Staunton Green 2020

Have you rocked the vote yet and supported Staunton/Augusta Farmers Market in the American Farmland Trust national competition? With 30 acres of farmland being lost in Virginia every day, supporting our local farmers is now more important than ever. In the 10 county Shenandoah Valley region consumers spend $1.2 billion buying food each year, but only $4.3 million of food is sold by farmers directly to consumers. We have the buying power to re-shape the local economy. Learn more here.

Vote today for the Staunton/Augusta Farmers Market and eat local every day.

Every Thursday in July at Live Arts in Charlottesville there will be the one woman show, Cry of the Mountain, a documentary play about Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia, conceived and performed by Adelind Horan.

As described on the Live Arts web site: “This is a wonderful and simple piece of theatre in which Adelind portrays a wide variety of people involved with and affected by Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia. The characters are performed verbatim from interviews she conducted last summer while volunteering with iLoveMountains.org.”

Get more info at Live Arts.

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On Thursday, July 15 at 7 pm, the film Save Our Land, Save Our Towns will be shown at Mockingbird Restaurant, 123 West Beverley Street, Staunton, as part of the Local Motion Film Series Third Thursday Screenings. Admission is free. Doors open at 5:30 pm for dinner in the Roots Music Hall space. The film follows the quest of small town newsman Tom Hylton to discover why America’s towns have declined. Hylton explores policies which gave rise to sprawl and laws that encourage sprawl. Contrasting bad policies with those that encourage greenbelts and traditional neighborhoods, Hylton unveils logical, practical ways America can rebuild its towns and preserve its countryside. Following the film will be a brief discussion with two planners in our area: Kathy Frazier of Frazier and Associates, and Sara Hollberg of Valley Conservation Council. The screening is cosponsored by Transition Staunton Augusta, Mary Baldwin College’s Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement, and Mockingbird.

Don’t miss King Corn this Thursday (6/17) at the Mockingbird Restaurant (123 W. Beverley; Downtown Staunton). Film begins at 7pm, but come early to enjoy a special dinner in the Music Hall featuring food from local farmers (call 540.213.8777 for reservations).

In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from an east coast college, move to the American heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most productive, most subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions, about how we eat — and how we farm.

kingcorn.net has great info and links.

King Corn is part of the local motion film series presented by Transition Staunton Augusta in partnership with Staunton Green 2020.

Get your Staunton Green 2020 bumper sticker, take our “emboiled by Gulf Oil” survey, learn about Green Loans, chat with fine folks  and nosh on some locally sourced food and drink. See you at 5pm at Zynodoa (115 E. Beverley St. – downtown Staunton).

Staunton might seem far away from the Gulf of Mexico, but our dependency on oil is inextricably linked to the millions of gallons of oil gushing into the gulf. The proportions of the Deepwater Horizon environmental and human tragedy grow each day which makes looking at this immense disaster even more overwhelming. Nonetheless, consider viewing this underwater footage from ABC news on the Repower America web site to get a sense of the impact of this gusher.

Commentators locally, like Ed Scerbo, and elsewhere have smartly pointed out that calling the disaster in the gulf a “spill” is misleading. A spill suggests an accident with a finite amount that can be cleaned up. The gusher in the gulf is a result of decades of decisions (and indecisions) and our addiction to oil.

Let’s work locally to reduce our dependence. Use the comments section to identify one or two ways you are going to lessen your use of petroleum.

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Staunton Green 2020 logo

Oil spill in the gulf got you down? We’re frustrated and bummed out too. We can sit on our hands or we can take some action and come together. Here are some ways to help to get things going locally:

Next Thursday, June 10 at 5pm head over to Zynodoa (115 E. Beverley) in downtown Staunton for Green Drinks. No, not  shots of algae biofuel, but getting together in a fun and hip spot with some of the best local food and drinks, while meeting others interested in greening our environment, energy and economy.  We hope you’ll come. Let us know if you plan to swing by: RSVP to stauntongreen<at>gmail.com (replace the <at> with an @)

I’ll be wearing my recycled 1974 green blazer from Stuyvesant Thrift Store (you don’t have to wear green, but let’s make Staunton Green).

On the following Thursday, June 17 at 7pm it’s King Corn, the first installment of the local motion summer film series sponsored by Transition Staunton Augusta, in partnership with Staunton Green 2020 at the Mockingbird Restaurant at 123 W. Beverley. Free admission.

Come early to enjoy a special dinner in the Music Hall featuring food from local farmers (call 540.213.8777 for reservations). King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

On July 3 Staunton Green 2020 will again be driving a hybrid vehicle in the Staunton July 4th parade. We hope to see you at Gypsy Hill Park.

local motion summer film series

June 17 King Corn

July 15: Save Our Land, Save Our Towns

Aug. 19: A Crude Awakening

Sept. 16: The Green House

Soon will be sharing more information about our fall “re-skilling” workshops and additional efforts to reduce our carbon footprint here in Staunton.

Virginia Natural Resource Leadership Institute (VNRLI) is now accepting applications for Fellows.

Here’s more info on the program:

VNRLI is changing the way people make environmental decisions in the Commonwealth by helping Virginians take on the most challenging, costly and divisive local, regional and state environmental and land use issues through collaborative problem solving – reaching beyond common ground to “higher ground.” Our graduate Fellows – numbering over 250 – are working professionals in industry, small and independent businesses, local, state and federal government, educational institutions, and environmental, civic and non-profit organizations.

We are accepting applications for the 2010-2011 session workshops: six three-day learning experiences that we offer approximately two months apart – starting in September 2010 and ending in June 2011. The sessions usually start at mid-day on a Wednesday and end by mid-day on Friday. We offer each session in a different location in Virginia and focus on a set of natural resource issues of interest to citizens there. However, the underlying Institute theme across all sessions is to develop leaders who can help groups involved in contentious natural resources issues move beyond conflict toward consensus building and collaborative problem solving.

The VNRLI program grew out of a strong partnership between the University of Virginia Institute for Environmental Negotiation, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Department of Forestry and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Our alumni are involved in collaborative efforts in local, state and federal government, business and the nonprofit sector. They tell us that the VNRLI experience has helped them have the confidence and skill to get involved in resolving conflict in their work. They also report that the VNRLI experience has enhanced their careers and fostered new opportunities.

If you are interested in becoming a VNRLI Fellow, please visit our website:

http://www.virginia.edu/ien/vnrli/index.html

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just got scarier. NPR reported today that the spill could be considerably worse than originally believed. See the story here. It would be easy to get bummed out by the environmental damage, angry about the economic consequences and worried about the potential increase in gas prices. Instead take action to reduce your dependence on oil. Here are some steps to consider:

1. Help SG2020 in our efforts to create clean energy and green jobs in our community. EMAIL US: StauntonGreen AT gmail.com (insert @ in place of AT, no spaces!)
2. Make better transportation choices: walk, cycle, take the train, carpool, or recycle an old car for an energy efficient model. Plus, turn off the mower, blower and other small engines. Finally, combine errands into one trip.
3. Talk to friends, neighbors and local politicians; discuss what we all can do to move the entire city to greener and lower carbon practices.
4. Shop at locally owned businesses, support Augusta County agriculture. Join a CSA this summer.
5. Attend Staunton Green 2020 events — such as End of Suburbia at the Mockingbird on Thur. May 20 @ 7pm
6. Buy less stuff and when you do make a purchase, bring your own (petro free) bag!  Rethink your purchasing priorities. And of course recycle, reduce, reuse, renovate and restore.
7. Reduce your home’s carbon footprint by 20% by 2020 and save on your monthly bills and be eligible for BIG state and federal income tax incentives.
8. Demand environmental education in local schools; talk to school board members and teachers.  Instruct children in sustainable living.
9. Let  local, state and national lawmakers know your feelings.
10. Support SG2020 by making a tax-deductible donation through the Staunton Creative Community Fund.  Make your checks payable to SCCF and place SG2020 on your memo line. Your donation is  fully deductible to the extent allowed by law. Send checks to:  SCCF, 35 S. New St. Staunton VA 24401

Did you know that if you walk through your house with conventional lawn chemicals on your shoes the chemicals hang around… sometimes up to a year! Those same dangerous chemicals that run-off and contaminate the Chesapeake Bay watershed after some rain also stick around your house lingering in carpets and household dust for a year or more according to Environmental Science and Technology. Okay, that’s a bummer. But the problem is far more pervasive.

Last month (Apr. 2010) the President’s Cancer Panel released the report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, which details how we are exposed to up to 80,000 dangerous, unregulated chemicals from not only industry and manufacturing, but also in our homes, at work, through agricultural activities and our front lawns. The report is incredibly (and depressingly) comprehensive.

One of the scariest elements of the report is the acknowledgment that children are often most vulnerable to these chemicals.

The report pulls no punches and at the end of the Executive Summary the authors take their case to President Obama:

“The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

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