Mary Sexton's Blog (8)

I can easily see a type of technology based on smart phones that could track the path of severe weather as it traveled on the ground in real time.

Living in tornado alley, it can be nerve wracking to stay up all hours of the night just listening to the weather reporter telling you that the storm is in this town, seeing your town up the road and listening for the sirens to go off or to hear the newscaster say "if you live in area x, now is the time to seek shelter." Then racing…

I think that currency will go the direction of electronic transfer to the point that those transactions will be immediate and basically unseen by the consumer. I'm not thinking that its my favorite plan, but its what I see coming.

I find it interesting that so many of the people discussing the US use the example of falling use of credit cards as a reason why things are about to change. I think that isn't necessarily the case. Most of the people I know are paying off their…

As I sit down to dinner, I remember a summer evening in 2009 I spent with a friend of mine outside of Seattle, Washington. It was late around 8:30 or so, but we went outside into her garden and picked cherry tomatoes and leaf lettuce out of her garden for dinner. Who would have thought it would have lead to what I have now.

After dinner I will have to go out and herd the chickens into the coop and secure the goats for the night. Then go out the side gate to check the drip…

I'm in the process of convincing our green initiative leader (each branch office has one) that we should make a concerted effort to grow food in the office. This morning I planted strawberries and tomatoes and will plant some herbs tomorrow morning when I get in. Many of my office mates have green thumbs (unlike me) and I hope they will take up the challenge of who can have the best "office farm".

While this may not directly aid in the food security of the local neighborhood,…

Granted, I only planted a few and they are in my office at work. However, this is only a small step to a larger goal of more food sufficiency for my family.

In our local area (I live in the suburbs) there is a farmer's market most weekend during the growing season. In fact the first one is this Saturday. During the season we buy almost all our produce there and this year I plan on stocking up on more than I usually do and breaking out the boiling water canner. Its been a long…

While it is not necessarily an easy leap to make from food to water, but I think my water hero is the Native Food project on the Tohono O'odaham reservation outside of Tucson, Arizona.

What does native food have to do with water? In AZ, agriculture pours gallons and gallons of water daily onto plant that have no business trying to grow in the desert. By shifting to crops that are already indigeneous to the area, it eliminates much of the water wasted by big agriculture…

A few months ago I stumbled across an interesting book called "The Blue Sweater". In it, Jacqueline Novogratz talks about her experiences working to solve poverty from the financial management chair. But that's not the only reason I am choosing to shadow Ms. Novogratz. She always speaks so passionately and eloquently on behalf of those who do not have access to the types of forums she does.

I'm following her on twitter as well. Who knows, I might even post something on my own…

How many times do issues appear in the newspapers or on TV and you find yourself thinking...why didn't they ask me? I could tell them what the problem really is.

When you are excited about a program or the possibility of making lasting change in a community, it is easy to overlook the simple facts that either your solution doesn't get to the root problem or that its isn't a solution suited to the needs of the community. If the community doesn't embrace the change and…