Cliffside Climate Action

I live 20 minutes away from a coal burning power plant owned by Duke Energy - the proposed site of a new 800-megawatt coal-fired facility to replace five older, coal boilers currently stationed there. While the new unit is an upgrade and will expand generation capacity, it will be powered by conventional coal technology, and will not capture any of the over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide it is expected to spew into the atmosphere, annually. Over the course of its 50 year predicted lifetime, it will emit enough carbon to equal the addition of 1 million cars to the road for each of those years.

So, on Monday, April 21st, I joined a group of over 300 protestors in Charlotte, NC, who converged in Marshall Park, marched through the streets of Charlotte, delivered a letter to Governor Bev Perdue, and ended at Duke Energy's headquarters to demand that CEO Jim Rogers hault construction of the massive, new unit. The protest was nearly 3 hours from start to finish, culminating in a non-violent, civil disobedience action ending in the arrest of about 30 protestors (myself not included).

While I feel that these actions are unlikely to stop the construction of this particular plant, I believe that they help build support for clean energy alternatives, and bring issues like Mountain Top Removal and the plight of Coal Field communities into the limelight. My hope, of course, is that the movement against the Cliffside plant will gain enough momentum that we really will hault it's construction (slated to be finished in 2012...sad to think we'll still be reliant on such a dirty fossil fuel by then - and then for the next 50 years thereafter! Ridiculous.) If not, perhaps we will have enough support by then to permanently topple King Coal from atop his ruinous smokestacks.

Please show your support! http://www.stopcliffside.org

Chck out this great article about the Cliffside plant, which discusses arguments by proponents and opponents, and includes alternative energy production options:
http://newsinitiative.org/story/2008/08/13/carolina_coal_plant_expansion_generates

Here is a clip from the protest. The crowd is chanting "Arrest Jim Rogers" who is the CEO of Duke Energy. A protester is arrested for non-violent, civil disobedience (crossing a dotted line onto Duke's property)

The High Country Gets Local

Last week I had the privilege to participate in a local food summit organized by representatives of the Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Program at Appalachian State University. The High Country Local Food Summit, aptly named to include several Appalachian counties in northwestern NC, was billed as an event to "Build diverse community networks to grow the local food economy".

My boss, the Executive Director of the non-profit, rural economic development center, Foothills Connect, was on the agenda as a speaker that afternoon, so I came along to gain some real world, community organizing experience. My first impression of the conference site - a large building with an open floor plan, known as the Valle Crucis "Apple Barn" - was that I was standing in an old, mountain village community meeting center, and that any minute someone was going to whip out a fiddle, a banjo, and some spoons, and we'd all break out into folk dance (not that I would have minded). Needless to say, the only dancing that occurred took place in my imagination, but the rustic, hundred year old building certainly fit the occasion.

The lineup featured some prominent local food advocates, including the well-known environmental blogger, Tom Philpott of Grist.org (left) and esteemed speaker, author, farmer, and outspoken critic of the conventional agriculture system, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (below). And, of course, my super cool, globe-trotting, ex-corporate warrior/ peace corps/ military/ politican, teacher, and community organizing boss, Tim Will, who gave a great presentation on the work that our organization is doing to create jobs through agriculture within our 16% unemployment rate-stricken county.

With networking and collaboration a main focus of the event, much of the day was spent in group brainstorming activities, facilitated by Elaine Stover, a 'Human Ecologist' and director of greenschemes, a company that specializes in ecological planning and design. Gradually, a larger image of the issues facing the creation of a local food economy in the High Country began to take form - an independent entity comprised of all the small farmers, restaurants, food advocates, community organizations, and more that make up the growing web of people all working towards a common goal. This forum allowed me to share my knowledge and express my thoughts, along the way contributing my own experiences in building a local food system; what has worked for my organization, and what hasn't.

Mainly, however, I was in absolute awe of the grassroots movement that was converging all around me. At any given moment, someone in the room was being inspired by the words of someone else, recent acquaintances were banding together to form coalitions, initiatives, and business plans - and the High Country Local Food Movement transformed before my eyes from an abstract and disconnected mass of scattered locavores and activists, to an organized group of citizens, empowered by their commitment to a common goal.

Across the country, the same phenomenon is taking place in living rooms, schools, community centers, churches, and farms - a paradigm shift in the way we think about food. Many of them don't know where to begin or how to build the movement where they live; but they are stepping out and taking action, even if it might at first fail. As Joel Salatin so inspiringly noted, "the old adage that Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right... is WRONG! It should, instead, be "Anything that's worth doing is worth doing wrong. For it's in the doing that you develop the skill and self-confidence to eventually do it right." We'll have some setbacks, but we'll get there. And maybe celebrate with some folk dancing along the way.

The Effect of Artificial Food on the Body's Metabolic System

From artificial sweeteners, to artificial colors, flavorings, emulsifiers, and preservatives, the American food supply is literally saturated with non food-like substances. As the demand for quick, convenient, and pre-processed foods began to rise back in the 1950's, artificial additives evolved from the realm of mostly baked goods, candies, and sodas, to encompass the contents of entire meals. As the decades wore on, larger quantities and types of food became synthesized, many of which were not adequately tested for safety and long term effects of consumption before receiving FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval. Today, there is an entire 'flavor industry', with annual revenues of about 1.4 billion dollars, that utilizes chemicals to mimic natural flavors, create colors for a more 'natural' or 'fresh' appearance, preserve foods long past their natural shelf life, and even create foods that are composed entirely of artificial ingredients - such as coffee creamers, candies, and sugar substitutes. With so many questionable ingredients floating around our food system, how do we recognize them, and what consequences result from their consumption?

The dictionary defines artificial as something that is made by human skill; produced by humans (rather than nature); imitation; simulated; sham. An artificial ingredient, then, is one that is created by humans to look, feel, or taste like its natural counterpart. Some examples of this include artificial fruit flavorings, like those you'd find in a strawberry milkshake from Burger King or an artificially flavored fruit juice, candy, or ice cream bar. They are formulated to taste like the real thing, but they are complete molecular strangers. A good, general rule of thumb when shopping is to examine the list of ingredients - if you see a lot of words you can't pronounce, or that don't look like they'd be edible, you're probably holding something packed with food additives. Additionally, if the list of ingredients happens to be very long - especially for something that, if made at home, would require relatively few inputs (like a cookie or other baked good) you may want to keep browsing the shelves.

Aside from being unnatural, what could really be all that bad about artificial ingredients? To begin, let's take a look at the body's process for metabolizing food and nutrients. Metabolism is a process that encompasses the physical and chemical actions in the body that create and use energy. These include digesting food and nutrients, eliminating waste, breathing, blood circulation, maintaining homeostasis, muscle contraction, and brain and nerve function. When we consume a food, our metabolism helps us determine which substances are nutritious and which are poisonous. Over thousands of years our bodies learned to identify and utilize whole, natural foods. When we consume artificial foods that have been formulated in laboratories, our bodies do not recognize them. Instead of being broken down into the essential nutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids that fuel our bodies, our cellular response to these alien compounds is abnormal - our metabolism doesn't know what to do with them.

Furthermore, rather than supplying our cells with the energy they need to function properly, artificial ingredients create free radicals and toxins, which only place further undue stress on the cells in our bodies. Overtime, the build up of these toxins can lead to a number of illnesses - autoimmune diseases like Lupus and MS, cancer, migraines, fatigue, visual and audio impairment, thyroid issues, fibromyalgia, ADD, anxiety, RLS, and many others. While these food imitations may succeed in fooling us as to their true nature, they do not succeed in outwitting our body's keen and well developed sense of what's real and what's not.

As awareness about the detrimental affects of artificial additives in our food supply has become more widespread, a trend has emerged that promotes whole foods and minimal processing. Many people have realized that what they can cook in their own kitchen is many times healthier, fresher, and tastier than the 'convenient' foods they pick up in the freezer section or the drive through. While the marketplace has been imbued by cheap, artificial, and non-nutritious foods for nearly half a century, anomalies such as alarming rates of malnutrition in a country plagued by obesity - due to the over consumption of foods with little nutritional value - are arising as manifestation of a sickingly satiated society. And we are starting to realize just how full we are of empty food.