yearofplenty

The McDonalds Happy Meal is ageless - . I wonder if people will start making age defying face creams from Happy Meals, kind of like those melons from some obscure village in Italy that have natural preserving powers. Some serious brand extension possibilities there for McDs.

A freeway is turned into a farm. Yes San Francisco, we know you're way greener and groovier than the rest of us. You don't have to rub it in.

Study shows three core family practices that help fight obesity.

A new national study suggests that preschool-aged children are likely to have a lower risk for obesity if they regularly engage in one or more of three specific household routines: eating dinner as a family, getting adequate sleep and limiting their weekday television viewing time.

In a large sample of the U.S. population, the study showed that 4-year-olds living in homes with all three routines had an almost 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than did children living in homes that practiced none of these routines.

The Inlander "Best of..." results are in. Spokane picked Starbucks for best coffee shop, Red Robin for best hamburger and Azteca for best Mexican. At least Taco Bell only got second in the "cheap eats" category. Come on Spokane. San Francisco is turning freeways into farms and we can't get enough of 90's Mall food court culture. Cleveland is turning their mall food courts into greenhouses and we're doubling down on refried beans at Azteca. Spokane Food Blog, take it from here.

On another note the Inlander has a new web site. Looks good.

teacher that is chronicling a year of school lunches that I reported on earlier in the year has gone viral.

Have a great weekend.

Picture: large wild Dandelion seed head with Arrowleaf Balsamroot in the background from last May.

A veggie garden in front of New York's City Hall?

It's not just farmers and consumers who are in a tizzy over Michael Pollan;

But there is another cultural divide coming to the fore in our society, this one between farmer and farmer. The best current example of this phenomenon is the flare up of opposition to Michael Pollan’s books criticizing industrial grain farms and animal factories. Agribusiness has suddenly realized it can no longer just ignore the opposition. A large scale corn and soybean farmer, Blake Hurst, went online with something he called the “Omnivore’s Delusion” to blast Pollan’s “Ominivore’s Dillema.” The crap really hit the fan. Industrial farm supporters and pastoral farm supporters went at each other on the Internet like a couple of tomcats, the former labeled sneeringly as factory food producers and the latter called, even more sneeringly, “agri-intellectuals.” Fast farming vs. fake farming.

Are Spokane's locavores Spokavores or ? At least I haven't heard anyone say Spocalvore...yet.

Atkinson elementary in Portland is feeding their kids locally grown Rutabagas. It's been awhile since I reminded the readers of the blog that our family had a Grand Champion Rutabaga at the Spokane County Fair a couple years back. It's kind of the Oscar or Grammy of root crops.

If you don't have enough anxiety in your life and want to get freaked out about farm raised salmon go here.

A friend of a friend has a new book out on the intersections of environment and faith. by Scott Sabin. Scott is the Exec. Director of Plant With Purpose, a Christian mission agency that focuses on enviormental/land issues for impoverished people in small villages. They're doing amazing stuff in Haiti. Our church has been planting trees with this organization instead of buying Poinsettias for Christmas and Easter Lilies for Easter. Go here to plant a tree in Haiti.

Speaking of books, there may be a Year of Plenty book in the not too distant future. More on that later.

Have a great weekend.

Here are some links worth exploring:

• Chipotle, Just Food and Human Rights

Excerpt: In Florida, the human rights crisis engulfing farm labor is perhaps most starkly visible. Tomato pickers have received virtually the same harvesting piece rate since 1980: 40-50 cents for every 32-pound bucket they fill. At this rate, workers must pick and haul a staggering 2.5 tons of tomatoes in order to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day.

• Contemporary art takes a foodie turn with a wall full of donuts.

• Don't eat food or drink from containers containing BPA. It's old news but it looks like the FDA is finally getting around to making a statement on the matter. If you really want to get freaked out about plastic containers read this NYT article by N. Kristoff.

• Make what you love at home - top 10 recommendations here. Including how to make your own pizza oven.

• George Barna reports that mainline churches like the Presbyterian one I pastor may be well positioned to connect with younger Americans. Especially of interest is his comment regarding environmental issues.

George Barna, the researcher who analyzed the data for the report, commented that mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but that the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability...He also indicated that the approach that many mainline churches take toward some current social issues – e.g., environmental challenges, poverty, cross-denominational cooperation, developing respectful dialogue, embracing new models for faith expression, and global understanding – position those churches well for attracting younger Americans.

• And based on the results of the recent Pew Study on the Millenial generation (early teens to late 20's) connecting with younger Americans is going to be a real challenge for any church.

They are the least religiously observant youths since survey research began charting religious behavior.

• Here's a link to a KREM TV news report on the church I pastor.