Blog » Earthy Goodness

A couple of weekends ago we had the great pleasure of attending the Connecting for Change Conference, which is put on by our pals at the Marion Institute.  We built the website for the conference so we knew what the weekend was about, but we were not prepared for it to be so awesome!!  

The tagline of the conference includes the words "A solutions-based gathering", and so instead of just talking about all the crazy (and sometimes terrible) problems in world, every speaker and presenter was focused on solutions implemented by themselves, non-profits, community groups, and so on.  We heard about sustainable farming in the Negev desert (where they use the excess hot water that keeps their solar panels cool to process the wool of the sheep who graze around the solar mounting poles), the People's Grocery (which gets healthy fresh food into areas of West Oakland where the sunflower seeds at the liquor store are the closest thing to 'food' residents can buy), libraries that have tool-share programs (and books about how to set one up in your town, legal documents and all!), and much much more.

We even took an afternoon workshop about local mushroom foraging, in which we talked as much about how and why our culture is so mycophobic (that is:  mushroom-fearing) as about the types of edible and medicinal mushrooms that grow in the northeast.  The day after we came back I took a walk in the woods behind webmeadow HQ and found a late crop of Black Trumpet mushrooms, which I brought home and we cooked them up and (important point here!) we DID NOT DIE.  

We met a ton of really neat people doing really neat work and we were inspired and awed by something new on average of about 6 times per hour for the entire weekend.  We're definitely going back next year and if you feel at all intrigued -- get thee to New Bedford for CFC 2011!

Earth day is here, and rather than talk about how spectacularly earthy we are, I'm going to talk about money and agriculture.

Most of you know that webmeadow is very into agriculture.  Back in city life, we noticed how little contact we had with our food sources, not having any real sense of where our food came from or how it was produced.  In moving to rural New Hampshire, we have become much more involved with our food sources:  raising small flocks of animals, having some wee veggie gardens, and participating in the Old Shaw Farm CSA.

We've learned massive amounts about raising animals and, more recently, plants (as we get further in the growing season, we'll hopefully have some great pictures of the blueberries, gooseberries, kiwis, and pear trees), and the biggest thing I've learned is how much everything we do is connected with the earth.  Realizing how important that connection is to us, we set out to help other people.

There are some fantastic charities in the world, like Heifer International, that donate agriculture basics (animals, seeds, etc.), enhance the donation by teaching sustainable techniques for growing the farm, and then require those farmers to help other farmers in the same ways in the future.  One of the things that struck us about charities like Heifer, however, is that while your donation is framed as "1 goat and 12 chickens" to a farm in the world, really your donation goes into the big pool that Heifer uses to do all of its works.  There's nothing wrong with that, but we wanted more hands-on impact.

Then we heard about Kiva, an organization that uses micro-loans to improve lives all around the world.  While micro-loans can seem, well, small, they have a huge impact (in fact, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize went to a micro-loan pioneer).  With Kiva, we realized that we could improve the lives of specific people, and that because those people would be repaying the loan over time (with interest), we could lend even more money to others in the future -- quite a sustainable model.

We jumped on board in November 2009 by creating the agriculturally-focused Friends of Spruce lending team (named after one of our geese).  The Pixels & Pulp team immediately joined the group, and thus far we've been able to help more than 19 people!  Helping a specific number number of people, like 19, and being able to read updates from them makes us feel like our impact is very real.  In fact, if you'd like to increase the impact, feel free to join our lending team by clicking the "Join Now" button on the Summary page.

Earth Day is about focusing on our impact on the earth.  Today, at least 19 people around the world are able to connect with the earth more sustainably because of the micro-loan lending model.

Tate pointed us to this article in the San Jose Mercury News and asked what we thought of it.  Well, here's what I think of it: man o man, people are so dumb.

Here's the story:

1. Between 1997 and 1999, a couple in Sunnyvale planted a bunch of redwood trees in their backyard.  Looking at the overhead photo, it is pretty clear that they did this so that their neighbors did not have a direct view into their living room.
2. In 2001, one of those neighbors installed 10kW worth of solar panels on his house. 
3. Now the trees are tall, and they shade a bunch of his solar panels.
4. He invoked the little-known California Solar Shade Control Act, which is now levying stiff fines on the tree-owners for not cutting down trees that shade solar panels.
5. The court found against the tree-owners, but they are appealing the ruling.

This is dumb on so many levels.  

• Did solar-panel-guy think that trees weren't going to grow?  If there are trees almost shading your site, then within a few years they will shade your site.  By definition, that makes it a bad site for solar panels. 
• For the amount of money that 10kW of solar panels cost, you'd think he could buy some common sense. 
• The law says that trees that were there before the panels were installed are OK, except that it also says that if they grow to cover solar panels, then they're subject to removal/fines.  So... trees are ok, as long as they don't grow?  The law really should have some sort of "reasonable growth" clause.

Personally, I'm totally with the tree-owners on this one.  Mr. Solar Panel was dumb to put his panels under baby redwood trees, and I'm pretty sure it's not fair to fine your neighbors for your stubbornness.

Have you ever read Backpacker Magazine?  It's really great.  We got a subscription through one of those "Your airline miles are going to expire soon" things, and it's one of the only magazines I actually like enough to pay for it when our free year runs out.  Every time I read it, I feel like going outside and hiking somewhere.  (And I don't even like backpacking!  I like sleeping in my own bed.)

Their most recent issue is the 2008 Gear Guide, and they have a special section in it for "Green Gear".  But it's not like most 'Green Product' lists.  Instead of pointing you to all the fanciest bamboo-underwear and recycled-vinyl bags, they actually give you information! Backpacker has done research and compiled a report card of what exactly each 'green' company does.  FiveTen, for example, uses all kinds of scrap and recycled rubber in their shoes. Chaco buys wind credits to offset their energy use, and pays employees to bike to work.

I think it's extra-cool to know exactly what companies are doing to earn the Green label.  Not only does it allow you to support programs you particularly like (hmmm... should I buy from the company that recycles fleece, or the one that is powered by reclaimed methane*?), but it also puts companies on the spot.  If the best a supposedly-green company can come up with is "Our brochures and packaging are 50% post-consumer content", it's not very impressive compared to a company like GoLite (carbon-neutral!  Product recycling!  Alternative transport!). 

Way to go, Backpacker!  It's nice to learn more about these green companies, and decide for ourselves which ones to support.

* CowPower is a supremely great name for a methane program.

Over at TreeHugger, there's a post about SC Johnson's new "GreenList" label.   TreeHugger contends that this is a classic case of greenwashing -- the Greenlist Certification was developed by SC Johnson, so of course they pass with flying colors.  The products are not what most people would label "green", however.

If you read through the Greenlist website,  it's a decent program.  Basically, all raw materials get a 0-3 rating (3 is "best", 0 is "will kill you and your dog"), and they try to make sure that all their products are using 2- and 3-rated products.  So, for example, Windex has been reformulated so that it no longer uses a 0-rated solvent, so it spews fewer VOCs into the air.  And the company made the radical move of using brown instead of bleached-white paperboard for packaging.  (And who rates the ingredients?  Why, they do!)

However, a pretty leaf label does not magically turn "Toilet Duck" into an earth-friendly cleanser.   Glade Plugins will never be anything less than completely foul.  It should be a crime to call that smell "vanilla".  

I started out writing this post thinking, "I dunno, TreeHugger was a little harsh.  At least they're doing something".  And then I got to the "Get the Facts" page on SC Johnson's site, where, in response to a question about whether Glade Plugins have ever started house fires, I read: 

No. It's an example of the kind of irresponsible urban legend that gets forwarded around the Internet and disparages brands.

Oh, CRY ME A RIVER, SC Johnson.  Poor you and your poor disparaged brands.  Those kooky internet forwards sure are hurting your business.  (It did not help that the next page I read was how they're so green they've received awards... from the President!) 

That is, frankly, not a great reason for me to conclude that they are only greenwashing with this silly label, as opposed to actually committing to real change.  GreenList may be a fine program, but it's not fine enough to convince me.  

According to NextEnergyNews.com, there are plans afoot to build a big 30-story tower-o-farms in Las Vegas.  Part food production, part tourist attraction.  

I am a sucker for futuristic farms, especially in tower form.  Look how great that artist's rendering is!  Look at those tiny little lab coats!  Frankly, the article is a little sketchy, what with zero references to actual companies involved (and doesn't this seem more like a Dubai project than a Las Vegas one?), but still!  I love it.  

When we lived in New Zealand, we took the bus everywhere and pretty much always had a bag (backpack or otherwise) to carry a map, snacks, and other essentials.  Often, when we bought something at a store, they would make us take a bag (rather than just putting the new shirt or whatever into our own bag), even though we had a reciept in case someone thought we were stealing.  It always struck us as odd, especially because in NZ grocery stores,  they don't bag your groceries for you -- you do it yourself, into whatever kinds of bags you want.

Well, apparently the inanity has crossed the pond.  There's a post over on Consumerist about a shopper being forced to take a plastic bag at Macy's.  Basically, the clerk told the customer that she had to have a bag, otherwise they wouldn't let her out of the store.  Poppycock, really, because what are they going to do?  Detain you for not-shoplifting?  But still:  what lame customer service.  You'd think Macy's would be up on the trends and be marketing fashion-forward* reusable bags.  But I guess not.

* I got a yarn catalog the other day that touted a line of yarn (100% acrylic, ick!) in 37 "fashion-forward" colors.  Now I fear that all of the yarn I already own is fashion-backward.  (Fashion-rearward?)  So sad. 

This week at webmeadow HQ, we got another foot of snow.  We love snow, because we figure:  if it's going to be so freaking cold out, at least there's slippy slidy stuff to play in.  However!  In the winter we run up against a tricky problem:  compost.

Compost!  You know the stuff -- also known as "I am voluntarily choosing to have food rot in this pretty crock on my kitchen counter".  You put your food scraps (onion papers, dead lettuce leaves, etc) into the pretty crock each day, and when the crock is full, you take it outside and add it on the big compost pile in the yard.  Then you add grass clippings and raked leaves and whatnot to the same pile, and next spring, out comes lovely fresh dirt for your garden.  It's the ciii-ircle of life.

That's all well and good in the summer.  But in the winter, when the going gets tough and the tough get snowing, trudging out to the (completely buried) compost pile every day when the little scrap bowl filled up was just not cutting it.  We needed long-term storage, so that we only had to make the full compost-trek once a week or so.  The obvious answer was to start storing the scraps in the big blue bucket under the sink.  But, hey, you know what happens if you keep 3 gallons of food waste tucked in a plastic bucket for a week?  Yowch.  Not pretty, and very smelly.  

Here is our incredibly low-tech and yet completely-awesome solution:  wheat bran.  Not Bob's Red Mill kind of wheat bran, but Poulin's kind of wheat bran, which comes in 25lb bags for about $6.  

(Look at that drama!  Bran in the snow!)

We sprinkle a generous layer of bran on the bottom of the big blue bucket, and then every day or two, we add a new layer of bran on top of the scraps.  It absorbs the weird oogy liquids that come out of rotting foods, and allows us to leave the compost festering under the sink for at least a week without any ill effects.   

 

Nothing smells, and the wheat bran will compost with the rest of the food.  A field guide to the above picture:  a layer of wheat bran covering:  two grapefruit halves (empty), a few paper towels, and some sort of be-stalked thing in the corner.  V'GER, is that you?

In fact, if you're like us (and do far more eating than lawn-mowing and leaf-raking), the wheat bran will probably help with the fact that you never add enough of that all important "dry matter" to your compost piles.   So, until spring comes:  add bran to your compost, and only venture out into the snow for sledding*!

* And feeding the ducks. 

The good folks over at Inhabitat wrote the other day about the Eastgate shopping center in Harare, Zimbabwe.  Keen observers of webmeadow may know that I lived in Zimbabwe in 1998, and spent many an hour in that very building!

Eastgate is a neat place because, as the article points out, it was designed to mimic the ventilation system of a termite mound, and as such stays at a pleasant temperature all year round without any external heating or cooling systems.  I remember someone telling me about this bio-mimicry design while I lived in Harare, but never learned any details about it at the time.

The post does not point out (though I will!) that Eastgate also serves as a very good meeting spot if you are gathering friends from various suburbs of Harare, as it's pretty much equidistant from all the major combi (mini-bus) terminals.  

Also, there was an internet cafe on the third floor, and a super-tasty deli on the second.  And, a joy for all us visiting Americans:  Mateo's, a great Italian restaurant, in the primo ground floor location.  They had fantastic garlic bread.

The termite-mound-inspired ventilation is sort of an urban and arid equivalent to passive solar design -- not every building has (or needs) great solar exposure, but there are still ways to use boring ol' physics and crawly ol' termites to make your building more comfortable and efficient.