Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

Once SOSA obtains the produce, they distribute to food pantries around the country. Breitinger says they salvage 20 to 25 million pounds of food a year with the help of 30,000 to 35,000 volunteers. The volunteers come from church groups, schools, scout troops, and even from the people who need the food.

Becky and Dave Aduddell of Wake Forest, N.C., are two of SOSA’s veteran volunteers. “We’ve been doing this for five or six years now,” says Dave, who is a web programmer for a local community college by day and a bass player by night. The couple was hooked after a friend who was gleaning introduced them to the concept. “It sounded like such an eminently logical idea that we joined him very shortly after he started.”

Gleaning a field in North Carolina (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

“Our interest in gleaning stems from that great desire within each of us to ‘do some good.’ We like it because it is very concrete and tangible. Writing a check to a charity gives one a good feeling and a sense of satisfaction, but going out and working to glean, then delivering the produce directly to the recipients is a very concrete act.”

The Aduddells bring their gleaned crops to a public housing complex in the small town where they live.

The couple acknowledges that the gleaning process wasn’t a big stretch – both of them come from farming families. “While we didn’t grow up on a farm, we spent time doing farm work as kids, so this is a nice déjà vu for us,” says Dave.

In mid-October the Aduddells joined several hundred volunteers for the 19th annual Yam-Jam, sponsored by SOSA. The group salvaged unharvested sweet potatoes from a 50-acre field in rural Johnston County, North Carolina. The area had already been harvested by professionals. In addition to sweet potatoes, Becky says the group has collected corn, green beans, collards, tomatoes, watermelon, squash and blueberries.

“A good 20 percent of produce is lost in the fields,” says SOSA’s Breitinger. She says the USDA calculates that 96 billion pounds of food is wasted in this country before it gets to market.

Why do farmers leave good food behind? “Sometimes commercial growers must leave one field to move on to the next crop,” says Breitinger. Other times, the produce isn’t “perfect” enough for market – not quite the right size or color, but perfectly edible. Also, sometimes the farmer can’t afford to pay another crew to come through his fields again.

Gleaning a perfect cabbage in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Farmer Leo Stallings says he has leftovers because there isn’t a big market for produce in Franklin County, the area of North Carolina where his farm is located. Stallings, who has been in the farm business for 40 years, grows a number of crops including sweet corn, beans, cantaloupe, collards, peas, squash and string beans. “This area is not very commercial. There are few markets. Growing is not a problem, but selling is. We don’t have a co-op to handle acres of crops.

“I try to plant about as much as I think will sell. But because the market varies, I often have leftovers.”

Stallings says SOSA volunteers come out in the summer and late fall to salvage his fields. He says he doesn’t mind giving it away. “I don’t want it to go to waste and they give us a tax credit for it.”

When large growers donate a tractor trailer load of food, SOSA might contact a group of volunteers, often a church group, to sponsor a “potato drop.”

“Imagine 45,000 pounds of loose potatoes dumped into a church parking lot,” says Breitinger. “Volunteers then put 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes into mesh bags. We contact the local food pantries to come to pick it up.”

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

Demonstrators in Sydney at the Opera House

From Sydney to Barcelona; the Himalayas to Hollywood, people in more than 180 nations gathered to display the number 350 — the benchmark that many scientists consider to be the safe upper limit for carbon in the air. Above 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide (Earth’s atmosphere is already at 390), greenhouse gases play havoc with arctic ice and the oceans, sending Earth toward a tipping point that climatologists around the world would bring disastrous floods, coastal losses, droughts and vast alterations in farmland.

The organizing group behind the demonstrations, 350.org, asked concerned citizens and like-minded groups to coalesce around this single number to make a point that the people across the globe want solutions.  Specifically, they want their national leaders to take serious steps to curb global warming at the upcoming United Nations’ climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

350 in Bangladesh

The wave of actions that rippled across the planet this past weekend began in the Pacific, where many islands could be inundated by the rising seas created by greenhouse gases. It moved with the time zones around the planet, to the mountains where glaciers are thinning to Africa where the ability to grow food is threatened.

In Bonn, activists make their desires clear (Photo: Robert von Waarden, Spectral Q)

In Europe activists used the day to express their hopes that political leaders will act decisively. Environmentalists are concerned that politicians may move too slowly, and that without a firm move toward clean energy and away from polluting fossil fuel industries, the planet’s atmosphere will continue to fill with greenhouse gases.

At 11 a.m. on Saturday, Columbia University’s two largest student environmental groups gathered in the middle of campus to bang on drums, strum guitars, blow through horns and yell at the top of their lungs. For one ear-throbbing minute the campus erupted– all in the name of the environment.

The literal wake-up call to the Upper West Side of New York City kicked-off the day-long festivities, organized by Green Umbrella and Eco-Reps, for the International Day of Climate Action, a world-wide day of events organized to deliver a unified call to action for bold leadership on the climate crisis.

Demonstrators at the Brooklyn Bridge

“This movement may be small today, but we’re not alone at all,” said Greg Tulchin, the head organizer of Columbia’s 350 Event. “We’re connected to all these millions of people around the world.”

Despite the relentless downpour in the city, scheduled events carried on in NYC, with the grand finale in Times Square including supporters chanting and carrying signs as jumbo screens streamed climate day slogans. At Columbia, a small group of students and neighbors huddled under tents while creating their own 12-foot banner for Times Square. They made newspaper pots for planting and watched eco-related performances.

Students at Columbia College (Photo: Sommer Saadi)

“There is a lot of information out there [about climate change] and it can be really overwhelming,” said Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, publicity director of EcoReps, one of the organizing groups. “If we can do a little bit to facilitate that process of going through it all, then that’s a step toward having people be more environmentally aware and that’s all we can ask for.”

With the goal of the day being to raise awareness about 350 and the December UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, being in the middle of the campus, in the middle of the city, making lots of noise translated to success—no matter the weather.

Theater Troupe in Trujillo, Peru (Photo: Valkiria)

While rained soaked events from Boston to Washington D.C., demos in the rest of the US fared better, with people turning out in tiny towns like Orono, Minn., and major cities, including larger gatherings in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Everywhere people made a point about the effects on climate change on their corner of the world, declaring “We love our snow” in Alaska, with that changing to “Save Our Coasts” on Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles.

The sun shone also on events in South America, which has been losing natural habitat to over-development, and in Africa, is already hitting hard. Many island nations and countries in low-lying areas, which stand to lose coastal lands to rising seas as well as worsening storms, participated in the demonstrations, from the Maldives and Micronesia to the Caribbean.

School children in the Dominican Republic

Bill McKibben, environmental activist and founder of 350.org, declared the day a huge success to supporters and urged anyone who’s curious to visit the website and see the photos.

“It was so sweet to watch the day move around the globe, with thousands upon thousands of pictures appearing, sometimes a dozen a minute! There were photos of climbers high on the glaciers of Switzerland holding 350 banners, of bicycle parades from Copenhagen to San Francisco, of organizers in Papua New Guinea beating their church gong 350 times while churches in Barcelona rang their bells 350 times.”

“…Together, we’ve shown the world that a global climate movement is possible and set a bold new agenda for the upcoming United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen this December,” he said. “The 350 target is the new bottom line for climate action and world leaders must now meet that target.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

Borrego, which has its East Coast office in Boston, designed a 40.32 kilowatt DC photovoltaic power generation system for the project. According to Borrego:

• The system will reduce carbon emissions by 71,012 lbs of CO2 annually.
• The reduction in carbon emissions is equivalent to the emissions from an average passenger car driving 135,625 miles every year for 30 years.
• This system will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 617 pounds over its life. Nitrogen oxides are a major contributor to smog and air-induced respiratory problems.

The housing project will give formerly homeless veterans the opportunity to become homeowners, in many cases for the first time in their lives. Veterans will have the opportunity to purchase an equity share that will be held in trust and will be available to them should they choose to move out, or will become part of their estate.

The housing units will be managed by the veterans who purchase equity in apartments. Those veterans will have completed a progression from Soldier On’s shelter in Leeds, Mass. to its transitional housing facility in Pittsfield. In the limited-equity housing project, they will continue to be surrounded by the services they need and the community of support Soldier On provides.

The Oct. 29 groundbreaking event for the project is scheduled to include as speakers Mass. Lieutenant Gov. Tim Murray and Stephen Coyle, CEO of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, along with Gordon Mansfield, former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

Isn’t it great when you can save green and go green at the same time?

Sopo Bike Cooperative in Atlanta

For serious and recreational bicyclists, bike cooperatives across the country are meeting that need. They offer tools to fix your bike, volunteers to teach you how and the support to keep riding. Cooperatives are located in nearly every major city and supported by volunteers, grants and donations.

Atlanta’s Sopo Bicycle Cooperative opened four years ago when one of the founders needed a $40 bike tool  and felt there should be a bike co-op to allow folks to share tools and expertise.

“It’s just a bunch of people interested in cycling,” said Dianna Settles,  Sopo’s volunteer coordinator and a Georgia State University student.

Since most traditional bike stores in Atlanta are north of Ponce De Leon Street, there was a big need to teach people to do bike maintenance south of Ponce. Hence the name – SoPo. The East Atlanta area also has a fair share of lower income residents who need reliable transportation.

The shop runs a youth program during the summer, but it also draws seniors, recreational bikers and commuters.

“It’s a pretty diverse crowd of people and the way the economy is right now it makes more sense to ride a bike,” Settles said. Adding that maintenance on a bike is also cheaper than car maintenance.

Sugggested donations are $5 per part and $5 per hour for use of the tools. Everyone seems happy to comply. And no one is turned away if they don’t have the money. They barter with volunteer time, food and other creative swaps.

The cooperative operates under three mantras:

• Each one teach one
• Right tool for the right job
• Bicycles make the world a better place

One of the rules is “never take a tool out of someone’s hand. We will show someone or get another volunteer’s help. We have books and different manuals,” she said.

On a recent Thursday evening, bicyclists of all shapes and sizes spilled out into Sopo’s parking lot. Bike stands were set up to hold the bikes while making repairs and every spot was filled. The shop is open three nights a week and Saturday afternoon. It’s housed behind a record shop in an up-and-coming urban village of Atlanta.

Bartender Kate Crosby stopped by to work on her bike and met fellow cyclist Stacey Sayles.

Stacey Sayles helps Kate Crosby fix her bike

“This is my second time. I had a flat and need to know how to change a flat,” said Crosby, who works nearby. She drives a “big ole’ truck” and needed to use her antique touring bike for the exercise and to be a little greener.

Sayles calls himself a bike fanatic and relies on two wheels for nearly all his transportation needs. He moved from New Orleans to Atlanta six months ago and said New Orleans has a similar bike co-op.

Longtime volunteer Dana Scott enjoys helping people with their bikes.

“I like teaching people the bike mechanics so they can do it themselves,” said Scott, who uses his bike for commuting, recreation and shopping.

Settles, the volunteer coordinator, agreed.

“We’re all here to help the community, fix bikes and make friends,” Settles said.

To find a bike co-op in your city, check out the International Bicycle Fund website, which also offers tips for Pushing the Green Envelope whilst biking.

For more tips on keeping green while biking see the Intern

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The U.S. Green Building Council, started 16 years ago, has 20,200 members and more than 50,000 LEED registered and certified projects around the world (80 percent are in the US).

And the group plans to get even bigger as it turns its attention to college campuses and enlists the help of students.

The USGBC is helping universities across the country to establish sustainability courses and USGBC student organizations, and of course, to build green. The Washington-based NGO estimates that there will be 4,300 LEED projects registered (underway) and certified (completed) on college campuses at the end of 2009.

The USGBC defines a green campus as “a higher education community that is improving energy efficiency, conserving resources, and enhancing environmental quality by educating for sustainability and creating healthy living and learning environments.”

The colleges and universities that do all that will serve as examples, not only for students, but for the larger community, pushing the green envelope and raising a generation for whom green is the norm.

“We are going to develop a generation of people that just are absolutely hardwired for … sustainable living,” said S. Richard Fedrizzi, CEO and Founding Chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council, in a recent speech in Chicago to national university leaders.

Universities and students will incubate new, more conserving and sustainable ways of engineering structures and living spaces, Fedrizzi said, which will lead to more accountability and transparency in building.

“If you can take a 99 cent box of crackers that tells you how much fat, how much protein, how much carbohydrates, how much sodium is in that box, and you as a consumer have the ability to chose it based on your health, based on your values, based on a number of things or not, this is a striking contrast when you realize we’ll spend 30 or 50 million dollars on a building and prior to LEED we never had that nutrition label,” said Fedrizzi.

LEED, he explained, will be a road map. Through LEED certification, people will have precise measures of a structure’s air quality, energy use, and the quality and origins of its materials.

Helping the environment is not the only advantage, there are economic, health, and community benefits as well, Fedrizzi said. According to the USGBC, green buildings can significantly reduce energy use, carbon emissions, water use, and solid waste, with an average savings of 35-70%  in each of these areas per year.

Colleges, typically the nexus of any societal changes, will help perfect, promote and energize the green building movement.

“We (colleges and universities) may comprise only 3% of the carbon footprint, but we represent 100% of the student footprint,” said Michael M. Crow, President of Arizona State University.

• You can start a USGBC student group at your school.  With tools and resources from the USGBC you can pave the way on your campus.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

You’ve only got one weekend left to witness the near impossible: a car-free street in New York City.

Summer Streets is back for its second year and is once again offering New Yorkers three weekends in August to play, walk, bike and breathe on a nearly seven-mile stretch of city streets void of any motorized distractions.

New Yorkers can join the festivities during this year’s final opportunity on Saturday, Aug. 22. The path runs along Park Avenue and its connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. The event starts at 7 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m.

Building off of last year’s success, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) is using Summer Streets to once again inspire people to get more exercise and learn about sustainable forms of transportation. As part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s greening initiative, Summer Streets is encouraging city residents to embrace the ease and importance of eco-friendly modes of transportation.

And how do you encourage people to do anything? Provide them with free and fun activities.

The Summer Streets route includes free bike and skate rentals and free bike and skate repair. Stops on the path also are hosting a variety of activities, including free bicycle helmet fittings, tennis instruction, fitness classes, dance lessons, sidewalk chalk and picnic areas.

Although the disruption to traffic has stirred some complaints, the estimated doubling of last year’s turnout, which was said to be about 50,000 people on each of the weekends, is an encouraging sign that Summer Streets might become another New York tradition. Jen McKenna’s family attended Summer Streets for the first time this year and plans on coming back next year. She thinks complaining drivers just might need to adjust.

“It’s like most other things that are new,” McKenna says. “It might take some getting used to but once people do I think everyone will learn to enjoy it.”

Those who want to participate in Summer Streets can get to the route by NYC Subway, commuter rail or ferry. Group rides are being organized for bikers in neighborhoods around the city. Check the Summer Streets web site for more details.

And if you live outside of Manhattan or can’t make it to Summer Streets, don’t despair.  DOT is also partnering with groups citywide to organize 13 Weekend Walks from June through September in the surrounding boroughs. Check to see if one of the sites is near your neighborhood.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

In the journal of green urbanism, you don’t find much about Detroit, Birmingham, Salina or Stockton. These cities have proud histories, but they’ve not eco-agitators, like say, San Francisco.

Movers and shakers in Stockton, though, say they’re ready to step up to the plate. Developers there just announced a large, green development called The Preserve which they say will make the mid-sized city east of the Bay area an authentic player in the green space. The Preserve, conceived of as a large, but nature-loving mixed use development, should become a magnet for businesses and residents that might not otherwise consider the city a green destination, its developers say.

“The Preserve will demonstrate to all that Stockton has a bright future, a future that benefits from forward thinking about our environment,” said David Nelson, Executive Vice President of A. G. Spanos Companies, the national developer, which is based in Stockton.

Spanos says The Preserve will have half the carbon emissions of a similarly sized conventional development and will preserve a large swath of the cities wetlands. It is being designed by San Francisco office of Gensler, a widely known architectural firm, in accordance with the guidelines of the One Planet Community, a global outreach that.

One Planet Community encourages “true sustainability” by guiding developers and cities to consider public transit, economics, natural habitats, energy and water, jobs, education and human health.

“The Preserve is on track to be endorsed as an official One Planet Community, joining a prestigious network of the world’s greenest neighborhoods,” said Greg Searle, executive director of BioRegional North America, the environmental organization that developed the ten principles that make for a sustainable community.

Among The Preserve’s features:

• An area of protected farmland that will extend to neighborhoods, allowing for residents to grow local produce and with a goal that the community will produce 3 to 10 percent of its own food.

• A permanent greenbelt on the city’s north side, connecting parts of The Preserve to help keep driving to a minimum. Nearly half (45 percent) of the development will be devoted to green spaces or lakes.

• Higher density development with housing for all sizes of families and a community hospital.

• All of the communities non-potable water will be from recycled systems or harvested rainwater.

The developers hope that The Preserve will support 12,000 jobs on-site, linking work spaces with housing to reduce commutes and generating $2 billion in investment and new jobs. A Gensler spokesman said the firm expects The Preserve to be “a model of responsible development.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By Lynette Holloway
Green Right Now

Collard greens, kale, tomatoes, swiss chard and okra spring from a swath of asphalt amid a bustling sidewalk on Chicago’s North Side. The incongruous site is the Cabrini-Green Chicago Avenue Community Garden, a vegetable and flower garden that was home to basketball and tennis courts more than six years ago.

Enclosed by a chain-link fence, gardeners plant on compost beds shaped like crude graves. It is part of a community garden project conducted by Growing Power, a national non-profit organization, dedicated to helping urban families gain access to healthy food systems. Growing Power, headquartered in Milwaukee, also provides training and oversight for volunteers who participate in the project.

Erika Allen, a mother who uses her art therapy major in her work, is project manager of the Chicago urban garden. She also appears in the critically acclaimed documentary Food Fight, which is about the importance of sustainably produced or locally grown food. She also is the daughter of Will Allen, founder and chief executive officer of Growing Power, who last year was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award for his work in the delivery of healthy food systems in urban areas.

“There are very few of us that do this work in our communities,” Allen said recently, taking a break from her work. She speaks with ease as teens and members of the community chatter among themselves and till their garden beds. Only the occasional vehicle horn disrupts the serenity.

“There are a lot of people who do work in communities of color, but who aren’t from the community,” said Allen, who is of African American and European descent. “That puts us in a unique position to also tackle racism. The people who support power and privilege are also those who support industrial food systems. We believe if you develop a community based food system, you have to deal with the social justice issues as well. To a degree, we dismantle the systems that oppress people.”

Allen enjoys interacting with residents. Many of them reside in what is left of the notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects for which the garden is named. The projects, whose high-rises are in the midst of being torn down and replaced by mixed-used housing, were once known as some of the nation’s most violent.

Allen said she has seen Growing Power help the lives of some residents in terms of the delivery of fresh food in an area where it is sorely needed. The project is comprised of 68 plots and assigned based on a first-come, first-served basis each year. The first round of plots go to people who have gardened in the past. If gardeners fail to reapply within a certain period of time, the plots are reassigned. New gardeners must sign up for an orientation session.

On a warm July afternoon, Allen sat at a picnic table alongside youngsters working on art projects. She interacted with passers-by as she stressed the importance of community based food systems. Brian Ellis, 18, who has lived in the projects for much of his life, was one of them.

Ellis obtained a job at Growing Power four years ago through Youth Corps. He has learned about composting and the value of fresh produce by selling vegetables on market day, he said.

“I’ve been doing composting since last summer,” he said. “I didn’t know about it. You can use it to grow all of this stuff if you break it down until you get a rich soil. I like market days, too because I can take some of the vegetables home to my mom to cook.”

Besides Cabrini-Green, Growing Power has community projects at Grant Park in downtown Chicago and Jackson Park on the South Side.

“Our foundation here is our youth training,” Allen said. “We help build life skills, character development and an understanding of food systems as a job-training component. A lot of our Youth Corps members are recruited from this garden. We have kids who started with us who were 10 and are now 15. Some have recruited friends. ”

Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church on the Gold Coast owns the land, about 2,000-square-feet, on which the urban garden sits, according to Natasha Holbert, garden program manager for the church. She praised Allen’s work in a telephone interview, saying she has been instrumental in helping to build community.

“She’s a wonderful resource to us,” Holbert said. “The great thing about the project is that it’s recreational, too. It’s about building community. We have cookouts every month and play games. There’s also a labyrinth on the recreation side of the land. The entire space is not used for gardening. We try to use it for other things. You don’t have to garden or grow vegetables. You could do a book group. It’s a model program. There aren’t too many gardens that are like it.”

Chris Taylor, the Food Fight documentarian, agrees about it being a model program. He learned of Allen while interviewing Tom Philpott, co-founder of the North Carolina-based Maverick Farms, for the documentary.

“She’s is amazing,” he said of Allen in a telephone interview. “I enjoyed interviewing her for the film. Chicago is at the cutting edge of the urban garden movement.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

We hear every day about dangerous chemicals in household products that are linked to cancer, infertility, autism and other diseases – yet many Americans may not realize just how many of these harmful substances they’ve actually ingested in the course of everyday living.

The answer? About 48. That’s according a study by the Environmental Working  Group and Rachel’s Network, in which five leading minority women environmentalists from different parts of the country volunteered to have their blood tested for toxic substances. The results, say EWG experts, show that regulation of chemicals in the U.S. is weak and “antiquated” and needs a major overhaul.

The tests, performed by four independent labs in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, looked for traces of 75 common chemical contaminants that might turn up in people because they are used in household goods, plastics, beauty products and food and water.

It found, in the aggregate, traces of 48 chemicals in the women, notably flame retardants (used to treat some furniture and clothing), synthetic fragrances (from body care products and perfumes), the plastics ingredient Bisphenol A (found in bottles, canned food liners and other products) and the rocket fuel perchlorate (which has been found in some drinking water).

“We are fighting the things we know that are there, the things (pollutants) outside,” said Suzie Canales, founder of Citizens for Environmental Justice in Corpus Christi, which has pushed for a cleaner environment in a city with a concentration of oil refineries. “But it’s a double injustice to find out that the products put on the market are also killing us.”

Canales report showed that her blood contained traces of chemicals from BPA, musks, rocket fuel, lead and mercury. The profiles of the other women tested also turned up several chemicals, at levels above average, that have been linked to harmful health effects; though the toxic mix varied by individual.

The findings made concrete the suspicion that all Americans are being exposed to a daily brew of chemicals that advocates now call our chemical “body burden”.

“I was frustrated to learn about the industrial chemical contamination through this study. I am a mother and I have a 7 year old daughter. I try to live a sustainable life style,” said Jennifer Hill-Kelley, a member of the Oneida Nation who’s worked to clean up environmental pollution outside of Green Bay, Wisc.  “… I don’t have the information about the personal care products or the plastics I use…and I feel that as a consumer I deserve that information to be shared with me.”

Beverly Wright, a New Orleans sociology professor working to fight pollution in the heavily industrialized Lower Mississippi River Valley area, said she was “disturbed” to discover that her tests showed a high level of musks, which are potentially hazardous compounds in synthetic fragrances.

Earth Day isn’t just a date on the calendar or an annual do-good commitment; it’s a way of life, a state of mind, a mission even – and certainly an intention. The date itself, April 22, merely reminds us that, January through December, all days  should be “earth days” in our respective, collective communities.

You know this is true when mainstream news giants like Time magazine feature cover stories declaring the eminent demise of millions of species. Climate change is real, and potentially catastrophic. Still, there are loads of things we can do to stem climate change, or even help reverse it. Which is why each year Earth Day gathers more meaning and momentum, urging us to expand our green consciousness to 365 days a year.

Eva Radke, founder of Film Biz Recycling in New York City – a nonprofit committed to greening the film industry – grasps that idea.

“This might sound trite, but everyday is Earth Day in my book,” she says. “I think it’s stupendous to heighten awareness, and these events across the country (which number in the tens of thousands) get more and more people involved and I salute everyone involved, truly. But to me personally, it’s just another day. … We have to think about what we do to the planet as a result of our daily lives — daily.”

That said, Radke – recognized as April’s “Industry Star of the Month” by the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting – concluded, “I will probably do nothing different from what I do everyday, which is build Film Biz Recycling as an environmentally and socially responsible model for every industry, not just the film business. If New York City’s film community can alter its thinking and methods, even slightly (to the tune of 62 tons since Radke started FBR in June 08), then so can the hotel industry, clothing and auto makers, chemical companies, grocery stores, conventional farmers, carting companies, toy companies, the U.S. government, banking, Renaissance festivals, construction companies, land developers, space programs, day-care centers. … On Earth Day, I’m just gonna keep on keeping on.”

But – you ask – how can I do something as meaningful? Something that can truly change my immediate community?

Let’s say you don’t have the time or resources to commit to a 24-7 venture, as Radke did. But ask yourself these things: How can I convince my family, my kids’ school, my neighbors, or my government to be more pro-active? Well, like any grassroots movement, these things start by applying our imaginations – and a few of those little gray cells.

Here are three potential approaches:

• Plant trees. Join a tree-planting campaign in your town or city; make your community look more lush, and help Mother Earth breathe mo’ better.

• Grow food: Carve out a plot in your yard (it’s easier than you think!) or join a community garden. If your burg doesn’t have one, then start one.

• Promote Pedal Power. If your town doesn’t have designated bicycle lanes, grease the wheels at City Hall to help the town lower its carbon footprint.

Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.

The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in 10 major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Volunteers who help out over the weekend will be given a green gift bag and tickets to attend a free “Thank You” concert in their city. And of course, the national flagship festival “Earth Day on the National Mall” will take over in Washington, D.C. The free festival is open to volunteers and the public and will feature performances and speakers throughout the day.

The “Thank You” concerts serve as a great incentive for rolling up your sleeves and making a meaningful contribution to the planet (check out the line-up below).  But just as motivating is the opportunity to be a part of some really creative and significant projects:

• Like finding out why you should have a worm in your apartment. The Lower East Side Ecology Center of New York City is teaching people how to deal with their smelly trashcan problem by keeping Red Wiggler worms handy. You learn how the Red Wiggler rapidly eats kitchen scraps and turns waste into fertilizer, and then learn how to set up and maintain a worm bin in your own crib and use the compost for feeding plants.

• Or discovering why it’s important that everyone aim for energy efficiency. In Austin, you can help retrofit a house for a family in need. The organization 1 House at a Time is teaching volunteers first-hand about home energy efficiency as they install water and energy conserving fixtures and appliances.

• You could even try to atone for your addiction to oil. Builders and bird enthusiasts are being recruited in San Francisco to help construct a cage, shed and rehabilitation pond for oiled birds in recovery at the International Bird Rescue Research Center.

Across all 10 cities there are opportunities to work in parks, beaches, schools and forests and focus on lasting climate change solutions, but you have to sign up to participate, and you have to sign up soon. Volunteers have until Tuesday, April 14 at 11:30 p.m. to register for a service project in their area. The events are listed on the Green Apple Festival site and from there a link takes you to the PlanetGreen website to sign up.

If you don’t live in one of these 10 cities, don’t worry. You can visit Planet Green’s Green Guide to Volunteering to make your own Earth Day plans.

You can also use the EDN green event locator.

Thank You Concert Lineup

Atlanta, GA – Funk and jazz band Galactic & Friends with opener country singer Victoria George at Variety Playhouse.

Austin, TX – Grammy Award-winning Country star Travis Tritt & Friends at Antone’s (note: this one’s on Monday April 20).

Boston, MA – The funk/jazz trio Soulive & Friends at Paradise Rock Club.

Chicago, IL – Alt-rock favorite Cracker & Friends at The Metro.

Denver, CO – Funk band Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk & Friends at Cervante’s Masterpiece.

Los Angeles, CA – The Hotel Cafe Presents indie rock singer-songwriter Cary Brothers & Friends at The Roxy.

New York City – The Soul legend from the James Brown Band Deep Banana Blackout featuring Fred Wesley & Friends at Bowery Ballroom.

San Francisco, CA – BassNectar & Friends at Slim’s.

Seattle, WA – Hip-Hop group The Blue Scholars & Friends at The Crocodile.

Washington, DC – Artists to perform on the National Mall have not yet been announced (it’s all about the suspense).

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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Earth Day is every day. It truly is, and should be. Still it’s nice to have a special time set aside for this commemoration, now 39 years old.

It gives us a time to celebrate. A time for people who live the issue daily, as foresters, gardeners, organic bakers, fair trade importers, scientists and energy experts, to connect with each other and newcomers on the green path. It’s a time when tree huggers can come out of the forest, composters can declare their love of the soil and all sorts of other quirky “naturalists” can unabashedly rejoice — in an accepting climate.

On this Earth Day weekend (the official day is Wednesday) we met many of these concerned and hopeful people at the Oak Cliff Earth Day celebration in Dallas. We chatted with a guy who’s a person of irony: He teaches automotive arts at a high school, but just got rid of his car to reduce his carbon imprint. Kenneth Cotten plans to bike, walk or take mass transit for the foreseeable future. We met a coffee importer who markets only organic fair trade coffee; a maker of natural soaps and perfumes; a master gardener, an urban forestry expert, a cookie maker, a meter reader expert and a solar panel salesman — all of whom are passionately doing their part for the planet in their jobs and hobbies. They were a joyous group.

There were a lot of dogs at this event. Everyone seemed to be walking a dog or carrying a plant (I guess the cats had to stay home). We saw lots of young people, too, including students from Skyline High School, a magnet in Dallas, who were volunteering for the day at the annual festival at Lake Cliff Park, an urban jewel that was brought back from the brink several years ago.  (That’s Maria Ruiz, Alicia Vega, Marystella Rodriguez, James WIlliams, Ga Corey Eaton and Esther Soto in the picture.)

This Sunday also saw celebrations on the National Mall in Washington D.C., in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, Seattle and Austin where the Earth Day Network partnered with Green Apple Festivals. See a video of the event on the Mall on the Green Apple website.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media