Growing a Local Food Economy, Recipe & News By Jennifer Joe (abstract)
If It Can Happen To Him, It Can Happen To You: Conversations With God By Arielle Ford (abstract)
Cosmic Mind, Conscious Mind: Consciousness, Perception
& the Power of the Observer By Marie D. Jones (abstract)Telling the Truth By Penelope Young Andrade (abstract)
Studying Qigong By Celia Tom (abstract)
50 Things You Can Do About Global Warming
By Kendra Smith (abstract)_________________________________________________
Growing a Local Food Economy, Recipe & News
The journey from seed to table has very different scenarios and repercussions depending on which road we're choosing to support with our dollars and energy: industrial agriculture or local, small-scale sustainable farming.
The current dominant food system of industrial agriculture is characterized by factory-style practices on farms, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, GMO (genetically modified organisms) crops, techno psuedo-foods, intense processing, distance (food miles: food travels an average of 1500 miles) and is controlled by a few. This is the arena where corporate marketing's talent targets and advertises junk food to children, where profit is put above people and promoting the products of big food industry fuels the obesity and health-related diseases that proliferate from being weaned on the convenience and cheapness of a “fast food nation” diet. In addition, the escalating problems that we've covered, E-coli , food safety, and more points to a challenged food system (see past issues on-line at www.lightconnection.us ). For more examples, please read the “Facts: Thought for Food?” contained in this month's column.
At the other fork in the road, sustainable agriculture involves producing food in ways that are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, provide fair wages to farmers, are humane to animals, and support farming communities. When we “vote with our fork” we are saying with our dollars who, the practices and the methods of business that we support and want to see flourish. This can certainly make a huge difference. In the ten years leading up to 2004, the number of farmers' markets in the U.S. more than doubled, adding almost 2,000 new markets ( http://ams.usda.gov ). But what additionally is needed, given the dominant industrial agriculture system and marketing, money and agenda of the corporate food industry?
“…when the government won't protect our land, our communities, our food supply, our economy, we have to do it ourselves. We have to step out of the four ordained paths in the system. We have to act as consumer-citizens. We need a sense of what it means to be a consumer that is broader than the usual, that perceives being a consumer as a co-creator, a builder of food chains. We can build a local food economy. We are building a local food economy simply by getting out of the supermarket, by growing our own food, by joining the CSA (community supported agriculture) and by shopping at farmers markets. All of this is important....” Michael Pollan, Bioneers-2006. He is the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley, author of the best-selling The Omnivore's Dilemma and is a contributing writer to the NY Times Magazine.
Pointing to one of prime examples for local cooperative solutions would be the City of Portland and Multnomah County citizens' Food Policy Council, formed in 2002 and one of their initiatives “The Diggable City” which inventories land owned by the City which might be used for small-scale agriculture or community gardens.
We have an extraordinary opportunity to begin widespread cooperative solutions at the “Cultivating Food Justice: Growing a Local Food Movement” conference/festival event where we can learn, discuss, connect, nurture, and inspire on Sat. March 3 rd at City College . This is a FREE daylong event, with over 20 diverse skill-based workshops (Becoming Food Self Sufficient, Land Use, City Design and Food Security, Globalization at the Crossroads, and so much more).
Discussions and trainings (composting, gardening, cooking, etc.) will be offered. Register at SD Food Not Lawns www.sdfoodnotlawns.com .
The keynote speaker will be Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farm Workers (UFW) with Cesar Chavez, and has had a major role in the American civil rights movement. Michele Simon, a public health attorney specializing in nutrition policy and food industry tactics, will give the morning opening talk. She is founder and director of The Center for Informed Food Choices and author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. Visit www.informedeating.org/newbook/newbook.htm to learn more about this acclaimed “how to manual” for change-makers, read the Sample Chapter: Battling Big Food in Schools , other empowering resources and info.
Join in this special event and celebrate the values of sustainability as we sow the seeds to grow and harvest a more personal, local and conscious food economy, build community and create a healthier future for our one human family!
FOOD FROM CLONED ANIMALS? - Click Here to Tell FDA: NO by APRIL 2nd"The industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land, and who is therefore necessarily passive and uncritical... We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free." - Wendell Berry
FACTS: THOUGHT FOR FOOD?
WORKERS
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries. Farmers are at high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries, work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. Farming is one of the few industries in which the families (who often share the work and live on the premises) are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death.” US Depart. of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Agricultural Workers" 4 Aug. 2006Sixty-one percent of farm workers earn incomes below the poverty level.
ENVIRONMENT
In the United States , approximately 40 percent of all chemical fertilizers used eventually break down into ammonia and are released into the atmosphere. Howarth, R. “Nutrient Pollution of Coastal Rivers, Bays, and Seas.” Issues in Ecology Vol. 7, Fall 2000.
The EPA reports that the waste generated by animal agriculture has polluted over 35,000 miles of river in 22 states. EPA and USDA Draft Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operation , Sept.11, 1998
Diversified agriculture from local farms provides environmental benefits such as reduced contribution to climate change, enhanced water quality, and a reduction in soil erosion. Boody, G… (2005, Jan) Multifunctional agriculture in the US . In: Bioscience. 55(1)
FARMING & FOOD - DID YOU KNOW? :
If Californians shifted to purchasing 50 percent more food from in-state sources, it would generate $6.91 billion in additional economic activity for the state and create 27,000 new jobs. Tootelian, D. (2003). The economic impact of shifts in consumer purchasing patterns to more CA grown agricultural commodities.
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If It Can Happen To Him, It Can Happen To You: Conversations With God
Neale Donald Walsch never wanted his life story to become a movie. He didn't even “ask” to write a book. He certainly had no intention of writing twenty-two books, or becoming the New York Times best selling author of the “Conversations with God” seri es. Neale Donald Walsch was just a man down on his luck, out of answers, and in desperate need of help, who cried out to God.
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Cosmic Mind, Conscious Mind: Consciousness, Perception
& the Power of the Observer
The next time people tell you “It's all in your mind,” you may want to compliment them on their scientific and intellectual acumen. Once the domain of religion, philosophy and metaphysics, the power of consciousness and perception is becoming mor e obvious to scientists plumbing the depths of quantum physics. Seems that even on the level of the very, very small, the role of the observer is tantamount to the outcome of the results of an experiment.It might, in fact, be the very foundation of reality itself.
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Telling the Truth
Do you tell the truth when you're upset? If you're like most of us, you usually intend to be honest about what you're thinking. Good intentions, though, are not enough to handle the illusions that come with being human. According to neuroscience your explanation for what you're doing is a rationalization for emotional decisions your organism made before you even started thinking about what happened. To tell the whole truth, you need to figure out how you feel .
Here's the tip. First, be sure you are willing to discover something new. When you look inside, you're guaranteed to come up with feelings you didn't know you had.
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Studying Qigong
Once relatively unknown in the west, qigong has become so popular in recent years that weekly classes are springing up in places as diverse as expensive spas to neighborhood recreation centers—and 4 or 5-day intensive seminars are availa ble in many cities.
But even so, many people are uncertain about what qigong is, what it does for someone, and which of the many available types of qigong is the most appropriate.
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50 Things You Can Do About Global Warming
We'll leave any remaining debate about global warming to others and move on in the search for solutions, the sooner the better. No matter how large and remote the problem seems—glaciers melting because of carbon dioxide and other gases causing the earth to heat up—we probably all understand that how we live our lives plays a part in the global picture.
To help you figure out what you can do in your own daily life, we spoke with a number of people in the global warming trenches . Here are some of their most effective tips, plus some of our own. Modifying those little things we do every day—like cooking or driving—can add up to a big impact on the globe's climate.
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