Archive for October, 2010
Help Spiral Gardens’ Produce Stand!
Spiral Gardens, a Berkeley nursery on Oregon and Sacramento Streets, is one of the vendors at the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets. Spiral Gardens calls itself a food security project, specializing in selling edible and medicinal herbs, plants, and trees. In addition to selling plants at the nursery, they run a small produce stand on Tuesdays at [...]
Buy tickets to the Berkeley Green Gathering with Bill McKibben!
The Ecology Center is excited to present the Berkeley Green Gathering on Saturday, November 6, in conjunction with the City of Berkeley. Join us for a memorable time: we have a great lineup of speakers on breakthrough movements in the sustainability field, with environmentalist Bill McKibben as keynote speaker. Great food, great opportunities to network [...]
Increasing Trouble with Monsanto’s Roundup
Monsanto’s popular weedkiller, Roundup, has a reputation as being one of the more benign herbicides out there. But that reputation is seriously eroding, as farmers dump more and more toxic chemicals to fight the now Roundup-resistant weeds, and studies are confirming the toxic nature of Roundup’s “inert ingredients.” According to a recent study, “the proprietary [...]
Annie Leonard adapts Story of Stuff messages for PBS Kids Audience
Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff video series has reached an extensive audience, but can it convince our kids to consider the environmental impact of all the stuff they want, want, want? Leonard has partnered with PBS KIDS and WGBH to tailor the video series to 6- to 9-year-olds, called LOOP SCOOPS. Click here to read [...]
Take Action to Defeat Prop 23
Help defeat Prop 23, the Dirty Energy Proposition, in this crucial upcoming election! Recent polls show that it’s a close race, with 20% of voters undecided, and nearly two-thirds of voters completely unaware of Prop 23 and what it would mean for California’s environment and public health. Don’t sit around while Texas oil determines California’s [...]
Three “Producer Responsibility” California Waste Bills Passed
We at the Ecology Center are great believers in “Product Stewardship,” which is also known as “Extended Producer Responsibility” or EPR. EPR is a policy approach that shifts the responsibility for waste management costs from solely being the burden of taxpayers and ratepayers to include manufacturers of products who can compete to reduce recycling costs. [...]
Mayor Bates Welcomes New Recycle Carts
By now, Berkeley residents may have seen the brand new split recycle carts delivered to their houses. Earlier this week, Berkeley mayor Tom Bates held a press conference at his home to celebrate the introduction of the new carts. The Ecology Center is hopeful that the cart system will be instrumental in helping the city [...]
How Do Your Eggs Score?
After the egg recalls this past summer, the Ecology Center has been tracking progress and information about egg safety. You already know that you can decrease the risk of consuming salmonella-contaminated eggs by buying from small-scale organic farmers (read our blog post on Egg Safety and the Berkeley Farmers’ Market), but what to do when [...]
Support Haiti this Thursday, October 14th
This Thursday wraps up our Haiti benefit series, bringing keynote speaker Pierre Labossiere from the Haiti Action Committee to speak on Food Justice and Food Sovereignty in Haiti. Don’t miss our panel of food justice experts, including speakers from Food First and People’s Grocery. All proceeds from this event will benefit the Haiti Emergency Relief [...]
Berkeleyside Profiles Longtime Blue Heron Staffer Aaron Betesh
If you shop at the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets, you might have been tantalized by Blue Heron Farms’ beautiful produce: thick orange carrots, juicy baby bok choy, luscious curly kale, tender lettuce, and gorgeous flower bouquets are some of them. Berkeley Bites interviewed Aaron Betesh, an East Bay resident who has been selling Blue Heron’s produce [...]
10/10/10: EcoHouse Native Plant Clinic and Earthen Plaster Party!
We’ve got a couple of fun events planned for 10/10/10 at EcoHouse, our demonstration house and garden. At 10am is the EcoHouse tour of the site and garden, including a talk on East Bay Native Plant Gardening with Lyn Talkovsky. The tour focuses on simple improvements that can be made to green an urban home, [...]
The Ecology Center’s Berkeley Recycling Carts are Here!
Last week, the Ecology Center began receiving shipments of carts, and the staging area has begun to fill up. Carts stacked 8 high are unloaded and grouped according to delivery route. Crews are working to load the right mix of split carts for single-family homes and standard carts for small apartment buildings. Single Family homes [...]
Why are Texas oil companies trying to kill California’s Global Warming Solutions Act?
Texas oil companies Valero and Tesoro are funding the campaign for Prop 23, which Californians will vote on this November. Prop 23 is a bill that would stall—possibly indefinitely—the implementation of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). The Union of Concerned Scientists explain the motivations driving these oil companies: With continued lack of climate [...]
Poets, Writers, and Music at Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival This Saturday
The Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival will take place this Saturday, October 2, from noon to 4:40 in Civic Center Park. The stellar lineup of poets includes Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Al Young, David Meltzer, and Camille Dungy. There will be readings from student poets, music by Barry Finnerty’s Jazz Roots Trio, and [...]
