Spring 2007 Newsletter

Dear Ecology Center members and friends,

Happy Vernal Equinox!  This Spring 2007 edition of the Ecology Center newsletter contains an update on our work, with plenty of local stories about building community, protecting the environment, and creating justice.  The Ecology Center has provided free, non-commercial information to the public since 1969. We help people make informed choices about issues that affect them, others, and the planet. To this end, we make the EcoCalendar, the EcoDirectory, and this Newsletter accessible and free to all. Please support us and the services we provide by becoming a member of the Ecology Center. Visit our website at http://ecologycenter.org/donate/

Ecology Center programs and projects highlighted this issue:

1. Berkeley Farmers’ Markets: Celebrating Twenty Years
2. Transforming Land, Transforming Life: The Indigenous Permaculture Project
3. East Bay Environmental Training Produces a New Cadre of Activists
4. Non-GMO Project Creates a Much Needed Labeling Standard
5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Barbara Kingsolver Benefit for the EC
6. Sustainability Summit Report and DVD Available

1. Berkeley Farmers’ Markets: Celebrating Twenty Years

This year, we are celebrating 20 years of the Ecology Center’s Berkeley Farmers’ Markets. In May of 1987, we opened the oldest of the three Berkeley Farmers’ Markets on Derby Street. Today, the Ecology Center’s three thriving farmers’ markets constitute the heart of the community’s alternative food system. The Bay Area’s most esteemed restaurants, the school district, local food justice programs, UC Berkeley Co-ops, and thousands of residents source the freshest, most delicious fruits and vegetables at our markets. To mark our anniversary, we are celebrating our longevity and success, honoring the historic role we have played in the broader food movements, and recognizing what makes us unique and vital.

Genesis

In the beginning, the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets existed in a series of brief incarnations. It was first sponsored in 1981 by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) and located at 5th Street at Delaware. Despite the work of dedicated advocates, the very first season was shortened by a Mediterranean fruit fly crisis. In its second year, with the help of the Revolutionary Garden Party, the farmers’ market moved to University Avenue. At the time, the property was the West Campus of Berkeley High School. In 1985, the Berkeley Unified School District moved the market to Franklin School on San Pablo Avenue, which is now the Berkeley Adult School. The lack of street visibility at that location led to the market’s demise.

The idea of a farmers’ market in Berkeley languished until a woman named Biz Marcus resuscitated the project. Marcus had regularly collected food donations at the previous farmers’ markets as a volunteer for Daily Bread, a free food program for those without. She initiated discussions with the City of Berkeley that eventually resulted in a promising new location: Derby Street, where the farmers continue to gather every Tuesday to this day. Marcus gathered a crew of volunteers and approached the Ecology Center to sponsor the markets’ revival. The rest is history! In 1990, the Ecology Center opened a second farmers’ market alongside Civic Center Park, which became our vibrant Saturday market. Since then we have attempted new markets in West Berkeley and on Telegraph Avenue. Neither stood the test of time. In 2004, we launched the North Berkeley Farmers’ Market – our first 100% organic market – at Shattuck and Rose Street. With the support of the North Shattuck Association, this market has been an instant success.

What Sets Berkeley Farmers’ Markets Apart

From the very beginning, the Ecology Center has run the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets as an environmental and social justice program. The Ecology Center’s tagline reads: Environment, Community, Justice. The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets exemplify each of these values in ways that make our markets exceptional.

Environment

At their core, the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets are places where urban dwellers can support small-scale farmers who are committed stewards of the land. Much of the country’s food is grown using copious amounts of industrial chemicals that contaminate wells and waterways, sicken farmworkers, deplete topsoil, and poison wildlife. Or it’s grown thousands of miles away and requires massive amounts of energy (and the burning of fossil fuels) to get it to your plate. The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets provide consumers with an authentic alternative to that system.

We are constantly researching issues involving food and farming, and raising the bar in terms of environmental standards. Our markets were the first in the nation to ban produce grown with methyl bromide, an acutely toxic soil fumigant most commonly used in strawberry farming that is extremely harmful to farm workers and the ozone layer. We were among the first markets in the country to ban genetically modified foods, and have recently implemented a strict protocol to ensure that everything – from the green beans to the baking powder in the cinnamon rolls – is GMO-free. In the near future, our markets will be Zero Waste zones: places where the highest level of recycling, composting, and waste reduction is encouraged.

The Ecology Center’s Berkeley Farmers’ Markets are devoted to consumer education: our knowledgeable staff provides accurate and timely information related to agriculture, policy, food justice, and current events such as the E. coli spinach outbreak. We offer free fact sheets and information on a wide array of environmental topics.

Justice

On average, U.S. farmers today receive less than ten cents for every dollar spent by the consumer. We don’t find that equitable. Our farmers’ markets are truly farmer focused. At a time when many markets are growing by attracting more prepared foods, crafts, and unrelated items, our markets maintain a deep commitment to the farmers. We always prioritize farmers, and ask our prepared food vendors to use our farmers’ produce as much as possible. Many of our farmers’ have been attending since our opening market 20 years ago! Our sense of justice also fuels our drive to support farmers who eschew the use of chemicals that harm the health of farmworkers. Over 70% of the farms that sell at our markets organically certify. Most of the others use strong sustainable agriculture practices, but do not want to pay the fees required to obtain organic certification.

While organic food is expanding into new markets and appearing on Wal-Mart and Safeway shelves, it still retains the stigma of being a food for privileged, upper income people. We believe that all people should have access to high-quality, fresh produce that is nutrient-rich and free of pesticide residue. The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets were the first farmers’ markets in California to accept the new electronic benefit transfer cards when they replaced paper food stamps; we pioneered an innovative system of market currency, which we taught other farmers’ markets all over the state to emulate. 

Our markets serve as a hub for food justice programs such as Farm Fresh Choice, People’s Grocery, and Spiral Gardens. They source their produce from our farmers and distribute it in regions of Oakland and Berkeley where residents have disproportionately high rates of chronic disease and limited access to fresh, healthy food. These programs have inspired similar projects such as the mini farmers’ markets at Kaiser medical facilities, and they have helped create new demand for good produce in lower income neighborhoods.

For many years the Ecology Center’s Berkeley Farmers Markets have been working to help the Berkeley Unified School District implement their historic Food Policy. We have offered tours and visits for classrooms to our markets and provided important in-class educational opportunities. One year, a grant allowed us to take the entire 6th grade on farm tours! Currently, we purchase farm produce and manage payment for BUSD nutrition educators. We conducted outreach for the School Lunch Initiative, supporting Chef Ann Cooper in getting kids to buy the new, healthy, made-from-scratch lunches, and meeting with food service workers. We believe that all children deserve fresh, healthy lunches and that our schools should lead the way in offering that. We have stood firmly with the district in this effort.

Community

There’s a reason why readers of the East Bay Express voted us Best Farmers’ Market year after year until they retired the category. And why readers of the Contra Costa Times did, too (even though we’re not located in Contra Costa County!) And why Sunset Magazine picked us as one of their seven favorite Farmers’ Market in Northern California. And why Gourmet Magazine included us in its list of “100+ Great Things” in the Bay Area. The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets are prime community gathering spaces in an era when community gathering spaces are increasingly rare. Bodies need food, and souls need a sense of community. Both needs are met at our markets. We give people a reason to come together, to feel the sun on their back, to talk to their neighbors, eat fresh peaches, meet the people who grow their food, and enjoy the music. People from every walk of life commingle at our markets.

The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets also serve as a hub of the community alternative food system and ground zero for many food movements. We regularly offer space to food activists working on campaigns, from pesticide bans to reforming the Farm Bill. Our markets have been a local organizing location for the battle over the organic standards, the methyl bromide phase-out, repeated efforts to label or limit GMO foods, and many other campaigns.

Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters is largely credited with the birth of California cuisine, which stresses using fresh ingredients, in season, grown on nearby farms. Many of the local restaurants that celebrate these ideals, including Chez Panisse, source their ingredients at the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets. Eating and cooking with locally grown food has become more popular in recent years and gained a new name: the “locavore” movement. The best-selling author (and Berkeley Farmers’ Markets shopper) Michael Pollan has been a persuasive critic of mainstream food systems, arguing that the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world; and that industrial eating obscures crucially important ecological relationships and connections. In Italy, the Slow Food movement was created to combat fast food and to preserve the cultural cuisine and the associated food plants, seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion. All these movements point to farmers’ markets in general and the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets in particular as an institution where best practices for body, mind, spirit, and planet can be made manifest.

Planned Celebrations

Celebration of our 20th Anniversary will be spread luxuriously throughout the year. We hope that you will come savor the seasons’ delights and celebrate our 20th Anniversary with us:

Strawberry Family Fun Fest
Strawberry Shortcake by Bakesale Betty
Blue Bottle Coffee
Entertainment for the Whole Family
Saturday, June 2, 10am­–2pm
Center St @ MLK

The Pit Stop: Peaches & Barbecue
Peach Cobbler by Frog Hollow
Smokin’ Meats and Veggie Treats by Bryant Terry
Tuesday, July 17, 3–7pm
Derby St @ MLK

Jazzy Tomatoes
Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival
Featuring Mike Marshall and Jovino Santos Neto
Delish Tomato Dishes
Saturday August 18, 12–4pm
Center St @ MLK

Fall Fruit ‘n’ Fright
Pears & Pomegranates & Persimmons! Oh my!
Pumpkin Carving Contest!
Day of the Dead Festivities
Fall Fruit Pies & Mexican Hot Cocoa
Tuesday, October 30, 3–7pm
Derby St @ MLK

20th Anniversary Celebration Dinner
Early November

2. Transforming Land, Transforming Life: The Indigenous Permaculture Project

A lush valley cloaked in the dark of dawn, filled with the crows of hundreds of roosters. Working six acres of land on the steep hillside, planting corn, beans, and squash.  Gathering the tools and talent to construct a greywater system for a rural Nahuat extended family.  Such images characterize the work of the Ecology Center’s Indigenous Permaculture Program, at its project in the state of Sonsonate in southwest El Salvador.

The Indigenous Permaculture Project has been working in this Salvadoran community for four years to regenerate the agricultural land and forest.  This area of El Salvador is very supportive of lush vegetation, yet much of El Salvador’s land is fragmented and degraded second-growth forest.  El Salvador is the smallest Central American country in area, yet ranks as the third largest country in population in the region. El Salvador is the most densely populated nation on the mainland of the Americas, with about 10 times as many people per square mile as the United States.  Thus, the challenges of maintaining, protecting, restoring, and regenerating the land are clear.

Planting trees was a particular focus in 2006, with nearly two hundred put into the ground.  Planting is done at the best elevation on the steep hills, in right relation to the crops and the water flow.  Jury-rigging the water catchment and greywater reuse system involved using a gutter with tubing and a rain barrel to collect and filter water, and then feed into a large tank to be used for watering trees and plants. 

IPP also built large and small efficient stoves, using mud as a mortar with bricks in one case, and cob earthen clay in another. IPP worked in concert with a stove construction expert at Aprovecho in Honduras.  Efficient stoves are a real asset in developing countries, as stoves are a major source of wood burning and deforestation.  Wood smoke from stoves is a major reason women across the globe develop emphysema and chronic coughs at an early age, laboring to produce meals for the family.  Using advanced smoke collection and piping, these efficient stoves both reduce smoke and deliver it above the breathing range of these women. 

The final major project was construction of a composting toilet from brick and concrete.  Sieving of gravel from cement, mixing concrete by shovel, and hauling bricks and bags was intense at times, and made for a work crew quite ready and grateful for rest, and for the meals of hand-made tortillas and fresh red beans grown and harvested earlier.  

Our greatest reward has been the welcome and hospitality of the community. Although living on a subsistence basis from the land, and housed in partially walled shacks put together with stone and aluminum siding, the extended family we have stayed with is rich spiritually and environmentally, sharing what they have to enable us all to collectively work together to transform the lives of the many beings at this place.  Being surrounded (and besieged) by over a dozen children, and sharing stories has helped us all to learn in many ways. 

With support from NGOs and indigenous organizations from El Salvador, IPP is once again returning this Summer, offering an international training program from June 1-10, 2007.  Apply to take the trip!

Requirements:

• At least 18 years of age
• Fluency in English or Spanish, and at least basic knowledge of Spanish (at least two college semesters)
• Interest in community development, sustainable agriculture, forestry, health, and/or rural economic development;
• Good health and willingness to stay and work in an extremely remote and rural location
• Desire to create a community action project that you will implement on your return home, involving your home community in communication and support with the communities in El Salvador

Trip cost is US$750 plus your own airfare to El Salvador.  The cost includes all in-country travel, room, board, and program expenses during the trip. You are responsible for obtaining your own travel insurance.

To apply: Please send a resume and cover letter by mail or e-mail to the address below. Your cover letter must specifically address:

• why you are interested in this project,
• how you meet the requirements, and
• related experiences you may have.

Deadline: May 01, 2007.
  
Contact Info:
Indigenous Permaculture Program
3288 21st Street, #192
San Francisco, CA 94110

mayalencanahuat@yahoo.com
www.indigenous-permaculture.org
415-370-1657

3. East Bay Environmental Training Produces a New Cadre of Activists

Empathy the Environmental Way
By Michael Kosacki
Terrain Magazine

The din of traffic on an eight-lane road in downtown Concord made it nearly impossible to hear. But that was part of the lesson that the Greenbelt Alliance’s David Reid wanted to get across: he was comparing this corner to a corner a mere block distant, in Todos Santos Plaza, a small urban park.  Our group of twenty gathered on the sidewalk, craning our necks, cringing as the cars zipped past. Reid explained that walkers feel much safer when traffic speed is slowed and a row of parked cars insulates them from moving vehicles. He pointed behind us at an unpainted cinder block wall that further alienated people negotiating the sidewalk. By contrast, at the plaza, Reid had pointed out the details in the built environment that people prefer–plants, lively storefronts, and sidewalk tables help make an urban area experientially palatable. After shouting questions we gratefully left the noisy corner to head for the next presentation in our day of learning about housing, land use, and sprawl.

Facilitated by the Ecology Center’s environmental resource center director Beck Cowles and tech editor/longtime activist Arl Nadel, the East Bay Environmental Training (EBET) program is a six-week immersion course designed to help students appreciate the breadth of environmental and social justice issues. Oakland resident Nadel was inspired by the Environmental Forum of Marin's 18-week course; creating the EBET training was her final project for the Marin sessions.

The Saturday classes centered on specific issues presented by five to seven experts. On weekday evenings films related to the topics were shown at the Ecology Center. Students were asked to present projects of their own on the last day.

Day one started with a bang as Karen Pickett of the Bay Area Coalition for the Headwaters talked about what it means to be an activist. Most students agreed that activism covered a range of projects, and that some people might not identify or think of themselves as activists. This discussion set a welcome and inclusive tone that lasted throughout the training.

The rest of the day’s program included presentations on environmental racism, air quality policy, and grassroots organizing to combat toxics. Having always thought of risk assessment as the logical way to manage environmental toxicity, I was surprised by UC Berkeley’s Michael Wilson’s presentation. Wilson described the complexities of risk assessment; because of exposure to multiple chemicals or the interaction of the toxin at different stages of life, results can be inaccurate. Wilson also noted that risk assessments often slow down community efforts to reduce toxic discharge.

The presenters brought a variety of approaches to each class. Tiffany Golden, co-manager of Farm Fresh Choice, an Ecology Center program, used interactive role-playing to explore social tensions. Golden gave no explanation as she laid out food in three different locations in the classroom–junk food in one corner, a good meal on a table, and a gourmet dinner on another table. Everyone was handed a different color dot; some received a note with secret instructions. People were grouped by dot color and placed by one of the tables, representing the level of nutrition available to their class and community. They were then asked to play out several scenarios dealing with power, class, exploitation of the poor by the rich, and access to nutritious food.

One scenario involved the lower class group boycotting jobs hauling toxic waste--but one participant took the job because she needed the money (as instructed by her secret note). Members of the group tried to talk her out of taking the job, and we felt frustration attempting to stand fast while contending with market forces and individual need. At the end of the session Golden asked what emotions the exercise had provoked. Helplessness, anger, and fear were common responses, and Golden pointed out that minority communities undergo similar stresses. The session moved the class into a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of environmental racism.

For me, one of the most interesting results of hearing from a variety of activists of different ages was learning about the complexity of environmental issues. For instance, Janice Schroeder of the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs discussed the need to balance respect for the workers at Pacific Steel Castings with the importance of pressuring the company to reduce pollutants. I developed a new admiration for the consensus-building and diplomacy that working on environmental issues requires.

Then it was time for student projects. One man began showing slides of the front lawn of his suburban home. He surprised everyone by showing the same yard planted with a cover crop and then sheet-mulched. He explained how he was building the soil and planting the yard with drought-resistant plants. There were slides of an organic garden in the back yard. The show ended with him reclining with four enormous squash sitting behind him like a chorus line.

Given the seemingly endless environmental problems we are facing, the question “What can I do about it?” can seem daunting. The EBET training provided a chorus of answers. At times I was overwhelmed by the information covered over a day, but ultimately I was left inspired by new perspectives. The EBET training can serve neophytes to long-term activists who want to broaden their scope. And the enthusiasm on the last day was infectious, a good sign for the future of EBET and East Bay activism.

Another training will be held next fall and will be posted on the EcoCalendar.

4. The Non-GMO Project Creates a Labeling Standard

The Non-GMO Project, a recently sponsored project of the Ecology Center, is a collaborative effort of nearly 300 retailers across North America who are dedicated to establishing standardized labeling for non-GMO verified products.  This pioneering effort started in Berkeley at The Natural Grocery Company and continues to be based here.  Working closely with technical support from the world-class staff at Food Chain Global Advisors, the Non-GMO Project has created a rigorous but achievable Standard for non-GMO verification.  This voluntary system is the first attempt in North America to establish an industry-wide standard and consistent labeling (in the form of a Non-GMO Project seal) for non-GMO verified products.  The mission is to offer systems for traceability and informed choice, two things that have been conspicuously lacking when it comes to GMOs in the U.S. and Canada.

The Project is set up such that all verification procedures, from the initial questionnaire to final approval for the Non-GMO Project seal are conducted by an independent organization. Learn more.

5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Barbara Kingsolver Benefit for the Ecology Center

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver and her husband Steven Hopp have written a new book entitled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.  Kingsolver and Hopp will be giving a talk, presentation, and book signing in Berkeley on Tuesday, May 15th. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Ecology Center’s Berkeley Farmers’ Markets and the Edible Schoolyard. We hope you can attend this wonderful event!

About the book

Barbara Kingsolver’s first book of narrative non-fiction, is an absorbing and provocative chronicle of how she and her family vowed to spend a year eating a locally-produced diet. “Our highest shopping goal,” Kingsolver says, “was to get our food from so close to home (if not grown on their own Virginia farm), that we’d know the person who grew it.” In her passionate, characteristically funny, and thought-provoking account of this daring experiment in alternative eating, Kingsolver recounts how she, her husband, and two daughters learned how to plant and harvest, how to raise poultry and other animals, and how to eat seasonally – cultivating an all-but-lost appreciation for farming and the natural processes of food production in the bargain.

The local-food project was the culmination of Kingsolver’s longstanding conviction that America has lost its way when it comes to the production and consumption of food. We guzzle 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen for agriculture, and each food item in a typical meal has traveled, on average, 1500 miles to reach our tables, burning up more fossil fuels. If everyone ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meat and produce, we would reduce our oil consumption by over 1.1million barrels (not gallons) of oil every week. Add the fact that our nation’s battle with obesity is a direct result of American agribusiness’s efforts to sell us more calories than we need, and it is easy to see that the environmental and health costs of the way we eat are too high. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver makes a compelling case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

Part memoir and part investigative journalism, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle also features informative sidebars in which Kingsolver’s husband, biologist Steven L. Hopp, provides salient facts and figures to further explicate and underscore issues in the narrative. Her daughter, Camille, supplies essays that offer a nineteen-year-old’s perspective on the project, as well as recipes, nutritional information, and meal plans for eating seasonally.

About the Event

Talk, with visual presentation, and book signing
7:30 PM on Tuesday, May 15th
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana, Berkeley
Tickets required: $40 includes a copy of the book and a small donation, and admits one or two people for preferred seating; $15 admits one person with no book and rear or balcony seating. Tickets available at Cody’s, Berkeley and San Francisco on May 1, or by phone with credit card, 510-845-9092.

There will also be a talk and booksigning at 12:30 PM at Cody’s Stockton Street, San Francisco.

About the Author

Barbara Kingsolver’s published books include five widely acclaimed novels as well as collections of short stories, poetry, an oral history, and two essay collections.  Her first novel, The Bean Trees, has been adapted into the core English literature curriculum in colleges and high schools throughout the country, and her highly praised The Poisonwood Bible won literary awards at home and abroad.  Her latest novel, Prodigal Summer, was published in 2000.  Kingsolver’s work has appeared in numerous literary anthologies and periodicals, for which she regularly writes reviews and articles on a wide range of topics, particularly in the areas of social justice and the environment.  Her books have been translated and published throughout the world in more than a dozen languages.  In 2000, Kingsolver was the recipient of the National Humanities Medal, our nation’s highest award for service through the arts.

Barbara grew up in Kentucky, but has lived and worked in many parts of the world.  She received degrees in biology before becoming a full time writer.  In two areas of interest she collaborates with her husband, Steven Hopp, an ornithologist and guitarist; they co-wrote articles on science and natural history, and they perform together in a jazz band.  Barbara, Steven, and their two daughters live on a farm in southern Appalachia.

6. Berkeley Sustainability Summit Report and DVD Available

The Ecology Center launched the Berkeley Sustainability Summit with the goal of exposing people to the incredible variety of sustainability projects currently underway in Berkeley. Presenters hailed from businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, community groups, and academic and health institutions. It was an inspired day of cross-pollination and networking. A report and DVD of the Summit are available.  Join us for another Summit this Fall!

Did you know that you can call us with your environmental questions? Our Info Desk staff will give you referrals and provide information to help you make sound ecological choices.  Email erc@ecologycenter.org or give us a call at 510-548-2220 x233. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, send a note to newsletter@ecologycenter.org. This newsletter can also be found online at http://ecologycenter.org/newsletter/20070326.html.

The Ecology Center is a membership organization providing environmental information and direct services to promote sustainable living and a healthy, socially just world. Please support this community resource for the environment by becoming a member or making a donation. Support our work on-line at http://www.ecologycenter.org/donate/