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Improving Our Use of ComputersHere is a NYT article with dozens of helpful hints on improving the use of our computers. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?em Lessons From the AntsBlueberry Pancake Post Oct. 2008a lesson from the ants -
and another lesson -
“… the fundamental feature of the life of many species of ants is the fact and the obligation for every any of sharing its food, already swallowed and partly digested, with every member of the community which may apply for it … if one of them is hungry or thirsty, and especially if the other has its crop full … it immediately asks for food. The individual thus requested never refuses; it sets apart its mandibles, takes a proper position and regurgitates a drop of transparent fluid which is licked up by the hungry ant. Regurgitating food for other ants is so prominent a feature in the life of ants (at liberty), and it so constantly recurs both for feeding hungry comrades and for feeding larvae, that Forel considers the digestive tube of the ants as consisting of two different parts, one of which, the posterior, is for the special use of the individual, and the other, the anterior part, is chiefly for the use of the community. If an ant which has its crop full has been selfish enough to refuse feeding a comrade, it will be treated as an enemy, or even worse. If the refusal has been made while its kinsfolk were fighting with some other species, they will fall back upon the greedy individual with greater vehemence than even upon the enemies themselves. And if an ant has not refused to feed another ant belonging to an enemy species, it will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter as a friend.” From “Mutual Aid” by Peter Kropotkin This book is on roving loan from godsil, and i am done with it. who
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Permaculture Principles
MAYOR BLOOMBERG of Big Apple AND SHAQUILLE O’NEAL ANNOUNCE NEW FOOD STANDARDS FOR CITY AGENCIESMayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal today announced the launch of the City’s first formal food standards, ensuring that the 225 million snacks and meals served annually by City agencies are healthier than ever. New York City is the first major city in the country to set nutrition standards for all foods purchased or served. (Media-Newswire.com) - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal today announced the launch of the City’s first formal food standards, ensuring that the 225 million snacks and meals served annually by City agencies are healthier than ever. New York City is the first major city in the country to set nutrition standards for all foods purchased or served. The new standards, pursuant to an executive order, apply to snacks and meals served in places such as schools, senior centers, homeless shelters, child care centers, after school programs, correctional facilities, public hospitals and parks. The standards require City agencies to serve only healthier beverages such as skim or 1 percent milk ( with exceptions for babies ), phase out deep frying, include two servings of fruits and vegetables in every lunch and dinner, lower salt content and increase the amount of fiber in meals. The Mayor and Shaquille O’Neal were joined at PS 189 in Manhattan by City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs, Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development Dennis M. Walcott, Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden, Department of Youth and Community Development Commissioner Jeanne B. Mullgrav, Schools Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, Public School 189 Principal Theresa Luger, City Council Member Miguel Martinez and members of the City’s Food Policy Task Force. NBA superstar O’Neal is committed to the fight against childhood obesity. Through his TV show “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and its website companion www.ShaqsFamilyChallenge.com, Shaq is helping children and their families learn about the benefits of nutrition, keeping a healthy weight and fitness. “We are making healthier eating the norm by improving the food we offer,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “These new standards are a simple and practical step for the City to use its purchasing power to help more New Yorkers stay well. Improving food has been a priority of my administration from the start and we’ve made tremendous progress. We hope that employers and other organizations will follow the healthy example we are setting — anyone who serves food can save lives by adopting standards like these.” “New York City is taking action to provide families with easy access to healthy meals and snacks,” said Shaquille O’Neal. “Obesity is a real health crisis among America’s children. Everything we can do to help families with nutrition will in the long run change and save lives.” “Today is a momentous day for New York City. Two and a half years ago when I called for the creation of the food policy coordinator position, it was with the idea in mind that a top priority of the office would be to institute healthy food standards that ensure all food provided by City agencies to New Yorkers is nutritious,” said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “This executive order officially makes that a permanent reality by formally establishing the coordinator position and doing something that no other major City has been able to do - requiring that all City agencies that provide food comply with the latest standards defining a healthy diet. This collaboration between the City Council and the administration will impact the lives of countless New Yorkers who eat in our schools, our senior centers, soup kitchens, and beyond and is a great step forward in fighting the obesity epidemic that is impacting our children and all our residents.” “Through the hard work of the Food Policy Task Force and the Food Policy Coordinator we’ve been able to bring together the many city agencies that play a role in expanding access to affordable and nutritious food options - particularly in low income communities,” said Deputy Mayor Linda I. Gibbs. “This effort is another critical tool in our fight against the public health crisis caused by obesity and diabetes.” “It’s important that kids understand the value of eating healthy and Shaq’s message is a simple one delivered on a level they can all understand,” said Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott. “We already know there is a strong correlation between children who eat regular nutritious meals and their ability to learn, and setting food standards is an important way to ensure that our children get what they need.” “Nutritious meals help our students keep healthy and stay alert in their classes,” said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. “Since 2004, we have eliminated trans fats in our school meals. We’ve also reduced salt, started offering more fresh fruits and vegetables, and replaced white flour with whole wheat - even in our pizza dough.” “Obesity and with it diabetes are the only major health problems getting worse in our city and throughout the United States,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden. “Foods loaded with excess salt, sugar and calories cause preventable heart attacks and strokes every day in New York City. Since 2006 we have required healthier beverages and stronger food standards in day care and have been working hard to expand access to fresh fruits and vegetables. By setting these wider-ranging standards we can help make healthier choices the norm and prevent early deaths.” “It is an honor to stand here with the students and Principal Luger of Public School 189 in Washington Heights. This initiative is vital to fight the obesity epidemic in our communities,” said Council Member Miguel Martinez. The standards were developed by the City’s Food Policy Task Force, led by Food Policy Coordinator Ben Thomases, with active participation from City agency staff. They set guidelines for food and meals purchased or served directly or through contractors. They are part of the City’s effort to reduce obesity in school children, the most frequent consumers of City food, and to reduce obesity and high blood pressure in adults and seniors who regularly consume publicly-purchased food. The new standards extend existing federal guidelines and will continue to ensure that the City’s meal programs appropriately address hunger and food insecurity. Meals will continue to provide the quantity of food people need while maximizing nutritional value. Together, City agencies purchase and serve food for 225 million meals and snacks annually, giving suppliers a strong incentive to improve the healthfulness of their food to meet the City’s nutritional requirements. The City’s new trans fat and calorie posting regulations have already had this effect, shifting the food supply to healthier oils and prompting chain restaurants to reduce calorie content and offer lower-calorie alternatives. The standards will be communicated to suppliers to ensure that they understand how to comply with them. The Standards address the specific nutritional requirements of the populations served by different City agencies ( e.g. children, seniors ). Among the provisions: Each meal must provide an appropriate range of calories, salt and fiber Water must be available at all meals in addition to the other beverages regularly served Juice must be 100% fruit juice and recommended servings should not exceed 8 ounces Lunches and dinners must include at least two servings of vegetables Agencies that serve three meals daily must provide at least five servings of fruits and vegetables Fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables should be used in place of canned products, where appropriate Deep fryers will be eliminated over time All food purchased and served must have 0 grams trans fat
Over the past six years, New York City has led the nation in innovative health policies by implementing comprehensive tobacco control measures that have made restaurants smoke-free, reduced the number of New York City smokers by more than 300,000 and cut the rate of teen smoking in half. The City is also eliminating trans fat in restaurant food, posting calorie information on chain restaurant menus, expanding farmers markets and bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to the communities that need them the most through bodegas and Green Carts. In crafting the standards, the task force built on the work already being done by many City agencies, such as the Department of Education. When New York City’s public schools switched from whole milk to 1 percent fat milk in 2006, for example, 800,000 students consumed approximately 38 less calories per day, on average. This small change could lead to a difference of nearly 2 pounds per student each year. The Food Policy Task Force and position of Food Policy Coordinator were created in 2006 in partnership by Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn with a goal of expanding the availability of nutritious, affordable food in underserved communities, enhancing the nutritional standards followed by City agencies in feeding clients and staff and improving access to food support programs.
European Urban Agriculture News
The Major shows his support for roof gardens not so much on food growing more as a viable alternative to tackle climate change)
An interesting interview with the guy who set up Myfolia.com
A list of the greenest cities in the world. Kampala, Uganda has achieved this status thanks to its policies supporting urban agriculture.
An article on the new concept of “garden-sharing” developed in cities.
An article on the subtle power of guerilla gardening.
Yet another article on the Cuban permaculture success history
Michael Pollan:”Joel Salatin Is Worthy of Your Attention!”I just saw a video speech Michael Pollan did where he mentions the author who wrote the book I recommended called “You Can Farm”. This link is the speech, it’s about 17 minutes long, he starts talking about Salatin after about 11 minutes. I guess he spent about a week as Joel Salatin’s apprentice.
Take care,
Eco Village Training for Sustainability SkillsOne suggestion would be Ecovillage at Ithaca (New York) full of eductaor- and doer-types and
THE FARM, in Tenessee is another. Mark Gill stayed there for a while, and could comment more…they seem pretty coordinated and actively focus on education/training, permaculture, energy, and community-building. http://www.thefarm.org/
Bridie Godsil, Intern at the Green Guild School for the New EconomyBridie will possibly be an intern at the Green Guild School for the next 5 years. She will be mentored in green collar, white collar, and blue collar work. After 5 years of intern work, she will graduate to an apprentice. After 5 years as an apprentice, she will become a journeymon. After 5 years as a journeymon, she will be eligible for designation as a master of urban enterprise in the new economy. Green Collar Intern Work The green collar work will be primarily urban farming, especially the soil building, worm raising, intensive square foot city farming at the Euclid House Farm, including, God willing, a garage fish farm down the line. Here is Bridie in the backyard, with the raspberries, squash, arugula, beets, carrots, and morning glory patches next to the green house.  Here is Bridie ontop of the garage roof food garden, displaying one of the first sweet red cherry tomatoes to bless our tables every night in September and October.  Blue Collar Work: Heritage Home Restoration Project One: Aluminum Siding Removed, Wood Prepared and Painted for Original Beauty  With mentor Natalie Dunkelberger  A before picture of the Euclid House
 Admiring the wood beneath the ugly siding
 Pulling nails and fixtures from the lovely wood  Sanding with a broken hand  Primer application  First coat of paint! White Collar Work Bridie is receiving instruction in internet communication and sales,
Accepting Applications to the Green Guild School Now For details, send e-mail to godsil.james@gmail.com
Vigil against Churches Chicken
Invite your neighbors and concerned citizens from across Milwaukee to come together peacefully to make a stand for the health of a community. And we mean health in the broadest, deepest sense of the word: individual and community health. If Church’s Chicken should come to the corner, it is business as usual. Since 1982, this location as a fast food restaurant has attracted criminal activity during and after business hours. Based on our previous experience with *every* one of the earlier fast-food operations, this site attracts a clientèl that establishes turf and settles arguments with guns. We have the bullet holes in adjacent homes to demonstrate that reality. No security system of cameras, regardless of its sophistication and quality, will stop that action. Those systems simply record it; and that is not protection enough for us. We are striving to improve the quality of property uses in our neighborhood. Please see the Journal Article http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=778274 We are FOR change.
We are for business and we’re certainly for jobs. We are also FOR choices. Healthy Choices. 80% of the choices to purchase food in our neighborhood are located in fast food restaurants and convenience stores. If this were a neighborhood with many fresh, quality, affordable groceries available to the community, this would be a different conversation. We imagine there wasn’t a lot of pushback when Church’s came to Capitol Drive and Popeye’s is already across the street. It is primarily a commercial area with food choices. Outpost Natural Foods is a block away. And there are other grocery stores right within reach. It’s time to change: Not another fast food restaurant at 17th and North Avenue. We deserve so much better. Come out. Bring friends. Let us stand together!  Wall Street Journal Discovers Urban Agriculture in Oakland!http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121926371492857735.html?mod=googlenews_wsj A Garden Grows in Oakland
By BOBBY WHITE
OAKLAND, Calif. — Since the end of World War II, the west side of this city has struggled to break away from its industrial roots. Sandwiched between the city’s downtown corridor and the busy Port of Oakland, West Oakland is overwrought with old railways and abandoned warehouses. Not one supermarket can be found in the eight-square-mile area, and 60% of the neighborhood’s 20,000 residents live below the poverty line. Since 2001, more than 80 urban farms have been quietly cultivated in Oakland, Calif., amid dilapidated buildings, railways and trucking depots. WSJ’s Bobby White reports. Yet, amidst the snaking freeways and dilapidated buildings, a bit of green is growing. Since 2001, more than 80 urban farms have been cultivated in the backyards and vacant lots of West Oakland. Produce from zucchini to watermelon is grown for consumption by local residents; goats and chickens are raised on some farms. Last year, more than 10,000 pounds of produce was harvested, according to Oakland’s City Slicker Farms, which is at the epicenter of the neighborhood’s urban-farm push. “We’re about feeding the community and teaching it to feed and sustain itself,” says Barbara Finnin, executive director of City Slicker Farms. The neighborhood’s efforts mirror a larger eco-gastronomy initiative, the Slow Food movement, started in Italy in 1986 by food writer Carlo Petrini, and championed in the U.S. by the likes of Berkeley-based chef Alice Waters. Typically popular among those wealthy enough to afford price premiums, it promotes the consumption of organic, unprocessed and local foods, rather than factory-made fast foods. Slow Food has mainly been seen in the rise of farmers markets and eco-friendly restaurants. Over Labor Day weekend, and just across the Bay from Oakland, San Francisco will play host to the first Slow Food U.S.A. festival, which will bring together chefs, food critics, non-profit organizations and healthy-living enthusiasts to promote sustainable eating. Festival officials (Ms. Waters is the founder) expect about 50,000 attendees to partake in wine tastings, food samples and lectures on the social and political change that Slow Food advocates call for. But the Slow-Food movement has been criticized for being elitist and unrealistic for those who can’t afford pricey farmers markets and artisanal foods. The majority of Slow Food’s 80,000-strong membership comes from a wealthier demographic than that of West Oakland’s. Though community gardens have popped up in gentrified districts in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Berkeley, Calif., inner-city locales have largely remained on the fringe of Slow Food, even though they may be more in need of it. Courtesy City Slicker Farms City Slicker participant Lutricia Whitehead works in her backyard garden as her son, Jacobi Chambers, looks on. Officials hope the West Oakland gardens will serve as an example of how the movement can be embraced by a range of income levels. They also hope the effort will help solve pressing health problems. The farms, spearheaded by a collective of volunteers and non-profits, are meant to help combat the dearth of healthy-food outlets in the neighborhood. Until their creation, residents had to mostly rely on the more than 50 liquor and corner stores for groceries in the immediate area. The sale of fresh foods was a scarcity, and West Oakland has struggled with high rates of obesity. A 2007 report by the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative found that West Oakland residents can expect to live on average 10 years less than their counterparts living in neighboring Berkeley, and attributed the lack of sufficient food resources as a significant factor in this disparity. “The demographic in West Oakland is different than our membership base, but the values they are pushing is well in line with our effort,” says Anya Fernald, executive director of Slow Food Nation, a local subsidiary of Slow Food U.S.A. “If the movement should focus anywhere, it should be West Oakland. With no access to food, residents there are in need of healthy alternatives.” Ms. Fernald says widening the movement has been difficult, partly because the message appeals to an affluent crowd that has the luxury of being more discretionary in their food choices. West Oakland’s City Slicker Farms, a non-profit organization, was founded in 2001 by a local community activist to help combat blight in the neighborhood. Operated by about 200 volunteers and five full-time employees, the group bought a half-acre lot at a tax sale with the intention of planting produce and selling it to local residents at a discount. The outfit has now grown to five community farms throughout West Oakland, collectively churning out some 6,000 pounds of produce a year, it says. Courtesy City Slicker Farms A West Oakland resident buys produce at the community market. City Slicker organizes community markets four times a week, where produce grown is sold on a three-tier scale according to income. Low-income residents pay what they can for their produce, while those who make more, pay near full price. A pound of beets costs $.50 for middle-tier residents, for instance, while it costs $1 for the wealthier. The market only caters to West Oakland residents. Nearly 300 people buy from the markets each week. In 2005, the organization also started a backyard-garden program to teach residents how to set up their own farms and maintain them. Volunteers go to residencies that apply for the program, test soil and build two planter boxes, accompanied with trellises, soil, seedlings and mulch. Thus far, the organization says it has helped create 83 residential gardens, and last year, participants grew over 10,000 pounds of produce. When residents have an overabundance of a certain crop, they can barter for other produce at the weekly markets. Ms. Finnin says the organization’s goal is to cultivate about 77 acres of land in Oakland. As of last year, the group has accomplished about 2% or 1.28 acres of its objective. Most of the organization’s funding comes from donations and individual contributions; the non-profit’s 2008 budget is about $150,000. “They’ve not only saved me money,” says one participant, Lyzz Parker, “they’ve really improved my health.” “What [City Slicker is] doing is a huge deal,” says Malo Hutson, an assistant professor of urban planning at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you don’t have access to fresh food and produce — just processed food — there are big health implications. Obesity, diabetes all stem from lack of the right foods.” West Oakland resident Althea Reynolds now relies on the produce she grows in her backyard as the staples in her meals — and so do her eight elderly neighbors. Ms. Reynolds joined City Slicker’s backyard program in May, citing her diabetes as part of the impetus. She now harvests such produce as string beans, celery, okra, tomatoes, beets, spinach and squash. Many of her older neighbors have a hard time getting to the grocery store, she says, so she often cooks meals from the garden for them, too. “Rarely do some of my neighbors get something as fresh as what comes out of my backyard,” says Ms. Reynolds. “It’s a welcome change. Whenever they see me they want to know when I’m cooking another batch of collard greens or spinach.”
Announcing Eating Liberally!It gives me great pleasure to announce that Eating Liberally will begin meeting this September! This newest liberal-minded social group offers something not found at Drinking Liberally — food! And as often as we can get it, food that was locally grown. Imagine the good conversations you’ve had at DL, suffused with the sights and smells of some of our favorite local eateries. Sound good? Here’s the low-down:
The first get-together will be on September 3 at Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, located at at 101 W. Mitchell Street at the intersection of First & Mitchell. On Transfer’s “Walker Rebate Wednesdays” — which happens to be when Eating Liberally meets — anyone who rides the bus or bikes to Transfer gets a 10% discount on their order. Finally, something you can thank Scott Walker for! The next two Eating Liberally get-togethers will be on Wednesday, October 1 at Beans & Barley, 1901 E. North Avenue on Milwaukee’s upper east side, and a post-Election Day gathering on November 5 at Bella’s Fat Cat, 2737 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue in Bay View. (Hopefully we’ll have a lot to celebrate!) Then on December 3, we’ll round off the year back at Transfer. In 2009, Eating Liberally plans to meet at Stone Fly Brewing Company, Maxie’s Southern Comfort, and Rice Palace Asian Cuisine. We’ll make one last stop at Transfer in April ‘09 before going to farmers markets over the summer. Finally, Jeff Bedel will be the primary host of Eating Liberally. Big thanks to Jeff, and I hope we all have a great time there. “Eat, drink, and be liberal!” Best,Jason.
Back-to-School Clothing Swap at Riverwest Yogashala, 731 E Locust, Sunday, August 17, 1–3pmCome to the gate at the side of the building into our lovely yard and garden. Bring your gently worn clothing and trade it in for a whole new wardrobe. Your $5 donation will support our scholarship fund. This summer we gave out 6 scholarships for the teen and prenatal yoga classes. We hope to give out more this fall with your help. Riverwest Yogashala is a nonprofit yoga center, promoting strength, clarity, and overall wellness through the practice of Iyengar yoga. Questions? Peggy Hong, 963–9587, peggy@riverwestyogashala.com ”Isthmus” of Madison on Mayors Innovation ProjectFarm talk with the Mayors Innovation Project
When Mayor Dave Cieslewicz convened a meeting of the Mayors Innovation Project recently in Madison, the topic of local food was high on the agenda for the gathering of progressive-minded city officials from across the country.
“Urban local agriculture and the food movement have gone from a boutique Whole Foods experience to something that’s become integrated into the mainstream,” Cieslewicz observes. “It’s really become something almost everyone is into.” Still, it seems funny to talk about America’s cities having farm policies. Almost a joke. But the mayors have good reasons for seeing farming as an urban issue. Visiting officials got Saturday tours of two of Madison’s “best practices” efforts — the always impressive Dane County Farmers’ Market and Troy Gardens, the jewel of Madison’s extensive neighborhood garden offerings. At the Pyle Center, they heard Stella Chao, from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods, talk about her city’s greening efforts and Joan Reilly of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society discuss Philadelphia’s well-developed efforts to bring gardening programs to the central city. But most impressive was Will Allen, the former professional basketball player who runs a mix of urban agriculture programs in the Milwaukee area and, increasingly, in other American cities. Allen, whose parents were African American farmers outside of Washington, D.C., has done eye-opening work in bringing fresh food to inner-city neighborhoods and involving kids in urban agriculture. In 2005, Allen won a Leadership for a Changing World award from the Ford Foundation. His nonprofit, called Growing Power, operates urban farms in Milwaukee and Chicago, including beekeeping, chicken raising and fish farming. It also sponsors the Rainbow Farmers Cooperative for 300 small family farmers, many of whom are Hmong, Latino, Amish or African American. Hearing Allen speak of Growing Power, I thought of how similar it was to Madison’s Operation Fresh Start, which also builds community as it helps at-risk kids. Fresh Start teaches teenagers construction skills as they refurbish older homes in challenged neighborhoods. Allen works the same double-play. He brings good, locally grown food into impoverished neighborhoods where fast food and poor nutrition dominate the landscape. His kids, meanwhile, learn about gardening, nutrition, sustainable agriculture and commerce. I think Allen understands one of the essential pleasures of gardening: It subtly changes your relationship to the world. Suddenly you have a tiny degree of food self-sufficiency. Satya Rhodes-Conway, a senior associate with the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, which does policy work for the mayors group, had her own doubts about local food as an urban issue when she began research for the conference. “The biggest thing for me was learning about the multiple benefits of urban agriculture,” she says. “I had just thought about it from the food production angle, but urban agriculture also is about greening neighborhoods, building community, providing job training and working with vulnerable populations.” Madison has been early adopter in this effort. The city has an extensive network of 33 community gardens, serving more than 1,700 families, according to Chris Brockel of the Community Action Coalition. The commission, which is largely federally funded, has its roots in the long-ago (and much derided) War on Poverty. It runs 18 of the gardens, leasing 20-by-20-foot plots and providing the infrastructure — plowing and water primarily — for the neighborhood-run gardens. “Community development is the number-one reason we offer the gardens,” says Brockel. “The fact that people can grow their own food is wonderful, but it’s secondary for us.” The same big-picture thinking is at work at the 31-acre Troy Gardens on the city’s north side. It mixes 184 community gardeners with a small farm and 30 units of co-housing sponsored by the Madison Area Land Trust. Sustainable living and environmental preservation are at the heart of the enterprise. Part and parcel are the leadership programs offered in gardening and environmental work for teenagers and an award-winning garden for younger children. Will Allen would approve. Programs like these have been quietly operating for years in Madison. What’s interesting now is how increasingly they are seen as part of a larger movement embracing organic farming, family farmers, local food systems, neighborhood enhancement and food security. The mayors conference helped strengthen those links. _______________________________________________
Green Sangha Flyer Advocating an Unusual Role for TreesBy JIM ROBBINS
MERRICKVILLE, Ontario — Diana Beresford-Kroeger pointed to a towering wafer ash tree near her home. The tree is a chemical factory, she explained, and its products are part of a sophisticated survival strategy. The flowers contain terpene oils, which repel mammals that might feed on them. But the ash needs to attract pollinators, and so it has a powerful lactone fragrance that appeals to large butterflies and honeybees. The chemicals in the wafer ash, in turn, she said, provide chemical protection for the butterflies from birds, making them taste bitter. Many similar unseen chemical relationships are going on in the world around us. “These are at the heart of connectivity in nature,” she said. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger, 63, is a native of Ireland who has bachelor’s degrees in medical biochemistry and botany, and has worked as a Ph.D.-level researcher at the University of Ottawa school of medicine, where she published several papers on the chemistry of artificial blood. She calls herself a renegade scientist, however, because she tries to bring together aboriginal healing, Western medicine and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees. She favors what she terms a bioplan, reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions. Wafer ash, for example, could be used in organic farming, she said, planted in hedgerows to attract butterflies away from crops. Black walnut and honey locusts could be planted along roads to absorb pollutants, she said. “Her ideas are a rare, if not entirely new approach to natural history,” said Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist who wrote the foreword for her 2003 book, “Arboretum America” (University of Michigan Press). “The science of selecting trees for different uses around the world has not been well studied.” Miriam Rothschild, the British naturalist who died in 2005, wrote glowingly of Ms. Beresford-Kroeger’s idea of bioplanning and called it “one answer to ‘Silent Spring’ ” because it uses natural chemicals rather than synthetic ones. But some of Ms. Beresford-Kroeger’s claims for the health effects of trees reach far outside the mainstream. Although some compounds found in trees do have medicinal properties and are the subject of research and treatment, she jumps beyond the evidence to say they also affect human health in their natural forms. The black walnut, for example, contains limonene, which is found in citrus fruit and elsewhere and has been shown to have anticancer effects in some studies of laboratory animals. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger has suggested, without evidence, that limonene inhaled in aerosol form by humans will help prevent cancer. David Lemkay, the general manager of the Canadian Forestry Association, a nonprofit group that promotes the sustainable use of Canada’s forests, is familiar with her work. “She holds fast to the notion that if you are in the aura of a black walnut tree there’s a healing effect,” Mr. Lemkay said. “It needs more science to be able to say that.” Memory Elvin-Lewis, a professor of botany at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author, with her husband, Walter H. Lewis, of “Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Human Health” (2003, John Wiley & Sons), said such a role for trees could be true. In India, she said, compounds from neem trees are said to have anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties and are planted around hospitals and sanitariums. “It’s not implausible,” Dr. Elvin-Lewis said; it simply hasn’t been studied. On a more solid scientific footing, Ms. Beresford-Kroeger is also concerned about the fate of the Northern forests because of overharvest and the destruction of ecosystems. Federal scientists estimate more than 93 percent of old growth has been cut. As forests are fragmented, they dry out, losing wildlife and insect species. As a result, subtle relationships, the nerve system of biodiversity, are breaking down before they have been studied. “In a walk through old growth forest, there are thousands if not millions of chemicals and their synergistic effects with one another,” she said. “What trees do chemically in the environment is something we’re only beginning to understand.” Trees also absorb pollutants from the ground, comb particulates from the air and house beneficial insects. Some studies support a role for trees in human health. A recent study by researchers at Columbia found that children in neighborhoods that are tree-lined have asthma rates a quarter less than in neighborhoods without trees. The Center for Urban Forest Research estimates that each tree removes 1.5 pounds of pollutants from the air. Trees are also used to remove mercury and other pollutants from the ground, something called phytoremediation. And, of course, trees store carbon dioxide, which mitigates global warming. Dr. Wilson, at Harvard, said that more research into the role of trees in the ecosystem was imperative and that it was alarming how little was known. “We need more research of this kind to use the things we have, such as trees, to their fullest,” he said. Both Dr. Wilson and Ms. Beresford-Kroeger proposed using stock from old-growth forests for planting new forest in the hopes of taking advantage of good genetics. “There’s an enormous difference between old-growth forests and tree plantations,” Dr. Wilson said. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger is famous in Canadian horticulture circles for her sprawling gardens, which she maintains with her husband, Christian Kroeger, and are often open to the public. She has 60,000 daffodils, more than 100 rare hellebores from Turkey and Iran and extremely rare peonies from China that are dark brown with red leaves and smell like chocolate. And she grows more than 100 types of trees, including rare fir trees and Siberian cherry trees, and disease-resistant chestnuts, elms and butternut. Ms. Beresford-Kroeger recently completed the book “Arboretum Borealis” about the boreal forest in Canada, which cuts across the northern half of the country. Canadian officials have recently announced plans to preserve 55 million acres — roughly half. “Trees are a living miracle,” Ms. Beresford-Kroeger said. “Leaves can take in carbon dioxide and create oxygen. And all creatures must have oxygen.” Click here for original article with pictures and links.
Farm bus creates stir inside Union Squareby amy zimmer / metro new york
Union Square. Scores of people walking through the Greenmarket here yesterday snapped photos of the curious-looking vehicle: two school buses welded together.
Bernard Eliott, 30, initially thought it “was about accidents with kids.” Then he noticed the apples and plants. “It looks eco-friendly, hippie-ish.” It’s the latest project of the Who Farm, the group that camped outside the Apple flagship store to buy new iPhones for John McCain and Barack Obama. They want the next president to turn the White House lawn into a working farm. To spread their message of local, organic food they went to Vermont last week to buy the bus from Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry’s, who used the “topsy-turvy” bus during the primaries to show America’s “upside down” budget priorities. Cohen listed the bus for $52,000, but knocked off $10,000 after meeting the Who Farm’s Daniel Bowman Simon, 28. Simon’s group ripped off the roof to build a sunken one upon which they’re creating a small veggie farm, protected from the wind. Original article here
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