Comments CyberBrook has made

Like some of the best and most interesting characters, fictional and non-fictional, Thoreau was human and real, meaning that despite his great wisdom, he also had flaws like the rest of us. To me, that makes him more likeable, and useful.

He's not someone to emulate becuase he's a god, but he's someone to listen to, to enjoy, to grapple with, to think about and be provoked by, because he had damn good sense and was able to communicate it powerfully and poetically.

While we're talking about climate change and what to do about it, it is worth noting that Thoreau was a vegetarian, which is the single best thing you could do to fight global warming (as well as the single best thing you could do for your health and for the suffering of animals).

Please see Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg for more on this.

I just saw another report of recalled beef, this time from Commerce, CA. Yuck.

In slower motion, people are doing to themselves what they do to the animals...all for profit on the one hand and convenience, cost, and bad habits on the other.

Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg

a lot in common

Both countries have to cut down on coal, meat, and deforestation, as well as cars, consumption, and mass-produced disposable junk.On China says willing to work with US on climate change posted 9 months ago 1 Response

lunch

I always send my son packing with his lunch, but it's not really a pocketbook issue. The school lunches are cheap, but so is the food: very unappealing and often unhealthy.

Also, if we're talking school lunches and being green, I don't know how we can do so without explicitly encouraging more vegetarian meals in addition to as much local and organic as possible. All of this is good in terms of health, environment, and education.
On For a quick fix to school-lunch woes, pack an appealing salad and dip posted 9 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

community gardens

I love my little community garden and I'm glad to hear there's support in the White House. It would be great if, as Michael Pollan suggests, they put an organic farm on the White House lawn. It would also be a good stimulus if they supported community gardens, organic farms, farmers markets, Victory Gardens, and the like.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

horror and horror-lite

The lesser of two evils is still an evil.

Raising chickens and pigs for food, ingredients in the recipe above, is still cruel to the animals, bad for our health, potentially dangerous to public health, and bad for the environment on which we depend.

Ultimately, there's not a fundamental difference between KFC and this elitist version, akin to horror and horror-lite. Revise and resubmit.

For a real alternative that includes better health, cost savings, compassion, and environmental sustainability (which I thought was the whole point of Grist), please visit Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg

On Cheap-chicken ad from KFC hides true cost of food; here's a tastier, low-cost alternative posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago 17 Responses

oxtails and beef or chicken stock?!?

That kills a good vegetable soup, not to mention the oxen, cows, and chickens. The vegetable soup would be healthier, more compassionate, and greener without the animals inside.

Why would Grist add these unnecessary and brown ingredients to what could be a very green meal?

Please visit Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg for lots of good info and loads of links.

On Take the chill off the bad economy with a frugal, delicious vegetable soup posted 10 months ago 14 Responses

eating as if the Earth matters

the single best thing we can do as individuals is to engage in eco-eating (www.brook.com/veg), in addition to reducing, reusing, recycling, etc.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

fork it over

This is important stuff and the government needs to fork it over. So do we.

We need to transition more to vegetarianism and away from factory farms, more toward organic and biodynamic and away from chemicals and hormones and genetically engineered, we need to support whole foods and not subsidize corn and sugar, we need to support farmers markets and CSAs, more biodiversity and heirloom varieties, healthier school lunches as we decrease fast foods and other junk foods, we need to support the small and local, including community gardens, and not subsidize huge agro-business and McDonald's and their icky ilk.

Doing these things will help stimulate the economy as it stimulates our environment (reducing global warming and deforestation) and our health as well as our learning and productivity.

Keep the pressure on Obama and the Congress, for sure, but also do what you can to make positive personal changes. You voted for change in November; now vote with your dollars and your words.
On Think Locally, Act Infrastructurally posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago 14 Responses

eat shmeat?

Shmeat should likely be welcomed with the same joy as genetically-modified organisms, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated palm oil, and trans fats.

I'll stick to (and recommend) Eco-Eating: http://www.brook.com/veg

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

Celebrating Genocide!

Please visit

Celebrating Genocide!
http://www.counterpunch.org/brook1126.html

(celebrating genocide against Native Americans and participating in the consumption of millions of monocropped, genetically-engineered turkeys is neither compassionate nor green)
On To make the Thanksgiving centerpiece a sure triumph, go heritage -- and reach for the deep-fryer posted 1 year ago 5 Responses

the take away line from this article

"At the individual level, it seems pretty clear that the No. 1 thing that can be done is to eat less meat and dairy."
On Roni Neff explains how the media miss the story on food's connection to climate change posted 1 year, 1 month ago 5 Responses

Meat Eating and Global Warming

There's a web site called "Meat Eating and Global Warming" that has a bunch of linked articles on this subject.

It's at:
www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html

Also see:

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters (it does!)
www.brook.com/veg
On Roni Neff explains how the media miss the story on food's connection to climate change posted 1 year, 1 month ago 5 Responses

Eco-Eating

Check out Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg which is all about the environmental effects of meat.

In the extensive links section, there are various veg recipe sites, including VegCooking.com

Good luck, enjoy the process, and savor your positive choice to help your health, animal welfare, and the environment.
On Umbra on shifting to vegetarianism posted 1 year, 1 month ago 19 Responses

Nature's Path

I like Nature's Path Heritage Flakes and their Golden Flax, but I don't eat any cereals alone...I mix them together, sometimes add fruit, especially banana but also berries if I have them, pour on Vitasoy soy milk, and I'm all set.On Eleven organic breakfast cereals get put to the spoon posted 1 year, 2 months ago 11 Responses

most sustainable and most healthy

The most sustainable and most healthy way---for you, the fish, and our environment---is no fish. Seaweed is clearly the best seafood in this regard.

Check out

www.fishinghurts.com

and

www.brook.com/veg

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

Eco-Eating

It's increasingly clear that we need to engage in Eco-Eating (www.brook.com/veg) - it's better for our personal as well as public health, more compassionate for the animals, and more sustainable for our environment.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

Eco-Eating : Eating as if the Earth Matters

I'd like to echo some of the above comments which highlight the disastrous social and environmental consequences of meat production and consumption.

        Vegetarianism is an antidote to all of these unnecessary tragedies. Vegetarianism is literally about life and death - for each of us individually and for all of us together. Eating animals simultaneously contributes to: their suffering and death; the ill-health and early death of people; the unsustainable overuse of oil, water, land, topsoil, grain, labor, and other vital resources; environmental destruction, including deforestation, species extinction, and global warming; the legitimacy of force and violence; the mis-allocation of capital, skills, land, and resources; vast inefficiencies in the economy; tremendous waste; massive inequalities in the world; the transmission and spread of dangerous diseases; and moral failure in so-called civilized societies.

Please visit (and share) Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg for loads of great info and links.
On Independent report calls for major reforms to industrial animal farming posted 1 year, 6 months ago 15 Responses

humane?

Talk about rectify names: I'm not even sure what humane means anymore! Clearly, we have the capacity for good and evil, so it's seems humane to engage in both.

In any event, the kindest and most just way of eating, as well as the most healthy and eco-sustainable, is Eco-Eating (check it out at www.brook.com/veg).
On China drafting rules for humane slaughter of livestock posted 1 year, 11 months ago 6 Responses

bad ---> worse

This will only make a bad ocean situation even worse.

Please see the "Fisha nd Other Sea Animals" section of

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg
On U.S. government wants to boost fish-farming industry posted 1 year, 11 months ago 6 Responses

of course, but so can vegetarianism!

Of course, exercise is good for fighting obesity and global warming, but so is vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism fights not only obesity, but also heart disedase, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney diseases, gout, Alzheimer's, impotence, and more.

Vegetarianism fights not only global warming (see http://www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html), but also air and water pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, ocean damage, species extinction, and more.

Vegetarianism also fights world hunger, cruelty, violence, inequality, inefficiency, and more.

And it's not one or the other: by all means exercise, but also eat vegetarian, don't smoke, recycle, drive less, consume more green products, buy organic, switch away from incandescent light bulbs, support green orgs, vote green, be kind, and so on.
On Exercise can combat both obesity and global warming, says CDC posted 2 years ago 4 Responses

Green Diet of the Year

Since food is more important in terms of gobal warming than transportation (see www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html), a green car is one thing, but a green diet is even better (why not do both?!).

And now, for the Green Diet of the Year:
                     Organic Vegan!
(applause, applause, apple sauce)

On Hybrid Chevy Tahoe wins "Green Car of the Year" award posted 2 years ago 5 Responses

Meat Eating & Global Warming

Meat Eating and Global Warming
www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg
On Food companies damaging climate through deforestation, says new report posted 2 years ago 1 Response

utopia?

This isn't it, needless to say. Instead, I'm thinking about small, healthy, organic farms with a diversity of crops, no chgemicals, no genetic engineering, good wages, community support, vegetarian meals, radiating happiness and peace!
On A journey into the heart of industrial agriculture posted 2 years, 1 month ago 2 Responses

junk policy

The USDA has $128 billion in assets, spends $77 billion annually plus $100 billion in loans, plus loan guarantees and crop insurance, and has 100,000 employees in 14,000 offices and field locations.

Can you imagine if these resources were put towards organic, biodynamic, permaculture, and other healthy and sustainable practices and technologies?

Can you imagine if the FDA were people-centric and not corporate-centric?

Can you imagine of corporations were reined in and didn't have such immense unelected power?

It could happen, but only if we whine enough and then push, cojole, threaten, vote, drag, and nudge them along.

We should also be buying as much organic as possible to avoid these toxic chemicals and not reward toxic corporations.
On EPA approves carcinogenic pesticide posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

a good start

It's definitely better for lawns to go organic and therefore toxic-free, but we also need to get away from our monocultural mindset of mega-farming single species.

Promote organics and biodiversity!
On Group will do organic lawn care outside Capitol posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

eco-eating

Whether it's water or soil issues, deforestion or biodiversity, heart disease or global warming, compassion or spiritality, peace or justice, we need to learn about, teach about, and engage in eco-eating.

http://www.brook.com/veg

On Boosting crops for fuel will hurt water supplies, says report posted 2 years, 1 month ago 6 Responses

honest but age-appropriate

Especially with kids, we need to be honest but age-appropriate. It's OK for them to be a little scared, just don't scare the hell out of them. I teach as well as having one of my own and this is my approach, which seems to work.

Then we need to teach them, and to model, being part of the solution, not the problem, in as many ways as possible, from our words to our lightbulbs to our food choices and more. And we need to join with others, not simply in the abstract, but really join with others so we have some sense of communtiy. As much as possible, be more democratic by engaging kids with helping to come up with solutions to all sorts of problems, social, environmental, familial, and otherwise.

If we live our lives well, meaningfully join with others, try to make a better society, show lots of love, and increase our circles of compassion, we will become part of something bigger than ourselves, we will be making positive differences, we will be living good, happy, and worthwhile lives, and we will be teaching our kids some very powerful and hopeful lessons by example.

Kids have built-in hypocrisy detectors and theirs won't be going off with us if we do our jobs right.
On On climate nightmares, the Ursula problem, and planning ahead posted 2 years, 1 month ago 4 Responses

"simplify, simplify, simplify"

One of the keys (to adventures, to life, to sustainability) is to "simplify, simplify, simplify", as Thoreau himself suggested, which is why he went to beautiful Walden Pond in the first place.

Another key (to health, to life, to sustainability) is to make one's soup, and other food, vegetarian, as Thoreau himself suggested.

Here's a quote from Walden:

"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other...."
---Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Now for some delicious soup recipes:

http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/soups.php

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Everyday-Cooking/Vegetarian ...

http://www.fatfree.com/recipes/soups

http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/soups.html
On An autumn swim at Walden, a warm robe, and a piping hot bowl of soup posted 2 years, 1 month ago 7 Responses

Peace for pigs, humans, and other animals!

Peace for pigs, humans, and other animals!

Meat Eating and Global Warming
www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html

[Animals] were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
Alice Walker

The time will come when people such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of people.
Leonardo da Vinci

Animals raised for food endure great suffering in their housing, transport, feeding and slaughter.
J Motavalli, So You're an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating Meat?

I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.
Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers

I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn't cause suffering.
Dalai Lama

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mohandas Gandhi

The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future: deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.
World Watch

Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Albert Einstein

There is a direct relationship between eating meat and the environment.
Andrea Gordon, If You Recycle, Why Are You Eating Meat?

If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do.
Paul McCartney

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg
On How the meat industry thrives, even as costs rise posted 2 years, 2 months ago 15 Responses

Meat Eating and Global Warming

We need to face the facts. get informed. Get active. Make a positive difference!

Here is a nice collection of links demonstrating the global warming and other negative environmental between meat and climate change:

Meat Eating and Global Warming
http://www.ivu.org/members/globalwarming.html

This is the kind of stuff Gore has to include in his new book. Given that the livestock industry contributes more to global warming, according the UN, this issue need to be given priority, not simply a brief and diluted mention on one page as he did in his book.
On Al Gore will pen a solutions-focused sequel posted 2 years, 2 months ago 9 Responses

something's fishy here!

The only thing that sounds good here is the Nectarine-Red Onion Relish!

Here's the "fish" section from my Eco-Eating web site at http://www.brook.com/veg - please take a look at it and let me/us know what you think:

Fish:                                          

            "Seafood is simply a socially acceptable form of bush meat", according to Paul Watson, a founder of Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "We condemn Africans for hunting monkeys and mammalian and bird species from the jungle, yet the developed world thinks nothing of hauling in magnificent wild creatures like swordfish, tuna, halibut, shark and salmon for our meals. The fact is that the global slaughter of marine wildlife is simply the largest massacre of wildlife on the planet."

            Commercial fishing is causing the collapse of the world's fisheries, having likely passed "peak fish", destroying marine ecosystems, heavily polluting our oceans, and, along with climate change, contributing to "dead zones". In effect, we are clear cutting our underwater rainforests, including the coral reefs and mangroves that support a rich array of biodiversity, as well as providing coastal protection, leading to the endangerment and extinction of many species. To catch wild fish, entire schools of fish are netted along with turtles, dolphins, whales, sharks, seals, birds, and others as "by-catch", or "collateral damage", leaving a destructive and deadly wake. In fact, over 1/5 (about 22%) of fish caught by U.S. commercial operations is "by-catch" (fish that is caught, but discarded), topping more than a million tons per year.

            Aquaculture, or the factory farming of fish, is also massively eco-destructive, often leading to over-fishing of wild fish for feed, de-oxygenation of the water, disease amongst fish and other marine animals, and the (over)use of antibiotics, hormones, chemicals, and genetically-engineered additives.

            Further, underwater "forests" of coral reefs and mangroves are being decimated by "rape-and-run" shrimp farming (exploiting and polluting coastal communities for 2 to 5 years before abandoning them), commercial overfishing and trawling, inefficient industrial shipping, and other fish-related mega-activities with no regard for the natural world, whether underwater or above.

            Fish often contain mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium as well as toxic POPs, including PCBs, DDT, and dioxin, which can't be removed from the fish and which bio-accumulate in consumers. "A major health hazard from eating fish flesh comes from humans causing polluted aquatic environments. Fish are repositories for the industrial and municipal wastes and the agricultural chemicals flushed into the world's waters", says Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. "Mercury, especially high in tuna and swordfish, can cause brain damage, especially in growing children. PCBs, dioxin, and pesticides (such as DDT) have been linked to cancers, nervous system disorders, fetal damage, and many other health problems. Removing fish from your meals eliminates half of all mercury exposure and reduces one's intake of other toxins." According to Dr. Steve Patch, co-director of the Environmental Quality Institute, University of North Carolina-Asheville, "We saw a direct relationship between people's mercury levels and the amount of... fish people consumed".

            While fish often seem to contain high levels of protein and healthy fats and fatty acids (especially for the fish), this may not be the case and, in any event, there are easy alternatives for these nutrients, including olives, flax, and hemp seeds. Additionally, fish, as with other animals, contain saturated fat and cholesterol, which are unhealthy. Further, fish do not contain any fiber, vitamins, anti-oxidants, or phytonutrients, all of which are exclusive to plant foods. A scientific review of studies about fish has shown that it is not necessarily a healthy food for humans.

            It is understandable why some people go into denial, but it should be clear that fish--as with all other animals--feel pain, a phenomenon in animals needed for survival and success. Being caught on a hook is "like dentistry without novocaine, drilling into exposed nerves" (Dr. Tom Hopkins). Being pulled out of the water is like a person being held under water.

            Vegetarians protect fish, other marine animals, and the incredible oceans they live in.

"Commercial fishing, aquaculture, and angling are environmentally catastrophic.... If you eat fish, you are supporting an industry that plunders our oceans with no regard for the horrible pain and suffering that fish and other marine animals endure or for the diverse ocean ecosystem that is imperative to the survival of all underwater life."

www.FishingHurts.com
On All you need for summer seafood splendor posted 2 years, 4 months ago 22 Responses

we are what we eat

I don't like that we're being experimented on, essentially chemicalized and genetically modified by what they put into our seeds, farms, and foods.

I eat veg, so I at least avoid all animals, and I try to eat organic, but most restaurants don't serve it and it's more expensive.

Please visit Eco-Eating at http://www.brook.com/veg for where I'm coming from philosophically...

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters http://www.brook.com/veg

student power!

What the students are doing is great! I hope they can change their schools and their/our society. While they are at it, though, I hope they change things on the micro level.

By going veg, they can make a bigger personal difference in terms of global warming than they can by switching to a hybrid car (also a good thing to do, of course).

Going veg is also better for the environment in a whole host of other ways, better for their personal health, and needless to say better for the animals who won't be tortured, killed, and made into meat to satisfy people's selfish desires.

Please visit Eco-Eating at http://www.brook.com/veg for much more info and lots of links.
On Students keep up momentum with a pre-election Climate Summer posted 2 years, 5 months ago 5 Responses

eco-eating

hey, what about eco-eating?
(http://www.brook.com/veg/)
On An eco-lexical eco-spasm for the modern eco-age posted 2 years, 5 months ago 12 Responses

wild sustainability

I love these ideas of smallness, lightness, naturalness, independence, conservation, ecology, and sustainability.

It relates to Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg , especially in that it is best for personal and as well as planetary health.On An interview with underground foodie hero Sandor Katz posted 2 years, 6 months ago 3 Responses

we all need to do the equivalent...

This is great...and inspiring! We all need to do the equivalent, we need to either do what she did or extrapolate and do something like she did.

Target an environmental message toward kids or some other niche group. We need to reach all sorts of groups in all sorts of ways... like advertising.

Other possibilities to push environmentalism and the issue of global warming:

give a little presentation at a school, speak up at a city council &/or some other meeting, write letters to the editors of newspapers and mags, call talk radio stations, post to various blogs, post on craigslist, make flyers and pass them out, write your reps, talk to your neighbors, make requests of and give advice to the businesses you patronize, contact the schools you went to, copy articles for people, and come up with your ideas to spread eco-awareness and then do them! And get other people involved too!
On Can Al Gore's message be tailored for kids? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 16 Responses

dioxins

Here's my takeaway message:

To avoid dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs), Umbra says the risk of pool water is unclear, but the risk of meat and milk, where dioxins bioaccumulate, are clear.

Of course, there are MANY other risks associated with meat and milk. You know, things from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and gout to global warming, deforestation, loss of topsoil, and water pollution. Little stuff like that.

But if those things don't bother you, then have a cow and don't worry about it.

If you're even slightly concerned about your health and the health of life on Earth, please take a look at Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg
On Umbra on chlorine posted 2 years, 8 months ago 13 Responses

"ethical food" par excellence

Hey, why didn't the Economist's backlash article take a swipe at eating "ethical food" par excellence, vegetarianism/veganism??? I mean, they hit me on organic etc., but I expect and demand more vitriol from those literary pro-capitalists.

I'd also like to back up what fellow gristmiller Chris Townsend says: in the US, about 3/4 of major crops (e.g., wheat, corn, soy, oats, alfalfa) is fed to animals in the livestock industry being fattened for human consumption. In this way, the fod we grow isn't for us; they are cholesterol crops. That means that the meat industry is bad for the environment, bad for health, and very inefficient and unethical.On Why The Economist's recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark posted 2 years, 10 months ago 16 Responses

it makes me sad, but gives me hope!

If we want to save animals, protect species and biodiversity, if we want to reduce environmental degredation and global warming, if we want to protect forests and lakes, if we want to optimize health, if we want to minimize suffering...

we can do it in this generation!

Please visit

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at http://www.brook.com/veg

for lots more information and hundreds of links.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters http://www.brook.com/veg

Eco-Eating

Eating local is enviromentally good, but it is only one possible way to be more sustainable, as Umbra indicates.

For me, the most powerful way is through vegetarianism, which can also be local and organic whenever possible.

Perhaps you've seen the new UN FAO study:

Livestock a major threat to environment: Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.ht...

Please take a look at

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
www.brook.com/veg

 On Umbra on eating locally in winter posted 2 years, 11 months ago 15 Responses

social change

I, too, have been a fan of Gladwell, since reading Tipping Point years ago. Smart guy on many levels.

I really appreciate you tipping us off to his speech and doing so in an elegant and concise way.

Here's some information on community organizing and social change that I got (mostly) from Rubin & Rubin, Community Organizing and Development.

"Community organizing will continue as it has for generations, solving immediate problems and helping to resolve the bigger issues of inequality, injustice, and the environment. Activism has created a vocabulary of responses, an understanding that a range of choices are available other than those permitted by top-down, authoritarian models. Each victory reduces the feeling of helplessness, empowers those involves, and builds capacity for future community efforts. Successful organizing efforts reinforce a culture of collective responsibility and make people aware of the possibility of change."

Organizing Issues
--people tend to support decisions they feel involved in making
--people think about abstract things, but worry about concrete things
--provide ideas and alternatives, but don't flood people with data
--listen carefully to what people feel, need, and want, including to what they say and don't say
--"learn to search out the rationalizations, treat them as rationalizations, and break through" (Alinsky)

Organizing Campaign
--define a problem
--document its extent (abstract with aggregate data and concrete with personal stories)
--frame the issue (create symbols, slogans, stories, etc.)
--publicize
--build alliances
--develop leadership (in yourself and others)
--target those who could affect a solution
--put direct pressures on the target
--ensure implementation
--claim victory
--begin a new campaign
(Alinsky: "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
Tactics must keep members involved and interested.)

Organizing Template
The M Factor (cf. The P Factor: product, price, placement, promotion):
mission (plan)
message (what's the point?)
mainstreaming (creating cultural resonance)
money (funding and resources)
mechanics (how to)
mapping (where best to organize, where best to marginalize)
might (strength and power)
marketing (getting the message out in appropriate ways)
media (using the mass media, supporting / creating alternative media)
management (organization)
measurement / market research (feedback)
mobilization (getting people organized and involved, developing capacity and leadership)

Organizing Advice
--examine your language (know your audience, be accurate, think about slanted language)
--don't let "no" stop you (hold firmly to your beliefs and passion-- persistence pays!)
--continue to educate yourself and others (keep learning facts, tricks, tactics, etc.)
--use the media to educate and pressure (get the media on your side, create alternative media)
--connect to history (show how this is one struggle in a long, proud tradition)
--practice political jujitsu (turn the energy of opponents against them)
--unite allies (create coalitions) and divide opponents (create wedge issues)
--be willing to do what it takes (and know what you're willing and unwilling to do)
--be prepared for a long and difficult struggle

Organizing Incentives
--be a winner, show victories
--make it fun, have fun
--develop camaraderie/friendships
--personalize the issues, personalize the target
--create buzz, excitement
--be cool
--make it easy, take it easy
--provide social and material benefits, free stuff
--give reinforcement, thanks, boosters, appreciation
--let people in, be open and inclusive, gracious and appreciative
--make people feel proud, meaningful, useful, successful, accomplished, and worthwhile

Organizing Reflections
--what's working, what isn't, and why?
--are means and ends balanced?
--going in the right direction?
--are tactics too militant or not militant enough?
--how can we get more people, orgs, and constituencies involved?
--how can we refine our message to make it better?
--how can we make things more win-win instead of zero-sum?
--how can we effectively address the roots and the puppeteer, not just the branches and the puppet?

"Lit by past successes, the path ahead is clear, though much remains to be done. Victories have built on each other, providing hope for future progress.... Activism is about creating social change, action by action, project by project."

Slavery was indeed an emergency, but as Howard Zinn notes in A People's History of the United States, "moral pressure would not do it alone, the blacks knew [Frederick Douglass and other black abolitionists]; it would take all sorts of tactics, from elections to rebellion."

Lois Gibbs says that facts and logic, morality and ethics, is vitally important, but never enough; there has to be so much pressure that they can't withstand.

Kevin Danaher says that the art of politics is uniting friends and dividing enemies.

Essentially, we have to raise the costs on our opponents so that their plans are no longer worth it, so that doing nothing is too much trouble, so that doing what we want becomes the least objectionable to them, while raising the hopes, spirits, and energy of our allies.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters http://www.brook.com/veg

"it's the meat, stupid!"

Nearly 3/4 of major crops, such as corn, wheat, and soy, in the US are fed to animals. The Amazon rainforest is being cleared to pasture cows and to grow genetically engineered soybeans to overfeed those cows destined to become meat for overfed Americans. We need to get out of the unsustainable, unhealthy, uncompassionate, ugly, dangerous, disease-spewing, regressive meat racket.

Another Inconvenient Truth
http://www.eatkind.net/inconvenient.htm

EarthSave: A New Global Warming Strategy
http://www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3312

ABC News: Meat-Eaters Aiding Global Warming?
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/TenWays/story?id=2119267...

Greenpeace: On Your Plate
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/green-living-guide/on-...

Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian
http://goveg.com/environment-globalwarming.asp?int=weekly...

Vegan diets healthier for planet, people than meat diets
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060413.diet.shtm...

The SUV in the Pantry
http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/gasfood112105.cfm

Cut Global Warming by Becoming Vegetarian
http://www.physorg.com/news4998.html

Five Food Choices for a Healthy Planet
http://www.veg.ca/issues/enviro-5reasons.html

and

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters
http://brook.com/vegOn Can industrial agriculture withstand climate change? posted 3 years, 1 month ago 11 Responses