Most excellent: Marion-Polk Food Share's new Community Kitchen

Here's a program that will never have to kowtow and chant "We're Not Worthy:

Marion-Polk Food Share has a new facility for commercial cooking and culinary training.

The more than $500,000 community kitchen within the food share's northeast Salem warehouse was unveiled at a ribbon cutting Tuesday afternoon.

The food share, a part of the Oregon Food Bank statewide network, also will be able to prepare meals from the piles of fresh food donations, reducing waste, said Eileen DiCicco, food share development associate.

In the kitchen, volunteers will to learn how to prepare nutritious meals from scratch. They then can train the low-income and needy people served by the food share's more than 90 partner agencies, said food share president Ron Hays.

"I'm in the business of working myself out of a job, and part of that is building self-sufficiency in people," Hays said. . . .

There's also talk of connecting with Chemeketa Community College to create some type of post-prison skills training program, said Phil McCorkle, food share vice president of development . . . .

Too beautiful not to steal

If the Salem Daily Photo Diary blog isn't already on your reader, you risk missing gorgeous work like this.

Mainstream magazine gingerly mentions Peak Oil

Image via WikipediaOf course it dismisses it -- the last sentence basically parses to "There's no good substitute ready so we can't be at the peak" -- much like the joke about "I can't be overdrawn, I still have checks!"

But interesting that the magazine felt it had to address the question nonetheless:

Has ‘peak oil’ already passed?

The moment at which global oil production reaches its zenith before entering perpetual decline—“peak oil”—has long been the subject of contentious debate. But in November the International Energy Agency, which advises governments on energy policy, announced that peak oil had already occurred, in 2006. The agency, previously skeptical that peak oil was near, said fuel supplies would nevertheless remain abundant because of “unconventional” sources like tar sands. But it forecast rising oil and gas prices ahead. “The age of cheap oil is over,” said IEA economist Fatih Birol. More bullish analysts say the world still has decades of affordable oil and gas supplies, which will dampen the incentive to develop alternative energy sources. “The competitiveness of oil and gas and the scale at which they are produced,” said energy consultant James Burkhard, “mean that there are no readily available substitutes in either one year or 20 years.”

For the autodidacts and those who try to keep up with them

Interesting service offered through the regional library system that Salem Public Library belongs to (Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service) -- a whole bunch of self-study courses.

Brought to you by PGE

PGE = Please God, enough! According to PGE, we can't stop burning coal at Boardman -- the single biggest polluter in the entire state of Oregon -- because it would raise power rates a whole 5% . . . funny, they just jacked up the rates about the same amount, not long after giving their former chief Peggy MILLIONS of annual pension payments ABOVE AND BEYOND her guaranteed pension.

A Warming Climate Takes its Toll on the Polar Bears of Hudson Bay. from Daniel J. Cox on Vimeo.

THIS horrific, sickening result is what PGE fights for, what they spend all their might and muscle to continue and promote: the right to make even more profit by continuing to burn coal, even at the cost of immense suffering globally.

Warning: This video includes disturbing footage of a malnourished polar bear mother and her two cubs in western Hudson Bay, Canada. Some may choose not to watch, because it includes graphic scenes of a malnourished cub experiencing seizures.

Both cubs died within two days of the November 23, 2010, filming.

As difficult as the images are to watch, they show the real-life struggle polar bears face each day trying to survive on a warming planet. Malnourishment, starvation and even cannibalism have become facts of life for polar bears in western Hudson Bay and other areas.

Polar bears are completely dependent upon large expanses of sea ice to hunt, feed and survive. They use the sea ice as a platform to capture seals and other prey. Global warming is rapidly melting their ice and lengthening the ice-free season, forcing bears to spend ever-longer periods of time on land, where there is little for them to eat. The longer bears like the ones in this video are stranded on land, the more likely they are to starve.

Polar bears were listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2008 due to sea-ice declines and dwindling populations. The U.S. population is projected to go extinct by 2050 if climate change in not reined in soon; the entire species may disappear by the end of the century. The polar bears of western Hudson Bay are on the front line of global warming impacts: their population declined by 22 percent between 1987 and 2004 and may be the first driven extinct by climate change.

The Center for Biological Diversity wrote the 2005 scientific petition to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. We later filed suit to ensure the listing occurred and to win 187,000 square miles of protected “critical habitat” in Alaska in December 2010. The Center is currently in court to upgrade the polar bear’s status from “threatened” to “endangered” and to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions in the lower 48 states, which are contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice, are subject to Endangered Species Act regulation.

This video (© 2010 Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com) was taken as part of The Arctic Documentary Project spearheaded by Daniel J. Cox under the umbrella of Polar Bears International. (The video may be freely embedded on others websites so long as it is credited with the hyperlink © 2010 Daniel J. Cox/NaturalExposures.com.)

For their efforts, let us build a monument to the great leaders on the PGE Board, those paragons of virtue, so that the people of the future never forget them and what they did:

Board of Directors PGE's Board of Directors includes executives in utilities, management, finance and accounting.

Investors Company Overview Fact Sheet News Releases Stock Information Financial Information Events & Presentations Corporate Governance Board of Directors Corporate Officers Board Committees Committee Charters Communications to Board of Directors Governance Guidelines Code of Business Ethics and Conduct Code of Ethics Investor FAQ Contact Us

Corbin A. McNeill Jr. Chairman of the Board of Directors, Portland General Electric John W. Ballantine Retired executive vice president, First Chicago NBD Corp. Rodney L. Brown Jr. Managing Partner, Cascadia Law Group PLLC David A. Dietzler Retired Pacific Northwest partner-in-charge of audit practice, KPMG LLP Kirby A. Dyess Principal, Austin Capital Management LLC Peggy Y. Fowler Retired CEO and president, Portland General Electric Mark B. Ganz President and CEO, The Regence Group Neil J. Nelson President and CEO, Siltronic Corp. M. Lee Pelton President, Willamette University Jim Piro President and CEO, Portland General Electric Robert T.F. Reid Corporate Director

WORD: Why work doesn't happen at work

New must-read blog: Our Finite World

Who knew?

Answers to Life's Persistent Questions Dept.

Image via WikipediaToday's answer: The Chicken.








And now a word from Barb Palermo, Chief Chicken Revolutionaria:

Chicken Classes

There's still room in this weekend's Chicken-Raising 101 Class!

If you would like to learn about choosing breeds, designing a coop, and everything about raising hens in a backyard setting, you can still enroll in this class – just let me know by Friday! There are two classes to choose from: (Sat, Dec. 18 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm) or (Sun, Dec. 19 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm). The cost is just $5 and kids are free.

We will also be hosting a Poultry Health Class on February 9 from 6:00-7:30 pm. This class will focus on chicken anatomy, common illnesses and prevention, chick vaccination, the truth about bird flu, and more! The instructor will be USDA Veterinarian, Dr. Brianna Wilson. Seating is limited so let me know soon if you are interested in signing up for this class.

Chicken Ordinance

Please read my blog about Salem's chicken ordinance and why it is indeed a victory.

The city has informed me that there's a problem with training outside vendors to conduct chicken coop inspections (estimated to cost $35), so the city will be offering this service FOR FREE temporarily, starting in January. There will still be a $50 permit fee, but at least you can save on the inspection if you are among the first to apply. If you cannot afford the fee, please let me know, as I may be able to help
with CITY funds. Financial assistance is available for situations where there is real financial need (not just because you don't believe you should have to pay).

Coop Tour

We need your coop! Please consider entering your coop in Salem's first backyard chicken coop tour. Every year Salem's chicken-loving residents travel to Eugene, Corvallis, and Portland to attend annual coop tours. This year, we would like to offer one of our own. Now that chickens are legal in Salem, stop hiding, and show it off in our first coop tour. Let's prove to everyone that we are perfectly capable of keeping nice backyard coops! Even if you haven't built your coop yet, but plan to before June, consider participating. For more information e-mail contact Shannon at 88corndog@comcast.net.

Habitat for Hens

As you know, we built a chicken coop for a family last November and it was a wonderful experience. We plan to construct another coop in May, possibly at the Oregon School for the Deaf, as part of its new Ag Education Program! If you would like to donate labor and/or building materials, please contact Kristi at kristineznanski@gmail.com.

Chickens In Keizer

Several citizens in Keizer, Oregon have begun the process of trying to convince their city councilors to adopt a chicken-keeping ordinance. If you live in Keizer and are interested in helping, let me know and I will put you in touch with them.

Salem Buyer's Clubs for "Happy Meat"

If you're interested in purchasing "happy meat" from local, environmentally responsible farms where the animals are pasture-raised and well-treated, contact McK Ranch in Dallas, OR or Anton Field Farm in Corvallis, OR. Both farms sell beef, chicken, and lamb but Anton Field Farm also sells pork and honey. To join these buyer's clubs and have your meat delivered to Salem, send them an email and be sure to write "Salem Buyers Club" in the subject line. I visited the Anton Field Farm today and it is a wonderful place!

Local Resources

Don't forget to visit my website on a regular basis. I try my best to keep it updated with the most recent information, including local resources like where you can purchase ready-made coops or building plans to construct your own, urban farm stores and hatcheries in our area, and everything from local veterinarians who treat chickens to chicken babysitters! Upcoming chicken-related events are always posted
there as well, so it's a good place to find out what's coming up without having to wait for my emails.

LOVESalem HQ: "Underway on Solar Power"

OK, getting the last steps of the laborious installation process finished on the absolute rainiest day of the a pretty rainy season is not the world's best timing. But, on the other hand, if we can make 0.8 kWh today, imagine what we will do when there's some real sun!

2 + 2 = 4

I have a friend I've never met . . . hmmm, sounds like the invisible friend of my youth . . . anyway, he's got a blog where great stuff is shared. He doesn't post often, so the signal-to-noise ratio is stratospheric. Two great posts there lately -- the great song below and a thoughtful post on "The Electronic Plantation."