“Think Globally, Eat Locally” initiative begins on March 1, 2010

Cliff Bennett
Friday, February 19, 2010

“Think Globally, Eat Locally” initiative begins on March 1, 2010

University of Maine Cooperative Extension program will discuss the history and role of food in our society today. It will cover: how food is grown; the nutritional value, social element, and environmental issues that encompasses the nation’s food supply

University of Maine Cooperative Extension educators John Jemison and Kate Yerxa will cover topics including but not limited to the following: threats to food supply: climate change, energy and water; relics of the green revolution; genetically modified foods; how food influences health; and how to grow food yourself and community.

The goal of the outreach program is to inform people about the source of the food and promote support for local farmers. The program will discuss some of the harmful farm practices that are taking place worldwide. It will also discuss the health risk of genetically modified crops. The educators hope to inform the participants of the value that local farmers provide to our communities. “The best-case scenario, after this program, is that people would be spending more of their food dollars on locally grown food, supporting local farmers and creating the need for more farmers,” said Jemison.

They also plan to ask participants to donate 25 hours of community service to a food related issue. Jemison and Yerxa would like participants to donate their time to a food pantry or some sort of gardening project. The desire goal of the community service is to promote more locally grown food.

The 25 hour course will be held over a four-week period beginning Monday, March 1, 2010. The first two meetings will begin at 5:30 p.m. due to spring break. The remaining courses will meet on Mondays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Coe Room in the Memorial Union. For more information, contact John Jemison at 581-3241 or jemison@maine.edu.

Resource:
http://www.umaine.edu/news/blog/2010/02/18/university-of-maine-cooperative-extension-launches

Cliff Bennett

Friday 5, 2010

This week Raiha has asked us to critique a local news broadcast. I chose to critique a news broadcast from February 4^th, 2010. The news cast was titled: 20th Annual National Toboggan Race Preview from WABI-TV5. I was having difficulty critiquing the news cast because of the speed in which the journalist was reading the script. I found myself following the story visually more than verbally. After rewinding the DVR several times I finally got something to write about.

The news article was set at the Camden Snow Bowl. The journalist was pretty dull in tone and not very excited about the news story. She seemed lost in her own story. The script was casual conversation in nature. The sentence structure was simple and direct without any large vocabulary words. The script was almost too simple. It bordered on the lines of boring. That might have been the reason why I was drawn to the video footage. Attribution was credited immediately. For example, the person was introduced then the journalists either questioned them or explained their affiliation with the toboggan race.

If I were the editor of this news broadcast I would have changed a few things. I would have sent a reporter that was more into the story or at least interested in learning more about the toboggan race. I would have requested more information about the construction of the toboggan, history of the race, and trophies awarded. This news story was very weak on details. This story could have been strengthened with a little more research.