Sample locally grown produce and support farmers in your community by participating in
a CSA program.

By Theresa Grimaldi Olsen

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.

Allison and Matthew Scott like to tell their extended family in the Chicago area that they have a farm in Springfield.

“They must have told them a half dozen times,” Noel Scott says of her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. The farm is where they bite into a raw onion and eat it like an apple, pick snap peas off the vine and mulberries off the bush for an immediate snack.

The reality is they don’t own or live on a farm. They live in the city of Springfield at Park and Fayette near Washington Park. But this summer, they worked and played at “the farm.”

The farm is the Vincent Family Farm located east of Rochester where the Scotts share the responsibility for the organic vegetables that are grown there as part of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

In a CSA, a group of people pay a farmer before the growing season and, in return, share the harvest. Consumers purchase a share or a half share and receive a box or a bag of seasonal produce each week throughout the growing season. At some farms, there also is an opportunity to learn to harvest and weed.

At the Vincent farm, Todd Vincent leases land to two vegetable farmers. The partners (Vincent, Andy Heck and Garrick Veenstra) grow between 40 and 50 different types of vegetables for about 50 families who bought shares in the spring. The families go to the farm each week to pick up their box of vegetables or to a drop-off point in Decatur.

The pay-ahead agreement creates an opportunity for consumers to share the burden of the planting costs and the fluctuations in the harvest that is so dependent on weather and other variables.

“It’s a community really,” farmer Heck said. The farmers want to make the shareholders feel like they are part of the operation and welcome the families to help in the harvest, although that is not a requirement of the membership.

Lindsay Record, executive director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance based in Springfield, said CSAs are a growing trend throughout the country that has just begun in this area.

“For some reason, there aren’t as many in this town,” Record said. “There’s definitely a demand for it.”

Heck said he has a long waiting list. There are two CSAs in the Springfield area that sell vegetables as well as eggs and chickens — the Vincent Family Farm and Lazy T Farm in Dawson. The CSA concept is new this year to both farms and are closed for the season. The waiting list is for the 2010 growing season.

Jubilee Farm in New Berlin offered a CSA in 2008, but took a break this year to allow a new farmer to get established, Sister Sharon Zayac said. She is taking names for a CSA that will begin next spring.

Record said it is worth getting on the waiting list. Even better, tell another farmer to consider the CSA concept, she said. It is a great way to sample locally grown produce, she added.

Scott said the challenge is to try new vegetables. Customers don’t know what vegetables and herbs will be in the basket until pick-up. The harvest depends on the season, the weather and the growing conditions.

“It’s great if you don’t mind trying new things,” Scott said, adding that it is a challenge to be prepared to investigate and try new recipes.

Last year, Scott said she felt like she was inundated with kale. She was forced to learn how to cook with it, though. Now, her family enjoys kale, a leafy green similar to spinach, stir-fried with garlic and olive oil and paired with cheese ravioli.

The CSAs all provide recipes. Veenstra gives customers recipes in an e-mail newsletter that his mother creates.

Editor’s note: For more on gardening, see the Monitor’s main gardening page, which offers articles on many gardening topics. Also, check out our blog archive and our RSS feed. You may want to visit Gardening With the Monitor on Flickr. Take part in the discussions and get answers to your gardening questions. If you join the group (it’s free), you can upload your garden photos and enter our next contest. We’ll be looking for photographs of fruits. So find your best shots of summer’s blueberries, peaches, plums, etc., and get out your camera to take some stunning shots of early fall apples. Post them before Sept. 30, 2009, and you could be the next winner.

Thomas Edison was a scientist specializing in Direct Current (DC) derived from machinery that derived its energy from fossil fuels.  The goal was to produce more energy than was put into it in order to use the machine for social energy delivery.  Edison achieved this with numerous machines, all of which were presented to the best corporate minds of the day and with certain marketing modifications, such as the transformation of Direct Current (DC) into Alternating Current (AC) which could be set at various frequencies to be able to power various kinds of appliances which could be back end sold to the energy users, was able to parlay his form of energy into the industrial complex that existed in his day.  Edison’s machines produced significantly more energy than they used to produce the energy and use a source that was heavily polluting, limited and conditionally available in the crust of the Earth.  He was a preimminent scientist of his day, a contemporary of Tesla and was a recognized genius.  He was an astute business man as well with an eye on personal wealth rather than the abundance of all individuals.

The discoveries of these two men delineated the two paths that the world could have gone on to achieve the technological society that we live in today.  These two discoveries were the decision that humanity was presented with.  One decision was limitless, clean electromagnetism and free energy for all or limited, dirty fossil fuel and rationed energy for all.  The corporate strangle hold on the political system was as strong in those days as it is now, eventhough perhaps not so complex and entrenched.  For this reason, the decision to charge for electricity and enter it into the market instead of making it a fundamental right of all human beings was the course decided upon by the corporate elite who control the political process and consequently what happens to all the Earth’s inhabitants.

There is much talk about solutions to the problem, but all of them center on the upkeep of the for profit model that excludes the everyday citizen from participating in the abundance of technology and resources, until today…

I have stumbled upon something that everyone should read about.  It is humanity’s last best hope to regain what was lost and save itself from the precipice that it is about to go over in the name of the will of the rediculously small in number greed mongers who control literally EVERYTHING.  Check out The Orion Project and get involved!  Pass it on to all your friends and everyone you know well or even slightly.  Heck pass it on to mailing lists of people you don’t know.  Do whatever you can to make this an issue.  The Orion Project has an activist arm that helps you do just that.

At the end of the day, more light is being shed every day on the nature of the way our world is run.  Every day this light is showing us that resources concentrated in the hands of just a few is tantamount to a death sentence for the human race or a number of the human race that exceed the limits of such a control based system.  Eventually humanity is going to be faced with the stark contrast between the abundance and sustainability of a participatory ownership model and the scarcity and unsustainability of a control based greed model.

What do YOU choose?  Read the facts.  Study history.  Look it up.  Google Tesla Vs. Edison.  In the end you are looking at the Global Corporate square in the eyes and you are also seeing your reflection in them.  Every day we make decisions to use the ease and convenience of the corporate slave drug.  It lulls us into a sense of well being and survival when it should be setting off every survivalist alarm that nature has provided us with over countless eons of time.  We must rediscover the need for personal sustainability within the auspices of the social framework that we all live in from microbes to humans and beyond.

Get a good dose of The Orion Project today.

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from Internet neutrality to alternative energy.

In the words of Norman Kurland, President of CESJ, “On the one hand there is capitalism, an economic system governed by market forces but where economic power is concentrated in the hands of a few who own or control productive capital. On the other hand, socialism, in its many forms, is an economic system governed centrally by a political elite, with even more highly concentrated ownership and economic power. Logically, a ‘third way’ would be a free-market system that economically empowers all individuals and families through direct and effective ownership of the means of production–the best check against the potential for corruption and abuse.”  I invite you to check out this wonderful human adventure that is going on at The Center for Economic and Social Justice.

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from Internet neutrality to alternative energy.

Although I did not attend I have been immersed in emails, videos, articles and images from those who were there and from the feeling that I get in my heart of hearts, I wish I had been there too. 

It took me back to my childhood riding around in a Volkswagon bus with my parents who had one foot in the hippie movement and one foot in the yuppie movement.  They later became known as yippies.  I remember telling myself that I was going to live for the Earth all my days and while it took me many years to finally live up to that promise I am completely joyous that I am indeed doing so.

One outstanding feature of this celebration was that Chico installed and flew over 400 Earth Flags thoughout the city limits.  They are quickly becoming known as “Earth Flag City”.

Another breathtaking experience that was available at this amazing event was Daniel Dancer’s Living Sky Art.  Daniel has for many years involved students and now corporations in a collective experience to develop what he calls “Sky Sight” or seeing the big picture.  His work is foundationally inspiring and massively timely.  I would encourage anyone who reads this to visit Earth Flag TV and enter the Earth Lounge and then click on Into The Sky to see this video!  It will change your life forever.  I know it did mine.

Check out more about Daniel Dancer here:

http://www.artforthesky.com

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from internet neutrality to alternative energy.

When you ask the average American where they get their food, the number one answer in America today is “the local supermarket, of course, it’s so convenient”.  Of course?  Convenient?  Consider this.  Just 100 years ago American society was 87% agricultural and since the “Industrial Revolution” and the “Urbanization” of America, that number has plummeted to about 10%.  Of that 10% most of the agricultural presence in America is large scale CORPORATE FARMS.

So you still think we have not contributed to the corporatization of agriculture?  Do you still think that you are better off with the convenience of a supermarket?  Check this out…

I am going to ask you a question.  What would you do if there was a serious interruption in the energy supplies that are required for the delivery of your corporate food from a corporate farm somewhere in the heart of America?  The stores carry about 7 days food for each local section of a city that it supplies.  Hunting is no longer an option in the city so where are you going to turn if something goes wrong, terribly wrong?  Crazytalk you say?  Check this out…

The economy is teetering on the brink of the worst financial disaster since The Great Depression.  Over two million people starved to death in America during The Great Depression.  All of them caused by food scarcity.  Most of this scarcity was caused by the Dust Bowl that ripped out the heart of our food supplies during that time as well. 

The global community is reeling trying to stop the hemmoraging that is going on in the credit crunch atmosphere that has surrounded it.   The G20 is now admitting that the global debt ceiling has been ubiquitously reached.  The concensus is that the global money supply linked to the current economic paradigm cannot support the ”bubble economy” lifestyle that the developed world lives under and the developing world craves.  90% of global equity is engaged in supporting global debt lifestyle.  This means that the entire system literally cannot be raised realistically anymore.  That means no more bubbles. 

On top of that food scarcity is at an all time high globally.  The recent floods in the midwest and the resultant devastation of the 2008 food crops are not even being mentioned.  The only thing that is keeping the food cheap is the global hegemony of the US Economic Influence that this nation currently benefits from (rightly or wrongly) at a cost of nearly 3 trillion dollars per year.  Ultimately all this news can be summed up in one word: unsustainable.  We have to rethink and retool NOW.

In this kind of environment the thought of URBAN FARMING starts to take on significance as part of the URBAN ENVIRONMENT with just as much merit as the buildings that make up the traditional landcape of an urban planner’s designs.  Increasingly the idea of food security is coming to the fore in American thought.  Currently the state that is leading in this endeavor is the state of Oregon.  In many parts of the state local homeowners are coming together and starting “Urban Farm Cooperatives” where each homeowner will go out and buy a rototiller, some compost generation tools, some garden tools, a good pair of gloves and some seeds and agree to grow a certain type of vegetables/foodstuffs and exchange with other cooperative members at harvest.  Around this is growing up an entire homegrown industry where people who specialize in canning as well as preparation of meats for storage are showing the entire nation that urban farming is here to stay.

Check out this link to the Urban Land Institute for more information:

http://www.uli.org/

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from internet neutrality to alternative energy.

Most of us would literally laugh that person off the planet.  The owners of OriginOil are not laughing one bit.  In fact they are taking this quite seriously.  Not only do they believe that it can be done but they have taken things a step further and invented a process whereby this oil can be extracted at a super high speed rate which will make it more than competitive with fossil fuels.

Don’t take my word for it.  Click the link listed above and check out their website.  You can also access a really great Wiki article by clicking here. 

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from internet neutrality to alternative energy.

One of these worlds is something that simply leaves me breathless when I contemplate the impact behind what Mark is doing.  This is the concept of the Sus-Bus, or sustainable bus.  In talking with Mark, who has agreed to partner with Earth Flag to begin the unification of the various factions of the earth conscious movement, I got the distinct impression that the Community Sustainabliity Bus was something very dear to his heart.  After he finished talking about this “Green Book Mobile” I knew it was also dear to mine.

An Exerpt from earthseeds.org on the Sus-Bus:

BEGIN EXERPT (used by permission)

A SUS BUS is a “COMMUNITY SUSTAINABLE BUS” that helps educate local populations on sustainable living options and ideas in that community. Visualize it as kind of a “Green Book Mobile.” Sponsored by green businesses and eco-friendly groups whose banners and Ads are displayed on the outside of the bus, a SUS BUS is designed to be self-supportive by marketing & advertising revenue generated from business promotions. Inside the bus are a wide ranging collection of positive ideas from local and global non-profits that offer encouraging sustainable concepts for mainstream views. The info is inter-active and entertaining using the best interpretive skills available; laptops, displays, films & video, art, science projects, brochures, questionaires and much much more.

Where does a Sus Bus go and what does it do?

Each SUS BUS focuses on getting out into the public eye in local regions to unify and inspire that particular community. A SUS BUS shows up at Public events, offering great “Edu-Tainment” to supplement Festivals, Concerts, Sporting events and so forth. SUS BUSES go to Schools, Churches and even House Parties – wherever they are needed and invited – to showcase their serving trays of positive ideas. Each SUS BUS is designed to cover the “Core Four” principles – to “INFORM – INSPIRE – INTEGRATE & INVOLVE”: as a confluence of energy for the Public, NGOs, and local businesses, promoting green sustainable energy in that community.

When a SUS BUS pulls up to a public event – it pops into a “Portable Sustainability Seminar” with fun interactive displays and information that entertains and educates the people drawn to come visit it for free. Most often set up as a “Sideshow” to whatever “Circus” is in the spotlight – a SUS BUS gives crowds a fun alternative to milling around the parking lots and stands as a beacon of better living with imaginative displays.

What is the agenda and politics of a Sus Bus?

Politics are not allowed on a SUS BUS. We are committed to being mainstream and do not promote any set agendas or candidates. We endorse a “NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT —-> BUT FORWARD!” approach. We intend to Build Bridges – Not Walls. We exist to Unify and Educate not to Polarize or Agitate. We don’t “Preach” – we simply Teach. We stimulate discussions and let people connect the dots and draw their own conclusions. For example: One Display shows the electric meter use comparison between regular incandescent light bulbs vs energy saving light bulbs. We can only ask which do you want on your electric bill?

Who and what is on a Sus Bus?

There can be many Non-Profits showcased inside a SUS BUS. The Themes are not limited to just Energy like solar and wind – but sustainable energy like Non-Violent communications, Restorative Justice, Organics, Permaculture and other positive healthy ideas that can help a community to live and grow more sustainable. Likewise there can be many Corporate and Business sponsors – from small local solar companies to larger national chains like REI, Whole Foods and Patagonia. The way the information is shared is creative and limited only by the imagination of the SUS BUS Teams. These teams are made of volunteers coordinated by key NGO’s that are the main sponsors. In addition, many local entertainers, artists and so forth can be used as hosts and interpreters on board the SUS BUS when it tours out into public. There will be a “Stage” for music to be played to attract more crowds wherever it is parked in public.

Will it always be the same things on a Sus Bus?

No. Each SUS BUS can and will change over time. It can and should operate like a moving Museum. Initially there will be a section that will be devoted to the key concepts and groups working for the SUS BUS but eventually as much as half the displays will be designed to be mobile and modular. Seasonal displays or displays that fit special themes will be honored and invited on board each SUS BUS as appropriate. Each community has their own needs and the timing can be adjusted to be of topical significance depending on what sparks public interest that month or that season. Each SUS BUS will always be open to creativity and change with an emphasis on keeping current with or ahead of the leading edge of new ideas.

Besides being a showcase for sustainability, what can a Sus Bus do?

A SUS BUS can also provide great support to schools, camps, churches, and programs that want to learn more and can offer or invite a program such as this to touch their clientele. Many schools can not afford a lot of field trips – due to high costs of gas, insurance, liability releases, parent chaperones, etc. Bringing a SUS BUS to a school, church or camp helps provide education to a wider group of the local citizenry.

Who benefits from a Sus Bus?

We feel Everyone in a community benefits from the information and involvement that a SUS BUS brings to the public. Sponsors win by being promoted in public and feeling good about helping make a positive impact in the community. NGO’s win by being better exposed to the public and by finding other alliances and teamwork opportunities in the process, Local Advertising Networks and Media benefit by having another format to help sell advertising through – and of course our Youth and Children benefit hugely- not only by being entertained and educated – but they will be the ones to benefit or suffer from decisions we make both as local and global communities – for roads taken and not taken in the long run. But most of all our planet will benefit from increased awareness among the human community for sustainable living ideas.

What is the cost to the community of a Sus Bus?

The short answer is: —> Very Little. Since a SUS BUS is designed to be self-sustaining and is volunteer based, the budget for creating one is fairly inexpensive. And it creates it’s own operating income capital from the Ads & Banners that are created and rented space as “Portable Billboard Ads” etc. A SUS BUS actually brings income and development to a community – by exposing positive ideas to people who will then support those on the SUS BUS. This is WIN-WIN-WIN for ALL. The Sponsors on the Outside get good exposure and PR – and so do the NGO’s inside. The Public wins by learning and understanding sustainable concepts and by volunteering, donating to and working with the NGO’s and purchasing services and goods from sponsors.

Since often a SUS BUS can be found to be Donated or obtained at very little cost, the main budget for each SUS BUS involves teamwork to outfit a SUS BUS. Depending on the available energy and money – each and every SUS BUS will evolve into better and greater displays – somewhat like a traveling museum show – with the best possible showcasing for those positive ideas that need to reach more critical mass in mainstream thought and consciousness. Like solar panels – a SUS BUS can easily be added to for more power later on.

THE “SUS BUS” CONCEPT & NETWORK

Mission Statement

To create and manage an experimental fleet of Sustainable “Vehicles for Change” supported by non-profits inside and business marketing outside, that can assist the public in making better choices for living happier, healthier, more sustainable lives embracing future forward days in a Global Heart Vision of a “World that works for everyone”.

Vision

To bring & share concepts and ideas that offer “New Energy for a New Era” of Sustainability. The “Core Four” values of a SUS BUS are to: Inform, Inspire, Integrate and Involve. This applies to the public, the many local non-profits that work as a team in helping create a SUS BUS, and the businesses that co-sponsor each SUS BUS towards promoting Sustainability as a living breathing growing theme in their communities.

Goals

To Develop & Display programs and positive possibilities that hold key solutions towards better healthier living and showcase these with the help of good corporate & business sponsors on a fleet of buses that are “portable sustainability fairs” — as Green serving trays for positive ideas & solutions to the mainstream general public and to template, copy and distribute these Buses and methods globally.

To have an ever-evolving SUS BUS ( Community Sustainable Bus ) in every community that cares enough to promote “Think Global – Act Local” concepts of Sustainability to it’s citizens via a fun interactive platform with artistic talent, innovative ideas, and grassroots teamwork energy; co-sponsored by genuinely concerned businesses; all aiming for greater greener goods and services and healthier habits for the entire crew of Spaceship Earth

* To have 10 buses ready for @ Earth Day April 22nd, 2008 in ten different communities
* To have 25 buses attend the DNC ( Democratic National Convention ) in Denver late Aug 2008
* To have music and musicians closely involved with the SUS-BUS network for travel and edu-tainment.
* To tie in with other existing Buses and invite them to participate in their communities as a “SUS BUS”
* To have people jump on board in viral fun to get Media coverage launching this all around USA & world.

CORE FOUR HIGH CONCEPT POINTS FOR

SUS BUS NETWORK

1) WIDE PUBLIC MAINSTREAM APPEAL WITH A “THINK GLOBAL – ACT LOCAL” FOCUS: SHOWCASE NEW & HYBRID IDEAS – BEST OF ALL WORLDS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING

This is an absolute priority. It is essential to get into pubic mainstream arenas and areas and not just “preach to the green choirs”. We need to have a SUS BUS attend all major public events in its local community to be effective over time. The more people see it – the more they are RE-MINDED to think Green and Sustainable. And repetition is the key in any message to have long term impact. And we need to Keep it Clean and Green and Not in any way Mean to be fully uniting and effective.

2) FUN TEAMWORK: CO-OP JOINT VENTURE & UNITY ESSENTIAL TO COMMUNITY SUCCESS

Must be sustainable in terms of Corp & Biz co-sponsorship and Non-Profit support in kind on Sus Bus so it has to be build on solid friendships and relationships within each local community. Most are ready to understand that “The Time for TEAM – IS NOW” – Individually we’re just many raindrops but collectively we’re a powerful river for sweeping change. The choice involves us coming together. SUS BUS Plays and Pays it Forward to give each community a “Campfire” of SUSTAINABILITY… To Light up the candles of Caring Concern & co-operation – Each take a light and go light another

3) MUSIC-THEATER-ART EDUTAINMENT AS KEY TO SUCCESS

It must be FUN to really get DONE!. No one wants to attend a Funeral – but everyone wants to see a Parade. So we need to focus on the joy, hope and fun of Sustainable Solutions. A SUS BUS is a mobile platform from which to expand and express local artisans into the public consciousness as well. With the right attitude, we can be Educating and Entertaining at the same time – LIVE energy – Dialouge, Hands-on Displays & so forth.

EDU-TAIN AND STIMULATE THE CORE FOUR I-PODs = TO: INFORM, INSPIRE, INTEGRATE & INVOLVE – A SUS BUS = A JOY RIDE – LIGHTEN UP & ENJOY THE RIDE – SHARE A GLOBAL HEART VISION – SPIRIT OF

ONENESS

4) WE ARE ALL ONE FAMILY

Children and future forward focus for all crewmembers of Spaceship Earth. Connecting people togther. Planting Earthseeds. We need to look to the future with a conscious mind – how we build, how we destroy, and how we renew the world around us. Play it forward – Zero Waste – Sustainable and Renewable Energy and Building Materials. How we relate to each other across cultures and societies.

END EXERPT

May we all be so fortunate to meet this amazing man and his wonderful project.  Look for more around Earth Flag on Mark and his Earthseeds project.

Submitted by Benjamin Alexander De Mers

Benjamin is the CEO of I Am Marketing and Media Services, a global provider of marketing and media services.  Benjamin also publishes around the web for various ezines, newsletter and blogs on a variety of subjects from internet neutrality to alternative energy.