Monday Mailing
Year 21 • Issue 17 05 January 2015 1. Oregon Caves Expansion Expected to Boost Tourism 2. OP-ED: What Do You Get if You Map Coming Climate Disasters? Hello, Pacific Northwest 3. 73-Year-Old Japanese Man Creates Impressive Paintings Using Only Excel 4. Bolivia Revolutionizes Urban Mass Transit: From the Streets to the Sky 5. Our Love of The Coast Will Lead to Disaster – Guest Opinion 6. Farms Don’t Just Feed Communities—They Build Them 7. Food Sleuth Radio Show Line Up For January 2015 + Links to Archived December 2014 Shows 8. Nuns On The Ranch Give A Heavenly Twist To Beef 9. How Buying Local Food Grows Local Economies 10. In Gentrifying New York, Can Affordable Housing For Artists Change A Neighborhood? 11. An Innovative Approach to Increasing The Pace And Scale of Forest Restoration 1. Oregon Caves Expansion Expected to Boost Tourism GRANTS PASS — You won’t see a different cave or a new chateau at the Oregon Caves National Monument. But some are calling the expansion of the landmark, with legislation attached to a defense spending bill signed recently by President Obama, a monumental change.
Quote of the Week: “We build the road and the road builds us.” ~a Sri Lankan Saying
The monument will be nearly 10 times its original 488-acre size, with 4,000 acres added. It will include the entire watershed above the marble cave, where scenic Bigelow Lakes lie below Mount Elijah — named after Elijah Davidson, who discovered the cave in 1874. To access the full story, click here.
Oregon Fast Fact: The Oregon Legislature designated the Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) as the Oregon state flower by resolution in 1899.
2. OP-ED: What Do You Get if You Map Coming Climate Disasters? Hello, Pacific Northwest During the 1930s, the Dust Bowl drove millions of people out of the Great Plains. Thousands of the residents who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina never went back. Not that many thousands of years ago, shifts in Ice Age glaciers drew people from Siberia across a thenexisting land bridge to spread through the Americas. So America has experienced climate migration before. But it's different when you see it coming. Especially if it's coming toward you. To access the full story, click here.
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3. 73-Year-Old Japanese Man Creates Impressive Paintings Using Only Excel Meet Tatsuo Horiuchi, a 73-year-old Japanese, who creates highly detailed paintings with the most unexpected software – MS Excel. The newly discovered artist has been interested in graphic arts for a long time, but only since his retirement 13 years ago he finally got the time he needed for the new hobby. Horiuchi has never used Excel at work and got interested in this particular software only for two reasons – it was more affordable than Photoshop (he had Excel preinstalled on his PC) and easier to use than MS Paint. Horiuchi’s artworks have already been presented in many exhibitions and the artist even won Excel Autoshape Art Contest in 2006. To access the full story, click here. 4. Bolivia Revolutionizes Urban Mass Transit: From the Streets to the Sky Those searching for revolution in Bolivia may find it in unexpected places. On the streets and in the sky above La Paz, the nation’s capital, and the neighboring indigenous city of El Alto, a genuine transformation of the urban public transportation system is taking shape, against the backdrop of a political competition that is working to the benefit of local residents. On December 4, President Evo Morales inaugurated the third line of Mi Teleférico (My Cable Car), the spectacular new cable car system launched last May between La Paz and El Alto. With its Red, Yellow, and Green Lines (the colors of the Bolivian flag), 11 stations, and 427 gondola cabins spanning more than 6 miles at 13,500 feet, it is the longest and highest urban cable car system in the world. To access the full story, click here. 5. Our Love of The Coast Will Lead to Disaster – Guest Opinion On the morning of Dec. 26, 2004, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history devastated Sumatra. A magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami, sending water more than a mile inland with waves peaking at nearly 50 feet. More than 225,000 people in 14 countries were killed. In the region, no one knew the tsunami was on its way. When something goes terribly wrong, decision makers have an opportunity to make a change. Three key elements to preventing a similar disaster are technology, public education, and research. A tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean has been developed and is being tested. Some training has occurred for coastal communities, although certain countries have received considerably more attention than others. And the research community has responded: On our own Oregon Coast, Oregon State University has built a state-of-the-art research facility devoted entirely to the science of tsunamis. To access the full story, click here. 6. Farms Don’t Just Feed Communities—They Build Them Recall Mister Rogers: What does it mean to be good a neighbor? For answers, look no further than farms, CSA members, and the communities they call home.
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Last winter, Portland, Ore., had been assaulted by days of bitter cold, wind, and intense ice storms. Caylor Roling, project coordinator at the Portland Area CSA Coalition, told me that 22 miles out of town at Pumpkin Ridge Gardens, the bad weather blew the hoop houses down. And then, in true barn-raising tradition, members of the farm’s CSA helped rebuild the structures over the course of a few weekends. It wasn’t the first time members had shown up when things were tough for James Just and Polly Gottesman. In the farm’s early days, one spring saw both farmers out of commission after appendicitis and the arrival of twins. Members began the planting for them. To access the full story, click here. 7. Food Sleuth Radio Show Line Up For January 2015 + Links to Archived December 2014 Shows January 1st: Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D. Registered Dietitian, internationally respected sports nutritionist, athlete and author of “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook: The #1 nutrition resource for active people,” describes elements of a winning sports diet and how to “fuel better to feel better.” www.nancyclarkrd.com/ https://beta.prx.org/stories/139388 January 8th: Paul Hanley, environment columnist with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and author of “Eleven” which describes how 11 billion people on Earth by century’s end will change everything. Hanley discusses consumerism and the need to evaluate food and farming through an ecological lens for a sustainable future. www.elevenbillionpeople.com January 15th: Ted Genoways, author of “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food,” a riveting, compelling expose of the meatpacking industry, through the lens of Hormel. Genoways describes working conditions and related injuries, changes in the labor force and immigration. Part I of II. www.tedgenoways.com/ January 22nd: Ted Genoways, author of “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food,” continues his discussion revealing the true cost of “cheap” meat, including antibiotic resistance, declining water quality, “ag-gag” laws, and how we can voice support for a more humane, safe and sustainable food supply. Part II of II. www.tedgenoways.com/ January 29th: Jim Gerritsen, organic farmer, owner and operator of Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine, and President of the Maine-based Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, which in 2011 filed a lawsuit against Monsanto to challenge seed patents. Gerritsen describes the lawsuit, our common heritage of seeds, transgenic contamination and why he supports GMO food labeling. www.woodprairie.com/ Food Sleuth Radio Show archives for December 2014 December 4th: Eric Herm, 4th generation TX cotton farmer and author of “Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth,” and “Surviving Ourselves: The Evolution of Community, Education, and Agriculture in the 21st Century,” describes challenges to sustainable farming, including pesticide drift, and Page 3 of 5
solutions for healing the planet. www.sonofafarmer.com https://beta.prx.org/stories/137151 December 11th: Brian Wansink, Ph.D., Director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, and author of “Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life,” explains ways we can simply tweak our most common food environments to easily lose unwanted pounds and achieve better health. www.slimbydesign.org https://beta.prx.org/stories/137668 December 18th: Andrianna Natsoulas, author of “Food Voices: Stories from the People Who Feed Us,” describes the principles and pillars of ‘food sovereignty,’ the consequences of fish and shrimp farming, and how consumers can be advocates for food justice. www.foodvoices.org https://beta.prx.org/stories/138353 December 25th: Jill Nussinow, M.S., R.D., dietitian and author of “Nutrition CHAMPS: New Way of Thinking about Food Groups that Will Change Your Life,” discusses her new cookbook which focuses on a plant-based diet rich in cruciferous vegetables, herbs, alliums, mushrooms, pulse, seeds and nuts, and their health-promoting and flavorful attributes. www.theveggiequeen.com https://beta.prx.org/stories/139021 8. Nuns On The Ranch Give A Heavenly Twist To Beef Many beer aficionados are familiar with the rare breweries run by Trappist monks. The beer is highly sought after, but it's not the only food or drink made by a religious order. Many abbeys and convents have deep roots in agriculture, combining farm work with prayer. Just 5 miles south of the Colorado-Wyoming border you'll find one of these places. Idyllic red farm buildings sit in the shadow of the main abbey, all tucked in a stony valley. At the Abbey of St. Walburga, cattle, water buffalo and llamas graze on grass under the watchful eye of Benedictine nuns. Sister Maria-Walburga Schortemeyer runs the abbey's ranch. Other sisters volunteer their time to work. The list of agricultural activities is long. In addition to the cows and llamas, the nuns raise chickens and bees, most of which are used in the abbey's kitchen. The water buffalo are the newest addition, brought on in April and milked to make mozzarella cheese. But because the sisters need a health certification for their operation, the cheese-making is currently on pause. To access the full story, click here. 9. How Buying Local Food Grows Local Economies The motto “Think Globally, Act Locally” has long been a guiding tenet of the sustainable food movement. But does acting locally really make a difference and if so, what kind of difference? That’s just what a team of economists set out to explore in the study Linkages Between CommunityFocused Agriculture, Farm Sales and Regional Growth, published in Economic Development Quarterly (2014). Their results revealed that yes, direct farm-to-customer-sales in the form of farmer’s markets and farm visits do make a difference–but what kind of difference depends where the farms are located and on how well local communities have built up a supply chain to support this kind of local buying.
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The researchers asked two key questions: First, how are community-oriented farms contributing to agricultural and regional growth? Second, given the importance of major growers and the fact that 75 percent of all agricultural output in the U.S. is produced by less than six percent of all U.S. farms, just how important is agriculture in the economic growth regionally and nationally? To access the full story, click here. 10. In Gentrifying New York, Can Affordable Housing For Artists Change A Neighborhood? Sunlight streams through the tall windows and warms the spotless wood floors at PS 109, some of the most coveted apartments in Manhattan at the moment. No, these aren’t new luxury skyscrapers or hipster lofts. The apartments are inside a former elementary school in East Harlem, and an incredible 53,000 people applied for the chance to lease one of the new affordable housing project’s 89 units. At a time of skyrocketing rents in New York, that absurd level of demand isn’t at all unusual for a new affordable housing project. What is unique are the lucky people who will soon move into the space, where massive studios will rent as low as $494 a month and two-bedrooms for only $1,022: All future residents will be artists. To access the full story, click here. 11. An Innovative Approach to Increasing The Pace And Scale of Forest Restoration Joseph Creek flows north through a remote and rugged part of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. A tributary of the Wild and Scenic Grande Ronde River – a popular destination for fishermen and rafting vacationers – the creek boasts wild steelhead and rainbow trout and is an area of historical significance to the Nez Perce Tribe, which has inhabited parts of the watershed for millennia. As part of the Blue Mountains Restoration Strategy, The Forest Service and the Wallowa-Whitman Forest Collaborative are working together to conserve and improve the ecological health of Lower Joseph Creek while creating economic opportunities for local forest workers. The “LoJo” project is the largest forest restoration effort to date, encompassing more than 98,000-acres of forest land, and is the first taken on by the forest collaborative and the Forest Service’s Blue Mountains Restoration Strategy Interdisciplinary Team – a group of senior Forest Service scientists commissioned in 2013 by the Forest Service’s regional forester at the time, Kent Connaughton, to increase the pace and scale of restoration planning. To access the full story, click here.
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