Monday in Paradise

The weekend at work turned into more physical "work" than this older body has become accustomed to. Yesterday morning before returning to work the body was really complaining in all of the joints and muscles. But the job got done and the big show that opens today will be one more for the line stretching back into the early '70's.

Unless you have ever worked the setup of a trade show, you have no idea how totally chaotic it can seem to an outsider. This is the industry I have called home now for 34 years this month. The constant movement over the first 2/3rds of that career, all on concrete usually carrying heavy weight, is now catching up with my desk bound (mostly) body...Where did the time fly.

From the look of the yard, I'll need to spend a bit of time this week riding the Deere. Mind you, I am not a fanatic about lawns (one of the reasons I discovered a decided unfitness for life in the "master planned communities" the developers around here call their suburbs. I like my "civilized" nature a little ragged around the edges. I am not much of a string-trimmer kind of guy. It usually drives the immediate neighbors a bit wild...In this climate though, at this time of year at least you have to ride the Deere at least every other week. Later in the season the weekly ride is almost too little. And, just for the record, I refuse to fertilize and water lawn grass. I know, not very neighborly of me in this "yard beautiful" world.

Oh well, gotta run...May your Monday be Un-Mondayish.

Saturday Morning Web Wandering

I slept in a bit today and I have to go in to work this afternoon to take care of a project we ship tomorrow, but this morning after reading my email I went link wandering. Here are some of the things I found I feel I should pass along...

Somehow I didn't keep up with the schedule for the return of Bill Moyers to PBS so I missed his documentary on "The Buying of the War". Somehow the regular schedule for his new show on Friday had permeated what I call my brain, and the fact that the special would be on Wednesday didn't...Oh well, I'm sure it will be replayed at some point.

In my wandering this morning I did stumble on a site that is new to me, COA News. This led to a link to an Amy Goodman interview with Bill Moyers on Democracy Now this week, which led me to this quote...

Bill Moyers - "I would like to be nice about it. I would like to be diplomatic about it. But the fact of the matter is there’s a cancer eating at the heart of democracy, and it’s money in politics. If free speech means you have to buy it, then only those who can afford it have free speech. And that’s contemptible."

If you have the time the video is very good.

Source: Independent News Portal COAnews: coanews.org : How the U.S. News Media Helped the Bush Admin Sell the Case for War

The link that led me to CAO News was an article about Local Foods by Brita Belli of The Environmental Magazine.

Local is the New Organic

It used to be that organic was enough. That organic label told consumers their food was safer, fresher and more likely to have come from a small, reliable farm than a mega-farm-factory. Then, last year, Wal-Mart started selling organic products. Suddenly, organic didn’t seem so special.

Last fall, an outbreak of E. coli bacteria in California- grown organic spinach that left three dead and hundreds sick shone the national spotlight on the question of where food comes from. Most produce people eat, organic or not, travels thousands of miles to reach the shelves of their local supermarket. The journey exacts a huge toll on the environment as refrigerated tractor-trailers packed with green tomatoes and bananas crisscross the country, burning diesel and spewing pollution and greenhouse gas. And the potential for unsanitary handling and nutrient depletion exists at every stop along the way.

I have been linking to posts like this for some time. It appears that the local food "movement" is on the verge of reaching viral status around the country and the world. If we have many more food disaster's like the ones from the last year where we are beginning to understand that the people we once thought were protecting the safety of our food aren't, for whatever reason, we will have to protect ourselves. You can't do that if the food you are buying come from across the country or around the world.

Source: Independent News Portal COAnews: coanews.org : Local is the New Organic