FOLKS WE LIKE

Here are a few organizations whose impact we feel is important enough to share with our customers, and some that we just think are cool. We hope you agree. And check back regularly, as we hope to see this page grow!

In 2003, Cuyahoga county residents spent $3 billion on food; take a look at the stickers on your produce or your processed food’s packaging to see where most of that money went.

The folks at the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, www.cvcountryside.org, work "to re-envision and rebuild local-regional farming and food systems in Northeast Ohio – systems purposefully designed to reconnect food in the public’s mind to farming and land, to community and nature. They are putting together the Countryside Food Guide to connect consumers with locally grown and produced food.

"When local people choose to eat locally grown food, local farms prosper, local communities diversify and thrive, and rural landscapes refuse to go away. There is simply nothing else ordinary people can do in the course of their daily lives which will so profoundly and positively affect their communities and the environment."

Entrepreneurs for Sustainability drive what we hope is a growing movement to transform Northeast Ohio into a prosperous, sustainable, and environmentally progressive region using business as the tool. They do way too much to summarize their growing influence on our little website, so check out theirs at www.e4sustainability.org. As an added bonus, these guys have their monthly third Tuesday meetings at the Great Lakes Brewery.

In the winter of 2005, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps asked American Gardens co-founder, Jeff McIntosh to help them with a new project in the San Bernardino Mountains. While Northeast Ohio was under snow, Jeff led a team of AmeriCorps members alongside U.S. Forest Service Hotshot crews on a large hazardous (forest-fire) fuels reduction and habitat restoration initiative. This is but one of many projects managed by the LACC and other conservation and youth corps around the country. Take a look at some of them at www.lacorps.org, and read more about Jeff’s experiences here.

The good people at Good Nature Organic Lawn Care are doing a good thing for all of us by providing a comprehensive, professional, and effective alternative to chemical fertilization programs. According to the American Cancer Society and the EPA, "95% of the pesticides used on residential lawns are considered possible or probable carcinogens," and it’s commonly known that runoff from chemically treated lawns is one of the worst environmental pollutants. Until another company of similar quality and practice emerges, Good Nature will be the only lawn-treatment company we will recommend. www.whygoodnature.com