After years of fighting Boulder County land use codes and regulations, Zia Parker is selling her farm and moving with her husband to Ecuador in hopes that running a permaculture farm will encounter fewer obstacles in the South American country.

Parker’s farm, Willow Way, is a permaculture herb farm and herbal CSA in Niwot. Permaculture is a design method that uses the principles of natural ecosystems to create diversified food production systems anywhere from rural farms to urban apartments — a method that seems like it would fit perfectly in Boulder.

But Parker also intended her farm to be a demonstration farm where people could go to learn about permaculture practices. This demonstration aspect brought trouble in the form of a cringe-worthy saga of public hearings, objecting neighbors and tight restrictions.

“It ended up being a really heavy logistical task, to carry out all the restrictions they placed,” Parker says. “It’s a very cumbersome process to be involved in as a citizen, and farmers don’t have that kind of time. Who does?” Parker recently sold Willow Way to Susan Mitchell and Jay Smith, who talk enthusiastically about owning the farm and say they plan to keep Parker’s permaculture practices intact.

“We’re going to continue the legacy of sustainability and growing herbs, but also look at expanding to include more vegetables and fruits,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell and Smith say they will also retain the educational aspect of Willow Way, though through different methods than Parker.

“I’ve been in the permaculture community for the past 25 years, and I’m a fifth-generation organic farmer,” Smith says. “One of the things I’ve done in my career is permaculture projects onsite for schools, churches, institutions and individuals that just want to have their own organic foods growing in their front yard.”

Smith says they’ll be making use of permaculture’s ability to work in both rural and urban settings and will take the demonstrations from the farm to the sites of those interested in learning about techniques. Because Parker’s problems stemmed largely from concerns about privacy and increased traffic, Smith says she does not anticipate problems with the local government or neighbors.

“We really believe in having open communication with the neighbors,” Mitchell says. “I don’t think we’re going to be doing anything they’ll find objectionable at all.”

When Parker first attempted to start her demonstration farm, her application was sent to a public hearing. The Land Use Department approved the farm, but only under certain conditions.

“The county took this kind of two-faced stance, saying that they would approve the demonstration farm so they could save face,” Parker says. “But then they put all these restrictions on it, to the point that it was impossible to operate as a viable business.”

The county restricted the number of cars that could be at the property to just 10, and limited where cars could park. Though Parker’s application made clear she intended Willow Way to be a demonstration farm, she was told she could only give three tours per year. Finally, the county ruled that her studio would have to incorporate two disability accessible bathrooms.

“With a 600 square foot studio, that would mean we would barely have space for the classroom,” Parker says. Parker proposed putting two disability accessible portable toilets on her farm instead. Her request was denied, however, as portable toilets are not covered in the land use codes, she says.

“The county wasn’t against me. The codes were,” Parker says. “The county did not interpret the codes in favor of sustainability, and they did not use the processes available to them to change the codes to favor this sustainability-based project. In many instances, the codes are absolutely contrary to sustain ability.”

Parker says she believes the county could greatly improve its support of small farmers and sustainable practices by streamlining the process by which land use codes are changed.

“[Officials in the Land Use Department] say that they’re just doing their jobs and that they have to follow the codes,” Parker says. “Well, whose job is it to make the codes, and adapt the codes to the needs of the people and the land? We need to be able to change the codes so that they support sustainable practices.”

Though Mitchell and Smith will continue the sustainable, permaculture practices of the farm, Parker says she believes the root problems with what shut her farm down still need to be resolved.

“The planet is screaming for attention, for common sense, for human beings to be considering her in every decision,” Parker says. “The codes need to be more adapted to the needs of a changing planet. The whole process needs to be more supportive of the Earth.”

Barbeques, baseball and meditation. That’s right. Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) meditates for 45 minutes a day and says he thinks meditation needs to become the new American pastime.

He started a serious practice of meditation and mindfulness in November 2008, six years after he was elected to office, and says it’s made a difference in the work he’s been able to do in Congress. He’s less stressed, has more insight, more kindness and is better able to listen to his fellow representatives. Even those whose views he disagrees with.

The congressman is bringing that message to Boulder on April 30 for a talk at Naropa University.

“We have big differences in the country, but I think we can all deal with it without being unkind to the other side,” Ryan says. And while it might help mend the cross-aisle talks, it wasn’t his fellow members of Congress he had in mind when he wrote the book A Mindful Nation. It was his constituents.

“I’ve just been watching my constituents suffer so much over the last 12 years in public office and some of that is obviously economic and inequality and healthcare and all these things, and I really saw mindfulness as a way to bring relief to my constituents in the long term and the short term,” he says. It’s not a fix for those problems, but it’s a way to manage and reduce the stress that accompanies them.

Ryan has already been involved with implementing meditation programs in some Ohio schools.

“I say not so jokingly that that may be the most important thing I do in my life — to bring this to my schools in my community,” he says. The program was granted $1 million a few years ago, and is now implemented in schools.

“Walk into a school and you just see the principals and the teachers say how much the classroom has changed, the school has changed,” he says. “You just can’t help, you get teary eyed because this is giving kids hope again — kids that are in a situation that most people in society would just write them off, and we’re not writing them off, we’re giving them what they need to succeed.”

These are kids from poor, urban neighborhoods with records for violence.

“I think there’s a lot of people in our country that just have thrown up their hands and said, ‘We don’t know what to do. That’s just going to be our segment of our population that’s not going to be able to get out of that situation,’” he says. The mindfulness practice helps these kids calm down, concentrate and develop a feeling of being in control even when they can’t control their environment.

The practice has been implemented in organizations as disparate as Google and NBA teams and the U.S. Marine Corps, and telling those stories and reporting the science behind the practice is the focus of his book.

“The message really — from an Irish-Italian Catholic Congressman from Ohio — is that this is something that needs to be mainstreamed in America,” he says. “It’s important that the average person that may think of that [meditation practice] as something that’s way out there, they may need to think of who’s doing it, who’s studying it and realize it can be helpful in their own lives and lead to a real renaissance in America.”

Just slowing down for a few minutes a day could add calm and a sense of connection to the rest of day, even if the frantic pace continues.

And while Boulder may already have more than its fair share of people who meditate, the message he’s delivering is one that needs to be taken off the meditation cushion.

“If you’re a practitioner of mindfulness there are a lot of seeds that need to get planted in school systems and healthcare systems around the country,” he says. “I hope the talk is about how we move out of the OK, we’re all going to sit on our cushion and feel good phase to OK, a lot of people would find this helpful and we’re going to offer it up to them and try to push it out into society.”

The message can be free from religious affiliation and political party, says James Gimian, publisher at Shamabala Sun Foundation and mindful.org, who helped organize Ryan’s appearance at Naropa.

“He has a very deep confidence in the goodness and creativity of the American people regardless of faith or religion or even political outlook,” Gimian says. “By slowing down, centering on what are really some basic fundamental American values of self reliance and innovation and caring for your neighbors, together we can apply this to these great emerging challenges of our time whether it’s the economy or the environment.”

This coming Earth Day, the Carrotmob will descend upon University Hill at Half Fast Subs in an effort to raise enough money to help the sub shop become more energy-efficient. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, all revenues from Half Fast will be used to make the outdated restaurant more green.

The Carrotmob is a group geared towards helping businesses become more socially responsible. They help businesses with campaigns to raise money to make energy-efficient and eco-friendly changes, and they often arrive in carrot costumes.

“The name goes back to the old saying ‘There are two ways to make a donkey move forward,’” says Swithin Lui, the head campaigner for the Boulder Carrotmob. “‘You can either hit it in the back with a stick or you can dangle a carrot in front of it.’ We use this because instead of protesting or boycotting a business, we give them incentives like monetary rewards to get them to make socially responsible decisions.”

In celebration of Earth Day, Lui and his team began a bidding war among the restaurants on the Hill for the chance to host a Carrotmob event and use their revenues to update lights, windows and other items throughout their store. The final four contenders — Rush, Abo’s, La’au’s Taco Shop and Half Fast — began the bidding by offering percentages of their revenues from the day for energy efficiency updates.

“Half Fast eventually won by promising to contribute 100 percent of their revenues,” Lui says. “Honestly, we were expecting the final bid to be around 20 percent, so 100 percent was definitely a surprise, but Half Fast winning wasn’t. They said they knew they were going to win from the start.”

Anthony Merino, the general manager of Half Fast, says the sub shop has looked at becoming more environmentally friendly in the past, but the Carrotmob event is a great incentive to finally make the changes.

“It feels good to know that you are trying to improve the way your business functions and make it more environmentally friendly,” Merino says. “It was hard to choose what we wanted to do, whether it be composting, using renewable energy or becoming more energy-efficient. In the end, though, it will be great to be considered a green business, especially in a place like Boulder.”

Energy Smart has also contributed to the event by doing an assessment of Half Fast and determining what areas need improvement. After the assessment, Half Fast was able to establish a set of tiered goals based on the costs of each improvement. If they reach $2,500, Half Fast will change all of the light fixtures to LED lighting. If they make more than that, the shop will also replace the 100-yearold windows with more energy-efficient options. Finally, if the shop earns $5,500, the furnace will be updated as well as the lights, though the windows will be left alone.

In addition to the assessments, Energy Smart, offers assistance in finding contractors and available rebates, all as part of its suite of amenities available to businesses.

Thus far, Energy Smart has worked with 2,522 businesses, 310 of which are in the food industry. They have a little more than a year left of their grant, and by that time they hope to work with 5,300 businesses, says Pam Milmoe, the business sustainability coordinator for Boulder County Public Health.

“We have some big numbers,” Milmoe says. “We have given $923,000 in rebates so far, which are spurring $5 million in energy-efficient investments in both businesses and local utility investments. Through our projects, we are on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 6,000 metric tons.”

The work at Half Fast is just one example of many businesses that have taken advantage of the grant given to Energy Smart to make Boulder more environmentally friendly.

Lui was happy to help the movement spread to the Hill. “We figured we were going to try and attract as many students as we could, and by choosing a restaurant on the Hill we will hopefully get a more impassioned clientele,” Lui says. “Plus, the Hill is one of the places that could use a little greening up, especially because it is such a symbolic part of Boulder.”

Merino says he’s happy to see Half Fast be a part of Earth Day and the movement to make businesses in the county more green.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com

Food & Garden
Digging in to organic gardening
No lawn? No problem
Urban herbs
Eating your legislation
Recipes on the range

Sustainability
Nice day for a green wedding
Safe spring cleaning
Looking closer at “local”

Business

City, Xcel square off over solar, wind programs
Fiber Problems
Conserving Colorado’s Golden Goose
Women to watch in sustainable business
Just a little loan

Health
Stop sniffling and sneezing ‎
How to make your own kombucha  ‎
To cleanse or not to cleanse  ‎

by Tate Zandstra

The conservation of our resources,” former president Theodore Roosevelt once said, “is the fundamental question before this nation.”
The sentiment seems like a modern reaction to a shrinking natural world but, even a century ago, Roosevelt saw an urgent need to protect wild places. He had witnessed the decline and near extinction of the buffalo, decimation of redwood forests and the destruction caused by rampant mining. The world population at that time was about a billion and a half. Now, with 7 billion and counting, President Barack Obama appears set on a conservation plan of his own, one seemingly tailored for the modern world, and it starts in Colorado.
The American Great Outdoors Initiative is a nationwide conservation plan to get more Americans outside, not only to instill in them an appreciation for open and wild places and a desire to protect them, but to create outdoors-related jobs and stimulate tourism. The Great Outdoors Initiative aligns somewhat disparate government agencies like the Departments of Interior (DOI) and Agriculture (USDA) with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Council on Environmental Quality in order to conserve two or more key wilderness areas in each state. Colorado’s Front Range turns out to be the testing grounds for the new plan.
The Rocky Mountain Greenway, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced last May, “will connect the Denver Greenway System to the three National Wildlife Refuges in the Denver metro region and, eventually, to Rocky Mountain National Park.” In his speech, which took place at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Rocky Mountain Arsenal visitor center, Salazar said the plan would enhance the Denver metro region’s connections to the natural landscapes and counties surrounding it — and result in increased tourism spending.
The Rocky Mountain Greenway is one of three Colorado projects to be constructed under the Great Outdoors Initiative. Connecting three major National Wildlife Refuges — Rocky Flats, Two Ponds and Rocky Mountain Arsenal — with many smaller state parks and recreation areas, the plan creates a large wildlife corridor with 140 miles of unbroken trails in some 40,000 acres of open space. The plan also calls for water quality testing and improvement and eventual extension as far as Rocky Mountain National Park.
Urban areas are beautified with the addition of parks, and citizens benefit from outdoor activity, education and clean water, but there are real monetary benefits, too, according to the Great Outdoors Initiative. The plan cites the successful rehab of Confluence and Commons parks from dumping grounds for garbage and raw sewage in the ’70s to places that enhance the quality of life of Denver’s residents and attract tourists today.
“If there’s a system of trails to link national parks together, it would benefit communities around that trail system, absolutely,” says Maryann Mahoney, executive director of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The National Park Service just released data about total visitor spending in communities in and surrounding national parks, and it’s significant.”
Very significant, in fact. According to EPA figures, U.S. National Parks draw 280 million visitors each year, provide 250,000 related jobs to Americans and generate $12 billion in visitor spending.
“Outdoor recreation contributes $730 billion to the U.S. economy, and Colorado’s active outdoor recreation contributes more than $10 billion annually and supports more than 100,000 jobs,” says Avery Stonich of the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), an outdoor recreation trade association based in Boulder. OIA estimates as much as $289 billion of economic activity is generated nationally by peripherals like gas, food, taxes, and retail sales and services in a ripple effect dependent on tourism at public lands and largely benefiting small business.
“People come to Boulder and they want an activity,” says Bill Leuchten, who owns Boulder’s Front Range Anglers. “They may go horseback riding, ballooning, hiking, or they may try fishing.”
Leuchten’s concern is with stream quality, and he says he feels that federal money would be best spent improving habitat in rivers like the Platte, which flows through much of the Greenway.
“Stream improvement would bring in revenue, no doubt,” Leuchten says, “Good fisheries bring people from all over the world.”
Leuchten employs six full-time retail employees and dozens of part-time and private contractors as guides. He is one of many business owners whose livelihood depends upon sound conservation measures.
In financially stressful times, any advantage to local economies is precious, but there are skeptics.
“I think bringing people out to see wild animals and nature is pretty much always a good idea, especially if they can’t afford to do it otherwise,” says Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, but he cautions that the process needs to be managed carefully. “You’re going to have to be smart about it and think about what kind of infrastructure you’re creating to do that, and make sure that you aren’t damaging nature to do it.”
There have been many cases where conservation strategies aimed at protecting environments through stimulating economic gains have backfired, causing greater damage to the environment, he says.
“There’s a limit to how far you can go with the argument that protecting the environment has economic value,” Suckling says. “There certainly is economic value, but ultimately, nature needs to be protected because we have an ethical responsibility to do so, regardless of economic benefits.”
Otherwise, he says, the effect is to reinforce the same self-centered principles which led to degradation in the first place.
“There’s always a balance between conservation and use,” OIA’s Stonich says. “We see it all the time in Boulder when our open space charter specifically sets aside land for conservation with recreation secondary, then people get up in arms when the open space department won’t put a trail there.” Still, she says she believes that money is a necessary component of conservation.
“OIA lobbies in D.C. to make sure there are lands conserved and through that people go make their purchases, contribute to the economy, and enjoy the outdoors and become stewards of the environment,” she says.
“There are a lot of successful projects where resource users are brought into the fold of environmental protection without actually watering down that protection,” Suckling says. “Projects are most successful when they can clearly articulate how the environment is being threatened, and how it is beneficial to our resource users to protect the environment.”
The Great Outdoors Initiative is a necessary risk, Mahoney says. She says she believes that the more people who are allowed to experience the outdoors, whether they come as tourists to support the local economy, or they come from inside Denver and would never normally journey outside the city, the better.
“If you’re an inner-city person who has never been to the Rocky Mountains, which are 30 minutes or an hour away, then your only perspective of your environment is urban,” she says. The experience of getting out of that environment “can be life-changing. It’s important to the overall education of what we have in our state and what we have in the United States.
“It’s what people recognize when they think of Colorado and when they think of Boulder; we’re recognized as a place that has access to hundreds of miles of great hiking trails, 45,000 acres of open space and mountain parks. … That’s part of our brand and it’s very important.”

by Tate Zandstra

Organic, local, sustainable food seems to be a growing trend in America, but it’s also a trend that almost inevitably means higher prices. When most people think of microfinance, likely what comes to mind are images of the developing world: very poor, rural people with nothing to offer as collateral receiving loans that might be considered ludicrously small someplace like Boulder. In a scaled economy, however, a microloan might be just a few grand given to a local business, and it might make all the difference.
“A lot of times, just a little bit of money can help someone be successful and sustainable,” says Paul McLean, vice president of purchasing for Whole Foods Market’s Rocky Mountain region. Vendors are often turned down when they apply for a traditional bank loan if they are unable to show several years of profitability. “One of the loans I’m working on right now is for a vendor who needs new roofs on their greenhouses, but they just don’t have the funds to fix them,” McLean says.
“Not so many banks love lending to farmers because of the volatility of our business; we might get a hail storm and be totally wiped out,” says Anne Cure, owner of Cure Organic Farm, on the east edge of Boulder. “It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket, then watching someone drop them out the window; you’re not going to get paid because there’s nothing to sell. That risk is just inherent in farming. We lease all of the land we farm on; we don’t own anything.”
Still, there is big money in organic farming. According to the 2011 Organic Trade Association’s Industry Survey, organic food and beverages accounted for $26.7 billion in sales nationally in 2010, up from $1 billion in 1990. There has been a 7.7 percent total growth over 2009 sales, with fruits and vegetables leading the growth at an almost 12 percent increase.
To maintain its competitive edge, Whole Foods Market, which has become synonymous with high-end organic food, offers struggling local suppliers something called the Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP), with which the company props up local sustainable businesses by offering loans conceivably as low as a few thousand dollars (to date the smallest loan is $18,000) and ranging up to $100,000.
Relatively new, burdened by little debt and buoyed by popularity, Whole Foods seems to be forcing traditional grocery stores to change their appearances and marketing or lose customers. As strong as the industry seems, however, organics still represent only 4 percent of the total domestic grocery economy of nearly $563 billion as of 2010, says data collected by the Food Marketing Institute.
“For John [Mackey, founder of Whole Foods] it was really important that we put this program in place to help our local partners,” McLean says. “When the economy was getting really difficult back there in 2007 and 2008, John was like ‘Man, we’ve got to do something for these local vendors. They want to get on their feet, they’re important to the local community, and they’re important to Whole Foods.’”
Sometimes a loan can be for something as simple as a truck to take food to the market or to a distributor, a ramp for trucks to pull up for loading, or a new greenhouse roof. All of the LPLP loans are set at 5 percent interest, and the payment plan is worked out to fit the business plan of the vendor, not the store.
“If they need seven years to pay off a loan, great, as long as it helps them continue to grow as a local producer or manufacturer of food here in Colorado,” McLean says.
Loans aren’t only reserved for farm owners. Pangea Organics, an award-winning organic skincare product company based in Boulder, received a small loan that helped founder Joshua Onysko move from making organic soaps in his garage to selling his products in 18 countries around the world and Whole Foods stores throughout the U.S. Pangea is now reportedly one of the fastest-growing organic skin care product lines in the world.
Good health and strong profits may not be the sole ethos of the locally produced, organic market. A strong sense of stewardship also seems to run through many of these businesses. Pangea, for example, helps non-governmental organizations like Women for Women International — an organization devoted to educating and empowering women affected by conflict — runs its offices exclusively on wind-generated power, and supports 45,000 acres of organic farmland worldwide.
Another LPLP loan recipient, Full Circle Farms, a farm cooperative effort, has partnered with Boulder County Open Space and other conservation organizations around the nation and in Mexico to help local farmers from going under by offering “artisan groceries” delivered to the doorstep. The farm co-op supports what it calls the “Good Food Life,” organic farming practices that connect the consumer to the landscape through conservation of open space, protecting wildlife and keeping money in the local community. Ideally, it will be the kind of model that engages in a pay-it-forward principle that sustains these businesses and others popping up in their communities.

by Jefferson Dodge

The latest skirmish in the municipalization battle between Xcel and the city of Boulder revolves around solar and wind energy programs.
Currently, Xcel offers initiatives like Solar Rebates and Windsource as incentives for customers to use alternative energy sources, partly because Xcel has a state-mandated clean-energy quota to meet over time. Officials say Boulder is one of the biggest users of such programs, but in a recent filing with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Xcel is seeking to pull back some of those offerings from Boulder customers, in anticipation of the city municipalizing its electric utility.
Boulder voters approved two measures last fall authorizing an occupation utility tax generating $1.9 million a year for five years so that the city can hire the attorneys, engineers, appraisers and other professionals needed to ascertain the cost of acquiring Xcel’s infrastructure and running a municipal utility. The city plans to spend up to $800,000 a year on law firms alone to determine the cost of condemning the Xcel system and whether the city owes the company any “stranded costs” — infrastructure investments that Xcel has made that would have benefited Boulder customers if the city had renewed its franchise agreement with the utility.
City officials are challenging Xcel’s PUC filing to begin withdrawing alternative energy programs, calling the move premature, even punitive, because the city has not yet decided whether to municipalize. Xcel officials, on the other hand, say they must plan ahead for municipalization and can’t have the rest of their customers subsidize a benefit for Boulder.
“We’re not discriminating against them, we’re ensuring we don’t discriminate against our other customers on their behalf,” says Xcel Regional Vice President Jerome Davis. “We’ve had to make a business decision to move forward.”
Xcel spokesperson Michelle Aguayo says that the company needs to limit those programs now so Xcel doesn’t have to try to recoup its investment later, after the city municipalizes. She adds that the city can’t expect the company to not plan ahead for a life without Boulder, especially after the city declined to renew its franchise agreement.
“They can’t have it both ways,” Aguayo says.
Davis adds, “It’s funny how they want their cake and everyone else’s cake too.”
But Jonathan Koehn, the city’s regional sustainability coordinator, argues that Boulder customers are still paying Xcel — and still paying fees to subsidize those clean energy programs — and should only be cut off only if and when Boulder municipalizes. Municipalization is far from a done deal, he says.
“Our position is and continues to be that we are customers of the company until we are no longer customers,” Koehn says, adding that if Xcel reduces its services to the city, “we expect those charges to come off of Boulder customers’ bills.”
He describes Xcel’s move as a bit of a scare tactic intended to make Boulder citizens fear losing benefits if the city municipalizes. Koehn also challenges the suggestion that a municipal utility would not be able to provide the same amount of rebates and incentives for clean energy. The cost model the city ran last year included a good amount of those programs, he says. Koehn adds that a Boulder municipal utility would be more nimble and flexible in how it targets programs to meet the city’s needs and purchases cheaper, cleaner energy like surplus wind-generated power.
Wind farms, Koehn explains, can eventually generate power more inexpensively than coal-fired plants, for example, because once the debt for the construction of the farms is paid off, you don’t pay for operating costs and fuel, just distribution, shaving off the majority of expenses in the long run.
“This is not a five-year planning horizon,” he says. “This is a 100-year planning horizon.”
The city’s energy goals are often at odds with Xcel’s business model, Koehn says, because while the city wants to decrease energy use, the company is in the business of increasing (or at least maintaining) customers’ energy use, because Xcel has to pay off debts on its power plants and pay its stockholders.
“We want to look at this as more of a service rather than a commodity,” he says. “This is a shift in the business model. We’ve been contacted by other cities in Colorado and outside Colorado.”
But the city won’t know whether a municipal utility is sustainable economically until it shells out the millions for the experts to crunch the numbers and jump through the regulatory hoops.
If it’s not financially feasible, and can’t deliver rates that are the same as or lower than Xcel’s, Koehn says, “by the ballot language itself, we can’t move forward.”
Xcel officials say the city was way off on its cost estimates, and that municipalizing will prove to be more expensive than Boulder officials claim.
“We’re going to find out in advance,” Koehn says.

by Blair Madole

Odd things tend to turn up when you tackle the task of cleaning out your closet, from old paint and cleaning supplies to moldy food and frayed clothing. The question is, what do you with it all? For those who want to remain environmentally friendly when tossing out the trash, here are a few tips.

Spread it out
The first rule of spring cleaning while trying to be kind to the environment is to clean in increments.
“Folks need to plan ahead for spring cleaning,” says Iris Sela Horowitz of Eco-Cycle. “If you wait and try to do it all in one day, then the process of trying to figure out how to dispose of all the materials will seem laborious. If you break it out over a few days, it will be a lot easier to get everything done.”

Clean the clothes
There are several places around town that accept used clothing, including heavily used items that are stained or have holes. However, the clothes have to be clean.
So, the first step to clearing out your closet is to separate the clothes you don’t want any more into piles — vintage/designer, lightly used and heavily used — then toss the piles into the wash. Next, decide where you want to take them. The first pile with your vintage and designer items can be either sold or traded at Buffalo Exchange on 18th and Pearl streets. The second pile with the lightly used items you would rather donate than sell can be dropped off at the Goodwill on Baseline and Broadway or ARES Thrift Shop in both Boulder and Longmont. Finally, those grungy looking items in the third pile can be taken to Eco-Cycle’s Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM) at 5030 Pearl Street.
“The heavily used items that are still repairable are sent to communities in Africa to be mended and worn,” Horowitz says. “The stuff that can’t be reused is turned into industrial rags.”
Also, though organic and sustainable clothing is better for the environment in the manufacturing phase, it cannot be composted at the local facility because it could jam the equipment, so don’t put it in the curbside bin with the moldy veggies.

Don’t trash the toxics
Toxic items like old paint, strong household cleaners and motor oil can cause groundwater pollution when improperly land-filled, so don’t toss these items in the trash. Instead, take them to the Boulder County Hazardous Materials Management Facility, which accepts most household hazardous materials.
There is no charge to drop off hazardous waste at the facility, though proof of residency, such as a driver’s license or a utility bill, is required. The facility accepts residents of Boulder County, Broomfield County and Erie.

Give away the gear
If you are tired of looking at the rusting bike in the back of your garage or making space for skis you don’t use anymore, there are several options.
For those looking to make some money off of a top-of-the-line road bike or telemark skis, you can open a free consignment account at Boulder Sports Recycler. If a bike is not quite selling material, the parts can be taken to Community Cycles, where they will be refurbished and redistributed.
For more information on where to send unwanted household items, visit ecocycle.org/a-zguide.

by Clay Fong

Federal farm bills are the 400-pound gorilla of American agricultural policy, setting direction for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), if not the entirety of domestic farming. The last one was passed in 2008, and consisted of a $403 billion package covering, among other items, food stamps, biofuels, international trade, school lunches and rural energy efficiency.
“It’s very complex. It’s like wandering into the intestines of the worm; it’s like watching paint dry,” says David Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now! (FDN), an Iowa-based organization promoting progressive agricultural policy. “It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation — it connects the environment, land and the food we eat.”
FDN has called for increased government support of smaller-scale and organic farming in the 2012 farm bill. The organization proposes passing a Beginning Farmer and Rancher Bill to encourage development of smaller, local operations, putting in place a million new farmers by 2020. More sustainable, small-scale practices will be encouraged by coupling conservation compliance with receiving crop insurance and limiting government payouts up to 1,000 acres per farm. FDN also advocates allocation of some $25 billion to support a transition from traditional agriculture to organics, with a goal that 75 percent of farms be organic certified by 2025.
“Subsidies also come from the farm bill — it drives what farmers grow,” says Carol Carlson, chair of Slow Food Boulder, which provides education about the relationship among food, community and the environment.
According to the Congressional Research Service, U.S. farmers receive about $7 billion a year in subsidy payments from the farm bill, and 90 percent of this largesse is associated with corn, cotton, wheat, rice and soybeans. Ten percent of subsidy recipients get 66 percent of the money.
The abovementioned products are what are known as commodity crops, and make up the lion’s share of agricultural sales. Most of Boulder County’s agriculture is commodity farming, according to Michael Brownlee, co-founder of Transition Colorado, a supporter of local food systems.
“There are a number of larger-scale commodity crop farmers in Boulder County who receive subsidies,” Brownlee says. “On the other hand, small ‘specialty’ producers — small-plot, bio-intensive farmers often using organic production methods and primarily marketing directly to consumers — receive no subsidies at all.”
In terms of federal payments, $376,000 was paid out countywide, according to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture. A single farm, Bcjj Farms, based in Byers, received $384,754 in USDA commodity subsidies in 2010.
Boulder’s a poor cousin compared to neighboring Weld County, one of the top 10 richest agricultural locales in America. Large-scale agriculture operations, particularly those relating to cattle, contribute to Weld’s 2007 farm product sales figure of a staggering $1.5 billion dollars. Weld farmers also received some $15 million in federal payments. Total value of Boulder County farm products sold was $34 million. Thirteen farms reported income of more than a half million dollars, but average net farm income was a loss.
Boulder may be mostly commodity crops, Brownlee says, but “Weld County has a higher percentage of larger commodity crop farms, and few market farmers.”
Far removed from the world of commodity agribusiness, Jason Griffith owns and operates Aspen Moon Farm in Hygiene. His farm has been approved as biodynamic, a term trademarked by Demeter USA, a nonprofit that certifies farms. Biodynamic farming eschews chemical fertilizer and pesticide use, emphasizes treating soil homeopathically and encourages crop rotation and growing a complementary mix of species.
Griffith has been able to benefit from federal legislation through Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans. FSA financing and programs help farmers with down payments and equipment purchases. Griffith has used FSA loans for purchasing equipment.
This small-scale family assistance is consistent with President Abraham Lincoln’s initial vision for the USDA. In 1861, the Great Emancipator deemed agriculture “confessedly the largest interest of the nation.” Lincoln would also describe the USDA as “precisely the people’s department, in which they feel more directly concerned than in any other.”
“When Lincoln founded the USDA in 1862, farmers made up 50 percent of the nation,” Murphy says. “Now that number is 2 percent.”
But the percentage of farmers isn’t the only factor that changed since Lincoln’s time. The small-scale farmer isn’t the focus of federal farm policies anymore.
The 2008 legislation had a limited impact on organics, including development of an initiative to share organic certification costs with farmers, and the allocation of $78 million for research.The bill also provided an $80 million loan guarantee to a single company, Broomfield-based Range Fuels Inc., a now-defunct biofuels operation.
Organic and local food proponents argue that it may be time for a more aggressive legislative approach supporting local, small farmers and organics.
Murphy says he realizes his goals for the FDN are ambitious, but he says, “[You] never get what you want if you ask for what you think you can get.”
There’s fundamental rationale for understanding and changing the laws governing what we eat, Murphy says: “Food laws are a reflection of how democratic, fair, open and just a society is.”
Editor’s note: Clay Fong and David Murphy were college housemates.

by Blair Madole

A three-wheeled, alien vehicle that can be lifted with relative ease by three or four young men is carrying the hopes of five engineering students at the University of Colorado.

They believe the car may be able to last for 1,500 miles on one gallon of gas during the Shell Eco-marathon this weekend.

The car, named F-CAT, or Fastest Car at Track, is the result of five years of work by various teams of seniors in the engineering program. The first team came up with the design, and each year the new team selected for the project makes improvements. This year’s team, consisting of seniors Matt Feddersen, Jeff Vankeulen, Jared Wampler, Paul Sweacey and Joe Gratcofsky, has added fuel injection and other features to try and beat F-CAT’s 2011 record of 1,008 miles per gallon. They’ll compete at the 26th Shell Eco-marathon against teams from high schools and universities around the continent on the streets of downtown Houston.

“It is definitely tough because we are given something, and we don’t know what last year’s team really wanted to do going forward with it,” Vankeulen says. “So it takes us a good bit of time to figure out what we need to do and where we need to focus in order to get the most benefits from our work.”

The young men have worked an average of 30 hours per week since they started the project last fall, while still taking full course loads. That dedication has extended to being up and moving at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning while many of their fellow seniors at CU are still recovering from the previous night. They pretty much live at the engineering center, Vankeulen says.

“Social lives? Zero,” Wampler says, and laughs. “I believe we were told at the first meeting last fall, ‘If you have a girlfriend, take a picture and tell her you will see her next summer.’” The conversation among the team members sounds like something straight from an episode of The Big Bang Theory, with words like carbon fiber and dynamometer tossed about comfortably. Their collective brainpower is impressive, from Feddersen rebuilding an old Camaro in high school to Vankeulen possibly becoming an actual rocket scientist after graduation. Sadly, the team’s higher than average IQ won’t necessarily help them beat the Eco-marathon record of 2,564.8 miles on one gallon of gas which was set in 2011 by the team from Quebec’s Université Laval team.

“The winning team does a lot more with a lot more money,” Vankeulen says. “What we are doing with the amount of time and money and knowledge that we have — I mean, we are all very knowledgeable, but we are also only fourth-year mechanical engineering students.”

The team receives $1,250 from the mechanical engineering department to improve the car each year. That covers the cost of one of the special wheels that are needed for the vehicle. The rest of the team’s budget derives from grants and donations. The team isn’t focused on winning the entire competition, just on improving the car from last year and achieving increased fuel efficiency.

“This year, we all kind of decided our goal is 1,500 miles per gallon,” Vankeulen says. “If we achieve that goal, we will be really happy at the competition, and that will probably place us in the top five. To win, we would need to get 2,500 to 2,600 miles per gallon. That’s a little out of reach right now, but it is definitely possible for next year’s team.”

Despite the drain on their time and their lack of robust social lives, the members of the team agree they are glad they were able to work on this project. Some members have even gotten attached to the car, like Sweacey, the driver, who says the car is his “baby” now.

“Of all the senior engineering projects, this is the only competition-based one,” Feddersen says. “I think all of us are pretty competitive and it is fun to go out there and work and see how we can do.”

“It is also the only project where you have such a big end goal and have something to show for your work,” Vankeulen says. “I think we all would have regretted it if we hadn’t done this.”

The team will travel to Houston to test their car in the Shell Eco-marathon March 29 to April 1. After months of intensive work on the project, the teammates say they plan to celebrate with a drink and a reconciliation with their abandoned girlfriends.

Check back next week to find out how the team placed.