Uppity Wisconsin - Sustainable Communities

Fighting for the Heart of Dairy

borges — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:23:51 +0000

Here's a beautifully crafted video (produced by Greta Wing-Miller and Aarick Beher, of DowntownDailies.com) of the rally that took the issues of Organic Rules violations to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack himself. The rally took place on July 16 at the La Crosse County Fairgrounds in West Salem, Wisconsin. Cornucopia Institute led the way on the issue, organizing the event, and speaking truth to power on behalf of those dairy farmers subject to an unfair structure.

I think we all predicted this when the USDA first got involved...remember that?

Fair Trade Crawl, Milwaukee

xoff — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:26:12 +0000

5/9 Sat 10:30 am – 6 pm 2nd Annual Fair Trade Crawl – Milwaukee area. Kick-off and central organizing at The Outpost Natural Foods Co-op, 2826 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.in Bay View.

This event is a celebration of socially responsible shopping, with many programs and discounts. Prizes are available to shoppers who "crawl" to at least 6 shops: including Wigwam socks, Equal Exchange coffee, Sven's coffee, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, and fair trade wine. Free and open to the public. 31 shops in the greater Milwaukee that sell at least one fair trade product will participate. About 20 shops will participate in the effort to break the record for the world's largest fair trade coffee break. This is part of World Fair Trade Day.

There is a closing reception at The Outpost by the Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign from 4 – 6 pm. The Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition formed in 2007 after the Common Council made Milwaukee an official "Fair Trade Town," part of an international movement to encourage purchase and use of products made where workers are not exploited.

There will be special appearances throughout the day by guests form Peru : Ayde Riveros, founded and works in knitted goods cooperative & Evangelina Pizarro, founded and works in jewelry cooperative, is a former sweatshop factory worker. Their schedule: Outpost Bay View 10:30 - 12:30; Fair Trade for All 1-2; Four Corners of the World 2:15-3:15, Outpost again 4-6 pm.

For more information, contact Steve Watrous at Watrousuwm [dot] edu (Watrousuwm [dot] edu)

Saving Our Farmland

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:48:43 +0000

“We must protect our land,” urged the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture. “Land is our most precious natural resource.”

Secretary Rod Nilsestuen testified before a Joint Hearing of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education. I had the distinct honor of chairing the Joint Hearing. The topic was protecting farmland – specifically the Working Lands Initiative.

We are permanently losing farmland at an alarming rate. State-wide we are losing about one township of productive farmland every year. UW research documented our state lost about 100,000 acres in the first five years of this decade. We simply cannot sustain such a loss of a vital part of our economy, our heritage and an irreplaceable natural resource.

The Working Lands Initiative is a state-wide effort, started five years ago, to provide tools and incentives for the preservation of forest and farmland. The ideas for the initiative came from a 27- member committee of farmers and stakeholders. The group spent a year reviewing what has and has not worked around the country. Many members and others traveled to the East Coast to see how farmland is preserved around very quickly growing cities.

The task force looked for practical and achievable solutions. This was particularly challenging given the budget deficit faced by our state. The task force wanted something that promoted growth and development in a way that also preserved productive farmland. They wanted to promote all types of farms and they wanted to protect individual property rights.

After carefully crafting their proposal, the group and the organizations they represent scheduled dozens of sessions around the state asking for citizen input.

The results of all this work ended up in the Governor’s 2009 –11 state budget released a few weeks ago. It was then I and Assembly Ag Committee Chair Representative Vuwink scheduled a Joint public hearing on the proposal.

During the committee hearing, members and the public learned the details of the new initiative. The program overhauls and modernizes the state’s 30- year old Farmland Preservation Program; it provides dollars to local government to update their farmland preservation plans and zoning ordinances (if zoning exists). The program allows for the Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easements – a way to preserve farmland for a long time. The initiative also creates another tool – the Agriculture Enterprise Area. This is a way for farmers and local officials to create areas of land dedicated to agriculture.

At the Joint Hearing committee members received testimony from many farm groups, farmers and local government officials. No one spoke in opposition to the proposal. Two farmers brought their daughters with them as a testament to the importance of protecting farmland for future generations.

For me, the day was best summed up by one of the farmers who shared with us the following quote from Theodore Roosevelt…We are not building our country for a day. It is to last through the ages.

State Senator Kathleen Vinehout serves the 31^st Senate District. She can be contacted by mail at Senator Kathleen Vinehout, P.O. Box 7882 Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7882 by phone at 877-763-6636 (toll free) or email at Sen [dot] Vinehoutlegis [dot] wisconsin [dot] gov

The Pabst Farms Mirage

Wisconsin TruthWatch — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:26:24 +0000

I warned against Pabst Farms back in February 2008. Another retail wonderland is the last thing Wisconsin needs to be publicly-funding at this - or for that matter, any other - time. Such subsidization merely realigns spending away from existing shopping destinations toward the newer, shinier destination. A colossal waste of public (and private) resources if there ever was one.

But wait a minute, things aren't going as planned.

I thought this was a slam-dunk economic development initiative?

One of those unstoppable catalysts that was necessary, creates jobs, and spurs further development.

So why can't the developers even sign tenants?

Maybe it has to do something with the duplicative, sprawling, inefficient, environmentally unsound, and bribery-laden path of our urban planning & economic development. Sites compete for capital, subsidizing businesses to locate in less than optimal locations. This increases productive inefficiency, whilst hamstringing the unsubsidized competition. All this slows growth from what it would be without the subsidization. It also decreases municipal tax revenue which reduces the provision of public services (which are crucial to quality of life indicators) and encourages labor force contraction.

I can only hope Obama's appointment of an Urban Czar can correct some of these deficiencies.

100th Anniversary of Water Chlorination

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:27:50 +0000

(Re-posted from Huffington Post)

I became an environmental activist in the early 1970s just as I was completing my doctorate in ecology at the University of British Columbia. It was the height of the Cold War and the height of the Viet Nam War and we were compelled to take a very public stand against activities we thought to be catastrophic both for people and for the planet.

I joined a small committee that was meeting in the basement of the Unitarian Church. We organized a protest voyage against U.S. hydrogen bomb testing in Alaska and had tens of thousands marching in the streets. When that H-bomb was set off at Amchitka Island in November 1971, it was the last hydrogen bomb the U.S. ever detonated.

It was the birth of Greenpeace, the organization I co-founded, spending 15 years in its top committee, helping to lead environmental campaigns around the world.

But it's ironic in the extreme that, as we mark the 100th anniversary of drinking water chlorination, my old organization and other activist groups aligned with it continue to oppose this most important public health achievement.

Activist organizations like Greenpeace have access to a full century of observations on the results of water chlorination in the US, all the way back to September 26, 1908 when Jersey City, NJ became the first US city to chlorinate its public water supply.

It's true, there were those back then who vehemently opposed the use of this "poison" in public water supplies. According to one official at the time, continued chlorination to eradicate typhoid was akin to being "between the devil and the deep blue sea, for at present we don't know whether typhoid fever or the (chlorinated) drinking water is the worst."

Thankfully from the perspective of human health, chlorination of water supplies spread rapidly. Today, chlorination is the overwhelming choice for treating public water systems.

The results are clear. This widespread adoption of chlorine disinfection across the U.S. has had very important results. Waterborne diseases like typhoid, Hepatitis A and cholera that once killed thousands of Americans each year have been virtually eliminated. Typhoid fever cases fell by more than 99 percent between 1900 and 1960. Related childhood mortality fell dramatically. And average life expectancy rose from 47 years in 1900 to nearly 78 years in 2006.

Yet, many of my old environmental colleagues continue to vilify chlorination of water by raising unwarranted fears about health risks of chlorine and disinfection byproducts. In fact, it was a Greenpeace decision in 1986 to support a world-wide ban on all chlorine use that turned out to be a breaking point between my old organization and me.

My strongly held view is that chlorine is essential for our health. It is that simple. At the time I explained to my fellow Greenpeace International directors that water chlorination was the biggest advance in the history of public health, and in addition that the majority of our pharmaceuticals are based on chlorine chemistry. As the only board member with an education in science, my words fell on deaf ears.

In short, my former colleagues ignored science and supported the ban, giving me no choice but to leave the group as I could not support such a policy. Despite science concluding no known health risks - and ample benefits - from water chlorination, Greenpeace and other environmental groups have continued to oppose its use for more than 20 years.

I believe the opposition to the use of chemicals such as chlorine is part of a broader hostility to the use of chemicals in general. I often cite Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, as having had a significant impact on many pioneers of the green movement. The book raised some legitimate concerns, many rooted in science, about the risks and negative environmental impact associated with the indiscriminate use of chemicals.

But the day-to-day water chlorination that occurs across America is not in the category of indiscriminate use. For Greenpeace and groups like it, the healthy skepticism learned from Carson has hardened over the years, and given way to a mindset that treats virtually all use of chemicals with suspicion.

After a century of use and the resulting eradication of waterborne diseases across the US and the world, those activists who continue, absurdly, to oppose water chlorination only illustrate the need for an alternative environmental policy based on science and logic - not misinformation and campaigns of fear.

After all, campaigns based on groundless fears distract the public from real environmental threats such as air pollution and tropical deforestation for example.

As we mark one of the key milestones in improving the public health of Americans right across the country, let's always remember we all have a responsibility to be environmental stewards. But stewardship requires that science drive our public policy, just as it did a hundred years ago in Jersey City.

Compassionate Badger

bschmock — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:55:52 +0000

Location

Eau Claire, WI, 54703

United States

See map: Google MapsREGIONALLY, this blog concentrates on Northern Thailand and Wisconsin.

TOPICS blogged about include: ~ media ~ environmental awareness ~ community empowerment ~ sustainability & sufficiency ~ agriculture ~ globalization ~ economics ~ government & politics ~ history ~ education ~ religion ~ AND peace

Where to find locally grown food from Wisconsin farms and restaurants

warmmidwest — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:55:07 +0000

This is so cool!

Four UW-Madison students have developed an interactive, online map to help promote and locate Wisconsin farms and restaurants that serve locally-grown food.

The average American meal travels 1,500 miles to reach your plate for consumption.

Get Uppity! Buy local!

Update: The map is in beta stage and will get more usable in the coming weeks.

Attention State Taxpayers: Don't Let Them Build An Interstate Interchange To Nowhere

James Rowen — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:40:36 +0000

The state wants to spend more than $20 million on an bells-and-whistles interstate interchange in rural western Waukesha County - - as access to an upscale mega-shopping mall that might not be built.

Details here.

Michigan Effort To Keep Invasive Species Out Of The Great Lakes Ruled Legal

James Rowen — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:41:15 +0000

The State of Michigan's pioneering regulations to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes has been ruled legal.

Now is the time for Wisconsin to do the same.

Details here.

Milwaukee Green Print

Steve Hanson — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:54:23 +0000

Milwaukee Folks -

And this probably means you since the bulk of the Uppity Wisconsin readers are in Milwaukee -

If you want a better, cleaner, happier Milwaukee, please go read this article about Milwaukee Green Print in One Wisconsin Now, and find out what you can do to help with the vote.