This week, while we are heading to San Francisco for Slow Food Nation (hope to see you there!), I thought I would bring attention to a few (more) interesting articles about us! We have had some pretty big press recently - More Magazine, Vegetarian Times, Organic Gardening, and others.

“A Green Giant” More Magazine - a story about Sustainable Table and Diane Hatz. A follow up to our Eat Well Guided Tour of America. A beautiful layout with recipes from the road, tested and approved by the More test kitchen! Recipes include: Cold Cucumber Soup, Corn & Pepper Frittata with Salsa Verde & Solstice Blueberry Pie.

“One on One with Diane Hatz” Vegetarian Times Magazine - an interview with Diane about vegetarianism vs. meat-eating, organic vs. sustainable, and the benefits of sustainable farming.

“A Taste of Hope” Organic Gardening Magazine - an article by me about why we should have hope for our sustainable food future. “Every time you eat from your garden and buy food directly from a local farmer, you are helping to reshape the future of agriculture, the economy and the environment.” You can also hear me talking with Dr. Steve about this article in an interview he did for his “Real Health with Dr. Steve” podcast.

“Raising Awareness of Sustainable Food Issues and Building Community via the Integrated Use of New Media with Other Communication Approaches” Cases in Public Health Communication and Marketing - Wow, this big case study examines Sustainable Table’s communication campaign - as featured yesterday on the blog!

I met Renata Schiavo at the NYU Retrospective of the American Public Health Association Film Festival last year when I was asked to speak about The Meatrix. It was at NYU, part of their Public Health Communications department and it brought together some amazing films about health and taking action! It was a great event that I am very happy we were a part of.

Out of that meeting came the opportunity to work on a case study with Renata, all about Sustainable Table. She teamed up with 2 students, Andrew Williams & Diana Zraik and our very own Diane Hatz, to create “Raising Awareness of Sustainable Food Issues and Building Community via the Integrated Use of New Media with Other Communication Approaches,” which was published in the second volume of “Cases in Public Health Communication & Marketing” for The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Hmmm, not the most create title… but a very detailed look at at the communications work done here at Sustainable Table:

“Today’s agricultural practices largely rely on the use of pesticides, factory farming, antibiotics, and large transportation systems. In order to limit the health, environmental and community impact of such practices, Sustainable Table, a program of the non-profit GRACE, seeks to educate the public on food-related issues, while creating a sense of community through food. Through the use of Internet-based communications - including new and, more recently, social media - Sustainable Table has been able to educate consumers about the problems associated with factory farming, spark discussion in communities about related issues and offer potential solutions. The strategic use of Internet-based communications has been integrated with activities from other areas of communication (including interpersonal communications, community mobilization, and media relations) and has allowed Sustainable Table to reach millions of consumers and key influentials. This case study will examine Sustainable Table’s communication campaign - with particular emphasis on the organization’s use of the Internet. In doing so, it will explore some of the campaign’s key elements, features, results and lessons learned.”

There is a whole big impressive report. Check it out here. The case is listed under “Invited Cases on New Media in Public Health Campaigns.”

Labor Day weekend is upon us, which sadly means the end of summer. Not to worry! Soak up the final weekend of summertime using our latest tool, Eat Well Everywhere (EWE).

We’ve heard from many folks about how hard it is to eat well while traveling–maybe because the most convenient places to grab a bite on the road are highway rest stops, which more often than not have a limited selection of healthy options for hungry travelers.

Eat Well Everywhere includes our Eat Well listings paired with Google Maps functionality, helping you to steer clear of over processed, industrially produced food, and guiding you to local food and farms wherever you roam. You can use it to plan a trip and find listings along your route, as well as view maps, directions, and print or download your own custom travel booklet. You’ll find lovely places that you never knew existed!

So, next time you’re headed across town or across the country, give it a spin and let us know what you think!

Hi! First, I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be starting back up the “At the Table” column - it will probably be bi-weekly due to lack of time (this sustainable food work has gotten so popular! - that’s the reason there haven’t been any columns for a while) - but I miss writing something about what’s going on, so At the Table is now back…

Almost everything we’ve been doing these past few days has revolved around Slow Food Nation, the huge citywide event happening in San Francisco next weekend. Sustainable Table is one of the many groups sponsoring the 4-day food extravaganza - our contribution is as host sponsor of the Slow Dinners, local sustainable meals being served at 45 restaurants around the city during the course of the event.

If you’re planning to attend Slow Food Nation and want to say hello, drop us a line and let us know!

Among the many exciting things happening, including concerts, taste workshops and food tours, is a panel discussion including Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, and hosted by Participant Media (the social action arm of Participant Productions). Also included will be several clips from their upcoming movie Food, Inc.

Read on to find out what Participant has to say about the event!
Read the rest of this entry »

Sustainable Table had a field trip today. We went to the Chelsea Museum and to PS1, both housing some amazing work, totally pertinent to sustainability.

First to the Chelsea Museum for their exhibit, Nature Interrupted.

“In this exhibition,” Nature Interrupted,” twelve artists show very diverse aspects of their concern in painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video. They may focus on a rare species in danger of extinction, such as the eagle or a flock of migrating birds in Osmo Rauhala’s captivating video images, or the preservation of trees threatened by decease, as in Joan Backes’s paintings of tree bark, which could, in the future, become a points of reference to a species no longer in existence. Another metaphor is Katie Holten’s artificial tree made of refuse such as recycled cardboard, wire, newspaper, and black tape. The emblem of a tree in distress is a perfect symbol for the environmental crisis we are experiencing.”

All of the pieces were interesting… I took pictures so that you can see.

Then to PS1 in Queens, for their “farm.” I walked up and the first thing I said was that there is no way they could harvest this farm. But I was totally wrong! We asked, and they actually harvest it everyday… balanced somehow on barrels of tomatoes, zucchini, sunflowers, herbs and more that are about 30 feet in the air. Amazing. I’d like to be there to see that one day. If anyone is around, she said they do it around 11am.

“P.F.1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept that evokes the look of a flying carpet landing in the P.S.1 courtyard. Constructed from large cardboard tubes, its top surface will be a working farm, blooming with a variety of vegetables and plants. The structure will create a textured, colorful, and constantly changing surface in contrast with P.S.1’s angular concrete and gravel courtyard. P.F.1 will work as an interactive bridge between outside and inside, creating multiple zones of activity including swings, fans, sound effects, innovative seating areas, and a refreshing pool at its center. The installation will be a living structure made from inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at P.S.1.”

More pics of this too.

For our weekly pick this week, our very own Eat Well Guide has put together a great book called “Cultivating the Web,” showing how our current digital age is supporting local sustainable food.  The book will debut at Slow Food Nation and will be housed on the Eat Well Guide website, being updated as an up-to-the-minute resource for everyone. Read all about it in their press release below:

Cultivating the Web to Debut at Slow Food Nation - Eat Well Guide’s new book highlights digital tools for farmers & foodies

New York, NY - (August 18, 2008) - 21st Century technology is reviving a centuries-old relationship between people and food. Cultivating the Web, a new publication from Eat Well Guide, shows how digital tools are being used to do everything from support local farmers to lobby giant players in the food industry, as online communities reject industrial food. Click on the hyperlink above to view the book.

Cultivating the Web was created by the folks at Eat Well Guide (EWG), North America’s premier free online directory for finding local, sustainable food. EWG will distribute 20,000 copies of Cultivating the Web at Slow Food Nation, the four-day gathering planned for Labor Day weekend in San Francisco where tens of thousands of citizens will come together to set a national agenda for a secure, sustainable food future.

Read the rest of this entry »

I just stumbled across this awesome event and wanted to share it with you!  If you are in Seattle, WA this Labor Day, check out the Blues for Food Fest.   It’s right in line with many of the events that we support… Farm Aid & Bonnaroo, to name a couple - we love food and music together! (I have a feeling this isn’t as big as either of those 2 mentioned events… but I looked at the pictures of the site, it looks wonderful!)

“Our goal is to have an organic and entertaining blues alternative to Labor Days overpriced or hard to get to events, one that serves to preserve the Blues and entertain families and their loved ones. We also strive to raise awareness of communtiy gardens and the foodbank gardens that voluntarily grow 40,000 pounds of fresh organic produce that is donated to local area foodbanks, meals on wheels programs and women and children shelters. By promoting and sustaining the blues artists,their passion for blues and their commitment to life, love and giving back to their communties, we hope to create a special relationship between musical networks and food networks. We believe that together we can reap a flavorful harvest.”

What a wonderful mission! I wish I could be there.  If anyone attends, please tell us all about it.

Second Annual BLUES FOR FOOD FEST, Saturday, August 30, 11 AM until 7 PM at Magnuson Park Amphitheatre & P-Patch: Proceeds Support P-Patch Trust, a non-profit organization that works to prevent hunger by promoting community gardening in Seattle and by supporting programs that distribute food to those in need and help people grow their own food.

Today’s Tip: Eat Tomatoes

Here in the height of summer, tomatoes are ripe, abundant, tasty and full of nutrients. There are many different versions to choose from, everything from those sweet little cherry tomatoes to the beefy beefsteak varieties. In fact, there are around 7500 varieties in all. A record 7 pound, 12 ounce tomato was grown in Oklahoma in 1986 and hasn’t been topped since (at least I can’t find a bigger one from my internet research so far).

Tomatoes are versatile - sauce, soup, drinks (yummy bloody marys!), salads, and so much more… most people like them in at least one form. I know people who don’t like to eat raw tomatoes, but they love tomato sauce and ketchup. And there is a good reason for your body to crave some version of tomato - they are full of vitamins and minerals!

Vitamins A & C, minerals such as potassiums & iron… and just the overall abundance of antioxidants, especially lycopene, has brought much attention the the healing properties of tomatoes in recent years. The antioxidants in tomatoes, and other foods, are supposed to help fight oxidative damage in our bodies. This means that these antioxidants have the potential to help prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which are all contributed to by oxidative damage. If you get to the nitty gritty details of vitamins, antioxidants, carotenoids - I find it to be really confusing! Vitamin C is also an antioxidant… hmmm?

I think the main thing to realize is that this beautiful food (supposedly the red color comes from the lycopene) is good for you. Eaten in season, and from a local producer, it can only be better for you!

The picture to your right is from our Eat Well Guided Tour of America last year. I met these girls from the Tomato Mountain Farm. They had everything tomato, including yummy baskets of cherry tomatoes, one of which I devoured while at the Chicago Green City Market where you can still find them.

I met Adrienne Young at Bonnaroo for a quick minute - she is lovely! If you listen to her music and get an understanding of who she is and what she is doing, you will understand.

Her album “Plow to the End of the Row” came with a packet of seeds, she supports local farmers and is a spokesperson for Buy Fresh, Buy Local. She often plays at benefits supporting community food and agriculture issues and happens to be starting a new tour called, “Now the Green Blade Riseth.” During this tour, Adrienne and band will reside in a community for multiple days partnering with local groups on a series of educational events highlighting the challenges and choices individuals and communities are facing with their food supply, agricultural, and environmental assets. She has been sponsored by North American Association for Environmental Education(NAAEE) and will work closely with local groups at each stop.

In a press release they described the events as, “modeled after an old-time, family friendly Chautauqua - weaving together music, education, local culture, and farming lore.” Sounds like it’s right up our alley!

Check out Adrienne’s website for more information and if you are in NYC on the 9th of September you can join her at the kick off of her tour. The evening is in partnership with Just Food for their “Let Us Eat Local” event.

Simran, our friend from the Eat Well Guided Tour of America last year, is penning a series of blogs on The Huffington Post called “Life Cycle.” She is analyzing our daily activities, addressing everything from shower heads to flushing pharmaceuticals down the toilet.

“In this Huffington Post series, Washburn University professor Sarah Smarsh and I will use daily American routines–from reading the paper over coffee to sweating over a yoga mat–as a springboard to tangible, important information on the Stuff of Life. Water bottles and wedding rings, DVDs and diapers, office chairs and chopsticks… They all have stories, and your life is their narrator.

A couple times a week, Sarah and I will take you from the fields and laboratories where materials are created, to the factories where raw inputs are transformed into products, to the ugly resting places of the roughly five pounds of trash you create per day (The good news: Nearly a third of it gets recycled. The bad news: Less than a third of it gets recycled.). To be sure, we won’t be offering tips here–just information for you to put in your pipe and maybe smoke, even pass to a friend.”

The most recent post is about yoga mats, something many of us use on a regular basis (to do our yoga just like the guy in the picture I suspect!). Simran and Sarah are dishing out the information, we have to put it into practice. Everybody go get your yoga rug!