RARE Monday Mailing-Issue 29

Monday Mailing

Year 19 • Issue 29 15 April 2013 1. How to Harness Visual Leadership 2. Nike Expansion: Portland Ponders $80 Million Incentive Package, County Tax Abatements, to Lure Nike to South Waterfront 3. Farm-to-Table in Communities of Color 4. Three-peat for Tracktown 5. The Invisible Bike Helmet That You'll Have To (Not) See To Believe 6. Great Food Videos 7. Oregon's 'We Speak' Program Giving a Voice to Small, Tourist-Hungry Communities 8. Drone Technology may Help Grow Eastern Oregon Potatoes, Minus the Missiles 9. Ending Ban on Women Cyclists Can Lead to a More Bike-Friendly Saudi Arabia 10. Federal and Oregon Farm Grants will Pay for Drought and Climate Change Adaptations 1. How to Harness Visual Leadership Smart people in a hurry become stupid. (Or at least act stupidly. My work with busy executive teams tells me that this phenomenon is universal — and I see it in myself daily).

When we need our busy co-workers and our busy selves to be both smarter and faster, what can we do?

Quote of the Week: "There is more to life than increasing its speed." ~Mahatma Gandhi Oregon Fast Fact #33: The Nike "swoosh" logo was designed by University of Oregon student Carolyn Davidson in 1964 -- four years after business undergrad Phil Knight and track coach Bill Bowerman founded the company they originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. Ms. Davidson was paid $35 dollars for her design.

Get visual.

Recent advances in brain science are teaching us to harness the natural strengths of the human brain to overcome its weaknesses.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Nike Expansion: Portland Ponders $80 Million Incentive Package, County Tax Abatements, to Lure Nike to South Waterfront To lure Nike to Portland's South Waterfront District, city officials have considered offering unprecedented financial incentives of about $80 million for parking garages, parks and new streets tied to a massive company expansion, The Oregonian has learned.

Taxpayer-backed investments could balloon to nearly $140 million if Multnomah County officials approve a major tax-abatement program for Nike, under one scenario.

Details were laid out in information obtained by The Oregonian, though it's not known whether any specific financial package has been offered to Nike officials, who are also weighing options in Washington County.

To access the full story, click here.

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3. Farm-to-Table in Communities of Color "Why would I want to go back to picking cotton?" That's one response you get when you talk to young people of color about farming and food sovereignty, says D.C. farmer and food activist Natasha Bowens. Yet food sovereignty is of vital importance in the broader context of social justice.

According to a report by The Applied Research Center, 10 percent of black and Latino families lack access to adequate food--"three times the rate for white households." And while about a third of whites live in an area with a supermarket, only 8 percent of blacks do.

Bowens, author of the blog Brown Girl Farming and founder of The Color of Food, a directory of farmers of color, didn't start out in agriculture. She had never set foot on a farm. But after working at a D.C. think tank on issues related to food, she says, "I was interested in knowing where my food came from." She quit her job to devote herself full-time to farming and food justice. Focusing on communities of color affected by "the broken food system," as she puts it, Bowens worked her way through Detroit, Chicago, and Brooklyn, founding The Color of Food after meeting and talking with Farms to Grow founder Gail Myers at the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference in 2010.

Bowens wanted to go a step further than simply identifying and listing farmers of color across the country. So she hit the road for five months to speak in person with more than 60 farmers of African American, Native American, Asian, and Latino descent.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Three-peat for Tracktown Like a comet that returns every four years to stage a spectacular show, the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials are coming back to Eugene in 2016.

The formal announcement will be made today at a news conference in Salem, said a state official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It will be the third straight Olympic Trials in Eugene, and the sixth time the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field has served as host of the country’s most prestigious track and field event leading up to the Summer Olympics.

State leaders Wednesday morning announced a news conference for today in Salem to make an unspecified announcement featuring TrackTown USA President Vin Lananna, UO President Michael Gottfredson, Gov. John Kitzhaber, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek.

University spokesman Phil Weiler would not confirm the topic of today’s news conference, nor did the state officially release the topic. But the source confirmed that the news conference is to announce that Eugene will host the 2016 Trials.

To access the full story, click here.

5. The Invisible Bike Helmet That You'll Have To (Not) See To Believe This invention is almost too crazy to be true. Luckily, that sentence had the world "almost" in it.

Enjoy living in the future, everyone. `

To check out some of this awesomeness, click here.

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6. Great Food Videos You might have noticed that the internet is now flooded with videos about food. But which are the good ones?

Below is a list of some of the most interesting, revolutionary and /or important films about food – and all are viewable online. These 5+ videos are sure to teach you a thing or two. Some will even make you laugh.

To access a list of great food videos-shorts, click here.

To access a list of great food videos-shorts, click here.

7. Oregon's 'We Speak' Program Giving a Voice to Small, Tourist-Hungry Communities Luring visitors to rural areas is tough enough, but when they finally come the last thing anyone needs is clueless locals. And frequently enough, they seem to be in abundance.

"I've heard someone ask, 'What's there to do around this place?' And the answer was, 'Oh, I don't know,'" says Andrea Scharf, marketing director for Go Yachats. "Someone went to one of the motels and said, 'Know where I can get a good cup of clam chowder?' And the person said, 'No.' Or you get people in Yachats who say, 'You have to go to Newport.' That's really bad."

So how do you make sure the people who are supposed to be in the know actually are? Simple. Give them the words.

It's called "We Speak," a program aimed at teaching people on the front lines – the desk clerks, gas station attendants, wait staff – about their community. That way when visitors come to an area known for, say, it's amazing bike trails, they won't be sent six counties away for a ride.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Drone Technology may Help Grow Eastern Oregon Potatoes, Minus the Missiles Agricultural researchers will begin testing two small, remote-controlled aircraft this month, flying them over potato fields in the Hermiston area in trials that may help farmers use water, fertilizer and pesticides more efficiently.

Researchers believe the aircraft, equipped with sophisticated cameras that can zoom in on individual leaves, may increase crop yields and reduce costs as farmers spot and react to problems earlier.

The trials beginning this spring will primarily involve irrigation and fertilizer issues. Researchers will artificially stress potato field sections at OSU's Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Hermiston, said Phill Hamm, the station director.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Ending Ban on Women Cyclists Can Lead to a More Bike-Friendly Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia is set to lift its ban on women cycling, and while the decree comes with a few strings attached, it might also help lead the way to a new future for Saudi cities.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Yawm, which first reported the story, cites an unnamed source from the country’s morality police as saying that women will soon be allowed to ride bicycles and motorcycles Page 3 of 4

inside the country. But they can only do so for recreational purposes — visiting parks, for instance.

While riding, women must also wear an abaya, a loose-fitting Islamic dress that covers the entire body, and be accompanied by a male relative.

While this announcement does not address transportation concerns (Saudi women do not have the right to drive within the state), what does it mean for cycling in Saudi Arabia?

Amy Newell, a visiting lecturer at Princess Noura University and a former resident of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, laughs at the question of who bikes in the city. In the two years that she lived in there, she says, she never once saw a local resident on a bike.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Federal and Oregon Farm Grants will Pay for Drought and Climate Change Adaptations The U.S. Department of Agriculture is handing out $5.3 million Conservation Innovation Grants to help adapt to extreme climate changes that cause drought. These grants will fund projects in states, primarily in the Midwest and Southwest, that were hit hard by drought last year.

The grants will pay for research, projects and technology related to livestock grazing, warm season forage systems, irrigation strategies and innovative cropping systems. Examples include field improvements that enhance the soil's ability to hold water, evaluations of water use and installing grazing systems that are more tolerant to drought.

To access the full story, click here.

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