Update from Urban Roots - Volunteer call

From Urban Roots email -
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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
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Cows With Names Make More Milk

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

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

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

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

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!

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

Here's a great video produced by Adrian Tapia:

Happiness is Infectious

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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.