I’ve had the extremely good fortune of being involved with the state’s youth-let anti-tobacco industry movement (”Just Eliminate Lies” or “JEL” for short) since it’s inception back in 2000. This year’s theme for the state-wide summit was “JEL Number Nine” – the capstone of which were two “street marketing” events, one in Des Moines and one in Iowa City.

As you can see, the message was “50 people will die this lunch break from tobacco use.” Fifty teenagers in black shirts would “die” when “Big Tobacco” rolled in. Overall it was well-recieved!

You can find out more about Just Eliminate Lies here – http://www.JELiowa.org

Mayor Ed Malloy will be presenting Lynne Twist the first Mayor’s Humanitarian Award in honor of Lynne’s visit to Fairfield.  Lynne Twist is author of The Soul of Money, which the Mayor tells me he is currently reading.  She is also the founder of The Pachamama Alliance, an organization with the two-fold mission of:

• Preserving the Earth’s tropical rainforests by empowering the indigenous people who are its natural custodians.
• Contributing to the creation of a new global vision of equity and sustainability for all.

Mayor Malloy described his inspiration to “create the award because of the work she has done for hunger and world poverty . . . and teaching the native principles of sustainaiblity to modern society.” Read the full story

For those of you who don’t know, there is a two-week Permaculture Design Certification course being taught in Eco-Village soon, from May 31 to June 13. At the end you’ll get an internationally recognized certificate!

More at Big Green Summer.