We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. (July 4, 1776)
Credit: Sharon Lathan
Happy Independence Day from LGBG!
A Fourth of July fireworks display at the Washington Monument. Location: WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (DC) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Fourth of July is tomorrow, and for those planning picnics and barbecues, we have some last-minute suggestions to make this day a happy green celebration.
We here at LGBG wish everyone a health, happy, safe, GREEN Fourth of July!
Wwoofing by the sea (Photo credit: Peter Blanchard)
If you have a green thumb, need a vacation, and you are willing to work approximately 4 hours a day in exchange for room and board, WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms) may be your ticket to paradise. WWOOF is an exchange program that started in the United Kingdom in 1971 for people at least 16 years old, who are interested in organic farming and travel. You, the WWOOFer, pay your travel costs, but do pay any living costs, and the host farmers do not pay you a wage. Rather, for a period of time predetermined by the WWOOFer and the host, you get hands-on experience in organic and sustainable farming, and the farm gets extra hands.
WWOOFing opportunities exist globally. Those interested can WWOOF in the United States or abroad. An excellent place to begin your WWOOF journey is at the website, www.wwoofinternational.org/. This is a comprehensive site that thoroughly explains the program, requirements and rules for participation. This site has links for both volunteers and for organic farms interested in participating in this wonderful program. The site also includes links to specific WWOOF organizations in Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. This site specifically addresses any concerns one may have regarding security, VISAS, insurance requirements and even specialty farming opportunities.
WWOOF presents a great opportunity for summer vacations. The host opportunities come in all sizes and shapes. A review of the site shows that there even are opportunities for family participation. What better way is there to spend a summer vacation learning something new and valuable as a family while also providing a service to the environment? This would be a truly unforgettable vacation with an added bonus of free time to tour places of interest while making a difference in sustainable living. This also is a great opportunity for high school and college students to enjoy unique cultural experiences during their summer vacations.
For anyone still planning a summer vacation, who is interested in learning about organic farming and who does not mind a few hours of work in exchange for room and board, WWOOF certainly should be a consideration. With our busy lives and the constraints of urban living, we often are limited in the ability to learn many aspects of organic farming. WWOOF links individuals interested in learning about organic farming with experts all over the world, who are more than willing to share their knowledge. This truly is a great way to live green, be green.
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Sources for this article:
1. www.wwoofinternational.org/
2. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/06/15/wwoofing.volunteer.farming/index.html
Atlantic Ocean shore at Longport, New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The summer beach season has opened officially on the east coast, and while we hear commercials, politicians and even President Obama declaring that the New Jersey shore communities are “stronger than the storm“, we must question the hasty rebuilding of shoreline communities and businesses in time to accommodate the tourist season as a show of strength versus resilience.
Rebuilding homes in these communities, along with replacing board walks and amusement parks, definitely indicates resilience and determination to continue a tradition and industry that is crucial to the region. However, these actions alone do not translate necessarily to strength, a required attribute to prevent such devastation during future storms. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines resilience as “the capability of a strained body to recover the size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive strength”. To that end, many of these communities are resilient in that they have rebuilt and reopened post Hurricane Sandy. On the other hand, the concept of being stronger, by definition implies “an ability to endure stress, pain or hard use without giving way”. It is questionable whether these communities, in their hasty return to open in time for the tourist season, actually adopted measures to ensure that they have greater strength than previously to withstand future violent storms.
An interesting and provocative source for information on rebuilding after a devastating storm can be found in a paper released on December 12, 2012 by the Association of State Floodplain Managers, Inc. This report “outlines some of the actions that communities, individuals, businesses, and state and federal officials can take to reduce the suffering, damage, and risks from events like Hurricane Sandy in the future.” Acknowledging the need to use the destruction caused by Sandy as a learning opportunity to avoid such damage and destruction in the future, this paper alerts us of the need to alter our reaction to violent weather disasters so as not to keep making the same mistakes. As stated in the paper, despite the experience of several hurricanes, including Andrew, Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and recently Irene and Sandy, most of the nation still lacks an adequate “rebuilding policy to deal with situations when a large area is impacted by an extreme event.”
This reports details specific steps to take to reconstruct communities that are safer, and disaster resistant. It specifically addresses concerns with deteriorating and poorly designed infrastructure. Changes need to be made in the location of power grids and storm drainage systems. Also, changes in land use, addressing density limits and only allowing open space compatible use is important to protect people in areas that are “100% guaranteed to flood again”. Careful planning and implementation cannot be done in a hasty fashion. To do so places these communities at the risk of new destruction during future storms.
As we celebrate the reopening of the Jersey shore communities in time for the beach season, local, state and federal officials must continue to work to make our communities really “stronger than the storm”, not just resilient to the storm. To do so truly is to “live green, be green.
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Sources for this article:
http://www.floods.org/ace-files/documentlibrary/Hot_Topics/HurricaneSandyRecovery_ASFPM_Actions_12-13-12.pdf
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Contact: Patrick Halligan
LGBG by PMD United
Phone: (410) 533-4895
Fax: (410) 555-0000
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2707 Summers Ridge Drive
Odenton, MD 21113
www.livegreenbegreen.com
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LIVE GREEN BE GREEN |
PRESS RELEASE
Live Green Be Green Announces Campaign Project Results
“A Buck and A Bag” tote drive proves highly successful with community support.
ODENTON, Maryland – June 6, 2013 – Live Green Be Green by PMD United today announced the completion of its first “A Buck and A Bag” Tote drive. To get involved in the movement whose aim is to help rid Africa of plastic pollution, LGBG co-founders, Patrick Halligan and Michael Natale, partnered with Lori Robinson, an active Africa Adventures Specialist for the Jane Goodall Foundation and founder of Africa Inside.
Through Africa Inside, Robinson collects donations of tarp- and canvas-material tote bags, those regularly seen in major grocery and shopping stores nowadays, along with monetary donations and accompanying notes written to the potential recipients. This drive’s recipients will be villagers of Samburu, Kenya, as that is where Robinson will be heading to hand-deliver her donations – she’ll give a tote bag to every female villager who can show that she has collected 25 plastic bags, which would otherwise have been burned along with other trash or simply thrown about surrounding wildlife habitats, to exchange for one such re-useable tote.
Live Green Be Green was approached by Robinson, and immediately decided to take a role in this great cause. With its help, Africa Inside has seen increased public donations, including those from local Anne Arundel County schools, as well as corporate donations from the likes of Safeway and Target. “People don’t realize when they’re not healthy or eco-friendly, it comes back around,” noted Patrick Halligan, explaining that “the more conscious you are of it, the easier it is.” It is with that precise message and mentality that the LGBG team has had success in helping to grow Africa Inside’s donation program. In discussing why his team chose to target school systems, he added, “This is a very global concept and problem that can be used as a gateway for kids to reach out.”
As this collection campaign drew to an end, Live Green Be Green remains confident in its contributions to the cause. In successfully collecting hundreds of tote bag donations, there is a potential to rid Africa of thousands of plastic pollutants from its Kenyan countryside.
For more information on Africa Inside and its mission, in this program and overall, please visit the organization’s website at http://www.africainside.org.
A Wonderful Article by Jake Linger of the Crofton-West County Gazette
LGBG is committed to global initiatives that make our world greener. The plastic bag project that we are working on with Lori Robinson and Africa Inside is one of these initiatives which is gaining steam thanks to talented journalist like jake Linger.
Credit: www.thatsfit.com
Being that it is a requirement of living, it is likely that you have seen a grocery store in your lifetime. (If not, congrats to you for this incredible feat in modern society). Among the common items of bread, eggs, and cheese that you would normally find in the grocery store is the now ubiquitous Greek Yogurt section. Popular for being rich in protein, and its smooth texture, Greek yogurt has taken off as an industry within the past five years. In fact, “…Yogurt production in New York…has tripled between 2007 and 2013.”[1] What yogurt companies and John Stamos have not told you however are the consequences the production of their products have had on the environment.
Unlike traditional yogurt, the Greek variety, “…Yields huge quantities of acid whey, a byproduct that kills aquatic life during decomposition.” In the production cycle, acid whey (which is common component in the making of inexpensive butters and creams) is one of the byproducts that separates from milk after it has been curdled.[2] Yet, because of the aforementioned boom in production, yogurt companies are left with a tremendous amount of waste that cumulatively can greatly impact our oceans, rivers, and streams. Acid whey naturally takes away oxygen from water which has the effect of progressively killing any aquatic life in the area. For example, after an Ohio cheese factory accidentally spilled acid whey into nearby Sandy Creek, close to 5,400 fish were killing along the 1.5 mile river.[3] These figures are pretty extraordinary, but can only provide a glimpse into the potential environmental ramifications if a larger scaled spill were to happen.
Currently, for every three or four ounces of milk, Chobani and other companies can produce only one ounce of creamy Greek yogurt. The rest becomes acid whey.”[4] So what can we do to reverse this trend? According to The Verge and The Modern Farmer several sustainable options are currently being explored. The most promising idea in use is located at a farm in Scipio Center, N.Y where they have successfully turned acid whey into methane, which then is converted into usable electricity. In a simplified and less disgusting version of the process, acid whey and manure are combined in tanks with heat for approximately 20 days. Here the cultures in acid whey break down the contents of the mixture which, in this case, releases methane embedded within the manure where the gas is used as a raw material for electrical generators which power the farm.
Yet, the anaerobic digesters which are required tools for the New York farm require millions in capital investment and are not likely to be available to the local farmer. As a result, we need to cultivate more practical ideas to meet this growing challenge which faces our environment and aquatic life. Here at LGBG we want to empower you with this information to go out and make a difference. Together lets collaborate and inspire to create a solution so that we can all live green, and be green.
A class photo of the 110th United States Senate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The recent Senate rejection of an amendment to the Farm Bill, which would permit states to require labeling of GMOs in food and beverages clearly represents a suppression of consumers’ right to vote. A vote is defined as a “formal expression of a wish or will”. Therefore, when we purchase food and beverages, our selection is in essence a vote. The selection of food and beverages should be a willful choice; however, the withholding of information on food and beverage ingredients suppresses the consumers’ right to make informed choices.
During a debate on this amendment, which includes “generous support for crops like corn and soybeans that are often genetically modified“, senators from farm states overwhelmingly opposed the food labeling amendment. They feel that the issue of labeling should be left to the federal government. Also, they voiced concern that food labeling would result in increased costs of food. The supporters of the food labeling amendment state that a major problem with GMOs is that “the modified seeds “are floating from field to field, contaminating pure crops”. [1]
Upon analysis of the motives of the proponents and opponents of this amendment, is understandable that each side is backed by private interest groups, with the giant seed companies pushing against the amendment and the organic food companies lobbying to pass the food labeling amendment. It is disturbing, however, that the FDA and USDA have adopted the position that “the engineered foods they have approved are safe– so safe, they do not even need to be labeled as such– and cannot be significantly distinguished from conventional
varieties.[1] This position is a direct attack on consumers’ right to know and its right to “vote” in the marketplace by making informed choices on food and beverage selections. Clearly, the Senate is overstepping its boundaries.
As consumers, we have to protect our rights, particularly those that involve our very personal choices, i.e., food purchases. It is amazing that Congress is spending such an inordinate amount of time and effort to ensure that the American public has access to every detail of the Benghazi attack, the IRS‘ attack on the Tea Party or detainment of prisoners at Guantanamo, while working to deny us access to information that affects our health, survival and “right to vote”. I imagine that most readers would agree that the ingredients in the food that we feed our families trumps the details of the Benghazi attack.
Now more than ever we have to be extremely careful of protecting our voting rights, starting with the election of “public servants“. We need individuals in Congress who represent us and who trust us to be able to make informed choices, not those who would willfully suppress our right to information. The green movement needs your voice now. Let’s fight to protect our right to choose our food based on complete and accurate information on ingredients. To do so is to live green, be green.
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Sources for this article:
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/senate-gm-food-labeling-farm-bill.
[2] http://www.politicususa.com/bernie-sanders-calls-corporate-controlled-senate-rejecting-gmo-labels.html
The ever-growing movement to repeal the very controversial Monsanto Protection Act has garnered the support of both the Tea Party and the green movement, thereby breeding strange bedfellows. The Monsanto Protection Act “allows Monsanto and other companies to continue selling genetically engineered seeds, even if a court has blocked them from doing so”. [1] In recent months, federal courts have ruled against the Department of Agriculture, who approved the sale of genetically engineered seeds, stating that the agency acted hastily in their approval, without giving careful consideration to the seeds’ “potential harm“. In response to these rulings, the seed industry lobby fought back and was successful in attaching the Monsanto Protection Act as a resolution to the spending bill signed into law in March. Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) took note of the rider and spoke out against it on the Senate floor. Unfortunately, his voice fell on a typically empty floor, resulting in Tester’s failure to garner enough votes to block the passage of the rider. This bill then was signed by President Obama as a part of the massive spending bill.
Now we see true activism at work. Many conservatives, namely the Tea Party, are voicing opposition to the Monsanto Protection Act, particularly on the underhanded way this resolution was passed. Of course, proponents of the green movement are opposed to the Monsanto Protection Act based on environmental and health concerns. [2] While the reasons for opposition of the Monsanto Protection Act may vary in that the Tea Party opposes “the special interest loophole for friends of Congress” [3], and the green movement opposes GMOs [2], the opposition itself reflects a coalition unencumbered by politics. The goal here is a unified one: namely to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act.
Such activism is refreshing in this current toxic and partisan political atmosphere, which typically results in gridlock and ineffective action or inaction. We now see the potential power of the people at work. The Monsanto Protection Act is a bad deal on so many fronts. We need a united stand to repeal this act. We here at LGBG urge our readers to contact your senator (see list below) [4] and voice your opposition to the Monsanto Protection Act. To do so is to live green, be green.
Sources for this article:
1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/monsanto-protection-act-tea-party-partiots_n_3000073.html.
2. http://livegreenbegreen.com/2013/04/25/the-power-of-seeds-the-main-ingredient-to-sustain-life/.
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/jeff-merkley-monsanto-repeal_n_3288209.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green.
4. http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
Percentage of national population suffering from malnutrition, according to United Nations statistics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A new book by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Edible Insects, proposes the consideration of insects, particularly beetles, wasps and caterpillars as a source of nutrition to address problems of food insecurity. The FAO notes that many insects, including worms, grasshoppers and cicadas are high in “protein, fat and mineral content” and can be eaten whole or ground into a powder or paste, and incorporated into other foods. [1] In many countries, insects are considered delicacies, principally because of their nutritious value.
It seems reasonable that insect farming could become a very relevant industry for human and animal feeding in this time in which we are confronted with overwhelming problems of global population explosions and urbanization. We struggle to find adequate solutions to an ever-increasing demand for food and the persistent negative environmental impact created by its production and delivery. The challenges arising from livestock production in terms of land and water pollution and over-grazing, along with its adverse effect on climate change due to increased carbon footprint, is well documented, as is the adverse impact of crop production, including, but not limited to, the introduction of harmful pesticides into the air, soil and water and industrial agricultural, which leads to loss of genetic diversity and extinction of some plant species. The opportunity to explore insect farming as a possible solution to food insecurity is exciting and should not be ignored.
A key factor to successfully introduce edible insects as an integral component of the food supply would involve addressing the perception of insects in western cultures. To date, insects are considered “disgusting” despite the acknowledgement that as environmentalists, we should feel a kinship to all creatures. We find that there are so many insects that we would rather do without. Also, although it is generally known that in the process of industrial food production, it is impossible to totally alleviate bug parts from the food that we eat, citizens in western cultures have not accepted the idea of eating whole insects. [2]
Interestingly, the subject of edible insects is being raised at the same time as the 17-year cicada is making its clamorous ascent to the east coast. As these insects bore their way to the earth’s surface, excitement and curiosity about them abound. Discussions include their nutritional value. Local newspapers carry articles about them,including recipes. They have been dubbed “the shrimp of the land“.
It is inevitable that we find long-term and ethical solutions to food insecurity, and the consideration of edible insects definitely deserves our attention. With the concomitant ascent of the 17-year cicada, we have a unique opportunity to try entomophagy (name given to insect eating) and to test the possibility of utilizing insects as a dietary staple. As a plus, cicadas are natural, unlike GMOs, and they are in abundance. [3]
We here at LGBG invite you, our readers, to send us feedback about your experiences with cicadas, including comments, pictures and even recipes. We will post as many as we can. As always, live green, be green!
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Sources for this article:
1. http://allafrica.com/stories/201305141429.html
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/02/bugs-in-food_n_1467694.html
3. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Cicadas-The-Shrimp-of-The-Land-206945321.html