Tag: los angeles

Fruit Foragers in the City

  • Foraging for fruit from people’s yards is one thing. Foraging for fruit in people’s alleys, another. Woody Sandberg says he avoids foraging in alleys where people conduct business. (Photo by Louise Baker)

With everybody looking for ways to save money, free food has never looked better. Devin Browne followed around a group of people who forage for fruit in the city. They look for fruit trees on private and public property to see what they can grab:

Transcript

With everybody looking for ways to save money, free food has never looked better. Devin Browne followed around a group of people who forage for fruit in the city. They look for fruit trees on private and public property to see what they can grab:

It’s perfectly legal here in Los Angeles to pick fruit from trees that are planted on private property as long as the fruit drops into a public space — like a sidewalk or an alley.

There are rules, though, to proper, legal urban foraging and the group Fallen Fruit knows them well. Woody Sandberg is with the group.

“You’re not allowed to reach across someone’s fence. You’re not allowed to reach into someone’s yard. You’re not allowed to crawl up people’s fences or lean ladders on their fences.”

Most of the people in Fallen Fruit ride bikes, sometimes mopeds. A lot of them carry fruit pickers on their back like you might carry a bow and arrow. There’s something almost primal in the way they all look together, fanning out into the street like a band of hunter/gatherers in search of fresh food.

(sound of street and birds)

“We’re looking for trees or any thing that produces food that hangs over the fence so we can pick it and eat it.”

Sandberg’s not actually picking fruit today – he’s just finding the best places to forage.

Later, they’ll go on a harvest ride. Then they’ll make jam and juice and beer with the fruit they’ve found. Today, the mission is just to make maps of where the trees are.

“Over here we got nopalitos and a lime and some nasturiums.”

People sitting on their porches seem not to mind at all when the group stops outside their house. No one in Fallen Fruit can remember a time when a fruit tree owner yelled or screamed or tried to kick ‘em off the sidewalk.

(sound of foragers giving directions to each other)

Which none of the foragers seem surprised by. Fallen Fruit is highly convinced of their mission. Part of this sense of legitimacy comes from the fact that the group originally conceived of itself in biblical terms.

The name Fallen Fruit even comes from a verse in Leviticus: “You shall not pick your vineyard bare or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.”

The founders also thought that cities should start planting fruit trees in public spaces, instead of thirsty, frivolous plants.

But fruit trees are oddly political. And city officials say there are reasons why they do not and will not plant them in public space.

The first reason LA’s Chief Forrester, George Gonzalez, gave had to do with people tripping and falling on fruit & then suing the city.

“One of the main reasons is a potential liability from fruit—fruit drop.”

He also said that trends in tree-planting have changed and they like to plant hearty , drought-resistant trees now.

“Also, fruit trees require more water.”

And then, there are the rats.

“Rodents love fruit trees… yes.”

Still, the City regularly gives away fruit trees to people who want to plant them in their yards.

It’s part of the mayor’s Million Trees LA pledge. Like Sandberg, Gonzalez sees fruit trees on private space as a way to benefit the public good.

“Cause when they look at a map and see it dotted everywhere with fruit trees hanging over the fence I think its going to blow people’s minds about how much food is out there. Because the current mindset is that food is in the grocery store.”

It’s a mindset not even the most dedicated of fruit foragers can escape.

After the mapping mission, Woody Sandberg left on his bike for the supermarket, because, he says, unfortunately chocolate soymilk doesn’t grow on trees.

For The Environment Report, I’m Devin Browne.

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Scientists Buff Up Their Tinseltown Image

When we go to the movies, we expect to escape from reality. Visiting aliens, time travel, extinct animals coming back to life… that’s the dazzling stuff blockbusters are made of. But not everybody is thrilled by the way scientists look in the movies. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams has the story of screenwriters who want to make movie scientists a little less weird:

Transcript

When we go to the movies, we expect to escape from reality. Visiting
aliens, time travel, extinct animals coming back to life, that’s the dazzling
stuff blockbusters are made of. But not everybody is thrilled by the way
scientists look in the movies. The GLRC’s Rebecca Williams has the
story of screenwriters who want to make movie scientists a little less
weird:


(Theme music from “Back To The Future”)


So Dr. Frankenstein and Doc Brown from “Back to the Future” are a
little… freaky. But they’re smart… and enterprising. But those kinds of wacky
movie scientists make real life scientists hurl their popcorn.


Researcher Paula Grisafi says movie stereotypes about scientists are actually
worse than those about lawyers or politicians.


“My sense of movies about scientists is that there are maybe 10% good
guys and 90% bad guys. Or not even just bad guys but misguided, even
when they’re trying to be good, they’re usually sufficiently misguided
that what they start out to do turns out wrong.”


Paula Grisafi says there are a few oddballs in real science labs, but she says her peers are really much more normal.


Really — instead of hair frizzing out of control… they have nice haircuts. And they never, ever wear pocket protectors. Grisafi’s day job is at MIT in
Cambridge, but she’s also an aspiring screenwriter. She’s working on
scripts that she says shake up the Hollywood stereotypes.


“These sort of scientist archetypes are Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde.
They’re people who were loners obsessed with their work to the point of
being a danger to themselves or to others. It’s usually frowned upon in
science to experiment on yourself.”


Take Jeff Goldblum’s character Seth Brundle, in “The Fly.” When
Brundle tests his transport machine on himself, the experiment backfires.
Brundle becomes a genetic mutant, but he’s kinda proud of it.


“Am I becoming an 185 pound fly? No, I’m becoming something that
never existed before! I’m becoming Brundle-Fly! Don’t you think that’s
worth a Nobel Prize or two?”


Maybe Brundle should’ve stopped when he turned that baboon inside out.


Paula Grisafi admits there are a few movies that show scientists as
somewhat normal people. Jodie Foster’s character in “Contact” for
example. But Grisafi says there aren’t enough to balance out the weirdos.
She says at worst, distorted images of scientists might give audiences the
impression that science is more dangerous than good.


So Grisafi jumped at the chance to be part of a screenwriting workshop
for scientists in LA last summer. It was an intense crash course with
sessions called Plot and Character, and of course, Agents and Managers.


The workshop was dreamt up by Martin Gundersen. He’s an electrical
engineer who’s had a brush with fame. He added credibility to Val
Kilmer’s lasers in the film “Real Genius.”


“I’ve met people now who are young faculty members who have told me
they were influenced by that picture to think seriously about science.”


Martin Gundersen says if the scientists in movies were more appealing,
more people might want to go into the sciences. He says the Defense
Department and companies like Boeing are really concerned that fewer
people want careers in science and engineering. In fact, Gundersen
actually landed money from the Pentagon for the workshop.


But Gundersen admits he’s still testing the theory that scientists can be
screenwriters.


“Oh it’s impossible (laughs). That’s the thing – you can’t promise that
somebody’s going to get their picture made. To me the truest cliché in
Hollywood is that everyone has a script.”


And so, can chemists and engineers possibly compete?


One box office expert says — sure. Paul Dergarabedian is president of
Exhibitor Relations Company in LA. He says scientists have as good a
chance as anyone at selling a script… as long as their stories are
compelling.


“And it’s the more interesting characters who bring that scientific
element, or you have a scientist who’s not the typical nerdy scientist. He
might be more of a sophisticated kind of character in terms of lets say a ladies’
man or something like that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.”


And actually, there is a ladies’ man in one of Paula Grisafi’s scripts. Her
story features two rivals thrown together to figure out why sea life is
dying. The stars of the story are a lovely young marine ecologist and a
hotshot microbiologist from Norway. Grisafi’s been advised that playing
up the romance might help sell the story.


“I guess I was sort of writing for a PG audience. I spent eight years in
Catholic girls’ school so I’m not sure how competent I’m going to be to
write really steamy sex scenes, but I’ll make an effort.”


Grisafi says even if she never sells a script, she’ll still get up at 5 a.m. to
write, and then she’ll put in a full day at the lab.


These new screenwriters hope to prove you don’t have to be a mad
scientist or a loner in the lab to invent movies that sell tickets.


For the GLRC, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Related Links

Chronic Wasting Disease Found in New York

  • Chronic wasting disease is affecting many captive deer, and has now been found in New York. Some question whether the disease has spread to wild deer. (Photo by Dr. Beth Williams, University of Wyoming, courtesy of CWD Alliance)

Chronic Wasting Disease has now been found in New York
and officials there are killing and testing hundreds of wild deer. They’re trying to keep the fatal brain disease from spreading to other animals. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:

Transcript

Chronic Wasting Disease has now been found in New York and officials there
are killing and testing hundreds of wild deer. They’re trying to keep the
fatal brain disease from spreading to other animals. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:


Five captive deer in central New York tested positive for chronic wasting
disease earlier this month. It was the first time the neurological sickness
appeared in the Northeast.


Officials’ biggest concern is whether the ailment has spread to the wild. That’s why they’re killing and sampling up to 420 wild deer near where the
disease was detected.


Ward Stone is New York’s lead wildlife pathologist. He says those measures
are important, but they may not help in the long term.


“It would be nice if we could eradicate it in the next few weeks and it
doesn’t take hold, but I think it’s here to stay and I would not be
surprised to one day see it from Boston to Los Angeles.”


Chronic wasting disease has been found in 12 states, including Wisconsin and
Illinois. There’s no evidence it affects humans. Still, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention recommends against eating meat from infected
deer.


For the GLRC, I’m David Sommerstein.

Related Links

Report Scrutinizes Clean Air Act

A new report says the federal Clean Air Act has been effective in dealing with some of the most serious air quality problems, but also recommends major changes to the law. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant has more:

Transcript

A new report says the federal Clean Air Act has been effective in dealing with some of the most
serious air quality problems, but also recommends major changes to the law. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant has more:


The National Research Council analysis is one of the most comprehensive studies ever done of
the forty-year old law. Republican Representative Ken Calvert requested the report. His district
outside of Los Angeles has some of the nation’s worst air pollution problems.


Rebecca Rubin is Calvert’s press secretary. She says the congressman is impressed with how
successful the Clean Air Act has been, despite the growing economy and population.


“Because of the Clean Air Act they were still able to improve the air quality. So the argument
that development and more people, more cars contribute is not necessarily always true.”


But some environmental groups see the report as a sharp critique of the Clean Air Act. Among
other things, the report’s authors urge the EPA to better enforce current environmental laws, to
pay attention to air quality in poor communities, and to consider the ecological effects of national
air pollution standards.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Semen Quality Harmed by Farm Chemicals?

A new study shows that fertile men in more rural areas have lower sperm counts and less vigorous sperm than men in urban centers. It’s the first study that shows that semen quality differs significantly between regions of the United States. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie MacDowell reports, agricultural chemicals may be to blame:

Transcript

A new study shows that fertile men in more rural areas have lower sperm
counts and less vigorous sperm than men in urban centers. It’s the first
study that shows that semen quality differs significantly between
regions of the United States. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Annie
MacDowell reports, agricultural chemicals may be to blame:


Researchers studied couples at prenatal care clinics in Missouri, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and New York.


Men from the rural area of Missouri had counts and quality that were up to 58 percent lower than men from any of the urban centers.


Dr. Shanna Swan, the researcher who headed the project, says the results were
unexpected.


“I would have hypothesized that the larger, denser, probably more polluted
urban centers would have lower semen quality, so, this was a surprise.”


Swan says it’s highly unlikely the differences in the findings are due to experimental error or chance, due to strict controls.


She says environmental factors, such as agricultural chemical exposures, are the best explanation for the inconsistencies.


But she adds that right now, it’s only a hypothesis.


The team is now testing subjects’ urine for pesticide levels and comparing them with semen quality.


The researchers hope to be out with this study in the next six months.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Annie MacDowell.

Link Found Between Bad Air and Bad Lungs

A new study is producing more evidence that there is a direct link between air pollution in big cities and lung damage. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:

Transcript

A new study is producing more evidence that there is a direct link between air pollution in big cities and lung damage. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:


Researchers at the University of Southern California followed more than 100 children through their teen years. They compared those who stayed in Los Angeles with those who left to live in cities with less air pollution. The results show the children that moved away from cities with polluted skies had significantly faster growth in their lungs. Scientists say children with decreased lung capacity are more susceptible to respiratory disease and more likely to have chronic lung problems as adults.


Lead researcher Edward Avol says the study is the latest piece of evidence that proves there is a direct and measurable positive effect in reducing air pollution. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.