There’s so much going on, thanks to everyone who is working on this movement right now.
Keep the good times coming this October 24th, International Day of Climate Action.

Perhaps you’ve seen the news coming up in your feed, but find some Boston action here:
http://theleadershipcampaign.org/participate/
350.org/ is Beautiful today. An inspiration, truly.
Here’s the list of events going on in Boston: http://www.350.org/action-list?country=us&city=boston

There’s a new world order, and it works around the number 350. More than just a number, it’s the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere that we need to achieve by the end of the century. It’s a challenging call to action, seeing as we’re already at 387. We need to stop emitting CO2, and start taking it out of the air in our farms and cities. Clean electricity is a solution, as is reducing the amount each of us use. Hopefully, all of us working on this will be enough to make a difference.

I feel today is an inspirational tipping point in a lot of ways. To the people who are working on the ground, ready to put themselves on the line; to the politicians who are talking about how much we need new legislation; to the economists and scientists who know it’s necessary; Thanks. To the reader thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing. Keep posted for more from around Boston!
-Eddie Miller
Boston University ‘10
440-935-5434

http://www.350.org/
http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

The inspiration for this post is as a response to the general feeling of social malaise that a lot of people see in America right now. Not the recession per se, but it’s the changing of a larger cultural pattern. I’m arguing that there’s been a new moral, social and intellectual code forming that governs America, and that the solution is filled by new sustainability. Living things, resurgent connection, the environmental and financial sustainability movement. Feel me? I’ve been writing about this theory for a while, let’s see if it comes out coherent. The story is that influences of the age of tyranny and mass murder, are changing how people feel, which is accelerated and driven by the forces of technology.

During the Cold War, the idea of an oppressive force dominated American politics and popular culture. There was an enemy out there, and so we had to be wary and strong because of it. In a zero-sum world, power means a lot, and a revolutionary dictatorship is a threat to national sovereignty. In general and up through the nineties, people were afraid. It’s a culture of depression that makes more of itself. Ever since the brief light of the hippyism time period and since then, there’s a search for an intellectual and social code to live by, and it involves democracy capitalism consumerism oil dependence, our leaders decisions and all of us. Sometimes politics gave that meaning to the American people, such as the mass hysteria over communism that all our parents grew up with (Next post). But it’s not a coherent set of ideals; it’s not sustainable. The argument here is that there’s a “lost guide” during these last few decades, in which we’ve lived by capitalism alone to solve material problems and give meaning to life. Expanding freedoms, expanding standard of living sure, but an economy must have a moral start and a moral end. This is a distinction that is made in a few landmark books, including Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence, Lila, and Classic American books such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Finding Forrester, and The Big Sort by Bil Bishop. The moral consequences of Economic Growth are not obvious unless one spends some time on it, but it’s devaluing and weighs on you in the long run.

To back my point, let’s look at some of the consequences of this growth. In a word, thin democracy. Business as usual. Sleeping industries that do not serve the real needs of the people. Externalities, “platypuses” that our business/political/cultural vocabulary can’t address. And our Earth certainly can’t take it. Neither can our economy, with financial crisis looming over the American way of life. (Future post) But we can’t escape the economy, so we thought, and we are what we’ve created. From this dominant culture mindset, it’s only possible to play along and be a part. A gear in the running collapse of growth economics. And with more of our kids on depression medications than ever before, it’s obvious the powers that be would have the system continues. Restoration involves first realizing that something is lost. In America, this something is community, common culture, political involvement, nature, our good health and common sense. Restoring these will require a new sense of self, or a trip through recession in a game of name-calling, blame and depression. Ultimately though, we must recognize mutual accountability for these effects.

There’s an odd and unique convergence of factors happening today. At the frontlines, Frances Lappe highlights four factors that are creating an engine for rapid social change. This change is value-guided, learning-based, rapid and automatic.

First is a communications-knowledge revolution. “Access to knowledge–and with it our power– helps to dissolve the scarcity paradigm” (Getting a Grip 64). This distribution network tool is the internet, where we now publish our own news and share insights of what is going on. “Candidates no longer control the message.” Think blogs, cell phone videos, podcasts, and YouTube. Telling the truth is getting easier, transparancy is the new norm.
Second, this is a networking revolution. Groups are working better together, and on a common platform. for a glimpse into one attempt at defining this platform, view: http://oneearth.org/.
Third, is the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. In history, this wasn’t so. Now, even a poor asian worker in a slum has rights, and people reaching out to aid the betterment of his family. This doesn’t come from just politics or the economy.. (I’ve studied how they might, but it takes a special solution for that, a cultural change).
Finally, it’s an ecological revolution. An awareness that “away” doesn’t mean gone is the biggest thing that a person can realize, because it changes his or her actions. “Us and the butterflies are in this together,” “There is no chicken there is no egg” and most importantly that interconnectedness starts in our own backyard are all messages from the field of Ecology.

These four factors represent an odd convergence, and indeed, one that if just analyzed at the physical level might miss the commonality. If you’re still with me, let’s go deeper.

The moral cause of these changes is a changing expectation. Truth, culture, value.. these ideas that go to the core of us. It’s not just living in our planet, it’s loving the world for what it is: a shining new moral code to fill the chasm of what our faith in Economics has done to us. What E.O Wilson (Small is Beautiful) means when he says “most of the rest of life, and part of what it means to be a human being.” Bill McKibben identifies it as “the moment when the essential character of the world we’ve known … is changing.” (The End of Nature). That’s enlightenment. Influences from the age of tyranny and mass murder are changing how people feel, which is accelerated and driven by forces of technology. The “how people feel” part is what’s driving the change. A change of intellectual codes, so different than history. It encompasses Native American spiritual values, those of Buddhism and the great Eastern religions, the All-mighty Tao te Ching. What fills you at this time I can’t say, but escape is natural and the space around it is what you’re looking for. That’s enlightenment. From Frances Moore Lappe: “In a world torn apart by sectarian division, could Living Democracy become a uniting civic vision complementing our religious and spiritual convictions– a nonsectarian yet soul-satisfying pathway out of the current morass?” (Getting a Grip). I think that the simple fact of environmental awareness causes a dynamic change that unites a diverse group of people in new and gripping ways that cause real change. So different from history: the idea when a change in values, expectations and technology accelerates a dynamic world.

What does this mean?

It means a moral obligation to act. If this world and our old moral code is crashing down along with it, something’s got to go. Activism, or “restorative entrepreneurs” (there’s room for both) will make sure that our children will have a future free from resource poverty, war over water, cyclical depression, overpopulation in urban areeas, and lowering (or “propped up”) health standards. If you’ve considered it, now is the time to work to improve our world. I’ve included some links to get started. But basically, the cool thing about this post is that I give the grounds not just for personal action, but even going along in the direction of the supermarket/email inbox/online news will get you there. Inspiring small changes how you can may be the best way to get there. It’s cool to do it! Just bring other people to my post http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/visions-of-a-new-moral

How to improve society that you can implement now.
1. Maintain your personal health (nature, and food, and time have positive effect).
2. Become more frugal with the things you think you need (conserves resources, debt, and is actually proven to make you happier).
3. Be a native of your place. This means to create community with an event or horn honk or calling up a friend to just talk.
4. We must lower our global fertility. Consider having less than or equal to two kids.

+ a Take-Home message from Frances Moore Lappe.
Q: So what do these differences and the speed of change in behavior tell us?
A: “That this is culture, not fixed aspects of human nature. And since we create culture through our daily choices, then we do, each of us, wield enormous power.” Interview with the Huffington Post, 2008-9

Sources:
From the sustainability movement Native American code of Morals, Bill McKibben, Jules Pretty, EF Schumaker, Bill Bishop, Robert T. Pirsig, Frances Moore Lappe. From the news Barack Obama, Fox News, CNN.com, the New York Times, the Economist, the writings of History, World War 2, Marx and Lenin. Che Guevara, Mao. From philosophy The Art of Power by Tchich nat Hanh, Lila: An inquiry into Value, Kant: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Moral views to restore the World and bring a Sustainable Future (need exact title), the immortal Tao te Ching.

Former related posts:
Happiness Theory
Cultivate a Worldview
Change to the Masses

Home

The most interesting area in my line of research that’s been occurring recently is the link between Climate and Food. This is actually the main direction of Anna Lappe’s Organization, Take a Bite, and has been a subject of my former work in the US and Costa Rica (See some of my work on the subject: Coffee and Carbon Footprint of Farms, Life Cycle abstract). It’s something that I’ve been working on for a long period, and is finally coming into it’s element. I will be working to make sure this makes it into climate change legislation. It’s a pretty serious link of the Climate Crisis puzzle, as we currently emit almost a third of global emissions based on food, putting a price on carbon would make it more sustainable in other areas too. Unfortunately it’s marred in bad lobbyists and the corporate profit motive of farmers, but Climate Change is working with sustainability is working with popular morality here. If Carbon gets a value, it’s going to be another progressive (benefits the poor) incentive to care for the earth using organic management and planting trees.

It does not eliminate all emissions from fossil fuels (but agriculture does consume a lot of fuel). Only alternative energy can do that. But alternative energy does not help the rural poor immediately. Sustainable land management payments do. Sustainable farming can appear difficult to implement, especially for large farmers, because it has to be democratic and fair and can take some time. It is a resilient way of producing many kinds of food, but does not rely on fossil fuel instead growing plants on sun and human energy, which costs less. It can store much more carbon in soil using no-till and biochar and in the trees, which for coffee especially was a huge benefit (life is made of Carbon!). For an accounting of the specific norms of transition benefit, please see my research in the projects page (right).

Organic farmers are sequestering 2 tons of Carbon per acre using sustainable techniques. The Rodale Institute argues that if all currently tilled land were managed sustainably, the amount of reduced emissions and increased storage could equal 40% of our current emissions. Cheaply, and with existing technology. No other solution can offer that so far. (Fantastic source: http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/Bowman/20090213) Carbon stored in soils has been proven to be the most resilient and long-lasting change known. Carbon in trees is safe except by fire, and doesn’t get emitted even if you use it for furniture or a house. It’s a win-win solution, just involves maintaining trees.

Also organic farming also brings desirable benefits like improved ecosystems and rural livelihoods. For example, trees on farms (agroforestry) also offer an alternative source of income when they’re big enough to be cut into furniture or house repair. Practical, nice for the farmers, but climate activists need something that promises global reform. Climate policy cannot afford to include right now these side benefits, especially when the perils of climate change are already being felt. For activists who are interested in food and climate: something must be done about getting trees planted before we can talk to legislators about valuing the lifestyle benefits of organic and no-till farming (talk to the public about that).

To summarize, we worry about climate change because it affects thee well-being of people and wildlife. Solutions based on alternative energy, carbon storage and capture, etc. can prevent climate change, but it cannot provide immediate relief to the poor or habitat for the displaced wildlife. Sustainable land management, on the other hand, directly solves the emissions aspect of climate change, while incentivizes good care for the environment.

As always the best thing about food is that it’s a personal decision you can support that gives you better health, patience, appreciation, and enjoyment of life. See my related post for the Small Planet Institute about the Real Food Challenge, coming soon! Also see Anna Lappe’s Take a Bite site specializing on this, or my own Food Around Boston page.

Impact numbers of CO2e/kg, Organic transition, and references:

- The biggest upgrade for carbon footprint is changing meat out and switching to other protiens. On average, a family spends a full 9 metric tons of greenhouse gasses per year for food. That’s about as much as two cars use in a year. A vegetarian diet can account for about a quarter in total personal emissions reductions! (22% SEI, 26%, BRASS)
- Eating locally saves an indeterminate amount of greenhouse gasses, and in fact may not be more efficient in CO2 at all. I found this odd, given the other social and ecological benefits of farmers markets. (Food miles are much less important to environment than food choices, on Mongabay)
- Organic and low-input does save a significant amount: 50% of on-farm emissions, which are up to 80% of normal food emissions per ton. For every ton the Real Food Challenge sources this way, they save around 35%

What is the average fuel economy savings of sourcing one ton of food sustainably?
1.A Healthier diet is also a greener diet. Going vegetarian is best, and eating organic (it’s the meat, and the fertilizers mainly). Simply being mindless of food is cheaper, healthier, and greener.
SEI study says – 22% cut in size of footprint.
BRASS studies – 26% cut in size of footprint.
As stated earlier, a major component of this is cutting down on meat.

2. Every $1,000 consumers spend on food releases about 1 ton of gCO2e (specifically, 1018 gCO2e/$ for food)

3. Sourcing sustainably
IF 80% of food (non-meat) emissions are produced before the food leaves the farm gate.
AND Organic farming can save 50% of those emissions,
AND Sourcing from long-distance farms has a negligible impact on emissions, (Going vegetarian makes a bigger impact than eating locally, http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0602-ucsc_liaw_food_miles.html)
THEN: Impact of a sustainable food program such as RealFoodChallenge by itself could be around 20-60% per ton savings (average ~28% per ton of food sourced, or 300 kgCO2e/$1000), changing composition to include less meat could be a larger impact.
SO: The real food project’s projected proposal to source $1b food sustainably by 2020 could save 300 thousand tons of CO2 equivalents per year from going into the atmosphere. Bravo! This is a significant chunk of some 7.2GigaTons (billions) the US emits today, or 33B internationally in 2009. (For reference, 1990 levels are 6.2GT of GHG’s .)

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=bie

Thanks for reading!
-Eddie Miller
Home: http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/eddiemill

Hello, (and sorry for not updating for a while):

Life has been hectic (setting up in Boston), but good. I have been on my bike to many different events, and a stellar mix of people/places/things to enjoy around the city. In this post I talk more about my former work, maybe you have heard about it, at the Small Planet Institute in Cambridge.

For quick updates about what we’re doing, follow @SmallPlanetInst on twitter. For the implications of some of the research I was doing for the book, read on dear reader:

Frances Moore Lappe, the head of the office, is an inspiration to the average person on topics of climate, personal empowerment, and the root causes of a social/economic/environmental crisis we’re seeing right now. She got started working with sustainable foods at UC Berkeley back in the 60s, where she wrote and founded Food First, the organization for food and development policy. She’s since moved on to write 17 books and a ton of free articles on the area of sustainability and social change. Check them out if you want; I’ve been making myself familiar with some timeless concepts that ring true and inspirational. Especially if you have been working with low morale or depression, check out Getting a Grip which is the book She’ll be working on next. (http://www.gettingagrip.net/look-inside/)

BU Classes, organizing, and my future work lead to some interesting connections across the desk. The Real Food Challenge (next post) and 350.org are two of the most important civic groups right now, doing great things in their respective food and climate areas. Research on climate change is taking off along with the policy work, and it looks like there will be a large international day of climate action October 24th and maybe an international climate treaty agreement at Copenhagen. Obama and Kerry are both for it.

Most interesting in my line of research, though, is the link between Climate and Food. This is actually the main direction of Anna Lappe’s Organization, Take a Bite, and has been a subject of my former work in the US and Costa Rica. This is a pretty serious link of the puzzle, as we currently emit almost a third of global emissions based on food and a change in technique can reduce that by a half. I’m looking for a way to incent Carbon as having a value to be yet another incentive. Keep updated, as I believe my next post will be about this, or future work closeby..

As part of my work, I will be maintaining a regular blog from the Smallplanet website. Check http://www.smallplanet.org, and stay tuned for my blog for more coming soon. Follow me or me at Small Planet to stay in contact on a more regular basis.

Love, Tao, and Happiness.
-Eddie

http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

A historical figure= I’d be a pirate.
In pre-war Germany= I’d be a military strategist for the Western Front.
In colonial America= Would believe in Manifest Destiny.
A farmer= my farm would be the external manifestation of my soul.
Married= I’d be a good father.

I’m a dreamer..

The majority of this conference I cannot show you in pictures. The weekend was life-clarifying. Get out to the woods! go, Petersham, MA! http://forestdance.net/

Entering: Petersham, MA

///Welcome, Friend.///
//Now leaving Boston, welcome to the experiential learning zone.//
What’s the topic of this connection? Social learning, be yourself, fire circles at night. New religion, hope, and change in my life. Touching in to receive your Mother’s blessing is important!

Firedance is something my friend Jason Cohen turned me onto. It’s a way that particularly in-touch environmentalists reconnect with each other and the Earth. It’s largely a Pagan festival of the full moon in early Fall and late Spring.

9/4/09:
The camp is hopeful. Tents are a commons for the 100+ people in attendance. Sleeping tents and warm areas are located in the woods. Center-camp is a large ornate circle chalked in colors in the elemental directions. At the center is a large firepit.

One of the big themes of the weekend is connection- with the Earth and each other. By the end of the setup period, people had already started to arrive. From the website it looks to be a weekend of fire-dancing, workshops, drumming, practice, vegan food and thinking.

9/5/09: I wake up on the grass outside the circle around midday. Someone had placed a blanket over me while I slept. The night yielded many surprises, mainly the energy to move people. Music is the medicine.. My moleskine shows many thoughts from the night before. Love is a recurring theme.

I am homesick and low on Vision. My contacts gave out early on day 2, and I enter a deep depression. Festivities soon start, but I’m afraid about what I’m leaving behind. Know yourself, Eddie! Give up what you left behind! Drumming, leadership, a warrior..

This night’s circle is the best yet. Tonight’s meditation: on BU and enjoying the way. Respect, and power surface up. Community is ever-present, I’m thinking the most important means to happiness we can develop. I lose myself to the show.

9/6/09:
Last day.
I wake and read, eyes blinking in the sunlight. The modern-day hippy is my friend. I arrange a trip home. Vegan pancakes for brunch. Mind completely shot, but body in full motion. I take the 3:00 train and arrive in Boston around 8.

Notes and lessons:
-Living with the heart is one thing I will remember from the week. Think: right hand, chest, left foot. Very different from living in a state of mind. If you are more awake you will come across more genuine.
-Genuine-ness means reconnection. It means checking in because if you don’t you’ll drift off the course of nature. The Pagan tradition is very genuine, in that it brings out an earthy nature in people. Often overblown, but subtle connection is a real boon when surrounded by despair. Know the cycle of the moon and seasons.
-Coming back to Boston: I hope to utilize the hacky sack, frisbee, slackline, drum side of my nature. My free time will be better guided, my relationships stronger from a weekend retreat. My conscience is clear, lay away!

-Eddie

..And loving it.

I´m trying to get accustomed to a new environment after a summer on a motorcycle travelling through Latin America.

Che

New Contact Info, mark it! >>
Ed Miller
74 St. Paul St. #6
Brookline, MA 02446
Phone: 440-935-5434
Email: emiller@bu.edu
eddiemill@gmail.com
eddie@smallplanet.org (!)
Blog
Twitter
Facebook *Farmville
Blogs I manage: MAPS,
Small Planet Institute,
BU People .

Check them out now!!

Sustainable back-to-school shopping!
American Eagle for jeans (low rise boot cut, dark wash, ftw!) and flipflops *better price and selection than anywhere.
Paper products: http://newleafproducts.com/
Nalgene: important
Thermos: get one for when it’s cold: http://shop.equalexchange.com/
Bike: New bike shop in South Campus, guys know what they’re doing: Boston Bikes google map
Bike shop up in Allston, North on Harvard Ave: Bicycle Bill’s google map
Get out there and get your life in order!! I did and it feels great!

A few things I’m doing…
– Living with Emily Chadwick in a (slower paced) off-campus apartment,
– Working 3 days a week with Small Planet Monday-Wednesday-Friday,
– Trying to get things working socially materially intellectually, and
– Remeet old friends and a new girlfriend.
– Get back into blogging again. Check my blogs for news and updates!
– the n64! Still the best selection of single/multi coop games for $8 a pop= retro gaming memories. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1, anyone?

What happiness means to me:

Being Clean! I like the feeling of conditioner in my hair every morning, going to school Awake and ready for anything that comes up.

That 30% community from my last post: it’s just right. If I can get there every day I’ll be happy with being in Boston.

Being slower this semester. Real people can’t just go to volunteer randomly because they like certain things, or go partying every night in Allston, or act so spontaneously. I enjoy a quieter life. (ready or not, things are changing!)

Being happy! If you’re not smiling there’s something you are doing wrong. Much of boston doesn’t make deliberate efforts to stay in touch with their environment, so are probably out of touch with it. Finally, all this is much easier when people don’t talk to each other! /rant

Classes Fall 2009

See you around this semester!
Eddie Miller
(440) 935 5434

A philosophy of happiness. My dad´s response to my left me thinking hard about said happy and what that means. If we search for happiness like we do money, that is very significant. It seems it isn´t guaranteed by financial or material well-being, but your life situation has a big part to deal with it. If you say it´s entirely an inner state the discussion enters the field of self-help and spirituality. I´ve found a lot of truth in improving both areas, but it´s a lot to keep track of! Do you approach life with defined goals and morals, or just slow down and let life’s balance catch you? Over the summer I have been developing this philosophy. Thank you for reading and your comments. Please share url: http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/happiness-theory/

1. Happiness alone

On the motorcycle and in the hammock thus I established a worldview, morals and principals: character development in the process of my early 20s. The resulting deep moral character and appreciation is my pleasure to share in words as I can. I hope this guides and inspires you on the search for living better every day.

A.  Happiness is breaking off of the group for nature and views and reading books. Moments and days spent absorbed in your life because its a work and a plan. that feeling that must reproduce itself every day, every day is a new one. makes me happy. Professionally-wise, it´s amazing. I developed a business plan, a timeline for cooperative certification, secured an internship and read relevant books and articles. Working on what you love to do. Work, and stay real every day- Developing a new light along the path. Within this mindset, Happy is the side effect of this trained internal state of mind. Being awake makes me happy.

I would like to report that this method alone is sustainable. I developed checks and principles for guiding my thoughts (and manner of being) into a surprisingly fulfilling good life alone. I hoped to always stay on the right path, guided by the signs that God sends to a person who´s really listening –read Paulo Coelho– and faith that things will work out, by luck or will. What is lacking I realized is a system of checks on the human spirit! without community the potential of the human being is almost unlimited! so.. It´s easy to be everywhere and do everything but be attached to nothing. A realization like this (that you live without connection to living people so much as concepts) demands thought and analysis, which I did. My conclusion was this: There is no limit to human capacity alone, but there is a limit on what you can do and still be happy. If you don´t have balance hardwired into you yet, you´ll have a hard time keeping yourself within that community and the people around you. I lost a lot of time, but gladly. My other conclusion from this experiment is that I was missing a key component: it is having a community and slowing down that allows people their full potential of contentment in life. yes, Being alone and happy is important: it grants openness confidence and self-honesty, the beginning of wisdom. (The Joy of Living)

2. Happiness in community

At one point it hit me, then: while all this is going on in my head, if I am not connecting now with the people around me who am I going to connect with? Reaching out to people has given me a new perspective on what it means to live a full and vibrant life: community and pace are two really important aspects of happiness!

What is the meaning of happiness? Not only personal equilibrium and spiritual contentment but also equilibrium within your surroundings. Now I see it as a sort of field theory, regions of influence for one to move within. To have friends within the community, you have to stop hovering on the outside of those circles and live comfortably within the lives of others. It´s not about sinking time into others as I had once thought, nor necessarily spending long time brooding over relationships, but it´s the thought and presence that counts. Communication is easier than ever before, just keep track of your time and have happiness in living and knowing the people around you.

What really matters?

Life, love and equilibrium within your surroundings. The ability to direct your mind away from unhappiness in subtle ways to make environmental changes where you live; to acheive a lasting state of happiness and enlightenment for those around you; Change, adventure, and a fresh sense of Spirit. . There is no science behind it! just words that describe life get-up-and-go-time, be yourself because that´s all that matters! It starts when you take your mind off of your objective daily mindset, turn off your computer and can stand being with yourself for a minute! Since this enlightenment I have a better equilibrium that´s generally happier. And you can too– why find it hard to believe in what you´re truly capable of? Either of the above paths will work for you, rather attack life with gusto and open eyes. Read, think, and be with people!

–Next steps

As a start, I´ve come up with a formula that works for me. Applying the wisdom (theory) into method (practice) is tough but for me on a daily basis it works like this:

Happiness is time:

60%- Work: Writing, reading, emails, organizing…

30%- Community: Hanging out but not expounding on philosophy.

10%- Alone & Personal Maintenence: Think, do laundry, sleep or pray.

I started doing this as a balance to all the thinking I was doing in Costa Rica, and it falls very similarly in Oberlin. I´m going to try to use it in Boston for making decisions as well, but I don´t know if I´ll be able to get a %30 community participation there… you´ll have to help me. Contact me 440.935.5434, Greenfest Fri-Sat-Sun August 22nd, MAPS or I´ll be living in Cambridge

Leave a comment:

Eddie is so happy to be back within internet range (*internet grasp?) to be able to share about wonderful experiences and thoughts. In particular, it was 2.5 months in CoopaBuena, Costa Rica, which lies about 30 kilometers from Panama on the South side. See background post: /~/a-different-perspective-participatory-action-research/. After the fact, I’ve not only grown in a lot of personal ways (next post, a good dual purpose of this blog) but have some sound advice for organizations, researchers, and extension agents who are looking to expand to this area.

Coffee is a magestic crop; full of history and intrigue. An ecological coffee farm is really like no other in that it harbors a great diversity of trees and a near-vertical slope. Birds fly from tree to tree eating guavas, and you see squirrels in the branches. Coffee was historically a large part of the region’s land. But the crop harbors a deep secret, which is a conventional sale price that doesn´t pay for the farmer´s time and a processing requirement that the cooperative can’t pay off. Cooperative issues are tense; the much-heralded solution for the old plant’s misfortune isn’t working either to keep afloat financially nor achieve a much higher price for its farmers. A revealing financial analysis published by California Monterrey State showed that something had to change in the administration of cooperative debt: cut costs or increase sales. It´s not an economically profitable activity as such: the cooperative is sustaining $20,000 a year losses. The cooperative is going bust.

Locally, the work in communicating and organizing producers’ techniques is the only way to achieve a higher price and ensure their rural development. My work and specialty is in making this movement, this transition to a sustainable economy, is to differentiate the product. Organics are difficult, but that certification would be one way. An internal mark is more difficult, because consumers don’t trust just any coffee mark. Internal verification can either be academic (sloppy) or professional (expensive), but in global supply chains product differentiation is the only way cooperatives can compete, so that each farmer can cover his own costs of living through the year. The application means a lot of slow meetings and analysis, calls and farm visits in order to align producers. These are my tools to build an international bridge for the product.

Nick´s research left behind a whole series of new requirement in the form of a bullet-point, self-applied “agroeco-coffee” certification. Surely now the certification will be implemented, as the farmers know about the important benefits of trees within their areas. They know now not to use chemicals because it is bad for their environment. They are willing to go the extra work on the condition that a higher price is coming. Maybe it really will: 3-5 years out, they may be well off.

Needless to say it has been great living here on extended stay these last six months. I leave feeling optimistic. I will return now to Boston and finish a study in Economics and International Relations, but will be working on this full-time afterwords. I welcome any comments from future readers of this paper, and hope that we can form our own community of dedicated people working for change. I know that my future work is to help these farmers achieve self-sufficient (but sustainable) economic power in what is an international agricultural crisis. An internship at CAN is a small step along that path, but I hope some day to return with a title and an organization to the region. As I said, the people and experiences have been invaluable.

I would probably come study Cartago

Originally passing through for motorcycle repair, gas, and to see the church, I ended up staying the night when I met a mechanic who offered me passage for the night. What I found was a pleasant city almost devoid of alcohol or bad influence.

What’s unique about this city is that it is very clean– no grunge, no old man asking for money to spend on alcohol. It is straighter and well kept. People were inside at 7:30. I saw one painting, families on their porches. No dogs barked as I walk past, nothing menacing or unknown here. I keep coming back to it: is this what a world is like without alcohol? No crime, no grafitti, no trash– a beautiful set of churches and parks and historic structures. I saw an at-risk age group of teenagers… on the church steps talking. Maybe symbolic of something: is this what Christian values holds together?

I imagine hard social indicators would reflect this tranquility I observe intuitively: inequality, unemployment, crime, dropout rate, teenage pregnancy, etc. (Notice we don’t really have any indicators for well-being other than money– here it would be high income per capita, if my suspicions are correct. Most people own their own variety stores.) Often times cities in the developing world bring opportunity but also huge areas of underdevelopment. “There are some barrios, further out,” affirms the mechanic, “but in the city everyone works.” Neat to see how development works without much external influence.

There was plenty of local variety in the shops and services provided. It is a full-out city with 170,000 population, (which floods with people for a yearly ceremony August 1st- more on this soon!). I noticed by riding around that there was no hotel offerings, no fast food or chain vendors, mechanics abound, all of which suggest a unique 20th-century pre-globalization feel (pre-Americanization? pre-Industrialization?). I wondered if Ticos would be frustrated by this lack of common services or lack of imports , but from talking with them it seems that they know and appreciate very well their local vendor scene.

Appreciation- this is the sense I felt on my short stay there. By human nature it is very hard to find, and culturally even harder to think about. I know I won’t have time to stay and be with them to find out, but perhaps grad school at the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE) would permit some further exploration. If you are more interested in Cartago, it’s wikipedia page is short but nice as a visual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartago,_Costa_Rica I hope you enjoyed this brief description, as always leave comments and check out the pages for more Costa Rica!

Chao,
-Eddie Miller
Costa Rica 2009.

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