The Salem Funky Chicken

Only funky because the City Council is making this "chicken dance" all much harder than necessary.

Since hens were legal in Salem until the 70s, logic suggests that someone in the City ought to be able to explain what problems caused them to be banned -- except that logic had nothing to do with it. The hens got caught up in an ordinance change intended to ban real livestock -- like cows and horses -- from Salem residential areas, where they were present in the first place because Salem went on an annexation craze and brought some pretty rural areas into the city limits.

Ah well, seems like we'll eventually get there. After all, the City Manager touted the City's habit of "benchmarking" against other cities policies and procedures when responding to a citizen question at the budget "town hall meetings" recently. And any serious benchmarking effort would show that urban hens are both very successful and very popular in countless cities, from small, pretty rural towns to large, urban hypercities like New York and Chicago, and in many mid-sized cities very much like Salem. Eventually the City Council will have to stop giving a veto over this benign practice to the handful of fearmongers who imagine a parade of horrible consequences from hens while ignoring all the evidence of successful urban hens in all those other cities.

V. Shiva nails it: Bringing food security close to home is the essential thing

To feed our ever-growing appetites, we push industrial agriculture
methods on once-traditional agrarian societies, and now we want these
faraway lands to produce a different kind of food: biofuel, to feed
the West's automobiles. At some point, Shiva argues, we're going to
have to choose between sacred cow and sacred car.

Shiva founded an organization called Navdanya to promote research in
organic agriculture and saving heirloom seeds. In her 2008 book Soil
Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, she argues
that the rebirth of sustainable, traditional agriculture offers the
best way forward, in both India and in the West.

"There is a myth that there are agricultural societies, and then there
are industrial societies and service societies, as if when you become
an industrial or service society you don't need food," she says. "As
we hit climate chaos, as we hit peak oil, assuming that you can get
your food from far away and use fossil-fuel-intensive systems to
produce food is totally not sustainable. Bringing food security close
to home will have to be the project of the future."

More at http://is.gd/qetM

More Calendar Marking: Friends of the Library Book Sale!

Friends of the Salem Public Library Spring Book Sale

Friday, May 1 & Saturday May 2
10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 11
1 - 4:30 p.m. ($3 Bag Day!)

In Anderson Rooms A&B at Salem Public Library 585 Liberty St. SE

Spring sale offerings include thousands of excellent books sorted by genre and topic to make it easy for readers to find what they’re looking for. Categories include mystery, biography/autobiography, travel, cooking, fantasy, Westerns, hobbies and craft s, romance, large print, and more.

Prices are, as always, excellent, with paperbacks and children’s books for 50 cents each; hardbacks for $1. A long list of AV items is available, including CDs, tapes, records, videos, posters and more.

The best bargains of all are available Sunday, when shoppers can fill a bag to take away for just $3.

In addition to books, the Friends are always in need of helping hands for this big event. Willing volunteers can contact Dana in the Friends’ Bookstore in person or by phone at 503-362-1755.

Another great Straub event: Leave No Child Inside

Working Together to “Leave No Child Inside”
7 p.m. Thursday, April 23 Loucks Auditorium

The “Leave No Child Inside” campaign is seeking to reverse alarming trends in children’s activities and reconnect children with nature. Presenter Martin LeBlanc will talk about the campaign and give examples of how communities are working to give their children outdoor experiences.

Martin LeBlanc is the National Youth Education Director for the Sierra Club. He is a founding member and vice president of the Children and Nature Network and is responsible for building the youth leadership with the “Leave No Child Inside” campaign.

LeBlanc was an at-risk youth who had his life turned around through an outdoor experience as a teenager. He worked as an outdoor educator with at-risk youth in Seattle, Washington and served as recreation advocate for Texas Parks and Wildlife in Austin, Texas. He serves on numerous advisory committees related to environmental education.

The presentation is free and open to the public through support from the Charla Richards-Kreitzberg Charitable Foundation, the William S. Walton Charitable Trust, Salem Public Library, City of Salem, and Marion Soil and Water Conservation District. For more information, contact the Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center at 503-391-4145 or visit www.fselc.org.

The Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center is a Salem-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental education.

No Fooling: Why Salem must not develop the Battle Creek Golf Course

I don't golf. I think all golf courses should be converted to food gardens immediately if not sooner, and that it should be illegal to use any chemicals to grow grass anywhere (the need for petrochemical fertilizers being nature's way of telling you you're trying to grow something in the wrong place). So this isn't about my desire to preserve golfing.

But a golf course is still better than suburban sprawl. And the City of Salem knows it. Here's an excerpt from a five-page letter to "City of Salem Property Owners" concerning "Flood Hazards in the City of Salem" that the City sent me today:

"In Salem, unusually warm weather mixed with heavy rains that melt the snow in the higher elevations and flood local streams, referred to as a "Pineapple Express," contribute substantially to flooding, and ongoing development within the City continues to displace natural areas that have historically functioned as flood storage."

Well, there it is then. If Salem presses ahead with allowing development of the Battle Creek Golf Course, they will have put all of us on the hook to rescue flooding victims who build on that land (and their victims, since the development will cause other properties to flood as well).

A must-read from Thomas Friedman

A guilty conscience must be a powerful spur to righteousness after all. Thomas Friedman, who was an avid cheerleader and then apologist for Bush's invasion of Iraq (and so regularly urged extending the stay, in about six month chunks, that Friedman will forever be linked to the term Friedman Unit, as in "A year is two Friedman Units"), has seen the light on the climate crisis and has become the foremost advocate in the archaic media for recognizing that, fundamentally, we have managed the economy and the environment using the same "Screw the future, let's party!" thinking.

His latest column is tremendous. A taste:

Just as A.I.G. sold insurance derivatives at prices that did not reflect the real costs and the real risks of massive defaults (for which we the taxpayers ended up paying the difference), oil companies, coal companies and electric utilities today are selling energy products at prices that do not reflect the real costs to the environment and real risks of disruptive climate change (so future taxpayers will end up paying the difference).

Whenever products are mispriced and do not reflect the real costs and risks associated with their usage, people go to excess. And that is exactly what happened in the financial marketplace and in the energy/environmental marketplace during the credit bubble.

Our biggest financial-services companies, some of which came to be seen as too big to fail, engaged in complex financial trading schemes that did not adequately price in the costs and risks of a market reversal. A.I.G., for instance, was selling insurance for all kinds of financial instruments and did not have anywhere near adequate reserves to cover claims if things went badly wrong, as they did. And our biggest energy companies, utilities and auto companies became dependent on cheap hydrocarbons that spin off climate-changing greenhouse gases, and we clearly have not forced them, through a carbon tax, to price in the true risks and costs to society from these climate-changing fuels.

“When the balance sheet of a company does not capture the true costs and risks of its business activities,” and when that company is too big to fail, “you end up with them privatizing their gains and socializing their losses,” Nandan Nilekani, the co-chairman of the Indian technology company Infosys, remarked to me. That is, everyone gets to rack up their private profits today and pay them out in current bonuses and dividends. But any catastrophic losses — if the company is too big to fail — “get socialized and paid off by taxpayers.”

Coming to the Willamette Valley: NAFTA turns 15

An opportunity to hear from other people in agricultural regions about the impact of the so-called "free trade" policy from someone other than a paid US lobbyist or paid US politician, and an opportunity to "Take a deeper look at the effects of NAFTA, including resistance to genetically modified GMO corn, the impact of migration on sending communities, and the struggle for food security in Oaxaca’s indigenous communities." Presented by Witness for Peace

2009 Spring Speaker Tour

NAFTA Turns 15: A Look at Free Trade, Food Security and Migration in Oaxaca, Mexico

Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez is the coordinator of the agro-ecology program for UNOSJO (the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca). Sr. Mendoza is an expert on food sovereignty issues and the impacts of free trade agreements on indigenous farmers from Oaxaca. UNOSJO is an indigenous organization that works with indigenous communities and organizations in the Zapotec region of the Sierra Juárez, located in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. UNOSJO has denounced the contamination of native corn in Oaxaca by genetically-modified (GMO) corn and is a leader within Oaxaca on food security issues. Their efforts also focus on women’s issues, indigenous rights, and organic coffee production.

Sr. Mendoza will speak about the impacts of NAFTA on indigenous communities in Oaxaca, including:

• The affects of GMO corn contamination on native corn production
  
  
• How increased rates of migration from the region have affected communities in the Sierra Juarez
  
  
• UNOSJO’s process of regaining food sovereignty within indigenous communities

Tour Press Release

Tour Schedule

* please check back for schedule updates

Sunday, April 5: Hillsboro, OR
12pm, Hillsboro United Methodist Church
168 NE 8th Ave, Hillsboro, Event Flyer

Saturday, April 11: Woodburn, OR

Monday, April 13: Eugene, OR

7pm, UO Law School, Room 175
15th and Agate St., Eugene

Tuesday, April 14: Salem, OR
2:30pm, 209 Eaton Hall
Willamette University, Event Flyer

5:30pm, First Congregational UCC
700 Marion St NE, Salem, Event Flyer

Wednesday, April 15: Albany and Corvallis, OR
10 am, OSU, Rogers 230
Corvallis, OR, Event Flyer

12pm, Linn Benton Community College
CC 103, Albany, OR, Event Flyer

7pm, First United Methodist Church
1165 NW Monroe, Martha Room, Corvallis, Event Flyer

Coming this Saturday, April 4th!

The Saturday Market returns, a month earlier than usual!

KEEP IT LOCAL, SALEM!

You have a positive impact on our local economy when you buy from SSM vendors who are independent, locally owned businesses. You also reduce your impact on the earth!

TEN REASONS TO SHOP AT SALEM SATURDAY MARKET &
THE WEDNESDAY FARMERS' MARKETS

1. Locally grown food tastes better and, because it's fresher, it lasts longer. Locally grown produce is usually sold within 24 hours of being harvested.

2. Local produce is better for you and better for our environment. Buying local shrinks the number of miles food has to travel before being eaten. That translates into less use of fossil fuels and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Local food preserves genetic diversity and is free of genetically modified biotechnology.

4. Buying local supports and strengthens local farm families and producers, providing jobs within our community.

5. Buying local connects our community and allows consumers to know the farmers, understand the seasons and respect the growing process.

6. Locally grown food preserves open spaces, supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife.

7. Buying local keeps more dollars in our community. One study shows that each dollar spent with a local grower is worth $2.50 for the community.

8. Buying local is a form of rebellion against industrial food and corporate farming.

9. Buying local is about the future, sustaining local farms, helping preserve the unique character of our community and helping you become a more engaged citizen.

10. Except for a couple grumps, we're not a bad lot to throw your support behind.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle group

Have you read or been wanting to read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver? If you haven't, well now you have a reason to!

Members of the community (aka many of us) are gathering for a potluck social to leisurely discuss this book and enjoy a meal together. This potluck is open to the public, no RSVP is required. Please bring a potluck dish to share – there are no 'local' or 'vegan' dish requirements to meet. Bringing your own dinnerware is optional, as Garten is stocked with some dishes, glasses and silverware. Which means we'll need to recruit volunteers for dish wash duty that evening too! In addition, if possible bring your own name tag ;) and don't forget your "Animal,Vegetable, Miracle" book and any notes or questions you want to discuss too!

When? Wednesday, April 15th, 5:30 to 7:30PM. This notice might give you time to completely finish reading; or at least get a start on it; or as we realize, you don't have to read it to be able to contribute to meaningful discussion ;)

You can purchase it for 10% off at Tea Partly Bookshop!

Where? Garten Services: 3334 Industrial Way NE Salem, OR 97301, #503-581-4472.

Why? Because we want to network with each other, get plugged into our local food web, understand our local food systems, and gain more skills and knowledge!

Contact community.dreamer@yahoo.com for more information.

Shop real bike shops

A lot of people try to buy bikes at Costco, or Sprawl-Mart, or places like that.

Don't. It's not worth it.

Not only does it wind up costing you in the long run--a cheap piece of junk is not a bike that gives you value for the long term -- but it's also potentially deadly.

And an inferior bike doesn't just threaten your health and well-being -- it also undermines real bike shops, which are essential to Salem's community health and sustainability. We could get along great without auto dealerships (if only!), but we really need locally owned and operated bike shops, and we're going to need them even more in the years to come.

So, this spring, when you're noticing gas prices or that little bit of overhang around the belt that you'd like to lose, or noticing that your kid thinks X-box and PS-2 are aerobic activity and you start remembering how awesome it was to be able to ride around on your bike and learning some independence, go here. Or here. Or here. Or here.

Buying a bike isn't like saving a few bucks on the exact same toothpaste or 5# Bag O' Empty Calorie Snackage. When you leave the chain stores and go to a real bike store, you leave the world of "as cheap as we can make it and sell it" behind. Sure, price counts. But it's just one factor, and definitely not the most important one.

Buying a bike that you'll love is about finding a shop where they will treat you like an individual, find a bike that suits your needs and the kind of riding you want to do, and fits you right (and is safe for you to ride), where they will adjust and maintain it for you so that it stays fun and safe. Where the people selling bikes love and ride them, and have used the stuff they sell and know what's good value and what's not.

Here's a pretty typical story, posted at Consumerist.

Just thought I would share an experience I had at Wal-Mart purchasing a bike. I bought a bicycle with Wal-Mart in order to save on gas money and try to increase my overall health. Living within 2 miles of my University, and considering I happen to work there as well, riding a bike only made good sense.

I bought a Next brand bike from Wal-Mart for the cost of 110 dollars, and about 100 dollars in accessories (helmet, lights, lock, etc). The first problem I had - none of the accessories fit. Literally, none of them. The lights, the bike pump, everything I purchased did not fit correctly on the unit I purchased. "Well, I'll just deal with it", I said to myself. Within a week, the chain kept coming off, the brakes were so tight the wheels could barely turn (because the tires, when completely aired up, were too big for the brakes), and on top of all that the right plastic pedal snapped while I was riding the bike and nearly threw me into traffic. All in all, it was a shodily constructed and dangerous piece of garbage.

Needless to say, I thought it would be best for me to return it to Wal-Mart. I loaded it in my car, took it to my local Supercenter with receipt in hand, and headed to the customer service counter. There I encountered Cheryl, the Customer Service Manager at the Norman - East branch. Upon trying to return it, I was told that they had a strict policy regarding bike retuns. What follows is a rough approximation of my conversation with her:

Me: "I'd like to return this bike."

Her: "We don't return bikes."

Me: "Why not?"

Her: "Because we can repair them for you, so we don't give refunds on them."

Me: "What? It isn't listed as an exception on the wall behind you."

Her: "We can't have all of our exceptions listed, that would take up room we use for advertising."

Me: "No one told me about this policy before I bought the bike though."

Her: "We don't have to."

I stood there in shock for a few minutes, shooting her the most angry stare I could manage. I packed up the bike, and left. Later, I called them, asked for her full name (which she wouldn't give me) and told her that I would be filing a lawsuit in small claims court against them. To my wife's first year law school brain the Return Policy on that wall is a contract that allows me to return the bike within 90 days of purchase with valid receipt, and a lawsuit in SCC would almost be a guaranteed win.

Luckily, before filing the suit, I called the district manager. She told me that the "policy" touted by Cheryl did not exist, and urged me to contact the store manager before filing a claim. If the store manager refused to take care of it, she would handle it from the district level. He told me the same thing Cheryl did until I mentioned my chat with his boss, and he amended his stance to say "that the policy was more of a guideline than anything else" to avoid returns for flat tires. This is just as absurd as what Cheryl told me, but regardless, I got my refund - and I purchased a bike from a real bike store.

I just wanted to share my experience with the readers of The Consumerist, so they could be wary of buying an important purchase like a primary mode of transportation from such an unscrupulous company - and to be wary of what lower management tells you. Worst case scenario, contact district staff. Wal-Mart is seems to be often more afraid of pad PR than anything else.

The take-home lesson is that when you try to buy a bike at a store better known for selling pickles by the barrel, you don't even get what you paid for it, no matter how little that was. No matter how little you paid, they paid even less; not such a big deal when you drop $300 on a bike; the wholesale price on that still gets you a decent bike. But when you buy a "$100" bike, you get whatever slag can be slapped together and shipped over here in a container for under $50. Not a bike you should trust your life to.