Stumptown And Potatoes

Portland is called many things: PDX, The City Of Roses, and Stump Town.

I realize this is probably a reference to it's logging connections...but what it makes me think of is a city full of amputees. Every time I hear that name I see armless and legless people struggling to navigate city life with no limbs. A city as cool as Portland could, indeed, be filled with as many amputees as would enjoy living there and I still would refuse to call it by that name. It's blunt, inelegant, chopped, foreshortened, whacked, short, hefty, and completely retarded.

I'm sorry, I have had the barely controllable urge to use that word lately. I think because it's so completely socially incorrect to do so which makes it kind of more attractive. I am not using it in reference to a person though, so surely no one can object?

So let me ask you, (especially YOU Anonymous*), if you were interviewing a potato farmer who uses "conventional" farming methods (meaning pesticides) and they explained to you the complicated regimen of spraying they used before, and during the growing season...sprays so toxic that the farmhands must stay off the fields for at least five days...and you asked that farmer if he and his family felt comfortable eating those potatoes and that farmer told you he doesn't let his family eat the potatoes he grows for commerce but has a separate ORGANIC garden for his own family...what would you think? Would you feel comfortable eating potatoes grown in such a way that the farmer himself won't let his family touch them?

You know, when one refers to pesticides, it covers a wide range of compounds. I have to say I don't actually think all pesticides are evil. I have used Neem and BT in my own garden and felt totally comfortable using them when I felt it was really necessary. Although, most years in my garden I don't use a single spray, whether considered safe or not. However, I think most pesticides are damaging to the environment when used commercially because they use such huge quantities of it for the duration of the growing season. It's not a secret that a lot of beneficial insects are being killed because of this. We need those bugs. We need the bees. We need the worms. We need the flies, believe it or not. We need the spiders.

I don't buy strictly organic. I'm not an organic Nazi. I think it's always the better choice if you can get it, or afford it, but I am perfectly happy buying produce from farms that use natural plant based pesticides only when necessary. A lot of smaller farms that aren't certified organic are practicing mostly organic methods of growing. I will always buy from a local small farm that uses only some sprays than buy from any huge commercial farm whether organic or not.

However, this week was the first time in three years that I have bought potatoes that aren't organic. They are one of the most heavily treated vegetables and the most likely to contain traces of the chemicals used (according to some of the farmers that grow them. Read Michael Pollan's book "The Botany Of Desire" to read his interviews with both organic and conventional potato farmers). I plan to find out who exactly grows Farmer John's potatoes and ask that grower directly how they grown them.

This reminds me about GMO's. This is a question everyone should be asking too. I admit I'm afraid to ask my favorite farm (Bernard's) if they use any patented genetically modified seeds. Unlike the issue of organic versus conventional, I do truly believe that GMOs are something everyone should ban from their diets. Refuse to buy them. Demand labeling. I don't know what the environmental impact could potentially be, and neither do the companies that make them. That is unconscionable. Why doesn't that concern more people? We should not be spreading them around the world until they have been studied for years in very contained areas. Yet they are already everywhere.

Remember when DDT was first introduced? (In 1939 in case you were wondering.) Obviously I don't personally remember this. What I do know is that people thought it was a miracle and people thought it was totally safe. We used it widely until the 1970's when it was banned. Why was it banned? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WITH PURE EVIL. OK, seriously, I was just reading a report about it here. My point is that everyone was willing to believe it was a miracle and it had to accumulate in people's bodies, kill off lots of birds, and contaminate fish before they would believe it wasn't such a great idea.

You know what's scary? DDT doesn't really go away. It's still in all the bodies it has contaminated. It flows from mother to child through breast milk. It isn't water soluble. It accumulates in our bodies. We are still polluted with it years after it's been banned. And we sold one of our last factories to Indonesia where DDT is still being made and used, so we've spread the goodness around for everyone.

I don't claim to be an expert on GMOs or pesticides. But there is evidence everywhere that all of these compounds and modified plants are hurting our environment and through our environment, ourselves. Why is it so hard to convince people to care?

You know how we have so much cancer in the world? You know how so many people are suffering from new and resistant diseases and how there are more and more infertile people in our country? You know how everyone is raising their fists to the skies and crying out "Why is this happening?! How can this be?!" I'm not one of them. It is so obvious why so many people are infertile. Why so many people are getting cancer. Why so many species are just vanishing faster than we can study them. Why we have so little clean water. Why the bees are dying. The answers are right in front of us. The answers are in our pocketbooks, our banks, our homes. The answers are everywhere. There's no mystery why there are so many of these problems, and there's no mystery who's responsible.

I care passionately about these issues. Obviously. I want us all to be able to have children if we want them (but not four or five...that's another environmental issue**). I want all of us to be able to grow old without getting cancer. I want all of our children to benefit from fresh air and clean water. How can anyone not want these things?

Dammit, how come I don't have superpowers? I would only use them for good, I promise. I know you're all tired of pesticide talk. I often wish I could just deal with these problems by myself. It's an inconvenience to have to try to get everyone worked up over these issues that affect us all. Those of you who don't care already will care down the road when the proof becomes tragically irrefutable. Of course, most of my friends and acquaintances DO care about these issues as much or more than myself. So if everyone reading this is already in the same camp with me, tell me what I can do to help other people see why they should demand better for themselves and our environment? What can I do to help besides making changes in my own habits and choices?

Today we are going to Portland. Philip and Max are getting together with our friend Clinton to play in the fountains at a park in the Pearl District, and my mom and I are going to visit the rose test garden which is one of the largest in the country.

*If you're a friend of mine giving me a tease, all I can say is: you asked for it.

**It is not my personal wish that people keep their families smaller. Over-population is a very real environmental concern. I mention it because it will only become more of an issue over time. I think it's heart breaking that so many couples who want kids aren't able to have any, but I also think those people lucky enough to be fertile need to think carefully about the impact the number of children they have might have on all of our resources. I know someone out there will still want to string me up for mentioning that. No one's ever supposed to say that stuff out loud.