Hi there folks!

Been hot, been good and sunny so I wanted to put this up for yous so that you can know some of what to shoot to resonate with and you can see the original post reference at the other blog, http://artandmaterial.wordpress.com/

These are good ways to defeat the old systems of control at higher energy levels.

Two successful case studies so far.

madison-gardens-clt
Food Forest Takes Root in Seattle

Transition to a New System: Index

A. Problem: System of industrial agriculture is fatal to consumers, rivers and lakes, genetic diversity, wildlife, community. We must not replace patriotism about our country for greed of large-scale industrial farming.

— The Economics of Low Price

— Scathing letter from an agvocate

— Obama has not helped organic farmers (Tumblr) (we have been penalized/ small farmers have not been helped/ however, these local and organic farmers are the hope for our future)

— What we know about GMO (Tumblr)

— Glyphosate (Roundup)

—  Leafy green problems , “natural” problems, Raw food raids

— Sustainability (lack of)

B. Organic agriculture was fastest growing sector, why? It’s entrepreneurial spirit, optimism, timely, news.

— What I am thinking is, Farm Economy

— Guest blogger Amanda Garant: A Farmer for Always

— Corn Planting around the corner: A Different Option for Farmers

— Organic is Modern

C. But we must go beyond the USDA certification to save small farming, the wilderness, and our wildlife. We must conquer a mechanistic and reductionist worldview, to understand that our food decision creates our children’s future.

Wendell Berry: ‘Soil is not usually lost in slabs or heaps of magnificent tonnage. It is lost a little at a time over millions of acres by careless acts
of millions of people. It cannot be solved by heroic feats of gigantic technology, but only by millions of small acts and restraints.’

— Response to @TheFarmersLife, High Tech Ag is Not Natural

— The need for “99% Sustainability:” John Jeavons and Ecology Action

— Some goals for the food movement to work with (global perspective, morals..)

— Parks, Ecology, Business

— Elk Migration Routes, and a Permaculture-Ecology Project

— How the Amish React to New Technology

— Government, Scientific, Technology adaptations for development (From the IAASTD)

D. Posit a new system. Method:

— “Anarganic” norms for the twenty-first century

— The #Organic Pages

— Beyond Organic

E. And ask them for seeds. Cook and grow your own food.

(Some of my favorite recipes: butternut squash, egg torta, best cornbread)

Hi Mr. President!

Economics/Environmental Policy/ International Relations graduate here. Your ideas guy “I’m your left-hand man”!

I wanted to share with you a post that’s been REAL popular with the true remaining environment movement. It’s entitled, “Environment: Ten Things Obama Must Do”. How the president can help heal the environment without waiting for Congress on any one of them!

The article, originally published on Rolling Stone, has been liked and forwarded and tweeted many times, with long discussion comments and RTs. The link is at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/environment-ten-things-obama-must-do-20110914

-Eddie Miller, “A Global Organic Mindset”
BU ’10
https://eddiemill.wordpress.com/

The Oberlin 2025 Planning Meetings

I just attended the final community feedback meeting for Oberlin’s planning commission to craft a plan for Oberlin in 2025. They have been held by the College, City, Library, different Non-profits, Churches.. etc. This one was held by the WRLC. If you live in Oberlin, I doubt you haven’t been invited to one. Fascinating table and the ability to be heard by city government. Really, the ability to craft our future as an area.

So exciting that we can build and prepare these networks to be ready for whatever happens. We should decide to go on a “green belt” that would be around Oberlin (the School district) and would provide Oberlin’s restaurants and schools with fresh healthy food, and Oberlin’s residents (esp. low-income) with a chance to grow on their own land to start.

If anyone in Oberlin is interested in growing, go with it! Get those seeds in and see if you can help it grow. It was organic gardening that got me started along a path that others can follow to be our future agricultural economy: access, vegetable/community gardening, small animals, farm intern, market gardener … (program at LCCC?)
In Massachusetts, an organization that I recommend ithe New Entry Sustainable Farm Project (http://nesfp.org/). They are amazing and have a class that leads into an intro program where you practice CSA growing on 3/4 acre.

For anyone who’s interested in Energy sustainability, BU has a great grad school program on it, very good and some of the top energy and environment professors in the country there. For energy, try to do something tangible like a utility-scale solar field or reducing how much you/we use. Here, last night I had great luck challenging the city council people that were there on it; they took up the challenge.

I hope that as we move forward we can rise to meet these challenges, as a nation and globally. A shout out to the folks in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts who are now beginning the 2 community discussion meetings on these topics!
-Eddie
440-935-5434
twitter http://twitter.com/eddiemill/
ag mini-blog http://eddiemill.tumblr.com/

A Systems Perspective 1: Resources in Country growth

What we make & have and how we get it.

This is one of my academic posts based mainly on class theory of International Economics, History, Geography, and IR, along with my development economics post Agricultural Trade Doesn’t Work for Poor People , and a sociology posting The Next Globalization is Local . Today I explore the hypothesis that we ascended to economic empire by resource-use (and debt- other post & Other Post Nicole Foss ..) reliance in Economic growth, and use that to extrapolate outwards in my blog about a response to a pending resource recession.

The US ascention to greatness

I hope to prove with this post, like all my other posts, that Economy is not separate from the environment, and history has a large impact on the future of the USA. Information about online
masters degrees is available for people who want to further explore global growth and economics issues. Advanced study is often beneficial for moving toward a full understanding of the complexities of our modern economy.

Economic history growth of the Economy:

World Economic Finance and how we ascended 1879-1945: the United States grew absolutely and relatively in relation to other countries at this time, due to capital intensive production (steel), resource intensity (factories for export and trade), and internal composition of our business sectors during this time. Conditions for growth were ripe, and there was a ton of land for taking. We expanded our transportation infrastructure, cultivated a secondary (internal) demand for goods and services, and invested heavily in our non-renewable resource extraction (table 1). In California, as an example, “earthy goods” of timber, gold, coal, oil, fish, agricultural products, natural gas and energy are a big source of productivity, combined account for around 40%-70% of where people were employed in productive California (table 2). There was a 64% resource intensity gain of GDP during this time period that we grew 1879-1941.. Just look at these tables:

Walker, Richard A. 2001

Often, this value depletes the source it’s built on. It’s sort-of a “resource bonanza” capitalism that made private property, surplus, money and investment; in a word <b>growth</b>. Where did this welfare come from? Since the industrial revolution, production systems did change a lot during this time, and regional transportation networks took off like the modern-day internet. But if we’re looking to replicate real growth in other countries (or our own) in the present day and avoid recession, it necessarily involves real. production. on this sort of scale by human means. And it better be sustainable, too.. It’s hard to imagine a future society with no environment left. FYI, there are plenty of precedents for recovery for the US but most often it’s going to war that eventually gives us the boost.

for a recession: see other post

Local in Boston III: Whole Foods?

I am going to go ahead and say that I am in support of the Whole Foods model, but I don’t shop there. (It’s like Cap-and-trade..) The key reason is this: the agriculture they support there is sustainable, and the demand they capture is mainstream. Thank you, Whole Foods, for supplying fresh and sustainable produce to Boston and the surrounding areas. I just wish I could afford it..

more: Whole Foods!

Ecological Economics

All production requires the circulation of materials and the utilization of energy.
So it is the most limiting factor, the first fence that we come to that stops us, that prevents sustainable equilibrium

A new science is emerging that blends a “biophysical” economic perspective with throughput of energy, and a better accounting of our real impact on this planet. Reading the text solidified a lot of the issues I was having with the discipline.

For example, what are the implications of not giving an intrinsic value to a limited resource? (oil)