Author: Chris Lehman

Activist Family Sets Stage for Global Warming

Scientists predict global warming could have a devastating impact on the earth and its inhabitants. But a traveling theater troupe has managed to find something funny about climate change. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports, the group “Human Nature” hopes to spread a message as well:

Transcript

Scientists predict global warming could have a devastating
impact on the earth and its inhabitants. But a traveling theater
troupe has managed to find something funny about climate
change. As The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman
reports, the group “Human Nature” hopes to spread a message as
well:


Joyful Simpson’s middle name is Raven. So perhaps it’s only
fitting that she plays a raven in the play, “What’s Funny About
Climate Change?”


“I suppose the raven in mythology is known as a trickster or a
shape shifter. So she’s come in human form to both tease and
cajole and plead with the audience for their understanding and
their awareness.”


(sound of play: “You came, you actually came! I said that if we made a show about global warming sound like
it actually might be funny, that the humans would come. And
here you are…suckers!!”) (laughs)


(fade under)


“What’s Funny About Climate Change” is a three-person
comedy review. The three members are the Simpson family.
They call their theater group “Human Nature”. Their goal is to
raise awareness about the problems caused by global warming.


Jane Lapiner is Joyful’s mother. She says their group uses
theater as a political tool.


“With comedy and theater in general, people can be more
receptive to important ideas, as opposed to a meeting or a
conference.”


That’s why the Simpsons founded the Human Nature theater
group more than 20 years ago. Global warming’s not the only
thing they’ve written about. They’ve performed plays about the
timber industry, wolves, and Pacific salmon.


David Simpson writes most of the material. He says he tries to
inform people and make them laugh.


“I have to say this is an intelligent show…It’s a sophisticated
show, the humor is sophisticated. People are going to learn
something about climate change, they’re gonna laugh, and
they’re gonna think.”


(sound of play, actors singing)


Joyful Simpson says she was fairly involved with her parents’
theater group growing up. But when she left for college, she
started to pursue other ways to communicate her concerns about
the environment. Her journey eventually led her back to her
parents’ theater group.


The current tour is the first time she’s worked with her parents in
about seven years. She says her years away from her family
might have prepared her for her role in “What’s Funny About
Climate Change.”


“I’m not educated about it from a scientific perspective and
actually I think that I embody some of the societal doubt of
whether or not it is a real thing and I’m trying to break out of
that because I think that’s deeply ingrained.”


Joyful is young. She’s in her mid-20’s. And she says it’s crucial
that young people understand environmental issues.


“I have a lot of people in the older generation that I look up to
who are very active in the environmental and the political world
and I see some of that energy in my generation but we are
lacking in that field. And so I’m pushing myself to feel inspired
to take the torch and also trying to push others to understand our
responsibility.”


(more sound of play: Joyful Simpson: “Did you actually think
there was something funny about climate change? It’s the
biggest disaster in the history of the entire civilization and it
really is happening…”)


(fade under)


The Simpson family will be performing on college campuses
across the nation this spring.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Inner-City Kids Learn From the Farm

Children who grow up in the inner-city often don’t know how the food on their tables is grown and harvested. A program at a farm has helped hundreds of kids in the Midwest learn about agriculture. Organizers hope the kids also learn a little about themselves in the process. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has this story:

Transcript

Children who grow up in the inner-city often don’t know how the food on their tables is grown
and harvested. A program at a farm has helped hundreds of kids in the Great Lakes region learn
about agriculture. Organizers hope the kids also learn a little about themselves in the process.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:


Rockford, Illinois is a sprawling industrial center of 150-thousand. The aging rust belt city

has
battled a weak manufacturing economy. Its crime rate is higher than Chicago’s. And it’s where
11-year-old Astarte Goodwin spends most of his time.


“It’s not a bad neighborhood. It’s a pretty good neighborhood. As long as I don’t start trouble

or
nothing with the neighbors”


Astarte is part of a program called “Roots and Wings”.

It’s a joint project between a Rockford community center and the Angelic Organics Farm in
nearby Boone County. The kids visited the farm once a week this summer to learn the basics of
growing vegetables and working with animals.


The kids in the “Roots and Wings” program are all considered “at-risk”. They’re from low-
income families. Many of their parents are having problems with drugs and alcohol. Some of
their parents are in jail.

Barb Verni-Lau is a child and family advocate at the Northwest Community Center in Rockford.


“They have a harder time in life. They don’t usually come from two-parent families. And I think
the single-parent families that I have, the mothers are struggling hard.”


Under Barb’s leadership, the kids have been growing a vegetable garden on the grounds of the
community center. They’re using techniques they learned out at the farm.


Tadrick Tate is ten years old.


“Worms are good for plants because they, like, soften the soil and stuff. And they help the
plants.”


But Tadrick and the other kids are learning about more than just worms and plants. The “Roots
and Wings” program is helping the kids’ social, emotional and educational growth. That’s
according to Mary Solan-Goers, a social worker at a nearby middle school. She says grades and
attendance are up.


“A lot of the skills that they learn in school come alive when they’re gardening. And I think
there’s a lot of pride in seeing something that they planted and watch it grow and develop. And
sometimes you have to deal with some things live and some things die and then seeing the beauty
of this and how they all work together to create this lovely garden. So I think there’s a lot of pride

that
goes with that.”


“To The Pumpkins!”


Out at the farm, Tom Spaulding has been showing the kids the finer points of growing vegetables.
The Angelic Organics Farm holds educational programs for children and adults. Spaulding says
the programs help people connect with nature, the earth, and the things that sustain life.


“The soils and the plants and the animals that are around us, the ecosystem that we live with.

It’s
so fundamental and so basic sometimes we overlook it. You know, there’s so many kids that
come here who they just don’t want to leave. They get so enthused and awestruck while they’re
here. So I see it everyday when there’s a group here, how separated we’ve become from what our
own sustenance is a lot of times. The closest many of us get anymore to food is just the
supermarket shelf.”


More than 12-hundred kids from Rockford, Chicago and Milwaukee have visited the farm over
the past few years. Spaulding says he hopes the kids’ experience on the farm will have lasting
benefits.


“Hopefully on a basic level it connects them to life, to what it means to be alive and to what it
means to be a healthy person, to have positive relationships with those around you, that we’re

all
embedded in systems of relationships with people and the earth. And they learn a lot while
they’re here about what creates a healthy ecosystem, about what creates a healthy farm, what
creates healthy relationships between people. So hopefully they carry those into other

settings.”


At the Northwest Community Center, it’s time to harvest the vegetables. Astarte Goodwin’s
hands are covered with dirt as he works in the garden the kids have tended all summer long.


“We’re trying to make the community better. Because before, all this used to be was a pile of
junk. I mean, I shouldn’t say that, but, but you know people used to throw chip
bags, pop cans, pop bottles, dirt. This just used to be a dirt yard.”


But the children in the Roots and Wings program have done more than simply clean up a plot of
land in a Rockford neighborhood. Because of their hard work, they’re taking home fresh
vegetables for their dinner table. They’re also taking home a feeling of accomplishment. The
kind of accomplishment that comes with knowledge and responsibility.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Organics Hitting Mainstream Markets

A new report shows a shift in how organic foods are sold in the United States. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:

Transcript

A new report shows a shift in how organic foods are sold in the United States.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports.


More people purchased organic food in conventional supermarkets than any
other venue in 2000. That’s according to a study by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture.


It’s part of a trend of an increasing demand for organic food in the
United States. The study shows that sales of organic products increased
each year in the 1990’s. The USDA’s Kathy Greene says it represents an enormous
change in the 50-year history of organic food sales.


“Conventional grocery stores know there’s consumer interest and they
also don’t want to be left behind. It’s a very fast-growing sector and
for a lot of products we haven’t met demand yet.”


Greene says organic food is more likely to be sold in large urban areas
and college towns. The USDA study reports that almost two-thirds of
Americans buy organic food at least occasionally. But fewer than 5% buy
it on a regular basis.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Beetles Munch Across the Midwest

You may have seen them in your garden crawling all over your favorite plants. The Japanese beetle was introduced on the east coast almost 90 years ago. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports, this shiny, metallic green bug has been munching its way across the Midwest:

Transcript

You may have seen them in your garden crawling all over your favorite
plants. The Japanese beetle was introduced on the east coast almost 90
years ago. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports,
this shiny, metallic green bug has been munching its way across the Midwest:


The Japanese beetle is especially prevalent along major rivers in the
Midwest, such as the Wabash and the Ohio. It spends about ten months a
year underground. But when it emerges in early summer it has a voracious
appetite. And it’s not a very fussy eater. Mark Hoard is a pest
management educator for the University of Illinois Extension.


“They can feed on a lot of different plants. Some of the favorites are
roses and grapes. They seem to like a number of different flowering
species, there’s a number of different trees you can see them feeding on.
So they’re fairly broad in their preference in terms of vegetative
material.”


Japanese beetles also attack soybean and corn. Damage can vary widely from
place to place, although severe defoliation has been reported in parts of
Indiana and Illinois. Farmers have been using pesticides and traps to
address the problem, but experts say a more effective method for gardeners
may be to collect the beetles by hand.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Green Group Reacts to Farm Bill

A group that’s frequently critical of the nation’s agricultural policies is speaking out against the recently signed $180 billion farm bill. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:

Transcript

A group that’s frequently critical of the nation’s
agricultural policies is speaking out against the recently signed $180
billion farm bill.  The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports:



The Washington D.C.
based Environmental Working Group calls the legislation a boondoggle which
will hurt small farmers and the environment.  Spokesman John Corsiglia says the
winners in the farm bill are large agri-businesses.



“We would have liked
to have seen in the final farm bill more money spent on conservation
programs, and likewise, we would have liked to have seen more substantive
payment limits; a cap on the subsidy amounts that the largest farm
producers can receive.”


Corsiglia says the
bill has multiple loopholes which will allow corporate farms to avoid caps
on commodity payments.  The
Environmental Working Group says it will continue to track federal farm
subsidies through a searchable database on its website. 


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m
Chris Lehman.


 

Campaigning for Farmer Safety

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations. Every year, thousand of farmers are seriously injured in the Great Lakes region, often because of carelessness or fatigue. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports, sometimes farm work turns deadly:

Transcript

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations. Every year, thousand of farmers are seriously injured in the Great Lakes Region, often because of carelessness or fatigue. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman reports, sometimes farm work turns deadly.


“For any farmer listening, it makes me feel really dumb to do what I did”

What Illinois State Representative Dave Winters did was attempt to clean up a grain bin with his hands, instead of a broom. A slow-moving auger caught his glove on a wintry day last year and before he knew it, Winters was missing most of his little finger on his left hand.

“Any farmer is aware of the dangers of augers, and I certainly was. I was just careless, tired and not thinking”

When he’s not in the state capital of Springfield, the 49-year-old Winters grows corn, soybeans, and prairie grasses on his farm. After the accident, Winters decided to use his position as a public official to spread the word about farm safety. He says working alone, like he was, greatly increases a farmer’s risk.

“And you try to reach too far, you try to do things that you need help doing but there’s nobody available, so you get yourself into dangerous situations. The other problem is that if something does happen, in some instances farmers have lost their lives or have been severely injured because there wasn’t anybody there to turn off the equipment or to get help immediately”

Most family farms are too small to fall under federal occupational regulations that require a minimum of safety precautions. So sometimes, the simplest of safety measures may be overlooked. And that plus the presence of powerful machinery can make for a very dangerous work environment. Each year more than 700 farm-related deaths occur nationwide as well as tens of thousands of injuries requiring medical attention. These accidents cost farmers billions of dollars a year in medical bills and lost productivity.

The largest cause of farm deaths is tractor rollovers, and nearly two-thirds of tractor deaths involve people over the age of 60. University of Illinois Farm Safety Specialist Bob Aherin says this is probably due to slower reflexes among older farmers and their tendency to use outdated equipment. Most new farm implements offer greater protection to users, and Aherin says those safeguards have contributed to a general decline in farm deaths over the past twenty years. One area of particular concern on farms is children. Most farmers live and work in the same environment, and Aherin says it’s not unusual to have kids around.

“They’re either out doing work sometimes before they’re ready to some things and they are not prepared both physically, but more often it’s because they’re not old enough, they don’t have the mental processing skills to do some of the activities we ask them to do.”

The 1989 death of Iowa teenager Shaun Peterson in a farming accident led to the creation of a support group bearing his name. The Sharing Help Awareness United Network provides counseling to farm families who have lost a loved one of any age. Board member Kenneth Thu is a Northern Illinois University anthropology professor. He says farm accidents are especially tough on a family because the tragedy usually occurs very close to home . . . and that means they can’t get away from it. Even a serious injury can lead to a significant loss of income, and a lack of health insurance can be catastrophic. The result can be severe depression, and Thu says it’s sometimes tough to get help because many mental health professionals simply don’t understand the needs of rural farm families.

“Not recognizing the kind of living and work-structure that they live in. The kinds of stresses and strains they feel, particularly these days with so many farming couples working off the farm, the fact that the kinds of social networks that used to exist in rural areas are dwindling away quickly. And so people are often-times more isolated then they used to be”

And though it may be a stereotype, Thu says most farmers think they don’t need any help.

“Getting support services, counseling services to farmers is probably more difficult than providing those same services to people who live in urban settings, because there’s more of a reluctance for rural dwellers, particularly farmers, to get those kinds of services. They think of themselves as more rugged, more independent. So they’re less prone to access support services”

Even with a decline in farm deaths nationwide, those support services will continue to be needed. Farming trails only underground mining as the second deadliest occupation in the United States. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.

Old Tires Hit the Gridiron

Great Lakes residents use more than two million tires a year, and many of them end up in a landfill. But one Illinois school has found an unusual way to use some of those tires. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has more:

Transcript

Great Lakes residents use more than two million tires a year, and many of them end up in a landfill. But one Illinois school has found an unusual way to use some of those tires. And they’re saving on hospital costs as well. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has more.


(natural sound football practice, fade under quickly)


From beer cans to soda bottles, there are plenty of items that can be recycled at a typical football game. But at the 31-thousand seat Huskie Stadium at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, what is perhaps the largest recycling effort is in the field itself. More than 18-thousand ground-up tires are underneath the new surface of the playing field . . .mixed with sand; they provide a soft but durable base for all types of athletic events. The fake grass on top is similar to Astroturf, but project manager Norm Jenkins says this surface is better. He says the most important advantage is safety.


“It’s well documented over the last few years since these fields have been installed that the injury frequency goes way down in terms of ankle and knee injuries on this surface as opposed to the old Astroturf carpet. So it really simulates grass in that way. The other big advantage to this in our judgment is the appearance. Because really, as you sit in the stands at a Huskie football game–and even from the sidelines when you stand on that stuff–you’re convinced that the surface is grass. It looks, it appears just like a pristine grass playing surface”


The artificial turf at NIU is a brand called Field Turf. Jim Petrucelli is Vice-President of Turf USA, a Pittsburgh-based distributor of Field Turf. He says the scrap tires for the product are first washed with a high-pressure cleaning system similar to a car wash. But the tires aren’t run through grinder blades. That process is called ambient grinding because it takes place at room temperature. It tends to produce longer, rougher particles.


Instead, Petrucelli says the company cryogenically freezes the tires to temperatures below negative 80 degrees Fahrenheit.


“And then they drop them onto a hammer-mill. And the hammer-mill shatters them into pieces. And those pieces tend to have much flatter sides on them . . . that works much better in our system to prevent the rubber from migrating through the sand that it’s mixed with.”


Field Turf is used at several universities in the Great Lakes region, including the University of Cincinnati, Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, and at a University of Michigan field house. It’s also in use at dozens of high schools and public recreation facilities across the region, and has been installed in places as far away as Botswana and New Zealand.


Petrucelli says that at more than eight dollars a square foot, Field Turf is the Cadillac of artificial turf products. At Northern Illinois University, nearly one-third of the cost of installing the Field Turf was recovered through a variety of money-saving measures. The largest of these was a 200-thousand dollar grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. The money was awarded to the school for its use of the tires, which came from a salvage yard near Chicago. Robert Albanese is NIU’s Associate Vice President of Finance and Facilities.


“Every time you purchase a new tire there’s a fee that goes along with it. It goes to this fund for recycling the tires. And this process will only work, is if we use those recycled materials on the other end. And this is probably one of the bigger uses for recycled rubber that we’ve seen in the state of Illinois.”


NIU Director of Recycling Mary Crocker says the use of old tires in the Field Turf project wasn’t just about saving money.


“We’re interested in keeping the tires out the landfills. So this is probably the most comprehensive recycling program that you can find, where virtually everything has to do with recycling.”


(More football sound under)


The old Astroturf, which was removed to make way for the Field Turf, was also recycled. The university sold it for use as a soccer field overseas, earning an additional 29 thousand dollars for the school. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chris Lehman.