Sustainability efforts grow across N.C.

By: Katie Saylors

Sustainability efforts grow across the state despite a slow, recovering economy, according to many groups in North Carolina.

“What we're seeing is strong attention to North Carolina because we are the only state with the mandatory REPS program in the Southeast,” Katie Shepherd said, a marketing and communications manager at NC GreenPower.

The REPS program, enacted in 2007, requires that all electric power providers in the state provide a portion of electricity to renewable energy generators. The types of energy generators include wind, solar photovoltaic and hydro-electric.

At NC GreenPower, a nonprofit organization, Shepherd works with sponsors to help improve North Carolina’s environment. Shepherd said that NC Greenpower is 100 percent dependent of any other program and the only partnerships they have are when they provide outreach services.

“We may work with small groups and large groups to educate and obtain donations,” she said. The donations NC Greenpower receives are put toward supplementing the state's existing power supply with renewable energy sources.

Shepherd, who grew up in N.C., said it is nice to watch the transfer from coal to more renewable energy sources in the state.

“Seeing the shift from traditional fossil fuels over to more renewable energy sources, I feel that we have seen a shift in opinion across the country about North Carolina,” Shepherd said.

Working for NC GreenPower allows her to travel and see a change in the state in terms of energy efficiency, she said.

“The ability of my job to connect me statewide to people who are working to be sustainable in whatever way that is, it's definitely been a big plus to my job,” she said. “It seems that everyone I have met has something to add to my job, to help me to do my job better, and to enlighten me and open my eyes to another issue that maybe I wasn't aware of.”

Other green projects in the state include the Sustainability Management Plan, which began three years ago in Asheville. The plan aims to reduce the municipal carbon footprint by 80 percent by 2050.

“In the last three years, we've actually reduced by 8.4 percent so we're ahead of the game,” Maggie Ullman said, the energy coordinator at the Office of Sustainability in Asheville. “It's amazing to be part of this group and see growth and change,” Ullman said, who is head of the Office of Sustainability.

Ullman said their current initiatives will cut down on waste and conserve energy in the city. A new project they are working on with Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College is to create a recycle photo booth.

“You have to recycle to get your photo taken and your picture will be uploaded to our website,” Ullman said. The project is both a recycling and social marketing tool that will promote positive behavior changes.

Aside from nonprofits and cities increasing efforts to raise awareness on sustainability, some communities are making sustainability a way of life.

In Black Mountain, one communities mission is to live as sustainably as possible. At Earth Haven Ecovillage, this off-the-grid community of about 70 people creates their own energy from hydro-electric power and solar photovoltaic panels.

“We are our own utility service,” Kimchi Rylander said, a member and community coordinator at Earth Haven.

Other than living off the grid, Rylander said she lives in a home which was built from trees milled on the property along with recycled materials and minerals found in the village. Rylander said while living sustainably is hard and can take time to get used to, the rewards are worth it.

“To live sustainably means to be intimately connected with the Earth from which all life springs. It's really powerful to be conscious of this connection and to give back to the Earth by caring and sharing,” Rylander said.

Green Burials: People should take going green to the grave

By: Katie Saylors

Going back to our roots, literally, is another way we can be more sustainable. We are constantly thinking about ways to make the Earth greener while we are here, but what about the afterlife?

“Green burial is by far, the more environmentally friendly option to either cremation or conventional burial,” said Tiffany Smith, a sustainability consultant and board member of the Western North Carolina Green Building Council.

Green burial refers to the process of being buried naturally in the earth, with little to no impact on the environment.

We’ve all seen the effects of global warming and are learning to be a more sustainable community, but there is little discussion on the environmental effects of being cremated or buried in a non-biodegradable metal casket.

“Some of the tenants of green burial are a biodegradable container, no chemicals (meaning no embalming), no vaults, and then planting the coffin in an area that can be reforested or regenerated in some way,” Smith said.

Smith said green burial is nothing new and has existed for centuries.

“In England it's called the woodland burial movement, because they are reforesting a lot of the land and here (in the U.S.) it's typically called natural burial or green burial.”

While the concrete and metal in vaults may seem natural to some, the manufacturing and transporting of vaults uses a tremendous amount of energy and causes enormous carbon emission. In the U.S., vault manufacturing requires the production of 1.6 tons of reinforced concrete, according to the Green Burial Council.

Currently, cremation is still the fastest-growing choice for Americans despite the detrimental effects on the environment, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

Cremation may be on the rise, but it's important for people to know that it's not the greenest way to go.

“The biggest environmental impact right now is the rise of cremation rates among the baby boomers,” Smith said. “We have this big population boom and they have a different set of values than their parents and they're getting away from some of the traditionalism of the burials, so they're looking to be cremated.”

The perception among people that cremation is more environmentally friendly than burial is wrong, she said.

“There are four main toxins coming out of smokestacks and only two of them are regulated by the EPA,” Smith said. “The four main toxins are carbon monoxide, hydrochloric acid, mercury and dioxins. Mercury and dioxins are not regulated.”

Mercury comes from fillings in teeth and the dioxins come from burning things like prosthetic limbs that are made of plastic. Smith said these things could easily be pulled out before they are burned, but are not because there are no regulations in place.

“The rise in cremation is going to be detrimental to the air and water quality,” Smith said. “It's really important that our regulatory bodies create better policies and laws associated with crematory operations.”

As more sustainability jobs are created, lets hope more attention will be given to the green burial industry. Until then, we need to push the government to put regulations in place on cremation standards.

Beth Porter, a UNC Asheville environmental studies student, said green burial is pretty much essential.

“Our population rate is increasing so fast,” Porter said. “When there's more people on the planet, you also have more people leaving the planet and need to be buried in a way that is sustainable.”

Porter said when it comes to her end-of-life plans she will choose a green burial.

“I really like the bio-degradable box without the embalming, and instead of having a

traditional headstone, having a tree planted over my grave,” Porter said.

Let's face it, our bodies were meant to go back into the Earth when we die. As we make choices

to reduce our carbon footprint while living, why not make our final footprint as green as possible.

Sow True Seed joins lawsuit against Monsanto!

By: Katie Saylors

A local seed company is joining a major lawsuit against the huge agriculture corporation Monsanto, in hopes they can protect their company and preserve the future of agriculture.

A federal lawsuit filed by the Public Patent Foundation in March represents 60 plaintiffs including farmers and seed businesses.

Sow True Seed of Asheville, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, creates organic, open-pollinated and heirloom seeds that are not genetically-modified or cross-pollinated like Monsanto's products.

“The seeds are sow true,” said Sow True Seed co-founder Carol Koury. “They reproduce the plant you started out with which is an entirely different thing from a genetically-engineered or modified seed.”

“Monsanto produces seeds that are genetically-modified and Roundup Ready, meaning they can't be killed by the weed controller and allow for more production of plants,” Koury said. The company has been in the public eye for sometime now, especially since appearing in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc.

In a statement released on Monsanto's company blog, Monsanto said that the lawsuit is a publicity stunt and an attempt to confuse facts about agriculture. The statement also said that the lawsuit seeks to reduce funding for higher-yielding seed technologies.

Koury explains Sow True Seed got involved in the case through OSGATA, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association.

“We're members of OSGATA and we heard about it from them and they are the lead plaintiffs in the case,” Koury said.

“There are plenty of local farmers who we hear from who are concerned and not all of them are organic farmers,” Koury said. “Lots of folks are concerned about cross-pollination between genetically modified and natural seeds.”

Beth Trigg, co-owner of Red Wing Farm in Swannanoa, said she is concerned about the spread of GMOs and the threat to agriculture, including her own produce.

“The presence of GMOs in the gene pool of food and forage crops is a threat to all organic agriculture,” Trigg said. “For example, we raise dairy goats and we sometimes feed them alfalfa. Monsanto's GMO alfalfa, which was recently approved for broad release, will cross pollinate with other alfalfa, meaning that it will eventually (fairly soon, actually) be hard to guarantee that any alfalfa is GMO free.”

Trigg said she has seen the affects of GMO cross pollination, as some of her own seed suppliers have dropped heirloom varieties due to GMO contamination.

“This means that the selection of heirloom varieties available to farms like ours, home gardeners and everyone else who grows food is shrinking,” Trigg said. “Heirloom varieties have been selected and saved by gardeners and farmers over many generations, and when those varieties are no longer grown, that genetic material is lost forever. So Monsanto's irresponsible release of GMOs into our environment has directly affected our business and the business of the seed companies that supply us, who have a shrinking list of products to offer due to cross-pollination.”

Trigg said she is thrilled courageous companies, like Sow True Seed, are standing up to Monsanto and GMOs.

“In addition to the problems that GMOs can cause in ecosystems, poisoning Monarch butterflies, for instance, and likely many more problems of which we are still unaware, GMOs are a threat to farmers and gardeners seeking to preserve the genetic heritage of plants that humans have cultivated for food for hundreds and in some cases even thousands of years,” Trigg said.

Sophia Hatz, a program coordinator at Just Economics in Asheville, said she chooses Sow True Seed for her garden for multiple reasons.

“I choose Sow True Seeds first and foremost because they are Living Wage Certified, and I try to look for products made by companies that treat their workers right. Second, because they are a local company. Third, because they have the packets at Amazing Savings, and that is convenient for me. Fourth, because they aree involved in this Monsanto suit and Monsanto is evil,” Hatz said.

The preemptive lawsuit is an attempt to try to block future action by Monsanto to sue farmers for patent infringement if a farmer ends up with a Monsanto-contaminated crop on their property.

“If you're downwind, and within a mile or two, then you have a crop that's contaminated,” Koury said.

Another point Koury makes is that labeling of food with genetically-modified organisms needs to start now.

“I think most consumers really want labeling,” Koury said. “We want to be able to look on the label of a prepared food and know for sure if there's any genetically modified product in there.”

GMOs, or genetically-modified organisms, are produced from crops whose genetic makeup has been altered through a process called recombinant DNA, or gene splicing, to give the plant desired traits and were created in the 1970s, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

“We don't know the long-term effects and there appear to be some in some studies, but we just don't know,” Koury said. “Make the FDA label GMOs.”

Hatz said buying local and open-pollinated is the best choice.

“Its important to choose seeds that are as natural as possible,” Hatz said. “Seeds that have adapted naturally over time (not via genetic tampering) to my area will grow better and will need less organic fertilizers, organic pesticides, and water, which saves me time and money and is better for the environment.”

“Corporations like Monsanto are responsible for weapons such as Round-Up Ready crop-seeds that are engineered to be compatible with the toxic herbicide Round-Up,” Hatz said. “Seeds are modified to produce more, which often means stripping the soil of its vital nutrients.”

Despite rising legal issues against Monsanto, the company claims to be loyal to the American farmer, according to the Monsanto blog.

In a statement released on Monsanto's blog, Monsanto says it stands behind the American farmer and remains committed to help meet the agriculture needs of America.

A safe place to land

By: Katie Saylors

Every day, Kimchi Rylander steps outside on her front porch to observe the weather and see how much sunlight her house received. She then checks her energy converter box to see how much energy from her solar panels is converted to electricity for her home.

"Today it's pretty cloudy, but still very bright," Rylander said, as she looked at the sky from her front yard. "I should have enough energy to plug in my computer, check some e-mails and get on the phone for a little while."

For Rylander, paying attention to nature and her surroundings plays a vital role in how she will go about her day. Rylander lives in a sustainable community at Earthhaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain. This private community of about 70 people has created an off-the-grid lifestyle and sustainable culture.

Rylander, a community coordinator at Earthhaven, said living sustainably takes patience and dedication.

"We all migrated from a mainstream consumer culture that is profit-based," Rylander said. "We have to slow down and re-learn a way of living that is based on caring, sharing and supports the earth and its inhabitants."

At her home in Earthhaven, Rylander produces electricity from solar panels set up in her front yard and on her roof. For heat, she uses a wood-burning stove. Rylander shares her three-story home with three other tenants.

"She's very conscious about fossil fuel use and finding alternatives to that," said Mollie Curry, a friend of Rylander's and former resident at Earthhaven. Curry runs MudStrawLove, a natural building construction company in Asheville. "It's very knowledge and labor intensive to live sustainably," she said.

The home, named the Tribal Condo, was built a few years ago using all natural resources. Trees were milled on the property and non-manufactured or recycled materials were used to build the Tribal Condo.

Aside from living in a natural-built home and using renewable energy sources, Rylander said living sustainably means changing how she thinks about everything.

"Everything I buy is guided by my heart connection to what I purchase," Rylander said. "I have to imagine the people who made these things and where it came from."

Not all of Rylander's food comes from the village, but she makes it her goal to only eat foods from within a 100-mile radius of where she lives. By eating locally, she also forms relationships with the people that grow or raise her food.

"We know that we are never going to be completely self-sufficient, so we build connections with our neighbors down the road and in the bio-region to trade and exchange for things we can't grow," Rylander said.

At Rylander's home, she also focuses on wasting less and throwing out less. Rylander and her roommates compost leftover food and human waste. By composting, the waste is recycled into fertilizer. One of the bathrooms in her home is a humanure composting toilet. The toilet collects human waste and is composted during a year or more and then is used as fertilizer in her garden. Not only is waste recycled, but there is no water or energy needed to transport the waste elsewhere.

Curry said Rylander thinks sustainably, from composting to using a catchment system to water her plants.

"In terms of creating a sustainable culture, she's doing what I would call inner-personal work to create a new culture that's more healthy," Curry said.

Rylander tries to emphasize the importance of community and networking in order to be more sustainable. She cooks meals with others to cut back on energy use and carpools whenever she goes into town. Because Rylander works in her community, she is able to walk to work daily.

"To live sustainably means to be intimately connected with the Earth from which all life springs. It's really powerful to be conscious of this connection and to give back to the Earth by caring and sharing," Rylander said.

Sue Stone, who lives at Earthhaven and works with Rylander, pointed out that Rylander shares almost everything with her community.

"Kimchi has shared housing, shared cooking and shares a car," Stone said.

Stone worked with Rylander at Earthhaven on several committees and they spend time dedicated to the interrelationships in the community.

"We share our skills with each other and that's something that doesn't always happen in mainstream culture," Rylander said. "We're building this road as we travel."