FERN’s Friday Feed: Hotter temperatures, higher prices, more olive thefts
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
How climate change drives the theft of Greece’s olive oil
FERN and Bloomberg Businessweek
“Rising temperatures in the Mediterranean ha[ve] rendered olive oil scarcer than it had been in recent memory,” writes Lauren Markham, and as prices have risen, so have thefts. “Thieves have … hit olive oil distributors in Spain and Italy, and smaller operations in Houston and Montreal, for that matter. But news of thefts has abounded in Greece. … Some of these heists were large in scale, such as the 37 tons of olive oil stolen in drums from a mill in Halkidiki, to the north. (That oil was worth more than $300,000 to the local growers cooperative.) Others, however, smacked less of Ocean’s Eleven and more of subsistence. On the island of Crete, a group of thieves crept into a man’s house and took more than 400 pounds of his personal olive supply. On the outskirts of Athens, farmers awoke to find their olive trees cut down overnight.”
Insider the Dollar General workers’ fight for safety and fair pay
Oxford American
“There are an estimated 20,000 Dollar Generals across the country, making it the most prolific retail chain in the country, dramatically outnumbering Walmarts, CVS pharmacies, and McDonald’s across America. And where there is a Dollar General, there often is little else,” writes Katie Jane Fernelius. Media narratives of dollar stores can be kaleidoscopic: Seen from one angle, dollar stores are one of the few stores committed to serving otherwise under-served communities. But seen from another angle, dollar stores have become embodiments of the failed utopia of cheap consumer goods that have long buoyed the so-called American Dream, offering worse versions of familiar products—think slightly tinier tubes of toothpaste or scratchier beach towels at fewer square inches— for cheaper prices undergirded by corporate neglect and poor wages, which, in turn, make the stores more susceptible to violent crime.”
These fishermen made peace with wind farms. Then Trump came along.
Canary Media
“America’s fishermen have long treated wind developers as their sworn enemies. The conflict started in the early 2000s, when the first plans for New England’s offshore wind areas were sketched out. In packed town hall meetings that often devolved into shouting matches, fishermen claimed the projects would make it harder to earn a living: fewer fishing grounds, fewer fish, damaged ocean habitat. Few of these predictions have come to pass in places like the U.K., which has already built over 50 offshore wind farms in its waters,” writes Clare Fieseler. “But even today, fisher-led groups in the U.S. are spearheading lawsuits aiming to halt at least two offshore wind farms under construction on the East Coast. … [Gary] Yerman was one of the first fishermen in the U.S. to cross this bitter divide. He’s become the reluctant face of a group of over 100 fishermen and fisherwomen who go by the name Sea Services North America. They’ve decided to work for offshore wind farms — not against them.”
Knives, bullets, and thieves: The quest for food in Gaza
NPR
“The food site was finally open. I watched hundreds of people tear down a fence surrounding the site, trampling over it to reach boxes of food sitting on wooden pallets. I grabbed my cellphone and started to document the scene. Thousands of people — a human blender — were swirling around the food boxes, fighting each other to take as much food as possible. A woman in her 40s, sweaty and with an angry face, held a knife in each hand, with her young son by her side. She was screaming at everyone: do not touch my son or the food. Law and order had totally vanished,” writes Anas Baba. “As I was filming, people came to me and said: look at your forehead. There were three green laser dots on my head: private armed U.S. contractors who were guarding the site were pointing their weapons at my head. One spoke through a loudspeaker, in English: ‘No filming allowed.’”
How the Trump administration ‘hijacked’ the food movement
The Guardian
“Despite the Maha report and other recent moves by Kennedy to call out ultra-processed food and its role in the chronic disease crisis, some food policy experts warn that the administration’s actions are undermining that goal,” writes Cecilia Nowell. “One of the key ways to rein in ultra-processing is to make sure that youth have access to fresh produce. … Yet the administration has slashed the very programs that do that. In March, Trump’s agriculture department cut a host of previously approved grants, including the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant and Local Food for Schools and Childcare program, which paid farmers and ranchers to supply schools with local foods and build gardens. Those cuts don’t only harm schools, but farmers as well, says Marion Nestle, a professor emerita at New York University. … Nestle believes that misalignment between promise and practice is purposeful. The Trump administration and Maha movement have ‘hijacked the food movement in order to use it as publicity for the kind of cuts that are being made’, she said. It’s also being used to ‘forward an agenda which is exactly the opposite of what you would hope’ – one that’s focused more on cutting programs than reforming industry.”