A Wonderful “Case Study” of My Tribe: The Amazing Women of the Green Moms Carnival

September 17th, 2010

One might think that in my fourth “back-to-school” season, I’d have the drill down by now. But no.

Few posts lately as I’m still in “Green Mom Culture Shock” with the saga of the “mandated” Plastic Water Bottle yet unfolding. Today, for instance, Big Boy came home with a bottle of Nestle “Pure Life” flavored bottled water – part of the taxpayer subsidized school lunch program.

But rather than share another rant about the public schools (right now at least), I’m going to share with you a very interesting post written about the women who keep me sane and on The True Green Path: the wonderful women of The Green Moms Carnival. They don’t think it’s strange to avoid genetically modified foods, bottled water, plastic accoutrements, or a host of other things we greenish Moms view as all in a day’s eco-work. As many said in the comments on my “Plastic Water Bottle” post and off-line, they know what it’s like to be That Mom.

So please head on over to Geoff Livingston’s blog to read his case study which calls Green Moms Carnival “a great example of Fifth Estate civic engagement.”

Still not there? Ok, ok, I’ve got to share my quote from Geoff’s blog post.

“We have had employees of large multinationals approach us and thank us for our work, telling us that our demands for safer, greener, cleaner products makes it easier for them to get new innovations approved within their companies,” said Lynn Miller. “We’ve also had CEOs tell us that ours are the voices that are being listened to – that we are an important force for change. It would have been very easy to ‘sell out’ to commercial interests or even non-profit interests given all the interest in the ‘Mom space,’ but our stature as an independent alliance of top green bloggers enhances our credibility, our authenticity, and the uniqueness of our point of view.”

Now, go read the Case Study. And be sure to head on over to Diane MacEachern’s Big Green Purse on Monday, September 27th when she’ll host the September carnival on “Eco-Impact of Clothing.”

And if you’re like me – still struggling with Back to School adjustments – check out the August Carnival on “Back to School” hosted by Micaela of Mindful Momma.

Enjoy the weekend!

— Lynn

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You Read it Here First: School Lunch Controversy on TV

April 10th, 2008

This post about school lunch attracted the attention of a TV reporter, who came out to interview OrganicMania about the state of school lunches. You can see the results here. (Just go to the segment filmed on 8 April, 16:05 minute mark.)

At the close, the reporter notes that school officials said they will not introduce organic food because of the expense.

I don’t know of a single parent who approves of the school lunch program. Why won’t school officials consider creative ways to improve school lunch, rather than dismissing suggestions because of cost?

Here are some ideas:

– What about getting “Big Organics” companies to subsidize organic milk? Other companies subsidize their products in an effort to target a growing market, so why not engage the dairies in an attempt to get hormone-free milk in the schools?

– How about charging a subsidy on top of the organic lunch to subsidize the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program? Parents who disapprove of the nutritional content in school lunch are already paying a premium to make lunch at home. The school system could use its purchasing power to negotiate discounts on higher quality ingredients that would match what parents are making at home. Not only would parents pay less, but they would gladly save themselves the time and trouble of making lunch at home if their children were assured of healthy, nutritious, fresh meals with organic ingredients where they count most (the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” plus milk and carrots would be a great start!)

– What about rallying behind the innovative “Farm to School” program, which connects schools with local farms to deliver farm-fresh food to the public schools?

If you live in Montgomery County, Maryland and would like to learn more about nutrition in the schools, please attend a Montgomery County Council of PTAs meeting on nutrition and physical activity, to be held April 22nd from 7 pm to 8 pm in the auditorium at the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville. Kathy Lazor, MCPS Director of Food and Nutrition Services, will talk about nutrition issues and MCPS initiatives. (She is the official interviewed in the TV segment).

OrganicMania will report on this meeting, because the issues discussed there will be relevant not only to Montgomery County, but also to parents facing these issues in their local schools.

What do you think of school lunch? Please leave a comment and share!

And for more info, check out these older OrganicMania posts here, here and here and this great post from Expatriate’s Kitchen.

(And speaking of Expat, she’s running a great carnival at Eat.Drink.Better).

— Lynn