Chewing Over the Issues

“Either we are one planet or we are not.”

From a column by Jon Carroll.

Either we are one planet or we are not. Either we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, fish in the same oceans and hunt in the same forests, or we don’t. Evidence strongly suggests that we are and we do. This island Earth floating through the great airless cosmos - if we mess this one up, we don’t get another.

And technology won’t protect us from our own misbehavior. We actually have to change our habits. It’s hard to change a habit, particularly when it’s wrapped in the various pieties of identity politics.

Shark fin soup is tasty. It’s a staple of Chinese cuisine. Whales are tasty. They’re a staple of Japanese cuisine. Baby harp seals have warm, soft coats. They are a staple of the Norwegian fashion industry. But each of these animals is endangered in one way or another. Whales and sharks are at the top of the food chain. Eliminate them and the oceans suffer because the ecosystem is compromised. And, candidly, haven’t the oceans suffered enough?

But here’s a thing: Tuna is tasty and a staple of American cuisine. The world would be a lot better off if those tuna were in the ocean rather than in cans. Yes, I know there are uncruel “sustainable” ways to catch tuna, but the most sustainable way of all is to leave them the heck alone. Nothing is more sustainable than living fish.

Read the rest.

Koshary: Feeding a revolution in Cairo

From an article on Serious Eats.

Liberation requires massive amounts of strength. Without discounting the passion that alone has fueled millions into a weeks-long protest, it is clear that Egyptians also rely on another direct source of energy. And that is a deceptively simple comfort food: koshary, the legendary dish that every Egyptian can both wax poetic on and furiously debate the merits of.

…

Koshary is a food of the people. Though associated with lower classes in Egypt, it would be tremendously ignorant to dismiss it as a “poor people’s comfort food.” Yes, koshary is very cheap to make and eat. But in a country with mass poverty, its very accessibility underscores the importance in its ability to feed everyone. Egyptians of all standing have fond personal memories of koshary. It is as close to a national dish as exists in Egypt and among the Egyptian Diaspora.

…

What’s in Koshary?

As with most national foods, koshary is essentially a platform with countless variations. Every version however includes at least the following: pasta (usually elbow macaroni, but often ditalini mixed with broken vermicelli); brown lentils; fried onions; shatta, a tomato-chili sauce; and vinegar. Lentils, shatta and then fried onions are piled on a base of macaroni and condiments are added to taste. Nutritionally, it provides extended moxie from complex carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Ideal food for a revolution indeed.

With such few ingredients, each vendor has little room to stand out. Competition is fierce. Allegiances to vendors rival those to local football clubs Al-Ahly and Zamalek (death is not an uncommon consequence of this rivalry). Recipes for the perfect shatta or vinegar are harder to steal than a sarcophagus. It’s a joy to hear locals speak about their favorite versions with such conviction—that, too, in the middle of advancing mobs.

…

While devastating for store owners, the revolution has spurred its share of entrepreneurs (read: hustlers), who sell homemade shai (tea) and koshary. Large bags, stuffed with plastic cups of koshary, hang from the backs of vendors’ bicycles; they are emptied within minutes. The next time you see a flash mob in Cairo, check and see who’s in the middle of it. If you’re lucky, it’s one of these guys on a bike.

…

The place was closing shop, but we reached in time. The first bite of koshary was sensational. Musky, soft, crunchy, tangy, with a bright heat. Lentils and shatta get stuck inside the little pasta tubes, bombarded by crunchy onions, leading to a textural orgy.

One vendor was aware of his exact role in this revolution. “We feed everyone,” he said. “We ask no questions.”

Context usually makes things tastier than they really are. Here, context merely made us more grateful for the koshary. Its deliciousness is absolute in any setting. I felt restored, human.

I can only imagine the fuel and comfort it provides for those fighting with their lives for their beloved Masr (Egypt).

Berkeley woman Natasha Boissier forages fruit, feeds hungry

From Berkeleyside.

North Berkeley Harvest volunteers Dan Alpert and Sarah Pyle with founder Natasha Boissier (far right)./Photo: Sarah Henry

Driving around North Berkeley with Natasha Boissier is an educational experience. Where others see a quiet residential area she sees streets lined with potential pickings and delights when she spots prospective bounty or familiar fruit.

Boissier is a part of a growing movement of urban gleaners who pick fruit from people’s yards (with permission) and donate this surplus produce to food banks, senior centers, and schools who can put this fresh food to good use.

Some residents view an abundant fruit tree as a problem but the 42-year-old clinical social worker sees a simple solution to excess bounty and a way to fill a community need.

Boissier grew up, in part, in Switzerland and remembers climbing her favorite walnut tree during her childhood. She’s turned her love of fruit picking into a kind of foraging philanthropy as the founder of North Berkeley Harvest.

Since the summer of 2007 Boissier and her loose-knit volunteer crew (about 30 in all, around 10 regulars) has harvested a cornucopia of fruit including apples, pears, Asian pears, oranges, lemons, limes, plums, peaches, figs, nectarines, apricots, persimmons, feijoas, grapefruits, sour cherries, walnuts, quinces, and loquats.
 

Foraged apples./Photo: Courtesy of North Berkeley Harvest

Word spread quickly about her gleaning for good effort after local media coverage and a nod in a New York Times story on backyard bounty finding its way to food banks. She has expanded her reach beyond Berkeley to include neighboring El Cerrito, Albany, Richmond, and parts of Oakland too.

Last year North Berkeley Harvest picked 3,602 pounds of fruit from 43 homes, many the group visit every year. During peak picking season volunteers meet about once a week.

Boissier delivers the bags and boxes of fresh fruit to several local non-profit organizations, including Berkeley Food and Housing Project, Berkeley Unified School District’s Central Kitchen at King Middle School, and the senior lunch program and after-school children’s program at Jewish Community Center of the East Bay.

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East Bay businesses of all sizes find advantages to bartering

From an article in the Contra Costa Times:

When Oakland restaurateur Henry Vortriede needs to get some more bread for his eatery, he doesn’t have to spend cash to buy it. Instead, he turns to barter, an ancient form of commerce that is attracting new converts during a struggling economy.

But Vortriede isn’t restricted to bartering directly with a baker down the street in exchange for providing free meals at his Montclair Bistro. That’s because the restaurant is among East Bay businesses that belong to fee-based online barter networks that make it possible to trade with many businesses.

“I’d rather cater a holiday party and get a couple of thousand of BizX dollars and then spend that on our bread, coffee, wine, and plumbers and electricians,” said Vortriede, who belongs to www.bizx.com, a Washington-based barter network with offices in Oakland. He has also used BizX dollars to cover construction costs for adding a banquet room.…

Barter networks can free a business from having to spend cash, but they are not free to use. For example, there is a one-time cost of $795 to join Bizx.com, along with a monthly $30 membership fee, plus a 6 percent transaction fee on every purchase and sale.

At Imsbarter.com there is one-time cost of $695 to join, along with a monthly $12 membership fee, plus a 6 percent transaction fee on every purchase and sale.

The fees charged by barter networks cover the cost of providing a bartering platform, the services of barter account executives who work with members, and acting as a third-party to send out paperwork required under Internal Revenue Service rules.…

Even though discounts are not typically found through barter networks, members can still come out ahead since they don’t have to discount what they are selling, said Strabley.

“Let’s say a restaurant needs to spend $1,000 on carpet cleaning. They’ve got two choices: they can open up the till and give $1,000 to the carpet cleaner,” he said. “Or they can make $1,000 worth of gift certificates available for sale (that cost the restaurant $300 to provide). They are still ahead of the game.”…

And some practical details from the end of the article:

Income tax rules for bartering require that the fair market value of the goods and services exchanged must be reported as income by both parties. This is true for both informal, one-on-one barters between individuals or businesses or for barters that take place on third-party basis through a barter exchange company. If you are operating a viable bartering business, you may be entitled to deduct business expenses related to the goods or services you provide. Barter exchange companies are required to issue Form 1099-B, Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, annually to their clients or members and to the Internal Revenue Service.
Source: IRS

A partial list of barter networks:

• www.acxbarter.com
  1-323-259-2340
  American Commerce Exchange
  3057 Roswell Street
  Los Angeles, CA 90065
• www.americanexchange.net
  1-816-444-7927
  American Exchange Network
  912 E. 63rd Street Suite #200
  Kansas City, MO 64110
• www.bizx.com
  1-800-939-2499
  3600 136th Place SE
  Suite 270
  Bellevue, WA 98006
  7700 Edgewater Drive
  Suite 220 Oakland, CA 94621
• www.imsbarter.com
  1-262-780-3640
  International Monetary Systems Ltd
  16901 West Glendale Dr.
  PO Box 510305
  New Berlin, WI 53151
• www.premierbarter.com
  1-602-470-8020 
  Premier Barter
  3928 E. Beverly Road
  Phoenix, AZ 85042

Source: International Reciprocal Trade Association www.irta.com

(Source: insidebayarea.com)

On injury, apology, “political correctness”, and Charles Dickens

By Dave Hingsburger:

Do you know how Charles Dickens responded to a letter from Eliza Davis? Probably not. Let me tell you, I think you might find it instructive. During the writing of Oliver Twist, the character of Fagin is referred to in the first 38 chapters, 257 times as ‘the Jew’. As the series appeared, first in serialized form, Ms Davis felt that Dickens, in his portrayal of the character and his constant reference to him as ‘the Jew’ was inciting hatred against Jewish people. When Dickens received the letter, the book form of Twist was being typeset. In fact the first 38 chapters had already been done. He stopped the process and in the remaining book the term is barely used again in the next 179 references to the character.

Dickens did not stop there. In his next book, Our Mutual Friend, he created a Jewish character named Riah, whom he gave words to express the prejudice and the injustices that are perpetrated on his people by the current bigotries and attitudes of the day. It seems that Dickens, didn’t leap to defensiveness. Instead, he recognized he had done harm and sought to actively redress the harm he had done. He never began to bemoan restrictions placed on him by oversensitive, politically correct readers hell bent on limiting his rights as an artist. No, he recognized that instead of limiting his vocabulary, the challenge was to increase it. He was challenged to use new words to characterize ‘the other’ and in doing so elevated the use of language from vilification and victimization to revelation and respect. Eliza Davis gave him a gift, in thanks, inscribed with these words, well worth noting: “To Charles Dickens … in grateful and admiring recognition of his having exercised the noblest quality men can possess-that of atoning for an injury as soon as conscious of having inflicted it.”

“Borders are chosen”

From The Curvature:

Still, some will inevitably argue that this is not an issue of race or even class. It’s an issue of rules, of order. Someone broke the rules, and now they have to pay.

I would like to remind them firstly that who pays and how is always political.  But just as importantly, it is not arbitrary where we place borders, how we enforce borders, and who we punish for crossing them. Borders, especially modern ones, are chosen. They are artificial. We like to tell ourselves that we create borders out of necessity, to more efficiently manage communities and resources. But we also create those borders specifically to keep other people out, to control resources in a way that prevents certain populations from accessing them. There is no accident in how borders are drawn and who is being kept out and removed from resources, not along lines of race, and not along lines of class — especially not in a country were so many borders were explicitly drawn with racist intent, during times of colonization, during times of slavery, during times of Jim Crow and less “official” forms of segregation, or even during modern times of “legals” and “illegals.”