25. Documentaries

We are up to Week 10 in my course and we have looked at all sorts of ways sustainability has been communicated, and currently the focus is on film and documentaries.

So, over the last few days I have watched my fair share of documentaries on sustainability issues and today I posted a small list of my favourites…so far… We were supposed to post one, but I put up six and they are:

AS AN OVERALL VIEW:

The Century of the Self (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_YLy6yZeaw)

The Crisis of Civilization (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Oq_J__ouc)

 

ON FOOD:

Food Inc (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0)

Fed Up  (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM)

 

ON WASTE:

The Clean Bin Project (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhBBziXFrNQ)

Bag It! (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjPkl_4lmM)

 

…and I am anxiously anticipating the release of Just Eat It (by the people who did The Clean Bin Project: TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkASAZGIuu0)

There are many more that I want and need to watch including all of the Years of Living Dangerously TV series, The Economy of Happiness, The Corporation, Trashed, Baraka…and there are others…but I shall revisit those here, if warranted, as I get through them.

The documentary I watched today was The Age of Stupid (TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s).

If I had watched it in 2009 when it was produced I would have been very moved and indeed probably agitated into commencing my sustainability journey earlier.

Two things.

1: What rock was I under in 2009 that I did not even KNOW about this movie?

2: We have done very bloody little in the past 5 years to seriously address climate change, and here in Australia we have probably retreated in our efforts to fight climate change in any meaningful way. This doco is well worth watching—pitched as if looking back to the turn of the 21st Century, it reports from 2055 as to how things unfolded, following a number of story lines in parallel from different parts of the globe.

I have to say I had total WTF moments where I just could not believe the irrationality of some of the real life participants. Highly commended, albeit a bit on the depressing side if you, as I, feel frustrated and cranky about how sustainability issues including climate change appear to still be without any tangible traction.

 

 

 

17. More on food…and waste…and…

For my final assignment (due in eight weeks LOL!) I am supposed to revisit my first assignment, which was a poster on Coal Seam Gas (and fracking). The final assignment is to take this information, and further research, and take it to a new level, and a new context and write a magazine style article, but I have decided to look at food and food waste instead—with permission of course!

I have been busy revisiting materials I had seen many moons ago, and indeed being drawn to look into new areas. It is a fascinating process. 😀

On food

I highly recommend hunting down and watching Food Inc by Robert Kenner. Here is a trailer for the film: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjh5aZKgtSY

While reviewing this I also happened upon an interesting interview with Robert Kenner on a channel called Bring Your Own Documentary. It’s an interesting format and a nice discussion about elements from Kenner’s documentary. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oq24hITFTY

This led me to FixFood (I think also linked to Robert Kenner), a website that talks about many issues. Go have a look at: http://www.fixfood.org

I then got sidetracked (as I had read a fellow blogger’s comments about GM foods and Monsanto) and so spent a good hour watching a documentary called Percy Schmesiser—David versus Monsanto. Compelling viewing, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omtYlsG1P5U

On food waste

An interesting development on recovering home food scraps (the average person throws out the equivalent of 1 in every 5 bags of food they take home from the supermarket) has been tackled by the Leichhardt Council in Sydney, Australia. It’s a good interview, hosted by Natasha Mitchell on Radio National: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/food-waste/5375576

Dana Frasz has following her life’s passion to address the food waste issue in the USA. Here she talks to an audience as organised by Pachamama—it is well worth the listen. Honoring the Sacredness of Food by Reducing Food Waste by Dana Frasz: http://www.pachamama.org/blog/honoring-the-sacredness-of-food-by-reducing-food-waste-with-dana-frasz

Which bought me full circle to where I started at the beginning of the week, which was to watch a few online vids about William McDonough (under the banner of resilience, adaptive capacity and efficiency—for my course). McDonough is a very interesting character. To many he is a visionary, and he is … but from what I have read and watched, I would add that he is sadly misdirected, and very driven by the dollar—which is a pity. Anyways, go have a look at  http://vimeo.com/3237777 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoRjz8iTVoo for a taste of the McDonough vision—a vision of ‘cradle to cradle’ design and turning waste into food.

What have I been doing in my spare time, you may ask?

I am also hot on the heels of all things plastic. I have found an amazing source and downloaded some technical data/information about packaging from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Worth a visit: http://www.sustainablepackaging.org/default.aspx

I had better get off the content bandwagon and spend more time on what I am supposed to be focussed on—in the coming weeks—social justice and the politics of neo-liberal economic theory! Woo-hoo! Bring it on! 😀

 

15. Food glorious food?

Our current (group) assignment involves ‘food insecurity’ and sustainability. It is worth 10% … and yet I have read and read and read and I could indeed, just keep reading.

We are almost to the final draft, which I will then go and make pretty (as is my want) but it is safe to say that we have sliced and diced this thing to bits … all puns intended. In all honesty, instead of the 2,000 word essay, what I want to submit is something like the following:

On sustainability:

Just stop buying crap would be a good start. Oh, and listen to our climate scientists.

On food security/insecurity, I would borrow heavily from Michael Pollan of The omnivore’s dilemma (and other books) fame:

‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’.

but I would add:

Your food should grow or live as close to you as is practicable.

But of course this is far too simple for what is a really complex, multi-dimentional problem, but hey—I think it would be a damned good place to start 😀

As I have said, I have read so much stuff. For the purposes of a university paper, it has involved searching for and finding original research, and combining that with other papers, and segments from books. It is, after all, a piece of academic writing. I do struggle though to set limits as to what and how much I read, as the internet is both a blessing and a curse in the way you can find so much material. Mostly I am compelled to read it.

I cannot complain about my head being full—it is indeed a wonderful state.

What I have found to be truly inspiring is the material in TED Talks. I had known about TED Talks before I started studying, but I do turn to them, on the whole, for much more palatable information—most of the speakers are great entertainers as well as being very knowledgeable. A few gems I have watched recently on the topic of food and would recommend:

• Ellen Gustafson on Obesity + Hunger = 1 global food issue
  https://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_gustafson_obesity_hunger_1_global_food_issue
• Mark Bittman on What’s wrong with what we eat
  https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat

and just now, looking for, copying and placing these links I have found even more I think I need to watch (maybe today):

• Dean Ornish: The killer American diet that’s sweeping the planet
• Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal
• Pam Warhurst: How we can eat our landscapes

And just for fun, here is the graphic I made for our report—taken from some data (actually taken from two sources and melded). It shows the  results of a survey of university students: the amount of food they consumed from each of the five food groups is shown as a percentage, while the number of recommended daily servings from this group, is the big number at the top.

At the ripe old age of 53, I discovered so much about food groups and serving sizes and serves per population segment. And yes it is, or can be complicated—overly so, as also evidenced by the myriad diets on the market. It makes me think that Michael Pollan actually nailed it!

POST SCRIPT: I had forgotten that I had seen this short clip a while ago from an amazing documentary I must buy and watch: Samsara.

A word of warning—it is quite confronting, but well worth the watch.

Samsara Food Sequence: http://vimeo.com/73234721

4. The course and the passions

The course I am doing is a Graduate Certificate in Sustainability, and compared with my undergraduate degree there are many differences. This time around I have a passion in my belly, more time to focus on the subject (my study load is a quarter of what I was doing way back when) and I am less likely to spend hours at the uni bar or asleep on a pile of books in the library 🙂 I will be doing four subjects over four semesters.

The subject this semester SUS 101 covers seven modules over 13 weeks:

• MODULE 1: Living in unsustainable times: sustainability and indicators of change
• MODULE 2: Biodiversity, capacity and limits to growth
• MODULE 3: Interdependence: ecological, social and economic systems
• MODULE 4: Justice, equality and ethics
• MODULE 5: Diversity, innovation and design
• MODULE 6: Governance and power
• MODULE 7: Agency and participation

When I started the course I had so many questions, I guess many naive, but they are slowly being addressed (answered?) with the course content, the reading and the related surfing I am doing on the web. Bless the www!

My current passions have to do with the overarching issues of sustainability with particular reference to climate change (a real biggie!), what drives us to consume, how food can become more sustainable and why we are addicted to plastics (hopefully the focus of my final piece of assessment).

Some stuff to go look at on each of the above:

SUSTAINABILITY AND LIMITS:

One factoid that shocked me is that out of  9 measured areas that constitute a safe operating space for humanity, we have already exceeded 3: biodiversity loss, human interference with the nitrogen cycle and climate change. Originally reported in Nature (see: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7263/full/461472a.html) which is behind a paywall, it is also covered well in Solutions in the article ‘How Defining Planetary Boundaries Can Transform Our Approach to Growth’. (see: http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/935)

The globe represents the proposed safe operating space for the nine planetary systems. The wedges represent an estimate of the current position for each variable. The boundaries in three systems (rate of biodiversity loss, climate change, and human interference with the nitrogen cycle) have already been exceeded. (from Solutions)

CONSUMPTION:

I have only read the first chapter of Affluenza: when too much is never enough (Hamilton, C. & Denniss, R. 2005), but there are some gems here. For example:

“In the coming decade most of our income growth will be spent on consumer products the craving for which has yet to be created by advertisers. Our public concerns may be about health and the environment, but our private spending patterns show that the majority of Australians feel that they suffer from a chronic lack of ‘stuff’ … People in affluent countries are now even more obsessed with money and material acquisition, and the richer they are the more this seems to be the case.

… Rich societies such as Australia seem to be in the grip of a collective psychological disorder. We react with alarm and sympathy when we come across and anorexic who is convinced she (sic) is fat, whose view of reality is so totally distorted. Yet, as a society surrounded by affluence, we indulge in the illusion that we are deprived.”

Also, go have a look at:

• A YouTube vid (quite long) Consumed: Inside the Belly of the Beast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOKl04TWVsU

FOOD:

I am fascinated that we accept that food is trucked for kilometres (and sometimes from one corner of the globe to another) and that we don’t seem to bat an eyelid. We are in an ‘entitlement zone’ that requires we have what we want, when we want it, even if it is not seasonal. We will consume food that has been picked when green, treated with chemicals to maintain it as it  is transported and placed on shelves and not seem to either know or care. Even worse, we will buy eggwhites in a carton and avocados in a plastic container.

I know that not everyone can grow their own and/or afford organic options. One article I read (US based) piqued my curiosity (see: http://www.cuesa.org/learn/how-far-does-your-food-travel-get-your-plate) and the fact that at my uni, USC, has a project based on the fact that students can no longer afford good nutritious food is both heartening but also a bit jaw-dropping. Called ‘The Moving Feast’ (see: https://www.facebook.com/USCediblegarden) it aims to provide a solution.

PLASTICS:

OMG where do I start? Probably here … and here … Suffice to say I am looking closely at my plastic addiction/dependence …

• https://www.ted.com/talks/dianna_cohen_tough_truths_about_plastic_pollution
• http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-bottled-water/

… but also some good news!

• https://www.ted.com/talks/two_young_scientists_break_down_plastics_with_bacteria