OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015
Our water-guzzling food factory
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2005
Hey you guys!
More than 400 Goonies fans from as far away as England and Australia
are descending on Astoria this weekend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
“The Goonies,” the much-loved movie that features locations in Astoria and
Cannon Beach.
The “Goonies Never Say Die” event, organized by the Astoria-Warren-
ton Area Chamber of Commerce, will be a weekend packed with tours of
these locations, screenings of the movie and a documentary, and chances
to meet and get autographs from cast members including Sean Astin, who
played Mikey, and Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk.
“I loved Astoria, Astoria was awesome,” said Cohen, who said he re-
members feeding the birds from the porch of the Astoria Red Lion Inn. “It
has a real special place in my heart.”
“In war we serve; In peace we trade.”
For Jim Durham and other American merchant Marine vet-
erans, this was more than a motto, it was a way of life during
World War II.
With members of the U.S. Coast Guard, the veterans gath-
ered to honor the memory of those they served with at Union-
town’s Maritime Memorial Park on Memorial Day.
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man Jim Wells was joined by just four other boats, a far cry from the crowds
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A drastic decline from the promising spring chinook returns of the past
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ery efforts for endangered and threatened salmon. Some blame poor ocean
conditions for the low returns, while others point to farmers’ irrigation for
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SEASIDE — The $32 million from Seaside’s rejected U.S.
Highway 101 project has been assigned to projects in Astoria and
Tillamook, as well as areas around Salem, Eugene and Newberg.
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
L
et’s start with a quiz.
Which consumes the most
water?
A) a 10-minute shower.
B) a handful of 10 almonds.
C) a quarter-pound hamburger
patty.
D) a washing machine load.
The
an-
swer? By far,
it’s the ham-
burger patty.
The
shower
might use 25
gallons. The al-
monds take up
almost a gallon
each, or close
to 10 gallons
Nicholas
for the handful.
Kristof
The washing
machine uses
about 35 gallons per load. And that
beef patty, around 450 gallons.
The drought in California hit
home when I was backpacking
with my daughter there recently on
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eight creeks or springs we reached
were all dry.
The crisis in California is a har-
binger of water scarcity in much of
the world. And while we associate
extravagant water use with swim-
ming pools and verdant lawns, the
biggest consumer, by far, is agri-
culture. In California, 80 percent of
water used by humans goes to farm-
ing and ranching.
That’s where that hamburger pat-
ty comes in.
I grew up on a sheep and cher-
ry farm near Yamhill. I worked for
a year for the Future Farmers of
America, and I still spend time ev-
ery year on our family farm. But
while I prize America’s rural heri-
tage, let’s be blunt: It’s time for a
fundamental rethinking of Ameri-
ca’s food factory.
A mandarin orange consumes 14
gallons of water. A head of lettuce,
12 gallons. A bunch of grapes, 24
gallons. One single walnut, 2 gal-
lons.
Animal products use even more
water, mostly because of the need to
raise grain or hay to feed the ani-
mals. Plant material converts quite
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So a single egg takes 53 gal-
lons of water to produce. A pound
of chicken, 468 gallons. A gallon
of milk, 880 gallons. And a pound
of beef, 1,800 gallons of water. (Of
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imate, and estimates differ. These
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Institute and National Geographic.)
You can also calculate your own
Max Whittaker/The New York Times
Fritz Durst walks over an irrigation canal that hasn’t seen water since
2013 on his farm in Zamora, Calif., April 4. While we associate extrav-
agant water use with swimming pools and verdant lawns, the biggest
consumer, by far, is agriculture. In California, 80 percent of water used
by humans goes to farming and ranching.
water footprint at National Geo- West, water was mostly allocat-
graphic’s website.
ed on a first-come basis, so if you
Our industrial food system pro- acquired water rights more than a
duces food almost miraculously century ago you can mostly still ac-
cheaply. In 1930, whole dressed cess water for uses (two gallons per
chicken retailed for $6.48 per pound walnut!) that no longer make sense
in today’s currency, according to in an age of scarcity.
As for the foolishness of ag-
the National Chicken Council; in
ricultural subsidies,
real terms, the price
until recently, the fed-
has fallen by more
A single
eral government paid
than three-quarters.
me, a New York jour-
And, boy, is the sys-
egg
nalist, $588 a year not
tem good at producing
crops in Ore-
cheap high-fructose
takes 53 to gon. grow
I rest my case.
corn syrup!
Let’s be clear that
Yet industrial agri- gallons of
it’s unfair to blame
culture imposes other
water to
farmers for the pres-
unsustainable costs:
problems. We’re
- It overuses antibi-
produce. ent
the ones eating those
otics, resulting in dan-
water-intensive ham-
gers to the public from
antibiotic-resistant diseases. About burgers, and we’re the ones whose
4/5 of antibiotics sold in the United political system created these irra-
States are for livestock and poultry - tionalities.
Like most Americans, I eat
even as 23,000 people die annually
in America from antibiotic resistant meat, but it’s worth thinking hard
infections, according to the Centers about the inefficiency in that ham-
for Disease Control and Prevention. burger patty - and the small lake
- Farming overuses chemicals that has dried up to make it possi-
such as pesticides, some of them ble.
Maybe our industrial agricul-
endocrine-disruptors that have been
linked to possible cancer, obesity ture system is beginning to change,
for we’re seeing some signs of a
and reproductive disorders.
- Factory farming is often based food revolution in America, with
on treating animals, particularly greater emphasis on organic food
and animal rights. Just a week
poultry, with ruthless cruelty.
To this indictment, we can add ago, Wal-Mart called on suppli-
irrational subsidies and water en- ers to stop keeping calves in veal
gineering projects that have led to crates and hogs in gestation crates.
Something good could come
irrigation in areas where it doesn’t
make sense. Today, California, de- from the California drought if it
spite the drought, is effectively ex- could push this revolution a bit
porting water (in the form of milk, further, by forcing a reallocation
of water to the most efficient
beef, walnuts and produce).
Most of agriculture’s irratio- uses. But remember that the cen-
nalities aren’t the fault of farmers tral challenge can’t be solved by a
but arise from lax regulation and good rain because the larger prob-
mistaken pricing, and that’s true of lem is an irrational industrial food
water as well. Traditionally in the system.
Is Motown getting its groove back?
run by a fourth-generation
move the needle.” He’s
Schwinn.
right about that, of course.
Although it was a phil-
But, collectively, all these
DETROIT — Tom Kartsotis, the anthropic impulse that
small companies do seem
wealthy co-founder of Fossil, has moved Kartsotis to set
to be helping to bring De-
no connection to the Motor City. He up shop in Detroit, it has
troit back. Young people
lives in Dallas, where he now over- turned out to be a very good
are moving in to the down-
sees a handful of ventures he’s in- business decision. The
town and midtown areas.
vested in. In early 2011, he decided space Shinola needed to
The unemployment rate is
to build a small watch factory that build its factory was cheap.
dropping. Once-abandoned
buildings
are being reoccu-
would sell high-quality watches that There was also plenty of
Joe
pied.
There
are retail stores
were priced, as he puts it, “at the entry talent — engineers, for
Nocera
and restaurants that didn’t
point of luxury.”
sure, but also former auto
exist even a few years ago.
He also wanted to make these assembly-line
workers,
watches in America. “So many big people eager to work who Shinola Something very good is happening
companies have sourcing infrastruc- could train to be watchmakers. When here, and it’s largely the result of
tures whose knee-jerk reaction is to I visited the watch factory recently, private-sector activity. Kartsotis isn’t
head to China,” he said. He couldn’t I saw rows of employees bent over the only entrepreneur whose desire to
compete with China at the low end their desks, focusing intently as they come to the aid of a once-great city
of the market — nobody can. But placed tiny, intricate parts inside the has turned out to be a smart business
move.
he felt that the kind of watches he unassembled watches.
If it seems clear that companies
had in mind — priced between $450
Indeed, to spend any time in De-
and $600 at the low
troit these days is like Shinola are the way forward for
end, with a distinc-
to be amazed at the Detroit, it is not so clear whether they
tive but classic design
extent to which it is are also the way forward for American
All these
— could be made
humming with en- manufacturing more generally. “I’m
small
competitively in the
trepreneurial activi- proud of what this company stands
United States. So he
ty. Dan Gilbert, the for,” Jacques Panis, Shinola’s presi-
decided to put his new companies
founder and chairman dent, told me. When I asked him just
factory here in Detroit, do seem to
of Quicken Loans — what that is, he replied: “High-quality
a city once renowned
which he relocated to manufacturing jobs for America.”
Shinola’s products are well-de-
for its manufacturing be helping
Detroit — has bought
prowess that, in recent
more than 70 build- signed and made. They are selling
to bring
times, has needed all
ings and is convert- briskly. But they are not cheap, and
the help it can get.
ing some of them into they’ll never be mass produced. I’ve
Detroit
That original idea
RI¿FH VSDFH IRU VPDOO written before about how even big
turned into a company
businesses. There are manufacturers like Caterpillar and
back.
called Shinola. It has
other buildings with General Electric employ far fewer
eight retail outlets and
common workspaces workers than they used to thanks to
employs around 375 people, most of and tools like 3-D printers than can automation. Shinola offers a different
them in Detroit. Although those styl- be shared. The city’s government and, twist on that idea. It’s not automation
ized watches are its biggest sellers especially, its foundations are focused that is restricting the number of work-
— the company expects to sell be- on helping people who want to start ers but rather the niche appeal of its
tween 150,000 and 180,000 this year a new business. I spoke with a wom- products. I’m not sure its example is
— it also designs and makes bicycles, an named Julie James, who, with her particularly replicable.
As for Shinola, Kartsotis is ready-
leather goods and other well-crafted, four sisters, manufactures a brand of
high-end products. Not only are those juices they call Drought. It employs ing its next product: Shinola-style
products built in Detroit, but Shinola 32 people. Another company, The headphones that can compete with
also tries to buy the parts it needs from Floyd Leg, makes handsome, color- high-end models like those from
other American companies. Its leath- ful legs for furniture; its workforce Beats. He told me that he has just com-
er, for instance, comes from the Hor- is seven people. New companies like SOHWHGDURXQGRI¿QDQFLQJDQGKRSHV
to take the company public one day.
ween Leather Co., a Chicago tannery these are starting every day.
Which will be good for him —
more than a century old. Its bicycle
Kartsotis told me that “creating
frames are shipped from a company a few hundred jobs isn’t going to and Detroit.
By JOE NOCERA
New York Times News Service
Photo shows Pier 166, built at Tongue Point, being barged into
place in preparation for Span 166.
50 years ago — 1965
Span 166 of the Astoria bridge, which has been under construction at
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position Monday, Web Ballinger of the Highway Department engineering
staff said Friday.
The steel span will connect Piers 166 and 167, which are north of the
main ship channel, between it and the Desdemona Sands viaduct.
No more steel will be placed, after this span, on the main ship channel
crossing until Piers 168 and 169 are completed.
The ferry M.R. Chessman was aground an hour and a half
just north of the Columbia River ship channel Tuesday morning.
The ferry grounded at 9:15 a.m., just before the 10 a.m. Low
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boat apparently was undamaged.
Four boys visited once too often a cache of stolen loot hidden in tunnels
under the downtown streets Wednesday night. Patient police, who had been
keeping watch over the cache, caught them.
The four, aged 14 to 17, were all in detention in city jail’s juvenile quar-
ters Thursday and police were preparing to round up nine or 10 more boys
reported to be implicated in a series of burglaries of downtown store base-
ments occurring over the past two months.
Police recovered a substantial part of an estimated $1,000 of merchan-
dise and tools stolen by the tunnel prowlers.
75 years ago — 1940
The senate today passed the bill providing an additional
$2,000,000 authorization for Tongue Point Naval Air Station,
according to word from Senator Ruifus Holman, sending the
bill to conference with the house, which already has approved it.
Speedy adjustment of differences is anticipated.
Even though about 110 motorists received tickets for violations of the
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more cordially by the public than was expected.
HAMMOND — Residents of this peaceful village today got a
taste of what war sounds like. Windows shook, dishes danced on
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as in Flanders, only no one was being killed.
Fort Stevens’ 12 inch mortars were blazing away at targets
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