Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity is a great step forward in the fight against childhood obesity. Interesting article about her efforts and the challenges she’ll face.
To those who wonder if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will ever end and who think it is truly “intractable”, I thought I’d share a note from my colleague John Lyndon, Executive Director of OneVoice Europe:
I know that this is off-topic, but just thought I’d draw people’s attention to a not-entirely-unrelated news story: The ‘final piece in the jigsaw’ was put into place in Belfast, Ireland last night, with the finalising of twenty year long process of negotiations, for a seven hundred year long conflict. The DUP and Sinn Féin (the two most extremist political parties in modern Irish history) have agreed the last details of a power sharing agreement.
Strong, patriotic and at one time violent leaders of both communities sat down and thrashed out a deal that looks like putting to bed most of the grievances that resulted in decades of violence and thousands of deaths. Conflicts do end, the wishes of the moderate majority bear fruit, and extremists eventually come into the political mainstream.
Manipulation of serving sizes is a serious problem. At the end of the day consumers need to use common sense and look for nutritionally rich foods and not hide in ‘100 calorie’ claims of products with empty calories - ie chips, soda, etc. But it would help society if reasonable standards were enforced so that unscrupulous food companies wouldn’t post silly claims about calorie count or sodium content in the front of the labels, that only a careful observer would realize assumes consumption of a fraction of the product.
This article describes the FDA’s efforts to zero in on the problem. But it doesn’t mention what most of the world - except the US - does. They require every product to list nutritional impact per 100 grams. I used to think that is confusing because you don’t necessarily consume 100 grams of that product. But it creates a benchmark that is easy to compare. And it doesn’t have to exclude an additional column for nutritional facts per portion.
Under Indra Nooyi’s leadership, Pepsi keeps showing a commitment to move towards social responsibility.
They just recently launched this campaign to reward new ideas and charities.
And they now unveiled a 100% compostable packaging for SunChips.
It is interesting that what we are witnessing right now is just simply the digitization of books formerly printed in paper. For over 500 years, books have been written and conceived with Gutenberg’s guidelines in mind (Gutenberg is the inventor of the mechanical printing press).
But since the advent of computers and now of the Internet, so many new possibilities have emerged - and yet the printed world has barely changed. The advent of the Kindle, the iPad and other portable reading devices has so far simply resulted in turning analog print into digital print, while keeping the same linear prose format.
If you stop to think about it, we are stuck in one model that, while beautiful and applicable for much good, is certainly not the only model to serve all potential needs that books can serve.
Over the coming years, the whole way we think of e-books and just "books" will probably change. One day it will not be "surprising" to read, within a book, interactive pictures and images akin to the ones you see in Harry Potter movies - those quirky 3D moving photos within the wizards’ magical newspapers.
And it is also quite conceivable, indeed likely, that multimedia forms will reinvent how we do storytelling and how we provide information. Why stick to just prose, or just music, or just newspaper, or just video? Why not create new models for information that combine elements of them all?
Why assume that a linear story is best? Why think that a book is necessarily different from a video-game? Someone will come up with a book that merges some elements of a game with different endings. Analog examples already exist. And digital multiple-choice endings already exist. But we have not even begun exploring all the new possibilities presented by electronic "readers."
And why assume that a book needs to first be written and published, then read, then auctioned off to a Hollywood producer who then helps create a movie version of the movie? Someone will surely create a way to inform or entertain that combines elements of both - and more.
The potential for reinvention of the "book" is so far totally untapped.
Samples of KIND Fruit & Nut and KIND Cranberry Almond bars will be provided at participating Starbucks stores nationwide on Friday, February 5th.
Offer applies to sample size products only. Limited time offer. While supplies last.
From a conversation I had last spring with Scott Weber, who heads Interpeace.org:
“The calm following certain decisive war victories is dangerous as it masks the factors that can fuel future violent conflict and civil war in the future.”
Scott M. Weber, Director-General, Interpeace
On the other side, I have also heard people argue, persuasively if not popularly, the following viewpoint:
There is some irony in recognizing that, while negotiations bring a just process that can be better defended and that people can buy into, in general, after a "decisive victory" of one side, peace is more sustainable than in a "negotiated peace", which may be harder to sustain…
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.
-Harriet Green
CEO, Premier Farnell (and member of the OneVoice/PeaceWorks Foundation Board of Directors)
In a remarkable sermon, Syria’s highest Sunni religious authority spoke courageously and powerfully about religions requiring humanity and respect, including these statements:
“If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic."
Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun also “said Islam was a religion of peace, adding: ‘If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet.’”
If you haven’t seen the documentary Food Inc. - you have to. Like Michael Pollan’s books, this movie will change the way you see food and the world.
If we as consumers and citizens don’t do something quickly to fight back against the food industrial complex, by voting with our dollars, by informing and educating others, and by advocating to the government for more transparency, freedom, and a level playing field for natural foods producers, then the epidemics of diabetes, obesity, environmental degradation, food contamination and inhumane treatment will threaten us further.
Some highlights:
Serious work ahead.
