History 106: Assignment 4: What We Don't See

            Some people have come to accept and understand that the food they eat at a restaurant or buy conveniently at a grocery store came from a farm far away; they have acknowledged the fact that consumption of food impacts the world.  It is important for us to remember that nothing is exempt from this fact. We are consumers and when we go out to buy and consume a product, we often don’t know or bother to find out what impact that consumption has on our planet.  William Rees’ ecological footprint is “a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems” (Davis, “Think Local, Very Local (Your Ecological Footprint)”). Human demand encompasses food as well as everything else that we need or ‘demand’. As an example, we look at a pair of Timberland boots which have a larger ‘ecological footprint’ than the shoe size tag in them.
            We might think that the carbon footprint we leave behind is the amount of gas we consumed driving to the store, but Jeffrey Ball’s article Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints points out that the carbon-footprint of a pair of boots is about 121 pounds. Where did all this come from and how did it all come about? The cartoon provides a brief picture for our examination.

Question: Where did the carbon-footprint come from?

(click to enlarge)

            First, it may be shocking to know that less than 5% of the carbon-footprint was actually from transportation. While it was necessary for the product to become accessible to us, the larger portion of the footprint came from how the boots were made. Second, according to Ball, Timberland’s factory in China’s Guangdong province contributes only 8.5 pounds of the 121 total.  While the factories might be consuming coal in its production of the boots, they also only accounts for a fraction of the carbon footprint.
            The 112.5 pounds comes from the raw materials that go into the boots: rubber, ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA), and leather (Ball, n. pag). Of these raw materials, leather is the biggest factor mainly because of the cows.  Ball points to the methane the cows produce which is a more damaging  gas to the atmosphere and can add up to the equivalent of four tons of carbon dioxide.

Question: How did this carbon-footprint happen?

            The short answer is because we wanted something – demand.  Resources were spent to give us what we were willing to pay for. Due to the demand of the boots, producers were paid enough to pay farmers enough to provide cows and other raw materials.  Therefore to dig deeper to the ‘how’ carbon footprints like this happened, we actually need to look at ourselves and the source of our demand.

The source of our seemingly endless consumption can arguably be a fruit of the industrial revolution and a by product of the progression of energy regimes. The industrial revolution helped humans harness different energies for work and allowed production to increase thereby also increasing personal wealth. The world was also made smaller as both humans and goods can travel distances in shorter periods of time.

All these changes led to the convenience of being able to get anything we want as consumers almost immediately.  Our changed view of demand resulted in a market economy which “turned natural resources into commodities … [leading] people to think of natural goods in increasingly abstract and uniform terms” (Davis, “Modernity and the Environment”). When we see the Timberland boots, we don’t see what went into the boots; we see only that it is right in front of us. The price tag is only cost we have become concerned about.

Ball, Jeffrey. “Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints.” Wall Street Journal Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Davis, Brandon, et al. “Think Local, Very Local (Your Ecological Footprint).” History 106. Unit 1, Module   3. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. April 2. 2012. Online lecture.

Davis, Brandon, et al. “Modernity and the Environment” History 106. Unit 3, Module 6. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. April 4. 2012. Online lecture.

History 106 - Assignment 2: The Oil We Eat Blog

Hi reader!
I haven't been back here in a while but hopefully a school assignment maybe just what I need to get going. Hopefully my assignment can get you thinking about the food you eat as well.  I don't believe blogs should be long to read so I apologize in advance as this assignment requires me to be thorough. Here's how it shakes down:


"Blog our food consumption for 24 hours—reflect on the role of oil in its production (what’s in it and how was it produced?), delivery (where is it from and how did it get to you?), and packaging (what does/did it come in, and how was that produced)."  Also part of this assignment is an article by Richard Manning titled “The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq” which I will be referring to from time to time.


I thought it would be better to reflect on the meals I eat on average rather than picking a certain day. Snacks aside (since their not a regular part of my day) I will focus on the 3 meals I normally have: breakfast, lunch and dinner.


Breakfast
Food consumed: A bowl of oats, a fruit or two (apples and bananas) or a couple of hard boiled eggs.


The easiest I believe to track down would be the fruit. Seeing as my family doesn't buy it from a local farmers market, it probably travelled all the way from a tropical country like Mexico packed in freights. The eggs, I would like to think, came from somewhere closer. If President's Choice commercials are any reliable then I am consuming Canada grade A eggs which may be from the local farms in the province. This means a shorter travel time inside trucks.  The oats may just be from the USA but one thing I learned from the Manning article is that there usually is a lot of processing that goes behind it. Fortunately most of the processing in oatmeal is in the packaging. Their fairly minimal in terms of food processing, meaning they still could count as a whole food.


Lunch and Dinner

Chicken Adobo

Food consumed: Rice with some sort of stew, in this case chicken adobo (a Filipino marinated dish)


Why am I combining these two together? Because as a student on a budget, lunch usually consist of what was leftover from dinner. The rice my family normally buys is basmati brown rice. It's rice that is grown normally in India, Bangladesh or Pakistan. This means that the rice has been on a longer trip than I've ever been. Not a plus for me as a consumer but the rice I eat really travels. I hope that the chicken I ate made up for it.  Though I don't feed chickens in my backyard (as approved by the city of Vancouver), my ready to cook chicken likely and hopefully came from the same place my eggs came from, somewhere in BC.  The marinate I used is a simple mix of vinegar, ginger and soy sauce which may have done some travelling of their own either locally or all the way from China depending on the soy sauce brand.


Where's the oil? 
As Manning points out, we consume barrels of oil when we consume our food. No we don't drink oil but it is energy that we expend nonetheless.  Delivery, where oil is more obviously consumed due to transportation, has been covered above. While I have no idea how the food listen above is exactly produced (thanks to the supermarkets), we can take a look at packaging. 


My oats, and eggs were packed in paper/carton which may or may not be made of recycled material where a mill would have used oil to shape paper pulp into those containers. They then would have to be shipped to the oats and egg farms to be used for packaging. The fruits may have come as they are in the grocery store but like the oats and eggs they were boxed up in a cardboard box. 

Don't worry, we're not actually eating oil . Are we?

The chicken is only product that uses plastic. While I'm sure the plastic also used oil to produce, here's a stomach churning video of how chickens are packaged from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gywa-Yw-F78


If Manning is indeed correct, then I am consuming more than 30,000 calories of fossil fuel per day. Scary thought. Do the prices we pay for food reflect all this consumption? If it actually does then it explains why no one is more concerned with the environment.





Richard Manning, “The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq,” Harper’s Magazine, February 2004: 37-45.

The ball bounces right back

“Being a disciple on mission is primarily about learning to be like him – the witness we give is not really about being a miracle worker, but someone who can persevere and endure because he is rooted in trusting that the Father’s will is nothing but love." - Adelante reflections

This quote above is a very good reminder for all of us as it talks about something we often forget. For all of us trying to take our faith more seriously, the focus should be on "learning to be like him".  I believe this quote is even more important to those of us who are in outreach groups (university, church, work, community). 


"The witness we give..." and "...persevere and endure..." are phrases that really struck me when I first read it. As much as we would love to bring people to Christ through our outreaches, all we really should be are witnesses of Christ to others. 


A guy named James kept reminding our UCO to be pure. I realize now that by striving to be pure, we can be better witnesses to others and when that happens we can help them see Christ through us. If they join our outreach, great, if not then we pray that they are drawn to God in some way - planting a seed some might call it.  Though we may not see the fruits of our labour, we persevere and endure because that is really all we could do; God does the rest.  God's grace is the ultimate factor in this kind of work.


Lastly, I end by pointing out the hope which the quote reminds us: "the Father's will is nothing but love". That is hope for us, no matter what it is that God is calling us to do. That is hope that should help us say 'yes' when we are hesitant. That is hope that won't let us down.






PS. Confused about the title? Click on the link.

What I really want is...

Sometimes I would catch myself acting like a kid who would hug his parents because he knows their holding a wrapped box and he will only get it after the hug. OK maybe that's not the best example but I hope you can kind of get what I'm saying here. The question we must ask ourselves from time to time is "Is it truly the Lord I want or do I come to Him because of something that He's going to give me?" It's something that is quite subtle and one day, we just realize we've lost focused in our Christian journey.

You maybe like me and find yourself asking, "I'm not sure, am I in it for the blessings?" Well, truthfully, we can answer the question a different way. I thought of Job in the bible, what he went through and how he never turned from God.  I then ask myself: "I am so blessed by God, take away all these blessings, will I still stand firm in Him?" Of course the reactive answer is "Yes" but asking this question allows me to reflect on my relationship with the Lord and focus on Him. I find this pretty helpful regardless of what state I actually am.

Brothers and sisters, strive to know the Lord more, strive for that relationship with Him. Desire Him and only Him and I'm sure you'll find growth. When your looking for Him, you will find Him; "ask, and it will be given to you..."(Matthew 7:7)

"There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you seek, but only what He can give you" -OC

Life Beyond Life.

...more than gold.

"Success,  notoriety, affection, future plans, entertainment, satisfying work, health, intellectual stimulation, emotional support - yes, even spiritual progress - none of these can be clung to as if they are essential for survival. Only as you let go of them can you discover the true freedom your heart most desires. "

When I read this in Nouwen's book, I immediately thought of the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl. It is, as always, easier said than done but it does make sense that we should cling only to God.  Dying to self and finding life in God - Matthew 10:39.

Near the final chapters, Nouwen says that "finding treasure without being ready yet to fully own it will make you restless. This is the restlessness of the search for God. It is the way to holiness."  Dear reader, let us be ready, let us be watchful of these things that try to own our hearts, and let us embrace the restlessness. Take your restlessness as a sign that God is calling you to grow deeper in Him.  At the same time we shouldn't worry about who we should become or we fail trust God and miss what He is doing right now.

I don't know about you but I'm trying to digest all this and I am quite overwhelmed.  It is a hard call which we are to follow but it probably wouldn't be worth doing if it wasn't. We can't be afraid to do hard things. Doing hard things is something I normally shy away from but I'm constantly working to right that. I pray that you can also be fearless in the face of hardship.

"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great." - Tom Hanks

*Last post on Henri Nouwen's book which I started 40days ago.

Loneliness. Weakness. Darkness.

Throughout the next few journal entries, Nouwen clearly shows the dark times that he is experiencing. As I read, the entries become more emotional and a lot of them emphasize the loneliness, weakness and darkness of a person.  Now why is this important? 

I believe that in each and everyone of us there is an area of gloom, that space that longs for love, strength and light.  This place is where Nouwen says God is, where God can be found. We have to feel really helpless and find ourselves wanting before we realize to whom we really need to turn to. When I reflect on this, what comes to mind is God asking "Do you trust Me?".  Often I would say 'yes' but find myself actually doing something that says 'no', usually leading to sin. 

When we are afraid of the loneliness, weakness and darkness we try to run from it and/or fill it with things we think  will be the solution. We try everything until we give up and eventually say "Yes Lord, have it Your way". The best part: God doesn't say "I told you so". He welcomes us with open arms. 

The lesson? Find peace in your darkness, lift up your loneliness to God and let Him be glorified in your weakness. 

"We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God's blessings means." - O.C.

Baseball.

[You might be thinking "Hey, this guy's off topic with his blog". Our walk with God involves different things in our lives.]

This is a shout out to the return of baseball, which I have to admit has a way of captivating me in a way I don't know how. It's just catching and throwing, hitting a small ball and occasional running in which you step on bases called 'bags' and 'plate'. What is it about this game that can get you hooked? There's no body checking or some guaranteed offence, and some would argue that it is pretty slow paced. Yet, if I was asked which sport I enjoy following most, I might just say baseball. Perhaps you readers could help me solve why baseball is so captivating. How did it become, America's favourite pastime?

I play basketball and love the sport and being a Canuck I'm crazy about hockey. With baseball, I'm so proficient (fastball that tops at 40mph probably but it's ok I change speeds and throws all my pitches with knuckball like effects - God clearly did not call me to be a ball player), I just watch the games (mostly the Jays). So I, myself, am shocked that I would say baseball is what I follow and probably get excited about most.

Just to be a bit more clear, I'm just saying baseball is the sport I am most captivated by, doesn't mean it's also my favourite. If I were to rank my top 3 sports based on love of the game (both as a fan and a player) it would be (1) Basketball, (2) Baseball, (3) Hockey. What would your top 3 be?

Have a good spring readers. See you at the ballpark!

No game in the world is as tidy and dramatically neat as baseball, with cause and effect, crime and punishment, motive and result, so cleanly defined.  ~Paul Gallico (from: http://www.quotegarden.com/baseball.html)