Call to all gardeners!

To help make this site be informational and interactive, I want you to send in your pictures, tips, and experiences when it comes to your garden or eating locally. Also, feel free to comment, agree, disagree or just respond to any of the posts I make on here. This project is based on community so I need your input!

Today I got pretty close to finishing my second video which contains footage at the Athens community gardens. Using Final Cut is getting easier but it's still a process. I definitely need to work on the sound because Cait's interview is almost indecipherable over the wind's howl.

I'm doing basic research on local food and gardening and am thinking of doing a vocab list for those of us who don't know a lot about the subject matter. Today's word is:


Food Miles


"Food Miles" refer to the distance that your food has been transported between its source farm and where you buy it. Food miles are one measure of the amount of energy used to transport your food and the consequent pollutants released by that transport. Estimates vary but transport may account for 20% or more of the total energy use associated with the provision of a given food item. As such, Food Miles are a relatively simple statistic that can be used to demonstrate the ecological importance of local foods.

--from revivevictorygarden.org

Check out this site on modern victory gardens!
This site talks about cooking, gardening, and eating locally! Hen & Harvest

While eating locally and gardening are ideal, it is not always possible to get all you need in this fashion. When this is the case, refer to "The Better World Shopping Guide." This pocket size guide is a great reference at the grocery store or shopping anywhere. You can also use the website to learn more from home.

Here is an excerpt from the site, talking about the idea behind it:

"the.problem

Money is power. And wherever large amounts of money collect, so also new centers of power form. The latest historical manifestation of this is the modern corporation.

Make no mistake, these new power centers are not democracies. We don't vote for the CEO's or their policies (unless we are: rich enough to be significant shareholders, informed enough to know what's going one, and compassionate enough to care about more than just personal profit), yet our destinies are increasingly in their hands.

the.solution

As these power centers shift, we must shift our own voices if we wish to be heard. As citizens, on average, we might vote once ever 4 years, if at all. As consumers, we vote every single day with the purest form of power...money.

The average American family spends around $18,000 each year on goods and services. Think of it as casting 18,000 votes every year for the kind of world you want to live in. Use this site to take back your power.

the.idea

voting with your wallet

THE.WEBSITE

BETTER WORLD SHOPPER is a site dedicated to providing people with a comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable account of the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet AND making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives. Coming out of more than 5 years of intensive research, this work is based on a comprehensive database of over 1000 companies and utilizes 25+ reliable sources of data to cover everything from the environment to human rights, community development to animal protection.

5 key.issues

HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct.

THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming.

ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts, sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations.

SOCIAL JUSTICE : fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity."
© 2006 better world shopper. All rights reserved

This Friday I ventured out to the Athens' Community Gardens on the West side of town. I had never been there before and managed to get a little lost, but I eventually found them and Cait, who I was interviewing. It was extremely windy so the audio definitely picked that up, but it still went really well. Cait covered a lot of the things I wanted to discuss and supplied me with some information that I didn't know. For example, the community gardens require the people using plots to donate 20% of their food to one of the initiatives here in Athens. 

As for my last post, my external hard drive did die, but I luckily still had the footage file on another PC. Unfortunately, I had to start all over editing in Final Cut. Oh well. On Thursday we critiqued the first video and things are going well. I still need to edit more and add footage from the Farmer's Market and around town.

All may be lost! External hard drive won't work.

Stay tuned...

Today I continued the editing of my first interview. I also heard back from a representative of the Farmer's Market on State and she recommended trying to do my interviews on a Wednesday session of the market when it's less busy and vendors would have more time to talk. Now it just needs to stop raining so I can bike out there!