To those we elected

Here's a letter I sent to my elected representatives just after the Climate Change Day of Action. Feel free to paraphrase or copy/paste. I ask that you investigate the issues yourself, so the letter comes from you. It's just important that we the people they actually represent tell them what we think.

Dear _________:(insert name of your representative)

We are approaching critical moments in the debates on three major issues before the U.S. legislature: climate change, health care reform, and food safety. Fortunately, there are actions you can take as an elected representative, that affect two, if not all three issues simultaneously.

Most immediately, world leaders will discuss a new climate change treaty this December. We need to bring atmospheric CO2 levels back down to 350 ppm! Levels above that could lead to irreversible, catastrophic changes for humans and many, many other species. Please visit www.350.org for more information.

Localizing food supplies is a very effective way to reduce carbon emissions. Did you know that it takes approximately 26 ounces of oil to produce a double quarter-pounder with cheese? This product generates 13 pounds of CO2, as much as a typical car generates from driving 13 miles! Local food generates less CO2 since it travels, on average, less than 150 miles, and it is much more nutritious. Local food is produced by small farmers and sold through farmers’ markets and other direct-to-consumer avenues.

By now it must be intuitive that the above-mentioned quarter-pounder is chronic disease waiting to happen. Over the past several decades, what we have saved in paying for food, we have paid in increased health care costs. Some savings! With “nay” votes on H.R. 2749, or The Food Safety Enhancement Act and H. R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act, you can help save America billions on health care. These bills place unbearable regulatory and financial burdens on small farmers who produce the healthiest food, and who are not part of the food safety problem! The recent food-borne disease outbreaks have all originated on factory farms, in feedlot-style livestock operations, or in centralized processing facilities. Several of the farmers who grow my food are very worried about staying in business if these bills pass in their current forms. Please, remove small farmers and direct sales from under the regulatory umbrella! They are some of the folks actually doing some good.

These days, people in Michigan need any advantage they can get. The western side of the Lower Peninsula is second only to California in the diversity of food crops grown. Small farms are one of the few growth areas in Michigan’s economy. Passage of H.R. 2749 and H.R. 875 could snuff out that growth as effectively as a pesticide. If the government will make room, small farmers in Michigan will flourish, bringing with them nutritious local food, fewer CO2 emissions, and better health for all.

In summary, I ask you to:
1. only accept a carbon emissions treaty with levels no higher than 350 ppm,
2. revise the pending food safety legislation to remove regulatory burdens from small farmers and direct sales.

By taking these simple steps, you will be doing a great service for many, many people in Michigan and all over the world.

Bioneer, wrinkly, and proud of it!

So I was picking out a shirt this morning, and the first two I grabbed were covered with wrinkles. I couldn't bring myself to wear them and reached for one of the wrinkle-proof ones. The new irregularly-pleated look is a result of a concious choice, mostly on the part of my wife since I hardly ever do laundry. Since the Bioneers conference (see below), we've been working even harder to reduce energy consumption, and the latest victim has been the dryer. We heat with a pellet stove, so the drying racks are now regular fixtures in the living room next to the stove. We get the look, feel and energy bill of clothes from the clothesline all winter!

After thinking more about my wrinkly shirts, I can see them as an environmental statement: I care enough about the future of the planet to look like I slept in these clothes! Am I really ready to say that? After all, pressed, neat shirts are just a part of the uniform of professionalism, just a social expectation. I've flauted these before. The hard part is that people judge you in nanoseconds by your appearance, and first impressions are hard to overcome with reasoned arguments. Even if I explain why I'm wearing a wrinkly shirt, in their eyes, I'm still a crackpot slob who doesn't know how to iron!

Perhaps I'll start by wearing the wrinkly ones on days without meetings, or Fridays when there are few people around at work. Perhaps I could throw several shirts in the dryer just long enought to "de-wrinkle" them. Am I caving in? How committed am I? Damn, it's tough being so far ahead of the curve!

We were there!

The girls made the "350" signs all on their own!


I was only four when Woodstock happened, but it feels all tingly to be a part of something so much bigger than one's self. We were in the "3", buffeted by a cold rainy breeze. "This is weather, not climate" they told us. Still, we were there!

OCTOBER 24, 2009 ... 350!

OK local couch potatoes, here's your chance to participate in THE social movement of our time. Go to tc350.org to find out the details, but the best estimates are that 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is safe for the world as we know it. Higher than that and bad things gonna happen! While you're at the website, download 2 really cool tunes from Seth & May!!

Peace and 350!

Met one of the neighbors today

Ah, fall. The smells of leaves, applesauce cooking, cold north winds, soil on the beets and carrots just dug from the garden; the sounds of chainsaws and rifle shots. As hunting season approaches, I took a few minutes to post our land. It reminded me of that scene in Never Cry Wolf where Farley Mowatt and the wolf try to work out their territorial issues in true wolf fashion. Well, I didn't drink a quart of tea: I used bright orange signs instead.

LR came with me on the back part of the property, and while I prepared to staple a sign to a big basswood on our eastern boundary, she looked up in a maple nearby. "Hey dad, look up there!" On a branch about 15 feet up sat a snoozing porcupine! We watched for a minute while I stapled up the sign, then headed back to the house for the camera.
She was absolutely tickled that she had just seen her first porcupine, and she spotted it! That's my li'l half pint!


The garden has made its transition to fall: some kale still standing, a few collards, the cold frame is out with spinach and more kale, and the garlic is in (followed cabbage in the rotation). Now for blankets of leaves over a sprinkling of rock dusts, soft rock phosphate and a light dose of wood ashes. I put it to bed like I do the children, with a prayer that spring will come and all will be well.

Bioneers!

Today was a return to "real life" after three days of listening to and hanging with Earth-loving, courageous people who are actually working to make a difference. It was a bit of a letdown, actually. After hearing all the bad things that are happening on this planet, I walked back into the Land of the Clueless. I just want to scream, "WAKE THE @%#$ UP!" I work at an institution of higher learning for crying out loud, and I saw only TWO other members of the staff at the conference. We're getting so close to the Point Where Things Will Get REALLY Bad, that this stuff is more valuable than anything taught in a class. I can't believe some of the things that students are asked to learn, while the few classes that might give an understaning of climate change are "electives". Good God, EVERYONE needs to know this stuff.

The real power of a conference like Bioneers is in bringing together people who strive and struggle, day after day, to get something done, sometimes alone. In one big room, we recharge, exchanging energy until we can go out and work one more day, or one more year. Often, what moves us to cheers and tears is music: thanks to Seth and May and the other amazing Earthworks musicians for their gifts of song.

Some sites I learned about:
http://www.350.org/ - actions regarding climate change worldwide on OCTOBER 24th! GET OUT THERE, or start an action near your home!
http://circleofblue.org/ - water news from around the world
http://www.storyofstuff.com/ - Annie Leonard has even by demonized by Fox News! (She must be doing something right!)
http://www.nrec.org/ - the Neatawanta Center's site, thanks to Bob & Sally or whoever put this together!

The Great Lakes Bioneers in Traverse City had a water-oriented theme, and I came home after the first day with plans to make a shrine around our well head. It's squeezed uncerimoniously between the driveway and the woods, just a few feet upslope from the propane tank. The spot is currently a "weed" patch, with some catnip, motherwort and burdock (all good friends). I don't know what I want it to look like, but I want something to remind us that this hole in the ground is the source of our life, our blood, our energy. The little pump down there brings us something sacred. Winter is bearing down on us, so watch for news and pictures in the spring.

Over the weekend, we heard from several amazing elders, from familiar places like California, and unfamiliar ones like the North Sope of Alaska. Our region's own John Bailey challenged us with a very important question for this time in the existence of human civilization: "What kind of ancestor do you wish to be?"

What kind of ancestor do you wish to be?

Summer gleanings

The night-time temperatures are back in the 40s. I guess summer's over, even though it never seemed to get here. We've been ripped off! The garden greens have done well, but the tomatoes are abundant and green. In the one area of our property that was not logged, the fungi have been amazing. I walk 20 yards and find perhaps ten kinds of mushrooms! Then comes the work of identifying them. Golden way caps, a polypore on an elm stump, a still-unknown bright orange one, and more.

I found several interesting tidbits this summer:

• three grass fed beef links:
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2006-12-01/News-From-Mother-December-January-2006.aspx
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2006-12-01/News-From-Mother-December-January-2006.aspx
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2007-08-01/5-Reasons-to-Add-Grass-fed-Beef-to-Your-Grocery-List.aspx

• an article on the impact of air pollution of the dispersal of floral scents
• Want to scare yourself? Check out this search tool for finding out what chemical residues have been found in your food. All the more reason to eat organic or grow yer own!
• I also asked the manager (?) of our local feed store about products with a common insecticide that has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder (imidochloprid). He said since the patent came off, it's showing up in everything. To pull it off the shelves would leave him with virtually no OTC insecticide products. PLEASE be careful what you spray, if you have to spray at all!

That's enough to share for now. As you walk and ponder, pause at the goldenrod and watch for pollinators. Slow down and look for fungi in the moist places of your world. And if you're around my corner of Michigan, I'll see you at BIONEERS in October!