Category: Direct Action

Six Recommendations for Sustainable Food in 2009

People are becoming more aware about how to live a sustainable life, and now we know of at least six ways to make our food more sustainable. The suggestions range from the everyday to the larger issues to support the sustainable food movement.

5. Continue to support local gardening / farming efforts. We need to keep our focus on urban gardening and small-scale farming. It has been said before, but the answers to our global food problems are not more genetic modification and massive globalization, but rather a return to small and simple. We need to bring more people into direct contact with food production, because with contact comes understanding.

6. Cement the relationship between Eco, Green and Healthy. It is undeniable that what is good for our personal health is good for the planet, and vice versa. With the dawn of the new year, we need to cement this relationship with both words and action. I believe that this is one of the ways that the sustainable food movement can reach a larger audience, and allow those participating on the fringes of the movement to go deeper into eco-eating through concerns about health. This is already one of the largest reasons people give when they choose to buy organic milk, for example, but it can be so much more than that. We need to expand the dialogue to include nutritionists, doctors, and other health practitioners as we move forward.

Tiny House for Yale Student

A grad student on her way to Yale did some math and discover that living there would cost ~$14,000. She figured she could take that same amount and built her own sustainable tiny house.

Elizabeth’s Tiny House will have a sleeping loft, storage loft, study nook, kitchen area, living area, and a bathroom. When complete, she’ll tow the entire home to New Haven for the start of the academic year.

You’ll notice the simple passive design. During the winter, the side with all the windows will gather sunlight. During the summer, she’ll turn the trailer around and leave the slanted roof facing the sun. Three solar panels will power her computer, lights, and other electronics in the home. The tiny house has a small shower, composting toilet, and propane to heat the home when necessary

“Occupy, resist, produce”

That is the slogan for workers in Argentina who have taken over factories left vacant by foreign investors. Workers occupy the factory and turn on the machines to start manufacturing goods then they form their own company to sell the goods. They’re cutting out the middleman called the multinational corporation while reclaiming their own jobs back. This idea seems to be influencing other workplaces.

The movement of recovered companies is not epic in scale – some 170 companies, around 10,000 workers in Argentina. But six years on, and unlike some of the country’s other new movements, it has survived and continues to build quiet strength in the midst of the country’s deeply unequal “recovery”. Its tenacity is a function of its pragmatism: this is a movement that is based on action, not talk. And its defining action, reawakening the means of production under worker control, while loaded with potent symbolism, is anything but symbolic. It is feeding families, rebuilding shattered pride, and opening a window of powerful possibility.
Like a number of other emerging social movements around the world, the workers in the recovered companies are rewriting the script for how change is supposed to happen. Rather than following anyone’s ten-point plan for revolution, the workers are darting ahead of the theory – at least, straight to the part where they get their jobs back. In Argentina, the theorists are chasing after the factory workers, trying to analyse what is already in noisy production.
These struggles have had a tremendous impact on the imaginations of activists around the world. At this point, there are many more starry-eyed grad papers on the phenomenon than there are recovered companies. But there is also a renewed interest in democratic workplaces from Durban to Melbourne to New Orleans.

Green Your Holiday

Planet Green has some tips on how to save time and be greener during the holidays. It’s easy being green.

Be casual about the holidays.
The holidays are about spending time with the family not getting all decked out in formal gear and having a five star meal. Spend Christmas at home with your family and instead of your holiday best, wear PJs and relax. Assign each family member a dish that can be prepared ahead of time so you won’t be a slave to the kitchen for hours and hours.

How to Build a Reciprocal Roof

I’ve never built a roof before, but now I want to build a reciprocal roof. Go ahead and take a shot building your own roof!

What is a reciprocal roof?
A reciprocal roof is a beautiful and simple self-supporting structure that can be composed of as few as three rafters, and up to any imaginable quantity (within reason, of course). Reciprocal roofs require no center support, they are quick to construct, and they can be built using round poles or dimensional lumber (perhaps with some creative notching). They are extremely strong, perfect for round buildings, and very appropriate for living roofs, as well. The reciprocal roof design was developed by Graham Brown in 1987.