Last month I had the opportunity to visit the MUSE School in Southern California. Located in a canyon between Calabasas and Malibu, the setting for the school is idyllic. Founded in 2006 by Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister Rebecca Amis, this marks the first year on the current campus, a 22 acre spread that [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Food’
Site Visit: MUSE School (CA)
May 8th, 2012 
Eric Wilson Movie Review: Fresh
April 30th, 2012 Eric Wilson The other day I attended a showing of the documentary “Fresh”, directed by Ana Sofia Joanes, organized by Chipotle Mexican Grill, the locally-grown restaurant known for its burritos made with sustainable ingredients. At 72 minutes, the documentary focuses on people working to make a more sustainable food system. Kelly Smith, a marketing strategist for Chipotle, [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Eric Wilson, Local Energy/Food, Sustainability 
Tags: Food, Michael Pollan, Movie Review, Organic, Video, Waste 
No Comments »Learning to Embrace The Slow Life
April 1st, 2012 Eric Wilson I was washing dishes the other day and bemoaning how time consuming it was. This sparked one of those internal conversations that seem to dominate my thoughts when doing mindless chores. “How much time would I spend going to a restaurant, not to mention money, to have a meal prepared that may or may not [...]
Taking Urban Gardens to the Next Level
March 8th, 2012 Eric Wilson In his 2006 book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan looks at the idea of foraging as one of the four meals he considers in his book (McDonald’s, Whole Foods, and a local farm represent the other three). He starts with the highly industrialized fast food meal and works his [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Behavior, Eric Wilson, Featured Posts, Local Energy/Food, News, Sustainability Tags: Food, Michael Pollan No Comments »Creative Localization of Solar Power at Japanese Oyster Farms
March 2nd, 2012 Justin Manger Big companies that operate worldwide use product localization to cater to the tastes and preferences of the various countries in which they conduct business. At the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta you can taste soda from around the world and discover how some variations are much sweeter than others. In Japan, there is no Diet Coke, [...]
Book Review: Cod by Mark Kurlansky
February 27th, 2012 Megan Stilley Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky (1997) tells the entire tale of cod, including the “tragic tale of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once the cod’s numbers were legendary” (back cover). This book focuses on the declining sustainability of this species and the many demanding consumers [...]
When Big Business Is Good For the Environment
February 18th, 2012 Justin Manger McDonald’s get trashed – and sometimes quite rightly – for its policies towards the environment, workers, and animals as it serves up billions of hamburgers across the world. Recent news, however, shows the company also acknowledges it can make improvements and will listen to voices both inside and outside the company. This time it is [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Justin Manger, News, Op-Ed, Sustainability Tags: Environment, Food No Comments »Book Review: Michael Pollan’s Food Rules
February 16th, 2012 Eric Wilson Compared to The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food (reviewed here), Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual is less revolutionary. Instead, his latest book, published in 2009, is more of a reflection on what he’s learned through writing about food in his previous efforts. Comprised of 64 rules in three parts (What should [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Behavior, Eric Wilson, Sustainability Tags: Book Review, Food, Michael Pollan No Comments »HMSHost Diverts Food Waste at Tampa International Airport
February 8th, 2012 Chris DeArmond At nearly 14 percent, food waste in the U.S. now represents the single largest component in the municipal solid waste stream. In 2010, this amounted to 34 million tons of food, less than 3 percent of which was recovered or recycled. This staggering amount of food waste is driven not only by individual households, but [...]
Posted in Behavior, Business, Conservation, Green Economy, Local Energy/Food, News, Recylcing, Sustainability Tags: Biomass, Chris DeArmond, Composting, Environment, Food No Comments »BHT: The Secret in Your Cereal
February 7th, 2012 Megan Stilley I was browsing the cereal aisle recently and looking at a non-organic cereal (bad I know). While scanning the ingredient list (something you must always do!) I noticed an ingredient I had not heard of- BHT. I was really curious what it was so I decided to do some research. What is BHT? Butylated hydroxytoluene [...]
