viva verde

A friend of mine Joel Robinson was in the Orange County Register today because his Wildlife Federation Certified backyard has been under attack by his neighbors.

(Joel in his yard- photo from Register)

I guess some of his neighbors are very anti-what-is supposed-to-be-growing-in-California because, “he’s received anonymous, threatening notes and even had some of his plants killed with herbicide. He says the situation in the neighborhood has become so tense he is thinking of moving away. ” Neighbors have actually defaced signs he has had posted ON HIS PROPERTY saying Wildlife Habitat.

Reading some of the comments from those against Joel (let me guess, from the neighbors), many said that they are for the “green” but not for his landscaping…some have even threatened to destroy his yard and call the city to intervene. UGGG!

here are my suggestions to those on Joel’s block:

1. prioritize people: there are so many other things that are more important….like the election, world hunger, the olympics, crime/graffiti, the dishes…heck anything is more important.

2. for probably the billionth time on this blog: southern California, if not the entire state is having a serious water crisis!

3. people need to remember that this is what was growing here before we imposed our tropical, British, high-water BS lawns that do nothing more than make us think we are somewhere other than Southern CA.

4. landscaping: yes you may not like it but hey, i dont like that you decided to grow yellow roses rather than red. and hey, i told you to to trim that hedge in the shape of an egg, not a square! your lawn, your taste.

perhaps i am bitter, living in Irvine, yes the city that says it is green that fined me for my own native yard, but we have a bogus HOA so they have an excuse.

if you agree with Joel and the use of natives, i urge everyone that reads this post to call the City of Orange City Council and demand that they not only protect Joel, but our future water supplies by encouraging people to grow more natives.

Mayor (714) 744-2200 Council (714) 744-2211

I guess there is a new channel out now put on but those at the Discovery Channel called “Planet Green“. You would think that i would be watching this thing the moment that it was live, but i was still in my heavy Bravo/HGTV coma and have only in the past couple of days had the strength to change the channel.

Planet Green seems to be in its infancy, i noticed lots of the same programs repeated, but hey at least there is something! One thing however made my face do one of those contortions similar to eating wilted lettuce when i thought it was fresh:

GREEN EMERIL

Is it just me or does this seem lame? I watched a few segments of this show featuring the Food Network celeb as he cooks items from Whole Foods. What’s funny is that if you didn’t know you were watching Planet Green, you would have thought that you were on Food Network-there is NOTHING different or “green” about this show. It is just Emeril cooking except you get to see him at the WF before he gets in the kitchen.

Don’t call me pessimistic, I honestly was giving this show a chance, i mean they must believe in it somehow because it is on virtually all the time. But i must admit I had my fill of this “green cooking show” & Emeril yesterday when I saw a advert for it. This is how it went:

(background voice) “Let’s ask Emeril, from Green Emeril what organic means.”

(Emeril) “organic means fresh and natural!”

You are better off reading Slow Food Nation or one of the great cookbooks from Alice Waters.

just read this interesting tiddy on the “5 reasons to not buy American“, and ugg! i am embarrassed!

I know i mentioned this earlier with the whole GM closing plants deal, buy i have to admit that to buy an American vehicle is totally and completely pointless. I feel like screaming into my pillow, “haven’t you learned A SINGLE THING from the 70’s?!?”

besides the “poor design choices” that are now so completely obvious (and if you cannot see them, take a look at your wallet, that might have something to do with it), i can’t help but think about how the current situ with “the big 3″ reflects greater themes/ideas in American consumption/culture:

1. marketing for the upper-class/well off people or wanting everyone to behave like they are
2. creating products with the mind-frame that supplies (aka FUEL, but also more than that) will last forever
3. designing product for now instead of “built to last” in the REAL essence of lasting in the WORLD-i think big corps need to consult with a dictionary, not bank account
4. thinking of a product as what i like to call it: its bare-necessity. In the case of the car, my definition is as follows:

CAR: a thing that can take a small group of people or single person from point A to point B at a faster rate than what they could do with physical effort. (i know a car takes physical effort, you know what i mean)

I, like so many others wants to “buy American”, but honestly, why should you when you are wasting natural resources and buying an inefficient product that will not stand the test of time? What ever happened to American Innovation? We have the best schools in the world and this is what we get?

somebody step up!  we should be leading design not dragging out heels 10 years later!

The CAMP in Costa Mesa launched its Sustainable Cinema Series on Sunday with the help of you-know-who to show thought-provoking and socially conscious films with great discussion after.

The first film on the summer line-up: Black Gold. This wonderful film takes a look at the one of the most traded commodities in the world’s marketplace: your morning cup of Joe. The film concentrates on Ethiopia, the “birthplace of coffee” and how an unregulated market has drastically altered the livelihood of so many farmers who depend on coffee prices to afford the most basic of necessities.

(film watchers enjoying the film and awesome weather)

I have to say, i was super excited to be sitting next to Mr. Martin Diedrich (yes from the beloved Diedrich Coffeehouse and now LOVED Kean Coffee). Raised in Guatemala and in the essence of coffee-culture, Martin knows the ins-and-outs of what is means to grow, roast, sell and market the bean through and through. I cannot think of a better person of talk to after such a film.

(our panel-hey, that’s me!)

Martin did make some interesting points: from his perspective, fair-trade coffee has suffered in quality and that the film only examines coffee trade in the form of the BIG players (think bigger than Starbucks even-they are the fifth largest!) like Nestle & Proctor and Gamble-types.  His solution: buy from small-indie outfits that give a damn about quality, beans, roasting and creating an end-product that respects the environment, people & palate…a coffee triple-bottom-line!

read more about coffee growers

I am still getting over the shock of GM closing 4 of their truck-making plants…the looming (and already here!) fuel crunch has resulted in a 40% drop in over the past year for GM stock.

what is GM to do??  the shocker: get on the bandwagon and start making fuel-efficient/hybrid vehicles! and according to someone who who manages more than $700 million in assets, “they’re launching more hybrids this year than any other company”. this is probably going to happen in 2 years (when there are plenty of other makers doing the same thing-go innovation GM!)
so am i happy?? YES!  all together now:

oil is a finite energy source and we will try to behave like it is!

i just can’t wrap my mind around how behind GM is, and to be honest, i am embarrassed.  maybe it’s me-I’m no corporate exec/automotive expert/market annalist, but it doesn’t take 2 seconds to realize that oil is not going to last.  It makes me mad that these “experts” at GM have jeopardized hundreds if not thousands of employees b/c they wanted to make a fast buck.  funny, in this article, i also read:

  “Our goal is not just to return GM to profitability, but to structure GM globally for sustained profitability and growth[…]”

what ever happened to just being SUSTAINABLE??? if they just did that, they could be like Toyota, Honda, or some others who have been thinking/doing this for, well more than just the past year.

spend your $$ wisely people.

i just got wind of the “temporary closing” of the Santa Ana Farmers’ Market a few weeks ago, and although i am a little heartbroken about it, i am not surprised.

i am not just saying that as a spectator or person who has visited the struggling market on a monthly basis, but as someone who actually laid the foundation for that market and got it started in the first place. of course you wouldn’t know this unless you did a little research or actually talked to the many people who were an integral part of starting a service like this in the first place.

a little back story: i left the Grain Project, a non-profit i founded with 2 women in 2005 when i found out about a serious conflict-of-interest within the organization that needed to result in rules or codes of conduct so that the organization as a whole could remain intact long after any of the founders were there. to me, rules happen in society when inappropriate things happen, as to ensure it not happening again. i took a stand, and demanded rules (with the counsel of 2 employee attorneys and other board members) to which i was subjected to ridicule and a “witch hunt” for my resignation.

one evening, after several panic attacks and public bashings of character, i was approached by our board of directors with a proposition: either personally resign, or the board was going to terminate the employment of the person in question. i thought long on and hard on this one. even though i had already signed the lease on what was to be The Road Less Traveled, i was not planning to actually build the store for 1 more year. and honestly, The Grain Project still needed more development in order to be a highly effective non-profit…we still needed to work on the “business” aspect of it.

well, i think you know what happened. and what suffered was a business.

non-profs are tricky: you are there to do good, but need to turn the lights on, need to pay the bills. this is a very difficult thing to grasp in this sector because you dont want to be a money-hungry b-/monster. but again, you need to keep the lights on. the rise of “social entrepreneurship” i think is paving the way for non-profs in a business model and will help future thinkers of doing good, really DO good while creating funds for…DOING GOOD. does that make sense?? let me show you in a basic equation:

good service + good business model= successful organization

problem is: people in non-profs (from my experience, not certifiable and there are efficient ones/many out there) want to just do the humanitarian aspect without thinking of protocol, funding, keeping the lights on. and more essential, let those who know more about sustaining revenue/social entrepreneurship do their work. in other words, DO THEIR JOB. The Grain Project is a great example of NOT embracing this. i have the feeling this has to do with above side story.

late at night i think of Santa Ana…i am sad for the closure yet hopeful that a group of people can make change. can they do it the right way now? even though i am not even welcomed at an event, given glares/rumors..i hope that there will be real leadership and business sense so that The Grain Project can create successful programs.

i hope for the best!

there is a big initiative to turn off the lights for an hour.  tomorrow, between 8 & 9 pm.  started guy a regular, “Joe” who wanted to increase awareness of energy use, wanted to see if the public really cared about it.

i will be turning off my lights (most likely because i wont be home…the store will be fun in the dark!), but what i really want to know is if the public at large can live without lights for a single hour.  i hope that this can be a national holiday in the coming years!!

the question is ::  CAN YOU DO IT!

TO FIND OUT MORE::: lights out LA