Articles
"Imagining
an Urban Nature Agenda", by Professor Robert Gottlieb
News
Youth, Educators Meet for "Delicious Education" Seminar
Capra Speaks to School Trustees about Sustainable Schools
Michael Pollan's Latest Book: In Defense of Food
New Book on Creating Gardens for Children
Online Database about Community, Food, and Agriculture
Farm to Kindergarten Toolkit
Calendar
March 15: Scholarships for Young Climate Leaders Application Deadline
March 31: Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Nomination
Deadline
Education for Sustainability:
"Imagining an Urban Nature Agenda", by Professor Robert Gottlieb
Some environmentalists' ambivalence about human creations, especially cities, can bedevil efforts to find common ground between the environmental preservation and environmental justice movements. Robert Gottlieb addresses this divide in his new book, Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City (MIT Press, 2007) from which this new essay is adapted. Using Los Angeles as a case study, Gottlieb traces the historical roots of this split and presents an alternative vision for an urban environmentalism that is rooted in connection to place and a more expansive view of nature in the city. The author will give two Bay Area presentations on March 12: at Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley, from 2 to 5 p.m.; and at the Prevention Institute, 221 Oak Street in Oakland, from 6:45 to 8:30 p.m.
Robert Gottlieb writes: "While urban nature advocacy for such goals as more parks and green space, community gardens and farmers' markets, and trees and bike paths are a critical dimension of the struggles for a more livable city, they need to be seen as part and not distinct from an agenda of social change. Such a perspective asserts the need for community gardens and for affordable housing as well as community gardens that are part of affordable housing developments. It identifies the need for farmers' markets and for job-creating supermarkets and ethnic markets that can stock local foods, culturally appropriate foods, and fresh and affordable foods. And it seeks more sustainable parks and schools and housing and viable job generating businesses that are part of a broader strategy of land use based on public goals for livability and for justice…."
Read Imagining
an Urban Nature Agenda >
More Education
for Sustainability Essays >
Youth, Educators Meet for "Delicious Education" Seminar
High school students from Marin Academy talked about how their experiences in gardens
and farms changed their lives during the February seminar, "Delicious Education:
Garden, Kitchen, and Community as Classroom." CEL cofounder Fritjof Capra explained
the role of ecological principles in education, which Wendy Johnson then applied
in the garden with program participants, and Marilyn Crawford led participants through
the process of designing hands-on lessons. Dr. Carolie Sly, CEL education program
specialist, previewed a forthcoming CEL publication which will show how these ideas
can be applied in the classroom through an integrated curriculum linking food, culture,
health, and the environment. The program, held February 4-6 at the Center for Ecoliteracy
in Berkeley, was co-presented by the Center for Ecoliteracy and the Chez Panisse
Foundation.
Capra Speaks to School Trustees about Sustainable Schools
To better understand the rationale for becoming an ecologically sustainable school,
the trustees of Sonoma County Day School invited Fritjof Capra to meet with them
in January. Capra's talk built on a full-day presentation to the school's faculty
by Center for Ecoliteracy staff last fall.
Michael Pollan's Latest Book: In Defense of Food
Michael Pollan's latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Penguin
Press, 2008) explores the replacement in Western diets of food by "edible foodlike
substances." He indicts the food industry and nutritional science for their complicity
in shifting attention from food — and the pleasures of eating — to obsession
with a nutrient-by-nutrient litany of isolated substances viewed as the causes or cures
for diet-related unhealthiness. Instead, he offers a seven-word mantra grounded in
a deep ecological understanding of health: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." In
Defense of Food builds on ideas developed in Pollan's essay, "Unhappy Meals," an
Education for Sustainability essay that appeared in the March 2007 CEL newsletter.
Visit In
Defense of Food >
"Unhappy
Meals" >
New Book on Creating Gardens for Children
A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children was published
in January by Timber Press. The book offers a wide range of innovative ideas for creating
special places where children can experience nature on their terms.
Visit A Child's Garden >
New Online Database about Community, Food, and Agriculture
Michigan State University professor Philip H. Howard has compiled a searchable online
bibliography of over 200 books and films related to community, food, and agriculture.
Professor Howard plans to keep updating the site, originally created as a resource
for his Community, Food and Agricultural Systems course, and invites suggestions.
Visit Community, Food, and
Agriculture Database >
New Farm to Kindergarten Toolkit
The Kindergarten Initiative of the Food Trust, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, is designed
to integrate nutrition and agriculture education into kindergarten-level lessons;
feed children well; connect children to growing food; partner with parents; and involve
the community. Its new Kindergarten Initiative Toolkit provides inspiration and practical
information for policymakers, legislators, school districts, teachers, and parents
wanting to implement Farm to Kindergarten programs in their communities. The downloadable
toolkit is free; a $5 print version includes a CD with lesson plans, sample activities,
and other resources for fitting nutrition topics into a standards-based curriculum
that follows the kindergarten year thematically.
Visit The
Kindergarten Initiative >
Calendar
March 15: Scholarships for Young Climate
Leaders Application Deadline
Project Slingshot, sponsored by Clif Mojo Bars and Focus the Nation, is offering summer
scholarships of up to $10,000 for work on creative solutions that can propel global
warming solutions into action. Applicants, 18- to 25-years-old, may offer proposals
in one of three categories: "outdoor fanatics protecting the places we love to
play," "innovators challenging our expectations," and "artists
inspiring our communities."
Apply: Project Slingshot
Application Instructions >
March 31: Green Prize for Sustainable
Literature Nomination Deadline
The Santa Monica Public Library and City of Santa Monica's Environmental Programs Division
will present Green Prize Awards for books published in the United States during 2007.
Awards will be granted to books reflecting basic sustainability criteria, including:
long-term orientations; awareness of ecological and resource limits; cognizance of
interconnections; support of public involvement in community decisions; and promotion
of environmental, economic, or social equity. Everyone is invited to nominate their
favorite book or books.
Apply: Green Prize for
Sustainable Literature >
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