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
 

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.

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/

The June issue of The Organic & Non-GMO Report features an interview with farmer-author Eric Herm. To read the interview visit: http://www.thenon-gmoreport.com/articles/june2011/generationsfarmerorganicnongmo.php

Eric Herm, a fourth generation farmer from W. Texas, discusses sustainable farming, local food production, and the critical need for more farmers in America to see themselves as guardians of the land. His book, Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, details commercial agriculture’s strain on natural resources, delicate ecosystems, and the farmer.

Thursday, February 24th – 7:00 pm
Bluestocking Bookstore
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington, Manhattan NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call Bluestockings 212-777-6028
Cosponsored by Sustainable Table

Friday, February 25th – 1:00 pm
New York University
Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health
35 West 4th Street, Room 1080 (10th Floor), Manhattan NY

Saturday, February 26th – 4:00 pm
Brooklyn Public Library
Central Library, Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call the Brooklyn Public Library 917-275-6945

Sunday, February 27th – 6:30 pm
The Commons
388 Atlantic Ave
Brooklyn NY
organized by Leaders in Environmental Advocacy at Pratt (LEAP)
suggested donation $ 5

Tuesday, March 1st – 7:00 pm
The Old Stone House
Washington Park / JJ Byrne Playground
5th Avenue at 3rd Street
Brooklyn NY
Free and open to the public.
For more info, call the Old Stone House 718-768-3195

Eric Herm’s book, Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, was reviewed in Sunday’s, January 9th, edition of the San Antonio Express-News.  The review is by Ed Conroy.  I’ve enclosed the review below:

“Eric Herm, a fourth generation cotton farmer currently working on the family farm near the West Texas town of Ackerly eloquently offers a cautionary tale in his important first book for those of us who take for granted plentiful, relatively inexpensive food at the supermarket.
He succinctly sums up the message of the first half of his book on Page 15, saying “If we persist in following the model of commercial agriculture, we are destined to fail.”
In three engagingly written and well-researched opening chapters dealing successively with the issues farmers face with seed, soil, rain and water, Herm produces a powerful critique of the problems caused by a model of agriculture increasingly reliant upon genetically modified organisms and pesticides.
He also tells the reader a lot about what the world looks like to a 36-year-old man who got off the farm to get an education in journalism, traveled the world, worked as a sports broadcaster, and decided to return to the farm with a new wife (and now a son), where his father and mother still work and live.
In short, he argues that “commercial agriculture” is slowly ruining vital resources to the point where another American Dust Bowl and other farming disasters — such as the continued collapse of commercial bee colonies — are not inconceivable.
Herm offers a wealth of information about growing practices known as permaculture, alternative ways to deal with insect pests, and rainwater harvesting, together with long lists of related books and websites that open up a multitude of possibilities for farmers and gardeners alike.
Having taken the reader to the point where it appears reasonable to have serious concerns about commercial agriculture, Herm launches into a series of prescriptions for curing what ails not only the farm but American society as a whole.
In his book’s second half, Herm leaves the terra firma he knows so well to tackle questions of money, government and social organization and what he foresees as the inevitable end of a petroleum-based economy.
It is here that some of his prescriptions lack the same kind of fact-based research and historical perspective as his analysis and critique of American agriculture.
Rather than analyzing in depth current federal agricultural policies and offering specific alternatives to them, including incentives for getting more young people involved in farming, Herm provides a 10-point guide to the American farmer that centers on disengaging from the mainstream economy and “getting smaller.”
He doesn’t quite say how to do so without going out of business.
On the other hand, his advocacy for cultivation of hemp (not the psychoactive kind) as a source of energy, food and clothing makes a lot of sense.
One does not have to agree with Eric Herm’s prognostications and prescriptions to see that his analysis of American agriculture’s problems is trenchant and troubling.
We can hope this book will add to the consciousness of the need for good food as the key to good health already being encouraged by Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben and many other writers — and spark a healthy debate about the future of the American farm.”

Ed Conroy is a San Antonio writer and critic.

Eric Herm, author of Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth was interviewed yesterday on The Leonard Lopate Show.

Listen to the interview here.