Guest Report: Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Levels In World's Air Reach 'Troubling Milestone'

By SETH BORENSTEIN
Huffington Post -- May 31, 2012 


WASHINGTON -- The world's air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant.

Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn't quite a surprise, because it's been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395.

So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon.

"The fact that it's 400 is significant," said Jim Butler, global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. "It's just a reminder to everybody that we haven't fixed this and we're still in trouble."

Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from decomposing dead plants and animals. Before the Industrial Age, levels were around 275 parts per million.

For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

It's been at least 800,000 years – probably more – since Earth saw carbon dioxide levels in the 400s, Butler and other climate scientists said.

Until now.

Readings are coming in at 400 and higher all over the Arctic. They've been recorded in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and even Mongolia. But levels change with the seasons and will drop a bit in the summer, when plants suck up carbon dioxide, NOAA scientists said.

So the yearly average for those northern stations likely will be lower and so will the global number.
Globally, the average carbon dioxide level is about 395 parts per million but will pass the 400 mark within a few years, scientists said.

The Arctic is the leading indicator in global warming, both in carbon dioxide in the air and effects, said Pieter Tans, a senior NOAA scientist.

"This is the first time the entire Arctic is that high," he said.

Tans called reaching the 400 number "depressing," and Butler said it was "a troubling milestone."

"It's an important threshold," said Carnegie Institution ecologist Chris Field, a scientist who helps lead the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "It is an indication that we're in a different world."

Ronald Prinn, an atmospheric sciences professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said 400 is more a psychological milestone than a scientific one. We think in hundreds, and "we're poking our heads above 400," he said.

Tans said the readings show how much the Earth's atmosphere and its climate are being affected by humans. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels hit a record high of 34.8 billion tons in 2011, up 3.2 percent, the International Energy Agency announced last week.

The agency said it's becoming unlikely that the world can achieve the European goal of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees based on increasing pollution and greenhouse gas levels.

"The news today, that some stations have measured concentrations above 400 ppm in the atmosphere, is further evidence that the world's political leaders – with a few honorable exceptions – are failing catastrophically to address the climate crisis," former Vice President Al Gore, the highest-profile campaigner against global warming, said in an email. "History will not understand or forgive them."

But political dynamics in the United States mean there's no possibility of significant restrictions on man-made greenhouse gases no matter what the levels are in the air, said Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow of the libertarian Cato Institute.

"These milestones are always worth noting," said economist Myron Ebell at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. "As carbon dioxide levels have continued to increase, global temperatures flattened out, contrary to the models" used by climate scientists and the United Nations.

He contends temperatures have not risen since 1998, which was unusually hot.

Temperature records contradict that claim. Both 2005 and 2010 were warmer than 1998, and the entire decade of 2000 to 2009 was the warmest on record, according to NOAA.

Memorial Day: Tomb of the Unknowns

source unknown -- Internet fly-by

1.  How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why? 

21 steps:  It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary. 

2. How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why? 

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1 

3.  Why are his gloves wet? 

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle. 

4.  Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and,if not, why not? 

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path,he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder. 

5.  How often are the guards changed? 

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

6.  What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?  

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30. 

Guards must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way.

After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn.  The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet.  There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.

There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.  All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are:

• President Taft,
• Joe Lewis (the boxer)
• Medal of Honor winner Audie L. Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and of Hollywood fame

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty. 

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. 

They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment,it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. 

The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.

Guest Essay: A Sea of Robin Hoods Tell the G8, "It's Time to Tax Wall Street!"

source: Stacey Burns (@wentrogue)

by Harriet Rowan — May 20, 2012 - 7:52am
PR Watch -- Center for Media and Democracy 

Thousands of nurses from around the world descended upon Daley Plaza, in the heart of Chicago on May 18, to demand that the richest nations in the world put an end to austerity politics and start asking the people who collapsed the global economy to do more to "heal the world."

Wearing red National Nurses United (NNU) scrubs calling for "an economy for the 99%" and zippy green Robin Hood hats, made for them in Europe, the nurses were joined by Occupy Chicago and thousands of community activists in what may be one of the most colorful demonstrations in days of protests marking the G8 meeting at Camp David and the NATO Summit in Chicago.

The man who took from the rich to give to the poor is the international symbol of a grassroots campaign for a financial speculation tax, a tiny tax on stocks, futures and options with the potential to raise billions a year in revenue for critical public services. Nurses around the globe are campaigning on the idea as a public policy alternative to the cut, cut, cut mentality of pro-austerity politicians. The tax is supported by the leaders of Germany and France and the European Union is working on its implementation, but England and the U.S. have been major roadblocks to a global transaction tax.

 

Robin Hood Tax “An Idea Whose Time Has Come”

While the world leaders meeting at Camp David continued bickering over the tax, RoseAnn Demoro, the Executive Director of NNU, one of the largest nurses unions in the United States, told the crowd it was time to take the issue into their own hands. “We’re fed up. We’re going to do participatory democracy, we’re not counting on our legislators to do the right thing, we’re going to do the right thing…" DeMoro spoke to the power of her profession, the immense popularity of nurses: "the patients know who they can trust, and they trust the nurses more than they trust the politicians.”

David Hillman addressed the crowd in his Robin Hood gear, and spoke to CMD. He is the director of the organization “Stamp Out Poverty” from the United Kingdom and an international leader in the Robin Hood Tax campaign. According to Hillman “a fraction of one percent could raise $350 billion dollars a year which would save jobs, fight against austerity, it would provide money as well to developing countries who did nothing to cause this crisis. It is an idea whose time has come.”

A financial speculation tax is not a new idea. Hillman pointed out that “it is a very mainstream idea, in the U.S. they had a tax like this from 1916 to 1966, just on shares… In fact in the U.S., they still have a small tax that pays for the Securities Exchange Commission and that raises a billion dollars a year. What we are saying is roll that tax, roll it back to shares, then on to bonds, on to derivatives, on to foreign exchange and you will raise a huge amount of money from a sector that makes too much profit, pays itself too much in remunerations. That money could go to save jobs in the U.S.”

 

Emmanuel and G8 Leaders Afraid of Nurses?

source: National Nurses UnitedIn the lead up to the eventful weekend in Chicago, NNU had a hard time securing permits for their rally and march from the mayor of Chicago, and former chief of staff to President Obama, Rahm Emanuel. At the last minute, Emanuel tried to move the rally and kick Morello off the bill, but the nurses would not yield. After much negotiation, they were allowed to rally, but not to march, so the nurses decided to take a stroll, walking on the sidewalks, stopping at red lights and courteously maintaining a path for passers-by. Despite their decidedly well-behaved march, they were followed by watchful police officers from countless agencies, in the streets and on the rooftops.

Michael Lighty, the director of public policy at NNU introduced the crowd to a surprise performance by actors dressed as G8 leaders who acted out a scene in “the world’s largest casino” where they gambled with countries and their futures. The skit ended with Robin Hood and a band of merry nurses announcing “game over” and escorting the G8 leaders off the stage. Robin Hood announced to the crowd “we need to continue to hold the G8 accountable, we need to continue to empower the people to fight for an economy to tax Wall Street for the damage they have done to Main Street, an economy to pay for healthcare for all, jobs with dignity and a good environment… and now we know how to pay for it.”

 

Nurses Joined by Allies & Rock & Rollers

It wasn’t just nurses who filled Daley Plaza, they were joined by Occupy Chicago, by veterans, by United Mine Workers, by musicians, by local Chicago activists, by representatives of international economic justice organizations, and approximately 500 police officers. NNU invited local community leaders up on stage to tell the crowd what they would do with the $4 billion dollars that Chicago might garner from a speculation tax. Because Chicago is home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Illinois is one of the few states in the United States with the ability to apply a tax to financial transactions independent of the federal government.
Chris May, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, volunteered as security for the speaker’s stage. He came up to Chicago for the weekend to return his military medals to the leaders at the NATO Summit, and was at the rally in solidarity with the nurses and their message.

Famed "Chicago 8" protester Tom Hayden, headlined the protest: "it's been 44 years since I've had a permit to speak in Chicago." Wisconsin native and Nation writer John Nichols addressed the crowd, drawing parallels between the austerity politics being practiced in states like Wisconsin and countries like Greece. All over the globe, "The people are on the march against austerity" says Nichols."People are waking up to the fact that we aren't broke, we don't need to do cuts. What we need are the new revenues that will come from taxing the speculators."

Tom Morello, a labor activist and world-famous guitarist from the band Rage Against the Machine told the crowd he was angry. Angry at the "corporate malfeasance on Wall Street which has torpedoed the global economy and caused hardship for millions of families around the globe, while they line their own pockets with millions in bonuses for themselves."

He closed out the rally with his famous “Worldwide Rebel Song,” which had the sea of red and green activists jumping and laughing in the hot afternoon sun under the watchful eye of Daley Plaza's enormous sculpture by Picasso. The Camp David G8 meeting was scheduled to wrap on Saturday and the leaders and President Obama were scheduled to travel to Chicago for the NATO Summit beginning Sunday.

Farm Journal: Getting the Garden Started

This year I'm building an organic garden at Windshadow Farm and Dairy in Bangor, owned by Ron and Suzanne Klein.

I started with the cold crops:  cabbage, collards, kale and onions (rows indicated by small white markers) and enclosed them with a light weight black plastic mesh fence (larger white posts) we will also use for our vine crops.  To reinforce the fence and protect the seedlings from rabbits, I buried the bottom of the netting to hold it down around the perimeter of the fence.  (There were a lot of rabbits this year because of the mild winter.)  The watering hose is hooked up to a spigot attached to Ron and Suzanne's house.

Here's the entire garden space, with two terraces on the hill.  The terraces were built up with hay bales and then a mix of composted goat and water buffalo bedding from the dairy barn.  Ron made a couple dozen trips from the compost pile behind the hay barn to the garden to to build up the lower garden and to fill both terraces that measure 12 bales of hay--lengthwise.  We plan to take advantage of gravity to help water the terrace crops.  Only one-third of the lower garden has been planted and there is much more work to do, including building a kitchen garden and potato plot next to the house and between the road and the barns (background).

The soil is heavy clay, so we are transforming it with loads upon loads of compost.  Ron rototilled the lower garden before we put in the terraces, then Mike Sullins came over with the heavy duty tiller he uses on his blueberry fields, which really mixed in the tons of compost we had spread.

Ron roto-tilled the kitchen garden yesterday and it is like powder.  We'll roto-till the lower garden soon.  That beats having to do it with a shovel!

In between gardening I helped Soo with the milking by escorting the goats to the staging area of the milking parlor.  She usually has four goats in the chute where these two white goats are standing.  They will enter the milk parlor by the door on the left side at the end of the chute.  Another four goats wait in the first "on-deck" pen (to the lower right of the photo at a perpendicular angle).  When each set of four is finished, the goats exit the parlor and go into the dry lot area through another sliding door (behind the wooden wall at the end of the chute). It's a slick and intelligent operation, but Ron has some redesign plans to make it more efficient.  One thing non-farmers may not understand is that animal handling can take a huge amount of time and be stressful on the animals.  The goal is to be more efficient and have the handling system be as animal friendly as possible.




The water buffalo calf was born on April 2, 2012 to M-131 and is the sister of Kate, who was born on March 15,  2011.  The dairy water buffalo are all handled daily starting as calves.  They are very intelligent, docile and well-mannered if handled correctly. Ron is training the new calf to halter using a rope halter.  He said that one of the most important things you can do with any bovine or water buffalo is train them to a halter so they are willingly controlled.  It was quite a sight for Suzanne to see Ron leading a 1,500-pound  water buffalo into the milk parlor using only a thin rope halter!  But then again, in cultures where these animals are commonly used, they are led about by small children.

The new calf loves to run around the barns.  And, despite their size and bulk, water buffalo run just like horses.






I also fed the newest water buffalo calf, which is a pure joy, and then walked her around the grounds for exercise.  She is learning how to follow through the use of a small rope halter.

It was a long day (10 to 8) and I was exhausted and sore, but happy and satisfied with my work and the progress made on the garden.  I'm already anticipating the delicious vegetables the garden will produce.

Guest Report: Kellogg’s Kashi Targeted as Web Food Fighting Escalates

by Stephanie Armour
Bloomberg News

Kellogg’s Kashi natural cereal uses some genetically modified ingredients. That was enough to convince an organic grocer in Portsmouth, Rhode Island to pull the brand from his store’s shelves. 

Then, a photo of a sign displayed on one of the empty shelves explaining what had happened quickly went viral, lighting up the Web. Kellogg Co. (K) (K)’s Kashi unit responded last week with a video on Facebook (FB) (FB) defending its use of the ingredients. By then, however, the noise level was rising, with some online groups threatening a boycott.

It was just the latest skirmish in an escalating Internet- based uprising. Facebook, Twitter and petition sites like Change.org have birthed a brand of consumer activism that lets people rally supporters under a common cause at breakneck speed. The tactic has caught on in a big way, taking on one company after another, putting practices under a spotlight: bug extracts at Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) (SBUX), livestock antibiotics at Cargill Inc. and the treatment of animals by McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) (MCD)

“It used to be the most power you had was writing your congressman” and waiting, said Amanda Hitt, director of the food integrity campaign at the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based public advocacy group.

“Now petitions are becoming an especially powerful tool.”

That tool has proven especially effective against lobbying efforts among lawmakers. Agribusiness, for instance, spent $124 million in 2011 on lobbying, up from $77 million in 1999, said the Center for Responsive Politics (0205393D) in Washington.

 

Mad Cow Disease

Following last month’s discovery of a case of mad cow disease, online petitions at Change.org began popping up to demand that the U.S. allow cows to be fed only a vegetarian diet and that all beef be tested for the disease.

In March, a coalition called the Just Label It campaign submitted 1.1 million names -- about the population of Dallas -- to the Food and Drug Administration calling for genetically- modified food to be labeled.

The upside of these petition drives “is it forces the attention of the government and politicians,” said Rohit Bhargava, senior vice president of the global strategy and planning group at Ogilvy in Washington. The downside is that “people can combine efforts around things that aren’t really facts,” he said in an interview.

No recent social media campaign has captured consumers’ imagination in quite the way the “pink slime” controversy has. The idea struck blogger Bettina Elias Siegel in the kitchen of her home in Houston. Ammonia-treated beef scraps were showing up in hamburgers in U.S. schools, a “pink slime” that the former lawyer saw as risky to children.

 

260,000 Signatures

The mother of two started a petition on March 6 on Change.org, garnering almost 260,000 signatures. In less than two weeks, the U.S. Agriculture Department said it would let schools order beef without the scrap meat. By April 2, Beef Products Inc., the biggest producer of the so-called lean, finely textured ground beef, had closed three plants, while Yucaipa Cos.’s AFA Foods Inc. cited the controversy as a factor pushing it into bankruptcy.

“Bettina’s petition just exploded,” said Sarah Ryan, a campaigner at San Francisco-based Change.org, a social action website. “It’s really given the consumers the motivation they need to realize they can change the food industry.”

BPI has been making lean, finely textured beef for three decades and said it’s worked to inform consumers about the product’s safety. The Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based company puts beef trimmings in a centrifuge to separate the meat from fat and then uses ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens such as E. coli.

 

Internet Democracy

“Our company has faced unprecedented and often unfair coverage in the media,” BPI said in a statement. “We have done our best to set the record straight on a product that is not only safe, but an extremely effective way to make lean ground beef available to consumers using 100 percent beef.”

BPI will have to become more savvy in responding to social media campaigns, said Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety lawyer. BPI took too long to support its product after Siegel’s petition and media stories gained momentum, he said.

“It’s not bad to get people engaged, but it’s going to require more engagement from the other side,” Marler said in an interview. “Information is now instantaneously available, so you have to come up with a different strategy of managing the Internet democracy.”

 

‘Disgusting’ Opinions

More than 6,500 people signed a Change.org petition asking Starbucks to stop using dried insects to color products such as Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino. The petition urged the Seattle-based coffee retailer to drop the red dye made from female cochineal insects because it isn’t vegan and consumers “don’t want crushed bugs in their designer drinks.”

Supporters have added comments such as “the idea of eating bugs without knowing...well, it’s kind of gross,” and “bugs!!?? Disgusting!!”

Starbucks bowed to pressure on April 19, saying it would switch to lycopene, a tomato-based extract, by late July in U.S. stores. Starbucks takes feedback from social media channels seriously, Linda Mills, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The company is moving away from the cochineal extract, which had been used in products including raspberry swirl cake, red velvet whoopee pie and two beverages.

“As our customers you expect and deserve better, and we promise to do better,” Cliff Burrows, Starbucks president for the U.S. and the Americas, said in a news release. 

Siegel, the mother who started the pink slime petition, said she was wowed by the public response to her cause.

“Greater transparency in our food supply is always a victory for consumers,” Siegel said in an e-mail. “Though I’m a blogger and use social media all the time, nothing could have prepared me for the astounding reaction my petition received,”

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Armour in Washington at sarmour@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net 

COMMENTS TO THE ARTICLE

Dennis Johnson, 05/07/2012 04:48 PM

Foolishness.  How long have people been eating genetically modified food and didn't even know it?  There is no evidence that it is the least bit harmful.  At a time when food prices are already painfully high this is really turning into a travesty.

Mapsofworld, 05/07/2012 01:42 AM

All- New Infographic & Analysis About Genetic Engineering Of Crops & GMO http://www.mapsofworld.com/pol...

Champions of Healthy Kids -- Second Summit

This article appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette on May 12 
 Portions of this article appeared in the Huffington Post on June 5

Steve Springsdorf, YMCA executive director

Last week’s report on the nation’s skyrocketing obesity rates made the purpose of the Kalamazoo County Champions of Healthy Kids all the more urgent.

“Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention” revealed that two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese, according to the Institute of Medicine report released on Tuesday. Obesity is associated with the high cost of chronic diseases (e.g., Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, stroke, cancer and dementia), disability and even death.

Champions promotes healthy eating and daily exercise for children throughout Kalamazoo County. It was begun last year by a coalition of community leaders with the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo.

Over 100 leaders from schools, local businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, and government met on Wednesday at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center for the Champions of Healthy Kids' second annual summit.

While the obesity report was shocking, participants at the summit learned that the major determinant of a family's health is its social and economic status because it dictates the opportunities and resources available to them.

Linda Vail, director of Kalamazoo County
Health & Community Services

The neighborhoods people live in, their income, educational levels and race determine their health status more than other factors, said Linda Vail, director of Health and Community Services with Kalamazoo County.

For example, of the 5,000 babies are born in Kalamazoo County each year, half of them are on Medicaid with access to only three physicians compared to the other half whose families have private insurance and access to 27-30 (full time equivalent) physicians, said Denise Crawford, CEO of the Family Health Center.

And, this doesn’t include treatment for the newborns' older brothers and sisters, she said. Moreover, every private practice is closed to Medicaid pediatric patients.

“Until we address our socio-economic issues, we'll only put band-aids on our health,” said Vail.

Denise Crawford, CEO of Family Health Center

Social and cultural attitudes and food consumption habits also determine people’s ideas about what’s good and what’s desirable, said Crawford. She illustrated that with a story about her aunt’s cookbook that prescribed cooking with “good lard.”

“No lard is good lard,” she said.

Obesity rates among young people from ages 2 to 29 is monumental with Hispanics at 38.2 percent, African Americans at 35.9 percent and White Americans at 29.3 percent, she said.

By 2050, over half of the U.S. population will be people of color. If health trends continue, that means that 38 percent of the population will be obese.

None of us is doing it right, said Crawford and focusing only on communities of color will yield only marginal results.

Michigan has 2.5 million adults and .4 million children who are obese and the impact on the state economy is particularly devastating costing billions in health care that can reach $12.5 billion by 2018. Currently, the United States spend $2.2 trillion for health care with 75 percent of that treating chronic conditions.

That’s one of the reasons why Governor Rick Snyder has advocated the 4x4 Plan, whose goal is to “make every Michigander healthy and productive living in communities that support health and wellness with ready access to an affordable, patient-centered and community-based system of care.“

The plan advocates four key healthy behaviors: diet, exercise, annual physical examinations and the avoidance of tobacco.

Unfortunately, while the governor called for $2.3 million to fund the 4x4 Program, the legislature pulled it.

Efforts to change this “public health crisis” are long term and convincing people to change their ways is difficult.

“We don't have 50 years to transform ourselves into healthy, productive individuals to help create a vibrant Michigan economy,” said Vail. “We must find ways to accelerate adopting healthy norms and values.”

Ron Fuller, Superintendent of K-RESA

Ron Fuller, superintendent of K-RESA discussed the progress various schools in the county are making to get children engaged in healthy exercise and to eat nutritious foods. The result is that attendance is improving, academic performance is increasing, and obesity rates are declining.

Vicksburg schools stand out and it all started with one teacher who decided to do something about the children's rising obesity and overweight rates, he said.

“This is a lesson for everyone,” said Fuller. “It starts with the commitment of a few dedicated people and the [district] superintendent's buy-in.”

Successful schools are using a physical-education-for-life approach, he said, where they do small things like take five minutes of dancing in the hallways once school begins in the morning.

Kristi Carambula, K-RESA Early Childhood, Rebecca
Achenbach, YMCA, Hether Frayer, Fresh Food Fairy

Proper nutrition through school lunches can play a role, too, by getting kids to eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and a variety of menu choices to substitute the foods they typically eat that are heavy with sugars and fats.

Summit participants attended two discussion sessions designed to get them talking about practical ways of approaching a particular area of concern as well as to recruit volunteers to work on the issue over the next year. These areas included:

• providing fresh food in school menus
• enlisting faith-based organizations to advance health and wellness
• distributing fresh food to neighborhoods lacking access to it
• promoting movement and exercise in the classroom
• providing nutritious food in day care center and preschools
• connecting government and organizations to improve year-round access to the outdoors

Discussion session

Participants found several major barriers to progress such as “connecting the dots” between the resources available and the people who need them. Some people don't have transportation to farmers markets or grocery stores where they can buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Others may not know how to cook, clean or use these food because they are used to eating fast food, processed and prepared foods. State legislative budget cuts to many successful health programs is also an impediment.

Overcoming these barriers, however, can happen through collaboration with others who are focused on making sure that all people in Kalamazoo County have access to fresh food. That includes encouraging more teachers to take on projects that promote fitness and nutritious eating, educating parents and making better use of existing resources.

“You're not alone in this,” said Chris Crowell, co-owner of Gazelle Sports, to participants.  “There are plenty of wise, talented, passionate, caring people in the room now. Connect with them. This is something we can take on when we open our hearts, our hands, our minds and make the next generation healthier than ours.”

Champions was begun last year by a coalition of community leaders who formed an advisory committee in cooperation with the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo. The summit was made possible by a generous grant from Fifth Third Bank and the U.S. Center for Disease Control.

Mason Coleman, Fifth Third Bank

Trish Harrison, YMCA

Farm Journal: Barn Cleaning

 A "Blast from the Past"
May 15, 2009

A sneak peek into an upcoming book about my experiences on the farm

This article appeared on Energy Bulletin on Friday, May 11

Today, we spent the morning cleaning the barn.  Actually, I had no idea what this meant before we started and came quite unprepared for the work.  My old athletic shoes, which work fine in the garden, would not do for the little pellets of goat excrement and the heavy, wet straw and hay that lay on the cement floors of the barn.

Fortunately, Ron, the farmer we are working with, saw my predicament and offered me a pair of boots that he keeps on hand for city slickers like me who venture here to help him out.  I was grateful for them although after today I will definitely buy a pair of my own because I intend to continue doing this farm work.

Farm work.  Yes.  I like the sound of that.  Actually, I came to the farm looking ahead to a future where declining natural resources will make life different, especially since we depend on oil to run nearly everything in our lives.  I think Sharon Astyk’s call for 100 million farmers and 200 million cooks (I already cook) is sound advice and essential preparation for survival in this new and uncertain world.  Today, I would start this venture with a lesson on barn cleaning.

My new farm buddies and I shoveled manure all morning, which was not as bad smelling or as difficult to handle as I’m sure cow, chicken or pig manure would have been.  In fact, the smells were almost pleasant as the goat waste mixed with the hay and straw. 

I learned to use a pitchfork and was surprised at how easily it picked up the manure.  However, there are two tricks to using a pitchfork:  (1) avoid overburdening yourself by taking too much; and (2) lift the fork close to the tines using the muscles of your legs as a fulcrum for better leverage. After all, a pitchfork is just a lever.  Also, there are two kinds of pick-up:  the top layer is light in weight because of the drainage and added loose straw and hay, but the layers underneath it are heavier with matted globs of bedding, urine and caked “caca,” as Ron calls it.  The caked “caca” usually has to be scraped down to the cement floor for a more thorough cleaning.  

Shoveling manure clued me in as to why so much of our colloquial language focuses on this substance and other bodily functions, which I’m sure is a leftover from thousands of years of farming.

a clean barn ready for new straw

As I tossed the manure into a pile in the middle of the barn, I began to relate to it in an unexpected way:  cleaning the barn gives the animals a better quality of life.  In other words, we clean the barn to ensure the health and comfort of the goats.  Granted, barn cleaning is a necessary farm chore, but it is also our gift to goats along with the clean, new straw for their bedding.  Ron says the goats treat their new digs like a Christmas present when they re-enter the barn.  They look around with excitement and sometimes even dance on straw with delight.  Unfortunately, I would not see this today, but I would later on, and I came to love it and look forward to it.

One other important thing I learned today is that the caked “caca” is at a stage where it is becoming compost that helps re-generate the soil.  Because the “caca” is “caked,” air cannot reach the interior.  Air has oxygen, which the microbial world needs to break down the organic matter into friable compost otherwise know as the “brown gold” all gardeners and farmers treasure.  Though some of the manure already looks like soil, it still needs that boost of air to drive the furnace of microbial metabolism to create real soil.  This process is utterly amazing to me, and just a preview of many other wonders of Nature I would discover on the farm.

Actually, Ron has been composting the garden for the past 25 years.  When he bought the property in 1984, it was sandy moraine left over from the glaciers with the thinnest layer of organic matter supporting ragged and noxious weeds.  Now the soil in the garden area is over 18 inches deep, and it is dark and rich. 

Ron has said it is very difficult to garden without using manure from healthy livestock.  His animals are fed free choice, a well-balanced loose mineral that the animals do not incorporate.  These minerals wind up in the soil through manure and urine and enrich the compost, which enriches the soil and is finally taken up by garden plants and the animals—all to be recycled again.  

Once we loaded the manure into the tractor bucket, Ron hauled it off to the compost pile located in the field next to the hoop house.  He’s been collecting this most recent batch since last fall.  It doesn’t have an offensive smell, but rather it smells like the earth.  When the compost is turned, steam rises from it, which indicates the heat generated by organisms working it.  In fact, on cool mornings we can see trails of vapor rising from the compost pile.  To a gardener, it is a beautiful sight and a sign of the cycle of life where nothing is wasted

Another thing I discovered working on the farm today is the generous spirit that emerges among the gardeners.  Because a garden yields such great abundance, one family can’t possibly eat all its produce.  That makes sharing an essential and natural thing to do.  For example, Matt brought us all some sage from his home garden.  He divided it into bunches, tied it together with orange plastic twist-ties and put the bunches into a paper bag stem up to hang for drying.  Donna made a polenta cake with hazelnut flavoring and gave each of us a moist and tasty slice of it.  Mmm—good! 

While we worked, we talked.  Today, we all found out about the farm and each other.  Ron, the farmer, is a retired research scientist from a pharmaceutical firm, a lawyer and a martial arts black belt.  Matt is a professor who says his family thinks shoveling manure is what his job is all about anyway.  Donna was a nurse before she got into medical sales and marketing.  Now she is a leader in my town’s local food movement and a founder of a new farmers market.  She has a 12-year-old daughter who thinks that farmers are heroes because they grow food for others to eat.  I am a writer, ex-nun and soon-to-be former professor looking for the next thing to pursue in my life.

After three hours of shoveling manure, my aching body was in shock.  The car ride home took 15 minutes, but when I arrived, I stripped off my work clothes at the front door and crawled upstairs for a hot bath followed by a hot shower.  The water felt soooo good and it helped rejuvenate my back and especially my knee that gave out a couple times today. 

Yet, despite my pain and the dirty job I did today, I felt complete satisfaction.  I had engaged my whole body and soul into something that involved a cooperative effort with others who all worked toward a common goal. (We traded off the jobs of scraping, shoveling and dumping the manure into the tractor bucket.)  Farming is certainly NOT an abstract endeavor as my teaching career has been.  It is the real world, the physical world, the sensual world—and I like it.

After I put on some clean clothes and found a comfortable chair, I felt content and satisfied.  Farming may be the next thing I do with my life. 

Vatican Decree Calls Attention to the Place of Women Religious

This article appeared in the Huffington Post on Friday, May 18

Pope John Paul II

While Pope John Paul II’s relationship with American nuns appeared to be a reining in of what he considered the more exuberant experiments and freedoms they embraced after the Vatican II reforms (1962-65), Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decree, the "Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious" is drop-dead shocking.

After a three-year study, the Vatican recently charged that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has been too tolerant in its views about homosexuality, too silent in opposing abortion and contraception and too amenable to “radical feminist themes” that are regarded as incompatible with Church teaching, including women’s ordination.  The LCWR represents 80 percent of the 57,000 nuns in the United States.

Pope Benedict XVI

Actually, such reprimands are nothing new in Church history, said Dr. Margaret Thompson, professor of history, political science and women’s studies at Syracuse University.  Every time women religious attempt to break new ground or re-dedicate themselves to new needs among the People of God, the Church questions them.

Since Vatican II, no one knew the cost of change more intimately than Anita Caspary of the Immaculate Heart Community of Los Angeles, California.  As Mother General (1963-70) and president (1970-73) she led her sisters through the Vatican II reforms with careful deliberation.  Nevertheless, in that process she experienced the wrath and power of hierarchical politics and the forced relinquishment of her community’s canonical status. 

According to Caspary’s account in her book Witness to Integrity: The Crisis of the Immaculate Heart Community of California (2003), James Francis McIntyre, the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles, did not accept the renewal of Vatican II and came into conflict with the IH Community over its decisions to change the habit, form new structures of convent governance, and re-design daily devotional practices. 

Sister Anita & Archbishop McIntyre

“Slowly we came to realize that what we claimed for ourselves—the right to make decisions affecting our personal lives—we could not surrender,” Caspary stated in her book.

Caspary died in October 2011 at the age of 95, however, in my 2004 telephone interview with her, she stressed that the conflict with Cardinal McIntryre occurred within the cultural context of the history of women at the time. 

“Women were always secondary among priests, governors, and men in general,” she said.  “The dependency of women religious on the hierarchy wasn’t a choice, it was prescribed.  And we didn’t believe in it.” 

“The vows (poverty, chastity and obedience) of women religious should be analyzed from a U.S. cultural perspective that promotes money, sex and power as important values,” added Sister Susan Marie Maloney, SNJM, currently Regional Director of American Academy of Religion/Western Region.  She was a friend and colleague of Caspary.

Anita Caspary

She said that the IH Community faced the power issue and found that even reason and documentation could not persuade the archbishop or Vatican officials of the sisters’ faithfulness to the Vatican II reforms. 

However, what happened to the IH Community was an “historic moment” that showed a way to the future of religious life, said Sister Susan Marie.  “It wasn’t just about renewal in the Church, it was about reformation.  The IH Community changed their community life structures according to the renewal mandated by Vatican II.  They were loyal to the Church’s new directives and grounded their changes in solid theology and their experience of religious life as women.” 

One of the “perverse ironies” in the relationship between women religious and the hierarchy, Thompson explained, is that the nuns actually renewed their communities as they were told to do in the Vatican II document, Perfectae Caritatis.  The sisters responded more quickly and more extensively than any other group because they were well-educated and knew how to analyze history and ideas.

The IH Community was in the forefront of the Vatican II renewals and essentially got into trouble because the sisters attempted to be faithful to the charism of their founder, she said.  The charism is the attraction of women to do the works of the community and the Church, as guided by the Holy Spirit

“I’ve come to realize the power of the charism of the founder,” said Thompson who pointed out that charism emerges not from one person but from the entire group of sisters. 

“We need to understand the nature of women’s intuitive and holistic views of power, which is at odds with the institutional, hierarchical understanding of power,” she said.  

Thompson illustrated women’s conception of power as comparable to the Pascal candle at the Easter Vigil.  While the whole congregation lights candles from the Pascal candle with each person contributing to the entire light, the Pascal candle continues to burn just as brightly as it did in the darkness. 

Questions about the Church’s treatment of women has had much to do with their fuller participation in the Church, like women’s ordination.  However, authorities tired of this issue and in a 1995 decree entitled Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II demanded silence about it not only from the nuns but from the entire church membership.

Sister Joan Chittister

So when Sister Joan Chittister was invited to speak at the first Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference in June 2001 in Dublin, Ireland, Vatican authorities delivered a “precept of obedience” to Sister Joan’s community that would prohibit her from speaking. 

By this time the sisters’ relationship with the hierarchy was characterized by collaboration and reconciliation—quite different from that of the IH Community in the 60s and 70s.  The leadership of Sister Joan’s community went to Rome and successfully worked things out with Church authorities.

Sister Camille D’Arienzo, RSM, former president of the LCWR, applauded the community’s response to the Chittister incident, and said it provided a witness to the strength of religious women’s sense of community.

“The sisters engaged in communal consultation and deep prayer,” said Sister Camille in a 2004 telephone interview.  “They knew the implications of their choice, and yet were willing to accept the consequences of their decision and share the penalty.  It was a reminder of what we are called to be and do [as religious women].”

During her nearly 40 years as a broadcaster and public speaker, Sister Camille said she has had only two run-ins with bishops on positions she took over issues. 

“We didn’t walk away agreeing,” she said, “but we maintained a working relationship that kept the door open so the ministry and mission didn’t suffer.”

Sister Theresa Kane

Even Sister Theresa Kane, RSM, who confronted Pope John Paul II in 1979 and asked for “the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of the church,” reported a softening of the Vatican’s position on women and their role in the Church and society (National Catholic Reporter – Sept. 8, 2000).  The pope, who was noticeably annoyed by her plea back then, occasionally asked about “Sister Kane” when Americans visited the Vatican.  He also looked into more expanded roles for women in the Church.

Actually, Sister Camille said that the laity castigated Sister Theresa Kane more than the ecclesial authorities had.

The 60’s were a difficult and tempestuous time, said Sister Camille, and the hierarchy may have had different expectations than the nuns did for themselves.  Now 50 years later, many women’s religious communities are more focused on mission and ministry than on their differences with the hierarchy.

And, so what does the future hold for women religious, especially when their numbers of vowed membership are down and their median age is up to 75 years old? 

Sister Helen Prejean

“The future is now,” said Sister Susan Marie.  “The work of Sister Helen Prejean [on the death penalty].  She’s the future.”  Sister Helen wrote the book, Dead Man Walking and a movie and an opera were subsequently produced under the same name in order to address this important contemporary issue. 

Sister Susan Marie believes that Sister Helen’s work has greatly influenced the moratorium on the death penalty in United States because it made an impact for justice on millions of people through the use of film.”  She added that this approach to ministry in the twenty-first century is comparable to the ministry women religious performed in the nineteenth century when they opened up schools and hospitals.

Sister Camille added that Pope John Paul’s more “forthright opposition” to the death penalty was also encouraged by Sister Helen.

The future is also seen in the growth of “associate membership” in many religious communities. 

Associates do not take vows but they “make a commitment to a life that is a public witness in an overly consumerist society and culture, which is overly sexualized and which objectifies women for profit,” said Sister Susan Marie.  “The ministry they do is one of service to love and justice.” 

Sister Camille, former president of the Brooklyn-based Convent of Mercy, reported the same phenomenon occurring in her community.  She said religious life is focused on an expanding associate program with laywomen and laymen.  Co-workers in their Catholic institutions are also “systematically prepared” to “carry on the charism” of the sisters’ mission, and retired sisters are starting new ministries.

“Where is our place as women religious?” asked Sister Camille.  “In the works of justice and mercy.  That’s what it’s about.”