Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation 

Working for peace, social justice and principled nonviolence since 1976

Home | Contact Us  | Donate or Volunteer

TV Programs

The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s TV program airs on Monday 1:30 pm, Wednesday 5 pm, Thursday 9 pm and will air twelve times through the month.  You and other people everywhere can watch it on TV or through our website, www.olympiafor.org, soon after it has debuted on TCTV.  See the paragraph immediately below.

May 2013 “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System”
by Glen Anderson, producer and host of this TV series
In our local community, more and more people are interested in sustainability, are growing good food locally, and are helping other people grow food.
Our May 2013 TV program is all about “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System.”  Three knowledgeable guests with interesting first-hand experience teach us a lot during this program:

• TJ Johnson is a former Olympia City Council member, organizer of the October 2011 Food Summit, and a vigorous participant in the local food movement.  The Food Summit attracted so many pre-registrants that it filled to capacity long before the event.  The Food Summit brought local people together and moved toward solutions.
• David Coppley is the Kitchen Garden Project Coordinator for Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB), which helps our entire community, especially young people and lower-income people, to grow their own food.  GRuB has an excellent reputation in our community.  David’s own background with food is long and varied, ranging from farm labor to produce purchaser at a grocery store.
• Celeste Wade used GRuB’s services about 8 or 9 years ago to help her start growing food for her own family, and now raises a lot more food and operates a Community-Supported Agriculture entity called Crosstown Farms.  Celeste’s enthusiasm is an inspiration, and she continues to reach out to people to build the movement for growing more food locally.

Our nation’s existing food system relies heavily on an industrial model with heavy use of chemicals derived from oil and natural gas.  It relies upon genetically modified (GM) crops and includes other aspects that are not compatible with healthy food or healthy environment. 
For thousands of years people grew food locally, so they could make relevant decisions about their food.  Now the decisions are made by giant corporations without our participation, and the food is grown distantly and transported over long distances
Our nation’s current food system has many problems, such as:

• Food travels an average of about 1,500 miles from the farm to our kitchens. 
• The Peak Oil crisis not only makes transportation more expensive, but excessive use of oil also destroys the world’s environment and climate. 
• Petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers consume oil, undermine nutrition and add toxins to our diet.
• Long-distance transportation and unnecessary processing also weaken food’s nutrition value.
• Factory farms and a cold-hearted industrial approach to food production are disgusting and violate our “small-is-beautiful” ethic.
• Large-scale farming destroys topsoil and repudiates nature’s ways of replenishing soil nutrients.
• Giant corporations rip off much of the money we spend for food – and squeeze small farmers into bankruptcy. 
• In contrast, locally produced food is fresher, safer, and more nutritious. 
• Locally grown food supports small farmers and keeps our food dollars circulating within our local community.
• Locally grown food creates a sense of community because people can share knowledge and resources for growing food in our own yards and in local farms.  We know the folks who sell local food at local farmers’ markets.

A tremendous amount of Thurston County’s farmland has been lost over the decades, and people are working hard to protect what remains.  Local cities and Thurston County’s current three Commissioners have taken several wise actions to protect farmland and promote sustainable small agriculture in Thurston County.  But they can and should do even more.
Community gardens can bring people together to use available space to grow food for themselves and to share with others.
The movement toward Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) allows a consumer to buy a share in a local farm’s output at the beginning of a season and receive a box of fresh, varied produce every week.
Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB, www.goodgrub.org) is a much-loved local organization that combines several positive dynamics, including local food production, support for low-income people who want to produce more of their own food, and training for young people (in their teens and 20s) who want to learn and help.  David Coppley, GRuB’s Kitchen Garden Project Coordinator, explains GRuB’s interesting and inspiring activities and successes.
Celeste Wade tells how she started raising food at home with GRuB’s help, and now she is actively raising a lot of food on several properties and engaging more people to do the same.  What a great story!
Local folks are promoting many other solutions.  Several active local resources are:

• Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB), www.goodgrub.org), (360) 753-5522
• South of the Sound Community Farmland Trust (www.communityfarmlandtrust.org)
• Sustainable South Sound (www.sustainablesouthsound.org)
• Thurston Food System Council (www.thurstonfoodcouncil.org)
• Crosstown Farms (www.ctfarms-rabbits.com)

SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
Sometimes we produce special programs.  These air on TCTV at various dates and times.

We are posting our recent INTERVIEW and SPECIAL programs on the internet.  (Although we got broadcast rights for airing the “BIG PICTURE” films, we are not able to post them on the internet, although some might be posted under their own names.)  Also, our older programs are not available in this format.

To watch a program, simply click on a link below to watch that episode. 

Interview programs

May 2010: Empowering Ourselves for Profound Democracy (PDF INFO)

Florence Ntakarutimana - "Women, Water, & Reconciliation"

Glen Anderson, Anne Mills, and I had an awesome privilege of being on the TCTV crew for Friendly Water for the World when they taped an inspiring woman from Burundi, Florence Ntakarutimana. She is the Program Manager for "Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities" throughout Burundi, Rwanda, and Kenya. She also coordinated the joint HROC/Friendly Water for the World clean water and reconciliation project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXgSAmBaZR8&feature=youtu.be The program is 29:29 minutes long!

jobs, not wars

Bringing Warbuck$ Home Skit

Juan Meléndez - an Innocent Survivor from Death Row (Sep 20, 2011)

Alice Walker:poet/writer as activist

malalai joya:a woman among warlords

the threat of military recruiters in our schools

"The true cost of War - Rep. dennis Kucinich

Q & A with Rep. Dennis Kucinich "the true cost of war" (Feb 2011)

Children under occupation - ziad abbas (water issues in gaza)

“Drug War Roadshow” (Taped August 2009.  Aired on TCTV October-November 2009)

“Religion in Wartime” (Part 1 and Part 2)   (March 2010)

Iraq Memorial to Life - Washington DC

"Poetic Justice" Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation Committee for Alternatives to the death penalty - presentation at traditions cafe May 5, 2010

Zawadi Nikuze - trauma healing with victims of rape in the republic of the congo - presentation at Olympia friends meeting may 25, 2010

Gandhi's legacy and presence viable today? - a presentation by Bernie Meyer, "The American Gandhi

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Anti-Arab Racism - a Panel Discussion

Group Psychotherapy with Sexually Traumatized Women in Turkey

Teach Peace Foundation Presents

Many Great Anti-War Films Worth Watching on Your Computer

The movies can be enlarged for viewing by clicking Control + (Windows) or Command + (Mac)