Regenerative farming practices— such as composting, incorporating animal grazing, diversifying crops—prioritize soil health. Fertile soil stores more carbon. This sequestration solution is not just for agriculture. A recent study found that better management of forests, grasslands, and soils in the United States could absorb as much as 21 percent of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground; there are a thousand ways to go home again. —Rumi The way to stop climate change might be buried in 300 square feet of earth in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, amid kale and potatoes. A half- dozen city youth are digging…
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It Is What It Is
On December 31, 2019, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) became aware of coronavirus cases in China. They began developing reports for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on January 1. Just a few months after that, the coronavirus left 40 million Americans without jobs, tanked our economy, and killed over 170,000 of us. Now, here we are in August, more than 1000 people are still dying every day, and yet, the official response is, “It is what it is.” In other words, the 170,000+ deaths were unavoidable in the eyes of our national leaders. They believe they did everything possible to curtail the effects…
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Provender Alliance 44th Annual Conference
Online – October 21 – 23, 2020 Independent Integrity: Principles In Action The conference workshops provide a cooperative atmosphere for trade members to teach and learn from one another and network about the natural products trade. For more info: https://provender.org/conference/
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BirdFest and Bluegrass 2020
Virtual At Home Event Oct. 2nd and 3rd BirdFest & Bluegrass 2020 at Home Edition, Saturday, October 3rd. Virtual bird and Refuge Trivia, Friday, October 2nd! Mark your calendars for the festival, and sign up for trivia today! https://bit.ly/34aKev1
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VegFest 2020
CANCELLED GOING VIRTUAL! October 24–25, 2020 9am–5pm PST Historically the largest vegan food festival in the Pacific Northwest, Portland VegFest celebrates its 16th year by going virtual! Explore and chat with new vegan brands and learn about new products from your old favorites. Get your ingredients ready in advance to cook along with our nationally renowned vegan chefs. Hear from vegan activists, entrepreneurs, health experts, award-winning plant-powered athletes, and more. Stay tuned for vendor and attendee registration – coming soon! For more info: https://bit.ly/3iNwfPG
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SOLAR OREGON Go Zero Virtual Tour 2020
Wed, Oct. 14th @ 4-6 PM Wed & Oct. 21st @ 4-6 PM Residential buildings account for almost a quarter of all energy usage in the state of Oregon. Zero energy home design is an important strategy in climate adaptation. Join Solar Oregon for two premier virtual explorations of zero energy homes across the state. At the Go Zero Tour 2020, part of Sustainable Building Week you can explore a mix of new and retrofit homes all from the safety and comfort of your home. Learn all the surprisingly simple, accessible, and innovative strategies that homeowners use for getting to zero. This is a two part event–all ticket types get you…
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3rd Annual Sustainable Building Week
October 12- 23, 2020 Virtual Morning, noon and late afternoon events will include tours, discussion panels, product showcases, virtual happy hours… and more! SBW 2020 will be virtual and expanded to a 2-week format with three events per day. This will provide for rich content and meaningful connectedness while not overburdening our stamina for “screen-time.” Several key events are locked in, including: AIA Oregon COTE’s Green Champions Summit Solar Oregon’s virtual building tours AIA happy hour ReBuilding Center’s Salvage Showdown Education forums from Portland Green Schools, Build Local Alliance, Portland Materials Transparency, ILFI Collaborative, OSU, and Carbon Leadership Forum For more info: https://bit.ly/2Fp14fa
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House Fires
Greta Thunberg gets it: our house is on fire. This is the second time in my lifetime that our house has been on fire. I was only 3 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, thus starting WW II. I was too young then to remember that day, but I do remember the cold day in February of 1946 when my father came home from the Philippines. Our family was lucky, others weren’t, as more than 400 thousand didn’t come home. It took more than 16 million Americans (out of a population of only 140 million) serving in the military to put that fire out, plus…
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Regenerative Agriculture
for the Herb [and Home] Garden More and more farmers are switching to Regenerative Agriculture principles. One main reason for the switch is to take better care of topsoil, so less carbon is released into the atmosphere. The methods used increase soil water holding capacity, stop erosion, protect the purity of groundwater, and create conditions for more disease and pest-resilient crops. These worthwhile approaches to taking care of the planet can be incorporated on farms large or small, as well as home gardens. Maybe you are already using some of these practices but didn’t realize what an innovator you are. We do, and we’ve found that most of the methods…
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Soil My Undies
Measuring Soil Biology with a Pair of Skivvies Healthy soil means hungry soil. With proper management, the ground beneath your crops should teem with millions of tiny lifeforms—bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, earthworms—all busy transferring nutrients, eating, and decomposing organic material through nutrient cycling in processes that help plants thrive. So how do you measure the biological activity of your soil? Enter the “Soil Your Undies” test. Simply bury a pair of white, 100% cotton undies beneath your soil, come back two months later and dig them up. Sterile, lifeless soil will keep your tighty- whities clean and intact whereas busy, organically thriving soil will eat away at your briefs,…
