it's my island » Activism

Voting Season, No Rabbit Season

andy — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:25:44 +0000

I don’t know if there are any times that aren’t strange politically but the last 5-10 years sure have had some massive volatility. I usually refrain from much politiking as it’s just as hard to talk through with people as religion can be. I want to live in a country where civility and common sense rules and where we can verify then trust through transparency. That’s not such a big ask is it?

Just to be clear I’m a humanist/centrist with fundamentals rooted in the Libertarian party. I don’t think either party is serving us well. The infighting, positioning is like watching animals in a hen house and while they bicker nothing gets done. I’d rather things get done that can be refined in time than nothing at all. Inaction causes far more problems.

DailyKos had a few great questions and answers which I thought I’d share because it is worth keeping in mind as you enter the election booth. The real curiosity is why we don’t hear more of this.

Questions

What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?
What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?
What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

Answers

In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That’s a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush’s last year in office and President Obama’s second year.
In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration’s final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit — there’s a long way to go, but we’re in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.
On Bush’s final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

I don’t think our country is reaching escape velocity or the world is going to end tomorrow. We’re in a pickle to be sure but we’re always in one. Life is messy.

Last I leave you with a clip from Jon Stewart’s recent Rally to Restore Sanity. Jump to 3 minutes in where you can understand more of the common sense we need to restore.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Jon Stewart - Moment of Sincerity

www.comedycentral.com

Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear

The Daily Show

The Colbert Report

I just want people to think, ask good questions, and seek good answers. I’d love to see more political parties enter the fray and root deeper so we could have a more balanced view of all of us. Not only would it be healthy it would allow for far more compromise to be reached.

A Real Green Revolution, Terra Madre 2008

andy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:21:37 +0000

With great fanfare and after a lot of fundraising Slow Food Charlotte accomplished the huge task of sending over 14 people to Turin Italy for Terra Madre 2008. As a part of the observer arm of the delegation we were there to experience something special and unique. Which if you are in to food, culture, and a wider world view should be experienced.

The real question upon return is how to best speak of the event. How to best capture, seal, and use as a foundation for our local conversations and action. I’ve found it difficult. Speaking with many of the delegates there are similarities of not having just one thing but a peppering of tens if not hundreds of little moments that remain indelible.

The Beginning of Terra Madre

We arrived in Torino after a short stay in Lucca by way of an overnighter in Pollenza where we had visited the Slow Food Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche, eaten at Osteria Boccondivino, & Slow Food HQ in Bra. (We know how to move around.)

Picking up our passes and checking in with the US liaisons we were able to meet some of the other US delegation and see a plentiful and diverse group of peoples. The opening ceremonies was long yet brilliant.

Beginning with a procession of Sardinians showing off one of their rituals (impressive, daunting, and powerful) to follow was the marching of the flags. Many countries of the world were represented and as we later found out from Winona laDuke a hope that indegenious cultures will be able to fly their flags next session.

Passionate Speakers, We Listened in Awe

Speakers included those in Slow Food and beyond, Alice Waters introduced a video of Prince Charles, UN Asst. Secretary General Carlos Lopes spoke on behalf of Ban Ki-Moon, Vandana Shiva was passionate and fiery in her remarks, a student Sam Levin blew us away with his youth, determination, vibrance and step-taking, Carlo Petrini brought it all home in the poignant thoughts of our development and rich diversities.

We were awash in the power of the people.

I had chills so many times I thought my brain was going to fry out. I’m not sure everyones world view is ready to accept what is going on. The world is being dominated by those with power and we are constantly seeing large companies leverage that power into poor decisions; squeezing the bottom of the chain, selling consumers marketing and bad health, while replacing nature with man management which is leading us down a very bad road.

United States Delegation, 800+

America will always amaze me. We are a super culture, a mixing pot of everyone. Including the great diversification of the indigenous countries within our country. How often we forget our own brief history.

The meeting of the US delegation was huge and very long. I understand why Slow Food Nation was conceived. We have a lot to talk about. With over 300 million in our borders we have a lot of work to do to corral this great nation.

We heard from many great regional speakers (session notes from Robin):

Josh Viertel, President of SF USA
We cannot take out without putting back in.
Our priorities: #1 The Youth, #2 Social Justice.
We are a movement, not an organization.

Farmer Dominic
We feed the community, and the community feeds us.
The importance of teaching.

Green Mountain College Farm and Food Project
Initiated under three goals: #1 Food, #2 Minds, #3 Ideas
Community supported agriculture (CSA) in the classroom to the kitchen and dining.
Common goals with continued partnership and community building.

White Earth Land Recovery Project
Winona laDuke, protecting our sacred wild rices, listening and talking to our relatives (the vegetation), cultural diversity is as important as bio-diversity, remember where we came from and how we got here, honor the history of food, and that we all have the right to own and eat food.

Kellen Vaughn Shelendewa, the crops are your children, learn from your elders, the ancestors are with us and watch us, the earth has been entrusted to us.

Brett Ramie, community inclusion cannot be done without elders, our world cycle is a non-linear progress and we must apply the knowledge of our elders before it is lost to us.

Ian Marvy, creating future eaters and teaching young people to farm.
Peace and refuge exists in the garden.
From seed to sale, helping the youth see potential in alternative markets.
Embrace the joy, understand the anger, and transform one to the other.

Chef Tony Miller, cook to farmer collaboration.
Let the food be the food, the star of the plate. Finish strong, show the youth what we need to continue. Keep the dollar in your yard, source locally whenever possible.

What Novice Farmers Need to Succeed
Access: land, info, market, cultural institutions, encouragement.
Land, liberty, sunshine, stamina.
serveyourcountryfood.net

Inter-generational collaboration in activism
Coalition of Immokalee workers, a 32 pound bucket of tomatoes gets $.45, the same as in 1978. Equating to $8-10,000 a year. 7 cases of slavery in the last decade. They have fought and won cases against large companies to pay more for their produce. Big companies can not keep applying this financial pressure downwards.

Strengthening Food Communities, Will & Erika Allen
Engage and inspire the community. The need to break down the social constructs that are oppressing people. Food justice, generations of justice. Look for the small projects to produce tremendous results, “Below the Grass”. Rich food for all folks.

Overcoming Cultural Divides with Smiles

Robin and I wanted to break through the cultural divides and meet people. We built a photo book, packing it with pictures of who we are and where we are from. Upon meeting someone new usually it involved the act of smiling and gesturing for a photograph.

I would take their picture and then we would approach showing them their picture. This then turned into an often funny trial and error of english, italian, french, hand signs, and laughter.

What really helped was showing our pictures.

Showing our city at night, Robin and her classroom, our farmers and local agriculture, our family.

Through this exchange we would learn who they were, where they were from, what they brought with them, and with many contact information for penning them later. Our parting gift to those we met was a simple photograph of Robin and myself surrounded by some of the pictures they had seen with a set of email and snail mail addresses so that we might keep in touch. We hope they do.

Classes, Lectures, the Public Speaks

There were so many things to learn and not enough time to learn them all. Between Salone de Gusto’s formidable tasting, pairing, and food explorations you had multiple tracks that you could run on in the Terra Madre sector. Climate change, soil protection, fair trade, bee colonies, getting to market, how to market, activist luncheons, youth meetups, and so much more.

We attended many which I’ll go in to in individual postings later, but would have loved to entertain more. Watching and being a participant with all these groups of people, each having a headset and a translator was just brilliant in being able to communicate across the gulf of language.

Do You Value Yourself? Do You Value the World?

In the end we all share this world and many of us are experiencing the same problems. How we face those problems, find solutions that are good, clean, and fair, will be a monumental challenge. If we don’t face it head on though it will get no easier later and if the damage is irreprable, then what.

I’ve said it before, I got into this movement for a hunt for quality. I fell in love with the chain of agriculture and now am in it for my future family. If we can adopt a greater outlook for ourselves and for those in our charge maybe there is hope yet.

Continued Thought, an Evolving Experience

More to come. We thank all of those who helped us achieve our goal and look forward to building further essays and pictorials that give light to what we learned. I end with a musical slideshow that encompasses some of the sights and similar musics heard during our time abroad.

Fundraising for Terra Madre 2008

andy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:01:01 +0000

In an effort to participate in a global community, support our friends and peers abroad, we ask for your help.

Slow Food Charlotte

Robin and I have been members of Slow Food Charlotte now for 3+ years. We were brought in through friends who showed us that quality also meant good, clean, and fair. Through this time we have matured our world views, understand an inequality and systemic issue is in the air, and have tried to foster a local organization that informs, bridges, and raises up these concerns.

If you are unaware of Slow Food, or the premise, we are a group that defends biodiversity.

We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy â€“ a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process.

Terra Madre 2008

Terra Madre, a gathering, a convening of the worlds food communities. 30k square feet, over 300 activities, workshops, lectures, educational series over a five day period starting October 23rd to 27th.

By giving voice to all those who are not prepared to accept the standardizing, inhuman, totalizing model that applies the rules of industry to living matter, the event promotes â€˜positive globalizationâ€™. The Terra Madre communities meet to proclaim food productionâ€™s need to maintain a harmonious relationship with the environment and assert the cultural and scientific dignity of traditional practices. When they return home to their countries of origin, they are fired by a positive feeling of being members of a â€˜community of destinyâ€™. The end-result is a new form of virtuous globalization that grows from the grassroots, from local identity.

Community Representation

Slow Food Charlotte has 13 delegates that will be attending Terra Madre. To be a delegate is an awe inspiring experience. Once their feet hit the ground they are taken care of. All they have to worry about is absorbing and sharing what information they can before it is all over.

We are extatic for our delegates and if you know one of them make sure to give them a hearty congratulations.

Reaching Out

While our friends and peers are taken care of, Robin and I would like to attend the event for the experience, support, and ability to capture the experience.

Slow Food has granted us observer status so that we may be there and participate when room allows. Our aim is to chronicle the event for our region and work to bring greater exposure to a regional and national level.

We need your help though.

While we support our network we need our networks support. To cover our airfare and stay we need cash to do so and that’s something that is hard for us to afford in this time.

Giving Value for Value

While we love donations and with great honor will accept any amount of kindness, we want to offer some incentives or rewards for helping us.

When the trip is concluded I will be building a book for national sales on our regions Slow Food / Terra Madre participation and the greater picture. Like all my works prior it will be a lovingly crafted photo essay book. A compilation of images and text for you to read, share, enjoy and enlighten with.

In this book we would like to dedicate a series of pages to those who were willing to help us get there, as well as offer discounts or even the book itself when published.

The Tiers of Change

We tried to come up with something equitable, fair, and rewarding for helping us. We truly appreciate anything that you can do. The following tiers are available.

$15 dollars

Honorable Friend

Your name in the book as an honored friend.
10% off the printed book.

$25 dollars

Pathfinders

Your name in the book as a Pathfinder.
25% off a printed book.

$65 dollars

Trailblazers

Your name in the book as a Trailblazer.
50% off a printed book.

$125 dollars

Guardians

Your name in the book as a Guardian.
A thumbnail picture of yourself, family, or avatar.
75% off a printed book.
A signed 5”x7” print from the journey.

$250 dollars

Defenders

Your name in the book as a Defender.
A small picture of yourself, family, or avatar.
Free printed book.
A signed 8”x10” print from the journey.

Commercial Sponsors

These will be taken on a case by case basis. If you would like to inquire or participate with our journey please contact us.

Get your ChipIn widget

Payment

We will accept payments any way you can grant us them. If paying by Paypal you can use our ChipIn widget. No fees apply except my transaction costs with Paypal.

We will also accept checks:
Andy & Robin Ciordia
336 Pine Creek Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28270

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask, contact us.

While it is unlikely these rewards/incentives are subject to change.

Thank you for your time and caring. We hope to make this a memorable event in our lives and turn that around into something we can all take to heart.

Kind regards,

Andy & Robin Ciordia

Down the Rabbit Hole, Alice in Charlotte

andy — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:47:05 +0000

>In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

Luckily our Alice had the company of some adoring fans from our own celebrity chefs, the [Slow Food community](http://slowfoodcharlotte.org), and the [public at large](http://www.charlotteobserver.com/192/story/303217.html). From September 26th through 27th, Chef Alice Waters visited Charlotte, North Carolina gave talks, went on walks, and ate some of the best seasonal regional culinary fare the Queen City could muster.

North Carolina has lush land and when not suffering serious drought is a land of plenty. We’re overdue getting on the band-wagon of smart food choices for ourselves, our children, and supporting those that feed us. Alice Waters coming to Charlotte and delivering her [ideals](http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/) to our city, our region, is a swift way to draw focus to the importance at hand.

Chef Waters was brought to Charlotte via the Grateful Growers, Slow Food Charlotte, and Charlotte Shout. Her first stop on her tour was the Johnson and Wales campus where she had a lunch with school officials and Compass Group associates. She gave about a 45 minute [lecture](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1443584153/in/set-72157602163643386/) speaking of the importance of food in our culture, lack of food culture, obesity in America, and how very few are taking the correct initiatives to change it because of the bottom line. It was a fantastic discussion where she laced a few beautiful provocative statements which went towards the Compass Group (the Compass Group is a mega-multinational-conglomerate with a hiring capacity over 500k, King Kong of the commercial restaurant business).

For the evening festivities [Slow Food Charlotte](http://slowfoodcharlotte.org) held a lottery seating for it’s members at [Ratcliffe on the Green](http://ratcliffeonthegreen.com/). There Mark Hibbs, Executive Chef of Ratcliffe, and Owner Zach Goodyear pulled out all the stops for a regional and seasonal Carolina tasting menu. Heirloom gazpacho, [Local salads](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1455086938/in/set-72157602163643386/), cheeses, [coastal fish](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1454221093/in/set-72157602163643386/), [stuffed chicken](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1455091552/in/set-72157602163643386/), [grateful pork](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1454226591/in/set-72157602163643386/), and a perfect soft [apple dessert](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1455095666/in/set-72157602163643386/) ending.

The next day she was greeted by Lell Trogdon of Slow Food Charlotte, and Kathleen Purvis of the Charlotte Observer and taken to [Grateful Growers](http://ggfarm.com) located in Denver, North Carolina. There she met many local sustainable farmers, chefs, and instructors from the area. The farmers of Grateful Growers, Natalie Veres & Cassie Parsons did the full tour explaining their raising of tamworth hogs, breeding program, how they raise chickens (the chics even get a good dose of classical music), and the movement cycles of the coop pens for the betterment of the land and the fowl. They ended their tour at the shitake logs which many Slow Foodies and friends helped last November to plug. They had just bloomed a few days before we got there and they plucked one off a log for Chef Waters. By the looks of it she really enjoyed her time with the farm girls.

With the sights and sounds of a farm in our heads many of us caravaned over to the Art Institute of Charlotte to follow Ms. Waters to her next visit. At the Art Institute she signed books and met more of our local chefs and dignitaries. Then [Chef Joe and Chef Tany](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467877431/in/set-72157602163643386/), with the help of their culinary students, produced a magnificent six course meal that left us all wobbly. [House cured charcuterie](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1468717854/in/set-72157602163643386/), [butternut squash soup](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467870803/in/set-72157602163643386/), [goat cheese puff pastry](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467868997/in/set-72157602163643386/), [local pork belly & shank](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467872927/in/set-72157602163643386/), [beef short-ribs](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467845631/in/set-72157602163643386/), and a great [sweet potato cheesecake](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/1467875251/in/set-72157602163643386/). Again all local, all in season, all wonderfully presented.

After a short reprieve there was a reception for Ms. Waters at [Blue](http://www.bluerestaurantandbar.com/) with Executive Chef Gene Briggs. Alice got to meet some other regional Slow Food chapters and had a bit more face time with chefs of the area. Once again fantastic fare and enjoyable conversation followed her and this was no exception. There wasn’t as much time to relax and socialize as her main lecture at Queens Universities Dana Auditorium was coming up fast.

When she arrived at Dana I heard that she was amazed at the turnout. Thom Duncan said that Chef Waters was used to speaking to small groups of people and to have 500+ people show up to hear her talk was fantastic. We had groups from all over the eastern seaboard from New York to Florida that wanted to learn about the work Alice has been doing with the [Edible Schoolyard & School Lunch Initiative](http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/work.html).

She went through a great speech calling out the education system for a lack of perspective. How were we teaching kids about their own and our planets emergencies. There was an urgency in her tone while she explained how food was culture and that we had for far too long relegated food to maintenance. The growing, cooking, serving, and eating of food is culture. That the more we separate ourselves the more we lose empathy, responsibility, integrated mathematics, design, biology, etc.

Living the fast food lifestyle of fast, cheap, and easy is driving us towards a sort of animalism. We teach by example and what we’re teaching is a dereliction of self and environment. Yet there was redemption in something as simple as a garden. How beautiful and poetic.

There are many things that stand in the way. The current farm bill promotes the food conglomerates getting cheap food, corn mainly, that allows them to make quarter sodas and feeding the population into obesity faster than we can walk. The farm bill should be a [food bill](http://slowfoodcharlotte.org/video/video/show?id=859287:Video:1383) and it should support farmers trying to create wholesome products raised through methods which produce a more nutritious, safer, food choice. It doesn’t, so get on the phone! The hidden cost of low cost fast foods is what balloons the health care bill while not at all making incentives for good business. The power of lobbyists.

Her solutions of getting kids graded on lunch, building gardens, bringing culinary ability back to the lunchroom, is a large endeavor with far reaching fantastic ramifications. It’s not insurmountable but it will require dedication and people, parents, teachers, turning on the lights of those above them. Everyone must see this for what it is, what it is doing, and wanting to not participate in the capitalising of Mother Nature via food conglomerates.

She left Charlotte with a standing ovation and chills running up many of our spines. Myself, and Slow Food Charlotte would like to kindly thank Chef Waters for gracing us and exposing us to better thoughts. As we carry this knowledge forward we would like to work with any group out there that is trying to facilitate change. Many activist, pro-humanist groups are working on the same problems and we need to touch base and support one another. Join us at [Slow Food Charlotte Online](http://slowfoodcharlotte.org) and participate in the discussion. Help move the needle forward.