Hatred ever kills, love never dies; such is the vast difference between the
two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by
hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred.
Dirty Greek Dot OrgSearch Results For 'greenblogathon2006'
General : GB #24 - Calling It A Night!
Well, folks, my first Green Blogathon post was right around 12 hours ago, and since then, I've made 24 posts. Some have been worthwhile, some have been meaningless filler, but even though I don't think any of my meager readership donated any money in my name, I feel accomplished. I did this while writing a paper AND entertaining family, so I feel good about it. I hope you've all enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing, and I'm now finished. Thanks again, so much, to Shea Gunther for organizing this shindig. I probably won't be posting much tomorrow, because I'll be out with my parents and my bro, so you folks have a great... er.. sabbath.
I leave you with some humor to end your night. H. Jon Benjamin, of Dr. Katz and Home Movies fame.
400 free DVDs
of "Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture, and the New
American Farmer" on behalf the Foundation Management
Group, LLC. If you want one of these DVDs, please send
me an email reply (to geografood@yahoo.com). Subject should be "Free DVD: "Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture, and the New American Farmer"
Do not change the subject line.
Include only:
Your Name
Organization Name
Mailing address
City, state/province, postal code
Country (US or Canada)
The priority is for organizations/people that would
not be able to afford one of these films otherwise.
The filmakers would also like policy makers to either
see this or be influenced by your seeing it. Your only
obligation is that you need to return an enclosed self
mailer with some short evalution questions. Expect the
film by mid-April.
Please forward this message.
Regards,
Steven
Below is a quote from Fred Kirschenmann and a link to
read more about the film.
"Broken Limbs is a very accurate and moving
description of what is happening to agriculture in
America. Focused on apple growers in Washington State,
the story reflects what is happening to hog producers
in Iowa, citrus growers in Florida and dairy farmers
in New York. The video offers a ray of hope---the "new
farmers" who add value to their production and retain
more of that value on the farm by producing the
quality, attributes and services that a growing number
of food customers want. A moving and compelling
story." Fred Kirschenmann
Slow Food : GB #20 - Community Food Security Coalition
This is a great listserv. COMFOOD is an electronic mail list created to link individuals and organizations involved with or interested in community food security (CFS). The server has three broad purposes:
* 1. COMFOOD is available to all subscribers to exchange ideas and information on CFS-related topics (see examples below).
* 2. COMFOOD provides a forum for USDA-funded Community Food Projects. We encourage these groups to use this server to share information, to discuss issues, to make technical assistance inquiries, and to share documents that are of interest to subscribers.
* 3. COMFOOD is an on-line information provider for the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC). The CFSC will post notices about meetings, T&TA opportunities, policy initiatives, and other business of the organization, as well as feature articles or other information from its newsletter and website. Information about CFS-related activities of other organizations, agencies, etc. will also be posted by the Coalition.
Slate Magazine has a new idea - Textcasting. They have a podcast called the "Slate Explainer" podcast, where they answer questions that are on everyone's minds, from government to technology. Well, they've been attaching the full text script of the podcasts to the mp3s themselves to be read on the Ipod while you're listening to it. Andy Bowers has the story.
If you'd like to try reading text on an iPod, go to our podcast page and subscribe to the iTunes feed of the "Explainer" podcast. Once you've downloaded the files, you'll need to push the iPod's center button a few times to get to the text, and then use the scroll wheel to move down.
We plan to keep putting text in the audio podcasts, and we may even try a text-only podcast in the near future (since June and I can only read so many features a day). Keep an eye on this space.
Just got back from dinner at Outback with the fam... not very "green," but I did get to see my family! It's my brother's birthday, and he's 22. I feel so old!
The Green (audio)blogathon post # 3 Some pick me up music for my fellow green bloggers, some rambling (lost my list) about besustainable/Sounds Sustainable, organic Mac and Cheese (not recommended!!!), and other green tidbits. Enjoy!
Cradle to Cradle One of the many concepts that I am going to be focussing on around here is that of cycles
Post #39: Now We Can'tRub The Frogs?!?!?!? OK:we already have a law in California prohibiting the licking of toads in Los Angeles. (Apparently, the undersides of these toads have hallucinogenic properties. Besides: EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!)
trash is the failure of imagination Aaron Kramer, an artist from Venice, California is the author of the quote, trash is the failure of imagination. He makes objects from street sweeper bristles, recycled coffee stirrers and tin can lids.
I'm excited, because I got my seed starting equipment today. I'll be growing tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and eggplant, at least. Probably some basil and other spices too - woooo!
Or would we? I often waver between my humanitarian side and my gaian side. As a human, I do have certain desires, like electricity and being able to travel anywhere in the world while listening to my ipod. On the other hand, if we had a drastic drop in the energy sources available to us, we'd have to live in a more sustainable fashion and slow the hell down. It's tough to fight against myself there!
UNCG Food Fight : GB #14 - Independent Study This Summer
My Anthropological Perspectives of Food and Agriculture professor, Dr. Susan Andreatta, will be sponsoring my independent study this summer. I'll be researching and making contacts for my project to change the food available to UNC Greensboro's students.
I'm pretty excited about this, because changing the food available at UNCG could be a great starting point to changing the way people think about food in this entire region.
Radical Noesis is still going strong, with Rowan and the gang posting some really quality material! I still post there every once in a while, so go check it out!
Slow Food : GB #10 - Cultural Effects Of Globalization
The globalization of the agriculture system and the previously noted ecological and economic changes have led to cultural changes in the third world. The rise of contract farming in the Dominican Republic has led to a rise in nontraditional farming, which is supplanting traditional farming. Thousands of peasant homes have gone into contracts with private corporations, which changes the entire cultural dynamic of families and population centers (Raynolds 2000:443).
Slow Food : GB #9 - More On Economic Effects Of Globalization
In the West Indies, a centuries-old system of international trade was ruined by European colonial powers when they established the plantocracy (Andreatta 1998:415). The growing demand for chile has created a culture of chileros, or chile entrepreneurs, who form groups called equipos in order to supply chiles to the world market (Alvarez 1994:255). There are seven primary chile markets in Tijuana alone (Alvarez 1994:257). In Central America in the 1960s, The Alliance for Progress and United Fruit, "the direct beneficiary of the [C.I.A.-backed] Guatemala coup," gave the region's rich and powerful even more wealth and power over the peasantry, causing severe impoverishment. Many of these peasants were subsequently evicted, and the only work they could find was short-term cotton picking (Faber 1993a:48).
Slow Food : GB #8 - Globalization's Effects On Economies
Globalization affects the economies of developing nations profoundly. Laborers in these countries are hardly ever paid a living wage, making the purchase of those necessities, not to mention food and shelter, difficult or impossible. Contract farming, wherein smallholders produce for private corporations, is used often in the developing world, and it certainly doesn't help the position of the small growers (Raynolds 2000:442). The private corporations usually "loan" the necessary capital to the growers, which is then subtracted from the payment they receive for the end product when it is sold back to the corporations. In the Dominican Republic, the prices for tomatoes are set by the government and the corporations, often at harvest time. This means that sometimes, a grower will get nothing for the tomatoes he grows. He may even end up in debt (Raynolds 2000:445).
Any such chemicals that aren't absorbed run off into the ground, causing water contamination. Pesticides and other agrochemicals can cause problems directly for laborers as well. Thousands of Costa Rican banana workers are rendered infertile by nematicides, and thousands more are at risk of the same fate. In the 1970s, at least 73,230 pesticide poisonings occurred there. These poisonings aren't just limited to Costa Rica; Honduras and Nicaragua led the world in pesticide illness and death per capita in the 1960s and 70s, and Nicaraguans and Guatemalans have more DDT in their systems than anyone else in the world (Faber 1993a:54). Although much of these effects could be limited by protective clothing, employers often do not provide their laborers with these necessities. Only 10 to 15 percent of Nicaraguan field workers have them (Faber 1993a:54).
Slow Food : GB #6 - Central America and Globalization
Much of Central America has suffered from similar ecological degradation. The Pacific Lowlands suffered, because the tenant speculators who were using the land were doing so on short-term credit. Soil cover, drainage systems, and wind barriers were ignored for the most part, because the long-term health of the land was unimportant to them (Faber 1993b:91). In the Dominican Republic, tomato production on contract farms has caused a host of problems.
The processing firms that contract Dominican farmers to grow their tomatoes decided in the 1980s to begin calendar-based pesticide application rather than need-based. Fertilizer use and mechanical cultivation was also increased. The overuse of pesticides fueled an infestation of white flies in the Azua Valley. They simply used more force with their pesticides until the land was no longer usable then moved on to another location, where the white flies followed them, creating a cycle of infestation and overuse of agro-chemicals (Raynolds 2000:447-448).
Environment : GB #5 - Welcome, Alternative Source!
Alternative Source is run by a fellow half-greek, Mike Papageorge, who is one of the green blogathoners. Alternative Source is intended to be an information source for alternative energy (AE). We collect data from all over the web and publish it in a series of weblogs: News, Resources, the Directory and the Weblog.
Grad School : Blogathon 4 - The Internet Ate My Homework!
I wrote alot of my paper yesterday at work, and when I got up this morning to finish it, I realized that it somehow didn't get uploaded onto my ftp!!! The internet ate my homework!
Environment : Blogathon Post 3 - Chat With The Blogathoners!
I know you're all DYING for a chance. Well, here it is. They (we) are in a Chatzy chat room, send me an email at shea@skyecreative.com and Shea will send you an invite and the password. Anyone and everyone is invited, all you need is a web browser!
Slow Food : Blogathon Post 2 - Globalization's Effect On Native Species
One effect of globalization on the environments of developing nations is the loss of native flora and fauna due to the conversion of wild lands to farmland and pasture for industrial agriculture. El Salvador, for instance, was covered in dense wood forests that stretched for miles in the early twentieth century. This changed, however, when commercial coffee producers moved in and pushed small subsistence farmers off their lands, forcing them to clear the forests to farm. The forests of El Salvador don't exist any longer (Faber 1993b:85).
Slow Food : Blogathon Post 1 - Globalization and Agriculture
It is no secret that modern, industrial agriculture is based on a global infrastructure. Globalization has changed agriculture almost everywhere that food is bought, sold, grown, and produced, but its effects on local agricultural systems in the developing world have been staggering. It has drastically affected the environments, economies, and cultures of these nations in ways that are already clear but will no doubt become even clearer as time passes.
Environment : Green Blogathon Update - Nature Conservancy
Shea has created a Squidoo multiple rss feed for the Green Blogathon that starts today. The squidoo page isn't quite ready yet, but it can be a one stop stopping off spot for readers to find all of our blogs during (and after) the blogathon.
I don't know how this will work (and I know I'm all over the place here), but if I stay on the list of contributors, I'll be posting as much as I can. It just won't be anywhere near as often as you hard-core contributors. My paper is on globalization of the agriculture system and how it affects third world local agriculture, so it is a green theme. I'll be posting the paper when I'm done with it, so maybe I can post thoughts and bits of it as part of my blogathon posting...
By donating to the Adopt an Acre® program, you will help the Conservancy protect and restore what remains of one of the world's most extraordinary yet highly threatened forests.
* A personalized certificate commemorating your generosity and featuring a signature photo of the Atlantic Forest.
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* A one-year subscription to Nature Conservancy magazine to keep you informed about this project and the many other places the Conservancy is working to protect around the world.
