An evening showcasing community, arts and culture programming  presented by the producers.

Sept. 3rd 5:30pm - 7:30pm,  232 Vine St., Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia

To coincide with First Friday in Old City and the opening of the Fringe Festival performance “All Victorious Ocean” at the Painted Bride Arts Center, PhillyCAM presents a special two hour program of Community, Arts and Culture.

Featuring BiG TeA PaRtY’s

“SK8 B-Lo I-95″

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 and for the skaters. Shot on location in Love Park and FDR Skate Park – featuring interviews with skaters and action footage.

Watch the show on TV, on Comcast 66/966 and Verizon FIOS 29/30, or get out and about and see it live and meet the producers in person at the PhillyCAM studio 232 Vine Street.

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The problem, like so many other food safety issues, can be traced back to the industrialization of food production, agribusiness, and lack of government regulation.

1. One company paid a fine to settle state animal cruelty charges against their egg operations.
2. A huge family agribusiness operation, pleaded guilty to federal immigration charges.
3. At an Iowa egg producer three supervisors attacked employees and threatened to have them fired or killed if they did not submit to rape (charges pending). [Source: New York Times]

Article Written By: Truman Lewis   Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend   Source: ConsumerAffairs.Com

First it was knocked from its perch by consumers’ rising to cholesterol and now, incredibly, the edible egg is the latest everyday consumable to be scrambled, poached and whipped by Salmonella contamination.

The recall of hundreds of millions eggs follows a four-fold increase in Salmonella Enteritidis infections since May 2010 and health officials fear the worst may be yet to come.

On August 13, 2010, Wright County Egg, an Iowa egg producer, launched a nationwide egg recall and expanded it on August 19, the recall was expanded. Yesterday, Hillandale Farms of Iowa recalled eggs sold under various brand names including Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow.

This is a crisis that’s not likely to be over easily. Salmonella is about as unpleasant an infection as you can think of, even for healthy people, but it can be deadly for infants, the elderly, the chronically ill and anyone with a compromised immune system.

Although it’s hard to think of anything more common in the food supply than the lowly chicken egg, consumption of the shelled ovoids has been declining steadily in recent years.

Americans used to eat one egg per day per person 1960s but the number is now down to about 257 per person per year, according to the Lempert Report, a food industry newsletter. But that figure doesn’t count all the prepared food products that contain eggs and that may or may not have been handled with all due caution.

The problem, like so many other food safety issues, can be traced back to the industrialization of food production. When chickens wandered around barnyards, pecking away at bugs and corn and whatever else they could find, Salmonella was rarely a problem. But now that chickens live their lives in tight quarters, Salmonella has become a frequent intruder in the henhouse.

To be fair, it should be noted that the pesticide-soaked earth is no longer the safest spot to raise barnyard fowl, as a recent study found.

What’s a homemaker to do?

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Chickens free to wander around the farm yard are more likely to gobble down industrial pollutants, pesticide residues and other potentially harmful snacks.

Many consumers think that the more “natural” a food is, the healthier it is. But it’s not necessarily so, as a recent study of “free-range” eggs reminds us.

Written By: Truman Lewis  Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend   Source: ConsumerAffairs.com

In a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, researchers in southern Taiwan found that eggs from free range hens contained more than five times the contaminants found in eggs from caged chickens.While movies like “Food Inc.” have painted a dim picture of the lives led by caged chickens, as opposed to their free-roaming counterparts, the research suggests that chickens free to wander around the farm yard are more likely to gobble down industrial pollutants, pesticide residues and other potentially harmful snacks.

Or as the researchers put it, the findings “give rise to issues related to the safety of eating free range chicken eggs” and suggest further investigation is needed.

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Photos and Story by Elizabeth Fiend

This is Chuck. He lives out back.
Chuck’s interests are eating bronze fennel and hiding from birds.
Chuck hopes to grow up and be just like his mother a beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly.

I touched Chuck once. He was eating the fennel I was going to use for Mr. Fiends lunch. I moved Chuck over to a different fennel plant, one I could share. Touching Chuck was really super cool. He felt like no other thing I had ever touched. He was sort of marshmallow like. But he was alive! The way he felt stayed with me for several days. I wanted to touch him again. But I haven’t. I don’t want to stress him out. He already was going super still every time I took his picture.

Chuck will have a pretty interesting life. Having started out as an egg, he’s now a caterpillar. Soon he’ll be a pupa and then a butterfly!  WOWZER. Love, Elizabeth Fiend

Click to learn about a Swallowtail butterfly’s life cycle.

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Philly now recycles ALL plastic containers!

FIRST OF ALL, TRY NOT TO USE PLASTIC. BUT IF YOU MUST, RECYCLE IT.

Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend

STARTING AUGUST in Philly Recycle All Plastic Containers!

You’ve been recycling plastic containers marked:
#1: Soda, water bottles
#2: Milk jugs, detergents, shampoo bottles

Now you can add:
#3: Rigid plastic containers and juice bottles
#4: Plastic tubs and lids from butter, margarine or similar products
#5: Yogurt containers and deli trays
#6: Plastic cups, plates and to-go containers
#7: Many mixed plastic containers and plastic products

These are just some examples of what you can recycle, so look for the number to make sure.

What Else You Can Recycle in Philadelphia

Metal:
Tin and aluminum cans, empty aerosol cans, empty paint cans

Glass:
Jars and bottles

Mixed Paper:
Newspaper, magazines, mail (junk and personal), phone books, food boxes (remove plastic liner), computer paper, flyers, wrapping paper (no foil or plastic wrap), soda and beer cartons (no food-soiled paper, please!)

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The UN just passed a resolution saying water is a human right, as is basic sanitation.  The United States and 39 out of 163 nations didn’t vote YES on this resolution. How come? Corporate greed. Why give poor people free access to water when you might be able to sell it to them?

Source: Huffington Post     Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend

The good news is that the American delegation to the United Nations General Assembly did not vote against a recent resolution that safe drinking water and sanitation were fundamental human rights.

The bad news is that our delegation could not bring itself to vote in favor of the resolution. [We abstained, along with 40 other nations out of 163, with the non-committed comprised primarily of industrialized states. There were no outright “no” votes.]

Why would we be so hesitant to go on the record that access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation should be a basic human right? The answer, sad to say, stems from unease related to the market-based orientation of our government. There is discomfort at the prospect of being legally obligated, if potable water is available, to provide it to everyone, whether or not they could afford to pay for it. That might complicate matters for corporations managing water systems for profit, a water distribution type system (as opposed to government ownership) looked upon with favor by American administrations with a pro-privatization bent.

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R2K+10: 10th Anniversary of the Philly RNC Protests & Legal Resistance
PARTY, ART, VIDEO, MUSIC, FRIENDS!
TWO NIGHTS!

Saturday night features: BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living video
Unconventional Coverage: The Message and the Means.

This hour long video commentary filmed during the protests at the Republican National Convention was subpoenaed by the police and received the
Best Documentary Award at the Philadelphia Festival of Independents.

Sneak preview video clip, click here!

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Friday July 30, 6pm at LAVA, 4134 Lancaster Ave. Free!

R2K Art Exhibit & Reception
Food/Drinks and Exhibit — Check out news clippings, photos, posters, flyers, artifacts, sound stations and video from the summer of 2000. R2K Legal will be on site with legal files for those arrested to reclaim.

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Open Mic, Movie and Party
Saturday July 31, 6pm onward at the Puppet Warehouse, 4100 Haverford. Free!

6pm: Sharing stories from 2000 through an open mic hosted by Elizabeth Fiend // Screening of BiG TeA PaRtY’s documentary on R2K “Unconventional Coverage: The Message and the Means” // art and artifacts from the previous day’s exhibit // Food & Drinks //

9pm: Dance Party! Featuring R2K Legal veteran DJ Halfbreed.

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This July 2010 marks 10 years since Philadelphia was the site of the 2000 Republican National Convention. The week of August 1, 2000, thousands of activists took to the streets of Center City Philadelphia for direct action against police brutality and the prison industrial complex. We were riding an exciting wave of mass direct actions against global capitalism following the previous November’s actions which shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle and large scale street actions against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in DC. This summer, let’s celebrate our fighting spirit 10 years ago, and let’s celebrate our resilience in surviving R2K!

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Get out to your local farmers market RIGHT NOW while you still have time.  

Photos by Rob Kates of : Greensgrow farmer Mary Seton Corboy and the author Elizabeth Fiend.

Our food system has gotten out of whack due to the industrialization of farming (AKA agribusiness) and the globalization of food. Currently there are basically three types of places that grow our produce: big agribusiness factory-type farms, organic farms and recently, a growing movement of small local farms. It used to be a no brainer that if you wanted the best, most healthful food, and could afford it, buy organic. But since the initial burst of organic farms in the 60s and 70s, things have changed and what was a given is suddenly up in the air.

Certainly, buying organic food seems like the way to go since using pesticides is strictly a no-no in organic farming. Organic practices are kinder to the land, they promote good soil development, as opposed to agribusiness techniques which deplete the soil — and hence your food — of vital nutrients. Organic practices don’t pollute the water, the air or the workers on the farm through exposure to toxic chemicals the way agribusiness practices do, either. And a fundamental part of the organic philosophy is to treat workers fairly and pay a living wage.

But there’s a crisis in the organics world, and it’s called big business. Too much of a good thing has gone haywire. Organic food is so much in demand that there just isn’t enough to go around. The only solution has been to change farming methods, to outsource, and to go global to get the desired goods. What was once an industry of small family farms has mushroomed into a new kind of agribusiness, one doing business with Wal-Mart, Kraft, Kellogg and General Mills; one that outsources the growing of organic food to places with little regulation, like China.

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The DVD is a collection of short videos that suggest ways to be more green at home. Like: Green Everyday; Food Choices; Reusing; How to Compost; Conserving Water; even a Vegetarian Cheese Steak Recipe. The DVD will also include bonus videos like Elizabeth Fiend’s appearance on NBC’s the Today Show and a brand new More Fiends video! Exciting stuff!

We want to come up with one-word name/acronym that has pizazz. And then we need your help decoding the title acronym to create a subtitle that further explains the video concept. Pick your favorite name/acronym , and if you have subtitle ideas, write them in. Have a better name/acronym for us? Write it in.

We’re thinking of names like:

SLAW
SLICE
SPARK
SPLASH
SPORE

Choose your favorite name or suggest a better one.

Take the poll, it only takes a sec. Click here to vote.

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Make this for the next barbecue!

RECIPE BY ELIZABETH FIEND
Serves 4, Time: 45 minutes

Category: Vegan / Vegetarian Recipe

With the arrival of summer you’ll really enjoy this cold pasta salad which capitalizes on freshness. This tangy, light pasta salad features the color orange. It will brighten your outlook and your look because it’s made with a dressing that contains lots of healthy herbs and spices, but no fat! The spices used in the dressing weren’t chosen randomly. They taste good and have health benefits. Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties that increase circulation, give energy, alleviate aches and pains and help reduce symptoms of allergies and sinus congestion. Mustard fights stress as it is a good source of magnesium, a calming mineral. Garlic is an immune system booster.

Salad Ingredients:
1/2 lb thin whole wheat spaghetti
4 tablespoons parsley chopped
2 carrots grated and diced
1 orange bell pepper cut into thin strips
3 oranges peeled and cut into bite size pieces
½ pint grape tomatoes cut into quarters
1 cup pecans broken into halves

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