A Global Organic Mindset

This interactive page is a summary of current projects, plans, and campaigns I’m working on. They are some of the most interesting, unique things in the world happening right now. Links and documents are attached, I would love to hear feedback in comment or email form:

1. Small Planet Institute.
Hopefully I will be able to make an impact here: I’m editing a book and doing web outreach for Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet with a new book called Liberation Ecology. I will be writing a blog there too, soon.

2. Farmville Organics Cooperative
A most recent project of mine, I am trying to start a facebook organic movement among students on the popular facebook farmville application. It’s a movement based largely in the idealism of the youth, anyways, and the genuine advantages of the technique. Visit my farm on farmville.

3. Quantifying the benefits of sustainable coffee:
Semester and summer research on the benefits of sustainable and direct-trade coffee for farmers and the environment. Read my paper on Coffee carbon footprint of farms. Summer investigation, coming soon: project for coffee farmers in Southern Costa Rica.

See link for a great survey overview of certifications to coffee farmers: http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2008/seeking_sustainability.pdf

CAN Summer 2009. Help sustainable development! Order coffee from the coop I was working at this summer. It’s direct, sustainable, certified and all that… the farmers are really good people. $11 a pound with three roasts to choose from>>> http://eddiemill.wordpress.com/projects/can-coffee-orders-2.doc

4. Social Enterprise Business Planning:
Seed funding and support for international business plan. Each year, the organization awards 20 fellowships to emerging social entrepreneurs to give up to $90,000 and business councilling for 2 years. A program like this one would easily be the best way to get a foot in the door on my own center.

RootCause Business Planning for Social Impact: “Business Plans serve as road maps to guide organizations in carrying out their missions, as sales documents to aid in acquiring financial and in-kind resources, and as a way for you to communicate your progress to social impact investors. Elements of strategic planning are always part of a complete business planning process. Business plans consider an organization’s work in the context of the overall needs and opportunities surrounding the target social problem. They also identify the niche that the organization can fill, list the specific strategies that the organization will take to fill that niche, and provide a plan for acquiring the necessary resources to carry out and sustain its work.”
http://rootcause.org/bizplanning/

The team, so far:
Eddie Miller, BU ‘10
Jake Mercer, Baldwin Wallace ‘10
Elise Moussa, Borderless Educations
Robin Bartling, MIT Legatam
Clayton, Baldwin Wallace ‘09
Andrew Lascar, New Jersey
Isys Johnson, Cornell ‘11
Julio Valverde, Costa Rica
Mitchell Barys, Berklee Alum
Blondine Hellot, France

5. Boston University Projects
EC320, Economics of Less Developed Regions
Independent work, semester
This work is looking at rural organic farm cooperatives in economic terms, and their advantages in the areas of productivity, inequality, agricultural social capital, and long-term economic viability. I propose a new working model with drastically lowered supply costs in the form of a direct-trade cooperative model. Cooperatives are tricky, and require someone to facilitate in the areas of extension workers and marketing and credit.

See “ final paper“, attached. (updated 12/25/08)

IR/GE 304: Sustainable Development
Policy Brief for Costa Rican Government Department of Agriculture, link to be posted soon.

GE 275 Environmental Modelling
Quantifying the energy use of different farm systems. Link to Modelling abstract.

6. Organizing Projects
Massachusetts Power Shift
This has been my project for the last year, and I’m finally proud to announce that the student climate change network of Massachusetts is now a world-class organization organization. We are represented in over 25 schools and organizations across Massachusetts, working to unite state- and national- level campaigns with campus club organizing.

Keep up with the website, http://www.masspowershift.org/ for awesome events around Massachusetts. It’s been good, MAPS!

The Real Food Challenge
With Slowfood, OGC, and the Environmental Students Organization, trying to get BU to convert its food to be 20% sustainable in 10 years. It is already a good amount so, and just takes pushing the administration and adequate support from the student body.
Visit: http://www.realfoodchallenge.org/ for a preview of the campaign!

MAPS @ BU:
Helping with outreach for Mass Power Shift, which has its own BU chapter now. We’re hoping to pull off an all-month sleep-out, to complement the Environmental Student’s October 23rd event. Check us out on Facebook

StartingBloc Institute for Social Innovation
In the shift to sustainability, it is business that is going to have to bear the brunt of the adaptation requirements. Entrepreneurs who can use the tools and models available to them will succeed in a new social business/non-profit environment. Startingbloc connects and empowers emerging leaders to drive social change across sectors.

There’s an institute coming up this Spring in Boston. Learn the vocabulary and meet amazing people?
Apply: Apply now it’s $350 for students
I’ve been heavily involved with the Boston Alumni of the program, we do drinks and meet-ups every now and then. Want to come with me for one next Thursday, November 20th in Central??

Browse the attached school docs, and help me out please!

-Eddie Miller
Boston University ‘10
440-935-5434
A global organic mindset: http://eddiemill.wordpress.comdr-paper-1Ed DR paper