Question: Since When Is It a Crime to Be Poor?

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/nickel-and-dimed-afterword

. . . How have the already-poor attempted to cope with their worsening economic situation? One obvious way is to cut back on health care. The New York Times reported in 2009 that one-third of Americans could no longer afford to comply with their prescriptions and that there had been a sizable drop in the use of medical care. Others, including members of my extended family, have given up their health insurance.

Food is another expenditure that has proved vulnerable to hard times, with the rural poor turning increasingly to "food auctions," which offer items that may be past their sell-by dates. And for those who like their meat fresh, there's the option of urban hunting. In Racine, Wisconsin, a 51-year-old laid-off mechanic told me he was supplementing his diet by "shooting squirrels and rabbits and eating them stewed, baked, and grilled." In Detroit, where the wildlife population has mounted as the human population ebbs, a retired truck driver was doing a brisk business in raccoon carcasses, which he recommends marinating with vinegar and spices.

The most common coping strategy, though, is simply to increase the number of paying people per square foot of dwelling space—by doubling up or renting to couch-surfers.
It's hard to get firm numbers on overcrowding, because no one likes to acknowledge it to census-takers, journalists, or anyone else who might be remotely connected to the authorities.

In Los Angeles, housing expert Peter Dreier says that "people who've lost their jobs, or at least their second jobs, cope by doubling or tripling up in overcrowded apartments, or by paying 50 or 60 or even 70 percent of their incomes in rent." According to a community organizer in Alexandria, Virginia, the standard apartment in a complex occupied largely by day laborers has two bedrooms, each containing an entire family of up to five people, plus an additional person laying claim to the couch.

No one could call suicide a "coping strategy," but it is one way some people have responded to job loss and debt. There are no national statistics linking suicide to economic hard times, but the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline reported more than a four-fold increase in call volume between 2007 and 2009, and regions with particularly high unemployment, like Elkhart, Indiana, have seen troubling spikes in their suicide rates. Foreclosure is often the trigger for suicide—or, worse, murder-suicides that destroy entire families. . . .

For those in Portland next Monday afternoon/evening:

Image via WikipediaHead over to the White Stag block for an important talk about what is perhaps the most insidious, scary part of pumping millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere:  It makes the oceans into big vats of carbonic acid, acid that eats at the base of the food chain at the most vulnerable point.

Ocean Acidification Event in Portland

Learn more about our "other" carbon problem.

Care about the Pacific Northwest’s oceans? Worried our fossil-fuel addiction is jeopardizing our marine and shellfish industries? Learn more about ocean acidification in the Northwest at E2′s event, the Acid Test: Ocean Acidification and the Pacific Northwest.

Speakers will include Washington Representative Brian Baird, NRDC oceans attorney Leila Monroe, and commercial fisherman Amy Grondin. E2 will also screen NRDC’s new short film, Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification.

Where: White Stag Block, University of Oregon – Portland
When: Monday, September 12, 6:00-8:00 PM.

More info.
It’ll be a great, informative event about the Northwest’s “other” carbon problem.

You need a Scorecard just to keep up

Image by eutrophication&hypoxia via Flickrwith all the polluting going on. Scorecard lets you enter any zip code and get a glimpse at it.

Ruh-roh -- you mean we can't ignore natural resource limits? Who knew?!

Eola Hills. Image via Wikipedia

A member of Salem City Watch writes:

Note the lengthy article in today's Oregonian ( "Reliable water data running dry in Oregon," by Les Zaitz, page A1). Apparently, underfunding the Water Resources Department over the last several years has left us without the data, resources or manpower to intelligently plan for the next million people expected to be living here by 2030.

Here's a classic quote, "If we had known in the 1960s what we know now, the department would not have issued as many groundwater permits." Brenda Bateman, Senior Policy Advisor, Oregon Water Resources Department.

Of course this information is coming out just as the Legislature passed the Big Look bill which in all likelihood will increase rural development and Metolius Protection is fighting for its life.

In 2009, many believe we have already overcommitted our water resources and we're still behaving as if it were the 60s.

Yes Salem has an abundance of water, until we're asked to divert it to "create jobs" and "improve the economy" by developing Eola Hills.

Richard

Of course, there is reason for extreme skepticism about projected growth in population; those numbers are based on total obliviousness to the reality that we've hit Peak Oil and that the end of easy, cheap energy is going to permanently rewrite our economic rules, such as how much we move around (and how many jobs there will be to move for, etc.) But the underlying point is good: the first thing the developers and corporations want is for the public to be without good data on natural resource limits, because then they can sell "growth" and "jobs" much easier.

Excellent visual explanation: How big are the bailouts to the banks and insurance companies?

click on image to see whole thing; hat tip to "The Big Picture"

Why Growing Food Locally is Key

In the coming tough times, food will be key -- and not just any food, but locally raised food from as close as possible, preferably grown right here in the heart of the Willamette Valley with as few industrial inputs as possible -- or else we get industrial commodity "phood" that is:

Less tasty -- and not as good for you

Industrially grown produce shows long-term nutritional decline

Posted by Tom Philpott

Talk to old-timers, and they'll often tell you that the tomatoes you find in supermarket produce sections don't taste anything like the ones they had in their childhoods in the '30s and '40s.

Turns out, they're probably not as nutritious, either.

In an article [PDF] published in the February 2009 issue of the HortScience Review, University of Texas researcher Donald R. Davis compiles evidence that points to declines in nutrition in vegetables and (to a lesser extent) fruits over the past few decades.

For example:

[T]hree recent studies of historical food composition data found apparent median declines of 5% to 40% or more in some minerals in groups of vegetables and perhaps fruits; one study also evaluated vitamins and protein with similar results.

He points to another study in which researchers planted low- and high-yielding varieties of broccoli and grain side-by-side. The high-yielding varieties showed less protein and minerals.

The principle seems to be that when plants are nudged to produce as much as possible -- whether through lots of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides or through selective breeding -- they deliver fewer nutrients. It evidently isn't just the flavor that's become diluted in those bland supermarket tomatoes.

This is a fascinating insight. We should reflect that for at least 50 years, the best-funded agricultural researchers are the ones work to maximize yield -- that is, gross output per acre. Even now, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is expending hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to increase yields in Africa.

Rather than isolate and fetishize yield, perhaps ag researchers should learn to take a whole-systems approach: study how communities can develop robust food systems that build healthy soil and produce nutritious food.

(It should also be noted that last year the Organic Center compiled peer-reviewed studies finding that organically grown produce tends to deliver significantly higher nutrient levels than conventional.)