More Deliberate Every Day

Thoughts on Our Financial Instability

2008-09-30T06:07:15-05:00

Much has been said over the last few weeks about the current instability in world financial markets, the daily pendulum swings of stocks and bonds and treasury bills, "flight to safety" in commodities, general insolvency. And I don't pretend to be an expert on any of these issues, hardly understand the minutiae of most of them. But I do have a couple of points I'd like to share, more so we don't miss the historic perspective than in lieu of what may or may not happen later today.

First, our current situation is primarily the result of specialists creating instruments that are so incredibly complex that normal people, even smart but normal people, cannot hope to understand them. That's a big problem, because it also means that the politicians who are stuck trying to dig our way out of this mess are also struggling to understand it, and are completely at the mercy of the financial so-called wizards who created the problem in the first place.

In the past I've proposed the question here that when confronted with a suspicious path, it's a good tip to ask yourself how your grandmother and grandfather would have perceived it, and glean their wisdom for use as a guide forward. This case is no different: your grandparents and mine would have looked at these financial instruments and responded "might be good for somebody, but doesn't make sense to me" and moved on. We (that would be the collective We, here), trusted that there was something to these swaps and derivatives, believed that it would allow us to have larger houses or make more money or drive a bigger SUV, and we bought in lock, stock and barrel.

Second, every pundit under the sun is struggling, as I write this, with the question "What are these instruments worth now?" And the answer, in truth, is nothing. And they were never worth anything to begin with, but were only held monetary value because of the faith our markets put into them. Now that the faith is gone, no value. I can hear my grandparents saying "not worth the paper it's printed on."

A lot of old-timers in this country still bemoan our federal reserve system disconnecting with the gold standard, still struggle with the notion that there ought to be something there to back up the value of our currency. Our current situation is the extreme of that same phenomenon: a system built on a house of cards. Unfortunately, that house is also putting under roof our 401K's, pensions, nest eggs.

I can't imagine being in my fifties right now, much less being in my early sixties, wondering what's going to happen. I know the elders in my own extended family are terrified by what's going on, wondering if they should be practicing for the greeter's job at the local Wal-Mart. As all this punditry winds out, keep your ears open for the "bail-out" legislation that's going to make sure that we don't find ourselves in this mess again. So far, all I hear is that we want to write big checks to pay off the companies that made the bed. Which only encourages them to go somewhere else and start again.

Slow Food Nation Closing at Flora

2008-09-28T06:28:54-05:00

"For too long, humans have been spared from the universal necessity of local adaptation. It is ultimately an inescapable biological imperative that human land-use economies should correspond as closely as possible to the ecological mosaic. To this, we no longer have even the illusion of a second choice. The increasing cost of energy and the vulnerability of long-distance transportation in an age of violence show the importance of local food and forest communities and the reasonable extent of local economic self-sufficiency everywhere."

This quote is by Wendell Berry, the Master himself, speaking at the closing panel discussion of Slow Food Nation, which was held in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. The panel included Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Carlo Petrini, Eric Schlosser, and Berry, among others. You can view the entire panel discussion at flora.

If you are interested in the politics and pleasures of food, culture, and community and you live in the Memphis, Tennessee area, you should consider visiting Republic Coffee today at 2pm for a general meeting of Slow Food Memphis. This meeting will include nominations and voting on the group's board, but you'll also be able to meet others with similar interests.

Otherwise, there are dozens of links on this blog that will take you to sites with more information.

Where Have You Been?

2008-08-02T08:35:13-05:00

OK, OK, I know. It's not you who haven't been here lately, but me. And some of you have taken the time to drop me a line and let me know you noticed.

But I've been here, observer-goggles on and at the ready, paying attention. And there's still a lot to be said.

Part of the lack of posts goes back to the origin of this blog. I put it up early in the spring of 2007 as a way to get very vocal about the 2007 Food & Farm Bill and add my household's voice to the growing cry for reform and rational legislation. In addition, our awareness of Peak Oil and its likely impact on society as we know it required further investigation. So I started the blog as an attempt to bring more light to those issues, and to determine whether there were others with the same concerns.

Well, did we ever learn there were others. And now, if you want to read up on the food crisis in our society or the impact of global oil supply and demand, you don't need to stop here at our humble blog, all you need to do is read the cover stories of any reputable newspaper in the world, or turn on the 24-hour news channel of your choice. Both topics are in the headlines, every day.

So where does that leave this blog? It means we're going to change here, but not go away. This summer has been a time of exploration and meditation. We've been spending some time with our farmer friends, with our Slow Food friends, with our backyard vegetable garden. There are some new things we want to talk about, but they continue to revolve around simplicity and rational living.

Once we finish putting up for the winter I'll be back. So be patient and enjoy the summer while it lasts. It'll be over before you know it!

More on Farmers Dinner at Interim

2008-06-11T05:09:14-05:00

More ambitious writers than I beat me to the punch in terms of providing details about the farmers dinner at Interim Monday night. Links follow.

For the Squirrel Squad's coverage, go here. They were also gracious enough to type out the entire menu here.

For coverage by Michael Donahue, go to the Commercial Appeal. 'Nuff said.

This One's All About Memphis

2008-06-10T05:47:41-05:00

First off, I commit to you, gentle readers, that regular posts are forthcoming. I have much to catch myself, and you, up on. For this morning, just a couple of quick mentions that deserve to be made.

Last night Mrs. Deliberately and I enjoyed a delightful meal at Interim Restaurant where a team of exquisite local chefs joined forces to honor the bounty of several area farmers. On hand for the affair were of course Jackson Kramer, Executive Chef at Interim, as well as Stephen Hassinger of The Inn at Hunt Phelan, Kelley English of newly opened Restaurant Iris, and Clay Lichterman, who recently left Grill 83 and reportedly will soon be released from culinary limbo with a new, permanent home.

The food was incredible. The farmers were incredible. The packed-house of reservation-only guests were incredible. It was fun seeing so many friends and enjoying such conviviality together. More to come on the menu and the event itself in a later post. This was the second chef's dinner we've attended in the last month honoring local farmers (the first having been wonderfully composed by Chef Andrew Adams at Brushmark Restaurant) and we're looking forward to enjoying, and writing about, many more to come.

Also, you should be visiting the new blog of a local friend and fellow member of Slow Food Memphis called Pie for Breakfast, where a yankee goes all southern in the kitchen. It's sure to please.

And finally, listen to a recent broadcast on WKNO about our local food scene here in Memphis. It's full of friends from the Memphis Farmers Market telling stories about how their lives have changed as we engage together in a deeper, more profound food community right here in the Midsouth.

Back soon with more!

Pollan On What We Eat

2008-05-30T05:05:17-05:00

If you haven't had an opportunity to read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food yet, the video below is a great summary of some of the key points of the book, delivered by the author himself. Enjoy.

Here's Some Good Advice

2008-05-19T05:30:35-05:00

Andrew Martin wrote in yesterday's New York Times about the best way to battle rising food costs: quit wasting so much. While food costs are up as much as 40% on some commodity items at the local grocers (bought milk lately?), Martin points out that we waste as much as 27% of the food we bring home, meaning that we can offset much of the impact of those rising prices by simply making sure we eat what we buy. From the article:

. . . consumers toss out everything from bananas that have turned brown to last week’s Chinese leftovers. In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States was never eaten. Fresh produce, milk, grain products and sweeteners made up two-thirds of the waste.

Some of the waste, of course, occurs prior to the food being purchased as the store, as in spoilage that occurs in the supermarket itself. But nonetheless, we're throwing out a bunch of food because we don't plan well, or simply change our minds. Doesn't seem like a luxury we can afford to have in the context of rising oil and commodity food prices, does it?

For more information on food waste and what you can do differently, visit the fine blog Wasted Food, written by Jonathan Bloom, which focuses in on this topic alone.

Bittman on the Food We Eat

2008-05-16T05:49:39-05:00

Mark Bittman, food writer and author of the New York Times' The Minimalist column, speaks to an audience at a TED conference back in December:

Wendell Berry Speech

2008-05-10T06:24:31-05:00

Being a big Wendell Berry fan, and it being so rare that he is captured on film, I thought it would be a great way to start your day today if I shared this brief video from youtube, where Berry speaks to a gathering in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state's capital, on behalf of the I Love Mountains Day effort.

As a good friend would say, 'nuff said.

OK - I Get It. You Miss Me.

2008-05-09T04:52:42-05:00

Ever-humbled by the number of emails I receive when my posts go on a hiatus, a feeling compounded by the inexplicable number of hits to the site over the last week-or-so via google searches related to topics of editorial explication, I post to let you know I am still kicking and screaming, albeit quietly and perhaps without much bodily motion.

Yes, I'm still here. And no, I haven't forgotten about you, gentle readers, or the food crisis globally or the so-called Farm Bill or the Presidential election or any of the other stuff going on around us.

And I would like to say that I've been hard at work putting out the garden, that I've been busy installing solar panels on the roof, or even that I've been distracted by work on my new book, Propelled to the Local Market. Unfortunately, none of that is even remotely true, with the only sliver of fact being that while my contributions have been almost nonexistent, we do have a garden growing, exclusively the result of Mrs. Deliberately's hard work.

No, nothing so important as that. Just busy with many things, smaller things. But things that will grow into items for the blog. So in lieu of a punch-list of current affairs, short of an all-and-out tirade on the state of our society, a simple to-do list will give you a sense of what I've been up to:

1. I'm learning to make wine. Something I've always wanted to do, and a way of linking another part of our household consumption to the community. With all the strawberries coming in right now I'm excited at the prospect of being able to bottle some of that spring essence and enjoy it later in the year.

2. I'm supporting my local farmers market. While we're fans of markets of all makes and models, we specifically support the Memphis Farmers Market as our primary weekly shopping-trip. Not only that, but we partner financially to support the market's growth. One change coming this year is the addition of monthly market-inspired restaurant dinners where local chefs create stunning meals from their Saturday visits.

3. I'm reading. Currently Mrs. Deliberately and I are going through Richard T. Wright's textbook Environmental Science together in an effort to better school ourselves on the bigger picture of the environmental picture on the globe today. Like so many others we watched An Inconvenient Truth a couple of years back and were aghast that so much scientific fact was unfamiliar to us. So we're going back and making sure we can not only espouse our beliefs, but argue them effectively.

4. I'm reading more. In parallel to the above, I'm also immersed in James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency. His new novel, A World Made By Hand was a good, quick read, even granted the mixed reviews it's gotten on the sexual roles it envisions in a post-Peak Oil future. But the book I'm reading now is not fiction, but rather the true story of a oil-drunk world and the likely demise of that position, and the book is absolutely fascinating (and terrifying). Much like our approach to the Environmental Science text, this is one I will be spending more time with as I work to make sure I not only fully understand the argument, but can actually vocalize it myself.

5. I'm disinvesting. Like so many Americans, I grew up in an environment where success was defined, in many cases, by the amount of stuff acquired. But now I've gotten to the point where success, for us, is about the quality and durability of the things we need to live a good, honest life. So we're going through our stuff and disinvesting where it's not consistent with our goals. And that means converting some of that stuff to more important items, like the supplies we need for our home canning adventure that begins later in the summer.

And there's more, of course, because I'm incorrigible. But it does mean that I haven't been writing lately, for this blog or for future potential contributions to The Ethicurean or Edible Memphis Magazine. The good news? Pretty soon I'll wake up brutally early one morning and have a lot to say on these and other topics, and if you keep stopping by you'll get an earful!

In the meantime, check the archives, and if in doubt, click on "books" in the categories list and read a review. Or go pick up any Wendell Berry book you haven't yet read, then read it.