Find out more on the Media page on the TEDxManhattan website.

We received around 40 applications from all over the country and have narrowed it down to the final five.  The winner will get to speak live from stage at the 2012 TEDxManhattan event.  If you would like to vote for your favorite, please email your choice by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.

We’re also encouraging everyone to set up a local viewing party to watch the event live – if you’d like to watch, please tune in to our broadcast on January 21st at www.livestream.com/tedx.  Better yet, set up a viewing party in your neighborhood and invite friends over to watch the talks with you.  You can find out more information about viewing parties and setting one up at http://tedxmanhattan.org/viewing-parties/.

The five TEDxManhattan Challenge finalists  are:

1.  Natasha Bowens, The Color of Food – http://thecolorofood.org/home.html   She’s spent the past year creating a space for farmers and food activists of color to connect, work together and share stories, history and traditional knowledge. The Color of Food is a space to raise the voices of communities of color in the movement for food justice.

2.  Rick Nahmias, Food Forward – http://foodforward.org/  In 2.5 years they have become Southern California’s largest backyard harvesting for the hungry NPO. Food Forward organizes corps of between 3 and 300 volunteers to harvest excess food from private homes and public spaces, donating 100% to the hungry.

3.  Amie Hamlin, New York Coalition for Healthy School Food – http://www.healthyschoolfood.org/  New York Coalition for Healthy School Food has been working with the New York City Office of SchoolFood (they spell it as one word) in a formal partnership for the last few years to develop and introduce plant-based entrees to serve as the protein component in school lunches. They are doing this in 18 schools and have a waiting list of 48 schools.

4.  Howard Hinterthuer, Veteran’s Food Production Project
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=9474  Their organic therapy project for veterans, now in its fourth year, is transitioning into a food production program designed to supplement and eventually replace food that they currently purchase through vendors.

5.  Billy Mawhiney, Fresh Mitchell – http://freshmitchell.info/   Fresh Mitchell is a group aimed at changing the way rural Mitchell, South Dakota, eats. They began marketing their Farmers Market, got accepted for SNAP and credit cards, and began a CSA through a 5th generation farm about 30 miles away (called the Goosemobile). They recently hosted their first Fall Harvest Celebration, a night of Old Fashioned fireside stories from the South Dakota food movement to raise funds for an edible classroom, demo area for the market and CSA support.

Please email your favorite finalist by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.

Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, leads the nation’s largest animal protection organization with 11 million members and constituents. The organization is the 155th largest charity in the United States. During his tenure, Pacelle has nearly doubled the size of the organization and, through corporate combinations with groups such as The Fund for Animals and the Doris Day Animal League, built unity and greater efficiency within the animal protection cause.

He has led successful efforts to pass hundreds of new state and federal laws to protect animals, expanded The HSUS’s animal care operations, and worked with dozens of corporations to enact operational changes that benefit animals. Pacelle was named one of NonProfit Times’ “Executives of the Year” in 2005 for his leadership in responding to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

Please visit the TEDxManhattan website to fill out an application to attend the event. Please note that applying does not guarantee admittance. We will let you know in late October if we’ll be able to accommodate you.

Events will be taking place across the country in schools, city halls, farmers markets, and state capitols.  Join thousands of Americans for a conversation about eating real.  To find an event near you, click here.  If there are no events taking place near where you live, why not host one?  There is still time to sign-up and organize an event. You can screen a movie, host a talk, harvest vegetables for a food bank, have a pot-luck, have a cooking demonstration, whatever you want, as long as it revolves around good food!

Still not convinced?  Read the Food Day priorities, if that doesn’t do it I’ll buy you a big mac.*

Why Eat Real?

• Reduce diet-related diseases by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms and limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions to food and farm workers

* Statement made to emphasize point, my conscious won’t actually allow me to buy you a big mac.

Image taken from iFood TV

Farms everywhere are struggling to survive. Faced with the mounting challenges of increased production costs, global competition, and encroaching development, it’s getting harder and harder for farmers to make a profit. Apple growers are not immune from these pressures.  Glynwood has been hard at work trying to find economic opportunities for Hudson Valley apple growers, and thus the Apple Project was born. Their solution? Forget eating an apple a day, how about drinking several, preferably in the delicious form of hard cider or apple spirits.

Glynwood’s Apple Project is encouraging diversification of apple varieties, giving growers new resources for knowledge and skill, and supporting a growing market for hard cider and apple spirits. Some of its programs include Cider Week,  Apple Exchange, and the Hudson Valley Cider Route.

October 16 to 23 will be the first ever Cider Week. Over 80 establishments in New York City and the Hudson Valley will feature ciders from all over the Hudson Valley.  There will be plenty of opportunity to learn more at tastings, classes, and special events.  A great excuse to celebrate fall, farmers, and local food with a nice glass of cider.

I had the pleasure of meeting two cider makers, Eve’s Cidery and Farnum Hill Ciders, and sampling their wares this past week. They were delicious, flavorful, complex, and no two ciders I tasted were alike.  Good cider is not sugary sweet  instead it is dry or off dry and has a good balance of fruit, acid and bitter flavors.

I was surprised to learn great apple cider comes from apples one wouldn’t necessarily want to eat.  For instance, some apples with names Medaille d’Or or Yarlington Mill contain high tannins, which on their own would make your cheeks pucker and your eyes water. When a variety apples are blended (an art form, really) the result is wonderful, the sum is most definitely greater than its parts.

Growing a diversity of cider apples gives a bit of extra protection to the farmer in case one or more variety of apple is lost to pests or microbes. Instead of losing a whole crop and a seasons worth of income, the cider recipe changes a little.  Also growing apples for cider or spirits gives the grower a much higher profit margin, and they don’t have to worry if the apples look pretty.

Fun Facts About Cider

• Cider is an alcoholic beverage fermented from apples, just like wine is fermented from grapes. Cider and wine making have a lot in common.

• Cider, though often sold in a six-pack, sometimes carbonated, and golden, is not like beer at all. There is no grain, no malt, and no cooking.

• Ciders can range from sweet to dry, bubbly or not, and some are more tannic, like red wine. The more tannic ciders are best served at red wine temperatures, 50-60F.

Urvashi serves as a primary, national spokesperson for Consumer Reports in the areas of sustainable production/consumption practices, food safety, and product safety issues related to chemical and contaminant hazards.

She continues to decode the meaning of eco-labels for consumers and advocates for credible labeling in the marketplace, including influencing government policy decisions at the state and federal level. In 2011, she helped lead a decisive victory in a widely publicized debate on the benefits of organic production.  She was also part of the teams that worked on the Sigma Delta Chi award winning food and supplement magazine reports, highlighting public health concerns.

Dr. Rangan received her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 1995 and conducted her post-doctoral work at the Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute. She was a National Institutes of Health fellow from 1990-97.

The Small Planet Fund was started in 2001 to fund groups around the world focusing on hunger, poverty, and environmental devastation. Every year the Small Planet Fund supports core grantees and makes emergency grants.  With the support of donors around the country they have raised and given away more than $800,000.

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011, 7:00-9:00pm

Cooper Union’s Great Hall
7 East 7th Street (at Third Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Pre-registration is strongly recommended, to sign-up click here

We will be highlighting the 2012 speakers over the next few months so stay tuned!