Saturday, March 14, 2009
Spring is in the air...
It's been hot here the past few days! The llamas are getting frisky! Soon they'll be out on their summer pastures and we'll be turning the yard (and llama/rabbit manure and waste hay) over for vegetable production! Animals create so much wonderful organic matter for our soils!
Back to School!
Yesterday, Hana took our rabbit, Ethan Allen, to the elementary school that she mentors at!
Hana explained that Ethan was used for his fiber and about the Angora as a breed.
She told students that he was the color fawn and that is one of the reasons we picked him to be the "herd sire."
I explained to students the difference between a rabbit and a bunny. Do you know? (Answer at bottom of entry). 
Hana brought Ethan around to all of the desks so students could pet him. He is one of our calmest rabbits and remained so throughout his two hours in the elementary school and for the walk home with Hana and Hunter.
A rabbit is an adult and a bunny is a young rabbit. Similar to an horse and a foal or a cow/bull and calf. Did you know that?
Hana explained that Ethan was used for his fiber and about the Angora as a breed.She told students that he was the color fawn and that is one of the reasons we picked him to be the "herd sire."I explained to students the difference between a rabbit and a bunny. Do you know? (Answer at bottom of entry). Hana brought Ethan around to all of the desks so students could pet him. He is one of our calmest rabbits and remained so throughout his two hours in the elementary school and for the walk home with Hana and Hunter.
A rabbit is an adult and a bunny is a young rabbit. Similar to an horse and a foal or a cow/bull and calf. Did you know that?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
First Bunny of 2009!
Our first Angora rabbit litter was on February the 13th. A single rabbit was born to our satin Angora, Lucy (sired by Twilight). It looks like its turning out to be a little buck and he is black. He's the sweetest bunny. Hana and I take him around with us through the house while we are doing homework, cooking, spinning, reading, or just hanging out. He loves the adventures! Hana has been calling him Usk.
Here is Usk with Lucy at a few days of age.
Here is Usk today (with Hana). Look how big he is! He's about one month old in the rest of the pictures.Here is Usk with Lucy at a few days of age.
I was trying to show Usk with a little perspective. Here is is next to a mason jar.
Here is Usk playing hide and seek. He thinks he looks like a banana...poor thing.
Here Kitty and Usk are haning out on his Uncle Merlin's rabbit hutch by the llama pen. 
Birds of a feather...
Thanks for tuning in to the blog!
More on Powershift
Below is an essay that I am submitting to the Greater Appalachian Llama and Alpaca Association bi-monthly newsletter. You can find more information about GALA at http://www.galaonline.org/. Enjoy!
Powershift 2009
On February 27 a group of students from Green Mountain College departed from Poultney, Vermont at 6:00 AM to become part of one of the largest movements in United States history. Our destination was Washington, D.C., 8 hours later. The Convention Center held over 12,000 high school and college students from all 50 states. From Friday night to Sunday morning workshops and panels were lead to instruct students on the most recent information concerning climate change. These included topics like policy, environmental degradation, human oppression, and agriculture, to name a few. There is evidence that shows current large scale agricultural practices are producing environmental (soil, water, and air) pollution comparable to the transportation sector in the United States. The good news is that we, as farmers and consumers, have the power to change that!
I am in my fourth year of study at Green Mountain College. My focus is, “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production.” In this course of study I have investigated the national organic standards, pasture management, permaculture (ecological systems), and biodynamic farming. One question I always strive to answer is: “What does sustainable farming mean to me?” Wikipedia characterizes sustainable as: “…the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability for an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity, and productivity into the future.” So far I think that to me, sustainability in agriculture involves soil fertility and pasture management. David Orr, an Environmental Studies faculty member at Oberlin College in Ohio, has coined two definitions of sustainability: technological and ecological. To further investigate these descriptions, lets look at the example of transportation. Technological sustainability would look like a hybrid car while ecological sustainability would be something that used less energy, like walking. He advocates for a change in technology and more importantly, a change in behavior. To me, the ecological sustainability looks like small family farms and farmers markets. (It also looks like a great marketing strategy: “grass-fed fiber,” “climate friendly fiber products.” The possibilities are endless).
If the farmer models natural ecological systems s/he can create appropriate soil fertility and pasture management that will keep nutrients in the soil and our food/fiber system. ineffective fertility management will lead to the eutrophication (algal blooms) of local watersheds. A prime example of the implications of nutrient run-off is the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a huge area of ocean where there is no longer any life due to too much nutrients in the water. Land management will also decrease our dependence on chemical applications (made mainly with fossil fuels in large agribusinesses), which inhibit local natural systems and negatively affect people living around these chemicals. With appropriate land management, one may also sequester carbon dioxide in their soils, completely changing the recent agribusiness trend, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
As animal husbands, we have a duty to our animals to give them a clean and safe living environment. Working with our livestock is fun but can it can be challenging. I like this model of healthy livestock (see the “pyramid”) because it breaks down essential body health. This diagram shows that the soil ecosystem (different plant species, microorganisms, and structure) is the most important aspect of your livestock’s health. The soil makes up their food and living environment. The model shows that if you keep your animals healthy, you are using preventative medicine as apposed to the “band-aids,” which represent pharmaceuticals, and are considered a last resort. I would encourage everyone who owns llamas and/or alpacas to do some research on pasture management. Some good resources are listed at the end of this article.
So what happened as a result of Powershift 09? Activists at the conference lobbied state senators and representatives to take immediate action on climate change challenges through policy. The new Administer of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, addressed the conference attendees to let the youth of the United States know that they were going to focus on climate change and we were going to see pertinent policy as a result. The Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, told us about a new economy where we would all have “green jobs.” Van Jones, formerly of Green For All and Majora Carter of Green The Ghetto were also figures at the keynote address to open Powershift 09. They reiterated “Think Global, Act Local.” What am I going to do? I’m going to stay on this quest for sustainable farms after graduation and continue to keep the membership updated with ways to green our farms (the color that they were all along?).
I also want to encourage other members to write articles for the GALA newsletter. This is one of the best ways to pass along information and network aside from our annual conference. It’s also fun to get regional updates and share with the rest of the membership.
In the interest of our members, I have put together a survey which can be found on the first page of the February issue (featuring me on the cover!) or on the front page of the GALA website (www.galaonline.org). I will have a more updated conclusion to those surveys. The most recent update is as follows: for newsletters there is a resounding call for us to keep a physical newsletter. One idea was to change to a quarterly newsletter so there is more information in each magazine. For the conferences: keep them up to date with new ideas being introduced (like the South American perspective). For GALA education: the library, the conference, and the newsletters are the most important aspect of GALA because it is how we accomplish national llama and alpaca education.
Have an opinion? Please fill out a survey and send it to me or call me and talk to me about it!
Email: Erika.wml@gmail.com
Home address: 40 S Court St Woodsville, NH 03785
Phone: 603-667-3312
Resources:
Wells, Ann. “Sustainable Parasite Management for Goats.” Arizona: Springpond Holistic Animal Health, 2006 <>.
Nation, Allan. Quality Pasture. Mississippi: Green Park Press, 2004.
Murphy, Bill. Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence. Vermont: Arriba Publishing, 1998.
Ekarius, Carol. Small-Scale Livestock Farming: a Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit. Massachusetts: Storey Publishing, 1999.
Cornell University pasture management study: http://hawk.greenmtn.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.css.cornell.edu/forage/pasture/index.html
On February 27 a group of students from Green Mountain College departed from Poultney, Vermont at 6:00 AM to become part of one of the largest movements in United States history. Our destination was Washington, D.C., 8 hours later. The Convention Center held over 12,000 high school and college students from all 50 states. From Friday night to Sunday morning workshops and panels were lead to instruct students on the most recent information concerning climate change. These included topics like policy, environmental degradation, human oppression, and agriculture, to name a few. There is evidence that shows current large scale agricultural practices are producing environmental (soil, water, and air) pollution comparable to the transportation sector in the United States. The good news is that we, as farmers and consumers, have the power to change that!
I am in my fourth year of study at Green Mountain College. My focus is, “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production.” In this course of study I have investigated the national organic standards, pasture management, permaculture (ecological systems), and biodynamic farming. One question I always strive to answer is: “What does sustainable farming mean to me?” Wikipedia characterizes sustainable as: “…the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability for an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity, and productivity into the future.” So far I think that to me, sustainability in agriculture involves soil fertility and pasture management. David Orr, an Environmental Studies faculty member at Oberlin College in Ohio, has coined two definitions of sustainability: technological and ecological. To further investigate these descriptions, lets look at the example of transportation. Technological sustainability would look like a hybrid car while ecological sustainability would be something that used less energy, like walking. He advocates for a change in technology and more importantly, a change in behavior. To me, the ecological sustainability looks like small family farms and farmers markets. (It also looks like a great marketing strategy: “grass-fed fiber,” “climate friendly fiber products.” The possibilities are endless).
If the farmer models natural ecological systems s/he can create appropriate soil fertility and pasture management that will keep nutrients in the soil and our food/fiber system. ineffective fertility management will lead to the eutrophication (algal blooms) of local watersheds. A prime example of the implications of nutrient run-off is the “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a huge area of ocean where there is no longer any life due to too much nutrients in the water. Land management will also decrease our dependence on chemical applications (made mainly with fossil fuels in large agribusinesses), which inhibit local natural systems and negatively affect people living around these chemicals. With appropriate land management, one may also sequester carbon dioxide in their soils, completely changing the recent agribusiness trend, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
As animal husbands, we have a duty to our animals to give them a clean and safe living environment. Working with our livestock is fun but can it can be challenging. I like this model of healthy livestock (see the “pyramid”) because it breaks down essential body health. This diagram shows that the soil ecosystem (different plant species, microorganisms, and structure) is the most important aspect of your livestock’s health. The soil makes up their food and living environment. The model shows that if you keep your animals healthy, you are using preventative medicine as apposed to the “band-aids,” which represent pharmaceuticals, and are considered a last resort. I would encourage everyone who owns llamas and/or alpacas to do some research on pasture management. Some good resources are listed at the end of this article.
So what happened as a result of Powershift 09? Activists at the conference lobbied state senators and representatives to take immediate action on climate change challenges through policy. The new Administer of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, addressed the conference attendees to let the youth of the United States know that they were going to focus on climate change and we were going to see pertinent policy as a result. The Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, told us about a new economy where we would all have “green jobs.” Van Jones, formerly of Green For All and Majora Carter of Green The Ghetto were also figures at the keynote address to open Powershift 09. They reiterated “Think Global, Act Local.” What am I going to do? I’m going to stay on this quest for sustainable farms after graduation and continue to keep the membership updated with ways to green our farms (the color that they were all along?).
I also want to encourage other members to write articles for the GALA newsletter. This is one of the best ways to pass along information and network aside from our annual conference. It’s also fun to get regional updates and share with the rest of the membership.
In the interest of our members, I have put together a survey which can be found on the first page of the February issue (featuring me on the cover!) or on the front page of the GALA website (www.galaonline.org). I will have a more updated conclusion to those surveys. The most recent update is as follows: for newsletters there is a resounding call for us to keep a physical newsletter. One idea was to change to a quarterly newsletter so there is more information in each magazine. For the conferences: keep them up to date with new ideas being introduced (like the South American perspective). For GALA education: the library, the conference, and the newsletters are the most important aspect of GALA because it is how we accomplish national llama and alpaca education.
Have an opinion? Please fill out a survey and send it to me or call me and talk to me about it!
Email: Erika.wml@gmail.com
Home address: 40 S Court St Woodsville, NH 03785
Phone: 603-667-3312
Resources:
Wells, Ann. “Sustainable Parasite Management for Goats.” Arizona: Springpond Holistic Animal Health, 2006 <>.
Nation, Allan. Quality Pasture. Mississippi: Green Park Press, 2004.
Murphy, Bill. Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence. Vermont: Arriba Publishing, 1998.
Ekarius, Carol. Small-Scale Livestock Farming: a Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit. Massachusetts: Storey Publishing, 1999.
Cornell University pasture management study: http://hawk.greenmtn.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.css.cornell.edu/forage/pasture/index.html
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Notes from Powershift 2009, Washington, D.C. February 27
The opening remarks were inspiring and led me to think critically about the underlying message of what different speakers were saying. Visit the POWERSHIFT09 website to view pictures and videos in addition to my notes!
Keynote Speakers for Friday Night:
Majora Carter told us that the acronym OBAMA stood for Officially Behaving As Magnificent Americans. Marjora provided me by far with the most inspiration of all the keynote speakers. She relayed a message from one of her teachers about both the oppressor and the oppressed being damaged. She was referring to Former President George W. Bush. Her message was clear: forgive and forget, do not let hatred cloud your thoughts. Majora leads a host of green jobs and initiatives in the South Bronx. Her project is called “Green the Ghetto.” She speaks for greening our local communities and to start from the bottom up, in particular by reaching out to and giving opportunities to our youth. She told us to not relax just because of a new administration, but to keep a close eye and demand what we want as citizens.
Mayor Rocky Anderson said that America’s youth were transforming from “sheep” to “power-shifting bull dogs.” We live in a culture of obedience and need to stand up for what we believe in (healthy food, for one). Without citizens reminding the administration that we are here they will “dither, delay, and distract” with spending money. He had us chant “no coal is clean coal.”
Van Jones told us to “use technology as tools, not toys.” He said that ten years ago being able to communicate in ways that we do with laptops and cell phones would have been thought godly. That we should use these tools to our advantage to involved and inform those around us. He said that we need to have a behavioral change as well as an infrastructure remodel otherwise we will fight wars with solar energy. He poses the question, “are we locusts or honey bees?”
Session I: Gardening For Climate Justice
Beth Schermerhorn
Permaculture speaks to a sustainable ecosystem within agriculture, but also to the lifestyle, “Least Change for the Greatest Effect.” Daikon Radish has allelopathy – good cover crop to turn in. John Jeavons – biointensive gardening. Recommended book: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. Vermiculture is different from regular composting because the worms keep the mixture aerated and cool. It never heats up. You put layers of nitrogen (food scraps) and wood chips or leaves in with the worms in a dark, cool, tub.
Session II: False Solutions: The Mythical Benefits of Agrofuels
Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth, www.foe.org
Andrea Samulon, Rainforest Action Network, www.ran.org
-This panel was only talking about plant-based biofuels-
Biofuels – farm-generated fuels using technology that has been used traditionally on that farm, small-scale energy production.
Agrofuels – biofuels made with new technology by large corporations.
2nd generation agrofuels – using more of the plant to produce fuels
All corn in the United States would displace 10% of our current petroleum needs. The corn to exclusively feed on person for one year would make the ethanol for one tank of gas in an SUV.
Different crops for agrofuels include: corn, sugar cane, soy, algae, jatropha, switch grass, and others. There is a lot of promise and investments being made now for the future.
Why are agrofuels good?
Clean emission
Renewable
Creates jobs
Increased national security by being energy dependent
Decreased drilling
Why are agrofuels bad?
Inefficient (life cycle analysis)
Deforestation (mainly rainforests)
Government subsidies (which are only supposed to continue for a company that is starting off)
Food shortage (using arable land for fuel production)
Grain prices going up lead to food prices going up
Soil degradation
Water intensive (for southeastern countries like Brazil they are literally exporting water in food)
Genetic modification
Increased chemical application (yes with GMO’s)
Health impacts from chemical sprays (seen mainly in communities of lower class)
Fertilizer run-off
Per the life-cycle analysis – not sustainable
Life cycle analysis for agrofuels shows that to produce them takes more fossil fuels than using straight up fossil fuels. For example, the electricity, fertilizer, and fuel used to power machines in the field for the plant’s lifecycle and in processing to usable fuels afterwards equal more carbon equivalents in the atmosphere than using regular petrol-based gasoline or diesel fuels.
Policy
In 2007 the through the Energy Bill, a renewable fuel standard was suggested to increase agrofuel production 5X by the year 2022. Currently 5 agribusinesses own and control 80% of the United States grain. A monopoly is defined by one party owning more than 20% the produce to a market.
Their Combined Experience
In Brazil slaves and children are used in sugar cane fields. In Columbia the president wants to take the current 200,000 hectares of palm oil production and increase it to 6 million hectares in a matter of ten years. This will all be done in what is currently rainforest and land owned by local peoples. For years the military have displaced native peoples and now they cannot keep their land due to new laws about palm oil production. The United States gives ethanol producers $0.50 per gallon in subsidies.
Suggestions
This problem is complex and painful for many. They suggest that having public transportation and actual fuel efficiency will help lead to a sustainable future horizon. Their bigger goals are to take out corporations and want to localize. There is also biofuel legislation coming up. Also the EPA has been asked to define and find a place for agrofuels in the economy. Obama wants them to implement the agrofuel legislation. There may be sneaky use of grandfather clauses in the legislation so we need to find adequate social and environmental safeguards in all aspects.
Session III: Women Workers in Toxic Industries: How Their Health and Safety Will Change the Course of Climate Change
Amanda Wake, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, www.reproductivejustice.org
Reproductive justice – an individual’s right to have a choice about their own gender, body, or sexual rights.
Reproductive oppression – when an individual has no rights to have a choice about their gender, body, or sexual rights. The phrase, “Shouldn’t need green to get green,” describes the fact that those most affected by the pollution are not those causing it.
This session talked about relating the lifecycle of a toxic product (focusing on nail polish and workers in nail salons) life cycle analysis and how it hurts people and the environment every step of the way. Their model takes us through 1) extraction 2) production 3) distribution 4) usage and 5) disposal. Aluminum is needed in nail polish. Through extraction, the aluminum is mined, degrading the environment around that place and affecting people that live near there (usually native, low-income communities, or pristine wilderness). Through production workers are exposed to chemicals and pollutants escape into the environment to cause poor air quality and more health problems. When people use nail polish the fumes (acetone) can cause cancer, miscarriages, and a host of other health issues. Bottles that have nail polish left in them are usually brought to a land fill to further create environmental degradation. We broke into groups to talk more about this topic. My solution was don’t produce or consume nail polish. Other solutions were making nail polish from organic compounds and using bulk bottles like you would see at a coop for maple syrup or tamari sauce.
Session IV: Cap Carbon & Trade? Invest? Dividend?: A Conversation that Explores All the Options!
Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies
Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Environment America
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Climate Network
The moderator began by describing the model that if there was an immediate cap on carbon trade in the United States that the rural Vermont electric bill would go up $100/month.
Mike Tidwell began a conversation about the three most supported carbon cap policies. He said that we needed a “strong, solid, realistic cap this year.” He gave a rundown of the three types asking the question of each, “Who owns the sky?”:
Cap and Trade – Corporations own the sky. This policy would make a cap on carbon equivalent emissions and then sell tradable permits for corporations to deal back and forth.
Cap and Invest – The government owns the sky. They would purchase all the carbon equivalent credits and then invest in things like renewable energy and green jobs.
Cap and Dividend – the legal U.S. citizen owns the sky. Instead of a complex system to charge companies for carbon equivalent emissions, they would charge the party selling the fuels at the first sale. That way when the resource was extracted in the United States or in a foreign country, at the first sale in the United States that party would pay a high “tax.” In the ideal model up to 90% the money collected would be sent to each citizen monthly. It would be like a monthly “carbon check” rewarding citizens for paying high prices on fossil fuels while we transitioned to a renewable energy system and grid.
Tidwell suggested that the Cap and Dividend posed the greatest solution to the common good. He said it was “durable, simple, and fair.” He says the sky should be a commons to all citizens. He said that this way will be transparent to the lay wo/man while a system like Cap and Trade would be complex, confusing, and give corporations power over the sky. Suggested book: Ignition by Isham, Waage, and McKibben. www.capanddividend.org
Daphne Wysham (earthbeatradio.org) talked about the solution needing to be transparent and free of manipulation so that the poor aren’t oppressed in the system. The present flaws in carbon policy are 1) political 2) mathematical and 3) definitional. Large corporations (like the World Bank) are getting the money, carbon credits and debits are not mathematically corrects, and the “clean development” consists of dirty projects that go against the original definition. The United States needs to stop subsidizing fossil fuels at home or abroad. They also need to stop biofuel production, rainforest deforestation, and international offsets.
She suggested that the U.S. adopt a policy like Germany’s Feed in Tariff which allows a decentralization of energy giving people the right to plug into the grid with their renewable energy and get paid for it, no matter how much they make. This allows people to produce more energy than they consume, sell it back to the main grid, and make a profit after several years. Germany is going to reach 45% renewable energy by 2030.
Timothy Telleen-Lawton was promoting the Cap and Invest policy. He wanted the government to take the money and invest it in clean energy and green jobs so people can switch from the “dirty” petrol and coal based jobs to renewable energy jobs. He said Obama is in favor of the Cap and Invest.
Tom Goldtooth that the United States is “the belly of the beast,” inferring that we are the main part of the problem. He said that the UN is really only concerned with money and that we should think about policy in our communities. He said that we would be the elders in 2050 when our policy had an impact Mother Earth. He asked us to protect the water, air, and genes. He talked about the ice-climate people being forced to make adaptations as the Arctic ice melts at a faster rate than predicted. He wants to make sure there is accountability and will be enforcement and monitoring for the new climate policy. He was in favor of other market-based solutions like Cap and Dividend. He wanted to know which communities would receive the money, expecting only rich, white people to get it. He said that up until now the communities on mountain tops, of color, and low-class were oppressed and did not get equal rights. He wanted to reduce the use of coal and reduce the international dependence. He wanted to ban all oil, gas, and coal plants, and start the legislation now, when our voices are the strongest. Someone working with Goldtooth gave the audience this website to address the issue further: http://www.holmeshummel.net/ClimatePolicyDesign/
Session V: Decolonizing Our Minds: How Colonization Affects Us Today
This workshop was supposed to be only open to native people and it was to be used in a more therapeutic way than an educational opportunity for non-native people. However, the pamphlet did not communicate that in a good way, so it ended up being a room of more than 100 non-native people and about 30 native people. First we asked the native people to discuss the positives and negatives at reservations and then defined some terms.
Positives: tradition, language, more community indigenous practices, ceremonies, preserving land, elder knowledge passed down, organized, learning from children
Negatives: border towns lead to alcoholism, rate of suicide increasing, food racism, sexual violence, diabetes, domestic violence, NIMBY, nepotism, internationalized oppression, drugs, gangs, no economic development, cultural exploitation, loss of language, culture, and land.
Decolonization – Unlearning all information forced onto natives by colonists. Colonization has a rapist mentality.
Colonialism – European nations exploiting native people to gain power and money for Europe.
Colonization – The process of devaluating native people to exploit lands.
Colonial Mind – The imperialistic mindset that the colonizers must teach native people to exploit themselves and Mother Earth (male and religion dominated).
Oppression – Results in classism, capitalism, and the rich people get rich at the expense of the poor.
Racism – White supremacy at the expense of colored or indigenous peoples.
Patriarchy/Sexism – The notion of the man possessing all of the power.
Heterosexual – In the native community there is a role for every person, regardless of sexuality.
Ableism – The opportunity posed to those with able bodies. For example, a native person that speaks English will be more “able” in today’s society, than one who does not.
Nepotism – Favoring those close to you to exploit them.
Native Students:
One student spoke about the displacement of men in society because they no longer had a traditional role. In native cultures men fit in and had certain duties. Now they are confused and the tribe becomes unbalanced.
Another student spoke about the indigenous people’s commitment to environmental equality for the past 200 years. He said that natives think in circles. The square buildings of the white man make no sense, and do not mimic nature. He said that the circles of the white people and native people’s paths have crossed and that its time for us to start working together.
Three types of oppression:
Institutional Oppression – governments and corporations forcing oppression. For example the introduction of the square in place of the circle. The western culture was totally backwards from the indigenous cultures.
Interpersonal Relationship – oppression between people within groups and outside groups. For example a family feud over boarding school and gangs and exclusion. When native children were sent to boarding schools the maids and missionaries spoke to them in harsh tones, demoralizing, condescending tones. This taught these people to grow up and speak to their own children in this manner, having parents being authority figures instead of teachers providing guidance.
Internalized Oppression – putting selves down, believe that they are a devalued race
Native Students:
One student pointed out that it was difficult to address 400 years of colonization and oppression in one hour.
A member of the non-native audience asked what we (as non-natives) should do about colonization and its effects. A native student answered by saying that non-natives should figure it out for themselves because native people “have enough of our own shit to deal with.” He said that non-natives need to go on our own journey and find our own niche in the world. We have the power of choice. He told us to read the book by De Las Casas and that the history taught to us in public schools is wrong. He said that the American flag should be the color of two shades of blood, for the killing of the native people. He said that by the late 1800’s only 2% of the native population of America was left. At that point 1% was youth – they were sent to boarding schools to be taught European religion, language, and culture and were punished for practicing their own traditions. After students were sent to these schools, only half were still alive. He said that the residential schools were a model to Hitler. He pointed to two other male native’s around the room and showed us that he knew they were from three different tribes, that they were not all one race. He ended with the opinion that love is our movement. It doesn’t matter who your nation is, that you should love all children like your own.
One native made the point that America consists of all native people – from all of North America to all of South America, and Mexico. He said that in his native tribe there was an incident similar to the Columbine shooting, but now news station covered it. He said the government has always wanted to suppress the native people so they believe that they have no power.
Another asked how many had been to the Smithsonian exhibition on Native Americans. He then asked how many had been to Pine Ridge (all natives raised hands). He said he found it ironic that the government could spend millions of dollars on a museum when people in Pine Ridge had no running water.
One young man came back up to say that throughout their history outsiders had come into the native culture for lack of cultural identity and learned languages and replicated their culture through clothes and ceremony. We would take it and exploit it somewhere else. He said that non-natives need to learn their place in the world and “stop taking our stuff.”
A young woman came up and said that she attends one of these boarding schools. She says that until recently one would not receive a high school degree from the school, only a certificate of trade or housekeeping. Now the school is beginning to teach tradition, she has to take classes in her native tongue and “Native American Studies.” She said that the word for people is “all my relations” that all people are connected. She said that they don’t point fingers at others, only claim responsibility for themselves. Until recently non-natives thought that the word for “greedy” was the word for “white man.” She said please, “don’t take what makes us.” Recognize history and be respectful.
Other book suggested: Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools by Ward Churchill
Keynote Speakers for Friday Night:
Majora Carter told us that the acronym OBAMA stood for Officially Behaving As Magnificent Americans. Marjora provided me by far with the most inspiration of all the keynote speakers. She relayed a message from one of her teachers about both the oppressor and the oppressed being damaged. She was referring to Former President George W. Bush. Her message was clear: forgive and forget, do not let hatred cloud your thoughts. Majora leads a host of green jobs and initiatives in the South Bronx. Her project is called “Green the Ghetto.” She speaks for greening our local communities and to start from the bottom up, in particular by reaching out to and giving opportunities to our youth. She told us to not relax just because of a new administration, but to keep a close eye and demand what we want as citizens.
Mayor Rocky Anderson said that America’s youth were transforming from “sheep” to “power-shifting bull dogs.” We live in a culture of obedience and need to stand up for what we believe in (healthy food, for one). Without citizens reminding the administration that we are here they will “dither, delay, and distract” with spending money. He had us chant “no coal is clean coal.”
Van Jones told us to “use technology as tools, not toys.” He said that ten years ago being able to communicate in ways that we do with laptops and cell phones would have been thought godly. That we should use these tools to our advantage to involved and inform those around us. He said that we need to have a behavioral change as well as an infrastructure remodel otherwise we will fight wars with solar energy. He poses the question, “are we locusts or honey bees?”
Session I: Gardening For Climate Justice
Beth Schermerhorn
Permaculture speaks to a sustainable ecosystem within agriculture, but also to the lifestyle, “Least Change for the Greatest Effect.” Daikon Radish has allelopathy – good cover crop to turn in. John Jeavons – biointensive gardening. Recommended book: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. Vermiculture is different from regular composting because the worms keep the mixture aerated and cool. It never heats up. You put layers of nitrogen (food scraps) and wood chips or leaves in with the worms in a dark, cool, tub.
Session II: False Solutions: The Mythical Benefits of Agrofuels
Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth, www.foe.org
Andrea Samulon, Rainforest Action Network, www.ran.org
-This panel was only talking about plant-based biofuels-
Biofuels – farm-generated fuels using technology that has been used traditionally on that farm, small-scale energy production.
Agrofuels – biofuels made with new technology by large corporations.
2nd generation agrofuels – using more of the plant to produce fuels
All corn in the United States would displace 10% of our current petroleum needs. The corn to exclusively feed on person for one year would make the ethanol for one tank of gas in an SUV.
Different crops for agrofuels include: corn, sugar cane, soy, algae, jatropha, switch grass, and others. There is a lot of promise and investments being made now for the future.
Why are agrofuels good?
Clean emission
Renewable
Creates jobs
Increased national security by being energy dependent
Decreased drilling
Why are agrofuels bad?
Inefficient (life cycle analysis)
Deforestation (mainly rainforests)
Government subsidies (which are only supposed to continue for a company that is starting off)
Food shortage (using arable land for fuel production)
Grain prices going up lead to food prices going up
Soil degradation
Water intensive (for southeastern countries like Brazil they are literally exporting water in food)
Genetic modification
Increased chemical application (yes with GMO’s)
Health impacts from chemical sprays (seen mainly in communities of lower class)
Fertilizer run-off
Per the life-cycle analysis – not sustainable
Life cycle analysis for agrofuels shows that to produce them takes more fossil fuels than using straight up fossil fuels. For example, the electricity, fertilizer, and fuel used to power machines in the field for the plant’s lifecycle and in processing to usable fuels afterwards equal more carbon equivalents in the atmosphere than using regular petrol-based gasoline or diesel fuels.
Policy
In 2007 the through the Energy Bill, a renewable fuel standard was suggested to increase agrofuel production 5X by the year 2022. Currently 5 agribusinesses own and control 80% of the United States grain. A monopoly is defined by one party owning more than 20% the produce to a market.
Their Combined Experience
In Brazil slaves and children are used in sugar cane fields. In Columbia the president wants to take the current 200,000 hectares of palm oil production and increase it to 6 million hectares in a matter of ten years. This will all be done in what is currently rainforest and land owned by local peoples. For years the military have displaced native peoples and now they cannot keep their land due to new laws about palm oil production. The United States gives ethanol producers $0.50 per gallon in subsidies.
Suggestions
This problem is complex and painful for many. They suggest that having public transportation and actual fuel efficiency will help lead to a sustainable future horizon. Their bigger goals are to take out corporations and want to localize. There is also biofuel legislation coming up. Also the EPA has been asked to define and find a place for agrofuels in the economy. Obama wants them to implement the agrofuel legislation. There may be sneaky use of grandfather clauses in the legislation so we need to find adequate social and environmental safeguards in all aspects.
Session III: Women Workers in Toxic Industries: How Their Health and Safety Will Change the Course of Climate Change
Amanda Wake, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, www.reproductivejustice.org
Reproductive justice – an individual’s right to have a choice about their own gender, body, or sexual rights.
Reproductive oppression – when an individual has no rights to have a choice about their gender, body, or sexual rights. The phrase, “Shouldn’t need green to get green,” describes the fact that those most affected by the pollution are not those causing it.
This session talked about relating the lifecycle of a toxic product (focusing on nail polish and workers in nail salons) life cycle analysis and how it hurts people and the environment every step of the way. Their model takes us through 1) extraction 2) production 3) distribution 4) usage and 5) disposal. Aluminum is needed in nail polish. Through extraction, the aluminum is mined, degrading the environment around that place and affecting people that live near there (usually native, low-income communities, or pristine wilderness). Through production workers are exposed to chemicals and pollutants escape into the environment to cause poor air quality and more health problems. When people use nail polish the fumes (acetone) can cause cancer, miscarriages, and a host of other health issues. Bottles that have nail polish left in them are usually brought to a land fill to further create environmental degradation. We broke into groups to talk more about this topic. My solution was don’t produce or consume nail polish. Other solutions were making nail polish from organic compounds and using bulk bottles like you would see at a coop for maple syrup or tamari sauce.
Session IV: Cap Carbon & Trade? Invest? Dividend?: A Conversation that Explores All the Options!
Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies
Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Timothy Telleen-Lawton, Environment America
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Climate Network
The moderator began by describing the model that if there was an immediate cap on carbon trade in the United States that the rural Vermont electric bill would go up $100/month.
Mike Tidwell began a conversation about the three most supported carbon cap policies. He said that we needed a “strong, solid, realistic cap this year.” He gave a rundown of the three types asking the question of each, “Who owns the sky?”:
Cap and Trade – Corporations own the sky. This policy would make a cap on carbon equivalent emissions and then sell tradable permits for corporations to deal back and forth.
Cap and Invest – The government owns the sky. They would purchase all the carbon equivalent credits and then invest in things like renewable energy and green jobs.
Cap and Dividend – the legal U.S. citizen owns the sky. Instead of a complex system to charge companies for carbon equivalent emissions, they would charge the party selling the fuels at the first sale. That way when the resource was extracted in the United States or in a foreign country, at the first sale in the United States that party would pay a high “tax.” In the ideal model up to 90% the money collected would be sent to each citizen monthly. It would be like a monthly “carbon check” rewarding citizens for paying high prices on fossil fuels while we transitioned to a renewable energy system and grid.
Tidwell suggested that the Cap and Dividend posed the greatest solution to the common good. He said it was “durable, simple, and fair.” He says the sky should be a commons to all citizens. He said that this way will be transparent to the lay wo/man while a system like Cap and Trade would be complex, confusing, and give corporations power over the sky. Suggested book: Ignition by Isham, Waage, and McKibben. www.capanddividend.org
Daphne Wysham (earthbeatradio.org) talked about the solution needing to be transparent and free of manipulation so that the poor aren’t oppressed in the system. The present flaws in carbon policy are 1) political 2) mathematical and 3) definitional. Large corporations (like the World Bank) are getting the money, carbon credits and debits are not mathematically corrects, and the “clean development” consists of dirty projects that go against the original definition. The United States needs to stop subsidizing fossil fuels at home or abroad. They also need to stop biofuel production, rainforest deforestation, and international offsets.
She suggested that the U.S. adopt a policy like Germany’s Feed in Tariff which allows a decentralization of energy giving people the right to plug into the grid with their renewable energy and get paid for it, no matter how much they make. This allows people to produce more energy than they consume, sell it back to the main grid, and make a profit after several years. Germany is going to reach 45% renewable energy by 2030.
Timothy Telleen-Lawton was promoting the Cap and Invest policy. He wanted the government to take the money and invest it in clean energy and green jobs so people can switch from the “dirty” petrol and coal based jobs to renewable energy jobs. He said Obama is in favor of the Cap and Invest.
Tom Goldtooth that the United States is “the belly of the beast,” inferring that we are the main part of the problem. He said that the UN is really only concerned with money and that we should think about policy in our communities. He said that we would be the elders in 2050 when our policy had an impact Mother Earth. He asked us to protect the water, air, and genes. He talked about the ice-climate people being forced to make adaptations as the Arctic ice melts at a faster rate than predicted. He wants to make sure there is accountability and will be enforcement and monitoring for the new climate policy. He was in favor of other market-based solutions like Cap and Dividend. He wanted to know which communities would receive the money, expecting only rich, white people to get it. He said that up until now the communities on mountain tops, of color, and low-class were oppressed and did not get equal rights. He wanted to reduce the use of coal and reduce the international dependence. He wanted to ban all oil, gas, and coal plants, and start the legislation now, when our voices are the strongest. Someone working with Goldtooth gave the audience this website to address the issue further: http://www.holmeshummel.net/ClimatePolicyDesign/
Session V: Decolonizing Our Minds: How Colonization Affects Us Today
This workshop was supposed to be only open to native people and it was to be used in a more therapeutic way than an educational opportunity for non-native people. However, the pamphlet did not communicate that in a good way, so it ended up being a room of more than 100 non-native people and about 30 native people. First we asked the native people to discuss the positives and negatives at reservations and then defined some terms.
Positives: tradition, language, more community indigenous practices, ceremonies, preserving land, elder knowledge passed down, organized, learning from children
Negatives: border towns lead to alcoholism, rate of suicide increasing, food racism, sexual violence, diabetes, domestic violence, NIMBY, nepotism, internationalized oppression, drugs, gangs, no economic development, cultural exploitation, loss of language, culture, and land.
Decolonization – Unlearning all information forced onto natives by colonists. Colonization has a rapist mentality.
Colonialism – European nations exploiting native people to gain power and money for Europe.
Colonization – The process of devaluating native people to exploit lands.
Colonial Mind – The imperialistic mindset that the colonizers must teach native people to exploit themselves and Mother Earth (male and religion dominated).
Oppression – Results in classism, capitalism, and the rich people get rich at the expense of the poor.
Racism – White supremacy at the expense of colored or indigenous peoples.
Patriarchy/Sexism – The notion of the man possessing all of the power.
Heterosexual – In the native community there is a role for every person, regardless of sexuality.
Ableism – The opportunity posed to those with able bodies. For example, a native person that speaks English will be more “able” in today’s society, than one who does not.
Nepotism – Favoring those close to you to exploit them.
Native Students:
One student spoke about the displacement of men in society because they no longer had a traditional role. In native cultures men fit in and had certain duties. Now they are confused and the tribe becomes unbalanced.
Another student spoke about the indigenous people’s commitment to environmental equality for the past 200 years. He said that natives think in circles. The square buildings of the white man make no sense, and do not mimic nature. He said that the circles of the white people and native people’s paths have crossed and that its time for us to start working together.
Three types of oppression:
Institutional Oppression – governments and corporations forcing oppression. For example the introduction of the square in place of the circle. The western culture was totally backwards from the indigenous cultures.
Interpersonal Relationship – oppression between people within groups and outside groups. For example a family feud over boarding school and gangs and exclusion. When native children were sent to boarding schools the maids and missionaries spoke to them in harsh tones, demoralizing, condescending tones. This taught these people to grow up and speak to their own children in this manner, having parents being authority figures instead of teachers providing guidance.
Internalized Oppression – putting selves down, believe that they are a devalued race
Native Students:
One student pointed out that it was difficult to address 400 years of colonization and oppression in one hour.
A member of the non-native audience asked what we (as non-natives) should do about colonization and its effects. A native student answered by saying that non-natives should figure it out for themselves because native people “have enough of our own shit to deal with.” He said that non-natives need to go on our own journey and find our own niche in the world. We have the power of choice. He told us to read the book by De Las Casas and that the history taught to us in public schools is wrong. He said that the American flag should be the color of two shades of blood, for the killing of the native people. He said that by the late 1800’s only 2% of the native population of America was left. At that point 1% was youth – they were sent to boarding schools to be taught European religion, language, and culture and were punished for practicing their own traditions. After students were sent to these schools, only half were still alive. He said that the residential schools were a model to Hitler. He pointed to two other male native’s around the room and showed us that he knew they were from three different tribes, that they were not all one race. He ended with the opinion that love is our movement. It doesn’t matter who your nation is, that you should love all children like your own.
One native made the point that America consists of all native people – from all of North America to all of South America, and Mexico. He said that in his native tribe there was an incident similar to the Columbine shooting, but now news station covered it. He said the government has always wanted to suppress the native people so they believe that they have no power.
Another asked how many had been to the Smithsonian exhibition on Native Americans. He then asked how many had been to Pine Ridge (all natives raised hands). He said he found it ironic that the government could spend millions of dollars on a museum when people in Pine Ridge had no running water.
One young man came back up to say that throughout their history outsiders had come into the native culture for lack of cultural identity and learned languages and replicated their culture through clothes and ceremony. We would take it and exploit it somewhere else. He said that non-natives need to learn their place in the world and “stop taking our stuff.”
A young woman came up and said that she attends one of these boarding schools. She says that until recently one would not receive a high school degree from the school, only a certificate of trade or housekeeping. Now the school is beginning to teach tradition, she has to take classes in her native tongue and “Native American Studies.” She said that the word for people is “all my relations” that all people are connected. She said that they don’t point fingers at others, only claim responsibility for themselves. Until recently non-natives thought that the word for “greedy” was the word for “white man.” She said please, “don’t take what makes us.” Recognize history and be respectful.
Other book suggested: Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools by Ward Churchill
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