Stories

I rarely go back to the US but when I do it's often the case that I can't follow the conversations people are having around me because they are about television. Reading Wendell Berry's latest work for The Atlantic I found an eloquent description of my unprocessed response to that awkward social situation.

Reading his work I realize that the disinterest I have for TV and pop culture stems from a deep rooted existential lack that I feel for the modern developed world. As he says in his article "When people begin to replace stories from local memory with stories from television screens, another vital part of life is lost."

Being lucky enough to live in a relatively in-tact rural community while growing up Wendell Berry still got to know the importance of story, which has shaped how he sees the world. "I have my own memories of the survival in a small rural community of its own stories. By telling and retelling those stories, people told themselves who they were, where they were, and what they had done. They thus maintained in ordinary conversation their own living history."

Have we sold our meaning as people and communities? Now we welcome our collective meaning to be designed by TV producers and advertising agencies.

Perhaps it is time to welcome local story back into our lives.

Read Wendell Berry's latest work for The Atlantic:

http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/03/farmland-without-farmers/388282/

How to facilitate a vision workshop

Cory Whitney

I found this in a document about food sovereignty called 'How to facilitate a vision workshop'. It is from a piece by Trevor Hancock in the Healthcare Forum Journal, 1993.

We tried it in two villages during our work in Uganda 1-14 and found it very helpful and moving. Take seven people from the large group and bring them to the center and give them all paper and markers and ask them to take the journey described below and then draw (don't write words but draw) their vision.

Next time you have a 15-minute break, try this exercise:

Find a quiet place, take a moment to relax, close your eyes, and take a journey into the future:
It is the year 2024 and you are hovering in a balloon above your own community. During the past 20 years, it has transformed itself into an ideally healthy community. Imagine yourself floating down to the center of this place, where you climb out of the balloon and move around the community.

Take your time as you go into and out of stores ... workplaces ... streets ... parks … .neighborhoods ... houses ... healthcare and educational settings. In what way are the places you visit and the people you see healthy? What makes them healthy? Notice the colors and shapes and textures around you.

What sounds do you hear? What smells do you notice? Pay attention to how people move from place to place. Observe the settings where ill people receive care and the places where people learn. Take the time to experience this community at different times of day and night. At different seasons.

Try to imagine yourself as an elderly person living in this environment ... as a child ... as a woman ... as a man ... as a disabled person. Now spend a few minutes revisiting places you have seen that struck you most forcibly or that you liked the best, then re-enter the balloon, ascend back into the sky, and return to the present.

References

1. Marocco, Irene, Edward Mukiibi, Richard Nsenga, Piero Sardo, John Wanyu, Irene Marocco, Edward Mukiibi, John Wanyu, and Cory W. Whitney. Uganda from Earth to Table; Traditional Products and Dishes (Second Edition). Bra, Italy: Slow Food International, 2018.
2. Whitney, C., and E. Luedeling. “How Governments Can Monitor Progress towards Better Nutrition.” Agroforestry World, 2018.
3. Whitney, C. W., D. Lanzanova, C. Muchiri, K. Shepherd, T. Rosenstock, M. Krawinkel, J. R. S. Tabuti, and E. Luedeling. “Probabilistic Decision Tools for Determining Impacts of Agricultural Development Policy on Household Nutrition.” Earth’s Future 6, no. 3 (2018): 359–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000765/full.
4. Whitney, C. W., K. D. Shepherd, T. S. Rosenstock, M. Krawinkel, and E. Luedeling. “Modelling the Impacts of Uganda’s Vision 2040 Policy on Household Nutrition.” ICRAF Policy Brief 39 (2018): 4.
5. Whitney, Cory. “Agrobiodiversity and Nutrition in Traditional Cropping Systems - Homegardens of the Indigenous Bakiga and Banyakole in Southwestern Uganda.” University of Kassel, 2018. https://kobra.uni-kassel.de/handle/123456789/2018090356388.
6. Whitney, Cory W., Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Ethnobotany and Agrobiodiversity; Valuation of Plants in the Homegardens of Southwestern Uganda.” Ethnobiology Letters 9, no. 2 (2018): 90–100. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.503.
7. Whitney, Cory W., D. Lanzanova, and Eike Luedeling. “Bayesian Networks for Impact Modeling of Development Interventions.” edited by Ana Maria Carvalho, Manuel Pardo de Santayana, and Rainer Bussmann, 131. June 2: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Centro de Investigação de Montanha & Society for Economic Botany, 2017.
8. Whitney, Cory W., D. Lanzanova, Keith Shepherd, and Eike Luedeling. “Nutritional Impacts of Transitioning from Homegardens to Industrial Farms in Uganda.” edited by E. Tielkes, 275. Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.
9. Whitney, Cory W., Denis Lanzanova, Caroline Muchiri, Keith D. Shepherd, Todd S. Rosenstock, Michael Krawinkel, John R. S. Tabuti, and Eike Luedeling. “Probabilistic Decision Tools for Determining Impacts of Agricultural Development Policy on Household Nutrition.” Earth’s Future 6, no. 3 (March 1, 2018): 359–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000765.
10. Whitney, Cory W., and Eike Luedeling. “Agricultural Development Interventions on Household Nutrition in Kenya and Uganda,” 55. July 9-13: Agriculture, Nutrition, Health Academy (ANH), 2017.
11. Whitney, Cory W., Eike Luedeling, Oilver Hensel, John R. S. Tabuti, Michael Krawinkel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “The Role of Homegardens for Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda.” Human Ecology 46, no. 4 (2018): 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0008-9.
12. Whitney, Cory W., Eike Luedeling, John R. S. Tabuti, Antonia Nyamukuru, Oliver Hensel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “Crop Diversity in Homegardens of Southwest Uganda and Its Importance for Rural Livelihoods.” Agriculture and Human Values 35, no. 2 (2018): 399–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9835-3.
13. Whitney, Cory W., L. Mâis-Tomé, S. Nshutiyayesu, C. Kabuye, and R. Omondi. “Conservation Planning and Livelihoods Derived from Lake Victoria’s Native Floristic Diversity,” 1. May, 2-5, 2017.
14. Whitney, Cory W., John R. S. Tabuti, Oliver Hensel, Ching-Hua Yeh, Jens Gebauer, and Eike Luedeling. “Homegardens and the Future of Food and Nutrition Security in Southwest Uganda.” Agricultural Systems 154 (2017): 133–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009.

Messenger

Just back from Slow Food's Terra Madre in Torino, after the Organic World Congress in Istanbul, after the GlobE in Witzenhausen, after the Tropentag in Prague... phew! ...  All the work there is to do and all the inspiring people there are to do that work with!

Tom, Roberto, and Jim said it best "It's a sad and beautiful world".

Helping to settle back into Kleve, I listened to Wes Nisker, a teacher at the Insight Meditation Center, open his talk with this poem 'Messenger' by Mary Oliver and wanted to share it again, even if you've read it a hundred times, enjoy it slowly and may it inspire gratitude as a central theme.

--------
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird — equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam, deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium. The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth
and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam, telling them all,
over and over, how it is that we live forever.

--------

The teacher repeated that line again for emphasis "over and over, how it is that we live forever"

Hmong ethnobotany and conservation in Laos

A participatory ethnobotany study with indigenous Hmong elders on spiritual-cultural practices and livelihood uses of plants and their conservation suggests that the traditional cultural uses for plants may be a mechanism for the conservation of biodiversity in the rapidly deteriorating forests of Luang Prabang in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Results offer an overview of traditional Hmong cultural uses and conservation of biodiversity in the rapidly deteriorating forests of Luang Prabang in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

Read 'Hmong ethnobotany and conservation in Laos' in Ethnobotany Research and Applications (Whitney et al. 2014; 2015)

Tshawb nrhiav nroj tsuag tau muaj kev koom tes nrog cov kws tshuaj ntsuab Hmoob nyob rau zos Long Lan, Xeev Luang prabang, Los Tsuas Teb chaws tau pib tshawb los rau ntawm lub xyoo 2012 thiab 2013. Nrhiav txog lub laj lim thiab tswv yim ntawm cov laus neeg nyob zos Long Lan thiab cov zos nyob ib puag ncig twb yog ib qhov sij hawm muaj txiaj ntsig tau paub txog txoj kev cai coj siv nroj tsuag thiab pov hwm nyob nrog lub neej. Tau paub txog ntawm 74 hom tau muaj 49 yam (nroj tsuag) twb tau muab sau zoo, qhov nov muaj 25 yam tshuaj ntsuab (17 yam yog cov muaj hnub nyooj ntev thiab 8 yam yog cov muaj hnub nyooj luv), 20 yam yog cov ua ntoo, 17 yam yog cov nroj, 10 yam yog cov hmab, thiab 2 yam yog suab. Muab xam tau pom txog nroj tsuag muaj txiaj ntsig zoo heev rau ntawm txoj kev siv yoom thiab pov hwm nyob nrog lub neej. Qhov tshawb rhiav no tau ceeb toom txog tias txoj kev siv yoom nroj tsuag raws li txoj cai Hmoob coj yog ib txoj cai zoo rau ntawm kev pov hwm hav zoov hav tsuag rau qhov hav zoov niaj hnub no raug luaj ntov nyob rau xeev Luang prabang, los Tsuas Teb. 

Check out the related iNaturalist collection (still growing).

References

Whitney, Cory, Min (Meej Vaj) Vang Sin, Giang Le Hong, Can Vu Van, Keith Barber, and Lanh Tran Thi. “Conservation and Ethnobotanical Knowledge of a Hmong Community in Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” Ethnobotany Research and Applications 12 (2014): 643–58. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.12.0.643-658.
———. “Hmong Conservation: Lessons in Ethnobotany from the Elders of Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” In 38th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology “The Many Faces of Ethnobiology,” 70–71. May 6-9: Society of Ethnobiology, 2015.

Autobiography by Nanao Sakaki

Autobiography

Born of a humble & poor family,
Received minimum education,
Learnt how to live by himself at fourteen,
Survived storms, one after another.
Bullets, starvation & concrete wastelands.

A day's fare - a cup of brown rice, vegetables,
Small fish, a little water, & a lot of wind.
Delighted by children and women,
Sharing beads of sweat with farmers,
Fishermen, carpenters & blacksmiths,
Paying no attention to soap, shampoo,
Toilet paper & newspapers.

Now & again
Loves to suck the nectar of honeysuckle,
To flutter with dragonflies & butterflies,
To chatter with winter wrens,
To sing song with coyotes,
To swim with humpback whales,
And to hug a rock in which dinosaurs sleep.

Feels at home in Alaskan glaciers,
Mexican desert, virgin forest of Tanzania,
Valley of Danube, grasslands of Mongolia,
Vulcanoes in Hokkaido & Okinawan coral reeds.

And - one sunny summer morning
He will disappear on foot.
Leaving no shadow behind.

Love is the beginning of loneliness

A poem by Shuji Tereyama.

(The original kanji is included in the translation to make the wordplay apparent)

I wrote down the word tree (木)

but it looked so pitiful all alone

so I added another tree (木)

and the trees became a forest (林)

When I look at the word lonely (淋)

I know why the trees are crying (涙)

It's just because when love begins

loneliness comes in

Slow Science

When the Slow Movement started in 1989 with the creation of the Slow Food organization — to combat the loss of traditional foods — its objectives were to promote quality over speed, to defend cultural diversity and to challenge the ever-increasing pace of our lives. Since then, the concept has spread and expanded to such fields as traveling, designing ... and science.

Worldcrunch.com / LE TEMPS

Slow science supporters criticize the pressure to publish as many studies as possible in scientific journals. Instead, they demand more time to carry out their research and publish their work says a 2010 one-page document entitled "The Slow Science Manifesto," published online by a group of anonymous Berlin-based researchers.

"We do need time to think," it reads. "We do need time to digest. We cannot continuously tell you what our science means, what it will be good for, because we simply don't know yet. Science needs time. Bear with us, while we think."

Isabelle Stengers, philosopher at the Free University of Brussels and co-author of the book Another Science is Possible! Manifesto for a Slowing Down of Sciences, explained at a recent lecture that the manifesto ideas are relatively simple. "But they offer the advantage of creating a consensus in which scientists who find their working conditions painful recognize themselves," she said. 

"The slowness demanded by supporters of slow science is also necessary to what I call 'friction' — that is to say, exchanges with other fields and, more generally, with society," Isabelle Stengers says. She says that researchers are increasingly cut off from the rest of the world, and they have become so ultra-specialized that there is now a lack of imagination.

"The golden age during which scientists could think at leisure, without worrying about anything other than their work has in fact never existed, because they always had to look for funding," sas Alain Kaufman, who leads the Science-Society Interface at the University of Lausanne. "So there's no point in being nostalgic. We must nonetheless denounce the speed pathologies and especially the tyranny of the impact factor."