Posts

The Great Denial: Genocide in Real Time

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“Genocide” is most commonly invoked in the past tense, used to describe an historical event. While genocides are underway they are often overshadowed by the larger context of war and can go unrecognized in the day to day, a civilian bombing here, a displacement there. Then there are refugee migrations, and forced famine. Most often it is from the safety of hindsight that a genocide be universally accepted as such and join the history books along side those of Armenia, Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Germany and Srebrenica, to name just a few from recent history. Because in the past, due to the limits of gathering and disseminating information, many indicators of genocide of the past went unnoticed, the momentum of the killing would outpace the ability of society to identify a genocide and respond. Yet today we are watching in real time as it’s horrors unfold in Gaza. This is new terrain.

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Swimming all five Great Lakes in one day

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The Niagara Escarpment rises from the Earth east of Rochester, New York. It extends over 650 miles across the top of the Great Lakes basin to Lake Michigan’s western limits on Wisconsin’s shore. The escarpment’s defining feature is its dolomite limestone, dating back to the Silurian age of the Paleozoic era. It has aged well. That’s where we, four northern Michigan men, enter the story, searching for adventure to help us age just as gracefully. Steve Nance, Evan Smith, Timothy Young, and I set off to follow the Niagara and challenge ourselves to swim in each of the five great lakes on the longest day of the year, June 20, the summer solstice.

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Carrying her own backpack: daughter of global activist, Stella Young joins On the Ground

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The message from Timothy Young to his six-year-old daughter Stella was clear: you’ll carry your own backpack, throughout the trip. About that he was adamant. The trip was to Chiapas, Mexico, in 2007 to meet rural coffee-growing communities which Higher Grounds Trading Co. supported through the Chiapas Water Project. That journey has now come full circle. A year after she graduated from Kalamazoo College, the 2018 Glen Lake School graduate recently became director of development for On the Ground, the international nonprofit co-founded in 2010 by her father and Higher Grounds owner Chris Treter. The organization has supported coffee farmers in Chiapas, Ethiopia and the Congo, and olive farmers in the Palestinian West Bank. On the Ground will host a party and fundraiser on Thursday, Oct. 12, at The Alluvion at Commongrounds in Traverse City.

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Leelanau’s housing shortage—a symptom of low wages and larger societal problems

The ever-widening gap between the wealthy and the working class is probably the greatest cause of Leelanau County’s affordable housing crisis, says Timothy Young. We are never going to solve the housing crisis until we solve the labor pay scale.

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Timothy Young: locavore, social entrepreneur

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Food For Thought has played a critical role in the local foods movement here in Northern Michigan. But when he started the business out of his house south of Empire in 1995, Timothy Young was one of just a handful of pioneers in this niche market. The demand for local foods has exploded over the last decade, and Young’s business has expanded to 10 full-time, year-round employees and a spattering of part-time and seasonal employees.

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A David vs. Goliath tale of trademark infringement

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Corporate giants Huffington Post, owned by AOL, and food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill have collaborated on a new blog about food named Food for Thought. A small 18-year-old food company in Northern Michigan, however, trademarked the name Food for Thought years ago, and has been writing a blog about food for some time. Is this a case of a huge company stepping on the toes of a small business, or is it simply corporate oversight? Timothy Young, of Food for Thought, Inc, has launched a campaign to get his trademark recognized by the corporate giants.

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Autumn Olives: Can’t beat ‘em? Eat ‘em!

Once you know what it looks like, you see it everywhere — along roadsides, driveways, fences and the forest’s edge. The branches of Elaeagnus umbellate, a shrub more commonly known as Autumn Olive, droop over each other and create an umbrella of shade. Beginning in September, that umbrella is showered with small, olive-shaped, red berries which attract birds and wild food foragers.

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Grocer’s Daughter: “a sweet little business” grows under new owners

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As Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate celebrates 10 years in Leelanau County, it also fetes the new ownership of the business under Jody Dotson and D.c. Hayden of Traverse City, who acquired it from Mimi Wheeler on April 1. The ingredients of a successful business in Leelanau County would seem to include: a unique, high-quality product, community-minded entrepreneurial spirit, the ability to identify trends, a strong network of employees, like-minded business owners and customers, and a pinch of good luck.

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Logging Miles and Building Schools in Ethiopia

On Sunday, Jan. 9, a team of American runners (most with northern Michigan roots) will leave the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on a 250-mile run. For 10 days they’ll jog through the ancient Rift Valley, sleep in highland villages and raise awareness with folks back home about rural poverty and lack of schools. Ten marathons in ten days! On Jan. 20 they’ll arrive in Yirgacheffe, one of the world’s great coffee-growing regions.

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Locals run across Ethiopia

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In January, a contingent of northern Michiganders will run 250 miles across Ethiopia, from the capital, Addis Ababa, to the Yirgachefe coffee growing region in the southern part of the ancient East African nation, as part of a campaign to generate awareness and raise $100,000 for local education projects, including the construction of much-needed schools in coffee-harvesting communities.

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