Posts Tagged ‘Joel Salatin’

Posted on May 18, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

FRESH: Capitol Hill Screening & Associated Events

We’re so incredibly excited that FRESH is going to be screening on Capitol Hill on Friday, 5/21/10.  We’ve invited all of your senators & legislators as well as their aides.  Ana Joanes will be on site with Joel Salatin to answer questions after the screening and discuss what the upcoming vote on the Farm Bill, S 510, means for small family farms.  

If you have a relationship with your representative, please call them and invite them again to this special event! Details are below:

WHAT: CAPITOL HILL SCREENING: FRESH
WHEN: Friday May 21, 2010, 4:30-6:30
WHERE: Rayburn House Office Building Foyer
DETAILS: Special screening of FRESH for legislators and staff

Do you want to get hyped up with FRESH while the legislators are viewing the film?  We got word that there will be a screening in Odenton, MD (outside Baltimore) on the same evening – we encourage you to attend if you can!

WHAT: FRESH Public Screening
WHEN: Friday May 21, 2010, 6:30 – 9:00 PM
WHERE: Inspired Journeys (1350 Blair Drive Suite E Odenton, MD 21113)
DETAILS: Public Screening of FRESH – come one, come all!
RSVP: http://action.freshthemovie.com/o/5958/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=22162

After the screening we have an incredible reception lined up at Poste Moderne Brasserie, near the White House.  EVERYONE IS INVITED, INCLUDING YOU!  Enjoy some locally sourced (Polyface!) fare, mix & mingle with heavy-hitter foodies from the DC Metro area and meet Ana Joanes and Joel Salatin, who will both be in attendance.

WHAT: FRESH Reception (w/ Joel Salatin & Ana Joanes)
WHEN: Friday May 21, 2010, 7:00 – 9:30 PM
WHERE: Poste Moderne Brasserie (555 – 8th Street, NW Washington, DC 20004)
DETAILS: $50 per person, cash bar.  Proceeds go to helping cover the cost of bringing FRESH to Congress
TICKETS: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/112812 TICKET SALES END THURSDAY, 5/20 – get yours today!!!

Posted on May 10, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

FRESH is coming to Congress!

The National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and FRESH are sponsoring a special screening of FRESH for our legislators.
Has FRESH inspired you? It will also inspire those who make our laws.

The food safety bill is in front of the senate right now.  FRESH will educate our legislators on the benefits of a local food system threatened by S 510. Let’s get our Senators and Representatives there so they can see and understand the unintended consequences S 510 would have on our small farms.

WHEN: Friday May 21, 2010, 4:30-6:30
WHERE: Rayburn House Office Building Foyer
WHAT: Special screening of FRESH for legislators and staff

Ana Joanes, FRESH Director and Producer, and star Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms will introduce the movie, take questions after the screening and speak to legislators on the importance of preserving access to our Fresh foods and the farms those foods come from.

Learn more about FRESH and see a trailer on the FRESH homepage.

ACTIONS:

1. Please help by donating to cover expenses! We are a VERY small team and want to make this screening as dynamic as possible by having Ana Joanes attend.  You can help us do this by donating just $3!  Donate Now!

2. If you’ve already talked with your senators about S 510 please follow-up with the staffer you spoke to and ask them to attend the screening of FRESH.  If you haven’t yet contacted your representative, you can find yours by entering your zip-code here.

Questions or for more information please contact Liz Reitzig liz.reitzig@verizon.net or 301-807-5063

Posted on April 19, 2010 - by Lisa Madison

The Inspirational Side of FRESH Food: The Movie

Guest Blogger Tiffany Finley, Sustainability Strategist, www.paystolivegreen.com

The movie Food Inc. has gained increasing press and viewers that documents the serious jeopardy our food system has fallen into over the past three decades. With vast industrialization, synthetic ingredients have replaced what our Grandparents used to call ‘food’. Now as much as I love learning the facts, I also love positive and inspiring messages, which is where I hope the movie FRESH comes into play!

They are hosting Farm to Table dinners across the Nation with a free movie ticket to the showing. Not a bad deal for a meal, a speaker, and a movie all for only the price of the meal!

Here is an example of one City’s events (Minneapolis, MN). Click through to find events for a City near you!

I would like to invite all of you to also attend an event and the screening so we can see how the different cities took on the challenge of fresh Farm to Table dinners! Feel free to post your thoughts on the dinner, the speaker, and the movie as well. I am excited to attend a dinner, speaking event, and the screening over the next two weeks so for those of you unable to attend, I will be happy to share how it all went!

Here is a little snippet about FRESH the movie:

“FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.”

Joel Salatin, a personal hero and any ’soil’ farmer’s advocate will also be speaking at several events and is featured in the movie, just as a little teaser.

Cheers to taking a healthy dose of reality, responsibility, and re-engaging with that simple yet vital thing called f-o-o-d. See you at the screening!

Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Lisa Madison

A Note on Sacredness & Nobility

Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms, spoke at the TEDxMidAtlantic (similar to TED Talks) recently.  I love his speech on how he has arrived at the place he finds himself now.

“If we devote ourselves to sacredness in our vocations, the world will rise to meet us.”

Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Lisa Madison

What Does the Local Sustainable Food Movement Need?

By: Zachary Adam Cohen
Originally posted on Farm to Table

In order to break through and become a mainstream movement, the local sustainable food movement needs several things to happen.

1. We need leadership

There are too many disparate leaders in the movement. Michael Pollan is an obvious choice, but he’s made his decision to use journalism and education as his tools. And he’s made great strides in educating so many of us, raising our level of awareness and giving many of us our mission statements in life. That in itself will assure that Pollan will be remembered and revered for a long time to come.

But Michael Pollan cannot do it on his own. And neither can Joel Salatin.

We need leadership at every level. In every city, rural community we need civic leaders who are local sustainable advocates. We need people on both the inside and outside of local and state governments who see the redemptive value of local food sheds and work hard to reform.

We need educators, writers, entertainers, and advocates working in concert to drive the conversation forward. No progress will be made unless the American public can be educated and instructed on how to make the necessary changes. This is happening now, but we need to redouble our efforts, use every opportunity to work together, and put down petty differences. It shocks me to realize how many divisions exist within the local sustainable food movement. These division are already slowing our efforts. They will continue to do so if we cannot find a way to work together. I am amazed at how the most minor differences prevent passionate, driven people from working together.

We need to get organized, and quickly. We need website communities, we need local organizations talking to one another.

2. We Need the Business Community to Get On Board

The local sustainable food movement needs, very badly, for entrepreneurs to lead the way. America is a country built on capitalist principles, and despite the shakiness that form of capitalism currently projects, no serious change happens in America without the business community either supporting or leading.

The local sustainable food movement can also benefit from the inclusion and assistance of America’s vast entrepreneurial and finance networks. There is plenty of money to be made in the local sustainable world: healthy profit margins, impressive return-on-investment, and activity in this sphere has the added benefit of healing the land, nourishing our citizens and strengthening our communities. That is a compelling reason to invest.

Investors need to get out there. They need to meet with the farmers and artisans that will create the opportunities. They need to bring their fantastic ability to identify opportunities into the sustainable food world. They will be amazed at what they see.

But there are quarters within the local sustainable movement that are suspicious of American business. After all, wasn’t it our blind pursuit of profit through industrialized methods that gave us the totally broken food system we have now? The answer is Yes and No. The consciousness level is currently at a place where we understand what works and what doesn’t. We have the history, we have the knowledge. We know what doesn’t work. And it’s time for business to recognize what does work, and support it.

The point remains that the local sustainable food movement remains a niche movement unless the amazing energy and persistence of American investors can be geared towards developing the hundreds, even thousands, of local sustainable food opportunities into successful businesses. This is what the business community can do:

Learn the vocabulary of the local sustainable food movement.

Understand and sympathize with the passion and concerns of the farmers, artisans, chefs and others involved in the production and consumption of good food.

Accept the fact that their return on investment may be lower than they are accustomed to.

This last point is a sticky one. The truth is that there is plenty of money to be made in the local sustainable world, but the manner in which it is going to be made will be quite different than the wealth creation heretofore known in this country. We will need investors who understand that it is better to be a part of a business that grows more slowly but that is sustainable, rather than the quarterly focus on growth to which we are accustomed.

3. Government Needs to Reform or Get Out of The Way

As Dawn Gifford laid out in her essay, 13 Ways to Create a Sustainable Food Tipping Point, massive governmental reform is a necessity. We’ve got to end or scale back agricultural subsidies. Government needs to roll back its “Go big or get out” mentality. And perhaps most of all, government needs to stop impeding small sustainable enterprises. We now know that local and federal government often prevents the emergence of real competition by carving out laws that make it nearly impossible for small new businesses to enter and serve new markets. This has to stop.

What are the other developments need to take place in order to bring the local sustainable food movement into the mainstream? Please join the discussion and leave your comments below!

Posted on May 1, 2009 - by ana

Swine Flu & Industrial Hog Confinement Operations

Pigs pigs pigs . . .  and more pigs.  Joel Salatin (Polyface Farms), in an email about the swine flu outbreak, wrote “I guess you saw where Smithfield has a 950,000 confinement hog operation in the locality at the epicenter of the outbreak.  Strange coincidence.”  Reminded me what Russ Kremer said… “When you concentrate a lot of biological organisms, whether it be rats, kids or pigs, you’re going to have problems…” (video here)

But the media is not even discussing any potential link . . . so check this “alternative” article by William Engdahl:
Flying Pigs, Tamiflu, and Factory Farms