Whose food is it anyway?

You know the Peter's principle, in which each employee tends to rise to his or her level on incompetence? Well, here's dear Rasha abu Zeki from Al Akhbar rising to that level, and dragging with her my favorite newspaper.

On today's front page of Al Akhbar, an "investigation" by Rasha about the intellectual property of "Lebanese food" and Israeli attempts to appropriate local food culture. I have written about this repeatedly, most recently here, and here and here and here

And here's a link to the blog on Traditional Lebanese Food

I have little to add to what I ave already said above, except to paraphrase what Sami Zubaida told the audience yesterday when answering a question after his talk about Ottoman cuisine: Of course these (hummus, tabbouleh, falafel, etc...) are not Israeli foods, but they certainly are not Lebanese foods either. And when someone in the room shouted "tabbouleh", he said: try convincing someone from Aleppo that Tabbouleh is Lebanese.

The foods of the region (Levant) share many similarities. They have all been influenced by the geography, and by the social and political history of the region. There MAY be "Levantine foods" although even this is arguable. Israel is NOT part of that Levant. But the Levant does certainly NOT limit itself to Lebanon. Drop the chauvinism. And don't be silly please: Tabbouleh does NOT become Lebanese because a few people with a lot of time on their hand and parsley in their garden made "the largest tabbouleh plate in the world, according to the Guinness book of records!

Every year more land: Zionist peace

"As the olive harvest gets under way in the West Bank, residents of the Palestinian town of Ni'lin say much of their land, where their trees are, is off limits because of Israel's Barrier.

According to estimates by residents, some 5,000 olive trees sit on 270 hectares between the path of the Barrier and the border of the West Bank with Israel, known as the Green Line.

"People depend on this land, especially because they have already lost so much," said Hindi Misleh, an activist in the village.

The village, Misleh said, lost over 4,000 hectares of land to Israel in the 1948 war and then another 800 to Israeli settlements which started to pop up around Ni'lin in the 1980s.

"Every year the settlers took more land," he said."

In summary...

The challenges of the food crisis

"The Chatham House study concludes that the British government does not yet fully understand the challenges it faces over food in the 10 years. It identifies serious challenges to world agriculture:

• UK consumers use food at a rate that represents six times more land and sea than is available to them.

• Developed countries face a chronic shortage of migrant workers, leading to the loss of seasonal crops. In Scotland up to a fifth of the soft fruit crop, worth £5.2m, could be lost in 2008.

• The equivalent of 20 Nile rivers move annually from developing to developed countries, but much of agriculture's use of water is unsustainable.

• Modern food production is energy-intensive and vulnerable to oil and gas price rises.

• Rising prices of agricultural commodities have already produced pressure for more protectionism. Russia plans to form a state grain trading company to control up to half of its cereal exports.

• Falling yields due to climate change will inflate food prices further.

• The rapid rise in world population will continue to push up demand.

• Emerging economies such as China and India are shifting to more meat and dairy products. This will cause greater pressure on food and feed prices, and exacerbate environmental and health problems."

Can you blame them?

"The reason the Palestinians avoid the water from a station in the nearby village of Al-Jalameh is that it smells of chlorine. So deep is the mistrust of Israelis that they fear it might have been contaminated, and would damage their children's health.

"We assured them that water from the Al-Jalameh station is being constantly tested and that its quality is definitely better than that of the water from the agricultural wells," says Mizyed. "But they would not believe us. They said the water could be contaminated in the time gaps between one quality test and another. They would ask us to guarantee water provided by the Israeli company was safe. But of course we could not guarantee."" (Thanks Marcy)

Monopoly in Lebanon

While all Lebanese newspaper are front paging with boring sectarian politics news (except al safir, where the front page was just boring) Al Akhbar, the newspaper with a social agenda, had the issue monopoly on its front page: Lebanon's only mainstay: the empire of monopoly. In the article (aptly titled "monopoly is legally protected in Lebanon") Rasha Abu Zeki reports on a study of markets in Lebanon and how a few companies monopolize all the souk. Not to be missed if you speak Arabic.

In the same page: Lebanon imports 3% of its milk from China, 380 tons which could contain unacceptable levels of cancer-causing melamin. But Lebanon has taken action: samples have been obtained and sent to the lab. Except that the lab admitted it does not have the facilities to carry out the analysis.

Sous les pavés les champs

"The English have their allotments; in Sydney we use the streets. In a variation on guerilla gardening, Sydneysiders are moving veggie plots from the backyard to the street verge, and converting formerly fallow public land into mini-market gardens.
...

"We want to show people that they can grow food where they live and return to simpler, lower-impact lifestyle," says Mr Mobbs, who received support from the City of Sydney, which provided some labour and plants. Other councils are following suit.

"North Sydney Council has established a permaculture garden with vegetable beds at the coal loader site, next to Balls Head, Waverton," says the Mayor of North Sydney, Genia McCaffery. "We would certainly be very supportive if communities wanted to grow veggies in their street, as long as it's a community initiative."" (Thanks Maha)

During the May 1968 strike and riots in Paris, the students used to dig out the cobblestone (pavés) from the street to throw at the police. They painted the walls with their slogan: Sous les pavés la plage (under the cobblestones the beach).

Hungry Arab

[""Lebanon is planning on filing an international law suit against Israel for violating a food copyright, Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, told the al-Arabiya network. The Lebanese claim is that Israel markets original Lebanese food like tabouleh, kubbeh, hummus, falafel and fattoush which the Lebanese considered their trademarks prior to the establishment of the Jewish state." While at it, maybe Lebanon can remember that Israel also still occupies Lebanese territories. (thanks Olivia)".]

I lifted the blog entry below from Angry Arab, you can follow the link for the original article. Of course, Abboud is totally wrong, in this chauvinistic and arrogant way that characterizes many Lebanese. None of these foods are Lebanese, because Lebanon (the country) only came to life less than 100 years ago. Mount Lebanon of course existed, and its people cooked foods that were not different from those of Syria and Palestine where kebbeh, for instance is also part of the culinary traditions. You know why there is burghul in kebbeh right? To make the meat last longer and feed more people. In the old times (like when I was born) they used to make kebbeh it with lots of burghul and very little meat and it felt like everyone in the house had eaten meat. Many people in my village still prefer their "frakeh" (raw kebbeh) very rich in burghul. Not the young ones unfortunately.

And falafel are definitely not from the region: it is said that falafel is originally an Indian dish.

Exploiting Palestinians? No way!

:So far, Royalnight has gone unpunished for its profitable exploitation of Palestinian workers in its settlement manufacturing plant. The goods it exports are likely marked as "Made in Israel" even though the Barkan Industrial Park where its sewing factory is located is built in violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land. However, there is a growing movement to hold companies like Royalife accountable. Earlier this year Barkan Wineries terminated its lease at the Barkan Industrial Park and moved its operations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between the West Bank and Israel, following a campaign against the company's settlement operations that tarnished its image (the company, however, still owns a vineyard in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights). As the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel's rights violations increasingly gains momentum, the exploitation of Palestinian labor by Israeli companies operating on occupied land will surely come under further scrutiny." (Thanks Marcy)

The end of Development?

"The meaning of development exploded, increasingly covering a host of contradictory practices. The development business became self-propelling: whatever new crisis arose, a new strategy to resolve it could be devised. Furthermore, the background motive for development slowly shifted. A rising environmental chorus noted that development was not meant to promote growth, but to protect against it. Thus the semantic chaos was complete, and the concept torn to shreds."

From the latest issue of New Internationalist. I used to like this magazine and subscribe to it-20 years ago- in the UK. Then I found out that they were so wishy-washy about Palestine, and that their radicalism when it came to economic issue turned into mushy pea soup when it came to Zionism. They onece had a special issue on refugees in the late 1980's without a mention of the Palestinians. I wrote a letter that was never published.

But am afraid this article has triggered one of my rants about NGOs and Development. You see, Lebanon has been a recipient of development aid since its creation. But aid to Lebanon only became a priority on donors agendas since the beginning of the Lebanese wars, in 1975. I remember being interviewed by a British NGO in the late 80's for a job in Yemen. One interviewer asked me if I had previous experience of development. I answered: Of course I do, you've been developing me for as long as I can remember, the least I can do is be an expert. I got the job. Anyway, the mid 70's also coincided with period during which Development became an international business. Like all international businesses, development has ramifications deep inside governments. The largest donors are governments, who can donate directly, through their embassies, or indirectly, through the UN system and other (seemingly independent) donors. It therefore comes as no great surprise that development money is often linked to politics.

There are hundreds of development organizations working in Lebanon today, in a big community that brings together Lebanese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with large international players. To get an idea of the size of the operation, one just has to log into Lebanon-support.org, a web site that was created during the Israeli attack on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, and which attempts to gather information about development work. No doubt that the site misses a number of agencies, such as village-based civil society organizations (jam3iyyat) or cooperatives, along with parties who may have elected not to register into the site, but it gives a pretty good idea of the huge numbers of organizations active on the Lebanese scene. These NGOs live off a significant amount of funding that is poured yearly in the Lebanese aid market from a variety of sources. There are no valid estimates of the amount of development money that is spent on development, but it is in the order of tens of millions of US$.

Most, if not all, development organizations, share a set of core values. Chief among these values are democracy and transparency and the respect of all partners. These values are highly commendable, and all citizens should struggle to see them implemented at every level of their lives, especially in the relationship between state and citizen. Short of achieving this in today’s Lebanon, these core values: democracy, transparency and respect; must form the basis of all interactions between the development organizations and the communities they purport to serve.

We hear and read and watch regularly reports about the achievements of the development organizations in the projects they have implemented. We read about workshops, meetings, launch ceremonies and stories of achievements and successes without being able to really judge the validity of these claims. Moreover, as the leadership of development NGOs are usually not elected by the people they serve, but by the people who work in them, it is very difficult to enforce accountability. Many development NGOs (but far from all) publish their accounts on the internet, and share them during their annual general meetings during (which mostly re-elect the same leadership, or clones of this leadership). However, the “partners” (as we call the people who are the recipients of the NGO help), are generally not part of these meetings and do not know enough English to be able check the accounts of the NGOs online! In reality, budgetary issues in most development organizations worldwide are decided by a small group of people who sit at the top of the management pyramid. Very little is debated outside this core group, let alone with the community that is supposed to be served and respected. Communities are usually the passive recipients of the plans that were formulated in agreement between donors and implementing agency. So much for democracy, transparency and respect.

It is against this background that many voices are starting to be heard throughout the country. Voices that ask disturbing questions such as: “If tens of millions of $ in development aid money have been invested in fighting poverty in Baalbak, Hermel, Akkar, the South and in Bab el Tebbaneh and in the Palestinian camps, then how come people are still so poor and how come people are getting poorer? How come millions of aid $ are being spent on agriculture but the status of agriculture is still declining, and farmers are still leaving their lands and emigrating? How come there is still no water, no jobs, no shelter, no schooling, no rights available in Nahr el Bared, one and a half year after it was destroyed and while scores of agencies, headed by UNRWA, claim to be working there to help the poor.

Whoever cares to listen can hear these angry complaints. But hearing is not sufficient. Civil society and development NGOs and donors must engage in a total rethink of the way they do their work. They must assess the real impact of the projects they implement. And if they have the courage to say out loud what they say in private, and to acknowledge the limitation and sometimes futility of their work, then the best option might be for them to dissolve their structures and distribute the project money in cash to the poor who will surely find a better use for it.

Chinese milk: farmers vs industry

""We've lost everything, but look at the nice car you have," one dairy farmer said, pointing at a government official they called Mr. Wang, who stood uncomfortably by a shiny Volkswagen in Nantongyi Village.

"You know everything but you won't talk. You have no conscience!" another man shouted.

China's dairy farmers stand accused of adulterating their milk for profit in China's worst food safety crisis in decades. But farmers say they, too, are the victims of a widening scandal that has sickened 53,000 babies, caused at least four deaths and triggered a massive recall of dairy products."

Chinese farmers victims of milk scandal?

Syrian drought in figures

"“According to the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Syria’s current drought is, by far, the worst it has experienced in four decades,” said Michelle Montas, the spokeswoman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief.

“The vast majority of funds requested in the appeal will go towards agriculture, livelihoods and food. Nearly $2 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund has already been put towards the appeal.”

Poor and erratic rains in the season beginning in Oct 2007 resulted in crop yields plummeting across north-east Syria, while the subsequent lack of fodder has seen 59,000 owners of small herds lose all of their livestock.

Officials have assisted 29,000 drought-struck families and offered free cattle medicine and feed on loan, but the UN says in a report the affected population’s need “is beyond the government’s capacity and resources”.

Syrians living in the drought-affected region are being doubly impacted by the global rise in food costs, which is seeing prices outstripping the average household income.

UN officials say people are eating less, selling their assets or migrating, while conditions like anaemia, malnutrition and diarrhoea are on the rise – particularly among pregnant women and young children."

I wonder what this program will do. Will it be able to reach the Bedouin population which has been the most affected? It should really be targeted and this relief program should be accompanied with a livelihood stabilization program.

Bail out? what bail out?

"Old people sit on crates, children shuffle impatiently and adults avert their gaze. This happens every day of the year in Mott Haven, no matter the weather. That is because for too many years to count, hunger and want have been a constant in their lives.

The people who run this Bronx soup kitchen and an adjoining food pantry do not need economic analyses to tell them things are rough. The growing line and increased demand for food packages and hot meals — sometimes from people who thought they were middle class — is a sure-fire indicator.

And while politicians debate a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, they have long lived with the fact that there is no emergency rescue plan for East 139th Street.

This bleak little strip lies eight and a half miles from Wall Street. Emotionally, it is a parallel universe invisible to those titans of finance for whom fat bonuses used to mean bigger vacation homes, fancier toys and ever more exotic vacations."

Not outraged yet?

If you are not yet outraged, angry, livid, fuming at the condition of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation, see this youtube video (10 mins) about water in the West Bank posted by the Italian Aid Agency GVC. (Thanks Marcy)

Wild grass fights disease

"Ug99, the deadly stem rust which is spreading panic among wheat growers across the globe, may soon be tackled with the help of an obscure wild grass.

Researchers in the US are focusing on a wild grass as a standin for wheat to speed up the discovery of genes that will improve wheat’s resistance to diseases, including the Ug99.

According to reports, the grass, Brachypodium distachyon, is related to wheat, barley, and other small grains."

Ug99 is a killer and might wipe out the world's wheat supply. Glad for biodiversity...

Fire works

"Meanwhile, a nearby olive grove owned by Palestinians was set on fire, and the blaze began spreading toward an IDF base and a police station in Kadum. Firefighters dispatched to the scene extinguished the blaze. Two weeks ago Samaria Sub-District police arrested two Yitzhar settlers for suspicion of torching agricultural land belonging to Palestinians near the village of Ma'adama. Palestinians reported that settlers had set fields on fire near Nablus and Kedumim. " (Thanks Marcy)

Badael-Alternatives

Its Friday, the day of Badel-Allternatives in Al-Akhbar. My editorial on the slavery sugar boycott of 1791 and the inability of the Arab to boycott Israel today. And Rana Hayek wrote 2 articles: one on celebrations and food in the world, in which she asks how can one celebrate with unfairly produced food? (see the illustration by Kris. The big man is saying: Happy Eid). And another on food and the Eid el fitr...

Gunkids

For the past 3 days, my neighborhood has been invaded by kids carrying guns, all styles of guns: there's the ubiquitous AK47 (a household favorite), silver pump action 12-gauge shot guns, M16's and even tiny Uzis, specially designed for summer shorts. The armed children patrol the street and give each others orders on the fake Motorola talkie-walkies. Sometimes, they engage each others: they take fighting stances, move cautiously from car to car, then roll across the street and light explosive devices that shake our windows. This is when I go out onto the balcony and shout at them, but without much effect. They continue shooting at each other, using real ammo, special spherical bullets that give you bruises.

It is the Eid el Fitr, a celebration of the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in Muslim countries. The tradition is that kids are given toys and light fireworks. This year, there are more toy guns than in any other year, and the kids must have been receiving serious street fighting training, because they look and act as if they just walked out of Playstation II. Or of the latest street battles of May 2008, in which Opposition and Loyalists forces fought each other over the control of Beirut.

The area in which I live was a battleground last May. The same kids who are now playing war with realistic weaponry witnessed it all. They looked and learned. They studied the moves on the cable TV action channels, practiced virtually on their computer game stations, and are now honing their skills through field practice. I saw the same scene everywhere I have been in Beirut, in both Loyalists and Opposition neighborhoods. I also saw the same guns-toting kids playing the same games in the villages of the South I visited yesterday.

Q: What do Lebanese children dream of?
A: An upgrade.

Go build a peace culture with that.

Bubble

"I'm wondering if there is a closer link between coffee and bubble economies. First off, I must confess that every time I have a venti mocha frappucino, I feel a wave of irrational exuberance wash over me. I can just see those large plastic cups by the elbows of the managers of the hedge and private equity funds (the 50 most exuberant of which earned a certifiably irrational $588 million each in compensation last year).
...
Not convinced yet of the link between coffee and speculative bubbles? Here's one last connection. The day after a bubble economy bursts feels a lot like the day after you decide to kick that four-latte-a-day habit. Irrational exuberance is just a memory. All you have left is one whopper of a headache." (Thanks Toufic)

Food crisis or food prices crisis?

"The main difference today is in the parting of extremes, or the deepening polarization between alternative paradigms, narratives and solutions. On one side of the court stand the impassioned NGOs and hardened campaigners who have long opposed large-scale agribusiness in place of food sovereignty, bottom-up development, and the empowerment of small farmers through local and regional markets. The food price crisis, they say, has exposed the disaster of global agricultural production and the conclusive failure of a market fundamentalist ideology left unchecked for far too long.

On the other side of the court, supported by Gordon Brown, George W. Bush, Bill Gates’ pockets and the most powerful financial institutions in the world, stand the Green Revolutionaries led by chemical technologies and multinational corporations from the E.U and U.S.A. One path, say almost all of the NGOs, will lead to social justice, the strengthening of local communities and food security for all, while the current path is inherently unsustainable, responsible for continued hunger in a world of plenty, and incapable of ending poverty."

Adam Parsons tolls the bells for export-led agriculture and distinguishes between the food crisis and the food prices crisis. (Thansk Marcy)

The last straw

"High fodder prices, drought and government policies have caused a sharp drop in livestock numbers in Jordan in the past year, affecting livelihoods and meat prices, agriculture experts say.

"Many livestock breeders slaughtered their animals after the government's decision last year to slash fodder subsidies to livestock breeders," Ahmad al-Faour, president of the Jordan Farmers' Union (JFU), told IRIN.

"The abrupt decision left the farmers confused and many of them chose to slaughter their animals because they couldn't afford to buy animal feed at high global prices," he said.

"Jordan is a rural and Bedouin society. Many people rely on animal husbandry to make a living. It is a traditional way of life. It is difficult to abandon it and switch to something else," he said, adding that slaughtering the animals and selling them did not benefit livestock breeders who ended up being exploited by middlemen, according to al-Faour. " (Thanks Rania)

It has been a bad year for people who keep small ruminants (sheep and goats) in full or semi grazing systems. Forage prices have been very high and the poor rainfall wasn't sufficient to enrich pastures. Straw prices have been exceptionally high this year all over Lebanon, as sheep and goats compete with the more capital intensive cow production. Bedouins suffer most because semi-nomadic sheep production is essentially the food system many rely on for their livelihoods. I have heard horror stories from Syria where one Bedouin flock-owner committed suicide because he could not afford to feed his 1,000 heads of sheep and they were emaciated and dying like flies. Historically, Bedouins have been the most affected social group in case of droughts. This has often led to violence. Check previous posts on this issue here and here and here and here. By the way this is evolving into a real research project. I presented a review of the impact of environmental change on the Bedouins of Jordan in Oxford last April, and will be presenting a paper on the Bedouins of Lebanon and Jordan in Berlin in late October and in Cairo in early November.