Out of Our Heads and Into Our Hearts

photo by Craig Smith

I think these words are so beautiful! They are from Sheryl Crow’s new song "Out of Our Heads" (a wonderful song to dance to!:))

If you feel you wanna fight me, there's a chain around your mind. When something is holding you tightly,what is real is so hard to find
If we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads and into our hearts. If we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads and into our hearts.

Heart Stuff ~ Living Lightly

The New Green Deal Plan for 2009

Ideas from The New Green Deal Plan for 2009 - from Planet Drum

The New Green Deal of 2009 *
The incoming US Federal administration of 2009 will have an important opportunity to launch a New Green Deal that promotes locally directed efforts to solve many of our urgent problems. This is a time of economic and environmental crisis, and we need to demonstrate authentic leadership in pursuit of a vibrant, healthy society that is sustainable and equitable. A New Green Deal can address domestic economic, social and ecological problems in a way that also has a positive impact on foreign policy and relations.
The New Green Deal focuses on developing basic requirements for moving towards
sustainability such as green collar jobs, regional ecological restoration, and inclusion of under-
represented communities. Its mission is to enable comprehensive long-lasting social,
economic and natural resource policies. The New Green Deal can become the foundation for
healthy, productive domestic programs that reduce our nation's oil dependence and provide
proactive responses to global warming.
The New Green Deal's founding principle is there needs to be regional improvements to local
conditions and carried out by local people, businesses, and communities. This means the
overall approach to accomplishing programs will vary according to the places where applied:
New York City will have a different emphasis than Los Angeles, and Puget Sound from
Chesapeake Bay.
Below are two of the five general directions in the New Green Deal:
#4 - Green Collar employment programs in the following areas:
a) Ecosystem restoration,
b) Remanufacturing that maximizes use of recyclable and/or post-consumer materials,
c) Renewable energy production and use,
d) Regionally-based sustainable agriculture,
e) Converting all wastes into resources,
f) Water conservation and reuse,
g) Energy efficiency,
h) Green building, living roofs, and landscaping,
i) Ecology and conservation education,
j) And special Green Collar job training programs in vulnerable communities.
and #5 - Create or transform governmental institutions and agencies with policies that promote localization and embody principles of sustainability.
*A genuine "stimulus package", on the scale of the 1930's New Deal, for the present day. The New Green Deal promotes positive programs to replace catastrophic activities that underlie climate change, economic inequities, water and food shortages, habitat destruction, and species extinction.

Planet Drum

http://www.planetdrum.org

from Farm Aid

from: http://www.farmaid.org/

Secret changes in your food - it's all about the seeds

It's that time of year when the Farm Aid kitchen table is littered with seed catalogs. Most of us are backyard gardeners (or deck gardeners for some of us urbanites). We often share seeds, seedlings, or much later in the season the abundance of our gardens. Ted can grow cilantro that dies in everyone else's garden. Glenda always has amazing tomatoes. Jen just keeps expanding her garden and is joking that this year she is going to sell CSA memberships of her own.
This is our small way of connecting to the farmers all across the country who are, at this time of year, planting seeds for our food or preparing to get their livestock back on pasture.
This month we're asking you to think about the seeds farmers are sowing this spring. Are they genetically modified? Do you want your table sugar to come from genetically modified sugar beets? What about your bread made with genetically modified wheat? How would you know?
Our friends at the Center for Food Safety just put out a new book ...check it out: "Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food".