Food Storage

Edit Note: One of the links was not working before, I think I fixed it :)



Last night I attended a presentation on food storage given by our local WELL (Willits Economic Localization) group in conjunction with the LDS church (who are well know for their practices of food storage and preparedness).

It was so uplifting to see these two groups in come together in an effort toward sustainablility, traditional teaching, self reliance and community. I thought I would share with you all what I learned.

Suggested Amounts of Basic Foods for Home Storage Per Adult for One Year

- Grains ( wheat, barely, spelt, rice, oats, etc) 400 lbs
- Legumes (dry beans, split peas, lentils, etc.) 60 lbs
- Powdered Milk 16 lbs
- Nutritional Yeast (non-leavening) 6 lbs
- Cooking Oil ( vegetable oils, shortening 10 qts
- Sugar, Honey, Molasses 60 qts
- Salt 8 lbs
- Water (for two weeks) 14 gallons

If you want more specific guidlines you can use this calculator here

Why Food Storage and Local Agriculture?

For true food security we must not rely on our food to be trucked in to our area. We must grow and store it ourselves. Your local grocery store probably carries only about 3 days worth of food for the area it serves.

The first step in this process is to begin growing our own fruits and veggies. Fruits and veggies are high in water weight and thus heavier to transport. This means they are trucked in using a lot of fuel. The average fruits and veggie at our local Safeway come from over 1,500 miles away!

Of course fruits and veggies are not where most of our calories come from so it's a good idea to store grains and dried beans for emergencies and system collapses. Then at least you have a good supply while you find a way to grow your own grains.

The best way to begin this process is to put away a little food at a time and to not go into to debt to do it.



Grains and Beans

Purchase food grade storage buckets, black if you can find them, white if you can't and a poly bucket wrench will make them easier to open and close.

Fill these buckets with dry beans and hard winter wheat. The next item you'll want to purchase is a stone or metal mill for grinding your grains. You want to always be rotating your foods, so in a few years when you pull out a bucket to use up and refill you're going to want to soak your beans first in some distilled water, if possible, and then cook them over night in a crock pot - this helps them get nice and moist for eating and they'll taste just like new beans, not 20 year old beans LOL

White rice stores better than brown but both store very well, if kept cool, dark and dry (keep all our food storage cool, dark and dry) Rice will keep up to 15 years.

To keep pests (i.e. bugs) out of your food storage be sure to rinse the grains or beans first with some sharp, not processed, Diatomaceous earth.

When using your mill either in emergencies or when you're rotating food, be sure not to processes corn or things with oil, just dry grains. Once the grains are milled into flour they will go rancid more quickly so keep this in mind.

When rotating your buckets, bring one up from storage, use it up, refill and seal it and place it back in storage, then bring up another bucket.

If you want to store raw veggies that will retain enzymes you can simply put them in a jar of apple cider vinegar and they will keep for a really long time. You can also dehydrate them, grind them into a powder and store the powder for soups, breads and sauces.



Canning Your Home Grown Food

You can can just about any food, potatoes, beans, nectarines even nuts.

To can nuts place the dry nuts in a jar leaving a half inch at the top, put the lids on, place the jars in a cake pan with about an inch and a half of water, place them in the oven at 225 for an hour. Check the seals on the jars and make sure they're good and tight when they cool and viola! Stored nuts :)

Don't keep jarred food more than 5 years accept for acidic foods like fruit, they will last up to 8 years or more.

When you are using your canned beans be sure to reboil them for 15 minutes after opening them up. Never eat straight beans from the jar. Use a pressure cooker to can when possible, it's safer.

Be sure to wrap your jars and store them in a low place in case of an earthquake or other disturbance. Always store your food a few different ways and in a few different places.

Never hord food, always be willing to share.

Food Storage

Edit Note: One of the links was not working before, I think I fixed it :)



Last night I attended a presentation on food storage given by our local WELL (Willits Economic Localization) group in conjunction with the LDS church (who are well know for their practices of food storage and preparedness).

It was so uplifting to see these two groups in come together in an effort toward sustainablility, traditional teaching, self reliance and community. I thought I would share with you all what I learned.

Suggested Amounts of Basic Foods for Home Storage Per Adult for One Year

- Grains ( wheat, barely, spelt, rice, oats, etc) 400 lbs
- Legumes (dry beans, split peas, lentils, etc.) 60 lbs
- Powdered Milk 16 lbs
- Nutritional Yeast (non-leavening) 6 lbs
- Cooking Oil ( vegetable oils, shortening 10 qts
- Sugar, Honey, Molasses 60 qts
- Salt 8 lbs
- Water (for two weeks) 14 gallons

If you want more specific guidlines you can use this calculator here

Why Food Storage and Local Agriculture?

For true food security we must not rely on our food to be trucked in to our area. We must grow and store it ourselves. Your local grocery store probably carries only about 3 days worth of food for the area it serves.

The first step in this process is to begin growing our own fruits and veggies. Fruits and veggies are high in water weight and thus heavier to transport. This means they are trucked in using a lot of fuel. The average fruits and veggie at our local Safeway come from over 1,500 miles away!

Of course fruits and veggies are not where most of our calories come from so it's a good idea to store grains and dried beans for emergencies and system collapses. Then at least you have a good supply while you find a way to grow your own grains.

The best way to begin this process is to put away a little food at a time and to not go into to debt to do it.



Grains and Beans

Purchase food grade storage buckets, black if you can find them, white if you can't and a poly bucket wrench will make them easier to open and close.

Fill these buckets with dry beans and hard winter wheat. The next item you'll want to purchase is a stone or metal mill for grinding your grains. You want to always be rotating your foods, so in a few years when you pull out a bucket to use up and refill you're going to want to soak your beans first in some distilled water, if possible, and then cook them over night in a crock pot - this helps them get nice and moist for eating and they'll taste just like new beans, not 20 year old beans LOL

White rice stores better than brown but both store very well, if kept cool, dark and dry (keep all our food storage cool, dark and dry) Rice will keep up to 15 years.

To keep pests (i.e. bugs) out of your food storage be sure to rinse the grains or beans first with some sharp, not processed, Diatomaceous earth.

When using your mill either in emergencies or when you're rotating food, be sure not to processes corn or things with oil, just dry grains. Once the grains are milled into flour they will go rancid more quickly so keep this in mind.

When rotating your buckets, bring one up from storage, use it up, refill and seal it and place it back in storage, then bring up another bucket.

If you want to store raw veggies that will retain enzymes you can simply put them in a jar of apple cider vinegar and they will keep for a really long time. You can also dehydrate them, grind them into a powder and store the powder for soups, breads and sauces.



Canning Your Home Grown Food

You can can just about any food, potatoes, beans, nectarines even nuts.

To can nuts place the dry nuts in a jar leaving a half inch at the top, put the lids on, place the jars in a cake pan with about an inch and a half of water, place them in the oven at 225 for an hour. Check the seals on the jars and make sure they're good and tight when they cool and viola! Stored nuts :)

Don't keep jarred food more than 5 years accept for acidic foods like fruit, they will last up to 8 years or more.

When you are using your canned beans be sure to reboil them for 15 minutes after opening them up. Never eat straight beans from the jar. Use a pressure cooker to can when possible, it's safer.

Be sure to wrap your jars and store them in a low place in case of an earthquake or other disturbance. Always store your food a few different ways and in a few different places.

Never hord food, always be willing to share.

Soy is not the answer to the environmental crisis

Soy & Cattle Ranching Are Killing 'Lungs of the Planet' in Amazon

* Amazon Destruction Rises Sharply in 2007
By ALAN CLENDENNING
The Associated Press, January 24, 2008
Straight to the Source

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - The rate of Amazon deforestation rose sharply during the final five months of 2007 as land was cleared for soy and cattle, prompting a top-level emergency meeting Thursday by government officials to deal with the problem.

Environment Minister Marina Silva and other ministers were heading to the presidential palace Thursday to meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the report on deforestation issued late Wednesday.

Silva's ministry estimates as much as 2,700 square miles of rain forest was cleared from August through December, meaning that Brazil could lose 5,790 square miles of jungle by August of this year if the rate continues.

That would be a sharp increase from the 4,334 square miles that was cut down and burned from August 2006 through July of last year.

Although preliminary calculations can only prove that 1,287 square miles of rain forest were cleared from August through December, ministry executive secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco said officials are analyzing satellite imagery and working under the assumption that the higher count of jungle was cleared.

"We're working with the worst hypothesis," he said, according to Brazil's official Agencia Brasil news service.

The Environment Ministry could not immediately provide data to precisely compare the five-month destruction rate for last year to the same period in 2006.

Most of last year's destruction happened in November and December and was concentrated in the three Amazon region states of Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia.

Mato Grosso is the center of Brazil's important soy production industry, and Latin America's largest nation is second only to the United States for production.

Jungle is typically cleared in the Amazon to provide pasture for cattle, then soy farmers move in later and cultivate their crops. Brazil also has a booming beef export industry, and cattle ranchers have been expanding operations in the Amazon.

Brazil last year trumpeted a drop in Amazon deforestation, but the new numbers appear to indicate that the situation has been reversed. Brazilian media reported that the president and the ministers would discuss emergency measures to reduce the deforestation.

Soy is not the answer to the environmental crisis

Soy & Cattle Ranching Are Killing 'Lungs of the Planet' in Amazon

* Amazon Destruction Rises Sharply in 2007
By ALAN CLENDENNING
The Associated Press, January 24, 2008
Straight to the Source

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - The rate of Amazon deforestation rose sharply during the final five months of 2007 as land was cleared for soy and cattle, prompting a top-level emergency meeting Thursday by government officials to deal with the problem.

Environment Minister Marina Silva and other ministers were heading to the presidential palace Thursday to meet with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the report on deforestation issued late Wednesday.

Silva's ministry estimates as much as 2,700 square miles of rain forest was cleared from August through December, meaning that Brazil could lose 5,790 square miles of jungle by August of this year if the rate continues.

That would be a sharp increase from the 4,334 square miles that was cut down and burned from August 2006 through July of last year.

Although preliminary calculations can only prove that 1,287 square miles of rain forest were cleared from August through December, ministry executive secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco said officials are analyzing satellite imagery and working under the assumption that the higher count of jungle was cleared.

"We're working with the worst hypothesis," he said, according to Brazil's official Agencia Brasil news service.

The Environment Ministry could not immediately provide data to precisely compare the five-month destruction rate for last year to the same period in 2006.

Most of last year's destruction happened in November and December and was concentrated in the three Amazon region states of Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia.

Mato Grosso is the center of Brazil's important soy production industry, and Latin America's largest nation is second only to the United States for production.

Jungle is typically cleared in the Amazon to provide pasture for cattle, then soy farmers move in later and cultivate their crops. Brazil also has a booming beef export industry, and cattle ranchers have been expanding operations in the Amazon.

Brazil last year trumpeted a drop in Amazon deforestation, but the new numbers appear to indicate that the situation has been reversed. Brazilian media reported that the president and the ministers would discuss emergency measures to reduce the deforestation.

Burt's Bee's Goes Mainstream

According to Louise Story at the The New York Times, the company Burt's Bee's, made famous by their yummy, all natural, lip balms and lotion, as recently been bought by Clorox. Yep, that's Clorox as in BLEACH. Clorox plans to make Burt Bee's a mainstream product and one of their first goals - get Burt's into Wal-Mart.

Bummer, huh?

Burt's Bee's Goes Mainstream

According to Louise Story at the The New York Times, the company Burt's Bee's, made famous by their yummy, all natural, lip balms and lotion, as recently been bought by Clorox. Yep, that's Clorox as in BLEACH. Clorox plans to make Burt Bee's a mainstream product and one of their first goals - get Burt's into Wal-Mart.

Bummer, huh?

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

* By Al Norman
Huffington Post, December 19, 2007
Straight to the Source

from Alternet.org



If a tree falls in the forest, will Wal-Mart hear the sound?

Apparently not, according to an environmental investigative report released this week on Wal-Mart's unsustainable timber procurement practices. The new study says Wal-Mart's "good wood" procurement policy only looks good on paper.

Last month, Wal-Mart released a 59-page "Sustainability" progress report, in which the company said "we want to provide our customers with the assurance that not only are they getting value and quality, but they are getting a product that was produced in a socially responsible manner." But the retailer's wood procurement policies are basically all bark, and no bite.

Wal-Mart sells wood products ranging from furniture, to picture frames, candle holders, tooth picks and popsicle sticks. The typical Wal-Mart supercenter can carry more than 900 different wood products. Wal-Mart tells the public that "an area of forest the size of a football field is cleared every second. That's 86,400 football fields a day. In tropical forests, it's estimated that 50,000 species become extinct each year because of deforestation." The retailer has a "Forest and Paper Network" that seeks to get its suppliers to convert to certified wood, and to give preference to suppliers who can verify the use of sustainably harvested wood fiber. "When we discover sustainable factory issues, we are committed to seeking alternatives," the company says, "or even removing products from shelves."

Based on this pledge, the Simplicity corporation should expect a call any day now from Wal-Mart, pulling Simplicity's wooden cribs from its shelves. An undercover study released this week by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit research agency based in Washington, D.C., says that despite the company's rhetoric about sustainable wood products, "Wal-Mart is turning a blind eye to illegal timber sources in its supply chain which threaten some of the world's last great natural forests."

According to EIA, Wal-Mart does not ask its suppliers where their wood comes from, and the retailer's 'don't ask' policy "is having particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value forest of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on them, including the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

Roughly 84 percent of Wal-Mart's wood products, like cribs and toilet seats, are sourced from China, and much of China's lumber is imported from Russia, where as much as 50 percent of the logging is illegal. EIA undercover investigators met with 8 Chinese manufacturers that supply Wal-Mart with wood. EIA asserts that Wal-Mart is focused only on price, and "has not concerned itself with the origin of the timber used for its products." Wal-Mart's supply chain "will contribute to the depletion of Russia's 'protected' forests unless concerted changes are made," the EIA warns.

One supplier EIA examined makes over 200,000 baby cribs for Wal-Mart every year from Russian poplar and birch. EIA employees, posing as wood buyers, learned that Wal-Mart suppliers admitted to paying protection money to the Russian mafia, and to illegal logging. Almost comical is the fact that logs coming into China from Russia have to be offloaded from the railcars, and reloaded onto Chinese railcars, because the Russian train tracks are a different size than the Chinese. When Wal-Mart customers buy these wood products, they are supporting "criminal timber syndicates," the environmental group says.

Wal-Mart has pledged to "develop transparency to the wood fiber source," but EIA replies that the retailer has shown a "lack of concern" about the sustainability of its wood sourcing. Illegally harvested wood is cheaper because it bypasses environmental regulations, permits, labor laws, taxes and tariffs. Illegal lumber also has a negative impact on the American economy. In 2004, illegal timber cost American suppliers $460 million in lost exports to foreign markets, and as much as $700 million in depressed U.S. prices.

The EIA claims that Wal-Mart's drive to squeeze the lowest price from its suppliers encourages illegal logging. "While the company has laid out strong talking points," EIA notes, "it has thus far avoided taking any firm action to eliminate even illegally logged timber from its supply chain, much less to source from sustainably harvested forests." The group says that without concrete goals and more transparency, all Wal-Mart's rhetoric about 'good wood' "cannot yet be taken seriously." EIA documents several case studies of Wal-Mart's "total inattention to the legality of their raw materials."

The EIA report calls on Wal-Mart "to commit to eliminating illegally sourced wood from its supply chain, and to implement a rigorous purchasing policy for wood products that includes auditing and tracking mechanisms." EIA concludes that "the drive for 'everyday low prices' to the exclusion of other questions has a serious cost..The type of logging pervasive in the Russian Far East damages the environment, robs the government of revenue, and promotes corruption. There is nothing sustainable about this model."

Wal-Mart admits "it's difficult to know if the products we source are coming from certified suppliers and are being made using legally sustainable practices." But the EIA says it's not enough for Wal-Mart simply to acknowledge the problem. "It is now time for Wal-Mart to commit to eliminating illegal wood from its shelves, and communicate this policy to its suppliers of furniture, frames, toys, paper and packaging and other wood products," the EIA insists. "Wal-Mart shoppers do not want to be an inadvertent party to forest crimes."

Alexander von Bismarck, the Executive Director of EIA, says, "To have Wal-Mart ignore measures that to the rest of the world seem common sense -- such as asking where your suppliers' wood is from -- has an enormous impact. It undermines the current global efforts to clean up the timber industry. When Wal-Mart fails to implement an entire category of environmental responsibility, it creates demand designed to take advantage of that. This is currently feeding the illegal logging problem." The EIA believes that Wal-Mart has within its power the ability to "limit the destruction of some of our planet's final frontier forests and the wildlife and people who depend upon them."

Today, there are more than 6,800 Wal-Mart stores around the globe (the company recently opened its 3,000th international store), but only 400 remaining Siberian tigers. That's not very sustainable odds.

Al Norman is the author of The Case Against Wal-Mart. Forbes magazine has called him "Wal-Mart's number one enemy."

(C) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/71103/

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

Wal-Mart's Crimes Against Forests

* By Al Norman
Huffington Post, December 19, 2007
Straight to the Source

from Alternet.org



If a tree falls in the forest, will Wal-Mart hear the sound?

Apparently not, according to an environmental investigative report released this week on Wal-Mart's unsustainable timber procurement practices. The new study says Wal-Mart's "good wood" procurement policy only looks good on paper.

Last month, Wal-Mart released a 59-page "Sustainability" progress report, in which the company said "we want to provide our customers with the assurance that not only are they getting value and quality, but they are getting a product that was produced in a socially responsible manner." But the retailer's wood procurement policies are basically all bark, and no bite.

Wal-Mart sells wood products ranging from furniture, to picture frames, candle holders, tooth picks and popsicle sticks. The typical Wal-Mart supercenter can carry more than 900 different wood products. Wal-Mart tells the public that "an area of forest the size of a football field is cleared every second. That's 86,400 football fields a day. In tropical forests, it's estimated that 50,000 species become extinct each year because of deforestation." The retailer has a "Forest and Paper Network" that seeks to get its suppliers to convert to certified wood, and to give preference to suppliers who can verify the use of sustainably harvested wood fiber. "When we discover sustainable factory issues, we are committed to seeking alternatives," the company says, "or even removing products from shelves."

Based on this pledge, the Simplicity corporation should expect a call any day now from Wal-Mart, pulling Simplicity's wooden cribs from its shelves. An undercover study released this week by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit research agency based in Washington, D.C., says that despite the company's rhetoric about sustainable wood products, "Wal-Mart is turning a blind eye to illegal timber sources in its supply chain which threaten some of the world's last great natural forests."

According to EIA, Wal-Mart does not ask its suppliers where their wood comes from, and the retailer's 'don't ask' policy "is having particularly dangerous consequences for the high conservation value forest of the Russian Far East and the endangered species dependent on them, including the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger.

Roughly 84 percent of Wal-Mart's wood products, like cribs and toilet seats, are sourced from China, and much of China's lumber is imported from Russia, where as much as 50 percent of the logging is illegal. EIA undercover investigators met with 8 Chinese manufacturers that supply Wal-Mart with wood. EIA asserts that Wal-Mart is focused only on price, and "has not concerned itself with the origin of the timber used for its products." Wal-Mart's supply chain "will contribute to the depletion of Russia's 'protected' forests unless concerted changes are made," the EIA warns.

One supplier EIA examined makes over 200,000 baby cribs for Wal-Mart every year from Russian poplar and birch. EIA employees, posing as wood buyers, learned that Wal-Mart suppliers admitted to paying protection money to the Russian mafia, and to illegal logging. Almost comical is the fact that logs coming into China from Russia have to be offloaded from the railcars, and reloaded onto Chinese railcars, because the Russian train tracks are a different size than the Chinese. When Wal-Mart customers buy these wood products, they are supporting "criminal timber syndicates," the environmental group says.

Wal-Mart has pledged to "develop transparency to the wood fiber source," but EIA replies that the retailer has shown a "lack of concern" about the sustainability of its wood sourcing. Illegally harvested wood is cheaper because it bypasses environmental regulations, permits, labor laws, taxes and tariffs. Illegal lumber also has a negative impact on the American economy. In 2004, illegal timber cost American suppliers $460 million in lost exports to foreign markets, and as much as $700 million in depressed U.S. prices.

The EIA claims that Wal-Mart's drive to squeeze the lowest price from its suppliers encourages illegal logging. "While the company has laid out strong talking points," EIA notes, "it has thus far avoided taking any firm action to eliminate even illegally logged timber from its supply chain, much less to source from sustainably harvested forests." The group says that without concrete goals and more transparency, all Wal-Mart's rhetoric about 'good wood' "cannot yet be taken seriously." EIA documents several case studies of Wal-Mart's "total inattention to the legality of their raw materials."

The EIA report calls on Wal-Mart "to commit to eliminating illegally sourced wood from its supply chain, and to implement a rigorous purchasing policy for wood products that includes auditing and tracking mechanisms." EIA concludes that "the drive for 'everyday low prices' to the exclusion of other questions has a serious cost..The type of logging pervasive in the Russian Far East damages the environment, robs the government of revenue, and promotes corruption. There is nothing sustainable about this model."

Wal-Mart admits "it's difficult to know if the products we source are coming from certified suppliers and are being made using legally sustainable practices." But the EIA says it's not enough for Wal-Mart simply to acknowledge the problem. "It is now time for Wal-Mart to commit to eliminating illegal wood from its shelves, and communicate this policy to its suppliers of furniture, frames, toys, paper and packaging and other wood products," the EIA insists. "Wal-Mart shoppers do not want to be an inadvertent party to forest crimes."

Alexander von Bismarck, the Executive Director of EIA, says, "To have Wal-Mart ignore measures that to the rest of the world seem common sense -- such as asking where your suppliers' wood is from -- has an enormous impact. It undermines the current global efforts to clean up the timber industry. When Wal-Mart fails to implement an entire category of environmental responsibility, it creates demand designed to take advantage of that. This is currently feeding the illegal logging problem." The EIA believes that Wal-Mart has within its power the ability to "limit the destruction of some of our planet's final frontier forests and the wildlife and people who depend upon them."

Today, there are more than 6,800 Wal-Mart stores around the globe (the company recently opened its 3,000th international store), but only 400 remaining Siberian tigers. That's not very sustainable odds.

Al Norman is the author of The Case Against Wal-Mart. Forbes magazine has called him "Wal-Mart's number one enemy."

(C) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/71103/

More distrubing news on biofuels

When Biofuel is Bad for the Environment

* By KRISTA MAHR
Time, November 28, 2007
Straight to the Source

On a recent humid morning in Riau, a province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a young man named Suranto wakes early on a Sunday, wraps a red T shirt around his head and ambles off to the fields to work. Suranto isn't a local; he has come from northern Sumatra because there are jobs in Riau. The forests and peatlands of the area are being transformed into plantations, and workers are being paid to plant tens of thousands of young oil-palm trees in fields stripped bare of their native vegetation by burning. As Suranto stoops and digs one hole after another amid the blackened stumps of an old tropical forest, he looks like a camp follower picking through the detritus of a still-smoldering battlefield.

Which is exactly what Riau province is, in a way. Roughly the size of Taiwan, the area has become the focus of a green-versus-green tussle pitting environmentalists trying to protect Indonesia's disappearing forests against a fast-growing alternative-energy business. Palm oil, a byproduct of the oil-palm tree such as those being planted in Riau, is used for cooking and as a food additive. Growing it has long been a big business in Southeast Asia. But it can also be used in the production of a relatively clean-burning alternative fuel: biodiesel. As oil prices have soared in recent years, Indonesian companies have been converting vast tracts of forests and peat bogs into palm-oil plantations to feed a rapidly expanding biodiesel industry; between 1995 and 2005, the amount of Indonesian land being used to grow oil palms increased by some 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares), more than doubling total plantation area, according to a recent report on the industry by Credit Suisse.

Full Story: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1688893,...

More distrubing news on biofuels

When Biofuel is Bad for the Environment

* By KRISTA MAHR
Time, November 28, 2007
Straight to the Source

On a recent humid morning in Riau, a province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a young man named Suranto wakes early on a Sunday, wraps a red T shirt around his head and ambles off to the fields to work. Suranto isn't a local; he has come from northern Sumatra because there are jobs in Riau. The forests and peatlands of the area are being transformed into plantations, and workers are being paid to plant tens of thousands of young oil-palm trees in fields stripped bare of their native vegetation by burning. As Suranto stoops and digs one hole after another amid the blackened stumps of an old tropical forest, he looks like a camp follower picking through the detritus of a still-smoldering battlefield.

Which is exactly what Riau province is, in a way. Roughly the size of Taiwan, the area has become the focus of a green-versus-green tussle pitting environmentalists trying to protect Indonesia's disappearing forests against a fast-growing alternative-energy business. Palm oil, a byproduct of the oil-palm tree such as those being planted in Riau, is used for cooking and as a food additive. Growing it has long been a big business in Southeast Asia. But it can also be used in the production of a relatively clean-burning alternative fuel: biodiesel. As oil prices have soared in recent years, Indonesian companies have been converting vast tracts of forests and peat bogs into palm-oil plantations to feed a rapidly expanding biodiesel industry; between 1995 and 2005, the amount of Indonesian land being used to grow oil palms increased by some 8.6 million acres (3.5 million hectares), more than doubling total plantation area, according to a recent report on the industry by Credit Suisse.

Full Story: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1688893,...

Willits Council supports ban on plastic carryout bags

Council supports ban on plastic carryout bags
By Linda Williams/TWN Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/23/2007 10:47:44 AM PST

Plastic carryout bags will be banned throughout Mendocino County if the sentiment of the Willits City Council is echoed by other county jurisdictions.

Mayor Tami Jorgensen requested input from citizens and the council prior to the vote. Willits was the first county jurisdiction to discuss carryout bags as an agenda item. The Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority will likely wait to vote on the ban until early 2008, after all other jurisdictions in the county have reviewed the issue.

Members of the public who spoke at the council meeting supported a future ban, although Lynn Kennelly of the Willits Chamber of Commerce requested businesses be given time to transition to the new requirement.

A Pine Mountain resident spoke of his constant efforts to remove litter from the area, citing three areas in particular where the flimsy bags tended to congregate. Others spoke of the desire for everyone to transition to reusable bags. One person wrote a letter to the council, describing creeks in the area after winter rains being festooned with the bags. Gerry Ward of Solid Wastes of Willits advised one council member that he supported a ban; the plastic bags fouled machinery and were major nuisances when placed in recycle containers.

Most of the discussions by the council centered on global issues associated with the plastic bags. Allowing retailers to charge customers a fee of 10 to 12 cents for each paper bag used to recover their increased costs was considered a reasonable future step.

If MSMWA votes to support the proposed countywide ban on plastic carryout bags in early 2008, the next steps will be to pass ordinances at the county level and within each city to make it the law in Mendocino County.

Willits Council supports ban on plastic carryout bags

Council supports ban on plastic carryout bags
By Linda Williams/TWN Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/23/2007 10:47:44 AM PST

Plastic carryout bags will be banned throughout Mendocino County if the sentiment of the Willits City Council is echoed by other county jurisdictions.

Mayor Tami Jorgensen requested input from citizens and the council prior to the vote. Willits was the first county jurisdiction to discuss carryout bags as an agenda item. The Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority will likely wait to vote on the ban until early 2008, after all other jurisdictions in the county have reviewed the issue.

Members of the public who spoke at the council meeting supported a future ban, although Lynn Kennelly of the Willits Chamber of Commerce requested businesses be given time to transition to the new requirement.

A Pine Mountain resident spoke of his constant efforts to remove litter from the area, citing three areas in particular where the flimsy bags tended to congregate. Others spoke of the desire for everyone to transition to reusable bags. One person wrote a letter to the council, describing creeks in the area after winter rains being festooned with the bags. Gerry Ward of Solid Wastes of Willits advised one council member that he supported a ban; the plastic bags fouled machinery and were major nuisances when placed in recycle containers.

Most of the discussions by the council centered on global issues associated with the plastic bags. Allowing retailers to charge customers a fee of 10 to 12 cents for each paper bag used to recover their increased costs was considered a reasonable future step.

If MSMWA votes to support the proposed countywide ban on plastic carryout bags in early 2008, the next steps will be to pass ordinances at the county level and within each city to make it the law in Mendocino County.

We give thanks for our land

Today, the day after thanksgiving, we went up to pick mushrooms on the family land. I'm so stoked about this place you can't even imagin. Seth and I are trying to work out a way to move up there as soon as we can - in the meantime we will have to be content with visitation periods, easy since it's only a half hour away.





We picked mushrooms, coccoras mostly. Nykki loves to find and clean them of, carfully pulling of the universal veil tissue. He looks for bumps in the ground and runs for them, brushing off the dirt to reveal the mushroom growing beneath he helps us look for "walky talky mushrooms" (his way of saying matsutaki mushrooms).



I did some tree huggin'



We spelled out Love with pine cones.



And Nykki practiced his letters - unschooling in the forest.



Truly a sacred place.....

We give thanks for our land

Today, the day after thanksgiving, we went up to pick mushrooms on the family land. I'm so stoked about this place you can't even imagin. Seth and I are trying to work out a way to move up there as soon as we can - in the meantime we will have to be content with visitation periods, easy since it's only a half hour away.





We picked mushrooms, coccoras mostly. Nykki loves to find and clean them of, carfully pulling of the universal veil tissue. He looks for bumps in the ground and runs for them, brushing off the dirt to reveal the mushroom growing beneath he helps us look for "walky talky mushrooms" (his way of saying matsutaki mushrooms).



I did some tree huggin'



We spelled out Love with pine cones.



And Nykki practiced his letters - unschooling in the forest.



Truly a sacred place.....