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Michael Pollen's Speaking Schedule April 12, 2010; East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University April 13, 2010; Baltimore, MD. Goucher College April 14 & 15, 2010; Granville, Ohio. Denison University May 12, 2010; San Mateo, CA. College of San Mateo
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Rules Worth Following, for Everyone’s Sake
“If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” The co-founder of Bitch magazine talks about living the Michael Pollan way and the gender politics of the kitchen
Michael Pollan Wants Your Food Rules
“Eat your colors,” an Australian reader’s grandmother used to tell her; now we hear the same advice from nutritionists, citing the value of including as many different phytochemicals in the diet as possible. |
Pollan turns his omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us -- industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves--- from source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the american way of eating.
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On the Road! "The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases," Pollan told NPR's Renee Montagne. "It is responsible for the catastrophic American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs."
Michael Pollan On Vilsack, Agriculture — And Food
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Sponsors
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Freedom’s Laboratory
"To rely on experiment is to doubt authority, to cultivate self-awareness, to seek the reality behind natural appearances and received opinion. The experimental frame of mind encompasses the scientist in her lab, the inventor in his workshop and even (with some literary license) the reflective bohemian, the calculating entrepreneur and the shrewd democratic leader. " Gary Rosen is the chief external affairs officer of the John Templeton Foundation. In his review of Ferris' new book The Science of Liberty he offers a caveat for us all to heed: "Scientists today are understandably eager to shape policy debates on a number of urgent issues (like climate change, to which Ferris devotes much of his closing chapter). But they have to appreciate the many ways in which scientific discourse, even in its experimental mode, makes an awkward fit with democratic politics. Only then will they find it easier to talk to — and persuade — the rest of us."
Read reveiw at: http://www.unscientificamerica.com/buy.php
Mother Nature’s Dow Moore’s Law and the Law of More
"...if Mother Nature had a Dow, you could say that it, too, has been breaking into new (scientific) lows." This one article gives you a wealth of information about where we are now. Take a look! |
President Obama agriculture picks sow confusion
“I’ve never seen conversations before about family farms and really small operations and local agriculture,” says Carol Tucker Foreman, a former assistant secretary of agriculture and now director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. She notes that one thing is certain: "The culture of the department is changing." We at StarChild Science support this important change in the culture of the Department of Agriculture. We are all living within a new awareness about food. Food festivals, eat-ins, farmers markets are all attracting way more people than the expected amount. Even churches now are joining the food movement and having farmers markets of their own.
PRESIDENT OBAMA has said science on his watch will not be "distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda." But when it comes to the political agenda of agribusiness, his own Cabinet, and his party, are letting science down to prop up corn-based ethanol. Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and a leader in the sustainable food movement, said Obama will not make progress on climate change or energy independence — or health care, for that matter — unless America's food system is included in the plan. Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’?
“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”
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Wild Farm Alliance in Watsonville, California has its hands full!
Press Room Action Alerts: Protecting Conservation, Local Foods and Local Economies in the Next Round
“If you spend enough time in nature and allow yourself to slow down sufficiently to let your senses work, then through exposure and practice, you will start to sense the meanings in the sand, the grasses, the bushes, the trees, the movement of the breezes, the thickness of the air, the sounds of the creatures and the habits of the animals with which you are sharing that space,” said Ives. Humans were actually wired to do this a long time ago. Re-thinking the World's Largest New Derivatives Market
Friends of Earth Treasurer explains carbon trading and the danger of an unregulated carbon market. She is avid about fighting for sustainability in the bank sector: The idea that banks should evaluate investments based on social, ethical and ecological as well as financial criteria. Read the article about her in Ode Magazine. |
Crops, ponds destroyed in quest for food safety
"In 16 years of handling nearly every major food-borne illness outbreak in America, I can tell you I've never had a case where it's been linked to a farmers' market," We at StarChild Science would expect this level of thinking, getting rid of ponds etc., from the most ignorant kid in the class! We have a long way to go don't we? "The following is an excerpt from Leaf Litter, a publication of Biohabitats, Inc. The full document can be found at www.biohabitats.com."
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
Obama announces FDA picks, food safety measures
President Barack Obama says the nation's decades-old food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and in need of an overhaul, starting with the selection of a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration. |
Stimulus plans brings green home improvement tax breaks
Now, a $24,000 investment to make a home solar-powered would generate a federal tax credit worth $7,200 E.P.A. Clears Way for Greenhouse Gas Rules April 17, 2009 E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide
Go Girl! E.P.A. Proposes Tracking Industry Emissions 3/11/09 Stimulus package gives a boost to clean energy
Among the incentives, the plan will allow developers of renewable-energy projects to swap tax credits for cash grants.
Read Thomas Friedman's article in New York Times on the bailout. The majority of our children will be employed in some aspect of energy technology in the future. Hide and watch! Just a note to make sure you are aware of where your child could be employed in the near future..... |
The Next Big Green Industry?
"This is a tremendous time to be in the field," he said. "Cities and towns care about creating jobs that can't be outsourced and reducing their carbon footprint and saving people's money, so it has a lot of support." Energy technology is the sector that is yet in its infancy. But, energy tech companies are opening for business at a faster rate than the traditional English pubs are closing. Such is a sign of the times. When you stop and realize the bailout package is asking the taxpayers to come up with $700 billion, that seems like a whole lot of money to a child, a mother, an investor, a bank, a country; like 3 billion non refundable bus fares from Durham to San Francisco, leaving tomorrow, as pointed out by Zephyr Teachout in Personal Democracy Forum. You can't help but blink on this one. With this amount, we are told, we can create a healthy flow of credit once again. But, stop a moment and ask yourself, Is this figure really a whole lot? It behooves one to remember Edward O. Wilson's calculation of our consumption in his book "The Future of LIfe ". He states: "For every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing technology it would require four more planet Earths." We all know every country is striving to be consumers just like us: India, China, Asia, Russia, they all want more and more and more of consumer goods. This demand for enormous amounts of consumption is very real. It is the thing that is a whole lot. Ask Dubai. And it doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that will just flow away, vanish in thin air. Fortunately, the one sector that can furnish this demand is the energy technology sector. It is more than the Biotech or the Internet markets: The Internet market is $100 billion while the green energy market is 6 trillion. That's 6000 billions. And we are asking for $700 billion, or 11% of the size of the total energy technology market to jump-start the flow of credit? A mere pittance of the value of the mother of all markets, the energy technology market. Think about it.
The possibilities for harmonic changes in the quality of our lives are enormous when fueled by the energy technology sector. Not one life will be untouched. There will be chefs like you have never seen doing things with food you could never have predicted, offering the healthiest menus yet known to man and his dog. There will be plumbers who don't need snakes and have no use for flushing, turning a restroom into a quiet place after all where matter just 'flows' away--out of sight. There will be doctors who heal without probing or cutting with a scalpel, a piece of matter; they will probe and cut with light energy instead. There will be water puddles fit for every village child to play in and drink out of with impunity. There will be surfboards that will be invisible to sharks from underneath the water, and skateboards that can pilot themselves around a tree. There will be music from leaves and clouds. Our world is about to change and it behooves every parent to listen up! Change is coming indeed! This Is Not a Test. This Is Not a Test. Unfortunately, the president may have to look the American people in the eye and explain that “fairness is not on the menu anymore.” All that’s on the menu now is whether or not we avoid a system meltdown — and this will require rewarding some new investors.
"It makes no sense to spend money on green infrastructure — or a bailout of Detroit aimed at stimulating production of more fuel-efficient cars — if it is not combined with a tax on carbon that would actually change consumer buying behavior." Tom Friedman |
Lawmakers, businesses jockey for 'green' jobs
Wil Cashen sees "unimaginable potential". We Need a Clean Energy Bank
I call on you and Congress to create a Clean Energy Bank that will immediately replace purchases of fossil fuels with manufacturing, finance, engineering, installation and maintenance and repair jobs. Elevating Science, Elevating Democracy
When the new president went on vowing to harness the sun, the wind and the soil, and to “wield technology’s wonders,” I felt the glow of a spring sunrise washing my cheeks, and I could almost imagine I heard the music of swords being hammered into plowshares. DENVER'S DRIVING CHANGE PROGRAM REDUCES VEHICULAR CO2 EMISSIONS
Engine idling, fast accelerations and fast stops can cause increased CO2 emissions for every one of us who drives a car. Enviance is an Environmental management software company that helps you know what your carbon dioxide emissions are in a town, city, state, country. Enviance can track carbon dioxide emissions that affect our lives in many different ways, not just from our driving style: It can track these deadly emissions that are important to our public health departments, environmental safety departments, air quality control departments, water quality control departments. We will be seeing news releases about Enviance more frequently now that the present administration has taken a responsible position on carbon dioxide emissions. To view Enviance application areas click to: http://www.enviance.com/partners/application-areas.aspx |
An $80 Billion Start
As ambitious as this measure is, it should not be confused with a global warming bill.
How stimulus could boost green technology
The stimulus bill would create a 30 percent investment tax credit for factories making renewable-energy equipment, such as solar cells, wind turbine blades and advanced batteries. Are Chemists, Engineers on Green Jobs List?
"...the country and world are still not engaged seriously in advancing non-polluting energy technologies, from solar cells to the elusive notion of capturing carbon dioxide from power plants at a large scale and stashing it somewhere." Andrew Revkin New York Times
There has to be a system that permanently changes consumer demand, which would permanently change what Detroit makes, which would attract more investment in battery technology to make electric cars, which would hugely help the expansion of the wind and solar industries — where the biggest drawback is the lack of batteries to store electrons when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.
Investor: Renewable Energy Needs Federal Funding
The only source of that capital today is going to be some help from the federal government," Lane tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. And he says that help would take the form of loan guarantees, tax incentives and grants.
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Well Ladies, Let's clean up the kitchen! This book is a must for every citizen.
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E.P.A. Pick Vows to Put Science First
“If I am confirmed, I will administer with science as my guide. I understand the laws leave room for policymakers to make policy judgments. But if I am confirmed, political appointees will not compromise the integrity of E.P.A.’s technical experts to advance particular regulatory outcomes.” Lisa Jackson was confirmed January 22, 2009 as Administrator of the EPA. |
For an excellent paper on community see Dee Hock's paper on community. Dr. Wilken has presented Hock's thoughts in his Community of Minds web site.
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Chu Confirmation Update: Answering for Past Statements
"All I can say is, we really need to do all these things." Dr.Chu was confirmed on January 20, 2009 Dr. Chu
Who Knew, Dr. Chu? Dr. Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for using lasers to cool atoms to temperatures just above absolute zero. Now, he is planning on cooling the environment. |
All right reserved - Judy Wilken MS - 2010