The bombs bursting in Air

I just drove home through the country of New Russia Township, greeted by wonderful explosions of light and color. The giant flowering trees of cherry, apple, pomegranate, blueberry.. This, is my Fourth of July Post.

Seeing America all go out for the fireworks is a reminder that our country is still working– the trucks are still moving, the families are still having dinner conversations, the cars still droll to work each morning. The backyard barbecue is something that’s so American, to see them happening means that life for many still goes on.

If and when the higher oil prices come, many will find that they still have this life, and they still have what matters (especially if you haven’t divorced your spouse..) AND furthermore, that the adaptations they make for the recession will be mostly a welcome change. It’s not the money that matters — just basic expenses — and if we can provide food then we remain a proud, independent nation. Let’s show the world that we can do more than consume oil and bully internationally; if/when the time comes, let’s be followers for a while. Proudly.

America is a great country. It’s the rural folks and the non-rural folks, the countryside and city gardens and parks, the trees land and air that make is so. We have abundant resources to make use of once we grow in ideas that do not require fossil resources. Despite what will happen to some farmers, our food system will be okay.

Politically, I have a great hope that Barack Obama’s last year in office will be a good one. There are many ideas on this very blog that can make it so if he listens. I would happily advise the president on Economic and Environmental Policy.. in fact it is what I got a degree on. If you’re any closer to the White House than I am as a blogger and small farmer, pass it on!

I am happy to be in America, with or without money, and hoping to stay here for a while. Happy fourth of July, for it’s a good year to be in the USA.
-EM “Che” Fernando Miller

IFAD’s Cape Town meeting – presenting the Rural Poverty Report 2011

http://on.fb.me/m4TXXJ #rpr2011 #ifad #agchat
IFAD’s Cape Town meeting – presenting the Rural Poverty Report 2011

Biogas makes people not poor! For lights and cooking. These cost $260 to make, the Chinese government pays half.. See biodigestors in action in China.. a new socialist village: environmentally sustainable, socially harmonious. Anything done by small farmers in China makes a huge impact overall.. Over 8 million animals accounted for in that rural sector of the world. The scope of it blows my mind. There are fantastic testimonials and a good name behind it, IFAD (http://www.ifad.org/) OECD development pages. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRps9Jnwbk #energy @OECDlive

…as long as fiscal tightening is recommended unemployment will hardly stop. The consumerism is sloppy if we don’t back our currency (US$) with real production. Instead of encouraging fiscal tightening, developed countries should thus encourage new routes to develop production markets. Vegetables, for one. Vegetables ship well at 1 and 1/8 bushel crates, can be made plentifully here in the United States, and are in global demand. Organic vegetables are another step that many farmers may want to take that ensures them a local market. Small industry, for another. Many of the parts that support small agriculture are freely available laying around the ruins of a former industrial tower.. Factories are now scrap-yards ready to make a new Economy. The industrial park, and JVS and small workshops, should not be left out of our #economic solution.

Small agriculture is doing much better this year in the United States than large monoculture farms. A wet Spring has most farmers behind already. The price of corn internationally is shown in a chart below:

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llquiqWccv1qb56imo1_400.png

Please consider what a dependence on cheap corn will mean if corn does badly this year, for the whole world we export grain to. The United States for it’s irresponsibility has left the world open to more food insecurity, even without the oil factor, from a bad season in Northern Ohio and the Central states. #Midwest, #Corn, #Sustainable. Meanwhile, at the organic farm we have 36 crops already and are busy every day. Most monoculture farms are big fields and nothing is planted yet. I find comfort knowing that my job every day provides food for Northern Ohio’s good and neediest families to eat a fresh variety of foods at a dependable price. #agchat

A Systems Perspective 3: Nature and Econ

Post! Executive Outline:

Economics as a guide to policy|discipline|business|development typically undervalues Marginal Cost.
1. Resources *Natural capital to make manufactured stuff*
2. Oil is artificially low
3. Other environmental inputs= services
4. The commons

An increase in Marginal Cost would universally better off society.
1. Reduce | Reuse | Conserve –> Lessen material dependence
2. Reduce Energy/person –> Secure our country from Middle East
3. Focus on efficiency –> Reduce waste which hurts services
4. Produce less corn.

Finally, a policy solution without silly cap-and-trade or clean energy, which generates revenues by being harsher on unsustainable businesses.Increase the marginal cost of resources, to decrease their use. Read on, dear reader. But be prepared to comment if you finish it all.
-EM

Previous Post

Hey everyone, I think you should check out my younoodle site for what’s going on around Oberlin! Other than my typepad blog or my twitter, it’s pretty much the number 3 place to be on the web.

http://younoodle.com/startups/oberlin_college_sustainability_project/
The Oberlin Commons project

Cool!
For those who are following my international development efforts, it’s also up there.

Local in Boston, Part 2

Hello,
Each week, I like to visit and write about one local group in Boston. It’s part company profile, part a tribute to great food everywhere. Check in each week for a new destination in the local food movement!

Also, be sure to visit my pages for more updates on different projects. (top bar). If you want to be featured or work together, email eddiemill@gmail.com.
-Eddie

This week: Local in Boston, Part 2: City Feed and Supply! Specialty Grocery Store and Cafe in Jamaica Plains.

Paul Farmer, Haitian Doctor for the Poor

From his (great) biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains, the character of Paul Farmer:
“Ophelia thought that Paul had a fairly complex personality, built of oppositions — a need for frenzied activity that verged, she though, on desperation, and a towering self-confidence oddly combined with a hunger for affirmation. She thought she understood; he took on more than he could fix, so of course he wanted reassurance. And yet he also seemed “terribly simple.” She thought he had never experienced true depression, a freedom so enviable she almost resented it. It was as if in seeking out suffering in some of the world’s most desperate locales, he made himself immune to the self-consuming varieties of psychic pain. He’d told me back in Haiti, I may be a more sunny, cheerful person than you. No one believes that I’m cheerful because of what I say and write, but I only say and write those things because they’re true.” He was often sad, of course, but it didn’t take much to cheer him up.”

Paul Farmer has affected change in thousands, and prevented probably over a million deaths in his work with Multiple-drug-resistant Tuberculosis, mainly in the poorest areas.
Questions to think about:
1. Is the quest for perfection always a good thing? What negative character consequences do leaders sacrifice in order to solve immense problems bigger than themselves?
2. If you were [Paul Farmer, Brett Farve, Che Guevara, Indira Ghandi] and had the chance, would you jump off the treadmill? or Be at the top of your game in an international world-scene, even if it necessitates being stressed and demanded under the eyes of a million people?
3. Would you write your own biography? (or press releases..) Or let someone like Tracy Kidder follow to represent your legacy in print? What are some advantages and disadvantages to either way?

-Eddie Miller
BU ’10

SO242 students, chime in!
Systems Change Visionary