Will Peeing lead to Monsanto’s downfall?… EcoWatch 5-12-16 “Results of Glyphosate Pee Test Are in ‘And It’s Not Good News’” | Kauilapele’s Blog
This was too much fun not to post. And it just occurred to me that this might be one way to finallyget people (lawmakers) to vote for getting rid of Roundup (glyphosate) and all other pesticides that are harmful for the environment, and eventually, to humans. “Last month, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) volunteered to take a urine test to see if glyphosate—the cancer-linked…
→ Watch This Guerrilla Farmer Explain Urban Gardening
Ron Finley is transforming the landscape of South Central Los Angeles one plant at a time.
(Source: takepart.com, via )
This Chicago Jail Farm Grows Tomatoes and Restaurant Cooks
Each day, David Cole wakes up at 7 AM for his three-hour commute to the affluent Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park. He heads to Yusho, a Japanese restaurant owned by Charlie Trotter-trained chef Matthias Merges, where he prepares dishes like miso ramen and tempura eggplant.
But Cole is not a chef himself—he is a prep cook. It was only job he could secure after serving a year in prison for selling drugs to an undercover police officer. In a sea of refusals, Merges was the only one that would grant Cole, given his criminal record, a yes.
“My background screwed me. It was hard. People would look at me kind of funny and say they would call me back, but never would,” Cole tells me. “It’s hard coming from jail and trying to do something with your life, because no one will give you a chance.”
His experience at Yusho, however, was different. Cole underwent little more than an interview before he was put to work at the restaurant, thanks to the facts that he is a graduate of the Sherriff’s Garden initiative at Cook County Jail. The program, active since 1993, allows nonviolent felons to maintain a two-acre farm, complete with a beehive, while preparing them to re-enter society as well as the job market. The produce grown there—beets, kale, peppers, and more—is sold at Daley Plaza Farmers market and to restaurants, including four owned by Merges.
For the past nine years, the program’s deputy director, Kerry Wright, has overseen the garden and all of its participants, including Cole. “When I first met him, my immediate impression was that he wouldn’t work out for the program,” Wright says. “He was young, slightly intimidating looking, and with my experience, a lot of young guys here don’t want to work at all. I was wrong.”
In the garden, days last from 7 AM to noon and consist of sowing the beds and greenhouse, raising vegetables from seed to maturity, as well as weeding and harvesting. Since Wright oversees up to 30 inmates by herself—assisted only by a single officer—those who have been in the program the longest are assigned as foremen to teach the newer inmates, many of whom have never seen a head of kohlrabi, let alone know how to grow one. Certain inmates are selected for special jobs, such as beekeeping.
