Thirsty? So are 1,000,000,000 children in developing countries.

You CAN help! Unicef is teaming up with several different restaurants across the state of New York. It turns out that over 21% of children in developing countries don't have the means to a clean water supply. In turn, you take a look at disease caused by unclean water, which calculates out to 80% of all illness and and infant mortality. These numbers are no joking matter. As Americans, we are given a gift of technology and cleanliness. Many other countries around the world, however, are not given such a blessing.

Here's how the team of Unicef, and the state of New York come in to play:

With $1, Unicef is able to provide 40 liters of water that is safe to drink. This is enough to serve one child for 40 day, or 40 children for one day. At many New York diners, they are now beginning to accept a gift of $1 for a glass of water ordered with a meal. This dollar will go to Unicef to help provide these thirsty children with water.

I love this idea, and hope that more people can take a hint from this, and maybe more restaurants around the country can start doing the same. Just think that if all of your favorite restaurants did this, how much water we could provide for drinking and how many people we can help in this world.

It really doesn't take much to make a massive difference in this world.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/tap_project_1_f.php

Pesticide Regulation

This article from the Strib http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1071203.html details legislative proposals to curb use or increase regulation of some of the common pesticides used in Minnesota farming. Chemical castration? Not so fun. This is a great example of an opportunity for us to directly impact environmental and agricultural change... write your state legislators!

Telling Us What We Already Know

It's not genes, but the terrible large-portioned food we consume that's at the heart of our obesity problem. Unnutritious, calorie-laden foods plague our meals as excercise simultaneous declines. Mass production foods aren't just bad for the environment, but bad for people as well.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/fastfood.html

We're going to Heartland!

Class,

Alright, we're going to have a field trip! I've just talked with Lenny Russo from Heartland Restaurant and he's agreed to talk with our class about how their business incorporates local and environmentally sustainable food choices into their menu. Yes, that's right, we're actually going to meet outside of the classroom for class. We'll talk about this tomorrow in class.

We'll meet there MONDAY at 12:20, so you'll have enough time to get there from your last classes or committments. Carpool if you need to. I will expect everyone to be there at 12:20, so we can be ready for Lenny by 12:30. Don't be late!

Check out Heartland's website at http://www.heartlandrestaurant.com/ You can find information about it and directions on that site. However, the address is 1806 St. Clair Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105.

-Jay

Keep those pesky little GMOs out of my Jones!

Effective January 1st, 2007, Jones Soda Company took their canned sodas and pitched the high fructose crap syrup and began using pure cane sugar. Come mid 2007, they'll begin using the pure cane sugar in their bottled sodas as well.

Jones Soda is well known for their common soda flavors such as Cherry, Root Beer, and Cream Soda, but is also infamous for oddball soda flavors such as Turkey and Gravy, Split Pea Soup, and Antacid Flavored Soda.

This change is not necessarily being made because it is healthier and better for the environment. but because there are consumers out there that really have a heavy belief that it is. More than anything, this is a way to sell more product. It's basically to better the company, but is at the same time pleasing the consumer.

In any sort of large amount, neither sugar nor corn syrup is actually healthy for a human, and saying that one is better is basically just a contradictory comment. The consumer, however, is more enthralled to but something that is natural, rather than something that they know has been modified.

You can find this information, and information about Jones Soda in general at the following websites:

http://www.slashfood.com/2006/11/30/jones-soda-eliminates-hfcs/

http://www.JonesSoda.com

Well look at that. Jones just got some free publicity. Yay Jones!

locally produced geese on the soup kitchen menu

The article I found this week discusses the tradition of raising ducks and geese for local market in Europe and Asia. It talks about how hard it is to find a fresh one in most u.s. grocery stores or at the butchers. Chicken is everywhere, and goose is hard to come by. Wild goose is a delicate treat, if prepared properly, and has a low fat content. The article goes on to talk about a communitity of detroit suggesting a mass euthanization will reduce thousands of "nuisance geese" infesting 10 kilometers of the towns shoreline, donating bird carcasses to detroit soup kithchens struck the group as a great idea. These geese could carry unsafe contamination levels though. Something to think about!!! More info at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/locally_produce_2.php

Global warming makes strange bedfellows

Al Gore, global climate change, and the leading advocate of American cars in Washington?

Biotech seed company Monsanto and their desire to cash in on global climage change?

Find out how these corporations and individuals are all dealing with the emerging mainstream realization (finally) that significant global climate change is happening. Sounds like the issue is being taken off the back burner and is heating up our national debate.

American Public Media's Marketplace link to the audio:

http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/marketplace/pm/2007/03/21_marketplace.mp3

Jay

Group blasts FDA plan to allow food from clones

in this article the FDA has past a law that you may use clones to produce milk and other animal products. the only problem one group is saying is that the FDA did not conduct a safe test to tell us about the side effects. they also have to be thinking about the animal cruelty and the ethics of this program. this group also says that we shouldn't rush into this that we have to make it perfect before going any further

Eating Better than Organic

In the March 2 Issue of Time Magazine there is an article discussing the difference between "organic" foods and "local"foods. It gives the example of two apples, side by side, for sale in New York City. One labeled organic, grown in California and one labeled local, produced somewhere in New York State. It brings the publics attention to the fact that a product labeled "organic", yet has been flown or trucked from one end of the country to the other may not be better for the environment than one that has been produced right down the road with the use of pesticides.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1595245,00.html

Izzy's is Solar

This posting is about the famous Izzy's Ice Cream shop in St. Paul and their movement to solar power just over a year ago. They installed 200 solar panels and began to draw power from them in Nov. 2005. These panels have cut Izzy's power demand by 30% and when they are not needing all of the energy they are selling it back to the power grid of St. Paul. They claim that this is the first "shop" in the U.S. to be running on solar power. They are setting a great example for the rest of the culinary field and all business owners. Everyone doing just a little bit will make a big difference. The site also has links to www.bpsolar.com, a nd a few other green energy websites. The original article can be found at http://www.izzysicecream.com/solarproject/.

Sustainable, or Maybe Just "More Sustainable"

A billion people in the world are obese and just as many are starving. Is it possible to have a completely sustainable lifestyle or just a "more sustainable" lifestyle? Test your knowledge on many aspects of a sustainable lifestyle by taking several quizes. Tons of links and loads of information for those interested in living a more sustainable lifestyle, or just learning more about it.
www.sustainablefood.com

What effect does the vegetarianism have on a food chain?

If all people became vegetarians the human food chain would just be simplified from plant-animal-human and longer chains to just plant-human. This would have many beneficial effects for both people and the environment. People now often eat too few fruits and vegetables and get too much saturated fat from animal sources, which is a leading cause of heart disease. There are also problems of contamination of animal food sources, such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Mad Cow Disease.

For the rest of the article you can go to....
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/aug2001/997846886.Bt.r.html

Food Miles

Food miles are a measurement of the distance food travels to get to our plates. This article explains what food miles are, why food travels so far, and what we can do to lower food miles. I think that this is important today because the average food item travels 1,200 miles to get to the consumer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/foodmiles.shtml

-Jake

Global warming affects start of salmon season

This article was interesting. They talk about the late spawning of salmon, and how the fish have been thrown in to confusion by the climate. Some of the fish caught on opening day for the past five years are fish that haven't spawned yet. About 60%. Some of the anglers want to change the opening date from the month of January to February. They say that it isn't right to disturb breeding fish. I think that it isn't right to disturb animals when they are breeding it can affect the species in the long run.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=143&art_id=iol1168932790290S522

Phillip White