About those links over there...

So in my first post I thought I'd do a little explaining about those two (so far) links over there on the right.

The Benkadi Project
Every year, my drum teacher Helen Bond spends three months in Guinea studying with her teacher, Famoudou Konaté. Conditions in Sangbaralla, Famoudou's village, are not the greatest so Helen and Famoudou started the Benkadi Project to help out. Benkadi is an African word which translates, "To live together is very good." So far, they have built a school which already needs expansion and they are starting on medical services.

The 100-mile diet
Last spring, my sweetie and I bought a CSA (community-supported agriculture) share. From May until November, we received a weekly box of locally-grown organic produce. It was some of the best food I have ever had. For what worked out to around $20 per week, we ate like royalty. The quality of the food got me thinking and reading. I learned that the average bite of food eaten by the average American traveled an average of 1500 miles to get from field to fork. Maybe I'm envious that my food might be better-traveled than I, but it seems to me that using all that fuel to get all that food to its various destinations simply cannot be good for the food, for the people who eat it, or for the environment (especially when one also considers the amount of petrochemical fertilizer used to grow that food, too).

Eventually I stumbled across an article about locavores. They are people who eat only what is produced in a 100-mile radius of their homes. The link goes to a site which explains more about localvores, and challenges people to spend 3 months, 6 months, or a full year on the 100-mile diet. I have not tried the diet yet myself, but I'm being more careful at the grocery store. I may try the diet next summer, though I'm not sure about giving up coffee or tea. I read about one man in New York state who planted a coffee bush in his yard. Since I am an apartment-dweller, growing my own coffee or tea isn't really an option unless I figure out how to do so hydroponically.