Archive for January, 2009
Draft of Superferry Environmental Impact Statement Released
Department of Transportation Draft Statewide Large-Capacity Ferry Environmental Impact Statement
Cool Windows – The Maui Weekly
Click here to go to to the Maui Weekly artice on how to keep your view, and the natural daylight, without overheating your house.
The Edible Schoolyard
How to create and sustain an organic garden and landscape that is wholly integrated into the school’s curriculum and lunch program. It involves the students in all aspects of farming the garden – along with preparing, serving and eating the food – as a means of awakening their senses and encouraging awareness and appreciation of the transformative values of nourishment, community, and stewardship of the land.
Garden classes teach the Principles of Ecology, the origins of food, and respect for all living systems. Students work together to shape and plant beds, amend soil, turn compost, and harvest flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
In the kitchen classroom, students prepare and eat delicious seasonal dishes from produce they have grown in the garden. Students and teachers gather at the table to share food and conversation during each class. The cycle of food production is completed in the kitchen, as students eat fruits, vegetables, and grains grown in soil rich with the compost of last season’s produce.
FROM SEED TO TABLE
Student participation in all aspects of the Seed to Table experience occurs as they prepare beds, plant seeds and seedlings, tend crops, and harvest produce. Through these engaging activities, students begin to understand the cycle of food production. Vegetables, grains, and fruits, grown in soil rich with the compost of last year’s harvest, are elements of seasonal recipes prepared by students in the kitchen. Students and teachers sit together to eat at tables set with flowers from the garden, adults facilitate conversation, and cleanup is a collective responsibility. They complete the Seed to Table cycle by taking vegetable scraps back to the garden at the end of each kitchen class. The Seed to Table experience exposes children to food production, ecology, and nutrition, and fosters an appreciation of meaningful work, and of fresh and natural food.
The Edible Schoolyard website
Site resources:
The site has pages on: A day in the garden , A day in the kitchen, How it works, Lessons, The garden manager, Kitchen lessons & recipes, The chef teacher, Classroom lessons, educational resources, ecoliteracy, teacher liason.
How to start a school garden and kitchen
Includes list of 20 good reasons to have a garden and a kitchen at your school.
The Edible Schoolyard Academy
Creating Garden and Kitchen Classrooms in Every Community
Garden of Eating: Middle School Students Grow Their Own Lunch An Edutopia article.
The Edible Schoolyard: Seed-to-Table Learning
Video presentation of the Edible Schoolyard.
| WEB SITES
Programs Gardens for Growing People. www.svn.net/growpepl Two Angry Moms www.angrymoms.org GRUB www.eatgrub.org Community Alliance with Family Farmers www.caff.org Environment and Sustainability Center For Ecoliteracy. www.ecoliteracy.org The Ecology Center. www.ecologycenter.org Funding Kidsgardening Environmental Protection Agency. www.epa.gov/teachers/grants.htm The Foundation Center. www.fdncenter.org These sites all contain additional resources and links that should prove |
BOOKS
(a partial list)
| The New Oxford Book Of Food Plants. J.G. Vaughan.. Oxford University Press. |
| Rice: From Risotto to Sushi. Claire Ferguson. Rizzoli. |
| The Cook’s Journal. Christopher Warmell. Running Press. |
| Africa, Europe, and Asia: Ready to Use Interdisciplinary Lessons and activities for Grades 5-12. D. Bloom. The Center for Applied Research in Education. |
| Food is Elementary: A Hands-On Curricula for Young Students. Antonia Demas. Food Studies Institute. |
| Potatoes from Pancakes to Pommes Frites. Annie Nichols. Rizzoli. |
| Chez Panisse Vegetables. Alice Waters. Harper-Collins. |
| Chez Panisse Fruit. Alice Waters. Harper-Collins. |
| Bread. Beth Hensperger. Chronicle Books. |
| Food In History. Reay Tannahill. Stern and Day. |
| Slumps, Grunts, and Snickerdoodles: What Colonial America Ate and Why. Lila Perl. Clarion Books. |
| The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Marion Cunningham. Alfred A. Knopf. |
| You Eat What You Are: People, Culture, and Food Traditions. Thelma Barer-Stern. Firefly Books. |
| The Greatest Table: A Banquet to Fight Against Hunger. Michal J. Rosen. Harcourt Brace and Co. |
| Play With Your Food. Joost Elffers. Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. |
| The Food Chronology. James Trager. Henry Holt and Co. |
| Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking. Beacon Press. |
| Material World. Peter Menzel. Sierra Club Books. |
| Recipes From A Kitchen Garden Volume 2. Renee Shepherd and Fran Raboff. Shepherd’s Garden Publishing. |
| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Harold McGee. Simon and Schuster. |
| Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Photo Cards. CA Nutrition Education and Training Program. Ca Dept. of Ed. |
| A Taste of Heritage. The New African–American Cuisine. Joe Randall and Toni Tipton-Martin. Macmillan. |
| Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections From African-American Churches. Joyce White. Harper Collins. |
| Everything You Pretend to Know About Food And Are Afraid Someone Will Ask. Nancy Rommelmann. Penguin Books. |
| How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods. Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers. Scholastic Press. |
| Women In the Material World. Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel. Sierra Cliub Books. |
| The New Guide to Fruit. Kate Whiteman. Lorenz Books. |
| Food. Weverley Root. Smithmark. |
| The Gourmet Alter: The History, Origin and Migration of Food of the World. Susie Ward. Macmillan. |
| Fast Food Nation. Eric Schlosser. Houghton Mifflin. |
| The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. Wendell Berry. Sierra Club Books. |
| From the Good Earth. Michael Ableman |
| The Green Machine. Polly Cameron |
| Kids Cook Farm Fresh Food, Sibella Kraus. CA Dept. of Education |
| Kids in Gardens: Student Education Program, Aquatic Outreach Institute |
| Teaching Organic Farming and Gardening, Albie Miles and Martha Brown, eds. University of Santa Cruz |
JUNK: Sailing to Hawaii on 15,000 plastic bottles
Click here to see the story of a raft made of plastic bottles and a Cessna airplane hull sailed by three people from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu in the summer of 2008.
They observed and sampled the surface of the ocean that, as a result of the billions of tons of plastic waste world-wide, has now become a “plastic soup” and presents a major challenge for us to clean up.
No-dig Gardening
A productive vegetable garden that only needs watering every 10 days!
The technique has been used since the 1977 paperback, “Esther Deans’ Gardening Book: Growing Without Digging,” promoted it as a solution to poor soil, rampant weeds, water shortages and costly food
No-dig is more efficient, water wise, because once a plant has a 10- to 12-inch root system, the layers of compost and straw keep moisture around the roots. And you can keep layering it over and over again as the organic matter breaks down.
• Click here to read the Los Angeles Times article, How Do His Veggies Grow? The No-dig Way.
• Click here to see photos of the no-dig gardening process.
Clean Energy For Maui
Click here to see Chris Mentzel’s slide show for the December 12, 2008 meeting of the Renewable Energy Committee. The summary addresses the questions:
- Why do we need renewables?
- How can we become a sustainable island?
- PV and wind for homeowners.
- Questions & Answers.
Click each slide to advance to the next one.
Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture
Food Declaration.org is based on a belief that the food system must be reorganized on a foundation of health: for our communities, for people, for animals, and for the natural world. The quality of food, and not just its quantity, ought to guide our agriculture. The ways we grow, distribute, and prepare food should celebrate our various cultures and our shared humanity, providing not only sustenance, but justice, beauty and pleasure.
Governments have a duty to protect people from malnutrition, unsafe food, and exploitation, and to protect the land and water on which we depend from degradation. Individuals, producers, and organizations have a duty to create regional systems that can provide healthy food for their communities. We all have a duty to respect and honor the laborers of the land without whom we could not survive. The changes we call for here have begun, but the time has come to accelerate the transformation of our food and agriculture and make its benefits available to all.
The site presents a declaration with twelve principles to frame food and agriculture policy, to ensure that it will contribute to the health and wealth of the nation and the world.
Click here to visit the site.
Policital Action—Food Democracy—Americans for a Sustainable USDA
Food Democracy Now! is a grassroots movement initiated by farmers, writers, chefs, eaters and policy advocates who recognize the profound sense of urgency in creating a new food system that is capable of meeting the changing needs of American society as it relates to food, health, animal welfare and the environment.
They advocate for policies that encourage sustainable, humane, organic and natural food systems.
Fod Democracy Now! has come up with a list of twelve candidates for Under Secretary positions at the USDA. And we’re calling them the Sustainable Dozen.
For details visit and to sign their petition go to the Food Democracy Now! website.
Go Local: South Maui Grocery Ads
As core members of South Maui Sustainability, we are always looking for ways to educate and inform people on sustainability issues. Visitors are always shocked by the costs of our food here. But when you think that 99% of it is shipped or air-shipped to the islands, it is amazing that it isn’t more expensive. We could grow more locally. There isn’t a high demand and our labor costs are high… it seems like a vicious circle.
We are trying to encourage people to look for island-grown produce. As I review the Tuesday paper, we have our big 3 South Maui grocery store flyers. This week, here are the local grown ads. Note: This may not be a complete list and products may not be produced locally – just my best quick assessements and assumptions!
- Safeway –
- Okinawan Sweet Potatoes 8lbs for $10. (mmm…the ad says Locally Grown but then says imported? What’s the deal Safeway? I do know that these grow year round on the islands and are often a good local food.)
- Green Cabbage 8 pounds for $10. Same comment. I hope they don’t grow them locally, ship them to a mainland distribution center and then import them here.
- May’s Hawaiian Teriyaki Beef Patties 6lb box for $15.99
- Meadowgold drinks 64 oz. $1.49
- Foodland –
- Hamakua Cocktail Tomato 16oz. $3.29
- Hawaiian Sun Fruit Drinks or Teas 2 6packs for $5.00
- Aloha Shoyu Soy Sauce – Gallon for $7.99
- Haleakala Dairy Iced Tea Gallon for $4.59
- Love’s Hawaii’s Hearth Breads Selected Varieties $4.29
- Love’s Regular White Bread 1 lb. $3.29
- Diamond Bakery Graham Crakers or Animal Crackers $2.99
- Meadowgold POG Gallon for $4.99
- Hawaiian Isles Kona Blend Coffees 10oz Buy 3 – get 1 free (Save $5.99)
- Menehune Water 2 gallons for $5.00
- Local “Gold” Pineapple $0.89/per pound
- Local String Beans $3.99 for 16oz.
- Local Green Bell Peppers $2.19/lb
- Star Market
- Cucumber $1.39/pound
- Head Cabbage $0.89/pound
- Kanai Tofu 16 oz package $3.29
- Kalua Turkey, Chicken or Pork 12 oz package $5.99
- Love’s King sized bread 16 oz $3.39
- Royal Kona Coffee (100% Kona) 8 oz $3.39
- Meadow Gold Yogurts 6 oz $0.99
- Meadow Gold nectars and POG 1/2 gal $2.99
- Meadow Gold Twin Pops 6 pack $2.29
- Hawaiian Sun Frozen Coconut Milk 12 oz. $3.59
- Koha Frozen Mixed Vegetables 16 oz $1.69
That’s it — looks like Foodland and Star Market are neck and neck.
Of note: None of the markets advertised local fish!
South Maui Sustainability 