Growing Fruits and Veggies in the City

  • Planting an urban garden in Louisville, KY. (Photo courtesy of the City of Louisville)

For decades, people in American cities have relied on farmers in rural areas to grow the fruits and vegetables we eat. But a new generation of farmers says there’s no reason to keep agriculture out of the urban core. Ann Dornfeld reports:

Transcript

For decades, people in American cities have relied on farmers in rural areas to grow the fruits and vegetables we eat. But a new generation of farmers says there’s no reason to keep agriculture out of the urban core. Ann Dornfeld reports:

Sean Conroe and Amber Banks found each other like so many people do these days: on the Internet. They met for cupcakes, and talked about their hopes and dreams.
It wasn’t a date. Amber and Sean both wanted to start a farm. In the middle of the city.

“Because there are a lot of neighborhoods that don’t have access to healthy, fresh produce and if they do it can be very expensive. So we see unused space as a great place to grow food to make it more accessible to people.”

They call their project Alleycat Acres. Conroe created a Web site to recruit volunteers and donations. Within a week, they were offered a plot of land between two houses in south Seattle. Conroe says 20 volunteers worked for six weekends to turn the grassy land into what it is now. A farm.

“We have spinach, onions, radish, lettuce and chard that’s all ready to be harvested right now.”

There are carrots and green onions. Peas, beans, and turnips.

“Broccoli, tomatillos and cucumbers which are all starting to pop up. And then strawberries.”

Sean Conroe is in college, and Amber Banks is a teacher. But they both grew up farming and gardening.

“Since this is our first year it’s gonna be tough. But we are very pleased so far. We did not expect there to be this much food already, so things are definitely off to a good start.”

The Alleycats have harvested nearly 200 pounds of produce so far. They’ve donated most of it to local food banks. They deliver it by bike.

(sound of snipping and bagging greens)

Bridget Barni is sitting in the dirt thinning the salad greens. She’s one of the 80 people who’ve signed up to volunteer on the farm.

“I just learned how to do this this morning. It’s amazing what you can learn when you show up on a Saturday and are willing to get dirty!”

Like a lot of the volunteers, Barni doesn’t have much gardening experience.

“So what’s the secret to picking in the right place. The right leaves?”

“Y’know, I asked that same question! And it turns out there is no science to it! It’s more like, just get in there and let the new leaves get some sun and grow.”

Exposing city-dwellers to the joys of growing food is one of the Alleycats’ missions. They invite school groups to the farm to help out. And Amber Banks says they want the same people who get food donations to know how to work the soil.

“Y’know, ’cause we’re not gonna be around forever. People are eventually gonna have to take over these gardens.
To teach people that they can feed themselves from the ground that’s right around them is really a good message as well.”

Sean Conroe says Alleycat Acres is expanding to other vacant lots in the city. So are a lot of other urban farming groups. They’re planting carrots in unused yards. And broccoli where old businesses were torn down.

“We’d like to expand as much as we can where there are empty lots that have ample sunlight, that have access to water and that have community rallying around projects such as this.”

The city has even dubbed 2010 “The Year of Urban Agriculture.” But these farms’ growth is limited. That’s because like a lot of cities, Seattle has restrictions on urban farms. The city council is now considering changing those laws.

For the Environment Report, I’m Ann Dornfeld.

New Air Pollution Rules

  • New rules for sulfur dioxide pollution.(Photo courtesy of the USDOE)

The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized new health standards for one kind of air pollution. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized new health standard for one kind of air pollution. Lester Graham reports:

In 1998 the American Lung Association sued the EPA to prod the agency to further reduce air pollutants that cause health problems. Among the pollutants was sulfur dioxide—known for causing acid rain. The primary sources of the pollutant are coal-burning power plants and other industrial plants. Sulfur dioxide emissions are capped at yearly limits, but this new rule also restricts short spikes in the emissions. Deborah Shprentz is a consultant to the American Lung Association. She says this new rule is a good first step to reduce the pollution.

“To protect the health of people, especially those with asthma and other respiratory conditions from breathing these short-term bursts of sulfur dioxide that can make them sick and send them to the hospital and even contribute to premature death.”

States will have a couple of years to comply with the new rule, but if it were put in place today, a projected 60 counties, mostly in the eastern half of the nation, would be out of compliance.

For the Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

Water Lessons From Israel

  • Moses Zohar is a farmer in the Negev desert is Israel. (Photo by Sadie Babits)

A lot of fresh water goes to grow food. But as the population increases in the world so does the demand for that water. In the U.S., states like California and Arizona already face water shortages. In Israel, farmers are using short-term solutions until they can find long term answers. Sadie Babits reports farmers there are raising crops that don’t necessarily need the best water:

Transcript

A lot of fresh water goes to grow food. But as the population increases in the world so does the demand for that water. In the U.S., states like California and Arizona already face water shortages. In Israel, farmers are using short-term solutions until they can find long term answers. Sadie Babits reports farmers there are raising crops that don’t necessarily need the best water.

There’s not much out here in the Negev desert except for the occasional sand storm and scrub brush. So if you want to grow something out in the desert, you need water. And that’s a hard thing to find in a country that doesn’t have much of it. Just ask Moses Zohar.

“ When you have water you have life. If you have no water you have no life here.”

Zohar is a farmer in the Negev desert. He remembers the day he and his family stood on this barren land. Zohar says h is knees were shaking.

“He stood here and said there is nothing here how am I going to do this [Hebrew [duck below translator]] He didn’t have any income… he had kids to feed and he’d just left his job and he had to start anew.”

Now ten years later Zohar has a small vineyard, an olive grove and dozens of pomegranate trees. He says the secret lies in huge underground aquifers. There’s a catch though. The w ater is too salty to drink, but it turns out pomegranates and olives don’t mind the brackish water. Shaher Nizre is a student at Ben Gurion University who helps farmers select and grow crops that can handle saline water.

“It depends on the tree itself because it has a system that can take salt out from the water. Not all of them can do this.”

Right now he explains scientists are testing different kinds of pomegranates on Zohar’s land.

“For example this tree will have very red fruits. This one will have soft seeds and what we try to do is try and see the best variety for Israel and the best variety for Europe.”

In other words, they’re trying to find pomegranates and olives that can be exported to European markets without using water people would normally use to drink. But even these crops can only be grown here for a while. Eventually the brackish water will put so much salt in the ground, nothing will grow.

Eilon Adar leads the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. It’s in the Negev desert.

“The population will increase so we should need more water for domestic use, for agriculture and for food production. It will indefinitely have to come from new non-conventional resources.”

One of those resources is saltwater seas. In the mid 1950s, when the country was designing a national water network to tap into the Sea of Galilee, scientists were also building the first desalination lab to take salty water and turn it into drinking water.

“So now that the Sea of Galilee is deprived from surplus of water we are ready with desalination. And what we are doing now is the same. We are happy with the results. We keep developing new technology for the next generation of producing new water.”

Adar says Israel must also learn to treat and desalinate sewage water that can be used to irrigate crops.

Water experts in the U.S. say we can learn from Israel and how that country deals with water scarcity. America’s era of using fresh water from underground aquifers and diverted rivers won’t last forever. Researchers say we need to learn to conserve water better and like the Israelis, plan for the day when the current supplies are sucked dry.

For The Environment Report, I’m Sadie Babits.

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Does Dirt Makes Us Smarter?

  • Researchers have a scientific reason for the value of spending more time outdoors. (Photo by Karen Kelly)

Past research has found that bacteria found in dirt can ease allergic reactions, reduce anxiety, and improve a person’s mood. Now, new research finds the bacteria might make us smarter. Mark Brush reports:

Transcript

Past research has found that bacteria found in dirt can ease allergic reactions, reduce anxiety, and improve a person’s mood. Now, new research finds the bacteria might make us smarter. Mark Brush reports:

Researchers fed mice M. Vaccae bacteria and found the mice were twice as fast at navigating a maze.

Dorothy Matthews is an Associate Professor of Biology at Sage College in Troy, New York. She presented her research at a recent meeting of American Society for Microbiology. She says the bacteria are something we used to be exposed to more. Her comments were posted on the Society’s website:

“For most of our history we were hunter gatherers, rooting around in the soil, following the tracks of animals. It’s only been a hundred years or so ago, that we moved into cities and have become disassociated with nature.”

Researchers have found that M. Vaccae found in dirt can boost serotonin levels in the brains’ of the mice they studied. Serotonin can affect mood, appetite, memory and learning.

For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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The Pride of an Industrial Town

  • Cline Avenue and its bridge once cut across and over steel mills and refineries in East Chicago, Indiana. Inspectors found it was structurally unsound and the state didn't feel it warranted repair. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

The US government estimates about twelve percent of the country’s bridges are in dire need of repair.
Those are hazards, of course, but for towns that pride themselves on their industrial might … a crumbling bridge is a concrete and steel embarrassment.
Shawn Allee found one town that needs to remove a bridge but thinks maybe that’s for the best:

Transcript

The US government estimates about twelve percent of the country’s bridges are in dire need of repair.
Those are hazards, of course, but for towns that pride themselves on their industrial might … a crumbling bridge is a concrete and steel embarrassment.
Shawn Allee found one town that needs to remove a bridge but thinks maybe that’s for the best:

East Chicago, Indiana, has been a steel- and chemical-manufacturing powerhouse, and still is, but mills and refineries need fewer workers these days.
That industrial decline is a sore spot that got poked pretty hard last fall.
Some inspectors found structural problems in the Cline Avenue bridge.
It’s an enormous bridge that let drivers soar over canals, trains, and industrial truck routes.
But the local government and the State of Indiana didn’t have the money for a fix, and they closed Cline Avenue bridge for good.

That bothers Monica Serrano.
She wonders, if the town’s losing a bridge, what does that say about the town?

“Why would I stay in this area? If I know the roads are deteriorating, and people are just gonna leave, why would I stay? I want to be in an area that would flourish. I really feel that don’t have the best judgement when it comes to the people here.”

Well, there’re people who think removing the bridge is an opportunity to remake East Chicago for the better.
One person who makes that argument is Kristi DeLaurentiis.
She’s with the Metropolitan Planning Council, a regional land-use think tank.
To make her case, she drives me past East Chicago’s steel mills and refineries.
From your car window … they loom large and dominate the landscape.

“There’s only small pockets of open space that are not privately or corporate-owned.”

DeLaurentiis says back in the day, big industry scooped up enormous stretches of real – estate, including the shoreline along Lake Michigan.

“Maybe but you can kind of see the lake front from here …
It goes on for what seems like it goes on for miles. Nothing but beachfront that’s cut off by fences or very large industrial buildings, smokestacks and the like.
You know, they really have not taken advantage of the shoreline they have.”

DeLaurentiis says the mills use fewer workers these days, and they need less land, too.
So, East Chicago is hoping to reclaim industrial space for an economic boost.
Maybe developers would build new neighborhoods closer to the lake and pay a premium for it.
Or, at the very least, residents could get more parks.

“Here, it seems a real shame not to have people picnicking and using the open space and really not to have personal enjoyment within their own community.”

Well, back to the issue of the Cline Avenue bridge …
DeLaurentiis says it makes things worse – it blocks off the lake from the rest of the town.
It’s so tall, you can’t see past it and you gotta drive a ways to get around it.
If you want to reclaim industrial space for parklands or beachfront neighborhoods, no one will do that if the bridge is in the way.

That’s the practical argument … but what about the idea that big infrastructure is part of East Chicago’s identity?
Surprisingly, big industry won’t miss the bridge much.
Mark Maassel (MAH-zull) heads the Northwest Indiana Forum, a group that represents business in the area, including the steel mills.

“So while I recognize those comments, if we rebuilt that bridge, the one thing we can say for certain is that you’ve spent an enormous amount of dollars and cents resources that would have been potentially used in some other way, and you’ve done it to recreate a barrier between one part of the community and the next.”

Maassel says the whole town of East Chicago, including the remaining steel mills, will benefit from a better local economy.
If that means letting an old symbol like a bridge die, then so be it.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Sunscreen Safety Questioned

  • Many chemicals in sunscreens have not been tested for safety. (Photo courtesy of U.S. General Services Administration).

An environmental group is critical of the claims by many sunscreen manufacturers. They’re calling for better regulation of the industry by the government. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

An environmental group is critical of the claims by many sunscreen manufacturers. They’re calling for better regulation of the industry by the government. Lester Graham reports:

Health experts say sunscreen should not be your first line of defense for protection from the sun. They recommend protective clothing and staying in the shade.

Once you’re out in the sun, though, health experts say sunscreen is a must.

But a new study by the Environmental Working Group found a lot of problems with sunscreens. The study says many contain suspect chemicals, some known as hormone disruptors. And Sonya Lunders says her group is skeptical about sunscreens that claim SPF protection of 50 and as high as 100.

“And we know that those products don’t offer a similar amount of protection from the sun-damaging UVA rays.”

Giving users a false sense of security about protection from sun damage.
Of the hundreds of sunscreens on the market, the group only recommends 39 of them on its website.

It blames the FDA for allowing a lot of confusing claims about sunscreens.

For the Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham

A Greener Way to Work?

  • Some researchers say telecommuting can be more energy efficient if it's done 5 days a week. (Photo courtesy of Penarc - Wikimedia Commons)

Telecommuting is becoming more popular in the U.S. There’s an assumption that working from home saves energy. But some experts say whether it actually saves energy depends on how you do it. Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

Telecommuting is becoming more popular in the U.S. There’s an assumption that working from home saves energy. But some experts say whether it actually saves energy depends on how you do it. Rebecca Williams has more:

Something like 33 million of us work from home or a coffee shop at least once a month. And the whole idea of telecommuting just sounds like it saves energy. I mean, you’re cutting out your commute. So it saves gas.
And it can save a lot of gas money.

Sun Microsystems has what it calls an Open Work program. It allows employees to work wherever they want… from home or from a coffee shop. The company studied its teleworkers’ habits in 2007. And they found the average employee working from home two days a week ended up saving 500 to 600 dollars a year in fuel costs.

But things are more complicated than that.

Arpad Horvath is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California Berkeley. He studies teleworking.

“For example one might telecommute, but also maintain an office at the company as well as at home which of course now means we have to support with energy and other inputs two offices rather than one.”


So – if you have a company office AND a home office… and you’re using both… he says the energy savings might be kind of a wash because you’re using more energy at home. And if you’re not commuting… but you hop in the car to run a bunch of errands to get out of the house… you might not save that much gas.

Horvath says… for telecommuting to save the most energy, it can’t be just a couple days a week.

“The ideal situation is that somebody teleworks full time, gives up the company office and doesn’t increase anything else in one’s individual life, doesn’t travel more for pleasure, doesn’t substantially change the setup at home.”

But for a lot of people it just doesn’t work that way.

Surveys from the Telework Research Network show that less than two percent of Americans work from home all the time.
And experts say the main reason is: it can be a trust issue for the boss.
Rose Stanley is with World-at-Work. It’s a human resources organization.

“It’s a cultural shift within an organization to go to the next level of managing without being able to see their employees. That face time is still a stigma culturally speaking.”

Stanley says bosses just need to be trained on how to manage remote workers. She says her boss pops up on an instant message board throughout the day, just to check in.

Another obstacle to full-time telecommuting is… it’s just YOU. There’s nobody to talk to but the dog.
So some telecommuters are trying co-working. It’s a shared working space for people who would normally work from home.

(snd of espresso machine)

Mike Kessler is the co-owner of Workantile Exchange in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It’s a big, open space… with a coffee shop right up front. Kessler says the whole idea of co-working is… instead of having dozens of individual home offices… there’s one office that dozens of people share when they need to.

“The environmental benefits are everybody needs the same thing to get things done… you need your wifi, table, chair, good coffee, meeting rooms, a bathroom… not everybody needs those at the same time.”

He says also… the space is close to where people live, so they can walk or bike to work.

Some analysts think this kind of setup is where more of us are headed. But they say for most companies… telecommuting is not driven by energy savings… it’s a business decision. It’s more about retaining good employees and increasing productivity. If it saves employees some gas money, that’s just a bonus.

For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Saving Rainforests Helps U.S. Farmers

  • The report says U.S. farmers could see hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue if rainforests are kept intact. (Photo courtesy of the USDOE)

A new report says stopping deforestation in the rainforests will benefit farms in the U.S. Mark Brush reports, it calls for money to be set aside to pay for rainforest conservation:

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D.I.Y. Cleaning Products

  • Reporter Karen Kelly's daughter making safer cleaning products at home (Photo by Karen Kelly)

Most people probably don’t enjoy cleaning. But we’ve all got to do it. And if you’ve ever looked at the household cleaner aisle in the grocery store, you know there can be some pretty strong chemicals involved. Karen Kelly reports on a cheaper, chemical-free alternative:

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New Smokestack Rules

  • The EPA is expected to release new rules aimed at cleaning up sulfur dioxide pollution. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

This week, the U-S Environmental Protection Agency will release much-anticipated new rules limiting sulfur dioxide in the air. As Tanya Ott reports, it’s almost certain to result in years of legal battles:

Transcript

This week, the U-S Environmental Protection Agency will release much-anticipated new rules limiting sulfur dioxide in the air. As Tanya Ott reports, it’s almost certain to result in years of legal battles:

When sulfur dioxide spews from smoke stacks and diesel engines it can cause
acid rain, but that’s just the first problem.

“It can cause asthma attacks in children. It can send people to hospital emergency rooms. It can even convert to other chemicals in the air that lead to premature death.”

Frank O’Donnell is president of the non-profit environmental group Clean Air Watch. He says existing rules, which have been around since the 1970s, have a loophole that allows high levels of sulfur dioxide over short periods of time. The new EPA rules will likely close that loophole and significantly restrict the amount allowed into the air.

The oil industry and coal-burning power plants have lobbied against the new rules. They don’t want to pay the billions of dollars it will cost to clean up their smoke stacks.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tanya Ott.

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