I Am Still Alive

PokeLondon recently built an arduino-based physical interface for twitter (and a web app) that lets bakers quickly tweet about what’s fresh. It’s a great-looking device and a good idea.

“Everyone knows the best time to get your baked goods is when they’re fresh out the oven. So we figured that this could be a killer use of Twitter. Letting followers know that fresh goodies are ready right now. But bakeries don’t want laptops or phones lying around in the kitchen. Flour, eggs and technology don’t mix so well.

So we built BakerTweet.

It’s a bespoke piece of hardware (with Arduino-based guts) that allows our friends at Albion across the road to select what’s just been baked and ping the relevant Twitter message to local customers. Meaning that you can time your trips to Albion to pick up the freshest freshness. We’re pulling together a ‘how we did it’ post for all you geeky types to check out. Just give us a day or two…”

One measure of the absurdity of the system: Every year you, the American taxpayer, send me a check for $588 in exchange for me not growing crops on timberland I own in Oregon (I forward the money to a charity). That’s right. The Agriculture Department pays a New York journalist not to grow crops in a forest in Oregon…

The most powerful signal Mr. Obama could send would be to name a reformer to a renamed position. A former secretary of agriculture, John Block, said publicly the other day that the agency should be renamed “the Department of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.” And another, Ann Veneman, told me that she believes it should be renamed, “Department of Food and Agriculture.” I’d prefer to see simply “Department of Food,” giving primacy to America’s 300 million eaters.

As Mr. Pollan told me: “Even if you don’t think agriculture is a high priority, given all the other problems we face, we’re not going to make progress on the issues Obama campaigned on — health care, climate change and energy independence — unless we reform agriculture.”

Mark Bittman on overfishing and farm-raised fish.

“These smaller fish are eaten not only by the endangered fish we love best, but also by many poor and not-so-poor people throughout the world. (And even by many American travelers who enjoy grilled sardines in England, fried anchovies in Spain, marinated mackerel in France and pickled or raw herring in Holland – though they mostly avoid them at home.)

But the biggest consumers of these smaller fish are the agriculture and aquaculture industries. Nearly one-third of the world’s wild-caught fish are reduced to fish meal and fed to farmed fish and cattle and pigs. Aquaculture alone consumes an estimated 53 percent of the world’s fish meal and 87 percent of its fish oil. (To make matters worse, as much as a quarter of the total wild catch is thrown back – dead – as “bycatch.”)

“We’ve totally depleted the upper predator ranks; we have fished down the food web,” said Christopher Mann, a senior officer with the Pew Environmental Group.”

OUT OF THE BOX Josh Levine, 33, a Manhattan real estate broker who hopes to start a community farm, harvesting tomatoes as a volunteer at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett.

Josh in the Times! Another article about city folk putting down the briefcase and taking up the plow. Somewhat similar article here

The Pot-in-Pot system consists of two pots, a smaller earthenware pot nestled within another pot, with the space in between filled with sand and water. When that water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the smaller pot, in which vegetables and fruits can be kept. In rural Nigeria, many farmers lack transportation, water, and electricity, but one of their biggest problems is the inability to preserve their crops. With the Pot-in-Pot, tomatoes last for twenty-one days, rather than two or three days without this technology. Fresher produce can be sold at the market, generating more income for the farmers.