The Adventures of an Organic

A Spoonful of Local Honey Keeps the Allergies Away

2010-01-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

Every year it seems that seasonal allergies (especially cedar, right now) get worse in people. Some try to blame the trees while others seem to think they're 'just the way it is.' I've never actually had cedar allergies (coincidence that I eat primarily organic and local foods?) so I can't speak from experience, but I've also heard many people tell me their cures.

While not a complete cure, many people say that a daily regimen of local honey significantly reduces the severity of their allergies. The theory is that ingesting the pollen (assimilated into honey by bees) helps your body recognize it as food and not a foreign protein so you don't react as such. Now, there's something very important to this remedy - pollen count. Some tests have been run on all local honeys and Round Rock Honey has by far the most diverse pollen profile and the most local pollens of any of the honeys. One tablespoon a day of this yummy goodness and in a couple of weeks you may notice pollen allergies subsiding.

I hear stories of acupuncture being effective for some and not for others (maybe depends on the practitioner?), but one treatment that has worked for everyone who has tried it is The Love Cleanse. A guided cleanse by Kim Love, she helps you identify underlying food allergies (which are present in 90% of seasonal allergy sufferers) and balances your body chemistry to better handle all environmental toxins. Her program works.

I do not believe allergies are simply a way of life in Texas. They're a symptom of an underlying issue in the body. Until you find and treat the issue, nasal sprays and pills for the symptoms are just an expensive way to put off dealing with it. And just in case you're getting confused - I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Just my opinion, that's all.

New GMO Study Out - Well, It's Actually Not New

2010-01-18T12:24:00.001-08:00

This is the second part of my series on Genetically Modified foods (GMOs). I want to preface that I have a degree in Chemical Engineering and am as much a fan of science as I am of the environment. And I believe the evidence is overwhelming that GMOs do not belong in our food system yet (if ever). They do not help us feed the world (no greater yields than organics) and they leave a path of ecosystem & health destruction wherever they go. I see possible uses for GMOs...just not in my salad, please.

A recent press release by Food Freedom on a study analysis by the International Journal of Biological Sciences confirmed that varieties of Monsanto's GM corn created liver and kidney damage in mammals.

Now here's where it gets interesting - this study is actually based off of Monsanto's own data from 2002. Monsanto's study showed these effects. What Monsanto did, however, was only take the first 90 days of the study and they threw out the evidence of damage in these first 90 days so they could call the GM corn safe. How they were allowed to do this AND keep the results confidential for 4 years goes to a core fault of industry-funded research. Their reasoning included the fact that results were different for male and female mammals. They say this nullifies the results, when in reality differences like this are incredibly common because male and female organ function is different. Also, most chronic toxicity problems do not surface in 90 days. Our organs are incredibly resilient and can even process poisons....for a while.

The study also found material pesticide residue on all GMO samples, by the way. There will be brand new, long-term studies on multiple animals surfacing in the coming year (as long as Monsanto doesn't squash them or sue the scientists into oblivion - their application of libel laws is amazing). Remember that non-organic foods, unless labeled GMO-free, most likely are GMO! 90% of corn (corn chips at Mexican restaurants, HFCS in sodas, dressings & thousands more) and soy are GMO. Check out the guide for avoiding GM foods here and know that Greenling is a GMO-free zone!

Give Thanks For Organics

2009-12-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

Right now, the only way to completely avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms) is to buy Organic. We're working with our local vendors who aren't yet certified to ensure all their ingredients are GMO-free. That's actually quite a task considering 90% of non-organic corn and 80% of non-organic soy is genetically modified. What's wrong with GMOs you may ask? Tons! So much I'm going to do a whole series on them. First I want to highlight that The Future of Food is available on Hulu!

Take a little time and watch this one. It's primarily about the politics of GMOs and what Monsanto's really up to (they are not Sustainable Ag as their ads claim). Here's a review of the movie if you're on the fence. Also, here's a document to help you understand more about GMOs, where they're found, and how to avoid them. The doc says 60% of corn, but at a recent conference I heard the number was up to 90%. Next time I'll share all the latest research linking GMOs to allergies, digestive disorders, and so much more.

A New Kind of Fundraiser

2009-09-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tim Hayden made a very astute observation in a recent talk - he says that while most people think the internet and social media are reducing human interaction, it's actually doing the opposite. It's so much easier to organize offline gatherings through online tools that many, many more are being organized.

On another track, with a tight economy and ever-evolving philathropic scene, it seems like fund-raising events have been trying to keep up with the Jones' and there's pressure to make each one bigger and better than the last and the others. It's major competition to raise money for non-profits these days. And ironically some non-profits are finding these huge events don't net any more than the smaller ones of yesteryear.

Well, we're starting to see the first phenomenon mentioned combine with a sort of rebellion to the second. Check out this birthday party/fundraiser put on by Mindy Cooper -

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=131832532230

She's reaching out to her friends and creating a small, intimate event to share something she cares about and raise some money. I think it's an awesome idea. She's taking a celebration centered around an individual and adding a greater cause. I don't know if she's read much on personal branding, but I think her party will do wonders for it. I also don't know her well, but I already like her for the creative way she's supporting good causes and reaching out to the community for support to make it more than just a birthday party - she's getting food and beverages donated by local companies, including Greenling. We're happy to support this! I'm guessing we'll start to see a lot more of these. I hope we do at least cause it obviously raises less than the larger events. But if just a few people host these events on a regular basis it could have a big effect for non-profits.

The Versatility of Okra

2009-07-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Okra has one of the prettiest blooms in vegetable land. When you think of okra, this probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. This hearty vegetable from the hibiscus family has a lot more up its sleeve, too, and is making its first appearance in the Local Box and on our website this week.

Most people I meet either love okra or hate it. It's a polarizing food that can break up dinner tables. The hate usually stems from the gooey slime that can sometimes coat these 'lady fingers.' Well, I'm here to spread the word that it doesn't have to be that way! If you like it like that, more power to you! But if not, keep reading.

Any cooking that involves water (boiling or steaming) will increase sliminess and any dry cooking (baking or frying) will reduce sliminess. Also, overcooking increases slime. One paradoxical tip is to cut off the tips (but not piercing the inner-pod) and blanch the okra for just a minute. Then throw in some ice water, and dry. Keeping okra whole is the best guard against slime. If you must cut, cut lengthwise in as few slices as possible. The more you cut it when raw, the slimier it will get.

We're used to it being stewed in gumbos. But it can be fried a million ways, pickled, grilled, baked, sauteed, eaten raw, stuffed, and blanched. The seeds can be ground for coffee and the leaves can even be used to treat skin wounds!

Okra is also a nutritional powerhouse. It's high in fiber (2.5g per 6 pods), Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, Protein, Niacin, Phosphorus, Zinc, Copper, and Iron.

Seriously, folks. Rejoice in the amazing Okra! And enjoy it while it's here for the summer.

Eating for Sustainability, cont.

2009-06-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

In Greenling's newsletter I included a few words on our Eating for Sustainability doc:

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Agriculture uses 3 times as much potable water as all other forms of human consumption, COMBINED. A full 80% of the water we use in the US is for agriculture. Organic agriculture uses 30%-50% less water than conventional ag. Agriculture also consumes more oil than any other activity except for driving. 400 gallons of oil per year per citizen is consumed for our food. Only 20% of that is from seed to harvest. The rest is in transportation.

You really can make a huge difference for Sustainability just by what you eat. Here are 10 great ways to eat for Sustainability:

http://www.greenling.com/community/newsletters/eat-for-sustainability.htm

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Someone emailed me about this article skeptical about the numbers I was quoting. You can fact check here, but his question was that if Organic ag was so much more water and energy efficient why was it more expensive? Great question.

So, the #1 contributing factor to higher Organic prices, according to market research by NMI, is supply and demand. There's simply not enough to go around. And supply can't respond quickly to demand because it takes 3 years for farmers to get certified Organic. Also I mentioned that most agriculture land gets special water rates so water savings are not substantial. Further, energy efficiency can easily be offset by increased labor costs. We still haven't figured out how to tell a machine to only pick weeds and not the crops.

But to me something to always keep in mind is that Organic farmers actually have agriculture expertise and knowledge which has been eroding from conventional farming. Just go see King Corn to see how a conventional commodities farmer lives. They plant and spray and wait. Maybe spray some more. Organic farmers have to constantly monitor their crops. They have to react quickly to pests and disease or risk losing their whole crop. Without easy chemical fixes, farming can be quite a daunting task. Organic farmers put up with it out of love for the planet and for us. Nothing sounds more fulfilling to me. I used to think I was way too lazy to be a farmer. Joel Salatin (of Polyface Farms and the hero of Ominvore's Dilema) came to speak to TOFGA this year and completely mesmerized me. He made me want to be a farmer and I hope someday I can be.

Local Food Restaurants

2009-05-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Local Food Restaurant Reviews

Returning to my local food adventures I've really been frequenting 2 places in south Austin - Thai Fresh and Somnio's. Both of these places say they support local and organic when they can and I gotta tell you - they both live up to this claim. Jam from thai fresh will go to the farmer's market and then incorporate whatever she finds there into her dishes. The Pad Sea Ew is probably my favorite and the green curry with chicken is my second favorite. The vegetables change with what's in season, but they're always tasty. She gets all of her meat locally and they even run cooking classes. Look for an upcoming Local Box workshop to happen there.

-Get more info here

Somnio's is another gem. It's on S 1st street next to a vintage store. The sides vary by what is available from farmers and they buy produce from Greenling. So it's the same veggies that come in your local box. I had a side dish of Swiss Chard for the first time in my life and it was awesome. I've enjoyed everything I've had there, but my favorite is probably the Richardson Farms 'crazy crunch' pork medallions.

-Get more info here

Small Steps, Big Change

2009-05-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

'Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something'
You don't have to completely change your life in one weekend to help change the world. But you have to do something. Then you have to do something else. You just have to.

Former President Clinton just received the Harry S Truman Public Service Award. In his talk, he reiterated that 'by tackling problems through small, grassroots community efforts, Americans could achieve results of global significance.' There are lots of statistics out there that are huge. They can be overwhelming. They often make me depressed. And there's so many facets of Sustainability!

But, my fine furry friends, that's what makes it so easy. Here's one idea - start with the easiest thing to change and green up. Do it. Do it right now. Then tomorrow change the easiest thing (hopefully it's slightly harder than the previous day). Repeat and rinse. Are you really recycling? Or do you just have the recycling bin out in your garage? Do you use reusable grocery bags when shopping, or do they just decorate your front closet (go to blueavocado.com to get the coolest bags)? It can be hard to create habits. If you stop doing something eco-friendly, that's ok. Just start again when you can. You're not a bad person. I think you're taking one small step just by reading this newsletter. And celebrate when you do something for the environment or something for your health. Even if you don't succeed, celebrate that you tried. And, occasionally, celebrate for no reason at all. It's fun to celebrate.

Here's pretty cool article with tons of tips on going green. I don't necessarily agree with everything they say, but it's a big list of small things to do and they break it down into easy chunks in common categories -
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/energy-environment-2007/tips_environmental_main_a1.asp

New Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

2009-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

Obviously with Greenling's produce you don't have to worry about this. But when you're out and about or can't get to your Greenling box, use this handy shopper's guide to remember the worst polluted fruits and veggies (which you should never eat anywhere unless it's Organic) and the least polluted that you can eat conventionally when in a bind.

Environmental Working Group tests around 50 different fruits and vegetables for pesticide content. And not just on the surface. The wasth he produce and peel it! They test the inside of the produce. They have released a new update for the shopper's guide - their 5th edition has the latest government data. Click here to get a printable version of the wallet-sized guide.

And click here to see the full list of fruits and veggies tested.

Not surprisingly, Peaches topped the list again of the worst polluted produce item you can buy. Don't be fooled by those beautiful Fredericksburg peaches - unless they tell you they don't use pesticides they're going to be covered in them.

New addition to fruit in Texas

2009-05-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was speaking recently with David Strohmeyer, of G&S Groves, and he shared some very exciting news. We'll soon have Texas Mangoes! Can you believe it? Mangoes are one of my favorite fruits and one that I always really wish we could grow locally.

He'll have to explain it fully, but from what I remember there's some scientist who was able to do a bud graft or something of that sort to get Mangoes. I think they can't survive early life in Texas soil, so they have to graft the branches onto existing trees of similar varieties. I'm speaking beyond my knowledge here, but wanted to give you an idea of what kind of feat this is.

And it's wonderful. We should expect the first crop to be producing this summer, I think he said.

Swine Flu, Shmine Flu

2009-05-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

Whoa! I mean, WHOA! What in Sam Hill is going on? Information spreads so fast these days if we don't have something new to gab about for too long....well, we blow something way out of proportion. First HB 875, now swine flu.

Fact - The seasonal flu is more likely to lead to hospitalization or even death, as it kills roughly 35,000 each year, though it's fatal more often in the very young and elderly and those who have a compromised immune system.

Ok, so....it's not that big of a deal...but is it the first time a pig virus has jumped over and spread among us homo-sapiens? Nope, wrong again. There have been several swine flu outbreaks in the US recently including in 1976 and 1988. Does anyone remember national panic for them?

Alllllrighty, then....um, let's take a deep breath and move on to more important things like what to do with the Mitzuna in your Local Box this coming week. But if you're not convinced and you want to avoid swine flu make sure to confirm your Greenling delivery. They say to avoid grocery stores with all those people touching the same things over and over. Local, organic food, home delivered. Yep, we can save the world from all sorts of pandemics.

If you're in the Austin/San Antonio area and curious whether or not you have swine flu, check with this website - http://doihavepigflu.com

And remember folks, we're no experts on swine flu! Don't take this media jab as medical advice. We read several online sources that made us feel better about our situation, including this one -

http://health.msn.com/blogs/daily-dose-post.aspx?post=1078442

Lastly, please remember that the only reason anyone is concerned about this is because of factory farms. In confinement lots, viruses can transmit and mutate at a much accelerated rate creating many of the super bugs we're concerned with right now.

The Meatrix

2009-04-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Mylie showed me this awesome video. I think it's actually a pretty genius analogy and we both love the character Moopheus. Watch all 3 of them - it does a great job of summarizing the problems with factory farms.

www.themeatrix.com

		The Meatrix I Take the red pill and watch the critically-acclaimed, award-winning first episode of The Meatrix Trilogy.
		Our heroes Moopheus, Leo, and Chickity return in The Meatrix II: Revolting to expose the dark side of the dairy industry.
		The Meatrix II ½ takes us to a processing facility, where we learn how we feed our Fast Food Nation

Hyde Park Meat

2009-03-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Beth Goullart first broke a little tidbit about Hyde Park Grill and their meat claims. I, like most people I have talked to, get the impression from their menu that they buy all natural meats by my vague definition of it being free from nasty stuff. In fact, it says it on their menu. See Beth's article here, where she learned they get their meat from Winn, which doesn't carry any Texas meat even though the menu claimed they had Texas-raised Wagyu burgers.

Well, they changed their menu to say 'American-raised.' I understand if maybe they originally had Texas meat and just had not updated their menu or something. It's completely understandable, but also made me want to be a little more aware of their menu.

As I've mentioned before, I have made the decision to not eat any meat that I can't verify it's source and feel assured they were treated humanely. So, while there last I noticed they said they carry Sterling Silver beef that was all-natural, hormone & antibiotic free. I went ahead and looked them up at the table. Their website (www.sterlingsilvermeats.com) doesn't say anything about 'natural' or free of anything. It just has some basic content saying it's premium, aged, and graded. Then it talks about how it's owned by Cargill foods, the largest privately-held company in the US ($120Billion revenue), and that just this premium meat subsidiary employs 35000 people. This made me suspicious enough to not order any meat and investigate further later on. I don't think big companies are inherently bad, mind you, but Cargill is a pioneer in confinement lots and has come under a lot of criticism, including for their recall of @ 1 million beef patties for E-coli contamination. So I asked where their chicken comes from and he had to go ask the manager who informed him it comes from Labatt's distribution. Not encouraging. So I got some farm-raised catfish....which I may swear off one day, but for now I'm ignorant enough of their problems to order it.

So, this week I called Sterling Silver. They say that their meat is, in fact, certified 'natural' according to this USDA definition:
NATURAL:
A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed (a process which does not fundamentally alter the raw product) may be labeled natural. The label must explain the use of the term natural (such as - no added colorings or artificial ingredients; minimally processed.)

For my purposes, that leaves a lot to be desired. First off, none of the actual definition applies to antibiotics or hormones added before the meat is processed. It's just saying they don't paint it red or pump it with preservatives. It also doesn't touch the treatment of the animals. The rep at Sterling said he would email me full information. I haven't received it yet. I hope it has pictures of happy cows in fields. I really do.

I don't mean to pick on Hyde Park, I really have liked them as a restaurant. It's just that I get the impression they care about their food and ingredients. If they weren't making claims about the quality of their ingredients I would be less picky. I wouldn't eat there, but I wouldn't call them out. With so many great choices for quality meat these days, I just don't see any excuses and I hope more restaurants start making the right choice, like even fast-food restaurants do (read P-Terry's and TerraBurger).

Texas Wine Anyone?

2009-03-25T15:52:00.001-07:00

Not for Greenling. At least not yet. This has been rather heart-wrenching and has created quite a few inquiries. But here's the bottom line - It's hard to grow wine grapes in Texas. Really hard. So you can pretty much assume if someone is creating wine from Texas grapes they dumped lots of chemicals on those grapes to get them to grow. And I'm not talking a little liquid Nitrogen to give them that growth-spurt in the spring. I'm talking boatloads of all sorts of chemicals to ward off diseases, fungi, bugs, etc. You name it and it probably likes to feast on the oh-so-delicate Vitis vinifera grapevines struggling for survival in Texas climates.

It's not pretty. So, what's a self-respecting, Sustainability-oriented company to do? Well, we carry Sustainable wines not from Texas and will wait for intervention for the poor Texas grapes. I hear that Becker vineyards is working on some wine from imported, organically grown, grapes. At least that would be locally produced. And our good friend, Scott Collier, at Rockroom wines has some incredible wines that are just waiting on Texas Distribution.

It was an incredibly tough choice to leave these off the menu. The best way to achieve the advancements to get to Sustainable Texas wines is to encourage and support Texas wines. But we just can't support anything that damages the environment. We hope you understand. And if you know of any environmentally responsible Texas wine operations, please let us know!

When we introduced the Parducci Sustainable Red and White, sales shot up above any other wine and I wondered if there was a misconception about our wines. Every single one of them can be called 'Sustainable,' though they may have different approaches to the term. Here's the skinny on just a few of our wine choices -

Bonterra - These guys were one of the first to get Organic certification for their wines. They're a great $15 bottle that supports people who are committed to the Organic seal.
Chimango - From Argentina, this is one of the lowest priced certified Organic wines combining the seal with affordability. Pick up the Cab or Malbec Rose for only $8.99
Joseph Drouhin - This winery has been cultivated by the same family for over 130 years. Using biodynamic farming (some call it 'beyond Organic') the Drouhin family uses only natural products with the utmost respect for the soil, the vine, and the environment. Learn more about them here - http://www.drouhin.com/en/index.php

And many more! Great wines you can feel good about buying and drinking. I'll talk about our beer selection next time. Add beer & wine to your order here (As usual, I'm sorry to report that TABC only lets us deliver alcohol in Travis County) - http://www.greenling.com/categories/35/products

And a quick side note on the TABC - It's actually quite incredible that we're able to deliver wine and beer at all! We're very happy to have worked with TABC to ensure we have the right security measures in place and the right kind of permit. It actually took 18 months to work through all of this. One of the rules we just couldn't work around was that we can only deliver within the county where we're located. So, there you have it. We've thought about having satellite locations in surrounding counties so that we can deliver all over....but we'll only go through this long, arduous process again if sales of these items really pick up. So, to all who don't live in Travis county, encourage all of your Travis-county-living friends to order so we can justify expanding this option.

Mason Arnold
Founder & Cookie Monster - www.Greenling.com

Death on a Factory Farm

2009-03-20T13:05:00.001-07:00

Did anyone see this documentary on HBO? I had seen the trailer for it on meat.org and it was very disturbing. We started to watch the full documentary the other night and had to stop. We just couldn’t take it. I just can’t wrap my head around how people can treat animals this way. It has completely ruined me for conventional restaurant meat products. I have evangelized for a while to ask where the meat comes from when you go to a restaurant and I have done this often. I have not asked every time and when they don’t know I used to still order the meat. Now I don’t. If they can’t tell me where the meat comes from and I recognize it (or can look it up on Mylie’s iphone) I just won’t eat it. I’ll just have to settle for vegetable dishes. Some well-intentioned restaurants in town striving to support local and natural still get their meat from conventional sources.

We were at Paggi house (they’re not paying me for this) last night and I wanted a filet, but was very worried that even this great place might just say ‘Wynn meat co.’ or ‘Ciscos.’ To my pleasant surprise they said ‘Niman Ranch,’ which is fairly well-known. And they’re a great step in the right direction. They’re not perfect from a Sustainability standpoint…..they still grain finish their cattle - which means they pasture raise them, but a few weeks before they go to slaughter they feed them grain to increase marbling and fatten the cattle up. There are balances in all areas of life - you don't always expect your dessert to have vitamins & minerals in it, right? And in terms of humane treatment, this is not a huge problem. But studies and anecdotal evidence from Betsy Ross Ranch (they test nutrients in their meat) show that most of the good qualities in the meat from grass-feeding cattle are lost within 2 days of grain-finishing the cattle. CLAs and vitamins are up to 90% depleted in that short time. Cattle just aren’t meant to eat grain! Period. It’s not good for them.

But, I appreciate Paggi using a vendor that pastures their cattle, uses no hormones or antibiotics, and humanely slaughters them.

Many people have been asking me where the best places to eat out for local, organic, and natural are. While I think the best choice is to eat at home, I want to highlight my adventures in eating out and share what I learn as I grill waiters in town (just kidding).

Fun new options for eating healthy in Austin

2009-03-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

We've added a couple of great new options to the dining scene in the past few weeks:

First, and this one is really, really cool, is Daily Juice cafe. It is phenomenal. We have eaten there about 8 times in the last month and every single dish we've tried was just amazing. It is completely raw, dairy-gluten-soy-wheat-meat free food and is often Organic. They've got a great ambiance with some cool paintings on the wall. They give you cloth napkins and real silverware to use and free water. Here's a sampling of what I have had:

BBQ Sandwich - they take coconut meat and marinade it in a spicy BBQ sauce made from chili, tomatoes, & spices then add some guacamole, almond dijon mustard and some veggies. Throw it on some of their homemade chia seed Daily Bread and you've got a filling sandwich. Amazing!

Land & Sea Salad - Really flavorful combo of organic sesame marinated greens, arame, olives, sprouts, carrot, radish, dulse, and cherry toms served with a blackberry vinagrette.

We've also tried the Avocado Ceasar and the Enchiladas. Both incredibly flavorful.

Really good prices, too, considering you're getting raw food dishes. These things not only have a lot of ingredients, they take a long time to prepare. If you go to a California raw food cafe you'll pay $15-$20 for dishes that cost $6-$10 at DJ.

The DJ cafe is located at 45th and Duval in the Hyde Park area of town. Here's their website and full menu:
www.DailyJuice.org

Next is Terra Burger. I haven't been there yet, but tried their burger at the Austin Green Living Expo. Will definitely be trying the restaurant soon. Really nice people and they are working hard to make everything Organic that they can. They also happen to get some of their product from Greenling, so that's cool too. They just opened at Dean Keeton & Guadalupe. Check them out!

The Spiralizer!

2009-02-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

If anyone has followed my tweets (@masonarnold) you probably know that I just finished a cleanse (the Love Cleanse by Kim Love...whose birthday is actually Feb 14th, no lie!). While on this cleanse we spent a lot of time at the Whole Foods raw bar. We had several days of a very restricted, raw diet. We graze on our share of foliage at home, but we hadn't ventured far into raw main dishes (aside from salad) or dehydrated stuff. Our favorite dish at WF was the Pumpkinseed pesto over Zucchini pasta. Zucchini pasta rocked! We saw them make it and instantly fell in love with the device.

We started dreaming of all the glorious dishes we could make with it, so that night we ordered one at www.rawguru.com. (Buy the Spiralizer here). They're not paying me, but they should. Mylie graciously prepped some veggies for me to obliterate with this awesome tool. I'm a pretty good prep cook for her, though in the kitchen I'm one of those employees that you have to tell what to do constantly. And at any moment of inactivity I just might disappear into another room to email or make a call. So she keeps me busy. First up was carrots and then kohlrabi and beets (all from Greenling, of course). You can spiralize just about anything! Mylie nixed my tomato idea, though.

It creates this small core in the middle and you end up with a disk at the end. I think it's to keep it from flying off the spiralizer, but I'm not totally sure. I knew Mylie would get a kick out of em, so I lined up the little towel rods on the counter after each spiralled masterpiece. She loved them so much they became garnishment for our salad and I gotta say, it worked. The most festive salad I'd ever had resulted. I felt like putting on some Kool & The Gang. Tomorrow we'll venture into the world of veggie pasta.

Remember those ridiculous yellow page books from December?

2009-02-15T15:25:00.001-08:00

Luckily, we can shred them and use them at Greenling as packing materials. Otherwise I really would have mourned the trees who gave their life for such an arcane exercise.

I'm not sure this will really help...It may be hard to get them to pay attention. But, you can certainly try to opt out and if we all do it, they'll have to stop. Here's where:

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/

So, tell them to stop sending you the Yellow Pages! Those directories are still a $13 Billion dollar industry in the US, but I'm sure it's fading. We don't support them at Greenling. There are much more green ways to advertise. If everyone stopped advertising in them, they'd go away and the 540 million of them that are printed would still be trees instead of door stops or wasted space.

Seriously, folks, Google even works on dial-up out in the country. Unless you live somewhere that flat out does not have internet, there's just no need for the Yellow Pages anymore. At all.

Word verification

2009-02-12T12:02:00.001-08:00

Seriously?

Update from Urban Roots - Volunteer call

2009-01-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

From Urban Roots email -
-------------
Hi all,
Just wanted to drop a quick note to to let you know about a couple things.

Feria Para Aprender (para padres, niños, and maestros)
We are looking for one or two Spanish-speaking volunteers to represent Urban Roots at this Festival next Saturday, February 7th from 10am-2pm at the Burger Activity Center. We are excited to be at this event, but just realized that our Spanish-speaking staff cannot make it. Please contact us soon if you are able and interested in helping out. Thanks!
www.feriaeducativa.org/

VISTA related
Carly Blankenship joined Urban Roots as a VISTA volunteer in mid-December. She comes to us after having served for a year with American YouthWorks’ Environmental Corps. Carly has hit the ground running on many fronts and most recently has gotten us organized for our Farm Intern interviews this weekend. Please help us welcome Carly to Urban Roots!

Kelly Stolpman, our first VISTA volunteer, is just finishing her year of service with Urban Roots and is moving on from Urban Roots. She has been an instrumental part of our first year and we are sad to see her go. (On a happy note, she has accepted a position within YouthLaunch in the No Kidding program as a Program Specialist, so she is staying in the YouthLaunch family).

We are currently in the process of accepting applications for another VISTA. Click HERE for more information. The application deadline is February 19, 2009.

All the best,
Urban Roots

Mailing Address:
YouthLaunch
7756 Northcross Drive
Suite 203
Austin, TX 78757
US

Contact Name: Russell Smith
Telephone Number: (512) 342-0424
----------------

Cows With Names Make More Milk

2009-01-29T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is awesome. At the very least it shows that there's always more to a story than just numbers:

http://www.livescience.com/animals/090127-cows-names-milk.html

$17,000,000 in Organic Agriculture Research funds released

2009-01-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

Get your proposals in by March 9, 2009.

This is one of the most exciting things for the Organic industry this year. The USDA has done very little to help the Organic industry and in fact has adopted some measures in the past that have significantly hurt the industry (like making Organic farmers pay a premium for insurance and then only reimbursing them for conventional prices of their crop).

But this is a good step in the right direction. It's still does not come close to reflecting the size of the Organic industry in their support. The USDA spends billions of dollars in agriculture research. Despite Organics being almost 3% of the US food system, the industry received less than .5% of the research dollars. Not fair? Tell me about it.

Here's where you can go to apply for funds (and yes, anyone can apply):
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/organicagricultureresearchandextensioninitiative.cfm

Texas 4th Graders get too many calories, not enough nutrition

2009-01-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

Very interesting study released recently. It's just plain not enough to feed our kids any food available. What everyone should be concerned with is getting real nutrition to them. That means fruits and vegetables! Our food distribution system is currently not adequate for getting nutrition to everyone. There are some great organizations trying to change this including the Sustainable Food Center and Green Corn Project just to name a couple. Greenling hopes that as we grow, we can help build the distribution network necessary to get nutrition to everyone, even low income families. Snipet:

Low Income Fourth Graders Face Heightened Risk of Diabetes from Too Many Calories, Not Enough Nutrients

A Texas team studied the diets, weight, body mass index, and diabetes risk factors for a cohort of 1,402 fourth graders composed of Mexican American (80%), African American (10%), Asian (5%), and non-Hispanic white children (5%). Nearly 75% of the children lived in households with less than $20,000 income.

Almost half lacked adequate calories in their diet, yet 33% were obese and already, in the 4th grade, 7% had high blood glucose levels. Diets were composed of energy- and calorie-dense foods like cookies, chips, and ice cream, and were low in nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables.

The authors concluded that these children faced a high risk of developing diabetes and were in need of substantial dietary interventions, increasing in particular daily intakes of nutrient-dense foods.

Source: Roberto P. Trevino et al., "Diabetes Risk, Low Fitness, and Energy Insufficiency Levels among Children from Poor Families," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, November, 2008: pages 1846-1853

Cool endorsement of Organics from an unlikely source

2009-01-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

RealAge seems like one of those internet promotions that's just around to generate traffic, click-throughs and cash for someone. But I was surprised and happy when an old high-school friend, Emily Heckmann, sent this link to me. It's good info on how Organics is not only free of dangerous pesticides, but also contains higher levels of nutrients:

Mason Not just less of the bad, but more of the good in Organic produce - http://budurl.com/organic4.

Inaugural Greenling Tasting Soiree

2009-01-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

Come share the joy that is Greenling food!

Event InfoHost:
Greenling
Type:
Party - Dinner Party
Network:
Global
Time and PlaceDate:
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Time:
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Catarina's House - RSVP for exact address
Contact InfoPhone:
5124408449
Email:
info@greenling.com

Potluck! Catarina will whip up a few vegetarian dishes and everyone is encouraged to bring a dish (can be omnivore creations, too) made primarily from Greenling Organic food! Greenling will bring some of our new wines that we're carrying too!

Let's mix and mingle and enjoy amazingly nutritious, healthy, and tasty dishes prepared by friends.

Guest list limited to 30 people because of host constraints, but hopefully we'll be able to do this more often.

No theme, dress, or rules this time around. Just good food and good conversation.

This will also be a Greenling tweet-up so if you've been wondering what twitter is, go sign up & we'll talk about it at the party!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=71085166232&ref=mf

Greenling Announces it's biggest promotion ever!

2009-01-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

Win FREE Local Boxes for a Year!
Just for sharing Greenling with friends & family.
See Details Here:
http://blogs.greenling.com/2009/01/02/win-free-local-boxes-for-a-year-contest-details-rules/

Slow Food in Austin

2009-01-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a great video produced by Adrian Tapia:

Happiness is Infectious

2008-12-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

So smile more! Apparently, happiness really does rub off - a person's happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected.

One really cool example - a friend who becomes happy and lives within a mile increases your likelihood of happiness by 25%.

Make happy friends and be happy! Especially in the challenging times we're facing now. Happiness is more important than ever.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/12/04/happiness.infectious

One Farmer's Field of Dreams

2008-12-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

Remember that movie? With Kevin Costner? Side note, even his insanely over-budget, complete flop of a production, Waterworld eventually broke even after about 10 years of DVD sales. So, seems like movies is a pretty good business.

Anyway, thanks Cheryl for sending this article along. What a great story. Farmer opens up his farm at the end of the harvest season for people to come pick food for free. He was done with his CSA and figured, why not give a little back. 40,000 people showed up!! Amazing:
http://peoplepoweredmachines.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/farmers-donate-their-remaining-harvest-40000-show-up/

Closing the loop on CFLs

2008-12-11T06:15:00.001-08:00

So.....I'm not sure how to say this....but I have 3 ziplock bags with broken CFLs in a closet that I have had no idea what to do with...until now! Our local trash company (think they're pretty big, not just in Austin) has a really cool website with some cool recycling products - one of them being a recycling kit for CFLs. Yay!

Every time I've broken one I've freaked out because of the Mercury in them (http://budurl.com/cfls). I open all the windows, try to leave the room for a while. I'm not sure it does much good since I think most of the exposure is pretty immediate, but it at least keeps it from lingering.

They say the best thing to do is to put all of the pieces in a ziplock to keep them from continuing to off-gas mercury. So I have done that like a good boy...but then what. I couldn't throw them away because the bag will get torn pretty easily somewhere along the way and the mercury will be let out again. Certainly don't want it to end up in a landfill where the mercury eventually finds its way back into our drinking water. So they have lived in my closet. Waiting for news on their fate. And with out further adeiu:
http://budurl.com/wmgreen
If that ever stops working:
https://www.thinkgreenfromhome.com/ThinkGreenFromHome.cfm

Alternative MBA program

2008-12-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

For anyone is not familiar with Seth Godin, he's a best-selling author of 10 books with his latest being Tribes and I think is really a brilliant marketing thought-leader. He's offering an alternative MBA program where you go hang out with him for 6 months starting in January. Sounds like an amazing opportunity to me and I wish I was in a position to apply. Applications are due December 14th:
http://budurl.com/godinMBA

Rodale Institute veteran to lead USDA NOSB

2008-12-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

This is great news for the Organic agriculture industry. The Rodale Institute is often called the founding force behind Organics. It has been around for decades and completed the first research on the advantages of Organic agriculture.

Putting such an industry veteran and true believer in Organics atop the NOSB (National Organic Standards Board) ensures strong regulations for the Organic industry. I'm very excited about this news:

http://budurl.com/nosb

Dumb eco-questions you were afraid to ask

2008-11-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

Some of them I disagree with....on the hybrid batteries vs gas car question every study assumes the hybrid batteries need to be replace with an average of 3-4 years. If you check out my earlier post on hybrids vs hummers, I mention the Toyota site which claims they have yet to replace a single hybrid battery for normal wear & tear (cause of cited battery replacement) even though they've been selling hybrids since 2000.

But many of these other questions are great:
http://budurl.com/ecoquestions

Green Strategies Spur Rebirth of American Cities

2008-11-28T10:03:00.001-08:00

It really is a beautiful thing. Cities don't have to be the dirty, polluted, urban cesspools that they occasionally are made out to be.

One of my favorite quotes from the article:
“Environmental policy has emerged as a central organizing principle of economic growth at the metropolitan level in America,”
Makes my heart sing -
http://budurl.com/green1

Honor your elders

2008-11-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

I was reminded of this last weekend during a trip to visit my grandparents. My grandfather has been declining in health for some time. He's a scrappy old guy, fighting through several heart problems (multiple bypasses), 2 different cancers, and a slew of other problems. He's 93 and has lived an incredible life.

We made a trip out to the piney woods of East Texas (Sabine county) on a beautiful Sunday morning. He has been an active tree farmer for over 30 years and as a kid I have many, many memories of trips out to the woods. He really enjoyed this trip since he has not been very mobile lately. He also has macular degeneration, leaving him almost completely blind and he's mostly deaf.

As I reflected on everything I learned from him and his life a calm came over me. It was a sad to see his body failing him but it was a stark reminder of the circle of life, which is a beautiful thing. It helped me realize how much I owe to my family and reminded me to always make time for them. And honoring those that came before me instills a humility and humbleness that I'm not sure could come from anywhere else.

I'm often obsessed with productivity, squeezing value out of every last second of the day. And yet, just spending time with my grandfather, not really doing anything, seemed like a priceless activity. Possibly it was even more valuable for him.

FTC - Leave Whole Foods alone

2008-10-27T08:23:00.001-07:00

For those that don't know, last year the FTC tried to stop the merger of WF and Wild Oats citing anti-trust rules. It was ridiculous. Natural Food stores are such a small part of grocery it's amazing they even took notice. Well, the courts wouldn't cooperate and the merger went through.

Now, a year later, merger almost done, an appeals court reversed the decision and the case has been reopened. John Stossel did a great story on it recently:
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2008/10/01/regulator_bullies

Yes, Whole Foods is big if you compare it to only Natural Food stores. But that's not their only competition. All grocers, including Wal-Mart are carrying natural and Organic foods. Whole Foods is much more worried about the big-box stores than other Natural Food stores. The best way for them to compete is to consolidate Natural Food stores to gain more size and purchasing power.

Now, on a fundamental level, any of this large-scale growth seems to complicate the all-important mission of supporting Local food. Local food, from small farmers, hardly fits into mega-distribution systems. A different system needs to be created to handle and support them. It's a very difficult proposition. Here at Greenling we think we have part of the answer. To best support small, local farms we as consumers cannot just expect them to grow their food and put it on a shelf in the hopes that we buy it. There are all sorts of problems with this I won't get into. We, as consumers, need to commit to these farms and trust them. Well over 1000 people do that through Greenling's Local Box.

Working directly with farmers and directly with consumers shortens the supply chain and allows us to better support the farms while bringing you fresher, healthier Local food.

Twitterific

2008-10-22T07:15:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and have already learned more in a day than I usually do in a week. I'm really digging all the awesome links people post. And of course it makes me want to share cool links I find. Anyways, you can follow me @masonarnold, but the most important feed to follow is @greenling_com. We're trying to figure out if we created @greenling and just never finished setting it up or if someone else took it...I'll let you know.

Don't sacrifice your health!

2008-10-18T18:06:00.001-07:00

Remember that cutting out Local and Organic, nutritious food is going to cost you more in the long-run. These are uncertain times for a lot of people. But eating well should always be a priority. Do you take supplements? Vitamins? If you eat Local, Organic food, grass-fed meats as accents to vegetables as main courses you won't need vitamins or supplements! You'll get your vitamins and minerals from your food.

So cut out restaurant food or movies if you have to, but eat your vegetables! Thanks.

Voted Best of Austin AGAIN!

2008-10-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

Best Local Food Company!
Austin Chronicle Reader's Poll

Thanks to everyone who voted for us! 2nd year in a row. We are so honored with this award again. The last company to win this award was Whole Foods....well, Mr. Mackey, maybe we should talk. I got some ideas on how you can support local producers better.

Renewable Round-Up Notes

2008-10-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here are the materials I passed out at my speech at the Renewable Round-up in Fredericksburg:

Here are some tips compiled by our Fearless Forager, Elizabeth, on eating for sustainability:
10 Ways to Eat for Sustainability

1. REAL
• Eat real food, mostly plants, with a small amount of meat as an accent rather than the main ingredient (Michael Pollan)
• Cheap processed food doesn’t reflect its true cost. Plan ahead to avoid them
2. VALUE
• Re-define the way food is valued and fit into the household economy
• Spend money on wholesome foods, not supplements
3. FLEXIBILTY
• Cook from ingredients rather than recipes (See recipe section of Greenling.com)
• Read blogs and the internet for ideas to use what you have and what’s in season
4. EDUCATION
• Ask questions about where your food comes from, everywhere you eat
• Know the farmer who produced it or have a surrogate (like Greenling) to know the farmer for you
5. SEASONALITY
• Learn to stop thinking of out-of-season items as everyday necessities or staples
• Learn seasons ahead of time so you can plan for their bounty
6. PRESERVE
• Learn to preserve and save leftovers to be incorporated into other dishes/meals to eliminate waste
• Can or freeze fruits and vegetables in season. Make your own stock and sauces
7. VARIETY
• The more diverse your diet is, the healthier and happier you will be
• Try new things rather than relying on a few standard ingredients
8. FLAVOR
• Appreciate food for flavor and slow down to enjoy it
• Stop judging produce by its shape, size, and color (some delicious local produce wouldn't win a beauty contest)
9. INNOVATE
• Learn to cook, appreciate, and enjoy lesser-known foods that are in season
• Don’t be afraid to make stuff up! If it tastes good, you just discovered a new recipe.
10. TOGETHER
• Cook and eat with friends and family. We all know that food can sometimes be a great pleasure…why shouldn’t it always?
• Join discussion groups and list-serves to collaborate on ideas

Here are some links to stories I mentioned during my speech:

Sustainability
Cuba’s advanced food infrastructure - http://bss.sfsu.edu/raquelrp/pub/2000_aug_pub.html
Vancouver, BC model of sustainability - http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/sustainability/index.htm
California building solar fields -
http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/08/14/california-game-changing-solar-deal/
Entire Oregon community off the grid -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18744225/
Eco-rig to provide power & food to Japan -
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/03/eco-rigs-will-provide-power-and-food-to-japan/#more-1002
Development of kerosene-based aviation fuel derived from algae -
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/03/researchers-creating-algae-aviation-fuel/#more-1001
Thin-film Solar energy information -
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/thinfilm-solar-clobbering-oil.php
Solar cells produced in pizza oven -
http://www.smh.com.au/news/energy-smart/thinking-outside-the-square-finds-light-in-oven/2008/08/19/1218911717526.html
No remaining scientific body of national or international standing is known to reject the basic findings of human influence on climate change (the debate is over) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

Sustainable Agriculture
USDA info on the Economics of food -
http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/
Brazil’s Food Security Program
http://www.panna.org/files/Belo_Horizonte.pdf
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Benefits of Organics
USDA National Organic Program –
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop
Federal Organic Research funding increased in Farm Bill –
http://ofrf.org/pressroom/releases/080527_farm-bill-victories.html
Organic Farm Research Foundation –
http://ofrf.org
Organic Research Center news links –
http://www.organic-center.org/science.environment.php - Everything environment
http://www.organic-center.org/science.pest.php - Pesticide news & research
Kids affected the most by pesticides –
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/349263_pesticide30.html
Environmental Working Group produce study (origin of “The Dirty Dozen”) –
http://www.foodnews.org/methodology.php
Study linking pesticides to autism –
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/10168/10168.pdf
Organic farming builds soil health –
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul07/soil0707.htm?pf=1
Organic farming produces equivalent crop yields with less energy & no pesticides –
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July05/organic.farm.vs.other.ssl.html
Organic milk and meat enhance breast milk nutrition –
http://www.organic-center.org/science.hot.php?action=view&report_id=101
Organic fruits & vegetables have higher nutrition –
http://organic-center.org/reportfiles/OPma08CoverStory2.pdf
http://www.springerlink.com/content/p45041417m45185q/
http://www.ioia.net/images/pdf/orgvalue.pdf
http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2007/Tomatoes-Organic-Flavonoids23jun07.htm
http://www.misa.umn.edu/vd/bourn.pdf
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/8418/8418.pdf
http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/Publications/EAP38.htm
Myers, A. Organic Futures. 2005
Schuphan, W., “Nutritional Value of Crops as Influenced by Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer Treatments: Results of 12 Years’ Experiments with Vegetables (1960-1972)” – Qualitas Pantarum – Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
Meadows, Donella. “Our Food, Our Future.” – Organic Gardening, September/October 2000

Benefits of Local
Locavore the word of the year –
http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/
Oil consumption of conventional agriculture –
Kinsolver, B. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Harper. 2007.
1800 Food-mile average for produce in store –
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/buylocal/
Organic food can still be junk when processed –
http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/tdoct2007pg44.shtml
Benefits of grass-fed meat –
http://www.eatwild.com/articles/whygrassfed.html
Success of urban farms –
http://www.newfarm.org/features/1104/urban_farm/
Organic meat regulations still have loopholes – know your producer –
http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=78
Some Benefits and Drawbacks of Local Food Systems –
http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/afn_m1_p2.pdf

How to Eat and Shop Local and Organic
People spending more money on wholesome food –
http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February08/Features/CovergingPatterns.htm
Cheap food isn’t really cheap –
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/cheapfood012304.cfm
Missouri parents push for organic school lunches –
http://missouriorganics.blogspot.com/2008/05/parents-push-for-organic-school-lunches.html
Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Project –
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/07/locally_grown_f_1.php
Texas Farm to School Program –
http://www.farmtoschool.org/state-home.php?id=20
Greenling Organic Delivery –
http://www.greenling.com
LocalHarvest –
http://www.localharvest.org
AcresUSA –
http://www.acresusa.com
Edible Austin –
http://www.edibleaustin.com

VP Debate

2008-10-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

This is not leaning in either direction...a pretty funny fact check on their claims during the debate:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/politics/bal-facts1002,0,6731961.story
Remember to register to vote by Monday!

Farmers protected against Monsanto

2008-09-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is awesome:
Some Farmers Now Protected Against Monsanto Lawsuits

farmerFarmers with crops that become contaminated by patented genetically engineered (GE) seeds or pollen have been the target of harassing lawsuits brought by biotech patent holders, especially Monsanto.

But a landmark piece of legislation protecting California's farmers from crippling lawsuits has passed through both legislative houses.

AB 541 enacts protections against lawsuits brought against California farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of GE pollen or seed onto their land. The bill also establishes a mandatory crop sampling protocol to prevent biotech companies investigating alleged violations from sampling crops without the explicit permission of the farmers who own the land.
Sources:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14436.cfm

9th Annual Renewable Round up This Weekend

2008-09-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

http://theroundup.org/index.php

I will be delivering the Opening Keynote address on How Organic & Local Food fit into overall Sustainability. It will be an absolutely riveting speech that will leave you clamoring to change the world......well, that might be an exaggeration, but you won't know unless you come.

I'm speaking at 5pm on Friday.

Honey Bees & CCD - Colony Collapse Disorder

2008-09-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of press around this issue but not many answers. To us faithful Organics the reasons are intuitive, but incredibly difficult to prove. Find a (leftist) summary here:
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp?gclid=COGGv6qn45UCFQuHGgod8y5yfA

I was at a talk by Malcolm Beck (one of the founders of Organics in Texas) a few weeks ago and he put up a slide (he always uses the old-fashioned slides) of something that looked like a cross between a bee and a fly. He had a name for it too, but I forget. He acknowledges that everyone is worried about the honey bee and what colony collapse was going to do to our agriculture...then he goes "But where did these bees come from?" He reminded us that honey bees were imported from Europe less than 200 years ago. Who pollinated the flowers before they came along? Well, these fly/bee things and other insects. How profound!

While I share the world's concern for our cute and friendly pollinators, I find it somewhat comforting that even if they disappeared, the NATIVE pollinators would then have a fighting chance at their own proliferation. Because it's all based on nectar. They pollinate, yes, but what they're really after is food for their hive. And so are thousands of other species of insects.

---------

On a related note - eating local honey helps reduce or eliminate allergies (in case you didn't already know). For Austin, the best honey is Round Rock honey, which has the most diverse pollen profile of any of the local honeys.

Greenling listed in Women's Health Magazine

2008-09-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

actually it's womenshealthmag.com. But, I think they got their entire list from our site. I had someone here research all the delivery companies in the nation and we put them on our site so people who found us outside of Texas could still use us as a resource to find one near them......their list looks a little too familiar. Aren't they supposed to ask for it? At least reference us? Not mad, just wondering. In fact, i'm flattered and am very happy that the list is getting out there. Everyone deserves access to Local and Organic goodness and I hope one day everyone can get it:

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/lose-weight-faster-0?page=4

Uservoice launched - You tell us how to be better!!

2008-09-16T13:00:00.001-07:00

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Gustin, our prodigal developer passed this on to me. If anyone has studied Emergence at all, this makes perfect sense. It does to me. Study after study shows the wisdom of crowds far exceeds the wisdom of individuals. Here's your chance to tell us how to get better and the best part is that the site helps figure out which ideas are best. Vote for your favorite idea, add your own, or just add product suggestions:
http://greenling.uservoice.com/pages/general

Ah, the little things

2008-09-11T06:32:00.001-07:00

I was having lunch yesterday with Corey from vcfo at el Meson on Burleson (apparently they're actually really famous for their mole sauces, but I can never get past the cochitin pibil). they make tortillas fresh daily and everything there rocks.

Anyways, we're ordering food and Corey asks for a coke. 'you want Mexican Coke or regular?' she says, not speaking a lot of english. What's the difference he asks and she replies in a cute, thick accent 'high fructose corn syrup.' Are you kidding? Here we are in a tiny Mexican restaurant on the southeast side of town in the middle of industrial-Austin and she knows the difference between good ole cane sugar and HFCS.

I was so impressed.

US Agriculture & Climate change

2008-09-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

A supposedly (only say cause I haven't fully investigated, though it's run by a Democrat Senator with some conservative researchers...so seems likely) non-partisan research group called 'Resources for the Future' published a report on the affects of climate change on Agriculture. Here's the summary and 3 main bullet points:
Summary

Despite its relatively small role in generating carbon dioxide (CO2), agriculture is frequently discussed in the context of climate change - for several reasons. First, agriculture is one of the key sectors of the economy that may be strongly affected by climate change. Second, while relatively unimportant for CO2 emissions, the agriculture sector is a major source of other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, notably nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). Third, agricultural practices provide opportunities for soil-based carbon sequestration, potentially a relatively cheap mitigation option. Fourth, the recent biofuels boom is transforming U.S. agriculture in ways that have implications not only for GHG emissions and energy production, but also for agriculture and the food sector as a whole. This issue brief brings together each of these aspects of the connection between agriculture and climate change.1

IB 13
Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture

Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture

* Climate change is not expected to materially alter the overall ability of the United States to feed its population and remain a strong agricultural exporter. Generally, climate change is predicted to have overall positive but relatively modest consequences on agricultural production in the United States over the next 30 to 100 years. Longer term consequences are less well understood.

* At the regional level, however, projected effects on agriculture are considerable. Climate change is expected to reduce agricultural output in the South but increase production in northern regions, especially the Great Lakes.

* Predicting changes in precipitation patterns, extreme weather effects, pest populations, plant diseases, and other production risks is inherently difficult. Current assessments do not fully account for potential effects on agriculture from these climate impacts.

I found it very interesting that they don't think the next 10-30 years of climate change will affect overall production. It makes sense that northern areas will have longer growing seasons and produce more to offset the reduced production in the south. But the latter point is troubling for those of us who live in the south. It seems there's not much we can do about this either. Misters for our crops? Huge pergola's or shade cloth? I guess it means we'll at least be able to grow some more tropical plants. My mom mentioned she doesn't have to bring her begonias in for the winter anymore. They do just fine.

The most interesting point, though, is about carbon sequestration. I sincerely hope people pay attention to the studies out there showing 15%-28% higher carbon sequestration in Organic soil than conventional soil. Healthy soil not only produces healthy plants & healthy food, but it also helps absorb more carbon! If all of the US acreage of Corn and Soy were farmed organically, the dirt..all by itself, for free..would absorb about 290 million tons of CO2 each year. Sometimes the simplest answer also happens to be the best.

Staez Energy Drink

2008-08-22T09:15:00.001-07:00

I just noticed something that I found to be very cool! I get so frustrated when in convenience stores and you are forced to choose between HFCS drinks and aspartame drinks if you want a little caffeine. If I have a long drive or just didn't get enough sleep, I usually try to get a little caffeine. I don't drink coffee and any drink with coffee in it needs to be incredibly watered down and with lots of sugar and milk. I am usually just fine with a Tea for lunch or the likes to get me through a day when I'm tired. "Energy Drinks" are normally way too loaded with caffeine and sugar for me. I bounce off the walls. All I need is a little pick-up. And we won't go into the controversies over Taurine and other ingredients.

So, I'm wandering my office...feeling tired, wondering if there's anything that can help. Usually an apple or something can give me that little boost, but today I knew I needed something more. I'm looking at our shelves and pick up a diet Steaz. Now, for reference, it's about 10:30am when I do this and if I have too much sugar in the morning it usually leads to a big crash in the afternoon no matter what I eat for lunch. So, I can't have anything with a lot of sugar. And by the afternoon I can't have caffeine or energy stuff if I want to go to bed at night. So I normally don't pay much attention to even organic energy drinks. But I look at the diet Steaz ingredients and it still has some sugar, just not much. Perfect! I don't have the guilt associated with consuming artificial sweeteners and I avoid the afternoon crash from too much morning sugar. Seems almost genius to me. And it tastes good. I don't really want a super sweet drink. I want a little sweetness and a little caffeine. Diet Steaz to the rescue!
http://www.steaz.com/index.html

And I would be remiss not to mention that we sell Steaz and diet Steaz for the same prices as the grocery stores.

Sustainable Food Center

2008-08-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

I joined their Public Policy Task Force on Wednesday and I sat in on their Board of Directors meeting tonight. I think food security is an incredibly important issue and that Austin should be a model community for others and so I'm very interested in the work and progress of SFC.

I'm always interested to learn more about organizations before I get involved. I love to encourage and praise organizations with a good mission, but when it comes to my time or money I also like to see if they live their mission or not and how efficiently they work towards their mission. I have been very impressed with the SFC, their organization, leaders, and work. They are really passionate about their work and they have a very smart and talented group of people working there! It's such a great thing to see.

I don't really like the competitiveness that seems to be ubiquitous throughout food organizations in town and I saw some of that with this group, but it's rare to find a group that doesn't have some of that so I'm not complaining. Just hoping that everyone eventually sees we've all got the same goals - improving nutrition and security in our food system. If we all worked together, this town would be such an amazing place. And as long as each organization was providing real value for the community, they would be fully supported. I prefer to not worry about competition and worry most about if my organization is doing the best it can to provide that value.

So, check out their farmers markets, browse their website at www.sustainablefoodcenter.org and volunteer!
Also, volunteer at Green Corn Project...I love what they do, too.

Consummate Produce

2008-08-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

As local food grows legs and gains attention across the world, there is this notion to hold it in the highest regard possible. While farming is one of the most noble professions on the planet I feel I need to remind people that someone growing vegetables next door to you can just as easily dump pesticides and herbicides on those vegetables as someone 1000 miles away.

We all love local food, but don't trust it beyond reproach. Know your farmer or let Greenling know them for you. Michael Pollan describes it as surrogates for getting to know the farmers. Remember that Peaches are the most polluted fruit available (meaning even after washing them there are more pesticides found in a peach than any other fruit or veggies - up to 96 pesticides were found in test samples). So those yummy Texas peaches you enjoy may be loaded with chemicals. They might not be, but you'd have to ask the farmer. Greenling's Texas peaches, of course, were certified organic this year so they had absolutely no chemicals applied to them. They sure were good!

If Presidential candidates pandered to economists

2008-07-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm pretty reserved with my political opinions. I'm not a zealot, nor do I consider myself incredibly educated on the candidates. But I just had to share this because to me, it makes a ton of sense:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/13view.php?page=1

Summary:
An economist polled his peers and came up with this list of stances on some big issues. there is some really good support for them in the article.

SUPPORT FREE TRADE
OPPOSE FARM SUBSIDIES
LEAVE OIL COMPANIES AND SPECULATORS ALONE
TAX THE USE OF ENERGY
RAISE THE RETIREMENT AGE
INVITE MORE SKILLED IMMIGRANTS
LIBERALIZE DRUG POLICY
RAISE FUNDS FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH

The last one is just selfish on their part, but the rest seem like the best path to economic prosperity. they have little to do with environment or some other large issues that our nation faces, but simply demonstrate what needs to happen to make sure we continue as an economic world leader. The best way for us to be ready for painful changes moving towards sustainability is to have a stable economy. Or let the economy fall apart and our consumption falls with it. But that doesn't sound like nearly as much fun.

Dai Due Supper Club

2008-07-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Mylie and I had the pleasure of joining Elizabeth and Thomas going to Dai Due at the Dragonfly house for Bastille day. I have no idea what Bastille day is, but I guess it's french. The chef, Jesse, doesn't really know either, which is pretty amusing. But he says it precedes the Reign of Terror whatever that is.

There was amazing food, great company, and this super cool live duet pair playing music. At the end of the dinner they played this clarinet duet with a little singing. It was so awesome.

Jesse says this month they sold out of tickets to all of their dinners within a day. Part of me wants to keep it a secret....but I just can't.

Where does your food come from?

2008-07-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or does it feel like the rising cost of energy is going to have a dramatic affect on our food system? We can already see it in rising prices, which make people ask questions, which makes them more aware of their food. Why do Organic apples suddenly cost $5/lb? Well, it's because Spring/Summer they come from New Zealand. That's a long way to travel...racking up food miles which are getting more expensive by the day. They're certainly still healthier and more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, but maybe the year-round apple buyers might start looking to other...maybe seasonal...fruit? Most people just wouldn't even think about it without something like this to highlight where the food comes from.

Have you ever asked your waiter in a restaurant where your dinner comes from? I'm doing it much more often. We know most of them don't know. But they often offer to ask their manager. 'Sure' I say. 'It's not a big deal, but if YOU want to ask your manager, I'd love to know.' They go ask their manager who also doesn't know....'our food distributor?' But you know what just happened? 2 people who otherwise wouldn't even think about that suddenly did. And if anyone around my table heard that conversation, they might think about it too. Start asking anyone who serves you food where it comes from! Not in a condescending way and don't refuse food if they don't know. Just start asking. It could change the world.

Fairy-tale living

2008-06-20T08:25:00.001-07:00

Can you imagine a world where everywhere you go people smile at you? And not fake smiles but genuine smiles?

That's the life for whoever's behind the wheel of the bananamobile. It's truly amazing. And with so many people smiling at you, you can't help but smile back (unless you're sick, tired, and achy...then, and only then, I've learned you can stay solemn in the face of so many smiles).

And you don't just get smiles, you get all sorts of interaction. People honk and wave....point, laugh (with us, not at us), and take pictures. Several times I've walked out to the bananamobile from some store and there are people gathered around it taking a group picture under the 5' banana.

Kids go crazy for it. They chase after it like it's an ice-cream truck or something. It can be a little awkward...."Sorry kids, you can't actually eat the banana and I don't happen to have any..." I find myself hoping the light turns green before they catch up to me so I don't have to let them down.

So, if you ever see someone driving down the road in a prius with a 5' banana on top and a huge smile on their face, now you know the real reason why.

Affects of climate change looking forward

2008-06-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

One of Bob Parson's (Godaddy.com) 16 rules to live by talks about not only accepting the worst thing that can happen, but actually quantifying it. Very seldom will the worst thing that can happen be as bad as a cloud of undefined consequences. Check out the government's latest attempt at quantifying climate change over the next 25-50 years:
http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/final-report/default.htm

While it looks scary....I usually imagine these changes happening much more rapidly. It makes sense that they would take a long time to fully unleash their consequences. There's no denying we need more action as soon as people can take it, but it's just a better life to imagine we do have hope and that we're not irreversibly destroying the planet right now. I sometimes think the people who truly believe we're completely doomed are as much a part of the problem as people in denial about the whole thing.

Climate change and Hummer vs Prius

2008-06-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

I find myself in conversations about climate change rather often, though maybe surprising to you I don't start many of them. People think that since my company is an environmental steward and preaching sustainability that I'm a good sounding board for whatever news or rumor they've heard recently. I welcome the conversation, but I find myself having to do much of my research just so I can make sure people don't tell a whole group a half-truth and because I'm there and I don't object that must mean it's right. when really I just don't know enough about the subject to venture an opinion.

So, I have to look into these claims and try to become an expert because I'm expected to be an expert. I wonder how many actual accidental experts there are....I say actual because I'm still not an expert on much of anything except my own opinion. but here are a couple of counter-points you and me can make to people who love to grab onto sensationalism:

Ok, so it's been debated for a long time and everyone has an opinion. But as of July 2007 you can confidently say there is NOT ONE SINGLE NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC BODY THAT DISPUTES MAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE. Not just that the climate is changing. Many people will admit this and still deny humans have anything to do with it. But no credible scientists will deny it. Humans are causing the earth to heat up. Hands down. Cite Wikipedia to fully arm yourself for this statement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_of_recent_climate_change
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
And the best one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change
Direct quote if you're too busy to go find it:
With the July 2007 release of the revised statement by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, no remaining scientific body of national or international standing is known to reject the basic findings of human influence on recent climate.[47]

Ok, now on to some junk science. Is the Hummer better for the environment from cradle to cradle than the Prius? While this one is harder to definitively debunk because the original science behind it is kept partially secret, there are fatal flaws in even the publicly conceded methodology. I like this article's stance for it's honest look at the issue, but the answer is no, it's not:
http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myth>

One huge problem with the original claim, that you can cite, is that they say it's based on the total lifetime of the vehicle and they make assumptions about what that lifetime is. Instead of comparing them with similar lifetimes, they claim that a prius will only drive 109,000 miles in its lifetime compared to 200,000 for a normal car and amazingly almost 400,000 miles for a Hummer. Why they assume a hummer will be driven twice as far as a normal car is beyond me. In fact, it's totally ridiculous and their explanation for their claim is that the current hybrid models will soon be "obsolete" because of better models and that means current hybrids will not be driven for as long. using a comparable lifetime mileage, the cradle to cradle cost of the hybrid comes in far, far below SUVs and Hummers. It also looks like they make an assumption on gas prices and since the study looks like it was done in 2006...well, you can figure that one out.

So, if you get dragged into this argument, ask about the assumed lifetimes of the vehicles? The person will have no idea what you're talking about and you can kindly inform them that the study is flawed and point them to this blog or the study above.

Other flaws:
People will for some reason claim the batteries are toxic and not recyclable. Here's word from Green Car Journal and Toyota:
Battery toxicity is a concern, although today's hybrids use NiMH batteries, not the environmentally problematic rechargeable nickel cadmium. "Nickel metal hydride batteries are benign. They can be fully recycled," says Ron Cogan, editor of the Green Car Journal. Toyota and Honda say that they will recycle dead batteries and that disposal will pose no toxic hazards. Toyota puts a phone number on each battery, and they pay a $200 "bounty" for each battery to help ensure that it will be properly recycled.

There's no definitive word on replacement costs because they are almost never replaced. According to Toyota, since the Prius first went on sale in 2000, they have not replaced a single battery for wear and tear.
<http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html>
Another supporting article, slightly more biased:
http://www.slate.com/id/2186786/
You can google 'hummer better for the environment than prius' to find more.

Greenling in the New York Times June 5th

2008-06-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Check out this article highlighting Greenling and several other Organic delivery services:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/fashion/05cyber.html?scp=1&sq=greenling&st=nyt

Can lactose intolerant people drink raw milk?

2008-05-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

I read an article in Acres USA about the battle in California for the raw milk farmers. There's a rule pending requiring all milk producers to have less than 10 ppm coliform in their milk, which is near impossible for raw milk farmers not to mention they wouldn't want to get it that low. Some coliform is beneficial. Anyway, in the article they claim that there's a study out there showing kids who suffer from lactose intolerance can drink raw milk with no effects. Does anyone know about this study or where to find it? It would be very interesting to find some science behind this claim.

Change we can stomach - repost

2008-05-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

Article by Dan Barber published on May 11, 2008 - I really like this one ---

COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is essentially a solitary craft. But lately it’s feeling more like a lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our menus — food that’s clean, green and humane — is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we’re suddenly paying more — 75 percent more in the last six years — to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It’s enough to make you want to toss in the toque.

But here’s the good news: if you’re a chef, or an eater who cares about where your food comes from (and there are a lot of you out there), we can have a hand in making food for the future downright delicious.

Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval since the Green Revolution, bringing harvests that are more healthful, sustainable and, yes, even more flavorful. The change is being pushed along by market forces that influence how our farmers farm.

Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, with its macho fixation on “average tonnage” and “record harvests.” But there’s a cost to its breadbasket-to-the-world bragging rights. Like those big Industrial Age factories that once billowed black smoke, American agriculture is mired in a mind-set that relies on capital, chemistry and machines. Food production is dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and pesticides, in the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy it takes to process it.

For decades, environmentalists and small farmers have claimed that this is several kinds of madness. But industrial agriculture has simply responded that if we’re feeding more people more cheaply using less land, how terrible can our food system be?

Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer.

In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre farm in the United States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms have long compensated for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it’s no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it’s grown.

The high cost of oil alone will not be enough to reform American agriculture, however. As long as agricultural companies exploit the poor and extract labor from them at slave wages, and as long as they aren’t required to pay the price for the pollution they so brazenly produce, their system will stay afloat. If financially pinched Americans opt for the cheapest (and the least healthful) foods rather than cook their own, the food industry will continue to reach for the lowest common denominator.

But it is possible to nudge the revolution along — for instance, by changing how we measure the value of food. If we stop calculating the cost per quantity and begin considering the cost per nutrient value, the demand for higher-quality food would rise.

Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed counterparts. And animals raised on pasture provide us with meat and dairy products containing more beta carotene and at least three times as much C.L.A. (conjugated linoleic acid, shown in animal studies to reduce the risk of cancer) than those raised on grain.

Where good nutrition goes, flavor tends to follow. Chefs are the first to admit that an impossibly sweet, flavor-filled carrot has nothing to do with our work. It has to do with growing the right seed in healthy, nutrient-rich soil.

Increasingly we can see the wisdom of diversified farming operations, where there are built-in relationships among plants and animals. A dairy farm can provide manure for a neighboring potato farm, for example, which can in turn offer potato scraps as extra feed for the herd. When crops and livestock are judiciously mixed, agriculture wisely mimics nature.

To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic bid to revert to the agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look toward the future, leapfrogging past the age of heavy machinery and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun’s free energy and use the waste of one species as food for another.

Chefs can help move our food system into the future by continuing to demand the most flavorful food. Our support of the local food movement is an important example of this approach, but it’s not enough. As demand for fresh, local food rises, we cannot continue to rely entirely on farmers’ markets. Asking every farmer to plant, harvest, drive his pickup truck to a market and sell his goods there is like asking me to cook, take reservations, serve and wash the dishes.

We now need to support a system of well-coordinated regional farm networks, each suited to the food it can best grow. Farmers organized into marketing networks that can promote their common brands (like the Organic Valley Family of Farms in the Midwest) can ease the economic and ecological burden of food production and transportation. They can also distribute their products to new markets, including poor communities that have relied mainly on food from convenience stores.

Similar networks could also operate in the countries that are now experiencing food shortages. For years, the United States has flooded the world with food exports, displacing small farmers and disrupting domestic markets. As escalating food prices threaten an additional 100 million people with hunger, a new concept of humanitarian aid is required. Local farming efforts focused on conserving natural resources and biodiversity are essential to improving food security in developing countries, as a report just published by the International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology for Development has concluded. We must build on these tenets, providing financial and technical assistance to small farmers across the world.

But regional systems will work only if there is enough small-scale farming going on to make them viable. With a less energy-intensive food system in place, we will need more muscle power devoted to food production, and more people on the farm. (The need is especially urgent when you consider that the average age of today’s American farmer is over 55.) In order to move gracefully into a post-industrial agriculture economy, we also need to rethink how we educate the people who will grow our food. Land-grant universities and agricultural schools, dependent on financing from agribusiness, focus on maximum extraction from the land — take more, sell more, waste more.

Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously. We never bought into the “bigger is better” mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking — not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but food that has evolved from the world’s thriving peasant cuisines — is based on the correspondence of good farming to a healthy environment and good nutrition. It’s never been any other way, and we should be grateful. The future belongs to the gourmet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11barber.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=change%20we%20can%20stomach&st=nyt&scp=1

Zen and the art of Entrepreneurship

2008-05-21T18:50:00.001-07:00

Article Written for Bootstrap Austin

Everyone has a different idea about what Entrepreneurship is and everyone has different motivations for their desire to be an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur I get a lot of people who approach me to talk about their ideas and the business they want to start. Each one of them, from what I can tell, seems to have different reasons driving them. Some people just seem to be looking for more fulfillment. Unfortunately, I don't think everyone can find the answers they're looking for in starting a business.

What do people seek in entrepreneurship? Why do they want to do their own thing? Many will tell you it's because people want to be their own boss, be in control. But what does that mean? What if you have a great boss? How many people that are being managed well in a position suited to their strengths want to start their own thing? Will they find ways to believe they could do it better? Are some people just never satisfied. Or because they've never experienced a satisfying job with a good team do they think that entrepreneurship must be the way to make them happy? On many levels, wanting to be your own boss and be in control is a really bad reason to start a company.

Starting your own company, especially bootstrapping one, is on a fundamental level creating your own future. Manifesting your own destiny. And yet it's not always the best way to create the future you actually want. It's just a different future and can be just as dissatisfying as a corporate job. If you're not happy where you are there are a thousand ways to change where you are without starting your own company. So how do you know starting your own thing is the way to go?

You first need to take a deep look at what would make you happy. For me, it's about doing something that you love in a company that is aligned with your core values. Money should not matter. The desire for material things in me seems to be more a result of our inundation with marketing messages convincing us we want more stuff than a desire for happiness. The desire for money is a hard one to overcome and is a constant battle. I believe it necessary to remove this from the picture, though, if you are to truly evaluate this objectively and find the most fulfilling path.

I believe the best reason to start your own company is because of all the opportunities in front of you it is the best available option to combine your core values, strengths, and resources into an activity that helps you manifest the first two. This is very ambiguous, intentionally, because it's such fundamental topic. I believe one should put a lot of thought into what makes them happy before considering starting a business. I would highly recommend figuring out your core values and strengths and taking roll of your resources. With these critical tools, all you need to do is look for intersections of your values and strengths with your resources and you've got your best option for a happy, fulfilling career. This may or may not involve starting a company and it may require some creativity. Let's look at an example...me:

Many of my core values are now very evident in what I'm doing. My company, Greenling, is trying to help people and the environment. There is a list of our core values plastered on just about every wall in our facility and many of those are my personal values as well. My strengths are in spurring people and things to action, in developing ideas, in pondering the future and what it may hold for me and my company, in working hard to achieve goals, and in helping people focus on what's important (I discovered these through a tool listed below). I think these are fairly well-suited to entrepreneurship.

Many of my core values are rooted in helping the planet. I care very much about Sustainability and improving our environment. My other core values include hard work and dedication, integrity, loyalty, building and respecting lasting relationships. I developed my core values several years ago and when I got married, my wife and I developed our core values as a team and Greenling developed its core values a couple of years ago. It seems cliché or something that is so simple you don't need to pay it attention, but I believe it's incredibly important to vocalize and write these things down. They can make every other decision in your life a little easier by check your options against your values.

My resources were slim when we started, but I had some good friends with additional resources, connections and experience in the local Sustainability scene. You don't need a lot of resources to start a company. You just need to know how to leverage them. If you need resources you don't have, partner with people who do have them. And I think it's just plain easier to start a company in an area where you DO have some resources than to strike out on your own into the blue. And with how hard it is to start a successful business anyway, every advantage helps.

There are many tools for helping you develop your core values. One great one for developing them within a team is Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.

For finding your strengths there are a couple of really good tools. Strengths Finder & the MRE framework.

Finding your resources just requires, well, resourcefulness. Who do you know? Who do they know? Make a list of family and friends and what they do for work (or personally). Talk to them. Do they like what they do? Are they well-connected in their industry? What do they have influence over? Are they the purchaser for things in their industry? Who do they use to help them do what they do?

With all of these things, you have some great tools for evaluating a new venture. Whether you're starting from scratch or you have this great idea and just need to evaluate if you really want to do it or not, these are the building blocks.

It's no coincidence that when you think about this process, it leads much more easily to a bootstrap model of business than the other two (cookie-cutter business and VC-funded business). If you're starting with something that makes you happy it is most likely not going to be just copying someone else exactly. We all have our own ideas of how to run a business. If you're just reading a manual and following instructions, how likely are you to be following your happiest path? The VC path can seem glamorous and sexy, but remember my point about being motivated by money. As has been demonstrated by Dell, Microsoft, Southwest, there is not a business on the planet that absolutely cannot be bootstrapped. So why would you take VC money? Because it seems to make everything easier. But all money does is put a magnifying glass on everything. If you don't start out of the gates with every detail of your business figured out, you could end up with some huge problems.

Innovation comes from constraints, they say. And not the constraint of someone telling you what to do. So many things were really important, but I couldn't do them all. So I had to pick the most important ones to do first. How do you discern which are most important? Constraints help, however painful they are.

I believe the only way for you to freely manifest your values and strengths in a start-up is through a bootstrap model. Figure out what you love and demo, sell, build. Bootstrapping forced me to look deeper at my business and make sure I was doing the right thing at the right time.

Mason Arnold - Greenling Organic Delivery

Gas used in delivery

2008-05-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, we occasionally get people who say they don't think a delivery service is very environmentally friendly. Our trucks driving around all day they think is very polluting.

These people have just not thought all the way through the comparison. Polluting compared to what? What we compare it to is each of our customers driving to the grocery store, in particular a natural food grocery store. This comparison leaves out some other neat facts about Greenling, but let's start there. On average in Austin people live 3 miles from a grocery store. This includes all grocery stores. I would say that on average people live 4-5 miles from a Whole Foods/Central Market/Sun Harvest/Wheatsville Coop, if not more. That's 8-10 miles round trip to go to the store.

Greenling trucks leave the warehouse with 60-80 baskets of food in them and drive about 100 miles to deliver all of them. That's 1.25-1.66 miles per delivery. Taking an average of 70 customers, driving to and from the grocery store themselves, that's 560-700 miles total, compared to our 100. So, just looking at the "last mile", or grocery-store-to-the-table, we get your food there with up to 86% less fuel. Amazing! 86% less energy just in the last leg of the food's trip. It's a straight comparison because our vans, completely packed with boxes and with a refrigeration unit blasting STILL get gas mileage as good as the average CAR! over 20 MPG. And I'm guessing there's more than average SUV and truck drivers in Austin, which get worse gas mileage. We get this kind of mileage because we use the most fuel efficient delivery vehicles available in the US, if you were wondering...it's not common for a delivery company to say that. They were 30% more expensive than the competition, but we're fairing the rising gas prices much better than our competition because of that choice AND to us it was an investment in the planet. It goes beyond the bottom-line...though we keep an eye on that too.

Now, considering we buy more than half of our food locally, that takes about another 1000 miles off the average product's food-mile total. Did you know that often when you buy a locally produced product from the grocery store it is actually shipped from a local producer to a national distributor as far away as Colorado, California, or all the way to the East Coast and then shipped back to your grocery store?! I find it rather disgusting. And it's true. Or, it's produced on the East Coast and shipped to the West Coast for distribution before it's shipped back here to the grocery stores. It's a horrible symptom of scaling distribution up and using mega distribution centers instead of regional ones. Squeeze out some extra profit...or at least with cheap gas it squeezes out extra profit. With fuel prices climbing, regional distribution centers are becoming more competitive with the mega ones.

Organic Trade Association annual conference

2008-05-03T06:24:00.001-07:00

this is my 4th year to go and every year I am impressed with the growth. I guess 50% growth each year that I have gone. some really great products are hitting the market and the companies really have some good marketing behind them. And that's good considering the competition the industry has from conventional food and how small the organic market still is compared to conventional food.

One worrisome tone of the conference was the impending supply shortage. There are just not enough organic farmers in the US and there are not enough people converting to organics. On one hand it's hard to believe, considering the incredible opportunities there are. But on the other hand it just seems like a cultural shift as America evolves into a more highly-skilled labor force. It certainly takes skill to grow organically, but not the same type of skill it takes to create nano-machines.

so, this supply shortage will mean rising prices in a slumping economy....not the best combination. some people are going to be turned away by the prices. Lots of people, I think. My only hope is that their opinion of Organics is not tarnished by the prices and when the supply crunch is abated they will return as consumers.

I got to catch up with some of the veterans of the industry. Karen wilcox, who has ushered the OTA into a new era with clout in DC, will be leaving. She did some really hard work and won some much needed concessions in the Farm Bill. Can you believe that right now Organic farmers have to pay a premium for farm insurance? Even though their practices are healthier for the land and they are shown to be more resistant to drought, disease, and pests? Incredible. Also, when Organic farmers do make an insurance claim, they are only reimbursed at the conventional price for the product, not the Organic price. Thanks to Karen, both of these will change. Also, she was able to secure more funding for Organic research.

Lynn Clarkson seems to be getting more involved in politics and less in business. That's good because he seems to really understand what it takes to pitch the Organic message to all sorts of people.

and best of all....one of my favorite little snacks - sour gummi worms - is now available organically. And they're made with fruit puree instead of what seems like plastic. They're awesome.

The conference really invigorated me to keep fighting the good fight. I also attended a Sustainability meeting where industry leaders were addressing how they could not only produce Organic goodness, but do it sustainably. It was great to see this issue being tackled.

and, on the way home, I was on the same plane as Margaret Wittenberg, an incredible industry veteran who has done wonderful things for Whole Foods and who is apparently starting to branch out on her own with a couple of books she's publishing. I hope she let's me buy her coffee or lunch sometime so I can hear more of her story.

My first vacation in 3 years

2008-04-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

Mylie and I will go on a belated honeymoon. We eloped in Vegas over a weekend, so didn't have an immediate honeymoon planned. We're going to San Miguel de Allende in the mountains of Mexico. I'll be gone from April 18th-25th, but then the next day we fly out to the annual OTA (Organic Trade Association) conference in Chicago until the 29th.

The OTA show is really awesome and I highly suggest anyone who would like to get up to date on what's going on in Organics attend it. They have speaker panels with some incredible market research that you would normally have to pay thousands of dollars for. They gather all of the industry's biggest and brightest. It's really fun to see the dedication that still exists to the Organic principles even in the large companies. Nobody can make everyone happy, but the OTA is fighting hard to promote the Organic agenda at the national level.

Greenling Wins Another Award (#8)!!

2008-03-27T09:23:00.001-07:00

The Austin Business Journal gave out awards this year titled "Going Green Awards" and highlight companies that are leading the way in working towards sustainability. Greenling won in the 'Small Business' category! This is a very exciting award and is exactly what we want to be recognized for. We not only deliver healthy, local, and Organic foods that support the local community and help heal the environment...that's a mouthful...WE ALSO strive to be sustainable in everything we do as a business. In our operations. This can be much more expensive financially than focusing on profit, but focusing on profit can be much more expensive to our planet so we make the sacrifice. Thanks to the judges at Austin Business Journal and to all of our supporters!

The only constant is change

2008-03-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

I became very depressed last week when Brooke, our Vegetable Vixen, came into my office and told me she was moving back to Lubbock. It broke my heart. We love her so much here. She said it has been the best job she's ever had, but Zac (We call him Daniel), her husband, was not enjoying his job and all of their family was back in Lubbock and a few other reasons that just led them to believe it was best. It took me a couple of days to forgive her and I choose to believe she will come back some day.

So the whole week I was depressed until I received a note from a vendor that we had been trying to work into our offering, Dishalicious. Elizabeth Winslow said she was interested in combining resources with Greenling and joining the team. We had a great lunch at Austin Java on Sunday to talk about the position and the two companies. I'm so excited to have her coming on board. I think she's going to help take Greenling to the next level and help us help our customers use their newfound freshness and organic goodies. So, a sad day leads to the beginning of a new era.

Go Dance

2008-03-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

Some of you may already know that my wife owns the largest dance studio in town. They do all partner dancing, so country, salsa, ballroom, etc. They have been caught in the middle of the whole Urban Wal-Mart battle at Northcross Mall because that is where her studio is located. Long story short is that she had to move out of her old space and into a new space on the other side of the mall so they could demolish her current space.

Well, this weekend she finally moved in and it is amazing! What a cool space. She will be having a Grand Opening party on the 22nd of this month so if you feel like dropping by please do.

Me, I'm a little sore from helping her move furniture, etc., but not nearly as sore and tired as she is. She's running on pure adrenaline right now as she tries to get settled in the new space. Since permitting problems with the city have delayed her move several times she couldn't risk closing the studio every weekend thinking this one would be the one so when they finally moved this weekend, she had a full schedule and didn't even get 1 day to settle in. They had to run classes while moving. What a feat!

So, go check out the new Go Dance in Northcross Mall sometime and take some lessons.

Grain Crisis!

2008-03-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a pretty big challenge for the Organic industry and may chase away some people. Grain prices have exploded and are driving prices significantly higher and driving some bakers and producers out of the business. The farmers are going to make a killing, which is always nice, but we may see prices of organic grains and breads jump 100%-150% in the next 6-12 months if nothing is done. Here's an article about it:
Fallout Expected From Super High Grain Prices

The explosion of record high prices on the conventional has pushed the organic sector even higher and the fallout is already happening—organic bakers are pulling out.

“The whole thing is chaos,” said Bob Quinn, who runs the Kamut Association, which is based in Big Sandy MT. “It is so extremely out of control, I don’t know how it is going to play out.” Farmers under contract to plant organic Kamut, a high protein hard red spring wheat, will plant 60,000 acres in Montana and Canada this year.

In trading at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, hard red spring wheat closed at a record $24 a bushel Feb. 27. The asking price for organic hard spring wheat has now soared to between $30 and $36 a bushel.

“Prices like that are sustainable,” said Travis Sitter, a buyer for Hesco in Watertown, SD. He said some organic cattle and dairy farmers can no longer afford the high price of organic soybean and corn meal, and are switching back to conventional. Bakers are already up in arms and planning a March 12 “Crisis” March on Washington, DC where they will meet congressmen and USDA officials.

“Commodity prices for every item we use are out of control and rising faster than we could ever hope to catch them,” said Michael Kalupa, president of the Retail Bakers of America. “If there is not some type of relief, many businesses will fail.” Ben Volk with Dakota Organic Prairie Flour in Harvey, ND said two east coast bakeries that were buying organic flour switched back to conventional.

What worries Ron Schlecht, a buyer for SK Foods International in Fargo, ND, is that expanded spring planting of hard red spring wheat will prevent farmers from growing other crops such as edible beans. “I don’t know if we can get any flax,” he said. He said one wheat processor told him he did not have conventional grain seed for his customers. Schlect and others said that most organic farmers have set aside enough organic seed for this year’s planting. They all expect more acreage to be planted both in the US and Canada.

Lynn Clarkson, who heads Clarkson Grain in Cerro Gordo, IL, blames the burst in commodity prices on ethanol. He said that subsidies totaling 40% on corn and processing have thrown everything else off. “Land values are going up and the biggest hedge funds are dumping funds into the commodities market,” Clarkson said.

quoted from : http://obn.hotlineprinting.com/obnbreaking.html

Degree on experience

2008-02-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Someone called my cell phone (thought they couldn't do that) asking if I was interested in obtaining a degree based on my life experience. I was so excited, of course I'm interested! Who wouldn't be?

So she asks me to tell me a little about my background and I interrupt her. I already know what degree I want - "that's great" she said, "what field are you interested in?" "Well, I think I'm an expert in Chocolate Chip cookies and would like a degree in them."
"Sir, you can't get a degree in cookies."
"Why not? Hear me out. I'm very much a connoisseur and could tell you more about the subtle differences between cookie recipes than most people around. I've eaten them my entire life and in most cases can tell you if they "Sir, we can't give you a degree in cookies. goodbye."

Rather rude, I would say. Especially since I think it's a valid request. If I don't qualify for one in cookies, I was also thinking of obtaining one in Hair Shampooing. I've been doing that a long time, too. While I'm not nearly as interested in it as Chocolate Chip cookies, just my long years of experience with it should earn me a degree. Oh well. Maybe next time.

I was quoted in an article I didn't even know about...

2008-02-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Not a bad article either....kinda glad a few people are listening:
See the Article Here

I had to post the cached page to get around the subscription vice...let me know if it doesn't work for you.

We just started carrying this amazing pork. I have tried the sausage, cutlets, and bacon so far and they are all awesome!

Also, our Brix meters are on their way. Brix testing is a way to help determine the quality of fresh produce in terms of mineral content. Even if something is grown organically, that doesn't mean there are minerals in the soil...which are needed for minerals to be present in the plants and vegetables. Odds are much better - most organic farmers take care of their soil and replenish minerals, but here at Greenling we looked for more conclusive evidence. The Brix testers help us make sure that everything we deliver is the best possible quality.

Home Delivery more sustainable

2008-02-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

Great article from WorldChanging, a resource on sustainability:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007820.html

2008-01-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

Article about a peer-reviewed study on kids and pesticide levels in their saliva and urine. Kids who ate conventional foods had unhealthy levels of pesticides in both, kids who ate organic foods had none. Obvious for most of us, but there are a lot of people who are still on the fence about the benefits of Organics. please read if you have any doubt:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/349263_pesticide30.html

Great article on the link between antibiotic resistant bacteria and Honey Bee colony collapse disorder:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=magazine%3E

Here's a great article about Greenling from Tribeza magazine:
http://www.tribeza.com/?q=pd/articledetail&nid=2320

Simple way to help clean Texas' air

2007-12-31T06:25:00.001-08:00

www.smokingvehicle.org , or 1-800-453-SMOG

TCEQ website where you can report vehicles that are not functioning properly and are smoking either from the engine or tailpipe.

All they really do is send a letter to the vehicle owner asking them to fix it, but often that's all that's needed. A little peer pressure.

Senate Passes Farm Bill

2007-12-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

Some good news for Organics. This is not real support for the industry, but considering some of the roadblocks we've been facing, it's a huge win and a small step towards equality for organics in the USDA:
---
Legislative Update
Senate today passes its version of the Farm Bill
In a major milestone, the U.S. Senate today approved its version of the Farm Bill in a 79 to 14 vote. Included are funding and direction for key organic priorities, including a sense that organic research be funded at a level commensurate with organic agriculture's share of teh market. Some of the other provisions allot funds for organic data collection and certification cost share; would bar the U.S. Department of Agriculture from charging a premium surcharge on organic crop insurance; and would add organic production as an eligible activity in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The Senate version and the version approved this summer by the U.S. House of Representatives must go to conference to settle any differences before a final bill is voted on by Congress.

-----
I hear not much headway has been made on eliminating govt. farm subsidies for corn and other commodities, but at least they're making concessions for Organics.

Cool Links

2007-12-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a site that uses actual driving data from its members to arrive at average MPG estimates for hybrid cars:
http://www.greenhybrid.com/
Very interesting stuff. I also saw some calculations a guy did on the break-even point for buying the prius over a corolla. He thinks a corolla can achieve 35mpg without hybrid technology and compared the base sticker price with that of the hybrid ($15.5k for corolla and $21k for prius). He assumes 45mpg for the prius and $3/gallon gas. Here's his formula: (x/35-x/45) = (21000-15500)/3. This resulted in around a 280,000 mile pay-off for buying the hybrid not taking into consideration differences in maintenance.
Doesn't seem to be compelling, but buying a hybrid is just so cool.

More Proof

2007-12-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for organic pudding so I can start saying "The proof is in the pudding". What does that mean anyways?
Here's some more proof for ya that organics is more nutritious:
http://green.msn.com/articles/article.aspx?aid=295&GT1=10725
It might be the same study as the EU one....honestly, I wanted to post it, but don't have time right now to read the whole thing.

Meeting with Kirk Watson

2007-11-08T09:26:00.001-08:00

Senator Watson carried the Organic Advisory Board bill for me in the Senate Natural Resources Committee. After we successfully passed the bill, a couple of months ago we sat down to talk about the future. He is excited to continue working for the Organic and Sustainability movement and we are working on a strategic plan for future legislation. He is really a great guy and doesn't fit the mold at all of a politician. I asked him how often he gets frustrated with the political process - "Every day!" He says at least once a week he really hates it. I really admire him sticking it out. I'm not sure I could have that kind of patience.....but you never know until you try.

EU spends $25 million in research to confirm organic food better

2007-10-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

a 4 year study has just been completed confirming what many of us already know - Organic food is better and more nutritious than conventional food! Check it out:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=28607

Save Some Trees, Will Ya!

2007-10-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

Stop annoying junk mail here - www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

And even better (I guess it gets worse the better your credit is) stop those annoying credit card offers - https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi

Americans get up to 1.5 trees' (think huge pine tree) worth of junk mail each year.

Congratulations to Greenling on More Awards!!

2007-10-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Greenling has won 2 awards in the last 2 weeks!

The first award comes from PC Magazine and recognizes our innovative use of technology to run our business! See the story here - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2190139,00.asp

The second award is one I have always admired and never expected to win. The Austin Chronicle has their yearly Best Of reader's poll awards. Winning this award takes more than just recognition from some judges, it comes straight from the mouths of Central Texas people. So, you voted, and we won "Best Local Food Company!!" We're so honored and excited about this award. You can read about it here - http://tinyurl.com/yrw65a

Thanks for all of your support and we hope to be a long-term institution here in Central Texas.

Plastic Bag Ban in Austin

2007-09-25T07:09:00.001-07:00

There's a group organizing with the goal of banning plastic bags in Austin. Here's their website: http://bagthebags.com/index.htm
I think it's awesome! There's really no need for the conventional plastic bags anymore. Yes, they are cheaper than their biodegradable alternatives, but their impact on the environment is significant. Many cities and countries have successfully banned them.

We here at Greenling looked for alternatives for our produce bags (what you put lettuce, etc. in to keep it from drying out) since we started. We finally found an alternative in oxy-biodegradable bags. From that point on we haven't used any non-recyclable packaging materials for anything we sell (well, unless it came in non-recyclable packaging - which we frown upon but will put up with for certain products). We also sell the bio-bags they recommend people using for their trash bags. They're so cool! Just don't leave organic waste in them for too long, cause just your kitchen scraps will eat the bag up. So we're ready for a ban and we'd love for the rest of Central Texas grocery to follow suit.

Dell Asset Recovery

2007-09-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

We were recently featured in a short video about Dell's new asset recovery program. It's a good upgrade from their old system and really makes recycling technology equipment easy. Greenling is the feature of the video.
http://tinyurl.com/2dszp8

Texas Association of Organics & Sustainability

2007-09-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

or The TAOS Group, is in the works. I'm very excited to be creating this association as an extension of the Organic Advisory board to the TDA that I had legislation drafted for and recently was signed into law. The Organic Advisory board's main role is to monitor the Organic food industry and recommend to the TDA activities and opportunities for the state to support the Organic industry in Texas. The TAOS Group will soon be the first legislative advocacy group for the Organic and Sustainability industry in Texas. My hope is that the group will help educate legislators on the industry and how the State can better develop public policy to support sustainable growth and organic agriculture.

Aurora Dairy finally penalized

2007-09-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

This is great news for Organic Dairy consumers and valid producers. The USDA has stepped down and penalized the largest organic dairy farm in the US for its not-so-organic practices. See more here:
http://tinyurl.com/39mj45

This story first made the news almost 2 years ago when a consumer watchdog group investigated the dairy and broke the news. Hopefully in the future the USDA investigation process will not take so long. One problem, though, is that the USDA organic enforcement staff is all of 6 people for the entire $17 billion dollar industry. More support is needed to properly regulate the industry and ensure continued consumer confidence in Organic products.

Spider Plugs

2007-09-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

So, by now you know that I am a founder of Greenling Organic Delivery.
What I just learned is that blogs like this can be a good tool for Search Engine Optimization. Inbound links are a fairly important part of a healthy google ranking for a website like www.Greenling.com
Obviously I don't want to overdo it, but please excuse this rant aimed at primarily being a vehicle for creating inbound links to Greenling. Some of you may also know that you can go to www.AustinOrganicDelivery.com and get to our website too. We don't advertise that anymore, but it's amazing how many times we still find references to www.AustinOrganicDelivery.com instead of Greenling.com. We thought AustinOrganicDelivery.com would be easy for people to remember, but it turns out we were wrong. People much more appreciated www.Greenling.com as our website.

I hope that wasn't too dense, but it's actually a valid topic. I should also mention that aside from your favorite local and/or organic fruits and vegetables, we also carry dairy, bread, meats, and many, many grocery items too. They all adhere to our strict standards for not just organic certification, but corporate principles as well. We investigate every item we sell and ensure that the company behind it is as committed to organic leadership as we are.

So, again, sorry for the plugs.

Mason Arnold

Google Alerts

2007-08-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

I have set up google alerts to send me any new info published to the web for certain key words. I of course have my name set up and I also have alerts for several company-related topics - "organic food" "organic delivery" "greenling" and "terminator technology." The last one I follow primarily because I think it's just so scary. Anyways, I learn some very interesting things reading all the new articles on these topics. One hilarious website informed us that there's going to be a movie out next year with some little green men called Greenlings. Here's that link - http://tinyurl.com/247m3g
Luckily we have trademark on "Greenling" so I don't have to worry about a movie studio coming after me.....also being in completely different industries helps. Another interesting link is a fairly new website - www.wewantorganicfood.com. Seems to have some good tips and articles on organics.

It Appears a Federal Judge Agrees with Me

2007-08-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -

Competition from conventional supermarkets would prevent Whole Foods Market Inc. from significant price hikes if it acquires rival organic grocer Wild Oats Markets Inc., a federal judge's ruling said. --Forbes Magazine

Whole Foods and Wild Oats

2007-08-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

It has been a very interesting story to follow. Both sides have good arguments. The FTC is pretty adamant that Whole Foods' purchase would create a monopoly on the natural foods movement. #1 buying #2 with #3 far, far behind is pretty big. But it's all about how you define the market. If you think natural foods stores primarily compete against each other than the FTC's argument is very valid. And, in fact, when you hear people in Austin talk about grocery shopping they either talk about HEB/Randalls/Albertsons OR they talk about Whole Foods/Central Market/Sun Harvest. Not many people consider them to be very comparable to the mainstream grocery stores.

But if you dig down further and look at what they're selling....I think it tips the other way in favor of Mackey's argument. Did you know that only 45% of organic foods last year were bought in natural food stores (Sundale Research, 2007)? Did you also know that this # is expected to decline steadily as organic foods become more available? From this perspective, Whole Foods AND Wild Oats should be much more worried about competition from mainstream markets than from each other. A merger would help them stay competitive and WF would gain presence in many markets it doesn't currently serve, making it a real, nationally recognized brand that hopefully people would trust their organic and natural shopping with.

It currently looks like the merger will go through.

New research studies out

2007-08-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

The list keeps piling up. Just a few studies can be refuted as being interpreted wrong or biased, but as more and more research piles up showing pesticides as being dangerous, organics as having more nutrition, etc. it will get harder and harder to ignore or dismiss. Check out the latest wave of studies here:
Breaking News!
New Studies Broaden Scientific Support for Five Dimensions of the Organic Benefit

I. Linkage Established Between Pesticides and Autism

For years epidemiologists have seen hints of a link between pesticide exposure and autism. As of July 30, 2007, these days are over. Scientists working for the California Department of Health Services have found that pregnant women living near fields sprayed with the common insecticides dicofol and endosulfan were six-times more likely to give birth to children with "Autism Spectrum Disorders" (ASD) than women living many miles from treated fields.

Six-times higher risk - it is very rare for such a large and statistically significant difference to be found in a study of this kind. Plus, the authors report that the closer a mother lived to treated fields, and/or the more pounds of pesticides applied, the greater the risk.

These two insecticides are the last widely used organochlorines - the family of insecticides including DDT, chlordane, aldrin, and toxaphene, among others. Both are known endocrine disruptors, they are persistent in the environment, and bioaccumulate up food chains. Residues of these insecticides, in particular endosulfan, are common in conventional fruits and vegetables, especially imports. This study should compel the EPA to finally take decisive action to end exposures to these two insecticides.

The full study appeared in the online version of Environmental Health Perspectives and is available free of charge.

II. Organic Milk and Meat Dramatically Enhances the Nutritional Quality of Mom's Breast Milk

Mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products were found to have about 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk. This Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is responsible for most of the health benefits of CLAs in milk and meat. The authors of this European study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in June 2007 report that the greater reliance of organic beef and dairy farmers on pasture and forage grasses increases the levels of CLAs in milk and beef, and in turn in the breast milk of women eating organic animal products.

Details on the study are on the Center's website.

III. Organic Farming Practices Improve Water Quality in Minnesota

A team of University of Minnesota scientists studied the impact of organic and sustainable agricultural practices over three years on subsurface drainage and water quality in southwestern Minnesota. Their focus was on corn-soybean farms.

They found that organic and sustainable systems reduced the volume of subsurface drainage water discharges by 41 percent – a major benefit for the farmer, especially in dry years when lack of soil moisture cuts back yields. Organic and sustainable systems also reduced the loss of nitrate nitrogen by about 60 percent, allowing farmers to reduce fertilization rates by nearly half without sacrificing yields in most years. The improved soil quality on the organic/sustainable plots, coupled with more diverse land use patterns, were credited by the team with improving the efficiency of nutrient uptake and water infiltration and use, especially in average to wet years.

The full text of the University of Minnesota study is available free of charge.

IV. Organically Grown Melons Deliver More Vitamin C and Polyphenols

During the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science, a team from Colorado State University reported encouraging results from a two-year comparison of organic and conventional melon production systems. The team highlighted the impact of crop genetics on total antioxidant activity, which varied over ten-fold across varieties. Crop genotype accounted for 65 percent of this variation, with production system accounting for most of the rest. Organic management was found to increase both vitamin C and polyphenol.

The team's work is ongoing, and has expanded to include some key Colorado vegetable crops.

V. Pesticide Exposures Increase Risk of Gestational Diabetes

The Agricultural Health Study, underway for over a decade, has produced valuable data on the impacts of pesticides on human health. In an important March 2007 paper in "Diabetes Care," a team of government scientists found that pregnant women exposed to pesticides occupationally (i.e., spraying, mixing pesticides) had more than double the risk of developing gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy). Four herbicides, including two in the phenoxy herbicide class that also includes 2,4-D (see the item on pesticide use and biotech crops below), plus three insecticides were found to be associated with elevated risk of gestational diabetes.

Additional information on this study is on the Center's website.

San Antonio Expansion

2007-08-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Got to meet some great guys in SA today, Dean McCall and Miguel Olivo. They strongly suggested I pick blogging back up. Thanks, guys, I think I will (I'm guessing they both have google alerts on their names and will find this). So, we're planning on opening up parts of San Antonio to receive our yummy organic goodies starting some time in October. Fairly certain that part of this launch will be a give-away of a week-long vacation for 2 at an amazing eco-resort on the beach of Mexico. Stay Tuned!

The skinny on food miles

2007-08-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

This was a very interesting article that asks we look at not just how many miles an item has traveled to get to us, but the full carbon footprint of that item:

http://tinyurl.com/2d3v2j

It cites some interesting studies that have found food miles are not the whole story. So, just like I say in my speeches about organics, local food is not the end-all answer, and neither is organic. They are both important components of Sustainability, but unfortunately very few things are all that simple about Sustainability. An important part is to do business with companies that share your vision and values. They will do research about how they can affect Sustainability and conservation. If you do business with companies that share your values in all parts of your life then each one will do their part and you come out looking like a sustainability guru!

Whew, it's been a while

2007-07-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

Greenling is doing great. We've received a lot of great press and have grown so fast. Stay tuned for more Greenling updates. I want to share some creative writing I've done over the last couple of years:

burning fire inside

ahhh, yes, it's not the destination, but the journey
the wise men say
the journey to nowhere
from day one neurons firing
everything converted into patterns
and logged. everything. repeating patterns
emerge and are strengthened until they are learned

the great battle of resources. with abundant
resources not only the strong survive
but all resources are finite and
thus the battle begins. it
makes sense, but it
seems so dull

meanwhile, the fire burns brighter
the faint breeze of time constantly fanning.
occasionally smothered perhaps, but just one extinguisher
hidden in the depths of the ego.
nature overrides nuture
most of the time

flame and ego collide
both undiscerning of
motives for the other
both looking for fuel.
consuming resources
enjoying the journey.

-------------------------

chaste ramble

As I slide past the closing door a loosely hanging skirt caresses my thigh, furtively flooding my thoughts with images of hoarded sunsets, mini umbrellas shading fruity concoctions that do their best to drown the sexual tension between us. Or maybe provoking it while slyly chipping at the walls of inhibition.

I enter the sterile office, light-years away from those moments lit by firery cravings and olive-toned longings. The drywall and concrete drain energy and leave nothing but will to drag the thick, heavy clothes back out the door.....into steel and neutral seatbelts. Catch a glimpse of that sangria red chasing the sun over the hills and I'm taken back to the loosely hanging skirt. The freshly woven cotton accentuates her sand-dune curves. Something as simple as a light breath across her hip might awaken a million folicles and warm the ground beneath the forest. Bring the Wild out of hibernation. Or so I imagine.

---------------------

Whirlwind
Current mood: tired

Avocadoes, Mangos...or is it Mangoes.
Must sell Green Bell Peppers before they wilt
Milk.....milk.....milk
How little time my brain has to be creative
Cilantro is looking pretty tired
Who will take those?
Broccoli people infect my dreams
Yes, Mr. Zucchini, I will find a home for you soon
I know you're ripe and ready to be eaten
No, no, would never let you go to waste
Not you, Mr. Zucchini, you're way too special for that
More milk. Looking at me with puppy-dog....lids
knowing that if no one wants them they're destined for the sink
Please sell me....I want to build strong bones in Timmy or Valerie
I'm sorry, pulp-added OJ, your non-pulp brothers are just selling faster than you. I know you have more fiber, you know it, but the people want what the people want.
During the whirlwind of the day, they all know the next pass might be a hand reaching for them. Will they be picked, or passed up for the prettier tomato next to them. They lean over the edge of the shelves in anticipation and put on their best skin. The whirlwind slows to a buzz, the odds growing larger against them. Finally the light goes out. They let out a melancholy sigh. Settle into their cool, moist boxes, snuggle up to each other for the night and wait for another chance. Hopefully they wil still be pretty enough tomorrow they tell themselves, knowing that every moment is working against them.

some of them awaken still full of life and nutrients. Others are weary from their long journey. In the soil is where they're happiest, nurtured. But they are aware of their fate. They fulfill their life's work when the fork pierces their thick skin. Providing us energy ensures their genetic survival, too. They become a part of us, re-assembled, assimilated into our biology. No, we are not that different than Mr. Zucchini......then again, maybe I'm delirious.

------------------------

Gone are the days

For the last time, no, I said.
We can't go whiskey and pillage and sharpen the night
We work and count and fill up the tank
Do I want fajitas or flautas
So many delightful choices
As my belly presses against the belt
and I placate the urges with sugar and confection
We're civilized and must act accordingly
lest we risk old age with dust and 60-watt soft-glows
instead of polished and halogens
this battle of hormone and logic
instinct and institution
the red light frays against the wall
the sonance ratatat tats inside my head
open, shut, open, shut
open and late
small victories part the waves, but cannot weather the storm
sometimes sun, sometimes not.
No matter.
Self-awareness drives
So I sink in my plush, leather seat
And find a false pretense to fan the squelching ardor
Until another day.
Careless utterances, idle moments
penetrate fresh wounds
healed with nothing more than a blind eye
Today we shall pillage
Because we can.

-------------------------

A little of both...

2006-02-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

So we decided on a compromise for the 'stick with the path or blaze a trail' issue and it has seemed to work fairly well. The consequences are that we've spent a little more money than we thought and everything is moving just a little bit slower than we planned (cause we have added goals and projects).

I feel we are well on our way. We have gotten some great publicity so far. Articles in multiple newspapers were achieved with help from Mike Romanies, a great PR guy. Our biggest PR spot, a news story on us, I'll go ahead and take full credit for. It was the result of a total coincedence, a little help from a friend, and some quick thinking on my part. News 8 news crew just having coffee in a coffee shop (Summermoon, on S 1st) that I buy buld coffee for deliveries from. Turns out the on-air personality (Amy Hadley) is married to someone who works in the coffee shop and I know the owners of the coffee shop (went to high school with them).

I was already late to work, but figured it could be worth it to stick around and have some coffee, which I never drink. Owners introduced me and introduced my service to the crew. I continued the pitch. NIce and easy, just chatted for a while and as they were leaving I gave a hard pitch about them doing a story on us. They said they would pitch it to the station. Thought I might hear from them in several weeks or months.

The next Monday about noon they called and said they wanted to do a live story on us the next day.....the day before a huge conference and in the middle of a huge week for us (received our first dairy shipment that we then had 10 days to sell all of - 1200 lbs of it). I asked if we could do it the following week and they said they didn't know when they could ever do it again. So, Tuesday morning the alarm went off at 4:45AM and I couldn't believe I would ever get up at a time like that. We had to be there at 5:30AM cause the first shot would be at 6AM. It was cold and the sun was not up, but it didn't take long for me to be lively...I was about to be on TV for pete's sake. For the second time (I'll gloat a little here) actually, as I was on Central Texas Gardener back when I had my Landscaping company. News 8 did 5 live shots total, one recorded and they repeated on News 8 throughout the day and they also put a spot on their website: http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=154306

We saw about a 20% increase in business for the following week. We're chugging along hitting our numbers, but each month we set larger and larger goals. We've been delivering on them each month, but each new month brings a new set of worries about meeting them. February I've asked for a 40% increase in revenue. We've been developing some commercial accounts that should start paying off this month and we're attempting some larger marketing efforts that should bring in some good business. We'll see. Like I've said before - every day is uncharted territory for me.

Oh yeah, Austin Ventures just signed up as a customer......I don't think we've got a chance at the 50%-70% ROI expectations they have, but hey, you never know what will happen.

Stick to the plans or blaze a trail

2005-12-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

Happiness & Immortality

2005-10-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

Barry Thornton spoke at the latest bootstrap austin get together and he was absolutely profound. In an entertaining fashion covered topics on business, money, relationships, and life. Many of his topics I have thought about before on different levels. One topic in particular is a constant battle for myself and I imagine many others.

I can't fully quote him, but it went something like - separate yourself from the need for money and you are truly free. For most of my life I didn't understand the addiction to money that afflicts so many. I think it was a luxury afforded to me by being raised with no money. Without being able to enjoy nice "things" we learned to enjoy ourselves anyhow. I could build a fort in 3 afternoons that would rival the Hyatt. Then I landed my first high-paying job and I began to understand the addiction, though I refused to succumb. It's so easy to expand your standard of living to meet, or exceed as most retailers would have you, your earnings. Being very susceptible to suggestion and marketing, I have become all too aware of the pressures on us as consumers. But if you're not happy, the money loses all its value. We live in a land of incredible freedom.....so why do we act as though we are ruled by money?

__________
.................

Greenling Organics received its first round of investment, in the form of convertible debt, and should last us to profitability........should. First major investment I've received for anything. I'm trying to relish these days because I'm told that once I become "successful" I will look back at these days as the best. Once I have 20 employees and handbooks and manuals and "policies" it won't quite be the same. We'll see.

One thing for sure is that receiving the investment changed my mindset in ways I didn't fully comprehend beforehand. There was certainly some celebration and a couple of deep breaths, but I also felt an incredible drive take root. I never realized that this act of raising money that everyone talks about like cooking breakfast or buying a car instills a keen responsibility to deliver on your promise to your investors. You're not just risking your own skin anymore. You have convinced someone that you're so bright and your company has such a great concept that they have given you their hard-earned money. Whether they're a mechanic or a billionaire, you can only assume they have earned that money through hard work and are now entrusting it to you for growth. That, I say, is more compelling than any self-serving motivation.

This is old news to many.....but they never mentioned it to me before.

So I'm driven. Currently burning almost $10k/month. Driven. And loving it. Biggest challenge of my life and it's the most fun I've ever had.

Tribute to Whole Foods (and criticism)

2005-10-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

They have done so much for the organic industry, it's so hard to criticize them. As far as propelling the organic movement (what I call the longer-named Life Of Health And Sustainability) into the limelight and mainstream market, Whole Foods has accomplished more than any other organization on the planet. And yet it does seem that the experience you get there, while an altogether revolutionary shopping experience, has diminished in organic value. I appreciate and applaude a mix of conventional and organic products (there's really no reason to buy EVERYTHING organic), just hope they don't get any more deceptive in their marketing cause it's starting to push the limits.

They have numerous prepared food bars and yet finding a single organic ingredient can be very difficult. They have big organic signs in the produce section, but I would estimate 30% or less actual organic products. And their signs are all mixed up. The only way to be sure you're getting organic is to look at the sticker PLU on the item. If it starts with a 9, it's organic. But I recently browsed through their pile of "Organic"oranges and found at least 50% of them were conventional. YOu know they charge you for organic at the register, so you're basically being charged organic prices for conventional produce. Good luck getting an employee to tell you if something is organic or not when the product doesn't have a sticker (very common)....they just guess.

Anyways, I love em. People complain about their monopolistic ways, but it's how they've fueled the growth they've achieved. Supply in the organic industry is very difficult. Not only are there the regular problems of weather, disease, and pests, but demand is so high right now that there is not enough organic product to go around. Whole Foods purchased the largest, and pretty much only, central texas distributor of organic produce and groceries. THey proceeded to make the distributor a "Whole Foods Only" distributor. This left a rather large hole in the supply chain. That's an area Greenling.com is trying to fill.

A brief history of my time

2005-08-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
---Steve Jobs

So far in my business adventures I've managed to heed this advice. My hunger is not for the money...I've learned that.....in fact, I don't know what will satiate my hunger or even where to look for it. Part of me hopes I never learn.

I was an entrepreneur long before I knew what that meant. Stereotypical lemonade stands and middle school candy empire always seemed like just ways to make money. Money that I'd stash away and never spend. I didn't really want the money, I just wanted to make money. I can't count how many different ways I've made money. The one certainty is that once I started making money, I got bored. My sense of achievement was based on the ability to make money in that particular fashion, nothing more.

I've created a few interesting stories in my short 27 years around here. At least they're interesting to me. As I post new experiences I'll probably relate some to past stories.......starting, growing, and selling businesses; selling everything and moving to Spain to start a business; failed partnerships; failed businesses; and never losing that hunger. Always supremely confident that my homerun has been in the cards all along.

One thing for sure is that I keep hopping on bigger and bigger rollercoasters. I hope to record my lessons in business and the life of business in this blog so that I may remember them for future encounters. And maybe you will learn a thing or two to avoid in your adventures.