Category: THE ECONOMY & ENVIRONMENT
How man uses the planet for either self-serving financial gain or for sustainability impacts our environment. It in turn determines the survival or destruction of earth as our ecologically based home.
Raw milk consultation outcome published – good news with due credit to the FSA | Artisan Food Law Blog
The pasteurisation of all milk cannot be justified and raw milk vending machines have a place – say the Food Standards Agency. The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) consultation undertaken as a part of its review of the controls governing the sale of raw drinking milk and cream closed on 30 April. True to its word, the FSA published the outcome of this consultation last Friday. Steve Wearne, the FSA’s Director of Food Safety, summarises the outcome in a report for consideration by the Board of the FSA later this month. A full response to the comments submitted is expected to be published before 30 July. The responses – all 536 – were overwhelmingly in support of greater access to raw drinking milk with just four respondents calling for the pasteurisation of all milk. What has the FSA made of them all? Due credit to the FSA for what is, on the whole, good news.
Source: www.artisanfoodlaw.co.uk
Let’s hope the US will follow the UK on this.
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Follow the Honey: 7 Ways Pesticide Companies are Spinning the Bee Crisis to Protect Profits – Food Revolution Network
Michele Simon was a speaker in the 2012 Food Revolution Summit. Recently she released a report, produced in tandem with Friends Of the Earth, to bring attention to the dire situation of declining bee populations caused by pesticides. You can find the report here, and read a summary below. If you like to eat, then you should care about what’s happening to bees. Did you know that two-thirds of our food crops require pollination – the very foods that we rely on for healthy eating – such as apples, berries, and almonds, just to name a few. That’s why the serious declines in bee populations are getting more attention, with entire campaigns devoted to saving bees. A strong and growing body of evidence points to exposure to a class of neurotoxic pesticides called neonicotinoids—the fastest-growing and most widely used class of synthetic pesticides—as a key contributing factor to bee declines. The European Union banned the three most widely used
Source: foodrevolution.org
Transparency is so necessary in the food and pesticide industries.
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Robert Reich Explains America’s Koch Problem
Robert Reich explains how America has a Koch problem.
Source: front.moveon.org
Do you feel the Koch Problem?
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This New Chipotle Web Series About Factory Farming Is Brought to You by This Amazing Marketing Company
See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
After a hugely successful video marketing campaign, Chipotle has come up with a four episode, scripted comedy, "Farmed and Dangerous" a Hulu video series.
See on www.takepart.com
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Morrissey and PETA Team Up to Show the Life Cycle of a Factory-Farmed Chicken
See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution
The legendary singer and animal rights activist lent his talents to an animated film that might just get you to go meat-free.
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
How would you like to be separated from you family at birth only to face a life of incarceration and slaughter? No more factory-farmed chickens, please!
See on www.takepart.com
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My ‘Back to Basics’ Journal: Thoughts on Self-Sufficiency, Sustainability and Survival
I have observed the disintegration of the middle-class including:
(each bulleted item has source material linked to it)
• the actual unemployment rate of over 20%
• the working poor who cannot make ends meet
• increasing poverty, hunger and homelessness
• decreasing government assistance i.e. SNAP cuts planned for millions of dollars
• the decrease of food pantry donations (can be seasonal or economically cyclical)
• residential foreclosures and growing homelessness
In addition, we have been personally experiencing first-hand the descent into challenging times over the last six years. I consider us, and many people like us, part of The Poor Middle Class, as I call it. I do not see a return to the kind of middle class life that our parents enjoyed after WWII. I do not see a return to conspicuous consumption that many of us got away with before 2008. The lines have been drawn. There are the ‘material haves’ and the ‘material have-nots. We have-nots have the opportunity to see things and live life in a very different way. We also do not have to go it alone.
Change can cause panic and fear. It can also be inspirational. We are personally choosing inspiration, with creative solutions and community support. That is what Back to Basics is all about for anyone who wants to live a sustainable life. It involves becoming self-sufficient for future survival and having fun learning how to make the transition. It has given me a new purpose in life, my Ikigai, as one of my Back to Basics articles describes.
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Mid-Century Modern Freak | Harry Seidler | Australian Modernist Architect
See on Scoop.it – Avant-garde Art & Design
Harry Seidler | Australian Modernism
A brief piece on Harry Seidler’s 1950s houses in Wahroonga. Originally aired on ABC TV’s “Collectors” program.
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
Although I was not familiar with the architect, Harry Seidler, I was delighted to see familiar furnishings by Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and other mid 1950’s gems. Since watching the video and going through the 38 page pdf I found, I am awed by his history, his education, his colleagues, his work and his entire life.
HarrySeidler4DecadesVisualBiography (click to view pdf)
I was also struck by how many of the people and places in his career were familiar to me. I felt as if I were seeing a ghost or reading about a long, lost relative.
See on midcenturymodernfreak.tumblr.com
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Codecademy Grows Up With New Pentagram-Designed Brand ID
See on Scoop.it – Social Media, the 21st Century Digital Tool Kit
“The Internet’s premier platform for free education in computer programming had an outdated wordmark. Pentagram’s Eddie Opara came to the rescue with a new visual identity.”
The new branding program would started with Codecademy Reimagined. This was based upon the conclusion that, “if we wanted to grow and mature as a brand, we required a thorough redesign of our entire product.”
WHY A REDESIGN?
REASON #1 – START FRESH
REASON #2 – BRAND MATURENESS
OUR NEW LOOK
PHASE 1
“The first thing we tackled was the logo, as the key centerpiece of our new look.”
Codecademy Identity from Pentagram on Vimeo
PHASE 2
“After defining the main brand pieces with Pentagram (logo, typography, iconography, color), we started applying it internally to our entire web ecosystem by building a comprehensive number of reusable design patterns.”
PHASE 3
“This was the longest, and perhaps most exhausting, of all phases, where we redesigned 70+ webpages in tandem with other collateral material (email templates, slides, apparel, etc).”
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
A brand needs to look like what a company does, is or represents. It should not be literal. That is for amateurs. But when a company teaches code, its brand needs to ‘speak’ code fluently.
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The Dangerous Public Health Consequences Of Calling Little Girls ‘Too Fat’
See on Scoop.it – Global Evolution: Will we be in time?
Girls who are shamed about their bodies at a young age are actually more likely to grow up to be obese.
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
Will we be in time to stop this insanity before more young girls are brainwashed and end up obese or dead?
See on thinkprogress.org
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The Bayer Company has its annual meeting. We must send them this message.
See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution
Alison D. Gilbert‘s insight:
Stop making bee-killing pesticides. In the long run, you are killing all of us. Where do you think you can go to hide from this? The moon?
“A new report by Michele Simon and Friends of the Earth U.S. uncovers the deceptive public relations tactics chemical companies (such as) The Bayer company, Syngenta and Monsanto are using to manufacture doubt about science and fool politicians to delay action on neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides — a key contributor to bee declines. As the bee crisis worsens, these companies are using tobacco-style PR tricks to protect their profits at the expense of bees and our future.” – See more at: http://www.foe.org/beeaction#sthash.EOH2fKo1.dpuf See on twitter.com
