Boston GreenScene

Event 2/25/10: Boston CSA Farm Share Fair

Want to eat locally this summer?  Come meet local farmers at this Arlington fair and sign up for a summer share of fresh, locally grown food!  

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a model for supporting and revitalizing local agriculture.  Supporters pre-purchase a share of the season's harvest, agreeing to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer. In return, the farmer provides, to the best of his/her ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season, as well as opportunities to connect with the land on which the produce is grown.

Who: Local Farmers & You!
When: Thursday, February 25, 2010, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Where: Park Avenue Congregational Church, 50 Paul Revere Road in Arlington Heights
Contact: http://csafairarlington.wordpress.com/blog/
Cost: Free

Policy Corner: Cash for Caulkers

by Dan Burgess, Boston GreenScene's Policy Corner Commentator

In a slew of clean energy policy news this past week, the most intriguing idea I’ve heard is that of a ‘Cash for Caulkers’ program.  This initiative, as explained by David Leonhardt in the New York Times, would provide federal subsidies to encourage home weatherization in the United States. 

Much like how the Cash for Clunkers program helped buoy the automotive industry by encouraging car owners to purchase more energy efficient vehicles, the Cash for Caulkers measure would provide incentives for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.  Household energy efficiency would be gauged through energy audits and money would then be provided by the federal government to homeowners to help offset the overall costs of the weatherization.  There are numerous benefits to this idea and it should be enacted as soon as possible.

This program would undoubtedly reduce energy use immediately.  In the article, Leonhardt mentions that the consulting firm McKinsey estimates there could be a 28% reduction in energy use over the next decade with proper weatherization in the United States.  This reduction not only would make our country less reliant on unclean energy sources, but also would provide immediate financial relief for struggling families in Massachusetts. 

Composting, Sustainability: Here’s the Dish

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

The Candy Man makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious
Now you talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes

Candy Man, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, sung by Sammy Davis, Jr

Well, you can’t eat these dishes, but you can make them from leaves from the ground—attractive  dishes made from fallen palm leaves using just heat and water. You can bake in them, wash them, and re-use them. Proudly set a holiday dinner (particularly if you order them by this Tuesday for expedited delivery!). You can throw them away. No guilt.

Michael Dwork, while interning in India, noticed the locals making dishes from palm leaves gathered from the ground. The simple steam and heat manufacturing process piqued Dwork’s interest. He saw the possibilities. He viewed the dishes as not only a viable business opportunity, but as a very sustainable commodity.

VerTerra is now the realization of that vision. You can view their products online or buy them at select retailers. The company operates in South Asia and is committed to the locals they employ. VerTerra pays fair wages and provides access to healthcare.

Dwork designed a technique for replicating the dishes. He refined the process to make upscale disposable tableware that he felt would resonate with the American consumer.

Though built as a throwaway, the dishes can actually be used many times. The manufacturing process and lack of artificial sealing elements requires Verterra to sell the dishes as throwaways. But, as they report on their website, many of their customers attest to repeated uses.

Cat People, Green is for the Birds

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

’Questions regarding the value or inutility of the domestic cat, and problems connected with limiting its more or less unwelcome outdoor activities, are causing much dissension. The discussion has reached an acute stage. Medical men, game protectors and bird lovers call on legislators to enact restrictive laws. Then ardent cat lovers rouse themselves for combat. In the excitement of partisanship many loose and ill-considered statements are made.’


Those sentiments recorded in a 1916 report to the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture by Edward Howe Forbush are echoed in today’s struggle with the very same issue. Cats kill birds and they kill them for the hell of it - a penchant they share with humans and few other species. Uncomfortable as that fact may be to those who like cats; the reality is that this issue requires frank assessment when the cat problem is raised. This problem affects various city ecosystems and is a part of a community’s carbon imprint in indirect ways.

Cats kill birds that nest in the city’s trees. That’s a plain fact and not in dispute. The killing lowers the numbers of birds and then increases the number of pest insects, which can have deleterious impact on the health of trees. Healthy trees contribute to clean air and lower the temperature around them. In general, lower temps and cleaner air diminishes the carbon imprint of a city.

This controversy places into conflict forces that seem to have come to their positions along similar paths. The folks who advocate for either cats or birds may have many similar emotional reasons to feel the way they do. Advocacy can often breed an intolerance of opposing views. In the extreme, and in a most peculiar manner, these factions can be seen to be at odds. The resolution of these matters or at least the attempts to come to some agreement has implications for other groups similarly conflicted.

Mad Men: Don’t Cry for Me

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

I have decided to leave you forever
I have decided to start things from here
Thunder and lightning won’t change
What I’m feeling
And the daffodils look lovely today

Delores O’Riordan (The Cranberries)

The AMC hit TV series, Mad Men, portrays the business and personal lives of advertising execs at the height of the Golden Age of American consumerism. The show is focused on the personalities and interactions of the ad execs and office staff. The great American consumer culture is the backdrop for the various story lines. Some of the personal habits of the era depicted are clearly seen today as unhealthy or outright wrong. Then those habits were in the full bloom of cultural normalcy.

In one scene, Don Draper, the main character, his wife, and children pull over the family sedan for a picnic on some roadside grassland. When they are done and preparing to leave, they simply shake the trash they've generated from the picnic blanket and leave it behind them on the ground.

Green on the Big Screen

by Dan Burgess

Throughout modern history creativity has thrived during times of hardship, turmoil, and adversity.  This creativity spawns from necessity as people invent and imagine as needed to survive.  Fortunately, this creativity is also expressed artistically and some of the most celebrated works of art, literature, and music have been created as a result.  It is during the darkest days that the light shines the brightest, and most urgently, for many artists and activists.

This has certainly been true in American history.  The Great Depression, both World Wars, and the struggle for Civil Rights have all generated extensive pieces of beautiful and powerful compositions.  These works are some of the most revered our country has. 

While it is debatable that the recent political and economic turmoil our country has seen is on par with the Great Depression and the Civil Rights movement, it is for certain that many Americans have felt a great deal of despair over the last decade.  A combination of economic turbulence, foreign policy disharmony, and environmental concerns have inspired artists of all kinds to produce an amazing amount of work in the last five to ten years.

One area that we have seen a surge from artists and activists is on the silver screen and in particular documentaries that aim to promote environmental awareness and activism.  Just this summer, three films of this theme have been released that are worth checking out.

The first film, No Impact Man, is an inspiring look at a man that ‘decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year' and the trials and tribulations that he and his family go through in the process. 

Time to Close Newbury Street?

by Dan Burgess

A recent headline from the Boston Globe read, “As Boston businesses struggle, Menino  looks to fill vacancies”. The image that ran with the online story was painfully fitting for the event: Mayor Menino in a walking cast, standing outside of a vacant storefront. According to the article, Mayor Menino was taking potential investors on a bus tour of the vacant spaces along Newbury Street and around the Fenway area. Menino was quoted to say that he was, “being aggressive in the marketing of our city”.

Along with the Mayor-guided tour, the article indicated that investors who sign a lease before December 2009 would receive ‘advertising space on two outdoor displays in the city’s downtown for a month, a
value of $5,000’.

The Globe piece mentioned that there were almost twenty empty storefronts, and counting, along Newbury Street and in the Fenway area. These areas, especially Newbury Street, are known for having the type of retail shops that are struggling as people see their 401ks drop as drastically as they have in the last 18 months. While investment tours and free advertising offers are a good start toward revitalization, the city and its struggling business community should think green as they attempt
to improve the city’s business climate.

One green initiative that makes sense for Boston, is to close Newbury Street to automobiles and make the street a pedestrian-only shopping district. Ridding a section of Newbury Street of cars would provide numerous benefits for our city. This measure would increase the amount of green space that our city
has and would be a strong sign of our city’s attempt to curb our aggregate carbon footprint. Mayor Menino is actively attempting to do this through his Climate Action Leadership Committee that he recently announced with Former Vice President Al Gore, and this would be an excellent way to draw attention to the carbon reduction cause.

Closing Newbury Street would also attract more people (think consumers) to the shopping district, which would help ease the financial stress that area businesses are experiencing. Boston was recently ranked the third most walkable city in the United States and the fact is that people like to walk our city’s streets. This is true particularly of the Back Bay-Beacon Hill area, which was ranked as the most walkable neighborhood in the city. Despite this, as I wrote about here, the Boston Common (located directly between Back Bay and Beacon Hill) is poorly attended by visitors. The Boston Common is the oldest park in the United States and is located directly between our most walkable neighborhoods, but is only the 37th most visited park in the United States. This does not bode well for any surrounding local businesses and is an obvious indication of the need for change.

There Comes a Day

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series 

“And we'll have fun fun fun now that daddy took the T-Bird away”
The Beach Boys

Out of sight, out of mind. For so many of us this simple phrase is a way out of a nettling situation. Rodents, holiday decorations, the runny-nosed urchin from up the street that asks all those-impossible-to-answer questions; all of these can be safely placed out of mind.

Some things put aside can come back to haunt. Take our current waste disposal system. The clean street evident after the trash has been whisked away is an illusion; a mask over the fact that the disposed material will have to be dealt with. With a sense of relief many feel that tomorrow will be the time to handle that problem. But there comes a day.

There comes a day. There comes a day when the mail and the phone calls you’ve ignored go away and the sheriff is at your door. There comes a day when that nagging little thing you didn’t look into has you staring at the bright white light from a hospital gurney. There comes a day when the fighting stops and your lover leaves a goodbye note on the kitchen table. And there will come a day if we are not mindful when that trash we have carefully tucked away in rural outposts will return to us in insidious and noxious ways.

Eco-Labeling: How Sustainable is "Organic"?

by Lyon Graulty, an associate at More Than Sound, an audio production and publishing company dedicated to deepening our understanding of the human experience.

A growing number of supermarkets are committing to green building, but how sustainable are the products inside? As major food retailers progress towards making their stores more sustainable, it's easy to forget about the great strides that still need to be made in the sustainability of the food itself.

Hannaford Bros new LEED certified supermarket in Augusta, ME

Hannaford's newest store, which opened July 25th in Augusta, Maine, is the first supermarket in the world to be Platinum-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Their use of geo-thermal heating and cooling, solar power, and recycled and locally-sourced materials is part of a movement helping to create a more sustainable world, and they deserve recognition for their commitment to reducing their environmental footprint.

As this eco-friendly building opens its doors, many other supermarkets are following suit. The Whole Foods in Sarasota, Florida has been LEED certified with a Silver rating, and Food Lion just broke ground on a store in Columbia, South Carolina that is on track to LEED certification. As the green building and retail food industries forge new partnerships, this progress highlights a growing void: the lack of a common set of guidelines to transparently access the sustainability of the wide range of ecological, health, and social impacts involved with food production and distribution.

True, we have the Certified Organic label, which has made advances in restricting the use of toxic chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on our food. But the Organic certification system fails to recognize the wider ecological impact of a product. "Saying the product is organic is not enough anymore," says UC Berkeley Industrial Ecologist and GoodGuide founder Dara O'Rourke. "In 2009, you need to know, okay, it's organic - but is it healthy? Was it produced locally? How far did it get shipped?"

Much of the organic food that is bought every day in the U.S. actually comes from China. Newsweek reported last year that while there are 21 separate agencies that claim to certify organic farms in China, only one of them is considered legitimate outside of the country. Consider this with the fact that it’s estimated that roughly half of the organic garlic we import is coming from China. It’s hard to imagine all that garlic is certified by the recognized agency, and all this is complicated by the fact that our government doesn’t keep track of the country and farm of origin of organic food imports. In fact, we only inspect a little over 1% of all food imports. A few years ago, Wal-Mart had to pull a bunch of Chinese produce labeled organic from its Chinese stores after they tested it and found out it was loaded with pesticides.

Blackberry Pie: That’s How You Do It

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness.
It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
~ Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Do you know how to make the ache of an overworked back, the sting of scratched hands and arms, the sweaty unease from a day spent in the summer sun, and the bone weariness from hours of tedious labor disappear with one act? You bake a blackberry pie from the fruits of those efforts. You serve it warm in the cool, late evening, honeysuckle scented air with a glass of strong sweet homemade iced tea. That’s how you do it!

As far back as the Mesolithic era, humans have sought berries for their nutritional and medicinal value. Blackberries don’t grow in any orderly fashion. The plant clings to any fence, stump and bush that the vine can latch onto. They seem to flourish in hard to reach places. There is probably an explanation that involves survival and predators, but this author doesn’t know what that is. I know that the berries are very hard to get to. I learned that long ago in the summer of youth.

We were sent out with a motley assortment of pails, pots and pans to gather the berries. We would head out in the early morning and work until mid afternoon. We went with missionary zeal because we knew what would be coming later. If the work had been isolated from the tantalizing reward, I can’t imagine that we would have stayed on task for more than fifteen minutes. A quiet oft-heard life lesson—if you labor at something you love, you never work a day in your life. We were stretching, straining, fighting bees, worrying about snakes and getting scratched like tomcats—but we didn’t notice.