April 2005 | Social (Responsibility) Calendar
Invite Mother Earth to Dinner
by Marla Donato
Chances are, if you decide to mark the 35th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, you’ll probably do something like plant a tree, clean up a beach or maybe help restore a wooded trail.
But if Theresa Marquez has her way, you’ll also consider inviting your mother to dinner. Mother Earth, that is. It might help if you invite some family and friends to do the cooking.
This is the second year that Marquez, director of consumer affairs at Organic Valley Family of Farms and its strong group of “Northwest Pastures” farmers, has been promoting the idea of Earth Dinner parties. The first year, only a handful of people adopted the idea, but it did manage to gain national attention.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh “panned it,” Marquez says.
Well, that’s one good reason right there to stage a celebration.
“He said, ‘Can you believe what these environmental wackos are doing? They are worshiping Mother Earth as a religion,’ ” explains Marquez.
Marquez shrugs, undeterred.
“Basically, there are two rules,” she says. “You have to identify where the (food) things came from, and for each course you need to have an intimate conversation about your relationship with the earth.”
To get the discussions rolling this year, Organic Valley has come up with a free deck of 50 discussion cards.
They include inspirational sayings by everyone from former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson (“Where flowers bloom, so does hope”) to novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (“There is not a thing which is more positive than bread”). And they ask questions such as “How much food do you throw away from your refrigerator every week?”
The whole idea started a few years back over drinks at the Excelsior Hotel in New York City, where Marquez had gone for a meeting. Marquez, Katherine DiMatteo of the Organic Trade Association and Jeff Odefey of Waterkeeper Alliance were discussing how to put the Earth back into Earth Day by adding its bounty to the festivities.
The dinner has an impressive list of endorsing organizations: Bioneers, Chefs Collaborative, Earth Pledge, Environmental Working Group, Music Matters, Slow Food and Social Venture Network.
“We wanted something that was simple, without a lot of bureaucracy that everyone could get behind, trade associations, nonprofits and for-profit businesses,” Marquez said.
If you want to make your dinner official, you can sign up and link it to Earth Dinner’s website.
The Earth Dinner Creativity Cards by Douglas Love are available free. For menu ideas, table decorating suggestions and your own set of Earth Dinner cards, visit www.earthdinner.org. — Marla Donato
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