Greetings everyone!
 
Thank you to those (over 60) of you who attended our 8th annual 'Interdependence Day' celebration, for your wonderful food contributions and support.   A big and generous thank you goes to the American Flatbread Pizza Company ( http://ww.americanflatbread.com)  for providing those tasty, organic, wood fired pizzas that we were able to heat up in the cob oven.   Also thanks to the those who brought along their musical instruments and singing voices (there was a pretty good jam session going on there) and to Ray Cirino (amazing and innovative cob builder) who was the inspiration behind this useful and artful oven who brought himself and scrap wood to feed the fire!
 
::Lost & Found::   There were a few items left behind on the 4th, so please contact us to claim these items.
 
1 white baby hat    
1 ladies "cowboy" type hat
 
Please join us on Sunday, July 16th for a "100 mile" potluck and film screening of another award winning documentary that's a detective story, an eco-activism doc, and a rollicking comedy, BLUE VINYL puts a human face on the dangers posed by PVC at every stage of its life cycle, from factory to incinerator.  
 
In addition the latest version (15 minutes) of the PTF music-video brochure will be shown and Jules Dervaes will be on hand to take any questions that you have regarding our self-sufficient urban homesteading project.
 
Our next film screening (in August) will be held at a local church just down the road from Path to Freedom as we collaborate on hosting "The Great Warming" narrated by Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette. 
 
Directed by Vermont-based producer Michael Taylor, "The Great Warming" is this summer’s OTHER global warming film, overshadowed, at least for the moment, by Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth." 
"We are living at the dawn of a new epoch. Year by year, degree by degree, Earth is growing warmer... a legacy of the Industrial Revolution, population growth, and our addiction to technology, speed and power.

"Just as other generations spoke of a Great Plague and a Great Depression, our children will be compelled to endure The Great Warming - and find a way to conquer its consequences.

"Filmed in eight countries on four continents, endorsed by dozens of the world's leading scientists, this three-hour television series is the most factually accurate, visually stunning and wide-ranging production ever mounted about this complex, fascinating subject."

Time and details will be sent out in few weeks.
 
Happy summer everyone.
 
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FILM SCREENING & '100 Mile' POTLUCK
 
BLUE VINYL (90 min)
The world's first toxic comedy
 
When:  Sunday, July 16
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: Path to Freedom, 631 Cypress Ave, Pasadena, CA  91103
$5 - $10 suggested donation (we are working with our local Wild Oats in hopes to give away some cloth bags -- stay tuned)
As always, space is limited so please rsvp
 
::Event Schedule::
 
6:00 - 7:00 pm - "100 Mile" Potluck
7:30 pm  - Film screening  'Blue Vinyl'
 
{ if you decide not to attend, please be considerate, and send us an email informing us of your cancellation}
 
::Film Description::
 
With humor, hope, and piece of PVC vinyl siding in hand (a remnant from her parent's suburban house), Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold explores home, family industry-sponsored science and the ecology of denial.
 
Questioning her parents decision to put blue vinyl siding on their house, she sets out to find the truth about vinyl: what are the hazards, are there side-effects, are there dangers in the production and disposal of vinyl?
 
Having lost her uterus from DES poisoning, she shares a bond with the cancer victims who work in and live in the shadow of the vinyl and PVC factories. Judith has this gravelly high voice, a quirky sense of humor, and a vulnerability in the face of corporate America that makes her irresistible.
 
Exposure to vinyl chloride is an extremely underrated hazard. Research has shown for years (and Helfand makes a strong case for this in her movie) that vinyl chloride is a carcinogen, and that the production & disposal of vinyl is a serious environmental and health risk.   
 
Vinyl (or PVC) is the “most environmentally hazardous consumer product in the world.” The chemical released in its creation and disposal (and likely gradually emitted, at eeenie weenie levels, during its life in between) is the exceptionally deadly dioxin, “the Watergate of molecules.” And as one of the many scientists interviewed for this film asserts, the highly carcinogenic dioxin sticks around for a very long time: if you were “exposed to ten units of dioxin, ten years later, you would still have five units in your body.”
 
Read more about this movie and review at http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revitalvi_179.shtml

What You Can Do?
 
Plastic is a substance which we (and which was not addressed by the film) are exposed to on a regular basis. So-called "inert" vinyl, found in PVC pipes, vinyl siding, shower curtains, car dashboards, etc., emits small doses of toxic chemicals, which also pose serious concerns.  
 
Learn how to get this toxic substance out of your life by visiting this site http://mindfully.org/Plastic/Alternatives/Alternatives-Plastic-Goettlich3aug05.htm  for healthier alternatives to plastic.
 
100 MILE POTLUCK
 
Continuing the Eat Local Challenge
 
PTF joins the Bay Area Locavores (www.locavores.com) as they challenge people from all over the world to eat within a 100 mile radius of their home.
 
We invite all local eaters (this means you) to join us in a celebration of our local food cornucopia and in an effort to raise our own awareness of our place within the foodshed.
 
::Potluck Guidelines:: Our goal for this potluck is to eat from within a 100 mile radius of our homes. Failing that, we will attempt to eat foods that come from within our State, or are purchased directly from small scale farmers elsewhere in the world. Some of us will interpret these guidelines more strictly than others, but the main goal is to pay attention to where the food that we eat comes from. 
 
More info about food miles check out a few handy references at http://www.pathtofreedom.com/popups/eatlocal.htm
 
REMEMBER THE PLEDGE OF THE LOCAVORE:
 
If not FROM BACKYARD then locally produced.
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
 
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:: ZERO WASTE & LOW IMPACT ::
 
We, at Path to Freedom, endeavor to make our each of our events as "eco- friendly" as possible with solar (or other "alternative green") electricity, oil/biodiesel lamps, candles and a "low or zero waste policy" by providing reusable plates, cups, and utensils to ensure there is no unnecessary waste.
 
All other waste (i.e., plastic wrappers, glass bottles, food containers, etc) and food scraps are recycled, reused, composted or fed to our pet chickens and ducks.  { http://www.pathtofreedom.com/popups/zerowaste.htm }
 
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Follow our path...
Organic Gardening, Urban Permaculture, Solar Energy, Homebrew Biodiesel,
Citified Farm Animals, Cob Oven, Waste & Water Reclamation, Appropriate
Technologies & More!

 
~ A pioneering journey towards self sufficiency, one step at a time ~
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PATH TO FREEDOM
  Sustainable Living Resource Center & Urban Homestead

  Jules Dervaes (founder /director)
  631 Cypress Ave
  Pasadena, CA  91103
  phone: 626.795.8400
  email: 
dervaes@pathtofreedom.com
  web: www.PathtoFreedom.com

In our society growing food yourself has become the most radical of acts. It
is truly the only effective protest, one that can-and will-overturn the
corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with
nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the world-we change
ourselves.    ~  Jules Dervaes ~
 
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