http://www.cchange.net Covering the transformations to social, environment and economic sustainability Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:08:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Sea Change Radio covers the transformations to social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Change is accelerating in positive and negative directions: the clock is ticking in the race to see which will tip first—the problems or the solutions. Join Sea Change's Host, Alex Wise, as he provides in-depth analysis to help our audience understand possible remedies and potential pitfalls. Sea Change interviews sustainability experts including Paul Hawken, Stewart Brand, Bill McKibben, Van Jones, Lester Brown, and many others. Sea Change airs on over 30 radio stations around the country. Alex Wise clean Alex Wise awise@cchange.net awise@cchange.net (Alex Wise) 2007-2011 Making Connections for Sustainability Sustainability, Climate Change, Human Rights, Environment, Corporate Responsibility, Socially Responsible Investing, Accountability, Stakeholders, Clean Tech, Renewable Energy, Green Jobs, Wealth Divide http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/cwr-images-archive/SeaChangeRadioTAG_square144_sm.jpg http://www.cchange.net Weekly http://www.cchange.net/2009/10/28/back-to-the-future-pasture-local-wheat-and-water-power/ http://www.cchange.net/2009/10/28/back-to-the-future-pasture-local-wheat-and-water-power/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:29:16 +0000 Francesca Rheannon http://www.cchange.net/?p=2043 http://www.cchange.net/2009/10/28/back-to-the-future-pasture-local-wheat-and-water-power/feed/ 1 agribusiness,Climate Change,mass humanities,Sustainable Agriculture Massachusetts has a deep agricultural history stretching back before the days of chemical-based industrial agribusiness. How are farmers using older methods to make the transition to more sustainable agriculture? Massachusetts has a deep agricultural history stretching back before the days of chemical-based industrial agribusiness. How are farmers using older methods to make the transition to more sustainable agriculture?  Sea Change Co-Host Francesca Rheannon (http://www.cchange.net/about/francesca-rheannon/) goes to the Colrain Dairy (http://westcountyhilltowns.com/site/backend05/xmlold/SFI60.hl.dairy.xml) to talk with Larry Shearer about his low-impact, pasture-based method of organic dairying.  She then talks with Cheryl Maffei of The Hungry Ghost Bakery’s Little Red Hen (http://www.hungryghostbread.com/pages/the-little-red-hen-restoring-wheat-in-the-pioneer-valley.php) local wheat-growing project . Finally, she interviews historian Dan Bennett (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/01/23/travel/0123-havens_10.html) about the use of water to power grist and sawmills in the smaller communities of the Connecticut River Valley. Today, we begin a six-part series called Back to the Future. It explores what older ways of living and producing can teach us about adapting to a future where we will have to get by with less -- much less -- use of fossil fuels. We’re not talking about going back to the stone age or getting rid of innovation. But rather, what can we learn from the old to create new ways of responding to the challenges of climate change and peak oil? Both crises are driving the need to find low-carbon ways of growing our food, getting around, building our homes, and producing other goods and services. So the stakes are high, but so are the benefits: not just saving our planet for ourselves and our kids, but also more resilient local economies, more satisfying connections with our neighbors, and a higher quality of life. In this series, we’ll look at food, transportation, housing, energy, and manufacturing -- what we can learn from the past to guide our future. Back to the Future will air monthly on Sea Change Radio. This program series is funded in part by Mass Humanities (http://www.masshumanities.org). We start out with the first of two episodes about food. We’ll hear from a farmer, a baker, and a historian helping to restore old mills in Leverett, MA -- mills that in their time ground grain and sawed logs for, among other things, barns and farmhouses. Larry Shearer is a small-scale dairy farmer in Colrain, MA. His farm spreads over a rocky hill with enough pasture to keep about fifty cows. Although he’s past retirement age (he’s in his late seventies), Shearer is still actively involved in running the farm with his two sons. The Colrain Dairy has been certified organic since 2007, but long before that Larry Shearer decided to do dairying in the old style: by pasturing his cows instead of feeding them grain, like most modern dairy farmers do. He hasn’t regretted the decision, finding that his cows are healthier, his costs and energy use are down, and he has more leisure time to spend with his family. And he makes a decent living. He says it’s all about “quality of life” -- for his family and his cows. The CT River Valley used to be the breadbasket of the nation, back in colonial times. Hardy wheat varieties that could withstand the winters, and the wet of the northeast, were grown around here. Cheryl Maffei is co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bakery (http://hungryghostbread.com/) in Northampton, Massachusetts. She runs an innovative project that’s enlisting local residents in growing New England-friendly wheat varieties in their backyard gardens. It’s called Little Red Hen. Dr. Daniel Bennet is a former academic, food coop founder and local historian in North Leverett, MA. He’s been working to help restore the old sawmill on the Saw Mill River in his home town and preserve the knowledge of older residents who remember how to run it. Other Links * David Fisher Natural Roots Farm (http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farm.php?farm=1460) * Butterworks Farm, Vermont (http://butterworksfarm.com/) Francesca Rheannon clean 28:47 http://www.cchange.net/2009/07/16/big-agriculture-tipping-the-balance-of-regulation/ http://www.cchange.net/2009/07/16/big-agriculture-tipping-the-balance-of-regulation/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:49:06 +0000 Francesca Rheannon http://www.cchange.net/?p=1395 http://www.cchange.net/2009/07/16/big-agriculture-tipping-the-balance-of-regulation/feed/ 1 ACES,agribusiness,Climate Bill,Climate Change,Colin Peterson,farm lobby,food policy,food safety,Ghost Ranch,Grist,Henry Waxman,House Agriculture Committee We talk with food editor Tom Philpott of Grist.org about the impact of the farm lobby on the climate and food safety legislation. And Lisa Hamilton discusses food policy from the perspective of the small farmer. (http://www.cchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tom_philpott-199x300.jpg) We talk with food editor Tom Philpott (http://www.grist.org/member/1554) of Grist.org (http://www.grist.org/) about the impact of the farm lobby on the climate and food safety legislation. And Lisa Hamilton (http://www.lisamhamilton.com/book/book.html) discusses food policy from the perspective of the small farmer. Her book is (http://www.lisamhamilton.com/book/DeeplyRooted.html).Big agriculture is coming under increasing scrutiny these days. A popular new film, Food, Inc (http://www.foodincmovie.com/). (http://www.foodincmovie.com/), takes a hard-hitting look at how our industrial food system harms our environment and our health. One environmental impact is on the climate. Agribusiness has a big greenhouse gas footprint (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/factoryfarms/dairy-and-meat-factories/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-industrial-agriculture) -- whether it comes from methane from livestock, the petrochemicals that go into making pesticides, or the emissions from transporting food across countries and oceans. And then there's the issue of food safety. Every day seems to bring news of another outbreak of sickness from contaminated food produced by big industrial processing facilities. Congress is getting into gear. A new food safety bill (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875) sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman made it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this month and will soon go to the House. But big agriculture has a some powerful friends in Congress, and they can tip the scales in their favor when it comes to regulation. Some say the bill will be devastating to organic and other small farmers (http://farmwars.info/?p=594), who aren't causing the food safety problems, but who can't afford the measures mandated by the bill. One of agribusiness' biggest champions is Colin Peterson (http://collinpeterson.house.gov/), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Grist.org's Tom Philpott says Peterson already has shown (http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-22-colin-peterson-villain) that he can wring major pro-agribusiness concessions on policy out of Henry Waxman -- he did it on the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act that just passed the house, after threatening to oppose the bill (http://www.hillheat.com/articles/2009/06/14/collin-peterson-mixing-climate-change-together-with-energy-independence-isnt-smart). Tom Philpott is a food editor for Grist.org, and he farms at Maverick Farms (http://www.maverickfarms.com/), a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. In her book DEEPLY ROOTED, Lisa Hamilton explores the lives of three farm families (http://www.looncommons.org/2009/07/10/sustainable-ag-rooted-rebooted/): Harry Lewis, an African-American organic dairy farmer in Texas, Virgil Trujillo, a Latino rancher at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and the Podoll family in North Dakota who are breeding seeds (http://www.npsas.org/ovt.html) for diversity. Hamilton told Sea Change Radio that the new push to develop a regulatory label for "sustainability" (http://ecolabelling.org/blog/2009/07/09/sustainable-agriculture-label-in-the-works-in-the-us) might end up making things more difficult for small farmers, while letting agribusiness continue unsustainable practices. Lisa Hamilton is a journalist and photographer who writes about farmers, ranchers and agriculture. Read articles by Lisa Hamilton (http://www.lisamhamilton.com/article/article.html). Francesca Rheannon clean 28:12