BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living

A STUDY GUIDE TO
“It’s Elemental”
A BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living educational video available on DVD
A ‘ how to’ for living a more sustainable, environmentally friendly or ‘green’ lifestyle

Written by Elizabeth Fiend

Graphics By VaLerie K

What is sustainability? Sustainable living refers to a lifestyle and set of choices that minimize a person’s ecological footprint. It is a lifestyle that pays attention to the relationship between Earth and humanity. The ultimate goal of sustainable living is to preserve the Earth’s natural ecology, its plants, animals and resources so future generations can enjoy them.

“It’s Elemental” Video Study Guide Table of Contents:
Video Objectives and Synopsis
Part 1: Water Conservation
Part 2: Automobiles Create Pollution
Part 3: How Food Choices Effect the Environment
Part 4: Composting and Reducing Household garbage
Vocabulary words
Pre-Viewing Activities
Post-Viewing Activities

This guide is designed to facilitate home study or classroom use of “It’s Elemental” a 27 minute educational video created by BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living. It is intended for use with students in grades 5-11 in courses dealing with issues related to the environment, ecology, sustainability, agriculture, conservation, family and consumer sciences, transportation, nutrition, community relations and political engagement.

To Order: “It’s Elemental” on DVD. Click here.

Video Overview: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There are many simple ways to change your lifestyle to become more sustainable, kinder to the earth and all of its inhabitants. A green life is a healthy solution for today’s toxic times. It’s all about choice and empowering both the individual and the community.

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BiG TeA PaRtY’s Video Short

on Community Supported Agriculture

posted by VaLerie K

Maybe you’ve heard or read recent press coverage of the new documentary “Food, Inc.”, the main gist of which is that in our quest for cheap, abundant food in the U.S., we have developed farming practices which have not only sacrificed the quality and healthfulness of our food, but have also negatively impacted the state of our planet, and made torturous the lives of countless animals.

But guess what, we here at BiG TeA PaRtY have been on top of one of the most successful alternatives to factory farming, the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model of farming, for some years now… and here’s a video to prove it!

Hear Philly’s own celebrity urban farmer Mary Seton Corboy explain to BiG TeA PaRtY host Elizabeth Fiend that small farms using this direct marketing system are the wave of the future; farmers that can adapt have a much better chance of survival.  Lancaster County farmer Peggy Fogarty-Harnish describes the relationship of farmers to their CSA buyers, and Ann Karlin of Philadelphia Fair Food Project points out that knowing the person who grew your food is the best way to feel confident in the produce you put on your table.

The documentary “Food, Inc.” will hopefully wake people up (those who weren’t aware of the heinous system that drug giants like Monsanto have helped to create), but don’t overlook that we’ve been reporting on this issue all along, just do a search for “Monsanto” or “CSA” or “factory farming” or “organic food” or “pesticide-free” here on this very site to find other relevant articles (and you might want to check out Elizabeth’s recipes for delicious ways to use fresh produce). 

Please pass this post along to your friends and family, and encourage them all to check out CSA’s in their area and local farmers markets that are populated with produce which is grown with the safety of the environment in mind.

Click HERE for a fantastic article by Elizabeth Fiend on why you should consider buying your produce from local farms that don’t use pesticides.

Click the following links for further info on CSA’s and local farms in your area, Philadelphia Fair Food Project, and Greensgrow Farm.

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Compost your Kitchen Scraps
Posted by VaLerie K

Save your uncooked food scraps and turn them into super-effective plant food. Reduce your garbage load… why toss all that good stuff that is nutritious for the earth into a plastic bag that ends up in a landfill?  Biodegradable garbage is still just trash if it’s busy biodegrading inside a plastic bag, stuffed between a styrofoam cup and a ball of aluminum foil.

If you don’t have a garden in your yard, find a local community garden and donate your compost.  They’ll love you for it (and maybe even slide you some tomatoes when they’re ripe.)

Here’s the video by BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living that outlines the composting process, followed by written step-by-step instructions. Host Elizabeth Fiend tells you what you can and can’t recycle in your compost pile and how to start one.

Composting —Nature’s Way of Recycling
A How-To written by ELIZABETH FIEND

We need to reduce the amount of garbage we create. Most household garbage is burned, which creates air pollution, or dumped into landfills which produce toxic gases. Obviously neither way is good for the environment. By composting leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps you can greatly reduce the amount of trash your household makes.

Composting is a natural form of recycling where plant matter is turned into a soil-like material that’s full of nutrients and very beneficial to your backyard soil and garden plants. Insects, earthworms, bacteria and fungi help out in the process. But it’s up to you to get it started!

Starting a Compost Pile:

INSIDE:
1.) Begin in the kitchen by saving uncooked food scraps like carrot tops, lettuce cores and banana peels. Coffee grinds, tea bags and egg shells can also be saved. NO cooked food, meat or dairy products should be added to the compost pile.
2.) Store the scraps in a lidded container or small bucket you keep in easy reach of the cutting board.

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Inspired by Earth Day? Start riding your bike.

Worried about flat tires? There’s a great tip in this video

by BiG TeA PaRtY

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video

“THREE for TEA”

To Your Health!

Click here to purchase “Three for Tea”

3 videos on one DVD (30 min.)

Use this inspiring DVD to help stem the tide of obesity, combat the diabetes epidemic, discourage cigarette smoking, and lead a more sustainable life.

[PHOTOS BY: VALERIE KELLER]

Click To Play

Breakfast of Champions (3 minutes)
Ever want your luxurious Sunday brunch to be healthy as well as decadent? You’re sure to be a champion when you make Elizabeth Fiend’s easy Vegan French Toast, a meal that’s as satisfying to the body as it is to the soul because it uses no animal products.

Chew On This! (15 minutes)
Full of Philly food facts and fun fur hats, plus a visit from one of America’s greatest thinkers (and eaters!) Benjamin Franklin. Host Elizabeth Fiend takes the outrageously informative quiz games Dicey Dinner and Tic Tac Tofu to an outdoor produce market and a cheese steak take-out to test contestants’ knowledge of nutrition and food. Between rounds she travels the city to find historical tidbits and local food innovations, ending up in her own kitchen where famous inventor Ben Franklin is impressed with Elizabeth’s own unique culinary invention!

Click To Play

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video:

“It’s Elemental”
THE ENVIRONMENT

[30 minutes: available on VHS, DVD coming soon!]

Click here to purchase “It’s Elemental”

LEARN HOW TO LIVE A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY or GREEN LIFE

GRAPHICS BY: VaLerie K

This video introduces you to concepts that lead to living a more environmentally friendly or ‘green’ life. This video is full of information about specific environmental problems as well as easy ways you can combat issues like air pollution, impurity of our water supply and mass production of food grown with pesticides and lacking in taste and nutrition. This video promotes the idea that there are a lot of simple things each individual can do every day to reduce his or her impact on the planet. The video uses humor, quick editing, music and stimulating visuals all designed to engage teenagers as well as their families.

Topics covered:

Problem: Water is a limited natural resource and we may run out of it.
Solution: When going about your daily activities cut down on the amount of water you
use at home. Don’t put trash or other items into the water system by littering
on the street or throwing garbage down the toilet. Keep our water clean!

Problem: Automobiles create a myriad of environmental problems.
Solution: Taking public transportation when ever possible and car pooling are great
ways to cut down on automobile use. Riding a bike is another alternative to
driving a car.

Problem: Unhealthy food choices are not only detrimental to the individual eater, but
also have a negative impact on the environment.
Solution: Seek out locally grown food and local food products whenever possible. This
is better not only for the environment and your body but it helps support the
local economy too.

Problem: Most household waste is dumped into landfills or burned creating problems
for the environment.
Solution: Cut down on waste by composting kitchen scraps, recycling and reusing or
donating unwanted household goods.

Click here to purchase “It’s Elemental”

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video:

“Unconventional Coverage: The Message and the Means”
[DVD, two 27-minute segments]
ACTIVISM

Click To Play

Click to purchase DVD (You will be taken away from the BiG TeA PatY web site and sent to our distributor)

Click here to purchase VHS.

This hour long commentary, produced by BiG TeA PaRtY, was filmed during the protests that erupted when the Republicans first nominated George Bush for president at their national convention in Philadelphia in 2000. This award winning video is a blue-print for the modern protest movement. It outlines how and why protests happen. Plus it offers detailed information on the sorry state of health care in America, our problems with gun violence, our eroding rights to dissent and the many varied reasons people feel compelled to protest. Tips on how to organize a protest, jail solidarity and the importance of independent media are included alongside insightful and witty commentary. Says “The Chicago Tribune:” [Speaking of video host Elizabeth Fiend] “Her documentary on the demonstrations protesting the Republican Convention in Philadelphia was pretty much the only coverage I can remember that actually told you what the protestors were protesting.”
Winner Best Documentary, Festival of Independents, Philadelphia Film Festival

From the “Alternative Press Review:

“BiG TeA PaRtY rallied its forces to produce a feature on the event . . . from the protesters’ perspective.
The result is a high-production tour-de-force unlike any other recent activist video.

Fiend “hosts” the show, providing snappy commentary that is squarely aimed at the establishment’s misrepresentations and double-speak.

She searches out and interviews protesters who discuss a wide range of concerns, bringing to the fore the diversity of voices fuelling the anti-Republican forces.

We also get a taste of the opposite side’s mind-set from people such as Log Cabin Republican Donald Carter who defends gay conservatism and a “Sisters for the Second Amendment” spokesperson who calls (loudly) for a piece in every purse.

The video is tightly edited and spiced up with anti-capitalist rap poetry, screamingly funny studio cuts of Fiend wringing the neck of a “rubber chicken” politician, and other vignettes. These augment on-the-street analysis of universal health care, how to end gun violence, the rightness of dissent, and other issues.

This video is designed for public viewing, with two 30 minutes segments framed by intros and closing music. Imagine crowds during a showing taking a 10 minute break for popcorn, petition signing, etc. and you get the idea. The first segment, “The Message”, communicates the issues radicals sought to air in Philadelphia through sit-downs, parades, street theatre, banners, music, songs, and speeches. The second segment, “The Means,” is an invaluable primer covering the 4 Big Things that made the Philadelphia demonstrations effective: Direct Action; How to Stage a Protest; Do It Yourself Media; and Dealing With Police Repression. Talk about your Anarchist Home-Ec!

Funny, ironic, and creative, “Unconventional Coverage” makes a rebellious sensibility accessible to the masses. I can imagine people who are new to radicalism not only enjoying it, but also identifying with it, and that’s no small feat in my estimation.

Want to mobilize the neighbourhood? Buy this video.”

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video:

“CHA CHING”
30 minutes, vhs

DIY =DO-IT-YOURSELF!

Click here to purchase Cha Ching

Three videos on one VHS (DVD to come soon). Featuring:

SK8 B-Lo I-95 [6 minutes]

Is skateboarding a crime?

It shouldn’t be, but many local governments want to make it one. Was it a blessing or a curse for Philadelphians that the marble ledges, steps and layout of LOVE PARK was the perfect environment for skating ? Was the remotely located FDR Park skate park the solution?
BiG TeA PaRtY traces the history of the skateboard ban in internationally renown Love Park and the rise of FDR Skate Park, a park built by & for the skaters. Shot on location in Love Park and FDR Skate Park – featuring interviews with skaters and action footage.

ENDING AN EPIDEMIC:

ACT UP, FIGHT BACK![6 minutes]

Click To Play

Chew On This! is full of Philly food facts and fun fur hats, plus a visit from one of America’s greatest thinkers (and eaters) Benjamin Franklin. Part game show, part food show and all parts fun, this episode is a feast of eye candy and an earful of information.
BiG TeA PaRtY creates their own quiz show by playing the games Dicey Dinner and Tic Tac Tofu in which host Elizabeth Fiend tests contestants’ knowledge of nutrition and food. Yes, there’s jumping up & down, there are hugs and an audience screaming out encouragement. But there are also velvet-lined pizza boxes, fuzzy dice thrown from a KFC bucket and a game board of cartoon food held by men with green hair. This show is bound to amuse as well as inform you about the value of a vegetarian diet, what color foods have the most antioxidants and much, much more. Even special guest Ben Franklin learns a thing or two from Elizabeth while he charms her into making him a sandwich – a sandwich on a soft pretzel!

Click here to purchase Cha Ching

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video:

“OoLONG”

30 minute vhs

Click here to purchase “OoLong”

OoLong vhs includes 10 3- minute projects, info and fun on these topics:

FooD:
Storing & freezing fresh herbs
Vegan French toast (no eggs, no milk!)
The checkerboard cake

MuSiC:
How to put out your own record or cd
Rock out at More Fiends record release party

CRaFTS:
Recycle plastic bottles into a beautiful ‘stained glass’ candelabra

STuFF:
Take a tour of her Elizabeth’s new house!
Get to know about your community by reading free newspapers
A look at an Anarchist bookstore shows us that we must preserve independent stores
How to conserve & preserve our most valuable resource: water
The All-Girls Clothes-Swap, trade away your old clothes

Click here to purchase Oolong

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BiG TeA PaRtY Video:

“PICO”

30 minute vhs

THE ORIGINAL: COOKING, CRAFTS AND ANARCHY!

Click here to purchase “Pico”

ON SALE NoW!!!!

Click To Play

Click here to purchase “Pico”

10 3-minute videos on one VHS!! ON SALE NoW!!!!

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