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There has been an email circulating this year calling for a new American Christmas Tradition. I tend to support the ideals and principals contained in this email so I am reprinting it here for your enjoyment.

Today is Black Friday. Maybe if we all were to consider these gifting ideas, we wouldn’t have to risk pepper spray down at the Walmart this year!

Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor.

This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse
that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Oh…. Yes there is! It is time to think outside the
box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone — yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It’s appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn’t appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamins on a Chinese-made flat-screen TV? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a gazillion owner-run restaurants — all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint.

Remember, folks this isn’t about big National chains — this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn’t use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip.

And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre. Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community.

If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US (We the People), encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we could not imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition!!

Forward this to everyone on your mailing list — post it to discussion groups.
– throw up a post on Craig’s List in the Rants and Raves section in your city.
– send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments.

This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn’t that what Christmas is about?

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For Android: (you can find these for iPhone, iPad & Android tablets as well. Some may not have the same name but you should find a similar app for each device if you search.)

Remember the Milk
Evernote
Dropbox
Google Maps
Weather Bug
Pocked Cow Card – DC305
World Newspapers
RealCalc
Smart Tools
Distance & Area Measure
UltraChron
Team Viewer
Google Translate
Alarm & Timer
Flashlight
Instant Heart Rate
Chase Mobile
CamScanner
Craigslist Notifier
Cleartune

For iPad:
Flipboard

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To read Don’s Obituary please click here.

Rosary
Thursday, Aug 25th.
6:30 PM
St. Brigid Catholic Church
200 East Florinda Street, Hanford, CA 93230-3726
Corner of Florinda & Douty
(559) 582-2533 ‎

Funeral
Friday, August 26th
11:30am
St. Brigid Catholic Church
200 East Florinda Street, Hanford, CA 93230-3726
Corner of Florinda & Douty
(559) 582-2533 ‎

Grave Site
Calvary Cemetery
10th Avenue Hanford, CA 93230

Celebration of Life Luncheon
Friday August 26th
2:00 PM
Fraternal Hall
1015 North 10th Avenue
Hanford, CA 93230

In lieu of flowers, friends may contribute in Don’s memory to:

The Hanford Sons of Italy
Scholarship Fund or Charities Fund
9550 Sixth Ave.
Hanford CA, 93230

Kit Carson School
9895 7th Avenue
Hanford, CA 93230-8802
(559) 582-2843

or a local charity of your choice.

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Picture Stolen from LA Times

I have been trying since May 6, 2011 to get this letter published in one of the LA newspapers but was unsuccessful. Since today LA unified voted against chocolate milk in school lunches, I figured I can post it to my blog.

Here it is. Let me know what you think about the issue.
———

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to Jamie Oliver and John Deasy, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and anyone else who thinks about things like chocolate milk in our schools. I’m a fourth generation California dairy farmer, a father, and a local school board member. I happen to agree with Jamie Oliver that there is too much sugar in chocolate milk. But I appeal to Jamie and the LAUSD to not throw out the proverbial “baby with the bath water.” Now’s the time to use your clout and the national spotlight to help move dairy processors toward producing low-sugar flavored milk so that kids can still have access to all of the great nutritional benefits of milk.

I have no doubt that Jamie is a reasonable man who sincerely wants to help America in its fight against childhood obesity. I applaud him for his efforts. There are many causes behind this epidemic and I’m willing to consider all of them, including chocolate milk.  However, it’s simplistic to demonize one food and ban it completely, especially a food that delivers so much nutrition. The good news is that when it comes to flavored milk there is a middle ground, and I hope Jamie is listening.

We face a conundrum here. In our land of plenty we have children who don’t get the recommended nutrients of importance for healthy growth. One of these nutrients is vitamin D, as reported in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient because it promotes calcium absorption that leads to healthy bones. Milk is the number one source of calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus in children’s diets.1 Chocolate milk represents, potentially, the last hope for parents trying to provide nutritious foods to their family without facing epic battles. Flavored milk contains the same nine essential nutrients as white milk – calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, vitamins A, D and B12, riboflavin and niacin.

In schools, low-fat chocolate milk is the most popular milk choice and kids drink less milk – and get fewer nutrients – when it’s taken away. Also, while dropping chocolate milk from the menus of children who have healthy diets may be fine, for many children this one serving of chocolate milk at school is the most nutritious food they consume all day. It’s sad, but true.

The dairy industry has been working to develop a “smarter” chocolate milk. We’ve done this because leading health and nutrition organizations such as the American Dietetic Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics recognize the valuable role of flavored milk in the diets of American children.

The “smarter” chocolate milk I refer to is sweetened with stevia, a 100% natural zero calorie sweetener. I’ve tasted a version of this chocolate milk and it’s great.  Each serving has 71% less added sugar, 50 fewer calories, 13 grams fewer carbohydrates and 10 grams fewer total sugars than traditional chocolate milk while providing the same amount of calcium, vitamin D and protein.

There’s a precedent for the success of such a program. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by switching chocolate milk in New York schools from whole milk to low-fat milk, 5,960 fewer calories and 619 fewer grams of fat were served to children in 2009 versus 2004. In addition, milk sales actually increased, showing that the students found the change acceptable.

Dairy farmers understand the problem with traditional chocolate milk and we’ve been trying for years to encourage processors to produce lower sugar chocolate milk. Now that solutions are available, it’s time to move.

Let’s get serious about working together to help our children. I implore Jamie Oliver and John Deasy to sit down with me to talk about this exciting new option in chocolate milk.  I believe we have a solution where everyone can be happy.

Thanks for your consideration,

Dino Giacomazzi
Giacomazzi Dairy
www.dinogiacomazzi.com
@dairydino

1. Murphy M, Douglass J, Latulippe M, Barr S, Johnson R, Frye C.
Beverages as a source of energy and nutrients in diets of children and
adolescents. The FASEB Journal 2005; A434,275.4.

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The current buildings on our farm were built in 1937, the same year the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, yet the equipment inside has been modernized. Over the past year I have been honored with awards by the University of California and the US EPA for work and research in developing sustainable ways to grow feed for cows that require less input in the field. We now use only three tractor passes for two annual crops versus the 14 passes it used to take. This reduces both diesel usage and emissions. We import much less synthetic fertilizer because we use cow manure, which is just as important as the milk our cows produce. We also recycle the water used on our farm an average of four times and have to meet the highest air quality standards in the country.

Because of efforts like these, California dairy has been paving the way in sustainability practices and I’m proud that California milk is one of the most sustainable food products you can buy. In fact, due to innovation and efficiencies, the overall “carbon footprint” of a glass of milk has shrunk by 63 percent over the past 65 years.

I was fortunate enough that my family took care of the land and sustained it for more than 100 years so I could return to the dairy. I have a responsibility to do the same for my son and future generations. I hope you’ll support me and other local dairy producers by celebrating Earth Day – today and every day – with a tall cold glass of Real California milk.

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Most people would be amazed at the amount of paperwork farmers, and more specifically California Dairy Farmers have to do. We have massive amounts of regulations. And all these regulations require tons of paperwork. It can become overwhelming. Many farmers, like myself, are also engaged in a lot of off the farm activities such as school boards, farm bureau, trade associations, church groups, etc. These activities generally require a lot of reading.

The following information is designed to help farmers use the latest technology to simplify their lives, eliminate paper clutter and lost information, and allow us to spend less time at the office and more time at home. So here it goes.

The Paperless Office in three easy steps:

Step one:
Buy a Fujitsu Scansnap 1500 scanner.

With this scanner you can drop a stack of papers in it, it will scan both sides in crystal clear color directly to a PDF in a matter of seconds. I have one at the dairy and I am now completely paperless. I love this machine almost as much as I love my son.

Step two:
Sign up for Dropbox.com
Dropbox.com is a service that synchronizes files between all your digital devices. Your computer at work, your computer at home, your laptop, your iPad, your blackberry, or iPhone, or Android, everywhere. You simply scan your papers with the scansnap into your dropbox folder and within seconds they are available on all your devices. You can also share specific folders with other people, which is really great for collaboration. This is also a form of backup so your files live in multiple locations. That way, if your office computer dies, all the files are still on your other devices.

Dropbox also allows you to save your other documents like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and other PDF files. In fact, you can save any file type you want and access it from anywhere, including the web.

Step three
Get an iPad or Android Tablet
It is a lot easier to read on an iPad than it is on a desktop computer. This is optional but I think your life will be much better for it. Imagine that entire stack of papers on your desk, scanned to a tiny device you can carry with you everywhere, and categorized so you can find whatever you want in seconds.

I have an iPad and Motorola Droid android phone. I view my dropbox documents on both devices but the iPad is much better. The nice thing about having access to them on your phone is that you can email or share documents with people from the phone so you can do it from anywhere.

That’s it. Total elimination of paper in 3 easy steps.

Do you have any suggestions for helping farmers get organized? Let us know in the comments below.

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