Losing my blogger cherry

Hello World,

So this is my first ever blog post and it seems I am the only one who thought contributing to a blog meant you had to have a cool pseudonym. I think I failed at the cool part and I missed the fact that internet anonymity was so the 00's.

It is perhaps useful if we start off this endeavor by examining our motivations. I think it will be good for me to look back to assess the difference between expectation and reality; the humor of foresight with the benefit of hindsight.

First: the name. I hope it means something to the effect of Food with Borders (although sufficiently vague enough to seem faux artsy and wise---another unspoken rule I thought applied to blogging titles/handles). My intention really is to think differently (honestly, think at all) about the food I eat in terms of it's "sustainability". I hate that word. Don't tell anyone in our course at Cambridge. But what that means to me is to begin to look at the impact (in terms of carbon, water, livelihoods for instance) of what I consume. It will be in no way complete or definitive or very good frankly....more like the brain storm before the clearing of clouds and revealing of some rays of insight. Mostly it will be for me.

Two: I hope to focus on myself because that is really another goal/change I'd like to experience. I always discount the impact of individuals. I focus on the big picture. I am much more interested in policy and economic incentive design or funding for technology implementation...I see people promoting "un-plugging your cell-phone charger" as doing "your bit" as completed deluded and ridiculous. I think I am right about that. But in general I need to change my first instincts; I need to examine the value of personal changes in habit and appreciate them. Little personal changes driven by desire may never seem like a solution to me compared to something like pricing and taxes, but I hope to better understand the difficulty of personal change, its impacts, and quit using "I am just one person" as my own excuse for inaction.

Three: I hope to read some good books and find some good websites about food, food policy, food impacts, and what individuals can do. I know there is a lot out there. I will start by reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and move on from there. I hope to receive suggestions!

Cheers,
CpO