And these days we are always seeking environmentally friendly alternatives.  Back to school should be no different.  So, do your thing!  Get those supplies; the new backpack, the reusable water bottle, some new shoes and rejoice that your lunchbox doesn’t have to be a sack.

Laptop Lunches to the rescue. They have created a wonderful, washable, reusable bento-box style system that eliminates waste (plastic baggies, etc.).  We are in our second year of using ours.  We even used it daily during summer camp.  Coupled with our beautiful (and machine-washable) Happikins we feel like its been a fabulous solution for us. 

Obviously these are marvelous for adults in the workplace and picnics as well.  But don’t take our word for it.  If you are a Facebook user you can find over 6,000 folks sharing their experience, or visit the Laptop Lunches website or blog where you can join their RSS feed for weekly recipes.  Right now they are up for an award from SheKnows.com in the Best Lunch Box category – so vote if you love their lunch boxes! 

For those of you that would like to find the best deal on a Laptop Lunchbox, enter code SURFCITY to save 10%

More importantly, residents of Santa Cruz County who saw the article and would love to have a small plot of land to call their own and grow on have been seeking out the website to apply for a plot.  For more information about the Aptos Community Garden, or to get an application, visit www.aptoscommunitygarden.org

Jamie Oliver

Our recent post on Jamie Oliver covered his acceptance speech for the prestigious TED prize.  The speech says volumes about Mr. Oliver and his dream.  Today we cover just a few of his achievements to date.  Let’s take a look at what motivates this young chef to help so many people.

James Trevor Oliver, born May 27 1975, was born into kitchen life.  His parents Essex pub (which you can visit today) was his playground and at age 16 he left school to attend Westminster Catering College.  After working several outstanding restaurants in England and the rest of Europe he was discovered by TV producer Pat Llewellyn and “The Naked Chef” was born.  The show was a hit.

Now a celebrity, he was asked by Tony Blair to become Britain’s ‘Food Tsar’, and approached by Nestle and Coca-Cola to endorse their products -- all declined in favor of loftier ambitions.  But he wasn’t waiting for a bigger deal.  He wanted to cook up his own destiny.  Jamie decided to instead create a new TV show and a charity.  The show, Jamie’s Kitchen, opened a new restaurant called Fifteen and a new commercial business with a purpose.  The shows premise was to follow the training of 15 disadvantaged youth in the field of catering.  The show was another hit, and there are now 4 Fifteen location: Amsterdam, Cornwall, London, and Melbourne.  The work continues to aid the youth in the employ of these restaurants under the arm of the Jamie Oliver Foundation, and profits feed their apprenticeships.

From here Jamie Oliver moved into a more public arena, launching into a new endeavor.  Creating a new show, Jamie’s School Dinners takes a step into the schoolyards of Greenwich Village to address childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.  He simply showed how easily we could get the processed junk food out of schools and feed kids REAL food again.  The success of this show led to the acquisition of a 300,000 signature petition, numerous headlines and the eventual agreement of Tony Blair to allocated $1 Billon in government cash to equip and train Britain’s schools to wean themselves off of junk food.

Which brings us to the here and now.  www.jamieoliver.com averages about 70k hits per day from U.S. traffic alone. Americans have been watching his shows, reading his books and downloading recipes for years.  But what prompts this high profile Chef to care about us yanks?

Simple really.  Americans are sick.  And getting worse by the day.  ABC television has teamed up with Jamie and will be airing a show that they filmed in Huntington, WV.  At the time of shooting, Huntington was named “the unhealthiest city in America”.  Premiering Friday, March 29th at 8/9pm CST we’ll see first hand how this man is on a quest to eradicate obesity and help humanity reclaim it’s dignity and health.  I’ll be taking notes to see how he does it.  The resistance to change is powerful and everyone here in California has a tendency to announce our common defense:  It’s too expensive and too difficult to change.  Often we agree that something should be done.   But our fiscal crisis seems to always paralyze us.  So, how do we do it?

Community.  Local family support.  Parent volunteers.  Donations.  These are OUR kids.  Not the Federal Governments, or the States, or the School Districts.  We need to realize just how much power we have to change the system.  Once we get this epiphany, we need to ACT, and follow through.  We cannot rely on support from government.  There is just too much at stake.

Linda and I struggle with this every day.  Just like everyone else, todays food system has fueled a lifestyle on the run -- we are just as trapped by the simplicity of it, blinded by it.  We grew up straddling 2 worlds.  One foot in childhood memory of home-cooked meals and lunchboxes and cafeteria’s that had real kitchens, and the other foot in today’s food system:  One of fast, corporate junk food, extraneous packaging, and failed labeling.  And my opinion is that our generation, Jamie’s generation, is the only one that can stop it before the art of growing, cooking and eating whole food is a lost art.

I believe that food education, as Jamie puts it, does need to be brought back into the school system.  I also believe that growing food is an integral part of food education.  Creating a sustainable, local food system so that we feel empowered when it comes to nutrition, not shackled by cheap (or rather, expensive…) ‘food’.

Our 1st grader eats government issue twice a week.  He likes it.  Then again, it’s engineered to taste good.  So it’s not a shock.  For weeks we have been on a quest to bring a true, healthy lunch into his school.  It’s hard work.  But we have angels coming out of the woodwork, joining us along our journey.  We are gathering strength, ideas, and momentum!  And you realize you are on the right track when someone sends you the news that Jamie Oliver wins the TED prize -- and it’s right in line with our quest.

There are a lot of well-meaning people like us out there who are Certified Organic because we believe in what Organic was originally meant to portray.  Before we even went through the expense of organic certification, we were practicing organic principals. But now, an industry has been created to police what we naturally should be doing in the first place — growing and raising whole, healthy food in a humane way that is good for us and the planet.

Since the days of J.I. Rodale, Lady Eve Balfour, and Sir Albert Howard, we’ve come a long way—deviating from a path so simple, and turning it on its head.  Organic, as a way of life and a way of growing, was born out of an idea that we could not continue to deplete our natural resources and still produce healthy food.  That pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and monoculture were NOT the new and improved agriculture, but just shortcuts to profits for an industrial complex that wants us to consume, consume, consume.

So what happens when the term ‘Organic’ starts to take hold in the minds and hearts of millions of Americans (and the world)?  What is a giant food processor like Dean Foods, Kelloggs, or General Mills to do when this movement starts to slowly eat at their profits faster than you can gobble up a bag of Cheetos?  Well, they gobble up small farms and organic businesses, of course.  Acquisition.

I recently discoverd an article at The Cornucopia Institute that shows who owns what, and it’s changing all the time.  Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, creates and updates his organic food business chart and tracks the big box corporations acquisitions of organic business, as well as our food chain overall.

Notice any familiar names?

The type is too small to read so here is a link to a PDF version.

In essence you are looking at a small snapshot of a much bigger picture of the ‘industry of organic’.  Not only is acquisition part of the process, but it is the deceptive pastoral image that is being sold to you. The notion that you are buying from a small, family farm business is all part of the game. Pictures of a farmhouse, an old lady with a pitchfork, cows walking gracefully through verdant, lush grasslands?  All part of the show folks.  But it is what’s behind the curtain that counts.

Do you notice any familiar names in the chart that end up in your shopping cart? Cascadian Farm, one of the founders of organic agriculture, is now owned by General Mills.  Horizon Milk – Dean Foods.  Bear Naked and Kashi – Kelloggs.  Odwalla…none other than Coca-Cola.

But these corporations have not just stopped at acquisition.  Since the USDA got involved a few years ago, and decided to turn the USDA ORGANIC label into a icon of superiority, these corporations have petitioned hard that certain ‘restricted’ elements be allowed under the label since they ‘can’t find a suitable substitute’.  I guess ‘organic’ things don’t hold up as well in a TV dinner.

And here’s a scathing little video that shows the utter failure of the Organic Certification process in arguably the largest purveyor of organic products:  Whole Foods.  Whole Foods supplies 175 stores nationwide with natural and organic products.  Unfortunately, these products and their certifiers are dubious at best.  Especially when items are coming from other countries such as China.

So, what can we do?

Buy Local
When I say buy local I mean really local.  Know your grower.  Even join a CSA.  Visit their farm, take the kids, work with them picking snap peas for a couple hours.  Shop at a farmers market nearby.  When you go there, ask the farmer where his farm is.  Sometimes farmers markets have vendors from over 100 miles away.  Depending on your taste, this might exceed your idea of ‘local’.

Grow Your Own
Even if it’s in a couple pots on the back porch, it’s really amazing how much food you can produce with a little water and a couple of bucks in seeds.  The kids love to get involved and it’s been shown that when they grow veggies, they are more likely to eat them. Since none of the states in our union are meeting the daily requirements of fruits and vegetables, and one of three of our children are obese due to the processed foods we are feeding them, it’s an easy way to educate them and introduce healthy produce into their diets.

Be Vigilant
Read labels.  Where is it from?  Is it 100% organic?  Made with some organic ingredients? Is it in season (if not, it’s probably coming from a country far away from the organic ideals)?  Don’t necessarily trust the pictures and graphics you see on the label?  If it looks too good to be true…it probably is.

Personally I would love to see a label and certification system for Locally Grown or Local.  A small badge that would, for instance, say “Locally Grown 25″ (meaning that it comes from within 25 miles of where you are purchasing it), etc.  Why the need for a badge?  I believe that the term ‘local’ is becoming the new ‘Organic’.

The not-so-distant future

My fear is that it’s already being abused.

If someone were to ask you what you thought local meant when it came to your food, most people would probably say within 100 miles or less.  The word local and locally grown is already being used in supermarkets across the U.S.  for food that is coming to one central distribution center supplied by several nearby states or even further.  It has no true definition. Local to your supermarket might even mean grown in the USA.  Most likely at a great (and unnecessary) distance.

Most importantly, we need to start realizing that we are dependent on a food chain that is connected by thousands of miles.  What if you were cut off from this source of food by a union strike or natural disaster?  What would you do?  How would you feed your family when everyone around you, thousands of people, are all cut off and seeking food as well?

Do you think I’m crazy? Check out my Transition Town post from a year ago for a reality check!

Equally impressive is the stump grinding effort put in by CLC members Pastor Dale Sollom-Brotherton, Austin Pruitt, and Gene Sanden. You can see from the photo that Pastor Dale was having a little too much fun with the stump grinder.

Pastor Dale

The garden project received its first grant for $500.00 from the Rotary Club of Santa Cruz, Sunrise. We have numerous expenses coming up, including a pump for the irrigation system, as well as the irrigation materials for getting the water to the garden plots.  We are in need of cash donations, if you would like to help.

Be sure to MARK YOUR CALENDAR for the grand opening celebration: Earth Day: Thursday, April 22, 2010. Everyone is invited for food, music, meeting our Board Members, individual and business donors, and the people who will be using the garden!

We love our chickens!

How did we get involved with our community garden? We met Jeff and Adele Talmadge, owners of Talmadge Construction, at our city’s annual Shortest Parade in the World and Pancake Breakfast on the 4th of July this year. We were introduced by our dear friends, Kim and Pete Mansfield. Kim used to watch their son when he was little, and she mentioned that they are a family of black belts. We told them about enrolling our six year old, and how Trent was considering joining the Dojo. They gave us great advice about the  journey of martial arts, and as we continued to get to know one another, they found out about the organic nursery.

Jeff said he was a member of the local CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, and was thinking about donating some of his land to create a community garden for the kids. We went crazy about the idea, and we’ve been friends since. It so happens that Jeff and Adele live around the corner from us.

I have to stop the story for a minute to provide a quick brief about this amazing organization: “CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home.  They stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence—the one adult who cares only for them.” If you have the time to sponsor one of these kids in your area, please go to CASA’s website to find a local chapter to volunteer.

We kept in touch with the Talmadges throughout the summer and then were introduced to Melanie Larson, another CASA member, who approached her church about the idea of utilizing unused land in front of it for a community garden. It would be offered to local families who didn’t have the ability to grow their own food or simply couldn’t afford the cost of fresh produce. CASA kids could also help these families and learn about agriculture, life skills that could be utilized in their future.

We were thrilled to be part of it for all of those reasons. But we also knew that we could actually help these kids and families adopt healthier eating habits, become environmental stewards and build a sense of community.

In October 2009, we met with Melanie; the new pastor, Dale Sollom-Brotherton; and fellow church member, Gene Sanden to offer our help. We’re now members of the Aptos Community Garden Board, and are proud to offer these families their vegetable and fruit starts, and our knowledge. But we’re also here to document the progress of the garden so that you will be inspired to start your own.

On that note, here are the first photos of the area that will be known as the Aptos Community Garden. The big takeaways from this post: an area that was not being utilized will now be able to feed over 80 households and all it takes is the inspiration from one person to make it happen.

Food What?! Youth Dig In

A big reason why more of us don’t buy organic food is because of the price. Of course, growing your own sustainable garden is an inexpensive option. The National Gardening Association’s recent study “The Impact of Home and Community Gardening in America” cites that a well-maintained food garden can yield an estimated 1/2 pound of produce per square foot of garden area over the course of the growing season. At in-season market prices, this produce is worth $2.00 a pound. That means the average 600 square-foot garden that costs an average of $70 can produce an estimated 300 pounds of fresh produce worth $600!

This is great news for those of us who have yard space for a garden, but many of us don’t. And while container gardening is an option, patio space — and the amount of sun exposure it gets — might limit the bounty to just a few plants.

Thanks to the resurgence of community gardens,  sustainable food is becoming accessible to those who don’t have the space to grow their own or simply can’t afford it.

We’re excited and proud to announce the ground breaking of one in our town — the Aptos Community Garden. Hosted by Christ Lutheran Church, a bunch of volunteers are donating their time and money to make it a reality. Trent and I will sit on the Board, donate the starts, and document its progress.

But we’re not doing write-ups to toot our horn. By telling the story as it unfolds, we hope it inspires every community in America to roll one out, too — at a school or somewhere in the neighborhood. Why? Other than enabling the satisfying experience of growing and harvesting fresh food, community and school gardens encourages healthier eating habits. It brings our neighborhoods together and reconnects us to the source of our food — nature itself. It also encourages environmental stewardship, self-reliance and confidence in the safety of our food. According to the American Community Garden Association, it can even reduce crime!

We live in Santa Cruz County; if you don’t know, we’re very big on environmental issues and natural foods. I have to point out a few great local programs that are community gardens, but not in the traditional sense. Food What? educates youth and is driven by our friends at Life Lab. The second is the Homeless Garden Project, an amazing nonprofit organization that gives purpose and financial support to those less fortunate. These are a few innovative examples of the power of community gardens; consider these aspects when building yours. How can we get our youth involved? How can we give back?

I did some research on the history of community gardens. The study I found cited their importance during and after both World Wars, providing increased food supplies which required minimal transporting. During the Great Depression, city lands were made available to the unemployed and impoverished by the Work Projects Administration (WPA); nearly 5,000 gardens on 700 acres were cultivated in New York City alone through this program. During WWII, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that national health as well as personal well-being were dependent on the consumption of fresh vegetables, which led to the Victory Gardens Program and the production of approximately 40% of the fresh vegetables consumed in the U.S. from an estimated 20 million gardens.

WHAT?! Did I read this correctly? What happened to us? Now, our food travels an average 1,500 miles. Only 1 out of five fresh fruits and vegetables are grown in the Unites States. And NO U.S. state is meeting national objectives for consumption of two fruits and three vegetables a day.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Americans are battling obesity and Type II diabetes at an alarming rate. Did you know that 1 out of 3 kids in the US are considered overweight or obese? Folks, these health risks are caused by poor dietary patterns and sedentary lifestyles.  In other words, they are reversible.

Ah, yet another benefit of gardening — physical exercise. How many calories can we burn? I just went to Internet Fitness and found out that personally, I can burn 307 calories an hour doing general gardening activities!

Readers, I hope you’re motivated to get a garden going — at home, at your kids’ school, or in your community. Do it for your health and that of your family, community and planet! And if you need help, check out how we did it here in Aptos.

A Green Thumb for Everyone!

We’re so excited!  Linda and I have worked so hard on our children’s book, and after months of hard work we just received our first copy.  And, despite sounding vainglorious, it is really beautiful! The book was something we decided to write to supplement the Classroom Bundle and Homeschool Bundle that we have just launched.  But it soon took on a life all it’s own.  We imagined My First Organics seed starting kits to be a great way to educate kids and families about gardening.  As our experience grew, we saw an even better way:  Get the kits into the classroom and design a whole curriculum around organic, sustainable gardening.  And what better way to kick off a lesson than with a beautiful storybook designed to engage and inspire children to grow food.  As we did more research into the different messages about gardening, we realized that the story needed to include facts about the environment, nutrition, and community as well.

“How a Garden Saves the Earth“  is a bold endeavor, designed to encourage kids to ask “Why do we do it that way?”.  Written by my wife, Linda McNair and Myself, illustrated by Jeff Petersen (The Whitby Witches, Waves), and colored by yours truly (Yes, I am an artist as well.  Go figure).

Great for children up to third grade, it is dedicated to helping parents, teachers and homeschoolers educate kids about the importance of locally grown, sustainable food and how it is connected to their health and that of the planet. This 26-page book introduces fun facts to children on every page!

By the end of the book, our two main characters meet and learn the importance of sharing

We self-published out book through Lulu.com, and although you can purchase it through them,  and soon, Amazon, we are offering the book at the lowest price at this time – and until December 31st, you can purchase it here for 10% off using promo code ECOFARE

Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system.  We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food.  We inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.

Amen!

We read their blog religiously, and a recent post caught our eye. This month, Foodprint USA was launched “to bring together information, resources and communities of food and climate justice advocates around the country working to reduce our climate “foodprints” ~ our food system’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change through the production, processing, packaging, shipping, storage and disposal of food.”

On their site, they state that approximately 12% of the total GHG emissions per U.S. household result from growing, packing, preparing and shipping food nationwide. And that according to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, approximately 50 years ago in the United States, most foods were generally consumed within close proximity to where they were being produced and or packaged, while today, food typically can travel approximately 2,485 miles from farm to table.

Download, color and learn...for FREE!

We’ve talked about what constitutes “organic” and “local” on our blog. We know the shortest distance between safe, fresh food and your fork is your own backyard. But we also know that adult habits die hard, and that our biggest hope is in educating our children.

So, we have published a FREE e-coloring book, How Organic Gardens Save the Earth, to educate families on the benefits of organic produce – to our health and that of the planet. The story is about Reed, who buys his tomatoes from the supermarket, and Posey, who grows her own in the backyard. The tale tells how each tomato was grown, the journey it took to get to them, and what the Earth thinks about it all. It also talks about how special it is to share a harvest. It is written by us and illustrated by Jeff Petersen.

Download and enjoy this educational story book with children of elementary school age. It’s a perfect way to learn about the difference between conventional and organic produce, and how that choice goes far beyond what we choose to put into our bodies.

We don’t know when we’ll know, but we wanted to share the videos. While Linda is informative and all, Aidan really steals the show. Folks, this is improvisation at its best. Linda had to do a million takes, this is Aidan with no script, no coaching – one take. He’s irresistible. Hopefully, parents will agree and buy a kit for their family, too.

And please, listen to Aidan’s Song…you’ll smile, we promise. Whenever we’re having a bad day, we go watch it.

More on Our YouTube channel, GrowYourOwn101