Twenty-four hours.

It's probably ironic and ill-timed that I am choosing to write about this topic now, at this moment which is the Monday morning after a completely non-productive weekend spent socializing with friends and avoiding schoolwork or any serious thought whatsoever like the plague. However, it was a wonderful weekend, and I can honestly say I feel refreshed and invigorated. Weekends like that remind me why life is so good. I've also got a photo album full of me and my friends dressed up as members of the Jersey Shore cast, so the weekend was far from a total loss.

Ethan Klapper: "Why do you guys keep talking about Paula Dean?" ... "PAULY D!" On the 1's and 2's.

Yeah. Anyway.

I met with my independent study advisor, Terry Sankar, who is my life-coach/green-guru/inspirational-professor. Previously my Practical Environmentalism professor, Dr. S has agreed to take me on in my journey to learn as much as I can about sustainable food production and draft some sort of paper that will detail how we can make it a reality. A practical reality. Like, one that will make everyone happy (except corporations like Monsanto but I'm actually quite positive they aren't real people. Or at least, they lack souls.) Dr. S actually thinks I will be able to get this paper I write published. I laughed when he said this and he looked me dead on and told me he was being serious.

Then he reminded me of this one class last semester where we had gotten off on a tangent (typical but always enlightening) and he said to us all, "Everyday, you wake up and you've got 24 hours of your own time to spend here on Earth. It's entirely up to you how you are going to spend it." One girl in the class put her face in her hands and then burst out, "That's so depressing!!" (I believe she felt this way, because we have only so many hours on this Earth, and the thought that we end up "wasting" so many of those precious hours is sort of frightening.) "But why?!" he replied. "I find it so liberating!" He told us how the thought that he is in complete control of his life, what he does, how he spends his 24 hours, one day after the next, makes him feel so powerful and free.

So he reminded me of that moment and told me to go into this independent study, to sit down to read and write, knowing that this is something I can eventually contribute to the world. To sit down and write with the intention of having my words read by others. With the intention of enlightening others, and making a difference in some small way. While the idea of this happening makes me feel so giddy and lit up inside, I'm not confident enough to think this is possible. But if Dr. S, (who designed this wind turbine, by the way) thinks that I can, I might just have to as well.

So you've got 24 hours, how are you going to spend it?

This post dedicated to Mr. Martin Luther King Jr., who sure as hell spent his time here on Earth making a difference.

Strengthening the Farmer-Consumer Relationship

For my Visual Strategies in PR class, we were asked to choose a nonprofit organization that was holding an event in the future and design a Save-the-date card, a poster, and a brochure to promote it. I decided to tweak the assignment a bit, and my professor gave me the OK.

I had this idea in my mind of a large-scale farmer's market where sustainable agriculture was promoted and farmers were able to essentially "sell themselves" and the idea of local farming to their potential customers. The Green Festival was similar to this, only that was much broader, had more speakers and seemed almost more exclusive in my mind—like a place where only those who were really into ecofriendly products and ideas would go. I wanted something that people just walking along the National Mall in D.C. could see, walk through, and then get information. I wanted average people that shop at grocery stores to get engaged in a conversation with a farmer or a rancher. The thing was, nothing like this really has ever existed, at least not to my knowledge. So I just made it up. I decided I would have the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition be the sponsor of the event. I designed the save-the-date and the poster, and around when I was finishing up the poster, the real essence of the event blossomed in my mind, which was great because I needed that blossom to happen in order to make the brochure work.

Anyhow, here is the brochure that came out of my inspiration. Even though it's not for a real event, that sort of doesn't matter, because this brochure is more concept-focused than event-focused. I hope it informs or inspires you or makes you think, or even changes your actions.



On a somewhat related note, the exhaustion I was feeling while finishing up this semester is being completely overshadowed this week after being asked to join the communications team at Food and Water Watch next month. Their mission is 100% in line with everything I care about, including the aforementioned local agriculture stuff. So I will definitely keep this blog updated on the things I get to do at that internship. In the meantime, if I hooked you at all with my brochure, check out their site and find out more about how local food from small farms is the healthier, safer, and more ecofriendly food to eat.