cookiesinheaven

Labels: Agriculture, Environmental, Santa Barbara County, Solvang, TGIF

Labels: earth day, Environment, Environmental, Santa Barbara

This weekend I will be busy working booths at Earth Day.
Have you hugged a tree today?

Labels: earth day, Environment, Environmental

Labels: El Capitan, Environmental, Farms, Llamas, Organic

Joel Salatin, fulltime family farmer of the highly successful Polyface Farms, and recipient of the Heinz Award for Environmental Leadership, is one of the world’s leading advocates of farming and food relocalization. Featured in Michael Pollan’s book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, and in the films FRESH and FOOD, Inc., Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms exemplify successful grass farming and the farming and food relocalization movement. Joel is the author of six books including Family Friendly Farming, Salad Bar Beef, and his latest, Everything I Want To Do is Illegal.

In this course, Joel will challenge participants to design pathways to relocalization based on his own very successful model at Polyface Farms in Swoope, Virginia, and will also include techniques and directions from the emerging relocalization movement.

Relocalization is a strategy to build societies based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and the local development of currency, governance and culture. The main goals of Relocalization are to increase community energy security, to strengthen local economies, and to dramatically improve environmental conditions and social equity. The Relocalization strategy developed in response to the environmental, social, political and economic impacts of global over-reliance on cheap energy. Our dependence on cheap non-renewable fossil fuel energy has produced climate change, the erosion of community, agricultural lands, wars for oil-rich land and the instability of the global economic system.

Carbon Economy Courses

Labels: Environmental, farmers, Farms, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Organic, Santa Barbara

Ecological disaster brought reality check. Crude oil blasted nine stories into the air on Jan. 28, 1969, from a pipeline that blew out in the Santa Barbara channel. For the environmental movement, this disaster was the spark that launched Earth Day...

When the Santa Barbara pipeline burst 39 years ago, crude oil flowed for 10 days, eventually covering an 800-mile square area with a dark sheen. The oil even silenced the tide. With the viscous oil melded to it, the waves no longer lapped at the shore. Instead, they landed with a heavy thud . Bridgeport Connecticut Post

Never in my lifetime have I ever seen such an aroused populace at the grassroots level. This oil pollution has done something that I have never seen – it has united citizens of all political persuasions in a truly nonpartisan cause.”

Labels: earth day, Ecology, Environment, Environmental, Oil Spill, Santa Barbara

So few salmon are living in the ocean and rivers along the Pacific Coast that salmon fishing in California and Oregon will have to be shut down completely this year unless an emergency exception is granted, Pacific Fishery Management Council representatives said Tuesday.

It would mark the first time ever that the federal agency created 22 years ago to manage the Pacific Coast fishery canceled the coast's traditional salmon fishing season from April to mid-November.

Such a move would jeopardize the livelihoods of close to 1,000 commercial fishermen from Santa Barbara to Washington State and would significantly drive up the price of West Coast wild salmon.

...The doom and gloom brought on by the poor run was made worse by news that the number of jacks - 2-year-old fish that return to the river a year early to spawn - is the lowest ever recorded in the Central Valley fall run. Scientists use the number of jacks that return as an indicator of what next year's spawning season will look like.

Fisheries experts expected 157,000 jacks, but counted only 6,000 - SFChron

A complete closure of salmon fishing in California and Oregon this year appeared more likely Tuesday after federal managers grappled with the hard facts.

The drastic proposal – which would mean fresh local salmon would not be available in stores, restaurants or farmer's markets – is driven by a dramatic decline in Central Valley fall-run chinook populations. The total has dropped by more than 90 percent since 2002. - Sacramento Bee

Labels: California, Environmental, fish, salmon, West Coast

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future

Labels: Blog Challenge, Environmental

• Dr. Oetker Cake and Icing Mixes - available at health food stores across the country in chocolate and vanilla ($5).
• Goodbaker Chocolate Cake and Cupcake Mix - whole-wheat vegan version ($5).
• Pamela's Products Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix - gluten-free goodness ($5).
• Ma snax Carob-Peanut Cake Mix - organic cake-mix for your pooch ($8).

Labels: Birthdays, Cyberculture, Environmental, Organic

Labels: bakery, Environmental, NYC

S.F. FIRST CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS

Paper or plastic? Not anymore in San Francisco.

The city's Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation Tuesday to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year. - SFGate

Last year, 1 Bag at a Time, an online eco-tote company in California, sold 100,000 reusable bags. Sales leaped to 250,000 totes in the first three months of this year -- a change its owner attributes in part to Al Gore's global-warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth."

...Change already has swept Australia, where public concern over the pileup of plastic bags -- and talk of a bag tax -- gave rise in 2003 to a reusable, polypropylene tote called the Green Bag. Though made with petroleum products, it's considered eco-friendly because each one eliminates dozens of throwaway bags.

Two years after the campaign took off, the Sydney Morning Herald said at least 10 million to 15 million of the bags were in circulation. They even had become a fashion icon, the paper reported -- though "they come, mostly, in the sort of bright, unnatural green that looks good on no one."

Australia's success has brought Green Bag look-alikes to the U.S. and inspired hope that consumer habits can change.

"I was in Australia last year," said Jackson, the Snohomish planner, "and I have to tell you it was just unbelievable being in Melbourne. Everyone has got their Green Bag. It's a citywide phenomenon. You don't see anyone using paper or plastic -- either one."

...Flimsy plastic shopping bags have been banned outright in some countries, including South Africa, Rwanda, Bangladesh and parts of India, where plastic-bag litter was blamed for drain blockages that contributed to fatal floods and landslides during monsoons.- Seattle PI

Labels: Environmental, grocery stores, plastic

Organic Bouquet offers the finest floral gifts sourced from growers that are committed to the highest social and environmental standards. Our flowers are grown and harvested using practices that aim to improve the quality of farm working conditions, minimize damage to ecosystems, conserve biodiversity, and enhance environmental quality for future generations. Each bouquet in our collection is hand selected and shipped fresh from the farm, ensuring optimal product quality upon delivery.

Labels: Bear, Chocolate, Environmental, Flowers, Gift, Organic

Food imported to the UK by air may be denied the lucrative "organic" label under proposals being put forward today by the Soil Association.

The UK's main organic certification body is concerned about the "food miles" involved in importing goods by air, which, environmentalists argue, contribute to global warming.

...In the past, most food labelled organic in UK shops was more likely to have been sourced relatively locally, typically from smaller farms. However, with the boom in popularity of organic food, bigger firms have become involved and the use of air transportation has grown, allowing some firms to sell food that is out of season locally. - The Guardian

Labels: British, Carbon footprint, Environmental, Organic