Processing Food

My roommate gave me a link to this food processing video. The footage was taken from a chicken processing plant in Germany. It's nearly a 10-minute long video, and parts of it are graphic, but I'd encourage you to watch it, just so that you may see how mechanized our food processing has become. It becomes apparent in the video that raising chickens for food markets has become a mostly-automated process, with little direct human contact involved.


On a related note, I hope you have been following the local news story involving Quality Pork Processors in Austin, MN. Here's a link to a New York Times piece discussing the neurological disease 12 employees at the meat processing plant contracted after inhaling or ingesting aerosolized pig brains. Apparently, the QPP uses compressed air hoses to liquefy pigs' brains in the plant, and workers operating those hoses (or near the equipment) suffered from an "immunologic reaction" caused by the inhalation or ingestion of brain matter.

Final Reflections

I’d like to begin my final reflection by writing about my personal experience in the past month, from beginning to end, with my blog. I find the concept of a ‘blog’ to be fascinating. Online, each individual blog is intensely personal—overwhelmingly they represent the viewpoints of a single author. Some are compiled by groups of writers, some are maintained by organizations, but even in these circumstances the blog is often a conglomeration of relatively homogenous perspectives. Yet, unlike its predecessors, private journals, letters, and daily logs, blogging is a public exercise in introspection. A person’s blog posts are available for access by the largest readership that has ever existed.

When I began writing on my interim blog, Green Con, I expressed my wonder at the sheer quantity of information that was passing through the millions blog sites on the Internet every day. In my month of blogging, that amazement has not diminished. The knowledge that there are thousands of writers posting at every hour of the day—well, let’s just say that trying to visualize the enormity of the blogosphere is a stretch for anyone’s imagination. The end result of the compilation of these thousands of personal accounts in the realm of blogging is a vast electronic discussion that intersects and diverges on a number of topics.

To be frank, the vastness of the blogosphere intimidated me at first. I was a newcomer to the realm of blogging; I had read a few LiveJournal blogs that my friends kept while they were on studies abroad, but that was about it. Will I be saying anything new? How do I draw readers in? What happens if I get noticed? What if someone holds me accountable for an opinion I give on my blog?

Suffice it to say that I had a lot of concerns. Yet, each one of those concerns was outweighed by the excitement that I had when I began blogging. Looking back on it, with 18 posts behind me, I can say that Green Con was a fascinating first experience. Setting up my blog template was terrifically entertaining. It’s like designing your own home. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I had a great time calling all the shots with the template of the blog, and I’m proud of how the aesthetics turned out. Even so, I’m always looking for ways to improve it.

The content was a little trickier to master than the template, and I’d like to turn now to a discussion of my posting process, and some problems that I encountered with it.

So, how did I go about choosing a small selection of environmental blogs to monitor out of the online miasma of personal diaries, news blogs, photo blogs, video blogs, and professional blogs? Choosing which blogs to review was actually the hardest and most crucial stage in the development of my blog. Prior to choosing my “research blogs,” I had very little familiarity with any environmental blogs. I didn’t know what to expect, nor did I know what I was looking for.

In this part of my blog planning, the tracking website Technorati was of great help. Technorati’s “Blog Authority” measuring tool allowed me to select blogs based on how many sites have referenced that specific blog by posting links to it. For example, TreeHugger currently has an authority of 7,787, which means that nearly 7,787 other blogs have referenced TreeHugger in articles on their websites. My blog, on the other hand, has an authority of 0.

Technorati merely helped me narrow the field with my choices, however. It was by no means the only criteria I took into account when I picked my blogs. I also looked at the credentials of the writers/creators of each blog, the content of each blog, the awards that blog has received, and the mission statement of each blog (if they had one). Many blogs included an “About” page that was very helpful in determining the quality of the website. Finally, I hoped to include a variety of perspectives in my research list, so I purposefully sought out blogs that I felt represented different facets of the “green” conversation.

My selection process seemed sound enough on paper, but it led to a few unforeseen complications. Over the course of the past month, I've come to realize that, though choosing blogs that have disparate areas of coverage may provide me with a variety of perspectives, I can't expect each individual blog to always have relevant articles concerning the research topics I've chosen. The variety that I tried to cultivate in my research selection meant that I was stymied 11 different occasions when I was attempting to run an issue analysis on a specific blog. On those occasions, I was forced to turn to another source, hazard a guess at the blog’s stance, or (even worse) write nothing at all. My “Presidential Hopefuls: the Sequel” entry was particularly disastrous for its lack of conclusive results. I was even forced to drop one of my original selections because I decided it didn’t have the sort of coverage I was looking for in a research blog.

At the end of the month, I tried to rectify this problem by choosing an issue, and then only writing summaries for the blogs that I believed would have pertinent information for me, but that’s not really a solution at all. I think the only way I could’ve corrected this issue would be to change the way I selected my research blogs in the first place. Rather than picking them on merit, I should’ve selected a set of blogs that demonstrated a degree of topical similarity (i.e. had similar areas of coverage).

This is, at best, a catch-22; choosing blogs that were homogenous in their coverage would not have adequately represented the different facets of the environmental blogosphere, but only one segment of it. Maybe a segmented approach is the best I can hope for when attempting an issues analysis.

Before I move on to the next part of my essay, I should also address the issue of accountability with regard to blogging. Since the project began I have, to the best of my ability, made my methodology transparent for readers. I felt that this was important for my blogging, since blogs often are criticized for being inaccurate or opinionated. I felt that it was important for my readers to know how I came to my conclusions, every step of the way. It was also imperative that I include links to each of the articles I used when running an issue analysis on the research blogs. I feel that this was one area where Green Con was tremendously successful. Even this self-evaluation is a component in the accountability and transparency of my project.

Most of my conclusions for the project were ongoing during January, and were posted in my blog, so to close my essay I want to talk a bit about my aspirations for Green Con. Establishing a network and building a readership base has been very rewarding for me. I also think the research that I conducted through Green Con has broadened my understanding of the issues underlying environmentalism. For example, I knew nothing about cellulosic ethanol, nor the problems that ethanol production was causing for food prices worldwide.

For the aforementioned reasons, I’ve decided to continue Green Con, albeit in a different format. Two weeks ago, I realized that what I was writing about on my blog would also make a great introduction to the realm of environmental blogging, for those who were unfamiliar with it.

I now want to take part in the same conversation that I attempted to summarize on this blog; I want to serve as a gateway, because I think it takes very little effort on the part of the individual to reduce energy consumption and make green lifestyle changes, and maybe knowing where to look will make all the difference.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone that has helped me with this project, especially my advisor, Brett Werner. I’d also like to thank the Will Steger Foundation for giving me an opportunity to write an action story for them, Focus the Nation and Northfield.org for linking me to their websites, and everyone who took a bit of time to visit my site!

Green Living

I'm doing things a little differently with this issues analysis. At the beginning of this term when I chose my 11 research blogs, I tried to compile a list of blogs that represented different facets of the environmental conversation. I imagined that the various areas of coverage each blog maintained would give me a well-rounded research group, and provide me with plenty to discuss in my posts.
Over the course of the past month, I've come to realize that, though choosing blogs that have disparate areas of coverage may provide me with a variety of perspectives, I can't expect each individual blog to always have relevant articles concerning the research topics I've chosen.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this occurred during my "Presidential Candidates" analysis, when I discovered that not one, but several blogs did not have any pertinent articles that I could cite in my write-up. This left me with a couple of gaping holes in my analysis. Here I was, trying to present a complete summary of my research blogs' discussions concerning the 2008 election, and a number of my chosen blogs weren't even hosting discussions regarding that topic. True, a lack of specific coverage can be significant in its own way (more on that later), but it hindered my ability to provide a full overview of each blog's stance.

This last topic is an attempt to fill those gaping holes. This time, instead of choosing an "across-the-board" issue that will get me the best results on the most blogs, I've selected several blogs that I feel were underutilized in my previous analyses, and chosen an issue that corresponds best with their areas of coverage. As a result, I will not be running an issues analysis on all of my 11 research blogs. Instead, I'll only be doing a write-up on five selected blogs.

The issue I've chosen is a specific aspect of green consumerism. Many environmentalists advocate reduced consumption, but some bloggers believe that global warming can be defeated (at least in part) by consumerism and market-driven forces. The mass appeal of green products is growing every day. This drive has given rise to a phenomenon known as 'green chic'--environmental high style, which is intent on increasing market demand for green products. From my understanding, it's a bit like the chicken and egg scenario.

There's no question as to whether "style" influences green products. So I've decided to take a look at what products EcoGeek, The Lazy Environmentalist, TreeHugger, Grist, and EcoStreet are showcasing. I think a discussion of these products will necessarily reflect on some of the market trends behind the concept of 'green chic'.

• EcoGeek: It turns out that the EcoGeek really loves his cars, which is great, because I think a discussion of motor vehicles is a perfect place to start my analysis of green style. Americans love their performance automobiles--a car, after all, is more than a car, it's a status symbol. So its pretty obvious that alternative fuel automobile-makers have been trying to break into the high-end automobile market. For the past few years, it seems that any successes have been on a (very) limited scale. For example, GM recalled their EV1 battery-operated vehicle in 2003, after the company determined the car was no longer financially viable. Enter EcoGeek, which has been reporting on the industry's attempt to rejuvenate the high-end green car market recently with these articles.
  
• The Lazy Environmentalist: TLE is a literally a goldmine for green chic, which makes perfect sense, given that part of Mr. Dorfman's modus operandi is to introduce readers and listeners to "cutting-edge, eco-friendly products and services" Since Dorfman is the owner of a green furniture company, I started my investigation there. Yeah, yeah, I know that Vivavi's website hardly qualifies as Dorfman's 'blog', but since he linked the two websites so intricately, I decided that in this case my infractions could be forgiven. Anyway, check out some of this really pricey, but green, furniture. Dorfman is really banking on the idea that green-minded consumers will shell out some extra cash for eco-friendly furniture. Dorfman's company also donates 1% of their profits to environmental NGOs, which is a little extra enticement for green shoppers.
• TreeHugger: The venerable blog Treehugger has a number of different links for fashionably-inclined environmentalist. They have helpful tips for shoppers to take into consideration, and link green retailers to their website. Their "How to go Green" section is particularly well-done; it's a whole series of articles featuring practical green consumer alternatives. As far as 'green chic' goes, Treehugger has more or less dedicated another whole section to it. The Fashion and Beauty section even has short interviews with "eco-models." How's that for green chic?
• Grist: Like Treehugger, Grist has a lot of relevant articles on green clothing fashions. If you want a little sample of some of their discussion points, check out the article on Natalie Portman's vegan shoe line, or (my personal favorite) this short write-up on the impending doom of the fashion industry. This article on 'Fashion with a conscience' is also interesting.
• EcoStreet: EcoStreet has some really great articles on green gadgetry, but they also have their fair share of fashion-related posts on their blog, as well. Check out this post on "2008's Most Desirable Eco-Gadgets"--I think the speakers that are made out of 100% recyclable material are my personal favorite. Here's another cool article on some artsy low-energy light bulbs, and if you want more, this article on eco-Wi-fi might work. I think EcoStreet and EcoGeek prove that green consumerism has even permeated the tech industry.
  

Toyota vs. Fresno

Some of you may have heard about this already, since it happened back in November, but I thought it was worth posting about. Toyota Motor Corporation called Fresno, California, a "low-budget tourist stop" in one of its recent Prius commercials. Well, apparently Fresno residents--and California Senator Dianne Feinstein--objected to the derogatory treatment of the city (surprise, surprise) got Toyota to pull the ad and edit any mention of Fresno out of it. Even that move wasn't enough for some, however. A member of the Fresno City Council, Harry Perea, said he'd only forgive Toyota if the company built a Prius factory in Fresno.

Stealing Food

I know, I know, you're probably sick and tired of hearing about biofuel, but here's a little more food for thought. The rising price of food as a result of the biofuel market has concerned a number of humanitarians and environmentalists, but who thought those problems would manifest themselves so quickly in the heart of the U.S.? Check out this MSNBC news report about corn and grain thefts in western Kansas from January 14th.

Biofuel: Part 2

• Dot Earth: Although the New York Times has plenty to say about various biofuels, the jury seems to be out for Andrew Revkin, who did not comment on it personally. He linked a number of interesting articles to his blog, and while many of these articles do not pass a verdict on ethanol or other biofuels, they're worth reading. Here's one on the development of Hawaiian ethanol, another on cellulosic ethanol (which brief addresses some of the drawbacks of ethanol, but passes no opinions on the subject), and one last article on some of the lasting difficulties of introducing ethanol into the market.
• New Scientist: New Scientist's Environmental blog had little to say about biofuel, but their online magazine certainly hasn't been silent on the topic. It turns out that New Scientist has a lot of hope for switch grass. The perennial plant, which can live on marginal lands and needs very little fertilizer to survive, has been championed as the cleaner, less-intensive alternative to corn-based ethanol, is capable of producing 5.4 times as much energy when turned into cellulosic ethanol (which has been mentioned previously, but never fully explained in my blog). Anyway, take a look at this recent article. You have to subscribe to the magazine to get the full version, but I think those first couple of paragraphs get the point across quite nicely.
• Real Climate: Ok, so I was really hoping to find something in Real Climate that was ethanol related, because my last topic wasn't in their area of coverage. When I chose biofuel as my second analysis topic, I though Real Climate would have something on the blog about it, since deforestation for biofuel production is contributing to carbon emissions, which are definitely a climatic issue. Alas! Again, I wasn't able to find anything pertinent on their website, even though there's some great environmental coverage there!
• Eco-Street: Eco-Street, like The Lazy Environmentalist, is primarily consumerist in its orientation. As a result, most of their articles on biofuels, like this one on chocolate, tout the novelty of environmentally-related market innovations, rather than passing judgments on said innovations.
• De Smog Blog: The guys over at the De Smog Blog aren't big fans of ethanol, though they are willing to debate the efficacy of it. As for other biofuels? Well, they're pretty excited about switchgrass.
  

Biofuel

When I was planning my next issues analysis, I thought I might write about alternative energy. It’s one of the most talked-about environmental topics, and with good reason. Replacing fossil fuels with clean energy technologies in the U.S. will be, quite logically, very expensive. At the same time, there’s a lot of potential in solar, wind, and biofuel sources. For example, Dr. David Mills, the Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Ausra, a solar power manufacturer, estimates that all the energy needs of the U.S. can be met by a 92x92 sq. mile solar generator strategically placed in the southwest.

The more I looked at the topic, though, the more I became interested in one aspect of alternative energy. Namely, biofuel.

Using biofuel as a replacement/supplement for gasoline in the U.S. automotive fleet could be a near-term solution to global warming. By near-term, I mean that it could feasibly be implemented in the next few years on a widespread scale. Yet, ethanol, one type of biofuel, has come under increasing fire by environmentalists and other groups, who fear that the corn-based energy source suffers from an energy input-yield problem, and may endanger food supplies. David Pimental even went as far as to call the production of ethanol “unsustainable subsidized food burning."

So what does the realm of environmental blogging have to say about ethanol and other biofuels?

• Treehugger: Treehugger acknowledges that biofuels may have a role to play in battle royale against global warming, but has any number of reservations about it. According to their research in this article U.S. ethanol production accounted for 4% of the global increase in corn production in 2007. In 2004, ethanol production only accounted for roughly .33% of that increase. The writers at Treehugger question the economic rationality of that growth, and voiced concerns that biofuels were being poorly implemented. Treehugger is particularly concerned about the effects of biofuels in developing nations; here they argue that developing nations are well-suited to the production of corn or cellulosic biofuels, but that the deforestation stemming from the increasing biofuel production would offset the carbon emissions reduction caused by the widespread implementation of biofuel. Treehugger cited statistic in this article demonstrating that the production of palm oil for biofuel may currently "account for up to 8% of worldwide carbon emissions." Still, Treehugger remains cautiously optimistic about biofuel, and believes that if the alternative energy source were cut free from special interests, and developed on a limited and efficient scale, it could provide one source of fuel.
• EcoGeek: EcoGeek made a very interesting point in this article; we have been concentrating on producing a biofuel to power a vehicle, but what about using other green materials in the construction of said vehicle. For example, the article cites a car built by University of Warwick students that uses plant-based oil for a lubricant, and has "cashew nut shell brakepads." That is quite cool, if I don't say so myself. Novelty aside, EcoGeek is very negative about ethanol, but favors the production of cellulosic ethanol--a biofuel that is created from lignocellulose, which comprises the mass of plants. Using cellulosic ethanol could more than double yields, since most of the plant is converted into fuel, rather than just the starches or gluten. Currently, cellulosic ethanol is produced primarily through non-edible switchgrass. Another biofuel EcoGeek is putting stock in is butanol, a more energy dense, gasoline-like cousin to ethanol. Finally, EcoGeek had a really interesting report about the oil-giant, Shell, producing biofuel from algae, which would apparently clear up a lot of the land-use issues ethanol is being criticize for, since it would (logically) be produced in bodies of water.
• Worldchanging: My search for "biofuel" returned 256 related items on Worldchanging's blog. So, evidently they've put a lot of time and thought into this particular subject. Worldchanging shares a lot of the same concerns that TreeHugger expressed. From this article, it's clear that the blog doesn't support converting undisturbed land into cropland to support biofuel, but favors using 2nd-generation biofuel (which is effectively lignocelloluse). For a decent explanation of 2nd generation biofuels, check out this BBC article. Like TreeHugger, Worldchanging didn't toss ethanol and other energy-intensive biofuels out the window completely. Instead, Worldchanging's writers believe that ethanol, etc. needs on a sustainable scale in conjunction with other diversified energy sources. Also, thanks to Worldchanging, I discovered that people are apparently able to make a fish-oil based biofuel. This article on Worldchanging explains it all, but I guess more than 8 million gallons a year are produced in Alaska as a byproduct of fish processing plants, and the state uses it to power vehicles and generators in Denali National Park. Kudos to you, Alaska...

• Grist: Grist has a wonderfully convenient feature series on "biofuel" that has articles on everything; from the chemical construction of different biofuels to a list of prominent biofuel proponents they've got it all. Seriously, if you're interested at all in the biofuel debate, visit the above link; it explains so much. Anyway, endorsements aside, the writers at Grist have a number of reservations about biofuels. "But plant-derived fuel doesn't emerge from a vacuum. Crops must be cultivated, harvested, moved, and transformed -- processes that are hardly carbon neutral. And here is where the vast discrepancies cloaked by the term "biofuels" emerge," they stated in one of their articles. Also, Grist is the first website I've found that specifically mentioned the 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit on ethanol production in the U.S. For a full explanation of what a tax credit is, click on this Energy Star link--it's basically a direct tax reduction. Juxtapose that against the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff the U.S. tacks on to sugar cane ethanol from Brazil--which is a very efficient biofuel producer, nationally. Clearly there are quite a few special interest concerns wrapped up in this debate.
• The Lazy Environmentalist: The blogs I've reviewed so far appear to have reached somewhat of a consensus of biofuels, so I was hoping that, sooner or later, I'd run into someone with a different take on the matter. Enter Josh Dorfman, the author of Lazy Environmentalist. Though his blog doesn't feature any discussions on biofuel--at least not that I could find--his nationally-syndicated radio talk show has hosted a bevy of decidedly pro-ethanol speakers. In one day, on March 27, 2007, Dorfman spoke with Derrick Earles, the then-candidate for the a Louisiana state representative position. Take a look at his Earles' endorsement of ethanol here (scroll halfway down on that page to see it). Dorfman also spoke with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (their "Facts" page on ethanol is rather positive about widespread ethanol production). In this case, Dorfman's support seems unconditional; where many of my previous case studies expressed reservations about ethanol, he has not (to my knowledge) brought any ethanol critics on his radio show yet, nor expressed any reservations about the fuel source on his website.
• Green Options: GO also voiced concerns about ethanol and biofuel. For reference, take a look at this article on their website, which discusses some of the negative impacts the heavy fertilization of ethanol-producing corn growers could have on groundwater (not to mention the "Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico). Though GO is definitely on the negative end of the spectrum when it comes to ethanol, they're a little more warm-hearted in their cellulosic ethanol discussion, and even labeled it a "promising technology."