FERN’s Friday Feed: Miami’s tell-tale conch
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
What this delicious sea snail means to Miami
Gravy
“Most weekends, weather permitting, conch is sold by roadside vendors across Miami,” writes Nadege Green. “Conch is a fleshy sea snail that can be found in the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and throughout the Caribbean and western Atlantic Ocean waters. The large, spiral, caramel-cream colored shell it’s harvested from is a showpiece, revealing a flush of pink on its interior lip. This beautiful shellfish isn’t just a popular menu item offered by Miami’s Black food entrepreneurs. It tells a deeper story about Miami’s history. Miami is a Deep South American city with Bahamian roots.”
The great Arizona water grab
Reveal (audio)
“A Saudi-owned farm in the middle of the Arizona desert has attracted national attention and criticism since Reveal’s Nate Halverson and Ike Sriskandarajah first broke this story eight years ago. The farm is using massive amounts of water to grow hay and export it to Saudi Arabia in the midst of a water crisis in the American West. Since then, megafarms have taken hold here. And the trend isn’t fueled just by foreign companies. Many people have no idea that their retirement funds are backing massive land deals that result in draining precious groundwater. Halverson uncovers that pension fund managers in Arizona knew they were investing in a local land deal, which resulted in draining down the aquifer of nearby communities. So even as local and state politicians have fought to stop these deals, their retirement fund has been fueling them.”
Women proving they belong in Maine’s lobster industry
Modern Farmer
“To become a lobster boat captain on the rugged coast of Maine, you will need more than just a few lobster traps and a boat,” writes Kirsten Lie-Nielsen. “To catch lobster, your days will begin in the dusky pink glow of dawn, filling bait bags with dead fish and hauling and stacking lobster traps that weigh upwards of 50 pounds. On the boat, you must always have one eye on the trap lines that threaten to entangle you and pull you overboard. There is paperwork, too: You must complete an apprenticeship, and you will have to pass the US Coast Guard’s captain’s test. If you are a woman, the challenges don’t stop there. You may be the only woman fishing out of your harbor, vying for respect in an industry that throughout its long history has welcomed only men onboard. Every day, you’ll be working to prove you belong on the boat and not keeping the books back at the wharf.”
Sexual violence is a pervasive threat for female farmworkers
The Conversation
“In a recent report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization called for transformative changes to the formal and informal social systems that disempower women who work on farms and in the food sector around the world. While violence against women in agriculture may seem like an issue mainly experienced in developing countries, the truth is that it also happens all too often to women and girls on farms in the U.S.,” write Kathleen Sexsmith, Francisco Alfredo Reyes, and Megan A.M. Griffin. “Studies show that 80% of Mexican and Mexican American women farmworkers in the U.S. have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work. Rape is common enough for some to nickname their workplace the “fields of panties.” For comparison, about 38% of women in the U.S. report experiencing some kind of workplace sexual harassment.”
Learning to live with insects
Beside
“Bugs provoke a wide variety of reactions. Are you afraid of cockroaches? Do you let out a cry of delight when you see a butterfly fluttering on your balcony? A yelp of disgust when you glimpse a silverfish in your bathtub? One thing is certain: our well-being is intimately linked to that of insects,” writes Gabrielle Anctil. “They perform a multitude of essential roles, as pollinators, workers of the soil, and meals for animals. They also inspire us with grandiose works of art, provide us with honey, and allow us to gauge the health of an ecosystem. As their habitats shrink — largely a result of deforestation and urbanization — it’s essential to build a better relationship with these little beings that surround us.”