the truth of fiction

"Optical devices certainly don't paint pictures.  Let me say now that the use of them diminishes no great artist." -david hockney

Is it more important to improve human nature or improve the human condition? - ran prieur

My recent trip to Kansas City included many interesting events.  I was there under the guise of presenting at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference.  In actuality (which is very different from reality) I was there to was there to see as much KC cool local food stuff as I could possibly squeeze in.  Despite the timing- mid winter- I had plenty to see and eat.  And the locals were kind and generous with their time.

On the recommendation of the newest local foods-focused grocery store owner in Concord NC (more on that if I ever get around to writing it) I visited the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art while I was in town.  They have a varied collection with a great view for such a flat place.  And I enjoyed the conversation as a friend and I wandered around the place.

Outside of one of the gallery rooms we could see a large Monet serving as the focal point for a class conversation regarding painting, photography and the history of art.  We weren't hearing anything new in the instructor's explanation of how impressionism was the painters' response to the camera, a device that was rapidly replacing the need for realists.  But it (Impressionism) was more than simply a strategy for staying relevant.  It expanded the always ongoing conversation about the purpose and the place of art in human society.  Art, some argued, was about much more than just capturing reality exactly as it appeared to the human eye.  It was about encapsulating something more.  This particular instructor gave what I thought was a well articulated version of this arguement and was continuing to do so when we wandered off.

Earlier in my KC trip I found myself in a dive bar with NC people.  We had a strange and interesting conversation made more strange and interesting by the following question posed: Is anyone making any money at small scale farming?  The question came from a small scale farmer whose off-farm job is trying to help small-scale farmers make money.  Incidentally his wife is deeply involved in helping Organic growers become better Organic growers.  And here I was in a foreign land surrounded by people from back home visiting KC in order to be even more helpful to small scale farmers and yet questioning why in the world we were even here and doing all of this.  And, incidentally, questioning why a small dive bar would need nine urinals in its men's restroom. 

That question still nags me, not the urinals one but the underlying question about making money, which is WHY ARE WE GROWING FOOD DIFFERENTLY?  It still does actually as does another question about why I even care to try to make things better.  And wouldn't it be lovely if I could just answer them by sitting down and typing it out. The truth is I don't have resolution on this.  Resolution seems to be in short supply for me lately but that is probably best.  I have gone far too long without developing the ability to just chill. 

My answer to my friend from NC who was also in KC goes something like this.  Food, some argue, is about much more than just consuming calories.  And then I went back to asking questions similar to the Ran quote from above.  Are we small scale farming in order to change the system or in order to change ourselves?  Are we small scale farming to make money or change lives?  Whose lives- the lives of those who eat our food- better tasting and fresher?  Or are we small scale farming to change our own lives?  I think we are doing it as a response to an out-of-control industrial food system that sucks.  But are we trying to feed other people something better or are we trying to growing something better to feed ourselves and our souls with real food and real effort at meaningful production.  I am what I do right? 

This all used to be very academic for me.  I co authored a book even to share my thoughts on the food system and an alternative from the 30,000 ft perspective.  And now it is so real and so day-to-day that I hardly have a chance to sit and write about it because there are (and these are real examples) tomatoes to be transplanted, chicks to be picked up from the elementary school, local foods-focused grocery store lease agreement letters of intent to edit, beef to transfer, etc.  Local food system restoration has become my life in a very real way.  And I am doing this work because it feeds me in many ways beyond the dinner table.  I can't imagine doing anything else, which is as close as I can come to knowing that who ever sent me here can't help but be pleased.

household energy

Stuart Staniford recently published this image of EIA data regarding average household energy use.

It inspired me to update our household energy numbers.  Maybe one day I'll convert these into BTUs but not this particular day.  First natural gas, which we use for heating water and most cooking.

Next electricity.

 

Our overall trend is definitely downward.  In addition to conservation measures, we are burning wood in a high efficiency wood stove which accounts for a significant portion of the NG reduction.  We're in the market for a front loading washer and new dryer (yes we line dry but not every time) and we will have a new compressor for the AC system within a month which will likely lower this summer's numbers.

Back to the first chart (colour emphasis added is mine).  Two things in particular struck me. 

The Midwest uses nearly 3 times as much energy to heat the average home as does the South; the Northeast 3 1/2 times as much- almost as much energy for heating as the South uses for all home energy use combine.

Keeping cool in the South will certainly get harder in a world with ever increasing energy constraints.  But I'm wondering what Kunstler would say about these numbers.  As I read them it looks like keeping warm in the NE might be more of a problem than keeping cool in the South. 

The other is the amount of energy spent on heating water, particularly in the South.

Talk about some low hanging fruit!

Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm

Part of my day job is to manage the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm, a teaching facility where Cooperative Extension trains new farmers.  But no need to read a boring description of the project when you can watch the news video below. 

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

heart attackj

thank you garobattersby.

on up

In regards to the current conversation about the recent rise in price at the pump and what we can do about it James Howard Kunstler says,

In any case, all this wishing and lying is about to collide with price volatility to make the American voting public absolutely batshit crazy with dread and anger. That, of course, will only prompt more lying, whopper-spinning, and grievance-flogging in the political arena. It will be nearly impossible for the public to evaluate reality.

I was going to start with a bit about oil and gasoline but, Stuart Staniford has done a great job over at Early Warning so I’m just going to let you go and have a look.  I will reproduce a couple of his excellent images here and quote him as saying, “You can see that there's a very strong relationship over time. Technically, 97% of the variance of the price of gas is explained by the price of oil.”

 

More...

Speaking of oil, the noise about Iran continues to ramp up.  In response to the new economic sanctions,

Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday, in a retaliatory measure against fresh EU sanctions on the Islamic state’s lifeblood, oil.

“Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped … we will sell our oil to new customers,” spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum website.    More… 

And then there’s the less reported planned Iranian action surrounding oil trades in something other than the US dollar.


"Last week, the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vision of economic war with the west."  - source  Will that really happen?  Will it be allowed to happen? 

Not surprising to see the cost of oil up at above $108/barrel in late February 2012.  Which means higher gas prices if you read above.  Of course if we’ll just elect Newt then he’ll bring the cost of gas down to $2.50/gallon.  ;-)


And with the price of oil/gas going up and fear of economic catastrophe pulsing through the American psyche the price of gold has also jumped.  Warren B has this to say,

"Today the world’s gold stock is about 170,000 metric tons. If all of this gold were melded together, it would form a cube of about 68 feet per side. (Picture it fitting comfortably within a baseball infield.) At $1,750 per ounce – gold’s price as I write this – its value would be $9.6 trillion. Call this cube pile A.

Let’s now create a pile B costing an equal amount. For that, we could buy all U.S. cropland (400 million acres with output of about $200 billion annually), plus 16 Exxon Mobils (the world’s most profitable company, one earning more than $40 billion annually). After these purchases, we would have about $1 trillion left over for walking-around money (no sense feeling strapped after this buying binge). Can you imagine an investor with $9.6 trillion selecting pile A over pile B? 

Admittedly, when people a century from now are fearful, it’s likely many will still rush to gold. I’m confident, however, that the $9.6 trillion current valuation of pile A will compound over the century at a rate far inferior to that achieved by pile B."

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2011ltr.pdf (pdf warning)

On a not complete unrelated note my boss just walked into my office and asked me where to buy a cow; not beef but a live cow for her to raise and later process for food.  Which leads us into funnier territory with this excellent video.

Lastly something a little personal.  Two weeks ago I crashed my bike, my first real cycling accident.

Fortunately that image makes the whole thing look way worse than it really was.  After the crashI walked 100 yards home with only a few bruises.  My 1979 steel frame Trek is quite beat up however and so it was with great anticipation that I ordered my first ever brand new road bike!  I have a great commuter and a mountain bike slash long haul set up but this will be my first new road bike ever.  It's being built this week by my LBS.

I’m competing in a race in May and between the crash and the race now seems like the time to invest in this Giant Defy 2.  It’s an entry level road bike but quite fancy by my standards.  Report forthcoming.   

Aaron

household energy update

It's been a few months since I updated our household energy use.  The first chart if natural gas which we use for domestic hot water, cooking and sometimes heating our home.  We're entering into our forth calender year of tracking this data.  You'll see January is down considerably from last year which was down remarkable from the year before.  In Jan 2012 we had 4 extra days in our billing cycle compared to the previous year but the average local temperature was 9 degrees warmer.  Still I was impressed because we are primarily heating our home with wood so the outdoor temperature shouldn't have had that big of an effect in terms of reduced NG use. 

Here's our electricity use.  After using slightly more in October 2011 than in October of 2010 we saw decreases in November, December and January.  December reduction was probably primarily due to my wife's more judicious use of Christmas tree lights.  Hopefully by June, July and August- our three high use months- we'll have our new HVAC system in place.  Also we will likely have a new clothes dryer by then.  We dried clothes much more out on the line last year than in the past and that will continue but we will continue to sometimes dry inside and we have quite an old machine. 

 

success!?!

An recent incident involving the closed circuit television security system in Britain provides an example of how more complexity won't necessarily lead to safer streets or even tighter control by the authorities.  The law of diminishing returns is in effect here as are more and greater problems facing people trying to work with more complex systems. 

The operator [of a British security camera] directed the officer, who was on foot patrol, as he followed the "suspect" on camera last month, telling his colleague on the ground that he was "hot on his heels"... But he failed to realise that it was actually the plain-clothed officer he was watching on the screen.

In other words the camera operator had the officer on the ground chasing himself.  more.

Breaking news: Rick Santorum wins in 3 states GOP primary contests last night, trouncing Romney!  Of course it's all just more media hype because,

Officially, a total of zero delegates will be awarded after Tuesday's contests. The Minnesota caucuses are the first step in a long process to assign delegates; the same is true in Colorado. Missouri's primary has been described as simply a "beauty contest," since the state's delegates will only be awarded after the March 17 caucuses.

A man was discovered in his home fours years after killing himself.  His house had been foreclosed upon. 

"David Carter reportedly used a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun to shoot himself in the head some four years ago, shortly after quitting his job and telling neighbors that he was moving to New Mexico. That was in 2007."  more.

The article says his neighbors had taken to mowing his lawn.  One item in the article that caught my attention was the fact that his body wasn't discovered until a local government real estate worker was checking on the property because the county was taking ownership in light of unpaid taxes. 

I know my county is dealing with the issue of owning more properties because of similar circumstances, minus the 4 year old dead body.  My county doesn't want the added tax-payer expense of maintaining these properties.  Here's a problem that could be an excellent opportunity for someone or some group that could figure out a constructive way to address the issue of unwanted properties like these. 

Lastly an article about natural gas availability in Europe.  Many parts of the continent are dealing with extremely cold weather.  Russian gas supplier Gazprom has reduced NG exports because as Russian Prime Minister Vladimír Putin explains, "it is more important for the company to first supply the Russian market."  more

We saw plenty of this when food prices spiked in 2008, countries limiting or banning the export of resources, in that case food in this case natural gas.  My guess is we'll see more of this as resource constraints tighten in the future.