S U S T A I N A B L Y

Kari Hamerschlag: "We have to fight really really hard to make the drastic change we need.”

Greetings and welcome to another episode of 10 Words or Less, in which I ask brief questions, and request brief answers, of interesting people. Today’s guest is a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group who focuses on food and agriculture policy. Remember, the 10-words thing is a goal, not a rule, so please, no counting.
Kari Hamerschlag, food policy analyst, Environmental Working Group

Name Kari Hamerschlag
Born when, where Washington D.C., Nov. 28, 1963
Anything unusual about the circumstances? “My mom’s doctor had just been attending to Jackie Kennedy.” [For you young kids out there, Kari was born 5 days after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.]
Residence now “Oakland, Calif.”
A formative event early on “Living in Switzerland from ages 11 to 15, among many different cultures and languages.”
Someone outside your family who influenced you “Gary Hart. I worked for him when I was  a junior in high school, and later worked as a volunteer on his presidential campaign. He got me started in politics.”
Something that helps you be effective in your job “The understanding that it takes persistence and a long time to make the kind of change we’re working for.”
A habit you’re trying to change “Negative thinking.”


Jenny Huston: "They’re scared, hence the attacks.”

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I ask brief questions, and request brief answers, of interesting people. Today’s contestant is a chef and food-justice activist who circulates an exhaustive compendium of food-related news. Remember: the 10-words thing is a goal, not a rule, so please, no counting. And besides, let’s see you do it.
Bay Area food activist Jenny HustonName Jenny Huston
Born when, where San Francisco, February 1959
Resides Oakland
Occupation Food services consultant
How long have you been doing your weekly news update? “Since 2003.”
How much time does it take you? “Only a couple hours. As I come across things, they just get stuck into the list.”


Regulating sugar, this time on "On Point"

Judging from my in-box, lots of people heard yesterday’s “On Point” broadcast about regulating sugar. But of course, it would be wrong to use that guideline, because my friends were pinging me specifically because they knew I would be interested. And I was.


Colbert Report is just oh so witty

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There is clever, there is brilliant, and there is transcendent. This, which riffs off the Times story on how Target knew a teenager was pregnant before her father did, is all that, even in the context of how often they are so clever, and especially in the context of having to do a show every day:

 


Reverse laws on statutory rape?

Here’s a bold idea for you: Let’s invalidate all the laws that criminalize sexual contact with minors.

Dumb, right? Abhorrent! Who would dare suggest that we not protect young people, deemed too young to make informed choices about entreaties from adults who would exploit them?

Well, the entire consumer manufacturing sector, but especially junk-food manufacturers, and perhaps the courts, too.


Australian obesity graffiti, and other tweets

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A semi-digression-free roundup of recent tweets...

Aussie billboard graffiti comment: "#Obesity has never tasted so good." http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12573657/attack-on-fast-food-avalanche/

How you can help eating-disorder awareness, by Margarita Tartakovsky. http://bit.ly/w91EOJ


Organic growers vs. Monsanto

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

I'm still struggling with GMOs, though not in the way most other strugglers are. I am pretty sure that the forces allied against Monsanto are right, in every sense of that word, but so far, I haven't been able to muster a passion to go with that near-certainty. (If you read here often, you'd probably agree that I don't lack for passion on issues I'm sure about, and yet...) Anyway, here's a Food Democracy Now video shot on the day at the end of January when arguments in the Monsanto/organic growers lawsuit were heard in Manhattan.


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