To help promote awareness and lifestyle change, May 19^th is Food Revolution Day, a day for people who love food to become a conscious community, understand more about daily food choices, and be inspired to get started. Watch Jamie Oliver’s video message to TEDxers, announcing Food Revolution Day.

People around the globe will connect community-wide through events at homes, schools, restaurants, local businesses, and farmers’ markets. 100+ food events and 200+ dinner parties are planned and to help get started, check-out these toolkits. Yes, we’re all busy and learning to cook from scratch is at the heart of the movement, which takes time. Nevertheless, if you call on those baby boomer abundant time management skills, like Jamie Oliver says, it’ll be “easy peasy.” Your health is worth it and your taste buds will thank you!

Some great links:

Food Revolution on TED.com

Food Revolution.org

Jamie Oliver.com

USAToday.com

USAToday.com/Kaiser Health News

CBS News.com

Samuels and Associates.com

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It has been long overdue, but retailers like Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, Target and many others are now committed long-term to purchasing certain types of fish certified as more sustainable. While some retailers stock their seafood sections on the basis of how fish are caught or raised, they increasingly count on certification and rating systems to make trustworthy choices. Retailers who rely on them need to recognize that certification standards are uneven and not well understood as this report on the efficacy of seafood testing by Oceana shows. A leading voice in ocean conservation, SeaWeb, provides handy links to aquaculture and fisheries resources at one of their many initiatives, Seafood Choices Alliance. But the debate goes on over the effectiveness of seafood certification systems.

Credibility of these standards is critical to American consumers who care about the environment and what they consume. The Marine Stewardship Council is the largest certification body for sustainable seafood, but it is inconsistent about compliance according to a recent article in the Washington Post.  Other watchdogs with ratings systems are: The Blue Ocean Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (check-out our review on how to get involved with activities at Monterey Bay Aquarium), and the Environmental Defense Fund. We especially like Oceana which, along with its many conservation initiatives, promotes responsible fishing. The Living Blue section is an excellent consumer resource with a green list of grocers who post warnings about mercury in fish sold at their seafood counters, and a red list of those who don’t.

Geography counts. Wild marine ecosystems include oceans and inland rivers and streams. So, where did the fish swim? Some areas are overfished while others aren’t. How they were caught counts: longline bad. pole-caught, troll-caught and nets good. Labeling counts. Is it wild or farmed? Is it fresh or was it previously frozen? The jury is still out on aquaculture and its impact on certain wild species of fish, but there are more ethical, sustainable fish farms than ever before and even urban aquaculture is growing.

Bon Appétit  Bamco Foundation’s Fish to Fork and Farm to Fork programs are among ongoing sustainable initiatives we like. For consumers concerned about fish served in restaurants, fish2fork is another pioneer website that reviews restaurants according to whether their seafood is sustainable, not just how it tastes. Charles Clover, founder and editor of the website wrote The End of the Line upon which the documentary film of the same name was based. This website is an invaluable guide to finding sustainable seafood restaurants in your area.

Chefs are the gatekeepers to cuisine consciousness. On a Pacific Northwest garden tour last year, we had a chance to sample Vancouver’s local restaurants certified by the MSC and that participate in Ocean Wise, a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program that educates consumers about ocean-friendly buying decisions. One standout was Pescatores Seafood + Grill. Their guide to seasonal and sustainably caught fish currently available was invaluable. Many restaurants now offer clear information about fish offered on their menu.

The internet provides access to reputable seafood websites for concerned consumers. One of our favorite websites for online shopping is Wild Planet. Like many others committed to providing seafood while supporting conservation of wild marine systems, they offer clear information on sustainability and fishing methods. For those of us who don’t want to give up our luxuries, another favorite is Tsar Nicoulai, pioneers of sustainably farmed California caviar. They are the leading artisanal producer and recognized world leader in sustainable sturgeon production.

It’s still tricky to find the balance between conservation of our oceans, waterways and livelihoods in the fisheries industry. Commercial fishing as a career is a hard way to make a living but there is improved GPS, Sonar, and Fathometers navigational advances and other equipment. The internet has had a major impact in changing how fishermen direct market their catch. They are social media savvy about Twitter and Facebook and even use YouTube videos as a marketing tool.

At last year’s annual Seafood Summit, where representatives of the global seafood industry, conservation organizations, scientists, academics, policymakers and media professionals convened to examine the many factors influencing sustainability and their role in the global seafood landscape, “accidental businessman”Yvon Chouinard, like David Brower said no business is done on a dead planet. Chouinard spoke about how he believes that “fundamentally, businesses are responsible to their resource base…and “without a healthy planet there are no shareholders, no customers, and no employees.” Chouinard also said no economic activity is truly sustainable and the “word ‘sustainable’…should be qualified…with ‘less’ or ‘more’ in front of it.” Ever the entrepreneur, now using fish to fuel his environmental causes, Chouinard has launched a new division of Patagonia called Patagonia Provisions. Wild salmon are sourced in partnership with SkeenaWild, a Canadian conservation organization that identifies non-endangered salmon from the Skeena River watershed in British Columbia. The product supports the local native populations who use nets to catch the fish.

Fortunately, there are many more resources available to baby boomers and their families than ever before to help make smart decisions about the fish we eat. We’d love to hear about those you’ve found helpful.

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Either way, Mother’s Day is really a time to reflect on the bond the we have with our mothers. This bond is part of our psyche – part of who we are. The “Hallmark” way is only one way to honor this bond. Many moms I know agree that what they want most is TIME, time with their children or grandchildren. Time to savor that which goes so quickly, is so fleeting.

Some younger moms would prefer some time to rest, to put their feet up. Older moms, want more time to witness the accomplishments of their kids and grandkids. We can give time. Your time is better than a gift or flowers. Honor your mom with memories of your past together, plan to spend time together – if you can. Squeeze your kids and steal some of their time this weekend – if you can.

If you can’t do these things…know this – someone brought you into this world and possibly you brought another into this world. That is quite special, the effort was quite special, and is to be honored. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers – everywhere!

We would love to hear your opinion about healthy eating. Do you observe meatless Monday’s? Is there a Vegan out there that can provide us some insight into healthy Vegan living?

Below you will find some interesting information on beef – cuts of meat, amounts of fat, differences in meat from grass fed cows. We have provided many sustainable food resources in the past, and we hope you will let us know your favorites!

Source: FrugalDad

ExxonMobil got it right – and you have no idea how it pains me to say that.

This is a company that has been less than stellar in the discussion of climate change and has a checkered past on environmental issues, as Steve Coll recounts in a recent issue of The New Yorker.

But where the company got it right was starting a campaign five years ago, calling for deeper investment in science education through The National Math and Science Initiative. ExxonMobil put up $125 million to be the founding sponsor of an effort to expand and improve the teaching of science, match, technology and engineering through the United States.

The goal of the program is to provide high-quality professional development for middle school and high school math and science teachers and to recruit more of them. Since its inception, the campaign has attracted contributions from several dozen other major foundations and companies, leading to the training of more than 8,000 advanced placement and pre-advanced placement teachers around the country, according to the program’s website.

These are important advances for the country. Despite the nation’s slow economic recovery, high-tech job vacancies often go wanting…the U.S. is not producing enough qualified college graduates to keep America on the scientific cutting edge of the global economy.

Say what you will about ExxonMobil as a steward of the environment. But as the founder of a plan to improve science and math education, it is sending the right message: As a country, we need to do more to push the envelope of research, education and innovation, and America’s businesses can play a crucial role, supporting young people who will become their employees.

In an increasingly advanced economy, workers across a spectrum of industries and occupations, including skilled workers in advanced manufacturing and construction industries, must have a strong background in math and science. As a country, we’re always calling on parents, teachers, clergy and community leaders to do more to help the Next Generation gain the skills they need to become successful citizens. We rarely ask business leaders to join the team

So thanks, ExxonMobil – here’s hoping that the young people who benefit from this program lead the way toward weaning us off our heavy reliance on energy developed from oil, coal and other fossil fuels that have contributed to climate change.

Read the full article posted recently by Matt on the TCNG website. The Center for the Next Generation is a nonprofit aimed at building support for advanced energy and sustainability and America’s children and families. TCNG is a new voice to help frame the critical issues that affect the next generation.

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Ben is officially a baby boomer (b 1960) born in Sacramento, California and reared in Boston, Massachusetts. He was in the graduating class of 1978 at Copley Square High School. He attended U.C. Berkeley where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1984 with a major in Political Science, and as he says, “drinking and thinking.” Also, according to Ben, he was “a B-ball gym rat.” From 1986 to 1994, Ben worked as the Public Information Manager on the $4 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup Project. In August of 1995, Ben founded a creative agency based in San Francisco called Words Pictures Ideas.

I personally met Ben, when he designed projects for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park and I was fortunate to be able to work with him there. The new foundation president was transforming a grassroots community-based foundation into a health policy think tank. Ben brought his unique vision to assist them in crafting this new identity.

He gradually expanded by adding a passionate group of creative professionals who get personal and collective satisfaction working on projects that matter in the real world. You won’t find them selling soda or toothpaste. (Not that they’re judging.) But you will find them giving their all to projects that leave a positive lasting mark on the world. Better transit. Improved public safety. Bridging cultural divides. Enhanced public health.

Over the past half-decade, Ben’s small, passion-driven firm has named and created the visual identities for more than $15 billion in civic and private mega-projects – and had fun while doing it. As Ben says, “We love what we do because we do what we love.” Being small keeps them focused, cost-effective and flexible. Their willingness to turn on a dime, to constantly be innovating, to openly abandon failed ideas while doubling their efforts on successful ones, equals a fierce and nimble determination to succeed. Ben says he and his team have been and continue to be honored to work on amazing social and civic projects, provide solid advice, inspire ideas and powerful design, which typically result in a creative outreach online or in print.

It seems Ben has moved towards his “second act” as the Board Chair, Illuminate the Arts on behalf of THE BAY LIGHTS team. Additionally, he is the founder of Joinless, the world’s first open source brand based on the idea that we shouldn’t allow our obsession with possessions rule us. Read more here: Interview: We Talk to Joinless Founder Ben Davis About How Buying Less Crap Can Make Us Happier | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World. His second act also includes unleashing his artist-persona, ISHKY, whose first major public artwork has been accepted as part of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial.

Ben’s credo is Do Good. Have Fun. Learn. Make a Living. All of which he does while he enjoys the San Francisco nightlife, marathon biking (to burn off all those fine wining and dining calories) and the company of his many equally talented friends. Ben’s in a relationship and is the father of a sensationally talented horsewoman, Haley. Haley is a graduate of International High School in San Francisco and is an undergraduate student at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Ben says his philosophy is pretty basic – “Some believe in God. I believe in Good.” Ben says his political views are “left of America, right of San Francisco.” His favorite quotation: At the moment of commitment the entire world conspires to ensure your success. —Goethe (but spoken to him by the amazing Norman Lear).

Innovation is a hallmark of the revolutionary baby boomer generation and a particular passion at Bette Boomer. We will follow Ben as he continues to make smart public, private, and personal investments in projects that benefit all of us and the next generation. Personally, it will be fun to watch Ben spinning ideas, as he continues to create magic and bring out more brilliance.

Want to talk to this phenomenal uberboomer? Contact him at ben@wordspicturesideas.com

The book includes interviews with many fabulously active people over 100 years old. The key zones are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, CA, USA; and the Nicoyan Peninsula, Costa Rica. Incredible people in each of these special places are not just interviewed, but their lives are explored in an attempt to uncover what it is that makes people live longer, healthier lives in these regions.

In general, Buettner finds that the following are key factors, or the “power nine” for people in each of the areas:

1. Natural movement – all of the healthy centenarians engage in low-intensity physical activity on a daily basis.
2. Eating less leads to living longer. Fewer and healthier calories seem to be key.
3. Process foods and meat are your enemies. In these cultures meat is limited and process foods are almost non-existent. Fruits, vegetables and nuts rule.
4. A glass of red wine or two is a good thing. Not only are there actual health benefits, but also the act of celebration and daily meal “events” are important.
5. A sense of purpose counts. People in these Blue Zones know “why they wake up in the morning,” they know what they contribute and look forward to it daily.
6. To relieve stress, take a break daily and connect with friends. Siesta, Sabbaths…it’s all good.
7. Spirituality increases longevity, whether it is community involvement or ritual, there is some link to faith and a long life.
8. Family connectedness counts; those who make family a priority outlives those who don’t.
9.  Surround yourself with like-minded people. The Blue Zones are communities of people with very similar lifestyles from eating and exercise habits to beliefs and common interests.

Buettner does a fabulous job in illustrating the actions needed to create your own “blue zone,” and his interviews provide inspiring support for doing it now! Have a read and appreciate his sensible strategies for creating your own longevity plan.

1970. Calling all hippie baby boomers that were there. Watch this fascinating time capsule about the first Earth Day celebration way back then. Brings back lots of memories for us!

We like Earth Day’s website slogan for 2012 – Mobilize the Earth™ because there’re boatloads of great information on their website with ideas and links to help you get involved. There will be Earth Day celebrations across the globe with other ways to get involved like “taking a breath and thanking a rainforest.”

Personally, we believe in planting a tree to recognize Earth Day. But while you’re thinking about Earth Day, consider land preserves founded on a unique model of enlisting death in the fight for ecological conservation of planet Earth. Green burial has been the method of burial for Muslims for over fourteen centuries and is consistent with traditional Jewish practice, as well. The Green Burial Council predicts this trend will grow, especially among the baby boomer generation

In celebration of Earth Day, Nova is offering downloads of free episodes from several of their environmental episodes and the complete season of E2 Energy, Season 1 on iTunes for a nominal charge.

And, since this is also National Gardens Month, take a look at our top 20 list of botanical gardens. Many of us who’ve browsed the seed and garden catalogs during this past winter are now anxious to get our fingers in the dirt once again. Last year we wrote about the joy of seed selection and web sites with incredible choices seed and garden catalogs offer.

Happy Earth Day 2012 and all the best for living well.

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For twenty years or so, I’ve had a fantasy about living in two white rooms filled with light, and little else. In one room there’d be a bed and a nightstand where I could pile books, in the other a chair with a high back and a good reading light beside it. That’s where I’d spend my time at home when I wasn’t in bed, serene in my white sheets and under my white comforter.

There’ll have to be a bathroom, but I haven’t figured out where. I could share one down the hall, as long as the other users don’t leave hair in the shower drain. No kitchen, because after an adult lifetime of cooking, I’m out of menu ideas. For food, I’ll pick up my white phone and order take-out. The dream is to simplify my life and substitute maintenance free minimalism for 74 years of accumulating things.

No more dusting bookshelves, baseboards, mirrors, windowsill, pictures. No more mopping and scrubbing. No more houseplants waiting for me to notice that they’re dying and over-water them. No more desk piled with junk mail, manuscripts, six-month-old New Yorker’s and for all I know, the odd fried egg sandwich.

Farewell, jammed closets. I get rid of clothes that I don’t wear because they’re too big or too small or because I’ve decided that I hate them. The same closet fills up again. I’d attribute this to an unseen force but I know it happens because I like clothes too much. For years, when I lived in San Francisco, a wardrobe full of big city clothes made sense. Now that I live on a houseboat across the Bay, jeans and tee shirts suffice for everything except funerals. One little black dress has the clothes situation covered.

Part of the two-white-room fantasy is that I can become like an exemplary friend who, as she puts it, “lives light.” How freeing living light would be. How good for the planet. And it’s never going to happen.

The truth is that I love my stuff and enjoy being surrounded by it. The piles of books assure me that I’ll never lack something to read. The artwork that crams my walls delights me; that’s why I bought it (duh). The photos of family and friends that vie for space on every surface are keepers, too, and I can’t part, ever, with a gift that someone has given me. How could I give up the two heavy crystal highball glasses I never use, when a friend lugged them over from England? Throw out the collars of dear departed dogs? Donate the custom-made teddy bear that my daughter gave me, for comfort during a bad time, to the charity shop? I’m sure some small child would like it. Too bad, kid, get your sticky fingers off it.

Someone reading this is muttering, “Oh please. Grow up.” Mutter away, sensible people. I’m a woman of strong attachments, especially to my musician partner. And there’s the hitch. In those fantasy spare, white rooms, he and his instrument would have to spend their days out of sight, which means under the bed. He plays stand-up bass. Okay, maybe three white rooms.

Cyra McFadden’s Bio:

Cyra McFadden is a Bay Area novelist and journalist.  Her first book, The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, was a bestseller here and in the U.K.  Her second, Rain or Shine, A Family Memoir, was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category of non-fiction.  Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Smithsonian and other magazines.

She has also been a newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and UPI, Writer in Residence at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, London, England, and Richard Hugo Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Montana, Missoula, Montana.

Born in Great Falls, Montana, McFadden received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Literature (the latter Magna Cum Laude) from San Francisco State University, where she also taught in the English and Creative Writing departments. She now lives on a houseboat in Sausalito, California and works as a free-lance writer and editor.   

While dining at the lodge, my husband thought he recognized a gentlemen who entered with his wife and son. They sat within view and throughout our meal, it was nagging my husband as to whether this was the man he had not seen for 10 or so years. Just before dessert, he got up and approached their table to immediately find they indeed recognized each other.

Introductions were made all around and we found that their son had been in school with our kids’ cousin and was about to rejoin her in middle school. We had all lived and/or worked in the Big Sur, Carmel area (they still do) and know many of the same people.

This got us talking about what a small world it is and they relayed this story about running into another Big Sur friend whom we know:

“The first time we bumped into Wanda we were roaming the streets of Florence during one of their biggest festivals, looking for a spot to eat lunch. We had just arrived by train with our luggage, stroller and 4 year old and we were starved. Every restaurant in our Fodor’s guide appeared to be packed and we were starting to get a bit weary. We stumbled upon a busy, open-air pizzaria that looked interesting and lo and behold Wanda and her sister were sitting at a street side table! They gave us a warm welcome and 2 thumbs up and we stayed and had a superb lunch with our luggage and stroller stacked against the wall of what seemed to be the busiest restaurant on earth.

We chatted briefly as the restaurant was so busy and Wanda and her sister were on their way out. We all knew we would be in Tuscany for the next week but never expected we would meet again….
About a week later, while eating lunch in an obscure restaurant in Sienna, we bump into the ladies again! Two meetings in one trip. Florence and Sienna… A world away from Big Sur…” ~ excerpt by Meredith Gafill.

Perhaps it is a Big Sur karma thing. Our family was in New Zealand  a few years back for six weeks traveling all around. On one afternoon we were racing to a winery we wanted to visit before they closed. As we were gathering our things out of the car, the two people departing the winery started calling my husband’s name. Both had worked with him in Big Sur a couple of years earlier and he had not seen them since! Of course, they returned to the winery with us to share NZ stories.

Do you have any “It’s a Small World” stories to share? Tell us below or on Facebook.