There is so much to do to “repair the world.” But we had best be sure we are asking the right questions before we put too much faith and resources in the answers.
Designing Our Future. Together.
Jonathan J. Halperin
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Dispatches
How Money and Media Influence the Way America Eats
Sunday, November 20, 2011
I participated in the James Beard Foundation's Food Conference in New York on October 12 and 13, 2011. Video of my presentations is available online.
Seeds of Change
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A sense of change is in the air – and not just the crispness of the Fall air in the bucolic hills of Vermont, where I presented at the Dana Meadows Sustainability Institute.
Forests and Food
Monday, October 10, 2011
In Vermont at the Dana Meadows Sustainability Institute; looking forward to the James Beard Foundation Food Conference in New York.
The Sustainability Principle
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
In my closing remarks at the Sustainable Food Laboratory Summit I explained that I did not think sustainability was a goal, a metric, or even an approach to doing business. Rather, it is a principle. And it has at its core a fundamental rethinking of space and time.
Local, Sustainable and Organic
Sunday, July 17, 2011
It became clear in talking with farmers, ranchers, businesspeople, chefs and public advocates during the Sustainable Food Laboratory summit that there is a ‘goodness’ premium associated with these three linked terms. It was equally clear that few people have a clear sense of what these terms mean, beyond an evocation of being different and somehow better than conventional produce.
Data, Data, Everywhere
Saturday, July 16, 2011
At meeting after meeting, the conversation almost always turns to metrics and data. And while we need better data and better metrics - knowing of course that we do what we measure - we also need to remember for what reasons we are collecting data. Measurement alone is not the goal.
GreenSpace Knowledge Center Goes to Nationals Ballpark
Friday, July 8, 2011
While I was out-West last week at the Sustainable Food Laboratory Summit and Aspen Ideas Festival back East in Washington, DC, a project I have been supporting for some years marked an important milestone. GreenSpace marked the opening of its new headquarters and turnkey knowledge center at Nationals Ballpark.
Time and Language
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Power generated from the sun streaming down on the earth today is what we have come to call solar power. But what we forget at our peril is the fossil part of fossil fuels. Oil, gas and coal are also forms of solar power; the sun just created them a very long time ago.
To Aggregate or Segregate – Is That The Question?
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Amidst a host of rich and deep discussions at the Sustainable Food Laboratory summit this week in Oregon, we kept coming back again and again to a few underlying themes. The complex relationships among commodities, organic produce, price, and brand value was one of these touchstone issues.
Pages
When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American.
But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend.
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