La Vida Locavore - Recent Comments

In a nutshell, yes.

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:51:41 GMT

That's the interesting point to their findings.

could this have something to do with why

Jill Richardson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:17:36 GMT

sleep apnea (which reduces sleep) often results in weight gain?

Basically, If I understand this as well as I should, it means

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:08:57 GMT

that the hormone melatonin is going to play a huge role in the future to combat a variety of problems such as depression, chronic psychosis and even old age! We do live in interesting times.

Another interesting page

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:42:55 GMT

here: http://www.babelgum.com/html/s...

A few months ago I saw a doco on orangutans presented by

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:41:23 GMT

Joanna Lumley, some details taken form the OZ orangutan site here: http://www.orangutan.org.au/42...

Thanks for the diary, another man-made tragedy!

Early morning updates...

JayinPortland — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:06:48 GMT

Okay, "early morning" for us West Coast people.

Anyways, here goes -

From MSNBC's First Read blog -

Speaking of the Commerce vacancy, the New York Daily News has an interesting piece of speculation: moving Tom Vilsack from Agriculture to Commerce as they have a deeper bench of ideas for Ag apparently?

Ughh...this might get ugly. "Deeper bench" certainly doesn't have to mean "better", although it could. Certainly wouldn't count on it, though. We may not be out of the woods yet, especially if this may mean that Stenholm and Co. might be back in the running at Ag...

From Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post's "Federal Eye" blogger -

Ed O'Keefe: Fairfax, two names already mentioned are Tom Vilsack -- the current agriculture secretary nominee -- and Kathleen Sebelius, the current governor of Kansas who was passed over for a cabinet slot. But stay tuned, as the Obama camp has proved, the reported speculation can turn out to be very wrong.

Certainly has a point there, as we've seen with a few other slots. Remember, the possibility of Vilsack to Commerce was first attributed to anonymous sources by a blogger for a New York tabloid...

An industry perspective from AgWeb -

Smooth sailing seen for Vilsack. President-elect Obama's pick to head USDA will likely face little opposition in his confirmation process and expectations are he'll be in place Jan. 20. Then the focus will shift to the key positions below him at USDA.

FWIW, it looks like Industry is still fully expecting Vilsack at Ag.

Mind if we call you "Papa Bear," Mr. Secretary?

El Dragón — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:23:44 GMT

Awesome post. What I read in that site is that Big Organic is down with Vilsack because he'll bring an industrial, agribusiness mindset to organics. The defense of Vilsack on their OCA page contains this sentence: "He led trade missions to specifically market organic products to other countries in an attempt to open up the organics market to Iowa producers," with a link to a Corn & Soybean magazine article, where Vilsack is promoting, yup, organic soybeans.

Supply is a key vulnerability for Industrial Organics and Vilsack is a big daddy ag-corporatist compared to the likes of smaller corporate players like those behind supportvilsack.com. He can help make sure the organic soybeans, corn, and livestock feed flow.

So if Vilsack suddenly says he now enthusiastically supports organics in the coming months, I hope no one pictures eggplants and zucchini. He's talking about food manufacturing and massive livestock operations, not farmers markets.

Link to the Daily News blog item...

JayinPortland — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:06:27 GMT

link here...

whoa, CRAZY

Jill Richardson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:34:40 GMT

absolutely crazy. I wonder what's gonna happen?

Bottled Water...

DennisP — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:42:26 GMT

is bad on many levels. I feel badly for the Fijians; a classic case of corporate bullying and theft of their precious resource. But plastic bottles are bad in so many ways for the environment. And one can absorb toxic chemicals from them (see Nena Baker's book The Body Toxic).

I used to use plastic water bottles when backpacking because they were lightweight and cheap and sturdy. But I've thrown out most all of them at our house and I now use glass bottles when out hiking and otherwise drinking water.

The next diary of mine

rossl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:24:31 GMT

will be very interesting. I'm not just saying that. I've been looking into it and talking to a few people who are devoting their lives to saving orangutans and other primates, and apparently a boycott isn't a good idea. I'll see what else I can find out.

It wasn't a particularly

rossl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:23:25 GMT

spectacular piece. Not amazingly written or insightful (although it might be for some policymakers), but it's great that it ran in the NY Times. That's a great sign of progress, I'd say.

I hope most people will include tap water in their

Asinus Asinum Fricat — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:52:30 GMT

new year resolution!

he's being a politician, that's all

Jill Richardson — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:55:29 GMT

I think on some level he DOES get it. Otherwise he wouldn't read Pollan and eat organic. But he's not passionate enough about it to risk his political neck over it.