food – Page 9 – Kristen Baumlier

Tag: food

Redesign the Supermarket

Posted on November 6, 2011November 6, 2011 by Kbaumlier

The magazine and website GOOD which offers articles, commentary, design and videos and comics on culture and society which describes itself as “for people who give a damn.”

Each month the site does a 30-day challenge about how to live better. For June the challenge was to redesign the supermarket . Supermarkets are designed to get you to buy more than you want. The stores spread out staples like milk, eggs, and bananas so that shoppers will end up buying more than they need.

GOOD challenged readers to redesign the supermarket to promote healthy choices and discourage impulse junk-food buying.

The winner, Alison Cross created a grocery store design that has a circular structure, lots of bike racks, shorter aisles, community tables, and an on-site garden.

Check out the winning design and other submissions at the project website –http://www.good.is/tag/redesign-the-supermarket.

IMAGE SOURCES:
Alison Cross
Lyza Danger

LINKS:

GOOD Redesign the Supermarket

Article: Secrets of the Supermarket Layout that Grocery Store Chains Don’t Want You to Realize

The 7 Billion of Us – All Together

Posted on October 29, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

If you haven’t heard yet – this weekend the population of the world will be 7 billion.

The 7 billionth baby somewhere in the world will be born around Halloween (or maybe if he/she is lucky – on Halloween.)

A study found that it will be possible to feed up to 10 billion people – but that it will not be easy.

The study offers some core strategies to meet future food production needs and environmental changes.

Some of these strategies are:

Stop farming in places like tropical rainforests, which have high ecological value and low food output;
Improve crop yields in regions of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe where farmland isn’t meeting its potential;
Change farming practices to better manage water, nutrients, and chemicals;
Shift diets away from meat; and
Stop wasting food (up to one-third of all food grown is wasted either in production, transport, or after purchase).

What is the carbon footprint of a baby born this weekend?

Over his/her lifetime, each American born in the 1990s will produce an average of:

3.1 million pounds of CO2 (same as 413 plane trips from New York to Tokyo)
22,828,508 pounds of water waste (the equivalent of 48,060 10-minute showers)
16,372 pounds of yard waste (enough to fill 442 large garbage cans)
7,249 pounds of food waste (as much as 16 households produce in a year)
She/he will eat 1,654 chickens, 74 turkeys, 25 pigs, 11 cows, two sheep, and 18,675 eggs.
And she/he will use 1,870 barrels of petroleum (enough to fuel a Subaru Outback for 822,800 miles).

Eat your fruit – and wash it too… the Vanishing Fruitwash Label

Posted on October 26, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Designer Scott Amron has designed a “Vanishing Fruitwash Label.”

Instead of peeling off the label on a piece of produce and throwing it away ( or sticking it to your fridge) – you wash the apple, peach, or other piece of fruit and the label dissolves into an organic fruit cleansing produce wash that helps remove wax, pesticies, dirt and bacteria.

This is especially great for produce such as apples and peaches, which are usually sprayed with the most pesticides.

Vanishing Fruitwash Label

Scott Amron’s Site – www.amronexperimental.com

Image credit: www.amronexperimental.com

Today is FOOD DAY – Find an event, host a dinner party, eat a banana…

Posted on October 24, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Today – October 24th – is Food Day!!

Food Day seeks to bring together different groups to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

Today there are over 2,000 events happening today in the U.S. including a “Eat In” in Times square, a festival in Savannah, GA, an Open House at the National Archives, and other events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and other locations. Many groups have partnered to support this event including Slow Food USA, the labor group Unite Here, and the campus-based groups Real Food Challenge.

I first learned about the event from the sticker that was on my banana. Companies Dole Food Company and Bolthouse Farms placed millions of Food Day stickers on bananas and bags of carrots.

Today at the Real Food “Eat In” in Times Square, 50 people involved with the food movement including chef Mario Batali, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, Food Network host Ellie Krieger and food activists will eat at a communal table and will share a healthy and sustainable meal. During the Eat In, the Reuters/Nasdaq signs in Times Square will carry Food Day messages.

More than 30 governors and mayors have proclaimed October 24 as Food Day, including those in Colorado, Ohio, Oregon, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. Special Food Day menus will be served in all Detroit public schools. Schools across the nation are hosting Food Day events as part of the ongoing National Farm to School Month celebration. In Washington, the National Archives is hosting a Food Day Open House in conjunction with its “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?” exhibit.

In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will hand out New York State-grown apples to commuters in Queens to observe Food Day, and will appear on ABC’s new daytime show, The Chew. Epicurious.com teamed up with Whole Foods Market to encourage dinner parties aimed at raising money for local food charities.

Big question for me – is what will I eat today and where?

Read about Food Day, Find an event, or download Dinner Party Information- http://foodday.org/ –

Support change of America’s Food System – sign a petition on foodday.org

Article about Food Day on the Center for Science in the Public Interest site

Cooking Channel video of Morgan Spurlock talking about Food Day

Food Day is Back after a 34-year Absence – Article in The Washington Post

“The only thing you can’t buy used is food.” Film Screening: Urban Roots

Posted on October 21, 2011November 3, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Tonight I went to see a screening of Urban Roots, a film which focused on urban farming in Detroit.

The film started by reviewing the history of Detroit and the current state of the city, and then focused on urban farmers who are farming in the middle of neighborhoods, in vacant lots, and in their yards.

There were some interesting things said in the interviews of the urban farmers and commmunity members including this quote, “The only thing you can’t buy used is food.”

“By forming urban farms, locals in Detroit have begun turning abandoned city lots into small-scale gardens that give sense of hope and community ….”

The event was Sponsored by Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice, Community Greenhouse Partners, Cityfresh & Clefnb and endorsed by the Save Our Communities forum in Cleveland.

From the Producer – Leila Conners’s statement of the film
“Well, enter urban farming, a way in which individuals can take control over something so critical as food that in the very act of growing it, they not only feed themselves, they also become healthier, more self-reliant and in some cases they become entrepreneurs. And most remarkable, they create a new approach to community, the economy and life overall.”
Links:
Community Greenhouse Partners

Urban Roots – the movie site

Image credit: Urban Roots Film