News Archives - Food - The Austin Common

Yes, Austin has developed quite the reputation as a “foodie” city, but what we eat is about more than just the best avocado toast recipes. That’s why we write stories about the impact of our local food system on the environment, culture, and equity.

Book People Hosting Jill Richardson

Tonight Book People is hosting Jill Richardson, activist and author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It and the blog LaVidaLocavore.org, for a discussion and food tasting. The event will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 tonight and is co-sponsored by Edible Austin. This event will feature farm fresh veggies and cheeses from the Austin Farmers’ Market and Rio’s Brazilian cheese breads. Locally brewed beverages from Saint Arnold’s Brewing and Zhi Tea will also be available.

November 6, 2009

Blogs

Seven Natural Cold Remedies

We spent the last half of October not only preparing for Halloween but also dealing with various illnesses. First we faced the flu, which swept through my eldest daughter’s class and infected all the kids and both teachers over the course of five days. Both our daughters caught it but fortunately had mild cases. Just as things were wrapping up on the flu front, however, Richard caught a cold, which quickly morphed into an awful upper respiratory illness complete with hacking cough. The cold lasted much longer than the flu so we’ve had lots of chances to implement our favorite natural cold remedies and try out some that were new to us. Most of them would also help with the flu. If you have sickos at home, I hope you find some relief for your family members here!

Here are the seven natural cold remedies that made the biggest difference for our family:

November 3, 2009

Second Best Way to Support Local Food

We all know the best way – buy local food! Well, the second best way is to help Slow Money raise capital to invest in local farms.

October 2, 2009

A New Kind of Fundraiser

Tim Hayden made a very astute observation in a recent talk – he says that while most people think the internet and social media are reducing human interaction, it’s actually doing the opposite.

September 18, 2009

How to Strengthen Your Family’s Immune Systems

All the media coverage of the latest flu, or influenza A H1N1, is causing some people to panic. I’ve felt my own concern growing now that the kids are back in school and back to heavy germ exposure. So I started thinking about what action I could take. Action is a great antidote to feelings of panic!

Once I took some deep breaths, I realized one of the best things would be to make sure my kids, Rich, and I have strong immune systems. Our time at school and work gives us exposure to plenty of local germs. I wanted to make sure all our defenses were in tip-top fighting shape for whatever we encountered.

September 11, 2009

Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch on September 7

How can children learn and grow to their full potential when the food pictured here is what we feed them in schools? They simply can’t.

This fall, the Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization. This Act provides the governance for several child nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program. The National School Lunch Program supplies 30 million school children with lunch every school day. For many of these children, the meals they receive at school provide the majority of their nutrition during the school year.

The upcoming reauthorization process provides the opportunity to make postive changes for both children and the environment. The guidelines in the Child Nutrition Act can be amended to include firm guidelines for healthy, nutritious food for our children rather than the aptly named and all too available junk food. The already-created-but-never-funded Farm to Schools Programs can also, finally, receive funding to purchase food produced locally, thus reducing carbon emissions caused by transportation and ensuring children have access to produce while it is still tasty and full of nutrients.

September 5, 2009

Mayor’s Community Cabinet features Austin EcoNetwork founder

Austin EcoNetwork subscribers and partners just gained a formal voice at the table with the inclusion of our very own Chief Inspiration Officer Brandi Clark being invited to serve on City of Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s Community Cabinet.

Yesterday’s Statesman’s blog (http://budurl.com/bcmayorcabinet) and today’s print edition featured the announcement of this Cabinet. The blog cites Mark Nathan, Leffingwell’s chief of staff, as saying that the mayor will want to know what issues and projects the group members are working on.

August 27, 2009

Government worried about Mega-ag monopolies

I was so excited when I read this I could hardly contain myself. No matter your politics or views on economics, what’s going on right now with Agri-business is NOT healthy for America’s food system. Through subsidies and ridiculous legislation, agri-business has tried hard to destroy the small farmer. We’ve been fighting back on a grass-roots level, but we’re reaching a very important inflection point and without a fair playing field the battle gets much tougher (i.e. once small farms emerge from exemption limits, they are treated just like mega-ag). They haven’t said too much yet, but they have said it’s a major priority and are setting up info sessions across the nation to learn more – NPR Story

August 21, 2009

Register now for Citizen Gardener classes

It’s planting season which means it’s time for Austin area Citizen Gardner courses to gear up again!

In less than a year more than 100 new gardeners have been trained, over 1,000 hours of community service generated and dozens and dozens of new yard, community, and other forms of urban gardens have been installed! You can join this incredible movement this season!

All Citizen Gardener Basics courses consist of 10 hours of gardening education and 10 hours of apprenticing/volunteering alongside seasoned gardeners with our Gardening Partners. We celebrate with an end-of-season local food potluck and share stories, food and good times with each other.

August 20, 2009

What’s On Your Food?

What’sonmyfood.org has created a searchable database designed to make the public problem of pesticide exposure visible and more understandable.

August 15, 2009

Leadership Council: Shaping Austin’s EcoMovement

THEN to NOW

Austin EcoNetwork has been around for over six years but we have only recently become a website. In case you aren’t familiar, here’s a very short history:

In 2003 I wrote a letter inviting dozens of environmental community leaders to a meeting to explore what we could do to collectively be more successful as sustainability advocates by communicating, cooperating, and collaborating more.

Approximately 45 of Austin’s leading nonprofit, government, business, and community leaders participated in that initial meeting held at Casa de Luz.

August 12, 2009

Eggplant Lore

Eggplant originated in India and China and has had a bad wrap for thousands of years because of its association with the Nightshade family (they contain alkaloids that are used as drugs in higher c

August 8, 2009