Will Allen, Founder of Growing Power, Wins the MacArthur Fellowship

Like you, I normally don't pay much attention to who wins the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as "the genius award." But in 2008 the $500,000 award went to a Wisconsin resident who is part of the solution of fixing our unsustainable, fossil-fuel-based commercial food production system.

Will Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, an organization that produces lots of food year-round on two acres in Milwaukee. Since supermarkets are reluctant to build in our inner-cities, inner city residents are often forced to subside on the highly processed foods they can get at corner stores.

So Growing Power is doing a great service to inner city residents by making good food available to them.

But I think that those of us who don't live in inner cities would be making a huge mistake to assume that the Growing Power model is not relevant to our own needs. As you may remember, the price of food has gone up over the last few years. It is no coincidence that it went up at the same time that the price of oil skyrocketed.

As you may have already seen in King Corn, or elsewhere, commercial food production in our country is largely dependent upon fossil fuels. Oil and natural gas are the main ingredients in the fertilizers and herbicides that the system is based on. Even the seeds are produced by chemical companies like Monsanto. And did you know that the agricultural system as I have just described it is literally ruining the soil of our great land?

On the other hand, Will Allen and his people at Growing Power work with nature. They grow fish in tanks and the water is cleaned with aquatic plants. Worms consume the garden waste and make it into compost. The greenhouses and hoophouses have multiple levels so that growing space is maximized.

We have more than enough land to start our own community gardens at Moraine Park Technical College. Let's be ahead of the curve and become leaders in sustainability!


Watch a two-minute-plus video of Will Allen based on an interview he did for the MacArthur Foundation after winning their award.




Read Street Farmer, an article about Will Allen that appeared in the New York Times Magazine.






Visit the Growing Power website.

New Books: The New Baby Answer Book and An Intimate Understanding of Teenagers

So you want to be a good parent to your new baby but you don't have time to read a whole book about it? The New Baby Answer Book provides answers to 150 important questions about raising a child from birth to kindergarten. The authors are, Robin Goldstein, a specialist in child and adolescent development, and Janet Gallant, a writer who specializes in family issues.

* How can I keep my crawling baby safe?

* Why does my child have an imaginary friend?

* How do I prevent temper tantrums?

Find the answers in this book!

Fond du Lac campus, call number: HQ 774.5 .G66 2009



I've started reading Bruce Gevirtzman's An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers: Shaking Hands with Aliens, but I'm afraid that my descriptions of it will not do it justice. All I can say right now is that Mr. Gevirtzman's long career as a high school teacher and his willingness to listen to teens has resulted in valuable insights which he shares in this book.

Fond du Lac campus, call number: BF 724 .G463 2008

New Books on Gardening

Fresh Food From Small Places: The Square Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R. J. Ruppenthal is bound to surprise you. Before reading the book, I didn't know that I could grow highly nutritious sprouts in a dark, indoor location - without any mess. I didn't know that it is legal to raise chickens (usually only hens, however) in many large cities. Nor did I realize that over-watering is the most common mistake for American gardeners.

In addition to telling us how city-dwellers can raise up to 10 or even 15% of their own food in a surprisingly small amount of space, Ruppenthal also explains why anybody would want to do it. Check out this book if you're curious.

Fond du Lac campus, call number SB 453 .R87 2008

What Ruppenthal's book (above) does for ambitious "urban" gardeners, The Backyard Homestead (edited by Carleen Madigan) does for those with more space (land) to work with. The cover boasts that you can "Produce all the food you need on just a quarter of an acre!" I'd like to see you do it. Let me know how it goes.

Fond du Lac campus, call number SB 321 .B1434 2009

New Book: The Great Financial Crisis

Our current hard times are addressed in The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences by John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff. Although the authors go into intricate detail, they have not lost the forest for the trees. For the two authors and, they tell us, for many economists that came before them, the big picture is that we would inevitably come to a late stage of capitalism in which our economic system becomes inefficient.

As you may have figured, Foster and Magdoff believe that we've reached that inefficient late stage. In the introduction (pages 11-23), they point out that the United States economy in recent years has been characterized by bubbles (the two that come to my mind now are the dotcom bubble and the housing bubble). The inefficiency in our economy is a result of these bubbles in which investors throw more capital at one sector than it deserves and real-world consequences don't become apparent until after the bubble bursts.

In this book, Foster and Magdoff present a clear and cogent picture of the causes of our current hard times. They also mention a seemingly unrealistic solution: Socialism.

Beyond YouTube: Where to Find Free Documentary Films Online

YouTube is a great website for short videos. Many of them were created by amateurs, and that, of course, is part of the appeal. Nevertheless, there are other sites on the net that aggregate videos, here are three such sites I've found that you can use to access documentary films:


Snagfilms

Snagfilms has a database of over 900 full-length documentaries divided into many categories, including: Indieflix, National Geographic, PBS, Peter Jennings Reporting, and Sundance.

When I first went to Snagfilms they were featuring baseball-related documentaries including one about Bill Lee, formerly of the Red Sox and Expos. The 2006 film follows the 58-year-old barnstorming pitcher to Cuba, where his USA team enjoys several games with the native Cubans. It would probably get an "R" rating for language. Another warning, Bill Lee used drugs in the pre-steroid era.


Watch Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey




Free Documentaries


Freedocumentaries.org was founded to give people access to videos that communicate perspectives and opinions that they feel are being unfairly suppressed by the television and film industry. This site includes Spanish and closed captioned videos.

Watch Super Size Me

Watch Merchants of Cool

Watch Wal~Mart: The High Cost of a Low Price




Top Documentary Films

Top Documentary Films claims to be the home of 811 "stunning, eye-opening and interesting documentaries." Choose one that suits your interest through their navigation system, watch it, and leave your comments.

They even have a film about Fond du Lac's own Jeanna Giese, "The Girl Who Survived Rabies." (Unfortunately, an error prevented me from watching this film, hope you'll have better luck.)

New Career-Related Books

According to Laurence Shatkin, a leading occupational expert with thirty years of experience, the billions of dollars in the Obama administration's stimulus package will create millions of jobs. The point here isn't really how many jobs will be created by the stimulus, but rather that there will be growth in specific targeted areas. Shatkin's book, Great Jobs in the President's Stimulus Plan, addresses those specific areas: energy, infrastructure, health care, education, and manufacturing. In addition to those sectors, another chapter focuses on more specific industries which the stimulus plan also aims to bolster.

Fond du Lac campus, call number: HF 5382.5 .U5 S4637 2009

You've been laid off. Now what?


Of course you're going to have to look for another job. But right now you're faced with a lot of other issues:

* How do you tell your children (of whatever age) about what has happened to you.

* What do you do with your extra time (hint: you'll have to get out of bed).

* And what are you going to do without your steady income?

Those things and a lot more are covered in Lita Epstein's new book, Surviving a Layoff: A Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Your Life Back Together.
And, yeah, it also covers how to go about looking for a new job.

Fond du Lac Campus, call number HD 5708 .E67 2009

Saudi Arabian Women: Princess and Princess Sultana's Daughters

Did you know that Muslim women in Saudi Arabia do not have the right to vote?


One woman’s irrepressible spirit comes out in Princess, a book which Jean Sasson wrote at the request of her friend, Princess Sultana. The book paints a picture of the many trials women face in Saudi Arabia when it comes to human rights. While in an airplane on the way to visit her sister Sara, the Princess thought about the unfairness of arranged marriages:

“I understood what grips the heart of the eagle as it soars overhead, and I experienced a wonderful sense of freedom. My thoughts drifted to Sara and the shocking realization that birds and beasts were freer than my sister. I made a vow to myself that I would be the master of my life, no matter what actions I would have to take or I would have to endure” (page 56).

The intimate true portrayal demonstrates one woman’s ultimate test of strength and dignity. Princess is a harrowing yet very touching personal reflection which places an emphasis upon individual freedom. This heartfelt confession is written with compassion and humanity fraught by the tribulations Muslim women in Saudi Arabia have encountered.
Fond du Lac Campus, Call Number: HQ1730.S274 2001

Princess Sultana’s Daughters is the expressive sequel, also written by Jean Sasson. Readers are encouraged not to judge the Muslim faith for its treatment of women, but rather consider the antiquity of male leaders' interpretations of the Koran. Muhammad held women in high respect and esteem. Muhammad, aka the Prophet, established the Muslim faith during a dark period where some chose to worship pagan gods and successful men took multitudes of wives. Muhammad desired to protect women. According to Princess Sultana

“the traditions remaining from [the dark period] and not the Koran were what kept us women in bondage. Few people know the facts that the Koran does not call for veiling, nor the restrictions women endure in the Muslim world. It is the traditions passed down that so hinder us from moving forward” (page 96).

Both books serve to represent the vast ever-changing needs of a changing society. Humanity will not advance without advancements in worldwide human rights. In my mind equality is the one word which promotes a regeneration of the human spirit.
Fond du Lac Campus Call Number: HQ 1730.S27 2001