Republicans In Congress Could Not Care Less About Pay Discrimination

Earlier this week Republican Senators blocked a vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Say it with me now: that's crap.

Less Birth Control = More Babies + More Families In Poverty

So don't take my word on it. The Washington Post reports that in the Phillipines, high birthrates (and the lack of access to contraception that causes them) are keeping many families in poverty. Low-income Filipino families have extremely limited access to birth control. Federal contraceptive distribution programs have been defunded, and donated contraceptives will no longer be distributed in the government-run clinics that serve poor families. Shocker: family size among the poor is growing, and so is the number of Filipino families in poverty.

In recent weeks, public alarm in the Philippines over the soaring price of rice has focused attention on the fast-growing population and its dependence on rice imports.

Despite steadily increasing rice harvests, farmers here have been unable to keep pace with domestic demand. Economists here have calculated, though, that the Philippines would not need imported rice if it had managed to control population growth -- like its neighbor Thailand.

In 1970, the population of each country was about 36 million people and growing at about 3 percent a year. But with an aggressive family planning program that provides the poor with free contraceptives, Thailand has since reduced its population growth rate to 0.9 percent. In the Philippines, the rate has declined sluggishly to about 2.1 percent.

There are now about 26 million more people in the Philippines than in Thailand.

"It's a no-brainer," said Ernesto M. Pernia, professor of economics at the University of the Philippines.

No kidding, no brainer.

The One-Car Household

It's Earth Day. So what are you going to do about it?

Shiner and I are a two-car household. This is very convenient, but largely stupid. Our day jobs are less than two blocks from one another. I spend just under $1400 every year to insure and gas up my car. I don't know for sure (note to self: find out) but I assume Shiner pays about the same. And our two cars together generate more than our fair share of CO2, globally speaking. The American Transit Association tells me that by switching from two cars to one, we could cut our carbon emissions by 25-20%.

What would it look like if we became a one-car household? Commuting to the train together in the morning, bussing or biking when offsite meetings or schedules prevent us from commuting together, meeting at the train platform in the evening and riding home together. Yuppie-duppie-dorable. But it's a little more compliated than that.

Since Shiner took his second job, he's needed to drive straight from the train station to the store after work, meaning it's not practical for me to go home with him on the nights he works. On those nights I've been staying late at the office to get more work done, but that would need to change--after 6.40, my bus comes only once an hour (a total pain) and I don't bike home after dark because I go through some sketch areas with high rates of cyclist-directed violence (yikes!). So no more working at the office late-late for me. I would have to go home and log in remotely. That also means no more free dinner, since my employer will reimburse for meals we eat downtown when we stay later than 7.30. It would also severely limit my ability to run errands after work.

This will also mean I'd feel somewhat housebound one day each weekend when Shiner's got the car at work. I wouldn't actually be housebound. I could easily get out and walk or bike, or figure out how to take a bus wherever. But frankly, that's a big mindset shift.

I'm going to give it a go. Shiner has been forewarned. We've talked in theory about how we think we could become a one-car household, but haven't taken any steps toward trying it out.

Michael Pollan wants me to grow a garden, but what he's really suggesting in this week's Times Magazine is that each of us do something "to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen." And some of that involves doing things that seem inconvenient and possibly futile, but right-minded and incrementally useful.

It's Earth Day, and I'm going to try to quit my car.

Spending Money to Save Money (and Health): My CSA

It's springtime, which means that along with opening my windows and pumping up my bike tires, I have once again written a $320 dollar check for--well, I'm not exactly sure.

I know in general terms. It's my CSA, which is short for "community supported agriculture." It's a program that lets consumers buy a subscription to a local farm for a growing season. The farm uses those up-front payments for its seasonal startup costs, and then as crops are harvested, all the CSA members get a regular portion of the harvest. The idea is that by running the program on a subscription model, the members are not only supporting local, sustainable farming, but they share some of the risk and benefit of farming--if there are droughts or floods or infestations, the members get less produce, and if growing conditions are ideal, they get much more. But this means I don't know exactly what I'll get for my $320. Will the peppers fail this year? Will slugs destroy the tomatoes? Will I be eating butternut squash into the winter (I hope so)? Will they plant those delicious raspberries again? WIll I ever figure out what to do with burdock? It's an exciting world of possibilities.

This is my fourth year as a CSA member, and my third as a member with this farm. There are a number of reasons I love my CSA. Some of them are hippy-dippy and not at all financial. I like that I am supporting a local business, I like that I get vegetables and fruit that three years ago I couldn't have identified on the grocery shelf, I like that it helps me eat "in season" because the CSA harvest changes weekly as growing conditions change.

But there are financial reasons, as well. Shiner and I split our share with another couple because in the peak season, there is simply too much produce for either of our families to eat before the next shipment arrives. So for $320 we get fresh, organic, local produce for twenty weeks. I may occasionally buy additional produce at the farmer's market if I'm doing something special like canning a large batch of tomato sauce, but otherwise this provides all our summertime produce for $16 per week. That's all the produce we would normally eat, plus more. Our veggie intake definitely increases during the CSA subscription because it seems like such a sin to let beautiful, delicious food we've already paid for go to waste. I might be able to go to the grocery store and buy the same amount of produce at the same price or slightly cheaper, but not the picked-yesterday fresh, organically grown, locally produced, super-flavorful heirloom varieties I get through the CSA. Very frequently, I'd spend closer to $20 or $25 per week on produce during peak season. And with food expenses going up as quickly as they have been lately, the CSA is not just delicious, it's a twenty-week hedge against inflation. Since Shiner and I don't eat much meat, this makes up a large portion of our grocery expenses.

It's very convenient for us to get the food. The boxes are delivered to various drop sites around the metro area. My friend bikes right past our drop site on her way home from work, and later that day I stop by their house to collect our share. A coworker is in a CSA that delivers his share to his home--that beats s trip to the grocery store for sure.

$320 is not a small cost to front, but at this point it's not an unexpected one for me. During the darkest part of winter, when I most miss the warm weather and my fresh produce, I start setting aside money for my share of the subscription. My farm also allows monthly autodebits for households on tighter budgets, and accepts food stamps. It might not be too late for you to find a CSA program near you. Local Harvest lets you search by zip code or state. Maybe a CSA makes sense for youe household, too.

This post was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #150, hosted by Lazy Man And Money.