Weekend Hippie: Sustainable and Simple Living

Can Jamie Oliver Save The World?

TED Prize Winner Jamie Oliver Plans to Change the Way We Eat!

He's my favorite chef, and now he's on-board with my favorite mission. Winner of the prestigious TED Prize for 2010, Jamie Oliver plans to start his own Food Revolution, and needs your help.  Here's the plan as outlined by the TED Prize:

The Plan

Set up an organization to create a popular movement that will inspire people to change the way they eat. The movement will do this by establishing a network of community kitchens; launching a travelling food theater that will teach kids practical food and cooking skills in an entertaining way and provide basic training for parents and professionals; and bringing millions of people together through an online community to drive the fight against obesity. The grassroots movement must also challenge corporate America to support meaningful programs that will change the culture of junk food.

The Needs

• Help to establish the organization, with funding, office space and facilities.
• Find partners to equip and run the community kitchens, and food suppliers to provide the fresh ingredients.
• A partner to build and maintain a fleet of food theatre trucks.
• Education experts, graphic designers, artists and writers to develop and produce creative, fun teaching materials.
• Communications experts to create messaging for the movement.
• Web designers and developers to create and build the website.
• Establishment of a food line that generates a sustainable income for the movement.
• Corporate partners to invest in cooking and food education for their customers and champion honest food labelling.
• Your names added to the petition to challenge our leaders to make change now: www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com/petition

Learn more about the TED Prize.

1% for the Planet: The Album

 
1% for the Planet has put together some great musicians for their first digital download music album. Each musician dontated an exclusie or rare track to help 1% for the Planet do more good things around the world. Every note on every song helps 1% for the Planet continue to support environment non-profits in every continent on Earth.

41 songs for $9.99

The Nuclear Genie

At 17 years old, Santa Barbara High School senior Erik Choquette has won the 2009 Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest for the second year in a row. You can watch his ground-breaking work here or on YouTube.

Sponsored by the Nuclear Age Foundation, the competition hosted 120 three-minute (or less) videos. The theme, Breakthrough: Putting the Nuclear Genie Back in the Bottle—How can we achieve a world free of nuclear weapons by the year 2020? was animated by Choquette to help get the  genie back into the bottle.  

Watch the video, post your comments, visit the website: www.wagingpeace.org

Fresh: The Movie

July 2009: Santa Barbara Food Not Lawns and HopeDance Films hosted a viewing of Fresh, the movie in Santa Barbara. It was a gathering of local Fresh enthusiasts including IV Food Co-op, Fairview Gardens, Avalon Farms, and Shepherd Farms. 

The food was yummy, sustainable and memorable, and it was a great opportunity to meet local activists and local farmers, and find out more about how to support them locally—and globally. Plus, the film is not to be missed.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, a 2008 MacArthur’s “Genius Award” fellow; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, the Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, who is creating a new market model for our family farmers. FRESH focuses on these inspiring individuals and their initiatives around the US providing inspiration for you to make the change in your own life.

(Photos: Tom Shepherd, Owen E. Dell, Melissa from IV Food Co-op)

Backyard Gardens: A Short Video

Sustainable Art

TOMS Shoes

One for One. TOMS gives shoes to children around the world who have no shoes. It’s that simple. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS gives a pair to a child in need.

Founded by Blake Mycoskie and inspired by an Argentine shoe (they call Blake the Chief Shoe Giver), TOMS gave 200,000 pairs of shoes to children across the United States, South African Argentina last year.

Once your closet is stock full of TOMS easy to wear canvas slides, you can volunteer for one of TOMS Shoe Drops, an opportunity for you to travel on location to provide shoes and other support to kids in need.

The styles are hippie cool. Pick up a pair today at local surf and skate shops, or order online.

How can you help?
Shop TOMS today

KIVA: A Little Goes a Long Way

 
Kiva is one of my favorite ways to give. Kiva makes it easy whether you have $25 or $25,000. I have $25, so it works for me. Kiva's concept? They makes it easy for you to loan money to fledgling entrepreneurs in developing countries. You can use your resources to help lift someone out of poverty. Plus they repay each loan, so you can reinvest the money in another aspiring entrepreneur.

By marrying micro-finance and the Internet, Kiva has created a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva will have facilitated loans totaling $100 million by 2010.

Here’s how it works:

You give money—as little as $25—to an entrepreneur of your choice. You pick the entrepreneur from their website. Scroll through the list and find someone you connect with, and sponsor that person.

The loan is combined with other loans made to the entrepreneur....allowing them to fulfill their dream, their goal.

Once the entrepreneur is successful, the loan is paid back, and you can then re-loan the amount to another Kiva entrepreneur or withdraw it from your Kiva account..

How can you be part of KIVA:

Visit KIVA
Find an entrepreneur to help.
Register.

Give.