So… I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to talk about what the Transportation Referendum (TSPLOST / TIA) would mean for a revolutionary project that I’ve been passionate about for so long – and to ask you to vote YES.*

Next Tuesday, July 31, is the 10-county vote that would allow the Atlanta BeltLine to build 10.2 miles of transit.

About 5 miles would be on the old Atlanta BeltLine rail corridor on the east and west sides of town. The other ~5 miles would be crosstown connections through downtown and Midtown (with links to MARTA stops and the Atlanta Streetcar).

• These crosstown connections will not happen without the Referendum (there is no funding in the foreseeable future).
• No Referendum means several years tacked onto the build-out of transit.
• No Referendum also likely means no future federal funding since the U.S. government won’t give money to a region that won’t take care of itself.
• To vote no (or to abstain from voting) could result in a huge set-back for our city in terms of staying competitive with similar metropolitan areas.

The Atlanta BeltLine would build 10.2 miles of transit on the east and west sides of the city and in crosstown connections through Midtown and downtown.

The Referendum would also build a MARTA extension from Lindbergh to Emory / CDC, personally impacting the neighborhood I grew up in. That line will eventually extend near our house and into Decatur.

The Referendum will pay for street, signal, and pedestrian improvements plus bike lanes on N. Druid Hills Road, creating a safer way for my husband and I to get around on our bikes along with all of our neighbors between Buford and Lawrenceville Highways. Just yesterday, I saw a man walking down N. Druid Hills Road in the road because there are no sidewalks. I also saw a guy on his bike riding down the street with cars flying within inches of his handlebars at 55 mph. This stresses me out incredibly. The Referendum would build at least 29 miles of bike improvements (and not all cities have even published their local project lists yet).

The Referendum will continue the Atlanta BeltLine’s existing multi-use trail near Piedmont Hospital across Peachtree and Piedmont Roads, creating a safe, quick way to navigate through a high-density area.

These are just a few of the projects that are near and dear to my heart. You can see what projects are near you with this interactive map.

Get more info on how your YES vote would impact the Atlanta BeltLine on our webpage transit.beltline.org, in our series of blog posts, and in our awesome video below.

I’m asking for your help in voting YES! I’m also asking that you share this blog post with anyone who lives in the 10-county region who might also vote YES!

(The 10 counties are DeKalb, Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton, Fayette, Henry, Rockdale, and Douglas.)

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed showed his support for the Transportation Referendum alongside 20+ environmental organizations on July 25 during a press conference at Southface.

I don’t usually get political, and I know nobody likes new taxes, but this is the biggest thing to ever happen to the Atlanta BeltLine and to transit and transportation in Atlanta. This is an off-season vote and voter turnout will determine the outcome.

Voting has already started. Find out where you can vote early.
Find out where you vote on July 31.

There is a rally for the BeltLine this Saturday, July 28 at 4:45 p.m. at the intersection of 10th Street and Monroe Drive (in front of Park Tavern). Make a sign and come out to show your support for the project and 10.2 miles of transit!! I’ll be there.

Please email me or comment below if you have questions or want more information. And thank you for voting and passing this along – it means the world to me!

The Atlanta BeltLine will build 10.2 miles of transit when the Transportation Referendum passes, including under Virginia Avenue and up to the edge of Piedmont Park at 10th Street and Monroe Drive (seen here).

* The Atlanta BeltLine does not advocate, but instead focuses on educating. In my personal time, though, I work to talk to as many people as possible about the benefits of bringing transit, trails, and parks to our city via the Transportation Referendum.

• Want to see a Georgia grass-fed beef farm in action? Visit Will Harris and White Oak Pastures!

• Part II: The land, sustainability, and Serengeti model of Georgia grass-fed beef farm, White Oak Pastures

Since writing those two parts, White Oak Pastures has undergone a small revolution. They have since built an abattoir specifically for chickens and turkeys (Will was just embarking on his chicken adventures when we visited). This is a huge leap for a family ranch that’s been focused on beef since the 1800′s.

When we visited last year, Will was just embarking on his sustainable chicken adventures with his first shipments of baby chicks. He let us into the coops to take a look at the cute little ones.

Will’s other projects involve his commitment to zero waste (sustainability is discussed in-depth in part II). His $283,000 solar voltaic shed produces 50,000 watts of power (the average household uses roughly 1500 a day). At the time of our last visit, he had plans to double that production.

Underground, he has a 36,000 gallon water purification system with which to run his abattoirs.

And what to do with all of those odd animal parts that we Americans tend to shy away from? Will sells them into ethnic markets, another way he ensures that every part of every one of his creatures is utilized.

Every year, Will plans to plant 500 white oaks around his property, lining fields, roads, and providing shade for his herds. I can imagine how stately the white oaks lining the driveway will look when they’re all grown up.

Will also keeps a big part of history in a bowl in his office – coins that his family used to mint. From 1866 through the 1940′s, the Harris family had their own monetary system on the farm, until the government kindly asked them to shut down production.

In the interest of historic preservation, Will’s daughter (and marketing guru) Jenni is renovating Will’s mother’s house on the property. Situated just off of the road, the house sits in close proximity to the fields and a grove of trees where the cows come to rest.

On a random side note, one of my favorite quotes from Will regarding working with his staff:

You get 27 ranchers and butchers together, you’ll only have four main problems: liquor, money, women, and the law.

When Zack and I got engaged last year, we knew it was the perfect reason to buy a whole (or at least half) cow from Will. We also realized a caterer might not be happy with having to prepare so many different types of beef. So we decided to go with ground beef and chicken from White Oak Pastures. We’re striving to keep our wedding as local and as zero waste as possible and are happy that the Harris family can be a part of that (I don’t plan on talking wedding too much, but there may be more to come on green Atlanta weddings in the future).

White Oak Pastures has a new facebook page, too, so be sure to check it out!

That completes part III of White Oak Pastures! As you’re out and about in Atlanta, ask where people get their meat from. We have a lot of wonderful farms in Georgia and, the more we ask our restaurants and our grocery stores about where they get their food, the more they will pay attention. We’re the ones who hold the money in our wallets and tell them what we want every time we make a purchase. We’ve watched Publix carry more and more White Oak beef as we keep buying it up.

Encourage your friends to make the switch to local, grass-fed beef, too. One of the best ways we’ve found is to simply cook it for people. Have friends over for dinner and throw burgers, sirloin steaks, or tenderloin on the grill and let them taste the difference. Hopefully that will help convince them! Happy eating!

Energy efficient doors and windows can have a big impact on reducing your utility bills

Home buyers are going green, and research shows that they are even willing to pay more for green homes in a down economy! Especially because buying a green home usually means saving a lot of green on utility bills. With the rising costs of energy, savvy homeowners are paying more upfront to save more over time. A two-year study by Carson Mathews of Atlanta Fine Homes reveals that EarthCraft House certified homes sell for more money and sell faster than standard built homes. EarthCraft House is a residential green building program designed to address the climate conditions of the Southeast. A blueprint for creating and maintaining energy- and resource-efficient living environments, the EarthCraft House program is intended for single-family detached homes, townhomes and duplexes.

According to the 2009 and 2010 Atlanta Green Homes Sales Report, homes certified by EarthCraft, LEED for Homes and ENERGY STAR sold for 3.4% more than standard built homes and sold 28 days faster. To find a sampling of builders embracing green, home shoppers can turn to Atlanta Real Estate Forum for energy efficient home builders, the communities they build in and their latest news.

Active adult home builder, Windsong Properties has partnered with ENERGY STAR® to build energy efficient, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved homes in their Somerset community located in Woodstock, Ga. The home builder has built 50 ENERGY STAR® homes using eco-friendly products such as radiant barrier roof sheathing, LP® TechShield®, Silver Line windows with low-emission glass and high-efficiency Lennox HVAC home comfort systems. These homes are beneficial for homeowners as well as the environment. Proven to provide homeowners with less maintenance and lower utility bills, these energy efficient homes also improve air quality by producing less harmful greenhouse emissions. With an estimated 2 million ENERGY STAR® qualified homes expected in the United States by 2012, this trend is clearly not going out of style.

Ashton Woods Homes builds eco-friendly single-family homes and townhomes in the Atlanta area through its PowerHouse Green with Environments for Living program. This program ensures buyers are purchasing homes that are safe and green, with feature such as CFL lighting, water management fixtures, fresh-air ventilation, controlled humidity and more. Home buyers can expect to save up to 45 percent on energy costs compared to a same-size home without the PowerHouse Green features.

Taking a bit of a different twist on green, Traton Homes has focused on reducing the waste during the framing stage of building homes. By utilizing a highly engineered method of cutting and allocating wood based on Traton’s floor plan requirements, Traton’s framing process has virtually eliminated waste. When cuts do require waste, the excess pieces are used in other areas of the building process, resulting in an environmentally responsible and efficient use of left over materials.

There are a wide variety of green programs and energy efficient homes for new home shoppers to choose from. Thanks to Atlanta Real Estate Forum, a popular Atlanta real estate blog, for sharing this article! You can find green resources and homes on their website.

The plant list is already posted on the website on the spring plant sale page. Enjoy!

Their next plant sale will be April 9th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the church at 737 Woodland Avenue. You can also get updates on their Seedtime and Harvest facebook page.

Environmentalism has been whole heartedly adopted by our church. Last year, because of our efforts at Seedtime & Harvest, we won the first Trailblazer award from Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. It was an amazing moment when everyone gathered at the awards ceremony realize this new award was won by a group of mentally handicapped and financially “poor” individuals for their outstanding leadership in community environmentalism.

– Glynis Ward

Thank you to Glynis for sending along this information! She is one of the gardeners of Seedtime & Harvest, Greenhouse and Gardens at the church.

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and National Wildlife Federation are excited to present the 5^th Annual Urban Forestry Festival. This event invites all families and friends to the Outdoor Activity Center on Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 11am-4pm to celebrate Southwest Atlanta’s urban forests. The festival is free to the public, so bring your family to learn more about Atlanta’s incredible urban forest and its wildlife inhabitants. The festival will feature educational and entertaining exhibits, tours of the 26-acre OAC urban forest, food, giveaways, and hands-on activities and demonstrations by WAWA, NWF’s Earth Tomorrow program and their partners. Transportation to the OAC, located at 1442 Richland Road, S.W. in Atlanta, GA 30310, is easily accessible via MARTA. RSVP to info.wawaonline@gmail.com to be entered into our special drawing. For more information, please visit www.wawaonline.org or call 404-752-5385 or 404-876-8733 ext. 230.



Check your insulation

By far the largest single chunk of the average electricity bill goes toward heating and cooling your home, and proper insulation can make a sizeable difference.  The DoE estimates that only 20% of homes built before 1980 are sufficiently insulated, so it’s worth examining your insulation. However, be aware that many homes built before 1980 also contain asbestos, as it added heat resistance to the construction materials it was combined with.  Inhalation of asbestos fibers can lead to lung diseases or cancer.  Symptoms of mesothelioma can remain latent until the disease is past the point of treatment.  If you suspect you may have fraying or damaged insulation in your home, call a licensed asbestos abatement team to remove it.  Insulation and fireproofing materials in the U.S. now contain no more than 1% asbestos, but it is still best to check the packaging to make sure – mesothelioma symptoms are serious.

Test for air leaks



Cracks and gaps in or around doors, windows, electrical boxes and outlets, plumbing, ceiling fixtures and attic hatches can leak cooled or heated air into the surrounding environment, draining money and energy.  A simple way to check for leaks on a windy day is to hold a lit stick of incense or other smoke-producing item near the suspected crack.  If the smoke is blow horizontally, there is a leak.  Dirty spots on insulation, ceilings, and carpeting can also indicate air leaks.

Consider your windows

Double-paned windows with high-performance glass and an Energy Star label can go a long way toward improving energy efficiency.  However, the cost of replacing all the windows in the house is often prohibitive, so you may consider other methods of minimizing energy loss.  Those in cold climates can install tight-fitting window shades or storm windows, or tape heavy-duty clear plastic to the interior of windows.  Those in warm climates can install light-reflective white window shades or sun-controlling films, as well as remember to close curtains on south and west-facing windows while the sun is up.

Remember your chimney

If you have a chimney, keep the flue damper shut when there is no fire in the fireplace.  Otherwise, it’s essentially just a large hole where air can escape.  If the flue is old, consider investing in an inflatable chimney balloon to seal the gaps during long periods of non-use. A chimney is another location where asbestos has been found in your home. Due to the durable and heat resistant nature of this fiber, it has been used to line chimneys for many decades. Mesothelioma life expectancy is extremely poor and not an issue you want to take chances with.

Replace (or Reduce Your Use of) Appliances

Refrigerators, clothes washers, and clothes dryers top the list of electricity-draining appliances.  When shopping for new appliances, look for the Energy Star label that denotes energy efficiency.  If your budget does not allow for new appliances, find ways to use the ones you have a little less often.  Let clothes air dry, wash dishes by hand, cook with the microwave instead of the oven.  Turn all appliances – even the computer – off when not in use.

Adding a few simple green habits to your day-to-day routine can make a big difference in your energy consumption, quality of life, and finances.

Thanks to Krista Peterson for guest blogging this article!

Event #1: Oakhurst Community Garden Project Plans its Largest Spring Plant Sale Yet!

Picking out cow peas, longneck squash, and more to plant in our vegetable garden

50 varieties of tomatoes!  30 varieties of pepper!  20 varieties of eggplant!  5 varieties of basil! Plus over 200 varieties of herbs, fruit trees, perennials, annuals, natives, and succulents!

• Oakhurst Garden Member Preview: Friday, April 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Open to the public: Saturday, April 9 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday, April 10 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Lettuce and other spring greens are available for purchase at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project starting April 1.
Summer vegetable transplants will be available for purchase until June 15, 2011.

Check out the website for more details: www.oakhurstgarden.org.

Event #2: Celebrate Earth Day in Decatur at the Oakhurst Community Garden!

On Sunday, April 17^th, join the Decatur community to celebrate Earth Day at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project, presented by Latham Home Sanitation, from  12:30 p.m. until 4 pm. The event begins with the Earth Friendly Parade, which begins at Harmony Park in the center of the Oakhurst Business District. Join the Feed and Seed Marching Abominable Band and decorate your bike, wagon, stroller or yourself and march in the parade that will open the festival. Once at the event, there will be a Cake Contest, crafts for the children, a Raptor Show, food vendors, the community pavilion, live music and lots of fun!

This year’s event features over 30 earth friendly vendors and non-profits in the Community Pavilion including the City of Decatur Recycling Trailer.

New this year is a Community Phone Book Recycling Project sponsored by PitStop. Bring your old phone books to fill up a portolet! Let’s see how many phone books we can fit in there!

The winner of the Earth Day t-shirt design contest will be announced and the t-shirt will be on sale at the event. The contest was open during the month of March to students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade. The finalists’ designs will be on display at the Decatur Library during the month of April.  The 2011 The Sally Wylde Cultivating Life Award recipient will also be announced.

The Earth Day event is offered free to the community by Latham Home Sanitation, the Oakhurst Community Garden Project, the City of Decatur Active Living Department, the City of Decatur Environmental Sustainability Board, the Waldorf School of Atlanta, Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool, Agnes Scott College, and PitStop.

For more information and a complete schedule, please visit www.oakhurstgarden.org or contact: Stephanie Van Parys, director@oakhurstgarden.org, (678) 642-4977. You can friend the Earth Day in Decatur festival on facebook, too!

Started in 1997, the Oakhurst Community Garden Project is a member supported non-profit teaching environmental awareness through hands-on gardening and outdoor education programs.

Oakhurst Community Garden Project is located at 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, GA  30030.

If you are an artist who plans on submitting a proposal for Art on the Atlanta BeltLine 2011, join us as we walk and get to know the trail

The Art on the Atlanta BeltLine committee encourages artists to attend one of the following walks as an opportunity to talk about installation locations, project feasibility, and any other questions you may have.

• Saturday, March 12th – East Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Memorial Drive beside H. Harper’s Station and ending at 10th and Monroe Drive beside Park Tavern.
• Sunday, March 13th – West Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Washington Park (at Lena St.) and ending at Allene Avenue and Catherine Street.
• Saturday, March 19th – West Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Washington Park (at Lena St.) and ending at Allene Avenue and Catherine Street.
• Sunday, March 20th – East Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Memorial Drive beside H. Harper’s Station and ending at 10th and Monroe Drive beside Park Tavern.

You can RSVP to the walk online on our Art on the Atlanta BeltLine facebook page!

And download the request for proposals on http://art.beltline.org. Online submissions are encouraged and all submissions are due on March 28, 2011.

White Oak Pastures in south Georgia is building an on-site abattoir for organic poultry

We’ve talked about White Oak Pastures on Our Green Atlanta before and about how much we love their beef (here, too), but if you’re more of a white meat kind-of person, then read on for White Oak’s expanded poultry operations on-site!

WHITE OAK PASTURES BREAKS GROUND ON POULTRY ABATTOIR
Georgia Farmer Will Harris Increases Poultry Production and Adheres to
Global Animal Partnership’s Five-Step Animal Welfare Standards

ATLANTA (February 15, 2011) – White Oak Pastures Owner and Georgia Organics President Will Harris is pleased to announce that at the end of January, his Bluffton, Ga. farm broke ground on a new USDA inspected poultry abattoir and it will be the only poultry plant that processes free range poultry in Georgia, Florida or Alabama.

White Oak Pastures is increasing its poultry numbers in order to further develop its Serengeti Plains rotational grazing model, which means large ruminants (cows), followed by small ruminants (sheep), followed by birds (chickens and turkeys), so pastures are grazed and fertilized in three different ways.  This is the way of life that has existed for centuries in Africa.

“We have learned that this production model is undisputedly the best management system for our land and our livestock,” says Harris.

As a result of this new poultry plant, the Bluffton farm will be selling chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese after August 2011.

Harris is also now participating in the Global Animal Partnership’s Five-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards program. Global Animal Partnership is a nonprofit organization that brings together farmers, scientists, ranchers, retailers, and animal advocates in order to improve the welfare of animals in agriculture.  Each set of tiered standards has its own requirements that must be met before certification to that particular Step level is assigned, if appropriate.  Producers have the freedom to aim for any Step level they choose. Each Step rating has its own distinct label that identifies the particular Step level achieved.  In essence, Step One prohibits cages and crates.  Step Two requires environmental enrichment for indoor production systems; Step Three, outdoor access; Step Four, pasture-based production; Step Five, an animal-centered approach with all physical alterations prohibited; and, finally, Step Five+, the entire life of the animal spent on an integrated farm.

White Oak Pastures is one of only two farms in the country to receive the Step Five certification on its chickens, and one of only a handful of farms to receive the Step Four certification on its cattle. More information about the standards can be found on the White Oak Pastures’ website here.

About White Oak Pastures
White Oak Pastures is a family-owned and operated grass-fed beef producer that is committed to the principles of sustainability and stewardship. The five-generation farm has operated continuously on the same land in Early County, Georgia, for more than 140 years. White Oak Pastures beef can be purchased at more than 1000 Publix supermarkets throughout the Southeast and at Whole Foods Market locations from Miami, Florida to Princeton, New Jersey.  The beef is distributed by Halperns’ Purveyors of Steak and Seafood, Destiny Organics, Tree of Life and Buckhead Beef gourmet beef distributors (a division of Sysco Foods).  White Oak Pastures is located at 22775 Highway 27 in Bluffton, Georgia.  For more information, call
(229) 641-2081 or visit www.whiteoakpastures.com.

Get the full request for proposals on the Art on the BeltLine website here! Submissions are due on March 28, 2011.

Here is an overview from the Art on the BeltLine RFP:

Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. is again presenting the public art initiative, “Art on the Atlanta BeltLine.” Artists are
invited to submit proposals for temporary works of visual and performing art to be a part of this event,
scheduled to take place September through November of this year.

In its first year, “Art on the BeltLine” became the largest temporary art project in the history of Atlanta.
Including over 270 visual artists, performers, musicians and historic preservationists, it was a
tremendous success, placing established and emerging artists together on the Atlanta BeltLine.

Now we are looking to do it again, to engage more artists, to bring more Atlantans into the corridor, to
merge art with landscape and to ensure that the Atlanta BeltLine is enjoyed by all.

The Atlanta BeltLine is an emerging system of parks, trails, transit and development that reclaims
abandoned railways. With an emphasis on cultural amenities and revitalizing neighborhoods, it has the
potential to redefine the city and make it a better place to live. Find additional information about the
Atlanta BeltLine at www.beltline.org.

Potential projects should reflect the historic, environmental, cultural, functional, urban design, and/or
aesthetic parameters of the sites and should be well-researched, well-planned and feasible. Although
not limited to the following examples, potential projects might include all or some of the following:

• Temporary art, sculptural or visual installations
• Gateway or entrance works
• Performance works of all kinds, including but not limited to music, dance, theater and performance art
• Transformation of existing structures or surfaces, such as bridges and overpasses
• Utilization of fences or screening devices
• Amenities for visitors – such as benches, bike racks, shade structures, recycling and trash collection receptacles
• Establishment of play areas or game sites
• Loan of existing artwork, such as sculptures or assemblages
• Murals
• Plantings or environmental works

Click here for information regarding our upcoming artists’ walks on the BeltLine! This is your chance to talk to people on the Art on the BeltLine committee and discuss possible sites for your work before submissions are due on March 28th, 2011.

The luncheon keynote presentation by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (Charlottesville, VA) will cover “Working Landscapes: Urban and Rural Parkland Solutions from Around the Globe.” Hear how parks and greenspace will influence the future of our urban and rural spaces, including public health, economic growth and re-invigorating distressed communities.  Plus, a full day of speakers & presentations covering how parks & greenspaces are bridging to the future. You can view the updated schedule online.

Registration is only $104, including parking! Register for the Parks and Greenspace Conference now!

New for the 2011 event! Brief on-site tours of Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Botanical Garden are also being offered during concurrent sessions at the conference.  More details under events on Park Pride’s website.

In celebration of the grand opening of a new store on Atlanta’s westside, Anthropologie will be donating 10% of the evening’s sales directly to Art on the BeltLine! If you’re like me and the airline lost your luggage over Christmas, this is the perfect time to restock on clothes, accessories, and crafty household items. Plus, refreshments and wine are provided for your shopping + charitable donation pleasure! Here are the details:

• When: Thursday, January 13th from 6 – 8 p.m.
• Where: Anthropologie located at the Westside Urban Market, 1207 Howell Mill Road in Atlanta
• RSVP: by January 10th to 215.454.4550

And bring your friends! The invite says “you (and a guest) are invited,” so if you have a group, you may want to have every other person call and RSVP for two – I’m not sure how that will work yet. See you there!

Park Pride works tirelessly to increase Atlanta’s parks and greenspace through education, volunteerism, and community engagement. They’re also working hand-in-hand with the Atlanta BeltLine on the Adopt the Atlanta BeltLine program in order to get people directly involved in creating and protecting this ring of linear parks (another nonprofit I’m pretty excited about, as you probably know).

Now, maybe I’ll get a smart phone for Christmas so I can go check in at REI…

Greenwash (verb, \ˈgrēn-wȯsh\) – to market a product or service by promoting a deceptive or misleading perception of environmental responsibility.

Companies are launching major green marketing campaigns. But many of their claims are misleading or just false. It’s becoming extremely difficult to tell when claims of eco-friendly products are legitimate. “Greenwashing” is eroding the credibility of environmental marketing and making consumers more skeptical than ever.

The U.S. is still a leader in financial accounting (thanks in part to accounting software systems), but we need to develop the environmental accounting to the same level to defeat greenwashers. Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) software is becoming the foundation of this infrastructure, and the market is growing rapidly. ECA software enables companies to consistently track the many components of their carbon footprint while identifying opportunities for cost savings and waste reduction. When the software is fully developed, excuses will wear thin for failing to provide carbon footprint disclosure. The resulting transparency could make greenwashing obsolete.

For ECA software and environmental accounting adoption to drive away greenwashers, we need action in five main categories:

Clear government action on regulations - like increased coverage of the EPA’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires companies that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of greenhouse gases annually to disclose their carbon footprint measurements to the EPA;

Wider adoption of carbon accounting principles - requiring more businesses to disclose their emissions would provide precise measurements of a company’s environmental record – making it much easier to catch the tricksters;

Expansion of Scope 3 emissions standards - mandatory inclusion of suppliers’ emissions in environmental reports (Scope 3) would prevent under-reporting of emissions and more quickly spread adoption of carbon accounting in general, all along the supply chain;

Better green business incentives - using ECA software to identify eco-friendly savings opportunities can make it cheaper to truly go green, making it unneccessary to greenwash in the first place;

Informed consumer decisions - demanding the numbers from standardized carbon accounting reports before purchasing a supposedly green product forces businesses to prove their sincerity with real evidence. It’ll be the death of greenwashing.

Come enjoy the sights and sounds of nature on an autumn evening at Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve’s eleventh annual Harvest Celebration on Saturday, November 6, from 4-8 pm. The mission of South Peachtree Creek Nature Preserves, Inc. is to preserve and promote Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve (CSNP), and its native wildlife and plants for the enjoyment and education of the community.

Bring the family to enjoy food, music, crafts, nature walks, and a warm campfire with your neighbors. Children can hunt for pumpkins and create crafts, while the adults can enjoy a home composting system demonstration and other displays.

A donation of $5 is requested to support the programs at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, a 501 © 3 nonprofit volunteer-run organization. Children 3 and under are admitted free.

The Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve is located at 2580 Pine Bluff Drive, Decatur, Georgia, 30033 in the Medlock neighborhood of North Decatur.

For further information or to volunteer, visit the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve website, send an email request to information@cshepherdpreserve.org or leave a voice mail message at 678.951.0105.

The Spirit of the Gulf Coast Exhibition is a multimedia event that explores the complexities of oil dependency and alternative energy futures through the intimate accounts of Gulf Coast residents affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It will take place tomorrow night in the LeCraw Auditorium at Georgia Tech’s College of Management from 6pm-8pm. The event is free and open to the public and we’d love to see you there!  The schedule of events is as follows:

• Fine Art Photo Exhibit featuring the stunning photography taken on the expedition by photographer Terrell Clark
• Documentary Short by filmmaker Nathan Black that reveals the stories, and experiences of the various coastal residents who we interviewed during the expedition.
• “Special Guest” - A special speaker whose talk will leave you with a new perspective about what really happened during the Oil Spill
• Social Psychologist Jeff Duvall - He will discuss the coastal response to the oil spill from a socio-psychological perspective
• Nobel Prize Winner, Marilyn Brown - Dr. Marilyn Brown will discuss what public policy could do to set us on a path of sustainable energy sources
• Call to Action - the part of the exhibit that features you!
• Panel Discussion - A Q&A giving you the chance to ask questions of any of our speakers or the Spirit team

You can RSVP on to the Spirit of the Gulf Coast on Eventbrite here or Spirit of the Gulf Coast on Facebook here.

Thanks t0 guest blogger Kim Campbell for sharing the Spirit of the Gulf Coast with Our Green Atlanta readers!

Part II: White Oak Pastures’ land and sustainability

White Oak Pastures is a zero waste farm that operates under the Serengeti model. If you’ve ever read Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, you were introduced to the Serengeti model via farmer Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms in Virginia (and Will Harris has read every book Pollan has written). The Serengeti method is inspired by the simplicity, yet depth and richness, of African grasslands and the way animals interact with the land. Larger ruminants (mammals that partially digest vegetation, regurgitate cud, and rechew it for maximum nutrition) graze the land first. When they move on, they’re followed by smaller ruminants who may graze upon different types of grasses in the same field. Next come the birds, that feed on the bugs and insects in the grass.

Will cycles the cattle, sheep, turkeys, and chickens through different fields and spreads out mixtures of compost and organically-produced fertilizer to enrich the soil, native grasses, and hay. Which brings me back to the tour we started in part I of this series. After our tour of the abattoir, we knew what happened to the edible parts of the cow, but what about everything else?

The Afterlife

Will loaded us up in his truck (Zack, me, and two more guests who were in the right place at the right time) to show us around the farm. In a large pavilion adjacent to the abattoir, we stopped for a moment to talk to a man operating a large machine. Will explained that this aerobic / anaerobic digester turned the blood and viscera of the cattle into a liquid, organic fertilizer for use on the fields. Once the cattle are rotated to the next field, gallons of the blood fertilizer are spread over the ground, adding richness to the south Georgia soil. I asked Will how long would he wait before letting the animals back on those fields? He said he believes everything is absorbed within a week, but he waits 45 days just to be safe.

We pulled up to a series of whitish mounds, to which Will said, “Here’s a part of the process that’s a little unpleasant to look at.” Curiosity piqued, I looked out the window and saw scattered shapes in the grass leading up to the pile. As I realized what we were looking at, Will explained that these were bone piles, where the bones from his abattoir scraps were brought out to the farm to dry. As part of the zero waste model, everything is disposed of in an environmentally sound way and, in this case, the bones are ground and then applied to the pastures’ soil to provide calcium and phosphorous.

In keeping with zero waste, the cattle's bones are piled up to dry, later to be ground into bone meal. Blood and viscera are digested to become liquid, organic fertilizer.

We passed compost piles, hay bales from Will’s fields that help feed the cattle (no corn or soy here like you would find in industrial farms – the ruminants’ stomach isn’t biologically designed to handle anything but grasses and vegetation), and the barn where the hides are stored. Every cow’s hide is stacked with wet side facing up and salted for preservation. Every 600 hides, they’re shipped out to Louisville, Kentucky, where they are transformed into leather.

The Beginnings

So how many heads of cattle does it take to enable White Oak Pastures to slaughter 25 cows a day (equaling ~9,500 pounds of boned out beef)? How does the birth to death cycle progress? Here are a few numbers:

• 34 – the number of bulls on the farm for procreation purposes
• 678 – the number of cows on the farm to birth the calves
• ~1,400 – the number of cattle being raised at any given time for slaughter
• 283 – the number of days in the gestation cycle of a cow
• 18 – the very high end number of calves a cow could give birth to in her life (gotta have good birthing hips)
• 8 – the number of months after a calf is born that he is weaned from his mother (the calves born around the same time move together away from their mothers and stay together as a herd until slaughter)
• 30 – the number of months that the USDA regulates cattle must be slaughtered within (the young age helps drastically lessen the chance of mad cow disease)
• 26 – the number of months that Whole Foods requires their suppliers to slaughter cattle within
• 24 – the number of months at which White Oak Pastures slaughters their cattle
• 1 – the number of Great Pyrenees dogs that grow up with, guard, and protect each herd of cattle

#1: These cattle are about four days away from slaughter and have spent their whole lives freely roaming and grazing on sweet native grasses; #2: Will's goat and sheep herd gathered in the shade (the house he grew up in is just to the right of this photo)

Throughout their lives, the cows remain completely free range and grassfed. Will grows hay on the farm, too, to harvest and feed the animals. Open air, sunshine, and food that is rooted in the ground shouldn’t be such unattainable goals, yet they seem incredibly inconvenient for much of the nation’s beef producers. White Oak Pastures used to feed the industrial meat industry, a natural transgression from its beginnings feeding local residents from the farm in 1866 into the age of mass consumption, but in 1995, Will began to reverse the process. While he says it’s still a work in progress, I’d say it’s a pretty amazing accomplishment.

“All of our cattle are born, raised, and harvested to meet our USDA Approved Grassfed Protocol. [This protocol prevents the use of artificial hormones, confinement feeding, animal by-products, antibiotics, etc.]“
- White Oak Pastures brochure

Will acknowledges that grass-fed beef will never dominate the market, that people will still buy the super-cheap meat on sale in a big box store, but they might never be his audience either (although I wish they were). However, demand is increasing and White Oak Pastures is certainly garnering attention (in fact, the morning I put up part I, the AJC ran an article about White Oak Pastures). They own the only on-farm, USDA-inspected, grassfed beef processing plant in the nation and have won taste-testing contests, so it’s no surprise why. Zack is slowly getting our friends and family hooked on White Oak Pastures’ beef, whether for moral, ecological, economical, or flavor reasons – and it’s working. His friend Jason tackled a two-pound steak a few weeks ago:

Jason put down this two pound White Oak Pastures steak in the face of obvious skepticism (as evidenced by Vince's face in the background)

At the end of the day, Zack and I pulled our cooler out of the car and started picking out meat that Will had ready to go in a cooler at the front of his store. The other couple who joined us made their selections as well to take up to their 40 family members up the road. As she got out her card to pay, Will said:

“Why don’t you mail me a check? I don’t know how to work the credit card machine.” That’s good ol’ Southern faith in people.

Zack and I brought our cooler to buy beef directly from White Oak Pastures' grass-fed beef farm in southern Georgia

Next up in part III: Will’s other projects. That’s right, it doesn’t end with beef. So stay tuned for chickens, solar voltaic sheds, white oaks, and veggie patches. You’ll also get to meet the farm dogs and who doesn’t like farm dogs?

• Hazon Community Supported Agriculture with Congregation Shearith Israel. Sign up by the season and receive a half-share ($125) or full-share ($250) box every Wednesday from September 20th through the week before Thanksgiving. That’s 10 weeks of fresh veggies and fruit! And at $25 a week for a full box, you’ll meet or beat the price you’d pay at the grocery store – and you’d be supporting local Georgia farmers instead. You can’t lose! Deadline for registration is Wednesday, September 15th (and if you are a new member there is a $15.00 administrative fee). Sign up here!
• Nature’s Garden Delivered. With a mix of local, organic, natural, and transitional foods, Nature’s Garden Delivered lets you choose from four box sizes for weekly delivery. Membership is free (and required) and you can set your personal preferences for your custom box.
• Emory University’s CSA from Destiny Produce. Emory’s Organic Box Program provides boxes in three sizes. Orders are available for pick-up on Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. at The Depot on Asbury Circle.

For a complete list of local Atlanta CSAs as well as Georgia CSAs, check out Georgia Organics – just click “Local Food Guide” on their home page. And for more fresh, local Atlanta food options, check out my food page here.