In February 2009, Canada's Public Safety Minister and the country's Correctional Service announced a planned closure of all six of the prison farms owned by the people of Canada and operated by CORCAN - the branch of the Correctional Service that operates the farm rehabilitation programs which also provide employment training to inmates. The excellent syndicated Canadian radio show Deconstructing Dinner, which covers the local food movement, detailed all of this in its July 2nd show, and it's a fascinating listen.

The proposed closure is a move that's spawned a national grassroots movement to block the action, Save Our Farms.

Why close the farms, Mr. Minister? Because, he explains, they've lost $4 million (doesn't that sound like the cost of a training program, though?) and, worse, prison farms are training people in skills that are 50 years behind the times - growing food by hand, milking cows, and such. This guy apparently has no idea what's on the horizon for food production, and prefers the model with the hydroponic aquabots tending to seas of floating produce or something.

Never mind that Canada's prison farm infrastructures are often relied on by small private farms nearby, that they supply cheap fresh food to large institutions, and the fact that the inmates interviewed in the story told of enjoying the farm work and testified to its great therapeutic effects and a desire to continue this work after release. Add to the picture Canada's farm succession problems and its burgeoning local agriculture revival and one would seem to be mad to close these farms. The one in Kingston, Ontario, is likely the largest urban farm in Canada, a last reservoir of open land in a sprawling city.

Where the prisons plan to get their fresh food from post-CORCAN is my question, and rumors abound that the farms will either be privatized or worse, sold for development at a profit. But what a loss that would be: Canada’s prison farms sit on some of the most desirable agricultural land in their regions and many are close to urban areas.  And there's an ironic twist: Canada's prison farms are an international model and have been recently toured by delegations from Japan, Russia, and New Zealand, the latter hoping to take its own prison farms organic.

In the US, prison farms are also a source of tilth and production. A quick search turns up items like these two:

Nashville prison saves $150K composting all food waste; grows 100 acres of veggies.

And then there's New Jersey, whose largest farmer is its prison system, managed by AgriIndustries - 'a self-supporting operation without appropriated funds. Annual revenues total approximately $11.5 million, with substantial savings to all users. The departments of Corrections, Human Services, and Military and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Juvenile Justice Commission, utilize products from AgriIndustries.'

Their site also says that their operations 'utilize and train about 100 inmates daily in all areas of food production technology,' and that, (surprisingly, to me), 'the food production industry is the largest employer in New Jersey,' and that 'inmates receive training and experience that may qualify them to gain employment when they leave the prison system.'

If that last bit is true, it's another in a long list of reasons why these rehabilitative programs ought to be championed and remain integral to prisons. It's just plain healing to grow and care for things, and we are going to need a lot more people, with criminal records or not, that know how to do that in the near future.

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Climate change is a global problem—but as of yet, there’s no global solution. That’s why mayors across the U.S. are taking action, from building green to organizing bike rides, from redeveloping downtowns to cutting emissions. Here are just a few of the municipal leaders who have worked to take our collective future into their own hands.

Bloomberg unveils his grand Plan.PlanNYC 20301. Michael Bloomberg, New York City.
Pop.: 8.2 million
Call New York the accidental eco-city: cram millions of people onto an island, and you’ve got to figure out how to build up, not out. Throw a big park in the middle, and voila: you’ve got an anti-sprawl city that values open space. During his tenure, Bloomberg has made the most of that happy accident, creating an ambitious 127-point initiative called PlanNYC 2030 that encompasses everything from reclaiming waterfronts to repairing electrical grids to reducing traffic congestion. (OK, that last one hasn’t gone so well.) A year after unveiling the plan in 2007, the city had launched a full 93 percent of its components.

Nickels at a climate rally with King County exec Ron Sims, since tapped to head HUD.Oran Viriyincy 2. Greg Nickels, Seattle.
Pop.: 594,000
In some ways, Greg Nickels became synonymous with the phrase “green mayor” after spearheading the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005. Since then, more than 900 of Nickels’ fellow mayors have come on board, Republican and Democrat alike, from all 50 states. No stranger to eco-ideas at home, Nickels—who has led the Emerald City since 2002—has also been instrumental in bringing light rail to the area, pushing to increase investments in open space, and launching an ongoing series of “clean and green” community-service events. He’s up for reelection this year, and one challenger says he hasn’t done enough on the environment. Only in Seattle.

Newsom uses a white hanky to demonstrate clean diesel emissions. Seriously!MTC3. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco.
Pop.: 765,000
Another mack daddy of sustainability, Newsom is almost too green to believe. Since he took office in 2004, the city has reduced government emissions to below 1990 levels, launched the nation’s largest solar incentive program, banned plastic bags, and introduced ambitious green building and green jobs programs. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, city leaders hope to increase wind power by the Bay, including underwater turbines at the Golden Gate Bridge. Speaking at a conference of green IT entrepreneurs this spring, Newsom—who also recently confirmed his 2010 gubernatorial ambitions—offered up his city as guinea pig: “If you have an idea, let me know. We are a laboratory for innovation.”

Malloy in a glamorous mayoral moment.Will Merydith/flickr4. Ed Malloy, Fairfield, Iowa.
Pop.: 9,650
In November, the city fathers in this liberal southeastern Iowa outpost unanimously adopted a Green Strategic Plan. Their vote was more than ceremonial: they also secured a state-funded grant to hire a sustainability coordinator, inventory their greenhouse gases, and create educational materials for residents. The new plan envisions everything from conserving energy to supporting local farms. Malloy, who’s been mayor since 2001 and heads up a local oil company, says the environment-economy connection is clear. He hopes Fairfield’s ideas will catch on: “We want to create a model community, a virtual template that other small towns can adopt to create the same results.”

What a difference a Daley makes.www.drugabuse.gov5. Richard Daley, Chicago.
Pop.: 2.8 million
Since announcing his intention to make Chicago the country’s greenest metropolis, Daley has made great strides. Green roofs cover or are planned for 3 million square feet, topping everything from City Hall to a McDonald’s. Redevelopment and landscaping have revitalized gathering places across the city, from prominent landmarks like Grant Park to neighborhood playgrounds. And the Windy City is committed to increasing its use of renewable energy (though a recent revelation showed things lagging in that area). Chicago is even bidding to host the 2016 Olympics—a bid that hinges on the event being the greenest Olympics in history.

Franklin, my dear, she does give a damn.City of Atlanta6. Shirley Franklin, Atlanta.
Pop.: 519,000
Often held up as the poster child for sprawl, Atlanta boasts more green than meets the eye—and Franklin is to thank for much of the recent progress. Mayor since 2002, she has attacked infrastructure and intangibles with the same gusto, from overhauling the city’s sewer systems to creating a Climate Action Plan. The city is building a public-transit BeltLine, is tops in LEED-certified buildings, and has implemented practices in City Hall that led to a 20 percent decrease in energy usage. A comprehensive private-sector group called Sustainable Atlanta is developing recommendations for further actions, and all eyes are on the future. “We are building a green, sustainable city,” Franklin says. “We do this for our children, and we do this because it is the right thing to do.”

Planner, politico, father, grandfather.RalphBecker.com7. Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City.
Pop.: 179,000
Building on the groundbreaking work of predecessor (and official Grist crush) Rocky Anderson, Becker—who took office in 2008—has already made ripples in the eco-community. Upon taking the helm, Becker introduced his Blueprint for a Green City, in which he pledged to improve public transit, expand greenways, create neighborhood centers to promote walkability, and improve air and water quality. And the former urban planner isn’t just talking the talk; among other concrete steps, the city is piloting hybrid police cars and has undertaken an overhaul of its city code to make sustainability easier for all residents to achieve.

Don’t mess with Jerramiah.Byron Smith/Jersey Journal8. Jerramiah Healy, Jersey City.
Pop.: 242,000
He’s a rough and tumble guy running a historically rough and tumble city. But that just goes to show that green can be pursued anywhere, by anyone. Healy was recently given a Green Leadership Award by the state U.S. Green Building Council chapter. During his five-year tenure, he has held polluters accountable, opposed a controversial reservoir development scheme, and redeveloped brownfields. Up for reelection this month, Healy recently introduced ordinances that would require city departments to pursue LEED certification and green purchasing, and is reportedly considering a ban on plastic bags.

Manny being Manny.City of Miami9. Manuel Diaz, Miami.
Pop.: 410,000
Though some critics have dubbed him “Concrete Manny” due to his love of development, Diaz is paving the way for sustainability in Miami. An early signatory to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, he created Miami’s first sustainability department and a community-wide Green Commission. He has pushed green building, led an energy-retrofit of City Hall that included solar-panel installation, and is converting the city’s fleet to more efficient vehicles. Late last year Diaz launched Bike Miami Days, and this spring the city hosted a week of events leading up to Earth Hour. “We’re on the front line of global climate change here,” Diaz told Newsweek in 2007. “The water level doesn’t have to rise too much for us to be riding around Miami in canoes.”

Walker? I’d rather bike.Robert the Noid/flickr10. Elaine Walker, Bowling Green, Ky.
Pop.: 53,000
This TV producer-turned-politician has her hands full, from increasing affordable housing to contending with the crash of Big Auto, but green is on her radar screen. Transportation issues loom large in this western Kentucky city, and Walker has worked with local bike-advocacy groups (even creating a Mayor’s Bike Ride) and launched a Rethinking Transportation Choices task force. A signatory to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, she is a proponent of green building and downtown redevelopment. “There’s too much of a perception that going green is a little bit out there and idealistic,” she has said. “It’s not idealistic—it’s vital.”

Cicilline envisions a model future.Cicilline.com11. David Cicilline, Providence, R.I.
Pop.: 175,000
In late March, this native son signed an order requiring all new municipal buildings to be LEED-certified, saying such a move would help create jobs and boost the economy. It was the first step in a 30-point plan called Operation Opportunity that seeks to help this mid-sized New England city rise from the doldrums; other steps include doubling the recycling rate, creating a green jobs training corps, and finalizing site plans for wind turbines. Cicilline, at the wheel since 2003, has also named walkability and sustainable leadership among his goals for the city.

Get your Phil.Tom Story/ASU12. Phil Gordon, Phoenix.
Pop.: 1.6 million
The long-time Phoenician made a splash in March when he unveiled a 17-point sustainability plan for the desert megalopolis he’s run since 2004. During his tenure, Gordon has already overseen eco-upgrades ranging from LED traffic lights to LNG buses, as well as bringing light rail to the city. The new plan aims to make Phoenix the first carbon-neutral city in America, through green job training, building retrofits, and a massive investment in solar energy. It’s making Phoenix hot in a whole new way.

Coleman (left) and Rybak do their thing.Lou Michaels13. Christopher Coleman, St. Paul.
Pop.: 274,000
14. R. T. Rybak, Minneapolis.
Pop.: 377,000
The Twin Cities are in the hands of two progressive mayors intent on doubling the metro region’s eco-efforts. Coleman and Rybak, elected in 2005 and 2001 respectively, have both made sustainability a priority—Minneapolis, for instance, doles out climate change grants to neighborhood organizations, while St. Paul created its own hybrid car-sharing program. Together, the two leaders have created an annual sustainability report and a green manufacturing initiative, and they’re bringing bike-sharing to town. It’s all part of an effort, they say, to make theirs the most livable cities in the country.

Dixson, far left, leads the groundbreaking of Greensburg’s first eco-home.Greensburg GreenTown15. Bob Dixson, Greensburg, Kansas.
Pop.: 850
Talk about inheriting someone else’s problem: Bob Dixson became mayor of Greensburg in 2008, exactly a year after it was devastated by a tornado. But Greensburg has rallied, and the former postmaster is now overseeing the town’s much publicized green rebuilding effort (which has also been documented for TV). Learning as he goes, Dixson has become an eco-evangelist of sorts, traveling the nation to talk up renewable energy, green building, community spirit, and the common sense behind green. “In rural America,” he told Smithsonian magazine earlier this year, “we were always taught that if you take care of the land, the land will care of you.”

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Maine Republican Susan Collins, a longtime environmentalist who was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, successfully defended her Senate seat against a challenge from Democrat Tom Allen, who also has a strong green record. New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith, another LCV endorsee, won his reelection race too. But another stalwart green Republican from the Northeast, Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, lost his seat to Democrat Jim Himes.

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What's cute and teeny and charged up? An electric Mini Cooper, which BMW will unveil at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Even more exciting -- especially if you are among "select private and corporate customers" -- a 500-vehicle test fleet will be available for lease in California, New Jersey, and New York early next year. While the creatively named Mini E will be manufactured in the United Kingdom and Germany, BMW is still mum on specific plans for a European release. The two-seater Mini E takes about eight hours to fully charge, then can travel 150 miles before needing to be juiced up again. It has a top speed of 95 miles per hour and looks just like a regular Mini -- except for the none-too-subtle electric plug painted on the roof.

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New Jersey this week opened a new front in its battle to be a leader in renewable energy generation. Gov. Jon Corzine (D) announced an ambitious goal to triple the amount of wind power the state plans to use by 2020 to 3,000 Megawatts, or about 13 percent of the state's total electricity. The wind-power goal is part of the effort to get utilities in the state to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2020, as required by a state law passed in 2006. Last week, New Jersey announced it had chosen Garden State Offshore Energy to build its first offshore wind farm, a $1 billion, 345 MW project some 20 miles off the state's southern coast that aims to crank out enough clean energy by 2013 to power about 125,000 homes. "We want to create this generation's race to the moon, but this time, a race to the sea, to harness this potential wind source off of our coasts, and bring economic development, environmental benefits, and new, green jobs to the Garden State," Corzine said.

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ExxonMobil has announced it intends to build a $1 billion floating liquefied-natural-gas terminal 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey. The offshore location is intended to make the venture less objectionable to opponents who worry about pollution, leaks, catastrophic explosions, and other environmental impacts from the facility that aims to produce 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. Since 2002, 18 LNG terminals have been approved in the U.S., while still others have been halted by local opposition. An Exxon vice president said that the offshore location of the proposed terminal, "gives it a minimal footprint in the environmental, safety, and security aspects." Clean Ocean Action's Cindy Zipf called it "industrial sprawl into the ocean." Pending approval, the terminal could be operational by 2015 or so and would be the first new LNG terminal along the U.S. East Coast in some 30 years.

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The U.S. Department of Energy found high levels of toxic hydrogen sulfide in the soil of suburban Versailles, Pa., and has neglected to inform local officials. The U.S. EPA was lackadaisical about cleaning up toxic paint sludge left by automaker Ford in Trenton, N.J., and disregarded complaints from the community. Luckily, those failures of the U.S. government to protect and inform the public are coincidental, and completely isolated events.

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A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, the first book for a general audience on climate change, and, most recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He serves on Grist's board of directors.

Thursday, 7 Jun 2007

LEBANON, New Hampshire

If you're worried -- and who isn't? -- that the pressure for action on global warming will crest and fade after the last six months of steady growth, you should have been on the town green of this small western New Hampshire burg on Wednesday night.

Twenty-five college students, the advance phalanx of a Climate Summer that will pull kids from all over to the Granite State in the next 10 weeks, put on a rousing display of Frisbee-tossing and petition-passing -- and for the large, mostly older crowd that came to watch the kickoff of the organizing drive, it was special in part because it recalled the activism of an earlier day.

You can't call your website Climate Summer without rousing memories of one of the most powerful chapters in American dissident history: the Freedom Summer of 1964, which drew college kids from across the country to Mississippi. Nothing about that history is easy -- not the violence that took the lives of three volunteers in the first week, nor the tensions between well-meaning, privileged, often clueless white northerners and the people they were, sometimes patronizingly, "trying to help." But four decades later, it stands for the idea that creativity and commitment can work real change.

There's no threat of peril hanging over this summer's work, but there is more than a whiff of the same creativity. Students on the Lebanon Green were busy talking up plans for a "Red, White, and Green" Fourth of July parade in Amherst, N.H., and a webcast with organizers on top of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the rest of the state's "presidential" high peaks. Much of the work will build toward a grand march across the state August 1-5, a procession that organizer Jared Duval, who runs the Sierra Student Coalition, predicts will be the largest climate demonstration in the country's history.

No one, of course, is under any illusions about why New Hampshire and why this summer. The odd process of choosing an American leader means that only citizens in Iowa and here in this small slice of New England actually get to meet their presidential candidates. And so it's here that raising local consciousness can also affect presidential platforms.

In 1999, a much smaller crew of students followed the contenders as they made their pre-primary rounds, and in the process managed to convert at least one -- John McCain -- into a born-again climate convert. He came home from his losing campaign, convened a Senate hearing, and before too long had introduced the first serious piece of climate legislation the Senate had ever taken up.

Thanks to IRS laws, these kids (many from nearby Middlebury College in Vermont) won't be primarily bird-dogging presidential candidates -- though on their off hours, it seems likely they'll be making their presence felt. But simply by raising the issue in every possible forum, simply by knocking on doors and passing out fliers, they'll be doing crucial work: making the campaigns understand that climate is no longer a second-tier issue, something you can throw in the laundry list of idle promises at the end of a speech.

By now, most observers think that the fate of the U.S. climate effort may be decided in the first few months of 2009, when we find out whether the new president will take it on as an incremental issue or a transforming one. Here in New Hampshire, anyway, the battle for the second outcome is underway.

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A strange environmental-justice saga is unfolding in New Jersey, pitting Ford Motor Co. against a community of Ramapough Indians and their allies. Decades ago, Ford dumped thousands of tons of toxic paint sludge at a former mining area. The dump was declared a Superfund site, reportedly cleaned up, and delisted. But neighbors said that sludge remained, and was causing illnesses and deaths. So last year, the site was put back on the Superfund list -- the first-ever such relisting -- and now the EPA inspector general's office is studying the reasons for the decades-long fustercluck. At a community meeting this week, EPA reps said the agency's oversight of the process undeniably sucked, but they found no evidence of racism. Residents scoffed: "Asking them if there was discrimination is like asking an ax murderer standing over a body if he killed anyone," said community leader Wayne Mann. "With all due respect to you guys, you failed." Both the clean-up and the investigation will continue.

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Leaders around the world leap into the climate-promise arena

Today we bring you another edition of Leaders Making Big Climate Promises! In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a goal to make her country the world's first carbon-neutral nation. Zowie! British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell says he'll set up a climate team to cut vehicle and coal-plant emissions and push B.C.ers to conserve. Zoinks! In the U.S., New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) signed an executive order calling for an 80 percent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, noting the "absence of leadership on the federal level." Ahem! And a high-profile meeting in the U.S. Senate finds bigwigs John McCain, Barbara Boxer, and others meeting with lawmakers from Europe and Asia to discuss the world's approach to climate change. Kapow! Organized by the U.K.-based GLOBE (Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment), the forum is backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair. President Bush, busy looking for a corner of the Oval Office to weep in, could not be reached for comment.

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Dioxin-laced Passaic River remains uncleaned by corporations that fouled it

For today's tale of corporate skullduggery and government negligence, we take you to the lovely state of New Jersey. For almost 20 years beginning in the early '50s, the Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Co. -- manufacturer of pesticides like DDT and Agent Orange -- dumped its dioxin-laden waste untreated into the Passaic River, because really, who's got the time? In 1994, the federal Superfund program ordered Diamond's corporate successors to clean the river up. Ha ha. Said corporate successors proceeded to finance years of scientific studies arguing that dioxin (one of the most toxic synthetic chemicals ever produced) isn't that bad after all, and that lots of other companies dirtied the river too. Meanwhile, their corporate lobbyists descended on Washington, spreading cash around. And lo! In 2002, the feds decided a more "holistic" approach was needed, funded not only by Diamond's descendents but by other companies and taxpayers to boot, and the whole thing should kick off with a decade-long ... study. Meanwhile, the dioxin remains in the Passaic, spreading out farther every year.

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New Jersey bear hunt gets under way

New Jersey's second bear hunt in 35 years kicked off yesterday despite last-minute attempts by activists to halt the six-day season. By Monday afternoon, 54 bears had been killed. Joisey's growing bear population is estimated at 2,000 to 3,000, and human-bear encounters are increasing. Hunt advocates claim bear season is a good way to thin the bruin population. Animal-rights groups unsuccessfully went to the New Jersey Supreme Court to stop the hunt, contending that the state's bear management plan is not scientifically sound, and that the government hadn't done enough to educate people on avoiding bears or distribute bear-proof garbage cans. "Until we get our garbage under control there will continue to be a rise in nuisance complaints with or without bear hunts," says bear advocate Lynda Smith. But hunter Kirk Lee counters, "I love living with the bears, but I support the hunt. There's too many out there for the amount of space available."

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New Jersey becomes first state to require stronger chemical security

New Jersey has become the first state in the nation to require security assessments for chemical plants -- assessments blocked at the federal level by industry and Republican lawmakers. The new rules call for the state's 140-odd chemical plants to evaluate potential security risks and report plans for addressing them. Forty-three facilities using especially dangerous chemicals will also have to investigate reducing or ending their reliance on such materials. Despite post-9/11 awareness that the densely populated state's chemical facilities are prime terrorist targets -- one stretch of facilities near Newark has been termed the most vulnerable two miles in the country by federal authorities -- New Jersey's $27 billion chemical industry has fiercely resisted state-mandated security measures. It's squawking about the new regulations, even while some activists say the rules are largely based on industry recommendations and too weak to be meaningful anyway.

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NE states face choice between nuclear power and greenhouse-gas emissions

New Jersey and Vermont -- two of nine Northeast states negotiating a pact to cap greenhouse-gas emissions -- rely heavily on nuclear-generated energy. Now, with the 40-year-long licenses of New Jersey's Oyster Creek nuclear plant and the Vermont Yankee plant nearing expiration, the states could face dramatic spikes in their emissions if the facilities are shut down and fossil-fuel plants are called on to pick up the slack. Though the environmental community backs efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, many activists also want to shut down the nuke plants; they argue that conservation and renewable energy sources could fill the gap. But some utility experts contend that's unrealistic, noting, for instance, that most electric grids can only handle a limited amount of wind power because it's intermittent and unpredictable. "I think the environmental community is confused right now in terms of where they want to go," said Richard A. Valentinetti, director of Vermont's air quality program.

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