Tag Archives: grist

Manhattan micro apartments will come at a high price

by rikkiqlyons Posted on January 23, 2013

Manhattan micro apartments will come at a high price

By Susie Cagle

Are you sick of micro apartments yet? Well, too bad. Yesterday New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winner of a competition to design teensy live-in closets for an East Side apartment complex of 55 units. Here are drawings of the winning design, showing how an apartment might be adapted throughout the day:

From the Associated Press:

To make up for the shoe-box dimensions, the building will offer residents common spaces like a rooftop garden and lounge area on nearly every floor. The aim is to offer more such tiny apartments throughout the city as affordable options for the young singles, cash-poor and empty nesters who are increasingly edged out of the nation’s most expensive real-estate market…

If the pilot program is successful, New York could ultimately overturn a requirement established in 1987 that all new apartments be at least 400 square feet.

A third of Manhattan residents live alone, and apparently hate the idea of communal housing, so Bloomberg says the city needs these units to “keep us strong in the 21st Century” with “new ideas” and the young gentry that hatch them. Young gentry like Manhattan resident Sam Neuman, who loves his tiny apartment, but not in a super-healthy way:

“I’ve developed this weird Stockholm Syndrome, which you identify with your captors,” said the 31-year-old publicist. “When I go to other people’s apartments, I think, ‘Why do they need more than one bedroom?’ I’m really very happy here. There’s not really time to let things accumulate because … where would I put them?”

Neuman’s point is legit: Doing more with less is great. More people want to live alone than ever before, and tiny house porn is the cutest of all the house porns. But these micro units are not an affordable housing strategy, though they’re often pitched as exactly that. In many cities, they’re exempt from rent-control measures.

The Wall Street Journal reports that 40 percent of the apartments in the city’s first micro-unit building will rent out at under market rate, but most will cost as much as a standard and much larger studio, further driving up the per-square-foot price of housing in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

Micro apartments address density, but not diversity or affordability. If we want our cities to grow, we need to make room for families and others who are not content or able to squeeze into homes the size of a parking space.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Cities

,

Living

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Originally posted here:

Manhattan micro apartments will come at a high price

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Manhattan micro apartments will come at a high price

Sierra Club OKs law-breaking in battle against Keystone

by MayeskiLatouf679 Posted on January 23, 2013

Sierra Club OKs law-breaking in battle against Keystone

By Susie Cagle

The Sierra Club seems like the kind of folks who button the top button, not the ones who hang out on the barricades. Until now.

For the first time in the hallowed green group’s 120-year history, it will be engaging in civil disobedience at the Feb. 17 Washington, D.C., rally against the Keystone XL pipeline. Is the Sierra Club really getting wild? Well, probably not. The group won’t say what the civil disobedience will be exactly, but it will be invite-only (!), it’s been approved by the board of directors, and it’s a one-time-only event.

A 2011 Keystone XL protest at the White House.

From the Club’s Executive Director Michael Brune:

Next month, the Sierra Club will officially participate in an act of peaceful civil resistance. We’ll be following in the hallowed footsteps of Thoreau, who first articulated the principles of civil disobedience 44 years before John Muir founded the Sierra Club.

Some of you might wonder what took us so long. Others might wonder whether John Muir is sitting up in his grave. In fact, John Muir had both a deep appreciation for Thoreau and a powerful sense of right and wrong. And it’s the issue of right versus wrong that has brought the Sierra Club to this unprecedented decision. …

The Sierra Club has refused to stand by. We’ve worked hard and brought all of our traditional tactics of lobbying, electoral work, litigation, grassroots organizing and public education to bear on this crisis. And we have had great success — stopping more than 170 coal plants from being built, securing the retirement of another 129 existing plants and helping grow a clean energy economy. But time is running out, and there is so much more to do. The stakes are enormous. At this point, we can’t afford to lose a single major battle. That’s why the Sierra Club’s board of directors has for the first time endorsed an act of peaceful civil disobedience.

The Keystone XL pipeline fight has seen all manner of extralegal resistance over the last year from far scrappier characters than the Sierra Club. But for some people, engaging in civil disobedience can be a transformative, radicalizing experience. They say it’s one-time-only now, but what happens after they get their first taste of pepper spray?

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Link to original – 

Sierra Club OKs law-breaking in battle against Keystone

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sierra Club OKs law-breaking in battle against Keystone

U.N. launches new fight against food waste

by 7MelansonHayden940 Posted on January 23, 2013

U.N. launches new fight against food waste

By Susie Cagle

No one can agree on just how much food we’re wasting. But it is so, so much.

sporkist

The United Nations and its Food and Agriculture Organization say it’s a third of all food produced, while other studies say it’s closer to 40 or 50 percent. After it leaves the farm, a lot of food is chucked because it’s not pretty, or it’s past its expiration date, or it simply falls through the cracks. According to the EPA, food waste makes up 21 percent of the garbage bound for landfills in the U.S.

This is not news — we’ve known for a while that our modern foodprint is massive. What’s noteworthy is that people are actually maybe kind of starting to do something about it.

Today the United Nations launched a campaign to reduce global food waste, which it estimates at 1.3 billion tons a year.

“In a world of seven billion people, set to grow to nine billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense — economically, environmentally and ethically,” said U.N. Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The campaign, “Think-Eat-Save,” calls on eaters to take some logical steps — steps so seemingly obvious that it’s sad we need a campaign to promote them. E.g. make a shopping list and avoid impulse buys and “marketing tricks.” Also: Freeze leftovers, donate to food banks, and don’t be afraid to buy “funny” looking fruit and veg (if they even make it to the store shelves, that is).

This is all good stuff, but I reiterate my sadness. This is a problem of the incredibly privileged. According to the U.N., European and North American consumers waste upwards of 10 times what African and south Asian consumers do. Restaurants are particularly bad at this, even though cutting down on waste could save them thousands of dollars.

One campaign probably won’t do much to change our wasteful habits, so long as those habits are generally good for big business, and so long as that campaign is organized by the toothless U.N.

“Think” is a good place to start, but what else can we do? Sit back and celebrate when fancy real estate firms get a pat on the back for turning their food waste into fertilizer for their fancy gardens? Please, please no. Ugh. I’ll be out back fishing bagels from the dumpster, a-gain.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Link to article: 

U.N. launches new fight against food waste

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on U.N. launches new fight against food waste

There’s too much garbage for just two garbage patches

by graptorm Posted on January 18, 2013

There’s too much garbage for just two garbage patches

By Susie Cagle

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and North Atlantic Garbage Patch have some new competition from the south, where scientists have discovered evidence of a new floating garbage island off the coast of Chile.

Scientists at the 5 Gyres Institute – which tracks plastic pollution in all five swirling subtropical gyres — discovered this mass of plastic by looking at ocean currents. This patch has accumulated in the South Pacific subtropical gyre, right around Easter Island. It’s the first documentation of a trash patch in the Southern Hemisphere.

This video shows the projected spread of plastic pollution over the next 10 years:

“To create a solution to an ecosystem-wide problem we must understand the scope and magnitude of that problem,” said 5 Gyres Executive Director Marcus Eriksen. “It’s our mission to be on the frontlines of that understanding, and to continue monitoring the most remote regions of the world’s oceans.”

As we find out just how far our plastics have traveled, we’re also finding out just how much damage they’re doing. A new study shows that the most commonly produced plastics are also the ones that soak up the most other toxins when they’re floating around in our oceans for, well, ever — at least until they get gobbled up.

Midway Film Project

This year the 5 Gyres Institute will launch expeditions to the North Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Great Lakes, on the hunt for more garbage patches.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more: Uncategorized

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

View original article:

There’s too much garbage for just two garbage patches

Posted in GE, LG, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on There’s too much garbage for just two garbage patches

USDA offers up new seed money for small farmers

by f45 Posted on January 16, 2013

USDA offers up new seed money for small farmers

By Susie Cagle

Make your hydroponic backyard organic kale dreams come true, now with help from the federal government. Yesterday the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized a microloan program to assist veterans, minority growers, and small-time farmers who might otherwise have to rely on credit cards to get their farms up and running.

The microloans, up to $35,000 each, will be majorly helpful in an industry where loans are usually for much bigger sums, and involve much bigger stacks of paperwork. More microloans could mean more microfarms, and more diverse ones on the whole, and super-low interest rates (currently 1.25 percent) could certainly cut down on farmers’ debt load. From the Associated Press:

Over the last three years, there has been a 60 percent increase in local growers who sell directly to consumers or farmers markets, Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack said…

The loan can cover the costs of renting land, buying seed and equipment, and other expenses. One goal is to create more opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment in the farming industry, Vilsack said. Another goal is to provide beginners a chance to build credit, so that they can eventually qualify for higher-value loans and expand.

“It’s about making sure that we have diversity within agriculture, that we have a good blend of large production facilities, medium-sized operations and smaller operations,” Vilsack
said. “It will help bolster the local and regional food system movement that is taking place.”

Some small-time farmers were optimistic, but is $35,000 too micro of a loan to do much good?

That would be a good question for economists who don’t have a beef with their local farmers market. Iowa State University economist and local food researcher David Swenson is particularly grumpy about the USDA’s goals. “This is a policy area where community affection and political affection for the idea of local foods has gotten itself way out in front of the economics,” he said. Goddamn that community affection. David Swenson must be hanging out with Glenn Beck lately.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Read more:

USDA offers up new seed money for small farmers

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on USDA offers up new seed money for small farmers

Farmers hope to plow the way for sustainable U.S. hemp

by sreg2 Posted on January 15, 2013

Farmers hope to plow the way for sustainable U.S. hemp

By Susie Cagle

A couple months ago, I asked if industrial hemp would make a resurgence thanks to new legalization and cultural acceptance of cannabis. A real hemp industry could be as much as 10 times bigger than legal marijuana, which is already a potentially $1 billion industry in Washington and $200 million in Colorado.

MisterQuill

But back in November, farmers were a little skittish. “Yes yes, the U.S. is the biggest consumer of hemp which is pretty damn sustainable compared to other fibers and grows relatively easily without a bunch of pesticides, but the federal government is crazy and they’re giving us so much money for all this corn!” they said (approximately).

Still, some farmers, like Michael Bowman in Colorado, are determined to cultivate the evil plant. “Can we just stop being stupid? Can we just talk about how things need to change?” Bowman asked The Washington Post, which did not have a very good answer.

Bowman’s project to plant 100 acres of hemp on his 3,000-acre farm on April 30 — to coincide with the 80th birthday of his friend singer Willie Nelson, known for his support for hemp and marijuana legalization — could run afoul of the Agriculture Department’s farm program, which helps subsidize his corn and wheat. He also grows edible beans, alfalfa and, occasionally, sunflowers.

In a statement, Agriculture Department spokesman Justin DeJong said that since hemp is considered “a Schedule I controlled substance” under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, it “cannot be grown on farmland” receiving federal commodity subsidies. If convicted of a violation, a farmer cannot get subsidies for five years.

Efforts to plant this seed aren’t just relegated to Washington and Colorado, with their newly legal marijuana. “If we’re serious about climate change and the environment, there is no single thing we can do that is more impactful,” said Denver-based hemp-farming advocate Lynda Parker, who may or may not be smoking something. But hemp is also serious business, of the money-and-jobs kind.

In Kentucky, the hemp-growing capital of the post-prohibition era, legislators are backing an initiative that would put cannabis back in the ground. “Everybody says they are for job creation, but supporting industrial hemp is their chance to prove it,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said of the proposal. Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer are pushing the initiative.

From Central Kentucky News:

Some law enforcement officials say that with the current economic climate, it is time to at least explore changing the legality of growing hemp for industrial purposes …

“If there is a way to keep the legal side of hemp away from illegal marijuana, then I have no problem with legalizing hemp,” Lancaster Police Chief Rodney Kidd said. “But I am not into ‘go grow and be happy.’”

Politicians in Virginia are also clamoring for legalization of hemp farming to pick up where manufacturing and tobacco jobs have fallen off.

The Hemp Farming Act of 2012 is still kind of being kicked around, but state initiatives seem more likely to succeed. Still, unless federal priorities change, farmers who take on hemp will always be doing so under great legal and economic threat. It’s too bad there’s nothing the feds could take to just, like, totally chill out, right?

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Source – 

Farmers hope to plow the way for sustainable U.S. hemp

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Farmers hope to plow the way for sustainable U.S. hemp

California cold snaps farmers’ crops

by iscciaglewstrone123 Posted on January 14, 2013

California cold snaps farmers’ crops

By Susie Cagle

Time for more predictably weird weather news! Sunny California, while still sunny, has been freezing this week. Temperatures statewide plunged to as much as 20 degrees F below normal, the lowest lows the state has seen in years.

The freezing overnight temps are seriously bad news for California farmers’ crops, especially the state’s $2 billion citrus industry, which accounts for most of the commercially available oranges and lemons in the U.S.

mr. ephotopoet

Strawberry and avocado farmers, too, “are having a lot of sleepless nights,” protecting crops with in-field heaters, coverings, fans, and water.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The cold snap has been a particular concern for citrus farmers across the state, who have been up all night since Thursday. There are $1 billion in oranges, lemons, tangerines and grapefruit still on trees in California, the nation’s largest producer of fresh citrus.

The year had been off to a good start, with a particularly flavorful crop of mandarins and good sugar content across the state …

“We were looking at a very profitable year,” said John Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, an association of the state’s 3,900 citrus growers, the majority of which are family farmers.

But a cold snap can change that in hours. In January 2007, citrus growers lost 60% of the state’s crop to freezes. In 1998 it was 85%. The worst season in memory was the Christmas freeze of December 1990, when a week of temperatures in the teens defoliated the orchards, leading to a total loss for that season and the one after, Nelsen said.

Nothing like some weird weather to remind us how tenuous our centralized food system truly is! The delicious irony here is that a modest touch of cold weather actually regulates citrus sugars well, making better and more stable fruit. So enjoy the California clementines while you can — they may be freezing today, but soon they’ll be rotting on the vine.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Excerpt from:

California cold snaps farmers’ crops

Posted in GE, LG, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California cold snaps farmers’ crops

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

by RubinkJoseph Posted on January 14, 2013

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

By Susie Cagle

Is soul food “the bane of African American health,” or is it a cuisine with a long and complex cultural history?

What if it’s both?

Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Soul Food Junkies premiering tonight on PBS aims to tell the history of soul food and contextualize collards, peas, and cornbread in the contemporary fight for food justice in communities of color, communities we often call “food deserts.”

Food deserts are by definition low-income communities without supermarkets or grocery stores, where fresh food is a rarity and people suffer from obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. We often blame food deserts themselves for those health problems, but that label can obscure culinary history, not to mention some basic facts. Many poor urban neighborhoods aren’t actually food deserts at all — they’re closer to food swamps full of ready-made and relatively cheap processed items. The “nutritional timberline,” as Karla Cornejo Villavicencio coins it at The New Inquiry, is a real thing.

In Hurt’s film, he interviews a woman who is upset that her local grocery only carries vegetables “that look like they’re having a nervous breakdown.” From PBS:

The idea is that if healthy choices are available, people will buy them. And that works to an extent. But old habits die hard. A 15-year longitudinal study found that upping the number of grocery stores in low-income areas didn’t result in people automatically buying healthier food.

“Just because you build it, doesn’t mean you will change people’s behavior,” study author Barry Popkin, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a Time magazine article. “Price, quality, accessibility, incentives, they matter too. Every community is different, but new efforts or supplementing existing infrastructure works if they’re accompanied with affordable prices, education, promotion or community collaboration.”

Efforts that only increase the availability of nice organic lettuce don’t do anything to address the personal food culture that drives mealtime choices in these communities. And let’s face it: A lot of food justice work in these communities is done by well-meaning but kind of patronizing white people.

Hurt hopes his film “will be used widely as a discussion starter in communities of color around food consumption, health, wellness, and fitness.” In an interview with the Smithsonian’s Food & Think blog, Hurt said, “I think the film is really resonating with people, especially among African American people because this is the first film that I know of that speaks directly to an African American audience in ways that Food, Inc., Supersize Me, King Corn, The Future of Food, Forks over Knives and other films don’t necessarily speak to people of color. So this is really making people talk.”

Soul Food Junkies airs tonight at 10 p.m. on PBS.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Cities

,

Food

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original article – 

‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Soul Food Junkies’ digs into African American food history and habits

Pinnacles in California named nation’s 59th national park

by anjunonstennyao Posted on January 12, 2013

Pinnacles in California named nation’s 59th national park

By Susie Cagle

While California’s state parks are perpetually troubled, at least the Golden State can celebrate a new national park. On Thursday, President Obama signed into law a bill by Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) that makes Pinnacles National Monument in central California a protected national park, the 59th in the country and ninth in the state.

ericinsf

The San Jose Mercury News has more:

“The park’s sanctuary for the California condor and native wildlife, its red crags, caves, impressive displays of spring wildflowers, and opportunities for star-viewing under its noteworthy dark skies make Pinnacles a special place and worthy of its national park status for future generations to enjoy,” said Neal Desai, Pacific Region associate director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

Farr had tried to make the bill stronger, but was foiled by House Republicans:

[T]he last Congress, which ended Jan. 3, was the first Congress since 1966 not to designate a single new acre of public land in America as federally protected wilderness, where logging, mining and other development is prohibited.

Farr’s bill originally called for designating 3,000 acres inside Pinnacles boundaries as wilderness. The area is where biologists in recent years have been releasing California condors as part of a captive breeding program to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. But that provision was stripped out by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Resources Committee.

Last month, Obama proposed adding 2,700 square miles off the coast of Northern California to the national marine sanctuary system, permanently protecting the area from oil and gas drilling.

That’s all well and good for the (adorable) sea otters and (unfortunate-looking) condors, Obama, but what about the rest of us? For all he might be doing, Obama is not measuring up to his predecessors when it comes to protecting public lands. According to the usually Obama-friendly Think Progress, under this president, the U.S. has protected less than 10 percent of the acreage protected under Bill Clinton, and less than 25 percent of what was protected under George W. Bush.

I know it’s cold out, but you’d best hustle outdoors this weekend if you’d like to see any of this country’s wild places before they’re turned into one giant drilling field. At least we’ll always have Pinnacles.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Living

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

See original article:  

Pinnacles in California named nation’s 59th national park

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Pinnacles in California named nation’s 59th national park

German neo-Nazis take to organic farming

by MalenMajure469 Posted on January 12, 2013

German neo-Nazis take to organic farming

By Susie Cagle

acidrabbi

If someone eats organic and/or vegetarian, we tend to make assumptions about their politics. With the notable exception of Glenn Beck, vegan and conservative don’t tend to mix. (And he only lasted three weeks.)

Not so in Germany, where a small but vocal movement of right-wing environmentalists with some creepy ideas about food and purity are farming organic crops. The German Green Party’s Böll foundation published a book about these “brown environmentalists” last year. The New Yorker introduces us to one of them: Helmut Ernst, a corn farmer, activist, and “not a Nazi” but a supporter of other seriously right-wing policies.

“What we’re seeing is a stable right-wing movement in Eastern Germany,” said Hubertus Buchstein, who is a political science professor at the University of Greifswald and one of the book’s authors. “Some of them have started organic farming—it seems to fit the right wing. Now, instead of being militant, a new strategy is to live in the country and sell organic apples. Some are vegan, very strict.”

As the Böll foundation’s book points out, environmentalism in Germany—an issue that today, while mainstream, is still strongly identified with the left—has deep right-wing roots. Late nineteenth-century “blood and soil” narratives celebrated a racist, often anti-Semitic and socially-Darwinistic picture of the German countryside. The Nazis, who adopted the “blood and soil” idea, were proponents of a quasi-mystical connection between the land and ethnic identity. “Today, neo-Nazis still like to point out that Hitler’s environmental protection laws stayed on the books until the 1970s,” writes the journalist Toralf Staud in “Brown Environmentalists.” Even the Green Party had an extreme right-wing contingent at its founding in 1980.

Other organic farmers stress that this neo-Nazi contingent is “marginal,” but it’s stronger in the East, where about 16 percent of Germans have extreme right-wing views and like their milk hormone-free and, presumably, extra white. Are you feeling pure after reading about this? I am definitely not.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

Twitter

.

Read more:

Food

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Visit link – 

German neo-Nazis take to organic farming

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on German neo-Nazis take to organic farming