Transition: Seed Swap Ukiah Farmers Market Today Saturday 4/21/12 9:30am

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Seed Swap in the Ozarks

Seed Swap 
Saturday 4/21/12
9:30am – Noon

Ukiah Farmers Market
Alex Thomas Plaza/School Street

Bring seeds in labeled envelopes
Vegetables, natives, flowers, herbs

Leave seeds at Mulligan Books beforehand
if you cannot attend…

Transition Ukiah Valley is part of an
international localization movement
to build community resilience

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From CAROLE BRODSKY
Ukiah Daily Journal

Peggy Backup, Scott Miller and partner Trudy Morgan sit at the couple’s kitchen table, eating dried pears gleaned from a local orchard and sorting seeds into small, labeled paper envelopes.

The trio and other members of Transition Ukiah Valley are preparing for a seed exchange event taking place Saturday, April 21 at the Ukiah Farmers Market.

The Transition Ukiah Valley group began meeting in 2011. The group is part of a worldwide transition movement that started in the United Kingdom in 2005 to address issues they believe are impacting local communities as the effects of climate change, skyrocketing oil prices

Transition: Which train would you rather be on?…

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

I am really pleased today to be able to share with you some of the key outputs from Transition Streets, which I have written about here before.  Let’s start, for people who are new to the concept, with this short video which beautifully captures how Transition Streets worked in Totnes:

Transition Streets has already been rolled out in places other than Totnes, but in a few weeks, a whole supported programme will be coming out whereby you will be able to run it in your community (I’ll let you know). You can see the first section of the Transition Streets workbook here to get a flavour of it. It is a great example of the tool from ‘The Transition Companion’ called ‘Street-by-street behaviour change’.

The main output from Transition Streets is the ‘Final project report’, which “shares information about the Transition Streets project, funded by the previous government’s Low Carbon Communities Challenge funded: how it worked, what it achieved, what was learnt and where we are heading next”.  You can find a summary of its findings here.  It is a very thorough round-up of the project.

However, the most fascinating to me is “Social Impacts of Transition Together (SITT): Investigating the social impacts, benefits and sustainability of the Transition Together/Transition Streets initiative in Totnes“, which goes into the more qualitative aspects of Transition Streets, what motivated people to get involved, what changes people made

How Many Circles Does it Take to Make a Community?

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From DAVE POLLARD
How To Save The World

Last evening I spent a couple of hours with three of my Bowen In Transition colleagues — Don Marshall, Rob Cairns and Robert Ballantyne — discussing what, if anything, we might do to start preparing our community (Bowen Island, off Vancouver BC, population 3800, area 20 sq. mi.) for the economic, energy and ecological crises — and perhaps even collapse — we expect to see in the coming decades.

Bowen in Transition, like many global Transition Initiative communities, is already doing several short-term small-step activities — learning about and (at a personal level) applying permaculture principles, obtaining and acting upon home energy audits, compiling a list of local experts in sustainable food, energy, building etc., holding awareness events etc. But as I noted in my recent Preparing for the Unimaginable post, I am concerned that we need to start thinking about longer-term, larger-scale, community-wide changes if we want to have a community sufficiently competent, self-sufficient and resilient enough to sustain ourselves through major and enduring crises.

I have read

Dave Smith: Transition — Clothes and Cars That Last Forever…

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

Old Levi didn’t last forever but his old blue jeans do. I still have a pair of Levi’s 501 denims I wore in high school 50 years ago… and they still fit! The style then was to roll up the leg hems once. The blue suede shoes from Junior High are long gone but those Levi’s still sit in storage in a foot locker and if we ever have a Sock Hop in Ukiah I’m gonna to put them on…

Pity old Levi. Walmart screws up his pants along with everything else they touch…

Used to be there were cars that would last forever. In the 60s it was the Plymouth Valiant getting 500,000+ miles before collapsing… and only then because they had hung around so long people started pointing and hooting at the silly fin design and they slunk off to the junkyard on their own and died there of embarrassment …

In the 70s it was the Datsun 510. I know, I had one just like this…

Transition: 55 Real Things to Worry About If You Must…

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We have other things to worry about right now…

From KATHY McMAHON
Peak Oil Blues

Peak Oil, Climate change and the Greater Depression will pose many challenges to our way of life but let’s get real, for a moment: Golden Hordes aren’t one of them. At least not now. Economic depression brings with it a host of serious problems, and I think you can say quite confidently, without being a chicken little, that most of the world is in a Greater Depression. But still, we’ve got a few years to go before we can say that the USA is no longer a viable culture, when no one wants to live in Paris or London, when potatoes no longer grow in Poland, and before donkey’s begin pulling our rusted-out cars. Bikers with shotguns; weaving socks from milk thistle; crashing waves drowning our cities; evacuating your house on a moments notice to house troops; the government coming to confiscate your precious metals; a mass exodus of cities as the violence and mayhem escalates to untolerable levels—all of these things should not be on the top of the list of what to prepared for.

So what should be?

1. Job loss is up there.

2. We’ve already seen retirement accounts deteriorate, leaving us less money to live on in our aging years.

3. Our elderly today, like that 93 year-old who froze to death in his kitchen, will face real challenges in keeping themselves medicated, warm and fed. It may be time to get concerned about the old folks who live on your street, and start having tea with them on alternating days.

4. The rising price of everything from food to fuel is likely to be a serious problem for a lot of us.

5. Food pantries won’t be able to feed all of the people who need resources from them, and people who used to give generously to those same pantries, might now be lining up for help.

6.Managing depression–emotional depression, that is, should be up there.

Transition: Taming the Zoning Monster…

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From SHARON ASTYK
Casaubonsbook

For the last several years I’ve been working on the invention of “Urban and Suburban Right-to-Farm Laws” and have had some notable successes including a legal conference on the idea and a few municipalities that have implemented them. This is one of the reasons I think this is so incredibly important – zoning presumptions simply can’t be allowed to prevent people from using less and meeting their own needs.

Over the last 50 years, food and zoning laws have worked to minimize subsistence activities in populated areas. Not only have we lost the culture of subsistence, but we’ve instituted legal requirements that make it almost impossible for many people to engage in simple subsistence activities that cut their energy use, reduce their ecological impact, improve their food security and improve their communities. In some cases, these laws were instituted for fairly good reasons, in many cases, for bad ones that associate such activities with poverty.

Scratch most of the reasons for these things both for zoning laws and HOA policies, and you’ll find class issues under their surface in the name of “property values.” There are ostensible reasons for these things, but generally speaking, they derive from old senses of what constituted wealth They stem from the notion that what constituted wealth was essentially having things that don’t do anything

Gina Covina: Saving squash seeds…

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From GINA COVINA
Laughing Frog Farm
Laytonville

We’ve spent the last week in the heady thrill of garden planning. The process used to be an orgy of seed catalog porn, but now we’re in transition to sustainability, so the first step was identifying the crops we want to grow for seed this year. That list included way more than we can grow ourselves, so we brought our favorite candidates to the Laytonville Seed Swap on Sunday and found growers for them from the ranks of the newly evolving Mendocino Seed Growers Co-op. The near future is looking good for local seed.

Here’s one example. Squash divide themselves into three main species (and a couple more minor ones) and within those species they cross-pollinate like crazy. Between species, no. Cucurbita pepo includes most summer squash, as well as acorn, delicata, and many pumpkins. Cucurbita maxima includes a long list of buttercups, Hubbards, turbans, bananas, and more pumpkins. The third, C. moschata, has the butternuts, cheese, trombetta – and yes, more pumpkins. A gardener without near neighbors can grow one variety from each species and confidently save the seeds without having to resort to hand pollination. Our only C. pepo this year will be Dark Star zucchini, the result of Bill Richards’ many years of breeding work on the Eel River flood plain. Delicious, prolific as the hybrid zucchinis, deep-rooted (Richards grows without irrigation), and cold-tolerant beyond the limits of other zukes.

But we also have

Transition: When they cut Social Security by 40%…

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From JOHN ROBB
Resilient Communities

As most of us already know, the Greek government is bankrupt.

So far, it has been forced to cut expenses by 34%.

That means they have already made deep cuts in pension payments, government employee incomes, and government employee headcount.  And they are just getting started.

The Greek economy is in free-fall and likely to set the record for the most severe depression in a modern country so far this Century.

Our collective problem is that the Greek experience will soon seem commonplaces. Almost all of the nations in the West are headed towards a Greek style bankruptcy given current trends. The US deficit alone is running at over a trillion a year with NO end in sight. So, eventual bankruptcy of the US and most of the EU isn’t a question of what is right or just or what could happen in a perfect world.  It’s what is likely to happen.

Given this, the question you should be asking yourself is:  What would happen if the US and the EU cut their budgets as deeply as Greece?  What if there was an across the board budget cut of 40%?

This is an important question since it is almost certain to happen and it will be ugly.  Why?  The number of people that…

1. currently work for the government,
2. get a government pension (or military pension),
3. or get social security/medicare/income support payments

is very large.

So, for planning purposes

Transition: 10 Reasons for Financial Optimism (If You Invest Locally)

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From MICHAEL SHUMAN
LivingEconomies.org

Even though these are tough times for tens of millions of Americans, there’s reason for hope.  That’s the message of my new book from Chelsea Green, Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity, which showcases dozens of ways individuals, businesses and communities are reinvesting their money locally and creating new jobs.  To give you a little taste of what’s in the book, let me share my Top 10 Reasons for Optimism.

10.  Wall Street’s Decline – Fortune 500 companies have long enjoyed an unnatural competitive advantage as all of us have unquestioningly forked over some $30 trillion of our retirement funds into their stocks and bonds.  This lemming behavior is now coming to a close. Occupy Wall Street has been so effective that even Newt Gingrich is questioning our fealty to “vulture capitalism.”  My book documents that the long-term historic rate of return for U.S. stocks has been an astonishing 2.6% per year.  Against that record, all kinds of many local investment opportunities seem fabulous!

9.  Main Street’s Rise – Evidence continues to mount that local small businesses are the best job producers in the U.S. economy, at least as profitable as their global competitors, and becoming increasingly competitive (thanks in part to groups like BALLE).  Local investment can pay off, big time, if we can figure out how to create, pool, trade and evaluate local “securities” more efficiently.

8.  The Crowdfunding Revolution – The bad news is that archaic

A Day in the Life of a Transitioner…

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From CHARLOTTE DU CANN
Transition Norwich

It was cold when I woke up last Sunday. The jackdaws were gathering in the fields and there was a hard frost on the ground. Ah, good I said to myself. Then I sighed, put on two large jumpers and went downstairs to put the kettle on for coffee and a hot water bottle. Switched on the computer and got down to work. It was 7am.

How has Transition changed my life? Utterly, completely, forever. This is not how I would have started a Sunday morning several years ago. I would not, for example, have known why the birds were feeding in the arable fields, I would not have rejoiced in and lamented the frost, thinking simultaneously of the vegetables and the fruit trees that need a winter to flourish and the shivering people in the Occupy encampments. I would not have put on two recycled jumpers or got down to write a blog at 7am. The central heating would have automatically warmed up the house, and I would be up around nine, thinking about my private world, lying in a hot bath.

I could go through each moment of that Sunday and every detail would form part of a Transition narrative: from my breakfast millet (Sustainable Bungay buying group) and apples (our Produce Swap day) to our neighbour’s car that we now share. But most of all it would show how that narrative is shaped by the times I go up to Norwich and my relationships with the people there.

Here I am at 11.30am talking to Kit at Occupy Norwich about Occupied Times in London. I’ve put some stuff in the kitchen, I tell him

Transition: Seeing Wendell Berry’s Wilderness Again…

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From CHRIS CHANEY
Transition Voice

In the early ’90s I made the conscious decision to drop out of college. I distinctly remember the day I withdrew from classes and made the call to my parents. I remember thinking: “Now I’m a statistic.” College dropout.

I watched as the debt grew and my confidence in finding a suitable career faded. I made the decision to drop out based on the reality that I could avoid debt and simply work. I resolved to be satisfied with less. I broke my social contract outright.

Believe it or not, I had a plan.

No, I didn’t start up a software business. I didn’t pursue any entrepreneurial track to riches. My plan was simply to get any job I could and spend my free time exploring the Red River Gorge which is located near where I grew up in Eastern Kentucky. My plan had no long term component.

I don’t know when I first discovered Wendell Berry’s The Unforeseen Wilderness, but it was about this same time in my life. I wanted to read it, but as a poor college dropout with little cash to spend on books it remained out of my hands for a time.

One day I was out with a friend and saw it on a bargain table. I had no cash, but the friend, seeing my eagerness to read it, bought it for me. It was a fortunate encounter because the book changed the way I looked at the world, my life, and the landscape of my soul.

Transition: Building community resilience to cope with collapse…

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From DAVE POLLARD
How To Save The World

In my previous article, I recapped and built upon Nicole Foss’ (Stoneleigh of The Automatic Earth blog) presentation in Vancouver last week. The first part of her presentation, I noted, was about the current intractable economic (and specifically debt) problems we face at all levels (governments, corporations, individuals), and how neither of the most-supported top-down alternatives (austerity or stimulus) can hope to improve the situation or avoid total economic collapse.

The second part of Nicole’s presentation focused on what we can do, at the local community level, to prepare for and build resilience to cope with this collapse. There are a number of things, she said, we can do personally:

• Get out of debt, so that our property cannot be foreclosed upon or repossessed when the situation worsens and we are unable to repay these debts.
• Keep as much cash on hand (and not in the bank) as reasonably possible (enough to last several months).
• Acquire useful, non-perishable hard assets (when the economy fails, so will trade, making many hard goods hard to obtain and expensive).
• Do not depend on governments to do anything useful.
• Be wary of banks (they may simply close when ‘runs’ begin, preventing you from accessing your money).
• Be wary of insurance companies and plans (they will not be able to pay out when their investments collapse).
• Find the right place to live and move there (in or near small towns near healthy agricultural areas; avoid suburbs).
• Learn practical essential skills, both technical and non-technical (e.g. mediation, facilitation).

There was considerable discussion near the end of the presentation

Transition: New film being unveiled in England today…

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From TRANSITION NETWORK

[New film series from Transition Ukiah Valley to be announced soon... -DS]

‘In Transition 2.0′ is nearly ready to be unveiled to the world! We are very excited about this inspiring new telling of the Transition story, and want to tell you more about it here, and about how it will be rolled out over the coming months. To get us started, because we are so excited about sharing this with you, here is the film’s trailer, directed by Caspar Walsh.

Hopefully that has sufficiently whet your appetite for what is a remarkable film. We describe it thus:

“In Transition 2.0 is an inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, gathering stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You’ll hear about communities printing their own money, growing food everywhere, localising their economies and setting up community power stations. It’s an idea that has gone viral, a social experiment that is about responding to uncertain times with solutions and optimism. In a world that is awash with gloom, here is a story of hope, ingenuity and the power of growing vegetables in unexpected places”.

It has been produced by Emma Goude, with animation by Emilio Mula, photography by Beccy Strong and with stunning original music by Rebecca Mayes. They have drawn together stories from around the world showing Transition initiatives at the various stages of transitioning their communities. In order to be able to feature some of the stories from overseas

Occupy a Garden This Year: How to sow vegetable seeds directly into the soil…

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Onion Seeds

From VERONICA HAWKINS
HowToDoThings.com

[See also Monsanto’s new seeds a dead end below... -DS]

If you have a patch of land that you are not making use of, why not consider planting vegetables?

Nowadays, people should be more practical in sourcing basic necessities such as food. Plant some vegetables in your garden and enjoy the freshness of your food while also saving money to purchase your other needs.

To know more about how you can sow vegetable seeds directly into your garden, read on.

• Pick a spot. Make sure that the land in which you plan to plant is not covered with sand or rock beds. The soil should be conducive for the vegetables to grow on.
• Purchase the materials you need. Go to the nearest gardening store to purchase all of the supplies you need for this project.
• Pick the vegetables you want to plant. Be cautious about the type of vegetables that you want to plant. This will be very much dependent on the weather conditions of your area. Try to research online on what types of vegetables are suitable in your area and the type of soil and land area that you have.
• Read the seed packaging instructions. Each seed will require a different way of planting. Read the instructions in the packaging to know how much depth you need to dig to plant and how much sunlight and water the seed needs in order to grow.

• Set up your soil. Make sure that the area where you will plant is composed of suitable soil

What to do? Take Action! Build the new economy by generating alternatives…

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From The Economics of Happiness

Across the world millions of people are actively resisting the process of corporate globalization while simultaneously creating viable local alternatives in the here and now. This powerful emerging movement represents a radical departure from ‘business as usual’. In place of the imposition of a single, global world economy, the new paradigm seeks ‘a world that embraces many worlds’ – an adapting biocultural mosaic rather than a global monoculture. Proponents of this approach call for ‘small scale on a large scale’ rather than one-size-fits-all, ‘too big to fail’ blueprints. In turn, the kind of solutions that are being generated flow from diversity, are attentive to the ecological particularities of place, are more responsive to social needs, and are often far more equitable, participatory and democratic.

Help create the new economy from the ground up!

Support local independent businesses, cooperatives & social enterprises…

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Buy local first

Keeping money circulating locally will help reinvigorate the local economy and generate desperately needed jobs. If you are a business owner, source locally for your supplies and services whenever possible and engage in fair and sustainable (‘translocal’) trade for those goods that can’t be sourced locally.

The 3/50 Project

Local Multiplier Effect

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Start or support a “Local First” campaign in your town or city

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies – Local First

The New Economic Foundation’s Local Multiplier 3

Civic Economics

Crossroads Resource Center

Join, start or support a local worker cooperative

Help create more equitable and democratic local economies…

Our time to come alive…

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From DIANNE MONROE
Transition Voice

This is an amazing time to be alive!

“Yeah, right,” my inner cynic says, “crumbling economy, peak oil, peak everything, melting ice caps, mass extinctions…”

The list goes on and on, all woven together, I remind my cynic within, by the fact that we’re living in a time when the old is crumbling, which is when there’s the greatest opportunity to create something new.

And that is an amazing time to be alive!

If you’re alive today, you’re part of this Great Unraveling/ Great Turning, or whatever we choose to call it. If, like me, you’re middle aged or beyond, we’ve lived through the apex of a global empire now passed irrevocably into decline.

When exactly that point of turning was passed is the topic of many discussions. I’m not sure how important it is to know the precise point. We know that something big happened on the way down with the economic crisis of 2008, even if the mainstream economic pundits keep assuring us that prosperity is just around the corner.

We’re experiencing this great crumbling from within, and that’s a very good (if at times painful) thing. In times of crumbling, when the old way of being and doing can no longer hold itself, can no longer hold us in its grip, there’s greater fluidity, a greater opening. In times like these even small actions can reverberate widely into the future.

That makes it an amazing time to be alive.

The gift

Think about all the humans that have ever lived. They lived through times of joy and plenty, through wars, famines, natural disasters. They lived through the rise and crumbling of empires.

Transition: What it looks like when food grows everywhere…

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture
Transition Ukiah Valley

Today I’d like to share a map with you (you can download a hi resolution pdf of it here — caution, it’s a big file), and I’m hugely grateful to Geri Smyth for giving me this.  It is a map of the town of Guildford (or Guldeford as it was then) in 1793.  Regular readers will know I love a good map, and I have spent a fair while poring over this one.  There are a couple of things I love about it.  Firstly, it is the most amazing piece of draughtsmanship.  It is a thing of extraordinary beauty in a way that Googlemaps can only dream of.  The way its laid out, the calligraphy, the attention to detail, are beautiful in a way very few people could recreate today.  But what is so extraordinary, upon closer inspection, is how it captures what it looks like when food grows everywhere. Think of it, if you like, as Incredible Edible Guildford, circa. 1739.

This is a Guildford before the car, before before shopping malls, before tarmac.  It is also clearly a Guildford with a much lower population than today, with far far lower living standards, and with a lot more mud on the soles of its shoes.  My reason for posting this beautiful artifact isn’t to romanticise times that were very different, and in many ways much harder, rather it is to marvel at what a really local food culture looks like in reality for those of us who have no living memory of such a thing.

We see, for example, that the hospital has its own vegetable garden. The Free School has its own orchard.  While many of the houses have their own gardens, others appear to have allotments out the back, large pieces of land divided into plots.  In the centre of the map is a cluster of coaching inns, each of which have yards full of vegetable gardens.  Behind every house, on every piece of ground, food is being grown.  It is an extraordinary snapshot of a time when food production was the principal form of urban land use after roads and buildings.

Transition and Walmart: Some thoughts from England about Big Box expansion and Being Local

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

“Another world is not only possible… she’s opening a bakery round the corner”. Reflections on the Portas Review.. “Local people”, she argues need to be seen “as co-creators not simply consumers”…

We have very little time to make this stuff happen, it needs to happen now…

["High Street" in England means "Main Street" here... -DS]

I spent a fascinating afternoon on Monday at an ‘Economic Summit’ (nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds) for Members of South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council.  The meeting was called to update councillors on the strategic thinking within the councils in terms of the economic development of the area and to hear their views on it.  Three communities were invited to present to the councillors the work they were doing to regenerate their economies, and Totnes was one of them.  What I want to do in this post is two things simultaneously.  I want to give some reflections from that meeting, but also give a review of ‘The Portas Review’ (“an independent review into the future of our high streets”) which was published yesterday.  Together they give a sense of the two deeply different narratives that were on show at the Summit, the dangers that their incompatibility presents, as well as the opportunities that emerge.

Transition: How To Start Participatory Budgeting For Our Towns

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From SHAREABLE

Have you noticed all the cuts being made to your city budget? To schools and libraries, fire fighters and social services, and other public spending? Think you could do a better job managing the budget? Soon, you may have that chance.

Through a process called “participatory budgeting”, residents of over 1,000 cities around the world are deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. In October, four districts in New York City launched the second such process in the US. This article offers some initial tips for how you could start participatory budgeting in your city.

What is Participatory Budgeting?

In 1989, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre developed a new model of democratic participation, which has become known internationally as

Transition: Made By Hand Since 1879

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From LINDSAY CURREN
Lindsay’s List

I’ve had a long time love of old school printing presses. I love the quality and the raw nature of the medium. I also love that it’s done by hand.

As a writer and graphic designer, I’ve long harbored the fantasy that when the world hits the skids after peak oil really delivers its coming wallop, that I would shift to printing on a local scale. Maybe I’d run a local newspaper. Or maybe, like Hatch Show Print, I’d do everything from cards to posters, art for display to whatever printed pieces my customers needed.

Of course, this depends on my getting all the equipment in advance, and learning to use it, so that when the economy does crash, and resources are scarce, I’m in place to do my local printing superhero thing.

Yet, here I am, typing away online. I’ve got an iPad but no printing press. That’s why it’s still a fantasy for me. Hey, a girl can dream.

But in Nashville, Tennessee, where Hatch Show Print lives, the hand-made print world is completely real. In continuous operation since 1879, Hatch Show Print still makes all their work by hand, from cutting plates to setting type to applying ink to cranking the rollers that print the job right there right then.

Transition: There’s No Place Like Liberty Tool

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From THE ETSY BLOG

Located in the middle of the state of Maine, Liberty is not far from the capital, Augusta. The town is small (the most recent estimate is a population of 932) but charming. My parents bought a house there when I was seven years old, and I’ve visited in the summer for a week or two ever since. There are a grand total of two shops open on a daily basis: a store that sells T-shirts and the Liberty Tool Company.

As a child I couldn’t appreciate the unique nature of a place like Liberty Tool, which was started by H.G. “Skip” Brack in 1976 as an addition to his other stores operating under the Jonesport Wood Company umbrella. With its ageless tools, trinkets, and other bric-a-brac, what kid really can? I thought it was boring. I wanted to spend the summer hanging with my friends at the beach, devouring fast food, and eating candy. I put little stock in the quality of things and more so in the quantity. But, as I’ve grown older and more mature, I’ve found it necessary to ornament my life with items of real worth and value. The importance of this has become especially clear to me in the last decade or so, as the continued erosion of those things I once held dear — books and music records immediately come to mind — turns the world I inhabit digital. And that’s why Liberty Tool carved out such a special place in my life.

The first review of ‘The Transition Companion’

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

Here is a review of ‘The Transition Companion’ by Maddy Harland from the new edition of Permaculture Magazine.  You can download a pdf of the page on which it appears here.

Transition is now a worldwide grassroots movement that looks climate change and peak oil squarely in the face and dismisses the utter impossibility of endless economic growth on a planet of finite resources. It offers community based solutions to help people in villages, towns and cities adapt to the inevitable challenges of the oncoming reality of profound economic and social change unflinchingly and with a good degree of humility and good cheer. It’s a collection of recipes for building community, environmental regeneration, relocalised economies and so much more.

Transition emerged from an energy descent plan process during an in-depth permaculture design course taught by Rob Hopkins at Kinsale Further Education College in the early 2000s and has since spread around the world. Rob’s first book, The Transition Handbook (2008), introduced the concept and explained how to set up Transition initiatives. It went down a storm. Other titles followed in the series – on local food, money, planning a Transition ‘timeline’, and how to influence local government with these ideas – by a variety of authors working with Rob and the other co-founders of the movement. Almost a decade of experimentation unfolded. This new volume offers stories of Transition initiatives from all over the world, plus practical Transition Tools for starting, and perhaps more critically, maintaining a Transition initiative. It’s an impressive collection of ideas and praxis.

I read so many books about peak oil, the state of the world, and environmental degradation that I often glaze over. This one is different. It has authority born from practical experience, a musculature that is immediately engaging, even reassuring. It feels mature. The book is not afraid to catalogue the limitations and failures, even celebrate them, as well as the successes. I like the way the book was crowd sourced. Rob blogged on each Transition Tool and invited feedback and ideas. The participatory aspect brings it alive: here is more than one visionary man’s voice but a whole chorus of voices. There’s a good degree of futurecasting within its pages: stories from a future that has embraced transition, some not without their humour. As computer scientist, Alan Kay said, “The best way to invent the future is to predict it.” That’s exactly what this book aims to do.

Mendo Island Transition: Create your own job

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From YES! MAGAZINE

Need some ideas about how to start a DIY business and make some money doing what you love? Check these five entrepreneurs profiled in Yes! Magazine and then think about what you might do in the post-jobs economy.

1. Former Meat Plant Goes Veggie
Alex Poltorak prepares a hydroponic food-growing system for the rooftop of The Plant. A former meatpacking facility in Chicago, The Plant is being deconstructed and transformed into a net-zero-energy vertical farm. Its roof is the site of Poltorak’s first gig; his business, Urban Canopy, turns city roofs into farms. Poltorak wants to shorten the distance food travels “from farm to fork,” he says, “in addition to utilizing idle rooftops, creating local jobs to manage these rooftop farms, and providing more sustainably grown produce for local communities.”

2. Real-Life Benefits for Women

Ana Sanchez has worked with Southwest Creations Collaborative in Albuquerque, N.M., for the past 12 years. The business offers living-wage jobs

Food From The Sky [Transition]

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From FOODFROMTHESKY.org.uk

A brilliant urban food growing initiative on the roof of the Budgens supermarket at Crouch End in London... a Permaculture community garden growing food to sell in the supermarket below while providing a learning and educational space for the different part of the communities. We are growing vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and herbs grown to organic standard with children and other members of our diverse community – sold through the store 8 metres below.

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Mendo Island Transition: Project Kleinrock — Setting up a local internet completely free of Internet Service Providers and untouchable by the government

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From PROJECT KLEINROCK

[Needs a nerd... -DS]

Following are the details of a project to create a completely autonomous “second layer” of the Internet, completely free of the influence of or need for Internet Service Providers, and untouchable by the government. This plan is named after Leonard Kleinrock, inventor of the Internet Packet. It has been enacted after news of a bill entering the United States Senate which would allow a President to disable all Internet connectivity within the United States. (We later heard that this bill

Brazil’s Local Money [Local]

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From WSJ

Towns Issue Their Own Money, Which Brings Local Discounts

[...] The capivari circulates only in this dusty, agricultural town 60 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The money is an effort by the town, one of the poorest in southeastern Brazil, to encourage its 23,000 residents to spend locally.

The capivari is one of 63 local moneys now circulating in needy towns and neighborhoods throughout Brazil.

Ten months after introduction of the capivari—named after the capybara, a pig-sized rodent common in a local river—the currency is

Local Businesses Key to Income Growth

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From STACY MITCHELL
New Rules Project

The results of a new study suggest that the key to reversing the long-term trend of stagnating incomes in the U.S. lies in nurturing small, locally owned businesses and limiting further expansion and market consolidation by large corporations.

Economists Stephan Goetz and David Fleming, both affiliated with Pennsylvania State University and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, conducted the study, “Does Local Firm Ownership Matter?“  It was published in the journal Economic Development Quarterly.

Goetz and Fleming analyzed 2,953 counties, including both rural and urban places, and found that those with a larger density of small, locally owned businesses experienced greater per capita income growth between 2000 and 2007. The presence of large, non-local businesses, meanwhile, had a negative effect on incomes.

“Even after we control for other economic growth determinants … the non-resident-owned medium and large firms consistently and statistically depress economic growth rates … The other major result is that resident-owned small firms have a statistically significant and relatively large positive effect” on income growth, the authors report. Small firms are defined as

Mendo Island Transition: Knitting a new future

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From JOANNE POYOUROW
Transition US

My name is Joanne and I am a knitter. (Yep, it’s that serious)  For quite some time I have made excuses, telling myself that “knitting was one of those reskilling things” and it was a powerdown craft. But I got to thinking about it seriously this week.

Here, in the middle of urban Los Angeles, knitting is a pretty elitist hobby. It might be a “reskilling type of thing” good for necessary clothing-making somewhere out on a farm where there are plenty of goats and sheep. Or if I took to raising angora rabbits. Because when the serious hiccups in the economy come, when the darker transportation issues of peak oil set in, the boutique yarn stores I patronize today likely won’t be around anymore.

Although every seriously addicted knitter has her enormous stash of yarn, even that won’t last long under such circumstances.  Cotton takes too much acreage, and bamboo requires tons of processing before you can make it into yarn. I don’t think my neighbors would tolerate pigmy goats.  Newspaper we have in great supply, but it doesn’t make washable clothing.  I’ll be out of raw materials.  I have no sustainable supply.

Some of the Transition groups around here have been hosting Repurposing Old Clothes workshops. This is where everyone brings in something old from their closet, plus a spare bit of fabric or some trims. They put it all in a big pile. Then people start pulling garments from the pile — probably not the ones they brought with them. The workshop flows best when you invite someone with an eye for design to help put cool things together. Then out come the sewing machines (or the thread-and-needle). In a powerdown future in the middle of a city, I think we’ll have plenty of leftover mass-produced clothing that can be repurposed like this.

Who’s building the do-it-ourselves economy?

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From SARAH VAN GELDER and DOUG PIBEL
YES! Magazine

Corbyn Hightower was doing everything right. She worked long hours selling natural skin care products, flying between cities to meet customers, staying in posh hotels. She pulled down a salary that provided her family of five with a comfortable home in a planned community, a Honda SUV, health insurance, and regular shopping trips for the best natural foods, clothes, shoes, and toys.

Then the recession hit. Her commissions dried up, and the layoff soon followed. Life for Hightower, her stay-at-home husband, and three children changed quickly.

First the family moved to a low-rent house down the street from a homeless shelter. They dropped cable TV, Wi-Fi, gym membership, and most of the shopping. Giving up health insurance was the most difficult step — it seemed to Hightower that she was failing to provide for her young daughters. Giving up the car was nearly as difficult.

As our economy goes through tectonic shifts, this sort of adaptation is becoming the new normal. Security for our families will increasingly depend on rebuilding our local and regional economies and on our own adaptability and skills at working together. At the same time, we need government to work on behalf of struggling families and to make the investments that create jobs now and opportunities for coming generations. That will require popular movements of ordinary people, willing to push back against powerful moneyed interests.

Where are the jobs?

How did we get to an economy in which millions are struggling?

Officially, the “Great Recession” ended in the second quarter of 2009. For some people, the recovery is well under way. Corporate profits are at or above pre-recession levels, and the CEOs of the 200 biggest corporations averaged over $10 million in compensation in 2010 — a 23 percent increase over 2009.

But for most Americans, there’s no recovery, and some are confronting homelessness and hunger.

Mendo Island Transition: Sustaining Our Better Angels

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From PEAK OIL BLUES
Excerpted

[...] Pragmatic Altruism vs. Violent Mindset

As Stuart Twemlow, M.D. points out, we in the US are exposed to an”endless deluge of unmitigated violence, in the media, on the Internet, and in print, which subtly and gradually helps to shape a defensive “violent mindset” that reflects in the way we treat each other.”  In this violent mindset, people attempt to “spend much time trying to win at any cost” and “gauge personal success by economic and material gain.”  Despite the overwhelming evidence of the harmful and shaping effects of exposure to violence and its cancerous effects on communities, a “debate” about the impact of violence on the psyche continues.  Dr. Twemlow compares the “debate” about these facts as similar to the lengthy antique “debate” about cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

The violent mindset vs. what he calls the “pragmatic altruistic” mindset impacts the collective community consciousness in areas of creativity, thought patterns, ruthlessness, economic prosperity,

Rethinking Transition as a Pattern Language

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

In 1977, Christopher Alexander and colleagues at the Centre for Environmental Structure at Berkeley University published a book called ‘A Pattern Language: towns, buildings, construction’, the second in a series of 3 books. Fifteen years later, a much younger me was a student on my permaculture design course in Bristol. On Day 5 of the course, the teacher introduced ‘A Pattern Language’ to the group, as though it were some ancient, dusty, sacred text, in much the same way as I now introduce people to it. He lovingly flipped through the book and introduced the concept of patterns and why this book was essential for the design of anything.

I borrowed his copy and took it home that night. Initially it looked huge and impenetrable, but once I had read the ‘key’ at the beginning, I flew through the book in a couple of hours. What blew me away was not the these ideas were in any sense revolutionary or new, but rather that it captured and put its fingers on so many things that I had felt and been unable to articulate. Why do some built environments make you feel alive, connected and celebratory, and why do some make people want to stab each other?  Why does the heart soar in the old parts of Sienna, in St Ives, in Paris, and not in most of Swindon or Slough?

Roundup of what’s happening in the world of Transition

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Bath, England

From TRANSITION CULTURE

Bath, England was host to the Youth Climate Change delegates, and Transition Bath undertook to feed them with an entire meal using only food sourced within walking distance of the city.

To celebrate Eat Local Week, Transition Colorado put on an evening with Joel Salatin called “Local Food to the Rescue”. Joel is a third generation alternative farmer at Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.   At New York’s GreenFest, Tina Clarke and David Noonan from Transition US joined David Korten, visionary leader, economist, author and former Harvard Professor for a Forum on Building Local Economies.

In Portland, Oregon, David Johnson and Jim Newcomer of Transition PDX were recently interviewed on local radio, a great piece that covers Transition internationally, nationally and locally. Well worth a listen.

Mendo Island Transition: The significant benefits of food localization

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From MICHAEL BROWNLEE
Colorado Transition

The local food shift is gaining significant traction in Boulder County, growing well beyond the euphoric early adopter stage into early majority territory. It is unfolding so rapidly and so unpredictably that it could well be called a revolution.

If it hasn’t already, the issue of local food is about to land on the desks of public officials and political candidates, perhaps even in unexpected ways. One candidate, aware of this shift, contacted Transition Colorado and requested “talking points” on this important issue. What follows here is a very preliminary and incomplete briefing intended to help all officials and candidates quickly bone up on some of the major issues and prepare to deal with the challenges that are coming their way.

Since our current food-related laws and policies were created — and most public officials were elected or appointed — long before the local food shift began to take hold, familiarity with these issues could be crucial not only to candidates’ political future, but also the well-being of the communities they serve.

Roots of the local food shift

Common Security Clubs or Resilience Circles

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~

[See also Thom Hartmann and Economist Ravi Batra analysis videos below...]

In these uncertain times, the Great Recession has reminded us of our vulnerabilities. Debt. Foreclosure.  Unemployment and Anxious Employment. Evaporating Savings. Rising Costs. Job Insecurity.

In response, Resilience Circles (also called Common Security Clubs) are forming around the country, using and adapting free tools provided by the Resilience Circle Network.

What is a Resilience Circle?

For stories, read about our Profiled Circles here. A Resilience Circle is a small group (10 – 20 people) that comes together to increase personal security by:

• Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
• Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
• Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
• Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.

In the process, a Resilience Circle allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.

Structure of a Resilience Circle

The free, open source Resilience Circle Curriculum provides a guide for facilitators to lead groups through seven initial sessions.  Participants help prepare for and lead these meetings.

After seven sessions have been completed, a circle can decide

Food Resiliency Action Groups: Growing Food Together

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From PEAK MOMENT TELEVISION

Having learned “How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House?” (Peak Moment 87), Judy Alexander kept right on going. As chair of the Local 2020 Food Resiliency Action Group in Port Townsend, WA, she helped initiate 25 community gardens in her county within four years. Sitting in her own neighborhood’s garden, she talks about the power of cooperative gardens compared with individual plots. There’s something for people of all ages and skills to do (even non-gardeners), while enjoying learning from one another, and building closer neighbors and a more secure community.
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Don Sanderson: Some random thoughts

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From DON SANDERSON
Hopland

Our modern society appears to be saturated with fear, which is quite reasonable it seems to me. On the far right, the Tea Party and its wealthy supporters are attempting to build barriers to keep the world out. On the left, we are more inclusive, but are also searching for ways to shield ourselves. Yet, on both ends and in the middle, we are attempting to escape while taking at least the rudiments of our lifestyles with us. I reflect on so-called transition towns. Can you think of such a community, say a possible Ukiah, without electricity and or natural gas? We can’t live long without water, but without electricity the city’s wells would cease to function – as would its sewer system. Would we carry our water from Mendocino Lake or the river? How would we cook our food, if we can find any, with fire wood? How would we cut it without a chainsaw? How would we burn it in our houses as mostly are presently constructed? How would we haul it out of the woods? From where will we get our clothing and shoes when they wear out? If you think these would be difficult, think of attempting to survive in San Jose.

So, we depend upon high tech engineers to develop solar, wind power, and biofuel solutions.  But, the development and maintenance of such depends upon cheap, available fossil fuels and electricity in so many aspects. We, our modern lifestyles, are so locked into such expectations. Even the most radical of us can only dream of returning to earlier times maybe only a century past in much of the country when human and animal labor were preeminent and most communities

Mendo Food Sovereignty?

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Thanks to Janie Rezner

Sedgwick, Maine has done what no other town in the United States has done. Earlier this year the town unanimously passed an ordinance giving its citizens the right “to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing.”

This is WITHOUT government regulation.

This includes raw milk, locally slaughtered meats, and just about anything else you can imagine. It means that farmer and patron agree to enter into private agreements with one another, and settle any disputes that arise personally and civilly.

It is the way things used to be done before Americans sacrificed their freedoms to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Food sovereignty ordinances are what must be in place to enable an explosion of local food production. This is only the beginning!

Learn about the international principles developed by Via Campesina in this entry from Wikipedia

Via Campesina’s seven principles of food sovereignty include:

1. Food: A Basic Human Right. Everyone must have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain a healthy life with full human dignity. Each nation should declare

Transition: Resilient to what?

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

I was reading through the Executive Summary of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2011 this afternoon (as you do) and the chart on page 3 caught my eye. In it, the authors set out all the risks they see in the world on a matrix which positions the various risks by their perceived impact on the global economy and by the perceived likelihood of their happening. What you might expect to be at the top, given recent media reports, would be the threat of terrorism or perhaps some hideous computer virus that knocks out nuclear power station.  But no.  There at the top, leading the pack, are climate change, ‘extreme energy price volatility’ and fiscal crises.

In my research over the past couple of years on the subject of resilience, I often ended up at the question of ‘resilient to what?’  In a paper for the think tank DEMOS called ‘Resilient Nation’, Charlie Edwards listed the things he felt we should be preparing resilience to. They were climate change, floods, extreme weather events, pandemics, energy shortages, nuclear attacks, terrorism and a few others.  The UK government Cabinet Office runs ‘Regional Resilience Teams’ who are charged with creating plans for each region. Yet the main focus of this will most likely be on terrorism and pandemics.

Transition: Hard work + Vision = Kilowatts

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

Naresh Giangrande reports…

Nothing sets me off more than people who portray Transition town folk as a bunch of happy clappy, ‘we just vision it and it will happen’ eco activists. Last night’s EGM of TRESOC was a delightful, difficult, heart warming, and frustrating exploration of unknown territory; raw Transition in Action. It was a good example of what happens when a project moves from the great idea phase into real decision involving, in this case, significant sums of money, within a community. Suddenly emotions run high, and fragile relationships can become frayed. Although last night I think we emerged intact, more or less. It is what happens when a community expresses it’s will grounded in a positive vision- amazing things can happen.

The workload for the directors is going through the roof as four projects are taking shape;

The 4.5 MW wind farm development is moving forward, data collection is being done to enable an autumn 2011 planning application to be made.

• An Anaerobic Digestion scheme now has a technology partner, Monsal Ltd who are taking an equity stake in the project, with South Hams District Council and the Dartington Trust also on board.
• There is a request from TQ9 developments for TRESOC to supply a bio mass boiler for the new development at Baltic wharf.

Home-Scale Energy Now

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From JOHN MICHAEL GREER
The Archdruid Report

The logic applied in last week’s post to photovoltaic solar power can be applied more generally to a fairly wide range of technologies that can, under the right circumstances, provide a modest supply of electricity to power those things for which electricity is really the most sensible power source. I want to talk about a couple of those in tthe weeks to come, partly for the sake of completeness, partly because the options I have in mind offer some distinct advantages, and partly because touching on a series of examples will make it easier to grasp certain common themes that aren’t often addressed on those rare occasions when discussions of the future of technology manage to make it out of the realm of popular mythology in the first place.

I don’t mean that last comment as a joke, by the way. If mythology can be defined as the set of stories that people in a given society use to make sense of the universe and themselves, contemporary beliefs about the future of technology in the cultural mainstream of the industrial world fill that role, doubled, tripled, and in spades. Those of my readers who have

Home Power Plant Nation

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From CHRIS BOLGIANO
Bay Journal News Service
Via Transition Voice

The old dream of going off-grid has changed into today’s reality of using the grid as your own battery

It’s a gorgeous day full of singing birds and sunlight. Beautiful, streaming sunlight. Soon the photovoltaic system that added some aggression to my passive solar house in the mountains of western Virginia will be one year old, the time of reckoning.

Getting off the grid has always been nirvana for 1970s back-to-the-landers like me. With net-metering – a 21st century update of the dream – I am still connected, selling excess electricity in summer when the sun is high, and buying electricity at night and in winter. The grid has become my battery, although my home system includes batteries for three sunless days of essential services if the grid is knocked out: water pump, stove, freezer, and playing old movies through the storm.

In rural Appalachia, self-sufficiency is the traditional way of doing things.

Transition and Collapse: Voices from the Margins

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From TRANSITION BOOK GROUP
Via Energy Bulletin

It was at my suggestion that our Transition Book Group read The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age, by John Michael Greer. Known online for his blog the Archdruid Report (he is a high priest of the Druid Order) Greer belongs to a small group of thinkers that I would call “collapse-theorists” (others might say “doomers”), who dare to describe the future of energy descent, the massive crises of the economy, climate and peak oil. All of the material we read in the book group is difficult. Jokes are made about who we are sending our therapy bills to each month as we gather. Something about Greer proved extra-challenging, and although we all liked the book as much or more than anything else we have read, it brought up the unique grief of contemplating a grim future.

Though gentler, and more rational than many writers of his genre, Greer has a knack for formulating the truth in ways that are hard to dispute.

What is a Transition Enterprise?

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

Fiona Ward of Transition Network’s REconomy project has written the following to try and answer the question “what would a social enterprise founded on Transition principles be like?  This posted is intended to stimulate discussion, so do comment below.  Over to Fiona…

Why do we need this definition?

This document defines what is meant by a Transition Enterprise (TE). This definition is useful to the Transition Network because it helps us clarify:

1. The kind of trading enterprises we would most like to see, as they best support the wider aims of Transition, and
2. Where we should first direct our limited resources (e.g. via the REconomy project).

Other types of commercial enterprises can also help meet the aims of Transition. In fact, we need a wide range of business models in each local economy to provide the diversity that helps build resilience, including

Wendell Berry: The Work of Local Culture

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Tanya and Wendell Berry Farm in Port Royal, Kentucky

From WENDELL BERRY
E. F. Schumacher Society

For many years my walks have taken me down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather’s farm. A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow, and I never go by it without stopping to look inside. For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth. The old bucket has hung there through many autumns, and the leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it. Rain and snow have fallen into it, and the fallen leaves have held the moisture and so have rotted. Nuts have fallen into it, or been carried into it by squirrels; mice and squirrels have eaten the meat of the nuts and left the shells; they and other animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have scratched in it and left their droppings or perhaps a feather or two. This slow work of growth and death, gravity and decay, which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black humus. I look into that bucket with fascination because I am a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts, and I recognize there an artistry and a farming far superior to mine, or to that of any human. I have seen the same process at work on the tops of boulders in a forest, and it has been at work immemorially over most of the land-surface of the world. All creatures die into it, and they live by it.

Stacy Mitchell: Declarations of Independents

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From STACY MITCHELL
New Rules Project

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago a group of colonists forced their way onto three ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumped more than 90,000 pounds of tea into the sea. This is familiar history to most of us, but what many do not realize is that the colonists’ actions that night were as much a challenge to global corporate power as they were a rebellion against King George III.

The ships were owned by the East India Company, a powerful transnational corporation that had recently suffered losses, in large part because the colonists had boycotted its merchandise. In order to rescue the company and restore its profits, the British parliament passed the Tea Act, which exempted the East India Company from paying taxes on the tea it sold in the colonies. The aim was to enable the company to undercut small local competitors, all of whom were subject to the tax, and drive them out of business.

The British government and the East India Company were counting on the lure of cheap tea to overpower any sense of principle, but they misjudged. The colonists continued to support their independent merchants and boycott East India tea. Their actions in the harbor that night and the British retaliation that followed ultimately led to an organized boycott of all British goods. Homegrown and locally made became the fashion of the day. The Declaration of Independence soon followed; the rest, as they say, is history.

Rob Hopkins: Transition and activism — a response

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From ROB HOPKINS
Founder
Transition Towns Movement

This post is a response to Charlotte DuCann’s beautiful and heartfelt post over on the Transition Norwich blog arguing that Transition needs to more explicitly embrace activism.  It is wonderful to see, whether through that blog, through Transition Voice, or through the emerging social reporting project, new voices coming through in the Transition blogosphere.  Charlotte speaks powerfully to the split that some of those engaged in Transition feel, that they almost need to keep their activism ‘in the closet’ in order to remain engaged.  She states that she sees her post as a ‘working document’, and invites reflections, so here are a few of mine.

Personally speaking, while there is much in the post that I agree with, there is a fundamental point I profoundly disagree with.  Charlotte writes “to embrace activism

We want a world as it should be

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From JOANNE POYOUROW
Transition US

After decades of accepting the world as it is …, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be. — President Obama (speaking about the Middle East, 5/19/11)

President Obama -

We want a world as it should be: a world where people quit fouling their own nest, where money isn’t the only object, a world where people consider the planet we are leaving to our children.

In the past few months, your executive order has indefinitely rescinded EPA limits on emissions from industrial boilers which power oil refineries, chemical plants and other factories. You have slow-tracked new rules on storing toxic coal ash. (source)

We want a world as it should be: where government protects the health of the people from powerful corporate interests, where government takes action to protect the environment and to slow global warming.

Right now,

Transition: Why I care more about the Koch brothers than heirloom tomatoes

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From ERIK CURREN
Transition Voice

“Why do you write about politics so much? Why so negative?  Why not more stories on Permaculture?” are questions we sometimes get from readers. Often followed by a statement about what the Transition movement is really about.

Transition, we are told, is really about “positive actions in the local community” such as…

• Planting community gardens
• Working with your city council to cut energy use in municipal buildings
• Printing a local currency

For the record, I’m a fan of all the above. I’m just not ready yet to join Voltaire’s Candide in withdrawing from the world to cultivate my garden.

Gardening in the community

Here’s a Way to Eliminate the Regulators and Lawyers, and Build Community At the Same Time: Organize and Declare ‘Food Sovereignty,’ Like Sedgwick, Maine

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From THE COMPLETE PATIENT

[...] On Saturday morning, Sedgwick became likely the first locale in the country to pass a “Food Sovereignty” law. It’s the proposed ordinance I first described last fall, when I introduced the “Five Musketeers”, a group of farmers and consumers intent on pushing back against overly aggressive state food regulators. The regulators were interfering with farmers who, for example, took chickens to a neighbor for slaughtering, or who sold raw milk directly to consumers.

The proposed ordinance was one of 78 being considered at the Sedgwick town meeting, that New England institution that has stood the test of time, allowing all of a town’s citizens to vote yea or nay on proposals to spend their tax money and, in this case,

Transition and the Collapse Scenario

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From DAVE POLLARD
How To Save The World

[...] At the risk of exasperating my crisis-fatigued colleagues in the Transition Movement, here’s a collapse scenario, not inconsistent with those of many researchers, scientists, historians, economists and theorists who’ve looked at peak oil, runaway global warming, economic depressions and the history of civilizations.

It’s a collapse scenario rather than a crisis scenario because it anticipates a dramatic and permanent shift in how we live, rather than just a transitional period of invention and adaptation that we have to go through before returning more-or-less to the style of life we’ve become accustomed to today. I personally believe that if our planning, project work and capacity-building are far-reaching enough to help us cope with a complete system collapse, it could well be the difference between the survival and extinction of our species.

Here’s the scenario, in five stages, showing how a crisis in one area can precipitate or worsen crises in other areas and eventually lead to system collapse… Article here
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Inconvenient truths about the coming transition

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From MIKE FREEDMAN
Transition Voice

Transition seems so easy we could teach it to school kids. But will theory meet practice in a rapidly changing world?

When we talk about what will be the next economy, it’s easy to get excited about a local bakery or a payment-in-kind system that circumvents The Man.

Skill-swapping, gardening, knowing your neighbors – these are brilliant and vital parts of a hopeful future. But all the warm and fuzzy feelings we get from sharing bran muffins in the local town hall can sometimes obscure rather than highlight the reality of the situation we’re in.

What I hope to do is paint an honest picture of what I see coming.

1. We won’t move to a new economy until this one has run its course.

The majority

Transition Declaration of Independence and The 200 Artisan Skills Required to Make a Town Functional

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

[By removing Corporate Personhood from Ukiah and Mendocino County, we will exercise more democratic control over our forests from which future value-added jobs can be generated and sustainable harvesting implemented. -DS]

Here is something rather wonderful that emerged in late 2008 from New Zealand, thanks for Dr. Susan Krundieck. It is an update of the US Declaration of Independence, brought up to date for a generation facing peak oil, climate change and economic contraction, and is attributed to the Representatives of the Transition Committee of Oamaru (a town in New Zealand).  I love the list of ‘the Growth Economy has for its own sake…’ accusations statements… there is a deep, forceful power to this, a clearly spoken and resonant declaration of intent.  Prepare yourself for a goosebumps moment.

Mendo Transition: How can we grow more food locally?

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

Pam Warhurst of Incredible Edible Todmorden speaks in Bath, England

Transition Bath recently posted this film of an excellent talk they hosted from an event called ‘How Can We Grow More Food Locally?’. The talk was part of a wider series of ‘Transition Talks’, the next one being called ‘Does money make the world go round?’ which features Mark Boyle (‘the Moneyless Man’)  and Molly Scott Cato.

Parts two through five here

Comment left by Robert Hopkins on website:

If every available small piece of land is filled with garden, instead of grassy lawns and asphalt parking spaces, it would be feasible to grow vastly larger quantities of food locally than in the current city context. It is true that I live in a small university city in Florida,

Visiting Our Future: The Original Transition Town

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From TRANSITION CULTURE
Photo Essay

Totnes, Devon, England. Just over 23 thousand inhabitants, is the most ecologically developed city in the world. According to the good authority of “Observer”. Exactly, Totnes is the first of Transition Towns. This project was devised years ago by Rob Hopkins, perfect applied in the green Devon, and repeated all over the world in 35 communities. In Italy something similar is in Prato allo Stelvio. Solar panels on the roofs, chimneys and wood stoves, vegetable gardens in the house gardens, fruit trees on the sidewalks, advanced (and respected) waste recycling’s schedule, electric public transports, electric cars, electric bicycles. These are the strong points of Transition Towns, that, besides environmental sustainability, let save a lot of money. Today Totnes is a technological artistic and unique laboratory in the world as well a model that should be assumed in all.

Portrait (above) of Holly Tiffen. This farm is part of Transition Town Totnes Food link initiative. This is a project that aims to increase the availability of local food, by linking local farmers and producers with retailers and restaurants in Totnes. In the Southwest there are many small-scale farmers producing bountiful quality food that has helped the area to build up it’s reputation as a place rich in fantastic food and foodie outlets. Despite this most of the food produced is sold outside of our region, travelling across the country to distant consumers. At the same time, much of their food purchased locally is brought in from far and wide. The Food Links project aims to build a more resilient local food economy by building confidence and loyalty between producers and retailers within the locality.

Mendo Island Transition: Reskilling Initiative

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From GREEN HANDS

[Maybe combine this with our Mendo Time Bank, Together We Can Mendocino, and Gardens Project?... -DS]

Philosophy

Peak Oil

Many people now believe that the world’s petroleum supply is at or near its peak production capacity. As it gets increasingly  difficult to maintain or expand the supply of this vital resource (aka “Peak Oil”), the economies that rely on cheap, abundant fuel  in increasing amounts will falter. As they do, we will need to devise alternatives to the industrial model we currently rely upon for basic necessities.

It’s not the purpose of this site to convince anybody of the reality and practical ramifications of Peak Oil. I encourage readers to do a search on it… there’s plenty of information available online…

Reskilling

Reskilling – the development of skills more directly connected with basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and recreation – is one practical response to the manifold problems that society may well face in the wake of peak oil and economic displacement and collapse.

Looking for a way to make it easy and practical for people to connect and share skills, I came up with the idea of the Green Helping Hands Reskilling Initiative.  Whether you’re a skilled composter/gardener or an artist with a pair of knitting needles, or if  you are seeking these or other skills, just post a sign with a green hand on it – or look for one near you.

Why a physical sign, one might ask, and not a website? After all, I’m promoting the concept through a website. The answer is, signs are cheap, fast and local, and don’t rely on high-tech anything to get started.

Mendo Island Transition: Remember the Boycott…

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From RAN PRIEUR

[Yes, it is important to focus more on what we can do in positive ways to assist in transitioning our communities as the culture collapses around us, but there are also negative tools that can assist us in bringing about needed change on a local basis. For example, Branches Chop House Restaurant in Ukiah has been advertising “locally raised products” and as “specializing in locally grown products" which is not true (see our article here). A sustained local boycott could be organized to help change their ways just as some of us have participated in national boycotts. Stay tuned. -DS]

Sometimes I feel like I’m in the middle of a war. There are bullets flying and explosions all around, and I’m trying to organize people on my side to fight effectively, and instead they’re just standing around saying, “Look, they’re shooting at us! I can’t believe they’re actually shooting at us! Look at those bad, bad people doing that bad, bad thing! Shame on th- (takes bullet in head)”

There’s only one place for morality in this world, and that is that your actions must serve the greatest, widest good that you can perceive. Beyond that, it’s all strategy and tactics. Applying morality to the actions of other people is a strategic error. I think this error goes back to our tribal ancestors. If one person does something to harm the tribe, the others will use shaming to bring this person into line. If this feels to us like a moral action, it’s because it was easier for our ancestors to mindlessly throw righteous indignation at the wrongdoer, than to carefully discern why a behavior is harmful and how shaming will correct it.

Mendo Island Transition: Community Seed Banks that empower women and protect biodiversity

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From SUPRIYA KUMAR
Worldwatch

For fifteen years, Muniyamma, a farmer in Karnataka, India, practiced agriculture with the help of agro-chemicals, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but in recent years she noticed a drastic decrease in yield.

After attending a village meeting conducted by the GREEN Foundation about organic farming, she decided to try their environmentally friendly techniques to grow bananas. When it was harvest time, Muniyamma’s plot was healthy and green, while her neighbor’s banana plot, which still relied on agro-chemicals, showed stunted growth, pale leaves, and thinner stems. That was enough to convince Muniyamma of the benefits of organic farming.

The GREEN Foundation works to preserve natural ecosystems and sustain rural livelihoods by teaching farmers the importance of agricultural biodiversity. Through village meetings, the foundation informs farmers about organic practices, such as creating fertilizer from organic waste, that are better for the environment and result in higher yields, at a lower cost, for farmers.

To protect the local biodiversity and preserve traditional seeds, the GREEN Foundation, in partnership with other NGOs, including the Seed Saver’s Network and The Development Fund, has created community seeds banks throughout the state of Karnataka, India. All villagers can become a member of a community seed bank by paying an annual nominal fee. Members, who receive seeds free of cost, sow the seeds, harvest the crop and return double the amount of seeds to the bank. To maintain purity of the seeds, farmers must follow rules – such as no chemical fertilizers and pesticides – when growing their crops.

Because these seed banks are managed by self-help groups (SHG) made up of women,

Transition Towns: a yuppie substitute for activism?

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Yuppie Jesus

From STEVE CHASE
Transition Voice

Can doing Transition be just another upscale distraction, like an evening at the mall?

The exchange below took place between DM, an anti-nuclear activist in Vermont, and Steve Chase, a professor at Antioch University in Keene, NH and co-founder of a local Transition Group. We’ve published an excerpt from Steve’s response.

Is Transition US just a sort of yuppie substitute for taking serious political action on, say, the Yankee G.E. nuke plant in Vernon, VT and the 100+ such plants that are scattered across our country? In a few words, are you simply DIVERTING US, with cutsie-pie, from doing serious and adult things? ~ DM in Vermont

Something that draws in many of the movement’s participants, including me, is that the Transition organizing model promotes an innovative and inspiring strategy for change — and at a local scale that many people see as the most workable for themselves.

Film Review: The Economics of Happiness

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture
[Available for rent at Mulligan Books]

The concept of localisation is one increasingly being discussed as the debt-based, high carbon, energy vulnerable model of economic globalisation increasingly comes apart at the seams.  A recent conference run by Transition Colorado had the subtitle “food relocalisation as economic development”.  I think we might argue for localisation in general, not just in terms of food, being seen now as a key strategy of economic development.  ‘The Economics of Happiness’, as a film that argues that “’going local’ is the way to repair our fractured world – our ecosystems, our societies and our selves” has therefore arrived at the right time, but is it the convincing, accessible and rousing film about localisation that we need in order to raise the issue to the next level of the debate?  Here is the trailer:

The Future of Manufacturing is Local

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From ALLISON ARIEFF
NYT

Think manufacturing, and most likely your brain defaults to abandoned factories, outsourcing and economically devastated regions like the Rust Belt. So strong is our tendency to focus on American manufacturing as something that’s been lost that a chorus has risen up to decry the prevalence of “ruin porn” — those aestheticized versions of the decidedly un-pretty, with a particular focus on the once-triumphant automotive center of the universe, Detroit.

But there are many parts of this country where manufacturing is very much alive, albeit in a different form. The monolithic industry model — steel, oil, lumber, cars — has evolved into something more nimble and diversified. As this country continues to figure out how to crawl out of its economic despair, we could benefit from focusing on the shift.

President Obama, looking for ideas for job creation, came to San Francisco last month to pick the brains of tech-industry giants like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg. He would have done well to include Kate Sofis as well — and not only to right the gender imbalance at the dinner table. Sofis, executive director of SFMade, is helping breathe new life into a forgotten potential economic driver: manufacturing.

Will Parrish: Sovereignty, Not Localization

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From WILL PARRISH
Laytonville

The most exciting aspect of Mendocino County’s civic life is the popularity of efforts geared toward creating a more ecologically-sane, human-scale economic system.  These activities commonly fall under the rubric of “economic localization.”  The basic idea is that people living in a given geographic area should produce what they use for themselves, rather than depend on purely self-interested corporations and wealthy absentee land owners to furnish these things for them.

In recent years, Mendocino County’s far-flung assortment of activities that are consciously geared toward achieving this end has been growing in breadth and depth.  The majority of efforts by localization activists encompass the areas of food cultivation and distribution (e.g., locally owned organic farms and farmers’ markets), transportation (e.g., Cars Are Evil), energy production (e.g., solar panel installations at private residences), and education about the tenuous state of the global economy.

One strong measure of California North Coast’s emergence as a national localization hub is the regional prevalence of sharing organic, open-pollinated heirloom seeds and seed saving.  Heirloom seeds are those handed down by families and tribes over generations.

Earlier this month, I participated in annual seed exchanges in both Boonville and Laytonville, which gatherings featured a broad assortment of seeds that local people cultivated in their organic gardens, ranging from Zapatista Blue Corn to chili peppers from Sri Lanka.  At the Anderson Valley Seed

Transition: How to build new local economies

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From GRAHAM TRUSCOTT
Energy Bulletin

Transition Training and Consulting has been very busy lately. This is the (strictly not-for-profit) part of the Transition Network specifically designed to engage businesses and organisations in the process of transition. Businesses of all sizes have significant influence on our communities, and are themselves communities that need to be engaged if the wider economic and social transition is to be successful.

Members of the TTandC team are currently working with ten transition initiatives in a pilot project known as REconomy which will identify and spread best practice in engaging existing businesses and stimulating the start up of new social enterprises, so both can thrive and prosper in low-carbon, re-localised markets. REconomy is also looking to develop an understanding of what a ‘Transition local economy’ may look like. A survey will shortly be published to solicit your input to help inform our work, all of which will be openly shared.

TTandC has already developed services that help existing businesses appreciate and explore the economic, social and environmental paradigms emerging in the low-carbon, high-energy/resource cost world. These include an Energy Resilience Assessment tool which identifies specific vulnerabilities, and points to possible changes to a business model. To help this tool reach more organisations, TTandC practitioners warmly welcome introductions to businesses from Transition groups or individuals.

In addition, this month TTandC has been training (and also learning from) new Energy Resilience Assessment practitioners in the Basque Country of Spain who are associated with the Mondragon group of coops. This is building on a visit by Pete Lipman and Ben Brangwyn last July, who are still spoken of with utter awe and admiration for having cycled there!

Small is Best

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Photo: Mendocino Organics Chicken CSA

From FLAVOR MAGAZINE
Via Chelsea Green
Excerpt – The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

Joel Salatin is an internationally acclaimed farmer, conference speaker, and author. He and his family operate Polyface Farms in Augusta County near Staunton, Virginia.

Before industrialism, farms were localized and seasonal. The ebb and flow of production and activity followed a pattern dictated by local economies, weather, and availability of nearby materials. . . .

Compare that to today’s confinement turkey industry, which started just 30 miles north of our farm in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The only reason the industry started there was because an entrepreneur named Charles Wampler began raising turkeys in confinement. Eventually the breeding program at the USDA research farm in Beltsville, Maryland, developed the double-breasted turkey. By that time, the pharmaceutical industry was up and running to supply cheap medications so that the birds could be kept alive in extremely unhealthy and unnatural conditions.

The entire industrial food system was only possible because of antibiotics for animals and pesticides for plants. Without those two things, these anti-nature production models would not exist and humans would still be dependent on multi-speciation, intricate relationships, and indigenous conditions. . . .

A Masanobu Fukuoka Inspired Permaculture Garden

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From BIG PICTURE AGRICULTURE

A set of three videos describing the work of legendary Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. French gardener Emilia Hazelip walks us through her garden explaining the Fukuoka methods she has adopted.

The 4 Principles of Synergistic Agriculture are:

1. No cultivation
2. No chemical or organic fertilizers
3. No chemical treatments
4. No compaction of the soil

Pt 2 and Pt 3 here

More Fukuoka here
~~

Transition: A more flavorful, meaningful life

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From MATTHEW LYNCH
Transition Voice

Mongolians work new potato fields, and are learning to grow vegetables because changing weather patterns are rendering ancient grazing patterns obsolete. Photo: TheGreenBackpacker via Flickr.

Food security has been defined as “access by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire food in socially acceptable ways (without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing and other coping strategies for example).”

Food Culture refers to how we experience our food – from field to plate – and how it impacts our health, happiness, and sense of community.

Perhaps the best way to explain the impact of food culture upon our wellness is to think of the way you feel, hear, smell, taste, and see another culture when you experience it through their food preparation and cooking. So much of our cultural values are expressed in the way we grow, prepare, and share food. And universally, most major holidays, festivals and celebrations are centered around

Transition: Potato Day in Stroud, England

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[Watch this sweet little film... -DS]
~

From THE ORGANIC CENTER

Why Organic Potatoes?

Whenever I’m at the grocery store trying to decide if organic potatoes are worth the price, I always think about what Jeffrey Moyer, farm director of the Rodale Institute and chair of the National Organic Standards Board, once said: “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”

Root vegetables absorb whatever is in the soil. So, if herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides are in the soil, they become part of the potato, too. In other words, you can’t wash it off. In addition, potatoes are treated with fungicides during the growing season, and then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. Once the potatoes are harvested, they are often treated again with more herbicides to prevent them from sprouting.

What to do? Grow and buy organic. If the farmer growing the potato with all those chemicals won’t eat it, why should you?
~
See also: Transition Ukiah!
…and Mendocino Coast Transition
…and Gardens Project Mendo
~~

A January Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

[...] Transition South Bay LA is holding a Transition Salon as well as a workshop on the ‘Healing powers of local food and cultured vegetables’. A new Transition group has emerged in Southside Pride called Longfellow Transition to Sustainability, so we welcome you and wish you a fantastic future. People in Berkeley are invited to an introduction and discussion about how to help create a Berkeley Transition Town, so if you’re around there then why not go along and get involved. Have a look at Transition Boulder’s Transition Singles… while Transition Pittsburgh is holding a gift circle…what a great idea!   Transition Town Manchester will hold a potluck dinner and discuss future plans for Riverwalk, and start planning for springtime activities such as nut tree planting (hooray for spring!), while Transition St Clair Shores will be watching ‘In Transition’ and then discussing how they can transition towards a more sustainable future for their city.  The Bucks Transition Group recently held a ‘Citizens Energy Forum Unconference’…

Mendo Island Transition: Gross National Happiness

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From YES! MAGAZINE

Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley on Gross National Happiness, his country’s traditions, and the importance of democracy.

Bhutan has pioneered the use of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a measure of progress, instead of the more commonly used GNP. GNH measures not only economic activity, but also cultural, ecological, and spiritual well-being.

YES! Magazine Contributing Editor Madhu Suri Prakash attended a meeting of educators from around the world, convened by the government of Bhutan in December 2009, to encourage them to make the happiness of all people the central organizing principle of their philosophy of education. In September 2010, Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley visited the United States to promote GNH education and economic theory.

The Farmer and the Horse

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The film’s website here

This video available for rent at Mulligan Books
~

Mendo’s Own Live Power Community Farm (CSA) in Covelo

Live Power Community Farm is a 40-acre, biodynamic/organic Community Sustained Agriculture (CSA) farm that provides fresh, high-quality food for 160 households in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mendocino County. We also host on-farm school visits, apprentice training, and farm-related workshops. Our innovative approach to farmland ownership, economics, and food distribution revitalizes the culture of land stewardship by creating a conscious, mutually supportive relationship between farmers, consumers, and nature.
~~

Draft Proposal for a Mendocino Community Based Farming Network

Introduction

As the energy crisis and climate pollution deepens and the need becomes more acute

The World Is Dying — And So Are You

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From RICHARD B. ANDERSON
For The Future (2001)
[Repost]

At the heart of the modern age is a core of grief.

At some level, we’re aware that something terrible is happening, that we humans are laying waste to our natural inheritance. A great sorrow arises as we witness the changes in the atmosphere, the waste of resources and the consequent pollution, the ongoing deforestation and destruction of fisheries, the rapidly spreading deserts, and the mass extinction of species.

All these changes signal a turning point in human history, and the outlook is not particularly bright. The anger, irritability, frustration and intolerance that increasingly pervades our common life are symptoms associated with grief. The pervasive sense of helplessness and numbness that surrounds us, and the frantic search for meaning

Beyond Doom, Beyond Sustainability

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From MATTHEW LYNCH
Transition Voice

Wars, peak oil, climate change, continuing global economic crises. We live in such uncertain times.

It could be so easy to throw up our hands in frustration and disgust, to go down that dark road of disillusionment, of morbidly chalking it all up to human nature. It could be so easy to buy into the thinking that we’ve destroyed ourselves, and it is just a matter of time before the bomb we’ve set explodes in our faces.

Or, we could play for the best in humanity:

Peak oil is as inevitable as death and taxes. But for every convert that peak oil’s doom-and-gloom extremism sweeps up, it alienates plenty of people who might otherwise climb down from their SUVs. -Toby Hemenway in “Apocalypse, Not”

When hope is more realistic than despair

**Greater Ukiah Transition Meeting Tonight 1/11/11 – 5:15pm

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LOCAL FOOD. LOCAL POWER. LOCAL MONEY.

[Repost]

The time has come for those of us in the Ukiah area to join together and begin the work of transitioning to a future beyond fossil fuels.  This is a grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis.  It empowers people in the community to work together to strengthen it against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more sustainable, equitable and socially connected.  This meeting is for those who would like to learn more about the Transition Movement and who are interested in becoming part of the core group to help lead this effort.

Meeting time, Tuesday, January 11^th, 5:15 – 6:45 PM, Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse, 107 S. Oak St., Ukiah.  Optional potluck.

Contact, Debora, 462-9392, if you plan to attend.

Bring your vision, passion, and commitment to help create the change we know is possible.
~~

Ukiah Planning Commission: Should we allow Starbucks and other chain stores and franchises downtown? Wednesday 1/12/11 – 6pm

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

Smart growth advocates have a chance to support their local businesses’ livelihoods and our local economy this Wednesday January 12 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ukiah Planning Commission meeting, City Council Chambers, Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue. The Commission will have its last review of the the new Downtown Zoning Code, based on the community charrette workshops of a few years ago.

The Commission has voted to support independently-owned business and promote community health and safety by prohibiting new formula (chain) fast food restaurants and fast food drive-thrus in the downtown. However, the definition of formula fast food in the glossary contains exemptions for ice cream shops, coffeehouses, bakeries and hot dog stands, meaning that a new chain coffeehouse could locate downtown under the code.

If you think there should be no exemptions for chain fast food purveyors, or other chains such as Big Box stores, the Planning Commission needs to hear from you.  If you can’t make the meeting, email your comments to Senior Planner Kim Jordan for distribution, at kjordan@cityofukiah.com.

After Planning Commission review, the Code will go to the City Council, so let them know how you feel as well.

A Human-Scale Economy

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From KIRKPATRICK SALE

It’s getting worse and worse, and the wizards don’t have a clue. They don’t even know the economy is broken-and can’t be fixed. That’s why they keep doing more of the same with the same old solutions and same old people.

Nothing could be more obvious, and I think most sentient people in the land know this in their hearts. And nothing could be more obvious than the need to overhaul that economy entirely-which is indeed the opportunity we have now.

I don’t mean we have to scrap the capitalist system entirely, but we do have to reign it in. We have to fit it in to the limits of the real world. We have to understand that economics is a subsystem of the overall ecosystem. We have to realize that continuing to base it on the concepts of growth and consumption–and encouraging, “stimulating,” more of that–will lead to the collapse not only of the global economy but probably the industrial civilization it serves.

Isn’t it obvious that the Keynesian idea of growth at all costs, particularly growth fostered by large governments that can print money, has failed? Isn’t it clear that we can’t keep on throwing money at this failed economy and that something quite different is needed? The U.S. economy has been devoted exclusively to the idea of perpetual growth since the end of World War II, and it has allowed any number of evils-environmental destruction, greenhouse gases, pollution, resource depletion, military expansion, government inefficiency and corruption, corporate political domination, unregulated financial institutions, immense inequality, a perpetual underclass, the decay of public education, and that’s just for starters-in its pursuit. Isn’t it obvious that it doesn’t work and that the current Great Recession is the proof of that?

Let us posit that the three greatest perils we face are resource depletion (particularly oil, but don’t forget fish and fresh water, for example), global warming and the alteration of habitats and species, and an excessive human impact on the planet at all levels.

This Month’s Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

This month we’re starting off with Brazil and some very exciting news for the New Year, because, as reported here at Transition Culture yesterday, the first ever Transition favela initiative has just held it’s Unleashing!… Wonderful news indeed! Here are some great pics of the event. The community has been very busy indeed. 85 community members have participated in Transition Training and they’ve implemented all sorts of wonderful activities. Community gardens are being created in seven abandoned spaces, and a ‘Become our own Media’ team has been created which has registered all their events and has just completed a film aimed at reviving the region’s oral tradition, which was screened at the Unleashing.

They’ve held visioning and back-casting exercises, and have seven working groups including Social Enterprises and Local Business, which has a new Community Owned Bakery; Market for Sustainable Health, which is promoting the wellbeing of slum dwellers; and Water & Preservation group. They are care-takers/neighbors of the largest urban forest in the world and one of their first actions is to clean the waterfalls and rivers. They have planted 228 native trees and their intention is to re-forest of 7.7 hectares of the Cantareira Park over the next 2 years. Big targets which we know they’ll achieve! We look forward to seeing and hearing more from Transition Brasilandia…

In Chile, Transition Town El Manzano is building a community centre and a campus to help with the ‘great re-skilling’ and they’ll also implement their ‘permaculture master plan’ and enjoy a summer of ‘bioconstruction’…it all sounds very exciting!…

Full Report Here
~~

 

Does America have the right stuff to get off our ass and save the world?

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From ERIC CURREN
Transition Voice

Is America a nation of selfish jerks or generous sharers?

When you worry about peak oil and climate chaos, it’s easy to get frustrated at the slow pace of change in the world’s biggest polluter and biggest oil user, the United States. For my part, I’d like to see my country start preparing for both of these civilization-shaking challenges yesterday rather than tomorrow. Though I’ll gladly settle for tomorrow if the other choice is “never,” as it often seems to be these days.

But sooner rather than later, we should enact a national energy policy to start radical conservation and ramp up clean energy. We should stop subsidizing roads and air travel, not to mention coal, oil and nukes. We should discourage American companies from offshoring jobs and encourage more Made in the USA. And on and on.

And sometimes when I see very little progress on these issues, or even see the country moving backward, I get frustrated with my fellow citizens.

The American public has had plenty of chances to get global warming since it hit the news in the late 1980s. They’ve had less chance to accept or even hear about peak oil. But the concept of resource depletion is so obvious, you have to wonder if people even really need to be told at all that the oil will run low sometime. You don’t have to be smarter than a fifth grader to get that. Right?

Fat, ignorant and addicted to Xbox

In this kind of mood, it’s easy to agree with pundits who see the American people as one big lumpen proletariat, as James Howard Kunstler does in his forecast for the year ahead:

Mendo Island Transition: A foundation is already in place

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

With the new year upon us, and a new Transition Group prepared to tackle truly sustainable living for the Greater Ukiah area, here are some remarkable Mendocino County projects, planned or already in place, to build upon:

Mendocino Coast Transition Group

Local Money

Mendo Time Bank

Together We Can

Mendo Gardens Project

Farmers Markets

Renaissance “Local Food” Market

Food Co-op

Community Supported Farms

Local Power Radio

Mendocino Organic Network (Renegade Local Certifiers)

Local Grain Growing and Flour Grinding

Buy Locally-Owned and Locally-Grown

Growing and Eating Local Apples (Frey Family)

Community Supported Energy (Hamburg/Laybourn)

Mendocino Environmental Center

Trail Group

Creek Group

Mendo 2 Mile Challenge

Willits Economic Localization
~
I’ve overlooked some others. What are they?
~~

Why Transition? Creating a Brighter Future

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From TRANSITION USA

We are living in an age of unprecedented change, with a number of crises converging. Climate change, global economic instability, overpopulation, erosion of community, declining biodiversity, and resource wars, have all stemmed from the availability of cheap, non-renewable fossil fuels. Global oil, gas and coal production is predicted to irreversibly decline in the next 10 to 20 years, and severe climate changes are already taking effect around the world. The coming shocks are likely to be catastrophic if we do not prepare. As Richard Heinberg states:

Our central survival task for the decades ahead, as individuals and as a species, must be to make a transition away from the use of fossil fuels – and to do this as peacefully, equitably, and intelligently as possible”.

The Transition movement represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people and communities to take the far-reaching actions that are required to mitigate the effects of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. Furthermore, these relocalization efforts are designed to result in a life that is more fulfilling, more socially connected and more equitable than the one we have today.

The Transition model is based on a loose set of real world principles and practices that have been built up over time through experimentation and observation of communities as they drive forward to reduce carbon emissions and build community resilience. Underpinning the model is a recognition of the following:

• Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Economic Crisis require urgent action
• Adaptation to a world with less oil is inevitable
• It is better to plan and be prepared, than be taken by surprise
• Industrial society has lost the resilience to be able to cope with shocks to its systems

Transition cities: Mission impossible?

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From JOANNE POYOUROW
Transition Voice

What kind of Transition might be achieved in the City of Angels?

Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. — Lewis Carroll

In 2005, while I was writing a novel which envisioned the transformation of Los Angeles (and while Rob Hopkins was putting the final touches on the world’s first Energy Descent Action Plan with students in Kinsale, Ireland), I attended a Permaculture seminar in Santa Barbara, California.  The Permaculture movement asserts that we could consciously design a more sustainable or permanent human culture.

In a breakout session that day, titled “Urban Permaculture,” one of the participants commented, “This is all great for the rural areas, but what do you do about a big city like Los Angeles?”

The instructor threw up his hands and shrugged. It’s impossible.

Someone laughed uncomfortably. Amid a crowd of what should have been SoCal’s most forward thinking, out-of-the-box designers, there were no answers.

People have said it to me directly over the years, in person and in email: It’s impossible. How can you even think about Transition in LA?  It’s just too big.

But within Transition circles we counsel each other to “start where you are.”  Well, where I am is in the middle of LA, the eleventh largest metropolitan area in the world, with 10 to 12 million people. It’s my home town. This is where we started.

Transition in LA

Sensible people say it’s impossible, but impossible things happen every day.

The Transition movement in LA unfolds today via a series of neighborhood initiatives.

**Greater Ukiah Transition Meeting

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LOCAL FOOD. LOCAL POWER. LOCAL MONEY.

The time has come for those of us in the Ukiah area to join together and begin the work of transitioning to a future beyond fossil fuels.  This is a grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis.  It empowers people in the community to work together to strengthen it against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more sustainable, equitable and socially connected.  This meeting is for those who would like to learn more about the Transition Movement and who are interested in becoming part of the core group to help lead this effort.

Meeting time, Tuesday, January 11^th, 5:15 – 6:45 PM, Saturday Afternoon Clubhouse, 107 S. Oak St., Ukiah.  Optional potluck.

Contact, Debora, 462-9392, if you plan to attend.

Bring your vision, passion, and commitment to help create the change we know is possible.
~~

What Does It Matter?

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From SHARON ASTYK

We are living in the most destructive and, hence, the most stupid period of the history of our species. The list of its undeniable abominations is long and hardly bearable. And these abominations are not balanced or compensated or atoned for by the list, endlessly reiterated, of our scientific achievements. Some people are moved, now and again, to deplore one abomination or another. Others – and Hayden Carruth is one – deplore the whole list and its causes. Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence. – Wendell Berry “A Poem of Difficult Hope”

In the circles I run and write in, it is a common device to claim that other thinkers and writers have failed to understand the real, deepest cause of our problems, and have instead embarked upon too superficial a narrative. What’s fascinating about this is that the thinkers doing so are almost always correct – that is, they nearly always right that someone has missed a deep underlying cause. The reason for this is that causes are nearly as ample as effects. Thus, the person who laments America’s dependence on foreign oil sources can be usefully corrected by someone who observes that the problem is everyone’s dependence on a finite resource, rather than a geopolitical error of resource development. The same person, speaking of finite resources can be accurately corrected by someone who observes that a growing population is the “real problem”

Rebooting the American Dream — Chapter Seven: Cool Our Fever

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From THOM HARTMANN
Truthout
Article with footnotes here

We live in a democracy and policies represent our collective will. We cannot blame others. If we allow the planet to pass tipping points…it will be hard to explain our role to our children. We cannot claim…that “we didn’t know.”

- Jim Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

I have taken the four-hour train ride from the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, to the Bavarian town of Stadtsteinach in the Frankenwald often enough to know it by heart. I look out the window and see the familiar sights – the towns, the rivers, the houses.

I have visited Stadtsteinach many times over the past 30 years, working with Salem International, a relief organization headquartered in that town. The community for abused kids that Louise and I founded in New Hampshire is based on its family-oriented model, and we have helped start Salem programs in Australia, Colombia, India, Israel, Peru, Russia, and Uganda, among others. So at least once a year I’ve made it back to Germany, and we lived there for a year in the mid-1980s.

But during the past decade, as the train rolls along eastward from Frankfurt, I’ve seen a dramatic change in the scenery and the landscape. First there were just a few: purplish-blue reflections, almost like deep, still water, covering large parts of the south-facing roofs as I looked north out the window of the train. Solar panels.

Then, over the next few years, the purplish-blue chunks began to spread all over, so now when I travel that route it seems like about a third—and in many towns even more—of all the roofs

What is a Feasible Living Situation for Future Humans?

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From  GEORGE MOBUS
Question Everything
Via Our Finite World

How Do We Establish Feasible Sustainable Living?

The peaking of oil extraction and refining appears to be upon humanity. The evidence is quite strong (if you want to follow this story I recommend you regularly read The Oil Drum for news and updates as well as technical reports). Because the cost of oil reflects to a large degree the imbalance between supply and demand, and has been pushing higher for the last several years, this has had a dampening effect on demand and a depressing effect on the economy. Thus, instead of an actual peak due to geophysical issues alone (the basis of the original peak oil theories) and subsequent decline, we are witnessing a bumpy plateau. Demand destruction leads to lower production in response and that means some oil is not being pumped out of the ground that would have been otherwise. But the overall trend is basically the same. Oil production will go down leading to upward pressure on the price we pay for each unit that is pumped. The feedback between the economy and oil production will mean that the process of decline will be stretched out a bit longer.

Nevertheless, oil is now on a depleting slope and however long it takes there is only one direction it can go. Just as problematic for civilization is that oil is the “king pin” energy source for modern industrial society. It takes oil to produce diesel fuel and gasoline, both needed to drive the equipment required for the extraction of other fossil fuels and all other natural resources. Oil is required for agriculture, transportation, and some heating. Natural gas, methane, comes closest to oil in terms of being able to replace oil derivatives for these purposes, but not without extensive retrofitting of the prime movers. That probably isn’t going to happen overnight simply because it will take a significant amount of oil-based energy and materials (lubricants and plastics) to produce the retrofits.

A Pattern Language — Rob Hopkins Interviews Christopher Alexander

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

About 3 weeks ago, I travelled to a snow-covered West Sussex to meet one of my heroes.  Christopher Alexander, architect, thinker, designer, author of the seminal ‘A Pattern Language’ and of the more recent extraordinary ‘The Nature of Order’ series of books, has long been someone whose work I have admired greatly.  It is sometimes said that it is generally best not to meet your heroes as they usually disappoint, but that wasn’t the case here.  I met Chris and his wife Maggie in their beautiful old home (I’m starting to sound like a writer for Hello! magazine), and after lunch and a general chat about the Transition approach (about which Chris knew very little in advance of our conversation), we did the following interview.  I am deeply grateful to them both for a fascinating and illuminating afternoon.

The first question is, how did A Pattern Language come about?  Where did the idea come from?

Oh that I can tell you very simply.  In 1961 I went to India – lived in a village.  I was a fellow at Harvard and I just wanted to go to India, I always wanted to go there.  I had Indian friends from all over the shop but I’d never been there.  So the Society Fellows were kind enough to send me out there.  I was living in this village – just mud huts, there was only one brick building which was vaguely temple-ish….at a scale and finish of a porch in a cow barn.  I actually did something quite similar to what I was describing to you, in one of my books – it contains that analysis – and they’re all about issues pertaining to a simple Indian village.  I made a set of diagrams – it was very early on in my career, it was one of the first projects I ever did.

A world made by hand needn’t wait

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From ALAN WARTES
New Leaf Gardens, Denver
Via Energy Bulletin

The “growing season” is over at New Leaf Gardens. Considering our location on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of nearly 6,000 feet, it is remarkable that temperatures have only just begun to occasionally dip below freezing. Most of the time we still enjoy lows in the 40s. But the few frosty nights we’ve had were enough to hang a closed sign on the last of the warm-loving plants. Fortunately we saw it coming and last week harvested the remaining zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, green tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapeños. The tough guys—broccoli, cabbage, carrots, spinach, and arugula—just shrugged off the cold. Fuhgeddaboutit.

Shorter days and less to do in autumn means more time for reading, and I just finished The Witch of Hebron, the wonderful sequel to James Howard Kunstler’s novel, World Made by Hand. The story is set in Union Grove, once a rural bedroom community in upstate New York that had fallen prey, like everywhere else, to the faux culture of “happy motoring” suburbanization: strip malls, tract housing, big box retail, lots and lots of cars, and the roads they drive on. But when Kunstler begins his tale–“Sometime in the not-distant future…”—times have changed, a lot.

And then again, not so much.

Not long from now, the inevitable breakdown of globalized civilization has occurred. Kunstler wisely wastes no time explaining exactly how. Who cares? Plausible triggers abound. Pick one and pull it—and the result is the same: The web of everyday life goes from stretching half way around the world, connecting us to Saudi oil fields and Chinese sweat shops, to having strands no longer than a few miles from home. The word “local” takes on new meaning,

Urban Right To Farm Laws

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From SHARON ASTYK
Causaubon’s Book

This is a lightly revised version of a previous essay of mine from ’09, but I wanted to run it again because I have more to say about this subject after the holidays, in part because this is starting to become an emerging reality, with several muncipalities trying create model urban-right-to-farm laws, and a legal conference last year taking up the subject. In parallel, in Britain, there’s an emerging movement to create “Transition-Friendly” legislation that would open up possibilities for a wide range of Transition activities without requiring legal challenges for each, and barring nuisance law suits. There is an emerging recognition that one of the things we need is to remove barriers to small scale subsistence activities in urban and suburban areas. So I’m re-running this piece, in part as background, for another essay refining this idea in early January.

One of the things I’ve been saying for a long time is that we’re going to need to address zoning questions early in the process of adaptation. Our world has so many people, and the global north tends to hold uncritical assumptions that subsistance activities are dangerous, unattractive nuisances that should be removed as much as possible from places where people live. At the extremes are barriers to things like clotheslines or even food plants in front yards, things that require us to consume more resources and pollute more.

Over the last few decades, rural areas, in response to suburbanization and an influx of new residents who enjoyed rural vistas but weren’t comfortable with the realities of rural life like manure, slow hay wagons and other material realities, have found themselves fighting these battles.

What began to emerge in the 1970s were right-to-farm laws, which protected existing farms from common-law nuisance suits

Gene Logsdon: It Does My Heart Good

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From GENE LOGSDON

[This one's for Doug Mosel... -DS]

This is not a Christmas story exactly, but it makes a wonderful way to pass along glad tidings of the year. Brock McLeod and Heather Walker operate Makaria Farm in Duncan, British Columbia (www.makariafarm.com) and what they have been doing the past two years is just eye-poppingly, unbelievably, overwhelmingly, audaciously amazing.  They decided to take small scale grain raising to the very high level of accomplishment— beyond the wildest dreams I had when I wrote my book by that name.

They recently sent me a sort of homemade scrapbook telling the story of their adventures with small scale grain, complete with pictures. Once they realized that it was not that difficult to make their own bread from scratch— the ultimate scratch of growing the grain and grinding the flour, their imagination and vitality went into overdrive. They already ran a CSA and raised fruit along with seasonal vegetables, so adding grain to their farming menu was just another step up the ladder. What makes their grain adventure so endearing is that they involved the community of people around their farm. They started “Island Grains” and invited others to learn about small scale grain-raising with them. Fifty signed up with another twenty on the wait list. They tried to get me to come out for the first workshop but since I no longer can do much long distance travel,

Michael Laybourn: Unsmart Meters and Mismanaged Utilities

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From MICHAEL LAYBOURN
Hopland

Tip of the fedora to Greg Krause in Philo, who has an article about this same issue in the 12/15 AVA. I recently contacted a group called TURN (The Utility Reform Network) who keeps a close watch on utility energy companies. I first became aware of the group when PG&E tried to stuff that constitutional amendment down California’s throat so they could be a complete monopoly and not be bothered with other competition. TURN worked hard with almost no money to fight the proposition. And won.

Now, in a rush to take advantage of U.S. stimulus money, utilities across the country are quickly installing thousands of smart meters to homes each day. Projects in the U.S. are being accelerated because of the $3.4 billion in the stimulus funds set aside for ‘smart-grid’ technologies. PG&E is now sticking smart meters to Mendocino County and anywhere the company operates in California. Many California cities and counties, including San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Marin counties, have decided to reject “Smart” Meters. Cities declining include Sebastopol, Berkeley, Cotati, Fairfax, Santa Cruz, Piedmont, Scotts Valley, Capitola, Watsonville, Sausalito, San Anselmo and others.

What’s so bad about these ‘smart’ meters?
The main issues are:

1. Security of data and private information. Billions [of dollars] are on the table, so they are moving forward with metering projects and they’re spending money as fast as they can,” said Jonathan Pollet, founder of Red Tiger Security which tests security features in SCADA systems. “The security isn’t where it should be, but the vendors aren’t going to turn down orders.” So there is little security built

Mendo Island Transition: Local Jobs and Infrastructure

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

The Challenge

The infrastructure required for a more localised and resilient future, the energy systems, the mills, the food systems and the abbatoirs, has been largely ripped out over the past 50 years as oil made it cheaper to work on an ever-increasingly large scale, and their reinstallation will not arise by accident. They will need to be economically viable, supported by their local communities, owned and operated by people with the appropriate skills, and linked together.

Core Text

“ The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”.

Winston Churchill.

The picture above shows the last working mill to close in Totnes. It was situated in the centre of the town, was powered by the river than runs past it, and deliveries were made to and from it using a horse drawn wagon. How’s that for a low-carbon local food enterprise? Now it is the town’s Tourist Information Office, and a very good one at that., but clearly it is much easier to turn a flour mill into a Tourist Information Office than it is to turn a Tourist Information Office into a mill again.

Much of the infrastructure that would have traditionally supported a more local food economy, and have generated much of the employment in our communities has since been dismantled, converted into flats, converted to other uses. Quite clearly, the infrastructure most settlements have today is completely unequipped for functioning in an energy-scarce context. We aren’t able to grow much of our own food, process the milk from our local fields, turn our local timber into useful things, process milk into cheese,

Interview: James Howard Kunstler

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James Howard Kunstler brings his sense of aesthetics to keeping warm in Europe. Photo: James Howard Kunstler.

From LINDSAY CURREN
Transition Voice

[My apologies to blogger Todd Walton who has clearly stated that reading Kunstler leaves him depressed for days... -DS]

In the peak oil community, converts to the predicament tend to gravitate toward a figure who tells the story in a way that makes sense for them. Whether it’s the measured and scholarly caution of Richard Heinberg, the “I’ve been there” stories of a Dmitry Orlov, the hopeful glean of Rob Hopkins, or the addled sense of a lax government pointed out by Michael Ruppert, followers have their faves.

In that vein, I have to admit that I’m firmly a Kunstlerite.

I first really heard about peak oil as peak oil when I worked as a washingtonpost.com discussion moderator. I covered business and political discussions, and energy came up from time to time, especially after Bush took office.

Peak oil made sense to me right away. But it was when I read James Howard Kunstler‘s The Long Emergency that I had the equivalent of a conversion moment. Though I had already read Heinberg’s Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines, and got the straight ahead gist of things, there was something about Kunstler’s clear elucidation mixed with his uniquely vigorous prose that brought the story off the page and into my rapidly beating heart.

It was beating that way because he terrified me.

It was comforting then to get to the end of the book and discover an odd turn he took.

Telling the story of “My Long Emergency,” Kunstler proceeded to essentially wax philosophical about the whole crazy American matrix he was born into,

Transition: Meaningful Maps

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

The Context

Maps are very useful with regards to a range of activities your Transition initiative might find itself involved in, such as ENERGY DESCENT ACTION PLANS (5.1), the designing of STRATEGIC LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE (5.5), AWARENESS RAISING (2.9) and also offer very useful tools to use alongside other COMMUNITY BRAINSTORMING TOOLS (4.6).  They can help with VISIONING work, giving it a relevant and accessible context, and can help people in UNDERSTANDING SCALE (1.3).  In short, maps are a key tool for STRATEGIC THINKING (5.10).

(We are collecting and discussing these Transition ingredients on Transition Network’s website to keep all comments in one place. Please leave feedback and comments, suggestions for alternative pictures, anecdotes, stories and projects for this ingredient here).

The Challenge

The changes necessitated by Transition can be hard for people to visualise, especially in relation to their immediate surroundings.  Presenting suggestions in a way that people don’t find easy to access is, ultimately, self-defeating.

Core Text

In the Autumn of 2010, Transition Hereford created the ‘Mappa Sustainability’ (see above), modelled on the 13^th century Mappa Mundi, one of the oldest remaining medieval maps, which shows Jerusalem as the centre of the Universe.  This modern version, naturally, shows Hereford in pride of place, and has been a centrepiece of many of their activities.  The idea is to create an imaginative way

Transition: Survivable Communities and the Black Market (Updated)

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From CLUBORLOV

[Survival in Russian villages: Is the regional illegal free market (black market), that already thrives here in the Emerald Triangle, resilient enough to convert to survival valuables, i.e. "real goods" like food, energy, alcohol, etc.? Is this not a fundamental question of transition? Talk among yourselves... -DS]

[Update: Lest I be misunderstood... Our main economy here is an underground economy. Part of transition will have to be transitioning pot growing (and wine grape growing) to food growing. -DS]

It’s been hammered into my head that the most important things are food, a roof over your head, security and mobility—the first two especially, and everything else is just there to tempt you. And it seems that the best way to procure food is not to take it away or steal it or buy it, but to grow it and to guard it, because there are always people to guard it from. That is, to be close to food. And when the local industrial agriculture kicks the bucket and the food will stop being delivered to the cities, won’t the residents of backward little villages be the winners? You can imagine gangster raids into rural places, rifling through barns and fields, and forcing people to pay a tribute, as in feudal times—but that’s only if they find enough fuel to get there and back.

I know that no matter what economic or political regime prevails, my Russian village kin will survive, provided they hold on to their land and provided climate change doesn’t kill off all the flora and fauna around them. I believe that the Russian, conditioned by centuries of serfdom, the GULAG and the entire Soviet experience, is a very hardy beast, in spite of alcoholism, drug abuse and moral decay. Also, as a child of the industrial ghetto, I entirely agree that the underclass is better-prepared. Our city is a smelly, dusty port city,

Transition: Neither apocalypse nor paradise

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From ERIK CURREN
Transition Voice

I’m pleased that my little article on the high volume of collapse talk coming  from peak oil writers recently generated some attention. And I’m grateful that as someone so obviously committed to Transition as Dave Ewolt judged my musings worth an intelligent response. I’d like to address some of his excellent points here.

For me, there are three issues in talking about any kind of post-peak collapse: what I know, what I don’t know, and how I talk to people who don’t care. We should be careful not to confuse these issues.

What I know

I publish a magazine on the nexus of peak oil, climate change and the economy because I think that resource depletion and global warming are grave threats to human civilization.

I know that industrial economies have already overshot their supply of resources, from oil to water to fish in the seas. I also know that we’re quickly filling up all the places to put our pollution, particularly greenhouse gas emissions. And I know that the Earth cannot long sustain a population of seven billion humans and growing.

I know that our societies cannot make peak oil or climate change go away with technology. I know that clean energy won’t replace all the fossil fuels we use now. But I also know that unless we want to shiver in the dark, we’ll need some source of power.

Most of all, I know that the post-carbon future is more likely to be a better future the more people are aware and start to prepare soon. And I know that it won’t be enough for a small in-group of families and communities to be ready if their neighbors are not ready. I know that we need our states, provinces and nations to be prepared too.

Barter, Gift Economy, or an Agrarian Society of Small Proprietors and Cooperatives?

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From GAIL THE ACTUARY
The Oil Drum

[With Transition staring us in the face, we need to begin a fundamental discussion about our local economy. Where do we want to go? How do we want to do it? I favor what I've included in the title of this post: a decentralized agrarian society of local small farmers, small proprietors and cooperatives. Sustainable Food and Energy Security are the keys to local independence and prosperity. We have in place our Ukiah Co-op, Farmer's Markets, CSAs, Credit Unions, and small businesses as models to build upon. -DS]

When I sat down to research this post, I thought I would write a post about barter, since it seemed like if our current financial system failed, barter would be one possible form of back-up. But when I started to research barter, the first thing I came across was this statement:

Contrary to popular conception, there is no evidence of a society or economy that relied primarily on barter. Instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economics. When barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or would-be enemies.

So I decided to step back a bit, and look into gift economies.

It seemed to me that if our current system fails us, we should have at least some idea regarding what options might be available that could perhaps be pieced together into a new system that works. As I looked at gift economies a bit, I realized our current system has a substantial element of gift economics in it. Perhaps if our already functioning gift economy can be expanded,

Llangattock is Making the Transition, Why Can’t We?

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From SARAH LONSDALE
The Telegraph UK
Thanks to Linda Sanders

“If you forget to put limits on people and assume that they are capable of fantastic things, then the impossible becomes possible,” said Michael Butterfield, who spearheads the Green Streets.

Llangattock is a small village scattered along a fold in the Brecon Beacon mountains – the softly wooded slopes, high hay meadows and streams making the area one of the loveliest parts of Britain.

The 1,300 inhabitants in the 420 homes have, however, more than the view to be proud of. They are on track to making Llangattock Britain’s first ”carbon-negative community” by 2015. This is no new eco town, but an established settlement alongside the River Usk with a mixture of traditional hill farms and 20th-century bungalows. Yet with energy-saving and energy-creating measures, the community has shown what can be achieved when everyone pulls together.

The woodland group manages and coppices 20 acres of mostly ash and alder for the village’s wood-burning stoves; the residential group coordinates distribution of home energy-saving devices from insulation to solar panels. In just one year, 55 homes will have solar panels installed on their roofs.

The 74-member bio-diesel group collects chip fat from restaurants and has converted more than 11,000 litres of fuel, saving 29 tons of carbon dioxide; 60 families tend a field of new allotments and have resurrected the village fête; and the hydro group is forging ahead with six small-scale hydroelectric schemes on the streams around the village.

Larger projects, such as a woodchip district heating scheme and an anaerobic digester, fed with grass and slurry waste from local farms, that will earn the village an income, are also under way.

But how has a small village with a disparate and fairly elderly population pulled off such an achievement?

Almost exactly a year ago, the village won the Welsh heat of British Gas’s Green Streets competition, run to find the ”greenest” communities in Britain. The win provided £137,400 of grants from British Gas, and other grants and earnings have made a total income for the village of £575,000.

Building Community: An Economic Approach

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From YES! MAGAZINE

David Korten with David Brancaccio

David Korten: What economic transformation has to do with building stronger, happier communities.

In Fixing the Future, a one-hour PBS special airing November 18th (check local listings), David Brancaccio visits communities across America using innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity in our new economy.

He interviewed YES! Magazine board chair David Korten for a big picture perspective about what it will take to build an economy that works for all. Transcript below.

Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS.

David Brancaccio (DB): So our mission here is to fix the future; just give me a sense of how we can get started on this question.

David Korten (DK): Well you know, David, it starts with a very basic question. Do people exist to serve the economy, or should the economy exist to serve people? Now it turns out that we’ve created a whole society with culture and institutions around the idea that people exist to serve the economy. And millions of people are waking up to the reality that that’s a misplaced priority.

DB: Our knee-jerk reaction is to go down to Wall Street to ask questions about how we fix the economy. That’s the usual way of doing things. In fact I think there are entire cable TV channels devoted to asking those people what the solution is. You’re asking us to go not toward Wall Street but where? Just to Main Street, America?

DK: Wall Street is basically dedicated to eliminating jobs or outsourcing jobs in order to increase financial profits of the biggest corporations and to increase the financial assets of the world’s already richest people. Now what we need is a money system that actually is doing what you just said, is connecting real resources with real needs, creating real community wealth at the community level. But that requires a financial system that is rooted in the community and accountable to community interest and that operates by life values rather than financial values.

DB: So if you’re trying to figure out what values an economy or a financial system is displaying, you have a theory about where to look to see where the center of power of the economy is rooted.

An October Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

[...] In the US, Transition Town Houston has lots of interesting activities coming up including solar tours, permablitzes and film screenings, while Transition Lyons (Colorado) has given us an update on all the activities they’ve been getting up to. Transition groups in Los Angeles held a seed and herb swap with all sorts of side events, and there are loads of useful resources and information on the webpage too, so have a look and grab some ideas! Transition Northfield organised a community workday to bring to community together and they prepared fresh apple cider, planted a tree and built a chicken coup. Transition Town Ashland has been reviewing and discussing their town’s updated transport plans and preparing people to given written or verbal input into the process to encourage a low carbon/low energy future. If you’re around that way then why not get involved so you can add to the pressure for a sustainable transport system.

Congratulations to two new Transition Towns – Viroqua Transition Town Initiative and Transition Coastside – so we welcome you both! And then congratulations to Transition Reno on their Great Unleashing and becoming the 50^th official TT in the US! Two stories for you to enjoy here and here. Transition US held a Regional Summit in Cascadia, with lots of US Transitioners describing and discussing various Transition activities going on in the US. Transition Staunton Augusta has a new online magazine – Transition Voice – so take your time and read all about it. Transition Sarasota is hoping to harvest 30,000 pounds of fresh produce for their local food banks and they need volunteers to help out. They’re also holding a local food open space and a local currency debate, great activities to get involved with if you’re round that way. And finally for the US, here’s Sandpoint Transition Initiative’s fantastic Folkschool, which teaches the arts and crafts of sustainable living, and there’s a lovely story for you to enjoy too…

Full article here
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Mendo Island Transition: Achieving Local Food Resilience

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From MAKENNA GOODMAN
GRIST

As weather patterns change and fossil fuel supplies dwindle, communities have to start thinking about food resilience. How can farmers and gardeners grow and preserve food amid rapidly changing weather conditions, and without easy access to cheap industrial fertilizers? In her new book, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, longtime gardener and scientist Carol Deppe digs into just such questions.

I recently talked to Deppe about how her form of resilient gardening compares to “traditional” gardening, the importance of not seeking perfection, and how all of this ties into food security.

Q. What’s the first step toward achieving food resilience?

A. There are three ways to do that. The first is through local buying patterns and trade. A second is through knowing how to store or process food that is available locally, whether we grow it ourselves or not. The third is gardening. In The Resilient Gardener, I talk as much about storing and using food as growing it. I love gardening, but not everyone is in a position to garden every year of their lives. However, the person who has learned to make spectacular applesauce or cider or apple butter or pies can often trade some of the processed products for all the apples needed.

Mendo Island Transition: Sheep Grazing on the Todd Grove Park Golf Course?

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From BRIAN KALLER
Restoring Mayberry
County Kildare, Ireland

A few days ago, I talked about the village markets people used to have here, and thought I would explain where the animals came from. This is a sheep next to, I think, a meeting-house on the Curragh, used since Roman Times for communal grazing. Sheep, pigs and cows do not belong to massive agribusiness factories here; they often belong to smallholders, and you will see them in the space of a backyard. We drive past our neighbours — some of whom own several acres, some small plots of perhaps half an acre — and most have animals of some kind,

This used to be even more common a few decades ago, in the more traditional country that my wife remembers. A reporter on RTE, Ireland’s main news programme, recently remarked that the large amount of green space in Dublin resulted from the large number of people who had cows or goats in their back gardens, and cattle drives from our county to theirs were being held into the 1950s.

Council estates, built by the new revolutionary government after the revolution, were the size they were so that every family could have their own cow. Indeed, that’s how American suburbs began — that’s the point of having a grassy lawn in front.

Note the size of the smallholdings — the postcards of Ireland show picturesque and empty fields, but some of these fields are less than an acre. My backyard in Missouri covered perhaps a quarter of an (only slightly different) American acre, and our next door neighbour’s was larger still.

Mendo Island Transition: Saved by peas

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From “JAN”
A reader’s comment
The Contrary Farmer

I recently was told a story by some 90+ year old ladies about how their father’s farm was saved by peas.

They remembered that they were about to lose the farm and talked with the bank and the bank worked with them in contacting a local facility that canned peas and other vegetables. The processor provided the pea seed and loaned (not rented, mind you) them a planter and harvester.

They had a good year, a good harvest and the farm was saved. This was done without government help … but what they had then was a local bank and local processing facility and a community that worked together to really help farmers. If some of the government subsidy money went into really creating a local economy again through processing facilities, etc., maybe we’d be better off. Of course, they were growing real food then (peas) and not “commodities” that can’t be used locally anyway. Wrong kind of wheat, corn and beans….

Grow hard winter wheat for bread and encourage local bakeries. Grow sweet corn and process frozen and canned corn and good cornmeal. Grow all sorts of dry beans (kidney, black turtle, soup, etc.) and teach people how to cook them again or have a canning facility for them.

When I mention these things to conventional farmers they look at me like I’m nuts. Suggesting adding animals back to their farms and they just laugh. They tell me it’s too much work….
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Mendo Island Transition: What we can do if governments won’t

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

This week sees the launch of Alexis Rowell’s Transition Book, “Communities, councils and carbon – what we can do if governments won’t”, which will be available here at Transition Culture from early next week. It’s a blood, sweat and tears account of life as an elected eco warrior trying to encourage local government to work with communities to make the world a greener place, packed with great case studies and tips for Transition initiatives and Councils alike… and to whet your appetite, here is my foreword for the book…

“In late July 2008, the Transition Network office had a phone call from Somerset to tell us that the previous night Somerset County Council (SCC) had passed a remarkable resolution pledging its support to its local Transition Initiatives. It acknowledged the work of Transition Initiatives in Somerset, subscribed the Council to supporting the ethos of Transition, committed the Council to offering ‘support and assistance’ to those Initiatives, and committed SCC to becoming the ‘first Transition Local Authority in the UK’. The caller asked, in the light of the resolution, whether we could tell them what a ‘Transition Local Authority’ actually is. We said we had no idea, but that we would be fascinated to explore it with them.

‘Ripe For Change’ Film, Today Saturday 10/9/10 2pm, Civic Center

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From KATE MARIANCHILD
Ukiah

Film focuses on Food, Agriculture, and Sustainability

The Grace Hudson Museum will host a free film screening followed by a panel discussion on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. in the Ukiah Civic Center. “Ripe for Change,” an award-winning PBS documentary which was partially filmed in Mendocino County, examines historical and current debates over food, agriculture and sustainability.

A post-film panel discussion will be led by the film producer, Jed Riffe. Other participants in the panel will be Paul Dolan, Mendocino Wine Company partner and leader in the organic and biodynamic wine movement; Scott Cratty, Ukiah Farmer’s Market Manager and Westside Renaissance Market owner; and Kathleen Rose Smith, Bodega Miwok & Dry Creek Pomo artist and writer on California Indian native foods.

This program is being held in conjunction with the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House’s current exhibition, “Seaweed, Salmon and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast,” which will be on display until Nov. 5. The Grace Hudson Museum is a part of the City of Ukiah’s Community Services Department. The Ukiah Civic Center is at 300 Seminary Ave. in Ukiah.
~

From Producer JED RIFFE

California — always a fascinating marriage of opposite extremes — is at a cross-roads in agriculture. Many Californians are struggling to fend off overdevelopment and the loss of farming lands and traditions while embracing innovative visions of agricultural sustainability. At the same time, California is where fast food was born and a center of the biotechnology industry and large corporate agribusiness. The debates raging in California over issues of food, agriculture, and sustainability have profound implications for all of America, especially in a world where scarcity

A Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

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From Transition Culture.

It’s October already, so it’s time to share September’s Transition activities from across the world…  we have lots of news from Transition groups in the Netherlands. Their Renewable Energy Project has 75 households involved in it, which between them will have about 800 solar panels on their roofs in the coming spring. Also their first Local and Interest Free money project was launched at the end of September, and they also recently held a Post-fossil Festival, with lots of interesting activities going on. Their ‘Share your stuff – with people you trust’ social website, launched in August, has seen 688 people share 832 goods…wow! They’ve also been making ‘eatable façade gardens’ in the heart of the old city of Deventer, and there’s a great video too…

It’s October already, so it’s time to share September’s Transition activities from across the world…  we have lots of news from Transition groups in the Netherlands. Their Renewable Energy Project has 75 households involved in it, which between them will have about 800 solar panels on their roofs in the coming spring. Also their first Local and Interest Free money project was launched at the end of September, and they also recently held a Post-fossil Festival, with lots of interesting activities going on. Their ‘Share your stuff – with people you trust’ social website, launched in August, has seen 688 people share 832 goods…wow! They’ve also been making ‘eatable façade gardens’ in the heart of the old city of Deventer, and there’s a great video too…

Article with videos here
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Dan Hamburg: Take Action! Urge the governor to sign Forest Forever’s AB 2575!

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From DAN HAMBURG
Vote Hamburg for 5th District Supervisor
Mendocino County

AB 2575, written by Forests Forever and guided through the legislature by our own Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, awaits the governor’s signature. It represents a major step forward (though it should have become law decades ago!) in terms of assessing cumulative impacts of logging operations on impaired salmon runs.

Forests Forever was founded in 1989 in order to save the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County. It then provided grassroots advocacy for the passage of the Forests Forever initiative mentioned by Rita Crane in her message this morning. I’ve been a member of the Board of Directors of this organization since 2004.

Some of you will no doubt remember long-time coastal activist Luke Breit who currently serves as legislative director for Forests Forever. Some will also recognize the name of Richard Gienger, a member of Forests Forever’s Advisory Board and one of the heroes of the struggle for sustainable forestry over the past several decades.

forestsforever.org
~

Legislature passes Forests Forever’s AB 2575!

Forest Land Recovery Act now headed to governor’s desk

By a vote of 50-24 the California State Legislature on Aug. 23 gave final approval to Assembly Bill 2575, the “Comprehensive Forest Land Recovery and Restoration Act,” sponsored by Forests Forever and authored by Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast).

Transition Streets

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Double Click on Video for Full View
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Transition Culture: Solving For Pattern

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transtion Culture

My years as a teacher taught me that if one person asks a question, even if they think they are “missing something obvious”, chances are that many others are wondering the same thing.  This is probably an opportune moment in the rolling out of this patterns approach to stop and take stock as to whether everyone is still with me here!  This was triggered by an email I received yesterday from Kate Clark:

“As a member of a Transition initiating group (Transition Whatcom) and a huge proponent of Transition, I have a lot of respect for your work. However, I am finding the term and concept of “Pattern language” to be very vague and frustrating.  I keep trying to make sense of it, as if I can find a ‘pattern’ in the language (repeat first sentence once, second sentence three times, then first sentence twice, then repeat the whole pattern five times?)!  Can you send me a single sentence description of pattern language? Where is the pattern? What is the language- do you mean permaculture terminology?  Sorry if I’m being dense. I’m a communications specialist, and finding this one to be so vague that I feel I must be missing something obvious. I have NO idea how to explain this to anyone else, as a result”.

Skill Up, Party Down

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Rob Hopkins, Founder, Transition Towns

From YES! MAGAZINE

Transition Towns plan a gentle descent from oil dependence—and have a blast in the process.

Ciaran Mundy, a successful high-tech entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in soil ecology, started a website to update people on all the “terrible news about climate change.” But after a while, he felt it wasn’t working—that it would never work. “It took me years to realize there’s no point in putting up more facts and figures,” he says. “They just bounce off people.”

Then he stumbled across the Transition Town movement, which was just picking up steam in his city—Bristol, England. When Mundy attended a training session on Transition Towns, he found a group of people addressing the big problems of our time, and doing it with optimism and a sense of celebration.

The Transition movement is built around making the transition to a world after peak oil—the time when world oil production reaches an all-time high, then goes into irreversible decline. Oil prices will spike and the economy will stop growing, wreaking havoc in our society, which depends on petroleum for nearly everything, from growing food to maintaining economies.

Crash Course In Resilience

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From YES! MAGAZINE

We can strengthen our communities and ourselves to prepare for the uncertain world of failing economies, climate change, and oil depletion.

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.—Wendell Berry

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
—Victor Frankl

Not long ago, a rocket took off from a Florida launching pad taking Americans to the moon. The moon shot signified to many that Americans could do anything we set our minds to.
Today, in another part of Florida, toxic oil is washing up on beaches. Hundreds of miles of Gulf Coast have been devastated, and people whose resilience was tested by Hurricane Katrina are being tested even more severely today. There are good reasons to believe many more of us will have our resilience tested in coming months and years.

Future historians may see this time as a turning point for Western civilization. In the popular zeitgeist, there is much discussion of end times.

Community-Supported Energy (CSE)

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From CHELSEA GREEN

[...] There is, however, one major potential problem with all of these renewable energy strategies that is often overlooked by their supporters. While they offer a lot of promise, without strong community support and local ownership, these strategies can simply end up substituting one form of corporate domination for another. This is not much of an improvement, and is at least one reason why some communities oppose large-project proposals. In many cases, community members feel that the project is being imposed upon them by outsiders, and that the local disadvantages outweigh the potential advantages. This may not necessarily be true, but it demonstrates why a direct connection between these projects and the local community is so important. This connection provides the key ingredient that transforms what would otherwise be just another large corporate energy initiative into an engine for local economic development and energy security that directly benefits its owners—the members of the community—rather than a group of absentee investors.

The Value of Cash and Local Community Equivalents

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From STONELEIGH
The Automatic Earth

Since we at The Automatic Earth generally tell people to hold cash or cash equivalents, it makes sense to expand on that a little, and to point out some of the location-specific risks of doing so. We tell people to hold cash because that is what they will need access to in order to make debt payments and to purchase the essentials of life in a society with little or no remaining credit. The value of cash domestically – in terms of goods and services in your own local area – is what matters most.

Domestic currency value relative to other currencies internationally will be very much a secondary concern for most people, as the ability to exchange one currency for another is not likely to last far into the coming era of capital controls. Currency risk is likely to become very large, and almost everyone will be better off holding whatever passes for cash wherever they happen to be.

As the price of goods and services fall, thanks to the destruction of purchasing power brought about by collapsing money supply, what cash you still have will go a lot further in terms of, say, milk and bread. Capital preserved as liquidity will go a long way. However, there are no no-risk scenarios. Apart from the obvious risks of fire, flood and theft, other risks to holding cash will grow over time. Liquidity can be as hard to hold on to as it sounds.

One particular risk is the reissuing of currency. Russia did this during the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, and made it so difficult for ordinary people to convert old currency into new that much of the middle class lost their life-savings. In Russia trust in relation to banks was not particularly high, hence there was a lot of money under the beds of the nation that the powers-that-be were attempting to flush out. That is not the case in present day industrialized countries, where people generally believe that banks are safe and deposits are publicly guaranteed in any case.

On top of that, few people have savings, having become dependent on access to cheap credit for their rainy-day funds.

The skills toolkit we need now

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From JOHN MICHAEL GREER
Author, The Long Descent

[...] Certain branches of practical knowledge, thoroughly learned and just as thoroughly practiced by a relatively modest number of people, could be deployed in a hurry to help mitigate the impact of the energy shortages, economic dislocations, and systems breakdowns that are tolerably certain to punctuate the years ahead of us… I have a particular suggestion to offer: the legacy of the appropriate technology movement of the 1970s…

The resulting toolkit was a remarkably well integrated, effective, and cost-effective set of approaches that individuals, families, and communities could use to sharply reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and the industrial system in general. It was not, I should probably point out, particularly esthetic, unless you happen to like a lively fusion of down home funk, late twentieth century garage-workshop, and hand-dyed back-to-the-land hippie paisley…

What’s included in the package I’m discussing? Intensive organic gardening, for starters, with its support technologies of composting, green manure, season extenders, and low-tech food preservation and storage methods; small-scale chicken and rabbit raising, and home aquaculture of fish; simple attached solar greenhouses, which make the transition from food to energy by providing heat for homes as well as food for the table; other retrofitted passive solar heating technologies; solar water heating; a baker’s dozen or more methods for conserving hot or cool air with little or no energy input;

Book Review: Nothing’s too small to make a difference

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From TRANSITION U.S.

[...] But perhaps the most heartwarming thing I found in this remarkable little book is a short sentence in an essay by co-editor Wanda Urbanska as she writes about the Simple Living television series she hosted.

A mantra which threaded overtly and subliminally throughout the show’s 39 episodes … “Nothing’s too small to make a difference.” Picking up a trash-bound paperclip, repurposing your mother’s 1960s skirt into kitchen curtains, installing a water-saving, dual-flush commode; each of these action steps qualified.

“Nothing’s too small to make a difference.” In the short days since I’ve read that phrase, it has given me enormous peace of mind.

In the Transition movement I often immerse myself in the huge problems, the sweeping issues. How do we transform an entire society? How do we Transition a city the size of Los Angeles? How do we bring along the poor and the extremely poor, not just the upper-middle-class white faces? What events or programs will best get the attention of those upper-middle-class faces, entrenched as they are with teeth gritted in the final throes of the Industrial Growth Complex rat race?

So often I forget to value what I do have. “Nothing’s too small to make a difference” has given me enormous relief this week. An hour spent weeding the community garden. A meal which includes vegetables from my own backyard. Watching my kids sit in the cage with our new chickens. There is great joy in these little moments.

The journey to the post-petroleum future is going to be made up of a bazillion of these “too small” events. It is the cumulative energy that creates the Transition movement. Yet there is joy in the details. No, it doesn’t make U.S. dollar sense to raise city chickens, but it makes enormous difference to my kids and to my own heart. No, it doesn’t change the world if my dinner includes only a few homegrown ingredients. But it’s a start. And at this point on the timeline, we need to remember to value each of those little “too small” steps. We need to make space in our lives to appreciate and honor the “starts.”

Less is More and the Simplicity movement remind us that the inner goal is “knowing who you are, being clear about your values, understanding what brings true well-being.” In this context, each of the erstwhile “too small” steps has value. Each brings us that much closer to the mark …

of living the way we dream of living;
of living a life of deeper integrity;

Ukiah Transition: The Hard Realities of Community Building

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From PEAK OIL BLUES

[...] If you want to trade and learn from the self-reliant, resilient community of people around you then I suggest that you:

1. Be open and listen with humility. Do not come with your own ideas of how things should be. If you don’t like it here, go back where you came from.

2. Avoid condescending someone’s way of life either indirectly, subtly or directly. Live and Let Live. If it is necessary to dress down like the locals or drive a crappier car, so be it. Today’s symbols of success will not insure tomorrow’s success. That greasy redneck next door neighbor may be your lifeline in the future – think about that.

3. Bring some useful skills or resources to earn your seat at the table. I’m sorry I don’t need the services of a retired pilates instructor, an interior decorator or a golf event organizer. A pilates instructor needs to learn how to build a fence. An interior decorator needs to learn how to refinish hardwood floors. A golf event organizer needs to learn how to get stuff that busy people don’t have time to find.

4. Avoid calling attention to people who don’t want it or threatening their way of life in ANY way. More often than not self reliant people are that way because they just want to live without any attention. Bear in mind…. The last holdouts of the oil rich paradigm will be the government. I’m not advocating lawlessness here. I am saying that the laws which restrain people from being self-reliant are threats. The government will continue to legislate and enforce regulations that are impossible to follow in post-peak oil world. They will do their jobs with gusto because jobs in the private sector are becoming ever increasingly scarce. And the most dangerous aspect of all, these folks will do their job for your own good.

5. Be willing to work hard and get dirty. Nothing makes a better impression on these people than being willing to work and sweat. Even if you don’t know which end of the shovel to use, there is still plenty of little tasks that can be made lighter. And, I guarantee you that EVERYONE you meet will show you how to use a shovel!

My martial arts instructor reminds us frequently that our character is our first line of defense and greatest source of strength. Courtesy, humility, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit – these character traits are embodied in all of these suggestions.

To conclude, here are the hard realities of community building:

Some First Steps

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From THE OIL DRUM

[...] So how do we start down this necessary path? First, let’s start with a few things we cannot do — some doors that are now closed to us due to our decades of profligate resource destruction.

Firstly, anything requiring significant amounts of energy is out of the question. The era of cheap, abundant fossil energy is behind us — forever. Despite repeated warnings from our best scientists, we failed to make the transition to renewables in time. Now it’s too late. Every year from now on will afford us less and less energy — possibly significantly less in the coming years.

Secondly, anything requiring significant amounts of money in the form of credit is out of the question. In a future of a continually-declining resource base, there is simply no such thing as economic growth, and thus no credit. Basically, we play with what material resources we have at this point — which is a lot less than we used to.

But enough with the negatives — let’s start with some concrete positive steps that we can accomplish. I can think of three that deserve our immediate attention:

1. I see no more crucial place to start than with food and our country’s food-security. We will change both the way we grow food and the food we eat. We will create more small local farms, more small farmers, more ecologically-sane fertilization methods, more seed saving and exchanging, more farmers markets and CSAs. We will grow food on our city’s rooftops, windowsills, and front stoops. We will grow food in our suburban lawns, parking lots, and golf courses. We will become self-sufficient in food-production with a smarter kind of agriculture that does not waste soil, pollute water, and poison our children. This, my fellow Americans, is true “homeland security.”

2. Next up is transportation. We will need to move ourselves and our products around largely without the aid of fossil fuels, as these will become only more expensive and unavailable in the years ahead. Is transportation with minimal fossil fuels even possible? Of course it is! We did it for centuries before the Industrial Age, and we need only to reclaim those technologies. Bicycles with trailers, hand-carts, and electric scooters will be made available as much as possible. Mules, oxen, and draft horses will be bred as rapidly as possible for distribution to our farms, towns, and cities. These will not allow us the mobility of former years, but that is the price we pay for thoughtlessly squandering our fossil fuels.

3. If we are to be a less-mobile, more-localized people, we will need to start producing most of the necessities of everyday life in the places where we live.

Why Do We Need Local Money?

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Network UK

[Foreword to the book 'Local Money']

The power of holding your community’s own money.

September 2009, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton. On a beautiful evening with just the first hint of autumn in the air, hundreds of people are packed into the large room for the launch of the Brixton Pound. In the days running up to the launch, the media was full of stories about the currency; it even made the front page of the BBC website on the day. Alongside explanations of how it is intended to work and interviews with advocates were mainstream economists who, somewhat patronisingly, assured readers that this could never really work and that it was all tremendously naive and foolish. Clearly that was a sentiment that those gathered in the hall, and the 70 traders already keen to accept the notes, had chosen to overlook – or, more likely, would fervently disagree with. This event was both a celebration of the new currency and, perhaps most importantly, of Brixton itself.

Derrick Anderson, the Chief Executive of the local council, which had partly funded the initiative, told the audience that he would be using Brixton Pounds, that he hoped they would become ‘the currency of choice for Brixton’, and that he was delighted that this was a good news story about the area. When I spoke to him later, I explored with him how deep the commitment of the council to this new currency would actually run. Would it accept the currency in payment of Council Tax? Would it accept rent from stallholders in Brixton Pounds? The answer to both questions was yes: a national first.

At the end of the evening, the notes themselves were unveiled to rapturous applause. Each note featured a prominent Brixtonian, chosen via a community-wide ‘Vote the Note’ poll. They showed Vincent Van Gogh on the £20 note; C. L. R. James, a local historian, political theorist and cricket writer on the £10 note; Gaia theorist James Lovelock on the £5 note

Mendo Moola: Ukiah Businesses Create Local Money

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

Three local business are now creating and circulating our own local currency, Mendo Moola: Oco Time Japanese Cuisine, Mulligan Books, and Ukiah Brewing Company. The Mendo Moola Blog explains how and why a local currency works. Almost 20 other locally-owned businesses in Mendocino County, listed on the blog, accept and trade Mendo Moola as payment for goods and services; they include Local Flavor Bake House, Paula’s Hair Salon, Westside Renaissance Market, Mendocino Bounty, Mendocino Lavender Farm, Incognito Fun Store, and RespecTech.

Money connects buyers and sellers. Communities across the country and around the world are issuing local currencies, as they have for many years, to protect themselves against recessions, depressions, bank failures, tight money, credit crunches, risk aversion, hoarding, and leakage that dries up the money supply, kills jobs, and destroys local economies. The more money that is available to be used locally and kept circulating locally,the more jobs are created and the more a local community becomes prosperous and sustainable economically.

During the Great Depression, more than 5,000 local currencies helped keep Americans alive. Over the past two decades, over 2,500 local currencies have sprung up nationally.

Over the past 50 years, the expansion of national businesses into local domestic markets, and now the Internet, has diverted and redirected circulating money to centralized corporate coffers. ‘Leakage’ occurs when, every night, money spent that day in chain stores and franchises is sucked out of our community electronically to their headquarters elsewhere.

An Interview with Peter North, author of Local Money

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From TRANSITION CULTURE

In past recessions and depressions, a popular response from communities has been to create their own forms of money. How can local money help communities in times of hardship and cut as much carbon out of their economies as possible?

Pete North’s new book ‘Local Money: how to make it happen in your community’ will be formally launched at the 2010 Transition Network conference and will be available to order here at the end of this week.  The latest book in the Transition Books series, ‘Local Money’ is a comprehensive overview of local currencies, and how to plan and implement such a scheme.  It is written with Transition initiatives in mind, drawing from the experience of Transition currencies such as the Brixton Pound and the Lewes Pound, but it also tells the fascinating stories of other alternative currencies, including the story of how local money was a key element of how communities survived the Argentinian crash.  To celebrate the launch of the book, I interviewed Pete about the book, and about local currencies….

‘Local Money’ is about to be published… can you tell us, in a nutshell, what the book covers?

In a nutshell, the fruits of looking at local currencies over the past nearly 20 years distilled into 240 pages. I’ve tried to cover both the longer standing alternative currencies like LETS and Time Money and the newer kids on the block, transition currencies, in as much detail. I’ve also tried to give the reader an understanding of why money is in the form it is now, what is good about different forms of money, and how it could be improved.

Should the Ukiah Valley Become the Killing Fields for the Bay Area?

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From SAMUEL FROMARTZ
ChewsWise

Factory Farm “sounded like children being tortured. And it didn’t stop.”

Jane Black of the Washington Post interviewed David Kirby, author of ‘Animal Factory’ . This one passage really stuck out.

Q: Of all the shocking statistics and stories in the book, what is the one that affected you most?

A: I visited 20 states. I saw things I never thought I would see. I smelled things I never thought I would smell in my life. But one night, I was at a small family farm in Illinois that raised pigs. Across the street was a pig factory. It was at night. The workers had gone home. And as soon as it got dark, you could hear the screams and the squealing and the crying. It was not like one pig over there. Like hundreds.

Q: Did something happen?

A: No. This was just a night on a factory farm. Because the pigs get bigger and bigger and the pens don’t. And they fight. It sounded like children being tortured. And it didn’t stop. It was the most haunting and most tragic sound I’ve ever heard. And I think it was because it didn’t stop. If there had been a commotion in the barn and they all started making noise, I might have forgotten about it. But this was arresting. That tells me these are really unhealthy animals, that there are too many animals and that they really are stressed out.
~
See also Again: Slaughter On The Farm With Mobile Units→
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Mendo Time Bank Barter Market, Sunday 3/7/10

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From JULIA FRECH
Mendo Time Bank

On Sunday, March 7^th come to Ukiah’s first Barter Market at the Saturday Afternoon Club at 107 S. Oak,  from 1-4 PM.  At the Market you are encouraged to meet other people in the community that are offering their services (for Time Dollars), get volunteers for projects you’re working on, trade quality items, vegetables, homemade crafts, and more.

No money is necessary for this event.  All participants can barter, and Time Bank members can use Time Dollars.  Admission is free, and use of tables is free for Time Bank members.  Cash is OK if you’re selling an item that required bought raw materials to produce.  Otherwise,  no money  accepted– Barter or Time Dollars only.

Barter Market  1-4 pm

We’ll have tables ready for your wares– veggies, starts, homemade food and crafts, and other quality items. Contact Louisa if you have any questions or special needs.

Service Exchange 2-3 pm

Bring ideas for projects you want help with, skills you can offer the community, and your calendar. Bonus material: flyers, photos or other information about your offers or requests.

A Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

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From ROB HOPKINS
Transition Culture

We haven’t done one of these for a while, so here, thanks to the marvel that is Google Alerts, is a taste of some of things underway out there in Transition-land.  For more regular and formal updates you can subscribe to Transition Network News, but these irregular digests offer a more informal and random insight into what you are up to.  Congratulations to Transition Horncastle for being selected to compete in the British Gas Green Streets project, which could win them £100,000 to spend on a local environmental project if they are the best at achieving the Green Streets project’s objectives. And well done TT West Kirby for being awarded funds for their Youth Inclusion Project. Congratulations also to TT Kingston for their Green Guardian award and TN’s Shaun Chamberlin’s Green Champion award, both sponsored by the Kingston Guardian newspaper and the local council.

In the US, towns are rushing to make the Transition to low-carbon communities including TT Berea, which has started a community campaign of ‘50×25’ to reduce its energy use by 50%, and also get 50% of its food and energy from local sources, all by 2025…and Transition Reno kicks off with action on awareness raising. Also in the US, there’s a Transition Farm (not official) in North Carolina… and TT Charlotte together with the Energy Committees of Charlotte and Shelbourne are working with Efficiency Vermont to bring a new energy-saving program to local residents. And from Canada, we have a little movie all about some of the wonderful activities that Transition groups in Calgary are up to.

Where’s the Clean Energy?

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From ROBERT S. ESHELMAN
The Nation

[This article appeared in the December 7, 2009 edition of The Nation. I shortened this article somewhat as much of it didn’t apply locally to Mendocino County. ~Michael Laybourn]

It was in Germany that Ed Regan realized Gainesville, Florida, was going about things all wrong. The assistant manager at Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) was out looking for ways to boost his city’s renewable energy capacity. “Germany was a game-changer,” Regan says. Wind turbines and solar panels seemed to be everywhere. He soon learned the secret.

Before Regan’s June 2008 trip, the GRU was trying to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by offering hefty cash rebates to customers who installed solar photovoltaic panels. And it had a “net metering program” that allowed customers who generate their own power to run their electricity meters backward, thereby cutting their electric bills potentially to zero.

But the programs weren’t attracting a great deal of interest. The utility’s rebate program had yielded only 300 kilowatts of solar power capacity–roughly the amount of electricity used by 160 hair dryers–and it cost a lot of money. The difference between Gainesville and Germany was that Germany had a national feed-in tariff. Under this system, energy consumers can become renewable energy producers by installing solar panels on their roof or a wind turbine in their backyard and selling their energy to the local utility. These customers-turned-producers receive above-market prices for their energy, often for up to twenty years. With the feed-in tariff, Germany boosted its renewable energy production from 1 percent of its total output in 1995 to 12 percent in 2005. By 2007 renewables supplied 14 percent of Germany’s electricity. Denmark and Spain also have successful feed-in tariff programs.

So this past March, Gainesville rolled out its own feed-in tariff. GRU now pays twice the retail cost for every kilowatt of solar power-generated electricity. The extra cost means a small increase in electrical bills for all utility consumers, less than a dollar per month per household.

A New Deal for Local Economies

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From STACEY MITCHELL
New Rules Project

This lecture was delivered on October 17, 2009, at the Bristol Schumacher Conference in Bristol, England. The conference was chaired by the New Economics Foundation and organized around the theme, “FROM THE ASHES OF THE CRASH: Rebuilding the new economics.” More information and DVDs of the event are available from The Schumacher Society.

Let me begin by sharing some good news. Scattered here and there, in my country and in yours, the seeds of a new, more local and durable economy are taking root.

Locally grown food has soared in popularity. There are now 5,274 active farmers markets in the United States. Remarkably, almost one of every two of these markets was started within the last decade.(1)  Food co-ops and neighborhood greengrocers are likewise on the rise.

Some 400 new independent bookstores have opened in the last four years.(2) Neighborhood hardware stores are making a comeback in some cities.

A Local Currency Pilgrimage to Wörgl

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From ROB HOPKINS
Co-Founder Transitions Network
See also Mendo Moola

Well not quite, but en route to a gathering of Ashoka Fellows in Austria where I’ll be for the next couple of days, I by chance found myself in the Austrian town of Wörgl, famed for its alternative currency experiment in the 1930s… The Wörgl was introduced to the town in 1932, at the height of the Depression, when a third of the town was without work. It is an amazing story.

The town’s then Mayor, the wonderfully named Michael Unterguggenberger, was taken with the idea that the national currency promoted hoarding and disincentivised spending, and proposed instead what he called “Certified Compensation Bills” (not a name to trip off the tongue I grant you). The notes were issued by the Council, who agreed to accept them as currency. The idea of the Wörgl was that it was money that went off, it lost value over time, a process known as ‘demurrage’. The notes needed to be stamped each month, or else they depreciated by a small amount, which incentivised its rapid turnover (a feature of the Stroud Pound). The back of the notes contained the following explanation;

“To all whom it may concern! Sluggishly circulating money has provoked an unprecedented trade depression and plunged millions into utter misery. Economically considered, the destruction of the world has started. It is time, through determined and intelligent action, to endeavour to arrest the downward plunge of the trade machine and thereby to save mankind from fratricidal wars, chaos, and dissolution. Human beings live by exchanging their services.

Mendo Island Transition – New Grain-Share Project

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From DOUG MOSEL, JOHN GRAMKE, and SOPHIA BATES
Mendo Island Transition→

A Grain-Share for Mendocino County

What’s a Grain-Share?

• A community-supported way of producing grain locally
• Members buy a share in the annual grain harvest and receive a portion of the grains produced
• Member shares support the cost of growing, harvesting and distributing the grain
• Members share with the farmers the risk of poor or failed crops

How Will It Work?

• The farmers will prepare the fields, care for the soil, plant and harvest the crops, and distribute the grain shares to members
• Each member of the grain-share will buy one or more shares of the harvest in exchange for 100-120 pounds of grains. We anticipate that each share will cost $150-$200.
• Members will receive periodic updates on progress of the crops, expected harvest times, plans for distributing the grain shares, and suggestions for storing and using the grains.

Our most important task – Vandana Shiva (video)

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From VANDANA SHIVA
Via Transition Culture

The most important pressure people in the South face is the grabbing of their resources to feed a consumer machinery where the rich North doesn’t really benefit from that consumption, but it thinks it’s benefiting.

A Transition Town movement in the North, that reduces the pressure on the South, while maintaining solidarity on issues where the North can’t provide for itself — you can’t grow your coffee, you can’t grow your spices in Europe, you can’t grow your cotton — a Transition Town movement in the North needs to shrink its ecological footprint in areas where it is shrinkable, and it needs to generate more livelihood locally in production and the first candidate for this is fresh vegetables.

Fresh vegetables are the reason Third World people are losing their land. Fresh vegetables do not get exported by small peasants… giant companies take over the land, put green beans and lettuce onto flights, and ship it to the North.

So if you reduce your consumption of long distance flights for vegetables, and increase your local production ecologically, you are reducing the pressure on the South, you are making sure families don’t go hungry in the South.

That’s the kind of solidarity that helps.

Go to video at Transition Culture→

See also Sharon Astyk’s Comments→

[This is the reason the so-called "Green Revolution" is a disaster for the world. -DS]
~~

Local Currency in Lewes, England

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From Transition Towns
Lewes, East Sussex, UK

July 29, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino, North California

The Lewes Pound is a creative yet practical way for local people to make money work for Lewes. The Lewes Pound is essentially a voucher or token that can be traded locally as a complementary currency and used alongside pounds Sterling.

Money spent locally circulates within, and benefits the local economy. Money spent in national chains doesn’t. The Lewes Pound encourages demand for local goods and services. In turn this builds resilience to the rising costs of energy, transport and food.

The Lewes Pounds is driven by three main considerations:

* Economic: According to the New Economics Foundation, money spent locally stays within the community and is re-used many times, multiplying wealth and building resilience in the local economy.
* Environmental: Supporting local businesses and goods reduces the need for transport and minimises our carbon footprint.
* Social: By spending money in local outlets we can strengthen the relationships between local shopkeepers and the community. It also supports people finding new ways to make a living initiatives

The Lewes Pound also benefits shoppers by creates stronger and more local shops, increasing a sense of pride in our community, decreasing CO2 emissions and increasing economic resilience.

What about The Transition Initiative?

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From Orion Magazine

July 22, 2009 Ukiah Valley, Mendocino County, North California

Changing the scale of change

A while ago, I heard an American scientist address an audience in Oxford, England, about his work on the climate crisis. He was precise, unemotional, rigorous, and impersonal: all strengths of a scientist.

The next day, talking informally to a small group, he pulled out of his wallet a much-loved photo of his thirteen-year-old son. He spoke as carefully as he had before, but this time his voice was sad, worried, and fatherly. His son, he said, had become so frightened about climate change that he was debilitated, depressed, and disturbed. Some might have suggested therapy, Prozac, or baseball for the child. But in this group one voice said gently, “What about the Transition Initiative?”

If the Transition Initiative were a person, you’d say he or she was charismatic, wise, practical, positive, resourceful, and very, very popular. Starting with the town of Totnes in Devon, England, in September 2006, the movement has spread like wildfire across the U.K. (delightfully wriggling its way into The Archers, Britain’s longest-running and most popular radio soap opera), and on to the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The core purpose of the Transition Initiative is to address, at the community level, the twin issues of climate change and peak oil—the declining availability of “ancient sunlight,” as fossil fuels have been called. The initiative is set up to enable towns or neighborhoods to plan for, and move toward, a post-oil and low-carbon future: what Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Initiative, has termed “the great transition of our time, away from fossil fuels.” Part of the genius of the movement rests in its acute and kind psychology…

Keep reading at Orion Magazine→

See also Ukiah’s Transition Timeline→
~~

Ukiah’s Transition Timeline

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Ukiah! Invest Locally: Put Your Money Where Your Life Is

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by Michael Shuman
Yes Magazine

July 4, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Americans want to invest locally: here’s how.

The Obama Administration believes that the best way to repair our financial system after the Great Crash of 2008 is to improve the performance and oversight of global banks and investment firms. A growing number of Americans, however, would prefer to pull their retirement savings out of these high financial fliers altogether. They would rather invest in their communities.

The problem is, they can’t. Outdated federal securities laws have left Main Street dangerously dependent on Wall Street, and overhauling these regulations turns out to be a hidden key to economic revitalization. There are two reasons Americans increasingly wish to invest in locally owned businesses. First, they understand that these businesses are the real pillars of a prosperous, sustainable economy. A growing body of evidence suggests that every dollar spent at a locally owned business generates two to four times more economic benefit—measured in income, wealth, jobs, and tax revenue—than a dollar spent at a globally owned business. That’s because locally owned businesses spend more of their money locally and thereby pump up the so-called economic multiplier. Other studies suggest that local businesses are critical for tourism, walkable communities, entrepreneurship, social equality, civil society, charitable giving, revitalized downtowns, and even political participation.

Second, many Americans no longer believe Wall Street’s assertions that a global, publicly traded corporation is the safest place to invest their savings. According to data in Statistical Abstract, sole proprietorships (the legal structures chosen by most first-stage small businesses) are nearly three times more profitable than C-corporations (the structures of choice for global businesses). Moreover, a bunch of global trends, like rising energy prices and the falling dollar, are making local businesses increasingly competitive. Meanwhile, Americans are shifting their spending from goods to services, a trend that promises to expand the local business sector, since most services depend on direct, personal, and, ultimately, local relationships.

Locally owned businesses currently generate half of the private economy, in terms of output and jobs. Add in other place-based institutions—nonprofits, co-ops, and the public secto—and we’re talking about 58 percent of all economic activity. So in a well-functioning financial system, we’d invest roughly 58 percent of our retirement funds in place-based enterprises. Yet local businesses receive none of our pension savings. Nor do they receive any investment capital from mutual, venture, or hedge funds. The result is that all of us, even stalwart advocates of community development, overinvest in the Fortune 500 companies we distrust and underinvest in the local businesses we know are essential for local vitality. This situation represents a colossal market failure.

The good news is that much of the problem could be solved by modernizing securities laws. Today these laws place huge restrictions on the investment choices of small, “unaccredited”investors—a category in Securities and Exchange Commission vernacular that includes all but the richest 2 percent of Americans. The regulations prohibit the average American from investing in any small business, unless the business is willing to spend $50,000 to $100,000 on lawyers to prepare private placement memoranda or public offerings—thick documents

What Employment Opportunities Arise from Embracing Transition?

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From Transition Culture→

July 1, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

As part of the Totnes EDAP, we are creating this table (below), by way of illustrating the wealth of new employment possibilities that could be created in a community that seriously embraces the potential of Transition. There will of course be hundreds of things we have neglected to include. In the light of the continued ’sharp contraction’ of the UK economy, we are arguing that the only way the area can revive its fortunes will be via. the Transition approach…

Employment Opportunities for a Post-Peak Oil Totnes and District
Employment Sector	Industry Type	Opportunities for Economic Development
Food Production/Land Use	Organic Farming	Farm workers, research and innovation, value adding and processing, retail, Community Supported Agriculture initiatives
	Textile Production	Farming, processing, manufacturing
	Organic Food Production	Training, freshwater aquaculture, organic gourmet mushroom production for food and medicines, intensive market gardening
	Forestry	Timber for construction and a variety of uses, sawdust for mushroom cultivation, charcoal, wood gasification, coppice products, saps, tannin, bark mulch, education, training, food crops, fibre
	Urban Agriculture	Co-ordination, land access provision, edible landscaping consultancy, online tools for linking growers and consumers, large potential for commercial production, plant nurseries and propagation
	Gleaning	Apple harvesting and pressing, hedgerow drinks and other products, education
	Agroforestry systems	Design consultancy, planting and ongoing management, selling of wide range of produce, long term enhanced timber value, courses, publications, research
	Schools	Edible landscaping, teaching, Education for Sustainable Development, food growing training, apprenticeships, bespoke Transition training programmes
Manufacturing and Processing	Recycling	Salvaging building materials, processing and reclaiming materials (bricks, timber etc), making insulation from waste paper, glass bottles into insulation
	Sustainable Industry	Renewable energy technologies manufacturing and installing, technology systems,
	Repair	Extending the life of machinery, building for durability
	Fabric	Processing of locally produced fabric, hemp, flax etc, making a range of clothing for retail, and repairs
	Scavenging	Materials reuse, refurbishing, resale to low-income families
Services	Healthcare	Holistic healthcare, research into effective herbal medicines, local herb growing and processing, training for doctors, apothecaries, nutritional advice
	Energy	Home insulation advice, energy monitoring, energy efficient devices, investment co-ordinators, sale of energy to grid or decentralised energy systems, producing wood chip/pellets for boilers, Energy Resilience Analyses for businesses
	Compost Management	Collecting, Managing, Training, Distribution, Education, potential links to urban food production
	Information Technology	Creation of effective software systems for energy management, carbon footprinting and much more
	Hospice services / bereavement	Hospice services, supporting families who keep relatives at home, green burials
	Financial Investment	Credit Unions, local currencies, mechanisms whereby people can invest with confidence into their community, Green Bonds, crowd funding
Government	Councils	Opportunity to organise efforts throughout region, and parishes
	Researchers	Opportunity to gather information from the many projects and enterprises underway.
Education and Design	Educators	Wide range of opportunities for supporting ‘The Great Reskilling’, developing Distance Learning programmes, training for professionals
	Sustainable Designers	Landscape architects specialising in edible landscaping, zero carbon buildings
	The Arts	Art projects documenting the Transition, installations, exhibitions, public art workshops, local recording studios, storytelling
	Transition Consulting	Working with businesses on energy audits, resilience plans, a range of future-proofing strategies
Personal / Group Support	Counselling	Personal ‘Transition Counselling’, group support, community processes
	Citizens Advice	Debt advice, housing advice, financial management skills, debt scheduling
	Outplacement/Redundancy Support	Support, retraining, ongoing support and training
Media	Print media	Local newspapers, small print run books on different aspects of the Transition
	Internet	Online retailing systems for local markets
	Film media	Online TV channels documenting inspiring examples of Transition in Action
Construction	Reskilling	Retraining builders to use local materials and green building techniques, improving awareness around energy efficiency in building, setting up local construction companies
	Materials	Creating local natural building materials, clay plasters, timber, lime, straw, hemp etc. Growing, processing, distribution, retail etc. Locally made wallpaper.
	Architects	Specialists in passiv haus building, local materials, retrofit advice
Transportation	Low energy vehicle fleets	Marketing, maintaining, renting, chauffeuring
	Bicycles	Selling, servicing, maintenance training, rental
	Rickshaws	Importing, servicing, taxi service, weddings etc.
	Biodiesel	Sourcing, processing, selling, training and advice
	Biomethane/Electric vehicles	Fleet management, sales, leasing, car clubs

This chart is based on and expanded from Chen, Y., Deines, M., Fleischmann,H., Reed, S. & Swick, I. (2007) Transforming Urban Environments for a Post-Peak Oil Future: a vision plan for the city of San Buenaventura. City of San Buenaventura.
~
See also Transition Ukiah→
~~

Transition Ukiah 6/18/09

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From Sharon Astyk
Author/Blogger

June 18, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

…The mere idea that America could flourish by becoming the best shoppers on the planet and not much more is bizarre, and yet it has held a grip on us for decades.  Our job is to consume, while China and other states produce for us.  The reality is that an economy based on devouring what other people produce, mine, build and make is ummm…due for a refit.

My suggestion is that we refit it voluntarily, and rapidly.  It is time and well past time to begin making things in the United States again.  And by making things I do not mean “asphalt paving and cars” – the private car is doomed, and none of us are made much richer by acres of highway, which only increase our dependency on foreign oil and its toxic cognates.

By making things, I mean things we actually need. I’m sure you can think of some – socks and shoes and tools and trains; beer and books and beans and bikes; hoes and hats, fiddles and fishing poles.  And on a small scale, keeping fossil fuels to a minimum, near where you live and I do.   Because the other choice is this – we become China’s supplier of things they want that we have – food, mostly, since we’re the biggest exporter in the world, and they can’t feed themselves.  And we do it on China’s terms, at China’s prices, with all that that implies.  There’s a kind of horrible justice there, since we’ve been doing that through globalization to countless poor nations – but there are better things than ironic justice.

Point me to one single piece of evidence that suggests the US will be fine if other nations stop buying our debt, please.  Point me to our plan – one that doesn’t involve rapid growth or actual fairies.  Otherwise, better get started making something useful.

Read whole post Whither America without China?→

See also Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation (Dmitre Orlov)→

…and The Vindication of The Population Bomb (Paul and Anne Erlich)→
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WeCommune: Tech Support for Community

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From Worldchanging

June 18, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Post-ownership living may be closer than we think. We see the evidence all around us, in the form of innovations from community kitchens to emerging mobility solutions. So, if people are recognizing the practical potential in social solutions, why aren’t even more models for collaboration, sharing and product-service systems thriving? According to architect Stephanie Smith, spurring the movement may be a simple matter of providing the tech support.

This week Smith, who heads WeCommune, plans to launch the first software platform designed specifically for, well, communing (if you visit, you may get a splash page while they transition). The platform’s services will allow groups of three or more people to self-organize a “commune” defined by a shared interest or shared zip code, and will provide tools for communicating, organizing and managing projects, and sharing resources.

What is commune-support software?

WeCommune is a networking platform, outfitted with commune-specific project management applications that make it much different from a social networking tool. The software enables common and practical actions – for example, a group of members can organize a buying club, set up a rideshare system, or barter goods and services. And like everything on the web, WeCommune gives users the option to extend their reach: by networking to other communes, groups can make certain assets like bartering and goods-sharing pools more robust.

WeCommune offers the basic platform free to anyone who wants to use it, and even the more complex services are available for a monthly subscription under $2. Smith hopes that by making it affordable she’ll enable communes of all sorts – from those who are already sharing, like condo associations and college dorms, to neighborhoods and interest groups.

“We couldn’t find anything out there like this,” says Smith. “We feel like if we hit a home run, we’re going to be the ultimate community application.”

Read whole post here→
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A message to the nearly converted

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From JASON BRADFORD
Willits
For The Oil Drum

June 12, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

[The film 'In Transition' is available for viewing on-line for the next 72 hours. See end of article below. -DS]

I was recently asked to give a talk at “The Generation Green Tent” during the Summer Arts and Music Festival at the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area. Here’s the text and supporting images for that talk.

Thanks for coming to my presentation. I am going to say some challenging things today. I don’t know if you are going to be validated or view me as a heretic. In any case, if you are taking notes I am going to have eight main points to cover. Here it goes!

My wife is a physician and has a Masters in Public Health, and so I am going to start with an analogy inspired by her profession that I believe all of us can follow. A very telling study was done on the health of Native Americans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The Mexican population was quite fit, while the U.S. population had high rates of obesity and associated diseases, such as diabetes. I am going to make some judgments about the society that produced this discrepancy, and perhaps we can primarily assign the blame for the illnesses of these people on their sick environment. However, I don’t want to absolve individuals of all responsibility for their predicament because that is a disempowering thing to do.

Overcoming the obesity crisis of humanity requires paying off our ecological debt. This means accepting certain job losses and developing job gains in other areas. See full article for discussion.

What I am going to argue is that you are all capable, powerful individuals and that you are responsible for making great changes…

Point 1. This is the first point of my talk. I want everybody to view the grim environmental statistics as multiple “organ failures” approaching for human civilization…

Why Time Banking?

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From JULIA FRECH
Ukiah
Mendo TIme Bank

June 11, 2009 Ukian, Mendocino County, North California

When times get tough, our most important asset is a resilient and supportive community. More secure than money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food and water; creating a more self sufficient community is the smartest investment we can make now. Mendo Time Bank started with those goals in mind.

Time Banking was started in the 1980’s by Edgar Cahn in Washington DC as a way to compensate for the cutback of social services.  It has become an international phenomenon, and there are hundreds of Time Banks all over the US and the world. In general they are started to help the local community meet unmet needs with untapped resources.

Whether based in inner city schools, jails, cities or rural communities, the effect is the same: they strengthen the community by creating an incentive and market for people to help each other. Each hour helping somebody in the network earns the giver one Time Dollar that they can then spend on any other service offered by members.

A Time Bank is both a system of quantifying community credit, and a network of people that are ready to support each other. Time Banking is a mutual credit system, as members can earn credit anywhere in their community and spend the credit on anything else.  At any given time, half of the members will have a positive Time Dollar account balance, and half will have a negative account balance with a total net balance of zero. Instead of a third party charging interest on the credit, we extend credit to each other without interest.

As the national economy contracts, the supply of money coming in to the local economy decreases, and people spend less money at local businesses. This causes further contraction and job losses. However, because we live in a place with abundant natural resources and local talent, it doesn’t make sense to be dependent on a relatively scarce currency beyond our control.

Having a community credit system based on time avoids the problem of scarcity, because value is created by members as it is needed. It is 100% independent of our national monetary system, making it the most useful for people who are currently undercompensated financially. Furthermore, it is not subject to the shocks and fluctuations of a national currency. One hour always equals one Time Dollar,

Small Business Ideas For Smaller Times

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

June 9, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

From Small Is Beautiful, by E.F. Schumacher:

As Gandhi said, the poor of the world cannot be helped by mass production, only by production by the masses.

The system of mass production, based on sophisticated, highly capital-intensive, high energy-input dependent, and human labour-saving technology, presupposes that you are already rich, for a great deal of capital investment is needed to establish one single workplace. The system of production by the masses mobilizes the priceless resources which are possessed by all human beings, their clever brains and skillful hands, and supports them with first-class tools.

The technology of mass production is inherently violent, ecologically damaging, self-defeating in terms of non-renewable resources, and stultifying for the human person. The technology of production by the masses, making use of the best of modern knowledge and experience, is conducive to decentralization, compatible with the laws of ecology, gentle in its use of scarce resources, and designed to serve the human person instead of making him the servant of machines.

I have named it intermediate technology to signify that it is vastly superior to the primitive technology of bygone ages but at the same time much simpler, cheaper, and freer than the super-technology of the rich. One can also call it self-help technology, or democratic or people’s technology—a technology to which everybody can gain admittance and which is not reserved to those already rich and powerful.
~

Excerpted from The Transition Handbook – From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, by Rob Hopkins

We need to be building the capability to produce locally those things that we can produce locally. It is, of course, easy to attack this idea by pointing out that some things, such as computers and frying pans can’t be made at a local level.

However, there are a lot of things we could produce locally: a wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, timber, mushrooms, dyes, many medicines,

Self-Sufficiency for our Bioregion

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From KIRKPATRICK SALE
Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision (1991)

June 3, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Far from being deprived, far from being thus impoverished, even the most unendowed bioregion can in the long run gain in economic health with a careful and deliberate policy of self-sufficiency. The reasons are various:

1. A self-sufficient bioregion would be more economically stable, more in control of investment, production, and sales, and hence more insulated from the cycles of boom-and-bust engendered by distant market forces or remote political crises. And its people, with a full close-up knowledge of both markets and resources, would be able to allocate their products and labor in the most efficient way, to build and develop what and where they want to at the safest pace, to control their own money supply and currency value without extreme fluctuations—and to adjust all those procedures with comparative ease when necessary.

2. A self-sufficient bioregion would not be in vassalage to far-off and uncontrollable national bureaucracies or transnational corporations, at the mercy of whims or greed of politicians and plutocrats. Not caught up in the vortex of world-wide trade, it would be free from the vulnerability that always accompanies dependence in some degree or other, as the Western world discovered with considerable pain when OPEC countries quadrupled the price of the oil it depended on, as the non-Western world experiences daily.

3. A self-sufficient bioregion would be, plainly put, richer than one enmeshed in extensive trade, even when the trade balance is favorable. Partly this is because no part of the economy need be devoted to paying for imports, a burden that severely taxes even an industrial country like the United States—where, try as we might, we have not escaped a severe trade deficit in the last fifteen years—and that simply drains nations heavily dependent on imports, such as Britain, Brazil, Mexico, and most of the

Mendocino’s Local Economy: Weed, Wine, Wood, and Water

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From DAVE SMITH
Ukiah

May 29, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

This interactive map at Slate shows job losses by county from January 2006 to present. You can watch in horror as the careless greed of the Masters of the Universe race across the U.S. “bombing” jobs month-by-month, obliterating everything in its path.

Meanwhile, many of us here in Mendocino County have to spend our precious time fighting off the death throes of a thrashing DDR dinosaur, trying to squeeze out one last political perversion before dropping permanently into the black hole of consumerist history. Instead, we should be rebuilding our county economy, based on localizing renewable energy and organic/biodynamic agriculture.

Yesterday on Democracy Now, Eduardo Galeano, author of The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, the book Chavez gave to Obama, had this to say:

There is a new energy, which is not new at all. I think that history never ends. Some histories inside history have no happy ends, unhappy ends. But history doesn’t end. She’s a stubborn lady, and she goes on walking, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. But it never ends. When histories say goodbye, history is really saying, “See you. See you later. See you soon.” So this is like a subterranean river, who went on flowing and nowadays is reappearing with a very important energy coming from people…

I have an engineer friend of mine who said, “Lo único que se hace desde arriba son los pozos,” “The only thing that you can make from up to down are holes.” And it’s true. All the other things are made, are created from the bottom. And that’s the way it’s going to be done, and it’s already going on in several Latin American countries, which is good news, indeed, for the world…

Mendocino County Supervisors. Ukiah City Councilors. We CAN print our own money! Just form our own bank!

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From Web of Debt

May 27, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

[Fiscally solvent North Dakota is doing it . . . and so can California. So can Mendocino County! So can Ukiah! And save our own economy. Seriously! Right now! -DS]

Money in a government-owned bank could give us the best of both worlds. We could have all the credit-generating advantages of private banks, without the baggage cluttering up the books of the Wall Street giants, including bad derivatives bets, unmarketable collateralized debt obligations, mark to market accounting issues, oversized CEO salaries and bonuses, and shareholders expecting a sizeable cut of the profits.

A state could deposit its vast revenues in its own state-owned bank and proceed to fan them into 8 to 10 times their face value in loans. Not only would it have its own credit machine, but it would control the loan terms. The state could lend at ½% interest to itself and to municipal governments, rolling the loans over as needed until the revenues had been generated to pay them off.

According to Professor Margrit Kennedy in her 1995 book Interest and Inflation-free Money, interest composes, on average, fully half the cost of every public project. Cutting costs by 50% could make currently-unsustainable projects such as low-cost housing, alternative energy development, and infrastructure construction not only sustainable but actually profitable for the government.

If all this seems too radical and unprecedented to venture into, consider that one state has had its own bank for 90 years; and it has not only escaped the credit crunch but is doing remarkably well . . . .

North Dakota has also managed to avoid the credit freeze, through the simple expedient of creating its own credit. It has led the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty. In California and other states, workers and factories are sitting idle because the private credit system has failed…

Keep reading at Web of Debt→
~
See also Mendo Moola→
~~

Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 9)

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From TIM EASTERBROOK; EARL BROWN contributing

May 18, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

An integral aspect of the Eco-Village and a sustainable future will be re-cycling. This is not limited to today’s meaning of separating the tin from the plastic, the green glass from the clear, and the paper from the rest; this is waste separation, re-cycling will take on a deeper and broader meaning as we move into the challenging years ahead.

Waste separation is an aspect of the process of recycling, yet, most importantly in the process is using the end waste product, or products, from one industry to feed a part, or parts, of another; re-using, possibly for reasons other than originally intended; re-manufacturing new materials, or structures from part, or parts, of the waste stream, and reclamation of usable components (oils, water, chemicals, nutrients) from objects and solutions before their final (for us) resting, composting, place.

By building “Zero Waste” into our planning as an ideal to work toward, while understanding we are in a transition phase and unlikely to achieve such a lofty goal quickly, we can open our individual and collective creativity without thinking we have to have all the answers before beginning.

Being in transition means action; something is happening and movement is involved. In Mendocino County we can feel the burden of the past blurring into a questionable future and wonder what we will transition into; a peaceful, sustainable group of interdependent communities living within their means, supporting each other through the lean times, celebrating the abundant, or, the opposite. Climate chaos, economic collapse, civil strife, or a number of other causes, which may be beyond our control, may make our future choices futile and meaningless; moot. Localization, now, is our best, most logical course of action and it is time to ask ourselves which of the options above we want to transition into.

We, in Mendocino County, may not be able to provide all of our wants, but we can certainly see to our needs. Fulfilling wants before needs has gotten us into this mess as much as greed, political incompetence, and ignorance. It is time for a transition and we need to decide which way it will go.

Only a certain amount of fiber can be extracted from the forests without depleting the soils. Until our forests have recovered we need to develop other means of supplying ourselves with fiber from alternative sources. Mendocino County can support the production of fiber in many forms; wool, wood, plant fibers, bamboo, willow, fungi, all grow well in Mendocino County and in Northern California. As the health and productivity of our forests decline and the threat of catastrophic forest fire increases these other fibers will become more valuable and necessary in our area. As work is done in the watersheds that helps the natural healing power of nature rehabilitate the landscape— returning streams to natural functioning capabilities, and, as the larger trees mature, the removal of small diameter poles and understory fuel loads to supply a source of useable building materials, bio-fuels, and fiber— the amount is limited by the need to re-cycle nutrients in the forest soils to maintain fertility. Other sources of fiber will need to be developed, many of which we already know and which have higher fiber content that provides superior structural strength when compared to traditional wood sources.

This post explores the use of several plant sources of fiber and gives some background of their use and properties. Below I list Bamboo, Kenaf, and Hemp. Other forms of fiber, such as wool, straw, fungi and willow are also good sources of fiber and vital to a sustainable future, although I do not include them here to save space. For the Bast plant section below I am quoting sections from the 1996- Bast Fiber Applications for Composites Report, authored by, Erwin H. Lloyd (biocomp@comcast.net) and David Seber (organic@organicseed.com). This 1996 document does not look at Bast fiber in terms of clothing and fabric but for composite (wood and plastic) building materials which are very strong for their weight.

Bast fiber plants, as well as other fiber producing plant species, provide a means to supplement for traditional forest products and even capture new markets through the use of alternative raw materials which possess unique and beneficial properties. Bast plants include flax, kneaf and hemp, and have been used by many civilizations for a period of at least 4000 years. Fibers such as bamboo and hemp are also exceptional for clothing yet I only make short reference to these uses. This “Potential Community Development Plan” is not intended to be complete but to stimulate community dialogue.

From the 1996- Bast Fiber Applications for Composites
“Bast fibers have been grown for centuries throughout the world. Bast plants are characterized by long, strong fiber bundles that comprise the outer portion of the stalk. Bast plants include flax, hemp, kenaf, sunn-hemp, ramie, and jute. The focus of our research has been on the species that can grow in temperate regions of the world, namely flax, hemp, and kenaf. These fibrous plants have long been noted for their exceptional strength in cordage and paper.

The word “bast” refers to the outer portion of the stem of these plants. This stringy, vascular portion comprises 10 – 40% of the mass of the stem depending upon the species of bast plant, as well as the particular variety, or cultivar, within a bast plant.
The remainder of the stem inside this bast layer is a different type of fibrous material, which has different names depending upon the species selected. This inner material is known as shives when referring to flax and sometimes hemp, as hurd in the context of hemp, and as core when from kenaf. For the purpose of simplicity and consistency, we will use the word “core” when discussing this portion of the bast plant.”

Overall Advantages of Bast Plants
“In general, bast plants possess the following benefits:
1. High tensile strength in bast portions, especially in fiber varieties.
2. Bast plants have a relatively low specific gravity of 0.28 – 0.62, yielding an especially high specific strength, i.e. strength to weight ratio, (Kozlowski, Mieleniak, Przepiera, 1994).
3. Generally high fiber productivity rates, rivaling and even surpassing that of the most commercial tree species.
4. Potential for even greater productivity, bast portions, and mechanical properties through focused genetic breeding.” (I hope they mean hybridizing, evb)

Overall Limitations of Bast Plants
“In general, bast plants also have the following limitations:
1. Rotations at least every other year generally required.
2. Limited research for composite applications in North America.
3. Lack of related agricultural infrastructure in North America.
4. Relatively high absorption of moisture in core portion.
5. Diminished board properties when using core for particleboard.
6. Difficulty in handling long fiber bundle lengths for processing.
7. Difficulty in applying binder to long fiber bundle lengths.”

Hemp
Advantages of Hemp:
“Hemp shows the following strengths:
1. Hemp requires less moisture to grow than kenaf.
2. Hemp’s fiber-bundles are stronger and tougher than those of kenaf, generally comparable to varieties of flax, and most other known fiber species.
3. Hemp is generally pest resistant, drought resistant, and light frost resistant.
4. With proper leaf removal, hemp has low net nutrient requirements and requires minimal cultivation.
5. Hemp provides greater fiber yields in areas generally north of the 40th latitude than most other fiber crops, generally surpassing flax by 10%.”

Disadvantages of Hemp:
“Hemp also has the following weaknesses:
1. Restrictions of its growth and cultivation in North America, especially in the United States.
2. Lower fiber yields than kenaf and other tropical species in the warmer portions of the United States and more southerly regions.
3. Lower bast fiber portions relative to kenaf and flax.

Table 1 compares the chemical composition of these bast plants with that of wood.

Table 1: Comparative Chemical Composition:
FIBROUS MATERIAL:    CELLULOSE    HEMI- CELLULOSE    LIGNIN    EXTRACTIVES    ASH
FLAX     78.5    9.2    8.5    2.3    1.5
HEMP    68.1    15.1    10.6    3.6    2.5
KENAF (bast)    60.8    20.3    11.0    3.2    4.7
CONIFEROUS    48.0    15.0    25.3    11.5    0.2
DECIDUOUS    52.8    21.8    22.3    2.7    0.4
Source: Danforth International, and TAPPI

Table 5 illustrates the fiber bundle tensile strength properties of the various bast fibers are significantly higher than those of wood species. (Douglas fir, Southern Pine, Aspen vs. Hemp, Kenaf, Flax). In light of this issue, higher structural applications appear the most promising. This value is an excellent measure of the structural performance we can expect in a particular size and configuration of a product.”

Table 5: Comparative Mechanical/Physical Properties of Bast and Wood Materials:
FIBROUS MATERIAL     DENSITY (g/cm3)     LENGTH (mm)    DIAMETER (um)     L/D RATIO    TENSILE STRENGTHS (psi)
FIBER    BUNDLE    RANGE     AVG    RANGE    AVG
FLAX    1.51    1.2    10 – 65    32    10 – 25    18    1,778    51,000
KENAF (bast)    -    1.2    1.4 – 5    2.6    14 – 23    21    124    58,000
KENAF (core)    0.31    -    0.4 – 1.1    0.6    18 – 37    30    20    -
HEMP    1.48    1.2    7 – 55    25    13 – 30    18    1,087    118,000
S.Y. PINE    0.51    -    2.7 – 4.6    3.7    32 – 43    38    97    11,600
D. FIR    0.48    -    2.7 – 4.6    3.7    32 – 43    38    97    15,600
ASPEN    0.39    -    0.7 – 1.6    1.2    20 – 30    25    48    7,400
Sources: Wood Handbook; Danforth International; W.S.U., WMEL; Columbus, 1996, Institute of Natural Fibers, U.S.D.A., A.R.S.; The BioComposite Center.
KENAF:

Kenaf
“Kenaf, Hibiscus cannabinus, originating from Africa, has traditionally been a source of bast fiber in India, China, The Commonwealth of Independent States, Iran, Nigeria, and Thailand. Kenaf is a newer crop to the United States that shows good potential as a raw material for use in composite products. Presently, around 4,300 acres of kenaf are cultivated in the United States. 2,000 acres are grown in Mississippi, 1,200 acres in Texas, 560 acres in California, with lesser amounts in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Georgia. Traditionally, kenaf has been known as a cordage crop or jute substitute. Research on kenaf first began in the United States in 1957 and has continued sporadically since that time, (White, Higgins, 1964). Newer advances in decortication equipment which seperates the core from the bast fiber combined with fiber shortages has renewed recent interest in kenaf as a fiber source.”

Advantages of Kenaf:
“Kenaf possesses the following benefits:
1. Excellent yields in southern regions. For example, 15 tons/acre were grown at College Station, Texas in research plots, (Berger, 1969). Actual production yields of 7 -9 bone dry tons/acres can be expected in the warmer regions of Texas.
2. Low harvested whole stalk costs in favorable climatic regions such as southern Texas.
3. Genetic strains have been developed which yield 35% or greater bast portions. This is a relatively high proportion.
4. Considerable progress has been made in developing nematode resistance in the Texas growing region. Nematode susceptibility has long been an encumbrance to the viability of kenaf development.
5. Is competitive showing favorable weed control characteristics.
6. Is viewed favorably by the USDA as a prime candidate for alternative fiber development and has consequently received greater research funding.
7. Strong federal political support.”

Limitations of Kenaf:
“Kenaf also has the following limitations:
1. Low productivity in cooler climates. Its growing season can be as short as 90 – 120 days, and consequently it will grow in almost any region of North America if sufficient moisture is available. The yields of kenaf in Rosemount, Minnesota, south of the Twin Cities, yielded only 2.5 tons/acre in a research plot, compared to the 15 ton/acre yield in College Station, Texas, (Le Mahieu, Oplinger, Putnam, 1991; White, Higgins, 1964). Actual production yields are roughly 60-70% of those in test plots, (Blodsoe, 1996; Cook, 1996).
2. High moisture requirements. 600 mm, (23.6 in) of water is preferable during its growing cycle of 120-150 days, (Vannini, Venturi, 1992).” (end quotes)

Bamboo
Bamboo is actually a grass that grows to a harvestable height of 60 feet in about three to five years and can grow as much as two feet per day. It has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots and does not require replanting. Bamboo, as the Bast plants mentioned above and other fiber sources, holds the promise of sustainable, cost effective and ecologically responsible alternatives to short sighted management and the clear cutting of our timberland. Bamboo can be spun into yarn, or processed as a fiber. It has a unparalleled micro-structure of pours that absorb human sweat rapidly. If left in it natural state, not roasting it to change the color (caramelizing the starches and sugars), the fiber makes a pleasant green colored fabric that is bio-degradable, cheaper than cotton and wears as well, or better.

Composite products for building materials made from the plants mentioned in this post include, but is not limited to: Low-density insulation boards, Ceiling Tiles, Substrate for lightweight furniture, Components in manufactured housing, Office partitions, Core materials for doors, and particleboard. These plants offer reinforcing fibers to other materials such as concrete, wood, straw, pultrusion products; reinforcements for thermoplastics and insulation; and cordage, especially jute, sisal, and hemp, has historically been strong. Fabrics for clothing, bedding, drapes, upholstery and more can be added into the value items for these fibers. This also does not include food fibers and their benefits to the human body.

There is a great deal of creativity in our area and much we could do to supply our local fiber needs with a fiber processing and manufacturing facility as a foundation of the Eco-Village/Transition Park concept.
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 8)

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Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill and Post and Beam Structure Fabrication

From GOVINDA DALTON; EARL BROWN contributing

May 12, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

If we are not careful we will end up where we are headed ~Ancient Chinese proverb

Planning often works better if done before hand ~Anonymous

The purpose of this post is to demonstrate, in general terms, how the health of our forests contributes to the health of our communities and to the quality of our lives. In fact the forests contain some of the keys to our sustainability and to our collective future.

A vast number of jobs have already been created by past logging and timber management practices and they are just waiting for attention. Our timberlands provide jobs, skills training (personal, life, technical, and social), space for scientific study, development of meaningful environmental curriculum for schools, colleges and universities, recreation opportunities, ecological tourism, tranquil space for reflection, and much, much more.

A healthy forest protects us from fire, infiltrates rainwater into aquifers, catches fog, moderates our local climate, and provides building material, fuel, and homes for thousands of non-human species. There are thousands of jobs available now in repairing the damage of the past, and  repairing the damage, as much as we can, takes us into the future.

We propose to look at many of the dysfunctions and problematic issues facing Mendocino County, with somewhat of a Homeopathic thought ….. “like cures like”. There are a number of social issues that can be addressed within the context of a small diameter pole mill with an adjacent fabrication plant: sustainable local economies, catastrophic forest fire, water supply and quality, forest health, money leakage (leaving our area), garbage disposal, recycling, wastewater treatment (grey water, black water and industrial waste), lack of affordable housing, honest, meaningful work and land use as it applies to industry, to name a few. Environmental issues such as riparian restoration, healthy fisheries, watershed restoration, bio-remediation, zero waste and The Precautionary Principal, can also be addressed within this context and in the eco-village/transition park model in general. By using the problem (catastrophic fire) as the source of the answer (reduce fuel loading) we learn to work with the natural environment for the betterment of all.

A part of the village will become a staging area for small diameter pole processing and utilization; poles will be twelve inches in diameter, or less. This location would include truck unloading, storage area, debarking equipment, grading area where the poles are evaluated for structural strength and best use, and cutting/sizing equipment. Adjacent to this area would be the fabrication mill where various structures are engineered as “kits” (homes, garages, sheds, gazebos, etc.) and a retail space open to the public. This mill could also provide raw material for the nearby furniture manufacturer; the wood chips could be used to produce alcohol, wood pellets for fuel, compost for gardens, bio-char fuel or, other wood products. Buildings, such as offices in the complex, would be made with the post and beam construction (probably needing a code change in building materials) so visitors and prospective clients can view and feel the structures. Having a quality kit home saves the homeowner some of the permitting process and expensive change orders during construction, as well as giving them emotional security by knowing it is structurally sound. Ecologically minded tourists can visit the site to see a creative community working together to resolve its issues as well as learn innovative techniques for localization and sustainability.

Small diameter poles have been utilized here before and between 1952 and 1968 there were several small diameter pole mills in Mendocino County. J.H. Baxter & Company extracted poles and delivered them to mills located in Willits, Hopland and Point Arena, where the poles were debarked and shipped to various locations for treatment. There is currently a functional pole mill in Potter Valley, however it is no longer operating, and there is likely to be usable equipment available from other lumber mills, now closed down. Gathering, refurbishing and installing this equipment would create jobs in themselves and these people may move on to operator, fabricator, or other position in the business. With all of the forestland needing fuel load reduction several of these mills would be necessary to process the available poles. As the forests regenerate, mills that take larger trees can be re-opened under sustainable timber harvest practices providing more jobs, in perpetuity. It has taken 150 years for the forests to unravel to the point they are and it will take sixty to eighty years to regenerate a healthy stand of mature trees ready for sustainable harvest.

With the recent Mendocino Lightning Complex Fires we were given a first hand example of how fire moves through dense forest growth. In fact the Greenfield Ranch community is being considered as a model of citizen response for forest fire, per private discussion with a CDF official. Now is the time to capitalize on this exposure and make some bold moves. A hundred years ago an average forest contained roughly 25 mature trees per acre and was relatively open. The same forest today may contain as many as one thousand trees and is tightly packed with shrubs and undergrowth as well. These are called ladder fuels. The trees in these dense stands are smaller, weaker, more disease prone and more susceptible to insect invasion. Current fuel loading practices include cutting down small trees, brush and other ladder fuels — but without removing, or chipping the slash. The downed wood, left this way, becomes as much a fire hazard as standing dead wood. A wide ranging fuel load reduction campaign coordinated with an equally ambitious thin and release program is not only desperately needed, but is a source of jobs, training, education, building materials and revenue.

Except for the land, the major costs for homes are the construction, the mortgage, and energy for heating and cooling. Leakage, a word used to indicate money leaving an area, or region, is a term the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors favored during discussions about needing more box stores in our area. The Energy Working Group, a citizen’s action group, appointed by the Board of Supervisors, identified the two leading means of money loss, or leakage, from our community; energy and mortgages for our homes. By using material that is on-hand, material that is actually a nuisance and fire danger, and by focusing on new insulation methods, the cost of home construction is minimized (lower mortgage) and the need for heating and cooling can be greatly decreased (lower energy costs), thus minimizing the “leakage” from our county. The combination of using post construction and alternative forms of insulation makes the price of one of these homes affordable to low income families. Given the lack of affordable housing and the expected cost of energy in the near future, post and pole construction makes a lot of sense, and by bringing conservation back into the conversation we will contribute in a wiser way to the visioning process.

Post and beam construction is an innovative means of structure and home construction. There are many examples of post and pole construction, from the Earth Lodge model to the Yellowstone Resort. Most of the high end ski resorts employ pole construction as a common theme for all of their buildings. Infill of the walls (insulation) can be from a variety of strategies now in vogue, straw bale, cob, synthetic sheathing, and traditional framing, to name a few. We would like to propose “Papercrete” as one solution for this need. Around 60% of the waste stream going into the transfer station is some sort of paper product that can be turned into Paper Crete, a kind of super paper-mache, which has an R factor higher than straw bale and other insulation materials. All of the paper waste headed to the transfer station would go to the Re-Manufacturing Facility at the eco-village for processing into Paper Crete and then utilized as insulation for the post and beam houses. Go to http://www.livinginpaper.com/index.htm for more information about Paper Crete.

These homes end up being very affordable, some designs cost less than $20,000. A cooperative agreement between landowners, the mill operation and funding entities initiates the process. Ten years ago the Forest Service paid around $300 an acre to have trees felled to the ground and the landowner matched this with $100.00 per acre. This still left the dry down wood as fire fuel. Lets suppose we charged $500 an acre to remove the usable poles and chip the rest (simulating fire/nutrient recycling). The faller and chipper crew would get $25 an hour $200 would be allocated to transport the poles out to the processing mill. The trees/poles are not purchased, or sold, per say, but it is the value added in the labor that is the commodity. The labor involved in transportation, debarking, grading, sizing, cutting for the kit and packaging the material for shipment represents the basis for the cost of the kits. With another investment of between $10,000 and $20,000 a complete solar/hydro/wind system could be added and roof rainwater catchments would be implemented into the building plans (and building codes) making these homes not only state-of-the-art and energy efficient, but costing $40,000, or less, complete.

Fire is a natural recycler and we live in a fire dependent area. If this land does not burn every 15 to 30 years (approximately) then the fuels get out of control and wild fire ensues. Human intrusion into the timberlands, with their fear of fire and economic loss, has acerbated the problem of past land management practices and now the system is desperately out of balance. We cannot eliminate fire without taking measures to recycle a portion of the woody debris back onto the forest floor to create humus and fertilizer for future generations of trees. This could be done by chipping, or possibly by control burning of the slash given proper weather conditions and location. Without this nutrient recycling our hillsides would soon run out of fertility and the ability to support a healthy forest. This is similar to the need for salmon and steelhead fish to return to our streams; they bring nutrients that have washed down to the ocean and bring them back up into our mountain streams, spawn the next generation and then die, leaving their carcass’ to be eaten by the forest critters and spread back upon the land as fertilizer. Without the fish we loose a huge portion of the nutrients leaving out forests and watersheds; without the forests we do not have the habitat required to support the fish. If we loose either one we are likely to loose both and we will be diminished as a community and have fewer chances of survival given dramatic changes climate, the misfortunes of war and/or the collapse of industrial society.

The existing California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP) guidelines are in a document that directs forest stand improvement and can be utilized immediately (Go here to learn more about CFIP). The point is there is an existing program and guiding document that is accepted by regulators and that has the funding stream and accounting resources to allocate money to private landowners for forest improvement practices. With President Obama’s stimulus package we will be seeing a lot of “green job” money intended to put people to work. Small diameter poles have been avoided because extracting them is labor intensive given the existing commercial market for poles. Peeler poles are the common item and are inferior in structural quality than a hand peeled natural shaped pole. With the current state of the economy, the rising rate of unemployment, the affordable housing crisis, and the need to restore our forests, we need to do something quickly. CFIP provides a mechanism for landowners to be able to afford to enter into forest health management practices and if we had a small diameter processing mill and the ability to make buildings, homes and household furniture with the poles make this a community endeavor worth pursuing.

Although not adequately addressed in this proposal, there is a need for hardwood management in the forests. Unrestrained after the removal of the taller conifer trees hardwoods such as Tan Oak have created large, thick, stands of sick and diseased trees. As part of a comprehensive forest management plan these hardwoods can be thinned, utilized for building materials, chipped, burned, or turned into a bio-fuel such as wood pellets, or used in some other process such as tanning of leather. Trees left standing will mature and become usable for hardwood flooring, cabinets, furniture and other wood products manufactured at the Eco-village. Diversity in the forest, in our community, in our creativity and in the products we produce, will give us an economic base that will not be as susceptible to manipulation from outside sources and provide for a standard of living as good, or better, than what we enjoy now.

We can also use this worldview of sustainability, equity and connectivity to recognize and honor the land management techniques of the original indigenous inhabitants of this area. Many tribes of First Nation People have held and practiced techniques such as separating plant clusters to spreading a usable variety, prescribed burns for vegetation control and to generate forage for grazing animals, painting oak tree trunks with ashes to prevent beetle infestation — just scratching the surface of their knowledge. A powerful healing between our nations could come out of a mutual cooperation to restore our forests with Native American People and vocational programs such as the one administered by Pinoleville Band of Pomo’s. In addition to working with local Native programs there are job and training opportunities for disadvantaged youth, at risk youth, and summer youth programs. Intensive hand labor jobs are perfect because of restrictions concerning under-aged (less than 18 years of age) using power tools. The use of non-powered hand tools is acceptable for the younger and suitable for working in small groups with the smaller diameter poles. Workers and students eighteen years and older will go through a training program in the use of the various pieces of power equipment and be certified in their use. Being responsible stewards of the land, working together, learning from each other, modeling healthy relationships and working toward a sustainable future will bring us closer into harmony with Nature and with each other. We will become a community in the deepest definition of the word.

As this plan comes into fruition Mendocino County becomes a focal point for models that deal with job creation, housing, catastrophic forest fire, forest health, waste management, reducing greenhouse gasses, and sustainability. This automatically kicks in another sector of the economic development strategy: creating a learning environment for various peoples from around the world to come and see how it’s done, e.g. tourism. As the reality of conscious implementation of practical ideas come into being, such as those contained in the Eco-village/Transition Park Proposal,  Mendocino County would be transformed and become wealthier than imagined. We will learn that quality of life and authentic community are beyond monetary value.
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Alternative Currencies

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From Tom Greco
Author of The End of Money and the Future of Civilization

May 12, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Because of legal tender laws, the “dollar” has come to have two meanings — (1) as a medium of exchange or payment (a currency), and (2) as the standard of value measurement or pricing unit.

An alternative currency must eventually decouple from both “dollars” but the more urgent need by far is decoupling from the dollar as a means of payment.

As I’ve pointed out in my books, an alternative currency that is issued on the basis of a national currency paid in (e.g., sold for dollars), amounts to a “gift certificate” or localized “traveler’s check.” (See Money Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, Chapter 14, pp 145-163). It essentially amounts to prepayment for the goods or services offered by the accepting merchants. As such, it substitutes a local, limited use currency for a national, universal currency.

That approach provides some limited utility in encouraging the holder of the currency to buy locally, but the option of redeeming the currency back into dollars without penalty raises the question of how many times it will mediate local trades before being redeemed and leaking back to the outside world.

To truly empower a local community, a currency should be issued on the basis of goods and services changing hands, i.e., it should be “spent into circulation” by local business entities and/or individuals who are able to redeem it by providing goods or services that are in everyday demand by local consumers. Such a currency amounts to an i.o.u. of the issuer, an i.o.u. that is voluntarily accepted by some other provider of goods and services (like an employee or supplier), then circulated, then eventually redeemed, not in cash, but “in kind.” In this way, community members “monetize” the value of their own production, just as banks monetize the value of collateral assets when they make a loan, except in this case, it is done by the community members themselves based on their own values and criteria, without the “help” or involvement of any government, bank, or ordinary financial institution, and without the need to have any official money to begin with.

This is what I mean when I talk about liberating the exchange process and restoring (some part of) the “credit commons” and bringing it under local control. In this way, the community gains a measure of independence from the supply of official money (dollars) and the policies and decisions of the central bank (which in the US is the Federal Reserve) and the banking cartel. That is the primary mission that needs to be accomplished if we are to transcend the destructive effects of the global monetary and banking regime, devolve power to the local level, and build sustainable, economic democracy.

Keep reading Fundamentals of Alternative Currency at Tom Greco’s website→

See also Mendo Moola→

… and Mendo Time Bank→
~~

Time Banks: Love made visible

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From DAVE SMITH

[Talk I gave at Mendo Time Bank organizing meeting, May 4, 2009, Ukiah, California]

Why are you here… in this life?

Why are we here… in this time and place together?

I believe we are here to be useful, that we have a greater purpose than to just fulfill our own little selfish wants on our own little island of stuff, and that our greatest usefulness comes in serving others.

There are certainly many paying jobs that serve others selflessly… teachers, fire fighters, etc. And many of us who support families are certainly serving others.

But in a culture and economy based on consumption, and our consumption based on things way beyond basic, simple needs, we may not be feeling very useful and fulfilled in our regular work lives.

Or, we may be unemployed and therefore feel useless.

Internationally renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps, wrote this in his ground breaking book Man’s Search For Meaning:

I published a study devoted to a specific type of depression I had diagnosed in cases of young patients suffering from what I called “unemployment neurosis.” And I could show that this neurosis really originated in a twofold erroneous identification: being jobless was equated with being useless, and being useless was equated with having a meaningless life. Consequently, whenever I succeeded in persuading the patients to volunteer in youth organizations, adult education, public libraries, and the like – in other words, as soon as they could fill their abundant free time with some sort of unpaid but meaningful activity – their depressio disappeared although their economic situation had not changed and their hunger was the same.

Frankel developed “logotherapy.” Logos is a Greek word that denotes “meaning,” and his therapy was based on the “striving to find a meaning in one’s life,” which he felt was “the primary motivational force in man.”  What matters is “not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment… Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.”

Food Processing Facility – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 7)

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From EARL BROWN

May 4, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

In Mendocino County alone, every year, there are hundreds of tons of grapes, pears and apples that rot on the ground for lack of a market; in some years there are thousands.

Add Lake County and the figure may double. Prices for wine grapes, packer and canning fruit (apples and pears) fluctuate and the price for juicing fruit is basically non-existent. This leaves a vast amount of fruit lying on the ground at the end of every season.

Although the fruit composts and becomes fertilizer for the next crop it is an economic loss as well as a loss of food. At a certain point it is not economically feasible for the grower to pick and process the fruit so it rots. This wasted fruit could be processed into a number of products that could be utilized locally, by a number of entities, benefiting the local farmer and the recipients of the products. At a minimum the fruit could produce methane, or alcohol, to be used as fuel.

Along with fluctuating market prices another factor in the wasting of this fruit is the cost of transportation. The nearest juicing facility is in Watsonville and the cost of fuel to deliver, process and pick up the product is greater than the money received for the sale of the product. The cost of transportation, in and out of the county, will rise in the near future and eventually become economically impossible (peak oil) unless we develop a local, sustainable, means of fuel and power production. When it costs more in labor to pick the fruit than the fruit buyers are paying (not considering the cost of transportation and processing) the fruit stays on the ground. To grow, process, utilize and export the excess of our production, with locally produced, or collected, power would be a giant step toward sustainability.

The list of potential uses and products that can be made from local fruit is substantial; juices, jellies, jams, puree, sauces, fermented vegetables, soups, fruit wine, fruit brandy, cider (with and without alcohol), chutneys, dried fruit, dried fruit puree, frozen fruit bars, and more. Products such as pear puree and fruit concentrates can be used in the manufacture of other products, such as granola and power bars, and is used in institutional cooking (schools, prisons, hospitals). Combined with the development of local fuel supplies (solar electric, bio-fuel, methane, ethanol) the fruit could be collected and processed here, without the expenses to take it elsewhere and to our benefit.

Market is still an issue, yet the challenge would not be selling the fruit to the canning and packing houses, but getting the value added products into the food distribution system, both local and out-of-county. The organic leftovers of the production process would be composted for fertilizer, and the wastewater (attachment 4) can be cleaned and used for irrigation, wildlife/ornamental ponds, or released directly into the environment; zero wasted. A local processing facility would fill a vital need in our ability to provide sufficient food, at an affordable cost, to local residents, visitors and guests, helping to stabilize our economy.

Fruit crops are not the only food crops that can be grown in Mendocino. Much of our river valley soils are perfect for row crops and there is a multitude of varieties suitable to our climate. The floodplains are not locations for buildings and rarely for permanent tree crops. Russian River water quality, stream channel stability and riparian habitat would be better served if the floodplains were re-established (where possible) and turned into seasonal row crop production. The river would replenish soil nutrients with the winter flooding, sediment would be deposited where it belongs (on the floodplain) improving water quality, reducing the amount of sediment clogging the Russian River, benefitting fish, wildlife and humans equally. Herbs, vegetables and other row crops could be sold fresh, or processed into a myriad of edible products and made available to local markets. A diversity of food crops would strengthen Mendocino County and a food processing facility would make this possible.

Another fruit and food source is urban landscaping. There are fruit trees, plums of many varieties, apples, cherries and other fruit producing trees and shrubs. As we walk down our Ukiah sidewalks, during harvest season, many times we walk on fruit dropped on the sidewalk and left to rot. If landowners knew there was an outlet for the fruit, or if they were willing to let others pick the fruit, as much of it may not be wasted. Urban fruits and vegetables could be processed into usable products, or turned into bio-fuels. This would encourage empty urban spaces to be turned into gardens increasing local crop biodiversity, remove rotting fruit from our streets and sidewalks, making food available to local markets, including the Food Bank and Plowshares. Unused, open, urban spaces could also be utilized to grow crops suitable for bio-fuel thus augmenting local power production and self-reliance.

A large part of local self-reliance is providing as much of our own needs as possible, using local resources and living within the carrying capacity of the land; not living beyond our means as if there were no limits. It means growing, processing and supplying local markets with a diversity of food crops; gaining rational control of local governance, economy, and fuel supplies. It means growing crops for fiber and developing the means to manufacture fabric from these crops. Cottage industry is a key to the success of any localization effort in our area. Cottage food industries would mean that landowners with only a little space could grow a crop, or crops, and have them processed into a value added product, or fuel. Also, many local people have their own, or family recipe, for a food product that if there was available production space they could manufacture and sell locally. The current issue is that each person would have to supply their own raw product, buy extra ingredients, have a commercial kitchen, supply all of their accounting, shipping and receiving, electric, and other expenses. This is beyond the means of the average citizen and is a barrier to the development of sustainability. Rentable commercial kitchen space, equipment and storage would go a long way to helping cottage industry grow in Mendocino County.

The Masonite site is central to the valley growers; it has easy access to the freeway, access to the NWPRR (train) track and space for the facility. The facility fits well with the eco-village, sustainable community concept, has sufficient agricultural, open space and landscaping uses for treated wastewater to be used constructively and on-site. A food processing facility for locally produced crops is needed, it would provide meaningful employment, provide healthy food at an affordable price, be a training ground for skills development, summer youth jobs and have multiple other benefits to our community.

Facility overview:
The facility would be capable of crushing whole fruit (apples, pears and grapes) with a hammer mill, or stemmer crusher, and equipment for separating the juice (bladder press, basket press). It would have all of the pumps, hoses, filters, heat exchanger, chillers, fillers, other small processing equipment and cool storage capability. Washers and scrubbers for vegetables will be available for tubers and other tough skinned veggies. Solar fruit dehydrators could be developed at this site or in another location depending upon space and type and size of dehydrator.

The main building would consist of at lease three separate commercial kitchen units available for locals to rent to prepare their food items; open production space for equipment (fillers, bottle-line), cold storage space with a freezer unit; warehouse space, shipping and receiving dock, office, meeting room and possibly public retail space. The facility could be operated as a collective and users of the facility could have a vote in the operation of the management of the facility. Large food retailers such as Trader Joes will buy truckload lots of food products, paying COD. Diversity means a wide variety of products without too much of any of them. These large retailers will take patchwork lots of products providing they are consistently good and sold at a reasonable price.

The facility could be a source of job training, seasonal employment as well as provide some permanent employment for skilled people. Working with organizations such as the Mendocino Private Industry Council (MPIC), Employment Development Department, The Arbor, and others, the facility could be a valuable resource for job training, skills development, internships, and summer jobs. There would also be a need for professional jobs requiring an education in management, marketing, distribution, alternative power, microbiology, brewing, fermenting, and others as the facility develops.
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 6)

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From EARL BROWN

April 27, 2009 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Healthy communities depend upon healthy natural environments. We cannot survive long without water and the systems that keep it fresh and flowing.

Rivers and streams are full of sediment from timber harvest, mining, agriculture, urban development, and mostly roads. It is essential that the public be educated in natural systems and what a healthy watershed is. In the past one hundred years human encroachment into our watersheds has created many negative conditions that are now the jobs of the future. The salmon (Coho and Chinook) are listed as either Threatened or Endangered, under the Endangered Species Act, in many watersheds and in some areas the steelhead trout is listed as well.

The polarity between agri-business and environmentalists, between politicians and environmentalists, between business and workers, resource exploitation and making a living is pulling at the fabric of our communities and stimulating division, fear and aggression.

A public access center where information regarding Mendocino County’s stream, rivers and watersheds would be kept and made available would be a valuable asset for the community is several ways. The collection, synthesis and dissemination of information to the public would increase voter awareness of environmental issues; The Center could be a training center for unemployed and displace workers; it could provide Summer Youth employment and entry level skills building jobs for those just starting in the working world; work closely with Employment Development Department, MPIC, and other job training and placement services; help create and test environmental curriculum for local schools and beyond; provide landowners with information and other services to meet their environmental needs; and provide civil leaders with current and meaningful information on environmental issues. Repairing the damage to our watersheds, streams and rivers is a source of many jobs in the near future.

There is a dearth of environmental training opportunities from qualified sources although some advancement has been made in grades K-8 for nature based curriculum. In his book Last Child in the Woods Richard Louv coins the term Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD), noting the trend of children spending less time in nature and an increase in behavioral problems. Jane Goodall’s program Roots to Shoots is being taught in many impoverished areas of the world and is now making its way into American schools. An example of good environmental curriculum, based in local watersheds is A Child’s Place in the Environment and can be found at Lake County Office of Education. Other curriculum such as Project Wet and Re-Leaf are good for urban areas where access to natural areas is limited to parks, urban streams, and field trip to “the country”. Even with programs such as school gardens and fish in the classroom it is not enough. There is a dire need for the development of additional curriculum for environmental education in our schools, more opportunities for children to be out in full sensory contact with nature and more support for teachers and administrators seeking to bring nature back into our schools.

Not only children, but adults, need environmental education and direct sensory connection with nature. Adults as decision makers regarding environmental issues are uninformed, disconnected and unaware of how natural “living” systems work and therefore are incapable of making correct choices. Raised to see the board feet in a tree rather than the tree itself has left people incapable to see the other services a tree has to offer. As the sensory connection with nature deepens within the individual the more they understand we are all connected in inexplicable ways, to each other and to nature. This increased awareness of the importance of naturally functioning ecosystems combined with their own direct experiences with nature gives our voters and civic leaders the information needed to make wise choices concerning development, water usage, pollution enforcement, resource extraction and law enforcement. Awareness of how natural systems work and our dependence upon them also leads to the realization that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to protect, enhance and rehabilitate our watersheds.

Repairing the damage done to our watersheds and natural systems will require the work of thousands, if not millions, of people trained to work in and with natural systems. In Mendocino County alone there are years of work, for hundreds, if not thousands of jobs for properly trained people, in ecosystem management and restoration. Between the years 2000 and 2004 the Mendocino County Department of Transportation, via the Board of Supervisors, participated in a revolutionary study with five other counties that ignored political boundaries and based a drainage survey of their county road systems (not state highways or freeways) for sediment delivery into watercourses. The project was grant funded and titled, “The 5 County Effort” involving Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou and Del Norte counties. The results for Mendocino County are complied in the “D.I.R.T. Database” and kept at Mendocino County, Department of Transportation. Over 8000 individual “sights”, or places where sediment was transported to a watercourse via the road drainage system, were identified/located, assessed for past, present and future sediment delivery with individual data forms, located with a Global Positioning System (GPS) for electronic mapping and given a specific treatment to eliminate, or minimize, the sediment delivery at each site. Material alone, to refit Mendocino County road drainage systems to meet, not exceed, environmental law is over fifty million dollars, not including labor and administration.

As large a number as eight thousand may seem, while conducting this surveyors (myself) witnessed tens of thousands of sediment delivering sites from private roads, residential and industrial alike. Much of the sediment from private property is conducted to watercourses by the county road drainage system. Dirt roads are responsible for up to 60 percent and more of the sediment reaching stream channels. Due to human impacts soil loss has become accelerated to the point of becoming an environmental hazard, as outlined in Section 303-d of the Clean Water Act. This sediment is filling in the pool habitat in streams, reducing flow capacity and increasing the frequency of flooding, removing deep cool water increasing water temperature, clogging spawning gravels and adversely affecting aquatic macro-invertebrates, which help form the base of the riparian food chain and necessary for healthy naturally functioning watersheds. Even if the County’s road system was hydrologically invisible (zero negative impact- no delivery) there would be no visible, or I believe measurable, difference in the quality of our rivers and streams; the magnitude of sediment from private property far exceeds that from the county roads.

This is not to support the County’s refusal to fix the road system but to identify a job source for the next one hundred year, or more. Soil loss due to timber practices, mining, construction sites, agri-business farming, fire fighting (fuel load management), and more contribute to the degradation of our watersheds and rivers. Many jobs in the future, if we choose healthy natural systems and communities, will be in healing the damage caused by short sighted plans and goals. In order to properly address the environmental health of Mendocino County and build a job base upon watershed protection and rehabilitation we need to change local governance. The old paradigm of growth and consumption as a way to economic health is quickly being shown to be the fraud it is. We cannot grow our way into the future and only a sustainable worldview will buy us the time to develop new methods and institutions that will preserve future generations. This also indicates a need to localize our economy and develop alternative currencies and barter systems. We need to demand local democracy and not be satisfied with the “for sale” pseudo-democracy we constantly have to watch-dog with the “I want to be somebody” politicians we try to hold accountable. We need leaders who have a long range vision, an appreciation for life and at least some connection to future generations.

A watershed center could gather, organize and disseminate reliable, non-biased, information to civic leaders, social groups, activist groups, schools, business leaders and interested public, leading to informed local management and purposeful voting on issues. It could be the hub of “green job” creation and coordinate with schools, local service agencies such as the Mendocino Private Industry Council (MPIC), the Arbor, and the Employment Development Department (EDD) to provide education programs, on-the-job training, work crews, summer youth, youth intern opportunities and much more. Work in our urban streams, the Russian River, county and regional parks could also be aided through the watershed center. It could be an attraction for visitors to the area wishing to learn about Mendocino County watersheds, eco-tourist destinations, and other ecological interests they may have.
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 5)

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From EARL BROWN

4/21/09 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

The development of the Masonite property into a sustainable eco-village will include its own waste water treatment system, an autonomous waste water treatment system (awwts). An aerobic digesting system (or systems) specifically designed for the site will treat the waste water, without odor, be a model of how small communities can meet their waste treatment needs and save money.

These systems are modular, autonomous (stand alone) systems, use high concentrations of specifically cultured, naturally occurring bacteria, take up very little space, costs a fraction of what current municipal systems cost, re-claims water and provides a useable product at the end of the process. In an era of drought, unsustainable development, and irresponsible water use, systems such as these will become a necessity as communities strive to afford effective waste water treatment.

An aspect of making the switch from consumption to sustainability will be utilizing new technologies that provide the same, or better, results than traditional, large, inefficient systems that cost tens of millions of dollars, take years to build and take up large tracts of land. Understanding of how bacteria, fungi/yeasts, and other micro-organisms break down and digest organic and inorganic compounds such as human waste, organic waste from food processing, industrial chemicals, medicines, hormones, harmful anaerobic bacteria and petroleum hydrocarbons has created new innovations in the waste water treatment. Some of the benefits of the digester systems are that they occupy a very small plot of land, measured in square feet rather than in acres, and they are operational within six months of final permitting, not counting time to install the collection infrastructure. The re-claimed water is clear, nutrient rich and can be used it to irrigate the agriculture land, landscaping, open areas and other non-potable water uses. Treated water ran under an Ultra Violet Light can be brought to potable standards and released directly into the environment.

There can be two approaches to the development of the waste treatment needs of the eco-village, one system to handle all of the affluent, or one system to treat the black water (containing human or animal fecal material) and a separate one for all other water treatment needs (food processing, manufacturing). If the two waste streams were to be kept separate then two systems would have to be installed during development. The cost effectiveness of a single, larger, system would have to be weighed against the cost of two smaller systems, the permitting, construction concerns and the ultimate uses for the product water. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options. A separate “black water” system could collect the human waste water and transport it to the treatment system where it would be digested then held in a storage facility to be re-used, or looped, through the toilet system. This is to say that once the waste water is treated it could be stored in a holding facility and used to supply the water for the toilet system throughout the village. The “black water” would be collected, delivered to the waste treatment facility where the organic material would be digested and the finished water returned to the storage unit to be used again and again.  If it were deemed cost effective and the toilet systems were plumbed in a continuous loop, where the treated water would be re-used multiple times, this could be a very important feature of the eco-village infrastructure.

With the black water on one system, all of the other waste water could be plumbed into another digester facility. This could be important to permitting as the requirements for grey water is much different from those of black water. Treated water from the grey water digester could be used to irrigate the agriculture land, greenhouses, landscaping, and open/green space. It could also be used to fill ornamental ponds or released directly into the environment. It is to be expected (by me) that the cost of installing two separate digester systems would still be considerably less than the cost of current, large scale, treatment facility.

The space needed for the digester systems is minimal. A system that processes 40,000 gallons per day, continuously, uses approximately 3150 square feet, or a space 100 feet long by 35 feet wide. Also, after the ground work is completed a small crew can install the digester system and have it operational in less than six months. Current municipal systems cost tens of millions of dollars, take large tracts of land, take years to install and in the end the undigested sludge needs to be excavated and trucked to a certified landfill, or other treatment facility. The digesters break the sludge down into its natural organic components reclaiming the water, saving on transportation and labor costs, and all on a postage stamp sized plot of land when compared to current municipal systems.

Single system sizes treat from 22,000 gallons per day, taking up about 0.04 acres of land, to 1,140,000 gallons per day and taking about 0.27 acres of land. Three single systems can be plumbed together with a manifold to make one large system. Three of the largest systems, on a shared manifold, would process over three million gallons of waste water per day and occupy a space of around one acre. Because they are aerobic (with air) none of the odor producing gasses, such as methane, are allowed to develop (they are anaerobic- without air), and the liquid has no “off smell”. The treated water is clear, nutrient rich and could have many applications, saving our precious potable water for other uses. If the treated water was ran through a ultra violet unit to kill any remaining organisms it would be of potable standards, increasing the potential uses for the water.

An interesting potential use of this kind of system is that storm water runoff could be collected, delivered to one of these systems (modified for the purpose) and treated for eventual use in the village; used for ornamental and wildlife pond habitat, or released directly into the environment. Bacteria and other micro-organisms can be cultured (no genetic engineering involved) to address specific pollutants (medicines, hormones, petroleum hydrocarbons), certain harmful bacteria (E. Coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus), and various parasites and micro-organisms. This allows for the fine tuning of the waste water treatment system to meet the needs of each site and use.

The System- an overview:

There are five main parts to each treatment system: the sump, emulsification tank, biological tank, clarifier tank, chlorination/de-chlorination tank, and sand filter. There are six small electric pumps, one in the sump and four above that circulate the effluent through the system. However, the bulk of the effluent moves from tank to tank by gravity flow. The system does not depend exclusively upon the pumps to operate, except to pump the effluent up from the sump into the emulsification tank. A small electric generator is enough for this purpose in case of power failure. The system will still operate without the circulation pumps but the solids will build up on the bottoms of the tanks. The system would work and when power was returned the solids would be circulated and digested.

An Example:
Suppose we have a system designed to process about 68,000 gallons of waste water per day, or about 325 new homes for families of four. The effluent is delivered to the sump at the treatment site and pumped up into the emulsification tank at a given rate, in this case at approximately 47 gallons per minute (the rest is re-circulated in the sump). The bacteria culture is added directly into the effluent in the emulsification tank and a small pump periodically activates and re-circulates any solids that fall to the bottom of the tank, continually agitating the mixture. As more waste water is pumped into the emulsification tank the cleanest water, which is at the surface of the liquid, drops into a stand pipe that leads to the biological tank. The bacteria blend is also poured into this standpipe which then inoculates the biological tank.

The biological tank is where the main bacteria and micro-organism colony lives and does its work. Suspended in at the top of the water in this tank is a “bio-filter” made up of a hard plastic, honeycomb, structure about four inches thick and six inches around, that creates abundant surface area for the bacteria to colonize. A pump circulates the liquid from the bottom of the tank to the top of the bio-filter where it flows, by gravity, down through the colony back into the tank basin. There is a pump that periodically pulls any solids from the bottom of the clarifier tank and puts it into a sand filter, where another pump then re-circulates it to the top of the biological tank to pass through the colony once again. In this way nearly all of the solids are broken down and the sand from the sand filter is removed once a year (under most circumstances) and taken to a composting facility.

Again, the cleanest liquid is always at the top of the water level and there is another stand pipe, or drop inlet, at the waters surface. As new effluent comes in from the emulsification tank the cleanest water falls into the stand pipe in the biological tank and is taken to the clarifier. At this point the liquid is opaque and nearing completion. There is still an active bacteria culture and the digestion process continues. As the liquid sets in the clarifier tank any suspended particles settle to the bottom of the tank where they are returned, via the sand filter, to the biological tank for another go-through the colony. The water at the top of the clarifier tank is nearly as clear as regular water and as new water comes in, the cleanest drops into another stand pipe and goes into the chlorinator. As the water flows into the chlorinator unit it passes over a cartridge of chlorine tablets and into a series of chambers that is the chlorinator tank. The system is designed to allow a certain flow (47 gpm) which gives the chlorine time to volatize from the water. At this point the water is tertiary treated and ready to be used, or released into the environment. An underground cistern or surface pond can store the water until needed.

There are a few options to the system: One is to place a methane extractor at the front of the system to remove any usable gas. This is costly with today’s technology yet innovations are happening every day and this may soon become an available option. Secondly, an ultra violet disinfection unit can be placed at the end of the system, to replace the chlorinator, and the water can be brought up to potable standards.

As the financial crises mounts small communities will be forced to find new, appropriate, methods of waste treatment. The system mentioned above would cost a couple million dollars, compared to the 30, or 40, million dollars a conventional system would cost. Our community could use the extra millions to better our health, education and self-reliance.

Advantages of this system:
A fraction of the cost of conventional systems
Takes away very little land
Has no off odors
Does not use chemicals (is organic)
More efficient treatment than septic (minimal sludge)
Produces a usable product (water)
Can stand alone, or augment an existing municipal system
Can be used in combination with waste ponds for food processing, wineries, fruit packers
Requires very little energy and is solar friendly
Can be used with an underground, drip, discharge system for parks and open space
If a spill happens the bacteria continues digesting the waste
The treated water can be used to treat contaminated soil and reclaim it for use

Disadvantages of this system:
Requires more maintenance and supervision
Requires electricity
Pumps can break down
Pipes can break
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Rail to Trail – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 4)

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From EARL BROWN

Apr 15, 2009, Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Non-Motorized Access to the Eel River Canyon

The North West Pacific Railroad system up through Sonoma County, from the Bay Area, has been shut down for years. North of Willits the track runs along the edge of Outlet Creek to the confluence of Outlet Creek and the Main Stem Eel River, eight miles north of Highway 101, on Highway 162. At the confluence of Outlet Creek and the Main Stem Eel River the track turns north and follows the Eel River to about 3.5 miles north of the confluence where a large landslide is covering the track. The track is then closed for over 50 miles of “wild and scenic” wilderness river canyon to Alder Point, northeast of Garberville. The track north of Alder Point is either open, or easily re-opened, to Eureka and Arcata. Due to the cost of the work needed, the impact it would have on threatened and endangered species, the minimal amount of natural resources left to extract, the cost of on-going maintenance, and the political battle it would take to get permitted, the canyon will not be re-opened for train traffic.

Although there has been considerable effort and money spent on trying to get the Eel River Canyon re-opened with the fifty plus mile stretch deemed “within our technological ability” to re-open, it is not within the “public good” to do so. Much of the Eel River Canyon is comprised of the Yorkville soil series, Blue Goo, anaerobic blue clay that is completely unstable, commonly found with Serpentine outcroppings and slides naturally. The train track is constructed at the bottom of the canyon walls, just above the high water mark of the river, cutting away the toe (base/bottom- like cutting off your foot at the ankle) of the hillside destabilizing the slope even more. Blue Goo is like axle grease when wet, travels for miles in the water column and has particles so small they are among the last to settle out of the water column covering the spawning gravels. This, and other, fine sediment fills the spaces between the gravel and restricts fresh water to the eggs so they rot and/or it entraps the salmon and steelhead fry that do hatch under the sediment and they suffocate (lack of fresh water). A better use for the land can be imagined that creates multiple benefits to the people of Mendocino County, the Eel River, the landowners, and nature enthusiasts everywhere.

This plan suggests that a suitable use for the Eel River Canyon rail right-of-way is a wild and scenic, non-motorized wilderness trail. Dos Rios to Alder Point is forty seven river miles, traversing many habitat and geology zones, passing through many tunnels, including the one-mile long Island Mountain tunnel, once the world’s longest man-made tunnel. This section of rail is a natural “Rails to Trails” project, with huge benefit to the environment and could be a huge economic boon to Mendocino and Humboldt Counties. As the consumer economic structure collapses people will be looking for meaningful, nearby, enjoyable, memorable vacation experiences. Not everyone will want to walk, or bike, or raft, forty seven miles through the wilderness yet it could be the crown jewel of Northern California’s natural adventures for those who do. With the rail open up to Willits, residents and visitors to Mendocino County could choose to spend their vacation experiencing the Eel River Canyon.

There are forty seven miles of twin steel rails that could be utilized for bridging side streams and natural drainages that are tributary to the Eel, some of which are historic salmon and steelhead spawning streams. There are numerous box cars, track, washed out culverts for stream crossings and drainages, bridge sections from the old Island Mountain trestle, and a locomotive engine scattered in the river. All of this material needs to be removed from the river channel. The cost of removing this debris from the canyon would be very expensive. However, it could be cut up into smaller sections and removed from the river and taken above the high water line. An intriguing idea is to take these odd, irregular and often twisted pieces of metal and commission modern sculptors to create art along the trail where it was removed. This would save the cost of removal and create novelty and curiosity along the trail as additional attractions.

The tunnels along the track could be fitted with solar panels and be turned into wilderness hostels. They could have fold-down sleeping platforms anchored to the walls with twelve volt lights run off the solar and be emergency medical and communication capable. The tunnels would provide shelter and protection form the elements, docent quarters, information kiosks and more as the project is developed (an added attraction would be if landowners allowed limited access to points of interest along the trail). The community of Island Mountain could become a destination in itself, developing camping, river support service and supplies, hunting and fishing guides and other attractions to be developed.

From the eco-village in Willits, a small solar, or bio-diesel, shuttle train would take ecologically minded tourists and their equipment out to the Tunnel One reception center for staging for the wilderness trail. Some will be walking the trail, some biking, and others rafting or kayaking. There would be a mix of people, visitors and locals, going to the river for a day of picnic and river recreation, and a chance to interact with like minded people. The shuttle would pick up any visitors coming down the trail from Alder Point and take them back to the Willits eco-village to connect with a south (Ukiah), or west (Fort Bragg), bound train, for more fun and excitement.

For example:
People interested in spending the weekend in Mendocino County would get on the eco-train in San Francisco, or Sacramento, take a dinner ride up to Ukiah Friday (or Thursday) after work and stay at a comfortable Hotel, or Inn. On the train there is a diverse group of people coming to Mendocino County, each for their own reasons. Some are coming for a weekend wine tasting, some to take in a pleasant bike ride around the valley or maybe some mountain biking, others might rent a kayak on the Russian River, take the Skunk Train to Fort Bragg, or continue up to Willits. Some are headed up to Covelo and the Yolla Bolly Wilderness and need a shuttle from Willits; others are bound for the Eel River Canyon and the wilderness trail to Alder Point. While in Mendocino County the visitors would stay in local hotels and Inns, eat in local restaurants and purchase locally produced products. After a relaxing weekend enjoying the Mendocino County out of doors, the leisurely train rides through interesting landscapes, good food, good entertainment and friendly people, they take their experiences back home anticipating their next weekend get-away.

If the community of Alder Point joined in to became a support community for eco-tourism and localization, they could enjoy many of the same benefits, much of which would come from Humboldt and Trinity sources. A few, maybe more, of the visitors to Mendocino County may be touring the West Coast and after hiking/biking/rafting the wilderness trail they might take the train north from Alder Point to Eureka and points beyond. We live in a beautiful region with multiple attractions for visitors and residents alike. This plan lays out the basic concept of the Eel River Wilderness Trail, a few things that could happen during its development and a few potential benefits of doing so. The concepts are offered in simplistic form so people unfamiliar with eco-tourism can get the overall idea without being bogged down by details. There is considerable work to do in fleshing out the skeleton idea presented.
~

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
~~

Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 3)

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From Earl Brown

Apr 10, 2009, Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

Ecologically Oriented Tourism, or Eco-Tourism, is quickly taking root in the American mind. More and more people are seeking recreation activities and vacation destinations that are close to home and in rural to wilderness areas. People are seeking connection to wild nature for the thrill of it, for the beauty of it and for the soul stirring awe one can feel when faced with a mountain panorama, or ocean sunset, or simple animal experience. Mendocino County is the interface between the remaining wild-lands and the urban sprawl reaching up from the Bay Area and Sonoma County. Among this population there are many people who want wilderness experiences yet lack knowledge of a destination with support facilities. As fuel prices and the awareness of the hidden costs of oil exploitation (war, oppression, racism) cut into people’s desire to burn fossil fuels they will look for suitable alternatives closer to home and that are reachable by mass transit.

Mendocino County is on the fringe between the urban and the wild and is blessed with a splendid variety of landscapes, wilderness, coastline, rivers, people, towns and businesses. Somewhere in Mendocino a visitor can hike, bike, ride horse, raft, kayak and swim. There is fishing (ocean, fresh water), hunting, hang gliding, boating, 4×4 jeep and motorcycle trails, and sight seeing. One can enjoy organic wines, nature photography, rock and mineral hunting, native plants; learn about native cultures, alternative energy, sustainable organic farming and bio-dynamics. We have the Russian River (West Fork, East Fork, and Main Russian) the Eel River (Middle Fork, South Fork, and Main Eel), for people looking for water sports, and the Yolla Bolly Wilderness and the Lost Coast, for those wanting the quiet serenity of the wilderness with its many benefits. We, in Mendocino County, are uniquely situated to broaden our economic base by protecting and enhancing our wild lands and rivers. As increased ecological awareness spreads through the mass population Mendocino County could become a model of localization and self-sufficiency, and with an economy based upon healthy naturally functioning ecosystems.

In the Ukiah Valley there would be investment needed into urban stream restoration and walkways and bike paths, walking and bike trails along the Russian River, removing safety hazards in the river channel, campgrounds, and safe transportation. There is the regional park being constructed along the Russian River at the east end of Gobbi Street to complete; water activities at Lake Mendocino (non-motorized) can be developed. Road and mountain biking is gaining popularity and many of our rural roads are suitable for bike traffic and some bike paths will need to be built. It is possible that as the area’s popularity for weekend getaways increases, shuttle services to nearby points of interests — like Vichy Springs Resort, Orr Hot Springs, Montgomery Woods, Clear Lake, Lake Pillsbury, wineries, breweries — would be needed. Organized bike trails around the Ukiah and Hopland Valleys could link organic wine grape vineyards and wineries, tasting rooms, organic farms, river access and other attractions yet to be developed.

The Russian River from below Coyote Dam to the Talmage Road Bridge is a calm, class 1 stream, suitable for families and youth to kayak. With the removal and replacement of the Norgard Rubble Dam (safety reasons), at the end of Norgard Lane, south Ukiah, and the removal of the old car bodies and failed steel erosion control structures from the river channel, the river is a day kayak float to Hopland. The Russian River, south of Hopland to north of Cloverdale is another challenging, class 3, river with potential portage at Squaw Rock, for novices, or at low water flows for everyone. The removal of the safety hazards and maintenance of the river channel for navigation would open this up fairly easily to moderately challenging sections of river for commercial and recreational use. Wineries could put picnic areas along the river to promote their products and encourage visitors to their facilities.

McGee Park, on the East Fork Russian River, along Eastside Potter Valley Road to Potter Valley is undeveloped and closed for several months during the winter. The East Fork Russian is a challenging Class 3 (advanced level) stream and a fun kayak run down to Lake Mendocino, as well as a local swimming and fishing destination. Development of day use facilities, barbeque pits, picnic area, and river access would make this a meaningful recreation spot and encourage visitor use. This could be combined with a rental concession at the north boat ramp on Lake Mendocino.

North (non-motorized) and South Cow Mountain (motorized) is a multiple use attraction for off-road enthusiasts, mountain bikers, hikers, and rough-it campers. This is some of the only camping available, other than at Lake Mendocino ($20/night), in the Ukiah area and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

A little farther out is Lake Pillsbury, more off-road trails, hunting, fishing, camping, access to Covelo, and the Yolla Bolly Wilderness. The Eel River down to Pillsbury is a class 3 river and has camping at Trout Creek, a few miles upriver from the Eel River Bridge and Van Arsdale Dam. Below Van Arsdale Dam the Eel River is suitable for commercial river trips to Alder Point, some seventy miles of river. Mountain biking from Lake Pillsbury to Covelo could take several routes and side routes that would take multiple trips to see completely. Also, Hull Mountain, below the fire lookout tower, is a popular northern California handg gliding destination. Thermal currents take fliers up to around 10,000 feet, nearly out of sight, and they land on the airstrip near Oak Flat Campground.

This is just scratching the surface of the local attractions for out-of-doors activities in Mendocino County. In fact it would be a lengthy endeavor to list all of the possible outdoor attractions here in Mendocino County and this is to our benefit. We are primely located to utilize ecological tourism as a sustainable economic resource and job base.
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A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
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Image Credit: Kayak Mendocino
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How to Create Jobs So We Can Operate Our City and County

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From Michael Laybourn

Apr 9 2009, Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

An update on providing solar/renewable energy for Ukiah and even Mendocino County. REPs (renewable energy payment), FITs (feed-in tariffs) & So Forth…

Here is how we left it in January…

What if?… the City of Ukiah followed the proven German model and provided:

1. Low interest loans for solar conversion.
2. Gave a larger rebate: 1/2 or more of the system cost as California did in 2004.
3. Bought the electricity from solar homes and businesses at a rate that would pay back the loans.

Update:
I had heard -through the grapevine- that the first U.S. city had recently used the German model of a feed-in tariff or REP (renewable energy payment), which is the same thing. Here is what they did in Gainesville FL. (from the Gainesville Sun):

An Open Letter to Wage Slaves

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By Dave Pollard

I’m asking you to do more than just freeing yourself from a life of grinding, miserable, meaningless work by creating your own “Natural Enterprise.”

The following is an open letter from Dave Pollard to the readers of his book, Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur’s Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work. It has been adapted for the web.

In our modern society, we rely on the education system to teach us what we need to know to live and make a living.

That system has let us down badly. It is in the interest of those who control the current economic system, those with the established wealth and power, that we not know that there is a better way to make a living than working for them, doing meaningless work as wage slaves, just to buy ourselves some leisure time to do what has meaning for us.

We each need, personally, to rediscover the joy and meaning of natural work, of Natural Entrepreneurship. Finding the Sweet Spot is an attempt to get you started on that journey.

We need a blossoming of millions of Natural Enterprises, connected and collaborating and supporting each other as part of a dynamic Natural Economy.

But what we also need, collectively, as a society, is a blossoming of thousands, millions of Natural Enterprises, connected and collaborating and supporting each other generously as part of a dynamic new Natural Economy. Is such a thing possible?

Keep reading Creating a Natural Economy at Alternet→

See also my Foreword in Dave Pollard’s book [DS]→
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Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Community Development Plan for Masonite Site (Part 2)

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From Earl Brown

4/3/09 Ukiah, Mendocino County, North California

The success of this mixed light industry, agriculture and eco-village is largely dependent upon the re-opening of the North West Pacific Rail Road track to Willits. There has been some investment into the rail system in Sonoma County and the Cloverdale rail station has been rebuilt. The track coming up from Cloverdale is open, or can be opened easily, to Ukiah. The track from Ukiah to Willits is open except for where it slumps crossing the top of the slide zone on the Willits Grade; this could be fixed with minimal time and expense. In fact, it would be a simple effort (non-politically speaking) to get the rail line re-opened to Willits. Tourism, particularly eco-tourism, is a virtually untapped economic resource for Mendocino County, utilizing our regions existing natural gifts and beauty to attract visitors at no expense, or investment. However, it does require financial investment into infrastructure (trails, campgrounds, transport), alternative power sources, support industry, and visitor accommodations. The ocean, rivers and mountains already exist we just need to add the tourists and sustainably move them around.

Mendocino County is the interface between the remaining wild-lands and the urban zones reaching up from the Bay Area. Ukiah and Willits are the gateway to experiencing the northern Mendocino County wilderness, the coast and points north. Although U.S. Highway 101 connects us fuel prices and the awareness of the hidden costs of oil (war, oppression, racism) will soon cut into people’s ability and desire to burn fossil fuels for personal pleasure. Affordable mass transit will be a necessity in the future. The existing rail system, to Willits, stands ready to be utilized for commuter transit, transport of local produce and products south, bring needed supplies north, to give tourists, specifically ecologically minded tourists, access to Mendocino County. The rail system can also be used, via the Skunk Train, to Fort Bragg and the Mendocino Coast. Already largely dependent on tourism, the Coast would quickly respond to the additional tourism with pleasure. During transition the train may have to use diesel but quickly fossil fuel could be replaced with veggie-diesel, other bio-fuel and/or possibly by solar power. Increasing eco-tourism brings income into the county, uses existing infrastructure, provides visitors with a memorable experience and educates the populace to the need for healthy ecosystems and communities.

An eco-village at the Masonite site would be a destination in itself and a step off point for local attractions as well as a rest stop on the way north to Willits, or Fort Bragg. Ukiah Valley has Lake Mendocino and the Russian River as its two main attractions. Hiking and biking paths along county roads, urban streams and the banks of the Russian River would add a lot to the local attractions and water sport activities could add to the attractiveness of the area. Although there are currently hazards in the Russian River channel (Norgard rubble dam, metal erosion control structures) between Ukiah and Cloverdale, with effort this stretch of river could be opened to commercial and recreational uses. As well as accessing local sites and businesses a shuttle from the eco-village could also take visitors to Clear Lake, Lake Pillsbury, Cache Creek, Bartlett Springs and other locations in Lake County. Ukiah could be the first destination inside Mendocino County for the Eco-Train with the potential benefit to the local economy.

North of Willits the track passes an old lumber mill and then runs along the edge of Outlet Creek, crossing several trestles, to the confluence of Outlet Creek and the Main Stem Eel River. The track turns north and follows the edge of the Eel River, passing through Tunnel One, a short tunnel through a rock outcropping, to about 3.5 miles north of the confluence where a large landslide is covering the track. The track is then closed for over 50 miles of “wild and scenic” Eel River wilderness canyon to Alder Point, northeast of Garberville. Day use access to the Main Eel River, with proper facilities and picnic areas, could become a popular outing for local hikers, bikers, boaters, and other river enthusiasts, as well as visitors. Willits is the gateway into Covelo Valley, the Middle Fork Eel River, the Yolla Bolly Wilderness, the Sinkyone Wilderness Area, and Southern Humboldt County, all of which has something to offer any visitor and especially eco-tourists.

The old mill site just north of Willits could be turned into another eco-village destination, similar to the Ukiah village and be the end-of-the-line for the typical visitor. A previous stop at the Willits Station could be the connection to the Skunk Train and the Mendocino coast. The Skunk Train ridership is about 60,000 people per year and stands ready to accommodate many more. With an increase in Skunk ridership the City of Fort Bragg could afford to create additional attractions for visitors to the Coast. From the Willits eco-village a shuttle train (solar or veggie oil) could take both locals and visitors out to the Eel River, along Highway 162, for river day use, hiking, swimming and boating. The end-end of the track would be Tunnel One, which would be converted into a visitor center, hostel and trailhead for wilderness access. The tunnel would be fitted with a solar panel array for power, a re-charging station for the shuttle train, contain emergency medical supplies and limited sleeping accommodations for visitors staging for multiple day excursions. A shuttle to Covelo and the Yolla Bolly Wilderness would be operated out of the Willits eco-village for people wishing for a distinctly remote wilderness experience.

People could get on the train in San Francisco, or Sacramento, take a dinner ride up to Ukiah for a weekend of wine tasting. They may take in a leisurely bike ride around the valley or maybe rent a kayak on the Russian River. They would stay in local hotels and Inns, eat in local restaurants and purchase locally produced products. Some people would continue on up to Willits for a weekend on the river, or to go to Fort Bragg and the accommodations on the Coast. After a relaxing weekend enjoying the out of doors, leisurely train rides through interesting landscapes, good food, good entertainment and healthy communities, they take their experiences back anticipating their next weekend get-away.
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A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
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Where are our young, local, small business entrepreneurs now that we need them?

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From Dave Smith
My Foreword to Finding The Sweet Spot by Dave Pollard

[To counter the efforts of those who would foist The Masonite Monster Mall on our community, we need young entrepreneurs to galvanize new local businesses at the potential Masonite Transition Park. The intended gathering of Big Box Dinosaurs and other chain and franchise stores to force their way in, feed at our community trough, and leak their ill-gained revenues and profits to parts unknown, rather than allow small locally-owned businesses to thrive and re-circulate our money locally, will leave our community with lasting scars. If they overrule local citizens and government through their big bucks purchase of the initiative process, and the zoning of the Masonite site is changed adding $30 million to its value, then you can kiss local small business opportunities here goodbye for a generation at least. It's highly doubtful, for many reasons, that a mall will ever be built. But by keeping the zoning industrial, we will keep the property price within reach of local appropriate technology startups, with good paying jobs, rather than having some retail monstrosity imposed on us from outsiders. Recessions, with great changes upon us, are opportune times to help create the next world of business. Because credit and investment capital is tight or non-existent, businesses will have to be started on shoestrings. This is good. It focuses attention and requires great tenacity. The choice is ours. This book is a key business how-to manual from Dave Pollard for budding entrepreneurs. And here is my Foreword. -DS]

3/27/09 Ukiah, North California

A couple of stories, one a “business failure”, the other a “business success.”

During the seventies, with high unemployment and energy shortages a fact of daily life, some friends and I started and ran a very successful natural food cooperative in Menlo Park, California called Briarpatch Natural Foods. It was created to fill a real community need, following the age-old business adage of “find a need and fill it.” People had time on their hands, and natural foods were expensive, so by working 8 hours every three months, members were able to purchase healthy foods for at least 30% less. Three of us co-managed the store, and the work of unloading trucks, stocking shelves, buying fresh produce at the produce terminal, running the cash registers, and everything else needed to operate a small grocery store was done by members. At one point, there were over 350 families on the waiting list.

Because labor is, by far, the largest expense of doing business, taking most of that cost out of the expense statement created not only cheaper food but an enormous forgiveness for the obvious inefficiencies of volunteer, untrained labor and the lack of basic business skills by its enthusiastic and smart, but woefully unskilled management. What fun we had playing store!

It eventually proved to be unsustainable long-term for the simple fact that business is cyclical and when Silicon Valley exploded into runaway growth and success, no-one had time to play store, and the store didn’t adapt quickly enough to the rapidly changing times that did it in. All vendors were fully paid, all member investments were fully returned, and the graceful ending of a beautiful success left us only fond memories. By our current business standards, it was a failure because it didn’t grow and make its “investors” a ton of money. By those of us most intimately involved in the daily business of running a community cooperative, it was one of our most beautiful, successful business experiences.

On the other hand, Smith & Hawken, the $100 million garden company I co-founded is considered an enduring entrepreneurial success. I disagree, and here’s why.

A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site (Part 1)

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["Where there is no vision, the people perish." This could not be more true for what our community is facing. Without a clearly thought-out viable plan that is well along in community acceptance, and documented evidence of funding potential (including property purchase), our community risks losing the battle to save the Masonite site for the future economic health of our community. Ukiah Blog posts regarding a community  plan for the Masonite site will be categorized under "Masonite Transition Park". What's your vision? Your own comments and posts are crucial and most welcome. -DS]

From Earl Brown

3/26/09 Ukiah, North California

This post represents a synthesis of viewpoints, conversations and ideas I have had over thirty years of working in Lake and Mendocino Counties regarding self-reliant communities, job creation and healthy ecosystems. Many discussions concerning the environment, living wage jobs, sustainable communities, endangered species protection, watershed management, production agriculture, cottage industry, tourism, and education have contributed, directly, or indirectly, to the ideas contained within this post. Some people who read through this will see their thoughts and ideas reflected here. I appreciate their contributions, although I have not tried to duplicate their ideas in any exact way, but blended them into my visioning. My purpose is to present these ideas in a way that helps the reader to see our potential; to open their imagination and begin to envision their own possibilities for Mendocino County; not just the Masonite property, but for our bio-region and beyond.

We are living during a time of great crisis and great potential. I believe that, even with the corruption and abuse of funds that will undoubtedly come with President Obama’s stimulus package, it still represents an opportunity for us to take a little control of our future. It is an opportunity for us, the grassroots people, to express our creativity, our willingness to cooperate, and our desire to create a sustainable Mendocino County. My concept is based upon an “eco-village” approach where businesses, manufacturing and other village elements work cooperatively and with mutual benefit for themselves and the larger community. As a “living systems” thinker it is natural for me to think in patterns and connections; in complexes of relationships that are always in flux, inter-relating and self-organizing. I see human environments the same way and the eco-village concept attempts to establish relationships between our natural environment, local self reliance, mental and spiritual health, and sustainability (responsibility to future generations).

This post is a boiler-plate and not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list of potentials for the Masonite property. Here, I have identified sixteen aspects of a potential community development that I believe would enhance our self-reliance, help stabilize our economy and build a stronger network of community. The aspects are not listed in any order of importance or priority and have a brief explanation for each. I have also prepared further posts to expand on several of the themes that I have particular interest and experience in. I invite comments, more ideas, expansion of these ideas, questions, discussion, meetings and I want to hear whatever moves you, including honest, meaningful, insightful criticism. This is not about agreement, but about the discussion.

Once again I want to acknowledge all of the people who have contributed to these ideas and claim no ownership of this material. Step one may be allowing that something greater than ourselves is trying to move through us, that it is not about us, specifically, but about our collective potential; this is certainly larger than me.

The sixteen aspects are: (in no order of importance or priority)

Solar farm with solar charging station
The solar farm would consist of an array of panels linked directly to the charging and distribution system. Roof surfaces of many structures can be fitted with solar collectors and be networked into the main system grid to also feed the charging and distribution center. The charging station would be a service center for locals and travelers with hybrid and/or electric vehicles, including electric vehicles used in the village, and supply the power for the village with the excess sold to the grid to help offset other expenses.

Food Processing Facility
This facility is to stimulate a diverse cottage agriculture community by housing the necessary equipment and space necessary to process local fruit and vegetables into value added food items such as jellies, jams, chutneys, sauces, fermented vegetables, soups, juices and more. There would be a crushing capability; hammer mill, stemmer crusher, bladder press; pumps, hoses, filters, heat exchanger, small processing equipment and storage capability. Washers and scrubbers for vegetables will be available for tubers and other tough skinned veggies. Solar fruit dehydrators could be developed at this site or in another location depending upon space, type and size of dehydrator. The building would consist of at lease three separate, rentable, commercial kitchen units, open production space (fillers, bottle-line), cold storage with freezer, warehouse space, shipping and receiving dock, office and public retail space. This facility could be expanded to produce fruit wines, specialty brandies, fruit liqueurs and other specialty products. Local people could use the facility to produce products of their own, or sell fruit to other producers. The facility could be a source of job training, seasonal employment as well as provide some permanent employment for skilled people.

Amusement Center (miniature golf – solar go cart track – skate/bmx park)
This would be the entertainment center for the youth of our area and fun center for visitors. There is room for innovation and creativity here and this could be a real fun addition to our area. The golf course could be constructed from locally harvested alternative building materials, be landscaped with native plants, and watered with reclaimed water from the waste treatment system.

Small Diameter Pole Mill
Fire fuels reduction in our forests is an imperative and there are a large number of small diameter trees that could be milled into alternative building materials for post and pole frame construction. Removing the excess small diameter trees in a thin and release venture could help offset the expense of the work and by mulching the slash back into the ecosystem nutrients will be recycled mimicking a natural fire. Measures need to be taken to assure that this does not trigger more clear-cutting of timber, but is a part of a concerted watershed and forest restoration project aimed at retaining the forest health of Mendocino County. (County building codes will need to be changed to accommodate alternative building materials such as these small diameter poles)

Natural Materials Furniture Construction and Fabrication
A furniture construction facility that uses locally grown willow species, alder and other suitable trees to produce quality, durable, furniture. Planting sections of willows and other usable species on the Masonite property would create green and open space while supplying raw material for the furniture construction facility. Wood chips, bark and other organic waste will be used to generate fuel, or be composted to use on the agricultural land.

Fiber Mill
A fiber manufacturing facility would utilize local wool, hemp fiber, bamboo, willow, and fungi to produce a variety of fabrics for local markets and manufacture.

Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center
This is a public resource center focused on our region’s watersheds, streams and rivers. The Center would be a library of multimedia resources, including written word, video, DVD, photo documentary, maps, and other information regarding our watersheds and their health. This Center could network with schools, adult education programs, employment development projects, and other community service groups to provide job skills training, work experience, social skills and personal life skills as well as a source for outdoor curriculum for schools. A crew, or crews, could be trained and available for contract work through the center which if operated as a not-for-profit could be used to work on both public and private lands for environmental protection and restoration.

Green Zone (community forest park)
There needs to be a good amount of public open/green space in the development. A small mixed forest could grow into a location for summer fairs, outdoor music, picnic and relaxing space. This green space could also include plantings of various willow varieties for furniture manufacture and other usable woody species as needed.

Agriculture land
Land set aside, beyond green space, for the cultivation of specialty willows for furniture, fiber crops, row crops, flowers, and other crops as identified. Solar green houses, mushroom sheds, solar fruit dehydrators and similar production houses may also be considered. Water for irrigation can come from the reclaimed water from the waste treatment systems, as well as any other no-potable water uses.

Housing
Housing for the area would reflect the eco-village approach and be suitable housing for people to live, work and thrive within the village. It is natural for people to live at, or within walking distance, of their work, although modern commuter society has altered this through rapid modes of transportation. In simpler times a person knew and was known by the people in their neighborhood. They knew the land and they knew what else lived there, they were a part of it and interacted with it daily. The eco-village approach encourages people to live and work in the village, to know and support each other and help to collectively keep the security and safety of the village intact.

Bio-fuel generation facility and filling station
This facility would focus on developing local means of power generation. Rendering vegetable oils into bio-diesel, developing a methane extractor for wood and other organic waste, making wood pellets for fireplaces, and potentially extracting combustible oils from forest products, would be included in the design of this element.  A cottage industry could rise by taking small plots of land and growing a bio-fuel crop such as Jerusalem artichokes, corn or other high starch plants for ethanol. Emphasis should be on electric (wind and solar) for most local transportation with bio-fuels augmenting the transition from fossil fuel to sustainable power. Caution needs to be taken so land needed for food production is not lost for bio-fuel crops. Empty, or unused, urban space to small for commercial agriculture could be planted into bio-fuel crops which would give landowners a source of extra income and keep rural agriculture space open for food production.

Small retail
There is room for small retail space such as a deli, restaurant, local products (soaps, herbal essence oils), local crafts (clothes, wood working, and art), wine tasting and other suitable, non-polluting, business. The concept is not to take business, or employees, from existing businesses, but to create new businesses that reflect the nature of our valley and its people; no box stores.

13. Light Manufacture/Business
A recycle-reuse mill that would take what recyclables we can and develop methods of re-manufacturing them into usable products. This would help minimize our waste output to the transfer station, employ a wide range of skilled employees, provide job training opportunities and help raise awareness of needless or careless waste. A solar panel construction business would be a benefit; data storage, alternative building material manufacture and a laboratory for culturing the bacteria and other micro-organisms for waste digestion and soil remediation, are other business possibilities.

Eco-Tourism
This is an eco-tourism business involved in rafting, biking, kayaking, wine/beer tours and other activities for visitors. Two studies, one from the 1960’s and the other in 2008, indicate that with the richness of Mendocino County and the California North Coast tourism is the prime economic resource to be developed. This industry and its economic potential have been completely overlooked by business and civil leaders alike. Eco-tourism has many faces; river rafting, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, camping, sightseeing, rock hounding, bird watching, photography, photo journalism, botany, self-reflection and spiritual experience, to name a few.

Train Depot, or spur to main track
The success of this mixed light industry, agriculture and eco-village is largely dependent upon the re-opening of the rail to Willits. There are efforts within Sonoma County to open and maintain the track to Cloverdale where they have invested in rebuilding their rail station; we should do the same. U.S. Highway 101 connects us, north to south, yet soon, fuel prices and the awareness of the hidden costs of oil (war, oppression, racism) will soon cut into people’s ability and desire to burn fossil fuels for personal pleasure. Affordable mass transit will be a necessity in the future. The existing rail system, to Willits, stands ready to be utilized, with minor investment, for commuter transit, transport of local produce and products south, to bring needed supplies north, and to give tourists, specifically ecologically minded tourists, access to Mendocino County.

Autonomous, Waste Water Treatment System
A stand alone (autonomous) wastewater digestion system will be designed to eliminate liquid waste. Using bacteria, fungi and other naturally occurring micro-organisms (no genetic engineering) to digest the waste material reclaims the water and breaks the waste down into its natural organic compounds. The bacteria blend and the system can be designed to take all of the liquid waste, grey and black water, as well as chemicals, soaps, petroleum hydrocarbons, medicines, hormones, and many harmful bacteria, that may find its way into the waste treatment system. The end result of the digestion process is a clear, nutrient rich, liquid …. water…. that with minimal effort can be brought up to potable standards. This water can be used to irrigate landscaping, agricultural land, stored in wildlife/ornamental ponds, or used in any other way non-potable water can be utilized. In drought conditions, when water is scarce, this system reclaims the usable water and makes it available for uses that would otherwise use potable water that would be better used for human and animal consumption.

Summary
These are my sixteen suggestions for potential uses of the Masonite property. It is a small list and needs to be fleshed out, reconsidered, discussed, added to, and made real. Right now these are just words, yet, with some effort, a grassroots development, not too different than the ideas contained within this post and future posts could come into existence. I will add the other posts as they are developed for your reading and comment, if you choose to do so.
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A Potential Community Development Plan for the Masonite Site – Part 1→
Eco-Train, Rail and Depot – Part 2→
Ecologically-Oriented Tourism – Part 3→
Rail to Trail – Part 4→
Autonomous Waste Water Treatment System – Part 5→
Community Interpretive Watershed and Visitor’s Center – Part 6→
Food Processing Facility – Part 7→
Small Diameter Pole Processing Mill – Part 8→
Fiber Processing and Re-Manufacture Mill – Part 9→
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Stark Choice: Masonite Monster Mall…

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…or…

…Transition Town Ukiah→

and

Masonite Transition Park
(Appropriate Technology Center)

:: Stay tuned in to Ukiah Blog ::

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Food-Backed Local Money

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From Jason Bradford
Willits Economic Localization

3/5/09 Ukiah, North California

As a kid did you ever fantasize about Monopoly game money becoming real? I know I did. Perhaps that’s why I left the printer shop the other day with a sense of bemusement. I had just designed and printed $6000 of money called Mendo Credits. I felt confident that people would accept it, and I also proudly considered that Ben Bernanke doesn’t make money as good as this.

Now before you call the Treasury Department to report me, listen to my story. It may sound funny, but the reality of money is deadly serious. This is perfectly legal and I want you to play copy cat…

Historically in the United States and elsewhere, local currencies are known to stabilize local economies when national currencies are troubled, such as bouts of hyper inflation or deflation and joblessness. This works because those accepting local money are also likely to seek out others who accept it too, creating a social dynamic that forms new, local economic associations. As these strengthen, the flow of local money picks up and work can get done even in the face of economic disaster outside the community. Because they can only be spent locally, profits on economic transactions done with a local currency remain in the community and spur more local investment. Local governments, regional business associations, community banks, and worker cooperatives are examples of the kinds of institutions who tend to successfully issue local currency. They have the social capital to be broadly accepted, and the capacity to manage the task of issuing and redeeming money…

Mendo Credits are backed by a tangible asset. In other words, Mendo Credits are a “reserve currency” as opposed to a “fiat currency” like Federal Reserve dollars. Many people are familiar with money backed by gold, which was once the case with U.S. dollars, but Mendo Credits are backed by reserves of stored food. Our reserve currency has a number of desirable properties at this time in history…

Keep reading Food-Backed Local Money at The Oil Drum→

See also Scenario 2020: The Future of Food in Mendocino County→

and Introducing Mendo Time Bank→

and Mendo Moola→

Hat tip Linda Gray and Annie Esposito

Greater Ukiah Localization Project Report (GULP)

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From Cliff Paulin

2/26/09 Ukiah, Northern California

Greetings GULPers,

Well it’s been a while since we’ve met but I just wanted to let you know that localization efforts continue to bubble in different realms. It’s been heartening to see the localization banner being carried on in so many different circles.  If you have other activities you’d like to share with the group, please send me an e-mail: cliffpaulin@hotmail.com

Be well,

Cliff

Time Bank
A very exciting service has been brought to Ukiah thanks to the work of Julia Frech. It’s called Time Bank, and is a way for people to exchange services locally via the web.  You can sign up on the website or you can call 489-1388.  This is a great way to put your talents to use and get assistance from your local community.

Year Round Farmers Market
In case you haven’t noticed the Saturday Farmer’s Market in Ukiah is thriving through the winter.  Featuring the finest in local produce, meat, seafood, honey, cheese, eggs, and crafts the market is open under the pavilion at Alex Thomas Plaza every Saturday morning. You can also pick up another local currency there, the wooden $2 piece, which you can start tipping your wait staff and paperboy with.

Shop Local Card
The Mendo Lake Credit Union and the Mendocino Savings Bank will be rolling out a shop local credit card in the near future. This is another great way to ensure that our dollars stay local. Keep your eyes out for future developments.

Boosting Local Farms Conference
Mendo Food Futures (MFF) and STEPS to a local food economy will be hosting their annual meeting again this spring and the theme is “Growing the Next Generation of Mendocino Farmers”.  The vision is to have current, beginning, and aspiring farmers connect with the resources (land, labor, capital, knowledge) that they need to start producing more food locally. The tentative date is set for April 8th. If you are interested in attending please contact Cliff Paulin at cliffpaulin@hotmail.com

New Local Food Market
Scott and Holly Cratty, ever the stalwarts of the localization movement, have recently purchased the Westside Market on Clay Street. They are looking to feature locally grown Mendocino Renegade Certified Organic food and local crafts. If you have items you would like to sell through the market please contact Scott at cratty@comcast.net

Rent a Local Artist
The Ukiah Art Center, our own cooperatively run gallery located at 201 and 203 S. State Street will be offering the chance for you to feature a local art in your home by renting it. Attend the next First Friday Art Walk on March 6, or stop by anytime to find out more info.  For a list of ongoing activities you can go to their website: www.artcenterukiah.org

Shop Local Campaign
You may have seen the proliferation of shop local banners and placards around town recently.  A group of local business owners, lead by Spencer Brewer of the Ukiah Music Center have done a wonderful job of raising the profile of our locally owned businesses. You can show your support for  their efforts by stopping into a local business next time you are in need of a new acquisition.

Bulk Organic Grain Share
Following in the footsteps of Community Supported Agriculture, Mendo Food Futures (MFF) are offering a Grain and Bean Share. You can purchase shares for $10, which will entitle you to 11 pounds of pinto beans, brown rice, white rice, or 17 pounds of Triticale (a hybrid of rye and wheat). You can contact MFF at mendofoodfutures@gmail.com to purchase shares, and if we get enough interest in Ukiah we may be able to get them to attend the Saturday Farmer’s Market.

Mustard Seed Project
A group of local medical, financial, and policy individuals have been meeting to devise a strategy to maximize the impact of state and federal funding for physical and mental health in the county.  During these times of challenging financial reality these organizations are working in concert to best serve the residents of Mendocino County.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Conference
The City of Ukiah will be hosting a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Conference at the Ukiah Conference Center on May 5, 2009.  Stay tuned for details.

Anything Else?
If you know of any other efforts or projects underway or envisioned please e-mail Cliff Paulin at cliffpaulin@hotmail.com so we can get the word out.

What is a Transition Town?

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It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?

They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model (explained here at length, and in bits here and here) with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

A Transition Initiative is a community (lots of examples here) working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

“For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?”

After going through a comprehensive and creative process of:

* awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
* connecting with existing groups in the community
* building bridges to local government
* connecting with other transition initiatives
* forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
* kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
* eventually launching a community defined, community implemented “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 to 20 year timescale

This results in a coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience we’ve lost as a result of cheap oil and reduce the community’s carbon emissions drastically.

The community also recognizes two crucial points:

* that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there’s no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope
* if we collectively plan and act early enough there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

\\!! Final point Just to weave the climate change and peak oil situations together…

* Climate change makes this carbon reduction transition essential
* Peak oil makes it inevitable
* Transition initiatives make it feasible, viable and attractive (as far we can tell so far…)

Keep reading What is a Transition Town?→

Printing our own money?

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By George Monbiot 1/20/09
Excerpts

In his book The Future of Money, Lietaer points out – as the government did yesterday – that in situations like ours everything grinds to a halt for want of money. But he also explains that there is no reason why this money should take the form of sterling or be issued by the banks. Money consists only of “an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange”. The medium of exchange could be anything, as long as everyone who uses it trusts that everyone else will recognise its value. During the Great Depression, businesses in the United States issued rabbit tails, seashells and wooden discs as currency, as well as all manner of papers and metal tokens. In 1971, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick-started the economy of the city and solved two major social problems by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil.

But the projects that have proved most effective were those inspired by the German economist Silvio Gessell, who became finance minister in Gustav Landauer’s doomed Bavarian republic. He proposed that communities seeking to rescue themselves from economic collapse should issue their own currency. To discourage people from hoarding it, they should impose a fee (called demurrage), which has the same effect as negative interest. The back of each banknote would contain 12 boxes. For the note to remain valid, the owner had to buy a stamp every month and stick it in one of the boxes. It would be withdrawn from circulation after a year. Money of this kind is called stamp scrip: a privately issued currency that becomes less valuable the longer you hold on to it.

Go to If the state can’t save us, we need a licence to print our own money in The Guardian→

Also see Mendo Time Bank→

and Mendo Moola→

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Let’s Get Solar – Part Three

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From Michael Laybourn
Hopland
Parts One and Two

Keep in mind that the system in Germany has been proven. It works.
The State of California doesn’t appear to be plugged in…
…So what about Ukiah?

First of all, Ukiah owns its own utility. Let your imagination soar…. The city already has a rebate program for installing solar electricity. But it is fairly puny in the sense of Germany, where they were committed to a quick move to alternative energy.

Here is the City of Ukiah program:
“Under SB 1, solar program incentives must decline to zero by the end of 2016 to achieve a self-sufficient solar electric industry within 10 years. The City presently offers a $2.24 per Watt AC incentive for the installation of solar systems. “
Proposed City of Ukiah 10 year declining solar incentive schedule:

Fiscal Yr 2007- 08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Incentive $2.80 $2.52 $2.24 $1.96 $1.68

and so forth…

Hey we’re going in the wrong direction!

The hard part is trying to figure out what the rebate actually amounts to for Ukiah. Take a 2.4 KW system like mine, which supplies most of my electrical. $2.24 * 2.4KW = about $5376 + various tax rebates. Now the state has a different rebate, and I called the state to see if you can stack the rebates. (City and State). I was told no with a chuckle.

The State rebate is relatively pitiful at $1.55 / watt.

Here is the state rebate program with a calculator link:
“The incentive is determined using the NSHP PV Calculator and will be reserved for you at that amount once your application is approved. Later, it will be verified by a field test. This program is called Expected Performance Based Incentive (EPBI) and the incentive amount reduces as installed mW triggers are reached.

Commercial and Existing Residential Systems less than 50kW initially will receive a similar, one time, up front incentive based on expected system performance. This rebate will be administered by the California Public Utility Commission thru your Electric Service Provider. Commercial and Residential rebates are currently $1.55 per watt.”

Or $3720 for the above system. Even adding the two together doesn’t reach the rebate of 5 years ago. As I’ve noted, Guv Schwarzenegger and the California lawmakers haven’t done anything to improve our need to wean ourselves from oil, or make it easier for us to go solar in our homes. Actually they haven’t done much of anything period.

What if?… the City of Ukiah followed the proven German model and provided:
1. Low interest loans for solar conversion.
2. Bought the electricity from solar houses at a rate that would pay back the loans.
3. Gave a larger rebate: 1/2 or more of the system cost.
Certainly, many homes and businesses would elect to go solar. This would give the City an increasing amount of energy that would not have to be purchased from other sources. This energy is not only cleaner, but is more stable and the City would benefit from decentralized and more stable energy sources. It might be somewhat more expensive at first, while the homeowner is paying off the cost of the system, but eventually Ukiah could be creating much of its own power and that energy could be less expensive and not controlled by the so-called free market by companies like Enron, etc.

On top of that, electric autos could be purchased and plugged in at night. Most driving is not over 40 miles and an electric car would take care of local driving. Talk about lowering our carbon footprint!

Where to get the money to do this? Like the Germans, charge a little more energy rates to spread the costs. That cost the German energy user an increase of a dollar of two monthly, which wouldn’t be that expensive.

But now… we live in even more exciting times. This just out a few days ago:

“1/16/2009: The U.S. House of Representatives today unveiled a draft of the $825 billion economic stimulus plan that contains $54 billion in key provisions for the development of renewable energy projects and improving the electric grid, according to published reports. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 includes $8 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy and transmission projects, $11 billion to improve the electrical grid, $6.9 billion to improve federal buildings and make them more energy efficient, plus $2 billion in loan guarantees and grants for advanced battery technologies and $1.5 billion in grants and loans to help schools become more energy efficient.”

There will soon be money available for projects such as developing our own local energy. Mendocino County is full of people that know how to write grants and speak the language of government. Keep in mind that this would also be creating jobs and another possible industry: Training people for these jobs. Energy independence. We can show the nation how to do this.

How about it, City Council? Let’s get local with energy production!

See also Congressman Thompson introduces solar energy legislation in today’s UDJ→

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Let’s Get Solar – Part 2

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From Michael Laybourn
Hopland

After advising Obama the way to go (see Solar Letter To Obama), I thought that maybe I would write down my reasoning to see how it held together. Time for some research. I knew Germany had created an explosion of alternative energy growth and has now become the worlds most advanced alternative energy country.

So, let’s take a trip to Germany.

How did Germany become the leading country for renewable energy production? It wasn’t fear of power outages or high gas prices but economic incentives that jump-started the solar revolution in Germany. (When I say solar, think renewable energy, including wind, biomass, geothermal, etc.)

“The rocketing growth of solar energy in Germany is the direct result of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act(EEG). The law guarantees that farmers, homeowners, and businesses can connect to the electric grid and the law spells out exactly how much they will be paid for their electricity and for how long.” – -Gerhard Stryi-Hipp of the German Solar Industry Association.

Unlike other mechanisms used to develop renewable energy, the German law asks for the active participation of its utilities, citizens and small businesses. German homeowners typically install solar systems about 3 kilowatt (kW) in size, sufficient to provide two-thirds of the electricity used by an average German home. German government instituted low interest loans and subsidies for alternative energy, then wrote into law that the utility companies had to pay a higher price for this new and clean energy they were getting from all sources, including the solar homes and businesses.

Continue reading Let’s Get Solar – Part 2→

See also Passive Solar Design – Part 1 at The Oil Drum→

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Introducing Mendo Time Bank

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[Local community advocate Julia (Dakin) Frech is heading up a local effort to organize a Time Bank. Mendo Time Bank website is here. The link to join Mendo Time Bank is here. How Time Banks work is here. Time Banks are active in many parts of the world and are a very successful way to build community. What a great way to start off a challenging new year here in Mendocino County. What follows is a brief overview. -DS]

Excerpted from No More Throw-Away People
by Edgar Cahn

“Time Dollars” in a “Time Bank” are a local currency, issued locally, and honored locally. Instead of money that flows to the highest return, we need a local currency that will stay put as a kind of safety net. It functions as a reward for sinking roots, staying in place, accepting responsibility, building community, keeping family together. “Co-Production” elevates the non-market economy as the only possible shelter from the vicissitudes of the global market economy. As a complementary economic system based on maximizing self-sufficiency, it represents a buffer in a world where money’s mobility and global interdependence can mean ubiquitous vulnerability.

There is no doubt that money rewards self-interest, greed, ruthlessness and material acquisition. We need an economy that rewards decency, caring, civic participation, and learning as automatically as the market now rewards unbridled self-interest, winner-take-all competion, and runaway specialization. Time Dollars devalue specialization and assert that the most special and important thing a human being can do is to be a Human Being. That is about as unspecialized a job description as one can get. They are a new tool, available as a kind of appropriate technology to enable the nonmarket economy to compete for a larger share of energy, time and talent and to enlist the capacity of those whom the market devalues or excludes.

Time Dollars simply count the hours people put in. But even when people don’t spend the Time Dollars they earn, something else happens. Observers note that turnover in Time Dollar programs is far lower than in volunteer programs. It was less than 10 percent in all of the original programs, and less than 3 percent in the largest Miami based one. The only thing done differently is to count. And people earn Time Dollars without stopping whatever volunteering they are already doing.

Counting counts. Recording something makes a difference. It confers value. It invests an act with a degree of permanence. It means that what is learned or done will not be forgotten. It just might shape the future.

A user-friendly information and accounting system serves two functions. First, it makes knowledge of what people can do into a shared resource. Information is wealth. Shared information is shared wealth of a new kind. This is one kind of wealth that is not diminished by sharing. In fact, it is increased.

Most of us do not know what our neighbors can do. And we don’t ask. But when that information is in a data base, we don’t mind phoning up and saying, “Do you have anyone in the computer who could take care of my dog this weekend or help my child with homework?” That’s not a question we are going to go up and down the street asking. Nor is it information that would normally be volunteered by a neighbor in casual conversation. Information systems create a new social etiquette that breaks down old barriers. Any email user knows that.

Merely the issuing of Time Dollar bank statements operates as a kind of reward. Those of us who enrolled in frequent flier miles programs know how pleased we are to see the mileage grow, even if we know we may not be able to use those miles for months or even years.

Time Dollars as a currency with restricted purchasing power may be inferior for certain purposes, but it sends out a message: Maybe we don’t really want all the things we value most – our future, our fate, our lives – monitized and determined by market value… up for grabs to the highest bidder. And perhaps we need a currency that, regardless of the market, enables us to use our time to secure a kind of self-sufficiency, that can’t be eliminated by cutbacks in Medicare or eroded by inflation.
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Time Dollars in a Nutshell

1. Members list the services they can offer and those that they need

2. All agree to both give and to receive services

3. Everyone is interviewed and provides references

4. Every hour giving help earns the giver one credit, a Time Dollar

5. Members ‘buy’ the services they need with their credits

6. The computer matches the task, the giver, and the receiver

7. Every transaction is recorded on a computer ‘time bank’

8. Members receive a regular ‘bank’ statement

9. One hour is one credit regardless of the skills one offers

10. Members can donate credits to friends or to the ‘credit pool’

11. Everyone is seen as special with a contribution to make

12. All activities maintain set standards of care and a code of ethics

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Locabucks: Are local currencies the answer?

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From Dave Smith
More at Mendo Moola

Excerpt:

On July 5th 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, the Austrian town of Wörgl made economic history by introducing a remarkable complimentary currency. Wörgl was in trouble, and was prepared to try anything. Of its population of 4,500, a total of 1,500 people were without a job, and 200 families were penniless.

The mayor, Michael Unterguggenberger, had a long list of projects he wanted to accomplish, but there was hardly any money with which to carry them out. These included repaving the roads, streetlighting, extending water distribution across the whole town, and planting trees along the streets.

Rather than spending the 40,000 Austrian schillings in the town’s coffers to start these projects off, he deposited them in a local savings bank as a guarantee to back the issue of a type of complimentary currency known as ’stamp scrip’. This requires a monthly stamp to be stuck on all the circulating notes for them to remain valid, and in Wörgl, the stamp amounted 1% of the each note’s value. The money raised was used to run a soup kitchen that fed 220 families.

Because nobody wanted to pay what was effectively a hoarding fee [technically known as 'demurrage' and often referred to as "negative interest"], everyone receiving the notes would spend them as fast as possible. The 40,000 schilling deposit allowed anyone to exchange scrip for 98 per cent of its value in schillings. This offer was rarely taken up though.

Of all the business in town, only the railway station and the post office refused to accept the local money. When people ran out of spending ideas, they would pay their taxes early using scrip, resulting in a huge increase in town revenues. Over the 13-month period the project ran, the council not only carried out all the intended works projects, but also built new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump, and a bridge. The people also used scrip to replant forests, in anticipation of the future cashflow they would receive from the trees.

The key to its success was the fast circulation of scrip within the local economy, 14 times higher than the schilling. This in turn increased trade, creating extra employment. At the time of the project, Wörgl was the only Austrian town to achieve full employment.

Six neighbouring villages copied the system successfully. The French Prime Minister, Eduoard Dalladier, made a special visit to see the ‘miracle of Wörgl’. In January 1933, the project was replicated in the neighbouring city of Kirchbuhl, and in June 1933, Unterguggenburger addressed a meeting with representatives from 170 different towns and villages. Two hundred Austrian townships were interested in adopting the idea.

Unterguggenberger was opposed to both communism and fascism, championing instead what he referred to as ‘economic freedom’. Therefore, it was deeply ironic that the Wörgl experiment was first branded ‘craziness’ by the monetary authorities, then a Communist idea, and some years later as a fascist one.

Continue reading full article at The Oil Drum→

See also Beyond Greed and Scarcity at Yes Magazine→

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Solar letter to Obama

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From Michael Laybourn

I was contacted by the Obama Transition Team for input. So I did some input for them, wondering if anyone would ever read it, much less take some action. Here is what I wrote:

Transition Team:

Thanks for this opportunity.

Solar could meet 74% to 86% of total US residential electricity demands by 2010 and 2025, respectively. (Navigant Consulting study)

A solar house can power a new electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid and it could provide enough electricity to be its own energy source. Multiply that for over 200 million cars to drive 12k miles per year. That’s enough to replace the oil we currently import.

How do we get there?

If the government subsidized 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of a home or small business solar system and did low interest loans for the rest of the cost, it would be very attractive for anyone (with enough sun) to go solar. Then, as they did in Germany, have the utility companies pay for the electricity they would be receiving at a somewhat higher than market rate until the loans are paid off. Then when the loans are paid off, the utilities could pay the market rate and possibly purchase the electricity cheaper than it costs now, even though clean energy is worth more as a product.

Clean energy creates millions of jobs, helps global warming, and creates the infrastructure for electric autos.

Don’t subsidize? Let me scoff: We subsidize the auto and oil industry with highways, tax credits and bailouts. We have always subsidized nuclear and coal both in research and  tax breaks. We have not included the costs of cleanup (the Superfund, etc), which is another subsidy. We seem to be stupidly subsidizing Wall Street without any checks and balances at the moment.
Clean energy is the smartest way to help the economy, release us from dependence on oil and rebuild our national infrastructure.

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Now, in your mind, transfer this locally. The City of Ukiah would end up with very cheap energy, I think.

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