The Hunt for Red Gold

Cayucero at sea Photo by Michael Bonfigli

I have never been a big fan of eating lobster or really had any sort of opinion on them for that matter. I mean, I love seafood, but lobster just isn’t really my thing. After reading an article about lobster diving along the Miskito Coast, my thoughts on lobster changed. Lobster is no longer an empty space in my brain, and here’s why.

The Miskito Coast is an indigenous region of Central America, specifically Honduras and Nicaragua, where the lobster industry thrives. Commonly referred to as “red gold,” lobster diving has been the main source of income on the Miskito Coast since the 1970s, but it did not evolve into an industry until the 1980s, when demand for lobster increased in the United States. Besides drug trafficking, catching lobster is really the only option for men living along the coast. But what once used to be an easy and safe occupation, has now turned into a dangerous and life-threatening line of work that is the main cause of injury and devastation among families living along the Miskito Coast.

Typical diving trips last about 12 days. Industrial size boats pick up divers on the Bay Islands of Honduras, and in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and are transported to the Miskito keys to the lobster bays. Upon arrival to the lobster bed, scuba tanks are loaded into individual canoes, and the men are ready for work. There are two jobs a Miskito Indian can choose from while working on the boat, a diver (buzo), or a canoeman (cayucero).  Both work hand in hand, and combine their expertise to catch as many lobsters as they can from their trip out to sea.  When the day is over, they return to the main ship with all the other buzos and cayuceros to collect all the lobsters caught from the day and to get ready for the next.

The Scientist

This video has been out for a while, but I only just saw it. It took me by surprise while I was at the movies a few nights ago. I was having a nice conversation with my roommate when this video came on before the previews, and we both fell silent. I was eager to see where the video was going, what the point of it was. I knew it had something to do with sustainable farm practices, ethical treatment of animals, or organic food or something. The suspense was daunting, but when the end finally came, I was confounded. I was expecting to see an advertisement for PETA or Slow Food, something of the sort, but instead, I saw Chipotle.

I always knew Chipotle was different from other fast food restaurants, but I didn’t know it was such an advocate for naturally raised food. I was intrigued. After visiting the Chipotle website, scavenging through their links, and reading through their history, I found out a few interesting things about Chipotle I hadn’t known before. Maybe you haven’t either.

The carnitas at Chipotle is probably my favorite item to order on the menu, and now I know why. Turns out Chipotle sources 100% of their pork from farmers who follow these guidelines: raise animals in a humane way, feed animals a vegetarian diet, never give animals hormones, and allow the animals to display their natural tendencies. To add to that, 85% of their beef is sourced from farmers who follow the same guidelines, and they won’t stop until they reach 100%. Chipotle also tries to buy locally (within 350 miles from the store) when it can. Overall, I was just very impressed as I read through their facts and philosophies. There are many other initiatives Chipotle is taking to make the world a better place. Take a look for yourself here.

I was equally impressed with the video as well. I felt it went through the evolution of industrialization of food in a simple and understandable manner. I especially liked the part at 1:10 when the video shows the farmer’s remorse of how he raised his animals. I’m sure a lot of farmers feel the same way and are conflicted between providing for themselves and raising good, respectable food.

I think Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, is on to something good. Maybe his business model can act as a catalyst of change, and other restaurants will start doing the same. Until then, support your local Chipotle.

FYI: McDonald’s doesn’t own Chipotle. McDonald’s was an investor until 2006. Chipotle is now it’s own public stock on the NYSE.

My Garden, Our Garden

My Garden, Our Garden: my first vegetable garden with my host family in Brazil

I decided to try my hand at growing a vegetable garden. The project was initially for myself, to learn and connect more with my food studies. Yet, I quickly realized that there is a lot more to gardening than just biology and manual labor. Every time I stepped foot into my garden, tons of metaphors came to mind. The most important was learning that nature is life. We have to treat it like a relationship and not an obstacle. It needs to be loved, fed, and wanted or it will die. If it dies, we will die. Maybe not instantly but we will decay eventually from inside out.

In my food studies, I always hear this statistic that only 4% of the population of the United States grows all of the country’s food. I assume that there are not many Americans who want to do the physical labor or devote the time required to grow real food, nor understand the complexed science and biological relationships between nature and food. But, I feel that we have to challenge ourselves to learn about food. Just like any field of study that we might get into, we must learn the basics, the history, the traditional ways and thoughts to achieve something different, great, and truly innovative. I always remember the example that Rocket Scientist, Wernher von Braun; it is said that he didn’t like mathematics and physics but his fascinations with space travel inspired him to study the subjects he needed to achieve his dream. So I thought, if I want to bring food sovereignty to the world, then I need to understand what is food. Hence the garden.

Bringing HER into my life

There are certain books and that are just perfect for Food Studies. I am slowly making a list of ones that I think are essential for students interested in studying food. These books seem to come into my life just at the right time. My new companion, “Bringing it to the Table” by Wendell Berry, was love at first sight. After reading the first chapter “Nature as Measure”, Berry’s ideas started to connect the pieces in my life. In combination with my first garden project, it is helping me start a new relationship with Nature, education, work, mom, the women of my life.

Nature as my love

Source: thisfromthat.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/brain1.jpg

My love for productivity seems to be an addiction. Several people have told me that my lust to accomplish many things quickly and efficiently is a result of capitalistic culture. I often feel that I am behind in life and I need to study harder and experience more. I work hard just to work more. The demand for “more” is constantly going up, at the cost of quality and joy in my life and culture. As an American, I notice the effort to produce and buy more food at cheaper prices; if money controls our decisions then money is our liberty. Regardless economic wealth, I feel security in surplus, maximized time, the big stack of pancakes, a pantry filled with food, an alcohol collection (even if I don’t drink), papers published, books read…  to horde, and do the things I want to do.

Collecting Trash for a Week

For one week, I collected all of my food related trash. I didn’t collect food waste such as egg shells, the ends of vegetables, or food left on my plate. Instead, I just collected trash that I created via eating, cooking, storing, and transporting food from grocery stores. I wanted to see how much trash I was creating eating. Then I would analyze what trash I considered wasteful, what trash I felt was necessary for my style of eating, and begin to question the “convenience”. Food is a common topic in environmental studies. Although this is not my field of study, I would assume the way we eat in the United States, with all the individual wrapped processed convenience foods, creates a lot of useless waste bad for mother nature.

 
I originally got the idea to collect my trash from this video <http://vimeo.com/7964185&gt;  from NYC Food Studies program. This master degree program looks awesome! Know anyone that goes there? There are not to many “Food Studies” programs that I know about. I did find a list of schools on the Association for the Study of Food and Society‘s website  <http://www.food-culture.org/programs.php&gt;.