Heritage Park field trip

August 10, 2011 | Family,Iowa,School,Summer

The kids had a field trip to Heritage Park during summer school. Every time I go there, I see something new and different.

I love this pin, especially considering that they’d be serving lutefisk at the Heritage Festival the following weekend.

Related posts

Heritage Park
Train train, comin’ ’round, ’round the bend
Howdy neighbor, happy harvest, may your forty acres soon be fields of clover

Books: Food, Inc.

March 31, 2010 | Advertising,Books,Economics,Education,Ethics,Family,Food,Health,Journalism,MSM,Politics,PR,Research,Safety,School,U.S. government

I just finished reading Food, Inc.: How Industrial Food is Making us Sicker, Fatter and Poorer — And What You Can Do About it, edited by Karl Weber and compiled as a companion piece to the movie, which I also just watched. I actually watched the movie (by Robert Kenner) first, not realizing that was the correct order of things.

I’ve read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, watched King Corn: You Are What You Eat, a documentary by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, and read quite a bit on food, the food industry in the United States and food safety (or lack of it). Food, Inc., gathers much of the information out there and puts it all in one place.

In any case, if you eat, you might be interested in this book and film. The film was done first. The book contains information from people who weren’t in the film. Schlosser says the film and the book are not just about food. They’re also about threats to the First Amendment and the corrupting influence of centralized power.

Contributors include (listed in order they appear in the book)

• Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal from 2001 and the movie in 2006
• Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food
• Robert Kenner, director of this and other documentaries
• Gary Hirshberg, president and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, producer of organic yogurt
• Humane Society of the United States
• Peter Pringle, a British investigative reporter and foreign correspondent
• Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
• Robert Bryce
• Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund
• Cool Foods Campaign
• Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers; Alexa Delwiche, who worked as a researcher for UFW; and Sheheryar Kaoosji, a research analyst for Change to Win
• Pesticide Action Network North America
• Muhammad Yunus
• FoodFirst Information and Action Network
• Michael Pollan
• American Community Gardening Association
• Joel Salatin
• Sustainable Table
• Marion Nestle
• Sherri White Nelson, Heifer International
• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Preston Maring

I think the information provided by this book and film is very important, though not half as fun as reading Barbara Kingsolver’s take on food issues in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I’m reading now. In fact, her book was written before Food, Inc., and I wondered, hey, did they read Kingsolver? Because if they didn’t, they should. But sure enough. She was listed in the “to learn more” section at the end of the book.

Books: Pancakes, Pancakes!

February 12, 2010 | Family,Iowa,School

Our next Read a Million Minutes book was Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle. This is one of my son’s favorite authors.

Books: Snow Day!

February 11, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

Our next Read a Million Minutes selection was Snow Day! by Patricia Lakin. Fun read and appropriate for our winter.

Books: Dewey

February 10, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

Our next Read a Million Minutes book was Dewey: There’s a Cat in the Library! by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, illustrated by Steve James. This was a SHE WRITES book. It’s also the children’s version of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.

Books: Sledding

February 8, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

For our next “Read a Million Minutes” book, we read Sledding by Elizabeth Winthrop, illustrations by Sarah Wilson. Very cute!

Books: I can Read with My Eyes Shut!

February 7, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

For our next “Read a Million Minutes” book, we read I can Read with My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss. My son read it to us. We love Dr. Seuss in this house.

Books: Goldilicious

February 6, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

Another Read a Million Minutes read was Goldilicious by Elizabeth Kann and Victoria Kann. It was one of the books I got at Bookadee for the SHE WRITES call to action. The kids loved this one.

Books: Rose’s Garden

February 5, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

For our next “Read a Million Minutes” book, we read Rose’s Garden by Peter H. Reynolds. The kids liked the use of color and how there was no color until the children started bringing flowers. It’s a nice story and a beautifully illustrated book.

Books: Snowmen at Night

February 4, 2010 | Books,Family,Iowa,School

For our next “Read a Million Minutes” book, we read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner, recommended by some friends on Facebook. Lots of fun.