Posted by Emily Brooks
Are you analyzing your marketing program as part of your organization's environmental policy?
What is Sustainable Marketing? Well, I'll tell you.
In short, sustainability means “closed-loop system” where one is as self-reliant as possible. This is not only applicable with land and facilities use, eco-preservation and environmentally-friendly practices, but also in minimizing one’s reliance on outside assistance such as water, energy, or products while MAXIMIZING an organization's most valuable assets: your staff!
Most importantly, the practice of managing the organization’s finances in a sustainable way is the most integral part of a sustainability agenda.
Consider the sustainability cycle of a plant. So too is the financial responsibility of incorporating a sustainability agenda through your marketing platform. Outbound Marketing, relying on paper product distribution, adds thousands to company spending each year -- and thousands of pounds of garbage!
Each one small step of investments (time or money) should yield a return that further perpetuates your company's self-regeneration.
View your investment in marketing as a “closed-loop system” or in different terms, every step of your customer growth and sales are domino pieces that should be strategically placed to generate operational income, efficient investments of staff time, and environmental preservation for your marketing your next growth phase.
Sustainable Marketing in ACTION!
The Edibles Advocate Alliance has partnered with HubSpot which further enables our mission to provide Sustainable Marketing Tools and Inbound Marketing Platforms that are not only extremely successful , but also utilize more environmentally sustainable resources and marketing opportunities to find, capture, convert, and close sales leads efficiently for maximum growth and revenue potential.
How does our Partner’s software & the EAA help your business grow?
It's simple. Sustainable Marketing Solutions:
- helps you get found online by more qualified visitors.
- shows you how to convert more visitors into leads.
- gives you tools to close those leads efficiently.
- provides analytics to help make smart marketing investments.
Together, the Edibles Advocate Alliance & Hubspot provide comprehensive and all-inclusive tools to help you.
As you work through the Sustainable Marketing Solution’s Quick Start program, you will be consulting and discussing your media strategy with your Inbound Marketing Consultant (IMC) at HubSpot and Emily Brooks at the Edibles Advocate Alliance, who will guide you and help make sure you are successful.
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Posted by Emily Brooks
Dirt! The Movie is one of the most powerful, most influential, and most important documentaries I have ever seen.
Of all the planets in the known universe, only Earth has a living, breathing "skin" formed over the course of countless millennia. Our entire world is dependent on the health of our dirt, and it is safe to say that we don't even consider dirt and soil - it's probably at the very bottom (if even on) our list of things to improve our environment and incorporate green and sustainable business practices into our company's standard operating procedures.
Dirt regulates the earth's climate and is the ultimate source for all life on earth. Yet, most of us ignore, abuse, and destroy this dirt - our most precious living natural resource. We've lost 1/3 of our topsoil in the last 100 years. Industrial farming created a huge demand for nitrogen fertilizers, and now 25% of our greenhouse gas emissions are coming from a war against the soil. Deadly conflicts are breaking out around the world over our dwindling supply of fertile soil. We are at war with each other over DIRT! The entire Brazilian rainforest is being cut down for the expansion of soil. Floods, drought, climate change, even war . . . all directly related to the way we are treating dirt.
But what if we started to replant? What if we allowed the natural processes of nature to help guide our farming practices? What if we removed blacktop in our parking lots to prevent contaminated rain run-off into our streams and rivers? What if we greened as many of our urban areas as possible? What if we got DIRTY?
10 Ways to Get Your Business Dirty
- Watch the film Dirt! The Movie and Join the Dirt Movement.
- Screen the film for your entire workforce. Let your staff and employees learn about the importance of our most valuable resource. Start a discussion, dialog with each other!
- Create a Get Dirty Taskforce. Getting dirty should be put at the top of our environmental and sustainability agendas. Getting dirty can also save you money. Getting dirty is also one of those journeys in which a hundred small and insignificant and cost effective steps can make a million-fold positive difference. Let your staff have fun getting dirty. Do it together, one small project at a time.
- Let the weeds grow! What happened to us that we like some plants and not others? Any plant life growing in the dirt is hugely beneficial to the life of the soil surrounding your business. Let them grow!
- Let nature dictate your landscaping. Green grass that is fertilized and sprayed with chemicals to keep the weeds down is lovely to look at, but those practices are devastating to your dirt - not to mention just one more cost factor in your budget. Why not let the indigenous plants in your area return to your work site? Natural plants can be tended without fertilizer or chemicals and are in many cases far more beautiful than grass.
- Manage pavement and black toped areas. Do you really need all of it?
- Do a water run-off study. Asphalt and blacktop and pavement cause huge water run-off problems. Rain and other precipitation SHOULD be absorbed by the soil, and then cleaned by the soil microbes to regenerate the next cycle of life. Paving over this giant sponge means that all rain will flow outward and into our water supply carrying with it debris and pollutants from the surface and the toxins from the pavement itself. If you need your pavement, do a water study to determine where the water is flowing and at what rate. Add berms of soil and other minor modifications to manage your water run-off.
- Manage your investments. What's the most important investment and asset a business has? Their employees. You probably have rules and regulations to manage your employee's behavior. You might invest in a Workplace Wellness to help manage their exercise and stress levels. Getting your business dirty is another way to safeguard and steward your investments and assets by providing a clean, green, beautiful environment where all of your employees can have fun getting dirty too. All environmental altruism aside, we will reach a point where businesses will compete for quality staff and employee retention based on the environmental and sustainability policies, practices, and physical environment of each organization.
- Financially reward others who are dirty. Where do you buy your paper supplies? Your employee health coverage? Your office cleaning services? If you choose to reward other companies with your dollars for their stewardship of our environment, you will be rewarded in return. Add Getting Dirty and supporting the goods and services of other Dirty Businesses to your arsenal of sales opportunities.
- Don't PLAN to get dirty. Don't strategize to the hilt. Don't committee/agenda/meeting your Get Dirty agenda into stagnation and let it get lost in bureaucracy. Getting Dirty is the most beneficial thing you can do for our environment. Contrary to all other green initiatives, getting dirty is also the most cost effective and has the greatest cost savings potential of any of your environmental policy agendas.
The Edibles Advocate Alliance is a Partner of Dirt! the Movie as we want to be an organization that fuels the Get Dirty movement. Committed to solving the world's environmental challenges, let us help you get dirty and build your local food webs and sustainable community food systems and with our Corporate Sustainability & Environmental Education.
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Posted by Emily Brooks
Tim Cipriano calls himself a "lunch lady." That's simplifying things a bit. Actually, he directs one of the most progressive school lunch programs in the country, for New Haven Public Schools (NHPS), which prepares more than 17,000 lunches and 11,000 breakfasts a day for schools across the district. It's a tremendous program that focuses on quality, nutritious food, prepared from scratch, where possible.
Tim is a passionate, articulate and tireless advocate for hunger relief. In his job, he sees directly the effects of hunger on children. He knows the scope and the depth of the problem.
What's Next on Chef Tim's Campaign Schedule?
NH School Food is searching for a mobile kitchen truck. Ideally it is a truck similar to what you would see at a fair or like an ice cream truck but with refrigeration instead of freezers. With refrigeration, Chef Tim would store cold meals that he makes at the central kitchen and pass them out. If it had cooking capacity, Tim would also offer simple, hot meals with a high nutritional value like stir fried protein and veggies.
This Leading Lunch Lady is looking for a vehicle that is new or in very good condition. Ideally he would like it to be white. If not Tim would look to have it custom painted as the goal is to stand out (farm scenes with children as the farmers promoting free meals for kids) in these neighborhoods and make coming to Chef Tim fun and exciting for the kids!
The idea behind this and more info is below:
According to this Leading Lunch Lady, the idea behind the mobile kitchen is to bring the food to the housing projects that are too far of a walk from schools. "We want to be able to feed all the hungry kids regardless of whether or not they can get to a feeding site. We want to bring healthy food DIRECTLY to our kids!!!"
Meals are free to kids 18 and under regardless of income during the summer, and YOU CAN HELP!!
The goal to start is to acquire one mobile unit for New Haven for this year. In the future Chef Tim would like to acquire additional units to supply other areas of CT.
The NHPS Central Kitchen has the capacity to provide summer meals for every hungry kid in CT if needed and he intends to feed them all.
CONTACT: Chef Timothy Cipriano and read his blog.
Chef Timothy Cipriano
Executive Director of Food Services
203-946-8813 Ext. 11
TIMOTHY.CIPRIANO@new-haven.k12.ct.us
Who is this Leading Lunch Lady?
He's the Local Food Dude! Chef Tim, as he is commonly referred to, is Executive Director of Food Services for the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) in Connecticut. He began this position in July 2008 and immediately started building collaborative partnerships around school food with local organizations such as Yale University, CT Food Bank, and Lockwood Farm in nearby Hamden, Connecticut. One of Tim's most valuable achievements to date has been introducing more fresh, local produce into the school lunch program and working to educate New Haven's urban students about fresh, healthy and great tasting food choices.
Chef Tim Cipriano is one of the most progressive advocates for school lunch reform we have in our arsenal for change. Read his blog. Interested in K-12 School Lunch Branded Concepts Program that will make YOUR school lunch program ROCK????? Let this Local Food Dude help you be successful in your commitment to serving great food to children.
Are you a Hero with a Truck to help Tim Feed Hungry Kids?
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Posted by Emily Brooks
Why don't we learn from the mistakes made in the past? Why don't we ever consider contingency plans for possible problems in the future?
Why are we so damn REACTIVE?
It is our blind reactivity - our refusal to think ahead that has led to our massive large scale national problems such as our extraordinarily high rates of unemployment, the fact that our US national debt will overtake our GDP, BP's underwater well snafu - and if that wasn't bad enough we keep finding new oil plums, our big banks that still need to be broken up . . . I could go on.
ForAbdul Nabi Al-Ghadban of Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, the lessons from the 1991 oil spill in the Persian Gulf are all too relevant to the Gulf of Mexico spill. "If you have an offshore operation you need to have a good contingency plan in case of spillage, damage, earthquake, or a problem with the pipeline. We learned the lesson that we have to have an action plan -- you have to expect the unexpected."
Michelle Jones, in speaking of her husband Gordon who died when BP's oil rig exploded on April 20th said "allowing punitive damages against companies like BP and Transocean is the only way they may learn."
Really? Is that the only way?
What about us? What will it take for you, me, our families, our neighbors, our employees, our businesses to learn? When will we stop being complacent? When will we stop complaining ONLY when something goes wrong, and not actively pre-creating solutions for potential dangers? When will we start being more proactive?
Raise of hands: how many people knew BP had a deep well in the Gulf of Mexico? How many actually cared that a well of this depth has never been dug before? SOME of us care . . . now. Yup, only some. The rest don't really know too much about it. Funny too, how many are boycotting BP by driving around the corner to another gas station - another company they blindly choose to know nothing about?
Believing in "sustainability" means practicing proactivity. SUSTAINABLE = PROACTIVE
If you're just another one of those ‘adjective users' throwing around random, trendy lingo-of-the-day . . . . if you just sit back, react to your surroundings, wait for someone to legislate you . . . . if you wait for something bad to happen to kill time while awaiting for the opportunity to capitalize on a solution . . . if you're just an overly busy, non-news reading, obtuse, happy-go-lucky chap in your own little world . . . if you spend your time on frivolous things and not learning, growing, educating yourself, or creating solutions . . . if you don't vote . . . then there is nothing "sustainable" about you or your business.
Living day-to-day doing nothing more than reacting to the world around you isn't cute. It isn't sexy. That mindset should not be financially rewarded, tolerated, or blindly accepted.
No REACTIVE people beyond this point!
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Posted by Emily Brooks
According to Reader's Digest Magazines recent article 5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires, the #1 secret of these people? They set their sights on where they're going.
What? Knowing where you're going?
Sounds stupid, yes? Is it?
Would you drive to a desination in a city you've not been to before without a map? Without your GPS? Without an address as an end point? Probably not.
Yet, most business people will drive their companies without their maps, without a clear idea of what the end address is supposed to look like, without an indication of which roads are freeways, highways, dirt paths . . . .
Yeah, but I've got a business plan!!! Right?
Really? That 2-page description of an idea? THAT's your business plan?
Who are your competitors? How much will your expenses be 4 months from now? What is your labor/goods efficiency ratio? Who is your target customer? The answer isn't "everyone, of course!" What does your primary customer look like? How old are they? Gender? Education levels? Generation? How many similar widgets did these people buy last year? In exact dollars, please. How many hours do you want to work each day? What income do you need? How are you going to triple your investment in this business each quarter? Outline your exact strategy and prove your assumptions, please.
You have all of that written in 2 pages? Your business plan, if done properly, will be more than 50-100 pages and will dictate every decision you make for the next year.
Why would anybody in their right mind give YOU money?
That is the ultimate question, yes? Why would a paying customer give their money to you? An investor? Your neighbors?
People approach me often about business planning or help strategizing for their businesses. Many balk at the amount of time it takes to successfully study and create your money making machine. Why such dedication? Our Entrepreneurial Training Programs force you to answer all of those questions, plus many more. We help you avoid the most common of the Top 10 Business Plan Mistakes and the most unspoken Mistakes of Business Plans . We make sure that you have one helluva shot to succeed - and have proven it on paper - not leaving you hoping that by next year you might just make it.
You'd be surprised at how many people say "Writing a business plan is a serious dedication? Golly, I was kind of hoping to open for business this weekend."
You don't get off of a couch and run a marathon. You train for it.
Investors AND your customers know immediately if you have trained for your business or if you're just another one of those 2-pager guys hoping to make a buck.
And nonprofits? You had better have your business plan too. Committees and Advisory Councils are cute tools to give the illusion of "having your act together" (only rarely are they actually effective and useful - bravo to those who have nurtured one of those committees!) and they make you look good on paper with the illusion of community support. But funders are getting smarter. You had better have your Business and Strategic plans in place. You'd be surprised at how many nonprofits say "We don't need a business plan, we apply for grants."
For-profit or Non-profit . . . . . the business world knows if you've cut corners, skipped your training, bypassed the hard work required to be successful.
Are you, or aren't you really that serious?
The top 6 reasons why businesses fail?
- Lack of a well thought-out business plan
- Bad location
- Expanding too quickly
- Inability to adapt to a changing marketplace
- Underestimating competitors
- Poor execution
- Bad management
- Insufficient marketing or promotion
- Failure to keep overhead costs low
- Inadequate funding
Statistically, about 83% of small, start-up companies just open for business and then wonder if they're doing the right thing later. One out of ten will survive. Yes, that is 1-in-10. Speculation of these numbers is that small entrepreneurs just really aren't' totally dedicated or serious.
Some theorize that in most new business attempts, the entrepreneur never leaves their day job, or they create a back-up plan, or they have a job lined up in case the new business fails. In these cases, failure IS an option, as the entrepreneur has a safety net to fall back on. In cases where failure is NOT an option, and the entrepreneur depends on the new business to provide food, shelter and clothing, the business has a greater chance of succeeding.
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Posted by Emily Brooks
Money, Mood, Movement, and Market are the Four Pillars of Consumer buying behavior - known as the 4M's. Money is of course defined as available resources. Mood is the mental/psychological state and the likes/dislikes which fluctuate. Movement is defined as the days/dates/times that a person is willing to buy something and includes such factors as opportunity and time. Market is defined as availability, accessibility, proximity to consumer, and purchasing opportunities of the product.
So as a local food or agricultural business, how do you effectively market your goods and services across generational divides to appeal to the broadest audience possible?
Let's study the general characteristics of each of our 6 generations!
GI Generation: (born before 1925)
Made up of those who lived through and fought in WWII. Also known as "The Greatest Generation" this group has negligible buying power themselves, but has a very strong influence over the buying power of the other generations. While they are the generation that grew up with local food and agriculture industries, they perceive cost barriers to purchasing healthy or local food and these subjective perceptions (actually disproven) are a powerful influence on their purchasing behavior. They are typically not swayed by nostalgia and are exceedingly price-sensitive. They are not to be dismissed! The GI Generation are passionately loyal and an extremely reliable sales base. Once a customer of your product, ALWAYS a customer. They are disinterested in competing marketing tactics and do not need to be marketed to over and over again.
The Silent Generation: (born 1925-1944)
Those generally thought to be too young to fight in WWII and those born during the war. They are the smallest generation of the 20th century as a consequence of low depression-era birth rates. Buying power is considered negligible. It has been shown that there is a strong relationship between decreased discretionary income as a barrier to the purchase of healthy or local food, and like the GI Generation are LEAST LIKELY to exhibit a purchasing pattern consistent with nutrition messages or socially conscious messages (local, sustainable, environmental.) When buying local food, the Silent Generation tends to buy more food for the home, but do not consume local produce when eating out - or make their dining decisions on whether local food is served. The Silent Generation requires tangible relationships and responds well to intimate and face-to-face buying experiences.
The Boomers: (born 1945 to 1964)
Children of the GI and Silent generations. The second-largest generation (78.2 million) and the second most coveted consumer base, with about $2 trillion in annual buying power. Greatest marketing response is direct mail. They are receptive to multimedia messaging, but respond best when multiple, traditional forms of direct marketing is combined with multimedia channels. This makes them the most expensive group to effectively market to. Boomers are the biggest buyers of "young" and a majority of the marketing messages on the market place are targeted directly at their need for youth, desire for thinness, fear of aging, and overall vitality. They are the spenders who fuel the billion-plus Diet Industry. Gavin Turrell and Ann Kavanagh have shown that there is a statistically significant association between education and dietary knowledge, and they are the group most receptive to public education about diet and heatlh, and the group most active in altering their purchasing behavior as a direct result of this public education.
Gen X: (born 1965-1984)
Largely children of the Silent Generation, numbering about 69.9 million. Regarded as technologically "bilingual," but do not always respond to internet marketing efforts, but straddle the divide between traditional and new media platforms. Gen X mirrors the Boomers' receptivity to multimedia (aware, but not completely trusted) simply because the technology revolution did not take off until the 80's and 90's. This generation is the most "split" of generational groups - some being tech savvy, and others lagging far behind even the Boomers. This group is seldom targeted with direct media campaigns of any type because they are sandwiched between the two most influential Generational groups. While Gen X as a whole group is not easily definable, do not count them out. They are largely ignored, and as they age, have more discretionary income, and become the new targets for marketing and advertising they will demand a long relationship with the organizations that have marketed to them over the previous years when they're perceived to have not much influence. Early and steady with the Gen X-ers. Nurturing this consumer base is a long term relationship, and Gen X will require multiple-time messaging and will require many interactions with your product before they become reliable consumers. The buying behavior of Gen X have a very powerful influence on our society and has led to cybercafés, entertainment eateries, and the newer trends in the wine and hotel industries. This group buys less local food for the home, but will consume local produce and specifically choose a restaurant or caterer who serves local food.
Gen Y: (born 1985 - 2004)
Also know as "Millennials," "Echo Boomers" and "The Net Generation." They are the children of the Baby Boomers and the largest generation at 100 million Americans. The most coveted buying group, consuming at a rate of more than five times the Boomers in adjusted dollars. These are bright, educated, multi-taskers with a social conscience. The Millennials are forecasted to have the greatest effect on almost all American industries. These individuals don't read newspapers, don't listen to radio, or buy magazines. Gen Y goes right to the internet, and they are a very fickle group to effectively reach because they are continuously bombarded with savvy electronic marketing. This group will purchase products with a "social conscience." They consider buying based NOT on quality or freshness, but rather to reduce greenhouse or environmental impact, sustainability, and ethics. The flip side is that while the only way to reach them is online, current farm market -farm stand models require Gen Y to get OFF LINE to find your product. Bringing local food into the online marketplace is key to capturing Gen Y consumers and nurturing them for long-term customer buying relationship for the next 40 years.
Gen Z: (born 2005 - present)
2007 was the largest birth year in US History. Latinos make up about 14% of our total population, but accounted for more than 25% of total babies born in 2007. This new generation is already more than 20 million strong. The most tech-savvy of all generations, the only marketing that has effect are digital media campaigns through TV, film, and the internet. Most susceptible to industrial food advertising and their peers. According to the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, 3-5 year-olds have an annual purchasing influence of $15 billion; $45 billion for 6-8 year-olds; $65 billion for 9-11 year-olds; and $90 billion for 15-17 year-olds. They also say that parents are two to three times more likely to name a child - not themselves - as the family expert for selection of fast food, snack food, restaurants, and new breakfast cereals. While yielding the greatest influence over food purchasing behavior, there is a direct correlation that the number of children in a household does not appear to influence buying behavior for local and regional foods. This should be the most coveted group to market your product to simply because they have the most power. They do not care about health or obesity (yet). They care about their peers and about fun. Agritourism has made great strides in reaching Gen Z with a local food & agirculture buying message.
Effective Marketing and Product Placement
Most local food and agricultural businesses target market their products to the Baby Boomers who are price-insensitive, health conscious, Gourmet-primed, and currently the most vociferous.
Fast growing, successful, and effective local food & agricultural businesses make sure to market their product across ALL 6 generations - creating specifically tailored marketing messages, product availability and accessibility options, and a mix of online/offline and tradition/new media techniques.
There is overwhelming marketing noise to the Boomers, while the remaining 5 generations are currently untapped as local food & agricultural consumers.
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Posted by Emily Brooks
I wasn't quite sure to shake my head in dismay or fall over with side-splitting laughter when watching the Celebrity Apprentice this week!
I'm sure that you remember that Rod Blagojevich was the sixteenth governor in the United States, and the first Illinois governor, to be impeached in 2009. While he had been under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2005 for corruption, it was his "selling" of Obama's open senate seat to the highest bidder that made Rod a famous household name.
But enough of the past! Now, Rod Blagojevich is reinventing his identity as the biggest buffoon in reality TV on the Celebrity Apprentice! He's a viewership GOLDMINE, and Trump is no fool! You had better believe I'll tune in again!!!!
But stepping away from purely unadulterated and comical Sunday entertainment, there are 3 very serious business lessons we need to take home as we guffaw at Blago - our new favorite reality TV goober.
Lesson #1: If you can't, don't!
Watching Rod try to help his team was frightening. This brief moment in time will officially and forever reign as Computer Illiteracy Gate!
If you can't do something get out of the way before you slow down efficiency, bog down the system, hurt your team, waste time and rack up extra expense to cover your ineptitude. Stop everything that you're doing and learn it, or perhaps you need to get back out there and get a new job.
According to Blago, "When you have nearly 60 thousand people work for you, they do all of the work for you. I never had to learn it." COP OUT! I wonder how many thousands of dollars Illinois tax payers spent every month for the additional staff and support Rod needed because he chose - and deliberately continues to choose to this day - to be technologically illiterate. You'd have thought that with the opportunity to go on Trump's reality TV show, Rod would have said to himself "Golly gee, we have to know how to use a computer, or a camera, or a cell phone, or a digital alarm clock on the show. I had better learn that." Uh huh. You'd have thunk.
Lesson #2: Master it first, THEN delegate!
Blago's immediate pass-the-buck response to his lack of computer skills spoke unintentional volumes about his skills as a business man.
There are some really important management techniques to delegating responsibility for a part of a business organization's roles or tasks. But before you even consider delegating or outsourcing, you must first be the MASTER every element of what you'd like someone else to help you with.
Do not outsource or delegate the needs of your business the same way you would hire a plumber. You don't necessarily need to understand how a vent pipe works to hire someone to fix your toilet - and there are millions of people out there who could do that for you. Having said, if you know a little something about plumbing you're probably going to be able to hire the best expert more quickly and save yourself both time and money in the long run.
Servicing your entrepreneurial business needs are not as simple as hiring someone else to fix your toilet.
For example, don't hire someone to launch a Social Media campaign if you don't know the industry best practices for utilizing social media to grow your business. Most businesses can figure out how log onto Twitter and create a free account, and yet most don't understand how to use Twitter for brand awareness.
Without a MASTERY FIRST - DELEGATE SECOND approach to business, how can you know if you're hiring the right person? How will you know if you're investment is working? How can you set goals? Measure results? Adapt your strategy? If you can't answer these questions, you're throwing your money away.
Your business can only grow as your own knowledge base grows. Invest in Entrepreneurial Training Programs, scan the web for the free webinars, white papers, and other training opportunities available.
Lesson #3: There is no such thing as ENTITLEMENT.
If you want something, EARN IT. In business, you pay to play. You pay with your time, your self-invesment, and your dedication to learning, growing, and operational mastery. Yet Blagojevich believes that that rule doesn't apply to him. "They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation, so f*** them." Who's the joke on, sweetie?
It appears as if Rod hasn't learned from any of his business mistakes from the past. Perhaps Sharon Osbourne is right. "They pulled him out of the oven too soon. He wasn't properly formed."
If that is NOT what you want people to say about your company, perhaps you had better take these business lessons to heart. Learn from Blago!
Edibles Advocate Alliance Products & Services:
Posted by Emily Brooks
What?
Shared Harvest CT is a website that focuses on locally produced foods in a buy/sell/trade/barter/donate platform! Shared Harvest CT will allow consumers to find locally produced food in another (NON-farm market) venue, provide producers with a separate sales venue, and allow for the donation of food to those in need. Shared Harvest CT is a state-wide food distribution system allowing farmers, producers, and consumers to connect directly over the internet - in ONE interactive space and platform. Shared Harvest CT is an online farmer's market and food-bank rolled into one. Food that might potentially go to waste can also be listed for donation to participating charities and food banks.
Shared Harvest CT works like an INSTANT ONLINE SELLING classified ad section and is available for free to all producers, farmers, and consumers.
Watch our Tutorials to Learn How to Use Shared Harvest Connecticut if you are a:
Go Shopping . . . . Go Selling NOW!
Who?
Emily Brooks is the revolutionary new face of the local food and sustainable agriculture movements. Founder of Edibles Advocate Alliance, Emily nurtures social entrepreneurs who support local agriculture, sustainable farming, and sustainable food systems, and passionately believes in changing the social norm towards agricultural sustainability and development through education and coalition building.
She is the author of FARMER & FEAST Connecticut, the creator of Shared Harvest CT, and is a regular "local food & sustainability expert" on the Colin McEnroe Show.
Emily Brooks specializes in Entrepreneurial Training, Workplace & Community Sustainability Programming, and Corporate Sustainability & Environmental Education. She is a certified partner of NxLevel and HubSpot, and is a consultant for Coleman Research Group, Gerson Lehrman Group, and Guidepoint Global Advisors.
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Posted by Emily Brooks
So Jamie Oliver has crossed the big blue pond with a new TV Show on ABC called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in the hopes of transforming the unhealthiest town - i.e. the fattest town - in America: Huntington, West Virginia.
Jamie Oliver is not the first Brit to visit our shores with loud pedantics and rude taglines. Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen takes discourtesy to a whole new level. Hell's Kitchen is a reality show, people! AND WE LOVE IT!
But there are distinct differences between Ramsay and Oliver. Primarily, for those of you who aren't chefs, Hell's Kitchen is a good representation of what goes on behind that swinging kitchen door, and you had better believe that head Chefs demand that type of perfection. Why? It's their name on the door, not yours. Too, if you watch Ramsay's complete body of work, you quickly realize that he's a pretty smart guy - smart enough to ramp up rudeness for American TV for the WOW factor. He's right, and that mock-spitefulness works beautifully in the Hell's Kitchen format.
Jamie Oliver, on the other hand? I'm concerned that his disagreeable offensiveness is nothing more than simply what he actually is - an intolerable sledgehammer.
Hell's Kitchen - reality TV. Contestants sign up to play. The Food Revolution? We're talking about real kids, here . . . real families . . . really serious issues - health issues - life and death issues . . . exceedingly large system-wide governmental problems. Oliver does mention many of the problems with our school food system in this country, but according to Oliver, if your kid is fat it is YOUR fault. If your kid is unhealthy, IT'S YOUR FAULT.
Throw Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution under the Bad Reality TV Bus.
There are many, exceedingly qualified folks working behind the scenes with Oliver in West Virginia - folks who's vision is to make the world a better place through better food. These quiet revolutionaries believe in partnership, not WWE-style upheaval. These revolutionaries DO NOT point the finger. They don't come out swinging fists and blaming parents. They work their asses off every day in the trenches. They don't fly in to West Virginia, record video for 1 hour, and then fly back home. The real change in Huntington is coming from those left behind to actually do the work - the off camera work.
For those of you who are seeking level-headed, consistent, fair-handed change . . . for those of you desperate for new systems and new solutions to help make and keep your kids healthier . . . don't be dismayed by Jamie Oliver's bazooka pointed down your throat. Because Oliver's Food Revolution regurgitates the worst of reality TV where Oliver is hoping that America will make fun of itself - that we'll think unhealthy kids is a side-splitting, entertaining riot.
The real food revolution is taking place all over the country. There are great consultants out there to help you.
They should comment on this blog post and tell you who they are.
In the meantime, ZIP IT Oliver. We do need a food revolution in this country. But you're using our deepest concerns about the fate of our children to compete against Gordon Ramsay for TV viewership and financial gain. I fear that you're actually doing more harm than good.
Edibles Advocate Alliance Products & Services:
Posted by Emily Brooks
Analiese Paik of the Fairfield Green Food Guide and Emily Brooks of Edibles Advocate Alliance are SEEKING A HERO!
Not just any hero, A SUPER HERO!
In Connecticut, the time has come. We need an Agricultural Angel Investment Network or an Agriculture Exchange. We need to enhance CT's food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction or outsourcing, to an economy based on the preservation and restoration of our agricultural sector.
We envision an agriculture investment network where:
- All potential investment projects become one family. Where individuals and businesses are nurtured from the moment they walk in the door and beyond into their successful lives.
- An investment system where each potential project learns from CT experts on the Advisory Team as they make their journey towards final application for funding: Entrepreneurial Training such as strategic business planning, Sustainability Education & Certification, Marketing Assistance with Social Media Platforms and website build-out from Edibles Advocate Alliance. Not to mention networking, contact building, and coalition building with Analiese Paik. And there are more! More local business experts to help!
- An investment system where pro-agriculture businesses band together to accomplish amazing things as a unified team!
- Investing in CT's agriculture is not just a game for those who want large returns or who have uber-millions to invest. I want a system where my $200 can help my neighbor!
WHY do we need CT Super Heroes?
We must learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises.
Let us celebrate the new generation of agricultural entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are truly paving the way of our future.
Are you our HERO?
We are looking for:
- Brilliant financial minds to help us create a sustainable Agricultural Investment System in Connecticut
- Passionate individuals and local businesses who can lend their expertise, assistance, and local knowledge to our movement.
Edibles Advocate Alliance Products & Services: