Archive for alyssa

Fresh Start Farm at The Bragg Nature Center is an initiative of the Baltimore City Public School System to engage students in healthy school menu planning through food and health education, hands-on seed-to-table food experiences and vocational training. This is part of a larger mission to relocate Baltimore’s central kitchen from Brooklyn to Baltimore, source school lunch ingredients from Maryland farms, reopen school kitchens and reinforce that student health is critical to student education. Fresh Start Farms is planned to be part of a national model for farm to school programs as well as a sustainable, organic, teaching farm for Baltimore school children. Continued

What’s Happening with the Intercounty Connector (ICC)
The ICC is one of those things ever-present in the back of the collective mind, the idea of which has been around for several decades, here in Baltimore. It was shot down in the 80’s and again in the 90’s and you just hope it gets shot down during this decade and never comes back. We have a current Maryland administration that is supposed to be more environmental, why is this issue even being considered?

Our volunteer, Debbie Smith, attended a meeting of the Baltimore Chapter of Chesapeake Climate Action Network (BCAN) Tuesday night February 3rd, 2009. There was a very knowledgeable speaker named Greg Smith who led a “Grassroots Discussion of Maryland Environmental and Transportation Priorities.” He can be reached at Community Research of the Anacostia Watershed Society. – iccaction@igc.org.
Some of the points that he made about the construction of the ICC were: Continued

During WWII, Victory Gardens advertised that the war effort could be supported with the help of every American by planting their very own backyard garden. In the early 40’s these gardens produced up to 40 percent of all the vegetable produce being consumed nationally, not to mention positive community growth. This kind of practice, one that gave each American the sense of empowerment, as well as health and well-being during a time of war is now being seen as a major threat to industrial seed producers like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo, Dupont and Tyson. These companies aren’t just nasty corporations, but are makers of Genetically Modified foods which means they are patenting and branding seeds so that what you grow will be owned by them not you. Read more about Monsanto here . A more disheartening thought is that these companies have a stronghold within the United States government! Heads of the Department of Agriculture since the late 1970’s have worked with Monsanto including Tom Visack, Agriculture’s director for the Obama Administration. I have just read news of a devastating bill that is supposedly on its way to Congress. Its about criminalizing organic farming and could include you, the backyard farmer . A few highlights include the following from the Campaign For Liberty website where you can read the plan in more detail:

Red flags the Campaign for Liberty found ………..

• Legally binds state agriculture departments to enforce federal guidelines, effectively taking away the states’ power to do anything other than act as food police for the federal dept.
• Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn’t actually use the word organic.
• Affects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
• Affects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
• Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics, which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.

Things you can do…… Continued

We were wondering if you’ve heard of Blackle? A new Google search page in black, created by Heap Media. Their idea is that having a black screen on your computer can cut electricity demand. Seemingly insignificant? Blackle was also created to “remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy.” I wonder if this might be more effective then the actual energy savings but according to Ecolron a white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. There is much dispute. Please, tell us what you think. Could this be "green-washing"?

On a local level the fight for energy efficiency is hitting much harder. This just came to me via email with the following concerns from the Green Building Institute. Thanks Janice Romanosky for sending it along:

A key committee in the Maryland House of Delegates will decide this week whether to divert $70 million away from energy efficiency program to bill-payer assistance. The committee will vote as early as Wednesday, so it couldn’t be more urgent. Please call AND fax the Delegates in the areas where you work and urge them to keep the energy efficiency funding in the Strategic Energy Investment Fund as it was passed into law last year.

PRIORITY DELEGATES TO CONTACT:

· Baltimore County – Del. Susan Aumann – (410) 841-3258, fax (410) 841-3163

· Baltimore City – Del. Talmadge Branch – (410) 841-3398, fax (410) 841-3550

· Charles County – Del. Murray Levy – (410) 841-3325, fax (410) 841- 3367

· Montgomery County – Bill Bronrott – (410) 841-3642, fax (410) 841-3026

Please also pass this message along to former clients or colleagues who also believe that energy efficiency is an important part of Maryland’s energy future.

Continued

Having a vermicomposting system in your home might sound scary at first, what with all those worms, but I can assure you this experience has taught me that working in tandem with nature can provide a profound understanding of sustainability and inherent life cycles. For example, all over the U.S. our soil is degrading at alarming speed through monocultures and pesticides, which is stripping the soil of hundreds — if not thousands — of years’ worth of nutrient-rich support for healthy plentiful growth.

Leaves, for example, have always been a source of food for soil and every year we deprive that soil of its regenerating power by bagging leaves and hauling them elsewhere. Soil regenerates itself through the decomposition of mico-bacteria and with a lot of help from various species of worms. It was Darwin who discovered the amazing power of worms to bury and till the earth, which is also one reason that the deeper archaeologists dig, the older their findings.

We must start thinking of better ways of disposing of our waste, ways that give back in order to continue receiving. Vermicomposting is one way to get started. I made this video to engage people to take note of the values of life cycle systems. Worms will not only eat your food scrapes and leaves, but also your junk mail and holiday wrapping paper. Once decomposition is complete you’ll have rich black soil to use in your flower beds.

If you have any more questions about vermicomposting, please email us at info@goforchange.com or start a discussion thread on our social networking site. (goNetwork button)

Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and check back soon. I will be posting updates on this subject.

Everyone is familiar with those lists of 10 things or 20 or 100 things you can do to lower your carbon footprint and to live a more healthy, energy efficient lifestyle, right? Well, we thought you’d like to tell us and our web audience what’s missing from those lists. What have you tried?

The purpose of this project is to have a platform to amplify the importance of small deeds that help the environment and to visualize how each person is contributing to a lighter load on our planet. It’s like a doodle conversation on cocktail napkins.

Remember postcards? Those analogue relics that people used to use to communicate with each other? Being artistic types, we would love to receive one from you. We picture papering the walls of our office with them — great creative works of art, showcasing the wealth of earth-concerned actions in our communities.

And we close with those famous Margaret Mead words: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Send your ideas by MARCH 20th to :
GOforChange
2002 Clipper Mill Park Rd.
4th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21211

The first 20 people that send us a card will received a FREE pdf copy of our 25 page Your Green Home Manual. It’s full of great information and beautiful drawings!

Here is a staggering thought. According to the EPA, in 2005, only 345,000 to 379,000 tons of electronics were recycled out of approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million tons of unwanted electronics. This means that a huge percentage is going to the landfill which will eventually contaminate ground water. There are a whole host of ways to recycle every electronic you have with local, national and international resources. Here in Baltimore my top choice is dropping off your unwanted tech products to CDM-eCycling . I wrote a post about them a couple months ago and I can tell you without a doubt they provide a service that is improving the environment, and helping the local economy. If you find it hard to make the trip over to Washington Blvd. please contact us at info@goforchange.com. I will accept anything that will fit in my Honda Civic and make the trip for you. I have been inspired to do this by seeing Jennifer Baichwal documentary about Edward Burtynsky work called Manufactured Landscapes and reading and watching videos about the struggles of many Chinese that have our e-waste dumped on their soil and sorted under absolutely horrendous conditions. It’s a cycle of production that is destroying the cycle of life. Please, find a responsible e-waste recycler in your state here or visit Basel Action Newtwork website. "BAN is the world’s only organization focused on confronting the global environmental injustice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade and its devastating impacts."

Other things you can do:

1. Find out what companies have a take back program here.

2. Get payed for your electronics by this guy in Denver, CO at BuyMyTronics.com

3. U.S. Staples store will charge you $10, to recycle your used computers, monitors, laptops, and desktop printers, faxes and all–in–ones. Smaller computer accessories such as keyboards, mice, and speakers are accepted at no charge. In addition, you can recycle batteries, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, and chargers. They will give you $3 in a gift certificate toward new ink for certain ink cartridges. Others, they will just recycle for free.

4. Check back soon for more information