[Laney Siegner, ERG graduate student]

Food on the Galapagos: Local ingredients and local volcanic soil

A quick summary of my recent trip to the Galapagos could read like a line from Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction”: coffee liqueur, rich dark chocolate, and passion fruit pie—showering under waterfalls in the jungle, perfumed tropical flowers in my hair. These phrases conjure up idyllic imagery but obscure much more than they reveal. My journey “behind the scenes” of Galapagos' agricultural activities led to revelations about the difficult realities facing many small island farmers.

Galapagos Islands (red box), off the coast of continental Ecuador

Fresh fruit rotting on the ground, excess vegetables lying uneaten on farms or fed to animals, costs of transport outweighing profits to be gained in local markets—these are a few of the challenges facing a declining agricultural sector on the Galapagos. Despite efforts by local organizations such as Conservation International, the Charles Darwin Foundation, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Aquaculture and Fisheries (MAGAP) to increase and revitalize local food production, many galapagüeños are leaving the agricultural fields of the highlands in favor of better-paying jobs in the tourism industry of coastal port towns.

Saturday Market, 6:30 am

Agricultural activity has been increasing in recent years, but certainly is no longer at the levels seen before the boats started providing regular food production from the mainland. Boats arrive in the islands weekly (for the most part), bearing produce from continental Ecuador 1000 km away, supplying about 80% of local food consumption, and lowering prices due to higher production levels on mainland farms. With the prohibitively high cost of transport to the markets ($15 for the 20 km drive), local farmers are often forced to let their produce go to waste as it won’t produce sufficient returns to justify this up-front cost. Better communication and union, called for by Jose Angel Ortiz, might help solve this problem if neighboring farmers pool resources to buy an old truck for transporting produce to market. However, in a region where many neighboring farms are recently abandoned, this is not always possible.

​​Checking out Angel Ortiz's tomato plants

Besides being dependent on food imports from the mainland, the Galapagos are also dependent on petroleum imports for energy production. The Interpretation Center on San Cristobal Island declares a goal of 100% fossil-free energy production by 2017. The islands, however, are far from reaching this goal, having missed their 50% renewables goal by 2010. There is little evidence of renewable energy generation on the islands; other than three windmills at the top of a hill on San Cristobal and solar panels at the Giant Tortoise Birthing Center and Charles Darwin Foundation on Santa Cruz. Twenty-four hour electricity service, powered by petroleum products, is a relatively recent occurrence on the four inhabited islands, and service doesn’t fully extend to all of the farms in the highlands.

There are, however, signs of hope for scaling up island food and energy self-sufficiency. On March 19th, there was a cheering promotion of local food consumption at the Galapagos Earth Hour celebration; part of an international network of such events held in over 150 countries. Earth Hour, which lasts from 8:30pm to 9:30pm, is a call to action for communities to turn off the lights and look inwards for solutions to addressing climate change. The Galapagos chose to highlight local food production as their “local solution,” bringing producers and consumers together for a night of cooking competitions, taste tests, and trivia celebrating the 80+ local food products on the islands. From seafood to tropical fruits, from the mundane yucca root to the exalted cacao, it was a night of food diversity and appreciation.

Entries in the local cooking competition at Earth Hour Galapagos (3/19/16)

David Ibarra’s Waterfront Inn restaurant is another sign of hope on Santa Cruz. After noticing the local produce highlighted on a restaurant menu in Puerto Ayora, my sister, Katie, and I asked some employees about the chef. We were directed to David at his new restaurant across the bay. We hopped in a water taxi and found that David was in an “important meeting” when we arrived, but he invited us back for dinner the following night. We showed up Friday night for an amazing locally sourced meal that would put any San Francisco farm to table restaurant to shame.

When he finished cooking, David came out to talk to us about the extensive contacts he’s made among island farmers and fishermen since arriving a little over a year ago. Inviting us to continue the conversation at a popular local bar, he went on at length about his views on the value of sourcing food from local farmers. He has big plans to increase local consumption through his “Cocinas de Evolución” project, a cooking class that infuses local ingredients into fancy French and European cooking methods popular worldwide.

Katie and Laney at Milton's farm, Finca de Guadalupe​

Milton Aguas’ eco-farm on San Cristobal, La Finca de Guadalupe, is a final example of inspiration from our island-hopping food tour. We traveled with Milton and his wife Norma to their farm. It was a bumpy ride down unpaved and washed-out roads.We braved the bugs of the jungle to hike to their waterfall-shower and sweated through the process of pressing sugar canes into juice by hand. We made dinner of freshly harvested coconut milk and herbs over fish with rice and fried plantains. Afterwards, we processed coffee beans and made passion fruit juice until past midnight. "Fresh fruit doesn’t wait," Norma reminded us.

Coffee project demonstration

Milton shared stories of volunteer groups and university students that have come to the farm to help out and learn from his sustainable agriculture practices. Milton would like to make the farm completely “clean” and self-sufficient by generating his own electricity and processing sugar cane into biofuels. (A future ERGie project or group community service trip, perhaps?! Sugar cane biofuel production on Milton’s farm – Spring Break 2017!) Those who love coffee as much as I do are almost obligated to come: the volcanic, earthy flavor of his coffee is truly “único en el mundo,” like drinking from a river of gold, in Milton’s poetic Spanish phrasing.

My journey to the Galapagos was an eye-opening encounter with interesting plants and people. It was not always comfortable or "Edenic," but rather showed signs of struggle for local sovereignty and sustainability. Investigating local food production on small islands may often be this way, and now I know a little more about where the "farm" in "farm to table" is coming from.

Katie and Laney pressing sugar cane into juice on the Galapagos

[Kripa Jagannathan, ERG graduate student] 

The drought has been a talking point for many Californians, but I have often wondered how farmers — whose livelihoods are affected by the drought and who are at the center of the water-use debate —view the drought.

I got an opportunity to hear from a farmer during my visit to the Masumoto Family Farm near Fresno in late April this year. The visit was organized by the University of California - Office of the President (UCOP) for the 2015 Global Food Initiative (GFI) student fellows. The Masumoto family of David “Mas” Masumoto, his wife Marcy, and children, Nikiko and Korio, spent time with the GFI fellows talking about the students’ interests in food and agriculture related issues. They invited us into their home for a day to experience life on a farm. In their 80 acre farm, the Masumotos grow organic peaches, nectarines, and grapes for raisins.

David “Mas” Masumoto giving the GFI fellows a tour of his peach orchards.
[Photo: Kripa Jagannathan]

As Mas walked with the GFI fellows, giving us a tour of his heirloom peach trees, we asked about his thoughts on the drought. Mas’s reply to the question was completely unexpected and pleasantly surprised us all.

Mas said that people tend to be extremely scared of the drought, and, while it is definitely frightening, he has now started to view the drought as “a mystery waiting to be uncovered, and as an opportunity for public service.” He went on to explain that the drought gives us all an opportunity to research and innovate on new methods for conservation and sustainable use of water – which would eventually lead to a “public service.”

He was quick to point out that the biggest challenge is that farmers get only “one shot a year” to experiment with a different water strategy or management practice. This year, the Masumotos have experimented with using about half of the normal water-use for a small sample of their peach trees. Mas says that a lot of times more water is used just for maintaining the cosmetic nature of the fruits i.e. to make the peaches bigger than they would usually grow.

Some of the GFI fellows and I with Mas Masumoto.
[Photo: Deanna Geddie]

A recent LA Times article reports that these experimental peaches turned out to be small, but packed with an intense flavorful punch. These seem to fit perfectly with the farm’s line of organic, ugly, and fabulous or “O, U Fab!” peaches.

Another fellow asked Mas how students can support farmers and connect with them for collaborative solutions to the water issue in California. To this Mas replied that farmers are usually very independent and hence are used to “self-learning.” Therefore, scaling down research to farm-level and re-framing issues and solutions as personal stories could help with connecting better to individual farmers.

I returned from the trip optimistic and thoroughly inspired to carry on working towards uncovering the mystery of how to deal with the current drought!

Masumoto farm’s “O, U Fab!” cartoon, where the peaches talk back!
[Photo: Masumoto Family Farm website]

Top image: Sun crest peaches from Mas Masumoto's farm [Source: Trevor H]


Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.

[Laney Siegner, ERG graduate student]

“Only in the past decade has farm to school emerged as a movement to change the way children understand food and to offer farmers new markets for what they produce.” (Beery & Joshi, 2012) 

Tasting reception at Monterrey High School featuring food produced by participating districts in the California Thursdays initiative.

At the Asilomar Conference Grounds, there was a palpable excitement for those present of being in rooms full of farm to school enthusiasts. Although hailing from a variety of backgrounds and job titles (teachers, farmers, school administrators, food service directors, school “chefs,” non-profit leaders, school board members, parent volunteers, and academic researchers), all were enthusiastic about the premise of providing real, healthy food to schools from local farms.

The Farm to School program in California currently involves over 85 school districts, of which Berkeley Unified School District was the first district in the country to pass a progressive food policy recognizing the connection between healthy eating and effective learning. On May 4-6, 2015, over 250 California “first responders” to the national health care crisis convened in Pacific Grove, CA for a state-level Farm to School conference.

Conference attendees were encouraged to take a "holistic view" of how fresh produce contributes to school curriculum and education. Laney is the corn with the tennis racket on the left.

Sam Farr, Democratic Congressman from California, delivered opening remarks asserting that the crew gathered before him were first responders in the sense that providing healthy food grown on local farms to students in school was a fundamental strategy for reducing childhood obesity and the associated lifetime health care costs that put such a strain on the national system. From an ERGie perspective, I am used to hearing such interdisciplinary analyses of the benefits of a particular program like Farm to School. This was just the first in a series of frames placed around Farm to School programs, from health and nutrition to environmentalism, to climate change, and improved math and science education.

... it is important to note a central theme of the conference: the need to more rigorously evaluate programs consistently across districts and states...

This basic idea of farm to school has become “revolutionary” thanks to the modern industrial food system, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions (due to transportation, concentrated animal waste streams, land use change, and chemical fertilizer inputs) environmental degradation and adverse human health outcomes. Not to mention the loss of aspects of culture associated with the loss of small farms and farmers as a way of life in this country. Issues of food are issues of culture: food is what we are and want to be. If we want to be diverse, full of variety, connected, healthy, and environmentally “literate,” than our food system has to be those things first.

As a means to promote biodiversity, local economic development, social justice, secondary education, and environmental and human health, school gardens or farm-to-school programs are pretty compelling solutions to contemplate. They hit so many targets with one arrow. However, before getting too carried away with the idea, it is important to note a central theme of the conference: the need to more rigorously evaluate programs consistently across districts and states; the need to collect numerical data year after year, and the need to move beyond anecdotal “success stories” towards scientifically driven empirical results necessary to secure sustainable funding for such programs.

CA Thursdays is an initiative started by the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley. 

It is my hope, as a researcher and former educator, that Farm-to-School can be embedded as part of a holistic approach to secondary school reform. According to the “3 pillars” of the U.S. Green Ribbon School award program, schools must meet building, operations, and curriculum standards in greening their school. To meet these criteria, for example, cafeteria food might be procured from local farms and supplemented by an on-site garden-classroom; the school implements energy efficiency and waste recycling/reduction measures in buildings; and the curriculum across subjects is reflective of the realities of climate change and today’s environmental problems,

To see what some schools have been on to with Farm to School programs, conference participants were invited to Monterey High School for a “California Thursdays” tasting reception of what local school districts are offering to their students. The California Thursdays initiative was created by the Center for Ecoliteracy and piloted in Oakland Unified School District; currently 42 districts participate in serving meals sourced from California ingredients on that day of the week (totaling over 250 million meals annually).

The results were impressive, colorful, and delicious; a promising sign of things to come in building the world we want the next generation to inherit. For more info on CA Farm to School programs, policy initiatives, and resources for schools, go to http://www.farmtoschool.org/our-network/California.

Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.

[Alana Siegner, ERG MA]

Working on a school garden in Boston 

On a typical day walking to class, my eyes are caught by the sight of persimmon trees arching over the sidewalk offering their unusual fruits, small backyard gardens bursting over fences and property lines, and lime bushes camouflaging their green citrus offerings in a cloud of bright green leaves. Urban agriculture seems to be very much alive and well in Berkeley, especially by my East Coast-rooted standards. But, I believe there is more to the story than the superficial pleasure. I take in the fact that these food production centers exist; scattered among city and residential streets in the Bay Area. In my first semester out in California, I’ve made it a mission to learn more about and participate in the movement that is urban agriculture.

Me with some enormous collards from the Oxford Tract

My direct experiences in the urban agriculture scene have been universally positive; my research into policy and land use disputes has shown the controversial nature or flip-side of the urban-ag coin. Tuesday mornings at the Claremont Middle School garden in Oakland, and Friday mornings in the UC Berkeley Student Organic Garden (SOGA) often have me up to my elbows in compost, soil, or over-sized collard plants. I teach a weekly lesson in the Claremont garden to boisterous groups of 6 to 8th graders with the help of a volunteer garden manager who coordinates the garden lessons during an elective period at the school. The students at Claremont, as well as students I used to teach in Boston, have responded in meaningful and often hilarious ways to their first hands-on experiences with certain plants, which hopefully will make their way increasingly into school lunches.

I was inspired to explore more school garden projects in the area, and made it out to the Edible Schoolyard at MLK Middle School, the famous Alice Waters-backed project. The level of organization and productivity at that site was amazing: orderly rows of flowers and vegetables integrated into gazebo-like structures, a toolshed cleaner than my apartment, a wood-fired pizza oven, solar panels, and chickens wandering freely.
Also part of the Urban Garden Ecosystems class I’ve been taking this fall are the weekly lab sections in SOGA, where I’ve been learning the agroecological principles of soil building, intercropping, and seed starting. The harvest yields have often sent me back to ERG bearing trash bags full of basil, greens, and kale. These experiences led to the enthusiastic re-writing of the popular country song “Cruise,” as “baby you a song, you make me wanna roll my shirt sleeves up, and plant” -- a song my group and I performed at our final project presentation last week.

Chard harvest one day this Fall from SOGA

Behind these rosy experiences is a larger debate on competing land use claims -- development vs. environment. San Francisco made headlines earlier this fall for its trailblazing urban ag bill, AB 551, the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act, but also for worsening the housing crisis with this policy. The author of the Atlantic Monthly article argues that urban agriculture on vacant lots is more appropriate to a city like Detroit, rather than SF where rent prices are sky-rocketing and there is a need for increased urban density; leave the gardens for the rooftops, he argues, not on developable lands. A controversy closer to home is the Gill tract redevelopment plans by the University. Starting in 2012, students and local organizers have been “occupying the farm” and arguing with the university over the proposed redevelopment of this land in Albany, part of a land-grant university system that they argue should become a center for urban agricultural research rather than a grocery store and affordable housing development. The fight for the land was featured in a recent documentary that premiered in Berkeley, “Occupy the Farm.”  

While these debates are far from settled, I believe decentralized centers of organic food production are the best way forward for building food security and resiliency in any community. As a solution to climate change, I see great potential in organic soil carbon sequestration, and eating locally grown produce reduces food-miles traveled that in turn reduces transportation-related emissions. I will continue arguing against the injustices of the current industrial food system, the consequences of eating a diet saturated by high-fructose corn syrup, and in favor of the merits of integrated systems like aquaponics structure. Growing food in small spaces, whether for a tiny home or urban restaurant like the soon-to-open Perennial restaurant in SF, is the way of the future.

A flower from the Spiral Gardens community gardening center

Some day my sister and I hope to open a farm-school where gardens and environmental education are center stage, where students learn in outdoor and real-world classrooms. We want to have lavender bushes, goats, and honeybees, among other things. Until that day comes, I will keep learning from urban farmers and tasting hybrid persimmon varieties at the Berkeley farmer’s market.



Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.

[by Sustainable John, ERG Graduate Student]  

Food trucks are a billion dollar business in the U.S. already, and most of the growth has been seen in just the last five years. Along with this growth has come an increased carbon footprint, as the food trucks run their refrigeration and hot water tanks on gasoline generators.



The Food Bikery seeks to prove that food bikes are a safe, legal, low-capital, and low-footprint alternative to food trucks. In transitioning mobile food off of trucks and onto bicycles, the Food Bikery will stimulate economic opportunities for low-income citizens of the East Bay who would like to start mobile food businesses. We envision that the cost of a food bike can be $5,000 or lower, which is an order of magnitude less capital investment than an average food truck ($50,000) and two orders of magnitude less capital investment than an average restaurant ($500,000). Given that a person can potentially run a food bike business as a sole entrepreneur, we estimate the profit would be enough to make an hourly wage in the range of $20-25.

Average capital investment required for food businesses

In addition to the economic benefits, food bikes can offer these benefits to local communities:

1. Decrease fossil fuel consumption and climate change emissions 
2. Improve use of community space 
3. Increase physical well-being and health and foster awareness about the power of bicycles 
4. Increase awareness about where food comes from and how it is prepared 

The Food Bikery has been launched as an entrepreneurial idea by myself and Jason Trager (Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate and local bicycle king). We recently applied to the UC Berkeley Big Ideas competition, and we received a third place prize for $2000 in the clean energy category. I put in a couple months of research and interviews into the grant application. In doing so, I met a handful of food bike enthusiasts who are featured in the short film above, including Curbside Creamery, El Taco Bike, and Apothocurious/Hot Bike.

Additionally, I have done more in-depth research on the code for mobile food facilities. Essentially, if you’re cooking food on a bike trailer, you are subject to line item requirements of refrigeration, three sinks, and 20 gallons of water in order to meet code. That’s why you don’t see food bikes doing any cooking at public events and markets. The ones that exist serve hot or cold pre-packaged foods at public events or simply cater to private events. We want to see a food bike that can cook at public markets, while still being safe, legal, and healthy. The inspiration for food bikes originally came to me when I was living in Beijing, and I ate a lot of street food off of food bikes, including my personal favorite: jian bing, the Chinese crepe. Two years ago, I started a food bike called Jian Bing Johnny’s that I could bring to events to serve this food to the masses, and since then I have been searching for avenues to get food bikes permitted.

Our next steps are to do some policy and legal work in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland to modify some ordinances to allow food bikes to operate and then to build our first official prototype. The $2,000 prize from Big Ideas has gotten us off to a great start, but we need to raise some additional money in order to get our project fully up and running.

Note: The views expressed here belong solely to the author of each entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.

By Laura Moreno

I dig through trash. And, I take pictures of trash cans on vacations. Most of my friends learn to appreciate, or rather tolerate, this about me. For all of you thinking “ewwwwww….,” I wash my hands afterwards!

Trash and Recycling Bins from My Vacations

One thing I quickly noticed when digging through trash is that ooey gooey food is a huge component of what we throw away. In fact, it is the number one material reaching landfills in the United States. (1) That is enough to fill the Rose Bowl Stadium each day to the brim! (2)

Why should we care about wasted food?

#1: Of food grown in the United States, 40% never reaches anyone’s plate. (3)

#2: While we are throwing away more food than ever in human history, 14% of Americans are food insecure, meaning they don’t get enough food to live active, healthy lifestyles. (4)

#3: 13% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the lifecycle of food! (5)

#4: Growing food in the U.S. accounts for 10% of the total energy budget, 50% of land, and 80% of all freshwater consumed3. By throwing away an apple or a piece of pizza, we also waste all of the resources (pesticides, water, fertilizer, etc.) that went into growing, manufacturing, and distributing the food.

#5: Wasted food is estimated to cost the United States $165 billion per year which is equivalent to the GDP of the Ukraine3.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), if wasted food were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of GHGs in the world, behind China and the United States6. And, we aren’t just wasting banana peels and peach pits! Of the 1.6 billion tonnes of food wasted globally each year, 1.3 billion tonnes is edible. (6)

While I worked at the Environmental Protection Agency as a regional food waste expert, I witnessed many things that made me realize now is the time to combat the waste of food.  I saw several tons of untouched canned soup that had been improperly labeled and was destined for the landfill. I saw perfectly edible food in the trash cans of restaurants and grocery stores. And, I saw produce thrown away or left on the farm because it was too small, not round enough, or not expected to last three months in refrigerated trucks. I do not cast blame on any of these actors, but rather call on all of us to make a cultural and policy shift to value food rather than waste it. I do not know the answer, but I do know it will take all of us to fix this global food waste epidemic.

It doesn’t matter if the food we grow is organic, local, non-GMO, or [insert any other adjective] if we waste it. So, next time you take out your trash, think about what is inside your trash bag and ways you can reduce your waste. If you need, I am always around to dig through your trash for you! And remember, food is too good to waste!

Sources: 
(1) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts and Figures (EPA 530-R-13-001). Washington, DC.
(2) Bloom, Jonathan. (2011). American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Half Its Food. 
(3) Gunders, D. (2012). Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill. Natural Resources Defense Council.  
(4) U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013). Household Food Security in the United States in 2012. Washington, DC. 
(5) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2009). Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices (EPA 530-R-09-017). Washington, DC.
(6) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2013). Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources.

The views expressed here belong solely to the author of this entry and are not representative of the position of the Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley.

By Jess Reilly

When I landed in Kansas in 2009 as part of a Visioning committee for the Kansas Scenic Byways, I was brought there to help the state develop nature, cultural, and active travel along their scenic backroads. I conducted nine stakeholder meetings throughout the state and was privileged to be part of a process of input and evaluation with hundreds of people committed to sustainable development of their communities.

Gene and Mary are fifth generation farmers in Kansas. All five of their kids have returned to work on the farm.

However, in 2013, Kansas representative Dennis Hedke has proposed legislation to remove all language of “sustainable development” from any Kansas projects.

It would be easy to assume that Hedke’s views represented the rural populations in Kansas. When I asked my peers, I realized that very few young people from the coasts spend much time in the physical heart of the U.S., and rarely had anyone strayed from the interstate. But I was also among the ranks of cross-country drivers who had gripped the wheel and prayed to not fall asleep traversing the state. Working in Kansas changed my impressions of a landscape that is neither homogenous in politics nor terrain. I had a hard time imagining the draw of Kansas for a traveler seeking adventure, but I could not have been more wrong.

Yes, this is Kansas!

Kansas is quite magical, with or without sparkly red shoes. The nostalgia is palpable, the beauty is nonchalant, and the past whistles in the tall (switch)grass. For example, I stood in a cave where Dull Knife hid with 100 women and children when the Cheyenne tribe fled from their reservation in Oklahoma and tried to reach Canada. The view is hauntingly the same as in 1878.

In Alma, Kansas, I walked into a bakery and bought cookies on the honor system. I laughed over the best coconut cream pie on earth (this is confirmed) in Dover, and sat at a long community table and ate brownies with a feisty group of elder ladies at the weekly quilting bee in Ellinwood. On the 60,000 acres of wetlands along the Wetlands and Wildlife Byway, more than half of all the shorebirds that migrate east of the Rocky Mountains pass through annually, not to mention endangered whooping cranes. Here, Kansas pioneers shot the waterfowl out of the sky with a cannon, back when birds used to “blacken the sky.”

Just sit back and enjoy the homemade brownies, dearie.

Barry Jones searches the endless skies and wetlands for some of the most rare birds on earth.

A Kansas farmer on the Smoky Valley byway identified all the grasses and dried flowers on the roadside while native switchgrass swooshed at our feet, soon to be harvested for biofuel. He also showed me ground that had never been plowed—too much limestone. As a result, bison wallows remain. These shallow dishes in the rocky earth are all that linger of the millions of buffalo that roamed freely over the short-grass prairie and slept on the plains. Standing in a hole carved by generations of resting bison was eerie and deeply moving.

David shows me the fuel of the future.

Kansas’ new political “redness” contrasts with the tough, practical, and resilient people I met with throughout its rural communities. Consequently, I find it difficult to reconcile Hedke’s legislation with all of the voices I heard throughout the state. The sky is huge in Kansas and I met many people with the vision to match it.

The same grit needed to build a life on the frontier is required in the new battle for sustaining rural communities in a changing world—and we are now more connected and are able to amass our voices in dissent. Even as our population in the US becomes increasingly urban, we can support rural communities with our individual actions, such as low-impact tourism, signing petitions, keeping a watchful and active eye on our representatives, and giving time, energy, and action to organizations that fight to support rural communities and their economic viability.

I can promise you, the people of Kansas are worth standing with.

Walking strong with Kansas.

You can read about Jess’ research, living on a sailboat, and all her adventures in between at jessreilly.com.

Written by Jess Goddard

Pre-monsoon days in the city of Dharwad are peppered with the rhythmic honks, beeps and stops of barreling buses, autos, cars, motorbikes, parades and swarms of people rushing to work or to the market. Spending three months last summer for field research in central Kannada, the daily buzz of life in India transformed from the jarring whirlwind of my first week - 40°C traffic maze, an obstacle course– to a steady, deliberate hum of humanity, existing. This is indeed a poetic rendering, but my perception of the noise, heat, and busy streets truly changed, and I began to love what the street symphony of life in India actually echoed: kids whizzing by, 12 to an auto, backpacks bulging but perfectly oriented, from the rickshaw doors; boys herding buffalo throughout the unconstructed, green patches of land in the city; the hours of cooking – rolling roti, pressure cooking rice, sautéing okra, capsicum, eggplant, spices, spices, and more spices; the deep, cultural connection of most people to their family, their religion, and to India.

This impression is not unique where India is concerned in the blogosphere. Many a traveler pass through this enormous, history and culturally dense place with visions to be revised, expectations that turn inside out, and notions that fall flat as fictions after just one night in the coach car rail. The railroads are veins of lifeblood in India, connecting the smallest towns to the world’s largest cities, and they seem to shape the experience of all that they carry. While I swallowed the guilt of my cinematic romanticism, the moment I jumped onboard the first train to visit our colleague’s family home in Davanagere, scenes of Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson’s brilliant film set some 2,500km north of where I actually was) flooded what was forming as memory—the enormous insulated bags carrying home cooked meals for the long journey ahead; the smell of samosas, dosas, and the sound of chai wallahs singing their hot spiced milk tea; and of course the rainbow of textures and colors flowing around me. There are no dull moments on the trains save for the late hours on overnight sleeper car rides, where solo travelers are treated like guests by traveling families. Being poorly prepared without a carry-on meal (though slightly excited to try the suspect train food) on another journey for 24 hours between Hubli and Ahmedabad, families around me quickly filled up plates of food and fed me until I was too full to imagine ever eating again. I stared for hours on end at a countryside whose red soil and palm trees slowly morphed into the drier and less tropical north-west. The land seemed limitless and empty despite holding over 1.2 billion people, until I realized I had been staring at farmland for nearly the entire journey – the earth-pantry for 1/6th of our planet!

Farming pushes forward using alternate irrigation sources (wastewater and borewells) during a weak monsoon season in Southern India in 2012. Photo Credit: Sharada Prasad CS

Much of this farmland is dependent on the freshwater from yearly monsoons, but the weak rains of 2012 made it clear that farmers reliant on the monsoons for freshwater irrigation were going to suffer. Agricultural production in the country was vulnerable to extreme uncertainty around when and why annual precipitation was 12% below average, a rate that when scrutinized month to month and by region reached percentages as high as 70% in July for the Punjab region. The WMO anticipated that climate change will increase the erratic nature of draughts – having effects from the micro to macro scale (food prices increased 7% between April and July 2012 primarily in response to high grain prices, crops severely affected by global draughts). Returning to the U.S. in mid-August to a similar state of draught-induced fear for food prices and farmer livelihood after the hottest year on record across the U.S., the reality of our global connectedness and the consequent unified environmental impact felt more heightened than ever.

Let’s hope and work towards renewed consciousness and stronger environmental policy for 2013. Keep your eyes and ears well tuned on ERG’s blog and with some great voices in the blogosphere on the climate and environment subject: Guardian’s Environment, NYT’s Green, Orion Magazine’s blog, Real Climate, Climate Progress, Grist, Environmental Graffiti.