Okay it’s not glamorous and, yes, sometimes I fall asleep at my desk, highlighter in hand, as I’m trying to drudge my way through the heavy business lingo that I did NOT go to school for.   But here’s the thing,  I’m still very motivated to understand it.  This practice is so new and so exciting that I can’t help but get eco-geeky over this stuff.  Because I’m excited about what the concept means.  What it means is that businesses are waking up.  They no longer can stand aside and point fingers or ignore certain truths about our planet.  And us consumers are doing pretty good too!  People are demanding organic or eco-friendly products because they have been better informed about what effects their consumption has in the world and in the world market.   And THAT is what’s worth getting up in the morning.  It’s like this great quote by Paul Hawken (one of my fav eco-smarties), in a commencement speech that he gave this year.  It nearly made me cry just to read it.

“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, ‘So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.’ There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.” (2009)

Yes I know that I quoted quotes within a quote.  I don’t care.  This is a great example on how it’s important not to lose sight of the human element in everything.  We can not depend on science, or technology, or religion in and of themselves.  It’s when we apply ourselves into them that we see the real picture reveal itself.  The truth is that there have been some seriously impossible situations that we have survived as a species, as communities, as families.  It’s enough to make you get up and sing.  Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean.

Thought like that save me. They really do.  Because I could get so easily lost in all this jargon and market economics and bullshit, but then I read Paul Hawken or Michael Pollan and I realize that it’s worth a little tedium to get a chance to chisel away as the mountain of difficulties that face us as we undertake changing the way the world works. And that brings us back to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.  It’s catching on, this GHG accounting thing.  Companies now have a way to really look at what the TRUE cost of their business is, not only in the bank but as a tenant of the earth.  We don’t have to allow businesses to trash our environment anymore.  They are being held accountable.

That’s why I am also excited for the Copenhagen talks coming up too!  The UNFCCC  (or the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change)  will be meeting this year to talk the big talk about what’s happening now and what should be happening across the globe as far as our efforts go to help prevent global warming and improve our pollution habits.  Here is a fun little article about the city as well as the climate talks themselves : 100 Thing…

And it’s a little ways away (Dec 7-18) but still it’s coming.  Well I suppose that’s it for now.  I’m going to try and build a worm bin with my mom so she can start composting at her house. 

Breathe deep,

       Erma

My boss (we shall call him Richard) was really impressed with the report that I made about worm composting.  He said that it was excellent and told me that he thought that I would be a great asset to the sustainability team here. Yeeeeee!!  I’m ecstatic!  This is just such a huge change for me since I have never worked in an office setting before and I had this fear that somehow I would fall flat on my face.  I’ve always been the girl working odd jobs, like theatre construction, or camp counselor, or envelope stuffer, but now to have a grown up job feels like a big-BIG, you know?  And I suppose that time will tell if I succeed or fall, but right now I’m leaning in the good direction.

So chalk one up to worm composting and farmers markets.  I read this great article about the Obamas today on Grist and thought I would share.   Mr. Prez is going to start a farmers market right outside the white house. Linky! What a fantastic example to set for the rest of the country.  I hope this trend catches on!  More farmer’s markets for all.  Speak of which, the Portland Farmer’s Market of the park blocks is wonderful.  If you live in my neck of the woods, I suggest checking it out sometime. Another Linky! And a pic:

Oooh how pretty!

I had the best tomatos today.  They were grown on the little garden that on the campus of my work.  Like little exploding sunrays in my mouth! Yrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmaaaaa! POOOOWWW!

That’s all for now.

I see this reflected all around the new sustainable practices that are emerging in our society.  A lot of people, urban and rural residing, are commenting, blogging, and twitting (something like that) about how much they are enjoying their rain-harvesters or worm composting bins!  It’s fun to use less and find creative ways to lessen your carbon footprint.  It’s like getting into a new exercise regimen.  As first you grumble becuase you have to stop being lazy, but they it becomes enjoyable and little addictive.

Let me jump subjects a little here.  If you haven’t heard about worm composting yet, then you are missing out!  Let me tell you.  This looks like a blast (but then again, there’s probably something deeply strange about me).   The reason that I know almost everything there is to know about worm composting is becuase my new company has asked me to do a little research.  The owner of the company also owns a few farms and dairies with his family.  Well, as I hope you know, cows poop and pee a LOT.  And when you have over 500 cows, you can’t just let all that waste go into the ground water.  It usually ups the nitrogen levels so much that it kills a lot of  native organisms.  So there are these nifty things called Bio-Swales. They are a means of filtering toxins out of water or the soil through specific plants that are planted over it so the bad get converted into the harmless.  Here is a picture in order to get the gist of what I’m talking about here:

So how they are planning to implement this on the dairies is having a series of bioswales.  The liquid waste from the cows can go through not just one, but five phases of filtration and what comes out will not be harmful at all.  It’s really neat. They just finished digging out these troughs in the ground and lined them in heavy duty plastic so that none of the potent stuff can get into the groundwater.  Next, they will fill the trenches with the dry manure/compost  over a series of pipes that will transport the liquid down the line.  Then they will grow grass on top of it. And the cows will eat it!!!

BAM! An almost completely closed system.  It’s beautiful.  Well anyway, they want to add some composting worms to the mix in order to streamline the process even more.  They love to eat cow waste and leaves and old food and all that good stuff.  If you are interested here are some good websites that I found to be informative:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost :  just your basic wiki article here, but I found it very well researched.

http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/110/2/ :  There is a touching essay here that talks about disappearing worms species.

http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html : Here is a great step-by-step guide if you want to know how you could set up a worm compost bin for your house.

I apologize if some of these first posts here seem a bit scattered.   There is so much that I have had to take in in such a short time and it’s a little overwhelming at times.  But I think having to write it out in this form will help me keep it all straight…sort of.  Plus I want to connect people with the fun information that I’m digging up in the course of my job.

Which brings me to my reading list for the past month!  Here are some titles that I found to be interesting, educational or have recently been recommended to me:

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Micheal Pollan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (and others)

These author are all crazy smart and are trying to work with everyday realities as well as the need to be nicer to the earth before we are totally screwed.

Which reminds me (strangely enough) that I saw previews of “2012″ and laughed more than was appropriate.  Awful. I mean, I’m sorry, but it looks WAY to melodramatic for my taste.  But it might be worth it for the giggle. Oh oh John Cusack.

Til next time,

Erma

Eh, I don’t know.  I’m just a youngster really.  I turned 23 recently and even though I was struck suddenly by how fast the last five years have flow by, I was also reminded of how young I am.  I’ve got many years and lessons in front of me.

Lessons such as:  Looking for a Job sucks big Donkey snot.  Especially when the world economy is going down the Pooper.  Yah, you betcha!  Not my fault either.  I didn’t vote for that guy.  What was his name?  Oh, come on, does it really matter?  Probably not.  In the whole BIG PICTURE scheme of things, we’ll all just be an inch of rock left for some future alien archeologists to find, right?  I don’t generally like to get myself into thinking that way, because it can lead one into “whats the point” type of thinking and eating an entire ranch-chicken pizza from Pizza-Time all to yourself.  It’s delicious, but take it from me, its a bad idea.  So I sucked it up and even though I was pretty sure that I would end up working for a Fast Food joint (Satan’s Personal Favorite) or as a Telemarketer (Nazi-Zombies), I soldiered on.  I was determined to move out of my parent’s house once and for all. *cue fanfare*

Lesson next: Sometimes (but only very sometimes), life hands you a break.  It must be all the good karma that I accumulated for not black-mailing my ex boyfriend because I could easily let it slip to his mom about that one night when some three-someish things occured between him, his current girlfriend and I (totally not my fault). Either that or it was all the times that I let people into my lane while driving on I-5.  Or you know, maybe it’s just all luck and my number was up.  Who knows! Well whatever (or whoever) was behind it, I got a very radical job offer after awkward, aweful months of very consistent pleading, praying, and selling myself like a Disney tween.  Yeah for me!

A very excellent and super sweet (as in awe-puppy-hugs sweet) organic food company offered me an internship with their sustainability department. Double Yeah!  It’s definitely a new field for me (I majored in Theatre).  But the moment I set foot in the door, it felt like the perfect fit.  The people are friendly and helpful.  The products are nutritious and delicious.  And BEST of ALL! I get to help save the WORLD!  One little composting bin at a time.  But that’s how it’s got to get done, you know?  It’s in all the little things that we care enough to do everyday, because we know they are the right thing to do, that will make all the difference.  I really do believe that. I’m not one to mope and say “what’s the point”.  I see great things happening.  And maybe that’s the dumb idealistic girl in me talking, but I hope she never shuts up.  Right now, she’s what get me up in the morning.  ‘Cause as far as I’m concerned, I’ve got the best job in the world right now.  I’m watching the world change from a fire escape, smoking a bowl of delicious sustainability and it’s legal baby!  Come on over and join me. *Winkity Wink*

Gaia Bless,

Erma