Hello, Hillcrest
Dec. 11th, 2007 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterYesterday I harnessed the power of the internet to look up a local coffeeshop, a spot known as David's Place, and so this morning I am sitting in it. The walk up here was only about a mile, and the spot is vaguely reminiscent of Capitol Hill in Seattle--vaguely. Perhaps it helps that it rained last night and so the morning is cloudy and gray. It gives me hope to know that there are places like this neighborhood in San Diego--they're utterly lacking in the Phoenix area, even in the most promising pockets (perhaps eventually such spots will reach this state).
I have decided that it's a bad idea to read The Gift of Good Land right before attending a conference. Berry is too sharply critical of what can and cannot be accomplished through academic ballyhoo, which makes it difficult to pay attention to someone's presentation on the hairs on the back of the flea that are alternately orange and blue (made that one up).
If I find it challenging to explain any practical application of my research, it is even more difficult to inject imagination into a lot of the applied research approaches, supposedly driven by practical need. For example, in the midst of a series of bee talks, there was a talk on figuring out a more reliable method for measuring how thoroughly bumble bees had buzz-pollinated tomato plants grown in greenhouses (crucial for fruit development, but the bees cost a lot of money to acquire ($70 per mail-order hive) and apparently growers should seek to reduce this expenditure). Previous methods had involved counting the number of flower blossoms that had been bruised; the proposed method involved hooking up vibratory sensors to the plant and measuring the amount of buzzing with a laptop. At the conclusion, an audience member inquired about the expense of the device; the sensors for the experimental setup cost around $40, plus the adapter for the computer ($70), plus the computer (much more). Is the technological fix really better or necessary? It's understandable that so many tomatoes are greenhouse-grown in the first place ("pests" love them), and yet in my mind this again argues for the advantages of small-scale mixed farming over large-scale monocultures. But how do I ask about that?
The other tremendous tragedy of this conference is the difficulty of finding anything outside of a mall or strip-mall or the hotel complex. I'm impressed that I managed to find a way to walk here, and I'm grateful that it proved possible because I was tiring of mediocre junk food from who-knows-where or absurdly expensive food also from who-knows-where (all with who-knows-what REAL nutritional value). Coffeeshop food is likely no different, but I feel like the crotchety old man who made my latte enjoys being in a place of more individuality and self-expression (judging by his Santa hat and the non-canned music), and there's a chance that my pastry was made with at least a bit of care.
For future conferences, I'm tempted to try and come up with a way to eat more conscientiously while traveling--I'm really not sure how, though, with limited luggage space, no cooking/preserving methods, and limited transportation abilities. It's exhausting to travel 350 miles just to see the same old stuff that's all over Phoenix, and that makes me think that it's traveling in the first place that inflicts such violence on my personhood. It's different when visiting friends and family in familiar places, for then meal-sharing is an important part of time spent together.
I have decided that it's a bad idea to read The Gift of Good Land right before attending a conference. Berry is too sharply critical of what can and cannot be accomplished through academic ballyhoo, which makes it difficult to pay attention to someone's presentation on the hairs on the back of the flea that are alternately orange and blue (made that one up).
If I find it challenging to explain any practical application of my research, it is even more difficult to inject imagination into a lot of the applied research approaches, supposedly driven by practical need. For example, in the midst of a series of bee talks, there was a talk on figuring out a more reliable method for measuring how thoroughly bumble bees had buzz-pollinated tomato plants grown in greenhouses (crucial for fruit development, but the bees cost a lot of money to acquire ($70 per mail-order hive) and apparently growers should seek to reduce this expenditure). Previous methods had involved counting the number of flower blossoms that had been bruised; the proposed method involved hooking up vibratory sensors to the plant and measuring the amount of buzzing with a laptop. At the conclusion, an audience member inquired about the expense of the device; the sensors for the experimental setup cost around $40, plus the adapter for the computer ($70), plus the computer (much more). Is the technological fix really better or necessary? It's understandable that so many tomatoes are greenhouse-grown in the first place ("pests" love them), and yet in my mind this again argues for the advantages of small-scale mixed farming over large-scale monocultures. But how do I ask about that?
The other tremendous tragedy of this conference is the difficulty of finding anything outside of a mall or strip-mall or the hotel complex. I'm impressed that I managed to find a way to walk here, and I'm grateful that it proved possible because I was tiring of mediocre junk food from who-knows-where or absurdly expensive food also from who-knows-where (all with who-knows-what REAL nutritional value). Coffeeshop food is likely no different, but I feel like the crotchety old man who made my latte enjoys being in a place of more individuality and self-expression (judging by his Santa hat and the non-canned music), and there's a chance that my pastry was made with at least a bit of care.
For future conferences, I'm tempted to try and come up with a way to eat more conscientiously while traveling--I'm really not sure how, though, with limited luggage space, no cooking/preserving methods, and limited transportation abilities. It's exhausting to travel 350 miles just to see the same old stuff that's all over Phoenix, and that makes me think that it's traveling in the first place that inflicts such violence on my personhood. It's different when visiting friends and family in familiar places, for then meal-sharing is an important part of time spent together.
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-13 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-13 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-13 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 12:33 am (UTC)I thought you'd be interested in that article, about the rising cost of food and the causes (increasing prosperity/meat consumption, subsidies, alternate fuels). It even has a little bit about how farmers adapt to these changes.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-14 07:11 pm (UTC)