Category: The ALISON D. GILBERT Blog

                      So I was talking with a couple guys today and it kind of dawned on me that there needs to be a more in-depth conversation on carbs…

Source: papasteves.com

Carbs are probably one of the most misunderstood foods with the possible exception of fat. Both are essential to our daily diets. But which ones? Get some insights from this post.

See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution

When he’s not working as a camp director at Skudin Surf school, or doing volunteer work with children with special needs for the nonprofit Surf for All, professional surfer TJ Gumiela is training, …

Source: www.liherald.com

I love when surfing contests come to Long Beach. The ocean is one of our greatest natural assets (and enemies as we saw with Hurricane Sandy). It is great when man and nature can partner in a playful rather than painful way.

See on Scoop.it – The Cultural & Economic Landscapes

My name is Olivia Guzman. For 17 years, my husband Fausto and I have been coming to the U.S. each season from our hometown in Mexico as H-2B guestworkers. We worked with thousands of other guestworkers who process and pack seafood for big retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods. The guestworker visa requires us to work for only one employer. The name of our boss is inscribed in our passport, and if we are fired or leave to seek work somewhere else we can be detained and deported by ICE.

Our employers paid us a piece rate—by the weight of seafood we cleaned—that often came out to be less than the minimum wage no matter how fast we worked. They housed us in decrepit labor camps on company property where snakes crawled up through cracks in the floor. Bosses and managers surveilled us in the camps, humiliated us, and even physically abused us. To keep us silent, they constantly threatened us with firing, deportation, and blacklisting so we could no longer find work as guestworkers.

There comes a time you can’t take the abuse any more, and in spite of the threats, you have to speak up. I did that when I became of member of the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA). I traveled across the Gulf Coast and organized my fellow guestworkers into committees to try to change conditions in the industry. I traveled to Washington, DC, and Mexico City to tell political leaders about the abuse.

But when I hosted NGA meetings in my house, the recruiter spied on us. She said we were all trouble makers and threatened to have us blocked from coming back to the United States. And I learned that the threats were real, because this year, my employer blacklisted me in retaliation for my organizing. I was removed from the employment list, accused of being a trouble maker, and blocked from coming back on an H-2B visa to my employer.

Walmart says it wants to stop forced labor on its supply chain, but continues to buy from suppliers who abuse guestworkers every day. Whole Foods tells customers all about where its fish were caught, but not that the fish were packed by workers who were trapped in severe labor abuse.

Walmart and Whole Foods set the standards that thousands of suppliers follow. My fellow NGA members and I are calling on them to sign the NGA’s Forced Labor Prevention Accord. The Accord is a binding agreement that would ban retaliation and blacklisting, ensure basic labor standards, and create a binding dispute resolution process that includes employers and workers. We are urging retailers to sign the Accord to ensure that their suppliers don’t trap guestworkers in exploitation and forced labor.

Source: www.coworker.org

We need to find other solutions to food wholesaling other than forced labor. If retailers cannot afford to charge a reasonable price while paying workers a living wage, something is wrong with our economy. This only confirms that something is very wrong. Some of us are turning to grassroots and local farm solutions by avoiding corporate greed altogether. 

See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution

Prepare this homemade root beer recipe using sassafras, … If you shop from Mountain Rose Herbs (http://bit.ly/pSj5zq), it’s pretty easy to get

Source: nourishedkitchen.com

Did you know that soda used to be healthy? There were ‘soda fountains’ in drug stores because chemist made soda formulas that were actually remedies for conditions. Not so today. The only thing to say about today’s soda is that it is guaranteed to make you sick, rot your teeth, make you thirsty and earn the corporation that owns the company lots of money at your expense.

See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution

Lacto-fermented blueberry soda is not only easy to make at home, it’s also a healthful alternative to sugar and chemical-filled commercial sodas. Blueberries,

Source: fearlesseating.net

Did you know that soda used to be healthful even medicinal? There were soda fountains in drug stores so that the ‘chemist’ could make up a remedy. Look how far sodas have come (down) in the nutritional and health providing food chain! You can restore the healthful value of soda with this and many other recipes.

See on Scoop.it – The Food rEvolution

Another look at the overlooked

Source: www.phaidon.com

Forever loved by everyone. Milton Glaser’s iconic campaign to boost the image of New York which was less than stellar at the time. It worked!

See on Scoop.it – Avant-garde Art & Design

Graphic design guru who gave us the “I heart NY’ logo in the 1970s turns his attention to a less benign topic

Source: www.phaidon.com

If the amount of press this campaign is receiving is any indication of its importance, then we can confer that this is as important as many of us believe it is.

See on Scoop.it – Global Evolution: Will we be in time?

Milton Glaser, the designer behind the iconic ‘I ♥ NY’ logo, has turned his attention to global warming, creating a logo for an awareness campaign titled ‘It’s not warming, it’s dying’.    “There is no more significant issue on Earth than its survival,” Glaser told design publication Dezeen. “The questions is, ‘how can anyone not be involved?'” Speaking of the design – a disk with a black-green gradient running from North to South – Glaser said, “I can never answer the question of how ideas originate, and apparently, neither can anyone else. But, symbolically, the disappearance of light seemed to be an appropriate way to begin.”

Source: www.marketingmag.com.au

Milton Glaser’s project @itsnotwarming is getting world attention. As well it should. Have you ordered your buttons yet? www.itsnotwarming.com

See on Scoop.it – Global Evolution: Will we be in time?

Milton Glaser, the graphic designer behind the ubiquitous I heart NY logo, has launched a campaign to raise awareness of climate change.

Source: www.dezeen.com

Not every socio-geographic-political campaign can be as clever and universally loved as "I ♥ NY". But Milton Glaser, the world famous graphic designer who is responsible for the NY love phrase has come up with another doozie. This time it is in relationship to climate change which he considers more appropriately, "It’s not warming, it’s dying." His slogan and icon are causing quite a stir which is just what this issue needs.

See on Scoop.it – Global Evolution: Will we be in time?