Shopping Local Made Etsy, I mean Easy
Did anyone make a New Year’s Resolution revolving around eco-friendly gifts? For those of you who are time or talent ‘lacking’ there are several ways to locate local shops that support your economy and local entrepreneurs. My favorite site to shop local is Etsy. Etsy’s vision is to create a platform for inventive individuals to sell their work and connect them with potential buyers, thus creating a new economy where people support people in place of global supply chains.
We all know that shopping local feeds dollars into our region’s economies, bolstering their viability during tough economic times. So Etsy’s addition of a ‘Shop Local’ feature allows you to enter your location and viola! local artists in your City pop-up. Since there are no brick and mortar stores to support, the costs of production and exhibition are greatly minimized, including their environmental impacts. This is an easy way to better manage your own supply chain of goods that flow out of your house, so your gifts can match your ideals.
Instead of braving markets in the cold winter months, you can support local artists from your own home. And for those of you with crafting genius waiting to be discovered, you can create your own webpage and start sharing your work today. Who knows, you may find the perfect gift!
Click here to see what local artists are up to in your neighborhood on Etsy.
Baltimore City Considering Plastic Bag Tax
This is a local news story out of Baltimore, MD that could affects all shoppers. In an attempt to clean up the streets of Baltimore of plastic bags, the Baltimore City counsel is proposing 25¢ tax on every bag used in stores. Councilman Bill Henry is the bill’s sponsor and had this to say about the bill:
Those bags end up in our trees, in our fences, eventually in our gutters, in our storm drains, and in our harbor. It would just be easier if people didn’t take them
This comes after Washington D.C. levied a 5¢ on all non-reusable bags. There are some hurdles that councilman Henry faces including objections from several members of the council including the president.
This bill seems really great on the surface: let’s tax a product so that people won’t use it and in turn help our environment. That picture seems really cheery, but the problem is that people should not have to pay for it. It may encourage people to use less plastic bags, but why not start a program to distribute reusable bags or ban plastic bags all together like in Westport Connecticut. Why must we get taxed to help save our environment?
The truth behind bills like these are that the government is trying to get more tax money from people and use the “green” movement as a cover up. In my opinion, lawmakers are acting just as bad as businesses making false green claims just to make a larger profit. They may have better intentions than businesses, but it still ends up hurting the consumers in the end.
Share Your Thoughts
How do you feel about taxing plastic bags and any alternatives (if any) that you may feel are better than a tax.
Loading ...Farmer’s Market Season Has Begun
It’s one of my favorite times of the year, Farmer’s Markets are either starting up again or beginning to carry more and more fresh produce. It’s wonderful that we can finally begin to buy fresh local produce that is much better than horrible produce you find in grocery stores over the winter or canned/jarred preserved items. When I visit the farmer’s market, I’m always excited to find the latest produce that’s in season. There is such a huge difference in the prices and quality you will find there that it will keep you coming back every week. Also, who could forget about the great atmosphere where you get to meet the farmer’s who grew the produce.
Be sure to check out these great resources to find a farmer’s market in your area:
If farmer’s markets aren’t your thing, you could always still join up to a CSA in your area. You can have fresh produce delivered to a location near your house every week. You get the great benefits of going to a farmer’s market without having drive the sometimes long distance to get to one.
University of Maryland Plans to Bulldoze Woods
The University of Maryland plans on bulldozing 9 acres of woods near the Comcast Center, the university’s basketball stadium. This really hits home for me because I went to the University of Maryland. I used to park in a parking lot right next to the wooded area in which they plan to demolish. The University says that it needs the area to relocate support facilities because of rapid development on campus.
This news comes right as the university is considered one of the top tree-friendly campuses in America. The campus just received the “tree campus” designation from the Arbor Day Foundation along with the college’s arboretum designation by the American Public Gardens Association. This really angers me because this is just a two-faced move by the university. What’s even worse is what Anne G. Wylie, vice president for administrative affairs had to say:
“This is a very complicated problem,” she said, adding that she sees no conflict between bulldozing woods and the university’s campaign to be rated one of the nation’s greenest schools. The overall aim is to develop a more compact, walkable campus and reduce the amount of driving by students, faculty and staff, she explained. “It’s not just about preserving trees.”
Bulldozing woods is not the reason you were named one of the greenest schools throughout the nation? That is so hypocritical that isn’t not even funny. Knowing the campus well, I cxan tell you that this will not help make the campus more carbon neutral at all. No matter what you do with this area of campus, it will not help reduce the amount of driving required on campus.
What’s even worse about this problem is that the fact that the eco-system in this small area of campus is unique for the area. It has a variety of soils and species and would be ashame to seem that all destroyed.
It’s obvious this move by the university is all about money. They would like to develop the campus further by building more campus apartments and shopping. The only way to do that is move the support facilities that are on the main part of campus to these woods that in which no students live or class buildings are located.
Family Farm Wins National Environmental Stewardship Award
The Yon Family Farm out of Ridge Spring, S.C. recently won the 2009 National Environmental Stewardship Award for their conservation efforts throughout their farm at this years Cattle Industry Annual Convention. The Yon family can be considered by many as everyday environmentalist like most of us and do their part in every aspect of their farm to make a difference.
National Environmental Stewardship Award
In order to reward land stewards such as farmers and ranchers for their conservation and environmental efforts, the Environmental Stewardship Program was created in the early 1990’s. The common goal of the winners of this award is to maintain the condition of the land in the same if not better shape for future generations to use. It also provides other cattle producers with ideas on how they can apply similar methods to their own farm. It’s great to see that cattle farmers are making a change and it shows. Greenhouse gases have decreased by 4% among agriculture and America now has 16 million more acres of forestland thanks to this organization.
The Yon Family
After reading about the great efforts this family has taken to lower their impact on the environment, I just had to share it on my blog. Kevin and Lydia Yon started their farm 12 years ago after both graduating from Clemson University. They wanted to start a farm that could be passed onto their kids. Their farm has expanded from 100 to 800 cows and they now own more than 1,500 acres of ground. Some of the things they have done in order to win this award include:
- Irrigating crops with pond-water using an efficient, low pressure watering system;
- Planting crops using a no-till, rotational sequence to improve soil fertility and reduce erosion;
- Sampling forage and soil to monitor proper fertilizer application;
- Reinforcing more than 34,000 square feet of high traffic areas around barns, water troughs and feed bunks to prevent erosion and protect water quality;
- Installing 28 water troughs and 55,352 feet of fencing to facilitate rotational grazing on pasture land; and
- Managing farm ponds to encourage healthy wildlife habitat.
I really hope that the recognition of this great family’s work spreads and other farms begin using similar methods to make a difference in this country.
Join A Local CSA
Community Supported Agriculture or CSA are becoming more popular than ever with more and more people beginning to support their local community farms. A CSA is like a produce subscription where you can receive fresh fruits and vegetables from a local farm or farms. You usually arrange a weekly pickup location to receive your produce. All that is required is that you make an initial contribution to cover the expenses of the farm(s) throughout the growing season.
The idea of community supported agriculture was not started in America, but in Europe and Asia. Just as we are concerned about our food quality today, many communities began teaming up with their local farms to form partnerships in the mid 1960’s. It did not make its way to America until 1984. Since then, it has spread throughout our country, but more highly concentrated in the Northeast, upper Mid-West and Pacific regions. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 farms throughout North America now participate in some form of CSA program.
Types of CSAs
There are a variety of types of CSAs that are implemented including:
- Whole season budget for providing produce for a set number of weeks.
- Consumers help in the production of whatever harvest they are to receive.
- A risk and reward system where consumers get what the farm is able to grow.
I would say the most common type that I have heard of is the first in which you pay an upfront cost and receive produce for a set number of weeks throughout the growing season. It allows you to receive a steady stream of produce throughout the season and choose what types you receive. The other two options are slightly hard, but can reap higher reward and may be slightly less expensive.
Kind of Produce
Just as with Farmer’s Markets, you will get produce that is in season for you local area. Depending on your area, you can get anything from broccoli to arugula and even strawberries. This can be a drawback if you are expecting to receive tomatoes the entire season, but the farm only grows them for a few weeks during the growing season. You can always preserve the produce during their peak time and save them for the winter.
Advantages
There are tons of advantages to a CSA program, probably too many to list. Here are some of the best reasons to join one this season:
- Produce is fresh, locally grown and sometimes organic.
- Save money by paying a lump sum at the beginning of the season.
- Choose different produce each week.
- Save trips to the grocery store or farmer’s markets.
- Support your community farms.
I am going to be joining a local farm’s community supported agriculture program here in Maryland that delivers to several farmer’s markets and locations throughout the area. I am only paying $10 a week to get several different types of produce every week starting in June and lasts for 24 weeks. Check out Local Harvest to find a CSA in your area. Please share any experiences you may have with a CSA in your area or if you plan on joining one this season.
When is Local Not So Green?
Local Produce Not Green? This is a interesting topic that was researched by the University of Exeter out of England. The study that was published in Food Policy that the carbon emissions from a delivery truck are on average lower than making trips to your local farm. The researchers compared the amount of carbon emissions emitted between driving yourself and having organic produce delivered to you. They made sure to take into account CO2 emitted by all items involved in storing, packaging and transporting the items. In order for the trip to your local farm to make sense, it would have to be less than 4.16 miles ( 6.7km ). This is even under the condition that the farm selling the produce is not using any heating/cooling or lighting in their shop.
Is This Study Really Relevant?
After reading about this study a few times, I came to realize that the conditions mentioned are not really at all relevant to Americans. The average produce in American travels 1,500 miles and is not usually organically grown. Our food travels to far here for the trip to the farm or local market not make more sense. Also, I am not sure how the produce is in the UK, but the stuff you buy at your grocery store here is not anywhere as close to the quality at a local farm. Granted, organic produce from natural stores are often better than you normally would find at a normal grocery store. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seems to me to be the optimum choice in terms of limiting the amount of carbon emissions, supporting your local community and buying fresh tasty produce. It allows you to buy local produce and have it delivered from the farm to a location closer to your house. If the study mentioned above is talking about CSA’s, then I am in total agree with the study.
