Certain foods, anywhere, anytime. That is the basic value proposition of grocery stores. Although we may not think about it, this has shaped more than just what we can cook (tomatoes in January), it has shaped how we cook. If we even cook to begin with. Buying fresh foods from a local farm or farmers' market may offer many personal, societal and environmental benefits, but it can't offer the convenience of knowing what ingredients you will have access to, or the related ability to plan meals and menus in advance of shopping. (Have you tried picking out recipes when you haven't known what ingredients you will have to work with? Awkward.) But what if there were a different kind of convenience? One that made it possible for you to shop according to a recipe, but that freed you from the tyranny of tasteless out-of-season food shipped in from another continent? That's the plenti-proposition: that great food can happen when and where it's meant to, and that we can buy and prepare it with confidence. All thanks to a little bit of technology, a great content base, and a system designed from the ground-up to support a different way of relating to our food system- one that strengthens our communities as we nourish ourselves. So go ahead, eatplenti.
Youth empowerment and community improvement...via food. Pilot projects launching September 2009.
I am great and I am capable of great things. In fact, I'm doing some pretty great things right now: fostering peace, inspiring hope, reducing water pollution, sequestering carbon, bringing families and communities together, creating jobs, decreasing fossil fuel consumption, reducing hunger and disease, improving education, overcoming prejudice, preventing soil erosion, improving access to clean water, empowering others, protecting biodiversity, furthering social justice, rebuilding soils, stimulating the economy, bridging generation gaps, promoting food sovereignty, and nourishing myself....and you thought I was just making dinner. YOU UNDERESTIMATE ME!
The ad lib lab is a working group of creative and entrepreneurial people who are using technology to connect real people to real issues and one another in the real world. For real. Built on the premise that an "open source" approach is the best way to bring about real innovation, the group shares ideas and best practices both in person and online. We come together around galvanizing issues or events to use our collective geeky superpower for the common good, in a way that also rewards participants for their individual efforts. In a rapidly evolving technological and social landscape, we support one another in making it up as we go along.
