COLORS 69: Back to Earth

Put down your knife, spoon, fork and chopsticks and get ready to travel Back to Earth with COLORS 69 where we investigate how humans handle what we eat. Back to Earth is done in cooperation with Terra Madre, the network of 1,500 Slow Food communities on five continents consisting of 5,000 farmers, breeders, fishermen and traditional food producers. Their collective mission is to preserve agriculture that is good, clean and fair while being sensitive to local cultures and being responsible for the environment.

In COLORS 69, you will climb high into the mountains of Tibet where yak cheese makers produce their unique specialty for eager international buyers. Their yak cheese makes a dramatic journey through mountain passes lined with Buddhist prayer flags to markets. Profits from their hard work sustain their fragile livelihoods as well as provide funds for a traditional Tibetan school. The entire chain of production keeps a way of life intact in the face of more dominant political and social currents.

Meanwhile, in Port Townsend, Alaska, you’ll meet Richard Oltman who tells us how international consumers are deciding whether the world will continue to eat fresh, wild Alaskan King Salmon or settle for the much cheaper, farmed salmon from Chile, Canada or Norway. Richard, along with other concerned Alaskan fishermen, have gotten rid of their usual fish brokers and now deal directly with buyers who care about the taste and quality of what they eat. Did you know that the pink color of salmon is mostly due to food coloring dyes? Well, business for Richard has improved, but many problems still face the fishermen of Alaska as fuel prices and regulation make their way of life more and more difficult.

And over in Australia, the World's Rainforest survives at the Botanical Ark where tropical plant rescuers Susan and Alan Carle save, harvest and share endangered species of fruit, flora and fauna. Sensitive cultivation, patience and the desire to understand the behavior of plants are necessary requirements to the exhaustive research and processes they have developed in their gardens of preservation.

These are just a few of the concerned world citizens you will meet in COLORS 69, an issue dedicated to the those who maintain healthy and traditional alternatives o the mass-produced food that has muscled its way onto grocery stores and fast food menus. Why would you eat a can of genetically modified corn when you could enjoy a Chiapas Corn complements of friendly Zapatistas? In any case, you will always check the health of the caterpillar at the bottom of your next bottle of mezcal.

For, in the end, what we do to our food, what we do to our animals, and what we do to our planet, we do to ourselves. So, take it slow, take some time to read, see, eat and come Back to Earth.

COLORS 69. Returning to Newsstands in November.

 

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