Alice & Edibles

Alice Is Wonderland- I attended a talk last evening as part of the NY Food & Wine Festival featuring chef and activist Alice Waters at the NY Times. Waters is truly a remarkable gift and has been a leader in sustainability regarding nutrition. Through her Chez Panisse Foundation which funds projects like The Edible Schoolyard and SlowFood Nation she is continuing to make a major impact on how we all view food, nutrition and ecology. Waters reiterated once again last evening that we (consumers) must have relationships with local farmers and that stewardship of the land is paramount. Additionally, budgeting for our food choices should be prioritized over other frivolous items (she pointed to basketball shoes and cell phones). In her opinion if food costs more, but we know it comes from a local organic farm source than it’s well worth the investment. Water’s work with school children through The Edible Schoolyard and its affiliate programs is groundbreaking. So many in last night’s audience were school teachers from outer boroughs of Manhattan desperately attempting to find ways to adopt this “edible education” into their own classrooms. The Edible Schoolyard consists of one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom at the Martin Luther King Jr. public middle school in Berkeley, CA. This program has helped over 3,000 students in making lifelong, healthy food choices and each carry these very ideas back to their own homes. The act of eating locally would have a far greater impact on the environment then all the hybrids autos in the world. I urge you to visit the Chez Panisse Foundation site and read more about this vital eco-gastronomical education program. Now if I could only get a reservation to eat at Chez Panisse!

Prius Its Own Brand- There is talk that Toyota may actually set the Prius up as a stand-alone sub brand. There is no denying the success of Prius and Toyota would like to take advantage of this good brand-will to perhaps fashion this like there Scion brand. According to a new article in Reuters, Toyota’s North American sales chief, Jim Lentz, has disclosed that there is a “definite desire” to market “a series of derivatives under the Prius brand name that would allow you to market product at a much lower cost.” This lends further reports that Toyota is planning a family of Prius hybrids, including models like a wagon and a convertible. An all-new Prius is expected to debut at the 2009 North American International Auto Show this January in Detroit, and a smaller, less-expensive hybrid is also rumored to be in the cards. According to Lentz, dealerships are already being constructed with a multi-zone theme, including space earmarked for the Prius, Scion, and the Toyota’s trucks. Underscoring all of this, a Toyota dealership in Conway, Arkansas was just awarded a LEED certification as part of Toyota’s efforts to make their dealers more environmentally friendly.