Let’s make sure we can keep our beautiful balance of life.

Want to know what Earth Day 2058 might be like?

Read this article featured on the Environmental News Network from the president of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan.

Ever wonder where your coffee comes from?

Crop to Cup Coffee Company allows you to see the farmers and know their story. Crop to Cup represents the farmer by providing technology and marketing services that will connect them to interested customers in the United States. The goal is to improve the quality and integrity of coffee served everywhere.

This is a good way to have full transparency in coffee farming and to make sure that the product is fairly traded. The great part of Crop to Cup is the availability for direct product feedback through reviews and ratings as well as message boards.

There are several coffee houses and markets in the New York and Chicago area where Crop to Cup coffee is sold or you can purchase your own online.

 

 

  

I finished planting our first little vegetable garden over the weekend. This year is pretty experimental, but we do hope to get some sort of yield. In preparation, I have been doing some research and learning more about the growing process. We are trying to keep our garden as organic as possible and be conscious of water usage as well. 

The Gardener’s Supply Company is one source that I have found for more innovative gardening products. They have a variety of composters, rainbarrels, organic fertilizers and more natural solutions to keep the pests away. I also like the fact that they give 8% of the company profits to programs and organizations that use gardening to improve the world. They have even set up their own nonprofit organization with 400 acres of land in Burlington, Vermont called The Intervale Center. This center produces 6% of the city’s fresh produce and is one of the largest community agriculture farms in New England with a community composting facility and miles of trails for hiking and biking.

I am an “early adopter” of Global Mindshift whose purpose is to “help make the emergence of a global community unstoppable.” This online community strives to unite all people to engage in dialogue that will help bring together a network of creative cooperation that is necessary to our survival as our planet and our people continue to suffer.

One of my fellow Global Mindshift members sent me the link to a movie trailer that addresses this movement. Please check out this trailer and the website: The Shift - a movie made by a movement.  

The People’s Grocery was started in 2002 to coordinate a local food system and provide a source of healthy foods to the people in West Oakland, California. There are about 30,000 residents in West Oakland with no grocery store, but there are 53 liquor stores. Many of these residents have diet related illnesses and do not have a source for healthy foods. Brahm Ahmadi, co-founder and executive director, calls it “food justice - the principle that all people, regardless of economic and social constraints should have access to the best foods available in our society.” 

The goal is to keep the wealth within the community. The People’s Grocery grow organic food in urban community gardens to educate and reconnect people with their food source. They also provide healthy cooking classes and a produce box distribution program, so the residents can get fresh foods in their homes.

To find out more about this project, visit The People’s Grocery. 

This is the featured story on the Global Oneness Project, which is a “web-based video initiative exploring how the simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.”

They work by these principles:

- We are responsible to each other, the earth, and future generations

- There are enough resources for us all, if we share

- Free exchanges of information allow for greater, collective creative potential

- Love, care and compassion have the power to transform the fabric of society

For several years, I have been trying to come up with a way be creative and help other people in the process. I recently stumbled upon Rosa Loves, a company that is doing exactly that!

Rosa Loves designs and produces limited edition, hand-numbered t-shirts to raise money for a specific person, family or community. The t-shirts are printed with a design depicting the story of those in need on the outside and the actual written story is printed on the inside, over your heart. Sixty percent of the sales go directly to the cause. Once the money needed has been raised, the t-shirt stops printing. 

 

Rosa Loves was developed by Mike Fretto, a graphic designer and Chris Lewis, a software developer. These guys, along with 2 other friends work their full time jobs while working on Rosa Loves. The company is currently working to get their non-profit status. 

Now you can be cool and fashionable while helping others. What a good and simple concept!