Christopher De

My AARP Livability Score for my address is 54. This was not very surprising as there is a shortage of housing in my area let along Santa Fe.  2 years ago when I put an ad out for a rental. I received 40+ responses. 30 of them came to look at the place. most seemed to be desperate to find a place to live.  One other area that brought down the score of 29. There is a lack of opportunity for not only youth. As well as for the growth of employment opportunity. Many students after they graduate leave SF for a better opportunity. The major employer in SF is the hospitality industry, which is seasonal and low paying. 

Health and Engagement were the 2 highest areas followed by Environment. I can see this as SF, for the most part, is a healthy place and has a very engaged population. I would think that the environment would be higher, as we have clean air and water. 

Chapter 3 Food

1.  Consider all the ways in which fossil fuels might have been used to produce or transport the foods you ate today. 

2.  Were   you   raised   with   the   “botanically   outrageous”  idea   of   “having   everything   always?”   Name some foods you eat regularly whose seasonality and origins you haven’t considered. 

EVERYTHING! Growing up as a latch key kid. I grew up on TV Dinners, Mac and Cheese and fast food. I do not recall Salt Lake City having stockyards or a chemical plant that made the cheese powder. 

3.  What opportunities exist for you to eat more locally and/or seasonally?   What are the barriers?  

I have started a school greenhouse to help myself and students the opportunity to eat freshly grown vegetables, that travel 100 feet from the garden to kitchen.  Santa Fe has a pretty great farmers market that provides local seasonal produce. 

Barriers: Living in a high desert environment,  the agribusiness lobby and the fast-food industry.  The agribusiness lobby wants us to consume a high fructose ladened and corporate farm crops. The availability of fast-food makes it easy to avoid cooking healthy at home.

4.  What contributes to people in the U.S.  and Canada eating more meat than any other country, and what does this say about U.S./Canadian values, ways of living,?   How do we start shifting a meat-focused food culture?  

Politicians, lobbyists, savvy marketing,  and the corporate bottom-line.  Deregulation of corporations has opened up American markets to cheap factory meat. What this says about our values, is that we are easily manipulated, are addicted to the convenience of the good old American hamburger, that we can buy without getting out of our cars, eat in our cars and not have to do dishes,  We are lazy!

Shifting our meat-focused culture is the $64,000 question!

5.  In   “Beyond Free or Fair   Trade, ”   Mike Wold highlights some of the effects of   NAFTA trade policies.   Who or what is at the winning and losing ends as a result of these policies?   What are the consequences for each?  

I lived in Mexico shortly before NAFTA was enacted. Before NAFTA, much of rural Mexico was an agricultural-based society. You could go to any small corner store, they would have fresh seasonal produce grown locally. Years later, I read an article that looked at the effect of NAFTA on these family corner stores. The author outlined with the introduction of NAFTA and the flood of American companies and products had a devastating effect not only on these stores but on the Mexican diet. The vegetable and fruit bins that once lined the walls of the corner store, were replaced with high fructose artificially flavored products. This was due to mainly Coca Cola and other soda companies. The soda companies would constantly stock the small tiendas not only with soda but also with cheap pre-packaged everything. These items were sold dirt cheap and had a higher profit margin than fresh produce. This would change for the worse of the diet of the rural Mexican diet.

6.  It   is   often   said   that   “you   can’t   feed   the   world   with   just  organic   food.”   What is your response to that statement after reading this session?  

In our current capitalist profit-based society, feeding the world organically is not possible.   Organics are not as profitable as processed foods. Even though organic farming is better for our environment and our health, it is just not profitable.  It is an easier sell for  Madison Avenue to sell  Lucky Charms than it is to sell granola.

7.  What efforts would help food-insecure regions have access to local, seasonal foods? 

There is a current movement to invest in hydroponic vertical farms. These farms are indoors in a climate-controlled environment where vegetables can be grown under lights in nutrient water in a third of the time of conventional farming. These farms can be set in closed big box stores or even set up in shipping containers. The major issue that these farms are faced with is energy consumption, to be profitable. Or one could simply buy locally from farmers' markets and eat seasonally. 

8.  Were you inspired this week to change any of your food habits?   What will you do as a result of what you learned and discussed in this session? 

I am very aware of my eating habits and know that it can be improved! I have made strides in changing my diet. Part of this is eating smaller portions, staying away from sugar and fasting. I am happy to say that I have lost 16 lbs in the past 6 months.  I will continue to do what I have been doing and work on cheating less.

I am a bit of a politics wonk and follow much of what is going on with our election and climate change. I am happy to report that the Green Deal is gaining more and more support. Slowly people are waking up tp the reality of this crisis. 

I signed these 2 petitions https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/minimum-wage-petition Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/min-wage-vote encourage the chair of the Senate to vote on minimum wage hike.

I looked into https://www.justicedemocrats.com/ which is an organization which is committed to supporting everyday individuals to run for local, state and federal office.  Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was supported by this organization in her primary for NY-14.

I spoke with fellow students about the class and watched a documentary about climate change.

What do you hope to gain from this course?  I consider myself a pretty “Woke” individual who is at times hyper-informed about current politics, the environment and what is going on in this crazy world. What I am realizing is even being hype informed, one can never stop learning. I hope to get out of this course, is to become a better steward of sustainability not only in my life but as a member of our planet Earth. We are living in a time where we are toes hanging over the edge of a bottomless cliff. We as individuals, local and world communities need to make a decision to step back and start making better decisions about how we live on this Earth. 

Name at least one goal each from something you want to learn? I would like to learn more about the origins of the sustainability movement, the organizations and the people at the moment.

List one behavior you want to change to be more sustainable and something you can contribute to the group?

The behavior that I would lie to change is overwhelming, what and how I eat. As “Woke” as I like to think I am. My diet at times can be pretty unsustainable both to my health and to the environment. Growing up poor, we ate what was cheap and too often what was convenient. Further, growing up as a spoiled mama's boy latch key, I am most definitely a product of Madison Avenue marketing: Cereal and TV Dinners. “Mommy I want the prize inside, Cereal Box Conspiracy of the young developing mind” Cereal Box Conspiracy-B Side Players One of my favorite- bands BSide Players has a song called Cereal Box Conspiracy. The song looks at the brainwashing of our youth by commercials and our consumer society. Years of mindlessly watching, I struggle to this day with reprogramming myself to eat healthily and fight the subliminal messages of our consumer society.