It should come as no small surprise to anybody that knows me (or knows of me) that I enjoy food. I enjoy shopping for, preparing, seeing, watching, smelling and especially eating food.
Recently I had read some things comparing organic farming vs. conventional farming and how the US is not growing enough organic foods to meet demand.
Then I was turned on to The Organic Center, a fantastic little group that wants "To generate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society".
They have launched the Mission Organic 2010, a campaign to raise awareness about organic foods and to encourage more people to choose organic foods for their diet.
There are a bunch of good reasons why organic agriculture practices are important but I won't bore you with a bunch of details, instead you can check out the Organic Center for more information (or even Chipotle's web site, whom I find delicious*).
*and will keep going on about how delicious they are for some sort of sponsorship! (This deal can also apply to Great Lakes Brewery).
I would like to take a second here and point out that I am not posting this as any sort of statement explaining disdain for a specific location instead I am just wanted to point out something that I thought was very strange and wonder out loud why it was that way.
Now, to get everything off my chest, I walk past Cleveland's Soldier's and Sailor's Monument every work day and actually rather like the area. I enjoy the way that it is depressed within it's square, how it is surrounded by a rather nice plaza with some rather pretty landscaping and I especially enjoy the intricate statuary of the monument itself.
That being said, I noticed something last week that made me pause a bit.
In this photo notice the nice corner entry into the square itself, how the stairs welcome you and offer a rather nice framed corner view of the monument. Heck, the thing looks like a nice place to enjoy a fine lunch during a Cleveland summer (especially when the winter fences are gone), right? It appears you could sit on the steps, the surrounding low walls, almost everywhere and enjoy many vantage points to take in the surrounding bustle!
Not so much though. Someone along the line made the decision that they didn't want anyone sitting on the low walls surrounding the monument and had some rather uncomfortable looking spike strips installed. I fear it was done for litigious reasons but what has inadvertently happened is that a rather nice public space has become relatively inaccessible or less usable to the general public.
There are many public spaces around Cleveland that have been altered or made inaccessible to the public over the years. Some could argue that with the growth of the personal automobile (and subsequent removal of streetcar lines) and some poor urban planning the whole of Public Square is rather unsuccessful.
There has been some discussion about the whole making Cleveland's public spaces actually more public but I am not personally aware of anything happening lately. If anyone else has I hope that you could bring it to my attention. If not, perhaps it is time to start mentioning something about this again, especially as Cleveland hopes to bring more people back downtown. I mean, everyone likes a good sit, right?
Environment Ohio recently released a story congratulating (former) Governor Taft for signing HB 251 which creates standards for new state funded construction to be of an energy efficient design which includes lifecycle analysis costs and renewable energy sources. Also included is language requiring all state vehicles to be purchased having the ability to operate on alternative fuels and an allocation for advanced energy ("Such energy includes, but is not limited to, wind power; geothermal energy; solar thermal energy; and energy produced by micro turbines in distributed generation applications with high electric efficiencies, by combined heat and power applications, by fuel cells powered by hydrogen derived from wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, landfill gas, or geothermal sources, or by solar electric generation, landfill gas, or hydroelectric generation") research and implementation which includes access to funds for research and development.
There has been quite a bit of press about how an advanced energy such as wind power can double the efficiency of farms and ranches, how the agricultural community is learning to embrace the possibilities of adding wind energy to their communities and how even utilizing small power generators can just be used to power individual farms.
Ohio sits in a pretty convenient location to harness some wind power and I know I am starting to sound like a broken record when I repeatedly advocate for Cleveland especially to persuade some alternative energy manufacturing companies (wind, solar, etc) to re-locate here, especially by using the region as a physical demonstration of what alternative advanced energies can do but I don't mind. I will just have to keep talking until someone listens. Or get a company to move here on my own.
Ohio Citizen Action, Ohio's "largest environmental organization" called out Mittel Steel for what can be construed as creative emission accounting. Basically Mittel is using historic industry averages as reported values for pollution emission instead of measuring output from it's blast furnaces. Ohio Citizen Action states that these blast furnaces are "the facility’s biggest sources of fine and coarse particle pollution, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and organic chemicals."
Mittel is using a "loophole" in Federal Air Pollution reporting rules, claims OCA, which is also claiming that the historic average of industry pollution emissions contains samples of steel plants that utilize improved control equipment. You can read more about it in Smoke and Mirrors: Mittal Steel's Playbook to Cover Up Their Pollution (4 Megs Word .doc).
While the area here is indeed murky and one could well point out that it is the Federal Air Polluting reporting rules that are at fault and Mittal is complying to the letter of the law (perhaps not the intent). I want to attempt to put in my opinion that while I do see Mittal's reporting technique indeed shady and perhaps dishonest I don't believe that the problem rests on their laurels as greatly as it does on our own for not demanding change in Federal Regulation. I am disappointed that it takes the poisoning of our communities to drive people to action instead of more altruistic means but perhaps that is what it takes to spur our society into action.
The question remains, how do we change this? How can we affect the Federal Regulation? Can we catch the ear of Congress in an attempt to create more stringent regulations? I hope so.
Whilst perusing a Richters 2007 Herb Catalogue (US edition) I (re)stumbled upon a rather nifty device with the Google-unfortunate name of Potmaker. While really nothing more then a small altered wooden pestle and mortar type mechanism this rather simple and pretty dang neato device allows you to make your own biodegradable plant pots from newspaper strips. Now you can start your seedlings and easily transplant them into larger garden beds without using any plastic garden pots. They usually run about $10-$15 a pop.
Many companies have their own "potmaker" licensed for their own sale, hence the Richter link and the Burpee link. Just Google "Potmaker" to find more prices, etc.
A while back I had posted about how "Voices and Choices" had started an online survey called "Choicebook". Well the tallies are in.
The final report, viewable in a .pdf format HERE, breaks down who contributed data, the concerns raised/collected, and what those surveyed listed as priorities and goals.
I don't want to ruin the surprise, mostly because repeating all the information here in a text format without all the pretty colors seems rather idiotic. Instead I will suggest that you take some time and check out the Challenges, Goals and Solutions yourself. Heck, you took the time to fill out the survey, you might as well see what the results were.
-edited to add image. Check out how I have become "Captain Follow-up"!
Sometimes I do think that I am rather naive. There has been much in the news about ODOT's recent problems and the possibility of a how a new direction in government could force a turnaround for Ohio's transportation public image. Fine, I don't want to argue about goofy spending and fund raising tactics. I also don't want to get into any argument about what political party does what.
However, the shift (or predicted shift) in the governor's mansion seemed to be just the thing to stall the innerbelt bridge project which allows us, as a city, to sit back, breathe a bit and think about exactly what we want to accomplish here.
The whole reason I bring this up is because I was recently made aware of David Beach's exchange with ODOT about putting a bike path on the innerbelt bridge to allow easier access to the city via non-auto transportation. There are some questions and arguments poised here that we should all consider. First from the prospect of ease of access to the city if only to make it more friendly to those that actually want to get there. Secondly from a health standpoint, more people biking should lead to a healthier community (barring ingesting auto exhaust). Thirdly there is the opportunity to create a more community driven image for the city by accentuating the interaction between people on the street (pedestrians, cyclists) and the areas through which they pass.
The prospect of getting around Cleveland without a car excites me. Not only because making the city more accessible to its inhabitants increases the sense of independence and freedom, but also because it allows us this independence at a low cost that is not directly tied to "international happenings" nor to a manner of transportation that has proven itself unhealthy as a lifestyle and as a producer of pollution.
One would hope that ODOT would understand this and either plan for better pedestrian/cycling traffic routes or would attempt to make better arguments against said alternative transportation routes if only to better appear that the considerations were made.
Oh, yeah, Happy New Year. Get out and bike more.
This last Christmas I had received some salsa and taco seasonings that came from the Cleveland Botanical Garden Green Corps.
Similar to the New Agrarian Center Green Corps is a community outreach program for urban youth that acts as a seasonal employment program. The goal of the program is to introduce "youth (ages 14-19) to horticulture, environmental stewardship and basic entrepreneurial skills".
Green Corps utilizes 3 local learning gardens to practice these skills and then sell their produce at area farmer's markets. The youth also take part in the production of "Ripe from Downtown" salsa (the gift package that I received) which is available at Cleveland Botanical Garden Store, Mustard Seed Market, Zagara's Family Marketplace, the Flavor of Ohio and others.
Programs like this strengthen community ties but also can help supplement and develop a local/regional diet. I am excited to try out my salsa basket and find it so very easy to help support programs like this (I do love to eat).
Kick-off the New Year w/ E4S
E4S Third Tuesday Network Event
Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Time: 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Great Lakes Brewing Company, Tasting Room, 2701 Carroll Ave. Cleveland
General Price: Free
As 2007 starts up I find it necessary to step back, take stock of the 2006 and reflect upon my own intents and actions. A new year begins to slowly dawn upon us and even though my cynical nature reminds me that time is but a man made measurement and that a "year" is a rather subjective amount of time (if one takes a moment to step outside of a species-centric state of mind) it does act as a regulated threshold from which to measure one's actions. With this in mind I would like to press upon everyone the importance of starting the year of right by getting involved with and organizations that can strengthen community involvement and or raise environmental awareness.
Entrepreneurs for Sustainability is a rather efficient and effective organization in tying together local business owners and community leaders to create a network of people who believe in environmental sustainability in order to leverage their message and passion for more responsible businesses and lifestyles.
There is usually a great collection of people and each monthly meeting tends to focus on a different sustainable system or business integration. The focus is on networking so if the possibility of meeting like-minded people and discussing how to make Cleveland more sustainable (and putting those discussions into action) then show up at the Great Lakes Brewing Company Tasting Room and see what the group is about.
Event Link
Energy, Oil, and National Security
Thursday January 18, 2007
4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs
Glickman-Miller Hall, Atrium
With all the past discussion about utilizing Ohio's regional sustainable energy production manufacturing strengths in order to catapult the region into the forefront of what can only become an increasingly important economic and environmental movement I thought it would be fitting to point out the upcoming Levin College Forum entitled "Energy, Oil and National Security".
The forum states that basically it will center around the Cleveland Foundation's current plan to develop "an advanced energy strategy" that "can create jobs and improve Ohio’s economy while contributing to national security and environmental quality."
Hopefully we can skip re-hashing the premise that independent domestic (perhaps even regional!) energy sources are much better then dependence upon foreign sources for National Security and move right along into exciting new prospects, plans and projects that are being implemented. I want to hear more about the "wind screw" (please disregard most of what that article says, it is depressing in how awful it is - here is an actually useful article about the spire) and possibly some more news about a wind farm on Lake Erie or even the possibility of getting a PV array manufacturer to move here.
Printable Invitation
Registration
Recently a website launched, cryptically called Cleveland Design Competition. It is currently under development and will soon have more information up and about it.
I bring this to your attention for a myriad of reasons.
a- so that this competition gets a ton of entrants. I am under the impression that this particular comp. is sort of an underground movement by a group of people bent of guerrilla design tactics, ie. by creating their own medium for designers to do what they love.
b- so that people's attention will be piqued making them want to check back more and more often which gives more incentive for these guys to move on their project.
c- so that the email that I got in the first place about this particular site stops getting forwarded to me over and over and over and over and over again. Oh well, at least people have me in mind for this sort of thing so I guess that is good, actually. You might as well keep it up.
More updates as the site, well, updates.
Call for artists
Due: January 5th, 2007 at 5pm
Cleveland Public Art and BADC (Buckeye Area Development Corporation) as well as Parkworks, Arterial Arts and NPI (Neighborhood Progress, Inc) have put out a call for artists for a site specific installation on Buckeye Road opposite a planned transit station. The competition is open to any Ohio artists, designers or architects as well as alumni of Ohio colleges over the age of 18. More information including a site plan can be found in the link above.
There happens to be a brand new Rustle the Leaf animation about some alternative energy solutions to bring you holiday cheer. Or post holiday cheer. Whatever.
Regardless, Rustle works for me as a spokesperson. He is sort of cute and not too preachy. Totally unlike that Smokey the Bear guy who is always standing over me quoting his "Only YOU can prevent forest fires". It makes scrambling eggs for breakfast unBEARable.
Oh, too early for really bad puns.
I can hear the complaining now. "Power assist" cycling? What?
Hey, if it gets more people out of their cars and on to a mode of transportation that allows a more intimate and physical connection with their neighborhood then I am all for it.
Just think of it as a ecological acceptable power sourced alternative transportation.
I know there are currently some hurdles. Lack of ethanol infrastructure, weird cycling laws and of course the fact that this particular motor system is produced in the UK.
Forget all about the impossibilities, think POSSIBILITIES and think about how amazed I would be to find one of these systems under my holiday tree thing.
Along those lines, I have to get back to doing my holiday stuff. Happy Holidays!
It should come as no small surprise to anybody that knows me (or knows of me) that I enjoy food. I enjoy shopping for, preparing, seeing, watching, smelling and especially eating food.
