Foodservice Director Contractor Report

I have said it before and will say it again, one of the five business-industry-related periodicals I read religiously is Foodservice Director.  I would pay for the subscription if it were not delivered for FREE.  It has the best stories on what contract foodservice operations in all categories are doing to run their business.  The insights into what this segment of the foodservice industry is doing to adapt and evolve their operations to that of the current economic, political, or social climate is excellent.  The June 15, 2010 issue is no exception with a series of articles pertaining to food allergens.  Better still, the back page had an executive summary of a recent survey of contract firms that are national tier 1 contractor chains (e.g. Compass), tier 2 midsize contractor chains (e.g., Centerplate), and tier 3 regional/specialty contractors (e.g., Metz & Associates).

Of particular interest was one of the findings that indicated that 88% of the contractors surveyed said they are sourcing at least some local products.  The survey did find, however, that the percentage of operators sourcing produce, dairy, baked goods, and meat rose or remained steady after a drop last year.  This finding suggests, yet again, that local is not a trend and becoming more a mainstream expectation of those consuming the services of contractors.  A fact that should not be lost on today's students or faculty for that matter!

To see the performance report for 43 top contract firms and census highlights visit:
 http://www.foodservicedirector.com/images/pdf/FSD-2010-Contract-Census-Report.pdf

Dirty Little Secret

You are always hearing top level American auto executives claim that the US consumer just does not like small cars.  The dirty little secret is that Americans would like to buy and drive smaller cars but the fact is that they are TOO FAT to fit in them!  I figured this out one day while sitting by the public pool listening to two obese women talking about purchasing cars.  The one woman said that she did go to test drive a smaller car but it was too tight of a fit so had to go buy a larger vehicle that would cradle her fatness!  How sad, my friends.  The cost of our fatness even apparently effects our carbon footprint because it takes a larger gas guzzling vehicle to tote our fat asses -- not mine, of course -- from one fast food joint to another.

If you are as disgusted with the obesity epidemic in this country there is an alliance for those who want to help combat it along with students through perhaps a Service Learning project.  The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation that seeks to address one of the nation's leading public health threats -- obesity in children.  The goal is to reduce the population of obese kids by getting them to make healthier lifestyle choices.  If you want to know more or get involved visit: http://www.healthiergeneration.org/

Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation

I am driving down the road the other day and looking into my rear view mirror at the car following me for several miles.  I observe what appears to be a man (father) talking on his mobile phone, blah, blah, blah.  I am watching him because he has that detached look that many people have when talking on their phones where it appears that the brain is more focused on the phone call than the task of driving a two ton vehicle down the road immediately behind me and a potential rear end crash.  Worse still, what I believe to be the man's son is riding in the front passenger seat looking out the window plugged into his iPod.  The two of them might have well been on different planets than riding together in the "family van."  Was this an exception?  Was it the rule?  And we wonder why the American family is having a meltdown.  What concerned me the most was that kid will one day be sitting in my classroom after years of being connected to multimedia with me standing there demanding his attention to learning objectives for the day.  Good luck.

That is why I wanted to post a link to an article by by Helen Sword and Michele Leggott entitled Backwards into the Future: Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation.  Here is how Helen describes the article and the link to it, which is worth reading:

My colleague Michele Leggott and I recently published an article in Innovate: Journal of Online Education called "Backwards into the Future: Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation." While acknowledging and affirming Chickering and Gamson's famous "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" (now more than 20 years old), we also suggest some new directions for teaching. Our concluding paragraph reflects on the dilemma in which so many 21st-century academics now find themselves:

"We long to impart a sense of historical consciousness to the 'digital natives' (Prensky 2001) who increasingly inhabit our classrooms; but as 'digital immigrants' ourselves-belated Old World arrivals in the brave new world of cyberspace-many of us speak the language of cyberculture haltingly and with a heavy accent. Our task, then, is to teach our students not to follow in our footsteps but to outstrip us. Glancing back at us from time to time for information and guidance, they will forge their own paths forward-and we can be proud of them for leaving us in the dust."

See http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=389

To give brief insight into the article, here are the principles:
1. Relinquish authority
2. Recast students as teachers, researchers, and producers of knowledge
3. Promote collaborative relationships
4. Cultivate multiple intelligences
5. Foster critical creativity
6. Encourage resilience in the face of change
7. Craft assignments that look both forward and backwards

With the exception of "multiple intelligences" -- which really have no basis in fact and debunked by cognitive researchers such as Willingham -- I think the principles call yet again to educators as "guides on the side" rather than "sages on the stage."

Top Ten Productivity Tips for Teachers!

I subscribe to a free service from Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. who operates a company called Emphasis on Excellence.  As part of her services she sends regular updates on productivity tips for educators.  Of course, the free tips are a method by which to sell other services as is the case with so many online businesses these days.  I will share the ones I get with you in the weeks and months ahead to help FELC members be more productive.  Here is the first installment from guest author Gini Cunningham.

Seconds and minutes can tick away, empty and unfulfilled if you are not aware of every moment of instruction. A wasted minute today times 180 school days is three hours worth of nothing, something no teacher and no student can afford. Time management is critical to the flow of teaching but it is art that is acquired and developed over time. It is easy to jot down 5 minutes for this, 2 minutes for that... but it is nearly impossible to stick to the clock without practice and close attention to fleeting minutes.

1.  Buy a timer or download one onto your computer to project on a screen (several are free at www.meggin.com. Set the time for each part of your instruction and practice completing it within the time limitations.

2.  Why, you ask, is timing so important? Without careful timing students miss out on vital practice time as their teacher drones on in the lesson. Students snooze or impatiently wait for the bell to sound knowing that their teacher will shout out the bewildering homework as they race out the door. This is not good if you want to be certain that homework practice is done correctly so learning is cemented, not cracked by confusion and misunderstanding.

3.  Pace instruction briskly but not in a fashion that overwhelms. Clear lesson plans mean that you can accomplish miracles of instruction within a time allotment.

4.  Always allow time for opening and closing a lesson. The first sets students up for success because they know your goals and expectations; the second wraps learning together, offers feedback for planning tomorrow's lesson, and lets students know how learning links together.

5.  Timing holds you accountable for the teaching just as it holds students accountable for learning. For example the routine of 5 minutes teacher lecture and explanation followed by 2 minutes of debrief and practice linked with 1 minute of interaction by students with peers moves lessons right along while clarifying for you what students know, where to head next, and what needs re-teaching.

6.  Evaluate your lesson at the end of the period or day: did you allow adequate time for the opening, the vocabulary and concept review, the introduction of new material, practice, and closing? (plus anything else that needed to occur).

7.  Time management paces the hour, the day, the week, the grading period... Are you moving along at a speed that will allow you to teach the standards and benchmarks required of your school, district, and state?

8.  A breather is all right as long as the breathing space means time to write, reflect, share information with a partner. Say, "I felt like I might be clipping you along too rapidly here so now you get to breathe!"

9.  Time management means managing your time before school (are there interruptions that drive you nuts?), during instructional time (covered), after class (are you allowing adequate time to prepare for tomorrow; are you assigning so much work that your life is consumed with grading?) Balance is the key. All things are possible when you manage time wisely.

10.  Wasted and empty minutes breed confusion and naughtiness. Who needs either of these?

© Gini Cunningham (adapted from her book, The New Teacher's Companion: Practical Wisdom for Succeeding in the Classroom (ASCD). In addition to her writing, Gini is an author, workshop leader, and consultant and provides education for educators through her company Energized Learning (www.EnergizedLearning.com).

Do You Moodle?

I have heard of an open source online learning system to rival Blackboard and the others called Moodle, which you can view at http://moodle.org/.  Apparently you can upload anything to it you wish to have an online presence for your course.  Some Universities have switched to it altogether because of its low cost and flexibility.  And according to one user, "Moodle is powerful, simple to use, and has a huge support community at moodle.org. It is not as glamorous as some of the corporate platforms, but it looks and feels like social media rather than a corporate file repository, so I find that students love it."  Others indicate that the quiz function is hard to use but if you do not like it or have hard time using you can integrate your favorite quiz software.

For those wanting to see how it works Keith Landa, Director of Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center at Purchase College SUNY has a presentation on how he has made the transition at two campuses away from Blackboard:
http://www.slideshare.net/keith.landa/migrating-to-moodle-faculty-student-and-technology-perspectives

Moodle-related postings at Landa's center's blog site can be found at:
http://tltc.blogs.purchase.edu/?s=moodle

Their Moodle support channel to orient faculty is found at Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/channels/97810

As someone who needs to have the technician come out from Comcast to get a universal remote to work I am not the one to coach or council others in our learning community on its use.  If there are those out there who are using Moodle and would like to share your experience on a blog post send it to me and I will happily post it in the future.

Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen...

I wanted to post this to the blog today as it was a comment to the one I did about Appetite for American and another great read:

I finished a great book as well "Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen" a story of George Lang.  The reason I bring this up there is one section where he talks about after his long career he went to CIA for a week or so and recounts how that even though he toured the world and helped in the world fair that he still learned stuff he did not know at the CIA.  Plus it is a good living history.  It is available through Amazon or your favorite bookseller.

If you have a book you would like to recommend to FELC members through the blog please send me the title of the book and a short synopsis on why you liked it and I will post it with all due haste.

Appetite for America is a Must Read

I cannot believe that I did not make a blog post after reading what I consider to be one of the best biographies of a true hospitality industry pioneer so doing it today. I was really impressed by the amount of research the author did to provide a truly detailed and interesting account of how Englishman, Fred Harvey, grew one of the first hospitality conglomerates in the United States back in the 1800's. Indeed, many of the things that you are probably teaching your students today on how to acquire, prepare, and serve food -- let alone manage a hospitality business -- is most likely traced back to Fred Harvey. And for those who are accredited by ACPHA and need to be up on industry pioneers as part of that accreditation it is imperative to know and tell the story of Fred Harvey.  At the very least, this book should be on the shelves of every library for culinary arts and hospitality education students to read.

Below is a press release that the author was kind enough to send for me to post to the blog today and the last paragraph is really not hyperbole, it is fact:

Fred Harvey is the founding father of the nation’s service industry, our first foodie hero. His legendary company and entrepreneurial vision helped shape American culture and history for three generations—from the 1880s through World War II. His hospitality empire civilized the West, introduced America to Americans, and influences business, travel, and culinary tastes to this day. In this remarkable book, author Stephen Fried, truly tells the remarkable tale of Englishman Fred Harvey who grew a hospitality empire as the railroad pushed westward.


The story of Fred Harvey’s dovetails with America’s expansion westward, the modernization of the U.S. through the railroad, and a time when business was done with a handshake and an empire could be born with a dream. Harvey’s Horatio Alger life takes him from hard-scrabble young immigrant dishwasher to household name during one of the most fascinating periods of American history. Beginning with a single lunch counter in 1876, Harvey’s empire grew to include eating houses and hotels along the nation’s largest railroad, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (including historic lodges still in use at the Grand Canyon). His “Harvey Houses” were patronized by European royalty, American Presidents, rowdy cowboys, and countless ordinary travelers looking for the best cup of coffee in the country. Famous for succulent cuisine and world-renowned chefs, the Harvey name became synonymous with quality and service. His staff of carefully screened single young women—the celebrated “Harvey Girls”—were the country’s first female workforce and genuine Americana heroines, even inspiring an Oscar-winning MGM musical starring Judy Garland.


Through his sixty-five restaurants and lunch counters, sixty dining cars, and dozen large hotels, and major union stations from Chicago to Los Angeles, Fred Harvey controlled what many Americans ate, where they slept, what they bought and wore, even what they thought about their country. He was Ray Kroc before McDonald’s, J. Willard Marriott before Marriott Hotels, Howard Schultz before Starbucks. And Fred’s legacy long outlived him--in a fascinating generational hand-off, his son Ford transformed the company, and his dying father, into a brand that endured for decades.

For those who might like to contact Stephen Fried for public speaking or questions about the book he can be reached at stephenfried@comcast.net, or you can check out his blog at www.fredharveybook.com/blog
The ISBN for the book is: 978-0-553-80437-9 and retails for $27.00.

The Real Problem with Hell's Kitchen

As you know, I am a big fan of the television drama, Hell's Kitchen.  I use it as part of my video case studies in my Human Resource Management class each semester.  The kids watch the two that I have selected and are to write down 5 things that Ramsay did during the show that would violate the HR policies and procedures we have been learning as well as 5 things that are exemplary -- such as his occasional compliment.  We then discuss them in class.

But it is not Ramsay's behavior that bothers me the most since I started watching the series.  It is the physical and mental fitness of the contestants.  Those who appear on the show are helping to establish an image in the viewer's mind of the culinary profession and it is not a pretty one.  The first image that is problematic is the chain smoking that contestants are doing when filmed back at their residences.  The second image is that many of them are obese or definitely overweight.  Another is that they have emotional and anger management issues that result from the day's team challenge or opening of Hell's Kitchen for lunch or dinner that do play well to the camera and make for a good show.  Put together, the image that is projected of those who work in our industry is not a good one.  I wish that they would be mindful of that, even though it is a television show designed to make money from ad dollars, and show the chefs perhaps working out, taking a walk, being rational -- anything really to shed a more favorable light on those who are in the back of the house.  Heck, even spend more time at the tables asking guests what it was that made them remark that their meal was good or even hellish. 

Do we ever ask students how those in the back of the house and front of the house should behave when in the restaurant or socializing together after their shift?  I know Anthony Bourdain blew some minds with his expose of the behavior of many in the restaurant biz in NYC and apparently adds to it in his latest book.  Do we ever ask them to share their mental image (Jungian archetype, if you will) of a chef or restaurant owner/manager and have them examine where those images came from and diagnose which will serve them well and which will cause them trouble in their profession?  And yes, I do recall the old adage of "never trust a thin chef," and that is an image we need to remake into those who project a better image of personal hygiene and demeanor like a Jamie Oliver or Giada De Laurentiis.

The Sanctity of Food

I try to read a book a week and have been reading lots and lots of books about the production of food in this country and/or its relationship to the growth of fast food chains in this country.  The more I read the more I am sad that large agribusinesses and fast food giants are indeed robbing us of our relationship to food and its interconnectedness to family and community. 

That is why I am lucky to have experienced the gathering of my Italian relatives on Sunday to eat the pasta and sauce that was cooked from scratch in my grandmother's basement.  For any of you growing up in western NY you can most likely relate to Italians having kitchens in the basement to stay cool when cooking in the summer or warm in the winter.  The love that poured into that pasta starting from the local farmer who grew the ingredients, to the merchant who made them available for sale, added to what was grown in the garden, to the loving hands of my aunts and grandmother to make the sauce and pasta made for the healthiest and most delicious meal ever.  That is why I want to throw the remote through the television when I hear that bullshit line from Olive Garden, "When you are here you are family."  Please do not disgrace the memory of my aunts and grandmother with that bullshit tag line.

I am currently reading a book entitled "The World Peace Diet:  Eating for a Spiritual Health and Social Harmony" written by a most enlightened human being, Will Tuttle.  I highly recommend it as a summer read to prep for the coming academic year to put what it is we are truly doing as educators into perspective. 

I am using this book for the first year honors class in our newly formed College of Health and Human Sciences.  The goal of the book is to expand the minds of the students to seriously contemplate the pathetic way in which we raise livestock and produce in this country and how it is contributing directly to the health crisis in this country.  Case in point, if you do not live along the gulf, do you think that you are far removed from the ecological disaster the oil spill is causing?  Think again!  The fact of the matter is that if you purchase seafood from the gulf from this point forward you are in fact going to be eating the oil that is pouring out of the BP well.  The Wall Street Journal recently broke down the food chain of the microrganisms that will eat the oil -- which is decayed organic material -- and traced it up the the ladder to, let's say for sake of example, that shrimp that is surely to be in your gumbo.  Yum!  On the bright side, the good news is that you will have done your part to help clean up the spill!

Here is the author's description of eating an apple to give an idea of his thoughtfullness in the book:
"What is so simple as eating an apple?  And yet, what could be more sacred and profound?  When we eat an apple we are not just eating an apple or a separate thing.  That apple enters us, dissolves within us, contributes to us, and becomes us.  And each apple is a manifestation of so much more!  We are eating the rain and the cloulds and of all the trees that have gone before to bring this tree to manifestation, and of the tears, sweat, bodies, and breaths of countless generations of animals, plants, and people that have come the rain and wind that feed the apple tree.  When we look into one apple, we see the entire universe.  All the planets and stars, our sun and moon, the oceans, rivers, forests, fields, and creatures are in this apple. The apple tree is a manifestation of an infinite web of life, and for the tree to exist, every component of the web is vital...Eating an apple with awareness can be a sacred feast, and yet it is usually done casually while we are preoccupied with something else."

At the end of the day, I guess the message in today's post is to encourage those of us in our learning community to do all we can to keep ourselves and our students as close as possible to our food roots as a culture, and the roots of the food that sustain it.  Educating students sincerely in culinary arts and hospitality is much, much more than growing the bottom line for investors or producing a grade distribution for administrators -- it is about contributing to the physical and spiritual health  and well being of the students and their eventual customers for social harmony, as suggested by the title of Tuttle's book.

I miss you grandma!  What I would give to spend one more Sunday in your basement with you and my aunts as you all talked loud, fast, and lovingly while making the pasta.  Of course, after my uncle's kneaded the pasta dough all the while being yelled at that "You're not doing it right!"  No wonder I love to watch Cake Boss!

The Techliterate Student Approaches

I will admit that I do not have the best technology skills as they relate to modern day media where the line between television, computer, phone, camcorder, camera, DVD player, navigation system and on and on and on has become increasingly blurred into a single electronic unit, such as iPhone.  This may or may not be good news for me or those reading the blog today because the next generation of kids that will wash upon our shores will know this world completely and will be looking for "apps" from us perhaps for our courses. 

To underscore this situation in more detail, Michael Carmel ran across a very interesting article in Community College Week, entitled Future Shock, that is an interesting read for our learning community indeed.  An excerpt from the article makes it clear that we need to prepare our selves for these students if we want to engage them in the classroom of the future if they attend class at all because of the growth of online classes and degrees:

...Even as community colleges struggle under the weight of the steady growth in their distance education programs, leading educators worry about how they will reach and motivate young learners who are populating schools around the country and growing up in a touch screen world. The ease with which they manipulate media underscores the need for colleges to keep pace with technological advances and adapt to the new learning needs of these students. They have a world of information at their fingertips, but may never set foot inside a college library...

I am seeing much of this first hand as my son grows up.  He has no fear of the computer and works it to do his bidding like I use my gardening tools.  He uses Facebook to do school projects as well as check in with ALL of the neighborhood kids to set the day's play agenda and where to meet up to kick off the event.  Not like you and I where we actually had to go door to door and ask, "Can ____ come out and play?"
To read the rest of the article, visit:
http://www.ccweek.com/news/templates/template.aspx?articleid=1850&zoneid=7

Got a news item that would benefit our learning community?  Please send along to mlalopa@fooded.org to have it posted.

Call for Papers -- Fall 2010 Issue of MountainRise, 6(2)

Do you have a great teaching technique that you want to share with others?  Did you consult the literature for background information on your new technique before implementing it?  Did you take steps to determine if student learning was better as a result based on assessment data?  If so, why not get your work published and share with others?  Or, if you have a basic essay on your teaching or want to do a book review on something you read receently this call for papers below is for you.  I am always happy to provide guidance to those members who want to get published by preparing and then submitting a manuscript for publication.  So give it some thought.

Call for Papers -- Fall 2010 Issue of MountainRise, 6(2)

Submissions are invited for the upcoming Fall Issue. Submission deadline is October 4, 2010

Suggested Areas for Submissions

Articles
Articles are to focus upon research in any area of pedagogy or focus upon current issues in teaching & learning and the practical implications of that research for teaching and learning in higher education. Some possible directions include but are not limited to the following:

• Explain a particular problem in teaching and/or the learning experience and, based upon research, provide a solution with justification and results and how those results are to be understood

• Present a personal case study or pedagogical problem, how and why it was researched as it was, the results, and the evaluation of those results with suggestions for further changes

• Explain the perspectives and expectations of students today on teaching & learning based upon measured investigation, interviews, etc. and what are their reasons and the implications of those perspectives for faculty

Reflections
Each issue may also publish 1-2 non-scholarly reflections about the nature, art, meaning, spirit, experience of teaching or why SoTL is of value today. (Length: 1000-1500 words.)

Book Reviews
Each issue may contain 1-2 book review of works relevant and/or useful to our international readership. The journal requests book for review from publishers and designates reviewers for those titles (Length: 1000 words).

We are excited to share with you our new platform – through Open Journal Systems – with a new look and feel. We hope you will enjoy the journal’s new features which include interactive features, an electronic reviewing system, and new genres that include book reviews, case studies, and video-enhanced articles.

Articles from the journal are now also fully accessible through the Education Database in EBSCO host – as well as through our new site (no need to change your bookmarks, the old URL has changed to get you there.) http://mountainrise.wcu.edu/

For more information, contact:
Robert Crow
Associate Editor, MountainRise
Western Carolina University
rcrow@wcu.edu

How Many Factory Farms in Your Backyard?

Factory farms are only good for those who have invested in them that have figured out how to privatize profits and socialize costs -- the modern day American business model.  Socialized costs take the form of low wages and no benefits for workers who live and or work near factory farms and when sick or injured they either get no health care or treatment subsidized by taxpayers and/or higher premiums for treatment at the local hospital's emergency room.  And if they dare report their injury -- as we learned in Fast Food Nation -- they are fired.  Socialized costs also come in the form of the polluted land, air and water in and around the farms from maintaining far too many animals on far too little land.  I could go on and on but othe totality of socialized costs are well documented in many of the books I mentioned on earlier blog posts such as Righteous Porkchop, Eating Animals, Waste, or newly released Factory Farms.  The information in those books should make you sick to your stomach and be an insult to your intelligence as a culinary arts educator or administrator.

To get a clear picture of the growth of factory farms in the US, the organization Food&Water Watch has launched a factory farm map that you can visit to see the extent of this modern ag phenomenon in your state.  Just visit http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/ and click on the tabs at the bottom of the map to see the number of factory farms that raise cattle, hogs, dairy, broilers, and dairy in your state.  This information should also be sobering news to students who still have that carefully protected false image of ma and pa down on the farm with the red barn filled with happy animals all surrounded with a white picket fence.  An image that thankfully can become more of a reality if we shop at our local farmers market, participate in a CSA, and more. 

To learn more about all aspects of pollution, including the BP debacle, visit: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/

As always, if you have teaching tools and techniques that you use to educate students about the ills of factory farming and what can be done or what you are doing to reverse this trend please send them along to me and I am happy to post for you on the blog, or simply comment to this post as an anonymous contributor and your contribution can be read by others in our learning community.

Plant a Row for Hunger

The Gardent Writers Association is a non-profit association that provides leadership and opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for diverse interactions for professionals in the field of gardening communications.  Their articles are in full bloom (ha! ha!) in countless newspapers and magazines given we are at the high season for gardening enthusiasts all over the United States.

One of their great programs is Plant A Row (PAR) that was designed to create and sustain a grassroots program for garden writers to use their local media position to encourage readers/listeners to donate surplus garden produce to local food banks, soup kitchens, and service organizations to help feed America's hungry. PAR provides focus, direction, and support to local volunteer committees who execute the programs.  The program has produced great benefits given that American gardeners have donated over 14 million pounds of herbs and vegetables to feed the hungry in our local neighborhoods and communities since 1995.

Chances are that you already have your garden planted for the summer so the option of adding a row is out for you at this point in time.  Perhaps you can contribute to PAR next summer and add a row to your garden to help feed those in your local community.  Thinking out of the box, perhaps we at FELC could enact our own program this summer called "dedicate a row" and pledge to give up a small percentage of the bounty that is sure to come from our gardens.  I know that I planted far too many zucchini plants this year and will take the lead and donate all that comes from one and perhaps two of the plants from my small garden to the local food shelter.  Perhaps you planted a vegetable and/or herb garden at your school to teach students how to plant, harvest, prep, and serve fresh vegetables which is a great teaching tool.  Why not go one step farther and teach them social responsibility and take a basket of vegetables to the local food bank or perhaps prepare a meal that could be served at a homeless shelter.

If we all did the same it would make a real difference in the lives of those who have fallen on hard times and wondering where they will be getting the next meal to feed themselves and/or their families.  As Rocky Balboa might say, "Grow for it!"

Grow Your Own Meat?!

The advance of technology in the biological sciences gets scarier -- to me anyways -- everyday.  I just read an article online from Businessweek magazine about a researcher who is growing meat in a laboratory that could be made available for sale in supermarkets in 5 to 10 years.  In effect, no cows would be raised and finished to meet consumer demand for meat.  One can only imagine the good such technology would be for the planet without mowing down forests to raise grain to feed cattle that belch lots of methane, etc.  But not sure I am on board with the researcher's contention that this technology would be no different than growing hydroponic vegetables!  Perhaps because I am getting images of a not too distant Terminator robot with human flesh and skin.  Excerpts of the article are below:

In 2004, Matheny, then 29, created a nonprofit called New Harvest to turn that idea into reality. Thanks in part to his efforts, meat made in petri dishes may arrive at supermarkets within 5 to 10 years. "It's a way to satisfy the growing global demand for meat in a way that's healthier, more energy efficient, and sustainable," says Matheny, who has an MBA from Duke University and is studying for a PhD in applied economics at Johns Hopkins University.

Matheny's meat starts in a lab, where scientists extract stem cells from animal muscles. The cells are placed in a nutrient bath to develop and then on plastic scaffolding that allows them to form into strips as they multiply. Mark Post, a professor of tissue engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, may be close to realizing New Harvest's vision. Post's lab is producing 2 mm thick strips that are almost an inch long and a quarter-inch wide. Pack enough together, and you've got a meal.

Matheny's interest in changing the world's dietary habits began at age 13, when the Kentucky native first visited what he describes as a "factory farm" in his home state. The experience unsettled him. "Tens of thousands of animals are raised shoulder-to-shoulder, living in their own waste, pumped full of drugs, in a shed," Matheny says. "That, to me, is less appealing than making meat in a sterile facility. This process is like [growing] hydroponic vegetables, in a way."

Matheny claims that test tube meat could do more for the environment than "everyone trading their cars for bicycles," and he has a point: The meat industry generates some 18% of the world's greenhouse gases, according to a 2006 UN report. That proportion is expected to grow as consumers in developing countries such as China and India consume more meat.

You can read the full article by visiting:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181038559924.htm

Oh, and if you are a mad scientist there is a $1million award being offered by PETA to do just what this researcher is doing so break out the test tubes and lab coat and get to work.  Read more at:
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/04/peta_offering_1.php

Daniel Pink's Drive

In early spring I talked about the book, Drive, written by Daniel Pink.  The book is an excellent read and will open your eyes to why some students are the best and others are not that great in your classroom, especially on cognitive tasks.  In truth, what makes for the great students is the intrinsic motivation to do what is being asked by the instructor in the classroom or lab and why the line from Good to Great, "Don't Waste Time Trying to Motivate Those Who are Not Motivated" holds true.

To watch a great short overview of the concepts in Drive, visit the following URL that was brought to my attention from one of our advisory board members, Jerry Fishcetti, at the CIA.  Believe me, it is worth the 10 minutes -- if you have the intrinsic motivation to do so  -- to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

And if you marry the information from Pink's video with the following one on managing millenials and you might stop chasing your tail figuring out how to get the kids engaged in the classroom or the kitchen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8151EMkOQ&feature=related

Mealtess Mondays

Paul McCartney's wife Linda was an activist vegetarian.  No doubt Paul's diet mirrored that of his dearly departed wife. To carry on her advocacy of vegetarianism Paul's brainchild is Meatless Monday's.  No doubt others have laid claim to this idea but it was Paul's.  The idea is to cut meat out of our diet for at least one day for the sake of our health and that of the planet.  We are going to make the move in our student run-restaurants starting this fall to do our part.  In fact, more schools around the United States are following suit, as well as famed restaurateur Mario Batali who has instituted Meatless Monday's for all his restaurants!

As someone who has read a litany of books and research articles that make it clear that raising, processing, and consuming livestock is having devastating effects on our planet albeit from the pollution from CAFO's, deforestation, global warming, E-Coli from tainted meat, human ailments attributed to eating red meat, and more. That is why it was easy for me to make the transition to Meatless Everydays to the point that there are now rare if any cravings for meat.  Of course, my colleagues stop laughing or scowling when they learn that I have lost 25 pounds over the past year-and-a-half as a result of simply eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and so forth and have never felt better.  Indeed this morning's large glass of orange juice and fresh cut strawberries over a multi-grain waffle accompanied with a hot cup of Fair Trade green tea was a great way to start the day without bogging my system down with a grand slam!

To assist those of you on the same quest or contemplating the move the Humane Society of the United States or want to share with students some great recipes are found at:
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/eating/recipes/recipes.html

If you want to learn more about Meatless Monday's -- also with great news and recipes -- and inspire student's visit: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/