OCA and Labor Activists at Shareholder Meeting Say Whole Foods' Business Practices Are Bad for the Planet
At the Whole Foods Market shareholder meeting in Vancouver, BC, the Sustainable Supply Chain Coalition, an alliance of environmental groups, food activist organizations and labor unions, rallied today in support of four shareholder resolutions and called for a change in Whole Foods Market, Inc. and its supplier United Natural Foods Inc.'s unsustainable business practices.
Media Coverage of the OCA Sludge Dump in San Francisco
Media Coverage of the OCA Toxic Sludge Dump
Plug In Your Ride
A Greener Blue Cheese
Calling All Rebels
There are no constraints left to halt America's slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair.
Farm to School Efforts Double in Minnesota
The number of Minnesota school districts purchasing fresh food from local farms has more than doubled in the last 15 months, according to a survey released today by the Minnesota School Nutrition Association (MSNA) and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).
Interview with Kirit Parikh on India’s Low Carbon Growth Strategy
There was a time, not long ago, when the idea of a national low-carbon growth strategy for India would have been hard to imagine. "Low carbon" was seen to be at loggerheads with India's ambitious economic development agenda and was too controversial a concept to find voice in domestic politics. Yet in January 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a 26-member expert group to help develop a low-carbon growth strategy for India. The group, which hosts a formidable array of government, industry, academia, and civil society members, is being chaired by Dr. Kirit Parikh, former member of India's Planning Commission.
Worldwatch Fellow Anna da Costa interviewed Dr. Parikh about the group's plans for the coming year, and how India's efforts at home to address climate change are moving forward.
What led to the Low Carbon Expert Group being constituted?
I think it's quite clear that India realized it is vulnerable. It is in its great interest to have an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions, and from our own energy security point of view, there are many things we should do to move to low carbon growth. [We are interested in] whatever measures we can take that can stimulate and nudge the global community into a global agreement, are also in our interests. This leads us to examine the options, the costs, the alternatives, and the multiple benefits of moving to a low-carbon development pathway.
What types of recommendations can we expect to emerge from the group, and how will this work differ from or connect to India's National Action Plan on Climate Change?
The National Action Plan outlines the long-term measures that we should take. It doesn't have the required specificity in terms of what needs to be done, and we hope the low-carbon strategy will provide more detailed guidelines as to what measures can be taken. India has committed to meet a reduction in national energy intensity of 25 percent by 2020. We need to work out a strategy and the various specific measures that will enable us to meet this.
This seems like a major task. Is all of the analysis being conducted by the Expert Group or are you outsourcing certain elements?
The expert group, which has 26 members, has a very wide-ranging set of expertise. It is a wide group of stakeholders, many of whom have been working on this subject for a long time. We will pool the knowledge that exists [in the group] and put together a menu of what is possible. Time is very short, so we cannot do any further new research as such. We are very open to get any outside help, or contributions. We will put these recommendations out in an open, transparent manner, put them on the website, seek comments, and so on, and might even hold a public consultation on them at some stage.
Do you think the 25-percent energy intensity target you mention, that was announced by India before the Copenhagen climate conference, can be met with the current National Action Plan strategy?
You know, there are many things we are doing already. India's energy intensity has been coming down in any case. Business-as-usual projections should provide a fairly large part of the reduction we want to achieve. A little more effort should bring [energy intensity] down to the 25-percent [target]. I don't think there should be that much of a challenge or difficulty in doing that.
Is the aim of the low-carbon expert group to reduce India's emissions beyond what would likely occur on a business-as-usual trajectory?
It's to make sure we meet the 25-percent reduction in carbon intensity, to see if we can even do more and what kind of support we will need to reach that target. What can we do? What is win-win? What policies do we need? Are there barriers? Do we need finance? These are the kinds of questions that we need to answer.
A few years ago, it seems as though using the words "low-carbon development" as an element of India's political vocabulary would have been politically untenable. What has enabled this change, and does it signify a fundamental shift in thinking on the issue of climate change and development in India?
This is difficult to answer. I think you could give a lot of credit to the Prime Minister, who felt that although the rigid stand we had been taking in the past was morally and ethically correct, we need to get the logjam moving and should take some initiative. That is why at the Gleneagles conference [of the G8 in 2005, which India, China, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa attended], he promised that we are determined to have our per-capita emissions never exceed those of industrialized countries. The Western world didn't think that was any commitment, but if you think about it, that... itself was a major commitment. Why? Because if we want to reach [greenhouse gas concentrations of ] 450 parts per million by 2050, the average of industrialized countries will come to 2.5 to 3 tons per capita, and India will have to restrict itself to 3 tons per capita, which is a huge commitment.... So we are very willing to get the process moving. We are interested in getting a global agreement. That is part of the strategy. Let's get the process moving.
How likely is it that the recommendations of the Low Carbon Expert Group be implemented? What factors will need to be in place to see this happen?
I've chaired enough committees to know that not all recommendations get implemented. There are always political considerations. There are always stakeholders who have vested interests of various kinds. How things play out is a very different thing. So I would not say that I expect all of our recommendations will be implemented. What is important about these expert committees and groups is that they create a consensus and awareness amongst people, so that in due course things change and pick up.
Do you have a sense of how much India's low-carbon strategy is estimated to cost? To what degree is the government self-funding these initiatives, and how much is it hoped that finance will also come from the private sector and international public funds?
My feeling is that there are lots of things we can do that pay for themselves and don't involve any additional costs but have multiple benefits. Energy efficiency, for example, pays for itself. I think there are many [options] like that, but of course finance is required upfront, too. Without such finance we know that many economically attractive actions are not taken up by industry and individuals. But I cannot answer this question until we have done our work.
In your long experience working on India's economic development, you must have seen many kinds of sustainable development solutions. What are some of the most transformative solutions that you believe exist for India?
I think there are three solutions that show [particular] potential for the goal of sustainable development. One is definitely solar technology, and making its cost competitive with coal as soon as possible. That could bring a hugely transformative change. Second would be a major program of rainwater harvesting and watershed development. This could transform the whole water and agricultural scenario and is clearly of importance. Thirdly, if one were to speak in terms of the future, maybe the development of cellulosic ethanol that could make India truly energy independent in a realsense. This is looking [at the question] from the energy sustainability perspective.
But there are many, many things that have contributed to India's inclusive development. Inclusion is critical for sustainability. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which began in Maharashtra and is now across the country. You could say the Gram Swarojgar Yojana [a rural micro enterprise initiative] is also transformative. You might say that if you can get 100-percent literacy and school attendance for all children up to 14 years, that could be transformative. There are many things that we could do that really could make a tremendous difference to the economy. Of course, support for public transport in major metro areas can also be transformative.
Global negotiations tend to focus on what India needs to absorb from other parts of the world, particularly in terms of finance and technology. But do you feel there are areas where India has a lot to share with other countries in terms of global efforts to combat climate change and shift toward sustainability?
It is very clear that India is not just an absorber of technologies; it can really be a generator, inventor, and developer. Again, I support Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suggestion at Gleneagles that we should set up a network of collaborative institutions at the international level like the Agricultural Research Institutes under the [Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR].... If we can have that kind of institutional set-up for low-carbon or renewable technology and have the IPRs [intellectual property rights] shared globally as global public goods, that could be very important.... India can also contribute to the development of the technologies. So in some sense we may have an actual interest in IPR protection, but on the other hand from the global point of view, we think some of these should be made globally available as global public goods.
Anna da Costa is a Worldwatch Institute research fellow based in New Delhi, India.
This article is a product of Eye on Earth, the Worldwatch Institute's online news service. For permission to republish Eye on Earth content, please contact Juli Diamond at jdiamond@worldwatch.org.
Green-collar Jobs in Newark, New Jersey
Where Does Your Milk Come From? How to Find Out
It seems that there are two kinds of milk cartons: the ones that hit you over the head with scenes of happy cows living Disney lives in beautiful pastures, and the ones that give you no information at all other than the word ‘MILK’ stamped across the front. Rarely does either provide any real indication of where the milk actually comes from – yet often, both might be from the very same farm or even the very same cows!
Every carton of milk, yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products has a code printed on it that gives us the city, state and dairy where the product was produced, but that code has never meant much to most people since looking it up was an arduous process.
Note the word was. A site called Where is My Milk From? now makes it easy to look up the origins of your dairy products. Just type in the code, found near the top of the carton or on the lid, and the site pulls up the exact plant where it was produced on a Google map, along with a list of other dairy products packaged there. Ah, technology.
Another handy function lets you see a list of dairies and processing plants in your state or even your town. It’s interesting to see how milk that’s produced locally isn’t necessarily bottled locally, and despite having a packaging plant right down the street, you’re often getting products packaged halfway across the country.
Isn’t it funny how the modern world has produced such a confusing web of food distribution, and yet technology is what’s helping us untangle it? Hurray, internets!
Photo: tauress/Flickr
document.getElementById("post-34601-blankimage").onload();Solar power will take over soon
The sunlight that hits earth in one hour is enough to cover the worlds energy demand for well over a year.
The surface of the Earth receives an amount of solar energy equivalent to roughly 10 000 times the worlds energy demand. Of course there isn’t always sunlight, but the solar panels can store the energy, and they are getting better and better at it. A solar panel converts one sixth of the sunlight into electrical energy. Although they also are getting able to turn more and more of the sunlight into energy, they are already so efficient that space isn’t much of an issue anymore. The area of solar cells needed to supply a family with electricity is usually much smaller than the roof of their house. And when including the land required for mining and excavation of coal, CPS-plants (power-plants that rely on solar energy) are more space-efficient than power-plants fueled by coal. Solar power is roughly fifty times as space-efficient as growing crops for bio fuels. And that’s just with the technology that currently is commercialized.The clip bellow shows the best parts of the documentary Here comes the sun and is well worth taking a look at:
Greenecon.net reports:
According to the Energy Information Administration, in 1956 solar PV panels were $300 per watt, and in 1980, the average cost per solar modules was $27/watt and has fallen precipitously to approximately $2/watt in October 2009.
New breakthroughs point towards much cheaper solar panels in the near future (examples of this can be read about here, here or here), and with the emergence of nanotechnology, which already is underway, it’s reasonable to expect many new breakthroughs. But exactly when will solar energy become cheaper than conventional energy?
Solar cells are getting more and more efficient. The graph shows the best research-cell efficiencies for different types of solar cells measured in how much of the sunlight they can convert into electricity.
Ray Kurzweil, a famous inventor and futurists, predicts that this will happen within 2013. Dispatches from the Frozen North, a blog by the Peter Leppik, makes a calculation that leads him to think that in Minneapolis solar panels will be cheaper than power from the electric company in 2015, give or take a few years. Solarcentury, the UK’s largest solar company, predicts that in Britain solar energy will become cheaper or as cheap as conventional nonrenewable electricity by 2013. These are all uncertain predictions, and when it will become cheaper for you depends on where you live. But as far as I know most experts think that solar power will become cheaper than conventional energy in the near future – probably before 2020. And after that it will continue to become cheaper and cheaper. It’s a question of time before solar energy will be half the price of fossil fuels, one fifth the price, one tenth the price, etc.
Needless to say cheap solar energy will not just be good for the environment, but will also give other enormous benefits to society. And in many ways it will be more convenient than power from the grid. We will have to transport the energy less, and mobile phones, laptops, electric cars, etc. will be able to reload their batteries when they are outside in daylight. Another great thing about solar power is that it can provide cheap electricity to poor countries (in sub-Saharan Africa, etc.) where the power supply is unreliable and many villages aren’t connected to an electric grid.
Earths city lights at night. Cheap solar power can help light up poor parts of the world, where many villages aren't connected to a grid.
Making solar power cheaper and more convenient isn’t just about getting better at converting sunlight into electricity. Storing the energy is also a part of the challenge. Breakthroughs are underway in this area (examples of this can be found here and here), and batteries are generally getting better, so there is reason to be fairly optimistic. That being said, the future of solar energy would be very, very bright even if energy-storing technology didn’t get better at all.
Despite of being fantastic in a lot of ways, cheap solar energy isn’t enough by itself to completely solve the energy-problem. We also have to make sure that fueling your car on solar power is cheaper and easier than using gasoline. Although maybe not within the run of this decade, I also think that electric cars will dominate the roads sooner then we think. But this post is long enough already, so I will save that for a later update.
Also published on howisearth.wordpress.com.
Living Hero Interview with Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva appeared as the March 2010 guest on the Living Hero podcast with host Jari Chevalier.
Challenging Conventional Wisdom on Renewable Energy's Limits
In making the case for a rapid conversion away from heavily polluting energy sources like coal and nuclear power to cleaner generation, renewable energy advocates often confront the argument that their scheme is impossible due to the intermittent nature of sun and wind.
On Rooftops Worldwide, a Solar Water Heating Revolution
The harnessing of solar energy is expanding on every front as concerns about climate change and energy security escalate, as government incentives for harnessing solar energy expand, and as these costs decline while those of fossil fuels rise.
Python Season Opens in South Florida to Slow Population Growth of Invasive Species
Mexican Farmers Turn Milpas into Forest Gardens
When government extension agents first came to Juan Bautista's Yucatan village of Chun-Yah, a tiny pueblo in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, they told him he should start growing pitaya, also known as dragonfruit. Originating in Meso-America, this cactus is now cultivated in parts of Asia, Australia, and Israel. The fruit is tasty, the plant is easily propagated, and it thrives in places with long dry seasons like the Yucatan.
Bautista and other farmers in Chun-Yah followed the agronomists' instructions, clear-cutting nearby forests and building elaborate trellis systems made of concrete and wire to support the vine-like pitaya. Soon after the project began, the funding to maintain those trellises disappeared. The agronomists were at a loss as to how pitaya could be grown otherwise, and they left Chun-Yah. That was 15 years ago.
Rather than give up on pitaya, which by now was their main cash crop, the farmers of Chun-Yah decided to grow it in their milpas, the traditional Mayan field.
Bautista's milpa is no longer an ordinary farm field - it is an intensively managed forest garden, a food-producing ecosystem built in nature's image.
In traditional Mayan agriculture, maize has been the milpa's main crop. But numerous sister crops also provide balance to both the farmer's diet and the milpa ecosystem itself: beans, squash, melons, chiles, medicinal plants, pineapple, trees for fruit and lumber, plus the myriad fauna that call the milpa their home.
So what did Juan Bautista and the farmers of Chun-Yah do differently once the agronomists left? They essentially exchanged concrete trellises for living ones.
Pitaya is an epiphyte, meaning that it pulls moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, and debris that collects on the host plant, on which it depends for structural support. Instead of clear-cutting forest to plant pitaya, the farmers cut trees selectively, leaving Mexican Cedar and other lumber-producing tree crops for later harvest. They then select the host trees on which pitaya will grow, cutting them at head height to allow for easy harvesting of the dragonfruit. The host trees remain alive, their roots holding soil in place while bringing up nutrients from the sub-soil. Regular pruning of the trees provides mulch for other crops. The farmers plant pitaya and other food crops into this living forest system - a well-planned, well-managed agro-ecological system.
There is no irrigation in Chun-Yah. Other than a little fertilizer for the host trees, the only input is the knowledge and labor of farmers who have created this forest ecosystem. Growing pitaya on the concrete trellises was fine, but the only crop produced was the pitaya. Growing pitaya in the polyculture of the milpa means that Juan Bautista gets his cash crop plus all the benefits the milpa brings, with little drop in yield.
There are three main pitaya harvests between June and October. Through the Chun-Yah cooperative, Bautista sells his fruit locally in Quintana Roo. On his three hectares he harvests around 12 tons of dragonfruit per year. At $1/kilo, he's earning $12,000 annually, almost double Mexico's median annual household income of $7,297. And all that food coming from his milpa means a lower grocery bill than most city dwellers.
Thanks to their ingenuity, the farmers of Chun-Yah haven't had to leave their farms to work in el norte, and they are able to live comfortably on several hectares each.
And those agronomists who left 15 years ago? They have returned to learn how to grow pitaya from the farmers of Chun-Yah. Which is proof that these Mayan villages and their ancient agricultural arts are not just vestiges of a lost way of life; they are crucial models that could teach us "moderns" how to farm in ways that work with, not in spite of, our surrounding ecosystems.
Fred Bahnson is a Kellogg Food & Society fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. His writing has appeared in Orion, The Sun, and Best American Spiritual Writing 2007 (Mariner). He lives with his wife and two sons on a farm in Transylvania County, North Carolina.
This article originally appeared on the Worldwatch Institute blog Nourishing the Planet. For permission to republish this report, please contact Juli Diamond at jdiamond@worldwatch.org.
Nettle Tea – How to Make a Natural Spring Tonic
Nettle tea is springtime’s natural elixir. One of the earliest green plants to emerge each spring, nettles can be easily brewed into a tea which has healthful, restorative benefits which boost the immune system and awaken the body to spring.
The benefits of nettles have been documented for centuries, with claims both anecdotal and scientific, that nettles treat a wide range of maladies. Nettle tea is used to improve heart action, for headaches and for any internal bleeding. Nettle is said to be extremely beneficial for the kidneys, being useful in expelling gravel from the bladder and dissolving kidney stones. It is a powerful blood purifier that drives out toxins and metabolic wastes by stimulating the kidneys to excrete more water. Nettle tea is said to clean out the entire intestinal tract while activating the body’s natural defense mechanisms. It is used as an overall health tonic and to treat high blood pressure, anemia, skin inflammations and more.
Nettle tea is relatively safe for children and adults, although it is always recommended that you consult a medical doctor before taking any new herb. Never take nettle tea when on prescription drugs without first consulting a doctor, as serious reactions could occur.
How to find and identify nettlesI first learned about nettles the hard way. While clearing a fence line. I smelled mint among the nearby plants. Looking to harvest the mint for tea, I plucked a handful of leaves from the closest plant and put it to my nose to get a deep whiff of the lovely mint smell. But instead I got what felt like a dose of pepper spray in my face. I had to run off and stick my face in a bucket of water for relief.
Stinging nettle or common nettle, Urtica dioica, is a perennial flowering plant, native to most of the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. Nettles usually appear in bunches or groves in the same places year after year. Look for them in rich soil, disturbed habitats, moist woodlands, thickets, along rivers, fence lines, and along partially shaded trails. Considered a weed by many farmers and gardeners, no one will complain if you harvest a few nettles.
Nettles are easy to identify. The dark green, opposite leaves are a few inches long, with a rough, papery texture, and very coarse teeth. The leaf tip is pointed, and its base is heart-shaped. In springtime, the nettle shoots will be close to the ground with only a few rows of leaves. The plant grows rapidly to a mature height of about 2 meters (6.5 feet) in summer. In fall the plant dies back, but re-emerges in the same location the following spring. Once you find a patch of nettles, you can harvest year after year in the same spot.
How to harvest nettles‘Stinging’ nettles are given this name for good reason. If you touch any part of the plant, you will be stung. The sting is mildly painful and can last for hours. Wear gloves, long-sleeved shirt and long pants when hunting for nettles. Use a scissors or garden clippers to cut the top two bracts of leaves, leaving the rest of the plant to regenerate. Set a pot or bag alongside the plant and clip directly into the container. About a cup of fresh leaves is sufficient to brew a cup or two of tea.
How to brew nettle teaSimply add water to your collected nettle leaves and heat to a near boil. Use about two cups of water for a cup of leaves; there’s no need to measure. You can make the tea stronger by steeping longer, or weaker by adding more water. Once the water is near boiling, reduce heat and simmer for a couple minutes. Pour through a small strainer and the tea is ready to drink. Some people prefer a small bit of sugar added to the tea, but I find the taste is just fine without any additives.
The cooked leaves can also be eaten with a bit of butter melted over top, or they can be added to soups and stews. If you are going to eat the leaves, taste a small bit first to be sure the sting has left.
A word of cautionAny new substance should be introduced gradually to your body. A cup or two of nettle tea per day is sufficient to enjoy the benefits which nettles offer. Those new to nettles should start out with small amounts.
If you will be bringing children along while harvesting nettles, which is a good learning experience for them, be sure to take adequate precautions to keep them from being stung by the leaves. Long clothing and gloves should be worn at all times when handling nettles. Once they are cooked or brewed into tea, they lose their sting.
So if you’re looking to shake the winter blahs and reinvigorate yourself for spring, a simple restorative elixir may be as close as a nearby weed patch. And since nettles grow in the same area year after year, it only takes one discovery to bring you a ready supply of nature’s miracle tonic for spring.
Related posts:
- Five spring tips for clear pond water
- Spending time in nature, a natural remedy for ADHD
- Growing potatoes is easy …and so rewarding
Are GMOs the 'Financial Innovations' of Agriculture?
Financial blogger Felix Salmon has an essay in Foreign Policy called "How Locavores Can Save the World" -- expanded, by the way, from a wonderful blog post he wrote after attending a panel discussion on world hunger at the Davos World Economic Forum in the company of Blue Hill Farm's Dan Barber.
Why are Women Being Left Out of Climate Decision-Making?
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions.
Banned in 160 Nations Yet U.S. FDA Regards it as Safe?
A livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs has been approved by the FDA.
Global Green Parties for Oscar
Last Wednesday night was cold and rainy in Los Angeles, but the streets of Hollywood were green. Crowded outside the legendary Avalon Hollywood, the green glitterati walked the artificial green grass carpet to party the night away at the 7th Annual Global Green Pre-Oscar bash.
Together with a host committee including James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron, the party was dubbed “Greener Cities for a Cooler Planet.” The soiree focused on raising funds and awareness for Global Green’s national initiatives to fight climate change. And witness to it all was this writer, planted right in the middle of the green carpet, sporting organic makeup and styled hair from Primrose Organics Salon and bedecked in my Carol Young Undesigned finest.
And just who tripped the light green-tastic by me that night? Serena Williams, Mel B, Nicole Scherzinger, Nia Vardalos, Juliette Lewis, Radha Mitchell worked the red, ahem, green carpet. Radha Mitchell (after patiently listening to me gush about her performance in “High Art” – she’s awesome) shared with me her excitement about spending the evening with like minded folk. Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren rushed by under a shared umbrella. Anna Getty talked to us about her upcoming cookbook, Anna Getty’s “Easy Green Organic.” And eco-expert Zem Joaquin showed off her Deborah Lindquist dress and eco-friendly jewelry.
Prior to stepping onto the green carpet, celebs and guests recorded an online video PSA entitled “I Am.” (This will soon be released by Global Green.) Written by environmentalist and famed TV writer (Thirtysomething, anyone?) Marshall Herskovitz, the PSA will “Raise awareness of the threats posed by global climate change to more than 150 million Americans and more than 2.75 billion globally,” according to Global Green.
Guests were also treated to a look at the new Chevy Volt Plug-In Electric Vehicle, to be publicly available by the end of the year. It can travel up to 40 miles on electric charge – and check this out, you can plug it into any old plug! Other sponsors of the event were Pureology, 360 Vodka, LACarGUY, Alternative Apparel, Centropolis and Newton Vineyard, among others.
Once inside, the guests were treated to cosmetic treatments by Purelogy and organic t-shirt screenings by (who else?) Alternative Apparel. They rocked it out to music by Benji and Joel Madden, Mia Maestro and Juliette Lewis. Suzy Amis Cameron’s previewed the eco-friendly couture she will wear Oscar night.
Matt Petersen, Global Green USA President and CEO, said, “By raising awareness about the threats posed by climate change and by holding our corporate and political leaders accountable, we can make a real difference. Americans can and must do something about climate change, and we can start by creating green buildings, schools, cities and communities that create green jobs, save money and improve our health.”
You can check out all the green folks talking Global Green with me at cocoeco magazine’s Youtube page.
Photos: Courtesy of Wire Image
James and Suzy Amis Cameron walk the green carpet
Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte party at the Global Green Pre-Oscar Party
Party goers rock out to Good Charlotte
document.getElementById("post-34474-blankimage").onload();Green Web Hosting!
