at Annual Hawai'i Sustainable Education Initiative Fundraiser

On the evening of December 10th the Hawai'i Sustainable Education Initiative (HSEI) held its Third Annual Fundraiser in our one-room school house in downtown Honoka'a amidst children's toys, student artwork, musical instruments, desks, chairs, overflowing bookshelves and a teacher's very messy desk. Over a hundred friends, parents, and students descended onto the scene to applaud student musical and hula performances, participate in a silent auction and sale of students' arts and crafts, listen to homegrown music, and most of all, whet their appetite and satisfy their stomachs on a complete locavore dinner.

-- and Rebuilding an Authentic One

Review: "Inverting the Economic Order," by Wendell Berry, The Progressive, September 2009

[Note: Unfortunately, Inverting the Economic Order is only available at larger libraries and to subscribers of The Progressive.   To compensate, I have quoted generously to provide a fuller dimension to Berry's essay. -PT]

Upon finishing Wendell Berry's remarkable truth-telling essay "Inverting the Economic Order," one reader wrote: "Please reprint it into pamphlet form and distribute it to every high school and college library in this land, so needful of an agrarian resurrection." Yet another wrote: "The new Wendell Berry article is incredibly important and must be spread as widely as possible."

So what's all the fuss about?

Welcoming Makahiki, the season of Lono, Hawaiian god of peace, fertility, abundance, and agriculture.

Review: To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates, A series on Global Warming

Sweden is probably the world's leader in studying and implementing policies to reduce green-house gas emissions. It has set goals of eliminating fossil fuel use for electricity by 2020, and eliminating gasoline powered vehicles by 2030. Now, based on a new study showing that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by more than 20% if people changed the way they eat, it has issued new food labeling guidelines for specific foods to include the carbon-dioxide content involved in the production of that food.

Kalo (taro) is an essential plant for Hawaiian culture and agriculture. See kalo events and report below.