2011

Duke and Janet Phillips and Ranchlands Group will hold the 11th annual exhibition of work from the 2011 Medano Zapata Ranch Artist Gathering on Saturday, September 3 from 1-4 PM at Chico Basin Ranch near Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Ranchlands Artist Gathering was formed to support art and illuminate the important work occurring in land and wildlife conservation through ranching, creating a window into modern ranching through an artist’s point of view.

The show will include work from artists including William Alther, Jutta Golas, Fran Gottlieb, Mark Gould, Carol Jenkins, Carlin Kielcheski, Joanne Lavender, Marty Mans, Ben Murphy, Karen Myers, Joel Ostlind, Duke Phillips, Nathan Solano, Jill Soukup, Russ Tanner, Teresa Vito, Lani Vlaanderen and Steve Weaver.  Music will be provided by Michael and Dawn Moon.

The Medano Zapata Ranch is managed by The Nature Conservancy and Duke and Janet Phillips in a unique partnership that stresses conservation and the establishment of a wild bison herd. This body of work represents the ranch’s unique landscape, 2,500 head bison herd, the adjacent Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range, Great Sand Dunes National Park and native wildlife and plant species.

Ranchlands’ mission is working together to live with the land. Proceeds benefit these talented artists and the continuation of the Artist Gathering program.

The final touches are underway at the Mad River Food Hub in Waitsfield.

“This is going to be a great space for food producers in the Mad River Valley and outside the Mad River Valley,” said Robin Morris of the Mad River Food Hub.

The 4,000-square-foot space will help farmers process and preserve their products and get them to market. One of hub’s main goals is to meet the state’s demand for meat processing facilities. These rooms are designed to handle about 10,000 pounds of pork and beef a week.

“What we’ve had before is if you wanted to start a business you had to spend hundreds of thousands on the capital outlay for a meat processing plant, now you can come and experiment with new ideas,” Morris said.

The new facility is part of Vermont Farm to Plate initiative aimed at strengthening the state’s food system. So far five companies have committed to using this new space.  [Read more.]

DENVER, Aug 25, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) today announced that it has created the “Chipotle Cultivate Foundation,” a new foundation aimed at supporting people, organizations and institutions that are committed to making a better, more sustainable future.

“For more than a decade, we have been working to improve the nation’s food supply by finding more sustainable sources for all of the ingredients we use in our restaurants,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. “By creating the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, we are extending our reach beyond our restaurants and will be supporting organizations and people that are working to improve individual family farms, animals and the environment, and youth and education programs.”

Chipotle has a history of supporting causes related to improving the way people eat. Over the last two years, the company has donated more than $2 million to philanthropic organizations, with much of that benefitting groups that are working to improve some element of the food system, including Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, The Nature Conservancy, FamilyFarmed.org, The Lunch Box, and the Niman Ranch Scholarship Fund, among many others.

For more information regarding the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, visit CultivateFoundation.org.

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food With Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food from using ingredients that are not only fresh, but that where possible are sustainably grown and naturally raised with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. A similarly focused people culture, with an emphasis on identifying and empowering top performing employees, enables us to develop future leaders from within. Chipotle opened with a single restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 1,100 restaurants. For more information, visit Chipotle.com.

About the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation

Chipotle Mexican Grill established the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation in 2011 to extend its commitment to creating a more sustainable future. The foundation supports organizations and individuals who support family farms and their communities, educators and programs that teach younger generations about food matters, and support for ranchers and farmers who are working to develop more sustainable practices.

by Dr Kaayla Daniel

The Environmental Working Group has asked Americans to go meatless once per week and “Take the pledge to eat less and greener meat!”   Chef Mario Batali and other celebrities have gone on board to help EWG enlist 100,000 people who will sign the pledge, commit to eating a more “veg centric” diet, and “build awareness” of how much our food choices impact the planet.

I personally am not about to take that pledge though EWG’s slogan “Reduce your impact, improve your health” sounds like a “win/win.”    EWG tells us, for example, that Americans who skip meat and cheese just one day a week — such as with a “Meatless Monday” –  can cut carbon emissions equal to taking 7.6 million cars off the road.   And it promises that reducing meat consumption will lower our risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Sadly, EWG’s proposal will do very little for the environment.   Worse, it will encourage people to feel “feel good” about their growing green consciousness while distracting them from exploring and adopting genuine, sustainable solutions.  While it is certainly good that EWG recommends “greener” meat and not just “less meat” or even “no meat,” the catchy “Meatless Monday” slogan perpetuates the myth that meat is evil and that  plant-based diets are the key to personal and planetary health.  [Read more]

Our friend Janet Gilles at getgeese.org has prepared a simple graphic that explains how to tell if a farm is subsidized and what the 2012 farm bill pays for and doesn’t.