OK, so I'm in Anchorage. It's 13 degrees out there, which is fine. But the wind is gusting so hard that the wind chill is between -20 and -30. That's below freaking zero!
You watch: ain't nobody coming to see me at the university tonight but the polar bears! But if you've got yer long johns on, the talk starts at 7:30, in the UAA student union cafeteria.
No party, no disco, no foolin' around
Thursday March 1, 2007
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Ron, Bermuda is not a State! Heck, its not even a US territory. However, I'll see if I can get you a gig here in sunny (its 82 today)Florida. Mushabunga, Dude!
Cody, I would ask if you truely know what the real costs of food production are, and what the burdens and costs you don't see from our current global food market. We've come to believe we are entitled to what we consider "affordable" produce, when really the long term costs are not one bit sustainible. If peak oil has occured/is occuring, than you will notice that those quaint local farmers are the ones who are going to be able to provide us, especially here in Alaska, with food. How will our Mexican tomatoes and Chilean apples and grapes that we expect at Fred Meyer at "reasonable" prices be able to stay reasonable if oil prices continue to rise and rise. It could become cost prohibitive to ship our produce up here. Most people don't know where food comes from, and how it gets here. Go visit Sarah and River out at Arctic Organics, or even Pyrah's UPick if organic is not your thing. There lives are not "quaint" storybook existances. They work very hard so we can eat. Farmer's don't get vacation pay, or weekends. It's a lifestyle that most people forget, or never knew. It's essential that we support these people so they are still there when we really need them.
I must say that Cody expressed the same concern that occurred to me. I understand that the CC motive is far more serious than simply "helping rural farmers live out their quaint existence", but it does seem open to the charge of being a luxury available only to those privileged with the extra time and money to indulge it. Here's the problem; I am (for the sake of argument) an overworked, time-starved, blue-collar/middle-class parent (single maybe?) just struggling day-to-day to make ends meet and get from one paycheck to the next. I don't feel"entitled" to anything, but I don't have the time to ponder the "hidden costs" of everything either. I just need to find the best prices available for the things I need to keep body and soul together for me and my family. God bless the free market that provides such a spectrum of choices for people of every preference and station in life- Nordstrom's for one, Value Village for another, Wha-Guru Organics Co-op for you, Wal-Mart for me. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? It takes all my time and energy just to get through today. If fuel costs skyrocket and the cost of shipping food to Alaska becomes prohibitive, I'll have to deal with that then. If a tomato juice producer or athletic shoe manufacturer can offer me a good product at a lower cost, that leaves me with more discretionary income to spend- or save- as I see fit. And that is the key- as *I* see fit. I am totally open to listening to anyone who wants to offer an argument for why one course of action would be better than another- I might be persuaded! But would a politically-organized CC movement propose protectionist laws against foreign ownership of businesses? "Made-in-the-USA" only nativism? Why not made in Texas only, or in Dallas only? I imagine it could be a real challenge to stock the local hospital only with locally produced vaccines and locally manufactured MRI's, CT-scanners, Xray machines, etc! I exaggerate, obviously, but only to illustrate the point- where is the line drawn, and who has the authority to draw it? I am eternally grateful to live in a country where I have the liberty to make those choices for myself.
Meggan, I sometimes imagine a scenario, post-peak oil, that goes something like this: I'm going to show up at some low-tech farm and ask if they will let me work all day for them for food to take home to my family.
Rod, is there any chance that your address was recorded and we can hear it somewhere or see it at YouTube?
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