Why Food In 1957 Tasted Better Than Food Today

OK, this is a pretty oversimplified depiction of the relationship between corporate interests, farmers, and consumers — but that means it’s a good starting point for anyone who isn’t sure how subsidies for corn and soy led to a food system where processed crap is not only common but, for many people, inescapable. And it takes less than four minutes to watch!

The Biggest Loser framing doesn’t really work for me, though that may be because I don’t watch the show and there are some inside jokes I don’t get. (I assume? Because I’m definitely missing something — why is that lady with the tennis racket weeping openly?) But you can just ignore that part. It’s still worth showing to your friends who need a quick, simple primer on how this stuff interrelates and why you care.


Source: Grist

The best comic about industry and ecosystems you’ll ever read

Stuart McMillen, who wrote and drew that cool comic about reindeer on St. Matthew Island, has a new comic comparing human industry to ecological development after the Mt. St. Helens eruption. I know, it’s no gay X-Men wedding, but it’s really interesting! I promise!

McMillen’s thesis is that industry and ecosystems are analogous — each goes through three stages, and only the last stage is fully sustainable. Our society is based on Type II industry, and the area around Mt. St. Helens has only reached a Type II ecology in the wake of the famous disaster. But we both need to fast-forward to Type III if we’re going to make it. For Mt. St. Helens, that means an ecosystem in harmony, a balanced arrangement where flora and fauna are inter-reliant and no one species dominates. For industry, it means being able to run industries off their own waste (or each other’s), in a closed-loop system that constantly feeds and renews itself. In both cases, basically, it means sustainability.

These would be interesting enough ideas in an article or thesis, but in comic form they become accessible and charming (I like the Twin Peaks homage in the first panel, and the dismayed squirrel on page 22). I promise reading the comic will be more fun than reading my last paragraph.

Source: Grist

Los Angeles Becomes Largest U.S. City to Ban Plastic Bags

Newtown grafitti/CC BY 2.0

In a historic vote Wednesday, the L.A. City Council voted overwhelmingly to enact a ban on plastic bags -- becoming the most largest city in the United States to push towards more eco-friendly alternatives.

Under the measure, passed by a 13 to 1 vote, stores throughout L.A. will be required to phase out the bags by the end of the year, significantly reducing the amount of landfill fodder and environmental pollutants produced annually. Once in effect, the ban is set to keep the whopping 2.7 billion plastic bags used each year from ending up in the trash -- or worse, littering the city's streets and waterways.

"This day has been a long time in coming," says councilman Paul Koretz, an early supporter of the ban. "This is a historic vote making Los Angeles the biggest city in the nation in doing away with an environmental problem."

In approving the ban, L.A. becomes the 48th city in California to do away with the bags; recent years has seen other major cities, such as San Francisco, San Jose and Long Beach, ditching the rather antiquated plastic sacks. Still, Koretz suspects that his city's new ban will help encourage other municipalities across the nation to do the same.

"This is a tipping point."

Source: Treehugger