U.S. Agricultural Secretary Thinks Farmers Can Help Solve Global Warming, Scientific American
Those that work the land inflict some of the worst harm on it. But as a recent report reveals, members of the agriculture community — farmers, ranchers, foresters — are beginning to change their planet-damaging ways. As they reform what they grow and how they grow it means that farmers soon could cease being one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas pollution.
Students Fill a Gap in Mental Health Care for Immigrants, NPR
For immigrants in need of mental health care, a lack of documentation or insurance often means illnesses remain untreated. Across the nation, understaffed health clinics and universities are joining forces to improve access to services for depression, anxiety and more. Through these partnerships, Master’s and Ph.D. students play a vital role in treating mental illness in the Latino community.
Vermont Becomes First State to Require Drug Makers to Justify Price Hikes, STAT News
Last year, the pharmaceutical industry got a bad rap when Martin Shkreli hiked up the price of an HIV drug by more than 5,000 percent. In response, the Green Mountain state passed a law holding drug companies accountable for price increases. Could this move stunt medical innovation or will it protect citizens from unreasonable costs?
Tag: Vermont
Why Are Only 1 Percent of Farms Using This Eco-Friendly Practice?
On a 30-acre orchard in Lovingston, Va., an experiment in Edenic coexistence is taking place: where commercially grown (and chemically sprayed) apples once grew, a herd of 120 goats now wanders between rows of trees, chomping on weeds, thistles and fallen Ginger Gold, Gala and Fuji apples.
Known as silvopasture — the symbiotic integration of livestock and trees — ForeverView Farms’ model prizes “regenerative farm management,” which Brett Nadrich, the farm’s director of business operations, defines as “leaving the soil and ecosystem better than we found them.” Ending pesticide use and providing locally raised meat free of growth hormone and antibiotics, this practice is sustainability taken to the extreme. And there’s the additional environmental benefits of protecting the soil from erosion, boosting water quality and ensuring biodiversity, as well.
“We’re taking our first harvest to market in the next few weeks. This is an active process for us. Part of generating consumer demand is raising awareness about the challenges we face and grounding those challenges in local ecosystems, local culture and the local economy,” Nadrich tells NationSwell.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 179 million acres of land are primed for silvopasture like ForeverView’s model, but between 2008 and 2012, the federal agency assisted in preparing only 2,000 acres. In total, according to the last agricultural census, only 2,725 farms (out of 2.1 million nationwide) graze livestock under forested areas or employ alley cropping, another environmentally-friendly practice, which involves planting crops and trees side-by-side on the same land.
Why have so few American farmers signed up for this forward-thinking style of farming? For one, most probably haven’t heard of agroforestry or silvopasture’s benefits for grazers like cows and sheep and browsers like goats. ForeverView Farms is using its proximity to Washington, D.C., to boost the farm’s exposure and people’s knowledge of sustainable agriculture. Nadrich can count off 10 food policy issues on which he has advised policy groups about. Foremost among them, he wants to see more support for workforce development to inspire young people to join agriculture and train them to be successful. He references George Atlee Goodling, ForeverView’s director of farm operations, who’s lived in Nelson County his entire life. “Atlee has a passion for farming, but without the founding of ForeverView Farms…, there wouldn’t necessarily be this type of job available,” Nadrich says. “If we want folks to have access to this type of high-quality food, we need to create jobs for the people who raise it.”
Nadrich, who works in the district, says he’s advocating his positions to policymakers, as well as to chefs to serve the farm’s goat meat and duck eggs. One of the most common refrains he hears is, “I didn’t know you could eat goat.” But once the conversation moves beyond that point and he’s able to explain ForeverView Farms’ overarching mission, customers are usually eager to offer their support.
“The general public has a lot of the same questions about broader benefits: ‘Why should we be interested in your product as opposed to some other goat meat or duck egg?’” they ask him. “It’s a broader environmental and nutritional benefit,” he says. “Allowing our goats to browse rather than having them cooped up allows the animals themselves to be healthier. That not only produces an end product that is healthier for the human consumer, but also more delicious.”
It’s No Bull: These 400 Homes Are Powered by Cow Manure
Can more mooing cows mean more electric power? The owners of one New England dairy say, “Why not?”
The Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport, Vt., is famed for the 3.6 million gallons of milk that its cows have produced annually since 1958. Its cattle are less well known, however, for another bovine byproduct — one you wouldn’t want to consume, let alone smell. One cow produces 30 gallons of manure, and this dairy producer is the first to call it “cow power.” By harnessing methane gas from the manure and burning it in a 600-kilowatt generator, Blue Spruce Farm can produce enough electricity to power 400 homes.
“We wouldn’t run the farm without it,” says Ernie Audet, one of the owners. He adds that, after six years of cow power, the revenue from selling energy back to the grid has nearly paid back the initial $1.5 million investment in the generator.
Cattle often get a bad rap environmentally speaking (especially in drought-stricken California) for methane, which is a byproduct of their digestive system and a greenhouse gas that compromises 14 percent of the atmosphere. But the cow power process transforms a dangerous emission into an asset.
We at NationSwell have long been fans of anaerobic digestion and its ability to turn trash into electric treasure. As a legion of microscopic flora digest waste, they slowly release methane gas which builds up to higher pressures in a 16-foot deep biodigester that looks something like a concrete swimming pool (with murky water) and a concrete cover. What’s unique about cow power is that the biological process in the digestion tank nearly replicates what’s happening in the cattle’s multi-chambered stomach, as bacteria break down tough grains and otherwise indigestible grasses.
The 1,400 black-and-white spotted girls in the barn at Blue Spruce Farm have grown accustomed to their filth being swept away into the biodigester. As they chew on their cud, a scraper runs along the floor, collecting their manure, which Audet and the other owners call “liquid gold.”
“People are always asking us ‘Why don’t all farmers do this?’” the owners write. “Many of us in the dairy industry believe that any size farm can build a digester, and eventually most will. The barriers are the sizable initial investments, and locking in a reliable revenue from the power sales. Operating a Cow Power facility also requires new skills, and more labor. But when a community gets together, these challenges can be met.”
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Everyone Should Be Interested in These Banks
In her small New England city, Heather Kralik is known as an “expert duster.” She will clean house for any of her neighbors and won’t charge a penny.
Elsewhere in town, a famed pianist who’s losing his eyesight offers free music lessons. Locals chop each other’s wood during the winter and tend their gardens in the spring. They share rides around town. Sometimes, strangers get together just to chat over a cup of coffee.
The goodwill in Montpelier, Vt., a quaint town where the population’s barely budged since 1910, is the result of a practice called “timebanking.” Here’s how it works: For every hour that someone spends helping others, he or she stores a credit at the time bank. Later, that credit can be redeemed for a service or donated to someone else. At its core, timebanking is both a bartering system and an alternative currency, in which everyone’s time carries the same value — whether teaching French or fixing pipes. In this section of the Green Mountain State, residents bank hours with the Onion River Exchange.
Using an online board, Montpelier residents offer their unique talents or request help. Carpenters repaired the rotting central beams in one woman’s unsafe home, a retiree who had a stroke trained himself to speak again by meeting with his neighbors and a young man arranged his entire wedding — from the invitations to the cake — through the exchange.
“There are so many reasons why people join: to save money, to meet people, to connect to the community or to support using the alternative economy,” Kralik, outreach coordinator of the Onion River Exchange, says.
Even though it encourages community service, the timebanking model differs from traditional volunteering. “It’s a network that focuses on reciprocity. If I give something, other members are giving as well. We’re not a charity,” Kralik explains.
Some of the most significant benefits can be seen in the elderly population. One 85-year-old woman in the Onion River Exchange has been racking up tons of hours now, so that when she needs help driving to a doctor’s appointment or picking up her groceries later on, she’ll have credits saved up. The time banks also give retirees a sense of purpose and companionship, which improves their physical and mental health, according to a study of a Pennsylvania time bank.
The concept of timebanking was thought up in 1980 by law professor Edgar Cahn at a time when “Ronald Reagan was withdrawing funding for social programs,” Cahn says. “I thought that if there was going to be no more of the old money to support communities, we should create a new one.” Originally called service credits, Cahn believed storing hours would incentivize volunteer work and, in the process, build stronger communities. The following year, the first time bank started in St. Louis. By 1995, a national organization, TimeBanks USA, was founded in Washington, D.C. to support development of the concept across the country. Today, there are approximately 400 registered time banks nationwide.
Montpelier’s time bank officially opened for business in April 2008, but it arose out of discussions years earlier when the town was setting ambitious goals to reach by 2050. At one of the many brainstorming groups, someone mentioned an idea they’d heard about in Portland, Maine, where residents were spending time (or “saving” it, you could say) in service to the community. Inspired by this example, the Vermonters organized the time bank, which covers a 30-mile radius of Central Vermonth around Montpelier. As of this week, 37,000 hours have been exchanged on nearly 12,400 projects.
Recently, Kralik accrued a few hours herself by helping an 80-year-old woman dust her overcrowded house. Taking a pause from the work, Kralik looked up and noticed that the elderly homeowner was beaming with happiness. “When I first heard about [time banking], I was looking forward to getting all these cool exchanges. It was more about what I was going to receive,” she recalls. “But the more I started exchanging, it was just this amazing epiphany. I was feeling really connected to a community that I had lived in for the last 30 years, connecting in a way that I’d never done before.”
Homepage photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
How Does This Sheet Make Healthy Food More Accessible?
Let’s be honest, most of us probably love the taste of homegrown, fresh vegetables, but we don’t want to do the work required to start our own garden. Between weeding, planting and watering, the upkeep of a garden requires a lot of time that many of us simply don’t have.
All of that might change, however, with the invention of the Seedsheet, a seed-loaded sheet customized to your needs.
Seedsheet is the product of the new Vermont-based company Cloudform. A Kickstarter campaign to fund its production launched on Nov. 14.
Green thumbs can design their garden using the Seedsheet’s website, and according to CEO and founder Cameron MacKulger, it’s as simple as paint by numbers. Users plug in their garden dimensions on the website and and their zip code to learn which plant hardiness zone they live in. Next, users customize garden by dragging, dropping and arranging fruits, vegetables and herbs in their virtual garden.
Seedsheet will then create the sheet and all the customer has to do is prepare the soil, put the sheet in the soil and water. The sheet eliminates the need for seed selection, planting and weeding (thanks to the weed-barrier fabric in it).
Making gardening easier is not MacKugler’s ultimate goal, however.
“The primary aim of the Seedsheet, and our company, is to make healthy food accessible for everyone,” MacKugler tells Motherboard. “The Seedsheet is a value-add to people that already garden, as it is an innovation that will save time and improve upon the process that they already love. By incorporating a user-friendly software program, we make gardening approachable to millennials that would otherwise be intimidated by a 100-page seed catalog.”
Additionally, because Seedsheet warms the ground beneath it, it makes the soil and seeds more stable to fight erosion, plus, it requires less watering.
Sounds like a dream come true for green thumbs everywhere.
MORE: From Farm to Patient: How One Medical Facility is Rethinking Hospital Food
Burlington, Vt. is Leading America into a Future of Clean Energy
Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, is illustrating just what a greener future could look like.
The city now touts that 100 percent of its electricity is powered by renewable sources including wind, water and biomass. The Burlington Electric Department reached the notable figure following the purchase of the Winooski 1 Hydroelectric Facility, located on the Winooski River, earlier this month.
While Burlington’s 42,000 residents have been encouraging electric utility providers to make the switch to greener sources, the city has been talking about achieving the milestone for around a decade. But in 2008, officials began developing an actual strategy.
“The transition in thought from 2004 to 2008 was ‘We want to do this’ to ‘This actually makes economic sense for us to do this,'” says Ken Nolan, the manager of power resources for Burlington Electric.
That “economic sense” means that residents will avoid rate increases, and according to Nolan, once the bonds for the Winooski One facility are paid off (around 20 years from now), the utility will see cost savings.
“A lot of times when you buy plants like this, you end up having to increase rates initially to drop them later,” Nolan tells The Burlington Free Press, “and we were able to buy it without any impact and then lock in the benefits in the future.”
Of course, there will be instances in which there may not be enough wind and hydro energy to supply the city, which means they may have to generate electricity from traditional fossil fuel sources. But the goal is to amass a surplus of renewable energy when conditions are right — an excess that will be sold to other utilities.
Burlington joins a statewide movement toward ending reliance on harmful fossil fuel sources. The Washington Electric Co-operative, with around 11,000 customers throughout central and northern Vermont, reached 100 percent earlier this year.
The state has set a goal of reaching 90 percent of energy — including heat, electricity and transportation — from renewable resources by 2050. “We’re now in a position where we’re supplying Burlington residents with sources that are renewable,” Nolan says. “The prices are not tied to fossil fuels — they’re stable prices — and they provide us with the flexibility, from an environmental standpoint, to really react to any regulation or changes to environmental standards that come in the future.”
Around the country, more local governments and municipalities are working toward transitioning powering with renewable resources. For instance, after a tornado leveled Greensburg, Kansas in 2007, part of reconstruction included the installation of a 12.5-megawatt wind farm that began generating electricity in excess.
As more cities ponder ways to become greener cities, Burlington is proof that it can — and should — be done.
MORE: The United States’s First Carbon-Neutral City Is…
Meet the Group That Helps Kids Turn the Page Toward a Better Future
By reading his words, Dr. Seuss taught us about all of the places we will go. Opening a book and falling into the pages transports you to a new land with new adventures — whether it is eating green eggs and ham or meeting the Cat in the Hat.
But for some kids, reading is much more than just a trip down imagination lane; it is the pathway to a more successful life. And that’s the mission of the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF): to show kids in low-income communities the opportunities that reading can provide them.
Since 1998, CLiF has been serving low-income, at-risk and rural children in Vermont and New Hampshire. Through partnerships with schools, libraries, shelters and other organizations, the group works to inspire the love of writing and reading in children ranging from birth to age 12.
So how do they encourage passion for the written word? The Foundation hosts events throughout various communities featuring a published author who gives an inspirational presentation on his or her life, tell stories and conduct a writing workshop with the kids.
Further, CLiF donates books to schools, libraries and kids themselves, as well as works with the community to create a more literary-friendly environment.
It all began 16 years ago when Duncan McDougall founded the organization with one staff member (himself) and one program. Now, CLiF boasts a staff of five as well as 50 professional presenters.
Over the years, they’ve given away $3 million worth of books, and worked with more than 160,000 kids across 400 communities.
They’ve also added a new program that allows CLiF to interact with kids throughout the entire year. Children have the opportunity to participate in at least 12 activities and get their own personal collection of new books.
And just because school is out during the summer, that doesn’t mean that the CLiF stops working. CLiF also coordinates its Summer Readers Program, reaching 3,700 kids in over 50 summer camps, childcare centers, libraries and recreation programs in low-income areas.
Why the focus on children from low-income areas? Because, perhaps not surprisingly, they’re the ones most at risk for low literacy rates. CLiF chooses communities that contain a high number of kids on the free or reduced lunch program or have a high number of below proficient scores in reading and writing on standardized tests.
The kids that live in these areas are often the children of inmates, recent refugees, or simply don’t have access to enrichment activities because they live in rural areas.
For kids of prison inmates, this program gives both parent and child a chance for a better life. CLiF offers a program where inmates (70 percent of them have poor literacy) can record themselves reading a book and then send that recording to their children.
For one inmate in New Hampshire, CLiF seminars changed the way he viewed reading.
“I am not able to be there and actually read them books,” he told CLiF. “Since I started attending [the CLiF seminars] we have started storytelling at night on the phone. Either I will tell one or they may but there is always a story.”
While some may consider this to be mission impossible, CLiF isn’t going giving up. After all, for some kids, counting one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish is the key to success.
DON’T MISS: Ask the Experts: How Can We Fix Early Childhood Education?
For Seniors Needing Extra Income, Ditching the Single Life and Getting a Roommate Can Be the Answer
Usually by the time you’re 60, having a roommate isn’t a high priority, or even on your radar. After all, roommates are for college students or those attending summer camp — not those entering their golden years.
However, as the baby boomers prepare to enter retirement, having a roommate may be necessary to make ends meet or to provide a little companionship. That explains why seniors across the country are trading in the single life and turning to senior home-sharing programs.
Most of the participants are widowed or divorced elderly women looking to fill an empty room. With foreclosures, property taxes and high rents posing problems for the elderly, the extra income of another companion can make all the difference.
So why use these programs instead of advertising for a roomie on Craigslist or in the newspaper? It all comes down to safety and comfort. These agencies conduct background checks and other screenings, while also looking into personality traits and lifestyle preferences.
When a match is made, the new roommates sign an agreement outlining chore duties, telephone use, visitor frequency and other details.
Participants seem to be satisfied, as these programs continue to see a rise in membership. For instance, the number of applicants to the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens has tripled since 2008. And interestingly, senior citizens aren’t the only ones getting involved. Many programs are open to applicants of all ages, such as the New York Foundation which only requires that one of the two roommates be over 60.
Perhaps, though, the most important service that these programs are providing is companionship. For the elderly who no longer have a household full of kids or a spouse, the days can be lonely and having that companion can make a world of difference
Kirby Dunn, executive director of Homeshare Vermont in Burlington, has noticed the positive impact of the roommate programs. “Independence is great but isolation as we age is a growing concern, so companionship can be almost life-altering,” Dunn told the Associated Press. “People are telling us they’re happier, sleeping better, eating better. … If I could sell you a drug that did that, you’d pay a lot of money.”
So while these seniors may not be pulling all-nighters with their roommates or labeling all the food in the refrigerator like in college, senior home-sharing programs are proving that life is always a little sweeter with someone to live with, no matter how old you are.
MORE: Three Big Life Takeaways from Bill Gates
Vermont Farmers and Citizens Provide Climate Change Research
You’ve definitely heard stories about how, because the world is getting hotter, the polar ice caps are melting. And while you know that’s bad news, you don’t necessarily know how it affects you.
That’s the same exact thought that the state of Vermont had, which is why they conducted their own report on how climate change will directly impact their 630,000 residents.
Compiled by Gillian Galford, an Earth systems scientist at the University of Vermont, and seven graduate students, the study is the first to analyze the effects on an individual state. In the past 15 years, the U.S. has released three reports on how the nation will be affected, but Vermont is the first state to analyze the next 100 years of climate change’s effects on its own land.
With most climate change reports, top scientists are consulted, but Galford took a slightly different approach: going directly to the heart of the state. Instead of solely using scientists, Galford spoke with state officials, citizen scientists and local famers. Her data consists of an interview with a local apple farmer who keeps detailed records of every growing season as well as the results of the annual competition which guesses what spring day Vermont’s famous Joe’s Pond will melt, among others.
Galford wanted to see how rising temperatures, longer growing seasons and flooding would affect the state. What did she learn?
Perhaps not surprisingly, farmers and low income communities will be most affected. And interestingly, each climate change factor will have both positive and negative effects on the community. While longer growing seasons will boost fruit and vegetable production, higher temperatures will hurt the dairy industry. Hot weather means cows eat less, and consequently produce less milk. Increased rainfall will also yield some mixed results. One positive is that more rain will help with crop growth, but it wasn’t determined how that increase in precipitation will affect the dairy industry. The main negative consequence though is that flooding will ruin the mobile houses in Vermont’s flood plains — affecting thousands of the low-income residents.
Galford’s research adds that personal touch to a topic often viewed in such scientific terms. Hopefully other states will follow in this example and conduct similar research, as this could get more people on board with helping to save the planet.
MORE: The Top 5 Ways to Fight Global Warming
How Do You Increase the Amount of Local Food Sold in Your Community?
With supermarkets offering countless food options, those selling locally-grown food have to be organized and have a good business plan in order to make a go of it.
In Mad River Valley — an area comprised of multiple small farms, small communities, and tourists looking for skiing and summer bliss — is the perfect place to create a facility dedicated to the growth of the local food movement.
And that’s exactly what a 4,000-square foot building in Waitsfield, Vermont provides. The former warehouse is now the Mad River Food Hub, a gathering and storage point for farmers and food processing businesses in Mad River Valley. Founded by British entrepreneur Robin Morris, the Food Hub is now entering its third year with big rewards and high hopes for the future.
So how did a British entrepreneur with a background in finance end up in Vermont? Morris originally worked as the CEO of Systems Union, Inc. (a financial analyst company) in New York, but then switched to work as the CFO of American Flatbread, a wood-fired pizza company. During his time there, Morris discovered a love of food, and, when his company outsourced, the warehouse became available and he pounced on it.
Now, three years later, the food hub has 50 clients, some of whom are nearby, while others drive an hour to take part. The first year the facility housed $800,000 worth of food, but its second year saw a jump to $1 million. It is currently only operating at 60 percent capacity, but Morris hopes to see a boost to 80 percent this year.
The idea and operation of the food hub is simple: The warehouse is divided into different areas with 1,600 square feet dedicated to freezer and cooler space, another 1,600 square feet for processing rooms and 800 square feet of dry storage and loading docks. Local famers and processing companies bring their products to the food hub, and store it all in there. Morris also delivers the produce for customers in the form of his 26-foot-long refrigerated truck.
In addition to storage and delivery, Morris provides mentoring and consulting for clients interested in increasing their knowledge and businesses.
Funding comes from Morris and foundations and government grants, but the hope is to become independent from government money. That isn’t Morris’s only goal for the upcoming years, however, as he plans for the growth of the hub. Not only does he want the hub to provide 10 percent of the food supply in the area, but also expand to more hubs to truly make food local for the communities in the area.
Morris’ food hub is dedicated to the creation of a community food source and environment. With a little storage space, green thumbs, and dedication from residents, it’s clear that other communities across the country could do the same.
MORE: No Soil? Or Sun? This Urban Farm is Raising Fresh Food in a Whole New Way