Great Shape! Inc. In the News

Here we go! Great Shape! Inc. and the SuperKids Literacy Project is making waves in the news.
And I am on my way to participate in this humanitarian mission to empower the Jamaican children and communities with access to education and health care.

http://www.kptv.com/video/21426315/index.html

Reports from the field soon come!
One Love!

NEWSFLASH: credit_may_flow

While I normally steer clear of straightforward politics here, I think this is especially worthy of note:

From Irish Times Friday 30th October:

QUOTE BEGINS

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan is to amend the legislation covering the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to give him powers to direct the banks to provide a flow of credit.

QUOTE ENDS

This is, basically, what the entire country has been shouting about for the last eon. Finally. Why wasn't it like this in the first place?

programme for government 2009: the organic bits

The commitments in the new programme for government to organic farming will be warmly welcomed by the organic sector.

With such a difficult budgetary situation, and the image organic food has, rightly or wrongly, as being somewhat elitist, the re-emphasis of the commitment to 5% Utilisable Land Area as organic was a significant achievement.

The context naturally worked well for the Greens who obviously felt they deserved some compensation after the local elections.

The shrinking overall majority, coupled with fear of an election also surely contributed.

Here's what the programme for government says in full on organic:

�Ensure the achievement of the target of 5% of land in organic agriculture and meet the growing demand for domestically produced organic produce by providing adequate resources and supports for the achievement of the target, with a focus on import substitution in areas where Ireland is under producing at present e.g. horticulture. Beginning in 2010, and rising in subsequent years, stepping up supports for the Organic Farming Scheme for conversion to organic production, Capital Grants for the Organic Sector and Non-Capital costs.�

There are a number of interesting elements in this. First is the fact that there are actually details: previously there was just a statement of intent.

The emphasis on import substitution is especially noteworthy. Focusing in on horticulture may, to a cynic, reflect the minister's own north county Dublin constituency, but it also represents a real area of growth potential.

There are many hundreds of people trained in organic horticulture in Ireland, while few have moved over into full time production.

The commitment to supports �rising in subsequent years� is eye catching to say the least. Indeed, the fact that all organic supports are back, having been suspended until now, is very significant.

These include the capital grant aid, which was suspended before the organic farming scheme itself earlier in the year.

In completely uncertain times, this element of the progrmame for government should help farmers who are thinking about organics:

"This firm commitment should encourage farmers who might be considering the organic option for the first time to take it a step further and prepare to apply for support in 2010", Minister Sargent said in a statement accompanying the document.

It would be inconceivable if these commitments were reneged upon in the upcoming budget.

There are other interesting elements in the programme from an organic farming perspective. The commitment to GM free is far stronger than the previous quite vague, aspirational commitment.

Not only does the new programme commit to �Declare the Republic of Ireland a GM-Free Zone, free from the cultivation of all GM plants�, �a voluntary GM-Free logo for use in all relevant product labelling and advertising, similar to a scheme recently introduced in Germany� is being introduced.

This element of the programme has received much negative press, mainly in relation to the price and availability of feed.

However, there are counter arguments. It is claimed by GM free Ireland that there is ample affordable GM-free feed availability. They cite availability from Brazil, where they claim 45% of soya produced is now GM free.

Indeed, they claim that � France imports around 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes of Non-GM soya annually, equivalent to Ireland's total soy feed imports for 2007�.

They go on to claim that while GM free soya is charged at a premium, the premium is recouped with a mark up for GM-free labelled produce.

It is also the case that farming in Ireland is less feed dependent that farming elsewhere: Ireland has a very long grass growing season. The potential to aim for the higher end, grass fed, GM free and occasionally even organic markets across the EU and further afield is certainly there.

This will involve a leap of faith into a brave new world of finding better paying markets, but that is a task surely worth taking on.

It's gettin hot in here, so take off over to Celsius

I've often mentioned sites I've linked to over there on the left, but haven't mentioned Celsius before. We'll, I've dropped over a few times recently, and it is great. V web 2.0 in an environmentally aware way.

There, I learned about the Yes Men's latest prank, about Michael Moore's new film and about They Might Be Giants' simply beautiful eco science for kids videos. That's all in the last week.

Of these three, I've linked to the vid, as its just so damn cute: all Air meets care.......and, unusually for an eco themed song and vid, it's pitched just right: have a look below!

So, I would also highly recommend Celsius as a place to go for inspiration.

celebrity organic farmers

Many celebrities like to wax lyrical about organic food. However, some don't just talk about it, they produce it too.

Michelle Obama's organic garden at the Whitehouse was perhaps the most high profile recent development in the organic celeb world.

Not since Roosevelt's victory garden of the 1940s has there been a proper garden at Pennsylvania Avenue's most famous address.

The plot has a full 55 vegetable and fruit varieties, and was part planted by local school children. Michelle Obama has apparently even enlisted her husband to do a bit of the weeding.

Planted in consultation with the Whitehouse's chefs the organic vegetable garden will provide food for the first families' meals.

However, according to the first Lady, the main function of the garden will be educational: informing children of the benefits of healthy, local fruits and veg. This is contextualised by the US's especially severe obesity and diabetes concerns.

Evergreen rock star Sting is also a high flying organic celeb. His 300-hectare estate in Tuscany currently produces extra virgin olive oil, chestnut and acacia honey, jams, fruit and vegetables. He is also about to release 30,000 bottles of his own Chianti and Toscana red wines onto the market.

Liz Hurley's organic credentials are especially well known. Her more modest but still impressive 160 hectare holding is in Gloucester.

This is a mixed holding managed by her brother, which carries traditional breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs: Gloucestershire cattle, Gloucester Old Spot pigs, Shetland and Lleyn sheep.

As well as also growing cereals and wholesaling meat direct, Hurley is launching what she is labelling �a guilt free meat snack� in Harrods next month.

This is essentially a US style Beef Jerky. Its guilt free because of the organic and traditional breeds dimensions, and because, according to farmer Liz herself �It is made from air dried strips of organic silverside and is high in protein and low in fat, making it the perfect snack for anyone following the Atkins or any other lo-carb diet� It is also free from MSG and Nitrates, and is "only 74 calories a bag."

Hurley has teamed up with perhaps the highest profile organic farmer of them all, Prince Charles, to start to develop new products.

Charles Windsor (his real name) has been farming organically since 1986, which puts him in the category of organic pioneer.

The Home Farm at Highgate is an organic demonstration farm, which carries rare breed animals such as Tamworth pigs; Irish Moiled, Gloucester, Shetland and British White cattle, as well as Hebridean and Cotswold sheep. 140 local families receive a box scheme vegetable delivery from the Royal holding.

Like Hurley, the Prince also has an own brand, Duchy Originals.

A little known fact about organics in Ireland was that former Taoiseach Charles Haughey was one of Ireland's organic pioneers. He farmed in Kinsealy organically, launched IOFGA's organic symbol, and indeed introduced the current regime of funding and state approved certification, in 1992.

What does it mean for the less famous farmer? One one level, the attention and profile can do the organic sector some good: people ape celebrities, and meida attention directed at organic products can help.

Haughey certainly aided the professionalisation of organic farming in Ireland. Also the various projects and initiatives are often very worthwhile.

However celeb endorsement can make organic seem a million miles away from reality.

It is also extremely easy for the likes of Sting and Liz Hurley to sell their products; they are products already, and their food is just another part of the global brand. Achieving publicity is hardly a problem for them.

It is also the case that the realities of the market mean nothing to multi millionaires: they are hobby farmers who distort the market, whatever about good intentions.

Those with a policy or politics dimension - Charles Windsor, Michelle Obama and the late Charles Haughey � just seem less annoying when they talk or talked about organics.

Indeed, in the main their behaviour has annoyed the conventional farming and food sectors.

All told, celebrity endorsement of organic is a peculiar sort of double edged sword -easy to spot but hard to avoid in equal measure.

KPBS Special

The Botany of Desire

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m.

KPBS

A documentary film by Michael Schwarz

- based on the book by Michael Pollen

The apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato are the stars of the film adaptation of journalist Michael Pollan's best-selling book, The Botany of Desire. The two-hour documentary, which takes the same name, also features Pollan himself. It begins in the author's own home garden before the film journeys to the apple orchards of Kazakhstan, the tulip markets of Amsterdam, a medical marijuana hot house and the potato fields of South America. These four famous plants share histories with corresponding human desires-for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control over food production. The developmental relationship between human beings and the plants is what Pollan calls "the botany of desire." In this coevolution, Pollan argues, human beings are as controlled as in control. "It makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees," he writes.

A professor at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, Michael Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of many books. Producer and director of The Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by The New York Times and The Washington Post. It won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and the James Beard Award for Best Food Writing and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan is also the author of A Place of My OwnSecond Nature. and

Michael Schwarz has produced numerous documentary films and won several Emmy awards for his work.

Visit the PBS Botany of Desire website for complete details, video downloads, and more.

Best of the Best!

People�s Co-op has been nominated by San Diego CityBeat as one of the Top Five Health Food Stores in town!

Tell San Diego that Your Co-op is Number One!

Vote by clicking here Voting will end on October 25 with results being announced in the November 11 BEST of San Diego issue of San Diego CityBeat.