Food, Inc.
For an an up close and personal look at the American food industry, don’t miss Robert Kenner’s new film, Food, Inc. Movies like Super Size Me and King Corn first introduced me to our postmodern U.S. food monster––one of the many reasons I decided to plant a garden.
Live Green Living Lecture at Auburn University
Well, our lecture would have been live if AU’s firewall would let us record. Boo. BOO. Sorry, friends.
BUT you can see our lecture notes and slides here.
Land Mine Photography
Friends Allan E. Schoening and Blessing Marie are in a contest to shoot their dream assignment, raising awareness for land mine atrocities, but they need our votes to stay in the top 20 and be considered for the $50,000 grant. The project has even been picked up on the UN’s blog (!). Here’s the info on registration and voting. Thanks for your help!
Perfectionism
The curse of a perfectionist, even a slow one, is not to begin a project because one thinks he will not be able to do it perfectly or even half-assed well, as so many disheveled looking artist-types with ugly blazers and bad hair that make you want to be just like them. Such is a day like today for me. I ignored the internet while accomplishing other tasks like making a yummy breakfast, reading, re-hemming a pair of jeans, fixing a hole in another pair, walking to the alterations place to get the waistbands fixed (such seamstress-ing is at present beyond my grasp), and chatting with my new neighbors about our landlord. But such ignoring is not without its consequences. Because I always feel bad about the things that I’ve left undone. I’m slowly learning to pry such feelings out of my heart’s ninja grip, but that is another slow process. So I feel bad about not posting much on the blog today, or finishing cleaning the dining room, or finishing organizing my negatives, or finishing / starting about a billionty other projects I have in my studio / brain. But right now this is me, doing something imperfectly. Jesus help me to embrace it and move on with doing things.
The Danger of Soy
From Tara Leigh Cobble’s nutritionist in Dallas comes a thought provoking article on why soy isn’t all we hoped it would be. I’m telling you, endocrine disruption is bad news.
“The Story That Berenger Wrote When I was Four Years Old”
Once upon a time in a far away land there was a little girl, and her name was Auntie Mo. And there was a squirrel on her head, and she zoomed away. The End.
By Berenger Ayers (my four-year-old nephew)
Ladies…
I present to you The DivaCup. And it is AWESOME.
Seeds to Buy
The following seed companies have passed my non-Monsanto test (the search being for organic, open-pollinated, non-GE seed):
- Seeds of Change
- Redwood City Seed Company
- Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
- Heirloom Seeds
- Native Seeds / SEARCH
I greatly look forward to ordering new seeds come April and companion planting them according to my little diagram. I love a good plan.
Avoiding Monsanto Seeds
Once upon a time, Burpee Seeds would have been my go-to for the garden. But in a world of questionable corporate takeovers, I can no longer rely solely on Grandma and Mom’s tried and true wisdom. To know who I’m really doing business with—thus putting my money where my mouth is in terms of living Green—I must research. And while Burpee isn’t OWNED by Monsanto (they deal with Seminis, one of Monsanto’s “dedicated platforms”), I’d like to avoid everything that Monsanto has on the market. Why would I make such a broad, overarching statement about a single multinational corporation? For the answer we need a (comparatively) brief history lesson of Monsanto (wikipedia).
Facebook Quizzes, Why do I take them??
So a friend just challenged me to take Dr. Phil’s personality test. And I did. My roommates in college were all addicted to personality tests, so nostalgia is partly why I keep returning to them. Here were my results:
“Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who’s constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not one to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who’ll always cheer them up and help them out.”
I certainly hope alot of those things are true, but “someone who’s constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not one to let it go to their head”? Me? I don’t think so. That’s Dr. Phil’s canned assessment of my “entering a party quietly and looking for someone I know.” Are such Facebook quizzes just self-congratulatory or our attempt to get encouragement? (Because who is honestly going to make a quiz with results that tell you you’re insecure and boring?)
