Based on an article from the Blog of the Park Slope Food Coop’s Environmental Committee.

The village of Wildpoldsried, in Germany, produces 321% more energy than they need to cover the villages’ needs. Because of their investment in eco-friendly technology, such as wind turbines and solar panels, the village is now able to make money by selling energy back into the grid. At their current rate of energy production the local population, of 2,600, is making about $ 5,7 million in revenue per year. Not bad.

Wildpoldsried (source Wikipedia)

The village mayor visits and advices other communities about how they too can make the energy shift, and the village council offers tours to people who want to learn about energy efficiency.

Wildpoldsried offers inspiration to us all. It is possible to be energy self-sufficient!

For more information, visit Coop’s Committee Blog, or read this more extensive article.

The growth of the vegetarian movement is astonishing. Twenty years ago, the word was virtually unknown, so when it was announced you were vegetarian, the barrage of questions seemed unending… foreign? Not any longer. Strange how much things change in a short 20 years.

Today though, it is so common that in most countries and cities in the U.S. and abroad, you can dine like a king or queen on some of the best vegetarian food available anywhere. Italy is no exception, and with their well known culinary expertise, it’s likely you’ll feel like you have dined and gone to heaven.

Italy is such an amazing country – nearly every place you visit is steeped in history and art – the landscapes display fields of fresh crops, and rows and rows of some of the most spectacular gardens imaginable.

It definitely has it’s mind on growing fresh food in the most unusual places – as is evident in the hillsides and in the unique terrain used. Its as if each piece of land is usable to grow something – anything, regardless of the unusual geography.

Hills are full of fruit trees, and rows and rows of veggies, and lots of grape vines. Yes, Italians love their vino!

Its no wonder that finding a great veggie eatery is so easy in Florence, the city well known as the birthplace of Michelangelo and the home of his ‘David’.

More…. Social Expat

With the number of vegetarians in the world increasing, to the tune of 10 percent per year – due to the realization that lifestyle is more beneficial in sustaining health, longevity and prevention of disease, it comes as no surprise that in most parts of the world, finding a good vegetarian eatery is not as challenging as one might think.

Truth be told, Italians have been partial to vegetables, breads and pasta for centuries, especially in the impoverished areas where meat was not as readily available because of cost or convenience. So you won’t be startled to learn that when I visited Tuscany, and sat at a meal table asking “Sono vegetariana,” I got nods and smiles, and nobody made a face. “Non c’è problema” was the response. (no problem!)

My father and grandmother came over the ‘big drink’ to the U.S. in 1921 in search of a better life – and since money was tight, my family ate a lot of pasta e fagiolio (pasta and beans), and a dish my family called poparelle, made with baked, crusted cornbread (polenta) and sautéed greens which was popular in Abruzzo …and many other vegetarian dishes, including every possible way imaginable to smother and enhance polenta.

Happily this truth remains today – and finding a great meal that has nothing but ‘good fresh stuff’ is easy to find and promises a treat to any palate, after all, the Italians are known for their extraordinary food. Who would turn down a steaming plate of penne pasta smothered in marinara sauce?

The more populated areas seem to be offering more and more ‘exclusive’ vegetarian restaurants, and Tuscany is definitely one of them.

Tuscany – with it’s amazing wineries, world-renowned art museums and rolling hills that lead to beautiful beaches and coves, offers more than a place steeped in history, and beauty. It offers meals exclusively tailored to those of us who refrain from flesh.

It’s most popular vegetarian restaurants are well known and highly established. Finding them should be as easy as asking a hotel concierge or taxi driver, and from the reviews, they are worth seeking.

Read More:  Social Expat

For more info visit: http://gmofilm.com/

Last week Dreamriver Press supported Ecovillage Movement NYC‘s screening of “A New We.” About 100 people showed up for the screening, demonstrating the strong interest in new sustainable models of living. The event was hosted by the Brecht Forum in NYC.

In “A New We” Austrian filmmaker Stefan Wolf traveled through Europe to explore 10 well established eco-communities. As stated on the film’s website, www.newwe.info, the lives shown in the documentary are more motivated by imagination, vision, respect and cooperation than by economic forces and social expectations. In the 10 communities the creative solutions to many social, environmental and economic challenges exemplify the nearly infinite capacity of humans for self-development through living in community.


Before the film, a short introductory presentation was be made by Jonah ‘Cecil’ Scheib, who is a founder of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, has lived in 5 different intentional communities and is the current Director of Energy and Sustainability at New York University. Cecil stayed on after the screening and answered many questions from the audience.
 
One of the sponsors of the evening was the Fellowship for Intentional Community, which also distributes a fascinating documentary on intentional communities in the United States. The film is called “Visions of Utopia.” For more info visit www.ic.org
 

The following passage if from Meagan O’Nan‘s blog entry 10/12/2011:

“Imagine having a conversation with someone whom you don’t know or someone whom you think you know…what would you ask them? Perhaps, you would ask them what they do for a living, if they are married or have kids, where they are from, their favorite things, etc.

BUT, what IF all conversations started with questions like, what do you want to be remembered for? Or, at the end of your life what will you look back on and value the most? Yes, I know, these are the questions I have asked in my survey. I feel as though if we were to ask each other these questions then we have a wonderful opportunity to really get to know someone.

Why don’t we get to know someone with questions like these initially? My thoughts are that we don’t want to expose ourselves in fear that we might be rejected by the other person. Just a hunch, and perhaps a bit deep, but a good guess nonetheless. We don’t ask the questions because we don’t want someone to ask us the same questions…not because we don’t love to answer questions like those, but because we want to be heard and we are not sure if that person is really going to hear us AND accept us.

Maybe from now on, I will ask these questions to everyone who crosses my path. Afterall, I want to be remembered for loving others. I believe that loving others is truly taking the chance to hear them and love them for who they are. And if I want to be remembered for loving others then I must be willing to expose myself as well – to be ready to answer the same questions that I ask.”

On October 1st a diverse coalition of organizations, businesses and individuals will begin to march from the Historic Flatbush Food Co-op in Brooklyn, NY to the gates of the White House to ask the Obama Administration to support labeling of genetically engineered foods, also termed “Genetically Modified Organisms” or “GMOs”. The GMO Right2Know March will feature daily events between New York and Washington, DC October 1-16 as hundreds of marchers are expected to walk part or all of the 313 miles to the White House. The route and details on daily events can be viewed at Right2KnowMarch.org.

“Pesticide companies develop Genetically Engineered food crops by combining DNA from plants, animals, bacteria and viruses, to contain or resist pesticide, which results in more pesticides sold and sprayed,” says Michael Hansen, Chief Scientist of Consumers Union. “Genetically engineered foods contain untested novel foreign compounds that can be detrimental to our health, just as they are to the environment and farmers’ livelihoods. American consumers deserve the choice whether they want to eat GMOs, just like their counterparts in Europe and Japan,” says Hansen who will join the Oct 1 NYC Right2Know March kick-off rally at Prospect Park at 11am to 1pm followed by marchers walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to the United Nations.

Dreamriver Press author, Eric Herm, will be one of the keynote speakers when the march ends up in Washington DC on October 15-16.

See the complete press release for the march, or visit Right2KnowMarch.org for more details.

Olivier Clerc, author of Invaluable Lessons from a Frog and The Gift of Forgiveness, will be doing a workshop-ritual at the Coyote Institute, next weekend (September 9-11), in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Based on his latest book, The Gift of Forgiveness, the workshop will focus on teaching a powerful ritual that don Miguel Ruiz bestowed on Olivier Clerc in Mexico, back in 1999. To find out more please visit www.coyoteinstitute.us/forgiveness.html

This is an excerpt from an article by Derek Singleton. Follow the link below to read the complete article.

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Most of us would eat better if we could afford to. I know I would. Even though I’m a proponent of organic farms, grocers and food, I tend to lose my organic appetite when I see the hefty price tag that comes along with it. It may just be a few cents here or there, but multiplied over an entire bill – and then multiplied over weeks and months – the difference adds up.

So what makes organic food more expensive? A major factor is scale. Because most organic farms don’t operate at economies of scale, the amount of man hours required for harvesting and post-harvesting activities is much greater than conventional methods. For the same reason, the cost of marketing and distributing organic food is higher as well.

“The national options really boil down to two distributors: Tree of Life and United Natural Foods. With them being the only major distributors, products often get discontinued and then we have difficulty stocking the item.” – Dan Gilotte, Wheatsville Co-op

In addition to scale, organic food also suffers from an inefficient distribution network that’s still largely based on word-of-mouth business. To manage the organic distribution network, distributors will need to adopt technology that automatically informs grocers of available inventory and pricing. At the same time, grocers will need to invest in technology that allows them to find the right organic distributor at the best price.

Further pushing the price up is the fact that the demand for organic food far outweighs the available supply. All things combined – scale, distribution, supply, and cost – the consequences are creating unequal access to quality food for many Americans.

Read more: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/distribution/organic-food-distribution-network-108161/