As We Sow - Part 1

We all have to eat but does our hunger have to support this?
Buy your food from local, sustainable farmers and/or grow it yourself.

" As farmers leave the land in record numbers, agribusiness and the associated industrialization of agriculture continue to expand. The consequences—intended and unintended—of this rapid restructuring of our food system reach well beyond the boundaries of what we think of as "the family farm." The award-winning documentary short, AS WE SOW, documents the stories of survival and failure in the real heartland, a struggle pitting family against family, neighbor against neighbor, citizens against their government, and small, independent farmers against the giants of global agribusiness. At the center is the land itself: who will control it and how, and at what cost to people and communities, to our health and our environment, and, ultimately, to our democracy."

As We Sow - Part 2

As We Sow - Part 3

Sarah Palin's Alaska

Something to Live Without? A Microwave

I've found myself using these infernal devices more and more recently and look forward to not owning one. We are planning on using a solar cooker, a rocket stove, a wood burner and every now and again our gas stove.

So- To Microwave or not to Microwave

Cons - Emits radiation of the type we are already excessively exposed too from cell phones and wifi, encourages fast cooking instead of slow cooking, require tons of embodied energy to build then ends up in a landfill, supplements other appliances which do the job just fine, encourages cooking in plastic packaging which produces toxins, encourages purchasing and consumption of Microwave packaged processed food and who wants to eat irradiated food?

Pros - use less energy to cook and reheat, saves time

Here is a link to another take on the topic over at Re-Nest

World Bank OKs $3B for World’s 4th Largest Coal Power Plant | ecopolitology

What is up with this!

World Bank OKs $3B for World’s 4th Largest Coal Power Plant | ecopolitology

Food Love: Growing Power (Part 1 of 3)

"outpostnaturalfoods — April 16, 2008 — www.outpostnaturalfoods.coop
Join Outpost for a virtual tour of Milwaukee's only urban farm - Growing Power!
PART 1 of 3: Greenhouse Growing
music by Juniper Tar www.myspace.com/junipertar
filmed by Diana Sieger"

Food Love: Growing Power (Part 2 of 3)

"outpostnaturalfoods — April 16, 2008 — www.outpostnaturalfoods.coop
Join Outpost for a virtual tour of Milwaukee's only urban farm - Growing Power.
PART 2 of 3: Vermicompost
music by Juniper Tar www.myspace.com/junipertar
filmed by Diana Sieger"

Food Love: Growing Power (Part 3 of 3)

"outpostnaturalfoods — April 16, 2008 — www.outpostnaturalfoods.coop
Join Outpost on a virtual tour of Milwaukee's only urban farm - Growing Power
PART 3 of 3: Aquaculture/Secret to Success
music by Juniper Tar www.myspace.com/junipertar
filmed by Diana Sieger"

Going Local - The Small Mart Revolution

" Peak Moment 44: Michael Shuman advocates "Going Local," showing how local businesses are beating global competition and helping to create self-reliant communities. One innovative idea: invest locally by moving a portion of pension funds into regional stock exchanges."

Howard Zinn Quote

Thanks to Organic Consumers Association for this.

Quote of the Week

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places (and there are so many) where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

-Howard Zinn, patriot, historian, and author

Responsible Adults

I was listening to an interview with Annie Leonard this morning over on TreeHugger Radio. You might remember her as the "The Story of Stuff" lady, one of my all time favorite web videos. She is embarking on a series of follow on video's relating to issues raised in that first film, "The Story of Cap and Trade", and a recent one on the lunacy of bottled water, see below.

Anyway, Ms.Leonard said something I really liked. I think it goes to the heart of what I've been advocating for some time, that we should transition from being consumers to being citizens and that being good citizens. For me, being a good citizen requires that we reduce our personal consumerism. Ms. Leonards laments the trend to assuming that by just changing our patterns of consumerism we are doing the good work, greening up so to speak. And perhaps that is true but her point, that by buying a water filter to purify our tap water and thus avoiding use of bottled water, is that what we are doing is no more than what we do when we brush our teeth, take our vitamins, or buy organic food. We are merely being responsible adults, taking care of ourselves. This is not the end all and be all of being a good citizen. Yes, it is a small step forward but what about our community, our country, our planet? Being a good citizen is about lobbying for the change you want to see, whether it is about getting flouride and atrazine out of the drinking water in the first place (so you don't need to buy a filter), stopping a big box store from destroying your local economy, or working to start a Transition Initiative to get your community to become more resilient in the face of oil shocks, climate change and bankster fraud. Perhaps, for you it is about working to insure that school lunches are healthy and supportive of local economy, or reducing hate crime in your area, or increasing the walkability of your community. The point is, solutions that rely on consumerism alone, green or not, are not solutions.

I think being a responsible adult requires more than just taking care of our self. We need to accept that being a responsible adult requires us to be a good citizen.