Speaking of learning vital skills for the future: Transition Town Salem organizing!

Some of you may recall the Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization (STIR), which attracted some interest for a while three or four years ago, but never really jelled.

Thankfully, Oregon PeaceWorks is helping to promote a new crack at this vital idea under the name Transition Town Salem.  They're planning an organizing meeting for February 13 at the PeaceWorks office, second floor.  Contact PeaceWorks for details.

Transition Towns are communities working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate change, and economic instability. OPW seeks to work with environmentalists, economists, city planners, government representatives and members of the public to develop both a plan and hands-on projects that will demonstrate the elements of resilience and sustainability to the Salem, OR community. We are looking for like-minded individuals, especially those with relevant expertise, in developing this program. We also seek to network with as many existing sustainability projects in the Mid-Willamette Valley as possible.

Our Mission: 

To educate and activate people to work for peace, justice and environmental sustainability.

104 Commercial St. NE Salem, Oregon 97301

Phone: 503-585-2767           Fax: 503-588-0088.

OPW Staff

#	Name	Position	Phone	Mobile Phone Number	Fax
1	Kerry Fox	Executive Director	503-585-2767
2	Peter Bergel	Program Director	503-371-8002
3	Carrie Adams	Office Manager & Event Coordinator	503-585-2767
4	Jeanette Hardison	Development Officer	503-585-2767
5	Office Staff	Office Staff	503-585-2767

TTS ( boy, I still prefer STIR ... just call it Salem Transition Initiative for Resiliency if you want to include that important theme ... But hey, a rose by any other name ....) will be holding an organizing meeting at PeaceWorks on February 13

Amen, amen, amen: Cities must focus on resiliency

Can't add anything to this:

Cities Must Become More Resilient to Survive

by Sarah Goodyear on July 14, 2009

The idea that cities are greener than suburbs has gotten a lot of attention lately. But a recently published book argues that in a future of diminishing resources, cities themselves are going to have to become much more efficient and inventive if they are to be sustainable -- indeed, if they are to survive at all.

The book is "Resilient Cities," by Peter Newman -- the man who coined the term "automobile dependence" -- Timothy Beatley and Heather Boyer. As Streetsblog Network member The Dirt (the blog of the American Society of Landscape Architects) writes, Newman and his colleagues say that some radical changes will be necessary if the world's cities are to avoid the worst-case scenarios of division or collapse:

Solar Settlement, in Freiburg, Germany. Photo via Young Germany.

"Resilient Cities"... presents a range of options to help adapt cities to lessen a dependence on petroleum, and create more resilient urban areas. The authors argue that the urban centers that may best survive a climate and energy crisis are those that engage in long-term planning and design for resiliency, and create sustainable, inter-connected modes of transportation; invest in renewable energy technology and smart grids; support walkable, high-density living; and provide for self-sufficient food production and protection of urban biodiversity... "It is clear that the changes needed for a resilient city are not just technology substitutions, they are in the business paradigms, the culture of the utilities, and the organization that can enable new ways of managing our cities; every household needs to be a part of it."

According to Newman and his co-authors, "cities throughout history have competed by examining innovations in other cities and building upon them. This [...] is the basis of wealth creation. We see the the response to climate change and peak oil as the impetus for the next burst of innovation." “Resilient Cities” also outlines a set of specific recommendations for making existing cities more adaptable to changes in climate and energy usage.

The authors write about many concrete models of cities such as Freiburg, Germany, that are implementing the types of initiatives they deem necessary. But will the world's cities be able to act decisively in time to save themselves? In the US, at least, they face some formidable obstacles. Let us know what you think in the comments.. . .

A first: a repeat posting

This movie is so good, so important, that it merits a repost to draw your attention, along with this comment (from The Oil Drum):

[A]t the very end of the HOMEPROJECT video:

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

they list Glenn Close as the narrator, and that Lester Brown was one of the scientific advisers. It sort of all fits together - the topics covered are also the main ones that Brown talks about in his "Plan B 3.0" book.

Good short video on why peak oil matters

Good Idea: Natl. Academy of Science study of peak oil (petition)

Image by n2teaching via Flickr

Understanding peak oil - Why we need the national academy of sciences to study peak oil (petition)

by Phyllis Sladek

Peak Oil: Our need for immediate scientific investigation – and action

A growing number of international geologists and analysts warn of a looming catastrophe with the onset of the decline in the global supply of oil (2). Likewise, reports by several federal agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, point to the need for immediate action, because the foreseeable impacts on our infrastructure and economy are without precedent (3).

Please sign our petition, calling on President Obama and Congress to direct an immediate scientific investigation by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Peak Oil will present our Nation with multiple and continuing crises that will require hard decisions. With a near-term peak, for example, we face the likelihood of shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel, along with the problem of how to allocate limited supplies. Beyond the direct effect on the movement of people and goods, we might well have difficulty maintaining components of our vital infrastructure such as roads, pipelines and the electrical grid. (4).

The National Academy of Sciences is the only source that can provide unbiased and authoritative answers to the questions of how to manage in the era of the “remorseless decline” in available oil and natural gas. The Academies occupy a special place, due to their unique history and mission as the scientific advisors to the Nation (5).

The Academies will have the opportunity to lay out the pieces of the peak oil crises in a clear overview that can provide a factual basis for the emotionally difficult reality we face. We can make our political process work for us to make changes in oil use and energy policy – and influence other nations to do the same…before it is too late.

This complete picture of “peak oil”, along with the Academies recommendations for policy guidelines, can galvanize our top political leaders to dramatically change the course of world history.

Our petition specifically asks for these specific and positive directions, so we will know what constructive actions might be taken at the national, state and local levels on short notice, such as community-based emergency plans and bolstering local food production.

Please sign our petition asking President Obama and Congress to act now.

Calling Salem Saturday Market & Salem Center managers

Image by Wigwam Jones via Flickr

A NYT story mentioning an upscale mall that failed in SF --- and has been reborn as a farmer's market.

Having just witnessed the Sony-backed Metreon mall in San Francisco shift from its failed existence as a “state of the art technology and entertainment marketplace” to a modest farmer’s market, I’d seen the writing on the wall. Hadn’t the shopping center folks?

Salem desperately needs a year-round greengrocery in the downtown core --- right where Salem Center is located would be fine, in fact, not too far from where the Wednesday Market opens in summertime.

And, hey, there's plenty of vacancies in Salem Center. And soon to be more.

Sounds like there's a deal to be made here: Between October and April, the Salem Center management provides space in the mall for a year-round Farmer's Market (that costs the growers no more than they're paying for space in the Salem Saturday Market). They get more traffic, and Salem gets more people exposed to eating locally and supporting local growers. With cold frames and "hoop houses," Salem area farmers can grow a gorgeous variety of produce in the dead of winter -- they just need an outlet that can absorb the modest quantities that small growers can provide, in a way that lets them keep more of the food dollar.

P.S.: Don't forget: Valet bike parking comes to the Salem Saturday Market this Saturday! Thanks to Friends of Salem Saturday Market. So ride on down, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A sister capital city also begins the transition

Nice op-ed in The Olympian introducing readers of that paper to their Transition movement. Excerpt below.

Salem has a small transition group forming now (STIR, the Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization) too. We're in the early stages of coming together and figuring out how we want to help co-create answers to the questions the writer mentions (the central questions our elected and appointed officials should have on their walls and on every piece of letterhead):

“How are we going to

• drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change);
  
• significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and
• greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?”

Resources available now to begin the transition toward life we’re seeking

The Transition Town Movement – a grass-roots initiative spreading around the globe – is asking, “How are we going to drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change); significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?”

The movement, originated by Rob Hopkins, a UK ecological designer and permaculturist, provides a roadmap away from this triple threat and toward a sustainable future.

Transitioning encompasses the work we must do in the outer world, but equally important, it invites the inner work we must do to adapt to unprecedented change in our lives.

This roadmap is a 12-step process resulting in a community generated re-localization and energy descent action plan (REDAP). In the last 150 years we have quickly climbed to a peak of energy consumption fueled by cheap oil and now we face descending the other side. Without a plan we are likely to experience chaos and catastrophe. With a REDAP we can downshift to lifestyles that are simpler, more pleasurable and sustainable.

It is not coincidental that this movement contains 12 steps, since one of the triple threats we face is our addiction to cheap oil. People working within Transition Initiatives hold deep-seated confidence in our collective genius – within our communities and as a species – to solve the problems we face and create a desired future.

Recently Paul Hawkin, renowned entrepreneur and environmental activist, said: “If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.” . . .

Invest 8 minutes, get an understanding of what's coming

Why keeping hens and growing food is becoming even more essential

Deadly Salmonella: Frozen Food's Newest Ingredient

By Jim Hightower

Contamination has become so widespread that major frozen food purveyors admit they can no longer ensure the safety of their products. . . .

The true culprit in such poisonings, however, is not the little deadly bug, but the twin killers of corporate globalization and greed. Giant food corporations, scavenging the globe in a constant search for ever-cheaper ingredients to put in their processed edibles, are resorting to low-wage, high-pollution nations that have practically no food-safety laws, much less any safety enforcement.

Consider the case of ConAgra Foods, a massive conglomerate that sells 100 million pot pies a year under its Banquet label. Each pie contains 25 ingredients sourced from all over the world -- often from subcontractors who don't report their sources. Until the 2007 salmonella contamination of its pies, ConAgra did not even require suppliers to test for pathogens, nor did it do its own tests. Since poisoning one's customers turned out to be a bad strategy for earning repeat business, the conglomerate now runs spot checks -- but even when it detects contamination in a pie, it has not been able to determine which ingredient is the bad one.

In fact, as The New York Times recently reported in an extensive expose, food giants concede that their supply chains are so far-flung that they "do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening items for microbes." Meanwhile, the industry's lobbying front, the Grocery Manufacturers of America, has aggressively fought federal efforts to require a tracking system. "This information is not reasonably needed," the GMA curtly responded when such a rule was proposed. . . .

A path to providing more rides to more people at less cost

This is one of the programs that Cherriots needs to be investigating and figuring out how to incorporate into the planning -- a method of using existing vehicles and cellphone capability to match riders with rides. As oil prices shoot up this summer, we're going to be even more hammered on funds ... we need to be thinking ahead about how to serve people without necessarily having to put them into a bus/Cherrylift. In years to come, public transit will be increasingly stressed, caught in the vise of rising costs, diminished funds, and rising demand.

I'm not saying that this particular system (Avego) is the right way or only way this could be done -- but they have the right idea, that's for sure.

UPDATE: Nice op-ed by a local fellow who's asking the right questions. Excerpt:

Now instead of neighborhood circulator buses (an idea that has not worked well in Salem), turn those resources into Super Shuttle-like service from the hubs. Super Shuttles are like coordinated, shared taxis. Riders submit the addresses where they need to go and when a load of people going to the same general area has accumulated, a shuttle van drops them off one by one in the most efficient order. It's not as convenient as regular, frequent bus service, but it is a whole lot better than no service at all — it runs where you need it, when you need it. Unlike a bus system, the vans never run empty.

Would Salem voters support it? I don't know — why don't you ask them?

Clearly asking voters over and over to support more of the same old-fashioned bus system hasn't worked. Now you're asking riders to help you choose between two bus options offering service worse than we have now. Wouldn't it be better to look at a variety of ideas for delivering excellent public transportation?

My vote is for a do over — this time with imagination.

City Council can barely decide to consider whether to decide upon a recommendation to be decided later

The public hearing on the proposed changes to permit up to three hens as a permitted land use in residential-single (RS) zoned areas of Salem nearly foundered tonight. A bare 5-vote majority of the Council was determined to have some kind of hen-allowing result, but the only thing that could get five votes was to kick the can over to the Planning Commission so that they can ponder the imponderables awhile and then report something back to the City Council (after a mandatory public hearing and at least a 45-day process), when the process will begin again, exactly where it left off.

In other words, it was a grim night at City Hall, till nearly 11 p.m. We almost lost it entirely, although the Mayor's throwing her support to allowing hens in some form saved the day and was very welcome indeed.

The bottom line is that there are a number of councilors who need to ask themselves some fundamental questions about why they serve on city council and how they have come to see their role as conflict-avoidance cops who have a very low opinion of Salem residents.

These councilors all make what Ward 1's Chuck Bennett called "obsequious" bows to the Chickens in the Yard advocates, hmmming and hawwing about how all the CITY folks would, of course, be "impeccable" at keeping hens without causing problems ("Compliance" boss Brady Rogers' term). But, after acknowledging that anyone who is motivated can care for hens properly, these councilors turned right around and voted to say, in effect, that it doesn't matter.

Instead of seeing local government as the agent for building community, they see government's job as anticipating the worst conduct from people and preparing accordingly. In other words, your reward for being a solid citizen is to be ignored in favor of governmental policies that are built on the low opinion of that the councilors have of most of us.

Of course, the miscreants that these councilors fear --- and thus, the ones they actually pay attention to when considering policies -- don't care what the council does or doesn't do. The irresponsible will keep chickens (including roosters) if they want, just like they keep pit bulls, play loud music at all hours, and other anti-social things. And they will play games with any enforcement scheme. The net result of the government as cop mindset that these councilors have is the conflict-avoidance of the no-man's-land: avoiding conflict by privileging objections over actions, giving anyone with a fear a trump card.

The anti-chicken councilors call ignoring the wishes of the responsible citizenry because of fears about irresponsible ones "avoiding conflict" but it actually just decides the conflict in favor of intrusive government that thinks badly of most of its citizens.

As the Mayor said, we've got lots of real issues in Salem that could benefit from this intense level of scrutiny from Council: graffiti, often gang-inspired if not directly gang-related, abandoned cars, homelessness, hunger, high rates of teen pregnancy and dropping out of school. In the face of all these difficult problems, the Salem City Council is apparently not yet ready to let its residents keep a few hens.

Weird juxtaposition: Another presentation, donation, and plaudits for the work of the Marion-Polk Food Share at the start of the meeting tonight. Followed by a couple of hours of hemming and hawing about whether home henkeeping is really saving money or would help with food security or not. Bizarre.

And as much as one might try to respect the opponents, most of them embarass themselves. One in particular tried to tie meth labs to chickens (some meth addicts have tried making meth in chicken coops before! -- but of course that applies to bathtubs too, so . . . ) and then ordered all pro-chicken types to move to the country. Another argued that we shouldn't have urban hens for eggs because it would cut the income of local farmers out in the counties. I guess we shouldn't be allowed to grow vegetables for the same reason.

Excellent! Support local farmers right here in Salem

Nice! For about $3 a week, the "Travel Salem" office on High St. is offering to serve as a drop-off point for the "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) shares from French Prairie Farm in St. Paul -- so you can have fresh, local produce delivered for you to downtown Salem and ride your bike over and pick it up (or pick it up on your way home from work. You'll save more than the cost of delivery to Salem just in gas alone, not to mention wear and tear on you and your car.

Area program offers fresh produce

Travel Salem has partnered with French Prairie Gardens' community-supported agriculture program.

The program allows busy people to get farm-fresh produce each week.

Participants receive 18 weeks of produce during the growing season. "Harvest Boxes" can be delivered or picked up at the farm.

Travel Salem will act as a drop-point for CSA members in the Salem area to pick up their goods at the Travel Cafe, 181 High St. NE .

Harvest Boxes containing eight to 12 fruits and vegetables, which vary throughout the season. Each box will contain about $20 in produce.

Recipients will get a newsletter with recipes and ideas for produce use. They are offered free admission to French Prairie Gardens' Strawberry Festival, set for June 18-21, and invited to cooking and canning classes.

Season membership runs June 3 to Sept. 30. Cost is $350 and delivery to the Travel Cafe costs an extra $50. For information or to sign up, visit www.FPGardens.com or call (503) 633-8445.

Vermont beats Oregon to the punch: State-House Garden

H/t to Energybulletin.net. Isn't it wonderful to imagine that big green quad in front of the Capitol building in a huge, blooming variety of vegetables, berries, replacing the ornamental cherries with sweet cherries . . . etc. Let's give the Golden Pioneer something great to look at!

At Vermont State House, time for green thumbs

MONTPELIER — Signs of the times: a cash-strapped state government cutting the budget for flowers outside its Capitol – and frugal Vermonters stepping up to plant vegetables instead.

A Statehouse known for the green legislation that gets crafted inside — and for the crunchy, green ethos of many of its constituents — now sports two long, narrow plots of organic vegetables on either side of the steps leading to its front door.

"We're the only state which has a capital that doesn't have a McDonald's," said Carolyn Jones, a Montpelier sixth-grader. "We're a green state, a healthy state."

What organizers are calling the first Statehouse vegetable garden in the country got its start Thursday, as a crew of students from Montpelier High School brought 150 lettuce seedlings from the school's greenhouse to plant under the gaze of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, whose statue graces the top of the building's golden dome.

The youngsters — whose school's Web site touts a "Composter of the Month"—braved a steady rain to do the planting, while adult organizers and dignitaries huddled under a party tent nearby. Sopping wet, the teens disappeared as soon as the plants were in the ground. (17 May 2009)

Are you getting a little nervous about the economy?

Need a little encouragement? Have you thought about gardening for food instead of for the benefit of lawn-fertilizer companies? Check it out: One Million Gardens.

A very encouraging word -- growing food instead of lawns in the Willamette Valley!

From grass to grains

An Oregon local foods movement finds opportunity in the economic crisis

News - From the May 04, 2009 issue of High Country News by Carla A. Wise

. . . . Stalford and his wife, Willow Coberly, have begun a pioneering experiment on part of their 9,000-acre Willamette Valley spread.

The couple owns the first large conventional farm to join the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project, a movement to rebuild and re-localize the entire food system in Oregon's most productive farming region. Instead of focusing exclusively on expensive specialty foods — the fruits, meats and vegetables found at local farmers' markets and restaurants — the project aims to organically grow and locally sell the grains and beans that are the foundation of most diets. Eventually, project members hope that all the food consumed here will be local. And they say that the Willamette Valley's 900,000 acres of cropland are more than adequate to feed its 2.5 million residents, including Portland.

That conversion won't be easy . . . .

The seeds for the project were planted several years ago when farmer and food activist Harry MacCormack bought a bunch of beans and grains from the bulk bins in the Corvallis co-op and successfully grew many of them on his 15-acre organic farm. Further experiments and discussion eventually led MacCormack, Stalford, Coberly and others to found the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project in January 2008. It has grown since: Participants now include other organic farmers, community activists, two food security groups, a USDA Farm Services director, an Extension horticulturalist and others. In 2008, MacCormack and five homestead-size farms grew nine varieties of beans and more than a dozen grains. Stalford and Coberly planted 100 acres of five types of beans, and produced a successful harvest of organic hard red wheat. And both Stalford and MacCormack were able to sell everything they grew. . . .

The transition hasn't been easy for Stalford, who has no experience with organic methods. "We're just shooting in the dark," he says. "We have no idea what we are doing." Coberly is more optimistic. True, the couple planted their beans too late last year, and some didn't ripen in time. But the red wheat and garbanzos did well and fetched excellent prices. Coberly has been pushing Stalford to explore sustainable farming practices. Swayed by the soil depletion and fertility losses he's seen over 40 years of farming, Stalford is rotating crops, composting crop waste, and reducing chemical use on his fields. Stalford says his neighbors tease him down at the coffee shop, but he's not giving up. This year, Stalford and Coberly are increasing their certified organic crop of red wheat and dry beans to 135 acres. They also plan to get an additional 360 acres certified for organic food production — a three-year process — and Stalford is considering planting 500 acres of beans in rotation with his grass seed.

The increased production, however, raises an infrastructure problem. Hummingbird Wholesale and the Corvallis co-op are committed to buying local beans and grains, but the storage and processing systems have to be rebuilt. Project organizers need businesses interested in developing storage, processing and distribution for local food. The Ten Rivers Food Web, a local food nonprofit that MacCormack helped found, recently purchased a portable seed cleaner. The group did a study examining the feasibility of local processing and has applied for more grant money to build a community processing facility. . . .

Despite the battered economy, demand for bulk organic foods is up, Tilt says. MacCormack says the main obstacles remain mind-set and infrastructure. And, he says, those are obstacles that can be overcome.

Taking control of development: preparing for a post-oil world

Taking control of development at the local level

by Christopher J. Ryan, AICP

The model of land development practiced today will surely be the scavenged ruins of tomorrow. Peak oil will guarantee this outcome...

Most people connected to the business of urban development like I am understand that decisions and action is driven by the availability of money, the developers that employ the money and turn a hefty profit, and the landowners that seek to maximize their return also. The lucrative nature of the business for practitioners who follow the formula (i.e. what has always worked thus strip shopping malls and cul-de-sac subdivisions in the exurbs) continues to drive sprawl and an enormous waste of land and resources clearly diametrically opposite to actions that should be taken to relocalize and become more resilient. What this amounts to is a criminal waste of dwindling precious resources at a time when we need to swiftly retool our communities in the face of peak oil and climate change. (more)

Welcome, Friends! (Friends of Salem Saturday Market)

Excellent news. One of Salem's most charming attractions now has a non-profit auxiliary group, Friends of Salem Saturday Market, to build awareness and appreciation for the market:

Friends of Salem Saturday Market is a newly forming 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We are a dedicated group of individuals who are passionate about our local farmers markets and want to increase awareness of the wide range and benefits of using locally produced products. The purpose of Friends of Salem Saturday Market: 1. Provide outreach and education to the public on food production, nutrition, preservation and general cooking and food preparation 2. Collaborate with other community organizations to organize charitable and educational programs and activities in support of local, sustainable agriculture 3. Strengthen and encourage community support of local, sustainable agriculture in order to help preserve Oregon's unique agricultural heritage 4. Help provide a creative and vibrant community gathering place

And they're not just gazing fondly at the SSM -- they're bent on making it even better:

Upcoming Events at Salem Saturday Market

Canning and preservation demonstrations by Marion County’s OSU Extension

Knitting Day at Salem Saturday Market

Bike valet service

Produce tastings

Chef’s demonstrations

Education and outreach on topics ranging from nutrition to sustainable agriculture to crafts

Off-site Events
We will also host year-round events away from the Market, including tours of local farms employing sustainable practices and partnering with other local organizations.

After you hit the Friends of the Library Sale . . .

If you don't find everything on your list at the Friends of the Salem Public Library Spring Sale, or if you want some nice non-book gifty things, or if you just plain haven't visited before, stop by Tea Party Bookshop (corner of Liberty and Ferry) for their Buy Indie sale. Owner JoAnne Kohler sends this word:

May 1st is BUY INDIE DAY!

Support your local independent bookseller (that would be me!) by coming in and buying a book - any book, even a card, journal or CD! This idea started with author Joseph Finder, to get some good publicity and show support for all the hardworking indies around the country. Be a part of this great event - all you have to do is come by the store. Of course I'd love it if you buy something, but stopping in to say hi is also very welcomed.

We love being your independent!

To mark the occasion, JoAnne is running several sales to note:

4-Day Sale to Celebrate Buy Indie Day!

Save up to 40%

Get a great hardcover book at a softcover price! I've got a cart full of books that are 40% off - these are hardcovers that have recently been released in paper, so you can get the nicer format (and most are first editions) at about the same price.

Thursday through Sunday, May 3rd:
20% off all jewelry
15% off all CDs
10% off all Himalayan Salt Lamps
10% off notecards and journals

Plus selected items on sale - come in early for best selection!

Also this one:

Friday Only!
20% off all hardcovers, 10% off all paperbacks!

All day May 1st, we'll offer a discount on your book purchases! Everything included, even the special orders you are waiting to pick up!

Tea Party Bookshop has been very generous by hosting and providing free meeting space for various local groups and also by researching and selecting titles of interest to community groups like the Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization and others -- the kind of thing that local booksellers do naturally and that chains forgot how to do long ago. So, run down your list of upcoming graduations, weddings, birthdays, vacations, trips, and ideas and pick up something for everyone on your list at these two vital local resources.

Good Resource

In the near future, humanity will be challenged by the converging trends of energy depletion and climate change. It will be necessary for us to transition into a culture that consumes drastically less, and to shift away from the paradigm of perpetual material growth. As part of this transition, the means for securing food, water, energy, and waste management must be re-localized into people's home communities. As currently more than 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas, it will be critical to make our cities more sustainable.

As more and more often the word "sustainability" is being used as a marketing term, we are attempting to bring it back to its truer, original meaning: to live in such a way that the resources available to us today will be available also to an indefinite number of future human generations. This desire led us to create the Rhizome Collective in Austin Texas in 2000. The Rhizome was an old warehouse building that was converted into a demonstration site for urban sustainability, and a home base for numerous social work and activist organizations. On display were numerous ecologically designed systems that the public was invited to come and interact with and learn from.

Drawing from our years of experience at the Rhizome, we've written Toolbox for Sustainable City Living. It is a collection of skills, tools, and technologies usable by urban residents wanting to have more local access and control over life's essential resources. We advocate building sustainable infrastructure using affordable, simple designs that utilize salvaged and recycled materials. We believe sustainability should be something that is accessible to the majority of people in the world, and not just the wealthiest. . . . (more at link above)

A model for Salem: The Greening of Detroit

Hat tip to The Progressive Review for this pointer to this important piece in the Christian Science Monitor about Greening of Detroit:

. . . As the trio cleared a bed for planting seedlings, Saba said, “I love gardening, It’s cool. It’s nice. And you can get your hands dirty without getting yelled at. You get to plant things and when they grow, you pick them.”

Such interaction between kids and adults is one reason that Ms. Kohn, an urban agriculture apprentice for the Greening of Detroit (www.greeningofdetroit.com), is encouraging families in the neighborhood to come to the garden to work, visit, and harvest fresh produce.

Another reason is that she and others see such urban gardens – 355 of them so far, planted throughout the 139-square-mile city – as vital to the revitalization of Detroit, often called a rusted out industrial city. . . .

Today, with 25 percent of the land in the city vacant due to the removal of many residential and commercial buildings, Ms. Atkinson has been instrumental in developing gardening and youth education programs to help stabilize and redevelop neighborhoods. . . .

“What we’re doing is to start with one block, and we don’t dare move until we take care of that one block,” he says.

Another key ingredient to the city’s gardening success is Earthworks, founded in 1997 by Rick Samyn of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen (www.cskdetroit.org) on Detroit’s East Side.

Brother Rick noticed that the poor were buying their food at gas stations, and kids were calling Coke and chips a meal. He began a small garden in a vacant lot and two years later developed six other lots by removing debris and regenerating the soil with compost.

The gardens now supply food for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which prepares 2,000 meals per day, and the Gleaners Community Food Bank (www.gcfb.org/site/PageServer), which distributes 25 million pounds of food each year.

Four years ago, Earthworks added a 1,300-square-foot greenhouse that produces more than 100,000 vegetable seedlings for family, community, and school gardens across the city.

However, gardening is not just an economic or a community-building asset. It’s considered therapeutic and healing, especially for urban children who often live in a violent and unsafe world.

“The toughest children derive a sense of pleasure and accomplishment by growing plants,” says Sister Nancyann Turner, manager of the youth program at the soup kitchen. . . .

The urban garden movement began in Detroit in 1992 when Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs, local labor and civil rights activists, envisioned a different future for the city since it was clear that industrialization was gone forever.

They founded Detroit Summer (www.detroitsummer.org), a multiracial, intergenerational collective that works to transform citizens and their communities by confronting problems with creativity and critical thinking.

“Actually, it was a blessing that Detroit no longer had the illusion of expansion,” says Mrs. Boggs, now in her 90s. “You can bemoan your fate or, as the African-American elders taught, you can plant gardens.”

As the garden movement caught on in the city, partnerships developed among people and organizations and became known as the Detroit Agricultural Network (DAN).

Each summer for the past 11 years, DAN has held a two-hour bus and bicycle tour to show off the community gardens to the public and to demonstrate how gardens are influencing larger issues such as reducing crime, cleaning up trash-strewn lots, connecting people to nature, nurturing leadership in citizens of all ages, and improving property values.