Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Monday, December 20, 2010
Commentary: On Creativity and Sustainable Restaurants
By Lori Sandefur
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
The title initially caught my eye because of the two classes that we attended at Billings Forge Community Works in Hartford, Connecticut. After watching the video, I was impressed with Arthur Potts Dawson and his vision for not only sustainable food being served in his restaurants, but also that the restaurant should be sustainable as well.
He puts a lot of emphasis on what he refers to as the Four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Refuse and Recycle. He also states that, “everything in nature is used up in a closed continuous cycle with waste being the end of the beginning.” He focuses on trying to connect the “community” of London to the rural food growers.
If everyone could practice even a fraction of this at home and at work, think what a tremendous impact this would have collectively on our environment. The hardest part is initially making the commitment, then starting it and continuing it until it becomes almost automatic.
I am going to try to start going to the indoor farmer’s market at Billings Forge on Thursday afternoons. Even if I start out going every other week, I hope that it will eventually turn into a weekly visit. I am also thinking about giving another try at gardening. Again, the key for me is to start small (and manageable). Every bit helps.
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
TED: Arthur Potts Dawson: A vision for sustainable restaurants
If you've been in a restaurant kitchen, you've seen how much food, water and energy can be wasted there. Chef Arthur Potts-Dawson shares his very personal vision for drastically reducing restaurant, and supermarket, waste -- creating recycling, composting, sustainable engines for good (and good food).
The title initially caught my eye because of the two classes that we attended at Billings Forge Community Works in Hartford, Connecticut. After watching the video, I was impressed with Arthur Potts Dawson and his vision for not only sustainable food being served in his restaurants, but also that the restaurant should be sustainable as well.
He puts a lot of emphasis on what he refers to as the Four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Refuse and Recycle. He also states that, “everything in nature is used up in a closed continuous cycle with waste being the end of the beginning.” He focuses on trying to connect the “community” of London to the rural food growers.
If everyone could practice even a fraction of this at home and at work, think what a tremendous impact this would have collectively on our environment. The hardest part is initially making the commitment, then starting it and continuing it until it becomes almost automatic.
I am going to try to start going to the indoor farmer’s market at Billings Forge on Thursday afternoons. Even if I start out going every other week, I hope that it will eventually turn into a weekly visit. I am also thinking about giving another try at gardening. Again, the key for me is to start small (and manageable). Every bit helps.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Commentary: On Creativity and Food
By Todd Gabriel
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Read Jamie Oliver's challenge: How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?
Jamie Oliver explains very simply how most of the food we eat in America is nonnutritious and highly processed. His focus is on children, stating that every new generation will lose 10 years off their lives through obesity because of the bad food they eat. His mission is to raise awareness of the processed foods we eat as adults and feed our children, not only at home but in schools around the country as well as places of work. He wants to get good, local, whole foods back into our homes and schools.
Processed foods are usually made up of two products -- corn and soy beans. These crops are extremely cheap and can be grown in huge quantities in this country. Most large scale farmers in the United States produce three things -- corn, soy beans and animals that can be ground into processed meats, such as turkey (not the kind you eat at Thanksgiving) to make “turkey products” such as turkey bacon, turkey sausage, etc. The corn and soy beans can be refined to make fillers for a plethora of foods. If you look at the label of processed foods, you will find one if not both of these two ingredients in some form, such as corn syrup, corn starch, corn meal, soy protein, corn oil and hydrolyzed corn gluten, to name a few. They are added because it keeps cost down and adds a flavor of one or more of the three things that the food industry has learned we respond to -- sugar, salt and fat. We crave these things, so if they can some how get these things into the foods they sell us in a cheap way than they have succeeded. What they don’t realize or don’t care about is that it is killing us. And not only through weight gain but by using man-made products that our bodies can't metabolize properly and can lead to many unknown effects.
Jamie Oliver states three major things we can do. First, raise awareness about the foods we eat. Second, to get money and resources to the people who will help change the food environments from processed to whole foods. And third, start cooking at home. He states we lost our traditions of cooking real foods at home and passing down to next generations recipes and the know how of cooking. Children are a focus because they can change and stop the cycle before it continues.
I believe in Jamie Oliver’s cause. I personally look at food as a link in a long chain of fundamental change. If we can learn to understand the importance of sustainable, local foods and environments in our neighborhoods it will benefit us greatly in many ways. Jamie is creative in the way he took a passion for food and turned it into a way to change a country or countries for the better. He’s also creative in his execution. For example, he shows the kitchen he opened that took local, healthy food and distributed it to schools using local people. He put into action what he is speaking about. It takes many creative ideas and ways of thinking to be able to change conventional ways. Jamie is demonstrating this here with his food movement.
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
TED: Jamie Oliverhttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jamie_oliver.html
Read Jamie Oliver's challenge: How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?
Jamie Oliver explains very simply how most of the food we eat in America is nonnutritious and highly processed. His focus is on children, stating that every new generation will lose 10 years off their lives through obesity because of the bad food they eat. His mission is to raise awareness of the processed foods we eat as adults and feed our children, not only at home but in schools around the country as well as places of work. He wants to get good, local, whole foods back into our homes and schools.
Processed foods are usually made up of two products -- corn and soy beans. These crops are extremely cheap and can be grown in huge quantities in this country. Most large scale farmers in the United States produce three things -- corn, soy beans and animals that can be ground into processed meats, such as turkey (not the kind you eat at Thanksgiving) to make “turkey products” such as turkey bacon, turkey sausage, etc. The corn and soy beans can be refined to make fillers for a plethora of foods. If you look at the label of processed foods, you will find one if not both of these two ingredients in some form, such as corn syrup, corn starch, corn meal, soy protein, corn oil and hydrolyzed corn gluten, to name a few. They are added because it keeps cost down and adds a flavor of one or more of the three things that the food industry has learned we respond to -- sugar, salt and fat. We crave these things, so if they can some how get these things into the foods they sell us in a cheap way than they have succeeded. What they don’t realize or don’t care about is that it is killing us. And not only through weight gain but by using man-made products that our bodies can't metabolize properly and can lead to many unknown effects.
Jamie Oliver states three major things we can do. First, raise awareness about the foods we eat. Second, to get money and resources to the people who will help change the food environments from processed to whole foods. And third, start cooking at home. He states we lost our traditions of cooking real foods at home and passing down to next generations recipes and the know how of cooking. Children are a focus because they can change and stop the cycle before it continues.
I believe in Jamie Oliver’s cause. I personally look at food as a link in a long chain of fundamental change. If we can learn to understand the importance of sustainable, local foods and environments in our neighborhoods it will benefit us greatly in many ways. Jamie is creative in the way he took a passion for food and turned it into a way to change a country or countries for the better. He’s also creative in his execution. For example, he shows the kitchen he opened that took local, healthy food and distributed it to schools using local people. He put into action what he is speaking about. It takes many creative ideas and ways of thinking to be able to change conventional ways. Jamie is demonstrating this here with his food movement.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Commentary: On Creativity and Food
By Michelle DAiuto
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Was there cooking in my local elementary school? No, they just reheat what was being sent from a central warehouse.
I remember as a young girl going to the cafeteria and watching the big machines mix the food. It wasn’t exactly homemade but better than today’s fare.
Food feeds the body. The body holds the mind. How can we as parents send our children out to eat things that are both toxic to the mind and body?
As we left the public school system and entered the private sector, we noticed a difference in the food being served. Foods were freshly prepared and a salad bar was offered. Even if our school system couldn’t afford great cuts of meat for everyone, fruits and salads should have been standard fare.
Only now do I realized what a disservice I was doing to my child, as well as my community. With the hurried life of Americans, we must stop and observe what our children are putting in their mouth. The school my son eventually went to for sixth grade had mid-morning snacks of apples and milk and a 15-minute break to burn off excess energy and that was the norm up to ninth grade. Sometimes kids get hungry and restless. When this happens, how are you to engage a child.?
Some parents might not believe it, but your child’s education does depend on the food that we feed them, whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner. We, as parents, need to speak up and affect change because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
[CLIP]Occasionally, I would show up at school and eat lunch with my child. What did I find? Pizza, chicken nuggets, fruit in a cup, and his favorite, French toast sticks and sausages.
Was there cooking in my local elementary school? No, they just reheat what was being sent from a central warehouse.
I remember as a young girl going to the cafeteria and watching the big machines mix the food. It wasn’t exactly homemade but better than today’s fare.
Food feeds the body. The body holds the mind. How can we as parents send our children out to eat things that are both toxic to the mind and body?
As we left the public school system and entered the private sector, we noticed a difference in the food being served. Foods were freshly prepared and a salad bar was offered. Even if our school system couldn’t afford great cuts of meat for everyone, fruits and salads should have been standard fare.
Only now do I realized what a disservice I was doing to my child, as well as my community. With the hurried life of Americans, we must stop and observe what our children are putting in their mouth. The school my son eventually went to for sixth grade had mid-morning snacks of apples and milk and a 15-minute break to burn off excess energy and that was the norm up to ninth grade. Sometimes kids get hungry and restless. When this happens, how are you to engage a child.?
Some parents might not believe it, but your child’s education does depend on the food that we feed them, whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner. We, as parents, need to speak up and affect change because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Commentary: On Creativity and Food; and Movement and Play
By Suhely Sanchez
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Food Fight
Stefan Nadelman, based in Portland, has made this beautiful classic: Food Fight is an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression.
Sia: Clap Your Hands
Kris Moyes and Sia reunite to try out a touch of puppetry in this promo for Clap Your Hands.
Commentary:
I focus here on a couple of the subjects that we have spoken about throughout this semester: food and creativity, and the topic of movement and play. Throughout this course, we have gotten the chance to learn more about food than just its nutritional value. We have considered its value and its creativity, along with its link to issues within the U.S. such as obesity (fast food vs. health food, or mass production vs. independent farmers, etc). I found two extraordinary videos that each individually address each subject in ways that are beyond any norms.
The first video, “Food Fight,” created by independent film director Stefan Nadelman, is beyond the word creative. The film is based in Portland and the director used food to act out a shortened version of the history of American war, from World War II until the present day. The story is told through the foods of the countries in conflict. The ironically gruesome battles are displayed between countries through “Food Fight” as they all strike each other for world domination.
I found the director's creativity and visual effects of this film to be beyond fascinating. Not only did the video use food to represent each nation, but it also told a story of history in not only odd, but also imaginative, ways. I find it paradoxical that in many ways we all like to think that food brings nations together, but in this film it clearly segregated every nation through its representation. I choose this film due to it’s out of the box methods of expressing a long life of war between different nations. This film took the topic of food to an entirely different level, while giving an entirely new meaning to the statement, “Food Fight.”
During this semester, we have learned that movement and play within children can help their development, all the way through adulthood. The second video I choose is a music video directed by Kris Moyes for the Australian soulful, jazz-styled pop singer and songwriter Sia. I decided to use this video to display the importance of imagination and creativity even throughout adulthood. The use of puppets and faces mended together with bright colors and music definitely took the music video scene to an entire different level. Kris’ endless amount of out of the box ideas makes his style instantly recognizable -- there are the intensely colorful animations, while a preoccupation with geometry.
Throughout this course I have learned that creativity may seem random, and completely awkward, but overall creativity is what sets us all apart from ordinary. As the famous Marilyn Monroe once said: "Imperfection is beauty, Madness is Genius, and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous, than absolutely boring." Creativity helps us express ourselves, find solutions, and open gateways for new ideas, while pushing through the walls of boundaries and barriers that at times hold us back from being able to prosper, or to even find the simplest and most obvious forms of solutions.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Commentary: On Making Every Day Earth Day
By Elizabeth Roberts
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
NASA Climate Report on Global Warming, including interview with Professor Gerald Dickens (associate Professor of Earth Sciences, Rice University, USA) on carbon dioxide being released from oceans. Highlights the latest findings that the Arctic ice could almost be all melted by 2012. Includes teleconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai.
Excerpt from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lecture "Save the Planet at All Cost International Gathering August 8, 2009
Commentary:
Let’s make EARTH DAY ... every day!
The 40th anniversary of Earth Day was this past Tuesday, April 22, 2010! By now, it’s no secret that we should all take action to help our planet. It is often overwhelming to think about how we can change our lifestyles to better our environment. However, we can all take steps (even small ones) to participate toward making every day Earth day.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the following are the top environmental issues to be concerned with:
- Water
- Air
- Climate
- Wastes and Pollution
- Green Living
- Human Health
Polluted water can harm our ability to use water in our homes, for recreation, and in business/trade. It also harms other kinds of life. We need to work to protect water in all its forms: on the ground, underground, and coming out of the tap.
Polluted air comes from a variety of places and has many disastrous effects. It hurts the earth and other living things. We need to improve the air to breathe!
Our Earth's climate has changed many times during the planet's history according to the EPA. From ice ages to lengthy periods of warmth. Volcanic eruptions, the Earth's orbit, and energy from the Sun have all impacted our planet’s climate. However, the Industrial Revolution has extrememly changed the atmosphere!
Waste needs to be reduced. Waste destroys our water, air and land! We spend tons of money trying to clean up pollution. Let’s work harder to prevent too much waste! Preventing pollution is better. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
Green living is the way to start loving our selves and our planet!
Human health is a product of “going green.”
Visiting Web sites like the EPA’s can often contribute to overwhelming feelings. There is so much that needs to be done and so quickly. Although it’s extremely important to continue to recycle, it is just a start. Not only do Earthlings need to worry about waste materials such as plastics, we also need to take a closer look at other types of waste and what we are producing. Other important areas to investigate are chemicals and our daily diet. If we can narrow in on what personal actions can make the biggest impact, we can achieve greater success!
By “going green” we can become aware of the harmful, processed food we often digest. We can take the extra step to shop for healthy produce and utilize farmers markets. Most importantly, Americans need to reduce the amount of meat we eat on a weekly basis.
Scientists have determined that eating less meat may help save our planet and our health! Not only does consuming less meat reduce the chance of a heart attack, but if we can reduce the amount of meat we eat by 30% the industry could “slash its emissions!”
Happy Earth Day!
Friday, April 9, 2010
In What Ways Might Imagination Improve Society?
206 IDEAS GENERATED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT 'CREATIVITY + SOCIAL CHANGE' STUDENTS ON 6 APRIL 2010 - HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
What's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
What's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
What's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
- Communicating
- Open communication between groups
- Stop cancer
- Stop juvenile diabetes
- Stop crimes within the same community
- Feed the world
- Improve living conditions
- Respect people's sexuality
- Discover or create new ways to safely and effectively mass produce food and other products
- Lead to more openness, diversity, tolerance and integration of differences
- Encourage creative conversations
- Invest in creative education
- End child abuse
- Education will become an adventure that children will crave - no more dropping out
- Tell them that you are happy with imagination, then they will join you
- Teach the youth manners and morals so that they can grow
- Create tolerance
- Stop hunger
- Celebrate diversity
- Neighbors of the community care for each other more
- Stop poverty
- Be positive
- Stop hate
- Appreciate or accept people stepping out of the norm
- I can use my imagination to encourage prisoners
- Think before you act
- Treat one the way you want to be treated
- Providing ideas with individuals in society to solve problems
- Teamwork or brainstorming in a group
- Clarity of mind and soul
- Respect life as a whole
- Read other people's minds
- Work with other people's strengths
- Help those who need us the most
- Fight racism -> open mindedness
- Peace with others
- Improve self-esteem
- Encourage more active, positive citizen engagement
- Encourage others to join organization
- End homelessness
- Creative ways to be healthy, maintain health, regain health, defeat disease
- Show the society how important they are, then they will accept it
- Through education
- Team work
- Talking things out
- Appreciation of different types of beauty
- Fly to new, livable planets
- By laughing
- Build a healthier place for my kids and other kids
- Open-mindedness
- Make a commitment
- Love the curvalicious
- Travel to new dimensions
- Travel through time and space
- I can use my imagination to help my own community
- End frivolous spending in government
- To infinity and beyond - explore the universe within and without
- By coming up with different solutions for different issues
- Helping neighbors, taking care of each other's children, watching out for one another
- Allowing expression through art, music, theater and dance
- Reading books
- Give importance to all animals
- Have a moment of silent (regrouping)
- Live life ... one life, one blood, one love
- Make batteries that never have to recharge for my cell phone and laptop
- Make batteries that are environmentally friendly when disposed or recycled
- Eliminate existing regulations against farmers in Connecticut
- Open new doors
- Greater-good technology
- Warm, nurturing environment to support the development of great ideas
- Through education, broadcasting
- Through billboards
- Playing a game on team building
- Promote trust among individuals
- "The world can live as one"
- Live forever - never die
- Don't be afraid of death
- Stop discrimination among us
- Say no to Botox
- Play
- Get kids to be more physically active and healthy
- Move
- I can use my imagination to improve the unemployment rate
- Creative community building - creating jobs
- Build magnificent cities - buildings, gathering places, parks, museums, schools, etc.
- Make sufficient information available to the community
- Visiting the sick
- Helping those in need (homeless)
- Believing in yourself
- Make veggies taste better
- Build places that encourage creativity, instead of limiting it (i.e., Billings Forge and the G. Fox Building, respectively)
- Encourage kids to continue with school and get educated
- "Imagine there's no hunger, I wonder if we can"
- Plant a tree
- By communication
- Travel to the past
- Help third world countries
- Bring out technologies that do not already exist. Similar to how real technologies can follow the imaginative, fiction-based technologies proposed in science fiction. How culture and arts can "invent" technology.
- I can help the youth thing critically and explore their creativity
- Creating meaningful jobs, reducing unemployment
- Create/implement ways to care for and preserve the earth for generations to come
- Make creativity a learning tool for society
- Live Love Laugh
- Have a social gathering
- Love your neighbors
- Less serious
- Downloadable intelligence and knowledge (like in the Matrix)
- It could give us new games to play
- Share more with people in the community
- Living for today
- Spread the word by gathering with others or making a Web site for a fundraiser.
- Interact with others more
- Imagination can improve society through additional ideas being deposited into the "idea bank" and when there are more options, it can lead to more solutions to problems
- Decrease the crimes among teenagers
- Increase ideas among everyone (not just children)
- Educate children to be creative
- Spread the love
- Encourage uniqueness
- Marketplace of ideas
- I can bring peace to the world
- End drug abuse
- Life will be interesting, stimulating, purposeful and a delight
- Involve some stipends; it will bring people's interest
- Ignite idea that would improve the community
- Having dinner together - everyone likes to eat
- Love like you haven't been hurt before
- Humor - entertainment
- Comedians will have better jokes and can make us laugh in different ways
- Help people in the community to be more humble and to care for others
- Open communication
- Get some fresh air and fresh ideas
- Live Love Laugh for a better me
- Improve self-esteem and community confidence
- I can use my imagination to create a farm
- Improve or encourage people to eat healthier since one of my imaginings is about promoting organic food
- Stop judgment
- Improve the environment
- Improve economy
- Lead to healthier school lunches
- Lead to healthier planet and humans
- I can spread love throughout the world
- Proper treatment of animals
- Crime will decrease as there is openness, acceptance, a place for all
- It will create jobs; many will participate
- Share ideas
- Hand shaking and hugging each other
- Peace and love for every creature in the world
- Stop greed and pointless want in society
- Lead to society being more collaborative as opposed to individualistic -> solve problems together
- Increase mental capacity about a problem
- I can join different organizations within the community and help them resolve issues
- Decrease unemployment
- Accept each other
- More advertisements/commercials
- Through prayers
- Listen to others
- Less technology and more free play (outside)
- "Imagine all the people, living life in peace"
- Birth control that is 100% effective
- Guns that are truly idiot-proof
- Decrease healthy activities in kids in our community
- Go shopping
- By maximizing its potential
- Establish better problem solving skills to introduce to children in school
- By fostering problem solving potential in students and society's youth
- My imagination can help encourage others
- I can bring a sense of joy to others
- Reduce teen drug abuse
- Harmony and connectedness and unity among all cultures
- Do it in many different ways, even in different languages, others will enjoy
- Create something to challenge the community
- Don't be judgmental
- Challenge everyone to be the person they were meant to be; no judgment if that person turns out to be different than you expected
- Open minded
- Growth
- Defer judgment
- Improve existing ideas
- Keeping a smile on people's faces
- Decrease homelessness
- Develop spirituality
- Make known to the society why it is important
- Be creative in arts and music
- Develop strategies as a team or group
- Dance
- "No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man"
- Never have traffic jams on the highway
- Exploring new areas and investing tourist dollars in them
- Focus on those young kids forgotten by parents and provide them with the love their parents don't give them
- Free spirit
- New ideas
- Globalization
- Defer judgment
- Engage students more in their learning experience
- Defer judgment
- I can create a community organization to improve the community
- Creative after-school programs
- Being there for each other in neighborhoods
- Keep kids out of trouble
- Purpose and work for all
- Do it with others, you will succeed
- Go hiking with kids
- Bring more family togetherness
- The world is your family, embrace your diversity
- Stop hate and war
- Help globalize an economy while preventing the fall of local business
- Care more for our elderly
# # #
67 IDEAS GENERATED BY THE RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE 'THE AMERICAN NONPROFIT SECTOR AND PHILANTHROPY II' STUDENTS ON 7 APRIL 2010 - PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLANDWhat's YOUR idea for how imagination might improve society? Add your ideas in the comments section below. And plan now to participate in the Connecticut Imagination Conversation on Monday, April 19, in Hartford, Connecticut ... or host your own Imagination Conversation in your community.
- By creating a bike trail that goes through the whole town
- Clean-up crews for the community
- Neighborhood closeness to reduce crime/increase community
- Help community to produce better housing for diverse people
- Imagination could show people parts of the place they live like they've never seen them before
- Dig a deep, underground housing complex
- Build better buildings
- Make environment of community
- More conducive to green technology - less polluted
- Could add beauty to community art projects, music, opportunities to participate
- Imagine ways to be more energy efficient
- Have a community-wide BBQ
- Creativity in finding solutions to health problems
- Create dams and levies
- Think out of day-to-day procedures -> fill someone else's shoes for a day (i.e., public/union workers and laymen)
- Space travel
- Off to civilization (arts, theater, etc)
- Better public welfare systems
- Improve different fuel sources
- Renewable energy
- New ways of communication
- Improve transportation
- Make community more fun to live in
- Create another system in some part of space (zoning)
- Better government system
- Better transportation system
- Better schools
- Better cars
- More ways to share resources
- Increase social interaction
- Thinking outside the box for creative solutions to common problems
- Better land use
- Imagining a better community - like better schools - imagine what we wanted schools to be filled with when we were kids - putting it into action
- Children govern the adults as they have better grip on imagination
- Offer community-wide movie showings
- Improve arts
- Find different resources - imagine possible venues
- Better ways to share resources
- More accessible buildings with less technology handprint
- Provide creative ways for people to make social connections - community projects
- Find new uses for the resources/food sources near you
- Have a community garden to grow food
- Improve environment
- Create a center for the arts
- Community cooking classes - take garden product and put in school lunches
- To expand people's minds to new things
- To expand the local business base of the community
- Provide opportunities for people to be things they've imagined - musicians, painter, teacher ...
- Have a town-wide pajama day
- Improve opportunities for high school graduates
- Healthier consumer products/food
- "Own" a block for clean up and community pride
- Time travel
- Imagination can give a community a different perception of old things
- Recycle old things into props; or add areas in parks with toy boxes or props
- Have playgrounds on every block
- Better ways toward health care
- Create climate of creativity to problem solve as community
- Get out of our houses and interact with people
- Better transportation for people with mobility problems
- New social interactions that are authentic, unplugged and involve storytelling
- Have a community clean-up day
- Creative activities in classrooms
- Create a community center
- Recycle end products to use waste in different ways
- Just go clean up a neighborhood without asking for anything
- Involve more people in volunteer projects for community
Monday, April 5, 2010
Commentary: On FRESH the Movie
By Tiffany Friedlander
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
Commentary:
I chose to write about this movie because it really struck me how the general public doesn’t know exactly what they are eating. Most of our fruits and vegetables are covered with chemicals and animals are being given so many antibiotics that they don’t need, it’s like we are poisoning ourselves. This movie shows us alternatives we can take to eat healthier and we can do this in our backyards. Also, it was a creative idea to share this movie with others and when I saw this, I saw it with my classmates and other people in the community. The point of this movie was to help people to think creatively to shift their lifestyles and to eat healthier.
I recall that in the movie someone said that there are people who want to eat healthy but there isn’t a place nearby where they can get fruits and vegetables. Will Allen, who used to be a professional basketball player, has his own farm and has many people come to visit to learn more about growing crops. He is involved in a program called Growing Power which brings the community together. This way he can show people how to grow crops in their own backyards, even in urban areas like where Will lives. I like the idea of how he uses waste as compost. The worms that are mixed in it turn it into compost. The point of this is to make sure people have access to fresh, healthy food. I also believe that it’s important for people to be able to obtain healthy food. We need to eat healthier and prevent obesity. It doesn’t appear that Will Allen uses pesticides on his crops. We don’t need that on the crops; if anything it is more harmful to us the more we ingest it.
Who ever thought how much antibiotics animals are given. I think it’s unbelievable how much they are given. This movie presents a long list of antibiotics that animals are injected with, which supposedly makes them grow faster and wards off low-grade infections. So, if we are eating meat with all these antibiotics in it and if we could get really sick, even if we try to take whatever medications to fight off the sickness it may not do anything because of how much antibiotics were given to the animals. This can cause some microorganisms that cause illnesses in humans to become immune to certain antibiotics. Overall, it’s dangerous for us to be eating many of the meats we buy in the grocery stores because of what the animals are given.
Watching this movie really made me think so much about what is in our food and what we are really eating. What can we do about this? I don’t think pesticides and other chemicals are needed in the things we grow. The animals we would be eating don’t need antibiotics at all. I found this movie to be inspiring. I want to learn more about where I can get food that won’t put my health in danger. This is a movie that I recommend to everyone to watch. I think this will put a shock to their system once they find out the truth behind food we buy. This is a movie that helps spread the word to others.
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:
FRESH the Movie
FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.
Commentary:
I chose to write about this movie because it really struck me how the general public doesn’t know exactly what they are eating. Most of our fruits and vegetables are covered with chemicals and animals are being given so many antibiotics that they don’t need, it’s like we are poisoning ourselves. This movie shows us alternatives we can take to eat healthier and we can do this in our backyards. Also, it was a creative idea to share this movie with others and when I saw this, I saw it with my classmates and other people in the community. The point of this movie was to help people to think creatively to shift their lifestyles and to eat healthier.
I recall that in the movie someone said that there are people who want to eat healthy but there isn’t a place nearby where they can get fruits and vegetables. Will Allen, who used to be a professional basketball player, has his own farm and has many people come to visit to learn more about growing crops. He is involved in a program called Growing Power which brings the community together. This way he can show people how to grow crops in their own backyards, even in urban areas like where Will lives. I like the idea of how he uses waste as compost. The worms that are mixed in it turn it into compost. The point of this is to make sure people have access to fresh, healthy food. I also believe that it’s important for people to be able to obtain healthy food. We need to eat healthier and prevent obesity. It doesn’t appear that Will Allen uses pesticides on his crops. We don’t need that on the crops; if anything it is more harmful to us the more we ingest it.
Who ever thought how much antibiotics animals are given. I think it’s unbelievable how much they are given. This movie presents a long list of antibiotics that animals are injected with, which supposedly makes them grow faster and wards off low-grade infections. So, if we are eating meat with all these antibiotics in it and if we could get really sick, even if we try to take whatever medications to fight off the sickness it may not do anything because of how much antibiotics were given to the animals. This can cause some microorganisms that cause illnesses in humans to become immune to certain antibiotics. Overall, it’s dangerous for us to be eating many of the meats we buy in the grocery stores because of what the animals are given.
Watching this movie really made me think so much about what is in our food and what we are really eating. What can we do about this? I don’t think pesticides and other chemicals are needed in the things we grow. The animals we would be eating don’t need antibiotics at all. I found this movie to be inspiring. I want to learn more about where I can get food that won’t put my health in danger. This is a movie that I recommend to everyone to watch. I think this will put a shock to their system once they find out the truth behind food we buy. This is a movie that helps spread the word to others.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
A Tour of 'Creativity and Social Change' in Society ... Creativity, Food and Science
- Creativity Networking - Willimantic, Connecticut - Creativity, Food and Science resources on "molecular gastronomy"
- Spanish chef Ferran Adriá at El Bulli - "A day at El Bulli" video -Adriá at documenta
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