Ask Farmer Mark
July 9th, 2007
I stopped by Earthbound Farms last week for a salad and bumped into a friend of mine: Mark Merino.
Mark’s been popping up all over the place lately — Sunset Magazine quoted him in a lovely piece on Carmel Valley, and Earthbound Farms released a cookbook last year with some photos of him, arms full of fresh organic produce.
But I think the coolest thing he’s doing — besides growing some amazing fruits and veggies — must be his “Ask Farmer Mark” column on the Earthbound Farms website.
In a Q&A format, Mark answers all kinds of questions about organic gardening — whether you have cabbage worms making a meal of your cauliflower or you’re just curious about whether sound has an impact on growing your organic vegetables.
Submit your question online or if you’re in the area, stop by the farmstand! Mark might just give you the 20% employee discount on your salad. 
(Thanks for that, by the way, Mark!)
Countdown to Live Earth!
July 6th, 2007
If you’ve had your head buried under a rock, perhaps you hadn’t heard that tomorrow is the day of Al Gore’s Live Earth Concerts.
According to their website,
Live Earth is a monumental music event that will bring together more than 2 billion people on 7/7/07 to raise awareness about global warming. With 24 hours of music across 7 continents, and performances by more than 150 of the world’s top musicians, Live Earth will engage, connect, and inspire individuals, corporations and governments to take action to solve the climate crisis.
While Gore has come under fire from people accusing him of using the concerts for his own political aspirations, it still promises to be the concert of the decade.
Find out when Live Earth hits the airwaves near you! Just a few hours to go!
Preventing Neglected Tropical Diseases
July 6th, 2007
Nicholas Kristof ran another great story last week on one of the most easily prevented tropical diseases: worms.
According to the New York Times,
Some 40 million people have H.I.V. or AIDS, and 600 million have hookworms. Here in Congo, one study found that 82 percent of children have worms, and partly as a consequence 70 percent are anemic.
It often costs hundreds of dollars a year to treat a person with AIDS, continuing for as long as the person lives. But it costs 3 cents per year per person for medicine to prevent elephantiasis, which is caused by worm-like creatures and is on my personal top-three list of diseases never to develop.
Elephantiasis causes one’s legs to become grotesquely swollen, looking like an elephant’s, hence its name. And a man’s scrotum balloons so monstrously that in extreme cases the victim needs a wheelbarrow to support it as he walks.
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases estimates that more easily preventable and treatable ailments, including worms, elephantiasis and trachoma, kill 500,000 people annually. Indeed, ordinary worms kill 130,000 people a year, through anemia and intestinal obstruction.
More generally, these diseases prevent children from achieving their intellectual or physical potential.
These ailments together can be prevented or treated for just 50 cents per person per year.
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is a partnership formed in 2006 to raise the profile of neglected diseases and to stimulate a paradigm shift in disease control efforts.
Find out how you can be part of the solution with just 50 cents!
CNN & YouTube Debates
July 5th, 2007
This summer and fall, YouTube and CNN are moving the political process firmly into the new millenium. The two have paired up to find citizens to make political history by having the presidential candidates answer questions submitted via YouTube videos.
According to YouTube,
The first debate will feature the Democratic candidates on July 23rd in Charleston, South Carolina. Submit your question for the Democrats between June 14 and July 22 (the earlier the better). The CNN political team will choose the most creative and compelling videos, and if yours is one of them, you may get the chance to fly to Charleston to watch the debate live and offer your reactions afterward on YouTube’s political video blog, Citizentube.
So if you’ve always wanted your voice to be heard, now’s your chance to submit your question — grab a camera and get rolling!
Beyond Orders
July 3rd, 2007
Happy 4th of July! Regardless of how you feel about the legitimacy of our current military activities, we always like to focus on the efforts of US service members seeking to make a positive difference in the lives of the people they encounter overseas.
Beyond Orders was founded by a group of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan whose goal is to make it easy, secure, and efficient for US service members to request items needed by Iraqi communities from anyone in America willing and able to assist.
By logging on to the website, you can either make an offer for items you can send to Iraq or find an item requested by a service member. If there’s a match, you will receive an Army Postal Office mailing address that you can use to mail the items to Iraq just as if you were mailing within the US.
Once the service member receives the donation, he or she will post feedback on how the items were used to help Iraqi communities.
Here’s just one example of a request for soccer balls and small toys:
Think of it as an eHarmony for good deeds! Log in today and find out how you can help the effort to rebuild Iraq in a truly positive way!