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Greetings!
Despite the
appearance of winter calm, the New Year has been very busy for our growing team at Straus
Communications. For businesses and organizations focused on the health
of the planet and its inhabitants, these are exciting and challenging times. The media landscape is changing quickly, and we're
focused as always on keeping our fingers on the pulse.
In the past few months, we've influenced the news-makers on hot button issues including food's role in climate change, organic dairy pasture regulations, and sustainable seafood for sushi and beyond. We've also become a part of the new certification system called B Corporations, which promises to revolutionize private enterprise by codifying consideration of the Triple Bottom Line.
As socially responsible businesses work to bring change through commerce, a trifecta of environmental, economic and personal concerns are elevating the business of sustainability in public dialog. We're encouraged to see media coverage that gets to the heart of the issues, and we're pleased to include our clients, advocates and friends in that conversation.
Sincerely,
Michael Straus, Haven Bourque and the team
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Our clients in the news
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 Food's carbon footprint:
Sushi in the crosshairs:
Seafood Watch just got more watchful and so did Blue Ocean Institute and Environmental Defense. All three organizations released pocket guides this fall that promise to help sushi consumers unravel the complexities of sushi bar menus. Our team was there - chopsticks at the ready - for the launch at Tataki sustainable sushi bar in San Francisco. Shelby Wood, the Oregonian's green blogger, covers it here.  Happy cows?
One of the most controversial issues facing organic dairy farmers today is how much time a cow should spend grazing on green pastures. In late December, we launched an 11th hour campaign to halt proposed USDA regulations that could have destroyed northern California's organic dairy community, resulting in many unhappy cows and unhappy local milk drinkers. Prominent placements included an Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle. And our Media 2.0 outreach generated thousands of letters to the USDA.
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Fingers on the pulse
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 Edible Pursuit
The Straus team faced off with hoards of ferocious Bay Area foodies to win a top prize at the first annual Edible Pursuit, a food-trivia game that allowed us to flaunt our chops on the San Francisco local, national, and Slow Food eats beat, culinary-know-how, food politics, and beyond. Our team not only knows our way around the sustainable ag world, we're no slouches in the kitchen either. We doff our hats to organizer Edible San Francisco, and co-masters of the food universe team from Bi-Rite Market, who also won prizes. Our winning answer in the sudden-death final round was...Percy Schmeiser. Be the first to email us the correct question, and we'll treat you to an organic, solar-powered beer!
Eco-Farm Conference The annual conference on food and farming, Eco-Farm, held in Pacific Grove in January was the usual mix of dear old friends and eye-opening dialogue on what really matters in the food system: the state of organic farming, science of biofuels, Slow Money, and food justice among them. Highlights included Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, an update on renewable energy programs funded by the Farm Bill, and a session on soil carbon sequestration. Wonk, wonk, wonk. Oh, and we had a barramundi dinner with Chef Dan Barber of Stone Barns and Blue Hill restaurant.
 Mr. Straus goes to WashingtonMichael attended the Obama inauguration, along with several hundred other food and business leaders from the Bay Area. He describes the "amazing feeling of hope" that embraced the city, which more than compensated for the cold and ultimately futile wait in the now-infamous " Purple Tunnel of Doom." He was also inspired by a powerful presentation by Van Jones on green jobs in the new economy.
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Expanding our team and services
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Mark Magers - VP Strategic Services
Mark, our new VP Strategic Services, brings critical expertise in tying clients' communications goals back to rock-solid business strategy. His approach starts with 6 silver-bullet questions he asks to determine whether start-ups -- or established businesses embarking on a new track -- have the strategy and planning in place to thrive. We've seen companies that didn't ask these questions prior to going to market stumble or fail when they should have done this exercise first. Who has money to burn these days? Call us today to explore these 6 questions.
Anna Ghosh & Susan Coss - Senior Media Strategists
 Anna and Susan are powerful new additions to our team.  Anna's background is in renewable energy and CSR, most recently with A & R Edelman PR agency; Susan specializes in socially responsible business, speaker's bureau development and small business. Both worked on the Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco Labor Day '08. Anna and Susan join Vanessa Barrington - author, chef, and sustainable food and food policy blogger for ecosalon - on our core team. Check out Vanessa's recently published book on heirloom beans. Rachel Cole - Account Coordinator Rachel brings a diverse background in sustainability to our team - writing about Bay Area food personalities and producers in her 'SuperFoods' column for Edible San Francisco, developing educations programs at the the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, and working at Alice Water's Café Fanny. |
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B Corp certification
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