bootstrap analysis

circus of the spineless #2

The second edition of Circus of the Spineless, the invertebrate extravaganza, is up at Snail's Tales. Monty Python, bearded ladies serving squirmy food...what more could you ask for?

COTS #3 will be hosted at Urban Dragon Hunters. Be on the look out for excellent essays and fatnatic photos of all that creeps and crawls and send them to nannothemis AT gmail.com.

starbucks challenge update 2

Recap: the Starbucks Challenge asked coffee drinkers to request Fair Trade coffee; the company's policy is to brew a cup, in a french press, on request if it is not being brewed that day (it used to be brewed on the 20th of each month, now their Cafe Estima Fair Trade blend will be featured as a "coffee of the week" every two months).

Not all Starbucks were complying, but the company took steps to correct the situation.  Cafe Estima was also the coffee of the week just after the challenge began, putting the Challenge on a short hiatus.

I took the Starbucks Challenge in Allen Park, MI.  My results were...confusing.

I asked for a cup of Fair Trade, and was told it was not being brewed, but I was offered a french pressed cup without asking.  They said it'd take 10 minutes.  Nine minutes later, the barista asked me to confirm I wanted a tall, and I watched them pull me a cup of coffee from their regular machine. Not a french press.  (BTW, it was actually the best coffee I've had at Starbucks.)

I consulted a friend of mine who is a barista at this store.  He explained,

I'm no Columbo, but I know what happened.  What you drank was Shade Grown Mexico, which is fair trade, organic, and Coffee of the Week.  You were greeted by a barista that did not know that it was Fair Trade so they did what they were taught -- offer to brew a french press of Fair Trade in the back.  After looking for some Fair Trade of any kind, I'll be they looked at the message board in back that has big lettering advertising the coffee as such. I am disappointed that they weren't honest enough to tell you that you were waiting in vain until they realized we were already brewing it!

On the Starbucks web site, the Organic Shade Grown Mexico is not listed as certified Fair Trade; perhaps that's the source of the problem.  My guess is that it isn't Fair Trade certified, but from what I have read about the company's arrangement with Conservation International they pay a premium for this coffee and I would imagine farmer's receive the Fair Trade minimum or more.

Well and good.  But it feels like they are struggling to educating the baristas, and they are surely  missing the boat promoting socially responsible coffee to their customers. I looked through all the bags of beans in the store.  None of their old Fair Trade blend, no Cafe Estima.  Cafe Estima was listed on their sign board for bulk coffees, but it did not mention that it was Fair Trade.  On the web site, I found a Fair Trade blend, but no Cafe Estima, even when I searched for it.  I did find it when I searched their online store.

Why keep pursuing this?  As U.S. Starbucks Challenge leader green LA girl explains:

The fact is, when Starbucks makes changes, those changes have HUGE impacts. Yes, fair trade beans only make up 1% of Starbucks' purchases. But that 1% is about a quarter of ALL fair trade beans that come into the US.

Getting Starbucks to up their fair trade purchases to 2%, or even to the TransFair recommended 5% minimum, would drastically change the fair trade landscape.

That's what I'm talking about, people.  Consumer demand CAN make a difference.   

And check this: The Golden Arches will be serving only Fair Trade coffee in over 600 stores in the northeast.

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show me where you are!

I hate to be trendy (well, usually), but just for grins I set up a Frappr map for bootstrap readers. If you are a regular reader of bootstrap analysis, go to the map and add yourself (you have to put something in the "shout out" area, even if it's just a dash, or some lorem ipsum).  You can even add a picture.

trick or treat!

For Halloween, how about a cousin of the Box Elder Bug dressing up in fancy orange pantaloons? This is a leaf-footed bug, Anisoscelis flavolineata, about an inch long.  It and many relatives were all over a passion vine outside our lodge in Panama.  Boo!

asides: literature edition 1

Asides is an occasional feature in which I post interesting tools and links I've recently discovered. I've started grouping them in categories.  You can find them all by clicking on the category archive for Blogs, links, and the like.

This edition is the first edition dealing with books, literature, and other things to read.

• Common Times is a site in which readers add links to news stories.  I read it described as what the New York Times would look like if readers chose the stories.  A valuable and fascinating twist on social bookmarking.
• BookNoise is a great place to discover new books.
• Explore literature via a self-adapting map based on artificial intelligence.  Type in an author you like, and a cloud of other authors appear.  Those floating closer to your author are those you might be interested in (also movies and music).
• The TPM Cafe Book Club is a virtual book club, which chooses a book, invites the author to get the ball rolling, and continues with lively and intelligent discussion. The Book Club is part of the Talking Points Memo family of blogs.

I and the Bird #9...

...is now up and running at Living the Scientific Life.  Go check it out.

another 5 things meme

Tony at milkriver blog tagged me with another meme, one he devised that built upon the personal history meme.  Then I was so tardy in responding, that Cindy at Woodsong tagged me with it, too. I am to confess my five pet peeves, the five creatures I'd most like to see before I leave this earth, and the five moments in my life that have changed everything I've done since.  It also included five movies that are my life, but I am hopeless in that regard, I just never see movies.

bird flu and migratory birds

Avian flu (H5N1) is spreading from Asia into Europe, and I've heard news reports indicate that the spread is facilitated by migrating birds, bringing it into an area at which time local poultry flocks become infected. Influenza viruses occur naturally in wild birds, especially waterfowl, but the spread of H5N1 does not mirror migratory patterns (it has not shown up in many Asian migratory bird destinations), but instead has followed commercial movements of domestic poultry. Migratory birds may play a small role in transporting the disease, but it is certainly not the slam-dunk explanation offered by most media.

The viruses that are found in wild birds are generally benign.  The highly pathogenic viruses that cause great mortality in domestic poultry flocks are very rare in wild birds. In Asia, domestic poultry flocks are often allowed to mix freely with wild birds, especially waterfowl, which facilitates transmission to migratory waterbirds. There is no evidence that H5N1 infection in humans have been acquired from wild birds.

Two well-respected bird conservation organizations have come out with strong statements warning against the culling of migratory birds: BirdLife International and the American Bird Conservancy.  These statements echo one made last year by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.   

Even if migratory waterfowl were responsible for the spread of H5N1, the draining of wetlands (another alarmist reaction) could exacerbate the spread of the disease by dispersing the birds more widely, and may lead to overcrowding and stress at new gathering areas, making even healthy birds more vulnerable to infection.

Of course, killing migratory birds and draining wetlands would do serious damage to bird populations and biodiversity, and must be avoided.  Nice synopsis of do's and don'ts at How to Save the World.

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book review: the tapir's morning bath

Time to catch you up on my reading.  Topping the list is The Tapir's Morning Bath by Elizabeth Royte. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it also gave me some serious food for thought on the direction of my own career.

The  book:
I often find reading about a far-flung place is more interesting to me after I've been there. TTMB is about the Smithsonian's field station on Barro Colorado Island, in the Panama Canal, which I visited this summer. Plenty has been written about it -- creation of the island, establishment of the field station, the many famous scientists who have worked there, and more papers, monographs, articles, and books about research results than you can shake a stick at.  Royte weaves this information throughout TTMB, but brings BCI to life by spending months living at the field station and working with the wide variety of researchers (some long established, some green grad students) working on BCI. 

It's hard for me to actually tell you what this book is mostly "about," which is to Royte's credit. Engagingly, she accurately depicts the tedium, complexity, and discovery of field work (which, as a field ecologist, I love!) and the rich intellectual yet quirky world of scientists, all set against the backdrop of a tropical rainforest.  How the work of these researchers applies to conservation is a constant theme, skillfully explored by Royte, who inserts herself in the scene without forcing herself on the reader, as many authors are apt to do.  So, in turns, this book is about Barro Colorado and tropical forests, about the conservation of biodiversity, about how field work is done, about the world of science, scientists, and academia, and about people.  All without seeming preachy, dry, arcane, or scattershot.

Admittedly, I have a strong attraction to all these subjects, so perhaps I'm predisposed to liking a book like this.  But it would have been easy for an author to make a mess of it. I finished this book wishing I had written it.  And that's one of my highest ratings.  It stays in the sidebar!

What made me think
One of the researchers on BCI was Bret Weinstein, and his philosophy (incredibly wise for a graduate student) was often highlighted by Royte.  Weinstein had a measure of disdain for the whole doctoral process, as do I.  Years ago, I saw one of my personal heroes, Paul Erhlich, give a talk in which he emphasized our urgent need to get out and DO conservation.  He indicated that our academic system needs revamping, that we spend too much time doing "knowledge for knowledge's sake" rather than applied research, and that we jealously hoard our findings until we can publish them rather than share them and act collaboratively for the good of biodiversity. I heard this at a time when I was debating about entering a doctoral program, and it helped me decide to continue doing my field work rather than aborting it to spend several years jumping through hoops to get a PhD.  I felt I could do more continuing what I was doing than going back to school.

Of course, most scientists will say their research will aid in conservation.  Weinstein contends that really isn't true.  "If they really wanted to conserve habitat, they'd work to redistribute the wealth and get slash-and-burn farmers, ranchers, and loggers to stay out of the forest," he says in TTMB. He goes on, adding another layer to Erhlich's point, "Conservation is a political problem.  The powers that be won't be dissuaded from destroying the forest by an explanation of its mechanisms."  Ah, very true.  But what then?  Abandon research and a doctoral degree and become a politician?  No, Weinstein observes.  There is an advantage to having done research and having a PhD: you can talk about conservation and people will be more likely to listen.

I've been thinking about this a lot. My overall goal is conservation.  Given my background, skills, accomplishments to date, (and age!), how can I be most effective?  I especially love a book that gives me a new perspective, and the stories of the researchers on BCI depicted in The Tapir's Morning Bath provide new insights that I will use as I reconsider the trajectory of my career.

You can read more about The Tapir's Morning Bath, Elizabeth Royte, and the scientists she worked with at the book's excellent web site at Booknoise, a showcase for promoting noteworthy books.

mini book reviews

Mini-reviews of The United States of Wal-Mart, Straight Man, and The Big One.