Nuts Have a Geography, Too

Some people assume that coffee is the only commodity that has my attention, and it is true that I have more than a passing interest in the beverage, and especially in the lands and peoples responsible for the bean that is the second-most traded commodity in the world (oil being the first).

I use geography to teach about coffee and coffee to teach about geography, though, and many of the lessons of this agricultural commodity are applicable to many others. I am very proud that my daughter recognized this recently, when she excitedly shared


The Luckiest Nut in the World from Emily James on Vimeo.

Just as a coffee bean is not a bean, a peanut is not a nut, nor is a ground nut. We learn from this film that at one time, ground nuts were the leading export of the country of Senegal. As Paloma rightly concluded, an economy dependent on a food staple that she had never heard of was probably not a very prosperous economy.

This brilliant and engaging little film deftly describes the ways in which dependence on commodities keeps some countries at the periphery of the world economy indefinitely, and how the manipulation of the rules that govern trade reinforce the core-periphery dichotomy.

The entire tale is told from the point of view of an all-American peanut, a self-reflective character that gradually comes to understand his position of privilege relative to the ground nuts, cashews, and Brazil nuts of Senegal, Mozambique, and Bolivia, respectively. (Most Brazil nuts grow in Bolivia! Who knew?)

In its very funny way, this film provides an education in political economy over the space of a typical sit-com episode. Emily James uses this jaunty peanut to explain the many ways in which the system that looks like a free-trade, even playing field is actually manipulated in important ways, each to the disadvantage of farmers in developing countries. Understanding the prevalence of distorted markets is the first step toward fairness in trade.

Elsewhere on this blog, I have mentioned three other important -- and generally entertaining resources for learning more. Most entertaining and relevant, perhaps, is King Corn, which describes the incredibly contrived market in corn. Policies that make corn profitable for U.S. farmers and cheap for U.S. consumers are not just bad for the federal budget; they make life difficult for farmers around the world.

In my Cups and Summits post, I describe the other two films -- Black Gold and The Girl in the Cafe -- that tell other aspects of the story. Though one is a documentary and the other a feature film, both provide behind-the-scenes looks into the process that makes "free trade" agreements anything but free.

Voxillology

The Oscar season led New York Times writer Daniel Nester to review the year's film offering, and in watching American Hustle, he noticed that something missing: the Philadelphia accent. Until reading his "Fades Out" article, I had never realized that Philadelphia -- which he calls Filelfia -- was so linguistically distinct from other mid-Atlantic places.

Nester describes his home region's distinctive dialect as effectively as can be done visually, but his links to the video work of Fellow-delphian Sean Monahan are the real treasure in his article.

His Philly Tawk video is an excellent introduction; when I first played it, my Baltimorean wife overheard it and said "it sounds like Baltimore." Phluphian does resemble what we here in Bawlmer, but the video reveals that entire syllables are even more likely to be swallowed in the City of Brotherly Love than in Charm City. I am willing to bet that the former is also less intelligible to the average outsider.

He continues to demonstrate the dialect in Part 2, in which his work also becomes increasingly geographic. He identifies a dozen or more linguistic distinctions in the mid-Atlantic region, mapping minimal pairs (words that are the same except in a single sound) quite effectively in showing connections and distinctions up and down the I-95 corridor.

LIKE this flag!

Monahan is actually filling YouTube with his geolinguistic labors of love, and I will leave it to the reader to continue the exploration. I do, however, need to draw attention to one more video that is especially geographic. Specifically, in proposing a flag for the Delaware Valley, he begins with a definition of his home region that is primarily linguistic, and then integrates the principles of vexillology and geography to make a compelling case for regional flags in general and his own Delaware Valley flag in particular.

Zoom In

If you use the "PLUS" button in the upper-left of this image, you will zoom in on its center, as if decreasing your elevation above the earth. You will see one very broad change, and then something small and intriguing. You can then use the "MINUS" button to zoom back out and see the context, and just how vast this visually homogenous area is.

If you click to view the larger map, you can bring the little human figure down to the scene for an eye-level view.

You can then learn the fascinating story of how this was created from ViralNova.  Several geography and geotechnology lessons are illustrated by this exercise. One is the revelation that despite the world being a crowded place in many ways, vast tracts are essentially untouched by humans. Even in this case, however, a local community is part of the story, and it is now connected to the humanitarian and military experience of people hundreds of miles away.

The exercise also reminds us that the data about the planet that is collected by satellites is indeed vast, and that the rendering of these data into images is somewhat arbitrary. Notice the dramatic differences in color as Google Maps serves imagery (which is results from the coding of streams of digital numbers) gathered from different satellites, or from the same satellites on different days. Also notice that a current copyright date is applied to the image, no matter when the data were collected.

Geography of Chocolate

When I was shown these cacao husks being composted on a small farm in Nicaragua, I could not help but admire the surprising variety of colors. I was visiting the farm with students as part of my 2010 Geography of Coffee study tour in Jinotega and Matagalpa. Although Coffea arabica and Theobroma cacao are not close botanical relatives, the geography of chocolate is remarkably similar to that of cacao.

All of my visits to Nicaragua have included Castillo Cacao, an artisanal factory in Matagalpa, and as the cultivation of cacao (from which chocolate is made) continues to expand in Nicaragua's coffeelands, we intend to make cacao farms a regular part of the program with Matagalpa Tours, as we will in January 2013.

And just as my interest in the geography of coffee has now led me to work on the geography of tea, librarian Pamela Hayes-Bohanan and I have now been invited to teach an entire course on the geography of chocolate at the Institute for Sustainable International Study in Cayo, Belize. Our two-week class -- Mayan Gold -- will combine Pam's expertise on Mayan culture with my growing understanding of the global trade in chocolate and cacao (the food and the crop, respectively), and is available for easily transferred credits.

Interested students can contact me for details at jhayesboh@bridgew.edu, or contact ISIS directly.

Coffee for Chemists

By a cosmic coffee coincidence, Javatrekker and aspiring comic Dean Cycon released this video just as I was preparing to address the annual meeting of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers, which was hosted by our BSU chemists last week. I had not worked with this group before, but rightly surmised that this would be a good way to open my presentation. I post it here for the benefit of those NEACT participants who might wish to share it, along some of the other resources I presented that evening.

(Prior to the talk on coffee, I mentioned two other resources that might be of interest to anybody involved in education in New England, especially southern New England. These are the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History, which can put together an educational program on any subject and our own EarthView outreach program.)

As Dean points out in the video itself, of course, the pesticides associated with "conventional coffee" are in reality no laughing matter. Many chemicals we have banned in the United States are routinely used on the coffee -- and other products we import from around the world. In real life, Dean sets an extraordinary example, and I was able to offer the teachers a choice of his No CO2 and Decaf Chiapas coffees. Each of these single-origin selections gave us a chance to discuss some environmental chemistry, related to carbon offsets and caffeine removal, respectively. The byproduct of decaf coffee, by the way, is now marketed as "green coffee extract" by Starbucks -- coffee without the coffee flavor. Gadzooks.

Never mind the debates about whether traces of these nasties make their way into our cups: there is no denying that the barrage of chemicals sprayed on the coffee, sugar, flowers, oranges, and countless other tropical crops have profound effects on the ecosystems and communities from which we extract these bounties. As much fun as I have with coffee as a beverage and teaching tool, I remember that life-and-death questions really do surround its production.

Because the theme of this year's NEACT meeting was green chemistry, I put together an eclectic talk entitled "Greening Coffee: From Red to Green to Brown." That is, I provided a sampling of environmental choices at various stages of coffee production, from the growth of the plant (red berries) through the in-country processing (green coffee) to its roasting and brewing (brown beans or beverage).

This required a very brief overview of the roughly 50 steps from field to cup, which I summarized with the names that are typically used to describe coffee in Nicaragua. On the tree, the fruit is a cherry. Once picked, it is a grape. When peeled, the slimy seed is honey. When dried, it is parchment. When green, it is gold (because it can earn money). When roasted, it is a bean. When brewed, it is coffee.

I also mentioned the parts of the cherry that are separated at various stages, and an online quiz that I created for those who wish to learn these parts. A more advanced quiz teaches the geography of processing -- the locations in which each part of the coffee is typically removed through processing.

I discussed the geographic parameters that determine where coffee can be effectively grown, and I mentioned Coffee & Conservation, a marvelous resource on the relationship between coffee ecology and the habitat of migratory birds. Then, as an antidote to Dean's Mad Scientist, I shared the best example I know of coffee being produced in harmony with its surrounding ecology -- the biodynamic production of my friend Byron, the Poet of Coffee.This video also provides a nice transition from the coffee grower to the importer and roaster, who also have the opportunity to make important decisions about the environmental impacts of the coffee.



An interesting development at the roasting stage is the growing interest in solar roasting, a growing field in which Solar Roast Coffee of Colorado seems to be a leader. As roasting coffee on our campus continues to be an elusive goal, we might actually have an opportunity to do some relevant roof-top research.

I talked about brewing not in terms of environmental impact so much as flavor impact. Flavor is important, however, as brewing coffee properly honors the work of those who have put tremendous care into producing it. Moreover, the more consumers learn to appreciate good coffee, the more likely are farmers to be fairly compensated for their work and talent. Rather than discuss my approach to brewing in detail, I mentioned one brewing method that is favored by industry experts and was invented by a chemist in Springfield, Massachuetts: the Chemex coffeemaker.

And even though most of the audience members were (I presume) going to be spending the night away from their romantic partners, I ended the presentation with Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of the sultry song Black Coffee and reference to the work of Lavazza and others on a different kind of coffee chemistry that is explored in some depth on my (PG-13) Coffee & Tea Romance page.

Thank the Friar of Fife

View Larger Map

As I prepare for each of our school visits with EarthView, I check the Brainy History site for anniversaries of geographic importance. On June 1, for example, Mt. Pinatubo erupted and the Warsaw Pact dissolved (both 1991), a horrific race riot took place in Tulsa (1921), William Walker conquered Nicaragua (1855), and the first earthquake recorded in the United States took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts (1638).

I listed these and other events for my middle school audience, and we discussed some of them during our program, along as the commemoration of a tragedy closer to home -- the tornadoes that struck Monson, Springfield, and many other Massachusetts communities on June 1, 2011.

In my research, I found another geographic anniversary worthy of celebration, but not appropriate to share on a middle-school blog.  For it was on June 1 in the year 1494 that the first written record was made regarding Scotch. Not the tape: the whisky. It was in Lindores Abbey in Fife that Friar John Cor was granted malt to be used in the production of the distilled beverage.

As blogger Alastair writes for The Whisky Barrel, the site of the earliest documented production of Scotch is often overlooked on the increasingly popular pilgrimages to the superlative distillery sites in Scotland. Such journeys are a geographer's dream -- especially for this 11th-generation Scottish geographer -- since the highest, lowest, northernmost, and southernmost are among the destinations involved.

At this very moment I am sipping a whisky that may originate at Scotland's highest elevations, and though it is probably affiliated in some way with my family, Buchanan's is a treasure that I usually encounter in duty-free shops (or on the plane) as I return from travels in Latin America. The price is in proportion to years in the barrel, and as with other members of the family, this beverage definitely improves with age!

I remember a minister who once remarked -- in response to a question about alcohol -- that almost every human society has figured out how to ferment something, almost immediately after learning how to grow food. The variety of potent potables (as they are known on Jeopardy) is quite remarkable, but the emergence of Scotch is particularly notable, once the number, timing, and sensitivity of the various stages are understood.

The complexity of the process and the geographic variability of soils, ground water minerals, microclimates, and even bog deposits result in an incredibly intricate geography of a beverage that is only produced in one small place, about the size of South Carolina. As with coffee, wine, tea, and other beverages, the physical geography combines with specific production practices that are either preserved with great care or are lost in the consistent but uninteresting blends that emerge from commodity markets. This is why the addage "you get what you pay for" applies so well to all of these beverages.

Encouraged by our recent successes with various ales and what seems to be a good start with wine (a Barolo aging in bottles and a Chardonnay fermenting in the kitchen as I write), I'm thinking that if we start learning now, we might be able to make some Scotch in time for our retirement parties.

With regard to the hills, peats, and distilleries of Scotland I am long overdue for a visit! After all, the first Bohanan to come to America was only 20 miles south of Lindores Abbey when he started his voyage in 1734.

Belated Girth Day

I began this post on Earth Day, when Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro published this very clever bit of culture jamming, but got distracted by other events. I was reminded to wrap this up when I came across another of Piraro's masterpiece's, which I include at the end.

It is appropriate that the weight of the world is borne by a pink Cadillac. It represents the glories of independent roaming, and for this reason is the only song on which I sing lead with my band. But it is also emblematic of the suburban sprawl that is both cause and consequence of drive-up windows.

McDonald's is a product of the automobile, and the reverse is also true. No matter what is in the stuff that passes for food, the convenience and consistency of McDonald's have helped to make it ubiquitous. As people increasingly live in their cars, "restaurants" emerge whose primary virtue is in-and-out access. In fact, a successful chain in the West goes by that name! As our commercial and residential landscapes spread out to make room for cars, cars became essential to navigating them, and McDonald's succeeded by being on the way to just about everywhere!

Piraro's use of a quasi-Spanish name for McDeath brought to mind the fact that I have seen a McDonald's in Managua, Nicaragua that appears from the outside just like any suburban McDonald's in the United States, complete with drive-through window and playground. From Trip Advisor I learned that McDonald's has five outlets in the city, and people actually review them. A friend in Managua (wonders of the Internet) pointed me pointed me to the work of scholar Dennis Rodgers. He includes the history of these franchises in his article An Illness Called Managua. As he explains, they have been both literally and figuratively associated with the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary outlook of the city. They are a visible sign of the extent to which global capital -- with the help of the U.S. government -- has hollowed out the most important gains of Nicaraguan economic democracy.

The image that brought me back to the subject of McDonald's is once again from Bizarro, in this case from a couple of summers ago. The healthier pigeon suggests that a more varied source of nourishment would be better for his friend, in a clear reference to Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. I saw this shortly after listening to an interesting comparison between feeding the mind and feeding the body, courtesy of my favorite librarian (information specialist) and fellow foodie. This led me to affix the rather snarky caption found below.

Your Brain on Limbaugh

Coffee & Climate change

As most people who know me already know, I use coffee to teach geography, and geography to teach coffee. Murray Carpenter's report from the World Coffee Conference in Guatemala (sadly, I was not there), does exactly what I strive for: it uses coffee as a lesson on climate change.

When I visit coffee farms in Nicaragua, I am sometimes asked, "What are you doing about climate change?" As Carpenter's story points out, the mountains are pointy, so going up is not necessarily an option. And coffee requires a great deal of specialized knowledge, hard work, and patience. So even if a changing climate results in suitable microclimates in new locations, good coffee will not automatically follow.

Geography of Ignorance

My last posting was about sin, so ignorance seems to be a logical next step. Those who try to ban books seek to reinforce their own ignorance and to share it with others. Almost anything written that is at all interesting will be offensive to someone. Rather than grapple with the offensive ideas, some prefer to bury them.

This map represents recent challenges in the U.S. To be honest, the pattern is not what I expected. Except for Southern California, it is rather representative of the distribution of population. This should not have suprised me, as efforts to ban books come from both the left and the right, the blue and the red.

Thanks to my favorite librarian for this link and thanks to ALA and ACLU for helping this country to live up to its ideals of liberty, which is often unpopular.

The Presidential Map

Thanks to geographer Matt Rosenberg at geography.about.com for sharing this image. It shows a president exercising his geogrpahic curiosity -- we could have used that in recent years!

Hard Times for New England’s 3-Deckers

Thanks to Pam Hayes-Bohanan for this great article, which is full of geographic lessons. Most important is the great illustration of what geographers call "sense of place." The writer uses the phrase to describe how the physical form and arrangement of triple-decker houses contribute to neighborhood identity in many old mill towns throughout New England.

The article also describes how triple-deckers are particularly vulnerable to the sometimes destructive practices of real estate speculators, by comparing dereliction rates between triple deckers and other kinds of housing. The problem is that triple deckers are inviting targets for speculation. As long as markets are trending upward, such speculators can actually contribute to the rehabilitation of homes and the improvement of neighborhoods. The relatively low cost of the buildings, however, makes them very easy to abandon if markets slacken. When large numbers are abandoned in a short period of time, a neighorhood can quickly spiral downward.

A third interesting bit of geography is the fact that triple deckers could not legally be built today in most places. They are too compact; zoning requires sprawling, low-density residential building. Even the single-family home my family lives in would not be legal today, as it sits on a 0.3-acre lot. This affords me easy access to work, shops, a train station, church, and neighbors -- but it would be illegal to build today. When we started the US-Brazil Consortium on Urban Development (UBCUD), I was fortunate enough to bring James Howard Kunstler to our campus to explain this paradox. He does so very well in his book The Geography of Nowhere.

Geography unfolding daily

A bright young geography student recently expressed surprise that I was still reading the Boston Globe, seeming honestly to believe that it has nothing worth reading. Aside from the fact that the article I was mentioning is about geography and cites yours truly and one of our BSC students, this started me to thinking about my need to help people understand the connections between newspapers and geography. Indeed, I see newspapers as fundamental to civilization as we know it.

Many people dismiss newspapers, saying that they can get their news online. The most reliable and robust online content, however, comes from newspapers. Online sources that are independent of newspapers are fine -- they contribute to a rich dialog. But they supplement and critique -- rather than replace -- professional journalists. Government and industry are held accountable by a combination of independent writers and news organizations.

Fortunately, the Newseum is now available to help me make the case. The physical Newseum is located in my hometown (Washington, DC), but its online presence is even more important. Every day, it features the covers of hundreds of papers, from Kingston to Kuala Lumpur! I know of no other way to gain insight into the geographic diversity of world views. The Newseum site also includes a memorial to those who have given their lives in the pursuit of journalism.

Newspapers are not the sole source of great journalism, by the way. I listen regularly to National Public Radio and the BBC, which together give me somewhat different perspectives on the news every day. Some journalism takes place on television still, but its professionalism -- at least in the United States -- is plummeting.

I use newspapers (primarily their online editions, of course) and radio sources (again, online versions) on a regular basis in my teaching. I also do my best to include local newspapers in my efforts to raise awareness of geographic education in our region.

EarthView

In the summer of 2008, the BSC geography department acquired EarthView, a 20-foot-tall portable classroom in the form of a globe. Since then, I have been traveling with the EarthView team to deliver geographic education to thousands of elementary and middle-school students. In the process, we have been promoting the critical need for more comprehensive geographic education in the United States, particularly in Massachusetts.

We have established a dedicated blog to promote the program, post media coverage of the active student learning that surrounds EarthView, and field student questions. The experience of being with a giant globe typically generates many more questions than we can answer during each visit, so we are now inviting students to continue the dialog with us.

My Wonderful World

The United States has a greater need for geographic literacy than any other country, and yet its people -- young and old -- lack this fundamental area of knowledge to an alarming degree.

As my colleague Harm de Blij has said, geographic ignorance is a national-security problem, with U.S. citizens all-too willing to commit lives and treasure to conflicts in places they do not understand. As many are discovering in 2008, geographic ignorance is also a serious economic handicap. Prices change rapidly on commodities from near and far, and many people have little idea what those connections are or what factors might influence the price of things they use every day.

People who set education policy have been slow to recognize the importance of geographic education, after decades of experimentation with the amorphous catch-all of "social studies" all but eliminated it from the curriculum. This is where MyWonderfulWorld.org comes in! Sponsored by National Geographic, MyWonderfulWorld is a multi-pronged approach to promoting geographic education at all levels.

Please have a look, sign up for updates, and help us build momentum for geographic education. Nothing less than the future of our nation -- and the world -- is at stake!

EarthView

Since the summer of 2008, my colleague Dr. Vernon Domingo and I have enjoyed taking EarthView to area schools. Close to 5,000 students have already learned more about the earth from this out-sized globe, which is really a portable classroom for teaching geography.

Our geography department was able to purchase the giant tent-like work of art last summer, as our president, Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria became increasingly interested in helping us to promote geographic education in the Commonwealth. Early on, geography student Natalie Regan became our "globe wrangler" -- helping us with transportation, setup, and working wonderfully with the children and teachers. We have also been fortunate to have veteran teacher Rosalie Sokol teach most of our programs. In addition to her classroom experience, Ms. Sokol has received extra training from National Geographic and is an active member of its My Wonderful World team. Behind the scenes, we have been very fortunate to have the support of Laura Smith from the college's external affairs office, who helps us with scheduling, media, and alumni connections.

The alumni connections have been among the most enjoyable aspects of this program. As we go to schools, we find Bridgewater alumni -- including the wonderful graduates of our geography program -- serving as teachers and even as principals.

Although we enjoy the experience with students itself, we have an additional motive: We are hoping to convince educators at all level of the urgent need to restore geography as its own subject for high school graduation and teacher certification at the secondary level. As my friend Dr. Domingo often says, "Without geography, we're nowhere!"

The year in maps: Cartography Boom

Drake Bennett does geography a good turn by describing quite a variety of interesting maps that have been in the news during the past year.

The maps are quite intriguing, describing many things -- moonwalks, whale accidents, and voting -- at a variety of scales.

I cringed only a little at the mention of Harvard (that nemesis of geographers everywhere).

Update

Looking at this post -- the first post on my first blog -- I notice that it links to a map involving a whale. This is several years before whales, whaling, and whaleboats would take up so much of my attention and would be featured in many of the thousand-plus posts that would follow.

I revisited the post because I now use Facebook as a sort of microblogging site, and have recently created a Facebook page tied to the blog.