a post-earthquake fire threat can create casualty risks.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2) Some improperly attached classrooms are on steel or concrete supports that include steel bearing plates and height adjusters. When classroom supports dislodge from the chassis during earthquakes, the steel bearing plates and height adjusters can penetrate through the floor of the classroom unit and protrude into the floor space where occupants may be dropping, covering and holding on under furniture. Occupants may come in contact with the protruding support height adjusters and bearing plates. To date, post-earthquake images document supports protruding through floors, and no records of injuries. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">D. Additionally, there are legal catch 22 situations where schools desiring to tie down portable classrooms to make them more earthquake resistant wind up having to suddenly count these portables as "permanent" structures. The school then looses capital funds needed for constructing truly permanent classrooms. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The issue of school safety is immense in China, in the Pacific Northwest and, unfortunately, even in California.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-58679430206142555662008-06-05T08:12:00.000-07:002008-06-05T08:30:36.766-07:00the cavalryI have spent the week at the <a href="http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/educonference08.asp">FEMA Higher Education Conference</a> at the National Emergency Management Institute. While emergency management and the four phases of disaster (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) are a part of what we teach and research at the IGCR, it is not everything. It was clear that the emergency management field is focus on management, tactics, and coordination. All are important aspects of disaster reduction. Yet, aspects of sustainable planning, strategizing, and integrated vulnerability reduction are not top agenda items.....especially within Department of Homeland Security's dictates of a heavy focus on terrorism.<br /><br />Being somewhat on the margins of the conference focus is always a fascinating position. This time I was struck (again) with the underlying oxymoron present in the FEMA mandate. On the one hand, the average resident understands FEMA's role as the knight on a white stallion, the cavalry, the agency that is going to sweep in and save them from a catastrophic event. Of course, Katrina greatly tarnished this image, but the expectation remains. On the other hand, one of FEMA's missions is to promote disaster preparedness. This promoting of preparedness requires a host of risk education and risk communication activities, many of which require FEMA to say that there is risk, that people are unsafe, and that people need to DO SOMETHING to prepared themselves. The implicit and unintended message underneath it all is, "We're the cavalry, but we can't really do our job, so you need to prepare yourself."<br /><br />Its a challenging position for emergency managers to work within. <span id="fullpost"><br /></span><span id="fullpost"></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-19530440627034455382008-05-28T08:42:00.001-07:002008-06-07T11:02:30.460-07:00Homeless in New OrleansDisasters are most disastrous for those on the "margins," whether it be a business struggling with debt or an individual struggling with chronic illness and poverty. That seems obvious. But the thing that folks don't often think about is how the "margins" expand with each disaster if we don't work to reduce their everyday vulnerability. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/us/28tent.html">Here</a> we see that the homeless population has nearly doubled in New Orleans post-Katrina while the efforts to deal with homelessness have not. <br /><br /><blockquote>By one very rough estimate, the number of homeless people in New Orleans has doubled since Katrina struck in 2005. ...<br /><br />New Orleans had 2,800 beds for the homeless before the storm; now it has 2,000...</blockquote><br /><br />So what happens after the next hurricane or heat wave in New Orleans?<br /><br />Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-66410679633193971972008-05-28T08:32:00.001-07:002008-06-07T11:02:57.262-07:00NYT's Andrew Revkin Keeps Asking Good QuestionsIn <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/seismic-threats-fate-and-fault/">this blog post</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>While California, thanks to wakeup calls in 1906 and 1933, has pushed to bolster schools and other vital structures, there, too, experts say, there are gaps, particularly in poorer school districts. In Oregon, the gaps are truly scary, according to Yumei Wang, the head of the state’s geohazards team. When the anticipated earthquake there comes, it could well be an 9.0-magnitude event.<br /><br />If hundreds of the 1,300 Oregon schools estimated to be inadequately reinforced fall, will that be seen as a cruel twist of fate or somebody’s fault?<br /><br />And if it’s somebody’s fault, who is the somebody? The person in office? The voters who don’t clamor for safe schools before a disaster strikes? State agencies that perhaps didn’t catch a contractor’s shortcut? Engineers or scientists who haven’t tried hard enough to explain what this kind of threat means? The media for focusing on politicians’ gaffes and celebrities’ stunts?</blockquote>Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025256291394200507.post-36996797451332061132008-05-23T11:23:00.001-07:002008-05-27T00:11:21.678-07:00FlypMedia on Future Earthquake Disasters in the USDefinitely check <a href="http://www.flypmedia.com/">this</a> out. Not only is yours truly quoted a couple times, flypmedia.com is a rich online magazine experience with some great writers. <br /><br />(Full disclosure: The author of the piece is my USGS mentor's son.)Scott Mileshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11313529556761929323noreply@blogger.com0