Monday Mailing
Year 19 • Issue 38 17 June 2013 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Portraits of Grandmas and Their Cuisine From Around the World A Solar Fridge for Fresh Food in Hot Climates Industrial Hemp: The Answer for a Greener Future The Goats of Maple Crest Farm (Aniko, Katy, Alina… Enjoy!) Weeds Make Their Way from Garden to Gourmet Nestle to Begin Draining Millions of Gallons of Arkansas River
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Portraits of Grandmas and Their Cuisine From Around the World Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti realized that trying to not overeat over at your grandma’s place has got to be a universal thing, and set out to explore what grandmothers cook around the world. His Delicatessen With Love photo series portray grandmothers from 58 different countries, each posing right before they start cooking and then presenting their signature dish in the end. His own grandma and a dish of her raviolis was what gave Gabriele the idea for the project. Check out these photos, radiant with love and care!
Tornado Does Damage in McMinnville
Report: Klamath Falls Bioenergy Ends Biomass Project What Does Rural Mean? Uncle Sam Has More Than a Dozen Answers. Roads to Rails Funding Opportunities
To access this photo series, click here. 2.
Quote of the Week: "The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone." ~Orison Swett Marden Oregon Fast Fact #085: Oregon is located nearest the 45th parallel. The 45th parallel is equidistant from the north pole and the equator and is found just north of Salem.
A Solar Fridge for Fresh Food in Hot Climates Food shortages in India are compounded by a lack of cold-chain storage facilities, but a new solar-powered cold storage device, developed by the University of Cincinnati in partnership with industry, could put this problem on ice. SolerCool has been designed to provide cooling at the individual farm level. The size of a large garden shed, it can be easily transported to farms on the back of a truck. The SolerCool project is a partnership between the University of Cincinnati and three local companies – Acutemp Thermal Systems, SimpliCool Technologies International and SAS Automation – funded by a Procter and Gamble higher-education grant. To access the full story, click here.
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Industrial Hemp: The Answer for a Greener Future More industrial hemp is exported to the U.S. than to any other country and American consumers are purchasing over $450 million in hemp products annually. Bringing It Home explores the question of why a crop with so many widespread benefits cannot be farmed in the U.S. by illustrating its history and current industries, and by talking to both opponents and proponents of the industrial hemp farming legalization effort.
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Bringing It Home tells the story of hemp’s past, present and future through interviews with hemp business leaders and entrepreneurs from all over the globe, historical images and media clips, and footage filmed in the U.K, Spain, Washington D.C., California and North Carolina. The documentary aims to magnify dialogue about hemp in order to facilitate America’s transition to a more informed, sustainable and healthy future. The film was inspired by environmentally-conscious home designer Anthony Brenner’s story to find the healthiest building material available to build a safe indoor environment for his young daughter Bailey, who has a rare genetic disorder and sensitivity to synthetic chemicals. Brenner made headlines in USA Today and CNN when he completed America’s first hemp house for the former mayor of Asheville, NC. Brenner’s story is one of the inspirational tales profiled in this film that provides viewers with a new connection to the issue of toxicity in human habitats and how hemp can play a role in innovative healthy green building solutions. In Bringing it Home, we followed Brenner’s mission to build The Bird’s Nest, the world’s first hempcrete built, toxin-free residential home for his daughter and other children and adults with disabilities. To access the full story, click here. 4. The Goats of Maple Crest Farm (Aniko, Katy, Alina… Enjoy!) Maple Crest Farm was established in Brecksville, Ohio in 1826 and is currently operated, occupied and enjoyed by the seventh generation of the founding family. Over the decades, the farm has adapted to the pressures of surrounding economic development and a changing economy. Originally a dairy and grain farm, Maplecrest has transitioned from pure agricultural to horse boarding and training to stay economically vibrant. Maplecrest comprises two farms. Brant Giere and Carol Sahley live in the original homestead, while Giere’s mother and sister operate the adjoining horse business. Carol and Brant work off farm and raise goats and chickens for companionship. They have found goats to be wonderful — sociable, loyal and downright funny. Sahley shared some of her favorite pictures of life with her goats on the farm. To access this photo series, click here. 5. Weeds Make Their Way from Garden to Gourmet Common weeds that gardeners spend time and money combating may soon be finding their way into kitchens. The rise in popularity of incorporating plants commonly thought of as weeds into culinary repertoires is thanks in large part to recent interest in foraging. Noma, a Danish restaurant whose menu is crafted around locally foraged edibles, has solidly held a top spot as one of the world’s best restaurants for the past eight years and boasts two Michelin stars. Integrating herbage such as dandelion and stinging nettle into diets not only fosters biodiversity of gardens, but may also be a way to enrich meals with unique flavors and valuable nutrients. The idea of weeds as food has steadily been creeping into mainstream discussions of sustainability, farming, and nutrition. This past February, weeds made it to the main stage of the TEDxManhattan Changing the Way We Eat event, where corporate attorney-turned-weed forager Tama Matsuoka Wong expounded on the environmental and health benefits of regularly incorporating weeds into one’s diet. In her presentation, "How I Did Less and Ate Better, Thanks to Weeds", Wong claimed that “weeds are the ultimate, opportunistic, sustainable plants.” She places the cultivation of weeds as food in direct opposition to the nutrient-depleting monoculture systems currently dominating agricultural landscapes. Weeds naturally exist among and alongside other species, and with their presence, biodiversity of the growing area is often increased, and the soil subsequently enriched. Page 2 of 5
To access the full story, click here. 6. Nestle to Begin Draining Millions of Gallons of Arkansas River If things go according to plan, in about a month someone at Nestle Waters North America will turn a valve and water will begin running out of a pipeline near Buena Vista and will splash into an empty 8,000-gallon tanker truck. It will take roughly an hour for the truck to fill, and then another truck will take its place. The water will run 24 hours a day, filling approximately 25 trucks each day, every day. The trucks will drive 120 miles to a Nestle bottling plant in Denver where the water will be used to fill hundreds and thousands and millions of little plastic Arrowhead Springs water bottles, which will then be trucked to convenience markets, grocery stores, movie theaters, and sports palaces around the West. Each month, Nestle will fill roughly 40.4 million 16.9 ounce bottles with the water from the area’s Nathrop spring. By the end of a year, 65 million gallons of Arkansas Valley water will have been driven to Denver, bottled, driven somewhere else, and sold. To access the full story, click here. 7.
Tornado Does Damage in McMinnville It was indeed a tornado that damaged several buildings Thursday in the community of McMinnville, the National Weather Service has confirmed. Nobody was hurt, but three commercial buildings, all of them used for storage, were damaged, McMinnville Fire Chief Rich Leipfert said. The porch roof on one nearby home also sustained minor damage, Leipfert said. A two-person NWS storm survey team dispatched to the scene confirmed the damage was caused by a tornado. The tornado’s estimated top winds in the most damaged area ranged from 86 to 90 miles per hour, Weather Service meteorologist Treena Hartley said late Thursday night. That puts it in the EF1 storm category. To access the full story, click here.
8. Report: Klamath Falls Bioenergy Ends Biomass Project Plans for a biomass plant in Klamath Falls have, according to sources in the region, apparently collapsed. The plant's opposition group Save Our Rural Oregon said Klamath Falls Bioenergy won’t build its proposed plant because of a combination of concerns over environmental effects and the possibility that the company would lose federal funding. Klamath Falls Bioenergy had proposed a facility that would have burned 35 megawatts of electrical power by burning biomass, or wood waste, in a fluid bed boiler that produced steam to drive a turbine generator. The Klamath Falls Herald first reported the news Thursday morning. The plant’s project manager couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. To access the full story, click here.
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9. What Does Rural Mean? Uncle Sam Has More Than a Dozen Answers. Lenoir is a small town in western North Carolina. It has 18,000 people, a Wal-Mart, a Waffle House and an annual parade famous for people carrying pans of blackberry cobbler. Is it a rural place? The U.S. government has an answer: Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. No. No. Yes. No. No. No. No. No. The problem is that the U.S. government has at least 15 official definitions of the word “rural,” two of which apply only to Puerto Rico and parts of Hawaii. All of these definitions matter; they’re used by various agencies to parcel out $37 billion-plus in federal money for “rural development.” And each one is different. To access the full story, click here. 10. Roads to Rails When we begin to value the land for what it is and build cities worth living in, density develops, and density makes things happen. Some of those happenings are economic, in the sense of improved productivity; others are environmental, in terms of fewer resources consumed. Density also has a lot to offer in terms of our trades of time for space. Past transportation revolutions have been rooted in land. The railroad companies were encouraged to expand west by massive giveaways of public land; the streetcar operators were given monopolies to encourage their development; and the automobile industry received the greatest gift of all — roads — carved out of the public domain, bought or appropriated from private citizens. Many people and innumerable beasts were hurt in the process, so that other folks could be whisked on their way. Such radical efforts were necessary to make 20th-century transportation feasible, affordable and widespread in America. A similarly radical approach is required today, but without all the giving and the taking. It’s simple. We just need to decide to make better use of the land we all already own together: the public roads. Our roads today suffer from an identity crisis. We want them to provide thoroughfares for private cars, routes for public transit, spaces for parking, lanes for bicycles, sidewalks for pedestrians, access for people with disabilities, space and light for buildings, drainage for storm water, and even room for trees and flowers! Take a look out your window — the streets are contested territory, trying to be all things for all people. To access the full story, click here.
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11. Funding Opportunities Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Invites Applications for Architecture and Design Projects<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb17> Grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded to individual artists working on projects that explore innovative and bold ideas in architecture and design....Deadline: September 15, 2013 Foundation for Bluegrass Music Seeks Applications for Public Projects Honoring Bluegrass Icons<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb16> - A total of $10,000 in grants will be awarded to support public projects in memory of bluegrass music icons Doug Dillard and Arthel "Doc" Watson.... Deadline: June 30, 2013 Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation Seeks Applications for Innovative Youth Programs<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb12> - Grants of $25,000 will be awarded to programs designed to help underprivileged youth reach their full potential.... Deadline: July 17, 2013 National Resource Center for First-Year Experience and Students and Transition Invites Applications for Research Projects<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb24> - A $5,000 grant will be awarded for a research project with the potential to improve the experiences of students transitioning into and through higher education.... Deadline: July 1, 2013 Westinghouse Electric Invites Applications for STEM Education Projects<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb18> - Through its N-Visioning a Brighter Future program, Westinghouse will award $1,000 grants to three schools for creative hands-on projects with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.... Deadline: November 15, 2013 Wild Ones Invites Applications for Native Plant Education Projects<http://e.foundationcenter.org/a/hBRskSRB8ixfdB8zMnqAACSSkos/rfpb19> Grants of up to $500 will be awarded to schools, nonprofits, and other nonprofit places of learning working on projects that use native plants to develop an appreciation for nature among students....Deadline: October 15, 2013 The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL)<http://www.famlit.org/> is now accepting applications for its Toyota Family Learning<http://toyotafamilylearning.org/> (TFL) initiative. TFL aims to become a movement for families to learn together to promote environmental stewardship, financial literacy, volunteerism and civic participation. Applications are due on June 24 by 5pm EST. To learn more and/or apply, click here<http://toyotafamilylearning.org/>. USDA Seeks Applications for Grants to Support Small-Socially Disadvantaged Producers WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is seeking applications from cooperatives to provide technical assistance to small, socially disadvantaged agricultural producers in rural areas. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) remains focused on carrying out its mission, despite a time of significant budget uncertainty. Funding will be made available through USDA Rural Development's Small, Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant program (SSDPG). The maximum grant award is $200,000. For additional information on how to apply, see the June 12 Federal Register<http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR2013-06-12/pdf/2013-13867.pdf>, page 35239, or visit http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/BCP_SSDPG.html.
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