Today we got some burgers at Burger King, and, because I am inherently a guilt-obsessed person, I got online to see where, exactly, Burger King got its beef.
I recently saw an article in National Geographic about the Brazilian rainforest and how its decimation hasn’t really been slowed by environmental groups the past ten years. And holding a fast-food burger in my hand, I wondered if the beef came from a cow that stood where a rainforest used to be.
Well, I didn’t get a satisfying answer to that question, meaning the answer probably is “yes.” However, I did find this pretty amazing website about a Texas cowboy who decided to save the rainforest himself.
Can cattle ranchers and soy farmers save the Amazon?
The reasons for land-clearing in the Amazon are compelling: cheap land, low labor costs, and booming demand for commodities driven by a surging China and growing interest in biofuels. These factors have helped Brazil become an agricultural superpower – the world’s largest exporter of beef, cotton, and sugar, among other products – in less than a generation. Amazon landowners have seen their land values double every 4-5 years in areas that just a decade ago were pristine rainforests. The market is driving deforestation.
Given this landscape, John Cain Carter believes the only way to save the Amazon is through the market. Carter is a Texas rancher who moved to the heart of the Amazon 11 years ago with his Brazilian wife, Kika, and founded what is perhaps the most innovative organization working in the Amazon, Aliança da Terra. Carter says that by giving producers incentives to reduce their impact on the forest, the market can succeed where conservation efforts have failed.
While deforestation rates in the Amazon have accelerated, the problem is not a lack of laws, but rather a legal system where enforcement is so slow and so corrupt that it renders the laws effectively useless. On paper, cattle ranching in the Amazon may be the most restricted in the world, with landowners required to keep 80 percent of their land forested – a limitation no rancher in Texas faces. Carter wants to see farmers in Brazil benefit in following the law, by turning this restriction into a marketing advantage. However in order to do so, Amazon producers have to ensure that consumers ( i.e., buyers of commodities like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Cargill) can confidently say that agricultural products are produced legally and even more sustainably than stipulated by the law. The incentive for producers is market access: Aliança da Terra helps Brazilian farmers and ranchers get the best price for their products, but only if they follow the rules. While producers get higher prices for their goods, buyers like Burger King and Archer-Daniels Midland can say they are using legally and responsibly produced beef. Meanwhile more rainforest is left standing, ecosystem services preserved, and biodiversity conserved. Everybody wins. (Read the rest of the article here.)
I had to start with this picture, because the scenery is so beautiful, and it makes me want to visit. When I was a kid, I swore I would never, ever visit Thailand after I heard a missionary couple talk about how their housekeeper mashed up a giant cockroach into their salad (on purpose, as it was a delicacy). Nevertheless, my friend Sheleen went to China and Thailand both, and contracted as many major illnesses as humanly possible without dying on the way. She’s had typhoid and giardia, the latter for seven years. Needless to say, she does not have a weight problem.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my plea to send Steve and Sheleen money. Sheleen is safely esconced in school and doing well on the Ford scholarship, and Steve just started work with Medical Teams International. Since they have been working as volunteers for ten years or more, it is a new experience for Steve to actually get paid. He hasn’t yet, incidentally, but when it happens, I’m sure it will be a big event.
I recently got a letter from the Akha Rescue Ministry, which is a New Zealand charity that helps the Akha Children’s Hostel in northern Thailand. The hostel is there to help children rescued from child prostitution. It is supported by a couple of charities and was started by Yakur, a Thai man who hated the way his country was going and what it was doing to its children.
Anyway, there were some sad events at the hostel recently, and Yakur is no longer there. The hostel still exists, however, and is still strongly supported. I’ve always wanted a website to link to, and the New Zealand charity finally has one, so now you can see pictures of the children and the amazing country they are surrounded by.
So, please visit the A.R.M website, check out the photo gallery and thanks for thinking of these girls (and now boys).
Today I was interviewed by KVOA-4 in the Safeway parking lot. The subject: what is challenging about disciplining your children? Of course I took a moment to rant about how unsupportive and critical we are of parents as a society in general. The reporter gently redirected me, saying, “What about your own children?” and I tried to give a good response. I especially tried not to think about the large zit right between my eyebrows, or that I had again run out of the house with my hair pulled into a rough ponytail and with a milk stain on my shirt. Probably it made me look authentic, you know, like a real mom. Who knows? At least I wasn’t in front of the trailer in a Kiss t-shirt and no bra, talking about the twister and how it done picked up the trailer and took it away near a half-mile, but we did find gramma’s t.v. and it weren’t even broke.
So, you know, my 15 minutes of fame? It could be worse.
However, I did get photographed by the newspaper earlier this summer. I played Trelawney for the library’s Harry Potter party the day before the book came out. I had a lot of fun being overly dramatic and reading lots of silly predictions (”I predict your hamster will have terrible gas and blow up the size of a balloon!”). When your audience is under 10, it’s easy to get a lot of laughs.
Anyway, we were featured in a full, center-page spread, which everyone thought I should keep a copy of but I somehow didn’t. I did find a photograph, however, featured on the website, and the article is still up here. Here I am, in my goofy glory:
Speaking of economics, I wanted to post this link to my sister-in-law’s online shop. She has always made really beautiful, handmade gifts, and now she is branching out and selling some of her beautiful creations. So, if you’re thinking of buying something baby, take a look. She just started it and only has a few things posted, but, after all, it is all handmade and that stuff takes time…
One of the things Marti and I have started doing the past few years is learning about finances. This all started back in D.C., when we were introduced to the concept of investing money (we were also introduced to the concept of having money period, but that’s another story). We saved and saved, and I read a lot of investment brochures. Then we promptly had kids and it all went out the window.
Nevertheless, we have continued to read and discuss various investment strategies, and even put a tentative toe into the swirling waters of stocks. We’ve looked into real estate and discussed the meaning of “equity fund.”
Marti and I agree on most things, but we have a fundamental disagreement about economics. Now, I think that my theory is the best, primarily because we usually make money on it. This is primarily because I actually invest the money, rather than thinking about investing it.
But in essence, I am a psychological investor. I look at people’s attitudes and try to guess what they’ll do. For example, if a stock crashes, it gets my attention. If it splits, I find that a good time to buy — people’s attitudes are positive, more people are selling, etc. Marti disagrees. For him, it is math. Two stocks at $25 are the same as one at $50. Sure, that’s true enough. But for me, money is an idea; math is just a convenient way to tabulate it. And, it turns out that Alan Greenspan agrees with me.
Alan. Greenspan. Agrees.
While I don’t like to dance around, shouting, “I WIN!!! I WIN!!!” (okay, I sort of do) I would like to feature the video that supports me: