Seattle Peak Oil Awareness - Group: Options

Dave on Parking strip food production now officially allowed and encouraged by city.

Fri, 15 May 2009 15:12:28 -0400

Thanks to Richard Conlin for driving this from within the Seattle City Council. Thanks to everyone in SPOA whoi asked for this during the Q&A session during Richards talk at SPOA last year.

Dave

City drops fees for food gardening in planting strips

http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/2009/05/12/news/city-drops-fees-food-gardening-planting-strips

By Robinson Newspapers Staff
May 13, 2009
With efforts by Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, Mayor Greg Nickels has eliminated fees for food gardens grown in planting strips.

In previous years, many residents had been told that growing food in planting strips was not allowed. In reality, such gardens were permissible within department of transportation safety guidelines, but discouraged, according to the city.
In 2008, Conlin, chair of the council's Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities Committee, requested the transportation department clarify and communicate those guidelines to the public and shift to encourage planting strip
gardens.

The new modified rules are the result of that request.

The changes are one of several steps that council, through the Local Food Initiative, is taking to encourage Seattle residents to plant vegetables and other edible foods.

"The new rules will make it easier for people to grow their own food in Seattle," said Conlin. "Gardening in front yards and planting strips is a great way to build community."

In response to requests by the council and community, the transportation department and the mayor had proposed rule changes that would require fees and permits for food gardens. However, Conlin advocated for fees to be dropped in order to reduce costs for those seeking to grow their own food.

Council also requested that the transportation department educate citizens about these modified rules to encourage food gardening.
The changes include:

● Allowing food gardening activities that meet set-back and height requirements.
● Eliminating the need for most food gardeners to obtain street use permits.
● Providing free Street Use permits for tree planting and hardscape installations.

Planting strip height requirements include maintaining plantings so that they do not exceed 2 feet in height within 30 feet of intersections. For driveways, plants within 10 feet of driveways shall be clear of sight obstructions between 32 and 82 inches high from the ground.

In addition, plants should be set back 3 feet from curbs, 1 foot from the edge of the sidewalk, and 5 feet from utility poles or fire hydrants. More information on height and set-back requirements is available in the Seattle Right-of-Way Improvements Manual here.
The Local Food Action Initiative is currently working with several community organizations to secure federal money for a variety of projects focused on providing healthy food to low-income residents through gardening, education, and outreach to neighborhood corner stores.

The Initiative also includes a request to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to make recommendations on what publicly-held lands can be converted for the use of local food production.

Writing-On-The-Wall on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Sat, 02 May 2009 16:16:16 -0400

Thought I would chance a thread on what I am growing and seeking to grow this year. My initial desire was to get back to the Michigan farm by now and plant a wide variety of heirloom seeds. The somewhat overly ambitious goal was to till from five to 25 acres of the farm and plant the large heirloom package of 275 varieties of 29 different vegetables for nothern climates that is available from the truly great Baker Seed Company - www.rareseeds.com. This is not what is happening, in part because of my strapped financial budget due to medical bills and because I am unavailable to convince anyone else to support either my agricultural or creative ventures.

So people do what they can with what they have, in other words The Path of Least Resistance usually wins. Right now, I have overwintered two varieties of carrots -Nantes and a rainbow variety which is suppose to produce purple, pink, blue, red, yellow and white carrots, but typically produces only white and a reddish purple carrot. These I planted last October and since they survived all the frequent snow storms this past winter (my sister lives SW of Port Orchard near the Hood Canal at an elevation of maybe 600' and they got smacked with snow this past season), I am letting them live. Currently they are thriving in a 30 square foot planting beds. A week or so ago, I added several varieties of lettuce between the rows.

My goals is to harvest both the carrots and the lettuce by the beginning of June, then plant nine or ten tomato seedlings. My sister has a friend who is raising maybe 1,500 seedlings and so I should get them cheap. She composts all her kitchen waste and I will be adding this soil amendment after I harvest the lettuce and carrots. I am also starting maybe 20 Delecta squash seeds in pots to transplant in a month. These are a sweet, tasty winter squash I grew last year on the Burkhart farm and I am confident that they will grow well. These I will be planting in a sunny part of my sister's yard that I will be turning up the lawn sod on. We have an acre and a half on this homestead (I have my camper and storage container parked there and it is my out of Seattle home), so our possibilities for gardening are fairly large.

I still have hope that I will return to the family farm in Michigan and if so, then my gardening possibilities increase exponentially. Anyone want to invest into this venture? -Joe

writing-on-the-wall

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Russell on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:18:12 -0400

This post is rather dead, but I would like to update for those who care, before I leave.

www.lousyhero.com/rusty/backyard.zip <- live photos

I have spent a total of 173 and established a variety of clovers, oats, and vetch for a two year covercrop with plenty for other bed establishments.

that also purchased bamboo, water sprayer, water barrel and a variety of plants listed below:

I owe over 500% of what I have now to daily craigslist Free section reading.

I hope this is in anyway inspiring, because it has inspired me to move to Port Angeles and work on a permaculture/agroforestry based farm as an intern for the remainder of the year.

Good luck Seattle!

Roy Smith on Boats

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:56:20 -0400

This article explains why getting enough adequate boats at a reasonable cost for the Sail Transportation Network to function is not going to be a problem any time soon: Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines.

Writing-On-The-Wall on HR Bill 875 - Monsanto led assault against independent farmers

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:53:49 -0400

I felt a little guilty about ending the above post with such tinfoil paranoia, that I logged on to edit the last paragraph out. However, it looks like that after a post is written and been on the forum for a day, that one cannot edit it - or I simply can't find the commands. My preference is to eliminate that paragraph, it is not fair to the Obamas who are showing conscientious leadership that may encourage thousands or millions to move toward local food production. Something that would be a very good and positive thing for the US communities to do.

I did read the Sharon Astyk article and the comments below it after I wrote my above post. I wasn't convinced by her arguments however, the vagueness of the law could well be the mechanism by which the net of law enforcement is empowered, much like the Patriot Act (which is still in force and has not been repealed by the Obama Administration) Perhaps HR 875 may not be a comprehensive attack on small, independent and organic growers and food producers, but still the bill would add a costly and arbitrary paperwork and regulatory burden on small growers/markets that would tend to discourage uncapitalized independents to the benefits of large agribusinesses, in much the same way that the majority of USDA regulations do.

The thing that I do find heartening is that there seems to be little will in Congress to pass HR 875 and so maybe it is dead in the water. Tying this bill, which was proposed by a junior congresswoman to the Obama administration and by implication above to a sinster plot by the global financial elite to disable efforts toward local self-sufficiency was unfair, over the top and probably too tinfoil even for me. I stand corrected and apologetic. -Joe

Roy Smith on HR Bill 875 - Monsanto led assault against independent farmers

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:00:11 -0400

For what it's worth, Sharon Astyk is not panicking about HR 875.

Writing-On-The-Wall on HR Bill 875 - Monsanto led assault against independent farmers

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:40:39 -0400

Been reading a lot about the financial crisis and the intensified destruction and looting of wealth that the “credit crisis” and the bailout responses are enabling - Robert is quite right about the coming hyperinflation that is coming after the compressive deflation cycle runs its course - However, the food bill introduced into Congress may even be a greater evil. It is called “The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 or HR 875 and was inspired as a governmental solution for the recent salmonella scare in peanut products. The Feds and the corporations want to protect us from an unsanitary, unhealthy food system. Lots of controversey on the web over this, some people (myself include) think this is a monstrous attack on local and organic food production, others claim the bill will exempt small and independent farmers and food producers.

Here is a link from the site Revolution Radio: http://revolutionradio.org/2009/03/11/monsantos-dream-bill-hr-875/ - and some quotes:

HR 875, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto.

The bill is monstrous on level after level - the power it would give to Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking, the prison terms and confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the stripping away of their property rights, the imposition by the filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international “industrial” standards to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means.

The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization, they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals. They want control over all seeds, animals, water, and land.

From the I Dig My Garden web site: http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15681

HR 875 Would Essentially Outlaw Family Farms In The United States

I get a lot of e-mails each day and one today (hi Cheryl!) pointed my attention to HR 875, a bill introduced into the 111th Congress for consideration. SO, I went and did something that members of Congress rarely do and actually went and read the bill, or more accurately, at least glanced through it which is still more than they ever do. It was introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT 3rd) and has around 36 co-sponsors including Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN 7th) as of this writing. It immediately strikes me as being terribly bad legislation.

Under a heading described as protecting the public health and ensuring the safety of food it creates a “Food Safety Administration” within Health and Human Services. Oddly, not just adding regulations to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) which is also under HHS. And don't we have the USDA as well? The bill applies to all manner of “Food Establishments” and “Food Production Facilities” (note the following excerpt).

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

The bill would appear to even cover fishing boats and your downtown hot dog street vendors. In fact, the bill probably would also apply to your family garden since no exemption is apparent.

What it essentially does is place a tremendous regulatory burden on all of these organizations and individuals by requiring them to have “food safety plans”, consider all relevant hazards [note: I wish Congress would consider all "relevant hazards" or unintended consequences of everything THEY did], testing, sample keeping and to maintain all kinds of records. The bill also allows the government to dictate all manner of standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, packaging, temperature controls and other items.

This massive bloat in government regulation (and taxpayer expense to support it) would add additional cost and headache to every farm, fishing boat, restaurant, slaughterhouse, processing plant, CO-OP and anyone else associated with growing, storing or processing food. The bill authorizes fines of up to $1,000,000 (one million) dollars for “each act” and for “each day” of a violation.

We'll skip over the concern over how important food production and distribution, largely recession proof, could be if our economy continues to decline and inflation takes hold and just address this on the apparent lunacy that it is. As those familiar with history know, large dominant corporations often will use government to demand industry regulations that force the small competitor out of business or introduce barriers to entry that prevent new companies from starting up to compete. In the early part of the 20th century a tremendous amount of regulation was written by the industries themselves to be enacted into law.

In this case, I think this bill could do tremendous harm to family farms or independent food operators. Only massive companies have the ability to meet these regulations and imagine the legal expenses that could be incurred to defend oneself? Never forget, the government has near unlimited resources where you might have to cough up $200 to $500 an hour for a good attorney to defend yourself, your farm, boat, truck, restaurant, orchard, vineyard or hot dog stand. And what about the increased cost of food associated with the cost of compliance, it's not unreasonable to think that many places would have to hire staff or outside assistance just to comply with the law.

From the Campaign for Liberty web site: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=12671

Good quote:

Pay special attention to

Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
section 103, 206 and 207- read in it's entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure there are more...........

Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.
Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.

For anyone so extremely wonkish, that they actually read legislative bills, here is a link to the full text of HR 875: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

From another web site I have read, it appears that there is little congressional will to pass this measure (I would not count on this!), but that the majority of the bill's sponsors are so-called “progressives in congress” who just want to ensure the public has a safe food supply. Think of HR 875, when people celebrate the sheer righteousness of Michelle Obama's putting in a food garden on the south side of the White House lawn. Good gesture yeah, but any different than 9/11 and the War on Terror or the Reagans' “Just Say No” campaign in response to the Iran-Contra scandal? Come on people, after the Iraq War, the housing bill, credit default swaps-credit crunch-bailout measures and the 2008 election, it really is time for us to stopping drinking the kool-aid and to take the red pill. -Joe

Frank Kroger on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:26:33 -0400

I am starting my tomatoes early this year, in some small yogurt containers on the kitchen window sill. It takes a while but should get tomato production started before the first frost takes out the plants.

perplexd on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:57:55 -0500

Yes, Roy took them for his Church's garden work party which was yesterday.

limpyweta on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:39:02 -0500

did anyone take my seeds last meeting?

Russell on How's your 2009 Garden going?

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:10:13 -0500

Hello, I'm curious to see what everyone is planting in their backyards this year.

Since I dont have a backyard my family said I could experiment in theirs, but first I had to pick up College Pros Signature paint chips.

I dissassembled my highschool Herb Spirals into mounds and I planted a heap of Clover and Oats on the sides. Atop the mounds I planted Vetch and Fava Beans. Now down the line my family will have fertile soil in their backyard for any plants they like.

(more pictures to come)

I also started brewing some Compost Tea today:

1 hour

3 hours

5 hours

Hope to see a comment with your Seattle garden pictures and details!

Dave on Closed highways hurt grocery deliveries

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:25:53 -0500

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/395312_floodbiz09.html

Interesting, since this weather "event" has started our Sail Transport effort made 2 successfull deliveries. Considering we hadnt actually even planned any winter deliveries.

After 5 successfull deliveries now which have navigated around everything from Summer doldrums, unusual snowfall, to some recent 40kt gales in the Straights, I am confident we can deliver food into Seattle independent of almost any conceivable natural event (other than Tsunami or giant meteor impact, even then we'd be fine if underway)

Guess the fossil fuel delivery sytem has just lost for the first time in 100 years to sail and it wasnt even due to a gas shortage.

Dave

Writing-On-The-Wall on Obama picks pro-GMO, pro-Ethanol Vilsack for Agri Secretary

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:13:54 -0500

Wasn't sure where to place this post as it does relate to Current Events or Renewable Energy, but since this decision mostly affects rural land-use and agriculture, Food Production is where it sits. Well, I've been a cynic about American politics for quite the time and the social engineering of this past electoral season just disgusted me, but here is further proof that Obama is likely to disappoint many of the more awakened progressives and sustainability activists. Our President-Elect has selected former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, a prominent spokeman for biofuels, genetically modified crops and large agribusiness, to be his Secretary of Agriculture. It is what people should have expected, but still it hurts that the Change Solutions will be a continuation of what will surely prove to be disastrous energy, food supply and environmental policies in the coming years.

The www.PeakOil.com thread about this nomination is good reading: http://www.peakoil.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=49231

Here is what the Organic Consumers Association has to say about Vilsack:

* Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:
http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/drugsincorn102302.cfm

* The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.
http://www.bio.org/news/pressreleases/newsitem.asp?id=200…

* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows.

* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.

* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s
The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.

*Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.

Vilsack is known to travel around in a jet owned by the Monsanto Corporation whose business model he is a booster of. It would be impossible for someone like Michael Pollan in our political climate to become Secretary of Agriculture, but couldn't Obama select someone less evil than a Monsanto stooge? The consequences of this decision and the continuation of biofuels, GMOs, monoculture farming and subsidies to large agribusinesses are CERTAIN to be DIRE. -Joe

Dave on Volunteer Kitchen needed in Ballard Jan 4

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:23:45 -0500

Please help.

Would anyone have a kitchen in Ballard which could be used to host an event for the next Sail Transport delivery in January 4th?

Contact Dave 206 605 3628

Dave

Writing-On-The-Wall on truly great reading on the financial crises

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:09:26 -0400

I have been gearing up to write several posts about the financial crises we are in as well as how the behavior of oil and gas prices over the past year and continuing have overturned traditional ecomomic models of supply/demand. However with the reality so absurd and hard to clarify, I decided to do some indepth reading first. Physical reality must take precedence over financial speculation, media perception management and political manipulation eventually, but the evolution that is happening is truly complex and non-intuitive. Have found some great analyses of our situation however and I encourage you to read them, even if they are quite lengthy.

The first is off of Robert Rapier's R-Squared blog written by a guest poster: http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2008/10/credit-crisis-joins-energy-crisis.html#comments

The second is from Jeff Vail site from May of this year when most everyone was thinking the skyrocketing prices of commodities was depletion-driven (not me however if you had read my posts at that time, understanding tinfoil realities caused me to guess that the powers that be were playing the peak oil meme to their financial gain). Anyway, here is that article in which he discusses Charles Hugh Smith's analysis of the oil price rise: http://www.jeffvail.net/2008/05/oil-price-head-fake.html

Third is some uncommon - in our media/blog world - sound thinking about the blow-up of the credit and debt crisis by Henry C.K. Liu of the Asia Times (one of the best international newspapers for clear economic thinking). Here is that link: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JJ23Dj02.html

So many good quotes, I will just refer you to the articles instead. As far as what we need to do to survive and prosper in these coming months, I will stand on the foundation of my previous recommendations as well as the work of other core SPOA writers. There are opportunities to surf the waves and currents of turbulent change, but we will have to be clear-headed and reality-based to do so. Nothing trumps in actual reality the 2nd Law of Thermodymanics, Murphy's Laws or the axiom that you cannot get something for nothing and there is no free lunch (that is without taking someone's else's lunch or causing undue damage to our environmental support systems - aka the living world).

Sad though that when given choices on how to navigate the currents of resource depletion, that the powers governing our economy have chosen to accelerate and intensify the hard crash. Good luck everyone. -Joe