Conserving Food

Food conservation to ensure adequate supplies and prevent starvation is always critical, especially during natural disasters, pandemics and wars. Over the past couple of years we’ve all seen food shortages and inflated prices. The current natural gas and fertilizer shortage in the United Kingdom may soon lead to food shortages according to CNN. Conservation of existing supplies is often the easiest and most cost-effective remedy but seems to go against human nature to hoard and drive up prices.

I have known and blogged about my parents/grandparents generations of Great Depression-World War II and us growing up to conserve resources. Here is a blog I wrote on Memorial Day 2016:

“My Mom shared memories as I was growing up of the War Rationing Program to conserve all resources. Each family received a coupon book to purchase food, clothing, shoes, gasoline, and much more. The government wanted everyone to ration goods to help the soldiers and created messages like, "Do with less so they'll have enough.”

However, I am just now learning about the food conservation programs from seventh grade classes in America which are learning about World War I. According to Smithsonian’s American History: a visual encyclopedia:

“The Food Administration was headed by engineer Herbert Hoover. Aided by a massive advertising campaign, Hoover encouraged Americans to observe meatless Tuesdays, wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays, and porkless Thursdays and Saturdays. Posters with slogans like “Use All Leftovers” and “Be a Member of the Clean-Plate Club” also helped.”

According to the National Archives which provided the source of the cover poster:

Sow the Seeds of Victory! Posters from the Food Administration During World War I

Background

Even in peaceful times Americans frequently debate fundamental questions about government: What should the federal government do? What does the Constitution sanction? What does it prohibit? What is the relationship between governmental action and volunteerism? During wars, declared or not, Americans argue even more fervently as they often witness government undertaking different and more numerous roles than it undertakes during peacetime.

From the outbreak of World War I in Europe until the signing of the Versailles Treaty, the Wilson administration proposed and implemented an extraordinary number of programs that affected the lives of Americans in their everyday activities. Even the Progressives, who tended to favor more state and federal responsibility, must have been dazed at the expansion of government action beyond the conventional arenas of public policy.

The Lever Act of 1917 represents both the normal working of American government and the extraordinary circumstances of World War I. The process of creating the Lever Act certainly followed the "legislative dance" outlined in the Constitution and congressional custom. Entries in the indexes to the New York Times for 1917 testify to the accepted but various interests of members of Congress in supporting or opposing the legislation; other entries show the range of lobbyists interested in supporting or opposing the bill. In this, the legislative dance seemed typically American: proposed legislation, support or opposition from special interest groups, legislative revision, and congressional hearings. In August 1917, the dance ended. Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act (40 Stat. 276), also known as the Lever Act.

Passage of the bill did not immediately impact the American public. Like any federal legislation, the Food and Fuel Control Act faced the next normal step: implementation, the stage of policy- making between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people it affects. With the authority and power granted to him by Congress in the legislation, on August 10, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued Executive Order 2679-A creating the U. S. Food Administration. In doing so, he created a government entity to replace an existing volunteer organization. The U. S. Food Administration, operating in each state, was to

1. Assure the supply, distribution, and conservation of food during the war,

2. Facilitate transportation of food and prevent monopolies and hoarding, and

3. Maintain governmental power over foods by using voluntary agreements and a licensing system.

Using the same authority, Wilson created two subsidiaries, the U. S. Grain Corporation and the U. S. Sugar Equalization Board. Together these bodies would extraordinarily impact American lives.

Herbert Hoover, former head of the Belgian Relief Organization, lobbied for and won the job of administrator of the Food Administration. Hoover had made clear to President Wilson that a single, authoritative administrator should head the effort, not a board. This, he believed, would ensure an effective federal organization. He further insisted that he accept no salary. Taking no pay, he argued, would give him the moral authority he needed to ask the American people to sacrifice to support the war effort. As he later wrote in his memoirs, his job was to ask people to "Go back to simple food, simple clothes, simple pleasures. Pray hard, work hard, sleep hard and play hard. Do it all courageously and cheerfully."

As head of the U. S. Food Administration, Hoover, given the authority by Wilson, became a "food dictator." The Lever Act had given the president power to regulate the distribution, export, import, purchase, and storage of food. Wilson passed that power on to Hoover. To succeed, Hoover designed an effort that would appeal to the American sense of volunteerism and avoid coercion. In designing the program, he adopted a federal approach, combining centralized power and decentralized power. He oversaw federal corporations and national trade associations; he sought cooperation of local buyers and sellers. Through it all he called for patriotism and sacrifices that would increase production and decrease food consumption. "Food," Hoover and the administration proclaimed, "will win the war."

"No aspect of the people's lives remained unchanged," wrote one historian in assessing the effect of this board and its companions, the War Industries Board and the Fuel Administration. Under Hoover's direction, the Food Administration, in league with the Council of Defense, urged all homeowners to sign pledge cards that testified to their efforts to conserve food. The government boards issued the appeal on a Friday. By the following week, Americans had embraced wheatless Mondays, meatless Tuesdays, porkless Saturdays. According to a sesquicentennial article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin's Green Lake County 100 percent of the housewives signed on and 80 percent of Milwaukee did. Schoolchildren joined housewives in supporting the effort by signing this pledge: "At table I'll not leave a scrap of food upon my plate. And I'll not eat between meals But for supper time I'll wait." In support of the war effort, Americans discovered nouveau menus filled with dogfish, sugarless candy, whale meat, and horse steaks. They planted victory gardens and prized leftovers. Even President Wilson cooperated, grazing sheep on the White House lawns. The emphasis on voluntary support worked.

While Hoover preferred the emphasis on the "spirit of self sacrifice," he also had authority to coerce. He set wheat prices, bought and distributed wheat. Coercion plus volunteerism produced results. By 1918 the United States was exporting three times as much breadstuffs, meat, and sugar as it had prior to the war.

To achieve the results, the Food Administration combined an emphasis on patriotism with the lure of advertising created by its own Advertising Section. This section produced a wealth of posters for both outdoor and indoor display. One proclaimed: "Food is Ammunition-Don't waste it." Another featured a woman clothed in stars and stripes reaching out to embrace the message: "Be Patriotic sign your country's pledge to save the food." A third combined patriotism with a modern healthy diet message. At the top, the poster encouraged readers to: "Eat more corn, oats and rye products-fish and poultry-fruits, vegetables and potatoes, baked, boiled and broiled foods." At the bottom, the poster concluded "Eat less wheat, meat, sugar and fats to save for the army and our allies." All of these posters, now part of Record Group 4, the Records of the U. S. Food Administration, testify to the intent of the government to mobilize the food effort during World War I. As much as possible, it did so under a banner of volunteerism, rather than coercion. In doing so, the Wilson administration created a program that did affect the everyday lives of Americans during World War I.

Memorial Day 2021

I took this photo about three years ago on Independence Day at the US Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Growing up in the D.C. area we called this statue the Iwo Jima memorial to commemorate the World War II battle on a Japanese island. Today we celebrate all the people in the military who sacrificed their lives fighting for our freedom!

This weekend completes the sixth year of this website blog for Conserve & Pro$per that began on Memorial Day 2015. In that initial blog, I posed the question, “is our freedom truly sustainable if we lack the basic necessities of water, food, and shelter?” I provided the website purpose, "to share my 30+ years of experience working in the environmental science field. I aspire to inform and share ideas on how we can all live on planet Earth by conserving precious resources, eating healthier food, breathing cleaner air, and creating a smaller footprint.”

It’s estimated that about 2 million Americans do not have access to running water and basic plumbing. Over 34 million Americans live in poverty and one in four people experienced food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic. The fight against the virus during the first year claimed an estimated 3600 health care workers in America. We need to have a memorial for their sacrifices too.

On Memorial Day 2016, I shared some of my parents experiences living through World War II including how the government wanted everyone to ration goods to help the soldiers and created messages like, "Do with less so they'll have enough."

After the Second World War, America helped rebuild Europe with the Marshall Plan and we've enjoyed sustainable freedom for over 70 years through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as I discussed in 2018.

My parents experience living through past wars and the Great Depression taught my family to be frugal, save and find ways to reuse items as described in 2019. My Dad reused plastic gallon jugs by opening the tops to turn them into tool holders or for storing hardware and magazines.

Last year in 2020, I discussed the pandemic and how we need to have courage to speak the truth as we know it, share compassion and courage with others, pray for everyone to come together to seek Nature’s balance and make our world habitable for all life.

The rapid spread of coronavirus continues to show us how interconnected and interdependent the world is on each other and on Nature. I am grateful to all the people who have made sacrifices in wars and health care battles so we may continue to survive and thrive.

Contagious Consumption

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the leading illnesses was consumption, also known as the lung disease tuberculosis (TB). The mycobacteria infection caused about 1.5 million deaths in 2018. An article in USA Today four months ago examines the history of TB consumption stating, “the disease was eradicated through elimination of poverty, improvement of nutrition and through improvement in living conditions." TB remains prevalent mostly in the developing world. Ironically, another type of consumption is afflicting the entire world by the actions of the most developed nations.

Consumption of natural resources in a consumer economy includes use of energy, food, and water. As the chart shows, people living in the United States led the world in consuming natural resources. If everyone in the world consumed resources at the rate of people in the U.S., it would take 5 Earth’s to support all the people. Obviously this is not sustainable! The World Economic Forum stated in 2019, “the extraction and processing of natural resources alone cause 90% of global biodiversity loss and water stress, and more than half of global climate change impacts.”

The U.S. has only about 4% of the world’s population yet consumes about 20% of the world’s resources. Coal-fired power plants will continue to be phased out in favor of cheaper natural gas, solar photovoltaics, wind, hydroelectric and new designs including small-modular nuclear power generation. A green energy revolution is just beginning but sustainable consumption must be considered for all industries. Powering electric car batteries with lithium oxide places demands on this metal and other rare earth elements, which are also needed for computers and wind generators. Leading producers of these raw materials are in Australia, Chile, and China. However, the U.S. will quickly be a leading importer and consumer of green energy materials and therefore continue to be dependent on imports of natural resources.

As the Covid-19 pandemic becomes even more contagious (as well as TB and other diseases), we need to carefully reassess holistic connections among health care, dependency on natural resources, and consumerism to develop global actions that preserves and protects the planet and essential biodiversity.

Some of the personal and societal solutions are quite obvious: wearing a mask, washing hands, taking vaccines, 3R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle), walking, ride a bicycle, live near your work or telecommute, carry reusable water bottles and shopping bags, and buy products that promote sustainable living.

The Environmental Legacy of the 41st President

Today, (December 5th, 2018 and reposted in 2020) the nation celebrated the life of President George Herbert Walker Bush with a state funeral at the National Cathedral.

My friend Dave, who works for the U.S. Geological Survey as a Research Hydrologist in Helena, Montana, sent me an article of a 1989 speech by the 41st President at the Montana capitol. Beyond the Clean Air Act Amendments mentioned in my previous blog, I had forgotten that President George H.W. Bush spoke out strongly for the U.S. to lead the world to defend the environment, promote conservation, plant trees, and combat global warming (climate change). He directed EPA to provide training to Peace Corps volunteers.

Here is an excerpt from the speech:

“The single most significant word today in the language of all environmentalists is interdependence. That’s a fact all Montanans should find it easy to appreciate. Not so many miles from where we stand is a spot called the Triple Divide, where the waters begin their separate journeys to the Pacific, to the Gulf of Mexico, to the Hudson Bay and the Arctic beyond — the Earth’s own geography lesson in global interdependence. The plain fact is this: Pollution can’t be contained by lines drawn on a map.

The actions we take can have consequences felt the world over. The destruction of the rain forests in Brazil. The ravages of acid rain that threaten not just our country, but our neighbors to the north and not just the east but the lakes and forests of the west as well. The millions of tons of airborne pollutants carried across the continents and the threat of global warming. We know now that protecting the environment is a global issue. The nations of the world must make common cause in defense of our environment. And I promise you this: This nation, the United States of America, will take the lead internationally. (Applause.)

Here in this great state, you’re already taking the lead with your commitment to the environment, led by every schoolchild in this state who’s planted a Ponderosa Pine to commemorate 100 years of history. In just a few minutes I’ll be planting a tree of my own, and let me say from the heart, there’s no finer symbol of the love each one of us feels for this land than a tree growing up in Montana’s good earth. We’re working hard to clean up America, but we can’t stop there. We’ve got to work with the rest of the world to preserve the planet.

We’re already taking action. To preserve the ozone layer, we’re going to ban all release of CFCs into the atmosphere by the year 2000. To prevent pollution of the world’s oceans we’re going to end virtually all ocean dumping of sewage and industrial wastes by 1991. (Applause.) And after that, anyone who continues to pollute is going to pay for it with stiff fines. And we’re going to join forces with other nations.

In February, the United States will host the plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In July when I visited Poland and Hungary, I pledged America’s help in tackling the increasingly serious pollution problems those two nations face. At the Paris economic summit, we helped the environment achieve the status that it deserves at the top of the agenda for the seven major industrial democracies. And I mean to keep it right there at the top of the agenda. (Applause.)

America spends more than any other nation in the world on environmental research, and we’re going to continue this pioneering effort to protect the environment and put that environmental expertise to work in the developing world as well. We cannot pollute today and postpone the cleanup until tomorrow. We have got to make pollution prevention our aim. And sharing our expertise with the world is one way to do exactly that. Today, I want to announce a new environmental initiative — one that will bring the Environmental Protection Agency and the Peace Corps together in a joint venture in the service of the global environment.

Beginning in 1990, as part of their standard preparation for duty, Peace Corps volunteers will be trained by the EPA to deal with the full range of environmental challenges water pollution, prevention, waste disposal, reforestation, pesticide management. Armed with greater knowledge about our environment, our Peace Corps volunteers are going to help spread the word in the developing world. They’ll work to stop pollution before it starts and ensure that economic development and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. And Montanans know more than most how much that means, how vital it is for us to accept our responsibilities, our stewardship — the environment in Montana, across America, and around the world. We hold this land in trust for the generations that come after. The air and the Earth are riches we simply cannot squander.”

Grand Junction Water Restrictions Imposed

The City of Grand Junction began requiring residents to restrict outdoor water use to twice per week. This changes to once per week in October. More details are available as discussed in the The Daily Sentinel.

This restriction does not apply to my neighborhood located in Mesa County with water supplied by Ute Water. At my home, we changed from less frequent watering with a longer duration to move the water deeper into the root zone of native desert plants. We've cut our water bill in half as compared to last year and our plants are doing just fine! 

Warm and Dry Fall

In Grand Junction, Colorado and most of the Rockies we are enjoying an Indian Summer with dry cool nights and warm days. We've turned off our irrigation water last week and the landscaping plants are going dormant for the winter. We will still need to water weekly to monthly during the fall and winter seasons. The ski industry is already concerned as it is so warm they are not able to begin making snow yet they planned to open in less than one month!

According to the Drought Monitor: "Changes in the West this week were mixed. Abnormal dryness (D0) expanded westward in the Upper Colorado River Basin over western Colorado, eastern Utah, and south-central Wyoming in response to warmer-than-normal temperatures and short-term precipitation deficits. Colorado also saw a south and southwestward expansion of moderate drought (D1) due to the continued dryness in the region and impacts on soil moisture and vegetation. A re-examination of data due to rains over the last 30 days resulted in a trimming of moderate (D1) and severe (D2) drought over northeast California and northwest Nevada. These rains have been enough to improve long-term rainfall deficits, streamflow, and soil moisture. Likewise, a one category improvement was made in drought conditions over western Wyoming."

The long term trends indicate we need to continue our efforts to conserve limited resources and find ways to be more efficient and prosperous! One way is for expanding partnerships to share common interests - we need to plant more native trees everywhere to make up for many lost to logging, beetle infestations, and clear cutting. We can take positive steps to reverse the impacts. We are donating to several organizations that support planting trees and people living in the Rain Forest so contact us if you are interested in a list of great organizations!

Balancing Water Demands for Food and Nature with Water Sharing Investment Partnerships

One of the biggest issues facing all watersheds is how to keep sufficient streamflow to support aquatic life while balancing the withdrawals from water consumers including agriculture and municipal drinking water.  For example, many fish are very sensitive to changing water conditions of temperature, oxygen, and chemistry which are affected by the weather and climate as well as water supply. Obviously, during drought conditions the declining supply creates greater impacts for all users. It's a simple matter of supply and demand: while debates continue over the severity of climate changes affecting water supply and dramatic impacts to nature and our habitat, projecting the demand side of water and food resources is easier to forecast. Worldwide, we have accurate population growth numbers and consumption rates so we know demands for water and other resources will exceed supplies. Therefore conservation, if not rationing, is essential. Perhaps for too long we have considered that nature will provide infinite resources for free but coming soon we will all have a huge debt to pay for our ignorance and greed!

While there are large markets for consumer demands on water, can a system be created to sustain natural resources? According to Brian Richter, Chief Water Scientist with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a market-based strategy is stimulating conservation in the western United States and Australia - water markets are especially effective with irrigated lands. To create a special strategy for protecting nature - innovative partnerships are needed. In April 2016, a water balance fund began in Australia to encourage investments -- perhaps this is like our repaying nature for the huge loans we have taken. For more information on the Water Sharing Investment Partnerships (WSIPs), please see the article by TNC.

2015 Year In Review for Conserving and Pro$pering!

We've seen great progress and continued challenges in 2015. While this year will go down as the warmest in recorded human history, there is optimism that 200 governments will take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. still produced about 50% of our electricity from burning coal this year and the alternative renewable sources of solar and wind are rapidly increasing up to about 5% nationwide. Conventional nuclear power and burning natural gas accounted for about 40%. Hydroelectric power from dams also add about 5%. We did not make much progress in reducing our demand on fossil fuels which will only come through new innovative inventions - maybe several are on the way including hydrogen fuel cells, fusion, capturing wave energy, and small modular nuclear reactors. One of the breakthoughs that occurred in 2015 was Tesla Energy announcing capturing sunlight with solar batteries using Powerwall. 

This year auto makers were hit by the VW scandal cheating on emissions testing while Toyota and other brands announced new hybrid models. These events hit home as we shopped for green cars and hoped the new "clean diesels" were for real -- luckily the news broke before we made a regrettable purchase and opted for a hybrid instead. More on this in future blogs.

2015 is the year of the drought although lack of precipitation in the western U.S. is several years in the making. Despite an El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean bringing 2 feet of snow to the Sierra Mountains, most of California and large parts of Oregon, Washington, and Nevada are still in extreme to severe drought today. 

This year for the first time Colorado has a Water Plan and is developing other plans to deal with natural resource issues. We still use groundwater to make snow and this year we continued to see competition among ski areas for who could open earliest in the season. 

And in 2015 we launched this website blog and company Conserve & Pro$per LLC to be a non-commercial and independent source of information on how we can take action for improving our lifestyles.  Please share your ideas and thoughts about the year!

Comments submitted on the Colorado Water Plan

Here are the comments that I've submitted on the Colorado Water Plan:

Thank you Governor Hickenlooper and the Colorado Water Conservation Board for creating the state's first strategic plan for water. The Colorado Water Plan makes great strides towards addressing problems and solutions to our obvious water deficits in the arid western United States. However, the plan needs to be much stronger with urgent actions now. For example, the Introduction (page 4) section on "Why Do We Need a Water Plan?" gives the appearance that we have a future resource problem (rather than a current problem) by projecting shortfalls out to the year 2050 of 500,000 acre-feet/year statewide. 

The truth is that the western U.S. and Mexico are in serious trouble now. Coloradans depend on food from California. Due to the 4-year drought, many crops are withering and our food supply is threatened nationwide. We also depend on reliable hydroelectric supply from Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Current water demand is greater than supply so as lake levels further decline this will have a greater impact on the Colorado River - I did not see these topics mentioned in the Colorado Water Plan.

When Governor Brown in California declared a statewide emergency this year with a call to action by reducing water use by 25%, I've closely watched the response here in the Western Slope. To my surprise many people complained about the wet May and abundance of mosquitoes and weeds. To my astonishment, the Daily Sentinel quoted the Grand Junction Rockies manager concerned the rains in July discouraged attendance with the headline "Rain, Rain Go Away!" It also appears the local legislators want to fight the plan rather than conserve.

I've taken videos of businesses watering lawns in the rain, watering during the hottest part of the day instead of the evening or early morning, and over watering onto streets.  Can the Colorado Water Plan provide incentives and enforcement actions for proper water use?

This May, I started a website blog at www.conserve-prosper.com to promote educational awareness and eventually the hope of a productive business to facilitate beautiful xeriscapes, conservation with water audits, and improving water supplies and quality.

The Colorado Water Plan describes an action for Municipal Water Conservation and Efficiency as, "explore a tax credit for outdoor conservation practices..." Can the plan offer tax credits now? If not, by what date can we expect incentives to go into effect? Likewise, more metrics are needed to gauge accountability.

My neighborhood in the Redlands community of Grand Junction is on Ute municipal water supply with xeriscape requirements. However, there is no enforcement and most people still want to plant grass! At my home with our drip irrigation and native plants, we use about 3,000 gallons per month in the summer while people who've planted grass may use 30,000 gallons per month or more. If people are given the choice between lawns and food, I think most rational people would agree to plant less turf. The problem is that most people have an irrational fear of 'use it or lose it.' The Colorado Water Plan could provide a much better rational for the urgency of needing to work together to solve our common problems.

Previously, I've lived in Las Vegas and Albuquerque (working as a hydrologist) - both cities are models for water conservation programs. Can the Colorado Water Plan review and adopt some of the important lessons learned from other desert communities such as lawn buyback programs?

I will be happy to provide more ideas and insights!

Sincerely, 

Bill Dam

Save on watering plants for less than $10

The most common problem with irrigation is adding too much or too little water.  How often and how much do I need to water indoor and outdoor plants? I used to use the touch method and if the soil felt dry then I would water or tried to water on a regular schedule. Going on vacation, I came home to find our houseplants were over watered and nearly died! So now we've discovered soil moisture meters. Several companies sell meters that you stick in the soil which measures moisture content.  The ETEKCITY soil water monitor currently sells for $8.99 with no charge for shipping by ordering from their website. Be careful when sticking the probe into hard ground -- use a screwdriver first to loosen the soil so the meter does not break. This 5-year old boy loves making measurements of soil moisture and growing native plants!

Memorial Day weekend launching Conserve & Pro$per LLC website!

This Memorial Day weekend 2015, we are again celebrating all those heroes who fought for our freedom! But is our freedom truly sustainable if we lack the basic necessities of water, food, and shelter? The purpose of this website being started today is to share my 30+ years of experience working in the environmental science field. I aspire to inform and share ideas on how we can all live on planet Earth by conserving precious resources, eating healthier food, breathing cleaner air, and creating a smaller footprint. Our initial area of focus due to the world-wide water crisis of severe droughts and catastrophic floods is on providing consulting advice and educational outreach to people and communities.