April 26, 2003

THE BEGINNING

WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST

* Military industrial food complex
* Nearly everyone (lack of consciousness), FEAR
* Fossil fuel depletion
* Protein based diet (takes more space, labor and fuel)
* Monoculture/globalization
* GMO contamination- biodiversity loss, biological ownership
* Petrochemicals-pesticides, insecticides
* Soil erosion (loss of thickness of a dime per year)
* Population (emulating western standards)
* Convenience
* Current business model
* Cargil (centralization/ rel. to all of the above)
* Marketing/propaganda

COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS FOR OUR BIOREGION

* Conscious community
o Indymedia/take back the media
o Know thy neighbor
o Build bridges to current systems
* Cooking with biomass/solar/methane/etc
* TRUE cost accounting/analysis
o Living wage labor
o Environment
o Quality of life
o Integrity/honesty is valued
* Labor intensive
* Food preservation
o Storage
o Root cellars
o Sundried
o Canning
o Fermented
* Our neighborhoods
o Rooftop gardens
o Community plots and kitchens
o Break up pavement
o CSA’s for neighborhoods
* Change in diet
o Animals in the city
o Indigenous
o Seasonal
o Some dead cousins
* Change farming practices
o Diversity v monoculture
o Outreach
o Teach by example
* Change money system
* Civil participation
o Land use and design
* Storage of food
* Transportation
o Humanpower
o Pedal power
o Electric/biodiesel
o Hydro cells
* Appropriate technology
o Greenhouses
o Geothermal
o Wind
o Solar
o Hydro
* Education for all
o Wholistic
o Nutrition
o Ecoliteracy
o Food
o Agriculture
o Unschooling
* Seed banks and savers
* Illustrate where money REALLY goes
* Non-exploitative and fair trade food
* Appreciation and gratitude ( sacred interconnectedness)
* Repopulate the countryside
* FANTASTIC FOOD

IMPORTANT THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Aren’t we dancing around the real issue? Deepen…… aren’t we a violent species by nature? We need a place to put our violence. The darkness, when we pretend it doesn’t exist, it just gets worse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

* Savage Inequality -Kozol
* Beyond Beef
* This Organic Life
* Seed to Seed
* Sarvodaya -Aria Ratne
* Stolen Harvest
* Noam Chomsky
* Wendell Barry
* Diet For A New America -Tim Robbinson
* Stolen Future
* Small Wonder -Barbara Kingsolver
* Guns, Germs and Steel

Please choose one topic above and write an essay about that topic, then write an essay on how it relates to the rest of our list. This will not be graded! Have fun!