TheGreenGazetteDec2013

TheGreenGazette

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page

TheGreenGazette

Page 2

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

TheGreenGazette

Contents

Issue # 24

December/January 2013-2014

Features:

05/ Christmas Crafting Christmas traditions come in all shapes and sizes – big dinners, family hikes, dazzling parties, hot chocolate around a roaring fire – and are essentially the basis of what makes the holidays special. - by Jessica Kirby 08/ Life with Honey Bees ~ We’re in this Together The relationship between humans and honey bees goes back a long way. Cave art from an estimated 8,000 years ago shows a honey-gatherer risking life and limb in pursuit of a sweet reward. - by Diane Dunaway 10/ Philippines Tragedy Shows Urgency of Warsaw Climate Summit As people in the Philippines struggle with devastation and death from the worst storm to hit land in recorded history, world leaders are meeting in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss the climate crisis.

- by David Suzuki 13/ CETA is a Bad Deal for Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, signed a “tentative” CETA agreement in Brussels. CETA stands for Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, and is said by Harper to be the biggest trade deal Canada has ever made, even bigger t h a n N A F T A .

- by Van Andruss 19/ Winter Immunity I live in Prince George and was reading that you’re going to focus on the immune system for your next article. I don’t have anything that’s so specific to ask but just wonder what you would recommend for people who get sick all the time? - by Ciel Patenaude 28/ Composting Continues as Winter Moves In Perfect time to talk about composting, right?! Many gardeners or food growers may think otherwise, abandoning their compost piles around this time of year. - by Brianna van de Wijngaard

TheGreenGazette Publisher / Editor-in-Chief Lisa Bland lisa@thegreengazette.ca Senior Editor Jessica Kirby Contributors David Suzuki, LeRae Haynes, Jessica Kirby, Alix Spiegel Robert L. Nichol, Julie Andrés, Ciel Patenaude, Van Andruss, Ron Young, Lisa Bland, Jenna Sipponen, Jessica Knodel Jasmin Schellenberg, Terri Smith, Susan Tritt, Ray Grigg Amanda Nickerson, Diane Dunaway, Brianna van de Wijngaard Advertising Lisa Bland Creative Directors Lisa Bland / Teena Clipston Ad Design Teena Clipston Published by Earthwild Consulting Printing Black Press Ltd. Cover Photo Credit Jan Krejza Index Photo Gunnar Pippel

PO Box 164 Horsefly, BC, V0L 1L0 250-620-3419 www.thegreengazette.ca info@thegreengazette.ca TheGreenGazette is published by Earthwild Consulting. To subscribe call 250-620-3419. To view the online flipbook, visit www.thegreengazette.ca © 2013 all rights reserved. Opinions and perspectives expressed in the magazine are those of authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the ownership or management. Reproduction in whole or part without the publisher’s consent is strictly prohibited.

December/January 2013 - 2014

04/ Publishers Letter: Dreamhealer: Quantum realities Despite the laws governing physical matter at the macro level that we accept in our day to day reality on terra firma, quantum physicists have shown that matter does not adhere to these laws at its most basic quantum level.

- by Lisa Bland

Also in this Issue: 05/ Top 10 Tips for a Greener Holiday Season - by Community Futures 06/ Volunteering – The spirit of giving - by Jessica Kirby 06/ Transition Town Group hosts two films and discussion 07/ Featured Green Business: The season is green at Smashin Smoothies - by LeRae Haynes 11/ A Bolt From the Blue A.K.A. the ‘Unk-Unk’ - by Ron Young 11/ Commissioner’s Fall Report Paints Grim Picture of State of Biodiversity in Canada 12/ Youth Perspective: Consumerism and Christmas - by Jenna Sipponen 15/ World View: Dangerous dog treats - by Robert L *ichol 16/ Oh no… What Will we eat? - by Jessica Knodel 17/ Backyard Chicken Bylaw Passes in Williams Lake - by Susan Tritt 18/ Dark of Winter Barter Faire ‘Tis the Season for Sharing and Giving...

19/ Integrative Health Column: Healing from depression - by Ciel Patenaude 21/ Giving the Gift of Recycling 22/ Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills - by Alix Spiegel, *PR.org 23/ Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Grants - by Leah Selk 23/ TRU Professor Conducts Research at Harvard 24/ Switchbacks - by Julie Andrés 25/ Poetry: Aggie - by Julie Andrés 25/ Harmony Living Health comes to Williams Lake - by Amanda *ickerson 27/ Respectful Harvest Results in Better Meat - by LeRae Haynes 28/ Hello Bob: Sierra BC's new Executive Director - by Ray Grigg 29/ Raising Amadeus - by Terri Smith 30/ Dourishing our Children - by Jasmin Schellenberg 30/ Calendar of Events 31/ The Green Collective

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 3

TheGreenGazette

Letter from the Publisher

Dreamhealer: Quantum Realities

Lisa Bland Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief

D

ear Readers, I can’t believe we’ve already entered the heart of winter and the shortest, darkest days of the year. Although it’s been fairly moderate so far, it still seems like the change in the weather dropped in out of the blue. The scramble for winter tires, snow shovels, snow scrapers, and warm clothing always comes as a bit of a shock, especially when it dips down below -20 and we quickly find out just how winterized we are. Winter brings many blessings too—dazzling snow covered peaks, crisp sunny days and outdoor activities in the snowy expanse, and the urge to be creative, gather, and enjoy quality time with one another. The Cariboo is also home to an impressive network of artisans, crafts people, and small businesses that busily create their wares for the flurry of craft fairs across the region. Support for the local market economy is noticeable in the number of people that turn out, and it’s hard not to be inspired to join in ‘the season of giving.’

One of my most enjoyable craft sale experiences was visiting the Medieval Market on November 24. With yearly increasing attendance and record numbers, there is nothing that says ‘local’ and ‘spirit of the season’ more than this event. Whether it was the ambiance created by the beautifully dressed medieval crafts people, the gracious student hosts serving homemade soups and treats, the rich colours and textures of hand woven wool scarves, blankets, hats, gloves, fabric art, and pottery, the scent of fresh apples, ground coffee, beeswax candles, and lavender scented creams, the taste of almond Roca, chocolate covered cranberries, and wild berry jams, or the ongoing line-up of locally talented musicians, the two-day event was a dizzying delight for the senses. The friendly market environment definitely provided a jump start into the winter season of festivities, generosity, and socializing with friends.

Winter also marks the time of year when it is natural to go within and cultivate the imagination, artistic creations, and dream of the sun’s light. In many cultures, Solstice was a time to celebrate the re-birth of the light and emergence of the sun from the darkest day and longest night of the year. In ancient texts and traditions across the world, including those of the Egyptians, Druids, Mayans, Incas, and Greeks, reference is made to a spiritual reverence towards the sun. Sun worship in some form is one of the oldest universal themes in spiritual traditions and numerous ancient sites were aligned with the days of the Solstices and Equinoxes.

According to cosmologists, around 400 million years after the Big Bang, the universe first emerged out of darkness. Ultraviolet light was emitted for the first time as clumps of gas collapsed and the first stars

Page 4

and galaxies were formed. Scientists think our solar system and sun were formed as a gigantic cloud of dust rotated and sucked in material around it and gravity collapsed it and it spun into a flattened spiral. The sun was formed as much of the material gathered in the center. Our solar system is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old, and our sun is one of a scattering of more than a 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Staring up at the stars in the night sky and basking in the warm glow of the sun is an experience we share with all humans throughout time. There is no denying the power and life giving force the sun feeds our planet, nor the degree that we are influenced by light. All living creatures are attuned to cycles of light. Just how gases formed into galaxies and birthed stars and planets, among them a perfect blue planet exquisitely balanced and inhabited by eventual conscious life, is a mystery that many cultures have pondered. Mystics throughout time have suggested that life is multi-dimensional and that there is much more to our world that what we perceive with our five physical senses.

Despite the laws governing physical matter at the macro level that we accept in our day to day reality on terra firma, quantum physicists have shown that matter does not adhere to these laws at its most basic quantum level. In a theory called the Copenhagen Interpretation, studies show that the act of observing or measuring has an effect on whether matter exists in wave or particle form, a principle known as wave-particle duality. At its base, quantum theory suggests objective reality does not exist at the quantum level, for the act of measuring causes a potential ‘field of possibility’ to immediately assume one form or another. In other studies, it has been shown that photons ‘orient’ to one another in close proximity or become ‘entangled,’ remaining oriented to one another regardless of the distance they are separated.

The International Space Station (ISS) aims to test the theory definitively by conducting an experiment that proves photons remain entangled over great distances (500 km), a theory that Albert Einstein first coined as ‘spooky action at a distanc e. ’ (R ead mo r e a t : http :// www. universetoday.com/101408/spookyexp erime nt-o n-is s -co uld -p io neer-newq u a n t u m - c o m m u n ic a t io n s - n e t w o r k / #ixzz2m8JVc3VT and http://phys.org/ news/2013-04-photons-loopholes.html#jCp ) With the scientific demonstration of non-local entanglement and observerinfluenced results in quantum particles, it’s not hard to see why ideas behind the science of intention, quantum mysticism, and energy healing continue to gather momentum as humans question the nature and fabric of commonly held reality. While some abruptly turn away from mystical interpretations of science, feeling it wrongly endorses faith healers and spiritual gurus playing on fears to generate cash and take their place in the spotlight, some believe it is only a matter of time when science will catch up to what mystics have always known about the nature of reality.

The unfathomable elements at the basis of many non-conventional types of healing seem to suggest transcendence over

basic physical laws and principles. Meet Adam Dreamhealer, doctor, author, and energy healer who is working hard to build a bridge between the two worlds with his belief that each side complements and strengthens the other.

In the November issue of TheGreenGazette, I mentioned my opportunity last year to interview Vancouver based, Adam MacLeod, otherwise know as Dreamhealer, or as coined in a 2003 Rolling Stone article, “The boy with the magic touch.” After reading a 2003 Globe and Mail article, “All about Adam,” I was struck by the direct and unpretentious way then 16-year-old Adam spoke about “energy healing,” a topic usually sidelined to the fringes. In the article, Adam openly shared his experiences sensing energy and auras, how he discovered his healing abilities, his belief in intention as a powerful tool anyone can use for healing, and that science would eventually explain his experiences.

His rise to the international stage occurred that year after contacting rock and roll legend, Ronnie Hawkins, who had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Adam offered Hawkins his assistance, and after daily scheduled distance energy healing sessions, Hawkins’ cancer disappeared. Edgar Mitchell, retired pilot and NASA astronaut, also received distance energy treatments from Adam for kidney cancer and experienced a complete remission.

Ten years later, Adam now aged 26, holds a degree in molecular biology and biochemistry, has recently completed his training as a naturopathic doctor and will be opening a clinic in Vancouver, has presented healing workshops around the world guiding people to access their healing abilities, and has written four best-selling books and produced two DVDs with healing visualizations.

When I attended his workshop in person, I was immediately struck by how unpretentious Adam seemed on stage. Here was not someone cultivating a persona to charm the audience; in fact, he seemed, and later admitted in a personal interview, that he is uncomfortable being in the spotlight.

What I liked about Adam was the way he spoke very practically and in a matter of fact way about energy, healing, and intention, and often described his points with biological and cellular explanations of body processes and functions, such as how DNA can be affected by our intentions.

At 16, Adam already had a firm idea of where he was going, stating in Rolling Stone that after he graduated he wanted to become a naturopathic doctor and integrate energy healing with conventional medicine.

He said, “The medical community and the healing community have the same goal, so why not work together? I’m very confident that all this can be explained by science, and I’m determined to prove it.”

During his day-long workshop, jampacked with around 400 participants, Adam’s quotes flash across the screen: “Every cell in the body responds to the subtle energy of light,” “Light co-ordinates all life processes,” “Intentions affect things far beyond our awareness,” and “Everyone takes the limits of his/her perception as the limits of the world.” The take-home message was this: everyone can play an active role in

www.thegreengazette.ca

Adam MacLeod, DD, a.k.a Dreamhealer, at his Integrative Healing Workshop in Vancouver BC. Photo: Lisa Bland

their own healing and be empowered knowing that their thoughts influence the body’s biochemistry to assist in the healing process.

The mysterious properties and interconnectedness of light and matter all play a part in the unfolding of our relationship with ourselves and the cosmos, and if there is truth in the new age adage that our thoughts create our reality, then our health may be more in our control than we think. In spiritual terms one might say, “Be mindful of your self-talk; it’s a conversation with the universe.”

To find out more about Adam’s workshops, books, and Global Intention Heals Project visit http://dreamhealer.com/ and http://www.intentionheals.com/ Happy winter everyone!

Don’t forget to visit our new website at www.thegreengazette.ca for local features, news headlines, our community calendar of events, Green Community Collective listings, and more. Like us on Facebook to receive our regular posts.

December/January 2013 - 2014

Christmas Crafting

By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette

Paint glass baubles from the inside to create swirling colour with a hint of sparkle.

C

hristmas traditions come in all shapes and sizes – big dinners, family hikes, dazzling parties, hot chocolate around a roaring fire – and are essentially the basis of what makes the holidays special.

In our house we indulge in turkey (cashew loaf for us veggies), family, and roaring fires, but the most treasured tradition for us is crafting.

Call us crazy, but the art of doing things by hand, making treasures, sharing ideas around the kitchen table is the most poignant Christmas experience we share as a family.

So, with focus on the here and now of Christmas, it’s time to think about beautifying your space and your mind-body connection with some elegant, ecofriendly, and meaningful projects you can do alone, with friends, or with children.

Wreaths and garlands, au naturale: If you live in or near an evergreen forest, a world of material awaits. Take a long, relaxing walk in the woods and collect boughs, pinecones, and holly to deck the halls au naturale. Twist boughs in a circle shape – use heavy wire or anything stiff and circular as a guide if you need it – to make a wreath, which you can decorate with your woodsy findings; or, fasten them in a long row to make a garland for the mantle.

Make it yours: Think about fastening objects to your wreath or garland that speak to your family’s interests. Try driftwood, seashells, or dried flowers for a West Coast theme, or bright flowers, snowflake shapes, autumn leaves, and sun shapes to make your wreath a seasonal celebration.

Pro tip: If gold and silver aren’t your flavour, try bronze spray paint or spray snow to add a more subtle sparkle to your creation. Instead of bows, try short pieces of branch or driftwood tied with rafetta in the centre, or use pinecones.

Painted glass baubles: The possibilities are plentiful when you begin with clear glass globe ornaments, found at most craft stores. To paint the baubles from the inside, remove the hook and loop from the top of the bauble and pour in about four tablespoons of craft paint. Turn the bauble in various directions until the paint spreads over the entire inner surface. Add more paint as needed, ensuring a generous coating on the glass.

A more elegant variation is, rather than painting, sprinkle glitter and winter or Christmas-themed crafting notions inside, creating a snow-globe effect that leaves the surface relatively clear unless the baubles

December/January 2013 - 2014

Use what you have: Scrap felt, children's blocks, or scrap metal can make lovely Christmas ornaments with personality.

Kindness ornaments: Kindness ornaments go on the tree one at a time following a secret good deed for someone else in the family.

Photos: Jessica Kirby

are shaken.

Once the baubles are painted, replace the hook and loop and tie ribbon or rafetta around them to finish your masterpiece.

Make it yours: Use two colours in each bauble—one matte and one sparkly or metallic. When they swirl together the effect is stunning. Try matte green and metallic blue with a hint of white or brown for an Earth-like creation.

Pro tip: Direct a little spray glue inside the bauble before sprinkling the glitter and it will stick to the inner surface rather than settling on the bottom. Wait for this to dry before adding your notions.

Kindness Orname nts: Create a set of ornaments that inspire kindness among your family members. In the spirit of Saint Nickolaus, legendary saint of doing secretive good deeds, we made 24 felt hearts that we keep in a basket under the tree and can only be hung in exchange for a good deed. When one of us completes a secret helpful deed for someone else in the house, one of the ornaments can be hung on the tree.

Make it yours: Our ornaments are made of felt and stuffed with batting, but they can be made of or themed in any way you choose. I chose hearts because they represent loving acts, but if it were up to my husband they would have looked like hockey pucks, or my children may have chosen elves or Santas.

Pro tip: Kindness ornaments make a beautiful gift for others wanted to explore a deeper meaning over the holidays.

Most importantly, use what you have and keep it simple. Choose natural materials to achieve a calm, peaceful look, and don’t forget texture. Layering materials creates depth and movement in any crafting project, often negating the need for superfluous materials. And in the spirit of tradition, try to keep it personal. Music lovers can create wall sconces or cover baubles with old music sheets and gardeners can work dried flowers into almost any creation—the possibilities are endless.

Happy Crafting!

TheGreenGazette

Top 10 Tips for a Greener Holiday Season Let’s all make an effort to recycle everything we can, especially at this time of year when so much gift wrapping and plastic wrapping get thrown in the garbage.

Here are some ideas of how to give the gift of recycling back to the environment: 1.

Instead of giving a store-bought gift how about a gift of a homemade basket of goodies? Family pictures are also a great gift idea. All are great, delicious, and personal gifts with no product packaging waste.

2.

If you enjoy giving store bought gifts then consider using recycled wrapping paper or cloth gift bags instead of wrapping paper. Try using newspapers. The Sunday funnies help keep it colorful and fun!

3.

Buy gifts that don’t require wrapping, such as gift certificates for a much needed massage, for a book store, or for dinner at a favorite restaurant. The gift of relaxation and experiences will be appreciated after the flurry of the Christmas morning chaos. Again, it reduces the waste packaging, is more ecofriendly, and lowers the chances that a purchased gift will go unused.

4.

Recycle your old holiday cards. Cut out the pictures to make new cards or gift tags. If you’re not so crafty and still want to reduce paper waste, why not send out electronic greetings cards?

5.

When buying gifts, make sure you check product labels to determine an item’s recyclability and if it is made from recycled materials. If you receive electronics at Christmas, make sure to take your old electronics and donate them or recycle them at a local designated facility.

6.

Consider purchasing and serving local bought food at your staff or family Christmas dinner. Buying local produce is not only a healthier alternative; it helps support your community businesses and local farmers.

7.

A big contributor to landfill waste is disposable dinnerware. For your holiday office party try to find an alternative way to serve food to your guests this year.

If that is not an option, do some research and find a biodegradable product that has the ability to break down safely and relatively quickly.

8.

Want to save money and energy this holiday season? Try putting your tree and outdoor lights on timers. Set the timer to have your lights automatically turn on at sunset and turn off overnight and during the day. If the timer isn’t an option then use the good old fashioned way and unplug them manually. Are you are in the market to buy some Christmas lights or replace old ones? Then make the switch to LED lights if you haven’t done so already.

9.

After the holidays, look for ways to recycle your tree or buy a potted tree that can be replanted after the Christmas season is over. Make sure to pre-plan the live tree option because you can’t leave them inside to long. Too much time in the warmth of the home could prevent them from surviving the replanting process.

10.

For those of you who are weighing the choice between buying a live tree versus an artificial tree for environmental concerns, make sure to do your research.

There are many pros and cons to the artificial / live tree debate. Where the artificial tree might seem on the surface more environmentally friendly, it has many negative long-term effects on the environment.

www.thegreengazette.ca

Submitted by Community Futures Cariboo Chilcotin

Page 5

TheGreenGazette

Volunteering – The spirit of giving Transition Town Group Hosts Two Films Followed By Discussion:

By Jessica Kirby

T

here is something about Christmas that brings out the giving spirit in people. Despite the commercialization of the holiday, the essence of family and togetherness seems to permeate the season, inspiring the desire to help out, give more, and share selflessly.

According to a Statistics Canada report, Canada already has an incredibly giving population—$13.3 million people or 47 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and over volunteered their time year-round in 2010, providing leadership, mentoring, driving services, help in social services, and help in other activities at a rate equivalent to 1.1 million fulltime jobs.

The number of people volunteering their time during the Christmas holidays rises between five and 30 per cent, depending on the region. Eager to help and to get more out of the holidays, it is not uncommon for people to don their aprons at soup kitchens, pack hampers at the food bank, or drive for an organization that offers safe rides home for party-goers.

And the effort is appreciated, as over the holidays, food banks across Canada experience nearly double the number of people accessing services, women’s shelters see a 15-25 per cent increase in families seeking services, and crisis lines experience up to 30 per cent increase in calls. So if you’re ready to give a lasting gift over the holidays, check out the following opportunities to brighten another’s day.

“A Fierce Green Fire: The battle for a living planet” (101 min) Monday, December 16 6:30 p.m. at Central Cariboo Arts Center (old fire hall upstairs) Come browse our lending library, share snacks, and join in the discussion.

this training, consider volunteering or pulling extra shifts over the holidays.

Donate If you’re on a time crunch, but would still like to help out, consider making a monetary or in-kind donation to an organization that assists others. Operational budgets are extremely difficult to meet, and all donations are welcome. Consider food, clothing, toiletries, or blankets at the Women’s Emergency Shelter or the Salvation Army, or bring non-perishable food items to the Salvation Army. The SPCA is always looking for food and supply donations, as well as monetary contributions to help provide health services to pets as they await their forever homes.

The Cariboo Friendship Society operVolunteer The Williams Lake Salvation Army ates a number of services for women and provides food hampers and toys to over 400 children fleeing abuse, and for people sufferfamilies in need throughout the Christmas ing from addictions and mental health issues. season. The organization is looking for Kettle The organization’s needs change and fluctuvolunteers to work two-hour minimum shifts ate, but it’s worth a call to see which items taking donations over the holidays, and needs they might need to help run their programs. individuals to assist in packing hampers.

On Christmas Day the Salvation Plan an Event Creating an opportunity to help out Army serves up a Christmas dinner and over the holidays is easier than you think. needs assistance preparing and serving Host a potluck, or your regular Christmas meals, and is also looking for a Christmas day entertainer, so if your talent is music, skit dinner or party fare, and ask everyone to acting, or otherwise entertaining, consider bring a donation to the SPCA or Salvation sharing your time to brighten Christmas for Army food bank. It’s really that simple.

If you belong to a special interest club those in need. Drivers are also required to or group, think about making a collective take hampers to families’ houses on Christdonation.

Sewing or knitting groups can ormas Eve and Christmas Day. Operation Red Nose operates from ganize members to create blankets, toques, or November 29 to December 31 in Williams heavy socks, book clubs can donate books to Lake, offering a safe ride home and your car the Emergency Shelter, or music clubs can delivered at all hours of the night. The or- contact the Salvation Army to see about playganization gets extremely busy during ing for an hour to entertain the clients.

Make it a working affair. If the comChristmas party season and can always use a pany is having a Christmas party, why not hand.

The organization is looking for escort work in a couple of hours helping out. Meetdrivers, who use their personal vehicles to ing for dinner? Meet two hours earlier and drive the volunteer driver and the navigator help pack hampers. Have everyone bring a to the location where the client is waiting; food bank or SPCA donation to the Christvolunteer drivers who drive the client’s vehi- mas Party, or auction off the ability to ancles; and, navigators, who ride along with the tagonize the boss, with donations going to volunteer driver and client in the client’s the organization of your choice. vehicle. Operation Red Nose can also use headquarters volunteers who look after things Salvation Army—Williams Lake: 250-305-2492 like phone operation, dispatching, or volun- www.wlsalvationarmy.com/ Operation Red *ose teer training.

Canadian Mental Health Association www.operationnezrouge.com/en/join_us Canadian Mental Health Association – – Cariboo Chilcotin Branch operates a crisis Cariboo Chilcotin line that serves individuals in need year www.cariboo.cmha.bc.ca/get-involved/volunteer round. The organization needs volunteers, Cariboo Friendship Society: but to help out over the holidays you’ll have 250-398-6831 www.cariboofriendshipsociety.ca to plan ahead, as training occurs once per week over nine weeks. If you already have

Page 6

Environmentalism is the largest movement the world has ever seen and it may also be the most important in terms of what’s at stake. Yet it’s not easy being Green. Environmentalists have been reviled as much as revered, for being killjoys and Cassandras. Every battle begins as a lost cause and even the victories have to be fought for again and again. Still, environmentalism is one of the great social innovations of the twentieth century, and one of the keys to how the twenty-first century will unfold. It has arisen at a key juncture in history, when humans have come to rival the power of nature and as a result will influence how the earth will evolve.

Writer-director Mark Kitchell efficiently divides the film into five acts: Conservation, Pollution, Alternatives, Globalization, and Climate Change. The film, narrated

by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, and Meryl Streep, gives us a sweeping history of the environmental movement by recounting a host of seminal persons and events including: Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Rachael Carson, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and, yes, President Nixon, to name a few.

“TRULY RIVETING - Fierce Green Fire is both a cautionary tale and a triumphant one.” - The Washington Post

“Hooked On Growth” – a film from Growthbusters (54 min) Monday, January 27, 2014 6:30 p.m. at Central Cariboo Arts Center (old fire hall upstairs) “Hooked on Growth” is the quintessential David vs. Goliath story, starring modern-day filmmaker David Gardner in his autobiographical crusade against industrial civilization’s prevailing and largely unquestioned myth that Growth is Good, whether referring to populations or economies. As he points out, infinite growth ultimately doesn’t work on a finite planet. Things run out.

Bucking the tide, our crusader runs for city council in his hometown of Colorado Springs, pointing out to his constituency how continuing development and resource-use actually ends up costing the city more than the increase in revenues.

The film is thoroughly sprinkled with experts like Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb), Bill McKibben (The End of Nature), Bill Rees (inventor of the Ecological Footprint), Chris Martenson (The Crash Course), and many more. Outrageous humour is used to show that the growth imperative needs to be stopped and that in fact, it will be stopped—either voluntarily, or when planetary limits slam humans against the wall, as happens with any population that overshoots its environmental base.

“The cult of endless growth has kept us from seeing clearly the choices in front of us. ” - Bill McKibben

People around the world are trying to "power down."

They are working as whole communities to use less energy and live in greater harmony with the planet and with each other. There are dozens of communities and regions in Canada that have become Transition Towns or are "mulling" it over. For the complete list, with links to the website of each, visit www.transitionnetwork.org/initiatives and search on "Canada."

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Featured Green Business

The Season is Green at Smashin’ Smoothies

MENTION THIS COUPON It's our one-year anniversary!

Celebrate with us

By LeRae Haynes December 9 through 21.

Get a FREE 12 oz coffee or smoothie with the purchase of a LARGE beverage.

By LeRae Haynes

G

oing to work every day to a job that is in tune with your core values is top of the list for Kim Kaytor. Her business, Smashin Smoothies, has been open now for nearly a year and she remains committed to environmental responsibility and to beautiful nourishing food made from local, organic produce.

She says the company offers smoothies, juices, coffees, wraps, soups, salads, full-power orbs, energy ‘balls’, a great line of herbal tea, granola and special oatmeal, and breakfast sandwiches.

“All our produce, ingredients, and coffee are organic and as local as possible,” she explains. “Our cups are bio-degradable and customers are encouraged to bring their own coffee and smoothie cups. We don’t use GMO products and local farmers come and pick up our compost or we drop it off at the Potato Mackenzie Howse, Daomi Lomavatu, Kim Kaytor, River Michalchuk, and Emily Cook offer a range of ChristHouse.” mas gift ideas, as well as nutritious, organic treats to nourish the body and feed the soul. Photo: LeRae Haynes Committed to Green and dedicated to service and quality local ingredients, she says she made a conscious choice to go with higher costs to be more You can give the gift of health this season at Smashin Smoothies with gift cards, gift environmentally responsible. bags, gift boxes, and boxed 100% certified Pukka herbal teas with delightful blends and fla“This year has been interesting, challenging, rewarding, and exciting,” she says. “I vours. love it when people say, ‘I’ll bet you don’t have anything I can eat,’ and I say, ‘I’ll bet we Smashin Smoothies is located at 102 - 41 7th Avenue north across from Save on do.’”

Foods. For more information call 778-412-2112 or follow on Facebook.

Smashin Smoothies can accommodate people’s needs with dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and vegan options, according to Kaytor, who says she is glad to see society starting LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, songwriter, co-producer of “Pursicles,” and the commuto reflect environmental responsibility and awareness, and people starting to be more connity co-ordinator for Success by 6. She is also the instigator of a lot of musical shenanigans cerned about what they put in their bodies. in Williams Lake including “Borderband” with kids and is a member of the “Perfect Match” “People are starting to care more and it makes me so happy when I can post on our dance band.

Facebook page that our honey is from our local Bee Happy Honey – that we support local producers,” she says. “I feel that it’s part of our obligation as a community.”

Smashin Smoothies was in the community over the summer at events like the Friday Farmers’ Market and Performances in the Park. “We were lucky that these two events were close to the shop so we could ferry coolers of smoothies and offer healthy, nutritious, thirstquenching treats,” she says.

She also says Green progress often starts with kids. “My youngest employees here are the most environmentally aware. We all do our best, but they are knowledgeable and insistent about things like recycling,” she adds. “My staff is so awesome; I feel that the universe has blessed me with them.

“I have this thing that I put a lot of thought into every morning. All my staff knows that whenever someone comes in the door I want them to feel better when they leave. I want them to have a positive experience in a great atmosphere—we even give hugs to some of them. No matter who they are or what kind of day they’re having we want them to love being here,” she says.

“It’s more than being welcomed; we want them to be nourished.”

She says some people in the business community have counselled her to rethink the organic aspect of Smashin Smoothies, but she has stood her ground with a continued commitment to environmental responsibility. “We work really hard to keep our prices reasonable, and as people become more and more aware of that when we’re putting organic goodness in our bodies, they see that it’s worth it.”

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 7

TheGreenGazette

Life with Honey Bees ~ We’re in This Together

By Diane Dunaway

T

he relationship between humans and honey bees goes back a long way. Cave art from an estimated 8,000 years ago shows a honey-gatherer risking life and limb in pursuit of a sweet reward.

Bees and flowers go back even further in their connection. They’ve coevolved for over 10 million years. The flowers benefit from pollination, thus procreation, while the bees are rewarded with pollen and nectar, nutritional essentials in their life cycle.

Of the 20,000 bee species now known, less than 10 are honey bees. Yet after the common fruit fly, honey bees are the second most studied insect in biological research. Besides being super cool, why would this be?

Fast forward to modern day agriculture. Pollination is worth ten times the monetary value of honey. An estimated 30 per cent of the food we eat depends on pollination. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part. This enables fertilization, which results in viable seeds. Successful pollination typically increases fruit set, resulting in higher yields of better-formed, larger, more flavourful fruit that ripens faster and keeps longer.

While bumblebees and other natives are excellent pollinators, only honey bees can be managed in large enough numbers to ensure adequate pollination at the critical time for an individual crop bloom.

We are losing native bees due to habitat destruction, insecticides, and monoculture crop planting. The honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) has become critical in managed pollination worldwide.

Given their essential role in food production, how can it be that honey bees are in decline? Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been in the news since massive die-offs were noted in 2006. And are we any closer to understanding why? Is there a so-called silver bullet? Alas, no.

What we do know is that CCD is multifactoral, death by a thousand cuts.

Happily, a few things have been ruled out, including cellphone transmissions, and my personal favourite, the rapture! What is surfacing through research and reports from beekeepers is the story of an insect and really a world under pressure.

Here’s where the irony comes in.

Let’s look at three crops: blueberries, almonds, and corn. In our quest for the healthful benefits of antioxidants, super protein, cheap starch and sugar substitutes, plastic alternatives, and biofuel among other desirable attributes we’ve created monstrous demands for these commodities.

To meet these demands conventional agriculture has stepped in. In British Columbia alone, we generated $83 million in gross blueberry sales representing 56 per cent of total Canadian sales in 2010. In California there are 810,000 acres of almond orchards that require two million honey bee colonies each spring for pollination, most of which are trucked in from as far away as Florida. These orchards are monoculture moonscapes; nothing else

Page 8

Woman gathering honey, watercolor copy by F. Benitez Mellado of a Mesolithic (c.

10,000/8000–c. 3000 bce) painting in the Cueva de la Arana, near Bicorp, Spain; in the Museum of Prehistory, Valencia, Spain.

Credit: Instituto de Estudios Editoriales, Barcelona

grows alongside row upon row of these super nut trees.

And then there’s corn, both sweet and utilitarian (a.k.a. cow corn, most of which is genetically modified). While corn doesn’t require pollination, nearly 100 per cent of the seed in North America is treated with neonicotinoids, a family of neurotoxins that have recently been implicated as harmful to bees and other pollinators on a sub-lethal basis. Europe placed a three-year moratorium banning neonicotinoids this year. Canadian commercial seed companies are offering non-treated corn and soya seed for the 2014 planting season in response to honey bee poisonings that occurred in Ontario and Quebec last spring.

Many conventional beekeeping practices have compounded these problems by promoting the prophylactic use of chemical miticides and antibiotics in the management of commercial apiaries.

These agents often leave residues in the hive’s beeswax, which in turn interact with outside chemicals brought in to the hive by the bees. The synergistic effect can be 10 times as powerful, and even lethal to the bees.

To finish the suite of honey bee threats, we must mention good ol’ Varroa mites and other bee pathogens like Nosema, plus viruses that are vectored when the bee’s immune system is compromised. Starvation, poor nutrition, genetic inbreeding, and stress round out the challenges.

Okay, it’s time to step away from the cliff. We’re in this together and there is some silver lining here. Stay the course; there’s both hope and things we can do as individuals and communities to turn things around.

If you watch one TED Talk this winter, please set aside time for Dr. Marla Spivak’s presentation “Why Bees are Disappearing.” http://www.ted.com/talks/ marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing .html

A visit in the bee yard in wintertime. Photo: Diane Dunaway

Credit: The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists

Her take home message is simple and practical: plant more flowers for the bees. They will offer nutrition and biodiversity. Spivak is one of the true rock stars of the honey bee research world. For years at the University of Minnesota she’s studied and developed a line of bees that have natural hygienic behaviour, thus disease resistance.

Other rock stars worth noting and Googling include Sue Cobey of Washington State University, who is importing honey bee germplasm (drone sperm) from isolated pockets in Europe where there are sub-species of honey bees that display desirable, heritable traits. Sue’s specialty is honey bee breeding including artificial insemination. She spoke to a captivated audience at the 2013 BC Honey Producers Association conference held in Kelowna last fall. http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php? id=948 One of the best writers about honey bees is Dr. Eric Mussen who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty in 1976. I was fortunate to hear him speak in October at the Western Apiculture Society (WAS) meeting held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eric is retiring next year; he will leave both a formidable legacy and a vast void. Pragmatic and brilliant, Mussen has lived in the hub of California agriculture development for decades and has seen an array of pesticides come and go. Here are links to both his Bee Briefs http:// uc a nr . o r g/si te s/ e nto mo l o gy/ Fa c ul ty/ Eric_C_Mussen/Bee_Briefs/ and the WAS Journal http://uca nr. ed u/sites/was2/ WAS_Journal/.

www.thegreengazette.ca

In BC we have University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Dr. Leonard Foster, one of many prodigies from rocker Dr. Mark Winston’s famous and now defunct bee lab at Simon Fraser University. Foster and his team at UBC in partnership with Genome BC are spearheading the search to identify honey bee populations that are naturally resistant to pathogens. Using sophisticated proteomics they are well on their way to teasing out protein markers associated with Hygienic Behaviour and Varroa Sensitive Hygiene. In the foreseeable future queen bee producers will have a tool that helps confirm if their bee stock is hardy and worthy of propagation. http:// www.chibi.ubc.ca/faculty/leonard-foster/ foster-lab/bee-ipm/.

Another exciting trend in apiculture these days is the emergence of urban beekeeping. Kudos go out to Mayor Kerry Cook and the Council of the City of Williams Lake who last September voted unanimously in favour of urban beekeeping. Hobbyist beekeepers have an important role to play. Not only can they keep the gentle art of beekeeping alive, but they can also be stewards to newly developed honey bee genetic stock.

For sound educational information and inspiration, Heather Clay of Vernon, BC runs the Urban Bee Network. Well qualified, Heather is the former Canadian Honey Council CEO, and spent years as the apiarist for the province of New Brunswick. You can learn more about keeping honey bees in cities, managing bees on a small scale, tips for planting for bees, facts about pollination, and how to help save our speci al polli na tors a t http:// www.urbanbeenetwork.ca/.

A word of caution: to those who wish to keep bees, or are new to beekeeping, it’s very important to learn the basics.

Sadly, many venture in and fold after the first two or three years of keeping bees.

This makes sense, as when you acquire your bees you’re benefiting from the knowledge and management of whomever you bought your bees from. Many “newbees” want to keep their bees natu(Continued on page 9)

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette (Continued from page 8)

rally. This is admirable, please don’t get me wrong! However, statistically, natural too often turns to neglect. It’s imperative that a beekeeper can identify diseases and parasites, and monitor for them. If found, then the same beekeeper must decide how to best keep these infestations from killing a colony or worse—putting neighbouring apiaries at risk. Worker bees can forage as far as five kilometers from their hives; drones go even further looking for love!

Please practice safe beekeeping. ‘Nuff said!

If you’d like to create bee habitat in your garden, there are several bee-friendly plants that do well in our zone three climate. One of the best books on the subject is by Jane Ramsay of Victoria, BC. “Plants for Beekeeping in Canada and the Northern USA” was first published through the International Bee Research Association (IBRA). They’re sold out, but Ramsay has some of her books for sale. Her phone number is 250-598-4415.

Humankind’s relationship with bees has come a long way since the time of honey robbing. From rock art to research rock stars we’ve developed an understanding, an appreciation, and a codependency that isn’t about to weaken any time soon.

Diane Dunaway has kept bees since 1998.

A Master Beekeeper, she runs close to 100 colonies from her Bee Happy Honey farm in the Soda Creek valley of the Cariboo.

Diane produced and edited BeesCene, the BC Honey Producers Association (BCHPA) quarterly journal for five years.

Dedicated to the health and welfare of honey bees and the environment that supports them, she advocates for organic integrated pest management methods. Recently she became a BCHPA Certified Instructor of Introductory Beekeeping, through a partnership with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Apiculture Branch. When she’s not chasing swarms around the countryside Diane can be found at home with Dave, her husband of 22 years, and their menagerie of rescue animals.

What You Can Do to Support Your Local Honey Bee and Beekeeper •

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Buy local honey and hive products at a fair market price.

Use honey in place of sugar as your sweetener of choice.

Learn to love dandelions!

Add bee-friendly plants to your garden.

Differentiate between honey bees and wasps.

2013 was a fabulous year for honey bees in the Cariboo. Diane Dunaway harvests from a leaning tower of honey supers.

Photo: Eddy Bowser

Provide clean water for bees and other pollinators.

Reduce lawn mowing, and set your mower at a higher cutting level.

Advocate for bee-friendly bylaws.

Educate others about honey bee pollination; a third of our food supply needs it. Pollination is worth ten times the economic value of honey.

Don’t use pesticides, if you must, please use fast-acting, short-residual options, apply at dusk when pollinators are least active.

Become a beekeeper.

Thank You!

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 9

TheGreenGazette

Science Matters

Philippines Tragedy Shows Urgency of Warsaw Climate Summit

By David Suzuki

A

Debris lines the streets of Tacloban, Leyte island.

Photo: Eoghan Rice - Trócaire / Caritas

s people in the Philippines struggle with devastation and death from the worst storm to hit land in recorded history, world leaders met in Warsaw, Poland, to discuss the climate crisis. “What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness,” Yeb Sano, lead negotiator for the Philippines, told the opening session of the U: climate summit, which ran until :ovember 22. “We can stop this madness. Right here in Warsaw.”

Given the slow progress at the 18 meetings held since 1992 – when countries from around the world joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – it’s hard not to be pessimistic. Canada, in particular, has been repeatedly singled out among the close to 200 member countries for obstructing progress and not doing enough to address climate change at home.

But as scientific evidence continues to build, and impacts – from extreme weather to melting Arctic ice – continue to worsen, with costs mounting daily, the impetus to resolve the problem is growing. We’re exhausting Earth’s finite resources and pushing global ecosystems to tipping points, beyond which addressing pollution and climate issues will become increasingly difficult and costly. The only hindrance to developing a fair, ambitious, and legally binding climate plan for the world is lack of political will.

Part of the problem is that much of the world is tied to the fossil fuel economy, and the rush is on to get as much oil, coal, and gas out of the ground and to market while people are still willing to pay for it and burn it up.

We’re wasting precious resources in the name of quick profits, instead of putting them to better use than propelling often solo occupants in large metal vehicles, and instead of making them last while we shift to cleaner energy sources.

But there’s cause for hope. Solutions are available. Governments just have to demonstrate courage and leadership to put us on a path to a healthier future.

For example, a recent report by energy consulting firm ECOFYS titled, “Feasibility of GHG emissions phase-out by mid-century,” shows it’s technically and economically feasible to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to zero from 90 per cent of current sources

Page 10

with readily available technology. It shows we could phase out almost all net emissions by 2050 by innovating further. In doing so, we could likely meet the agreed-upon goal of limiting global average temperature increases to below 2 degrees C, and we’d stand a 50 per cent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees C by the end of the century. All of this would have the added benefit of reducing “water, air and soil pollution associated with traditional energy generation.”

The report echoes the David Suzuki Foundation’s findings regarding Canada’s potential to meet its current and forecasted demand for fuel and electricity with existing supplies of solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass energy.

Whether or not any of this is politically feasible is another question. But the longer we delay the more difficult and expensive it will get.

Polling research also shows Canadians expect our government to be a constructive global citizen on climate action. A recent Leger Marketing survey sponsored by Canada 2020 and the University of Montreal found the majority of Canadians understand that human activity is contributing to climate change and believe the federal government should make addressing the issue a high priority. Of those polled, 76 per cent said Canada should sign an international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, with most supporting this even if China does not sign.

The poll also found majority support for a carbon tax as one way to combat climate change, especially if the money generated is used to support renewable energy development. Although B.C. has recently stepped back from previous leadership on climate change, its carbon tax is one example among many local governments doing more than the federal government to address climate change.

We and our leaders at all political levels – local, national, and international – must do everything we can to confront the crisis. As Mr. Sano told delegates in Warsaw, “We cannot sit and stay helpless staring at this international climate stalemate. It is now time to take action. We need an emergency climate pathway.”

With contributions from David Suzuki Foundation senior editor, Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

A Bolt From the Blue A.K.A. The ‘Unk-Unk’ By Ron Young

:

o matter how well you think you are prepared for the unexpected there is always the “bolt from the blue,” that thing that occurs that you didn’t expect or plan for, also known as the unknown unknown. It’s such a commonplace reference in the aerospace industry, unknown unknowns are abbreviated as ‘unk-unk’.

Donald Rumsfeld made the concept infamous during the Iraq war in the statement: “There are … unknown unknowns—there are things we do not know we don’t know.”

Well, I had an encounter with unkunks during a recent snowstorm and power outage and I’m sure I was grunting unk but also uncle many times that weekend.

When the power goes out and you have a battery back up system as I do, you hardly notice, especially if it’s relatively short-term. We get power from BC Hydro but we also have solar and wind generated power that is stored in a battery. When the battery is fully charged from wind or solar (PV) then the system automatically switches designated loads to run off the stored energy until the battery is depleted.

In this way we can run household lights and appliances for many hours a day exclusively from renewable energy sources and reduce our carbon footprint while lowering our BC Hydro bill.

But it seems that when one thing goes wrong Murphy’s Law dictates that the wrong thing, the problem, must bring friends to the party. Not only did the power go off, which is an eventuality I was prepared for; but also the snow came down one icy little flake after another until over 50 cm of accumulated chaos had arrived in record time. And then to finish off the threesome, the pump that supplies our house with water from the creek well quit working.

Water isn’t something you can do without for long and having had the occasional water problem in the past I put a couple of five gallon jugs of water aside for emergencies. But you can go through ten gallons of water really quickly in a twoperson household. Even if you are prudent about when you flush the toilet (which in an older toilet can use nearly five gallons per flush) you will still need several gallons for cooking, drinking, and washing. An added source for clean water is your hot water tank, which you can drain, making sure you first turn off the breaker so the heating elements don’t switch on in an empty tank and quickly burn out.

Well, after an entire weekend of problem-solving it put me in mind of thinking ahead and preparing for possible emergencies. While I don’t want to become fix-

December/January 2013 - 2014

ated on the subject I have to remind myself to pay attention, to have ‘situational awareness’ as it is called in the military. It’s wintertime and if you’re going to travel winter roads what will you do if you have a breakdown? Many of us in the rural Cariboo live in areas without cell coverage so while having a cellphone is a good idea it isn’t a panacea. Having clothes and shoes that are suitable for walking some distance in cold weather is essential gear. Having a source of heat is a great idea such as hand warmers or a small beeswax candle. Beeswax burns significantly hotter and longer than other wax and a single candle can be a lifesaver.

Other simple things that are often overlooked in winter vehicles are: a portable shovel; a length of strong rope in case you need towing; a set of battery starter cables; and, a good flashlight. Throw in a couple of energy bars for good measure.

Household preparedness is another matter. The world we live in nowadays seems to be more volatile and unpredictable than it ever was. So we have to think in terms of streams of essentials that make up our daily lives. Then think of what steps we will take if any of those streams are diverted or interrupted. The aforementioned water is one essential—food, heat, communications, and energy to power lights and some basic appliances are other essentials.

A good backup plan is to create a small Copyright 2013 Petar Meseldzija safety margin in each of those critical www.petarmeseldzijaart.com www.petarmeseldzija.blogspot.nl/ streams that will help us bridge unexpected Petar Meseldžija is widely acknowledged as one of the leading artists in the field of contemporary events. fantastic art. His style resembles artists like Rembrandt, Frank Frazetta, and Alan Lee. He does illusIn the energy department, which is trations and paintings for publishers, various clients, and private collectors from around the world. my area of expertise, I would suggest a good minimum strategy is to have a deep cycle battery with a small inverter/charger that keeps the battery charged when it’s not needed. When the power goes out, this system will power some lights, a cellphone charger, a TV or computer, or even a microwave. There are all-in-one battery packs with built-in inverters available at hardware Environmental conservation in Canada has reached a new low, according to a stores but they are light duty and useful report from the office of the federal commissioner of the environment and sustainable mainly for some lights. A proper back-up power system will have at least 200 amp development released on November 5.

Citing “deteriorating biodiversity conditions in all of the main types of ecosystems hours of battery capacity with a minimum 1000-watt inverter and a built in charger. in Canada,” interim environment commissioner Neil Maxwell called on federal departIt’s inexpensive to add a solar panel to this ments to seek “ground-breaking” new approaches to “break the pattern of unfulfilled combination that can also recharge the bat- commitments and responsibilities.”

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich-Gulf tery.

While it’s not reasonable or realistic Islands, expressed gratitude for the commissioner’s diligent research, stating, “The deep to try to have a back-up plan that covers all cuts to Parks Canada are clearly causing serious problems in maintaining ecological inpossible emergencies, you can take impor- tegrity in parks, while across the federal government there is a disturbing failure to fulfill tant steps towards insuring your family’s statutory responsibilities for species at risk.”

The Green Party leader also emphasized the need to implement and provide fundsafety and comfort in case of unexpected events. You will find that the more you ing for more stringent environmental monitoring standards, while echoing the commisthink about this and take small measures, sioner’s call for a more collaborative and integrated approach to supporting biodiversity, the more you begin to see the bigger picture one that would take into account all aspects of an ecosystem.

The report, which examined the work of Environment Canada, the Department of and learn effective strategies. There will Fisheries and Oceans, and Parks Canada in protecting Canada’s natural environment, always be unknown unknowns. found that over 70 per cent of national wildlife areas had “less than adequate ecological unk-unk n. especially in engineering, integrity,” and that over 90 per cent “did not have adequate management plans.”

“The threats to bird populations are alarming,” remarked Andrew Park, environsomething, such as a problem, that has not been and could not have been imagined or ment critic for the Green Party of Canada. “We are losing the scientific capacity to monitor species as their numbers plummet.” anticipated; an unknown unknown.

The report states that according to Environment Canada’s own estimates, fewer Ron Young a Renewable Energy specialist than half of the Bird Conservation Region Strategies it committed to completing by 2010 owns the earthRight store in Williams Lake had been finished, and, “monitoring for 30 per cent of the bird species in Canada is insufestablished in 1993. A series of articles on ficient to determine whether they are at risk.” the basics of solar energy can be found at http://elizabethma ymp.ca/ news/p ublicatio ns/press-releases/2013/11/06/federalhis website: www.solareagle.com environment-commissioners-fall-report-paints-grim-picture-of-state-of-biodiversity-incanada/ Copyright Ron Young 2013

Federal Environment Commissioner’s Fall Report Paints Grim Picture of State of Biodiversity in Canada

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 11

TheGreenGazette

Youth Perspective: Consumerism and Christmas

By Jenna Sipponen

A

round Christmas time, there’s an extremely noticeable buzz in the air. You’re excited for the holidays, time off school, and time off work. This buzz in the air could be a couple of different things added together, plus the crazy holiday rush. We all have to admit that in some way, we do love Christmas holidays. For some, the meaning of Christmas is to uphold the family traditions.

And yet for others, it is a wonderful time to create new family traditions.

However, there’s something about that time of year that I’m sure others have noticed. It is something that gets more intimidating every year, like an enormous snowball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger. This is called consumerism—the ongoing want to buy, buy, buy. Consumerism goes on throughout the year, but I find at Christmas time it is at its worst.

Typically consumerism is the term used to describe what humans do.

Humans no longer know how to be resourceful, so we purchase goods to fulfill our needs. As you know, this is a large cause of many negative things that are happening to this world right now. Sure, we like to buy presents here and there.

Where do you cross the line, and when do you realize you don’t need to purchase some items? Making a decision like this is extremely difficult, especially with advertisements telling you what to do.

And Christmas time may be a difficult time to restrain from buying many items, because they’re for people you love. The holidays are supposed to be relaxing and de-stressing. They have, however, turned into something quite the opposite.

It’s hard to think about ways to reduce how much you consume, and the holidays make it ten times more difficult.

The media concentrates on focusing your money and attention on to certain subjects. Since when was Christmas only about buying presents for people? Where did the peace and joy go? As the holidays roll on by, take note of the ads you see around yourself. Take note of the overall message that they’re displaying to you.

You’ll find that they all point toward the holidays, but then relate it to whatever product they are trying to sell you. For example, “Getting your Christmas feast absolutely perfect is what matters most.

That’s why we came up with the perfect oven to satisfy your needs.”

You’ll find Christmas turns into an excuse for extra media to be stuffed in to every single eye and ear you could possibly have. There is a point at which it turns into too much. People don’t realize how much the media impacts our buying choices, and Christmas turns into just another giant shopping spree.

It is certainly a proven fact that people spend more at Christmas time.

Studies have shown that 12 per cent of people are committed to spend more this

Page 12

Photo: Rapid Eye Media

Christmas than last Christmas. Will that number grow, and what impact will that have on us? More spending does mean more consuming, more waste, and more stuff we don’t need. I know you’re probably thinking, “Well, how do I celebrate Christmas as well as lessen how much I consume?”

Well ladies and gentleman, the answer lies in buying local and supporting small companies. By purchasing gifts made locally, you diminish the distance it travels to get to your shopping bag. It isn’t hard to find locals selling interesting, unique, and often handmade items.

This Christmas, I challenge you to think more about what you’re buying and where it came from.

The next time you find yourself crammed into a store, think about this: Stop and take a glance at the people bustling about. Look at their faces. Do they look like they’re having a fun time? Or do they look stressed? Oh! Look over there at that little boy; he has stars in his eyes as he stares into the fake branches of that plastic Christmas tree. No, he doesn’t believe in the magic of Santa, but in the magic of daddy’s wallet.

What has this society made of Christmas, when the only thing people focus on is getting copious amounts of gifts? We need to be aware of this during the holiday season. Also, we need to be careful the rest of the year. Be mindful of your spending choices, and don’t let the media control your decisions. That way, the negative buzz in the air won’t affect you as much at Christmas time. Most of all, I wish you a joyous holiday season!

Namaste.

Jenna Sipponen is in Grade 12 and lives in a cute little valley called the Similkameen. Her hobbies include procrastinating, theatre, and yoga in random places.

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

CETA is a Bad Deal for Canada

By Van Andruss n October 18, after four years of negotiations, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, signed a “tentative” CETA agreement in Brussels.

CETA stands for Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, and is said

by Harper to be the biggest trade deal Canada has ever made, even bigger than :AFTA. Typical of the Harper government, this enormously significant agreement was signed before anyone had a chance to view it. It is still obscure just what, on the whole, we are being committed to, but the following contents have leaked into view.

The main thrust of the deal is aimed at giving international corporations even greater powers over Canadian rules and regulations than they already possess under NAFTA. In effect, according to this deal, foreign corporations are to be treated equally as domestic companies in Canada, breaking down all former impediments to corporate domination. If you look into the matter, you find that CETA has very little to do with expanding “free trade” and everything to do with giving international corporations ever greater power to override domestic authority.

Thus, we are being robbed of Canadian sovereignty by contracts to which we are not privy, which no sensible citizen would agree to sign, and which, if politicians were honest, would prevent them from ever being elected.

Below are some of the particulars: Public Procure me nt. CETA will ban government at all levels from “buy local” policies as harmful to the level playing field urged by international corporations. As Murray Dobbins tells us in an article in Canadian Dimensions, “The procurement provisions – giving EU corporations unobstructed access to the public spending of municipalities, schools boards, hospitals, universities, and crown corporations – is especially threatening given the critical role such public spending plays in a time of virtually zero private investment. The strategic use of public spending for economic development and support for local businesses or sectors (such as green energy) would also be effectively banned. Others worry that if the EU gets its procurement deal, the US will want similar treatment—an even greater threat given its proximity to Canada.”

Under this new procurement regime, the privatization of local services becomes far more likely: water, electricity, transit, medical services, postal service, all manner of social services. Huge water companies like Nestle, Veolia Environment, and Suez are rubbing their hands in anticipation.

On the other hand, in bold contrast to Canada’s part, the European Union has negotiated a blanket exemption to protect their water, energy, and public services, including health care. Why don’t we get the same?

O

December/January 2013 - 2014

Pharmace uticals. As part of the deal, European pharmaceutical corporations, already immensely wealthy, are seeking to extend their monopolies on patent drugs, delaying for an even longer term the introduction of cheaper generic drugs for Canadian citizens. On the other hand, there is no indication that the EU will make any changes to its own patent system. This delay alone is estimated to cost our economy from $800 million to $1.6 million annually. Making under-thetable deals is bad enough but making bad deals is even worse. And what has patent extensions got to do with free trade anyway?

Investor Rights. This term refers to giving foreign corporations based in Canada the right to sue our government for public policies that affect the maximization of their profits. Already Canada is facing nearly $2.5 billion worth of corporate lawsuits under NAFTA’s investment protection chapter, including one from an oil and gas company against Quebec’s moratorium on fracking and another against Canada by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, demanding a $100 million for “expropriation” because the courts refused to grant a drug patent—and this on the grounds it did not satisfy conditions set down by Canadian law. Rather than free trade, the Investor State Settlement Process is more about the elimination of public interest policies instituted to protect consumer, health, safety, privacy, and environmental values.

By the same negative token, Canadian companies will not hesitate to sue Europe for completely legitimate public decisions, for example, instituting regulations for mining companies, or stricter environmental rules qualifying the sales of oil and gas.

In all official discussion of CETA, two issues are conspicuously missing. One is the Environment issue and the other is Native Rights. Already NAFTA, plus the Omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45, and the suppression of science in the ministries, have seriously hampered our ability to respond with intelligence to environmental changes.

By now it would be tiresome to labour the point that the natural world is in decline. You can no longer read about wild animals to your children without warning of their impending extinction.

Soon enough, we are told the ocean will be dead from acidification, and what’s left on land, besides humans, will be insects, dogs, cats, and farm animals spawned under factory conditions. Global warming is threatening to eliminate even these. Yet, all we hear from Stephen Harper in his cheery speech celebrating CETA is a $12 billion boost to our economy and the 100,000 cars a year Canadian automakers will export to Europe (hopefully burning tar sands oil).

But we all know there’s no wisdom in putting dollars over health, over life.

Native issues, consultation, and land development rights, do not arise in CETA’s consciousness. Indigenous people

TheGreenGazette

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso signed a free-trade accord last week. Dow negotiations must proceed on a prickly side deal. Photo: Georges Gobet simply don’t exist in a landscape of Big Money. Neither, apparently, does the Canadian Parliament whose opinions are not solicited and for whom there is no opportunity for debate.

The question, then, arises: what can be done to block this diabolical plan?

Again, Murray Dobbins is informative. We are reminded that Harper “is constrained in what he can do by the constitutional division of powers which gives the provinces so much political authority.

The really big social items on the political agenda – health, education, social services – are matters of provincial jurisdiction. To be sure, he can severely damage all of these by destroying the decades-old principle of universality and by slashing federal funding. But he can’t get rid of them.

The provinces also have a mandate on protecting the environment and regarding labour rights, and most working Canadians are in sectors that come under provincial jurisdiction. Lastly, the third level of government (the municipality) is also a creature of the provinces. While municipalities depend on the federal government for financial help, Ottawa has no political authority over them.”

Since Neo-liberal provincial governments have regularly shown obedience to the federal government, their opposition to CETA is undependable. Only municipal governments have shown strong resistance. Thanks to the good work of the Council of Canadians, some 80 municipalities have called either for complete exclusion or passed resolutions expressing concern. Most of these are in BC and Ontario and include large populations like Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, and Victoria.

As for opposition to CETA by the general public, no one can predict how that will go. As it happens, we are neither informed nor consulted on issues pertaining to important economic affairs. Besides, most of us are so wrapped up in the

www.thegreengazette.ca

scramble to service our debts and eke a little fun out of life we lack the surplus energy to assert our broader interests.

The CETA agreement is not a done deal. It’s a “tentative” agreement and despite Harper’s and Barroso’s signatures, it will need ratification. Even so it will not come into force until 2015. The least we can demand is that the agreement be made public. Contact your MP and your MLA and insist that he or she obtain, by whatever means, the full text and proceed to educate their constituency as to its pros and cons.

For the contents of this essay, I have depended largely on the Council of Canadians (www.canadians.org.) and Murray Dobbin’s article, “CETA: Can Harper’s Trojan Horse be Stopped?” (www.canadiandimension.com/ articles/4966/).

Van Andruss is editor of the magazine Lived Experience. He enjoys the bioregional life and community in historic Moha outside of Lillooet, B.C

Page 13

TheGreenGazette

Page 14

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Dangerous Dog Treats World View

By Robert L. Nichol

I

recently came across a good deal on dog treats at Costco: Vitalife Duck Tenders, subtitled, “Made with Love.” How nice. The treats are a product of China, which would later prove itself a clue. I bought them for my three dogs and they took to them quickly, seemingly becoming addicted.

I found the claim, “all-natural duck breast fillets” odd and surprising. This is a high-end gourmet food, and why were the manufacturers turning these fillets into dog food? Surely this would be a loss in profitability, no? But what if the ducks were somehow contaminated? Well, no doubt they would want to use every piece of leftover scrap and turn them into dog food by irradiating the hell out of them. Now, despite some controversy and some readings that say the nutrient value is depleted, irradiating food seems to be perfectly safe.

This, of course, is no guarantee of the safety of the product as irradiation will not hide incompetence in industry practice.

However, I began to notice after the first bag that the dogs drank a lot more water so the treats were dehydrating. I read the package more carefully and, of course, one of the recommendations was to always ensure fresh drinking water was available.

Also suggested was thorough hand-washing after handling. (There was another clue.)

At this point I figured I had better research this product. I came across an article on the Internet by Michelle Annette Tremblay titled, “Life-threatening dog illness linked to imported treats.” It warned pet owners about a potential link between imported dog treats and a mysterious illness. So, I had a chat with the author over the phone. Symptoms include decreased appetite, lethargy, vomiting, and possible kidney failure, which is often preceded by increased water consumption and/or increased urination.

Named in the article and on the package was the Canadian distributor. I called them up and talked to a customer service representative who said this product is a consumer favourite, but if my dogs

December/January 2013 - 2014

didn’t like them why not try the company’s chicken tenders? I also called up a Costco rep, who stated they had received no complaints either but were quite willing to refund my purchase.

Contacted next was the local Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) office. The very accommodating person at CFIA gave me a lot of tips such as not considering Internet research because there is a lot of negative commentary and research on pet food from China. Well? CFIA’s position was that it doesn’t generally regulate pet food unless something comes up. However, if there were a problem, there are no regulations in place (as in the US), to recall the product and nobody, not the distributor or manufacturer, is obliged to offer any scientific research into the safety of the product. They are supposed to be selfregulating.

Yet, one would expect resistance by the companies which are shareholderresponsible not public-responsible. If they were to assume liability dealing with a complaint or such, it would involve a lot of red tape, a slow process, and legal issues.

However, the CFIA representative stated the industry was on top of things since they do not want problems to affect their bottom line.

CFIA can only restrict animal origin ingredients to counter such things as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease), for example. The handwashing precaution, according to CFIA, is to guard against salmonella or entobacteria, as pet food is not fit for human consumption, and to cover any liability for the manufacturer. It was also recommended that I call my vet or check out the veterinary association websites to learn more about specified risk material in pet food.

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) has advised its members that there have been “several reported cases of dogs that have been showing signs similar to Fanconi syndrome.” All dogs in the reported cases had been fed chicken jerky treats that were manufactured in China, prompting some vets to recommend avoiding all imported pet treats. Apparently, there are several products on the market in Canada that pose potential health risks to dogs.

According to Tremblay’s research, the US regulatory agencies, from the Small

Business Administration (SBA) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines, generally favour business, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) quality control measures tend to minimize any consumer complaints and product recalls. Yet the FDA stated it has received reports that over 600 dogs in the US had become ill and/or died after eating jerky treats made in China. After a lengthy investigation by them it resulted in the recall of over a thousand pet food products and several indictments.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the majority of commercial pet foods are detrimental to our little loving companions.

According to my research, most commercial pet food manufacturers use 4-D meats, (primarily cattle, that are dead, dying, diseased, or down—known as “disabled”), euthanized pets, genetically modified grains, sugars, and toxic chemicals, all of it rendered (primarily by over-heating), which denatures the little value that the ingredi-

www.thegreengazette.ca

Credit: http://site.keepdoggiesafe.com ents have. All of it makes our pets obese, diabetic, cancerous, and a slew of other deadly conditions. To add insult to injury, the industry then sells us “prescription” pet food, which I believe kills them even faster.

So, I would say to pet owners: exercise extreme caution when choosing dog treats from China and I would urge you to get to a vet as soon as possible if your dog shows signs of illness. If you’ve already purchased imported jerky treats from China, to dispose of them. I guess the best bet is to make your own dog treats; it’s time-consuming but safe. Caution should be used when purchasing pet food products from other countries, although there is no legislation in Canada that requires pet treat distributors to reveal the country of manufacture on their packaging. Simply allow that the life of your pet is worth more than saving a few bucks.

Robert L. *ichol is a writer, educator, and filmmaker, living near 70 Mile House.

Page 15

TheGreenGazette

Oh no... What will we eat?

By Jessica Knodel

O

h no! Local food season is over... or is it? What did people do in the past, when there were no trains, planes, ships, and automobiles to transport food across the globe? They ate locally based on their climate and growing season.

In the Cariboo, our conditions dictate that in the winter we eat food grown in the summer. Crops such as potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beets, squash, cabbage, parsnips, leeks, turnips, and apples contain all the nutrients we need. And preserves, honey, or frozen foods give a sweet taste of summer any time of year.

Another question... What did farmers and ranchers do before harsh pesticides and herbicides existed? The same thing organic and sustainable producers do today: they use lots of hard work and manual labour. It takes approximately 300 per cent more manual labour to garden organically than it does to run a farm with the “spray and walk away” methods, but they do it for many reasons including environmental stewardship, their love and care for nurturing the land, and to provide food that is healthy and nutritious. We all require food and water to survive, which makes the people who grow, raise, and make

Page 16

what we eat the most important resource in the world.

Local natural food is not always easy to find, however, especially in winter. That is why a group of over 40 local farmers and ranchers opened up the Co-op Cariboo Growers in April, 2010—to provide a market store that is open all year long, and that has all types of naturally produced foods including meat, dairy, bread, flour, juice, fruit, vegetables, honey, preserves, nuts, and more.

It is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. at the corner of 3rd & Oliver Streets, downtown Williams Lake.

Enjoy this beautiful winter the Cariboo has to offer and remember... “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?” John Steinbeck.

See you at the Co-op!

Jessica Knodel and Terri Smith at the Cariboo Growers Coop holding a unique spiral carrot. Visit the Co-op this season for great holiday gifts and tasty home-grown foods.

Photo: Lisa Bland

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

Backyard Chicken Bylaw Passes in Williams Lake

TheGreenGazette

By Susan Tritt

A

fter several attempts by various groups or individuals in Williams Lake to have a backyard chicken bylaw passed we now have a city council fully supporting the concept. As of January 1, 2014, the City of Williams Lake Bylaw :o. 2174 will be enacted. Although there was some obvious opposition to the idea of keeping hens within city limits, Chris Hutton, planning technician with the city of Williams Lake, credits Mary Forbes and the Potato House Society for launching the change. In an effort to support the goals of food security and sustainability, the City also took into consideration the benefits of reducing the overall carbon footprint, minimizing household waste, as hens eat scraps, and the fact that hens are a natural alternative to pesticides in their never-ending task of ridding the world of garden pests.

Along with researching other cities with successful backyard chicken bylaws, Mr. Hutton explained that consultation with other agencies such as the Ministry of Environment’s Conservation and Bear Aware programs and Food Waste Management were necessary to address outstanding issues of wildlife and feed storage and disposal. As most of us saw as recently as last month, there was a bear wandering across Highway 97 and through the park. Chickens are a natural attractant for bears; not only are bears interested in eating the chickens, but also their feed.

So what does this mean for the people who want to get hens? The first step is to make an application for a Backyard Hen Keeping License. There is a $15 annual fee for this. When you apply for your license you will be provided with information about the steps to take before you bring your hens home. If you are a renter you will need a letter from the registered owner of the property confirming that you are in fact allowed to have backyard chickens. There is a formula based on lot size that determines how many hens you may keep. The minimum is three and the maximum is six. Now, before you start getting too excited about the hens, there are a few things you need to do first, such as apply for your license and build or purchase your coop and covered pen as outlined in the guidelines provided.

Along with a couple of other cities, Williams Lake is also making it mandatory that you fence all sides of the coop/pen with an electric fence strong enough to repel a bear. There is also special consideration taken for the placement of your coop to assure that there is no chance you’re going to surprise wildlife hiding near your coop. And of course, there are guidelines for the health and welfare of your flock. We are fortunate to have a very qualified veterinarian in Williams Lake that will deal with poultry issues. I hear time and time again from countless people that their hands are tied where they live because their vets will not deal with poultry.

So, now you’ve done everything you need to do to prepare for your hens. You have your Backyard Hen Keeping License. Your coop and pen are built to specs. Your feed storage and disposal system is worked out. Your electric fence strong enough to repel a bear is installed. You’ve researched what is needed to raise healthy strong backyard laying hens and have explored the different breed options so that you will be bringing home hens that will best suit your needs, and you hung onto the September issue of TheGreenGazette so you can refer to my column on poultry and biosecurity.

Contrary to popular belief, if kept properly and maintained daily, chickens don’t stink and their

December/January 2013 - 2014

Merry Christmas from Funky Fowl Farm.

Photo: Susan Tritt water dishes aren’t green. One word of caution: we must remember they are farm animals and aren’t meant to live in our homes with us; in fact, the bylaw does say that as well. And remember if you or your kids are handling or cleaning up after your hens, it’s important to always remember to wash your hands. I wish you all the best with your new coops.

My husband and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas from Funky Fowl Farm. www.williamslake.ca/files/1/Hens%20and%20bees% 20bylaws.pdf Personal interview with Chris Hutton, planning technician with the city of Williams Lake, *ovember 14, 2013. ***

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 17

TheGreenGazette

Dark of Winter Barter Faire ‘Tis the season for sharing and giving...

In recent times many have begun to realize that some of the old ways can help us with a rich life of variety, abundance, and community. One such practice is bartering. “You have that; will you trade it for this?” It encourages creativity and assessment of our skills while engaging with others in our community. The Barter Economy means keeping it local and abundant. It’s a win-win.

This month, the Cariboo will have such an opportunity on December 14 at the first annual Dark of Winter Barter Faire, an afternoon of barter and trade.

Swap treasures for treasures as quality items you have created or loved can be exchanged as gifts for others, your family, or yourself. This includes: artistic creations, local food stuffs, functional creations, baking, preserves, gift certificates for your skilled time, and funds. It is a good idea to have an approximate value on your items as a basis for fair trade. A fair exchange means both folks are happy. This is a perfect opportunity to share abundance and creativity while strengthening the local sustainable community.

There will be door prizes too, with a twist: this is an opportunity to be a part of the gifting economy and to share with no expectation of return. You are invited to contribute something to the door prize baskets. A few lucky folks will be blessed with a basket full of community kindness.

There will be a Parade of Lights to brighten up one of the darkest nights... bring a lantern or a flashlight and join in the fun.

Folks are encouraged to bring along their instruments and voices to jam it up throughout the afternoon and evening.

Co-create a richer Cariboo December 14 at 3 p.m. at the Central Cariboo Arts & Culture Center, 90 Fourth Avenue North in Williams Lake. Admission is a sliding scale donation of $5 to15 for adults, and abundance will be donated to the Potato House.

For more info or if you feel called to help this unfold, please contact Chanti at cariboochanti@care2.com or 250-620-3592.

Williams Lake Wanderers For fitness, fun, and friendship This group has been formed for people of all ages to engage in activities that provide physical health and appreciation of the natural world. We support a friendly, noncompetitive atmosphere where one can seek physical fitness at a pace suitable to the individual. We welcome new members at any time.

Membership: There is an annual fee of $10 per person. A membership card will be issued. Group activity information will be sent to members via email and posted at the Cariboo Memorial Complex, on Facebook, and on the www.activewilliamslake.com website.

Club contacts: Bette McLennan Gail Peterson Joanne Wright

250-392-6423 250-392-4705 250-398-7624

December Group Activities For all activities: Meet at the front door of Cariboo Memorial Complex for carpooling and a prompt departure at 9:30 a.m. Most activities are just out of town and require most of the morning. Each activity will have a leader. All fitness levels are welcome.

Activities will not proceed if the weather is inclement. The schedule is subject to last minute changes due to weather conditions, so check email/Facebook regularly.

Tuesdays – snowshoeing Wednesdays – walking Thursdays – cross country skiing or walking (these walks will not be planned ahead) Tuesday, December 3: Gunanoot Trails Snowshoe – moderate Wednesday, December 4: Scout Island Walk – flat Thursday, December 5: Beacon Road Ski – flat Tuesday, December 10: Russet Bluff Snowshoe – moderate/challenging Wednesday, December 11: River Valley Walk – flat Thursday, December 12: Anderson Road Ski – flat Tuesday, December 17: Anderson Road Snowshoe – flat Wednesday, December 18: Snap Trail Walk – flat Thursday, December 19: Bull Mountain Ski – moderate Tuesday, December. 31: Eagleview Walk – moderate Wednesday, January 1: Scout Island Walk – special for Polar Bear Swim Thursday, January 2: Bull Mountain Ski – moderate

Page 18

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Integrative Health Column

Winter Immunity

By Ciel Patenaude I live in Prince George and was reading that you’re going to focus on the immune system for your next article. I don’t have anything that’s so specific to ask but just wonder what you would recommend for people who get sick all the time?

Thanks!

SB, Prince George Hi there, SB, Thanks so much for writing in. I’m quite glad you asked a more general question for this edition, actually, as this way we can explore some broader ideas and treatments that will be useful for many people during the coming winter/cold season, rather than just investigating a specific condition.

Before we get into it, I just want to preface this article with a brief exploration of the philosophy we’ll use in preventing and treating colds, flus, and other seasonal infections.

Most of the time modern medicine is working from a philosophy that was developed in the late 1800s called Germ Theory. Germ Theory basically states that a human body kept away from tiny infectious creatures would never get sick, and thus the root cause of sickness is the presence and exposure to pathogenic (sickness-causing) organisms. This theory has been the ground and basis for the development of antibiotics, antivirals, antibacterial handwash, and all else, and of the way we think of ‘catching’ a cold.

Now it’s not that this idea is completely flawed, as there certainly are bugs in the world that invade us and can make us sick, but it’s incomplete. In long-term application, this idea is resulting in the antibiotic resistance and increasingly low immunity we’re seeing in human populations worldwide. And there is a brilliant alternative that we have yet to fully explore.

At the same time Germ Theory was being developed there was another approach to disease emerging called Terrain Theory. The idea behind Terrain Theory was that it is the state of the ‘terrain’ – here, the human body – that determines whether or not an organism will get sick, not just the presence of bugs. The belief of practitioners who healed with this philosophy was that a healthy, nutritionallysupported, and balanced body will be able to fend off the bugs and prevent sickness, and that this should be the focus of both prevention and treatment.

I, as you can imagine, tend to work more with Terrain Theory than with Germ Theory. For reasons that I’ll explain further on, attacking the bacteria or viruses involved in the development of disease results in an imbalanced system and no empowerment for the individual undergoing the healing process. Fear-based healing or prevention, which focuses entirely on avoiding bacteria or worrying about when you’ll ‘catch’ them, is not beneficial. Everything we’ll focus on here will therefore be based upon informing and empowering.

December/January 2013 - 2014

#1: The Whole Person (and Bacteria) Approach It might not be the immediate place your mind goes to in illness prevention, but the first thing to address when thinking about immunity is your bacterial population. Not the bacteria that are making you sick, but the several hundred billion little cells that are an essential part of your physical body. These little beings are your physical body, in many ways, as it’s estimated that up to 90 per cent of the cells that make us up are actually bacterial, not human. We are a symbiosis—a co-operative collective—that is reliant upon thousands of different species working together for a common goal, and if your compatriots are not happy you’ll most likely be getting sick all the time. Current research suggests that up to 70 per cent of our ‘immune system’ is actually the actions and effects of bacteria, not our human cells.

To make our bacteria happy and increase immunity, we must really engage with Terrain Theory and step away from attacking germs and viruses so vehemently.

Every time we use an antibacterial hand sanitizer or take an antibiotic we are not only killing the viruses and bacteria that cause disease, but also the ones within us that are responsible for prevention and protection.

In order to support your bacterial brethren and your overall immunity, a full spectrum probiotic would be my first recommendation, as well as eating fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut frequently (if they feel good in your digestive system).

Try to find one with at least five or six different strains of bacteria in it, and a highpotency dose.

And now that we’ve fully explored the bacterial component of wellness (at least for this short article), here are ten specific key things I recommend to clients who struggle with on-going immunity challenges: 1. Make sure you’re getting enough zinc, magnesium, selenium, vitamin B6, and vitamins E and C. I find it’s best for most people to start with a supplemental dose, and then seek out food-based forms of these nutrients when available.

Photo: picstopin.com

Hi Ciel,

overall stress and oxygenating your blood optimally, breathing (called Pranayama in yogic philosophy) and meditation will serve to calm your entire system and bring balance.

to be more easily stressed and overwhelmed than those who resist infection more effectively. Take time every day to do something just because it brings you pleasure.

5. Move your body as much as possible. It’s difficult in the dark winter months to feel inspired to get to the gym or out in the cold, but stimulating the flow of your lymphatic system results directly in an increase in immunity and vitality. It might sound nuts, but just jumping up and down for a few minutes each day can move your fluids enough so to result in a significant immune increase.

And I know this may seem like a crazy recommendation for most people, but please stay away from antibacterial hand sanitizer, or if you do choose to use one, pick one that is herbal or natural in formula. Not only will you increase the health of your bacterial system by avoiding these, but you’ll also decrease your risk of cancer and immune disorders that have been linked to the chemicals often found in those products. Washing your hands is fantastic, but too much cleanliness is actually not such a good thing after all (Google “The Hygiene Hypothesis” if you’re interested in exploring that further.)

It’s an exciting thing to watch people experiment with these ideas and practices, as working with immunity is one of those areas of our health and experience that can change in a huge way in a very short amount of time. Please let me know (either you, SB, or any readers out there) if you’d like some specific recommendations on supplements to take, or if you’d like some clarification on any of the points I’ve made here. I hope that you have a wonderful and healthy winter.

6. …which could mean you should just have more sex. Scientifically proven to help, I swear.

7. Eat a colorful diet. Naturally colorful. No Froot Loops.

8. Take immune supportive herbs. My favorites are astragalus, ginger, turmeric, reishi mushroom (truly amazing for people with severely compromised immunity), and echinacea. Be aware that echinacea is not for everyone despite being so commonly known and available, as it can quite often cause an allergic response.

9. When necessary, take natural antibiotics.

When you do get sick, natural cures like colloidal silver, raw honey, garlic, and clove oil will serve to reduce the pathogenic bacterial population without creating the potential for antibiotic resistance or damage to your own bacterial population.

Ciel Patenaude is an Integrative Health & Shamanic Practitioner based in Williams Lake, BC. A highly trained and naturally gifted intuitive healer, Ciel holds a BSc in Biology, an MA in Integrative Healing, and is a certified yoga teacher & wellness coach.

10. Have fun. Seems silly, maybe, but people who have lowered immunity are known

2. Cut out foods that are irritating your system. It might be difficult to tell exactly what these are at first, but doing an elimination diet (no corn, soy, gluten, or dairy) for a couple weeks and then gradually reintroducing foods will show you exactly what your body is not fond of. Reducing irritation in your gut results in a more favorable environment for your probiotic bacteria, leading to greater immune function.

3. Make sure you’re sleeping in the dark, and hopefully getting a solid night’s rest of seven to nine hours. Decreased sleep in quality or quantity is directly associated with increased stress, which in turn leads to lowered immunity long term.

4. Do breathing and/or meditative exercises. Also in the hopes of reducing your

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 19

TheGreenGazette

Composting Continues as Winter Moves In

By Brianna van de Wijngaard Community Liason at Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society

A

s Mary Forbes would say, “Sure smells like snow outside!” Yep, it’s beginning to reek of snow. As I write this on :ovember 4 at 3 p.m., there is a heavy, grey impending doom outside. Just a matter of time, now.

Perfect time to talk about composting, right?! Many gardeners or food growers may think otherwise, abandoning their compost piles around this time of year. Understandable. As Genevieve Slocum of OgranicGardening.com writes, your compost pile in the winter is not unlike your refrigerator: once the temperature drops, microbial metabolisms slow down, which, of course, prevents your food from rotting as quickly. So, if you want to compost in the winter, you simply need to make the environment hospitable to microbes.

Slocum thinks of it as a kind of “micro-husbandry.”

But why would one need to compost in the winter, anyway? The gardens are all asleep, so you cannot use it. Composting in the winter, however, can still take care of the green waste that continues to come out of your kitchen. Many people may not like, or have the space, to compost all their green waste indoors with bokashis or worm composters. You are also that much farther ahead in the spring, with ready-to-use compost, and more of it.

But what about the Cariboo? It’s freezing here! There are tried and true methods to keep your compost pile going in sub-zero temperatures. Compost Guy (out of Southern Ontario, which can have some seriously cold winters) claims that three crucial elements must be in place for the microbial populations found in your compost: Heat source, Insulation, Fuel.

Heat: This will depend largely on the size of your compost pile, and then a balanced carbon to nitrogen ratio to keep the microbes happy dappy. The size of your compost pile should be at least 1 cubic yard (or 2 cubic metres). Bigger is better the colder your region tends to be. Here in the Cariboo, I would aim for at least double that size, which can still be reasonable on a residential lot in town.

Insulation: This is the interesting part! If your pile is not much bigger than a couple cubic metres, consider insulating it, which will allow microbial activity to keep chugging along. Remember, most of the composting action happens during the first two phases: mesophilic and thermophilic (see graph below). So temperatures between 20 and 70 degrees C in the centre of your compost pile are what you are aiming for. These core temperatures are more difficult to achieve in a smaller compost pile, so insulation is key in the winter. You can use straw bales stacked all around your compost pile, or even home insulation. Just be sure to add a layer of cardboard between the compost pile and insulation first. Then secure in place with a few 1x4s around the pile. Maintaining insulation on top of your compost pile is important as well: straw, leaf, or lawn litter can be used for this.

As you can see in the picture above, snow adds yet another layer of excellent insulation. Beneath just 30 centimeters (1 foot) of snow, micro and macro organisms are protected from changes in the air temperature above the snow surface, and it also traps in heat and prevents evaporation. Alternatively you could build a compost pile into the ground or side of a hill.

Fuel: Considering your heated, insulated compost pile will now be active during the winter months, you will need to make sure it’s fed. Using the aforementioned carbon to nitrogen ratio, this shouldn’t be difficult to achieve. Ensure you have kept some carbonaceous material from the fall for your compost bin.

More Sweet Winter Composting Tips Particle Size: The size of your compost matters to the speed with which it is composted. In this case, the smaller the better. If you can, break your compost down into pieces no larger than 10 cm. It reduces the amount of work your already sluggish microbes need to do. It also helps the pile heat up uniformly, and the smaller pieces bind together more, creating somewhat of a mat protecting from outside temperature extremes.

Layering: Layering is always important, but especially so in the winter. The layers of carbon to nitrogen also help insulate your pile, trapping heat and gases inside.

Moisture: Winter winds and low humidity can suck the moisture out of your compost pile, and the microbes need moisture to survive. It may seem counterintuitive, but during warm spells in your winter compost pile, water it. Leave it damp, but not soaking. This is where having a compost thermometer will help. If there are a few feet of snow surrounding your winter compost pile, however, there should be little need for watering.

Oxygen: In warm weather, frequent turning is the best way to keep microbes well supplied with oxygen. But in winter, you want to cause as little disturbance as possible to the layer of insulation. Wait until spring to turn the pile.

As a reminder, here are some tips on your compost pile’s favourite meals Greens (Nitrogen) Fruit and vegetable peels/cores

Browns (Carbon) Shredded paper (veggie ink only)

Egg shells (crushed)

Leaves (best if chopped first)

Coffee grounds/filters and tea bags/leaves Green grass clippings (small amounts)

Old cardboard & egg cartons - cut into small pieces Straw

Weeds (without seeds!)

Dried grass/chopped twigs and branches

Fresh garden waste

Vacuum dust, pet hair

Photo: www.organicsoiltechnology.com/bestwww.organicsoiltechnology.com/best-compostcompost-basics.html

These items should not be placed in the compost bin: Meat, dairy products, eggs, bones, oils, or dressings (use bokashi) Plastic bags or wrap, metal, or glass

Dog or cat waste, cat litter (bury separate) Particle board, plywood, pressure treated wood – anything with glue Persistent or diseased weeds (plants you do not want to sprout up in your garden) Toxic plants like walnut shells/leaves

Composting Resources in the Cariboo Until we have a municipal composting facility, there are a few local resources available for residents who may not have the space, time, or confidence to take on composting themselves.

We want to help.

Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society – Compost Coaching Hotline Got rodents in your compost pile? Is your compost smelly? Why have your corn cobs been in the compost for five years? Give us a call. We can help answer many of your compost questions Monday-Friday from 1 p.m.-5 p.m., or send an email to wastewise@ccconserv.org.

The Potato House Project – Community Composting Would you like to compost but just don’t have the space? The Potato House Society will gladly do it for you. They launched their new community compost centre in 2013 and it is ready to receive your kitchen and garden bits. Just drive by First and Borland and look for the 10 pallet compost bins via the laneway (next to Gecko Tree parking lot). Pictures and info here: http://www.potatohouseproject.com/Community_Composting.html.

***

Page 20

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Canadian Tire: Giving the gift of recycling

By LeRae Haynes Canadian Tire in Williams Lake has long set an example for recycling efforts, making it easier and more convenient for residents to drop off recycling at one location. They are also committed to unique in-store recycling programs.

Sports department manager Taylor Betsill has been at the store since she was 16 years old, and says recycling is just one of the reasons she is proud to work at Canadian Tire.

“I am a strong believer in recycling and love that the store makes in convenient for people. I think it’s so important,” she explains, adding that the store recycles things like wood pallets, fluorescent bulbs, glass, all types of batteries including cellphone and automotive, cardboard, and paper.

“This is part of being a good community store. It’s a small town and recycling depots are few and far between; this is a place where you can shop for what you need and deposit things you don’t,” she says.

Canadian Tire is also dedicated to supporting the community when it comes to fundraising events, kids’ programs and non-profit organizations. “I think what we do is amazing when it comes to support,” says Betsill. “Through Jumpstart we help more kids play sports and we welcome all kinds of groups out front of our store, including Girl Guides, firefighters, and more. These are ways for us to support the community that keeps our doors open.”

Betsill says from the moment she walked in the door on her first day of work, Canadian Tire has felt like family. “I love coming to work every day because of the people I work with, and I think it’s so important to pass that on to customers,” she explains. “If you can come to work with a smile on your face, help people, and enjoy doing it, that’s good customer service.

“I’d like to say that what brings people back is knowledgeable staff, but we do have some pretty cool displays in here, too,” she laughs.

“If every customer who left the store said they had someone who smiled at them, helped them, and got them out the door with what they wanted, I would be happy,” she says.

“That’s my goal. No matter how busy we are, if we can stop and smile and say, ‘Can I help you?’ that’s huge. That’s what should happen every day.”

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 21

TheGreenGazette

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

By Alix Spiegel, NPR.org

O

n October 3, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted on television. As we all now know, the show quickly became a cultural icon, one of those phenomena that helped define an era.

What is less remembered but equally, if not more important is that another transformative cultural event happened that day: The Mattel toy company began advertising a gun called the Thunder Burp.

I know—who’s ever heard of the Thunder Burp?

Well, no one.

The reason the advertisement is significant is because it marked the first time that any toy company had attempted to peddle merchandise on television outside of the Christmas season. Until 1955, ad budgets at toy companies were minuscule, so the only time they could afford to hawk their wares on TV was during Christmas.

But then came Mattel and the Thunder Burp, which, according to Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University, was a kind of historical watershed.

Almost overnight, children’s play became focused, as never before, on things—the toys themselves.

“It’s interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys,” says Chudacoff.

“Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object.”

Chudacoff’s recently published history of child’s play argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engage in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all.

“They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors… or whether it was on a street corner or somebody’s back yard,” Chudacoff says. “They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules.”

But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and cooptation of child’s play—a trend which begins to shrink the size of children’s imaginative space.

But commercialization isn’t the only reason imagination comes under siege. In the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff says, parents became increasingly concerned about safety, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world. Karate classes, gymnastics, summer camps—these create safe environments for children, Chudacoff says.

And they also do something more: for mid-

Page 22

"The games of children are… their most serious business" - Montaigne dle-class parents increasingly worried about achievement, they offer to enrich a child’s mind.

Change in Play, Change in Kids Clearly the way children spend their time has changed. Here’s the issue: a growing number of psychologists believe these changes in what children do has also changed kids’ cognitive and emotional development.

It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behaviour, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

We know that children’s capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages three, five, and seven to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving.

The three year olds couldn’t stand still at all; the five year olds could do it for about three minutes, and the seven year olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different.

“Today’s five year olds were acting at the level of three year olds 60 years ago, and today’s seven year olds were barely approaching the level of a five year old 60 years ago,” Bodrova explains. “So the results were very sad.”

Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use, and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child’s IQ. Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, “Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.”

be predictive of executive functions.”

And it’s not just children who use private speech to control themselves. If we look at adult use of private speech, Berk says, “we’re often using it to surmount obstacles, to master cognitive and social skills, and to manage our emotions.”

Unfortunately, the more structured the play, the more children’s private speech declines. Essentially, because children’s play is so focused on lessons and leagues, and because kids’ toys increasingly inhibit imaginative play, kids aren’t getting a chance to practice policing themselves. When they have that opportunity, says Berk, the results are clear: Selfregulation improves.

“One index that researchers, including myself, have used… is the extent to which a child, for example, cleans up independently after a free-choice period in preschool,” Berk says. “We find that children who are most effective at complex makebelieve play take on that responsibility with… greater willingness, and even will assist others in doing so without teacher prompting.”

Despite the evidence of the benefits of imaginative play, however, even in the context of preschool young children’s play is in decline. According to Yale psychological researcher Dorothy Singer, teachers and school administrators just don’t see the value.

“Because of the testing and the emphasis now that you have to really pass these tests, teachers are starting earlier and earlier to drill the kids in their basic funda-

mentals. Play is viewed as unnecessary, a waste of time,” Singer says. “I have so many articles that have documented the shortening of free play for children, where the teachers in these schools are using the time for cognitive skills.”

It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage – to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them – our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most.

All that wasted time was not such a waste after all.

Read many more articles and news about Waldorf education and parenting at: www.waldorftoday.com

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.”

- Frederich Froebel Suggested resources for inspiring and supporting us on our journey of educating our children: Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, Rhythms of Learning by Robert Trostli, and Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. For more information visit www.waldorftoday.com, www. ri ghtto p la y. co m/ Ca nad a, a nd www.waldorfearlychildhood.org. This article originally appeared on NPR’s website.

Please see the link to the full text with illustrations here: www.npr.org/templates/ story/story.php?storyId=19212514

The Importance of Self-Regulation According to Berk, one reason make-believe is such a powerful tool for building self-discipline is because during make-believe, children engage in what’s called private speech: They talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it.

“In fact, if we compare preschoolers’ activities and the amount of private speech that occurs across them, we find that this self-regulating language is highest during make-believe play,” Berk says.

“And this type of self-regulating language… has been shown in many studies to

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Grants

By Leah Selk Project grants are available for non-profit organizations or community groups in Williams Lake and the Central Cariboo (CRD Areas D, E, and F) to support and develop arts and culture within this region.

The funding for these grants is courtesy of the City of Williams Lake and the Cariboo Regional District (Central Cariboo Arts & Culture function), subject to the availability of funds.

www.centralcaribooarts.com or by request from info@centralcaribooarts.com.

Project Grants of between $300 and $2,000 are available for projects which: • Are new or build creatively on previous work • Are likely to increase participation in arts & culture • Take place within the Central Cariboo region (Williams Lake and/or CRD Areas D, E, and F) • Will be completed by December 31, 2014

GRADT WRITIDG WORKSHOP January 8, 2014, 6 p.m.—8 p.m., at the C e ntr a l Ca ri boo Ar ts Ce n t r e I n s tr uc t o r : Gra ha m Kelsey This is a free workshop. Register with the CCACS by January 6 at 778-412-9044 or i nfo @ce nt ral cari bo oar ts. co m.

The workshop will introduce commonly made pitfalls in grant applications (e.g. budgeting, project description, etc.). It will be focused on the CCACS Project Grant application.

The deadline for applications is Friday, January 31, 2014 at 4 p.m., and full details, adjudication criteria, and application requirements can be obtained by visiting

For further information please contact CCACS co-ordinator Leah Selk at 778-412-9044 or e ma i l info@centralcaribooarts.com

TRU Professor Conducts Research at Harvard Williams Lake – Thompson Rivers University assistant biology professor Rob Higgins visited Harvard University this past summer to pursue his research on developing a better understanding of one particular group of ants in British Columbia (genus Myrmica). The best collection of ant specimens is housed at Harvard University in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Higgins was welcomed by Stefan Cover, curator of ants. He was given full access to the collection and connected with researchers from around the world.

“Ants in this genus are extremely difficult to identify to species, a problem that created real world issues when the European fire ant (Myrmica rubra) turned up in British Columbia. There is a desperate need to clean up the species clutter,” says Higgins.

The best collection of ants in Canada is at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. André Francoeur, a retired taxonomist, opened up his collection to European fire ant (Myrmica rubra), an invasive Higgins, who was able to spend a week species that attacks and stings, has turned up in the Vancouver and Victoria area. there going over Myrmica specimens.

Photo: Robert J. Higgins Through research, Higgins has discovered another species of Myrmica, new to science, from the Houston/Smithers area of BC. Higgins also came across a new species of European invasive ant that has spread across Vancouver and Victoria (Myrmica specioides). The Canadian National Collection in Ottawa and the Royal BC Museum have just asked for specimens for their collections.

Thompson Rivers University is equipped with state of the art science laboratories. Research on the Myrmica species continues.

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 23

TheGreenGazette

Switchbacks

By Julie Andrés

I

packed up one of my mother’s small valises and got into the cab of the pickup between my grandparents for the seven-hour drive to Bella Coola. Grandpa was going fishing for steelhead.

It was 1964 and it was my first trip to the coast, to the rainforest and salty air of the ocean, but I hadn’t given it much thought, really. I was from high country. I wasn’t expecting anything different than what I had seen for the first ten years of my life, as far as the lay of the land goes. It turned out to be beyond what I had ever could have imagined.

I was excited and relieved to see the ranch disappearing behind the dry fog of dirt clouds as we drove away, but I felt anxious about going to Bella Coola, too. A silent pressing behind my eyes and tightness in my chest grew stronger as the miles increased.

I had heard about the switchbacks.

The roads were already back to their dusty condition, although the snow and ice, and then the high waters of the spring thaw – bringing thick, immobilizing mud that only tractors could navigate – were only three weeks past. The road we took was called the Bella Coola Highway, because it joined the rest of the Chilcotin to the town of Bella Coola, but it didn’t seem like a highway to me. It was just like any of the other roads around the Cless Pocket Ranch.

They were made of brown dirt and were bumpy and narrow, and lined with jack pines and scrub brush. I soon grew bored and tried to read a comic book on my lap, but I became nauseous. Grandpa reached down near his feet and pulled out an offering, showing it to me with a big smile.

“Have a 7Up. It’ll cheer you up,” he said. “And then you won’t throw up.” He laughed at his own cleverness. He held it between his knees and used a metal cap opener with one hand. I sipped the sweet, warm pop from the bright green bottle, but it didn’t help.

“Try to look at the horizon,” Grandma said, pointing toward a small opening ahead between the trees.

The road straightened out and we came to the Tweedsmuir Park sign. Grandpa geared down and we climbed up a long, low grade and gradually, about three-quarters of an hour later, we went over the edge of the plateau, turned from a westerly to a southerly direction, then proceeded on what was, at first, a slow, almost imperceptible descent. I felt Grandma growing tense as we continued along.

“How long now, Lou?” she asked.

“How long till what?” I wanted to know.

“The switchbacks,” Grandpa said, keeping his eyes on the road. “Any time now. We just went over the crest.”

“What are switchbacks, anyway?” I wanted to know. The sense of unease returned.

Grandpa geared down further. “You are about to see.” He grabbed some matches and a pack of Lucky Strikes from the dashboard and asked me to take out a cigarette and light it for him. I stuck one in his mouth and held a lit match up as he pulled in with his lips and inhaled deeply. I’d been lighting his cigars with his Zippo since I

Page 24

could remember, and once in a while he asked me to light a cigarette for him when his hands were busy and he wanted a smoke. My parents disapproved of this vehemently, as they did of his teasing offers of beer. Grandpa enjoyed his vices without guilt and didn’t think a little “nip” here and there would hurt anyone, he said. It didn’t hurt him, he claimed.

The road became steeper and even narrower as we hugged the rise on the upside of the hill. Grandma gripped the armrest with her right hand and my forearm with her left hand and planted her feet firmly on the floorboard. I could feel my heart beating faster, mainly because Grandma and Grandpa were so preoccupied with something I couldn’t yet see.

“What’s happening, Grandpa?” I asked, only to be jolted by Grandma’s shrill interruption.

“Lou! Be careful,” she said from between her bared teeth.

Then I saw what was below us and felt my jaw clench. My throat tightened up. I decided not to grab onto Grandpa, seeing that he needed to control the steering wheel, so I twisted Grandma’s smock around my fist and squeezed it into a rope, gripping so hard that my fingernails dug into my own palm. The road came to a hairpin curve and we circled sharply to go back in the direction we had just come. Now our truck was on the edge of the downward slope and beyond, the land plummeted sharply, revealing another section of the road snaking below us. Small brush and pines dotted the mountainside of pale sandy soil and small, rough stones. I looked behind us and then up to the slope above and saw that we were on the side of a steep grade, edging our way downward. I guessed that we were going over the distant range that we could see from Cless Pocket, but we were really leaving the high expanse of the vast plateau where the ranch sat, heading downward to the long fjord of the Bella Coola Valley. The thought of being on the other side of the mountains excited me, but my mind quickly returned to the reality of the situation and the tightness in my skull. I felt the pounding behind my eyes growing as my anxiety built. I was especially disturbed to see Grandma so scared.

“God Almighty, I hope that we don’t meet up with a logging truck. Be careful, Lou! Go slower! My Lord. Why did I say that I’d come on this trip? I knew it was going to be hair-raising. Lou, slow down!”

Grandma was usually calm and in control, but it was clear to me that she was utterly terrified. Her glasses had slipped down to the middle of her nose and she wouldn’t let go of her grip on my arm and the armrest to push them back up in front of her eyes. Beads gathered on her forehead like spray from a sprinkler.

“Lou, Lou, Lou! “Jesus Christ Almighty, Alice. The last thing I want to do is burn out the brakes.

I’m in second gear. We’re going to be fine.

Just hang on.”

He didn’t need to tell her that. She was hanging on, all right. His cigarette protruded from between his teeth and he pursed his lips to take a quick puff. Ashes fell onto his lap.

“It will all be over in a few more minutes. You’re perfectly safe. I’ve done this a dozen times now.”

Big tree and rockslide blocks Bella Coola hill with Bob Stewart.

Photo: Stewart Family Collection

Baptiste Elkins going up the Bella Coola Hill in the back of Bob Stewart's truck, sometime between 1950 and 1960, with Bob Stewart.

Photo: Stewart Family Collection

The vegetation began to change, with tall, dark evergreen trees towering into view below. The trees became closer together than they were around the ranch, and the brush was thick and varied. Goatsbeard and elderberry, ocean spray, bracken ferns, and high grasses of bright green filled in around the trees and rustled in the breeze. This change brought a thrilling sense of pleasure to me. I could smell damp earth and evergreen needles.

We came to another switchback. I experienced relief on the progress of another turn, then a renewal of foreboding when I saw that there was a lot more of the same ahead of us still.

The air shifted, from thin and chilly to mild and surprisingly soothing. There was moisture coming up the mountainside into our lungs, and the nip in the air gradually lessened as a hint of warmth rose from the valley below. The road widened and levelled out and Grandpa stopped the truck on a wooden bridge over the Atnarko River.

We fumbled out of the truck cab and I rubbed at the red marks Grandma’s grip had left on my arm. Pale green rushing water, frothed with white, washed away my feelings of dread as the river’s powerful roar and crisp, fresh surge rolled toward us. The air was charged with an energy that was entirely new to me.

I found a stone on the bridge and was about to throw it into the water below.

“Hold still,” Grandpa mumbled.

“Grizzlies. It’s a sow and two yearlings. Just watch them. Nothing to be afraid of.

They’re hoping to get fish. I know that feeling.”

They were upriver fifty yards or so— three bears, two somewhat smaller, but fully developed. They were on a pebbly bank looking intently into the water. To me they seemed to move around like figures in a dream—they were so solid and full of life and also, somehow, the vision of them felt quite unreal at the same time. One of the smaller ones grabbed a flapping fish from

www.thegreengazette.ca

the water in a flash, and they tore it apart with their mouths and claws, sharing among themselves. I could hear their muffled growls of satisfaction. A few minutes passed before we noticed that there were seven more bears not too far beyond. They, too, were catching early season salmon.

The bears didn’t notice us watching them for several minutes. Then the wind eddied back and drove our scent toward them and they lifted their noses high into the air. They became still and found us with their eyes, then watched us intently. The grizzlies were far away enough for a safe return into the truck in plenty of time, but I edged over and opened the door gingerly for a quick getaway just the same. The bears finally started to amble away, so we climbed up into the cab and resumed our travels.

The break had done us good. The steep slopes weren’t completely over, though, as Grandma and I unhappily discovered, but we were soon on the valley floor. My headache had all but disappeared and I felt as though I had entered another world. The towering trees, I learned, were primarily Western red cedar, but there were also spruce, hemlock, and fir, and they filled the humid air with a cleansing perfume that made me think of fresh sheets pulled in from the clothesline. The waters of the Atnarko, now joined with the Talchako to form the Bella Coola River, slowed and thickened, flowing like blue-green milk, while lofty, snow-crusted stone cliffs, scored with deep vertical gouges, rose above us on both sides. We were in a glaciated valley, my grandfather told me.

It felt like heaven to me.

Julie Andrés is a writer and editor living on the Sunshine Coast. She lived on the famous Cless Pocket Ranch near Anahim Lake during the 1960s. Her company, Blue Moon Publishing, offers customized self-publishing services to authors. (See www.bluemoonpublishing.ca.)

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Harmony Living Health comes to Williams Lake

By Amanda Nickerson

M

Aggie

By Julie Andrés Your hair, your clothes, your obsidian eyes are smoky with last night’s fire Between your thick brown fingers stained with nicotine and guts softened hide is gathered A needle, gripped by those moose-skinners pierces deftly in and out attaching beads in a sparkling rainbow starburst as I watch Nursed by your gums, shapes and folds form Teeth prevent us from such tender work prevent us from giving forth in an open infant smile such as yours When you arrive with your sisters, your nieces and daughters soft sprays of sun slant from the autumn’s afternoon sky filtering into your wagon through the cracks and through the pine branches to surround us Children scatter shyly, aware of the silent barriers that our fears and masks present Your dogs and horses dream and wait moving only eyelids and tails You barter with my grandmother for sugar and tea Dollars are a bother for you an extra step in getting those same things When you ask my grandmother if she has cigarettes She holds out a tin of Player’s tobacco And you reach in, pulling out a handful with a fearless laugh After you are gone my grandmother gifts me with a pair stiff on my bare feet, smoky like your camp I become light and agile in your moccasins I run over grass and ground

y name is Amanda :ickerson. I moved here from Vancouver at the end of June.

I have been blessed with the beautiful Cariboo sunshine. I am a certified yoga instructor and personal trainer. I am currently studying to become a registered holistic nutritionist.

I went to my first yoga class because of a running injury. They were becoming more frequent and would leave me unable to exercise for a week or more at a time.

As an active person, this was very hard for me. Then, I found yoga. I was not a flexible person. I couldn't even reach down and touch my toes. I kept going because I found it challenging, despite being hard work. I would always leave yoga feeling relaxed and with peace of mind. I wanted to keep exploring this.

I did my yoga training in Los Angeles, California in 2004. I have since taken many more trainings and workshops. I have taught yoga in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Europe, and the US. I became a teacher because I wanted to help others as my teachers have helped me. My style of teaching is power yoga. I love how the body flows in and out of the postures like a beautiful, fluid dance. My yoga classes are challenging, yet simple.

I simply provide the framework to allow my students to explore their bodies. Yoga means something different to everyone. We are all unique and know our bodies best.

Yoga helps us to develop this self awareness. My students teach and inspire me on a daily basis. We teach what we need to learn ourselves.

I currently teach yoga at Satya yoga studio. You can connect with me at amanda@satyayogastudio.ca. As a runner, I will be offering a special yoga class for runners. I believe that fitness should be fun. I currently offer a Barre Fitness class that is an invigorating one hour workout that combines yoga, fitness conditioning, and

Amanda Dickerson at Farwell Canyon in the Cariboo.

Photo: Jana Roller Photography

workout that combines yoga, fitness conditioning, and core work. Come and find a class that speaks to you.

There is a yoga style for every body.

My business is Harmony Living Health. My mission is to help others create harmony within mind, body, spiri,t and with the Earth through fitness and nutrition.

Please feel free to connect with me on Facebook under Amanda Nickerson or Harmony Living Health.

Hope to see you at a class soon. Namaste.

Dance like no one is watching Are you ready to dance from the bottom of your heart? Do you wish that there was a weekly place to dance in a nurturing, non-intimidating space? Me too! It is time to step out of our comfort zones and into our dancing soles.

You are invited to join in an ecstatic dance experience. Each week will begin with a didjeridu sound meditation to quiet our busy minds and center us into the space. Then the dancing begins with gentle rhythms. The music will build in intensity and allow us to dance and express from within until the energy reaches a pinnacle. The musical flow will slowly ease back into a meditative space.

A chance to ‘Dance like no one is watching’ is about feeling the music and letting it dance through you, free flow! This is a great opportunity to nurture you body and your soul and explore dance as a moving meditation.

No dance experience necessary. This is gently guided self-expression.

Dance like on one is watching is a great way to honour your New Year’s resolution for self-care. Join us Thursdays, January 16, 23, and 30, from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. at Satya Yoga Studio. The fee is $10/session. To pre-register please call Chanti at 250-620-3592 or email cariboochanti@care2.com. Let’s dance!

***

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 25

TheGreenGazette

Page 26

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Respectful Harvest Results in Better Meat

By LeRae Haynes

D

ebbie Irvine from Springhouse Gardens grows vegetables organically on a quarter acre. She is a producer for the Cariboo Growers Market and also does a ‘bag a week’ garden produce program.

She now has a steer and a heifer that she is raising for her own consumption and also for her customers. “Our whole farm is more than 100 acres; putting it all into vegetables isn’t feasible for me, but the area is well-known for raising cattle. We’ve been here seven years, have horses, and have done a lot of fencing and are now at a place where we can raise cattle,” she says.

She says you can get organic meat from several sources in the area, but that her efforts are focused on being more self-sufficient. “We wanted a certain quality meat for home consumption—some for us and some sold by the half or the quarter,” she adds.

“I knew I wanted to have them ‘grass-finished.’

The calves came to me in May when the grass was starting to grow well and they ate it until September.

By mid-month the grass was diminishing in nutrition so I started free-feeding them hay. I give them a handful of barley with kelp every day so they get enough minerals, and they have a selenium salt block that they can access freely.”

Irvine has been around horses all her life and says she is aware of the benefits of keeping animals healthy and happy. “Raising cattle for beef, I wanted to raise animals who have had a very good life. The animals’ comfort and well-being is paramount for me,” she explains. “It’s a difficult thing knowing they’re going for slaughter, but I felt it was my responsibility to give them as good a life as possible for the short time they’re here.”

One thing she says really concerns her is the slaughter process itself. “Just because an animal is grass-fed doesn’t lessen the slaughter, but I believe it is more humane when done on the farm instead of at a facility. When an animal is taken to a facility it’s a strange place with strange animals, smells, and noises, and there is the added stress of being hauled there in the first place,” she says. “The slaughter process may vary from facility to facility but some things are the same.”

She says in talking with others who raise animals she found one facility in the Cariboo where someone will come to your ranch and harvest animals raised for your own consumption. “They slaughter it on-site and take it away to butcher in a licensed, inspected facility,” she notes, adding that she believes anyone should have that option, regardless of what they do with the meat.

Local professional butcher Sylvia Laffer says improved slaughtering conditions began with Dr. Temple Grandin, a successful humane livestock facility designer who was named a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers in 2009.

“A home slaughter is definitely nicer for the animals,” says Laffer.“There is no doubt about it.

There is less trauma. Stress creates adrenalin in the body and can result in a lesser quality of meat.”

“I agree with Debbie Irvine that the option to have your animals farm-slaughtered should be available to anyone, no matter what they do with the meat,” says Bob Martin, a butcher at a USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) processing facility in Oregon.

In a recent article he wrote for the Westin A. Price Foundation for Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, Martin says farm-slaughtering is without a doubt the most humane way to harvest an animal.

“When we go to a farm for the first time to

December/January 2013 - 2014

Debbie Irvine at Springhouse Gardens has expanded her organically grown enterprise to include beef, and believes that home slaughter is the most humane way to harvest an animal. Photo: LeRae Haynes slaughter an animal in the field, if there are 25 cows they will stand in a group and watch everything we do very intently,” he says. “By nature they are very curious, and when we slaughter one or two animals they will walk over and smell the blood. When we show up again the next year with the slaughter truck and trailer they will run away. They remember.

“The majority of people I know think that cows are stupid, but if you work with them you know that they are actually very intelligent. We know for certain that they have emotions and that they display them. They are very sensitive to their environment.

Right now at home I have six cows and seven hogs and chickens, and one thing these species have in common is that they know when a stranger is here.

Even from 300 yards they know the difference in a human voice.

“When you take a cow or a hog to a slaughter facility they smell the blood when they get close and become uncertain and nervous. Anxious to return to their own environment they try to get away and sometimes slip and fall. Adrenalin from stress is released into all the muscles and tissues and the animal doesn’t bleed out as well,” he says. “I think it makes the meat tougher.”

Irvine says her belief is that farm-slaughtered meat is healthier, not just from a biological point of view, but also from a spiritual one. “The animals are ‘harvested’ with no stress and no fear,” she explains.

“It’s been a delight to have these animals here.

Contrary to popular belief that cows are stupid, I have found these two critters to be smart, curious, and friendly. I go out into the field and call them and they come. They look out for each other. It’s so nice to look out and see them playing together and grooming each other.

“Since people started moving off farms we’ve become more and more detached about where our food comes from and how it’s produced. Today this awareness is coming back,” she says.

“What I would like to see is anyone, regardless of what they’re going to do with their meat, be able to access a home harvester. For those of us who want locally-grown, organically-grown, and conscientiously-raised meat, this is the next logical step— respectfully harvested.”

LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, songwriter, coproducer of “Pursicles,” and the community coordinator for Success by 6. She is also the instigator of a lot of musical shenanigans in Williams Lake including “Borderband” with kids and is a member of the “Perfect Match” dance band.

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 27

TheGreenGazette

Hello Bob: Sierra Club of BC's New Executive Director

By Ray Grigg

B

ob Peart, a 64-year-

old veteran of 30 years on many fronts of the environmental battlefield, is the new executive director of the Sierra Club of British Columbia. He acknowledged he is confident and “excited” about the “daunting” task ahead because, he told The Globe and Mail, “It’s a really important time for conservation in BC and I want to contribute. I’ve got my positive attitude back again… my energy… and I feel that I can continue to make a difference.”

His first comments contain the usual optimistic platitudes made by a new leader of an organization, particularly one with high ideals and formidable obstacles to overcome in meeting its lofty objectives. But the words that follow soon reveal a candid and emotional honesty that rarely comes to the surface so quickly, easily and intensely—an honesty that suggests a focus, a clarity, a resolve, a perspective, and a maturity that only comes from seasoned experience. As such, he speaks directly to the many people who worry about our future in a world of rapid environmental deterioration.

Peart has been worrying about this future since 1971 when he first heard about global warming. He has watched global greenhouse gases rise continually. He has watched BC – “a gift to the world” because of its incredible biological diversity and geophysical complexity – fall victim to an unrelenting onslaught of environmental abuses. Development is invariably a euphemism for the incremental destruction of ecologies. “Every day is a loss,” is Peart’s articulate summary of the process he has been witnessing.

How long can this ecological deconstruction continue before crucially important systems break, collapse, or shift so dramatically that the ordinary becomes rare and the abnormal becomes normal? No one, of course, knows for certain. But the process has an unnerving inevitability.

For those who care and are aware, the waiting is a tortuous experience, a tense time of sustained anxiety that is corrosive to trust and optimism. “If you take it seriously, it just tears your soul right out,” Peart confessed with his characteristic burst of honesty.

He took it seriously. “I went into the sewer, to be frank. I don’t know whether I’d use the word ‘depressed,’ but I was in a bad place,” he said. “I found it increasingly difficult to enjoy the moment of a soaring osprey or roaming grizzly bear, without being concerned about the future and the harm that humans are doing to their habitat. These thoughts brought sadness to my spirit and a sense of remorse so strong that it began to erode the joy and wonder that I had for it all… the ‘burden of the world’ led to a deterioration of my physical and mental health.”

Peart said he was saved by Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.” The political and economic fixations of government and industry, he realized, were too discouraging to offer either the solace or optimism he needed to psychologically survive the continual ruination that surrounded him. But he finally found revitalization and strength in the humanizing and innocent recollection of children playing in leaves, of adventuring in forests, of finding animal tracks in snow.

“The world isn’t going to be rescued by government, wishful thinking, blind optimism, or some new machine,” he concluded. “There is no anonymous ‘they’ who are going to figure things out. Hope, real hope, comes from doing the things before us and making contributions to society in a spirit of thankfulness and recognition that each little bit helps.” This revelation was his victory arising from defeat, his emancipation from despair.

Yes, governments have to be questioned and challenged. Yes, society’s attitudes need to change. But Peart

Page 28

www.thegreengazette.ca

hopes to do his “little bit” with a different emphasis. “I think the conversation needs to be more edgy—but it needs to be done in a positive, hopeful way,” he said. “I’m tired of the sky is falling stuff.”

Peart knows from personal experience what happens Bob Peart, Sierra Club when the “sky is falling stuff” of BC Executive Directaints perceptions and contami- tor. Photo: Sierra Club nates awareness. The effect is corrosive, depressing, and debilitating. It certainly was for him. So, too, is it for the many people who pay close attention to the momentum of environmental deterioration that is occurring around them and elsewhere on the planet. The barrage of bad news is too insistent and pervasive to be legitimately avoided. Denial is no longer a valid option. An attentive and reasoned analysis of the trends leads to the reluctant conclusion that our confidence is inflated, our security is precarious, and our future is compromised.

This, of course, is the angst of our time, a tension that now comprises the psychology of a culture that is reluctantly becoming environmentally literate. All the enthralment that comes with our enthusiasm for making, consuming, and exploiting is shadowed by a foreboding.

Despite Bob Peart’s professed conversion to the “positive” and “hopeful,” the deepest recesses of his awareness must know – as so many others do – that this is essentially a personal survival strategy, an individual’s way of coping with dark prospects that often seem unstoppable and unavoidable.

In response to such adversity, we each do what we must and survive as we can. If being defiantly “hopeful” and “positive” in a time of dwindling optimism is an unrealistic strategy for success, it is at least a heroic gesture of strength and resolve, a resolute assertion of tenacity and bravery, a valiant expression of caring and leadership.

This is the most we can expect of anyone.

Ray Grigg is a weekly environmental columnist for the Campbell River Courier-Islander. He is the author of seven internationally published books on Oriental philosophy, specifically Zen and Taoism.

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Raising Amadeus

By Terri Smith

:

ight has fallen. The early and long nights of winter always manage to take me by surprise. I’m never quite mentally prepared when winter hits. Kasha barks in the distance and I tell myself, as I always do, that she’s barking at coyotes or foxes as opposed to wolves or cougars. Her barks grow more insistent and I can’t help but feel a little anxious as I wonder if Amadeus is close.

Only a month ago, Amadeus’ habits changed again and he stopped sleeping on the balcony. I think his leaving home was a combination of his wanting to be accepted by the herd, who (thankfully) do not sleep on the balcony, and the fact that his little puppy-sister Quioa would like very much to curl up beside him each night and chew on his ears.

I think I may have had a small touch of empty nest syndrome at first. My little guy was all grown up and out on his own in the big scary world… I may have mentioned previously that I am not exactly cut out for farm life in that I am about as tough as a cashmere sweater. I know a goat is not a child, but in raising him I have gained a better understanding of my own mother. No, a goat is not a child, but now I know why it would always make Mom so happy when my brother and I would both come home for Christmas after we had left home. She always said she slept best knowing that her family was all under one roof. I always thought she was being over-protective; I always knew I was just fine whether at home or away.

But now that Amadeus is sleeping away from the house at night I realize how, when he was sleeping on the balcony, every time I heard the sound of his hooves coming up the back steps I suddenly felt a little bit better. I wouldn’t even have identified that I was worried about him, but the sound of his return just gave me a greater ability to relax. All became subconsciously right in my world and when I went to bed I had no trouble falling asleep. It’s hard to describe; I think you have to be a mo m to understand.

So now I have to be okay with him out on his own. I don’t really worry about my other goats. They are watchful and stand together in a group facing outward whenever something makes them feel threatened. It would have to be a pretty desperate predator to brave not only a protective dog, but also a six-headed, horned, battering ram.

But then there’s Amadeus, who, as I may have mentioned once or twice, is not an accepted member of this group. I don’t think he even recognizes their sounds of alarm.

For those of you who don’t know goats, the alarm sound they make is something between a sneeze and a fart. Think of the sounds children often make by sticking out their tongues and expelling air between tongue and top lip as a mocking gesture and that is the exact sound of a goat signaling danger. From infancy baby goats hear their mothers make this sound and they learn it means trouble and that they should head to the inside of the group while making their own farting noises.

I’ve noticed too that the more anxious the mother, the more nervous the baby. One doe I have jumps and sounds the alarm at every twig snap or duck quack and her babies are usually skittish and flighty. I, however, do not react to sudden noises in this way. Since I raised Amadeus and I have never purposefully made this sound as a sign of fear he has no idea what this noise means. In a way, he is ahead of his flighty cousins in that he is pretty unflappable. Nothing much fazes him and were he to move to the Fjords of Norway he would probably live longer than his anxious brethren who would invariably startle, sound the alarm, and accidentally jump off a cliff trying to get back to the herd.

As things stand, however, we do not live near any cliffs and so I must admit that I have not given my kid

December/January 2013 - 2014

Amadeus, dressed up extra warm and cozy for the holiday season. Photo: Terri Smith a proper education and consequently have not prepared him adequately for life in the outside world.

But in the people world, he gets on much better than most goats. He loves car rides and he loves all the attention of crowds and the attending handfuls of sunflower seeds that often go with them. Because I have been hearing all summer at market that people have been missing him, and because I have missed bringing him places with me, and because I have recently started working at Cariboo Growers’ a few days a week over winter and love both its community atmosphere and its support of local food, I have spoken to Amadeus and he has agreed to make a cameo appearance in front of the Co-op at the start of December.

He is planning to wear his Santa hat and jingle bells and he will bring along some bales of hay for people to sit on and possibly some refreshments. So be sure to come on by in early December so Amadeus can wish you a Merry Christmas and if anyone would like to come pose for a Christmas picture with him by donation to Cariboo Growers’ he will email you the picture and enter your name in a draw to win a great gift from this great nonprofit association that gives local farmers like me (and Amadeus) a space to market the fruits of our labours. The date and time of Amadeus’ Christmas visit has yet to be determined and will be posted at Cariboo Growers’ and on my Facebook page: Road’s End Vegetable Company.

The hour grows late and Kasha has twice come back from her patrol and is now out barking again. While I have been writing this, sitting in front of a crackling fire in the living room fireplace, it has begun to snow. Great, lazy, wet flakes have been falling steadily for the last halfhour and it would seem that my empty-nest syndrome came on a little early. Have I mentioned that goats hate to get wet? Like an adult child who needs money, Amadeus has come home. He is standing in his box of straw on the balcony, tolerating the pestering of his younger sisterpuppy and looking through the window, “Hi Mom,” his look says. “I just stopped by ‘cause I missed you. By the way, do you happen to have some sunflower seeds I could borrow?”

Terri Smith is an organic vegetable farmer in the Cariboo with Road’s End Vegetable Company. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Literature and a diploma in Art.

www.thegreengazette.ca

Page 29

TheGreenGazette

NOURISHING OUR C HILDREN

By Jasmin Schellenberg HEALTHY SDACKS ADD WHY Sour Cream Dip Sour cream is easy to make. You make it just like kefir or quark. Use the kefir grains in your fresh cream or bought cream and let it stand at room temperature for 1-2 days. Sour cream is rich in protein and lactic acid and is high in fat. A musthave to satisfy hungry kids.

per day or more than five times the Dietary Guideline recommendations. Yet patients’ blood pressure is checked every four to six hours and does not change. Where is the purported relationship of salt intake to blood pressure?

Myth: Reducing salt intake can do no harm.

FACT: Reduced salt intakes have repeatedly been linked in the medical literature to the following conditions: •

• • • • •

1 cup sour cream 1 Tbsp chives or dill, chopped 1 pinch each of cayenne and black pepper ½ tsp sea salt 1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

• •

• •

Mix well serve with carrot sticks, celery, or other veggies.

DUTRIEDT DEDSE MEAL Butternut Squash Soup (serves 4) 3 cups chicken broth (for chicken stock: cook chicken bones covered with water for 3-12 hours.

Include onions, other veggies, 2 Tbsp each sea salt and vinegar. Strain and keep stock in the fridge) • • • • • • • •

2 ½ cups butternut squash, cooked 1 small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 inch piece of ginger, minced sour cream for garnish (optional) 1 Tbsp sauerkraut juice, cooled (optional) sea salt and pepper to taste ghee or butter

1. Heat a quart pot and add the ghee or butter.

2. Sautée the onion until it is soft.

3. Add the ginger and garlic and sautée for 1 - 2 more minutes until you smell the fragrance.

4. Add the chicken stock.

5. Add the butternut squash, stir and heat.

6. Remove from heat and, using the immersion blender, blend the soup until it is smooth 7. Add sea salt and pepper to taste 8. Add a sour cream in the center of each dish as a garnish (optional).

9. Add the sauerkraut juice, if you are using

• •

Insulin resistance (diabetes) Metabolic syndrome Increased cardiovascular mortality and readmissions Cognition loss in neonates and older adults Unsteadiness, falls, fractures Lifelong avidity for salt Alzheimer’s

Salt consumption decreased drastically by over 50% with the introduction of refrigeration. For the past 50 years salt intake stayed the same but hypertension has increased, thus linking the two does not make sense.

To read more on salt read Satin’s write-up in the spring journal of Wise Traditions. For more salt therapies read www.himalayancrystalsalt.com/ salt-therapy. We have been doing this for the past six weeks and I can see the biggest change in my 95-year-old mother-in-law’s swollen legs from water retention.

A WALK THROUGH YOUR PADTRY/ MEDICIDE CABIDET: GET RID OF: white refined table salt (all minerals are stripped from it) REPLACE WITH: Redmond, Himalayan, or Celtic sea salt. They all are good quality and a great way to take in your minerals.

Brought to you by Jasmin Schellenberg Inspired by and reso urce d fro m “*ourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon, w w w . w e s to n a pri c e. o rg a nd ht tp :/ / www.himalayancrystalsalt.com/salt-therapy.

For “*ourishing our Children” newsletters of the past visit www.pasture-to-plate.com or www.thegreengazette.ca.

MYTHS UDVEILED

by Morton Satin, PhD (Spring Journal, 2012) Myth: There is a clear relationship between salt intake and blood pressure.

Dovember to May - Williams Lake Winter Market. Every Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the upper level of the Boitanio Mall. Winter crops, gift ideas, canning, local meat, baking, crafts, chair massage, natural health products & so much more. Check out our Cafe and Musical events too.

December 1 – 31 – The Station House Gallery in Williams Lake presents its Annual Christmas Market with local artisans. 15% off retail prices on vendor days. See our Facebook page for details. Open Mon-Sat 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gallery is closed January 1-15.

December 6 – Draw date for TheGreenGazette’s ‘It’s not Easy Being Green’ Contest. Get your contest forms in by 2 p.m to be eligible for great prizes at participating businesses - Smashin’ Smoothies, The Bean Counter Bistro, Sta-Well Health Foods, Red Shreds Bike and Board Shed, Laketown Furnishings, Cariboo Growers Co-op, Dandelion Living, The Gecko Tree, and The Hobbit House in Williams Lake. (Forms available at participating businesses) December 6 - The Hobbit House in Williams Lake hosts its14th Annual Open House. 10 a.m. - 7p.m. Bring a donation to the SPCA for Christmas to enter your name for door prize draws. Card readers in attendance, TAX FREE shopping, and delicious snacks.

December 7 - Earth Friendly Holiday Crafts event, Quesnel. Nature Education and Resource Centre 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Kids can create decorations using pine cones, sea shells and pumpkin seeds! $2 donation to cover the cost of materials. Call the Baker Creek Enhancement Society for more info 9925833.

December 10 – Williams Lake Film Club Hosts The Colour of Paradise Iran, Iranian/Azerbaijani, PG, 90 min. Gibraltar Room, & p.m. (Regular Admission $9, Film Club members $8, seniors and students $6). Beautiful story about a young blind boy whose father is ashamed of and tries to hide in order to win the hand and dowry of a local woman. All proceeds go to the Williams Lake Chapter of the Association for Students with Learning Disabilities.

December 14 – Dark of Winter Barter Faire – 3 p.m. Central Cariboo Arts Center (old fire hall upstairs) Celebrating local art and sustainable community. Bring your quality items to exchange for gifts, family or yourself. Door prizes, musical jam, and Lantern Parade. Bring your instruments! Admission sliding scale donation: $5-$15. Proceeds to The Potato House. Contact Chanti at cariboochanti@care.com or 250-620-3592.

December 16 – Williams Lake Transition Town hosts film, “A Fierce Green Fire – The battle for a living planet” (101 min). 6:30 p.m. at the Central Cariboo Arts Center (old fire hall upstairs). Come browse our lending library, share snacks, and join in the discussion.

January 5 – Family Fun Day at Bull Mountain. Sunday, 9 a.m. at the Bull Mountain Cross Country Ski area, 16 kilometres North of Williams Lake, just off Highway 97. This free event is a great opportunity for the whole family or adult individuals to try cross-country skiing. Skis, boots, and poles will be available to borrow and instructors will be available at no charge.

January 14 - Williams Lake Film Club hosts film, I*UK – Greenland. PG, 90 min. Gibraltar Room, 7 p.m. A 16 year old boy from a dysfunctional family is given the chance to reconnect to his culture and history. A powerful film and a great chance to see the beauty of Greenland as never before.

FACT: The lack of a clear relationship between salt intake and blood pressure is best exemplified with the standard hospital saline I V drip, which supplies an average of three liters of 0.9 percent sodium chloride per day. This i s equivalent to twenty-seven grams of salt (4.5 teaspoons) per day while in the hospital in addition to the six grams (one teaspoon) of salt taken in food (if the Guidelines are followed). That is a total of thirty-three grams of

January 18 – Williams Lake Film Club hosts film, The Hungry Tide Documentary, Australia, Kiribati. 53 min. Gibraltar Room, 2 p.m., admission $5. The Pacific nation of Kiribati is on the front line of climate change.

Sea level rise is threatening the lives of 105,000 indigenous people in this vulnerable and forgotten corner of the Pacific. In October of this year the first person in the world, a resident of Kiribati, has applied to the UN for refugee status due to climate change.

January 27 – Williams Lake Transition Town hosts film, “Hooked on Growth” A film from Growthbusters (54 min). 6:30 p.m. at the Central Cariboo Arts Center (old fire hall upstairs). Come browse our lending library, share snacks, and join in the discussion.

January 28 – Williams Lake Film Club hosts film, Enough Said – USA. 93 min. Gibraltar Room, 7 p.m. With Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus - A modern love story of two divorced people looking for compatible partners.

Funny, sexy - and real!

salt

Page 30

December 2013 - January 2014 Calendar of Events

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014

TheGreenGazette

Your Green Shopping Directory

Distribution Details

The Green Collective “Thinks, Creates, or Sells Eco-Friendly Products.”

Bean Counter Bistro & Coffee Bar, 250 305-2326 Halls Organics, 250 398-2899 180B 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake 107 Falcon Rd. (North Lakeside), Williams Lake Organic Coffee, Fair Trade, Local Foods Indoor and Outdoor Organic Gardening Products, Alternative Traditional Products, Teas and Herbs, Body Health 4 All, 250-297-0089 Hemp Body Products Dola Carter njretrac@gmail.com www.bodyhealth4all.com Better health by balancThe Hobbit House, 250 392-7599 ing body PH. Independent Distributor of LiPH 71 First Ave. South, Williams Lake Products Juice Bar, *atural Products, Essential Oils, Teas, Crystals, Gemstones, and more.

Canadian Tire, 250 392-3303 1050 South Lakeside Dr., Williams Lake Recycling Initiatives, Renewable Energy Solutions, Potato House Sustainable Community Society Organic Cleaning Products: Blue Planet, Green 250 855-8443 or spuds@potatohouseproject.com Works, Method, *ature Clean, Seventh Generation In an age of apathy and a sense that change is all talk and no action, The Potato House Project is a Cariboo Growers Coop, 778 412-2667 friendly bastion of doing, sharing, learning and 3rd & Oliver St., Williams Lake. 100% *atural & playing. Call us with your ideas and to find out ways Organic Foods, *on-Profit Farmer’s Coop to get involved.

Cleanway Supply, 1-800-663-5181 275 South MacKenzie Ave., Williams Lake Organic Cleaning Products Dandelion Living, 778-412-9100 271 Oliver St., Williams Lake Local & Original, Reclaimed & Repurposed, *atural & Organic Products Day Spa Champagne, 250 305-1249 124A North Second Ave., Williams Lake Quiet, relaxing, personalized atmosphere. A Zen experience. Four Types Massage, Reflexology, Manicures/Pedicures & More. Products: Aubrey Organics SoapWorks/SpaRitual. Local feather & semi-precious stone jewelry.

Debbie Irvine B.Sc. (Agr.) RHD Registered Holistic Nutritionist 250-392-9418 or dirvine@thelakebc.ca EATI:G YOUR WAY TO EXCELLE:T HEALTH! Presenting nutritional seminars which inspire and educate to address health concerns. earthRight Solar, 1 877 925-2929 3rd & Borland, Williams Lake Renewable Energy Solutions, Eco-Friendly Products, Composting Toilets Flying Coyote Ranch, 250 296-4755 Ingrid Kallman and Troy Forcier Grass-fed Angus beef No shots, no hormones, organic fertilizer By the quarter or side, hamburger .

The Gecko Tree, 250 398-8983 54 N. MacKenzie Ave. Williams Lake Serving healthy, local foods Good Guys Gardening Center, 250 392-2069 250 Mackenzie Ave. South, Williams Lake www.goodguysgardening.com Your One Stop Indoor Gardening Shop. Offering a wide selection of Organic and Eco-friendly *utrients and Additives.

Rona Home Centre, 250 392-7767 298 Proctor Street, Williams Lake "ECO" cleaning & gardening products, LED bulbs & energy-efficient building products. Responsible disposal available for recycling of paint, stain, CFLs, batteries, saw blades & more.

San Jose Cattle Company, 250 296-4592 Clint and Karen Thompson Sustainable Agriculture, Raised *aturally/Local Beef, *o antibiotics, hormones, chemical fertilizers or herbicides.

Scout Island Dature Centre & Williams Lake Field Daturalists, 250 398-8532 www.scoutislandnaturecentre.ca www.williamslakefieldnaturalists.ca 1305A Borland Rd, Williams Lake *ature on the city’s doorstep. Bird sanctuary, arboretum, trails, *ature House, natural history programs for children and adults.

Smashin’ Smoothies, 778-412-2112 102-41, 7th Ave North, Williams Lake Juice, Smoothies & Expresso Bar Fresh, Organic, Whole Food.

Sta-Well Health Foods, 250 392-7022 79D 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake Organic Foods, Water Distillers, *atural Medicines, Emergency Freeze Dried Foods.

The Williams Lake Water Factory, 250 398-5201 Pure Bottled Water. Home & Office Delivery.

955 S. Mackenzie Ave, Williams Lake, BC. Come see us on Toonie Tuesday!

Zed-Tech Electric, 250-267-4868 For all your residential and commercial needs.

Joe Zombori zedtechelectric26@gmail.com Zirnhelt Ranch, 250 243-2243 www.zirnheltranch.ca or susanzirnhelt@yahoo.com Producers of Grassfed/Finished Beef. Pasture Raised Pork.

Green Locations TheGreenGazette can be found in print at the fine locations below, as well as online, or by subscription .

100 Mile House Donex Chartreuse Moose Higher Ground Nat. Foods Nuthatch Books One Another Coffee House Save-On Foods A&W 108 Mile House 108 Mile Esso 108 Mile Mall 108 Mile Supermarket Hills Health & Guest Ranch 150 Mile House 150 Mile Mall Husky Station Marshall’s 150 Mile Store Alexis Creek Alexis Creek General Store Anahim Lake Anahim Lake Trading Mclean Trading Bella Coola Coast Mountain Lodge Kopas Store Moore’s Organic Market Valley Inn & Restaurant Big Lake Big Lake General Store Clinton Clinton Grocery & Gas Clinton Coffee House Dog Creek Mount View Handy Mart Red Dog Pub/Liquor Store Hanceville Lee’s Corner Store Horsefly Clarke’s General Store Post Office Horsefly Service Station LacLaHache Race Trac Gas & Convenience Red Crow Cafe Likely Lakeside Service Valley General Store McLeese Lake Deep Creek Service Station Oasis Pub The Oasis Motel Cafe Dimpo Lake Nimpo Lake General Store Prince George Ava Maria Gifts and Health Foods University of Northern BC College of New Caledonia Quesnel The Green Tree Booster Juice Carryall Books Good For You Market Holistic Health Care Clinic Karin’s European Deli Granville’s Coffee Shop Quiznos Safeway Redstone Kinikinik

Contact us today to list your Green business - info@thegreengazette.ca or 250 620-3419

December/January 2013 - 2014

www.thegreengazette.ca

Wildwood RaceTrac Gas & Store Williams Lake A& W All-ways Travel Amanda Enterprises Barking Spider Mountain Bikes Bean Counter Bistro Beaver Valley Feeds Blacky’s Truck and Car Wash The Book Bin CanWest Propane Cariboo Growers Coop Cariboo Ski Cleanway Supply Concrete Fitness Conservation Society CJ’s Restaurant CRD Library Creative Scissor Dairy Queen Dandelion Living Day Spa Champagne earthRight Elaine’s Natural Foods Factory Direct Furniture Flavours & More Good Guys Gardening Greyhound Bus Stop Haines Office World Handi-Mart Joey’s Grill KFC Halls Organics The Hobbit House Husky Restaurant Karamia’s Donairs Kornak & Hamm Pharmacy

The Laughing Loon The Legion Margetts Meats McDonalds Mohawk New World Coffee Oliver’s Bar & Grill PetroCanada Porky’s Deli Quality Tax Solutions Red Shred’s Bike & Board Shed Rona Home Centre Safeway Save-on-Foods SBL Liquor Store Scout Island Nature Center Senior Citizens ActivityCenter

Shopper’s Drug Mart Sight & Sound Spa Bella Staples Station House Gallery Sta-Well Health Foods Subway Sutton Cariboo Realty The Gecko Tree The Open Book Tim Hortons Tourism Info Center Trattoria Pasta Shoppe TRU Tsilhqot'in National Gov`t Two Doors Down Walmart WL Veterinary Hospital Williams Lake Water Factory *please note that we are in the process of revamping our distribution process to better serve our clients. If TheGreenGazette is not being displayed at any of the above locations give us a call so that we may rectify the situation.

Page 31

TheGreenGazette

Page 32

www.thegreengazette.ca

December/January 2013 - 2014