Is it 'end game' time yet?

It seems pretty clear that ConspiracyWatch.net with their investigator Tom Retterbush seem to think the apparent rise in gun purchases in the USA is cause for concern. If they didn't, why would they title their story thusly.

"Record Gun Sales as Americans Prepare for Financial Collapse"

. 

They even mentioned people stockpiling non-perishables, petrol, and water. Seems pretty end-gamey to me.

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food

This is great! What an amazing array of diets and liefestyles! So artfully arranged.

Found on twitter. The link to the photo essay (thanks @michaelpollan )and also yours truly operating as @empathiser. 

Powdered Egg Whites: The first experiment.

Well finally, as promised nearly a year ago, I have had a crack at a powdered egg whites dish. All the ingredients are either from my pantry or our little herb garden.

This was the end result. Delicate and very tasty corn cake ramekins topped with a grilled red pepper and Italian herb salad. I gave these to the girls from Stag who were recording in my house mate's home studio, and sweating it out to lay some new tracks on his valve driven reel to reel. I explained this blog to them and asked if they would appreciate a small meal like this if they found themselves in a war time situation. They said absolutely!

I learned a great deal from the process. According to Pace Farms who sell massive amounts of powdered egg whites for commercial use in Australia, powdered egg whites should be mixed at a rate of  7:1 water to egg white powder. I made a huge oversight and failed to consider just how little I needed for my purposes. I used 100grams of egg white powder when I only really needed 25grams which is the equivalent to 6 medium egg whites. This meant I had to continually move up to a larger mixing bowl and ended up wasting loads of egg white mix. 

While I did achieve soft peaks after lots of hand beating with my Swift Whip. I feel I haven't fully demonstrated the ability of powdered egg whites to adequately substitute for fresh egg whites. I feel I really do need to make a souffle or macaroons to prove the point though I feel access to a temperature controlled oven during The Age of Warlords would be limited. 

It was my hope to make fluffy corn cakes in a heavy based pan as a single burner is likely to be what most families will possess or afford to run. I will have another go at corn cakes and try fluffy pancakes as well. I'll need to get myself one of those dope dealers scales and some baggies to measure quantities.  

Corn Cake Ramekins topped with a Grilled Red Pepper and Italian Herb Salad

Corn cakes

300grams corn kernels

300grams creamed corn

25grams powdered egg white (equivalent to 6 medium egg whites)

powdered garlic

dried onions

chilli flakes

water

salt

Red pepper and herb salad

fire roasted red peppers

aged balsamic

extra virgin olive oil

fresh parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme 

Follow me on twitter @empathiser

The Future We Deserve an excellent project!

The Future We Deserve is a collaborated book about possible futures that takes account of the very real possibility of castastrophic climate change and economic disintegration. It will be a collection of writings from dreamers, pundits, thinkers, inventors, campaigners, and activists looking at ideas, answers, technologies, culture, feelings, economics, and social strategy for an uncertain future.
Vinay Gupta is the inventor of the Hexayurt (a portable, lightweight house deployed in Haiti after the recent earth quakes) and a curator of The Future We Deserve. He contacted me recently saying he loved the Age of Warlords blog title and asked me to write an essay for the book. Needless to say I am very excited as I have been following the Dark Mountain Project as it develops and would be glad to make a contribution to discussion around their challenging ideas.
The Future We Deserve book will be made reality using Creative Commons licencing and funded using Crowd Sourcing through Kickstarter

This is what I've been talking about! Terra Vivos

Holy crap! This is more than survivalism lite. This is the ultimate corporate expression of fear of The Age of Warlords.

While I would have hours of fun exploring the Vivos underground hotel style bunker website. I'm going to let you go there and explore it for yourself. I will tell you that they have 11 threat scenarios, one of them called Planet x - Nibiru where a rogue planet passes by causing the earths poles to shift.

I'd like to thank The Colbert Report 28/06/10 for bringing it to my attention.

Uncivilisation: "A crisis in the environment movement"

Flaccid. That's the word most often used to describe the debate between George Monbiot and Dougald Hine of The Dark Mountain Project at the inaugural Uncivilisation festival.

GeoMon admitted that "There is a crisis in the environment movement". He admitted that there is no one environmental movement but many movements working to similar aims. He also argued that not only are non-renewable resources going to last for longer than we think (tar sands and coal seam gas), but that the machinery of Industrial Capitalism is highly resilient and able to adapt to ensure it's survival. GeoMon argued that Industrial Capitalism has been drawing the lions share of great minds to itself for so long that it cannot help but have the advantage over all others when it comes to protecting its position.

Dougald Hine articulated the elements of the Dark Mountain manifesto but was out-gunned by GeoMon's depth of knowledge (he did most of the talking).

What came through strongly in the discussion was that the Dark Mountain Project is an environmental movement of sorts looking to push a different angle.

Despite GeoMon's erudite ways I still see the power of The Dark Mountain Project manifesto though I believe that they need to model the collapses in creative and well informed ways.

Audio recording of the discussion between Dougald Hine and George Monbiot.

http://www.archive.org/details/MonbiotHineUncivilisation2010

Vigorous/Vitriolic debate in the blogoshere.

http://dwighttowers.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/dire-mountain-more-abysmal-than-abyss-mal/

The inventor of the Hexayurt Vinay Gupta. Good discussion around GeoMon.

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2010/05/31/a-church-full-of-underminers-and-george-monbiot/

GeoMon vs The Dark Mountain

This weekend may see the most significant public debate about the future of the earth and the West's role in helping to save the environment or at least saving some semblance of life after civilisation.


The first ever Dark Mountain Festival will be held in Llangollen north Wales and George Monbiot (GeoMon) who has had a running debate with the Dark Mountain Project will be there to debate in person. George has always insisted that the West take responsibility for environmental destruction and Dark Mountain Project founders Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine head an ever growing movement that is deeply critical of Western civilisation and recognises that we may well have missed our chance to stop catastrophic climate change. Both GeoMon and the Dark Mountain Project are highly critical of the West's actions in it's stewardship of the earth but differ over the message that should be delivered to the people.

I admire George Monbiot a lot. He lives his values and writes articulately, always providing useful references. Most importantly he doesn't fly around the world giving talks and attending conferences instead choosing limited travel by train. George has been the steady voice of eco-reason for me which is why this particular conflict is so significant. The Dark Mountain Project came into my field of view only a few months ago but given the changes in our knowledge of the current and imminent threats to the global climate and the obvious lack of international will to act, their point of view continues to become more and more relevant.

Musician Chris TT who has an association with the Dark Mountain Project sums up the debate quite well in this article. He argues that the essence of the debate is about the reluctance of environmentalists to admit they are privately pessimistic about the future and don't share this pessimism due to the perceived need to grow public optimism. I'm inclined to agree with him.

While I have much admiration for GeoMon I feel that he has got his knickers in a twist over this debate. In his May 10/2010 article in The Guardian GeoMon responds to the Dark Mountain thesis contending that Western civilisation is much more resilient than they assert listing a range of new fossil fuel resources and extraction methods. I didn't find his argument compelling. It seemed that he was arguing that the very practices that he rails against would sustain the system he knows to be the problem.

Paul Kingsnorth in his May 19/2010 article The need for growth makes a strong argument for how utterly dependent Western civilisation is on economic growth and that such growth is necessarily dependent on eco-destructive practices. Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine sharpen their critique of the green movement in their reply to GeoMon entitled The environmental movement needs to stop pretending asserting that more than anything else our lifestyles need to change.

I find this debate to be exciting and extremely important! While I feel that the Dark Mountain Project tend to grandstand a little and GeoMon is defending what may well be a lost cause I feel that between them they have begun to flesh out the defining issue of our age. What seems a little amusing here is how GeoMon comes out looking a bit like an establishment figure.

The Dark Mountain Project have taken a very radical position which I find attractive. There is something very positive to me about new culture and contingency plans for a future that lack of political will seems to make very possible. While I wish for global cooperation and renewable energy solutions for the future I very much see the need for a critique of Western civilisation and the world that it has delivered to us.

My food hero!

I was watching the Sri Lanka and Bali installment of Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey tonight when he stopped to mention the impact of the civil war which was in full swing at the time of filming. He said something then that sums up my sentiments exactly "Food is about good times even if there are terrible things going on all around you".

Despite his tendency to be accident prone and rather awkward in the studio kitchen I love Rick Stein. There is a simplicity to his approach to food that reflects his fundamental decency and capacity to relate to ordinary people. I have his book Mediterranean Escapes and have watched many of his television programmes like Food Heroes and have sensed in both that his recipes reflect the connections made with real people.

I think his works also reflect the camaraderie he has with his production team. I can feel the sheer pleasure he takes in being with people while they do all manner food related activities. I get a real sense that he and his production team are able to put individuals and the general public at ease while shooting.

It came as no surprise when I heard Rick utter that wonderful quote. It tells me that the lives and conditions of ordinary people are not far from his mind.

Finacial Times refuses to publish Niger delta anti Shell ad

This is the ad that the Financial Times would not run on 18th May 2010 highlighting the effects of Shell's practices on the Niger delta. The ad, which was timed to coincide with the Shell AGM and capitalise on the public disgust at the BP leak in the Gulf of Mexico deserves as much exposure as possible. Shell have a lot to answer for in Nigeria.

This article about the Niger delta coincided with the release of a book in 2008 by Michael Watts entitled "The curse of black gold". It gives a vivid description of the levels of destruction and profound ecological and social corruption caused by Shell and it's friends. This article by Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade outlines just how flimsy the Financial Times reasoning for pulling the ad was.

The problem of Shell and oil in the Niger delta has been visited and revisited over and over. The saga of the Ogoni people and their spokesman Ken Sarowiwa has brought the actions of Shell out into plain site many times. Fela Kuti regularly critiqued the destructive power of greed and wealth and decried the fact that it was many of his own country men who brought such destruction and corruption to his country while holding hands with the Europeans.

I recently watched the documentary "Music is the weapon" where Fela Kuti outlines the conditions of his city Lagos, that was 1975. Even now artists like Daddy Showkey explain how the ghettos of Lagos are a killing field where bodies lie untouched in the street.

How little the world seems to care. The Financial Times stymied a rare and timely opportunity to prick the collective conscience of 'the west'.

Top ten "unliveable" cities: not my kind fun facts!

I was in my local coffee shop the other day when I spotted the above 'fun facts' style "article" in the glossy magazine that comes with the weekend national paper. I looked around the page and found no related article dealing with the issues raised by this set of 'fun facts'. I found this disturbing, cynical, and in a way macabre.
The Economist magazine makes a big deal of it's yearly liveability rankings with most attention given to the top ten most liveable cities. The article published by the The Economist does not list the top unliveable cities just the liveable top ten. The Economist links you to the Economist Intelligence Unit where the top ten and bottom ten are provided. If you want any more from the list you will have to buy the information.
This list is made offensive by the lack of attention paid to the human experience of living in these cities and the historical colonial contexts that have delivered them to us in such a parlous state. The list reeks of British and French colonial exploits. Some of these cities represent hot beds of cultural production and adaption with their denizens being shining examples of resilience amid catastrophic circumstances. There is much that is fascinating, important, and eminently readable about these cities. It would have been quite possible to put a positive spin on the list but it seems that the fashion for 'fun facts' and the apparent cynicism of editorial staff put a stop to that.
I am fascinated by these cities and take a keen interest in their culture, and history. Every part of their tortuous existence has helped to create peoples and cultures that celebrate survival. It is a sad shame that some editors living in the rarefied air of their office blocks feel that the experience of so many struggling and suffering people can be over looked. They say these places are unliveable, but for whom? Certainly not the people who live there!

Check this link for an article on Port Moresby

The Road, some thoughts and a list of meals

Last night I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' and then went and saw the movie. This was the right thing to do because in my mind the both are part of one experience.
While I have some issues with the screen play and it's adherence to the detail of the novel and the subsequent effects on the narrative development and certain key themes, I think the movie was effective.
My great point of difference with 'The Road' is in the nature of the special world created by the writer. By this I refer to Joseph Campbell's notion of the hero/protagonist and the rules governing the special world where the hero and the audience finds themselves and makes their journey. In 'The Road' we find that the world is a place where almost all but a few humans and possibly a pet dog have survived some sort of cataclysm. It is but one of many scenarios of human destruction that may precipitate the Age of Warlords.
The choice of the destruction of most life is a device that places the focus on preserved food. There are no opportunities to hunt or farm and the world is seemingly heading towards sterility. This is a clever device that allows the writer to focus on many of the fears of 'preppers' and survivalists. It is the most dramatic of Age of Warlords scenarios as desolation, personal violence, and cannibalism are a day to day issue.
I have made the most of Cormac McCarthy's dramatic focus and made a list of all meals (eating events) in 'The Road' (the book). The list bears out the true nature of the foods we are likely to rely on at the most desperate stages of the Age of Warlords.

Pg 3 corn meal cakes and syrup
Pg 8 a poor meal, cold
Pg 16 smokehouse ham and tin of beans
Pg 26 a can of coke from a vending machine
Pg 29 cold rice and cold beans
Pg 31 last of the cocoa
Pg 34 crackers and a tin of sausage, last half packet of cocoa
Pg 40 colony of dried morels
Pg 41 morels and fat pork, can of beans, tea and tinned pears
Pg 49 last of the morels and a can of spinach
Pg 72 a can of white beans
Pg 76 a can of sausages and a can of corn
Pg 79 a can of beets
Pg 80 last tin of food, pork and beans
Pg 88 corn cakes-sans rat turds
Pg 91 two corn cakes each
Pg 92 a handful of raisins
Pg 94 grain and dust from a hopper
Pg 107 handfuls of dirty snow
Pg 125 dusty hayseeds
Pg 127 dried up apples with seeds
Pg 131 dried up apples, grape flavoured drink
Pg 133 dried up apples, water
Pg 141 a can of pears, a can of peaches
Pg 151 a bar of chocolate
Pg 153 ham, eggs, beans, coffee, biscuits
Pg 162 ham, green beans, mashed potato, gravy, peaches and cream, coffee
Pg 165 canned ham and crackers with mustard and apple sauce, tea
Pg 174 with the old man-tin of fruit cocktail
Pg 178 with the old man-beef, crackers, coffee
Pg 185 a cold lunch
Pg 187 corn bread, beans, franks from a tin
Pg 193 curbside crackers
Pg 204 leftover skillett bread. last can of tuna fish, a can of prunes
-205
Pg 212 the last of their provisions
Pg 224 preserved green beans and potatos
Pg 254 a can of peaches alone
Pg 269 a can of apple juice for the boy
Pg 278 cans warmed over the burner
Pg 296 half tin of peaches for the boy

Preppers! Many Americans are getting ready for the end of the world!

A little while back I mentioned a "rapture inspired blog" that had recipes for powdered egg. At that stage I had only just begun to find out about the practice of 'preparedness' and it's connection to some American churches. I felt it prudent not to question religious practices though it's clear that 'the rapture' and other forms of human disaster are the prime motivation. I did do a little research into the history of 'preparedness' doctrine in one significant Christian church and found a repeated directive from a modern church leader rather than a biblical reference.
While I have been aware of the enduring popularity of survivalism in the USA it is clear that 'prepping' or as Paul Harris in his article Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world noted it had been dubbed "Survivalism Lite" is an entirely new and rather more populous phenomenon. I have had a look at a fair few of the many preparedness sites online, not all are religiously inspired, many offer useful information about food preparation and good old fashioned skills, but there is very little discussion about the deeper questions.
To me the 'prepping' movement (if it can be called a movement) seems to be driven by a sense of self preservation and fear of death and suffering. Preppers clearly are preparing to hunker down in their homes with supplies of food, medicine, and weapons to help them weather the storms of violence and other horrible happenings that the rapture or one of many forecast disasters may bring. This strikes me as being not inspired by empathy and a sense of rebuilding community, but by individualism and the desire to live the most comfortable possible life.
As someone who was raised a catholic and who still values the principles of selflessness that Christianity shares with many of the values of secular-post-enlightenment philosophies, I find it hard to reconcile myself with preparedness as a practice. When the Western world enters the post-civilisation period ie The Age of Warlords, the bigger questions will be the same but the noise and fog of politics and power will have shifted and reveal an immediate need for community. The true Christian values that informed the enlightenment and subsequent democratic development will be as relevant as ever. I question the rightness of using increase and privileged now to protect ourselves from a possible future.

Processing wild rabbit for food can be very diseasy!

Roa - Rabbit - from Prescription Art

While researching for info on identifying and processing rabbit carcasses I came across important info about disease risks. I discovered that rabbits can carry the bubonic plague virus which can be easily transferred to humans through contact with the carcass and through fleas living in the animals fur. Rabbits can also transfer Tularemia (Francisella tularensis) through spores on the fur and through eating the meat (look for spots on the liver). Both of these can be deadly and even though we have treatments for each condition these may well be unavailable during the age of warlords.

While I have been unsuccessful in finding a useful guide to carcass identification I did find a great guide to safe processing of rabbit carcasses. The Cooking Inn has a great guide to dressing procedures for handling farmed and wild rabbit carcasses that shows what to look for in a properly dressed rabbit. Unfortunately a properly dressed rabbit has had its head, tail, and front and rear fore-legs removed leaving no obvious features clearly identifying it as a rabbit carcass.
The right leg is left in tact when preparing the carcass for skinning as it is the best point to attach a hanging hook. Given that it is advised that rabbit hunters process their catch in the field while it is still warm leaving the pelt on the rabbit I would ask that the right leg be left on the animal for identification. A cats paw is very easy to spot!

Here is a link to an event I would have loved to have attended. Rabbit Discovered was an event celebrating slow food with wild rabbit as the centre piece of the meal. People attending were given a demonstration of how to safely prepare and portion a wild rabbit carcass with opportunities to have a go at processing the carcass themselves.
From what I've been able to gather wild rabbits can now be sold un-eviscerated (un-gutted) allowing the purchaser to identify any issues with the liver revealing Tularemia.

But not this stuff!

I said I loved canned food but this stuff won't be going into my pantry! There's been a bit of an ad campaign for this stuff and another brand called "Chop chop chicken" lately and I have always wondered about chicken in a can. Why is it that they're trying to sell a product like this to us now?

Blech! Noted Culinary Anthropologist Margaret Visser tells of how in Europe and North America the eating of a fowl on occasion was deemed a luxury to which everyone had a right. A roasted bird as the centre piece of a special meal would be quite a luxury in the age of warlords.

Joan Gussow's dark vision of a future chicken fed by pipes and harvested for flesh seems a little closer. It says shredded chicken breast on the can but I wonder where they get the bits from?

I wasn't impressed when I opened the can.


And even less impressed when I checked the texture, disappointing! The shred was too fine with no real 'meaty' shreds (so to speak).

Shortly after this photo I spat my first mouth full in the bin and chucked the rest of the can away!

I like canned food!

The other night I admitted something in conversation that kind of surprised me. We were discussing organic certification and food miles when I said "I like canned food!". I wasn't just espousing an intellectual value, and it's wasn't a retro thing or some attachment from childhood or a reaction against trendy packaged pasta sauces or vege stock in a sachet. It's not a 'warholesque' visual thing either. I was expressing a kind of 'romantic' aesthetic sense about canned goods.
What informs this aesthetic sense? It's the integrity of the design of the product, that it achieves it purpose humbly and consistently in a way that is unmatched. It's the idea that towns have grown around canneries and that many canneries grew from farmers cooperatives. It's that canneries are such a poignant example of value adding technology, like smoking fish it is preserving but with industrial age technology.
When human societies developed food preserving techniques they were able to take greater advantage of abundance and survive the hard times. Pickles, preserves, brewing of alcoholic beverages, smoking and drying all played a significant part in the growth of civilisation. These are important food technologies that we will need to appreciate and be knowledgeable about in the coming dark age.


I'm a bit of a stickler for cooking food from scratch. I have been cooking dried beans from scratch for a long time and feel that I have finally able to make them as tender and delicious as canned or fresh beans. I like dried beans because they are convenient, and they store well and keep for a long time but I have learned that it takes a lot of water to soak, boil, rinse, and cool dried beans.
In the age of warlords we will be thankful for canned beans. I'm certain that access to water will be severely limited for most of us in 'The West'. Canned food in general will reduce our need for water use in the kitchen as the hard work has already been done.
We have become accustomed to free flowing potable water straight from the tap anytime. Unlike many places in the developing world we don't spend a large portion of our time just getting access to water. But as society crumbles and the infrastructure that delivers our water to us in such a convenient way becomes impossible to maintain we will have to adapt!

Check out this site RawFoodExplained.com it has great tips for reducing water consumption in the kitchen and elsewhere. Now is probably a good time to start practicing some of these methods. It also may be a good time to pick up a good second hand pressure cooker.