This week’s GreenLinks are about inspiration. Each of the following stories inspired me to believe that we can solve the economic and environmental crises the world is now facing, and they also powerfully prodded me to do what I can to make a difference in my home and community. I hope they inspire you too…
1. Good news! By significantly slowing deforestation, improving worldwide energy efficiency, and working towards a global renewable energy standard of 20%, we could cut 13 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions a year—and save $14 billion while we do it. Read more at Treehugger >>
2. In a story that just warms the cockles of my heart, this week I read about Ed Shank, a farmer who made the decision to end years of running an industrial confinement operation as the fourth generation owner of The Family Cow farm, and transitioned to an organic, free-range system, modeled heavily on Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm, and Mark McAfee’s Organic Pastures Dairy Co. Read about how this man changed his mind, his heart, and his business (and just might change the world!) at The Complete Patient. >>
3. If you haven’t yet read the New York Times investigative piece about the production practices that give rise to E. coli in industrial beef, it will make you never want to eat feedlot meat again. And that’s a good thing. The story is centered on the plight of Stephanie Smith, a young dance instructor left comatose, near death and now paralyzed from eating a single Cargill hamburger. Read the groundbreaking exposé. >>
This story makes the best case I have ever heard for eating only grass-fed meat produced by small, preferably local, farmers. The Weston A. Price Foundation agrees. Here’s their response to the New York Times piece. >>
4. If you pay any attention to environmental news, it can be so easy to feel discouraged. But a recent Orion Magazine story about a non-profit cooperative called LivingFuture can give you great hope for our ability to solve our environmental problems. At LivingFuture, they are “conceiving a future where life—in all of its biological and cultural potential—is enhanced and advanced by human action.” How’s that for a mission!
Their flagship project is Teal Farm where their approach to everything, including producing food, is created through something called regenerative design. Rather than working to limit the negative effects of human action, Teal Farm demonstrates regenerative systems that mimic, benefit, and take advantage of the ways living systems work. It’s an exciting, hopeful story of a model for how to live well and in harmony with our planet. Read more at Orion. >>
Have an inspired, green week!
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