GreenPepper Blog

Try Community Supported Agriculture in 2009

By Trish Taylor, GreenPepper

With the new year approaching we can anticipate the deluge of news stories about eating healthier, losing weight and saving money. Hopefully there is a sprinkling of stories about what you can do to help save the environment.

To help eat healthier and support the environment in 2009, I plan to buy into a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share. CSAs are a great way for people to eat locally grown foods. We all know fruits and veggies can travel thousands of miles to get to our plates. With most CSAs you simply pick up your bounty each week for an upfront membership fee. And now is the time to join because memberships are limited and farmers are planning what and how much to plant in the coming year.

Some CSAs let you work off part of the membership by coming in weekly to do chores. Local Harvest has a great Web site to find a CSA near you.

I recently attended the Family Farmed Expo in Chicago where I met with local farmers from the Midwest, many of whom bring their harvests into the city for farmer’s markets and CSA programs. I recommend attending such an event in your area because you just learn things you didn’t know were possible. I had no idea I lived just a few miles from a chestnut farm and who knew they were grown in the Midwest!

And finally, if you don’t live near a CSA drop off point, just try a garden for yourself. Even if you live in a condo with a small deck you can grow your own veggies. I recommend a patio tomato plant that grows no bigger than 12” tall. It produces early and all summer long. Just reach out to a local master gardener program to learn more about what can be grown in your region. Disclaimer: I just passed the test to be a master gardener intern.

Personally, I can’t wait to integrate vegetables I wouldn’t normally buy at the store into my cooking. Hope you have a green and tasty 2009!

Challenging a Green Assumption – Organic is Best

By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper

Like most things of great importance, sustainability requires constant learning and – more difficult – a constant review of assumptions.  A great example of the latter is what I’ve been reading and hearing about lately regarding organic food.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m a fan of organic, locally grown, free range – it’s all good in my book.  But if we are to feed a population that continues to grow exponentially while land in developed countries continues to be redeployed to house and employ that population rather than feed it, their simply won’t be enough food to go around unless we maximize production.

Chris Goodall from the UK Guardian pointed out in a recent column on the 10 Big Energy Myths: “(The) uncomfortable reality is that we already struggle to feed six billion people. Population numbers will rise to more than nine billion by 2050. Although food production is increasing slowly, the growth rate in agricultural productivity is likely to decline below population increases within a few years…So we need to ensure that as much food as possible is produced on the limited resources of good farmland.”

 More recently, we met with some people in the food production business who challenged our own assumptions regarding pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer.  When I think of such products being sprayed on crops, I see the plane out of North by Northwest descending on the fields in northern Indiana to dust crops (and Carey Grant, of course).  At that time, you needed a lot of stuff to stave off encroachers, and we gave little if any thought to what the run-off could be doing to our water supply.  We also used some nasty stuff over the decades.  I don’t think many would advocate for the return of the likes of DDT, benefits notwithstanding.

But today’s processes require infinitesimal amounts of ingredients, and digital soil mapping can be used to determine exactly where they are – and aren’t needed.  The result is that a single gram can take care of an entire acre.  And the result is food yield of up to 50 percent greater than without the use of such things.

Like most people who think about such things, I would prefer to use whatever is natural to stave off pests and weeds that could kill our food supply.  But if there are indeed better – and essential – alternatives now available, I think we need to take a practical and unbiased view at what works best to help feed the world.

Creativity Needed for Green Tax Credit

By Beth Starkin, GreenPepper

With the exception of Wal-Mart, and perhaps the furniture rental industry, the spiraling economy has left no industry unscathed, even the green sector, despite many companies' pledges to continue to push forward green initiatives. Even the promise of renewed tax credits included in the first $700B bailout has done little to spur action in the industry. It seems that the tax credits do little good for companies who do not have the tax liability to claim them. Additionally, those companies formerly providing tax equity, including investment banks and hedge funds, are finding themselves a bit short on cash, pushing the cost of what funding is available through the roof.

What's to be done to continue to drive the industry forward?  Well, one option is to just wait it out, knowing that funds will eventually begin to move back into the industry.  But from an environmental, and even a jobs creation, standpoint that hardly seems the best option.   If companies are willing to move forward with green programs, shouldn't we do everything in our power to make it available to them? Would it not be better for our government to change the structure of these credits to be refundable credits rather than direct tax credits? With this approach, companies with smaller tax liabilities could obtain the full credit, rather than be limited by the amount of tax owed, essentially making the credits available to more businesses.

Perhaps changing the tax credit structure is just the impetus needed to help decrease our footprint on the planet, while increasing job creation in a time when it is so desperately needed.  If we are going to address these ongoing environmental and economic issues, it is critical we are more aggressive in pursuing creative ideas like this.

One cool customer - Ford's best talking head

By Sandy Pfaff, GreenPepper

With all of the chaos in Detroit and the lack of clarity from the Big Three on just about everything, from their bail out funding plans - first they were united and now they're divided -  to just how they plan to get to the next meeting in D.C. so they can avoid a second PR nightmare, I experienced a glimmer of hope for at least one of these behemoths at the San Francisco Auto Show last week.

I went expecting to be dazzled by Tesla and other high flying innovators; I hoped to be wowed by the green energy revolution with electric, hybrid and fuel cell technologies.  I expected to find my next car, or at least a cup of coffee while I strolled the aisles.

On all counts, I was sorely disappointed.  But there was one  memorable, hopeful and really cool moment.  And the company with the courage to deliver that kind of cool moment was Ford. 

There among the wall of trucks and cars in the Ford convention space was a talking lifesize robot.  Emblazoned with a Ford logo on his belly, he was akin to C-3PO from Star Wars having a natural conversation with bystanders in the booth.  He danced; he talked; he told us about Ford cars when asked; he remembered names like Colby when introduced to someone in the crowd and he even remarked to the man in a cheeky kind of robot way: "Colby, like the cheese.  Nice."

Every time I tried to move on from their "booth" he kept me interested with more funny conversation and cool moves, and the crowd grew bit by bit.  Whether any of those people went home that night remembering it was Ford's robot, is a question.  What I do know is that that guy held my attention and has kept me talking excitedly about Ford ever since.  If they can use that kind of innovative technology for a robot, I've got renewed optimism that they might be able to do the same for a car.  And if I were them, I'd bring him to Washington D.C. as their talking head.

Alas, there may just be hope for the U.S. auto industry yet, or at least one key player, who I'm rooting for a whole lot more now than I was two weeks ago.