Dan Barber’s talk at the TED conference this year was one of the best of the event – brilliant and a must see!
March 8, 2010
A Month without Monsanto
Posted by dianehatz under sustainable food | Tags: GMO, monsanto |Leave a Comment
April Davila decided she wanted to go one month without consuming any Monsanto products, and it’s turning out to be more difficult than she realized. Follow her this month as she tries to find something to consume….
February 28, 2010
Seth Godin on the Tribes We Lead
Posted by dianehatz under TED | Tags: Seth Godin, TED, tribes |Leave a Comment
I found someone who transcribed part of Seth Godin’s 2009 TED talk on tribes….
….”The Beatles did not invent teenagers. They merely decided to lead them. That most movements, most leadership that we’re doing is about finding a group that’s disconnected but already has a yearning. Not persuading people to want something they don’t have yet.
When Diane Hatz worked on The Meatrix, her video that spread all across the internet about the way farm animals are treated, she didn’t invent the idea of being a vegan. She didn’t invent the idea of caring about this issue. But she helped organize people, and helped turn it into a movement.
Hugo Chavez did not invent the disaffected middle and lower class of Venezuela. He merely led them.
Bob Marley did not invent Rastafarians. He just stepped up and said, “Follow me.”….”
You can watch the full talk on the TED website.
February 19, 2010
I got back from the TED Palm Springs conference last week. (I know, I really should blog about it but it was sooo consuming…). We were given Sigg bottles in our gift bag and were told Pur would donate water to people in need if we put a message on the bottle and got our photo taken. This is where this photo came from.
A comment on Sigg – I threw mine out several months ago when I found out that up until the past year or so, Sigg was coating the inside of their water bottles with a coating that contained BPA (a neurotoxin). I was assured these were BPA-free, but I’m so not promoting Sigg anymore. Mason jars are a great way to go.
I’ll try to post something about what happened at TED over the weekend.
January 30, 2010
What’s the best way to feed Haiti’s starving masses?
Posted by dianehatz under Glynwood Institute | Tags: csrwire, diane hatz, food system, haiti, sustainable food |[2] Comments
This post appeared on the CSRwire.com Talkback blog on January 29, 2010….
The Bible says, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” Sustainable food expert Diane Hatz takes that dictum to heart in her prescription for food security for Haiti after the earthquake.
Rebuilding Haiti’s Food System
by Diane Hatz
The earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th shocked the world. Immediate relief efforts must continue for as long as necessary and need to focus on providing food, shelter and medical care for the millions of Haitians affected. But, at the same time, experts must start looking at ways to rebuild the country, and a strong focus needs to be put on agriculture and the country’s food system.
The United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for $23 million for agriculture to support farms, backyard gardens, urban agriculture and rural development. And to be most effective, a sustainable system of agriculture needs to be introduced, where many farmers work small plots of land to yield many types of crops, and minimal to no pesticides or fertilizers are used.
In addition, the government needs to rebuild infrastructure such as roads and canals, provide subsidies for Haitian farmers, reforest destroyed land and increase tariffs on imported foods. Efforts must be made to help Haitians become self-sufficient so food riots like in April 2008 do not happen again.
This is vital to the rebuilding of Haiti. According to the United Nation’s World Food Programme, 76% of Haitians live on less than $2 day and 56% on less than $1 a day. The FAO reports that around 80% of Haitians are involved with agriculture, but they do not have the necessary expertise or equipment. Haitians need to be given the tools – training, seeds, hand tools, livestock such as pigs and chickens – in order to rebuild their food system.
In a developing country such as Haiti, expensive inputs such as chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides need to be replaced with natural ways to grow food – compost, beneficial insects, crop rotation, diversified crops. These types of inputs are low to no cost and are more practical for the type of farming that needs to be done in the country. Because of the rugged mountainsides, large machinery is not feasible which saves on costs for parts and oil.
Haiti should look to its neighbor Cuba for inspiration. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba imported over 50% of its food and had an industrial-based agriculture system. After the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, Cuba had nowhere to export and nowhere to get their pesticides, chemicals and industrial inputs from, so they were forced to create a sustainable food system.
Large farms were broken up into smaller plots and urban agriculture was introduced on a large scale. According to Food First, by 1999 sustainable urban agriculture produced 65% of Cuba’s rice, 46% of fresh vegetables, 38% of non-citrus fruits, 13% of roots, tubers and plantains, and 6% of eggs. Farmers and researchers from around the world now visit Cuba to learn more about their sustainable food system.
The planting season in Haiti is March, and the hurricane season begins in June. With so much effort now needed to provide emergency food relief and secure shelter for the upcoming storm season, there isn’t much focus on providing Haitians ways to produce their own food in the long term. But it is necessary. They need to plant as many crops as possible come March and also to look at how they can become a food secure country.
Diane Hatz is the Co-Founder & Director of The Glynwood Institute for Food and Farming, which focuses on solving critical problems with food and agriculture and will launch April 2010.
June 5, 2009
So, I admit, I’ve been a little lazy about posting up on here….my Guide to Good Food blog series now has its own blog – called (what else?) but Guide to Good Food. Check it out at http://guidetogoodfood.wordpress.com.
If you want to keep up with the series, check it out there. The thought right now is to eventually turn it into a book. I’m working on one about The Meatrix right now, so we’ll see how long they both take….
May 15, 2009
Seth Godin on Tribes (and me!)
Posted by dianehatz under Miscellaneous | Tags: Seth Godin, TED |Leave a Comment
At the TED conference this year, marketing guru Seth Godin gave a talk on Tribes. I was lucky enough to have gotten a scholarship to the conference so was sitting in the audience for his talk. I about fell out of my chair when he mentioned my name and a photo came up on the screen. I was sandwiched between The Beatles and Bob Marley – I was so honored!….
Click below to see Godin’s talk…..


In last week’s post,
In the past two weeks, we’ve talked about sustainable and organic food, as well as industrial agriculture and factory farming in our Guide to Good Food. This week, we’re going to compare
Last week we talked about 