NOMADS

~ The Fast Lane Somewhere between Cameroon and Senegal, West Africa ~

We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled farm programing - for those of you out there possibly tuning in - to feature some incredibly awesome and ballsy guys traveling by motorcycle across West Africa.

Meet:
C h r i s t o p h (former peace corps volunteer and photographer)  &  G u i d a  (Fulani Beninese Native and College Student Extraordinaire)

Watch them, monitor them, cheer them on as they begin their journey in a northern Beninese town, heading east to Cameroon, only to wind their way back across multiple countries to land in Senegal, stopping all along the way to document and commune with West Africa's diminishing, yet graceful, nomadic cattle herders, the Fulani.

Meet:
T h e   F u l a n i ~ also known as the Puel (pronounced pull)

all photos by Christoph Herby

Learn and Watch More:

Pulaku: the Fulani photo project from Christoph Herby on Vimeo.

S U P P O R T!

Last but not least, if you like what you see, and think this is an amazing trek, support Christoph and Guida as they move forward.  You can order some stunning prints already featured on the website, or check in as they progress and post new photos - choosing your print a few months down the road when a particular photo catches your eye. All frames are hand made in Benin.

~ 'Merca ~

Subsidies go where the money is - where money talks. And in most cases, those subsidies  support more corn - which in our unfortunate capital-driven economy, is the prime product receiving a large turn-over due to corporations like Coca Cola and Perdue, to name a few, which use it as a cheap by-product to either pump up The Soda, or feed The Chickens, and also have the cash to pay high priced lobbyists in Washington.

And yes, produce from outside the US is cheaper (to the immediate dollars in the wallets of our pockets, but not to the dollars of our taxes as we pay for the petrol needed for exorbitant transportation costs). Our tastes Are extravagant, as we continue learning about new sugar items from the Amazon, or new teas from the Himalayas.

Some people ask what comes first: the chicken or the egg (no pun intended). I.e do we slim down our demand for expensive imported products and high fructose products, and therefore show gov't why  $$ must go to the production of local produce (this for example, means fewer if no bananas in the winter!); or does gov't need to *miraculously* stop promoting corn subsidies to in turn curb our population's addiction to manufactured sugars, and corn fed cattle?

Um, the former.

So as we adjust our eating habits...

'Here's An Easy One...'

Vows by Congressional Republicans to slash billions from the federal budget at a time when joblessness is high and the economy needs stimulus are reckless. But here is one big-ticket saving that all members of Congress should get behind: cutting the billions of dollars in farm subsidies that distort food prices, encourage over farming and inflate the price of land... more

I Don't Eat Meat...? Unless I Know Where It's Come From...?

~ Boston ~

 I didn't eat meat for a year before I left for Africa. I ate an apple sausage burger one day and got sick. So were dozens of other people across the country. I didn't dive into an investigation. I just called it quits. I was looking for an excuse to cut meet - beef particularly - out of my diet (probably because I thought it was trendy), and I took it.

Then I moved to a place where the lamb or goat in your stew is butchered next door, and raised in the yard out back. I was comfortable with that. I knew exactly where my food was coming from. In fact, I'd likely peddled by the butcher on my bike that very day as he'd prepared the meat.

Now I'm back Here. And it's been far more difficult explaining to people why I'm...selective about what animal I decide to put into my body (I don't pick and choose my fish!! The elimination or weening away from that food source/sushi will come in due time).

"Oh, you're still doing that?" my dad asked quizzically the other night after he'd pulled out pre-pared chicken breasts for dinner, while I passively searched the package label for place of origin/the words' free-range'.

Not too long ago I'd shared a story about eating venison meatloaf. My boyfriend's friend had shot the deer in Maine, where the populations of deer are over abundant, and hunting is an activity of respect by man with animal, for a source of game.

No wonder my poor father was confused.

But hadn't I explained already? Pasture fed, free - range, local, hormone free. Did I need to mention the decentralization of our food economy, too?

Some say I'm nit-picking. But then I find information about other people who are most definitely doing the same thing, and I feel reassured:



http://bostonlocalvores.org/about

And:


Know Your Roots: Eat Local from Scott and Sara on Vimeo.

And the Finest Entertainment She Ever Did Know

~ Somewhere on the Fast Lane Between Boston and Portland ~

I'm no longer sure who exactly I'm writing this blog for, besides myself. And that is something I never thought I'd do. Besides my loyal parents and a friend who clicks on the page every once in a while, there's no one out there really tuning in. 

Just the same, my pursuit to work in the agro and farming world, surrounded by the bounties of fresh and Tasty food, has not subsided. Among several hiccups along the way, I've set aside the notion of driving and living across country, and begun preparing myself for the possibility of remaining for some time longer in the North East.  Should the opportunity arrive, I will stay. And the drive continues - to grow some food.

To start, the inclement weather (though predictable) of the Northeast hardly fosters outdoor growing activities. No real surprise there. But I began snooping around volunteer opportunities with local community organizations - those that foster CSA's and/or help promote farmer's markets, among other things.  

Also, I haven't shut up about the potential of winter greenhouses, and ask at every chance I get, if someone knows someone, who knows someone, who ....

Until finally my work has paid off.

One, Cultivating Communities of Portland, ME responded after the holidays had duly passed, offering a range of *stuff* to do as winter work: marketing for their CSA campaign, compost pickups and general photo managing on their websites.

I'll do it.

Plus, I'd love to push CSA's. I convinced my mother of their value, I don't see why I can't convince others, too.

Two, I finally learned of someone who knows someone, who knows someone, who operates winter greenhouses - growing tomatoes and distributing them to jail inmates in order to offer the real taste of real food.

I may not have a paying position, but at least I'm keeping myself occupied.

And if I can't find fresh local food at every moment, I figure cooking breakfast for dinner - oatmeal, please - will have to be the satisfying twist of the day.

Oatmeal, with sesame seeds, some sunflower seeds, too, raisins and dried blueberries, and definitely some New Hampshire maple syrup.

I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (am I alone when she's unfortunately reminiscent of the English Teacher You Hoped to Never Have?). I know her family's strict one-year rules  to eat only local food (grown at their home or by close community farmers) would banish my meal from their oak table.

Mange on. Bon app.