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Alemany Farm: San Francisco Urban Farming

Ryanne Hodson — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:35:09 +0000

Alemany Farm is a 4 acre, fully functioning urban farm nestled between a major highway intersection, a newly gentrified neighborhood on a hill and a housing project- the perfect place to grow some food! We got a tour (and some amazing fruit) from Antonio Roman-Alcalá, Volunteer Coordinator and soon to be videoblogger/documentarian extraordinaire. The work being done at Alemany Farm proves the point that urban farming and local food production is totally possible and necessary for the health and well being of a city and it’s inhabitants. Local farming and gardening are great motivators for people to get acquainted, eat more healthily and become more connected with where their food comes from and what it actually is (olives grow on trees? broccoli is a flower?). If you live in the SF Bay area, you can visit or volunteer at Alemany Farm on the weekends- check out AlemanyFarm.org.

Food Not Lawns: No Lawn Left Behind

Ryanne Hodson — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:11:31 +0000

Ever since we started living in a place were every square inch is growing something useful (to people and other creatures), our eyes are opened to the possibility of transforming lawns and other unused green space to grow food. Why water a lawn full of grass when you could water and grow salad greens, root veggies, herbs, squash, tomatoes, peppers, the list goes on and on. In this video we used some scrap wood to build a raised garden bed over a 7′x7′ patch of driveway gravel. Not only do we pluck the greens for dinner, it looks a lot nicer than the dumping ground of found materials that it once was. If every neighborhood had even a few lawns turned into gardens, we could start hyper-localizing our food supplies and getting to know our neighbors- because, after all, you’re going to want to trade gardening tips!

Raising Chics from Scratch

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:44:29 +0000

You might remember from our Stone Soup video that our little eco-village has started to cull our chicken flock to make room for new birds. For the last 2 months we’ve been learning what it takes to be mother hens and raise two dozen newly hatched chics. Jay and I grew up in urban areas where there were no chickens but in the grocery store, so this was a learning experience for us both. These babies need tons of food, water and warmth because they grow exponentially in their first months of life. The benefits of having chickens in your backyard are many- they eat veggie food scraps and weeds, they poop instant fertilizer, they lay eggs and, if you’re into it, they’ll eventually make a great organic, free range, home raised meal.

GRUB: Bryant Terry’s Organic Soul Party

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:52:10 +0000

Bryant Terry, co-author of the book GRUB: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, and Jason Harvey, founder of Oakland Food Connection, teamed up recently to have a totally organic soul food brunch. Hanging out with food justice foodies as of late, we’ve been hearing a similar idea that to encourage folks to think about where their food comes from and who controls it, they have to have a taste of ‘real food’. Real food meaning local, sustainable, fresh, no pesticides, delicious, colorful, home grown and cheap. Yes, this food can be affordable, especially if we’re not paying extra for it to get shipped thousands of miles and for the medical bills we will incur because of the processes and chemicals that will eventually make us sick and over weight. Thanks Bryant and Jason for inviting us over!

Tags: Bryant Terry, Jason Harvey, Oakland Food Connection, sustainable

Community Choice Aggregation: Power By The People

Ryanne Hodson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:51:16 +0000

I’m so sick of getting my utility bill and seeing that a huge majority of my money goes to pay for energy from Natural Gas and Nuclear (and in many places in the US, Coal). I want my money to go towards renewables and I’m not the only one. Many communities, including San Francisco and Oakland are petitioning and passing legislation for more choice in their energy purchasing. The movement is called Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) or Community Choice Energy. This type of legislation would not take down big corporations like PG&E, but would work with their existing infrastructure to deliver energy from sources chosen by the community. This would allow citizens to put their money towards more sustainable and renewable options and not have to wait around for the private companies to decide when to start investing in these technologies. As you’ll hear Rory Cox of PacificEnvironment.org say:

PG&E gets about half of its electricity from domestically sourced natural gas. The plan that PG&E is pushing right now is to import natural gas from abroad…most likely…from the former Soviet Union and The Middle East. It would require a whole brand, new fossil fuel energy infrastructure. We’d rather see those billions spent on clean energy.

When will it end? When will companies stop thinking that it is ok to continue to invest in finite resources? When communities stop relying on them to make energy choices for the people. For more info on Community Choice Aggregation, check out Local Clean Energy and Local Government Commission’s CCA page.

Neelum Sharma: Food Not Lawns in Los Angeles

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:18:35 +0000

Neelam Sharma is the Programs Director for CSU, Community Services Unlimited, an organization empowering South Central Los Angeles residents to eat and grow healthy food. The “Food Not Lawns” attitude towards neighborhoods, I must admit, is infectious. After hanging out with urban and suburban farmers in the last year, we see people watering grass and we gasp. What a waste! CSU encourages and empowers folks to start thinking this way by teaching backyard gardening and reclaiming un-used urban space for food production. Check out their other projects in our previous video Community Services Unlimited: Rocking LA with Food and Beauty.

Tags: Neelam Sharma, CSU, food production

Community Services Unlimited: Rocking LA with Food and Beauty

Ryanne Hodson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:50:39 +0000

We first met the Community Services Unlimited folks at the Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers day. They told us we should come check out their work in community gardening in South Central LA. How could we not? These folks are on the front lines of urban gardening in an LA neighborhood most famous for violence. The work they have done, transforming empty lots and street abutting school yards into luscious, cornucopias of food and beauty is awe inspiring. They hold weekly workshops at each garden site to get folks involved and to taste goodies from the garden as well as local farmers’ wares. In an area of town where the only food resources are liquor stores and fast food joints, CSU is a welcome addition empowering residents to grow their own and take action for food justice.

Tags: Community Services Unlimited, Just Us For Food, Justice Bioneers, South Central LA, food justice

Vermicompost: Our Worm Bin Rocks!

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:42:43 +0000

As you might remember, we made a new worm bin after our original bin failed. This new one is doing great! The drainage holes in the bottom have helped keep it moist but not too wet, the shallow shape allows the worms to get to everything faster and the blending of food scraps allows the worms to eat right away. Today we harvest all the rich vermicompost (soil) and sprinkle it into one of our garden beds. Potted plants also LOVE this stuff. I’ve brought back to life more than one of our failing ferns with a scoop of nutrient rich vermicompost. Why buy chemically fertilizer when you can use worm poop?

Tags: vermicompost, worm compost, worm bin, apartment composting, compost, garden, ryanishungry

Cheap and Green Insulation: Recycled Paper Cellulose

Ryanne Hodson — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:54:58 +0000

Recently, Jay’s dad started building on some property he owns in rural Virginia. The first structure built was the garage/workshop. Jay and I were eager for the chance to try out some green building materials as an alternative to the usual stuff. Before traveling over to the east coast for Turkey Day, we did some research along side his pops about what the cheapest, most green insulation material could be used (which could also be purchased at a major box store near by). We found that Recycled Paper Cellulose was the least expensive material you could buy, at 25 cents per sq. foot and it is available through most building material suppliers. The alternatives were The Pink Stuff, fiberglass rolls at about 50 cents per sq. foot. I was wary of using fiberglass because of its notorious itch inducing particles that will irritate not just your skin, but your lungs as well! If the particles ever become loose and get into your ventilation system, this can mean big trouble for your internal organs and cancer fighting immune system. Another recycled and mostly benign insulator are the trendy new denim rolls. These are made from recycled scraps from jean manufacturers. This was my top choice until I did a price check. This stuff goes for $1.00 per sq. foot. Yikes!

The price factor is still top priority when you have to build, those square feet can add up fast. And when you’re trying to convince a retiring baby boomer to go green even though it costs 4 times as much, they’re gonna laugh and buy the usual ‘Pink Stuff’. So we were happy to find an alternative that was cost effective and recycled. The only downside was the actual packaging of the material. It came in plastic bags, which most of you know, drive me crazy and can not be easily recycled or degraded. A would love to see this company really pull through and start packaging the product in, you guessed it, recycled paper!

Tags: Recycled Paper Cellulose, fiberglass, recycle

Just Us For Food Justice: Youth at Bioneers

Ryanne Hodson — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:09:20 +0000

Just Us for Food Justice is a youth track of the Food and Farming program at The Bioneers Conference that happens annually in Marin County, California. We had the privilege of hanging out with this crew of folks who came from as far as Costa Rica and as close as Oakland. The day included a trip to Allstar Organics Farm, the Marin Farmer’s Market and the Marin Youth Center’s incredible kitchen for the cooking of a feast of epic proportions and local, organic origins. Each group of participants is involved in helping resolve issues of food justice and equality in their neighborhoods back home. They came together this day, to share stories and experiences over a plate of home cooked, healthy food in preparation for Bioneers weekend. Thanks to the folks at Bioneers for letting us join them!

Tags: Just Us for Food Justice, Bioneers, Allstar Organics Farm

Janet Brown: Allstar Organics Farm

Ryanne Hodson — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:07:46 +0000

We met Allstar Organics co-founder, Janet Brown, during the Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers day up in Marin. I really liked what she had to say about the impending crisis that is climate change and the small scale human solutions through the food we eat. I liked it so much, I thought I should share her interview as it’s own separate post. Thanks Janet!

Tags: Allstar Organics, Janet Brown, Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers

Toni Whiteman: Link TV

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:31:30 +0000

Link TV is a non-profit, independent satellite television station in the US. The station reaches 1 out of 4 homes with a television and was founded to air international and culturally diverse programs like the well known Mosaic: World News from the Middle East.

Tags: Link TV, non-profit, satellite television, Mosaic: World News from the Middle East

Jackson Sillars: GoodGrub.org

Ryanne Hodson — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:03:24 +0000

GRuB is an Olympia, Washington based organization created to connect youth with where their food comes from. GRuB runs a small farm and a local garden bed project to get folks growing food in their own backyards.

Tags: GRuB

Julie Wolk: Rainforest Action Network

Ryanne Hodson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:11:32 +0000

The Rainforest Action Network defends more than just the rainforest these days. Combatting corporate, environmental injustices, RAN works from the inside out- directly negotiating with CEOs to change their policies. At the same time, RAN proactively keeps the public informed of progress on key issues.

Tags: The Rainforest Action Network, rainforest, RAN

Katherine Paul: CommonDreams.org

Ryanne Hodson — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:29:39 +0000

CommonDreams.org was one of the first progressive news aggregation sites on the web. Funded entirely by supporters, CommonDreams.org remains one of the most popular sites for International, Progressive and Environmental information.

Tags: CommonDreams.org, news aggregation

Bringing Back The Clothes Line: No Dryer Needed!

Ryanne Hodson — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:29:55 +0000

When I was little, my best friend’s family never dried their clothes in their dryer but on a clothes line or indoor rack next to the radiators. In my house, we did use a dryer. I never understood their reasoning until now. Why use all that electricity or gas when you can just hang your clothes out in the sun (or partial sun in my case)? This is how it’s been done for thousands of years before the industrial revolution, so why change? According to the US Dept of Energy an electric dryer can use between 1800-5000 watts of power. That’s a lot of electricity! Even if you supplement your dryer usage by hanging stuff out half the time, you’d be saving a bunch of money and resources. So that’s what we’ve decided to do. It’s even catching on among our fellow eco-villagers - every time I walk by the line, it’s got someone else’s clothes on it! Thanks to Rhett and Amy at Greentime for the inspiration!

Tags: US Dept of Energy

Stone Soup: We Know Where Our Food Comes From

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:19:56 +0000

A Word of Warning: This is a graphic video. If you do not eat meat and think killing animals to do so is bad, you should not watch this video.

We live at The San Mateo Eco-Village, where we know our neighbors, garden together and learn how to live more sustainably. Part of living sustainably is eating local foods. Harvesting food from the garden and raising hens for eggs is about as local as you can get. When our neighbors Amy and Malaki arrived at the Eco-Village, they noticed a lack of eggs coming from the hens. Both have an agricultural background from years of working on a farm in Kenya. What do they do in Kenya when a bird gets too old to lay? They eat it. The whole damn thing! So we, as a community, decided to do just that. Most of us had never experienced living with chickens, let alone killing them for dinner. Growing up in the United States allows us to be vastly ignorant of where our food comes from - meat and vegetables alike. We thought this would be a good education for us city kids.

The interesting part to me was the difference in methods between Brian, co-founder of The Eco-Village and Bay Area Native, and Malaki who grew up on a farm in Kenya. Also I thought it would be way more physically dramatic - you’ve heard the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut-off.” Well, it’s true. Even after the chicken has died, the body still moves around and spasms. I think that freaked me out the most because it seems like the chicken is suffering, but it’s long been unconscious. Though it was not the most pleasant feeling to watch an animal die at human hands, I do know that these birds had a peaceful life full of good food and loving owners. That’s saying a heck of a lot more than all the meat that is factory farmed and trucked to our grocery stores.

L.A. Metro: Fast, Cheap, Clean and Green

Ryanne Hodson — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:13:36 +0000

I know, I know - flying places is not very green at all, I hear ya - but getting to and from the airport can be. Recently, on a trip to L.A., I decided to bypass the forever clogged L.A. highway system and go the Green LA Girl route and take the Metro. Yes, L.A. has a subway and it rocks. For $2.50 roundtrip, I got downtown from LAX (and back again a few days later) in one hour. I made it to my events and then I made it home to San Fran without ever having to climb into a car and sit in traffic. It was great! I highly recommend public transport to and from airports. Especially New York City where a cab can cost you over $100 roundtrip (take a book if you’re going to JFK, it’s a long ride!). Going somewhere soon? I obessively compiled a list of public transportation resources for some major North American airports below. Know of better ones? Link to them in the comments! Get on the bus!

Austin
Boston
Burbank
ChicagoO’Hare
Chicago Midway
Dallas-Fort Worth
Denver
Miami
Minneapolis/St.Paul
Montreal
New Orleans
New York City La Guardia and JFK
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Oakland
Orange County
Philadelphia
Phoenix
San Antonio
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Seattle
Tampa
Toronto
Vancouver
Washington, D.C. Reagan
Washington, D.C. Dulles

Green City Gallery: Showing Off Urban Green

Ryanne Hodson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:26:23 +0000

The Green City Gallery is an eco-demonstration site/art gallery/community meeting and event space in downtown Berkeley, Calif. A collaboration between Bay Localize, an Oakland-based non-profit focused on post petroleum community empowerment, and Dig Cooperative, an eco-design crew helping to re-invent urban environments to be more sustainable. The Green City Gallery was established to showcase to the public, as well as local politicians and business folk, that green does not have to be hippy-fringe but practical, clean and smart. Some of our favorite demonstrations are the roof top garden (keeps buildings naturally insulated, provides green space and food to occupants), the constructed wetland/greywater filtration (filters all your household water naturally through gravel and plants right back out to your garden) and last but not least, the composting toilet and urinal (fertilize your plants every time you go!). Thanks to Ingrid from Bay Localize for touring us around! If you’re in Berkeley, head over to the space, it’s at 1950 Shattuck Ave., in downtown Berkeley.

Tags: eco-design

Santa Clara University Students Compete in the Solar Decathlon

Ryanne Hodson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:24:41 +0000

The Solar Decathlon is a competition between 20 international (but mostly U.S.) universities to build a solar, green and sustainable house that could be practically duplicated for the marketplace. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the contest requires teams to ship their entire house to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for a weeklong, public exhibit, and to be judged on ten sustainable areas. We got the chance to check out the Santa Clara University team house before they shipped it to D.C. It was definitely inspiring to see students so passionate and excited about building sustainably. Here’s to hoping the Department of Energy will take queues from all these talented students building for the future.

Tags: The Solar Decathlon

Vermicomposting: Born Again Worm Bin

Ryanne Hodson — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:17:32 +0000

We were saddened by the death of our first worm bin because of some imbalance of moisture, acidity or bad paper products. We’re super-determined to continue the worm composting process with a homemade bin. We took the tray from our old bin (a big kitty litter pan) and gathered some scrap wood from our communal backyard at the San Mateo Eco-Village and got the process going again. The basic set-up for a healthy, homemade bin is plenty of ventilation, damp paper bedding, food scraps, green plant stuffs, red wiggler worms and some shredded dry paper topping. We’ll keep monitoring our bin to see how it’s going and hopefully — cross your fingers — our worms survive and make rich, worm castings for our plants.

Tags: worm bin, composting

Burning Man: DIY Energy Makers

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:01:29 +0000

Burning Man is filled with hackers, artists and makers of all walks. We thought we would search out the energy geeks and see how they were utilizing resources out in the middle of nowhere. The obvious, most abundant source of energy in Black Rock City is the Sun. Solar arrays ranged from the milk-crate supported to the 10,000 watt, “could (and did) power a small village” variety. It was great to see electric art cars charging off the sun! Waste Veggie Oil diesel conversions were also a favorite among burners for powering art cars and generators, too. Thanks to Maestro, David and Nick for sharing their desert energy oases with us!

Tags: Burning Man, Black Rock City

Free as in Freedom: The Free Software Foundation

Ryanne Hodson — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:48:57 +0000

Every since we interviewed John Sullivan, Campaigns Manager for The Free Software Foundation in Boston, our heads have been spinning with the possibilities that ‘Free as in Freedom’ Software holds. If you’re looking at this on the Web, you’ll see that our site is a pimped out Wordpress blog - a free and open blogging platform. There are lots of crazy thumbnails and video playing plug-ins that we’ve helped to build through our collaborative Show-In-A-Box project.

All of this is possible because of Free and Open Software. Free is the idea (and the reality) that people should have the right to use their software in any way they see fit. Modifications, hacks, customizations and copies-lots of copies- should be allowed. If you’re using any operating system besides GNU-Linux (this would be Mac and Windows and a huge percentage of the population) and proprietary software made by these companies and many others, you literally don’t have the right to change, copy or distribute any of it. That CD you made your friend of that cheesy FTP program? Nope, that’s totally illegal. Unless of course it’s Free Software (like my favorite FTP app, Cyberduck), then it’s wholly encouraged for you to share and even open up the code and modify it and share it some more.

We love free software because as people with big imaginations and some techy, smart developer friends, we can build things the way we want them rather than wait for a big corporation to build them for us. We have the freedom to share our code and encourage others to modify and share alike. Much like Creative Commons, The Free Software Foundation embraces copyleft, which gives both creator and user the freedom to work together.

Check out our new Ogg Theora video feed and subscribe in your favorite free video aggregator or check out Miro!

Tags: John Sullivan, Wordpress blog, GNU-Linux, Cyberduck, free software, Creative Commons, copyleft, Ogg Theora, Miro

Burning Man: Some Of The Cool Stuff We Saw!

Ryanne Hodson — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:44:02 +0000

There are so many words to describe Burning Man that it overwhelms me. If you’ve ever attended the annual desert gathering of artists, hackers, hippies and yuppies alike (it all happens about 100 miles north of Reno, Nev., in Black Rock City), then you know what I mean. Burning Man is an experiment in temporary community in the middle of nowhere with no resources except for the stuff you bring. Food, water, shelter, transport and whatever hacked-together art or science project you can imagine — these are your life for seven days in the desert with 50,000 new friends. This year was themed ‘The Green Man’ though it seems that the Burner crowd is generally pretty darn savvy when it comes to recycling the world’s trash into amazing, awe inspiring art and functional pieces of technology, shelter and transport. Here are some snippets of our fun time at Burning Man. Stay tuned for some interviews with Burners making their own renewable energy and sharing it with fellow camps.

Tags: Burning Man, renewable energy

Citizen Powered Energy Handbook

Ryanne Hodson — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:00:03 +0000

Another conversation-starting, thought-provoking book. The Citizen Powered Energy Handbook by Greg Pahl is a great primer into the choices we have for community-fueled energy. Get it for cheap on Amazon or for free at your local library.

Tags: Greg Pahl