tammyjoymccrea

Free Run vs. Free Range vs. Conventional egg production:

Free-run: hens live in barns and can roam about inside the barn

Free-range: hens live in barns but have access to the outdoors, weather permitting.

Conventional cage: hens live in groups of five or six. This is the most common type and represents about 98% of Canadian egg production.

via Canadian Egg Marketing Agency

Books by Indra Devi, yogi

Five Easy Ways to Go Organic, @ The New York Times

Environmental Working Group: Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease Management, via Cornell University.  Material Fact Sheets for organic pesticides.

Although the green roof industry is young here in the Pacific Northwest, the concept is certainly not a new one.  The current technology - installing a membrane, media and plants -  was developed in Germany in the 1960s, and has since spread to North America.  There are different concepts in green roof design, mostly centred around media depth and plant and materials selection, but the concept is the same - covering a roof with vegetation.

(source: http://www.mapc.org/regional_planning/LID/green_roofs.html)

Here in BC we are fortunate to have a green roof research centre at BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) that is researching the effects of various types of green roofs on things like stormwater mitigation and heating and cooling.  Why would anyone go to the trouble of intalling a GR?  To acheive any of the following:

Stormwater mitigation.  Reducing the amount of or rate at which water flows into the storm drainage system.  The importance of reducing runoff can be overlooked if the process is viewed as strictly a natural one - ie, a part of the water cycle.  But consider the number of chemicals that water accumulates as it runs over impermeable urban surfaces.  That tainted water is not treated - it travels directly into local streams and rivers.  And, some older cities are equipped with combined sewer-stormwater systems - prone to sewer overflows and contamination during peak rainy seasons

Reducing the rate of heating or cooling.  This may not be such a selling point here in Vancouver, a city with moderate temperatures.  But in cities like Chicago, whose city hall is capped by a green roof, or Toronto,  there is an insulating affect that reduces the demand for heating and cooling.

Managing the urban heat island effect.  Lack of evapotranspiration where there is extensive development limits the cooling effect that takes place in a relatively undisturbed area (more concrete = less plant life = less evapotranspiration = less cooling!)  On top of this, concrete and asphalt are great at holding on to heat they have absorbed during the day.  This can cause an urban area to be as much as 12 degrees celcius warmer than the surrounding rural area.  Read more about urban heat islands here.

Aesthetics.

Longevity.  Although GRs are more of a financial investment early on, the standard life is said to be longer than that of a conventional roofing system.  Unfortunately, due to the high initial investment, many builders are reluctant to build using green roofs.  This is where frontrunners in the GR movement here in North America are researching and creating incentives for people to make the investment.  See Toronto, Portland, Chicago.

Encouraging ecological diversity by providing additional habitat for wildlife.

Keep an eye out for green roofs in your own community.  With all the talk about reducing our carbon footprint, GRs should be enjoying a surge of popularity in the near future.

 

 

 

Community: it implies sharing, having something in common. One thing we all share is the need for sustenance. Small, typically family run, often transitional or organic, CSA farms provide your community directly with seasonal produce.

How it works. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model involves a mutually beneficial relationship between community members and local farmers.  Consumers purchase a share from the farm at the beginning of the season and in return receive weekly delivery or pick up of seasonal produce. Consumers benefit by increased support of the local economy, accessibility to fresh food, and a greater connection to where their food comes from. Advantages to the farmer are support for small, intensive family farming practices, less focus on marketing and thus more focus on creating a high quality product, and a shared financial risk.

Carrots, beets, and broccoli - oh my!  Unlike a grocery subscription service, you are not ordering known quantities of specific foods. Instead, you receive a portion of the crop that has come to maturity that week.  This may be young salad greens, peas, and radishes in springtime, and potatoes, squash, and broccoli later in the growing season. Depending on where you live, you may receive anywhere from 18 to 20 weeks worth of produce May through October.

Origins. Community Supported Agriculture is not a new concept. A community farming initiative rumoured to have been influenced in North America by the rise of similar agricultural models in Japan and Chile in the 1970s, it is more likely that the movement emerged “organically” and virtually simultaneously with the establishment of two North American CSA farms. According to Steven Mcfadden in “Community Farms in the 21st Century: Poised for Another Wave of Growth?”

The ideas that informed the first two American CSAs were articulated in the 1920s by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), and then actively cultivated in post- WW II Europe in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The ideas crossed the Atlantic and came to life in a new form, CSA, simultaneously but independently in 1986 at both Indian Line Farm in Massachusetts and Temple-Wilton Community Farm in New Hampshire.

How to get involved.  Purchase a share.  Visit the Robin Van En Center for updated listings of CSA farms in the United States and internationally.

UPDATE: I happen to know there is a new CSA coming to Langley (BC, CANADA) - Nathan Creek Organic Farm.  They have recently leased 40 acres from The Land Conservancy on which to establish the farm. They are currently accepting applications for shares. Download the application from their site. C'mon - do it!