Going Green Memphis 3-21-10

8/8/2019 Going Green Memphis 3-21-10

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2 GOING GREEN | S u n d ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er ci a l a pp ea l.com

How green is your Bard?

Shakespeare scholars gather atRhodes College to look forenvironmental message in his work

City buzz

Urban beekeepers takethe green movement to

a higher level

Busy as bees

The Underhills ofArkansas employ

thousands of workers

The nitty gritty of compost

Getting organic matter to decay properlyisnt as easy as you think

Riding the raw

milk wave

Turning cow poop

into power

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!Going Green is a special online publication ofThe Commercial Appeal. We welcome your commentsand suggestions. Follow Going Green on Twitter atw w w .t w i t t e r .co m /G o G r e e n M e m p h i s.

Ed i t o r : Roland Klose, 529-2776,go i n g g r e en @ com m er c i al ap pea l .co m

Whats in this issue ...

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http://www.twitter.com/GoGreenMemphismailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.twitter.com/GoGreenMemphis


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The Commercial Appeal Su n d ay , March 21, 2010 | GOING GREEN 3

The Green Page

Join theconversation

Several weeks ago, GoingGreen met with a group of

readers who are active inlocal environmental efforts.They urged us to find a

way for Memphians totrade ideas and expertise.

Whats the best sourceof local information onrecycling or organicgardening? Where can youfind local eco-friendlyproducts and retailers?

Who can you call to dealwith an environmentalproblem?

In response, Going Greenlaunched an online forumto serve as a virtual townhall for our active readers.

Just go to greenforum.co m m e r c i a l ap p ea l.co m .

Its easy to register

and easy to be green.

To submit items for The Green Page, [email protected].

Ev e n t sThe Sierra Club Chickasaw Group

presents Reckoning at Eagle Creek TheSecret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland at6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Benjamin L.Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave.For information, contact Susan Routon

at [email protected] or(901) 413-3888.

Take an hour-and-a-half-long familyhike at the Strawberry Plains AudubonCenter in Holly Springs, Miss., thisSaturday. $10 per family. Space islimited. To reserve a spot call (662) 252-1155 or e-mail [email protected].

Check out the wildflowers on the 3-mile hike through T.O. Fuller State Park,1500 Mitchell Road. The hike, sponsoredby the Sierra Club, starts at 10 a.m.Saturday at the parks visitors center.For more information, contact SueWilliams at (901) 274-0524.

Walk the Old Forest at Overton Parkon March 28. The guided 1.5-mile trek,sponsored by Citizens to PreserveOverton Park, starts at 10 a.m. at theend of Old Forest Lane, next to theRainbow Lake parking lot. Forinformation, e-mail [email protected] orcall (901) 278-2396.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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4 GOING GREEN | S u nd ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

How

greenis your

Bard?Scholars to discussliterature of ecology

By Leah C. Wells

Special to Going Green

THOREAU WENT TO THE WOODS to live

d el i b e rat el y.

Jon Krakauer, in his book Into the Wild, c h ro n i c l e d

the peripatetic life of Chris McCandless who ventured solo throughout

North America.

John Candy and Dan Aykroyd took their fictional families on a campingtrip to get closer to each other and to nature in The Great Outdoors.

The Eco-Challenge sends teams of people to pit their survival skills

against some of natures toughest terrains.

Getting back to nature is a familiar modern theme but not a novel

idea. In fact, it is one that has been pondered for centuries.


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The Commercial Appeal S u n d ay , March 21, 2010 | GOING GREEN 5

We can trace theevolution of ecologicalthought by rereadingliterature from previouseras, to see how variousauthors dealt with the

subject of humaninteractions with nature.Dr. Robert Watson,

professor of Shakespeareand English Renaissancepoetry at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, iscoming to Memphis todiscuss his research onecology and literature.

Watson was educated atYale and Stanford, taughtat Harvard, and was therecipient of the 2006Elizabeth Dietz MemorialPrize for the years bestbook in Renaissance andEarly Modern Studies, aswell as the winner of theAssociation for the Studyof Literature and theEnvironment prize for theBest Book of Ecocriticismof 2005-2006.

His March 26 lecture atRhodes College, Gre e nS hakespeare:Environmental Criticismand the Bard, will focus

on the play A MidsummerNights Dream.S hakespeares life

bridges the Renaissanceand the Age ofEnlightenment, a timeearly in the developmentof empirical science when

humans were beginningto explore the ways inwhich they could gainmastery over the naturalenvironment .

Through ecocriticism, a

field of study also knownas green cultural studiesand ecopoetics, scholarsevaluate contemporaryecological problems and

technologicaldevelopments, changes inreligious perspectives andthe rise of Protestantism,and development in theeconomic system.

And we may be able toapply their wisdom tocurrent problems.

Nat u re , says Watson,is a kind of code for lostintimacy with realexperience. AMidsummer NightsD re a m is a parable forecological consciousness,

a pre-scientific way ofthinking of the ecologicalaspect of human life.

Examination ofS hakespeareanperspectives on earlygreen themes is notsimply an academicexercise, however.

According to Watson,some contemporarydebates can be unlockedthrough historicalexamination. Scientificrifts over issues likeclimate change andenvironment alstewardship have becomeentrenched in society and

have divisive politicalra m i f i c at i o n s .Furthermore, these issuesare so complex that it isnearly impossible todisent angleenvironmental questionsfrom other issues like

locate solutions through aclose reading ofinterdisciplinary literarys o u rc e s .

Through the works ofShakespeare and others,we can learn how peoplemade sense of mysteriousprocesses like sleep anddreams, healing woundsand curing illnesses, aswell as social forces like

Dr. Robert Watson willpresent GreenSh a k es p ea r e :En vi r o nm e n t a lCriticism and theBar d at RhodesCollege on March 26.


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6 GOING GREEN | Su n d ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

ECO C R I T I C I S M

SY M P OS I U M

Rhodes Colleges symposiumon ecocriticism brings togetherseveral international scholars todiscuss how ecological concepts

and green issues apply to theinterpretation of WilliamS h a kes p ea r e s works.

The free symposium will beheld from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.Friday, March 26, in BlountAuditorium of Buckman Hall.

The event begins with akeynote lecture by Dr. Robert

Watson (University of California,Los Angeles) on the Ecology ofSe lf, or permeable humanboundaries in A MidsummerNights Dream.

His lecture will be followed bya roundtable discussion with fourparticipants: Daniel Brayton(Middlebury College); Simon

Estok (Sungkyunkwan University,Republic of Korea); SharonODair (University ofAlabama-Tuscaloosa); and KarenRaber (University of Mississippi).

The symposium isco-sponsored by the PearceShakespeare Endowment andR h od es Environmental Program,with additional support from

R h od es Center for Outreach in theDevelopment of the Arts (CODA).

For more information, contactProf. Scott L. Newstok [email protected], orconsult the Shakespeare atRhodes Web site atr h o d es .e d u /s h a kespea r e.

poverty and economics.However, Watson contends that there are

ways in which people can understand the valueof nature. The issue is not solely about gettingback to nature, but of having experiences thatare real and meaningful, unmediated by

technology and apolitical.In other words, it is possible to conceive ofthe man versus nature debate in a highlypersonalized way without overtly politicali m p l i c at i o n s .

The social connections that sustainprojects like the Greater Memphis Greenline,Memphis Farmers Market, Sow to Grow orGrowMemphis are evidence of this.

Despite the rise in urbanization and

decline in rural residence in the past century,urban gardens and dedicated green spaceshave begun to flourish in former brownfields.

While more people live in cities,populating concrete jungles thick with smog,filled with noise and light pollution anddistinctly separate from the natural world,individuals are making concerted attempts tobridge urban and rural.

Some reasons are pragmatic, such as thedesire to know that vegetables are pesticide-free or that animals for food were treatedhumanely. Other reasons are aesthetic, suchas the simple joy of ponderingphotosynthesis not solely for the nutritionalgains or the bounty of the plants, but for theexperience of seeing nature at work andcontemplating our place in the natural cycle.

Or, as Watson says, The art of what were

doing in ecocriticism is not just to tell peopleto join political campaign under anenvironmental banner, but rather our bestservice is to awaken people to the beauty andcomplexity of nature and tolerate a morecomplex vision of the world we inhabit.

Leah C. Wells is a staff member atBioDimensions and is pursuing a doctorate inpolitical science at the University of Mississippi.


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By Jonathan Devin

Special to Going Green

When Richard Underhill of Proctor, Ark.,decided to retire from BellSouth four yearsago, his wife Rit a knew she needed to findsomething to keep him busy.

She took him to a meeting of the MemphisArea Beekeepers Association and before long,the couple had become regional experts onbees and turned their farm just west of Earle

Busy

asbees

Arkansas couple turn retirementactivity into a thriving business

with thousands of workers


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8 GOING GREEN | S u n day, March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

into Peace Bee Farm, with100 hives producing pureh o n e y.

But the honey is onlyhalf of the story.

After knee surgery

forced Rita to slow thepace of her work with thebees, she decided tospend more time makingproducts from beeswax,which in its own waytakes plenty of effort.

Its very labor-intensive and peopledont realize how hard it

is to get the beeswax andthen how hard it is toclean it after youve gotit , Rita said.

Honey is sealed insidethe honeycomb with waxand Richard collects it byscraping off the wax caps,a process beekeepers callc a p p i n g. Much of thewax is eventuallyreturned to the hive as aliquid painted on theframes. The rest is melteddown and painstakingly

cleaned for use in Rit asall-natural cosmetics andother products.

Rita pours the refinedwax into brick-shapedmolds and stores the two-pound blocks of mustard-colored wax.

Rita makes candles,hand cream, body balm,lip balm, face cream, soap,furniture polish, bootpolish, saddle soap andeven one-ounce blocks of

wax which people use insewing, to lubricatefurniture drawers, or forencaustic painting.

Her products use onlyvitamin E as apreservative, so the shelflife is just about onemonth when they are notrefrigerated. But Ritanoted that beeswax doesnot support the growth ofbacteria or microbes.

I dont use anything inthem that you couldnteat , Rita said. It makesit more expensive, butmost people, if they are

attuned to anything thatsgoing on in the world, arewilling to pay for that.

Each week she o p e rat e sa booth at the farmersmarkets Downtown and atthe Memphis BotanicG a rd e n , as well as a marketat St. Jude Childrens

Rita Underhill works among the farms 100 hives.

The Underhillstake several

hundredpounds ofbeeswax off

the hives eachmonth.


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Research Hospital that isnot open to the public.Friends sell her productsat the farmers market atthe Agricenter, and ahandful of shops inMemphis, West Memphisand Marion sell her honey,including The Cupboard,Mu d d y s Bake Shop andthe Center for SouthernFo l k l o re .

Her body balms arethe absolute best, s aidSherri McCalla, an

assistant horticulturalistat the Memphis BotanicG a rd e n . You used to haveto take your fingernail andscrape it out, but I figuredit out I took a knife and

cut it out of the containerand held it in my hand likea bar of soap and yourbody heat would melt itdown, but she makes itsofter now so you donthave to do that.

McCalla is fond of abalm containing sheabutter, vanilla and goldflakes. She alsovolunteered to test aninsect repellent, which isnot yet for sale.

I dont like how DEET

If people are like me, they become conscious of turning everything

over and seeing made in Taiwan on it. That really bothers me.

RITA UNDERHILL,owner of Peace Bee Farm

PEACE BEE FARM

Ad d r es s :37 Peace Farm Road

Proctor, AR 72376

Web site:p ea ce b eefa r m .co m

Rita makes candles, hand cream, body balm, lip balm, face cream and soap, aswell as furniture polish, boot polish and saddle soap.
http://peacebeefarm.com/http://peacebeefarm.com/http://peacebeefarm.com/


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10 GOING GREEN | S u n d ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

burns, McCalla said. It didntwork quite as well as DEET, butconsidering that I wasnt absorbingreally nasty stuff, it was fine.

The beeswax business isnt set upto make anyone rich, though, Rita

s aid.We re probably almost breakingeven, maybe a little bit over, butwe ve done better than I thoughtwe d have done because it costs alot to make the products, Rita said.

While the Underhills take severalhundred pounds of beeswax off thehives each month, it takes a lot oflabor to collect and many hours

more to keep the bees producing.To make a pound of honey, bees

visit 2 million flowers and thats55,000 miles of flight, Richard said.To make an ounce of beeswax, theyeat a pound of honey.

To make it worth the effort, theprice point goes up. A pair ofgeneric 12-inch taper candles madein China and sold in a chaindiscount store sell for about $4.Similarly sized candles made byhand of purified beeswax cost $15.

Rita has taken orders via theInternet from Georgia to New York.Recently she supplied a wedding inIndiana with votive candles andhoney sticks, straws sealed at bothends with a spoonful of honey inside.

The bride, Rita said, is fromArkansas and she wantedsomething from her home state inthe wedding.

If people are like me, theybecome conscious of turningeverything over and seeing made in

Ta i wa n on it, said Rita. T h atreally bothers me.

By Dagny LeonardM c Cl at ch y -Tr ib u n e

Walking up to the roof of the FairmontHotel in Washington, D.C., is not a jaw-dropping experience. Exit the door andyou are confronted with a sea of roof tilesand empty space nothing that reallycaptures the eye. But walk around thecorner, and you will discover something

that a handful of other D.C. rooftops havein common a faint buzzing.

The little house-like structures fromwhich the sound comes are the homes ofthe Fairmonts 105,000 newest residents Italian honeybees that buzz in and outof the three hives: Casa Bella, Casa Blancaand Casa Bianca.

At this point its all kind of

experiment al, said Aron Weber,executive pastry chef and co-chiefbeekeeper at the Fairmont.

The bees in the Fairmonts hives mightbe among the most high-profile membersof the districts honeybee community, butthey are certainly not the only bees tograce the city with their buzzing.Beekeepers, or apiculturists, have been

Urban beesenjoy lifeat the top

Rooftop hives preserveD.C. honeybee population


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The Commercial Appeal Sun d ay, March 21, 2010 | GOING GREEN 11

modestly keeping beeswithin the city limits foryears, their fear of beingdiscovered slowlydissipating as places likethe Fairmont and the

South Lawn of the WhiteHouse jump on theb a n dwa go n .

And so the secret life ofurban beekeepers is notso secret anymore.

Toni Burnham, an urbanbeekeeper in the districtsince April 2005, has lether secret slowly seep out

with her blog and activitywithin the community.

Ive not been very goodat keeping a secret, thatsfor sure, Burnham said asshe spoke fondly of herg i rl s , the worker beeswho are kept t e e n a ge rsfor life by the queen bee.

Burnham estimates thatthere are around twodozen beekeepers in theD.C. area.

And the trend is notlimited to the nationscapit al.

What I have found is atleast here in California, thenoncommercial beekeeper

numbers seem to haveincreased quite a bit, s aid

Dr. Eric Mussen, extensionapiculturist at UC Davis.

Mussen said that hobbybeekeeping clubs in theSan Francisco and San

Diego areas arecontinuing to grow.Major cities like New

York also are a part of thebeekeeping trend. Thegreen movement has beentaken to a whole new levelby urban beekeepers, who,with each rooftopcommunity, help preserve

the honeybee populationand, in turn, the

environment. Plus, theresthe added benefit of all-natural, hive-grown honey.

In fact, Burnham said,bees raised in the city

often are healthier thanthose raised in thesuburbs or in rural areas.

There seems to be a lotless pesticide use in thec i t y, Burnham said. A lotof the chemicals they usefor mosquito control in thesuburbs, they actually killp o l l i n at o rs .

The buzz continues toincrease as more people

Dagny Leonard/MCT

Italian honeybees buzz in and out of the three hives Casa Bella, Casa Blanca and Casa Bianca on therooftop of the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The green movement has been taken to a whole new

level by urban beekeepers, who help preserve the

honeybee population and, in turn, the environment.


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12 GOING GREEN | Sun d ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l app ea l.co m

By Vincent Standley

SimpleS teps.org

Composting not onlyreduces the waste stream

and minimizes theproduction of greenhousega s es, it producesnutrient-rich humus, akey ingredient to anysustainable agriculture.

All organic matter willbiodegrade with orwithout humanintervention, but a littlestructure and oversightensures it happens moree f f i c i e n t l y.

At home you can builda cold or a hot compost.

Cold compostingrequires littlemaintenance and is bestfor leaves and grass

clippings, which can bepiled up and turned once amonth. It works well whenthere is no immediateneed for the compost.

Hot composting ismuch quicker, producingusable humus in as littleas four weeks, but

requires vigilantstewardship. Location,aeration, high carbon andnitrogen content ,sufficient depth and

moisture are key elementsto a successful compost.

H e re s how to care andmaintain your hotcompost pile:

Bin: Should beapproximately 3 feet tall,wide and deep, and wellventilated, with easyaccess to the pile forturning with a pitch forkor shovel. Bins arereadily available frommany municipal recyclingprograms and most homeand garden stores or youcan build your own.

Location: Keep awayfrom areas that collect

water. In cooler climates,avoid constant shade. Aspot near the garden willsave on labor.

Aeration: Inaddition to a well-ventilated bin, addingthicker, woody materialwill keep air flowing

become aware of theimpact bees have on theenvironment. Thepollination bees provideis a vital aspect ofagriculture. Those bees

residing on rooftops notonly provide honey, theyalso help keep plant lifehealthy and happy.

According to a studyconducted at the BeeResearch Laboratory inBeltsville, Md., in 2008,there were approximately3.2 million honeybee

colonies kept by U.S.b e eke e p e rs .

However, there is stilla stigma around bees inthe eyes of many city-dwel l e rs .

T h e re s a lot of fearout there. People reactto nature as a strangething, Burnham said.

In New York City,though some beekeepersprevail, beekeeping isillegal. The New YorkCity Health Code statesthat no person canpossess, harbor or keepwild animals, whichencompasses all

venomous insects,including, but notlimited to, bee, hornetand wasp.

But the more publicitybeekeeping gets, theeasier it is to educatepeople about thebenefits of keeping bees.

Hot compostingsuccess takes care

But effort pays off in your garden
http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/


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throughout the pile.Carbon and nitrogen:

Maintain a 30-to -1carbon-to-nitrogen ratio.Manure or organicfertilizer can be added to

boost the nitrogen level.Moisture: The pile

should always be moistbut not soggy. During dryspells the pile may bewatered; when its rainy,cover to maintain aerationand prevent leaching.

Temperature: Centershould reach 130 to 160degrees. Turn the pilebefore it exceeds 160degrees; the temperaturewill rise and fall as thematerial is turned andbreaks down. The highsand lows supportdifferent kinds of bacteria

important to the processof decomposition. Toomuch nitrogen will makethe pile so hot many ofthese bacteria will die.

Here are materials to

compost and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratios:

Household waste:fruit scraps, 35:1;vegetable scraps, 15-20:1;coffee grounds, 20:1; tealeaves, 25:1; eggshells,15:1 (however, theavailable nitrogen is muchlower because they takeso long to break down);and paper, 170-200:1

Yard and gardenwaste: deciduous leaves,20-60:1; pine needles, 60-100:1; grass clippings, 15-25:1; and weeds, 25:1.

Other: horse and cow

manure, 20-25:1; sawdust,200-500:1; seaweed, 19:1;straw, 40-100:1;mushroom substrate,13:1; healthy garden soilcontains many desirable

microorganisms and canbe added in smallquantities; ground seashells, egg shells, andlime are low pH and willhelp make compost or soilless acidic.

Materials to avoid:human and pet waste; meatand meat byproducts; oil;

dairy products; diseasedplants; invasive plantsgone to seed; yard wastetreated with pesticides andconventional fertilizers.

Finally, the last 20 yearshave seen enormousstrides in municipalcomposting. Much ofwhat cant be added to anapartment worm box,community garden orbackyard compost pile,can be taken to a city-runcompost .

The next frontier iscutting into the enormousquantity of biomass stillgoing to landfills.

Although the EPA, theUSDA, and many citygovernments are makinginroads in this area, theobstacles remainfo r m i d a b l e .

For more sustainableliving tips, go tos i m p l e s t e p s . o r g.

The Commercial Appeal file photo

A little structure and oversight ensure organicmatter will biodegrade more efficiently.
http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/


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14 GOING GREEN | S und ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

Make mine naturalTexas dairy reaps benefits of raw-milk movement

By Sam Hodges

Dallas Morning News

DALLAS Like mostany mom with youngchildren, Iliana Cantavella isused to making a run for agallon of milk.

But she goes to the tinystore at Lavon Farms, the lastdairy left in Collin County,

Texas. There, for $8 a gallon,she buys milk that comesstraight from the registeredGuernsey and Jersey cowsgrazing in the fields around.

No pasteurization. No

homogenization. And noapproval from the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration.

Raw milk, its called, andCantavella is a walkinginfomercial. Since weswitched to raw milk, theydont get sick anymore, themother of three said,standing outside the farm

store with her latest threegallons. They used to getear infections all the time.

Although the FDA andother health agenciescouldnt be plainer that theyconsider milk unsafe untilits gone through bacteria-

The FDAs Web site states that drinking milk thathas not been pasteurized is inherentlydangerous, but a growing number of raw-milkdisciples in Texas beg to disagree.


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zapping pasteurization, more and morepeople have reached their ownconclusions and want their milk raw.

Influenced by their experience, andby documentaries and books making theargument against processed food, they

see raw milk as natural, healthful, bettertasting, eco-friendly and supportive ofsmall farms.

The trend has given hope to dairies likeLavon Farms, which began selling rawmilk in September and sold 122 gallonsone recent Saturday its best day yet.

We re finally gettingretail for our product,said Todd Moore, the

third-generation owner ofLavon Farms, which earnsabout $1.60 a gallon formilk sold to a cooperativethat in turn sells to bigprocessors of pasteurized,store-bought milk.

States vary inregulating raw milk, withsome allowing it ingroceries and othersforbidding its salealtogether. Texas permitssales only at the dairy.

Just two years ago, Texas had 11dairies with a Grade A raw-milk retaillicense, and nearly all sold only goatmilk. Now, there are 21 selling cowmilk, including Lavon Farms.

Cooperatives such as Raw MilkDallas, whose members take turnsdriving to a dairy to buy for the group,are also popping up.

Our biggest order was for 86 gallons,and we average about 40, said TiffanyRider, who as co-op leader often makes the11/2-hour run to Nors Dairy in Hill County.

Lavon Farms is a rolling, 200-acre

spread with fields, creeks, barns, silosand farm houses, as well as stone gatesinscribed with the year the Moorefamily took possession 1936. Butthese days the place is nearlysurrounded by development along a six-

lane stretch of road that sees an averageof 12,600 cars a day.Few stopped at Lavon Farms until it

began selling raw milk. Now, drawn by aplain Grade A Raw Milk For Salesign, orby word of mouth or Internet intelligence,the dairys store is often hopping.

Spend a couple of hoursinside and youll heareverything from nostalgic

stories about drinking rawmilk on Grandmas farm totestimonials about suchmilks advantages inhomemade yogurt andcheese. Some swear itrelieves eczema andarrests kids tooth decay,and can be drunk withease by those who thoughtthey were lactose-intolerant .

Mallon Noland, a Planochiropractor, has become

a Lavon Farms regular and said he isdelighted to have an outlet 10 minutesfrom his house.

Ive been looking for raw milk for a longtime,he said, adding that his reading

convinced him that its nutritionallysuperior to pasteurized milk.But theres no fight like a food fight,

and the debate about raw milk isconducted across the Internet andbeyond. The FDA states on its Web site:Raw milk is inherently dangerous, andit should not be consumed by anyone atany time, then lists pathogens that raw

Its possible to get

sick from any food.... People should be

allowed to make

their own choices

about what they

eat and drink.

JUDITH MCGEARYraw-milk advocate


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16 GOING GREEN | Su n day , March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

come down with theF DA , she said.

But raw-milk advocatessuch as Judith McGeary,of the Austin-based Farmand Ranch FreedomAlliance, want to makeraw milk more widelyava i l a b l e .

Its possible to getsick from any food. If youwant to stop food-borneillness, stop eating, shesaid. People should beallowed to make theirown choices about whatthey eat and drink.

In the middle,interestingly enough, isMoore, of Lavon Farms.

Hes a small-dairy,local-foods champion whohas won national titlesshowing his Guernseys.Some years back, heestablished a creamery in

Garland, and his Lu c kyLayla Farms

drinkable yogurtsand specialtycheeses, madefrom pasteurized

batches of hisc ow s milk, aresold at WholeFoods and localfarmers markets.

He and wifeDeanna give their two

young boys raw milk,and hes eloquent on why

he prefers to let his cows

roam free, eating mostlygrass, some grain, butnever giving them growthhormones or keepingthem in close-quartercontainment, as is typicalwith big dairies.

Moore is elated at hisraw-milk sales and thinksthe income could helpkeep the Plano farm as aworking dairy.

But he agrees raw milkcan be risky. He invitescustomers to check outhis milking parlor andsays he does his ownsafety tests on every raw-milk batch.

We welcomeregulation.... If somebodygets sick and dies fromraw milk, its over foreve r y b o d y, he said.

For now, raw milk isriding high, and LavonFa r m s unpaved drivewayis getting a workout.

milk can contain,including E. coli andListeria.

Echoing the FDAsconcern isthe Centers

for DiseaseControl andP reve n t i o n ,which links rawmilkconsumption to1,505 illnesses,185hospit alizationsand two deaths

between 1993 and2006.

Gene Wright, milkgroup program managerfor the Texas Departmentof State Health Services,said state inspectors visitraw-milk dairies aboutevery six weeks and takesamples for lab testing. Hecontends thatpasteurization is one of thegreat public health successstories and strongly agreeswith the FDA thatdrinking unpasteurizedmilk is too risky.

Roberta Anding is aregistered dietitian and

professor at Baylor Collegeof Medicine in Houston.S hes a fan of local produceand small farms, butunconvinced by claims ofspecial nutritional benefitsfor raw milk, and sharessafety concerns.

You almost have to


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The Commercial Appeal S u n day , March 21, 2010 | GOING GREEN 17

By P.J. Huffstutter

Los Angeles Times

STANISLAUS COUNTY, Calif. Central California is home to nearly 1.6million dairy cows and their manure up to 192 million pounds per day.

But for dairyman John Fiscalini, thedung on his farm is renewable gold: Hesconverting it into electricity.

At his farm outside Modesto, a torrentof water washes across the barns

concrete floor several times a day,flushing tons of manure away from hisherd of fuzzy-faced Holsteins and intonearby tanks. There, bacteria consumethe waste and release methane, which isthen burned in a generator capable ofproducing enough power to runFi s c a l i n i s 530-acre farm, his cheesefactory and 200 additional homes.

But Fiscalinis efforts to convert cow

pies into power have sparkedcontroversy. State air quality controlregulators say these dairy digestersystems can generate pollutiont h e m s el ve s .

The idea of turning biological wasteinto fuel has been around for centuries.

Technologies vary, but the idea is toextract methane from decomposingorganic material, remove impurities andburn it for heat, light or transport.

But air regulators point out thatmethane is not the only worrisome gasthat pollutes. Like an internalcombustion engine in a car, thegenerators used to convert the methaneinto electricity produce nitrogen oxides,which exacerbate smog problems. In the

San Joaquin Valley, which has some of thecountrys dirtiest air, officials say it istheir job to curtail ozone pollution.

That stance has come as a shock todairy farmers such as Fiscalini, whose$4-million digester system was set upout of frustration with regulatorswanting him to fight methane pollution.He believed that digester systems,especially ones that converted the wasteinto electricity, would eventually bem a n d at o r y.

I figured I might as well try to do thisnow and do some good, Fiscalini said.He received $1.5 million in grants

from the U.S. Department of Agricultureand the California Energy Commission,which was promoting the use of biogasdigesters, and started construction in2007.

But in 2008, when work was halfwaycomplete, officials from the San Joaquin

Valley Air Pollution Control Districtblocked the farm from firing up theengine.

The concern: nitrogen oxides.Fiscalini then spent several hundreds

of thousands of dollars on a catalyticconverter and other filtering equipmentto meet the air districts limit of 11 partsper million of nitrogen oxides for newdigester systems.

But his worries are far from over. Thedigester has been running for only ninemonths, and hes already had to replacesome of the filtering equipment andrepair the generator twice.

I wonder, sometimes, why I everthought this was a good idea, Fi s c a l i n is aid.

Manure-to-energy plan causes stink


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18 GOING GREEN | S und ay , March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

As healthy as fish can be for us to eat, with their lean flesh andheart-healthy fats, for their survival its vital we make sustainablechoices. Test what you know about the fishes in the seas:

How well do you know

your fish sticks?

1. Which restaurant has more responsible fish choices on themenu?

A) McDonaldsB) NobuC) T.G.I. Fridays

2. What method is the best for catching fish without harmingother organisms or ecosystems?

A) Trolling (dragging hook and line)B) Trawling (dragging fish nets)C) Dredging (dragging nets along the ocean floor)

Illustration by Jason H. Whitley/The Sun News/MCT


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3. True or false: Fish arenot seasonal foods.

A) TrueB) False

4. Whos in charge ofprotecting oceans and

coastal areas in the U.S.?A) Regional governmentsB) State governmentsC) The federal governmentD) All of the above

5. True or false:Fishermens bait is often aninvasive species.

A) TrueB) False

6. How much of theworlds oceans are protectedfrom overfishing and otherdestructive practices?

A) 10 percentB) 5 percentC) 1 percent

A N SW E RS :

1. A. Although McDonaldsisnt exactly known for aneco-friendly menu, thepollock used in McDonaldsFilet-o-Fish sandwiches mayactually defy yourexpectations. The 43.2 millionpounds of fish the chainpurchases annually comefrom fisheries certified aswell-managed by the London-

based Marine StewardshipCouncil. Trendy restaurantNobu, on the other hand, hasmade a successful businessof selling fish bordering onextinct, like bluefin tuna.

2. A. Trawling is a method ofindustrial fishing that involves

dragging fishing nets behind aboat, sometimes along theocean floor and other times inmidwater. Dredging alsoinvolves dragging large netsalong the ocean floor tocapture bottom-dwelling fish

species. Both methods can bedestructive to marine habitatsand coral reefs; bottomtrawling can clear an area ofocean floor 150 times largerthan the amount of forestsclear cut around the worldeach year. And fishermen whouse these methods throw backan estimated 25 percent oftheir harvest as by ca t c h , fish

that have no economic valuebut are vital to maintaininghealthy ecosystems.

3. B. Anyone whos heardthat you should eat oystersonly in months with Rs inthem should know that fishhave a season. But improvedmethods of freezing and aglobal fish market have made

it possible to get any fish atany time of year. When youreeating fish, try to think locallyand seasonally, just as youwould with produce. Your localdepartment of naturalresources or fish and gameservice should have a list ofwhat fish are available locallyand in season, but cross-check those with local fish

advisories to make sure yourenot consuming fish high inmercury, PCBs, dioxin or otherenvironmental contaminants.

4. C. The feds are in chargeof watching over oceans andcoastal waters, but like mostareas the federal government

oversees, theyre governed bya patchwork of 20 agenciesthat have cobbled together140 laws. That makes itdifficult to have coherentagreement on how to protectfisheries and other marine

habitats.

5. A. Recreational huntersand anglers are among themost active conservationists,considering that their sportdepends on the health of theenvironment. But fishermenwho use the wrong kind ofbait could be committingunintentional harm by

releasing nonnative species,like earthworms and crawfish,into the aquatic environment.These seemingly innocuouscreatures can eat upunderwater vegetation thatfish and other species surviveon, and many states nowregulate what types of baityou can use. Before fishing,check out your local

department of naturalresources, or whicheveragency authorizes fishlicenses, to find out whichbaits are legal; bait shops canslip invasive species pastlocal law enforcement.

6. C. Considering thatoceans cover two-thirds ofthe earths surface, 1 percent

is an extremely tiny portion,which is why making the bestseafood choices you can isvitally important topreserving fish populationsfor your kids and grandkids.

For more sustainableliving tips, go tos i m p l e s t e p s . o r g.
http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/http://simplesteps.org/


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20 GOING GREEN | S u n day, March 21, 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

EARTH TALK

Nanotubes: Not your dads batteries Dear Earth Talk: What is the potential of carbon

nanotubes, which have been described as the biggestbreakthrough in battery technology in years?

have formed carbonmolecules into tinysprings that store asmuch electricity as samesized lithium-ion batteriesbut can maintain a chargewhile dormant for yearsand work well intemperature extremes.

Stanford Universityresearchers have createdink made from carbonnanotubes that can bedrawn onto paper whereit serves as a high-capacity rechargeableenergy storage medium.And University ofMaryland scientists have

created nanostructuresable to store andtransport power at 10times the energy densityof lithium-ion batteries.

Send questions to EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098,Westport, CT 06881 or e-mailearthtalk@ emagazine.com.

Just one thing

Buy energy-saving products in bulk to save money. Ask your co-workers or neighborsif they want to buy pricier green products together compact fluorescent light bulbs,surge protectors, outdoor solar lighting and then buy them through an onlinewholesaler to save money. The more you order, the lower the per-unit cost will be. Besure to get everything shipped by ground; it uses less fuel than air shipping.

The rechargeablelithium-ion batteries nowso common in everythingfrom iPods to hybrid carscan store twice the energy

of similarly sized nickel-metal hydride batteriesand up to six times as muchas their lead-acidp ro ge n i t o rs .

But these advances areonly a small evolutionarystep from the worlds firstbattery designed byAlessandro Volta in 1800.

With battery technologyadvances long overdue,researchers are racing todevelop more efficientways to store power. Onehopeful option is in the useof carbon nanotubes,which can store muchmore electricity by weight

than lithium-ion batterieswhile keeping their chargeand remain durable for farl o n ge r.

Technicians skilled in

working with matter atthe molecular (nano)level can arrange purecarbon molecules incylindrical structures thatare both strong andflexible. They can storemore electricity than anycurrently availablet e c h n o l o g y.

These tubes, each onlybillionths of a meter wide,become highly efficient,electrically conductivepipes for storing andproviding power.

Electrical engineers atthe MassachusettsInstitute of Technology
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Going Green Memphis 3-21-10

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