Month: June 2010

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Rural VT upcoming events!

** Rural Vermont’s 2nd Annual “Art for Agrarians” Art Auction
Sunday, August 8, 2010
2 – 5 pm
Lincoln Peak Winery, NEW HAVEN
Join neighbors and friends for a leisurely reception that will wrap up Rural Vermont’s online art auction www.ruralvermont.org from July 26th – August 7th). Over 20 pieces donated by Vermont artists and depicting Rural Vermont’s vision for Food with Dignity will be on display, and will go home with the highest bidders! Folks will have the opportunity to sample and purchase the award-winning, delicious Lincoln Peak wines and local cheese plates, while checking out the artwork and listening to some live and local tunes by Chris Dorman. For a sneak peek at the artwork, check out the Art Auction preview on display at Rural Vermont’s 25th Anniversary Celebration on June 19th!   

** 3rd Annual Tour de Farms 
Sunday, September 19, 2010
SHOREHAM
Cyclists choose from one of three routes that wind through the beautiful Champlain Valley and offer stops and sampling at farms along the way. New this year will be special event tee shirts and a “to go” lunch available for purchase. Following the tour, the Platt Memorial Library will again be hosting the Shoreham Apple Fest on the green.  Expect lots of hot food options, farm & craft vendors, along with entertainment and merriment! Tour de Farms registration form to be available July 1st. More info coming soon! If biking isn’t your thing, don’t let that stop you from sampling Vermont’s farm fresh bounty and goodness – check out the potluck, illegal buffet, and raw milk ice cream at Rural Vermont’s 25th Anniversary Celebration on June 19th!

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VT Energy Atlas

If you haven’t seen the VT Energy Atlas Web site it is worth a surf. You will have to install the new Flash software, if you don’t have it. This modular, user friendly website is pleasing to the eye, fast for its complexity and comes with a users guide introduction. This is a leading example of the types of resources the information age has to offer for our transition to a sustainable future… As long as these resources are used with an ethical application for both public and industrial sectors, they will be one of the greatest tools in our tool box. As the saying goes, “a dull tool is more dangerous than a sharp one.” In this case the sharpening stone to hone this tool is, as I said, Ethics. Ecological Ethics, in particular. This means that our GOAL to meet human needs (Energy sourcing) is no more significant than our GOAL to maintaining the health and integrity of the ecosystem involved and effected from this energy sourcing. Check it out! The link is embedded above. – VT4Evolution

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Vermont GNH Conference

excerpt from GNH website – full article

On June 1 – 4, 2010 the first conference/workshop for The US branch of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) movement was held at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. The conference provided; inspirational speakers, the latest in GNH research, introductions to GNH concepts, practical steps for implementation in Vermont, and action-oriented workshops.  The conference introduced us all to increased understanding of the use of economic and social indicators for well-being in Vermont and other places and creates the opportunity to take the first steps to implementation in our businesses, towns and state and local governments.  The conference was also the kick-off for GNHUSA, the national movement to spread the understanding of GNH and encourage utilization of GNH concepts across the USA and we had representatives from Seattle, WA; Santa Cruz, CA; Jackson Hole, WY; and New Mexico as well as attendees from South Africa, Bangladesh, Singapore, Brazil, Denmark, Bhutan, and Canada.

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Silenced Voices Film

Please join us for the premiere of the documentary film Silenced Voices, by theVermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project. The film makes visible Vermont’s invisible migrant farmworker community. The film documents a family and community coming to terms with the death of a Vermont farmworker, which highlights the causes, effects, and personal experiences of migration to Vermont from Mexico.

  • Thurs. July 1st at 7pm, Burlington Black Box Theatre at Main St. Landing on the Waterfront. Contact Brendan O’Neill
  • Tues. July 6th at 7pm, Montpelier Unitarian Universalist Church. Contact Gustavo Terán
  • Wed. July 14th at 7pm, Hardwick Town Hall. Contact Robin Cappuccino
  • Sun. July 25th at the Fairfield Community Center showing continuously. Contact Naomi Wolcott
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    Download Markowitz’s “JumpStartVT” action plan for economic recovery

    VT Digger
    Wednesday, June 16, 2010
    Contact: Paul Tencher, Campaign Manager
    Cell: 802-552-0822

    Markowitz Releases Action Plan for Vermont’s Economy

    
Secretary of State and candidate for governor joins business leaders to unveil ‘JumpStartVT’
    an action plan for Vermont’s economic future focusing on existing businesses



    BURLINGTON–Secretary of State Deb Markowitz and business leaders from across the state released JumpStartVT, an action plan for Vermont’s economic future that focuses on Vermont existing businesses first, encourages Vermont’s entrepreneurs and increases Vermont’s highly-trained workforce for the jobs of the future.

    full article – http://vtdigger.org/2010/06/18/download-markowitzs-jumpstartvt-action-plan-for-economic-recovery/

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    Snelling: There is another way to energy progress

    Published by Vermont Digger

    by Lukas B. Snelling, the director of communications for Energize Vermont

    By embracing smaller scale solar, hydro, wind and biomass installations we have the ability to make Vermont a leader in power generation and management. Numerous small community driven installations enhance the reliability of the grid, reduce line transmission loss and deliver substantially less environmental impact. Also, when the energy is generated and consumed close to home (if not at home) there becomes a much higher awareness of usage, creating even more efficiency savings.

    Vermont currently offers home owners and businesses incentives to invest in renewable energy generation, but fails to provide a road map to do so. Greater education is needed to ease the barriers to entry for these systems. 

    full article – http://vtdigger.org/2010/06/21/snelling-there-is-another-way-to-energy-progress/

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    Public hearing set for Pownal solar park

    Pownal, Vermont – June 21, 2010

    The public gets a chance to weigh in next week on plans for one of Vermont’s largest solar park.

    EOS Ventures wants to build the park at the former Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal. Plans call for 81-hundred panels over a 15-acre area facing south.

    The hearing is set for next Tuesday, June 29th at Pownal Elementary School.

    http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=12682640

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    VT Legislature for Food and Energy Sustainability

    The Bill S.295  was introduced to the public by The Burlington Free Press in this Sundays June 13th Article. (Except)  The Agricultural Development Board was formed to better coordinate rapidly expanding regional and statewide innovations, and to promote them more widely. Last year, for instance, the Farm-to-Plate Investment Program directed the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and others to develop a 10-year strategic plan to strengthen the state’s farm and food sector.

    It’s a work in progress, and the new board has been tasked to provide continuity between administrations. It’s also charged with spelling out and organizing connections between producers, processors, distributors, educators, investors, marketing people, clean-water advocates and long-range planners.

    Representatives from all aspects of the industry will be on the board.

    The bill had broad support in the Legislature and from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets.

    The measure also eliminates the position of deputy commissioner for agricultural development and replaces it with a nonappointed Agricultural Development Director…

    Grubinger said that initiative’s focus on identifying “obstacles and opportunities” in farming would work in symbiosis with UVM’s Food System Spire (and 50 faculty and staff members). Farm-to-Plate also allocates funding in competitive grants to nonprofit farmers’ markets that are ready to expand storage, marketing and distribution networks.

    The article also outlines how other bills complement S.295; The Jobs Bill S.288, The Compost Bill H.614  and The Energy Bill H.781 

    full article –

    http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100613/LIVING09/6130307/Traction-issue-3.0-Agriculture-Legislature-farmers-have-a-common-goal

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    Lake Champlain: Grass-roots efforts turn into policy

    SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010 – Burlington Free Press

    Vermont endorsed a new, 10-step series to implement Total Maximum Daily Load requirements (or TMDLs — which quantify amounts of nutrients and pollutants for any given stretch of water); the state established more consistent lamprey control measures, including continued investigation of nonchemical measures; and a plan emerged for financing the installation of flexible fencing on farms to keep livestock out of rivers and the lake….

    Another significant development was a large increase in the Basin Program budget over the next year, with close to $11 million in projects planned. These include expanded grant programs for education and citizen-led actions, as well as implementation and research efforts on a wide variety of pollution reduction activities throughout the lake basin. 

    Vermont citizens advisory committee on Lake Champlain’s future created

    full article –

    http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100613/LIVING09/6130309/Lake-Champlain-Grass-roots-efforts-turn-into-policy

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    Evaluation of Report – Repowering VT

    Here is an evaluation from Coalition for Energy Solutions on the report Repowering Vermont (the report, “lays out two clear and achievable visions for replacing Vermont Yankee with local renewable resources”) published by VPIRG/VPIREF .

    Evaluation- http://www.coalitionforenergysolutions.org/vt_elec_pwr_in_transitionpr.pdf

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    no access to birth & death certificates – the implications

    Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

    n These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation….

    Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open-records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However, if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

    (full article) http://www.healthcheckr.com/no-access-to-birth-death-certificates-the-implications-5

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    Tiny border station in Vermont to close

    Wilson Ring, Associated Press

    Sunday, June 13, 2010

    Just days after residents along a tiny U.S.-Canada border station successfully lobbied the federal government to abandon its plan to expand the crossing by seizing a dairy farmer’s land, some people are complaining they had no idea the port would close altogether.

    The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that it would close the little-used Morses Line border crossing to avoid an expansion that would take a prime hay field from a Vermont farmer. But residents on both sides of the border say they rely on being able to cross easily there between the two countries.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/12/MNTK1DRDRL.DTL

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    Sanders prompts Pentagon probe: Agency bought billions in unneeded spare parts

    By Press Release on June 10, 2010

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Defense Logistics Agency had no use for parts worth $7.1 billion, more than half of the $13.7 billion in equipment stacked in Defense Department warehouses.

    The investigation was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Senate Budget Committee member who has closely monitored Pentagon waste and fraud. “The waste of taxpayer dollars is unbelievable,” Sanders said. “At a time when the country has a $13 trillion national debt and is struggling with huge unmet needs, it is outrageous that the Defense Department continues to waste huge sums of money for spare parts that the military doesn’t need.”

    http://vtdigger.org/2010/06/10/sanders-prompts-pentagon-probe-agency-bought-billions-in-unneeded-spare-parts/

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    Removing Small Dams in Vermont

    Monday, 06/14/10 Noon and 7pm

    Vermont’s waterways are home to more than 1200 small dams, and many of them date back centuries.  But in recent years, as our attitudes about river management have changed, more and more of these dams are being removed.

    If you know of a dam in your area or have a question about what it takes to remove one, email vermontedition@vpr.net or post your comments directly below.

    http://www.vpr.net/episode/48822/