Today’s a sad day for this blogger: the family dog, a trusty chocolate lab, has reached the end of his life. So, in his honor, I’d like to look back at some of the beasts I’ve encountered on my journeys. Some of them are animals; some are insects; some are fish wearing hats.. some are funny, some are cute, some are dead, and one is a rubber chicken. But they’re all photogenic. Enjoy the show.

And for more funsies, here are a couple of funny animal videos I shot:

Bye bye Bially, we love ya.

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: animals, featured posts, funny animals, photography, photos, video

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Joel Salatin has been called “America’s Most Influential Farmer” (Treehugger) and “High Priest of the Pasture” (New York Times). A fascinating mix of farmer and preacher, Salatin didn’t just revolutionize contemporary farming methods—he also used his tremendous gift of gab to spread the word far and wide.

While passing through Virginia, I got to hear that gab firsthand at Polyface Farm, where Salatin works his agricultural magic.

Touring Polyface was inspiring enough, but when Salatin himself turned up as tour guide, things started getting really interesting (more on this fabulous bit of serendipity tomorrow). Salatin possesses a rare combination of intellectual agrarianism, down-home humor, vast insight into the relationship between sustainability and production… and once he starts talking, you can’t think of any reason he should stop.

Neither can he.

According to the website, Polyface, Inc. is a “family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.” Salatin goes onto explain: what sets Polyface apart is its “ethic of collaborative interdependence”.

“Some farmers see animals as inanimate piles of protoplasmic structure to be manipulated,” he expounds. “If we treat animals like this, we disrespect humans too.

“There’s an ethic that runs from field to fork… Instead of seeing pigs as porkchops, see them as members of the team and they will then express themselves best on the plate.”

He’s got a point—and though his ideals are poetic, this isn’t just some hippie experimenting with manure. Salatin comes from a line of farmers, and his innovations are so effective that he’s become an agriculture rockstar.

Note: Rockstar or no, eloquent or no, a farmer is liable to be upstaged by his own flock.

These are the happiest, healthiest (and noisiest) farm animals I’ve ever seen. But surprisingly, they’re not roaming free across the land. Instead, they’re kept in controlled areas where they graze for a very specific amount of time before being herded on to the next spot.

unretouched, actual photo:
ungrazed on the left, grazed on the right

As it turns out, free-roaming grazers destroy their own food sources by overgrazing the good spots. Salatin points to the next farm over, where a herd of cows roam over brown hills. Several of them lurk by the fence, stealing bits of food from Salatin’s pasture. His land stays green, even in the current drought, because he lets grass grow undisturbed for weeks between grazing sessions.

“This cycle of disturbance and rest, disturbance and rest, is what I call ecological exercise: stretching and moving the ecology to a new level of expression.”

When Salatin says “expression”, he’s ultimately talking about production. His land produces 5 times as much as the regional average, measured in “cow days” or how much grass a cow can eat in a day. Most farms get about 80 cow days per acre; he gets 400.

Another benefit of Polyface’s methods: no pests, no disease, and no antibiotics. The animals here are healthy and “beyond organic”. How? By relying on the “team” ethic. Here, chickens are not just egg and breast machines: they are pest control technicians, keeping the rest of the farm healthy by eating all the nasty bugs.

Systems like this abound at Polyface. A pair of ducks flock with the turkeys: why? Because when turkeys are young, ducks will automatically protect them from predators. Birds and dogs, rabbits, cows and pigs all work together to keep this farm going, and “when animals do the work, you don’t have to replace things that rust, rot, and depreciate.” Here, the flock takes care of itself, and renews the land in the process. (More on Polyface’s innovative systems in an upcoming post)

“Twenty years ago, I never would’ve thought we’d be here… The exponential increase in fertility has been beyond my wildest expectations.”

that’s a lot of eggs.

So much so, that farmers everywhere are adopting Salatin’s methods. And according to him, every farm that converts doubles its production.

Joel Salatin was profiled extensively in Michael Pollan’s game-changing book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and has been interviewed in just about every major publication. But by far the most inspiring thing about touring Polyface Farm is Salatin himself. In this time of confusion and strife, it’s nice to hear from someone who’s got a real solution to some of our societal ills—and even better to see that he truly loves his work.

When we get back to the bottom of the hill, I ask him my prepared question: “Can humanity feed itself sustainably using these methods?”

His face lights up. “That’s my favorite question,” he replies, “because it’s so fun to answer. Yes we can. It’s gonna mean a lot of people getting out of their cubicles and back into the fields, but we can do it.”

Amen, hallelujah. Thank you, High Priest of the Pasture.

Come back soon for the semi-incredible story of how I got this personal tour, plus more details on how Polyface Farm’s systems work.

fangrl 4 lyfe!

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agriculture, agritourism, beef, chickens, cows, ecotourism, education, environment, farm, farming, featured posts, green living, joel salatin, michael pollan, omnivore's dilemma, organic, photography, pigs, polyface, Polyface Farm, pork, sustainable, tourism, video

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I’ve never met her before, but Raina Stefani treats me like a good friend. I’ve been in Provincetown a couple of days, and have been hard pressed to find the local green scene. Raina’s restaurant, Terra Luna, is the only place in the northern Cape with sustainably-harvested fare. When I email Terra Luna for more information, Raina herself replies, and before I know it she’s picking me up on Commercial Street for a personal tour of some local farms.

Why the warm welcome? I soon come to realize that we nature-minded types are few and far between out here. Raina is a Provincetown native, and has watched the Cape change throughout her lifetime; what was once a forward-thinking counterculture enclave has become something else entirely.

Provincetown, a picturesque fishing village at the very tip of the Cape, has long been a summer getaway for city-weary Northeasterners. In the 60s and 70s, it was colonized by hippies and gays, and soon became known as a freak’s home-away-from-home. By the 1980s, “P-town” was a hot spot on the gay circuit, and these days it’s one of the top regional destinations for fags and dykes, bois & grrls alike.

But let’s be honest: this is a set that is prone to profligacy. Six million tourists come to stroll these rainbow-strewn streets each summer, dropping their hard-won cash at lobster bisqueries, techno-thumping scene bars, overpriced B&Bs and gaudy gift shops. Peanut-butter doggie lollipops go for $4 apiece; “I Love My Mommies” t-shirts will cost you $25. From every corner rises the smell of deep-fried seafood, sold at obscene prices and in even-more-obscene quantities.

Almost noplace in the tourist area can you find a sustainable, local-grown or organic meal.

Raina aimed to remedy that glaring oversight by founding Terra Luna in nearby Truro. Her restaurant and catering service focus on local, organic, sustainably farmed and harvested foods. Dishes are top-tier (e.g. grass-fed filet of beef with a gorgonzola crust and port wine reduction glaze, Israeli couscous with toasted almonds, yellow raisins, basil, mint) and described by Frommer’s as “outstanding”—yet business is slow compared to Provincetown’s less-responsible locations.

Terra Luna is a ten-minute drive from Commercial Street. So why aren’t more people leaving the P-town bubble in search of better food?

First problem: Cape tourists don’t seem to care what they eat. Raina knows the local restaurateurs, and can say with certainty that popular restaurants are serving Sysco beef*. Many people are aware that lobsters are overharvested, and that lobster traps and ropes snag everything from seabirds to whales—yet they still mow crustacean like it’s going out of style. And don’t get Raina started on other questionable delicacies, such as foie gras.

The solution to this problem lies in a question: “where did your food come from?“. Raina wants to influence Cape locals and tourists alike to ask—and answer—that question. But so far, the response has been less than enthusiastic. People come here for a worry-free vacation, and they pretty much just stay on the tourist strip, gorging on fried shrimp without thinking of where it originated. Because there’s no pressure on restaurants to be eco-friendly, they focus on raking in as much cash as possible during the high season—which means cutting corners in quality and sourcing.

I know it’s true, because I do it too: sometimes you just want to eat delicious food without worrying about the consequences. But for Raina and other locals, watching millions of tourists rampage irresponsibly over a fragile landscape can be torturous.

There’s another, bigger problem with sustainably feeding a summer population of six million: this little sandbar isn’t capable of producing much food. Come back tomorrow for the hard truths of farming on sand, and the next day we can talk about tourism’s impact on the Cape ecosystem. And then you can tell me how to save Cape Cod.

 
 
*NOTE: Sysco is making a strong effort to serve more organic and sustainable meat; however, mass-produced and cold-shipped beef is ultimately unsustainable.

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dining, ecotourism, environment, food, Massachusetts, Provincetown, sustainable, tourism, travel, truro, water

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Provincetown has a lot going for it, but I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. On my first day out, I didn’t have a feel for the place yet. So I went and wandered the strip, and soon found myself in a shell shop.

And what a shop. The place was so packed with seashells, there was hardly room for the clientele. Bins of colorful starfish, mollusks, corals, and other marine doo-dads filled every corner; shellacked blowfish hung from the ceiling. Tiny shells had been arranged into adorable tableaux, often featuring googly eyes and little signs that said “Cape Cod.”

Except, of course, that most of these shells hadn’t come from the Cape. Out here you can still find mussels, clams and oysters—but for the exotic, collectible stuff you’ve got to go a bit farther.

Like, you know, Asia.

The fact is, most of the thousands of pretty dead things on display here had been harvested under questionable practices half a world away, then shipped in bulk. Odds are, the shop owners order their goods from a catalog like everybody else.

I remember shell shops from my childhood. My grandparents lived in Southern California, and would buy us shells as gifts. We loved ‘em, the more exotic the better. In fact, right now I’m looking at the jaw of a small shark, undoubtedly picked up in some tourist shop somewhere. It looks cool, and it was bought in the ’80s when we didn’t think about things like seashell harvesting. But those halcyon days of ignorant consumption are past, eh? So let’s think about seashells right now.

Horned sea stars are in serious danger from overharvesting.

I’ve checked around, and it looks like the best places to get seashells in bulk are Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, maybe Fiji. These are all places where the battles of industrialism vs. ecology are being waged in very real ways. Unsustainable fishing, lumber harvesting, pollution, hunting of endangered species: all of this is happening every day in a region known for its unmatched environmental beauty.

So you want to buy a shell? Well, just so you know, that dead animal you hold in your hand may or may not have been farmed, and very likely was “harvested” while still alive. No time to collect empty shells namby-pamby on the beach, not when fat Americans like glittery mollusks with googly eyes!

Your shell is also a part of a larger system, a business of extracting from the environment more than it naturally gives. Townspeople that traditionally collected shells to sell to tourists (like, back in the ’80s) have been driven out of their homes by large fishing businesses. Coastal dredging ruins reefs and massacres shellfish. Deep-sea trawling brings rare “treasures” from the depths. And any coastal dwellers that are unlucky enough to have pretty exoskeletons are being driven to extinction by seashell harvesting. And then, of course, they’re shipped around the world, on a big boat leaving a trail of petroleum through the ocean.

But look! It’s a baby pufferfish with a hat on!

Anyway, sorry to ruin your shell collection for you. I’m sad about mine, too. Let’s not buy any more shells, hey?

Want more guilt? Watch and weep:

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: buy nothing, ecotourism, environment, featured posts, harvesting, nature, photography, seashells, sustainable, tourism, water

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I ain’t gonna lie, I was scared to visit New York. Somewhere in my small-town hippie-chick psyche, I was convinced that city would eat me alive, and spit me out broke onto a westward-bound highway.

But my poverty and naïveté have never stopped me before, right? So I headed for the Big Cheese, and (thanks to good buddies Landry, YP & Eggie) found myself in safe and luxurious Brooklyn digs. All that was left, then, was for me to tackle Manhattan.

I saddled up The Navigator and hopped a subway, and soon became enthronged in the teeming masses of New York.

(...)
Read the rest of Chicken in the City (934 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adventure, alternative, art, buy nothing, chickens, counterculture, diy, eco travel, ecotourism, ecotravel, featured posts, freegan, green living, hiking, how-to, New York, outsider art, photography, rubber chicken, starving artists, superhero, transportation, travel, walking

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This is the Waterpod™.

If you live in New York—or if you’re a sustainability geek—you probably heard about this highly ambitious project: 5 artists living on a barge on the waterways of New York, creating their own food, water and shelter in a demonstration of sustainable technology. The Waterpod visited each borough of New York, hosting events and offering free demonstrations and information to all visitors.

Cool stuff, at least in theory. Apocalypse enthusiasts and Kevin Costner fans alike have long toyed with the idea of living on the water; finally, somebody (one Mary Mattingly) got up the gumption to try it. And as it prepared to launch this spring, everyone from Discover to Inhabitat was singing its praises.

However, by the time I arrived in NY, the project had gotten some mixed press. Questions of the barge’s true sustainability were rampant—and my interest was piqued.

I tried to find information on the technical details via the project’s website, but only found a lot of artist-speak and a long James Joyce quote about water. What was the Waterpod exactly, and was it actually a viable living space—or just a high-concept artpiece created by ambitious amateurs?

The answer, not surprisingly, was a little of both. What I found at the Waterpod was not so much a fully-functioning project as a demonstration of possibility. Maybe it doesn’t work perfectly, but it offers fantastic food for thought and a lot of inspiration.

(...)
Read the rest of The Waterpod: life on a New York boat (883 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agritourism, alternative, art, biotecture, chickens, citizen science, design, diy, ecotourism, education, energy, energy-efficient, environment, experimental, farming, featured posts, gardening, green building, green living, habitat, New York, organic, permaculture, radical, recycling, reuse, river, solar, starving artists, sustainable, teaching, water

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Yesterday I told you all about Farmer John’s struggle to save his family’s farm and preserve his unique identity (The Real Dirt on American Counterculture: How Farmer John made ideals come true).

From a family farm, the place has grown a lot. These days, Angelic Organics does a lot of education, from on-farm training to urban workshops to sustainable-building courses. See all they do here.

I visited an urban garden in Chicago’s South Side, just one of many teaching gardens founded with the help of Angelic Organics. It was a sunny day and the birds and bees were out. Here are some photos of the garden and the things living in it:

The next day, we drove out to Caledonia to visit the farm where Angelic Organics began. Unfortunately, it was a gray day and the Learning Center was mostly deserted. The farm itself is off-limits to tourists, with good reason; unfortunately, this meant there wasn’t much for us to see. We wandered around the grounds a bit, pet the goats, and went on our way.

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agriculture, agritourism, alternative, animal, biodynamics, Chicago, chickens, community, counterculture, ecotourism, ecotravel, education, environment, farm, farming, flowers, gardening, Illinois, insect, locavore, organic, outsider art, photography, radical, sustainable, teaching, travel, voluntourism

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The bar is small, hot, and packed with Lone-Star-sippin’ Texans. Directly inside the entrance is a pool table with a bitchin’ NASCAR lamp hanging above it, casting its light upon a custom-made chicken coop. The floor of the coop (actually just a sheet of plywood on top of the pool table) has a grid drawn on it, with a number in each square; you pay Ginny $2, and she hands you a ticket with a number on it.

(...)
Read the rest of Chicken Shit Bingo! (263 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: animal, Austin, chickens, Texas, tourism, travel, video, wild west

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Compared to the North or the West, Texas smells. It’s not an unpleasant odor, but it’s unmistakeable: wafting up from the springy earth, a mix of decay and new life. A fertile smell, fecund: the smell of a marshland barely contained. Which, of course, Austin is.

The warm night air, as the evening winds pick up, carries that marshy smell from one end of town to the other. Nights in Austin are vibrant, balmy, full of noise and activity. And so as the sun fades and the unbearable day-heat lifts, the night chorus begins: cicadas, crickets, frogs, mosquitos, gnats, chiggers, snakes, mice, rats, roaches, skunks, coons, cats and dogs all venture out into the dusk to feed. And with them come the bats.

Yes, bats! Austin, as it turns out, is home to the world’s largest urban bat colony. Inside the Congress Avenue Bridge (non-Austinites: the bridge crosses the Colorado River and is smack in the middle of town) lives a colony of Mexican Free-Tailed Bats, 1.5 million strong at its annual peak in September. The bats migrate to Mexico in winter, but spend the rest of the year tucked up under Congress Avenue: every night from mid-March to November, you can count on a spectacle as they take to the sky in search of food.

(...)
Read the rest of One Million Bats: Austin's Uncommon Nightlife (508 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: animal, Austin, bats, buy nothing, ecotourism, environment, freegan, insect, nature, outdoors, river, Texas, tourism, travel, video, wildlife

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bye-bye Paonia…

We’re gonna jump ahead a bit here. A lot of time has passed since I left Colorado, but most of it was vacation-time for yours truly. Here’s how it went, in glimpses and photos:

Paonia, CO » Winnemucca, NV

I found myself yet another successful rideshare, with Howard from Abundant Life Farm (word to the wise: if you see Abundant Life at any farmer’s markets this summer, try the melons). He and I drove to Grand Junction, where I caught the California Zephyr headed west.

The train ride was lovely, except that dusk fell just as we entered Gore Canyon. The tracks wound alongside the green water of the Colorado, past rafts pulled up onto shore for the night. Families in outdoor wear waved at the train as we cruised along the red-lined canyon walls. I saw a few rock formations fading into the dark, and then the sun was gone.

(...)
Read the rest of Fast Forward! (325 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adventure, amtrak, California, garbage, gorge, outsider art, photography, rideshare, river, spring, starving artists, tourism, train, transportation, travel, volunteer, wild west

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