What you can do to be sustainable
Read this on sustainable table
The longest journey begins with a single step. There’s a lot of information on our site, it’s true, but don’t let that overwhelm you! Here are some suggestions for things you can do to join the sustainable food movement immediately, and all of them can be fun! Choose any one and give it a go. Next time, try another. Involve your friends and family and watch the effect snowball! Before you know it, you will have changed your lifestyle, our food system, and ultimately the planet—all for the better.
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Dine at restaurants that support the local sustainable food system. (Find a restaurant near you at EatWellGuide.org.)
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Shop at a Farmers’ Market. (Find one near you at LocalHarvest.org.) Talk to the farmers and learn about their growing practices; spend your money where it will go back into the community.
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Purchase a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. CSA provides a direct link between a local farmer and you. You pay the farmer at the beginning of the season which helps them financially, and they provide in-season, local vegetables (and sometimes fruit, dairy, meat, and more) weekly at a predetermined drop spot throughout the growing season. You can find a CSA group near you at EatWellGuide.org or LocalHarvest.org.
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Go to a food movie. Food Inc., Fresh and What’s on Your Plate are a few of the new movies to see. You can also rent Fast Food Nation, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, or King Corn. The sustainable food movement is a hot topic right now, and you can be on top of it! -
Read a book about sustainable food. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver is very inspiring. Read any book or article by Michael Pollan to keep up on the nitty-gritty of our food system here in the US.
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In three minutes you can watch The Meatrix and learn about the problems with factory farming. Have five more minutes? Watch The Meatrix II: Revolting and The Meatrix II½ to find out about industrial dairy and slaughterhouses.
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When you shop for meat, diary or eggs, shop sustainable! Visit The Eat Well Guide to find stores near you that sell sustainably raised products.
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Help spread the word about sustainable food! Send The Meatrix link (www.themeatrix.com) to five friends right now or go to our Spread the Word section for more ideas. (And later, if you’re feeling ambitious once you’ve armed yourself with all of our information, check out our Presentation Kits and give a presentation of your own.)
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Ask questions about your food. Visit our “Questions to Ask” section to get some ideas about what to ask a farmer, store manager, or waiter.
- Research the problems with industrial agriculture and the benefits of sustainable farming at www.sustainabletable.org/issues.
Avocadoes from Mexico
I love to eat avocadoes and I read the article below and thought I would share some memories with you.
I used to eat avocadoes for snacks with hard dough bread (jamaican bread), by itself with a bit of salt and hot pepper. We used to have a slice with dinner too. Helps cool the tongue for hot and spicy foods.
Have a read below.
www.foodforethought.net Editor’s Note: Most all of our supermarkets carry avocados, imported from afar. This article looks into the North American market for avocados and how they are marketed. Nutritional demands are not the big driver for this crop in January; rather it’s the Super Bowl. The site where this article comes from, Fresh Plaza provides interesting global information on fresh fruit and banana marketing. Avocados from Mexico execute extensive marketing program to support volume and increase market demand
Avocado movement to be strong during one of the top promotional periods of the year
The Avocado Producers and Exporting Packers Association of Michoacán (APEAM) are projecting that more than 92 million pounds of Avocados from Mexico will reach the US market in the first 5 weeks of 2010. To support volume and build demand, Avocados from Mexico is promoting heavily and offering retailers merchandising support to keep movement strong throughout the first quarter of the new year.
“Promotable volume in desired sizes and the proximity of the growing region to the US market is what makes Mexico the preferred source for fresh avocados during the Super Bowl season,” said Emiliano Escobedo, APEAM’s Marketing Director. “Avocados and guacamole are now synonymous with the Super Bowl making this the ideal time for Avocados from Mexico to build market demand and support retailers through marketing and merchandising efforts.”
For three weeks leading up to the big game, Avocados from Mexico will be airing TV and radio spots targeting General Market consumers and Hispanics in Chicago, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio as well as on the Internet. Moreover, Avocados from Mexico will be advertised in the top national magazines targeting women shoppers who seek a healthy start to the new year. (The new TV and radio spots promoting avocados from Mexico can be viewed at www.avocadosfrommexico.com/trade)
In addition, starting the week before Super Bowl weekend through April, in store advertising utilizing floor talkers will be automatically installed in front of the avocado displays in 18 Chicago and East Coast retail chains.
Additionally, retailers can tie into major sales increases during football playoffs and Super Bowl by giving customers free recipes from Bravo’s Top Chef Master Rick Bayless. Avocados from Mexico is offering a variety of free POS materials on their website for retailers to order as needed, including a new avocado secondary display bin, which provides opportunities for cross merchandising avocados from Mexico with other complimentary items for big game parties such as chips, beer or salsa.
Historically avocado sales and volume index higher during the month of January. Last year 60% of avocado retail volume was sold on promotion during the 2 weeks preceding the Super Bowl.
In order to gain insights on best practices for promotions, APEAM contracted with the Perishables Group and found that increased promotions equal increased profits. To maximize sales in developed avocado markets, retailers should promote Avocados from Mexico as follows:
• Promote avocados consistently — 30 to 40 times per year in developed markets to provide optimal category dollars and volume
• Run promotion discounts from 11% to 30% to optimize dollars and volume
• Occasionally feature multiple avocado items in the same promotion, including bulk and packaged avocados. This can include small along with large sized avocados at different price points
• Whenever possible combine circular promotions with in-store price reductions
• Stock and promote key sizes to give customers options—Large (4225) and Small (4046) sizes represent 85% of sales.
A complete Avocados from Mexico Best Practices Report is available online at www.avocadosfrommexico.com/trade. Publication date: 1/12/2010
Britain’s GMO discussion
This article is a discussion that looks at the British government’s decision to consider GMO as a solution to the food issue.
All government to list to the people at a community level and support locally grown foods.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/pdf/food2030strategy.pdf
Salubrious
I really like this word.
Adj.1.salubrious – promoting health; healthful; “a healthy diet”; “clean healthy air”; “plenty of healthy sleep”; “healthy and normal outlets for youthful energy”; “the salubrious mountain air and water”- C.B.Davis; “carrots are good for you”
wholesome – conducive to or characteristic of physical or moral well-being; “wholesome attitude”; “wholesome appearance”; “wholesome food”
2.salubrious – favorable to health of mind or body; “not the most salubrious campsite”; “one of the less salubrious suburbs”
wholesome – conducive to or characteristic of physical or moral well-being; “wholesome attitude”; “wholesome appearance”; “wholesome food”
Food: A fresh look
EDITOR’S NOTE: Buying local foods positively impacts air quality because the produce doesn’t have to be shipped across the country. Consequently, less fuel is used and less harmful emissions are released into the air.
By Katie Scarvey – Salisbury Post
A new way of thinking about food. That’s what the documentary “Fresh,” screened last Thursday in Salisbury, was designed to promote.
The screening at Catawba College’s Center for the Environment was co-sponsored by the center, Bread Riot and Wild Turkey Farms. A panel discussion followed, featuring Dr. Chris Magryta of Salisbury Pediatrics, Maggie Blackwell of the Salisbury City Council and Bread Riot, Lee Menius of Wild Turkey Farms and Libby Post, director of child nutrition for Rowan-Salisbury Schools. The innovative way “Fresh” is being distributed around the country seems to fit its subject matter. Rather than screening in theatres, it’s been released to small groups — who often discuss its content afterward — in order to create a shift in consciousness from a grassroots level. The goal, according to the “Fresh” Web site, has been to “create a ripple effect” and help “reach a tipping point where sustainable food is no longer a niche market but mainstream.” With 200 people attending locally, there is clearly strong interest locally.
The movie explains different farming approaches and ultimately expresses optimism that we can evolve beyond our current industrialized farming paradigm to smaller, more sustainable — and still profitable — models. The movie begins with a poultry farm that packs huge numbers of chickens into small spaces, giving them antibiotic-laced feed to prevent the illness that often accompanies such stressful conditions.
Such a “monoculture,” with large numbers of a single species grown together, is not healthy or sustainable in the long term, the film argues, whether it’s chickens or cottons or soybeans being exclusively grown. For example, in the cattle feedlot model, with no field crops, vast lagoons of waste are produced, creating serious environmental issues.
And when only crops are grown, with no animals to produce the manure that keeps fields healthy, huge amounts of chemical fertilizer must be used, since planting the same crop year in, year out, depletes the soil. In the ideal system, diversity promotes health and efficiency. Animal waste goes back into the soil, so plant crops don’t need chemical fertilizers. The film questions factory farming without demonizing those who practice it, since many farmers have simply done what “experts” have recommended in recent years.
Joel Salatin is one farmer, from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, who practices sustainable farming. Salatin, who is featured prominently in Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” explains that cows are herbivores and points out that in our quest for cheap food and more “efficient” farming methods, some farming operations are feeding animal protein — “dead cows” — to cows. Salatin said that when his father acquired the farm many years ago, he rejected the prevailing wisdom and chose to follow a more natural template. Following in his father’s footsteps, Salatin is an outspoken and charismatic advocate of grass feeding. After the cows have grazed one area, it’s the chickens’ turn to follow behind, pecking through the waste, eating what’s useful for them, including undigested grain and bugs. His chickens are allowed, Salatin says, “to fully express their chicken-ness.” (It’s an approach that is quite similar to what Lee and Domisty Menius are doing at Wild Turkey Farms near China Grove.) Hog farmer Russ Kremer explained that when he went to college, increased production was the main goal for the modern farmer. “I got hung up on efficiency,” he says. He finally came to the realization that his “efficient” operation was anything but. His hogs were constantly sick, he says, and he spent much of his time injecting them with medication. He had an epiphany after one of his boar hogs stabbed him in the kneecap. The resulting strep infection, he believes, was a particularly virulent “monster” strain because of the overuse of antibiotics — common practice in the industry. Deciding he’d gone down the wrong path, he exterminated his whole herd and started over, with a radically different approach. As a result, the diseases disappeared, and Kremer says he hasn’t used an antibiotic on his hogs in 14 years. His vet bills have all but disappeared. He now raises 300 hogs — fewer than before, but enough for him to earn a living. Raising fewer animals will mean that farmers will need to make more on each one, but the writer of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” Michael Pollan points out that local and organic food, while more expensive, is a higher value product. Cheap food is an illusion, he says, when the bill is ultimately charged to the environment or to our health. Farm subsidies, he points out, tend to go to crops like soybeans and corn, which are main ingredients of unhealthy processed food.
The movie also highlights Will Allen, an urban farmer and activist who farms on three acres in Milwaukee. More importantly, perhaps, Allen teaches what he knows and spreads the gospel of healthy food production.
The film also looks at David Ball, owner of a chain of independent supermarkets dedicated to supporting local sustainable agriculture. Discussion Thursday night after the film focused on shopping locally, from local producers. Many questions concerned how consumers could support local producers. City Council member and Bread Riot member Maggie Blackwell emphasized the importance of people supporting local businesses and building relationships with the farmers who grow our food. Exposing your children to those relationships makes them feel like part of a community, she said. She mentioned several farmer’s markets available seasonally in Salisbury — the Salisbury Farmer’s Market and one at the hospital. She also mentioned the Bread Riot, a community group that has formed buying relationships with local producers to support local production. Dr. Chris Magryta spoke on the relationship of food and disease, and how making positive changes in the way we eat can forestall or prevent the onset of many diseases. He pointed out that grass-fed beef, which contains healthy omega-3 fatty acids, is preferable to grain-fed beef, which contains the kind of fat that can cause an inflammatory response in our bodies. Lee Menius, owner of Wild Turkey Farms, spoke of promoting a different way to farm, and of the need to help farmers transition from the old way of doing things to a more sustainable model. “Markets need to be in place,” he said. He also spoke of the loss of the infrastructure to support sustainable farming — for example, he has to drive miles in order to find a plant that will process his meat.
Libby Post, who is head of cafeteria services in the local schools, talked about changes being made in the schools, including more fresh vegetables offered, with an emphasis on locally and regionally produced produce when feasible.
Dr. John Wear, executive director of the Center for the Environment, pointed out that the center will be offering spring and summer workshops on creating community gardens, as well as planning, planting, harvesting and preserving food. A reception at the event included food provided by Bame Farms, Poplin Farms, Laughing Owl Farm, Goat Lady Dairy, New Moon Organics, Fisher Farm and the Bread Basket. For more information on how to support local food producers, go to www.breadriot.org.
To learn more about Wild Turkey Farms, go to www.wildturkeyfarms. For information regarding Catawba College’s Center for the Environment and its upcoming programs, go to www.centerfortheenvironment.org.
United Nations Calender 2010
UN Days, Weeks and Years > International Days and Weeks
Since the early days of the United Nations system, the UN has established a set of Days and Weeks (as listed below), Years and Decades to help focus the world on the issues in which the UN has an interest and commitment. The UN calls on Member States and other organizations to mark these days in ways which reflect their priorities.
Sometimes the promotion of a specific day is led by a specific UN agency or programme, for example the World Health Organization (WHO) leads World Health Day and World No-Tobacco Day, UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) leads World Water Day and International Literacy Day, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) leads World Environment Day etc.
Some UN agencies also have their own international days (e.g. WHO’s World TB Day and UNESCO’s World Philosophy Day), established and promoted by the agency but not designated by the UN General Assembly for the full UN system. While equivalent in purpose, the following list does not include agency-specified days.
Dirt can be good for children
British scientists say
Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin’s ability to heal.
Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered.
The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.
Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.
Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the “hygiene hypothesis”, which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.
Many believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.
‘Good’ bacteria
Researchers from the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego, found a common bacterial species, known as Staphylococci, blocked a vital step in a cascade of events that led to inflammation.
Messy play should be encouraged, according to the hygiene hypothesis
By studying mice and human cells, they found the harmless bacteria did this by making a molecule called lipoteichoic acid or LTA, which acted on keratinocytes – the main cell types found in the outer layer of the skin.
The LTA keeps the keratinocytes in check, stopping them from mounting an aggressive inflammatory response.
Head of the research Professor Richard Gallo said: “The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown.
“This may help us devise new therapeutic approaches for inflammatory skin diseases.”
The lobby group Parents Outloud said the work offered scientific support for its campaign to stop children being mollycoddled and over-sanitised.
A spokeswoman for Allergy UK said there was a growing body of evidence that exposure to germs was a good thing.
Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy
A spokeswoman for Allergy UK
But she said more research was needed.
“Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy.
“Some of this might be that people are better informed. But a lot of it is genetic as well as down to our environment,” she said.
Sustaining South Carolina Food Supplies
Workshop focus on getting local foods to local people
By Becky Billingsley
Sunday, February 7, 2010, Columbia – A workshop designed to educate and open discussions about how best to get fresh South Carolina foods in the stomachs of South Carolinians was held Jan. 29 in Columbia, and several ideas came out of the day-long event.
Speakers at the SC Sustainable Foods Workshop held Jan. 29 in Columbia were SC Agriculture Dept. Commissional Hugh Weathers, Walter Douglas representing the National Resources Conservation Service and the US Dept. of Agriculture, Erika Kirby of the S.C. Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, Susan Barefoot of Clemson University, and Darcy Freedman from the University of South Carolina.
Held at the Downtown Hilton, the workshop was organized by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. In the morning a dozen speakers, including South Carolina Department of Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers, talked about why South Carolina needs a sustainable local food system and gave examples of some programs that are already in place.
Commissioner Weathers said his department is focusing on the Three Es of local sustainable food supplies: Economy, Ecology and Equity. The total impact of local sustainable farming was $34 billion in 2008 and 190,000 jobs. But Weathers doesn’t just want to sustain the system.
“In addition to sustaining we want it to grow from $34 billion to $50 billion in the next 10 years,” he said.
During those presentations, the approximately 100 attendees learned that South Carolina has the fifth-highest obesity rate in the nation, and here in Horry County 65 to 69 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese, with body mass indexes of 25 or greater.
Getting fresh South Carolina fruits and vegetables would make residents healthier, the speakers said. Some of them represented elementary school-age programs where the students planted gardens at school and then ate or distributed the produce. At the University of South Carolina, the contracted cafeteria food provider listened to students’ desires and started providing more locally grown fresh foods.
Todd Bedenbaugh of the S.C. Department of Education said his main challenge to providing fresh locally grown foods to school children is cost. He said the average price of a school lunch in South Carolina is $1.60. Out of that $1.60, 89 cents is allowed for food (the remainder goes for labor). Of that 89 cents, 24 cents goes for milk, 40 cents is spent on the entrée and 8 cents is allowed for bread. That leaves 13 cents to spend on a ¾ cup serving of a fruit or vegetable.
Data was presented that showed implementing more locally grown farmer-to-table programs benefits population weights, the local economy, the environment and increases food safety since a local food supply is more easily traceable and accountable.
After the morning session a lunch featuring South Carolina food products was prepared by Executive Chef Paul Cernansky of the Columbia Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The chef said he wishes it was easier to find South Carolina food products, because he would love to be able to make all of his banquets from local foods.
January 24:The Generals win 3-0
Greenbelt Night with the Generals
Ontario Greenbelt Hey Gens! Good luck in tonight’s game! Special thanks to our partner, the Foundation for Building Sustainable Communitites for helping us organize tonight’s event, and to Kent Farms for providing the apple cider for the tasting before the game!
- I posted 15 photos on Facebook in the album “Greenbelt Night with the Oshawa Generals” http://fb.me/4M4Vh4U 7:16 AM Jan 25th from Facebook
- @ohlgeneralsfans: Thanks for a great event, awesome game last night! Go Gens! http://tweetphoto.com/9566357 #Oshawa .
- Thanks Joan Kerr, Found’n for Building Sustainable Communities–Greenbelt Oshawa Generals Game great success!! http://tweetphoto.com/9565892 6:51 AM Jan 25th from TweetDeck
- Hey Gens! Good luck in tonight’s game! Special thanks to our partner, the Foundation for Building Sustainable… http://fb.me/7BvjIMb 12:57 PM Jan 24th from Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/ontariogreenbelt#!/
Greenbelt Night with the Generals Joan Kerr and Burkhart Mausberg
Laundry
Since we have to wear clean clothes, laundry is something we have to do in our daily lives.
Try some of these money saving ideas:
- Do laundry after 8pm. It cost less per kilowatt, hence saving money.
- Air dry your laundry.
- Instead of drying every load that you wash, put them in a basket and dry multiple loads on normal.
- Consider getting a drying rack or line. This is even better if you place the rack in front of the window and use sunshine to dry your clothes. A spare bedroom is good for this if you have one.
- My laundry room on the second floor which enables me to hang clothes on the bannister (plastic on the wood) and hangers to air dry them.
Try these and reduce your carbon footprint and save some money too.
