Archive for the ‘Local Food Movement’ Category

Must-See Green News Programs

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I know I’ve mentioned before that the news sites I choose to read often lean towards good news, so that I sometimes feel like there is no bad in the world at all (that is, until, I pick up a normal newspaper!).  Which I know is not a very good strategy, as it is what the Ethical Man deems as seeing pregnant women everywhere.  Okay, let  me explain–in a post made in March on his wonderful blog, the Ethical Man talked about how when his wife was pregnant, they suddenly noticed all the pregnant women around them.  It seemed like pregnant women were everywhere, but it was really that they were just acutely aware of anyone and everyone pregnant.  So now the Ethical Man says he is doing the same with good green news–because it is HIS job to track green goodness, he suddenly notices the good news everywhere, so that he thinks that all news is good green news. 

We know that can’t be the solution, and we need to be careful to be fair and balanced.  However, a hefty dose of good news is good for the soul, and I want to cheer up all my readers today with sharing some emerald gems of news programs that you should really check out to perk up.

First: The PBS Program Planet Forward.  Planet Forward is a web program that collages ideas regarding the energy future of our planet.  The program features interviews, commentary, brainstormed ideas, and discussions.  It is a great discussion forum, and very interactive with its community of viewers.  Check out today’s interview with Van Jones, the founder of Green for All, and the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  Check out the interview here!  Van Jones on Planet Forward

THE program

THE program

the man, Van Jones
the man, Van Jones

Second: The Ethical Man, the BBC’s global warming correspondent.  He’s STILL at it, and he is inspiring!!  He is totally tireless as he traipses across the US interviewing people on their green initiatives.  You can read his blog here and you can join his Facebook fan group here.  ALSO, you can watch his BBC episodes online here!  Check it out asap, it will make your day!

ethical-man

Third: The Carrotmob movement.  The Carrotmob movement is an organization of like-minded people who vow to support local business within their community.  If you visit their website, you can see how carrotmobs are sweeping the globe!!  You can see how you can get involved with the carrotmob closest to you, taking part in all their cool endeavors!  If it just so happens that your community does not have a carrotmob, their website can help show you how to start one!  So go to it, visit their site and check out their awesome welcome video!  It will convince even the staunchest cynic. 

Fourth: The new amazing documentary, FRESH.  Fresh is a powerful documentary about where the majority of our food comes from.  It is frightening, but it is also very hopeful, in that Fresh also documents the rapidly-gaining steam movements spreading from coast to coast to promote natural, toxic-free, and local food.  In the creator, Ana Sofia Joanes’s own words,

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Check out their website today to become informed.  I promise it will empower you!

fresh

Okay, troops!!  That reading/viewing material should keep you busy for a little while!  Please let me know if you check out any of the sites–give me your thoughts, feelings, and personal endeavors!!  And if any of these sources motivate you to make your own personal green goals, don’t forget to list them on http://www.enchantingchallenge.com to open up the dialogue and spread-the-word!!

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Green Can Be the Norm, With a Little Help From All the Earth’s Friends!

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Have you heard the news?  The Empire State Building is GOING GREEN!  Can you believe it?!  It seems like that is a symbol for our country, when a landmark such as the Empire State Building retrofits…I think it is really sign that, as Thomas Friedman says, “green is the new red, white, and blue.”  I really believe that there will come a time in the relatively near future that going green becomes the norm.  Just look around at all the good green news:

the soon-to-be-green NYC landmark

the soon-to-be-green NYC landmark

*New York City is currently carrying out a mission to make all taxis hybrids by 2012! (Hot, Flat, and Crowded, page 329)

a fleet of NYC hybrids

a fleet of NYC hybrids

*Houses in our nation’s capital are setting the trend by retrofitting!

houses being retrofitted in the DC area!

houses being retrofitted in the DC area!

*There are currently over 82,000 LEED graduates in the US!  (What the heck is LEED?!  LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is a certificate awarded by the US Green Building Council to those who have passed the LEED exam.  Passing the LEED exam means that you are qualified to give green consulting in building design!) (Information from the LEED-certified eco-guru, Caitlin Cunningham.)

*The forestry and logging industries are also experiencing environmental movements, which helps to preserve the forests AND the loggers’ jobs!  A stunning example of this is the largest Chinese tire company, GITI Tire, and its carbon offset program.  GITI Tire now plants rubber trees around Indonesian forests, which provides a “buffer zone of sustainable agroforestry around the edge of the forest, which will protect the trees, produce rubber for tires, and provide additional livelihoods for the villagers,” as Thomas Friedman explains in Hot, Flat, and Crowded (page 308).

Indonesian reforestation efforts

Indonesian reforestation efforts

Everywhere you look it seems that there are green efforts all around, from Norway’s impressive carbon-offset programs, to Indonesian reforestation initiatives, to Costa Rica’s ban on drilling oil—it is all evidence pointing to the fact that the environmental movement is becoming a global phenomenon.

BUT, there is still a lot of work to be done.  I want to share with you and stress all of the good things that are happening to keep you inspired and keep you motivated.  But, I also want to remind you of gaps that need to be filled in so that we can help mend the holes together.

One of the greatest degradations of the earth right now is happening because of industrial, chemical-laden farming.  Yes, many argue that industrial farming is what feeds us, but it is also what is causing us to go hungry at the same time, as rampant pesiticide and chemical use has rendered 30% of farmland un-farmable since the 1970′s (Barbara Kingsolver, “The Blessings of Dirty Work,” first published by The Washington Post on September 30, 2007, and later reprinted at the back of her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). 

In Barbara Kingsolver’s essay, “The Blessings of Dirty Work,” she recaps the work being done by Vandana Shiva, the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy and a well-known advocate for farmer’s rights.  Ms. Shiva is particularly interested in the farmers of her homeland, India, which houses 1/4 of all farmers in the world.  India knows first-hand the trauma presented by industrial farming, as 150,000 farmers have taken their lives (many by consuming pesticides) out of the desperation that ensues after becoming bankrupt from the expensive chemicals they are forced to use by the industrial farming market (information found on page 8 of the essay, following Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

Vandana Shiva has dedicated much of her life’s work to helping these farmers that encounter such desperation.  She runs an institute that teaches Indian farmers how to farm sustainably, and how to make a living through such endeavors.  But her efforts will remain futile if we consumers do not change our purchasing habits.  If we are serious about helping the world, about helping the green movement, we MUST get serious about eating local, organic, and natural food.  It is one of the first steps to realizing this world-wide change. 

the activist herself, Vandana Shiva

the activist herself, Vandana Shiva

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How to Have Fun with Local Food: It’s Called Slow Food International!

Friday, April 17th, 2009

slow-food-international

In yesterday’s blog post, I rambled on and on about the unending economic and environmental benefits of cooking at home.  But, I’m not done with my rant!!! Today I have some extra carrot sticks to dazzle you with in the hopes of tempting you to try out your cooking skills.

Today’s carrot stick is called Slow Food International.  That’s right, say it with me: Slow-Food-International.  What the HECK is that, you might ask?  Well, allow me to explain.

Here is how they describe themselves on their amazing website:

Slow food in a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast-life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how it tastes, and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

Pretty awesome, huh?!  They now have over 100,000 members spanning 132 countries!!  It’s a food revolution!!  Now, here’s the scoop on what all these multicultural Slow Food members ban together to accomplish:

First of all, Slow Food Int’l connects producers and co-producers, so that in each country, foodie producers who believe in a local way of eating can hook up with other like-minded foodies!!  It’s a cook & cuisine networker, you might say.  The organization ALSO hosts EVENTS—local, national, and international!  These events aim to gather people who are all dedicated to the local/organic/fair-trade food movement and then to celebrate the movement by dining on such scrumptious food and learning about such food (and the people/cultures/traditions behind the food) through film, music, and festivals!  Here are examples of recent Slow Food events:

slow-food-events

The Berlinale

The Berlinale was hosted in Berlin, Germany this past February.  The itinerary included 5 feature films that showed different faces of the local food movement.  One of the featured films was Terra Madre, a film by Ermanno Olmi that documents the Slow Food-organized reunion of over 1,000 farmers world-wide.

Slow Fish

This event is happening RIGHT NOW in Genoa, Italy!  It is an event that gathers fishermen, chefs, and interested participants from the community to join together to discuss the delicate balance between fishing and protecting the earth’s waters.  This is the 4th ever Slow Fish event, and each event helps to make the audience realize what is the right way to eat fish. 

slow-food-2

Those are a few of the more outstanding events hosted by Slow Food, but if you log onto www.slowfood.com, you can find the nearest Slow Food chapter to YOU!  You can either join and become a full-fledged member, or you can test the waters by going to some of their local events, which range from Slow Food movie nights to local wine tastings, to picada/tapa-style dinners with local cuisine!  Slow Food International is a GREAT way for any food lover to get involved with the local food movement.  This organization just might astound you with the fair fare that grows right in your own backyard!  To find the closest Slow Food chapter to you, just click here!  And bon appetit!

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Help Save the World by Cooking at Home

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

How can you weather the crisis WHILE helping the green movement?  You might not realize how simple the solution is, but the answer lies in COOKING AT HOME.  Yes, you heard me right, cooking at home.

Why, you may ask?  The answer is very clear.  I think Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, page 129) says it best, so allow me to quote:

Cooking is good citizenship.  It’s the only way to get serious about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands healthy and grocery money in the neighborhood.

My new motto: WWBD? (What Would Barbara Do)

And what Barbara says is so true.  When you cook, you control what ingredients you use, you can use chemical-free ingredients that are grown in your region and sold at your neighboring grocery stores.  In contrast, when you eat out (except at restaurants that have transparent kitchens),  you have no idea what kind of ingredients are snuck into your food.  For example, did you know that a chicken McNugget has 38 ingredients (info from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan)?!  These 38 ingredients are, according to Judge Sweet, who presided over a lawsuit against McDonald’s, a “McFrankensteinian creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook” (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, page 112). 

And as if that is not a scary enough warning, please allow me to expand.  Michael Pollan details how among the 38 ingredients of a chicken McNugget, 13 come from corn (it’s a chicken nugget, not a corn nugget!!).  A handful of other ingredients are synthetic, including one that is made from petroleum, and one that is a proven mutagen and suspected of being a carcinogen.  YIKES! 

Now, it’s not as if every restaurant and every cafe is a McDonald’s.  But, the McNugget is a poignant example of how often when we eat out, we are not eating what we think we are.  Moreover, more often than not, those ingredients found outside of our home kitchens are far from local and far from natural (unless of course the restaurant or cafe specifies otherwise!).  So, when you cook your own food, you are treating your body with the care it craves and deserves.

If you are not a cook (yet), don’t let that discourage you!!  The first thing you have to get over is FEAR.  All it takes is a little time and a little patience.  If you take some moments out of your day, you can learn the basics of cooking quite easily.  Then you can start simple (yet delicious!).  For example, just boil some pasta (made from a local bakery!) and throw on some home-made tomato sauce.  It doesn’t take much–just throw a few diced tomatoes into a pot, and simmer along with a few splashes of olive oil, a couple of minced garlic cloves, a few generous drops of red wine, and salt and pepper.  For an added bonus, throw in some cream and top with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.  Challenge yourself by trying to buy all of your produce from local fruit and vegetable vendors!  It’s really not hard, and what’s more is that it can add depth to your meals, as being part of creating something so wonderful is wonderfully rewarding.

And here is the final selling point: cooking at home is ECONOMICAL.  Check it out:

Cooking and eating at home, even with quality ingredients, costs pennies on the dollar compared with meals prepared by a restaurant or factory…A quality diet is not an elitist option for the do-it-yourselfer.

~Barbara Kingsolver (who else?!), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, page 129

So, go for it!  Eat like a king/queen WHILE improving your health WHILE helping to fuel (renewably) the green movement.  Buen provechar!

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