The quest for a perfectly manIcured lawn has driven some lawn care companies to create a grass resistant to weed killer. Some worry, however, that they've created an invasive species. (Photo by Philipp Pilz)
An environmental watchdog group is hoping to block federal approval of a new genetically modified type of grass. The group says the grass poses a threat to natural areas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
An environmental watchdog group is hoping to block fedral approval of a new genetically
modified type of grass. The group says the grass poses a threat to natural areas. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Two companies – Scotts and Monsanto – want the government’s approval to commercialize a type of
creeping bentgrass. The grass would mainly be planted on lawns and golf courses because it’s
resistant to Roundup, a popular weed killer. But critics of the bio-engineered grass say it
needs more testing. For one thing, they say, genes from the grass can spread and strengthen
non-native plants.
Joe Mendelson is with the International Center for Technology Assessment.
“The end result is you’re going to create a grass that is invasive, that will take over natural
areas like our grasslands and or forest areas, and we won’t be able to control it. That’s going
to have a very negative impact on a number of sensitive ecosystems.”
The U.S. Forest Service has also weighed in, saying the grass has the potential to have a
negative effect on all of the country’s grasslands and natural forests. Scotts has said the
bio-engineered grass poses no threat to natural areas.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Turbines like these not only could help produce energy from a renewable and seemingly infinite resource, but could also create thousands of new jobs, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
A new report says a national renewable energy policy could create thousands of new jobs in the Midwest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
A new report says a national renewable energy policy could create thousands of new
jobs in the Midwest. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists urges Congress to adopt a policy
requiring 20 percent of the nation’s energy to be produced using renewable sources
by the year 2020. Those sources could be wind, solar, or geothermal energy. The report
says such a policy could create thousands of new jobs in manufacturing, construction and
maintenance.
Jeff Deyette is an energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says
rural communities – especially farmers – could be the biggest winners under the proposal.
“Farmers that were chosen to have wind power facilities sited on their land could get up
to as much as $4,000 per turbine to lease on their property.”
Deyette says a national renewable energy standard could save consumers nearly 50 billion
dollars by 2020. He says that’s because increased competition from renewables would help
lower the demand and the price of natural gas.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Environmental groups and attorneys general in six states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency over a new rule that regulates cooling water intake at power plants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
Environmental groups and attorneys general in six states are suing the Environmental
Protection Agency over a new rule that regulates cooling water intake at power plants.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports.
Power plants take in billions of gallons of water a day from lakes or rivers to keep
their
turbines cool. That process kills fish and other aquatic organisms. The new rule
by the
EPA requires power plants to reduce fish kills by at least 60 percent. But critics
say the
government can easily require a much larger reduction.
Reed Super is an attorney for the environmental group River Keeper. He says a process
called “closed-cycle cooling” can achieve a 95 percent reduction in fish kills. But
he says
power companies don’t want to pay for it.
“Industry gets a good hearing by its representatives in Washington these days, and we
basically have the Office of Management and Budget and the White House and political
appointees at EPA once again caving into industry to give them exactly what they
want.”
Attorneys general of six Northeastern states have also filed suit against the EPA. The
new rule is set to take effect September 7th.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Dairy cows on the Straub farm look up with a mouthful of
grass. They're in one of 24 sections of a grazing field, and tomorrow
they'll rotate to the next section, and so on. Cows that do
rotational grazing are healthier, more productive and live longer
than cows that are warehoused indoors at Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations. (Photo by Erin Toner)
The rhythmic click of electric fences and the occasional
"moo" are the only sounds of the morning at the Straub farm. The
rotational grazing method does away with much of the heavy equipment,
fertilizers, barn space and overall cost of farming. That means the
Straubs can bring in about three times more profit per cow than large
concentrated feeding operations. (Photo by Erin Toner)
Howard and Mary Jo Straub have four children. Three of
them are using rotational grazing on their own dairy farms. Daughter
Patty Warnke and her husband farm less than a mile from her parents. (Photo by Erin Toner)
In the retail world, big-box stores have made it tough for small companies to stay in business. That’s also true for agriculture, where the big guys are massive feeding operations that house thousands of cows. Surviving as a small farmer in that world often takes a new way of doing business. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has the story of one dairy-farming family that’s found a way to stay in farming, and make a pretty good living:
Transcript
In the retail world, big-box stores have made it tough for small companies to stay in
business. That’s also true for agriculture, where the big guys are massive feeding
operations that house thousands of cows. Surviving as a small farmer in that world often
takes a new way of doing business. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has
the story of one dairy-farming family that’s found a way to stay in farming, and make a
pretty good living:
(early morning sounds)
It’s one of those hazy and muggy summer mornings… where the air’s thick enough to
soak up the smell of manure, and dewy grass. Nearby, cows are swatting flies with their
tails, eating grass and relaxing in lush, green pastures. These days it’s a lifestyle most
dairy cows never get to experience. Most are confined in big buildings with hundreds or
thousands of other milk-making machines.
Howard and Mary Jo Straub didn’t like where dairy farming was going. So about ten
years ago, they switched from a farm that warehoused dairy cattle indoors, to something
called seasonal rotational grazing. Mary Jo explains how it works.
“The cows get a new paddock or area, and our areas are about five acres, and each day
they would get a new five acres of grass to eat. We have 24 paddocks, so every 24 days,
they would be back into the same five acres.”
And in those 24 days, rainfall and the cows’ own manure has helped the grass grow back
in that first paddock… and then the second, and so on. This is very low-maintenance
farming… and low-cost farming.
The Straubs don’t have to buy tons of grain to feed their cows. And they’re not applying
pesticides or fertilizer to their pastures as they would on a corn field. They don’t have
tons of manure to dispose of, they don’t have loans out on grain-harvesting machinery,
and they don’t have to pay lots of employees to feed and manage their animals.
Howard Straub says farming is a lot easier than it used to be, and a lot more lucrative.
“We used to get up and milk, we did a three-time-a-day milking before. We mixed up
five loads of feed for different groups of cows. Now we just, we milk the cows twice a
day and when we’re done milking we open the gate and let them out to go eat.”
Since their costs are so low, the Straubs make between 800 and 1,000 dollars profit on
each of their 84 cows. Before, they made around 150 dollars profit per cow.
Howard Straub says grazing has made cattle the chief asset on his farm, instead of a
bunch of machines. His cows are healthier because they’re eating grass… like they were
meant to do… and because they get lots of exercise. The cattle live longer, produce more
milk and have more calves.
And even though the idea with grazing is that there are sprawling pastures for the cows, it
doesn’t require any more land than confined feeding farms. That’s because you have to
consider all the land that supports a herd of cattle, says Tom Kriegl, who studies dairy
farming at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“You can have a diary operation where the only land that you own is the land that the
building sits on that you house cows in, and you might buy all of your feed for those
cows and you would not own the land that the feed is grown on. But you actually need
that additional land that the feed is grown on even if you don’t own it.”
Howard and Mary Jo Straub say they encourage all the young farmers they meet to make
the switch to rotational grazing. And it is catching on. The Great Lakes Grazing
Network estimates that almost half of all new small and mid-size dairies in the region are
using rotational grazing.
Kevin Ogles is a grazing specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He
says grazing is probably the future for all smaller dairy farms. But he says grazing is
complicated, with benefits that don’t come immediately.
“The concept is simple. Mastering it, that takes a while. So, once people make the
transition after doing it for a few years, that’s when you hear them talk about the
economic gain. The quality of life has improved.”
At this point, you could call the Straub family master grazers. Since they started ten
years ago, Howard and Mary Jo have managed to pay off a 250,000 dollar mortgage.
Today, they’re almost debt-free… and they’re able to stop farming for two months in the
winter… when they head down to Florida… as Howard says… to take time for the fun
things in life. He says that would never have been possible before.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
J. and Kelly Williams farm 700 acres of corn and soybeans. They also both work full-time jobs off the farm. Supplemental income is necessary for many beginner farmers trying to break into the business. (Photo by Corbin
Sullivan)
Young farmers have to buy old farmland. That land usually comes with the original farm buildings. Some were built around the turn of the century, and many are old and dilapidated. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
J. and Kelly Williams keep their farm equipment outside all summer; exposed to the elements. They say it’ll be a while before they can afford to build a new steel frame barn to store their tractors and plows year-round. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
In a recent survey, young farmers said their biggest challenge is finding available land to farm. That’s because there’s so much competition for the land these days. Farmers compete with developers who have deep pockets to buy land for new subdivisions or retail centers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has the story of one young farm couple trying to get started:
Transcript
In a recent survey, young farmers said their biggest challenge is finding available land to farm. That’s because there’s so much competition for the land these days. Farmers compete with developers who have deep pockets to buy land for new subdivisions or retail centers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has the story of one young farm couple trying to get started:
J. Williams and his wife Kelly grow corn and soybeans. Their farm is relatively small, 700 acres in southern Michigan. They do all the work themselves – they plant, treat, harvest and market their own crops. It’s a lot of work for two people, especially since both J. and Kelly also have full-time jobs off the farm. He works at a bank and she works as a farm credit analyst.
They hope to one day be able to quit those jobs, and live off the farm income, but that might take awhile. The Williams had to take out big loans to buy land and equipment. They’re deep in debt, but they say farming is the life they want.
“Part of it’s entrepreneurial, it’s being your own boss, it’s making your own decisions and not being responsible to anyone but yourself for successes and failures. Part of it’s just natural attachment to nature and being outside and enjoying that, and part of it’s just simply independence.”
To achieve complete independence, J. says he needs to buy more farmland, but when he tries, he has to compete with a dozen or so other bidders, and they’re not all farmers. Some are developers looking for places to build homes or stores. The developers can afford to spend a lot more for the land because they’ll make a quick and substantial profit once the land is turned into neighborhoods or strip malls.
It’s a common scenario. In the last two decades, the United States has lost close to 50 million acres of farmland, most of it mid-size farms – which are typically family-owned. They’ve been chopped up and sold to developers or to sometimes gobbled up by factory farm owners.
Scott Everett is the Great Lakes regional director for America’s Farmland Trust. His group lobbies to preserve farmland. He says even when crop prices are at their highest, a sweet development deal is usually too good for some farmers to pass up.
“This generation, farmers today that own farmland today, have something much different than their fathers had. They’ve got this land that is worth so much more for development than it is for agriculture.”
Everett says farmland is often sold to developers at triple what it would be worth as agricultural land. That makes land prices high… and that means young farmers have a tough time getting loans.
Bruce Weir is with the U.S. Farm Service Agency. The agency offers loans to many beginner farmers who haven’t been able to get financing anywhere else.
“Right now it is tough for a young farmer, without a lot of collateral or capital to start with to start. It’s almost impossible. We don’t like to say that, but it is tough for them.”
A lot of beginning farmers know the odds are against them, but like J. Williams, the banker who wants to become a full-time farmer; they’re still hoping to expand their farms. Williams says he’d like to know that available land won’t simply go to the highest bidder. He wants farmland to remain farmland. He’s working with a group of local farmers to persuade government leaders to develop long-term land use plans.
“There are some areas in our county that are better suited for industrial use, some better for residential, some better for agricultural, and we believe at least that there should be a targeted approach, and a common-sense approach, to planning out our community so that we can maintain a proper balance.”
J. Williams says farming is going well for him and his wife so far. He says… just like the old saying goes, his corn was knee high before the Fourth of July, and the Williams’ fledgling farm is already turning a profit, but they still have to keep their day jobs. J. says it might be that way for some time, if government doesn’t protect farmland from the high price of development, and preserve it for agriculture.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has withdrawn a “guidance statement” regarding organic food production. Some feared the directive was an attempt by the government to relax standards for organic foods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has withdrawn a “guidance statement” regarding
organic food production. Some feared the directive was an attempt by the government to
relax standards for organic foods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner
reports:
Critics said the USDA’s “guidance statement” was actually a new policy that could
lead to more synthetic pesticides being used on organic farms. But USDA officials said
the statement only clarified an existing law, and was issued in response to questions from
people who certify organic operations.
The department has now withdrawn those new statements. Andrea Caroe is on the National Organics Standards Board. She says confusion over the issue raises some new questions.
“Perhaps the regulation is not suiting the community the way it should and that we
should look at the process to evaluate how we could improve the regulation or the law.”
Agriculture officials say they’ll work with the Organics Standards Board to find a way to
address producers’ concerns.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Piles of GreenCel are dumped outside KTM Industries in
Lansing, Mich. It looks like garbage, but the biodegradable material will dissolve and wash away with the next rain. KTM is one of a number of new environmentally-conscious small businesses called "Green Gazelles." (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
Workers at KTM put "Magic Nuudles" in bags to be
shipped to a fabric store chain. They're used as foam building blocks for kids. The "Nuudles" are made of processed cornstarch, and they dissolve in water. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
When the cornstarch foam comes out of KTM's processing machines, it's pressed into sheets for packing. These workers are sawing the sheets into pieces that will cushion used computers being sent overseas by a local charity. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
Most environmental issues pit environmentalists against business interests. But now, people on both sides say working together might be the only way to help the nation’s economy, and preserve natural resources. So they’re teaming up to promote a group of fast-growing, environmentally-friendly small businesses called “Green Gazelles.” The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
Most environmental issues pit environmentalists against business interests. But now,
people on both sides say working together might be the only way to help the nation’s
economy, and preserve natural resources. So they’re teaming up to promote a group of fast-
growing, environmentally-friendly small businesses called “Green Gazelles.” The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
People who love video games are scrambling to get their hands on the latest gadget in the
gaming world. It’s a new hard drive for Sony’s PlayStation2. The drive comes loaded with
a new version of the game Final Fantasy. And it comes packaged in a new kind of
environmentally-friendly foam, called GreenCel.
(sound of manufacturing facility)
“It’s gonna be a little loud out here.”
“What’s the smell?”
“It’s cornstarch, that’s exactly what you’re smelling.
We’re taking cornstarch and we’re doing something that nobody else in the world does.
We’re melting it, and then we’re foaming it into huge sheets.”
A company called KTM Industries makes “GreenCel.” It’s an organic packing material –
made from cornstarch, vegetable oil and water. Companies like Sony are using it instead of
products made with petroleum, like Styrofoam. Those products don’t break down naturally.
KTM also makes an arts and crafts product for kids called “Magic Nuudles.” The Nuudles
are made out of cornstarch, too. They look like those candy circus peanuts, but they’re in all
different colors. Kids can glue Nuudles to paper to make pictures. Or they can build things
with them.
Both GreenCel and Magic Nuudles dissolve in water.
Tim Colonnese is KTM’s president. He says business is so good right now
because people are getting smarter about how they spend their money.
“You’ve got a better educated population out there that recognizes that we can’t
continue to do business as usual. Our landfills are getting fuller, our air is getting
dirtier, our water is getting dirtier. And we’ve got to take those steps right now, as
our population increases and business increases, to start cleaning up our act.”
KTM is one of a new group of small businesses throughout the country, called “green
gazelles.” Green — meaning they make environmentally-friendly products using newer,
cleaner methods. And “Gazelles” — because they’re fast-moving companies able to quickly
apply new technology.
Colonnese started his company seven years ago. He says it was awhile before
KTM’s products became profitable. But now, Colonnese says his company and other green
gazelles could be the future of the American economy.
“So as big business takes its job elsewhere, where are those new jobs going to be
created? And it’s going to be created with small business, with innovators that come up
with new products and new processes that are completely different from what the big boys
are doing. And hopefully, if a few of us are successful, we will become the next large
company.”
And the numbers show that’s already happening. Mark Clevey is with the Small Business
Association of Michigan. He says green gazelles are creating new jobs in the
US. But Clevey says they’re doing so without a lot of financial help.
“These companies, although they’re fast-growing companies, one of the reasons they
grow fast is because their competitive advantage is based on some technological
advantage and, in order to get that technological advantage, they have to invest
several million dollars, at a minimum, in research and development. Banks don’t fund
that, venture capitalists don’t fund that, universities don’t fund it, nobody funds that
kind of technology.”
Except, Clevey says, the government to some extent. He says the US Department of Energy
offers grants to small businesses for research.
Clevey says most state governments offer tax credits and incentives for basic small
business development. But he argues it would be better in the long run if states would start
investing more in research and technology – even if it’s risky.
That’s something people in Rust Belt states are already talking about.
Steve Chester is director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
“I think there are some things that we can do environmentally, for instance, we do
have a lot of grants and loans that we provide. And to the extent that we might be
able to prioritize green technologies, I think that’s something we should try to do.”
Supporters of green gazelles are hoping to persuade Congress that helping green companies
is the best way to help the environment. During upcoming Congressional hearings, they’ll
ask lawmakers for more financial support and tax incentives for green gazelles.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Shoppers take a coffee break at Eastwood Towne Center near Lansing, Michigan. The outdoor shopping mall is one of a growing number of "lifestyle centers" in the United States. (Photo by Erin Toner)
Eastwood Towne Center, near Lansing, Michigan, is one of several new "lifestyle centers" in the Midwest. It's an outdoor mall built to look like a downtown, with park benches, courtyards and brick sidewalks. (Photo by Erin Toner)
Eastwood Towne Center, in mid-Michigan, is one of the newest "lifestyle centers" in the country. It's built to look like an old-time downtown. But it has new, upscale stores and restaurants, a movie theater and plenty of parking. (Photo by Erin
Toner)
For decades now, people have done most of their shopping at sprawling, suburban malls that offer plenty of free parking and shelter from the weather. But now, people are heading back outside to shop, to places reminiscent of quaint downtowns. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
For decades now, people have done most of their shopping at sprawling, suburban malls that offer
plenty of free parking and shelter from the weather. But now, people are heading back outside to
shop, to places reminiscent of quaint downtowns. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin
Toner reports:
It’s a sunny day in March. But, as anyone who lives in the Midwest knows, a sunny day this early
in the Spring is rarely warm day. Today’s temperature’s in the 30s. But that’s apparently no reason to
stay indoors, when there’s shopping to be done.
The stores just opened at Eastwood Towne Center on the outskirts of Lansing, Michigan and the parking lot is
slowing filling up. Shiny minivans unload mothers, and babies and old ladies. They disappear into
Pottery Barn, Ann Taylor Loft and the Yankee Candle Company. They march from one store to
another to the sounds of soft-rock drifting out of speakers perched on lamp posts outside.
Eastwood Towne Center is one of a growing number of so-called “lifestyle centers.” There are
several in the Great Lakes Region – in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Lifestyle centers
are outdoor malls built to look like old-time downtowns. They have pseudo Main streets, that
weave through upscale stores with brick or stone-facades. Shoppers or their bored husbands can
take a rest on wrought-iron benches in neatly-manicured courtyards, or in cozy chairs at Starbucks.
Lifestyle centers also usually have popular chain restaurants and movie theaters.
Beverly Baten shops and works at Eastwood Towne Center. She says people are coming to
Eastwood to do what they used to do in city centers.
“They’re coming here to socialize. They’re coming to have lunch, to maybe see a movie, and
shopping is always a part of that experience because right here, at Eastwood Towne Center, we
have the stores that people want. And that’s so important. Whoever built this mall, did their
homework.”
Cincinnati-based Developer Jeffrey R. Anderson built Eastwood Towne Center. The company also
has lifestyle centers in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. And it’s opening four more in the next four
years.
The company’s Mark Fallon says shopping malls took most of the retail out of real downtowns a
long time ago. But he says now, people are looking at getting to the mall as a hassle. Fallon says
lifestyle centers offer the best of both worlds. He says they re-create the feeling of friendly
downtowns, and have the free parking and the good stores that malls offer.
“It’s really the closest thing to what was free-standing shops, that ended up next door to each other,
or in a neighborhood and you’re kind of recreating that feel, and getting back to a more pleasant
and convenient shopping environment that really, the mega-mall or the regional shopping mall that
you’re used to, the enclosed behemoth, that’s usually outside of town that you have to drive to
doesn’t provide these days.”
But that convenience sometimes comes at a cost. The developer covered old farm fields and a
small wetland to build the new shopping center. But it’s just across the street from older city
neighborhoods and infrastructure. Some criticize places like Eastwood for adding to urban sprawl.
But planning experts say many lifestyle centers actually fit into so-called “smart growth.”
Marya Morris is with the American Planning Association in Chicago. She says many developers
are locating lifestyle centers close to existing suburban development – and typically not in big
fields outside of town. Morris says incorporating new development into communities is what
“smart growth” is all about.
“It’s generally building in areas, in already-developed areas through redevelopment or
intensification of development, particularly in the suburbs right now. Many suburbs grew up
without any specific center or town square or downtown. And lifestyle centers, in many
communities, have helped create such a downtown, along with other things like new city halls, or
libraries, or new public greens.”
Developers say lifestyle centers are more attractive to retailers than real downtowns because they
can build exactly the store they want from the ground up. In older cities, retailers would have to
pay to retro-fit existing storefronts. And in real downtowns, there’s usually limited parking that
customers have to pay for. Lifestyle centers also often let retailers pack up and leave — no strings
attached — if business starts to slide.
But it seems pretty hard to imagine that a business would fail at Eastwood Towne Center, as the parade
of cars and shoppers grows this morning.
There are 20 new lifestyle centers set to open around the country over the next two years.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
Sunday mass is much emptier than it used to be at St. Josaphat Parish in Detroit. Only a few dozen Catholics attend mass here each Sunday, though there's room for 1200 - many parishioners have moved to newer churches in the suburbs. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
The polish church was founded in 1889. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)
When people left inner cities, many things followed. Newer, better schools were built in the suburbs. And strip malls and shopping centers sprang up. But back in cities, stores and restaurants shut down. Schools and churches also closed. Now, the Catholic church is encouraging people to work together to prevent more urban sprawl. Catholic clergy say they don’t want to close perfectly good churches and cathedrals only to build new ones farther and farther out into the suburbs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
When people left inner cities, many things followed. Newer, better schools were built in the
suburbs. And strip malls and shopping centers sprang up. But back in cities, stores and restaurants
shut down. Schools and churches also closed. Now, the Catholic church is encouraging people to
work together to prevent more urban sprawl. Catholic clergy say they don’t want to close perfectly
good churches and cathedrals only to build new ones farther and farther out into the suburbs. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Twenty-five years ago, Loraine Krajewski lost nearly everything. She lost her home and she lost
her church. Both were demolished when General Motors built a sprawling auto plant over
Poletown, a Polish-American neighborhood at the border of Detroit. Krajewski says it was the fight
of her life.
“I did things I never thought I would do. I picketed, I mean, in rain and snow. I wrote
letters, I mean, to Congressmen and to our council and everything. And I went to meetings
that would last until one, two o’clock in the morning at times, and I took time off from work
to go downtown to the council meetings.”
Krajewski was mad at the city of Detroit for letting it happen. And she was mad at the Catholic
Church in Detroit for not fighting the project. But not mad enough to leave the church. Krajewski
and others forced out of Poletown found a new parish in the city, called St. Josaphat.
Krajewski headed for the suburbs after Poletown disappeared. But she still returns to the city every
Sunday for Mass at St. Josaphat. It’s a 15-mile trip.
“We decided we are not going to let another Polish church go down the drain. And that’s
why I’ve been coming here. It’s just too bad that we don’t have a larger congregation.”
More parishioners would make Krajewski feel more sure that St. Josaphat would always be here,
that it was safe from closing down. But it’s not safe. Only a few dozen Catholics show up here
anymore for Mass on Sunday. And the church can hold 12-hundred people.
Father Mark Borkowski is the pastor at St. Josaphat. He says people like Krajewski, who are
coming from 10, 15 or 20 miles away, are the only ones keeping his church open. But just barely.
“If we were to live on Sunday collections alone, the parish would not be able to survive. So
with our monthly fundraising dinners, we can survive. But there’s a difference between
surviving and flourishing.”
People left the churches when they left the city for bigger plots of land and better schools. And the
Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit followed its people. Catholics built new churches in the suburbs.
But now, the Archdiocese is rethinking its role in urban sprawl.
Father Ken Kaucheck is on the Detroit Archdiocese urban sprawl committee. He says the church is
concerned about sprawl because it creates social and economic inequities between cities and
suburbs.
“It creates blight. It creates loss, it creates desolation and desecration. And it destroys not
only communities, but therefore, it destroys the lives of people.”
Kaucheck says the main tenet of the church’s anti-sprawl campaign is encouraging local
governments to work together on economic development. He says if communities are not trying to
one up each other to win new development projects, there would be less incentive for companies to
move farther into rural areas.
Kaucheck says the church wants its priests to talk about sprawl in their Sunday sermons. He calls it
“stirring the population” to affect social change.
“It’s government of the people, for the people and by the people. That’s what a democracy
is about. But somebody has to raise the question and you raise the question, faith-based,
through the scriptures. Is this what the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to? No, it doesn’t call
us to sprawl, it calls us to solidarity in community, and to looking at how service of one
another sometimes means dying to myself, that means maybe I’m going to have to give
something up.”
It isn’t likely the church’s urban sprawl committee will be able do much to bring people back to
parishes in the city. Father Mark Borkowski at St. Josaphat prays about the problem to the
Madonna. Her picture is at the center of the church’s main altar.
“My personal reason for the novena is to say to the Blessed Virgin Mary, ‘I haven’t got a
clue as to what to do, so I’m turning the problem over to you. This is your shrine, if you
want to stay here Mary, do something to help us help you stay, and help us stay here. When
the problem is too big you have to turn it over to a higher power.'”
The Catholic Church now hopes to protect churches that could become the next victims of sprawl.
Those are in places that once served the early waves of Catholics leaving Detroit for the first
suburbs.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
For the first time, the U.S. government is preparing to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Part of the administration’s proposal is to use a market-based approach, called “cap-and-trade.” People in the energy business say “cap-and-trade” programs are proven tools to protect the environment at a lower cost. But some critics say a pollutant as toxic as mercury should have a more traditional and tougher regulatory program. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
For the first time, the U.S. government is preparing to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired
power plants. Part of the administration’s proposal is to use a market-based approach, called “cap-
and-trade.” People in the energy business say “cap-and-trade” programs are proven tools to protect
the environment at a lower cost. But some critics say a pollutant as toxic as mercury should have a
more traditional and tougher regulatory program. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner
reports:
Thirty-four years ago, the nation saw its first fish consumption advisory. The state of Michigan
warned people not to eat too much fish from Lake St. Clair, which sits between lakes Huron and
Erie, not too far from Detroit. Michigan environmental officials discovered high levels of mercury
in many kinds of fish. Dow Chemical was dumping 200 to a thousand pounds of mercury a day
through a pipe straight into the St. Clair River.
John Hesse worked for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources back them. Hesse and his
colleagues found that people who ate fish from the lake twice a week or more had unsafe levels of
mercury in their system.
Hesse says in the U.S., the biggest mercury danger is to unborn babies whose mothers eat
contaminated fish.
“In children exposed at an early stage, they have a slower developmental pattern, onset of
walking might be affected, learning disabilities. It might be very subtle, but still affecting the
child’s potential.”
The government has stopped a lot of that kind of pollution. But, mercury is still a big problem.
Today, coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury pollution. The Bush
administration is calling for a cap-and-trade program to regulate mercury emissions.
Here’s how cap-and-trade works. The “cap” part sets national goals for reducing pollution and it
doles out pollution credits to each power plant based on those goals.
The “trade” part of cap-and-trade lets industries buy, sell or bank pollution credits to stay under
federal limits. It’s a lot like trading commodities in the markets. For example, a company that
pollutes over the limit can buy credits from companies that pollute less. Every plant might not
become cleaner, but nationwide mercury pollution would still be reduced.
Such a program’s been in place since 1990 for sulfur dioxide, a main component of acid rain.
Ohio-based American Electric Power is the biggest player in the sulfur dioxide trading game. The
company’s Dale Heydlauff says emissions trading is good for industry and for the environment.
“There was actually an incentive for utilities to, very early in the program, overcomply –
reduce emissions more than the law required, bank those allowances or those credits and
then trade them either with other facilities within your own company, or with external
parties whose cost of control is higher.”
In fact, sulfur dioxide emissions trading has saved American Electric Power 20- to 30-percent of
what it would cost to retro-fit all of its plants.
Heydlauff and others in the energy business say the EPA’s cap-and-trade plan is the right way to
deal with mercury, too. They say it’s better than traditional programs that demand expensive
upgrades on every plant. Heydlauff says there’s no proven technology to reduce mercury
emissions that will work everywhere.
“So what the trading system does for mercury, is it allows us to innovate. It allows us to
achieve the environmental requirement at a lower cost, but also through a variety of
different means.”
There’s one major difference between a cap-and-trade program for sulfur dioxide and mercury –
mercury is toxic to people. Environmentalists and people who’ve studied mercury say there’s more
at stake here than just economic costs.
David Gard is with the Michigan Environmental Council. He says there is technology available
today to cut mercury emissions. Gard says municipal and medical waste incinerators have used it
to cut mercury pollution by 90 percent. But Gard says power companies won’t embrace that
because installing the equipment would cost more money. Gard calls the Bush administration’s less
restrictive cap-and-trade programs a gift to the energy industry.
“The percentage reductions that they’re proposing are well below what we know available
technology and near-term technology can deliver. And also, for one of their proposals, it
would delay reductions by almost a full decade, out to 2018, when really, we should be
expecting major reductions from these sources by 2010.”
Gard also worries that a cap-and-trade program could worsen mercury hot spots – places where
contamination is more concentrated. He says under cap-and-trade, companies could pick and
choose which plants in their system to upgrade. Gard says that could leave some communities with
dirty air and big health concerns.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
The quest for a perfectly manIcured lawn has driven some lawn care companies to create a grass resistant to weed killer. Some worry, however, that they've created an invasive species. (Photo by Philipp Pilz)
