Hi Everybody,

This past week, I taught my cooking class, One Wok, Three Meals, at the Cold Spring Harbor Library, to a room filled with an enthusiastic audience. I always feel in my element, when I am sharing my passion for good food, along with my concerns about our industrial food system, with people who want to learn!
Tonight, I will be preparing food, along with my fellow Slow Food North Shore board members, for a plant based reception, following our documentary screening of the film, Cowspiracy, at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. This film is an expos? on the devastation that animal agriculture has on our planet, from deforestation, to water consumption and pollution. Factory farming is responsible for more greenhouse gas pollution than the transportation industry, and is a primary driver of rainforest destruction, species extinction, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean ?dead zones,? and virtually every other environmental ill. So one might ask, Why is this industry allowed to continue? Come down to the Cinema tonight and find out why!! It will make your blood boil!

Talking about blood boiling, I found mine red hot this week, as I learned about the final Spending Bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday, and is now headed to President Obama for his signature. It is unbelievable to me that our government can be bought out so easily by special interest groups like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, who lobbied hard, to prevent the government from being allowed to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions coming out of their facilities, or the School Nutrition Association, who says it will be too difficult and costly to reduce the sodium and increase whole grains in school lunches. They actually had the audacity to say that the government needs to do more research to see if healthier school lunches would really make a difference. (I guess it is just a coincidence that the School Nutrition Association gets a lot of financial support from food manufacturers!) The American Frozen Food Institute, along with Schwan Food Company, who provides over 70% of the 450 million dollars worth of pizza that the schools buy every year, mobilized lobbies, to save their frozen foods, pizza and french fries from getting cut from the school lunch program, and they won! Once again, the profit and special interests of a few corporations, along with the pockets of many Senators, trumped the health and well being of our children. It’s disgusting!

This week, on the Progressive Radio Network, I am so excited to invite on as my guest, Callie Curry, also known as the street artist Swoon, to discuss her work, and how she finds inspiration in some of the environmental disasters of our time. As an activist and community organizer, I am inspired by her work, and it’s relevance in the context of global warming, climate change, feminism and the need for collaboration and community. Please join me on Thursday, at 10am, as I interview Callie, and learn a little bit more about the many projects she is involved with and her inspirations.

Next week will be my 20th year, partnering with the River Fund NY Food Pantry, in cooking up a Christmas Dinner for the Homeless. Each year, we prepare Baked Ziti, Caesar Salad, Garlic Bread, Brownies, Apple Pie, Hot Cider and Coffee, and serve it outdoors in the park, while serenading the attendees with Christmas Carols and giving out coats from our annual coat drive. The River Fund brings their mobile food pantry, and Santa is there giving out hundreds of toys and gifts that were donated through various organizations. If you are interested in volunteering, you can sign up here!?

Remember, my show is recorded live, every Thursday, from 10-11 am, EST.? To tune in, navigate to?PRN.fm?and click the ?Listen Live? button on the left. Also try downloading the?PRN mobile app, and take the station with you wherever you go! If you want to call in during the show with any questions for me or my guest, the call in number is 888-874-4888.

If you can?t tune in at that time, you can listen to the show in the?PRN archives,?or on my website, or through iTunes. You can also access the show by calling in to?The Progressive Radio Network?at 619-550-0869. Please ?like??iEat Green?s Facebook page?and feel free to?rate the show and leave comments on iTunes and on my website. Thank you all for your constant support.
With love and gratitude,
Bhavani