FRESH: Get On The Good Foot!

FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participants in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement.

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

» FRESH the movie

FRESH Details
Total running time: 72 minutes
Production Year: 2009

Produced and Directed by: ana Sofia joanes

View A Trailer...

Will Allen, 6ft 7" former professional basketball player, is now one of the most influential leaders of the food security & urban farming movement. His farm and not-for-profit, Growing Power, have trained and inspired people in every corner of the US to start growing food sustainably.

This man and his organization go beyond growing food. They provide a platform for people to share knowledge and form relationships in order to develop alternatives to the industrial food system.

» Growing Power

Infographic: The Environmental Impact Of Computing

I LOVE infographics! They beautify and clarify raw data — they're very compelling, visually appealing, they clearly present complex information and make facts and statistics easy to share and understand. Are you into infographics too?

It's amazing how even small changes to your daily lifestyle can have a huge impact on our planet. If you are planning to buy a new computer any time soon, please recycle your old hardware or consider donating it to your local school or public library, or find a worthwhile cause or charity in your area.

I've been a strong supporter of an eco-friendly lifestyle for a long time, and I've been recycling and re-using stuff for years. I think the first time I learned about recycling was in 1971 when I was just a young kid, and now it's just the way I do things. It's a good habit to get into in my opinion. It's really not too difficult and has a huge impact on the environment. Do you recycle?

Recycle, re-use or re-purpose: it just makes good sense!



Here is the text contained in the infographic...

The Environmental Impact Of Computing

More than 285,000,000 new computers will be sold this year.

The manufacturing of these machines will require
→ 25 million tons of fossil fuels. More than the whole state of Iowa consumes in one year.
→ And 39 million gallons of water — enough to fill sixty-five Olympic swimming pools.

180,000,000 Old computers will be replaced...
→ 35 million will end up in landfills, along with their contents of lead, barium, chromium and other materials that disrupt the human central nervous system.

There are over 1 billion computers in use worldwide and that number is set to double by 2014.

Today, between the hours of 9:00 & 5:00 these computers will use 1.7 million megawatts of energy.
→ Enough to power Yankee Stadium for every home game until the 2596-2597 season.

An average PC monitor, when left on all the time consumes upwards of 1,100 kilowatt-hours each year. Over two times more energy than a new refrigerator.

The electricity used by the average desktop computer each day will produce roughly:
• 4-1/4 lbs. of CO² the equivalent of adding 2 miles to your commute each day... or a road trip from Seattle to New York over the course of your computer's lifetime. If the screen brightness was reduced, this trip could be cut as short as Chicago.

Tonight, if all computers were shut down instead of being put in sleep mode they will save enough energy to light up the Eiffel Tower 24 hours a day for another 720 years.

Sources:

» Reuters.com, EnergySavers.gov, NYTimes.com, EnergyStar.org, Slate.com

This I am Green Infographic is brought to you courtesy of the fine folks at InfographicWorld. They specialize in the creation of viral infographics — both for your enjoyment, and for companies to help drive traffic and exposure to your website. Check out more of their work on the web at www.InfographicWorld.com. You can get their updates if you follow them on Twitter at @InfographicWrld. I do ;)

Hyundai QarmaQ’s Plastic Skin: Reduces Weight, Saves Gas

By Jon Alain Guzik, Editor-at-Large, Yahoo! Autos

>> Read the full article

Think Green ?!?!

Any concept vehicle with a name derived from the word the Inuit’s use for their dwellings made of Earth, whalebone, and animal skins is bound to be interesting. Hyundai Europe's Design and Technical Center in Russelsheim, Germany partnered with GE Plastics in the Netherlands to create the QarmaQ – a quirky looking Crossover Coupé concept.

One of the QarmaQ’s key features is its innovative use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles to create a large portion of the vehicle’s skin. GE says the use of plastics, instead of more traditional metal and glass, gives the vehicle a 130-pound weight savings. That weight loss equates to 20 gallons a year savings in gas, not to mention fewer plastic bottles clogging up the local landfill. These numbers are nothing to scoff when you think of all the cars on the road.

Editor's note: Not sure I want to be sitting in recycled soda bottles at speeds between say... ten to thirty-five miles an hour -- just imagine if something went wrong at fifty-five miles an hour?

Isn't your safety, health or even your life worth more than $20 in gas savings a year if you were in an accident? Hmmn, seems like an interesting idea but maybe it's just got the wrong angle. Anyway, it's just a concept -- with a beautifully sleek design.

U.S. Mint goof creates 'Godless dollars'

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, AP Writer Wed Mar 7, 4:30 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA - An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

>> Read the full story

The properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of the nation's first president, are inscribed along the edge with "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum" and the year and mint mark. They made it past inspectors and went into circulation Feb. 15.

The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in color and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter.

About half were made in Philadelphia and the rest in Denver. So far the mint has only received reports of error coins coming from Philadelphia, mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey said.

Bailey said it was unknown how many coins lacked the inscriptions. Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's largest coin authentication companies, said he believes that at least 50,000 error coins were put in circulation.

"The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually were," he said. "They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and they'll probably settle in the $50 range."

>> Read the full story
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Related...

U.S. Mint: http://www.usmint.gov

Prof. Coin Grading Service: http://www.pcgs.com