nicholas kristof writes a very nice op-ed in the new york times about organic valley yamhill, oregon producer bob bansen, “where cows are happy and food is healthy”. don’t miss the great video that accompanies the article, “milk of human kindness”.
Tag Archives: organic valley
earth, wind and fire. or, the sunnier side of biodiesel re-re-visited.
it’s august which means it’s time for yet another photo of the high-oil sunflowers that are pressed for biodiesel for an organic valley sustainability program. some might recall my photos from last year and a few might even recall the original, popular sunnier side of biodiessel photo from five(?!) years ago.
this year is extra exciting because nestled amongst the sunflowers you can now see the two wind turbines that are part of wisconsin’s first community wind farm that were put up in a partnership between organic valley and gundersen health system.
the two wind turbines are expected to generate about 5 megawatts of energy which more than offsets organic valley’s cashton distribution center and our la farge headquarters.
McKayla is Not Impressed with The Dude.
i’m not sure which is weirder – seeing a giant picture of me next to the coffee station at organic valley drinking coffee from my “the dude” cup, or the fact that it’s part of the McKayla is Not Impressed meme ( the speech bubble next to her says, “i can’t believe i came in second place to “the dude” ). or the fact that it’s not the only giant photo of me around work.
i think this is all a grand conspiracy to get me to deal with why i hate seeing pictures of myself.
listening to raj patel speak in front of my three foot disembodied hand.
three years ago i took a picture of myself “stealing” peas from organic valley’s chief marketing executive’s employee garden. a few years ago, somebody from organic valley asked for pictures from the employee garden to be used in a presentation, so i gave them the picture with many others. it must have ended up somewhere in our graphics department, because this week i was pleasantly surprised to see it blown up on the wall of the employee cafe with a few other food/garden pictures.
so now you know how i ended up listening to academic, journalist, activist and writer, raj patel, speak ( he’s an excellent speaker by the way ) on the global food economy and participatory democracy at a fundraiser for the valley stewardship network in front of my disembodied hand stealing theresa’s peas.
i think there’s a metaphor in there somewhere. or maybe not.
New organic milk brand abandons grains
excited to be heading to humboldt county tomorrow to visit one our 100% grass-fed “grassmilk” farms. i hear the grass is lovely now. here’s a recent grassmilk interview where i manage to sound relatively coherent and succinct. if you’re on the west coast and you love milk, you should give it a try.
the beehive design collective visits organic valley.
some of the folks who are part of the beehive design collective visited the organic valley headquarters today to meet the employees and discuss the images the group created which have been hanging at hq for the past few months. the group is best known for producing large, intricate pen and ink posters which, according to wikipedia, “…seek to provide a visual alternative to deconstruction of complicated social and political issues ranging from globalization, free trade, militarism, resource extraction, and biotechnology.
here, one of the members of the collective is talking about their the true cost of coal piece, which is enormous, took over two years to create and is almost overwhelmingly detailed. you can read more about the piece in this PDF narrative booklet that describes in detail the meaning of the imagery.
as if it wasn’t cool enough that i work for a cooperative that will encourage groups like the beehive design collective, i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention the “it’s a small world afterall” aspect to this story. it just so happens that the collective now resides in my hometown, machias, maine and lives in what used to my uncle’s old house!
the collective is restoring the local grange hall and hosts an annual “blackfly ball” at the grange and some of the posters for the ball are hanging around headquarters.
amusingly, one of the posters for the 2010 ball ( seen on the left ) is posted at the bottom of the stairs that i take every day when i go to work. we happened to be in maine at the time of the ball, but i spent all day at the blueberry festival on the day odin won the blueberry cooking contest and was too tired to go to the ball. i recall driving by the grange and it was packed.
i was bummed that we couldn’t make it back this year to defend odin’s blue ribbon and attend the 2011 ball ( poster on the right ).
seeing the poster every morning for the past few months always puts a big smile on my face.
here, another member of the collective talks about the 6 foot tall Plan Colombia piece which is a visualization of the issues surrounding the colonialism in the andean region of south america.
you could go through each piece for hours and find fun little details all along the way. *cough*.
more of the incredible detail in the Plan Colombia piece.
thanks for visiting, beehive design collective people! hopefully someday soon i’ll get a chance to stop by and visit in machias.
until then, bonus points will be awarded if any of you send me a picture standing near snowdeal lane which is somewhere in jonesboro 🙂
sowing the seeds of a garlic harvest.
continuing our tradition of planting about a month later than you should, we finally got about 200 cloves planted in our organic valley employee garden. so if all goes as planned we’ll have another small mountain of garlic in about eight months for the third year in a row.
also, friends and family may be receiving Gifts of Garlic from our last harvest 🙂