Sustainable Community: April 2008 Archives

Jason McCormick with Conscientious Innovation, wrote the following in response to a recent blog story:

We’ve done the research (including a super recent 5,000 people study of what people think of this thing called ’sustainability’ - April, 2008), we know that people rate Global Warming and Pollution as important sustainability issues. But it didn’t top the list. Personal and social sustainability issues such as connecting with community and leading balanced life leapfrog environmental issues.

As one of the respondent from an early round of focus groups said’ How can i look after the environment, if i can’t look after myself??’.

His company focuses on brand development for a wider range of issues than "green" or "environment."

What we’re seeing right now is a lot of what we call “knee-jerk green marketing” and it’s a big mistake. Companies are jumping on the green bandwagon because they think that’s the only way to get on the sustainability wave. What’s dangerous is that it’s leading to a lack of authenticity because it’s often done indiscriminately and without rigor. When brands make vague, philosophical claims about their pro-environment values, but don’t support them with specific, observable actions, it diminishes the eco story for everyone and begins to spark a backlash.

He's right...what we're seeing is a lot of concerned parents who are also business people getting concerned and seeing both the opportunity for healthier community for themselves and their families...and the greening of their bottom line to keep up with the highly publicized shift toward greener products and processes.

Many people think "green" is simple.  The consumer media makes it look that way.  "Just change your lightbulbs and convert to biodiesel."  And all will be better.  "Don't get overwhelmed.  Keep it simple. Think green."  But business greening is more complicated and like Jason says, it must be a metamorphosis of core competency  -- much like the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.

Greening a business involves training the employees; changing the products from gas-guzzlers and energy-hogs to ever greater efficiency in design and production; optimizing operations; optimizing the fleet of transportation used both by the company and the employees...and more.  Saving water.  Saving the air.  Saving natural resources.  We rely on nature's bounty for the source of everything that keeps us alive and busy at work -- and greening is that integrated into how we do business.

So if you want to do the green thing...think green, educate yourself, and take it a step at a time.  But get started because the future will leave you in a dusty barren wasteland if you don't.  That's the growing future for much of the earth.  (That's not meant to be an exaggeration.  Desertification of arable lands is a growing problem for many nations...)

Managing green investments are entertwined with innovation because change is at the heart of "green" and sustainable change.

Marketing Green provided an interesting evaluation of innovation financing that can also be applied to green innovation and green technology.

In many ways, the imposition of carbon caps will reset the current competitive landscape.  Those businesses able or willing to adapt more quickly to this changing landscape will likely secure a competitive advantage by differentiating their brand or products, or by improving their cost basis.

How aggressive will carbon reduction targets be?  A recent Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme concluded that developed nations needed to reduce carbon emissions by greater than 80% from 1990 levels by mid-century in order to advert the worst impact of climate change.  Under any implementation scenario, carbon caps will likely be imposed over many years, if not decades, providing a window of opportunity for companies to adapt to and compete in this new world order.

Marketers must understand and compensate for bias that leads to underinvestment in green.  Formulate a strategic vision for green, properly balance the risks and rewards and invest for the long haul.  Your shareholders will thank you.

Clayton Christensen, Stephen Kaufman and Willy Shih, “Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things”, Leadership & Strategy for the Twenty-First Century, Harvard Business Review, January 2008 point out the following three financial straegies that can hinder innovation ... and green investments:

Cash flow modeling: Companies often do not fairly compare the projected discounted cash flow from a new investment

Asset lifetime: Financial managers may mistakenly assume that that an asset’s usable lifetime should be based simply by its depreciation period, rather than its “competitive lifetime”.

Quarterly earnings: Companies that focus on quarterly earnings may systematically under invest in innovation as they are not rewarded by the market for doing so. 

Read the full article at MarketingGreen.wordpress.com

Monarch butterflies migrate more than 2,000 miles and on the trip north to the same groves of trees, it can take THREE GENERATIONS to make the trip!

Watch a video about Monarchs --  to understand how much we have to learn about nature's natural systems.

Congratulations to Melissa Mansfield, the new host of "Keep It Green"!

I met Melissa when she was working on a Los Angeles green living blog, and am delighted to see that she is moving into her dream of sharing green and sustainable strategies with the community.  Go, girl!

Every Wednesday night, we will inspire you to take action on important environmental and social issues impacting us all. From clean air and fresh water to civil liberties and public health, Equator HD will provide you with the tools to make a change. Tune in every Wednesday at 8PM Est on Equator HD.

Equator HD is the first high-definition television network dedicated to world adventure and green living. Part of the VOOM HD Networks suite of HD channels, Equator HD is available in the US on Echostar's DISH Network (Channel 9471) and Cablevision's iO digital cable platform (Channel 728).

 

FIRST EPISODE: "So, it was exciting that my first interview as Keep It Green's new host was with Lou Cafiero of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries. Our oceans are home to a vast array of diverse species, all playing vital roles in our environment. Marine sanctuaries play a large part in protecting that abundance of life.

And there's a lot of work to do. Until I talked with Lou, I had no idea that whales face some very unique dangers - one of which is getting hit by huge shipping vessels. These ships move extremely fast, and if a whale is busy feeding or otherwise distracted, it can get hit and seriously injured or killed."

http://blog.equatorhd.com/

Growers of fresh produce on the Central Coast of California currently face conflicting demands regarding measures to protect food safety and those to protect environmental quality. To explore the extent of conflicting pressures and identify the range of possible impacts on the environment, California Agriculture conducted a survey of Central Coast irrigated-row-crop growers during spring 2007.

The results indicate that growers are experiencing a clear conflict, and some are incurring economic hardships because their practices to protect the environment have resulted in the rejection of crops by buyers.


These actions could affect large areas of land on the Central Coast and, as indicated by growers, they are likely to increase over time.
 
The Central Coast contains some of the greatest biodiversity of any temperate region in the world. At its heart is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest marine sanctuary in the United States, and the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

While the Central Coast houses many natural resources, according to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CCRWQCB), it also has some of the most polluted waters in California. The Pajaro River and Elkhorn Slough are listed as impaired for sediment and nutrients under California’s 2002 Section 303(d) of the 1972 Clean Water Act. The Salinas River is 303(d)-listed as impaired for sediment, nutrients, pesticides and pathogens.

In response, the CCRWQCB adopted a Conditional Waiver Program in 2005, which requires growers to enroll in the program, attend water quality training sessions, adopt farm water-quality management plans, complete management practice checklists and participate in water quality monitoring (Cal EPA 2007).

An important aspect of these efforts is the adoption of conservation practices, which aim to improve and protect water quality, prevent soil erosion, reduce the use of agricultural chemicals and protect wildlife. Vegetation on and around farmland is a key component, including vegetated field borders, grassed waterways, riparian buffers and constructed wetlands.

For the past decade, the Central Coast farming community has been proactively working with resource agencies to develop and implement voluntary conservation practices to improve water quality and reduce water consumption through the adoption and implementation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s Agricultural and Rural Lands Plan (MBNMS 1999). Adoption of these practices has now become a key component for compliance with the CCRWQCB’s Conditional Waiver Program.

Despite an intensive investigation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) have not been able to conclusively determine the specific causes of the spinach outbreak (CDHS/ FDA 2007).

In early 2007, with oversight by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), produce industry representatives developed the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (see www.caleafygreens.ca.gov). More than 100 handlers (companies that move fresh produce products from growers to retail and food-service buyers) are signatories. Representing more than 99% of the leafy greens production in California, they are obligated to handle leafy green produce only from growers who adhere to the best management practices detailed in the Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Production and Harvest of Lettuce and Leafy Greens, known as the “Metrics” (see www.caleafygreens.ca.gov). The Metrics were developed and continue to be updated through a process involving the produce industry, government agencies, natural resource organizations and scientists.

In addition to the Metrics, many companies and retailers who handle or sell leafy greens have developed their own company-specific food safety requirements, which also affect farm management practices. Because growers often sell their crops to multiple buyers, most now must meet at least one if not several different sets of requirements. In addition, field interpretations of the Metrics and company-specific guidelines vary.

Specific measures stated or implied in the Metrics and company-specific requirements may potentially conflict with efforts to improve and protect water quality and support wildlife habitat.

Eight percent (8.0%) of growers reported that their crops had been rejected based on the presence of practices to improve water quality or wildlife habitat on the farm. Some of the explanations shared by respondents included:

• Lost $17,500 worth of crop due to deer tracks.
• 1 acre of romaine lettuce rejected due to proximity to horse pen.
• 23 acres of head lettuce and 2 acres of mixed lettuce rejected due to contact with Salinas River floodwater.
• Crop rejected due to potential frog habitat.
• Portions of fields rejected by processor if frogs, tadpoles, snails, mice or other small animals were found.
• Harvest stopped due to the presence of frogs and tadpoles in creek.
• Crop rejected due to deer intrusion.
• Crops planted for processor near trees needed a buffer of 100 to 150 feet.

Some 88.9% of the survey respondents indicated that they had adopted at least one measure to actively discourage or eliminate wildlife from cropped areas

Wildlife exclusion. Some 88.9% of the survey respondents indicated that they had adopted at least one measure to actively discourage or eliminate wildlife from cropped areas

Conservation practice abandonment. Approximately 15% of all growers surveyed indicated that they had removed or discontinued the use of previously adopted conservation practices in response to suggestions made by auditors or buyers due to food safety concerns.

The survey results illustrate that growers are in the middle of a clear conflict between current food safety standards and continued efforts to address water quality and environmental concerns on the Central Coast.  

The process and standards for protecting food safety in leafy greens on the Central Coast of California set a precedent that will certainly be modeled for other crops and growing regions nationwide.  

M. Beretti is Program Director, Resource Conservation District of Monterey County, Salinas; and D. Stuart is Doctoral Candidate, Department of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz.

READ the Rest of the Story, SOURCE:  California Agriculture

New York's Renewable Energy Task Force recently announced 16 recommendations as part of a roadmap to significantly increase renewable energy generation in New York. These recommendations include more solar energy production, funding the state's program to get 25 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy by 2013, and new business incentives targeted to attract renewable energy producers and expand the state's "green collar" workforce.

The Renewable Energy Task Force was charged with identifying barriers to increased production of renewable energy, recommending policies and financial incentives to overcome those barriers, and identifying future market areas where additional research and development investment is necessary.

Recommendations Highlights

Significant recommendations of the task force's first report include:

• Developing eight times more solar photovoltaic energy generation in New York--more than 100 megawatts by 2011;
• Increasing the renewable energy supply in New York State to meet 25 percent of electricity demand by 2013, and fully funding the Renewable Portfolio Standard to make it happen;
• Developing new business incentives to attract renewable energy technology companies to New York in order to build industry clusters in solar, wind, biomass and other technical areas;
• Changing the law to allow and encourage New York companies to produce their own renewable energy "on site" and deliver excess power back to the energy grid known as "net metering;"
• Developing and supporting a "green collar" workforce of skilled labor to support renewable energy technology companies by coordinating training programs, expanding and enhancing those programs as necessary, and making training opportunities available to residents of disadvantaged communities, minority- and women-owned companies, and other small businesses.

Renewables Create Jobs

The task force set forth key data throughout the report demonstrating that investment in renewable energy creates jobs and increases tax revenues. Some examples include:

• Up to 43,000 new jobs in New York could be created by the renewable energy production needed to meet the requirement that 25 percent of New York's electricity come from renewable sources.
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could create up to 40 million jobs and generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the United States by 2030-a four-fold increase over current revenues.
• Over the next 20 years, $1 billion in economic benefits are expected to result from the roughly $500 million that New York has so far committed in renewable energy funding through the Renewable Portfolio Standard-a 100 percent return on investment, not counting economic spillover, multiplier effects, and environmental quality-of-life gains from renewable energy production.

Taking immediate action on the task force's recommendations, Paul Tonko, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), indicated that NYSERDA would immediately invest $4 million in green collar workforce initiatives, on top of the $2 million in this year's Executive Budget and would also establish a Wind Energy Research and Testing Center to develop new technologies and provide workforce training.

DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said: "Clean energy is crucial on so many fronts: energy conservation, pollution reduction, combating climate change, and developing green businesses and jobs, just for starters. The task force's recommendations will continue our leadership on those issues. And, importantly, they will establish a roadmap to stimulate renewable energy development in a way that is real and tangible."

About the Renewable Energy Task Force

Composed of 20 members, the Renewable Energy Task Force represents a diverse array of stakeholders in the renewable energy field, including the renewable energy and alternative fuel industries, environmental and agricultural communities, academia, public utilities, local and state government entities, and experts in energy policy, green building construction and economic development.

In September 2007, the task force held a public meeting in New York City to release its preliminary findings. The findings were based on recommendations developed by numerous task force subcommittees and vetted using the following criteria: what would generate the most renewable energy; what would have the most environmental benefit; and what would least impact ratepayers, taxpayers and consumers financially.

The details of the task force's first report were reached by a consensus of all of its members. Its final report is due in December 2008.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  awarded $4.2 million in Brownfields grants to 12 Northern California community redevelopment agencies in April, 2008.

The groups will use the grants to develop inventories and assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, clean up contaminated sites, and support community outreach activities.

“The EPA is very pleased to provide funding for work in these deserving Northern California communities," said Debbie Schechter, manager of EPA’s Pacific Southwest region’s Brownfields program. "Work conducted under our Brownfields grants will provide the type of assistance necessary to transform these underutilized lands into community assets."

Communities and agencies in 43 states, two tribal nations and two territories will share over $74 million in Brownfields grants designed to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites and allow for productive community use.

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. The EPA’s Brownfields program authorizes up to $250 million in grant funds annually and encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

Grants have been given to the following groups:

- California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the communities of Sutter Creek and Jackson - $200,000 to create an inventory of sites contaminated by hazardous substances, input site information into geographic information system, and conduct environmental site assessments;

- Yolo County - $400,000 to create an inventory of sites contaminated by hazardous substances and petroleum, conduct environmental site assessments, and support community outreach activities;

- City of West Sacramento - $200,000 to cleanup a site contaminated with hazardous substances;

- City of Tulare - $200,000 to remove hazardous substances from a local site, assist in cleanup planning and oversight, and support community involvement activities;

- City of Sutter Creek - $200,000 to conduct an environmental site assessment for hazardous substances, and support community involvement activities;

- Satellite Housing, Inc. of Manteca - $200,000 to remove hazardous pesticides, and support community involvement activities;

- Petaluma Community Development Commission - $1 million for hazardous substances and petroleum cleanup, and to support community involvement activities;

- Humboldt County - $400,000 to develop an inventory of sites contaminated by hazardous substances and petroleum, conduct environmental site assessments, and support community involvement activities;

- Fresno Redevelopment Agency - $200,000 to address hazardous substances contamination, and support community involvement activities;

- City of Eureka - $600,000 for hazardous substances cleanup and support community outreach activities;

- City of Emeryville - $400,000 to conduct environmental site assessments for sites contaminated by hazardous substances and petroleum; and

- Sacramento Capitol Area Development Authority - $200,000 to remove hazardous substances from a more than century-old residential site.

Since the beginning of the Brownfields program, the EPA has awarded 1,255 assessment grants totaling over $298.6 million, 230 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $217.7 million, and 426 cleanup grants totaling $78.7 million.

For more information, please visit:  http://epa.gov/brownfields/

The second of nineteen plug-in hybrid school buses being supplied by Advanced Energy is going to the Nazareth Area School District in Pennsylvania. Nazareth is the first district in Pennsylvania to get one of these new buses which are built IC Corporation and Enova Systems.

The buses use an International diesel V-8 combined with a hybrid powertrain provided by Enova. The hybrid system uses a 22.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack along with the transmission and electric motor in a parallel configuration. Because of the duty cycle of a school bus (a lot of starting and stopping to pickup and drop off kids) they estimate that the fuel economy will be improved by 70-100 percent.

Advanced Energy's PHEV (plug-in hybrid vehicle) project started in 2002 with the realization that school buses could benefit from plug-in hybrid technology. Advanced Energy (www.hybridschoolbus.org/) formed an advisory group to determine the best path forward. With funding from several key sponsors, they completed analyses that evaluated  technical and economic feasibility. Since the launch of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Bus Project, multiple organizations have been instrumental to the project�s success. From governments to universities to utilities, these organizations have contributed their time, money and expertise to commercialize plug-in hybrid technology.

While plug-in buses have a short range, the short fleet routes of many buses could easily handle twice-daily plug-in recharges.  Lower operating costs and less maintenance could quickly pay back the initial purchase price.

Additional bus innovations include dual-mode hybrid buses that recover lost energy like a traditional hybrid, and there are compressed natural gas buses which are cleaner than diesel.

Advanced Energy

Located in Raleigh, N.C., Advanced Energy is a North Carolina and national resource that focuses on industrial process technologies, motors and drives testing, and applied building science.

Advanced Energy — formerly called Alternative Energy Corporation, or AEC — was founded in 1980 by the N.C. Utilities Commission to investigate and implement new technologies for distributed generation, load management, conservation and energy efficiency.

The company was set up and still operates to work with member utilities on energy efficiency and conservation projects. Our North Carolina member utilities are Progress Energy [formerly Carolina Power & Light (CP&L)], Duke Energy, Nantahala Power & Light Company, North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and Dominion NC Power.

Advanced Energy is an independent non-profit corporation that is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the governor of North Carolina and the member utilities.

Advanced Energy
909 Capability Drive, Suite 2100
Raleigh, NC 27606-3870
919 857-9000
800 869-8001 [toll free] 
http://www.advancedenergy.org

California counts on hundreds of thousands of volunteers to help preserve its environmental legacy. 
 
Statewide, 54% of the counties and 10% of the cities responded to a survey which revealed an annual cost of $34 million for litter and illegal dumping abatement costs. 

Representatives from the federal government, which owns over 50% of the land in California, estimate their illegal dumping and abatement costs match that of local governments. 

Caltrans’ annual costs are over $62 million, not including enforcement costs, nor does that take into account the volunteer efforts by Adopt-A-Highway Volunteers, which are estimated at a value of approximately $15 million. 

A conservative estimate of the cost of litter and illegal dumping to Californians would be $200 million. 

This legislation would allow the continued involvement of volunteers supporting local efforts, saving both state and local government valuable resources.
   

Why is this important?

Senate Bill 1345 will permanently remove the requirement that volunteers on public works projects, such as river cleanups, be paid prevailing wages!

In 2004, the Governor signed legislation to remove this constraint, but without further legislative action this year, this legislation will expire. The Governor is committed to empowering the state's robust volunteer force and will continue to call on the legislature to take action.

SOURCE: April, 2008, Keep California Beautiful

Based on the field experience of Sustainable South Bronx, the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, CA and 14 case studies across America, this new guidebook for cities can turn convicts into citizens with skills and dignity as they rebuild their communities with green collar jobs that rebuild urban forests, clean the air, restores green belts and upgrade buildings with solar energy, green roofs and energy efficiency savings.

Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities -- This practical strategy publication outlines strategies for developing green-collar job initiatives and pathways out of poverty at the local level. Co-authored by Green For All, this report describes a 4-step approach for local initiatives and highlights a dozen great efforts already underway around the country.

Green For All, in partnership with the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, recently released this guide to help cities across America develop strategies to spur the creation of green-collar jobs and opportunity in their communities.

The new guide, Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy, is a first-of-its-kind publication that addresses the demand for this information and outlines a strategic framework in which local policymakers and advocates can develop a green-collar job initiative that responds to the realities of their local economies and communities. 

“Our green future will be invented at the local level,” said Van Jones, founder and president of Green For All.  “This report offers those leaders some of the best thinking and models currently available for building green-collar jobs and the training pipelines necessary for city residents to fill those jobs and claim the promise of living wage careers.”

The guide encourages cities to take a four-step approach.

1. First, set a baseline to start from. Identify your environmental and economic goals, and assess local and regional opportunities for achieving those goals.
2. Second, develop a green economic development plan.  Enact policies and programs to drive investment into targeted green economic activity and increase demand for local green-collar workers.
3. Third, ready your workforce.  Prepare your green-collar workforce by building green-collar job training partnerships to identify and meet workforce training needs, and by creating green pathways out of poverty that focus on recruitment, job readiness, job training, and job placement for low-income residents.
4. And fourth, build on your successes.  Leverage your program’s success to build political support for new and bolder policies and initiatives.

Green-Collar Jobs in America's Cities also includes 14 case studies of successful green-collar job training or policy in 11 communities on both coasts, the Midwest, and the South.

Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2007, Green For All grew out of Van’s work creating a ‘Green Job Corp’ in Oakland, California, as part of a program at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.  Van founded the Center in 1996, which promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration, including its successful “Books Not Bars” campaign that has helped reduce California’s overall youth prison population by more than 30 percent.

Green For All
414 13th St, Suite 600
Oakland, CA 94612
510-663-6500
http://www.greenforall.org/

We can learn a lot from natural systems.  Human systems such as the economy (eco-nomy) are much like their natural systems counterparts...ie, the ecosystem (eco-system).  Here's one example how someone figured out the connection:

"Listening to the commentaries on financial institutions that are too big to be allowed to fail and the frantic efforts to preserve the status quo reminded me of a century of national forest mismanagement. Fires were vigorously suppressed, resulting in a build-up of fuel until there came an uncontrollable inferno. Will the same thing happen to our financial systems? Should we break up enormous institutions and permit small fires to periodically clear away the deadwood? I'm not sure how this would be accomplished at this late date with so much fuel on the forest floor, but I can tell you that the longer we wait and prop up failing systems, the worse the conflagration will be."  Marketplace.publicradio.org

The rainforests are certainly one of the natural systems that we identified as "too big to be allowed to fail" in nature.  But we're letting them fail anyway.  And  the fresh water system of aquifers, lakes, streams and even the ocean are too big to let fail.  But?

The deserts are also too big to exploit.  I read recently that deserts are seen as "inert" by the traditional energy and waste management industries. Utah and Nevada have vast expanses of "inert space".  I must admit that you can drive through a desert and see little life.  A few cacti.  Maybe a vulture. But looks are deceiving.  Unless we slow down and use additional tools to augment our limited vision, hearing and smell...we miss the intricacies of natural systems.  And just because we can't see it...doesn't mean it doesn't exist -- or that it isn't important! 

The earth (and the universe) have run efficiently for the ages based on complex natural systems.  We tamper with them...we lose redundancy and communities of mutually supportive relationships.  No where is that more visible and within human experience than in a forest.  We can see the systems of plant communities, decay and fertility, moisture and seasons, habitat and fresh water systems...and on and on.

Take a busy executive on a nature adventure.  The impact will be a gut level connection to their roots...and survival senses.  That is the best form of learning.  It's something both of you can enjoy.  Do you have a relative or friend who has been spending way too much time indoors? 

Make it your mission to reconnect them with the wonder of the woods!  Even if it takes spending a weekend or vacation with them several times before they reconnect.  You'll both enjoy the learning experience and you don't have to preach.  Nature will do it for you.

Do you serve social justice as the secret sauce on your five helpings of fresh fruits and veggies? 

The majority of the world's population is now urban dwellers -- and they are becoming increasingly disconnected from their food sources and their cost in human and ecological terms.   The Los Angeles Times brings the ongoing -- and growing problem -- of social justice and fresh, pristine food to our attention:

RICK NAHMIAS was at cooking school in an affluent ZIP Code of the Napa Valley, a mouth-watering abundance of fruit and vegetables arrayed for his instruction every day, when it occurred to him to wonder at the hidden source of this bounty. "It astounded me," he says, "that nobody there talked about where all this food was coming from."

A screenwriter, photographer and then researcher for political columnist Arianna Huffington, Nahmias had gone to Napa with the thought of maybe getting into the restaurant business. But his curiosity sent him in another direction altogether: on a mission to document through photographs the lives of contemporary farmworkers in California.

The result of his six-month immersion in the fields, "The Migrant Project," is on exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance through April 25, one stop on a national tour.

The poverty and drudgery of the estimated 1.1 million California farmworkers (nine in 10 of whom are Latino) are not news, except that Nahmias' photographs provide fresh evidence that their long-lamented hardships and indignities remain much the same as they were when César Chávez began organizing in the Central Valley in the 1960s.

The biggest payoff for him, he says, was witnessing the reactions of farmworkers and their families standing in front of his framed photos, some of them crying, simply because "it was the first time, they told me, they had seen themselves represented with dignity. I didn't know what to do with that. It was a gift, humbling."

Libraries and public schools helped support his work. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, wrote an introduction for his book. The Museum of Tolerance booked his show.  SOURCE: LA TIMES

When we look at how hard farm work is, and the toll on our brothers and sisters who are toiling for our health and  pleasure, a conscientious adult will be willing to buy LOCAL, buy ORGANIC, and WASTE LESS.

Thinking through where the profits go ... and don't go -- is part of being conscientious.

The shorter the route from field to table, the more of those profits go to the farmers and farm hands who do the work. 

The longer the journey, the more of the profits go into factory farms, chemicals for fertilizers and insecticides, research for shelf life rather than nutrition, transportation, supply chain markups and poverty wages to the farm community.

It's that simple.  And your awareness and choices matter.

SEE PHOTOS at his website:  themigrantproject.com/