I write to introduce your to Bullfrog Films, a leading US distributor of independent films on the environment and social justice issues.

Our films on sustainable agriculture, in particular, may be a perfect fit for your Ohio-based organization, especially for workshop screenings on local food and nutrition, upcoming conferences and food summits, in the classroom at schools, or a community screening followed by a discussion on healthy eating and local food. We have different prices for different needs, based on a sliding scale – please call if you have any questions on our prices that are listed on our webpage.

2 of our documentaries out of the numerous titles we publish that may be of interest are:

1. What’s On Your Plate?

Over the course of one year, the film follows two eleven-year-old multi-racial kids as they explore their place in the food chain.

Sadie and Safiyah visit New York City supermarkets, fast food chains, and school lunchrooms. But they also check out innovative sustainable food system practices by going to area farms, greenmarkets, and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. They discover that these options have a number of positive effects: they are good for the environment, help struggling farmers survive, and provide affordable, locally grown food to communities, especially lower-income urban families.

The film culminates with a delicious local meal cooked by the girls and friends they have made along the way. Sadie and Safiyah formulate sophisticated and compassionate opinions about urban sustainability, and by doing so inspire hope and active engagement in others.

Details, including reviews, awards, and ordering information can be found on our webpage at http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/woyp.html

2. DIRT! The Movie

Dirt! The Movie introduces viewers to dirt’s fascinating history. Four billion years of evolution have created the dirt that recycles our water, gives us food, provides us shelter, and that can be used as a source of medicine, beauty and culture.

However, people have become greedy and careless, endangering this vital living resource with destructive methods of agriculture, mining practices, and urban development. The word dirt has become “dirty”. This abusive behavior has yielded catastrophic results, which the film does not shy away from: mass starvation, drought, floods and global warming.

Dirt! The Movie proves that times are changing. Brown is the new green. More than 25 renowned global visionaries in countries around the world are discovering new ways of thinking as they come together to repair this natural resource with practical, viable solutions. You may never look at the ground beneath your feet quite the same.

More details can be found at http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/dirt.html

We are happy to offer free previews for purchase evaluation.

If you have any questions, or want additional information, please do not hesitate to ask.

Cheers,

Stephanie Miller
Reviews Coordinator & Outreach
Bullfrog Films
P.O. Box 149, Oley, PA 19547
Street address: 372 Dautrich RD, Reading, PA
Phone: 1.800.543.3764
Fax: 610.370.1978

http://www.bullfrogfilms.com

http://www.youtube.com/bullfrogfilms

Thanks,
Emily Ripka

My name is Justin Williams, and I am currently volunteering with Green Columbus to help organize 2010 Earth Day projects around Central Ohio.

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is this April. What are you “bringing to the party” this year?

Green Columbus, the organization which coordinated the last three central Ohio celebrations has taken on the project again with big goals to rally 10,000 volunteers and plant 10,000 trees (we are already halfway there on this goal).

We are contacting organizations throughout central Ohio in the hope that they have plans, or will make plans, to observe the 40th anniversary with a project that directly, and fairly immediately, impacts the earth in a positive way. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Installing a rain garden to counter the effects of asphalt and other impermeable surfaces (for more information on rain gardens click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_garden)

• Planting trees

• Picking up litter in your neighborhood

• Removing invasive species like honeysuckle

• Launching a recycling program at your organization. Projects should be scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 17 or Sunday, April 18. However you might like to recognize the anniversary, we can help. Our website is listed below and can give you some background info on central Ohio’s Earth Day activities for 2010. Let us know what your school is planning and become part of Earth Day 2010: The Update! (www.update2010.org)

Green Wishes,

Justin Williams

P.S. Earth Day 2010: The Update is an official event of the Earth Day Network. To learn more about the Earth Day Network, visit www.earthday.net.

For further information regarding registering an Earth Day worksite in your Columbus community, please visit www.update2010.org. Additional questions can be directed to:
—
Missy Hintz
Worksite Coordinator
The Update: Earth Day 2010
c: 614.354.9351
e: missy@greencbus.org
www.update2010.org

amanda graeter

The link to subscribe to the Ruralwomyn list is here:  http://ruralwomyn.net/mailman/listinfo/ruralwomyn_ruralwomyn.net Annie

Contact Elyse Perruchon – elyse.perruchon@gmail.com – if you’d like to volunteer.

The big news at Blue Rock Station…we have a beautiful new kid and a mule all at the same time…well just about anyway. First came the kid – Eli, as in “Eli’s comin’, hide your heart now” 3-Dog-Night fame.

Eleonore Rigby had a male and he is the perfect picture of a French Alpine goat with four black boots and that little black streak down his back – check out his photo.

I’m hoping someone wants him for making more milk goats because his mother is a big milk producer that gave milk for 19 months before we dried her up to make a kid. If he doesn’t find any takers within the next two weeks or so, then we will band him, teach him to be a good boy and hope that someone wants to add him to their herd of alpacas or llamas Louie has a happy home guarding alpacas so Eli has the same potential.

And then there was the arrival of the mule. We decided to buy this piece of equipment to replace the Ford 8N tractor we’d bought at an auction 10 years ago. Originally I wanted this model of tractor (1951) because it was small enough for me to hold the brake without standing up. I remembered my early days as a farm wife – standing on the John Deere brake on the hillside with a load of hay pushing me. Sometimes the tractor would move even though I was pressing the brake with all of my might.

That 8N had a mind of its own. It would run for exactly 60 minutes and then stop. Early on I would have someone pull me on the tractor with their truck so I could jump start it by popping the clutch. That never worked.  That tractor started when it was done with its rest period, and not a minute sooner.

It was a happy day to see that tractor go down the lane and into another person’s life. But, we did miss having transportation to the barn to haul things, and a way to get back into the woods without walking. Hauling firewood took on a whole other meaning when we had to do it by hand.

One day I saw the boys next door driving what I soon learned was called a “mule”. After some research we decided to test drive one in Newark. I felt we needed a diesel engine so we could make our own fuel (the folks down at the local restaurant have agreed to give us their fry grease). Finding a diesel turned out to be a bit of a chore, but in the end I think our patience paid off.

Shortly after its arrival we decided to use it to pick up trash along Virginia Ridge. Driving up the hill from town always seemed to be a sociology lesson on what people were eating and drinking. There are certain curves and hills that seem to be favorites for litter bugs, while other places remain fairly clean.

On Sunday, for two hours we drove and walked one mile in length. We had to make two trips to empty the Mule because there was so much trash. When we finally stopped (there’s another two hours of work just to pick up the last mile that goes down the hill) we had six 50 lb.-size bags of plastic for recycling, eight grocery bags of aluminum cans, and three giant garbage bags (we have to pay $1.50 to dispose of each of these) full of trash.

The further we drove and walked the angrier I felt. It wasn’t so much that people who throw their trash along the road are downright pigs, it was the companies that make and/or sell all of that stuff that is killing us. Budweiser and Mountain Dew were the all-time winners for trash along the road. Then came McDonald’s and bottled water.

The neighbors tend to contribute to the trash as well. There are several who never bother to take in the ad papers that are left at their mailboxes each week. I guess they think, “Out of sight. Out of mind.”

Either way, Eli and the mule have become my new best friends. What a week!

The Critters

The biddies are finally out of the kitchen and down in the brooder house. Sandra’s chicks are freely roaming, along with her, all the way up to the barn, and settled into the big chicken chalet at night. The biddies are getting their second layer of feathers and yearning to be out in the sunshine. Without a hen to protect them they are going to have to stay in the brooder house awhile longer.

The goat pens are finally mucked out from winter – what a job! Alicia, our new intern and Nick, the boy next door, worked with me for two days getting those stalls cleaned. The compost for the newly planted trees and the raised garden beds is worth its weight in gold.

Keep your fingers crossed. Tuti is looking like she has two saddle bags on her sides so she has to be ready to deliver female kids any day now.

Interesting Things that Crossed our Desks:

Check out this website that the folks from Close the Loop sent showing a new design for plastic bottles – http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/01/15/polli-bricks-by-miniwiz/. Making walls or greenhouses would be so easy with this new interlocking design.

Ever hear of guerilla gardening? I love the idea of just throwing out seeds like sunflowers in places where beautiful things don’t usually grow. This site gives some great examples of things like seed bombs - http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/23/seed-bombs-walk-by-guerrilla-gardening/