Footnotes to a Conversation, August 16, 2021
Independence for Women
As there are never enough hours and days in the year to read all the books I want to read, I find book reviews a helpful way to get a quick overview of a topic. Ding Dong! Avon Calling! by Katina Manko looks at how the corporation changed women’s economic status. In the early 1900s, married women had no economic status. “It was not until 1982 that the supreme court struck down the final state law holding that a man had the right to total control over household income and assets, including those earned, inherited, or purchased by his wife.” Avon continued to provide women in the ‘80s and ‘90s with a means to earn an income and be self-reliant. [The Guardian]
Setting Down Roots
For restaurant-goers, ethnic cuisine may offer a substitute for journeys to distant countries, much appreciated during a pandemic, but the immigrants who establish these restaurants are demonstrating belonging. “The people making and communicating heritage foods in their city/town/village assert their permanence and belonging to that place by setting up shop. They open bank accounts, pay taxes, become employers and if they’re successful, can even become beloved institutions.” The article provides links to 3 audio interviews with chefs who are feeding people from their heritage in London, UK. [Sourced]
The Future of Food
I refuse to eat lab-created Beyond burgers and the like. I have no idea what they contain and much prefer to find my sources of protein in beans and tofu. Alicia Kennedy notes that tech meat gives no thought to supporting small-scale farming, agroecology, or giving people the means to grow their own food. Kennedy also strongly opposes a classist approach to food where it is the means to stay alive for some and a source of pleasure for others. “Why do our visions for the future have to be centered on meat, lab or animal flesh? Why do they have to be centered on corporations at all? Big Ag, Big Meat, Big Fake Meat, Big Fake Egg. There’s so much we can change that would make us less dependent upon it. I believe in a world where people realize they don’t need meat at every meal, and it’s a world where our basic needs are met. It’s a world where we have space to reimagine what we consider abundance: an abundance that acknowledges our urgent need for survival.” [From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy]
Nature’s Artwork
Small is beautiful – 16 award-winning macro photographs of flowers and insects. [Digital Photography Review]
From roses, jasmine, and irises to botanical drawings, perfumes, plant-based medicine, and perfume bottles – two videos prepared in conjunction with a museum exhibit showcase the plants used in making perfume over the ages. [The Fitzwilliam Museum]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces (downloadable directly from the website).