By Shawn Dell Joyce
Some 200 million acres of the world’s farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of the genetically engineered (GE) seeds coming from U.S.-based Monsanto Corp.

Scientists have taken genetic materials from one organism (like a soil bacterium), along with an antibiotic-resistant marker gene, and spliced both into a food crop (like corn) to create a genetically modified crop that resists specific diseases and pests. There has been no long-term independent testing of the impacts of these genetically modified food products – or “frankenfoods,” as they are known – on the ecosystem or human health. Instead, there is a long litany of concealed truths, strong arm tactics and even outright bribery by the world’s biotech giants.

In the early 1990s when frankenfoods were being evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, several FDA scientists warned that genetically engineered crops could have negative health effects. These scientists were ignored and blanket approvals of genetically engineered crops were awarded. Perhaps one reason for the quick approval process is the revolving door at the FDA, which allows corporate executives from biotech giants to hold decision-making positions in the FDA.

Michael Taylor, for example, was an attorney for Monsanto before being appointed deputy commissioner of the FDA in 1991. Taylor hastened approval of genetically engineered crops through the FDA, then returned to Monsanto to become the vice president for public policy.

It is very difficult to avoid eating genetically modified organisms (GMO) in our country, because they are so pervasive in the food system and unlabeled in grocery stores. Part of the reason for this is biotech giants fought to keep GMO-foods unlabeled. GMOs can be found in most commercially farmed meats, and processed foods. In our country, 89 percent of all soy, 61 percent of all corn, and 75 percent of all canola are genetically altered. Among other foods containing GMOs are commercially grown papaya, zucchini, tomatoes, several fish species, and food additives such as enzymes, flavorings, and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet), and rennet used to make hard cheeses.

To complicate matters, GMOs move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind, and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two independent laboratory tests on non-GM seeds “representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply” for corn, soy and oilseed rape. The test found that half the corn and soy, and 83 percent of the oilseed rape were contaminated with genetically modified genes, eight years after the genetically modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the U.S.

The report states that “Heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level.” There could be “serious risks to health” if drugs and industrial chemicals from the next generation of GM crops were consumed in food.

What can you do to avoid GMOs?

–Know how your food is grown and buy directly from local farmers.

–Support organic agriculture and food producers who label their ingredients, particularly dairy farmers.

–Eat pastured meat raised on organic feed; the only way to ensure this is to buy from someone you know.

–Support farmers who are a sued by biotech giants. Monsanto has set aside an annual budget of $10 million and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting more than 150 farmers for a total of more than $15 million.

–Demand labeling on all GMO-containing products so that we at least have a choice.

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
The Ten Percent Challenge is presenting a series of workshops to help people get a free or inexpensive home energy audit.

These workshops, known as Home Energy Makeovers, provide detailed information about such programs of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as Home Performance with Energy Star; Green Jobs–Green N.Y., and the new On-Bill Recovery Loan Program.

Utilizing even one of these programs could help homeowners save up to $700 on their energy bills while making their homes more comfortable.

Here are the details of three upcoming Home Energy Makeovers:

–Saturday, Feb. 25, 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Albert Wisner Public Library, 1 McFarland Drive in Warwick.

–Saturday, March 3, 10:30 a. m. to noon at the Newburgh Free Library, 124 Grand St., in Newburgh.

–Thursday, March 8, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Walden Village Hall, 3rd Floor, at 1 Municipal Square in Walden.

You can fill out an application on the spot if you bring your past utility bills or a 12-month summary of electric and heating usage. You can also register for the Ten Percent Challenge and become part of a county-wide effort to reduce energy usage and costs by 10 percent or more this year.

Some big news from NYSERDA for towns and villages is that the New York Department of State is accepting applications for Local Government Efficiency (LGE) grants to reduce municipal expenses, and property taxes, by helping municipalities plan and implement projects that have positive impacts on taxpayers. LGE projects must demonstrate new opportunities for financial savings and operational efficiencies. This is especially important for municipalities like Walden, Montgomery and Maybrook, which have already pledged to reduce their energy use by 10 percent, as part of the Ten Percent Challenge.

NYSERDA’s FlexTech program offers cost-sharing incentives to help local leaders identify and implement cost-effective energy measures, including energy procurement and renewable generation projects.

If homeowners are looking for renewable energy systems to reduce operating costs, NYSERDA also offers significant incentives for solar panels, small wind-, and solar-thermal systems.

There also is a new program that allows you to finance the efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems through your utility bill, meaning the cost of owning a solar hot water system is financed at a very low rate and deducted from your energy savings on your monthly bill. You don’t notice the added expense because it’s financed to be less than the energy savings; your monthly bill doesn’t increase but your energy efficiency does.

These programs and incentives don’t last long, so come to a Home Energy Makeover to learn how to take advantage of these programs. If you have any questions, contact Meridith Nierenberg, at Mid-Hudson Energy $mart Communities, meridith.nierenberg@gmail.com or 845-331-2238, or the Ten Percent Challenge at sites.google.com/site/sustainablemontgomery/ or on facebook/MontgomeryTenPercent.

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Estimates of the earth’s carrying-capacity vary according to which population you are measuring, since some populations live more sustainably than others. Some scientists say that not only are we living beyond earth’s capacity, but we are also eating up future generations’ ability to live within the planet’s means. We are literally emptying the earth’s bank account rather than living off the interest as our ancestors did, and leaving a “balance due” for people of the future.

British geographer, Ernst George Ravenstein is credited with first estimating the carrying capacity of the earth at around 6 billion people. Now, at 6.5 billion, at least a billion of our population does not receive enough food energy to carry out a day’s work. Even though Ravenstein was operating on statistics from last century, he hit fairly close to home.

Before Ravenstein, born in 1834, the English clergyman Thomas Robert Malthus argued that human population always increases more rapidly than food supplies and that humans are condemned to breed to the point of misery and starvation. The 200 years since Malthus’ essay was first published have proven him wrong. We can artificially increase food production above birth rates, and even decline in numbers in the presence of plenty.

The World Hunger Program at Brown University estimated that, based on 1992 levels of food production and an equal distribution of food, “the world could sustain 5.5 billion vegetarians, 3.7 billion people who get 15 percent of their calories from animal products [as in much of South America], or 2.8 billion people who derive 25 percent of their calories from animal products [as in the wealthiest countries].”

Clearly we have passed all sustainable estimates and are now entering the “borrowed time” area of the population chart. In order to provide the projected 9 billion people in 2050 with 2,100 calories a day (what food-aid agencies declare the minimum caloric intake) we would have to double our global agricultural production. Humans have already plowed over most of the usable farm land on the planet, and there is a limit to any field’s fertility. Could Malthus have been right after all?

This is not a new chapter in human history. We have faced starvation before, and triumphed. Lester Brown, the noted environmental analyst, has observed: “In the 15th century, Icelanders realized that overgrazing of their grasslands was leading to soil erosion. Farmers then calculated how many sheep the land could sustain and allocated quotas among themselves, thus preserving their grasslands, and a wool industry that thrives today.”

Here are some steps you can take to reduce your ecological footprint:

–Measure that footprint at www.myfootprint.org

–Walk, bike, or share a ride instead of driving or flying.

–Have a home energy audit to determine how much energy your home is using, and
how much you might save by improving its efficiency.

–Adopt energy-saving habits such as using “low tech” clotheslines instead of the dryer.

–Eat local, in season, and organic.

–Eat less meat.

–Have smaller families and support zero population growth.

Shawn Dell Joyce is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.

By Shawn Dell Joyce
We see the effects of globalization as local jobs are outsourced, and the recession proves that things just aren’t working. Economist and author Michael Shuman notes that “about 42 percent of our economy is ‘place based,’ or created through small, locally-owned businesses.” This means that almost half our economy depends on small independent businesses, which make up the backbone of our hometowns.

These small firms are what give our towns local color and local flavor. They are what differentiate us from every other exit on the highway that has the same six chain stores. Local concerns are also committed to their hometowns, and support the local economy by hiring people in the area, donating to support Little League and volunteer ambulance and fire services, and paying local taxes.

The key to economic recovery is localization, the reversing of globalization. Shuman estimates that we could expand our national economy to be 70 percent local or more by incorporating 10 simple steps that will actually save you money in the process.

–Localize your home! The biggest expense most of us have is our mortgage. Actually, 60 percent of our annual expenditures go for shelter. By renting from a local landlord, or buying your own home with a mortgage from a hometown bank, you can localize this expense. Local banks and credit unions typically have the best rates anyway, possibly saving you money in the process.

–Drive less! According to Shuman, Americans spend one out of every five dollars on transportation. That amounts to almost $5,000 a year! Until we can start replacing imported oil with locally produced biofuels, our best bet is to drive less.

–Using mass transit, bicycling, or walking saves money but is not very easy for us rural folks. Still, use the car sparingly. Buy gas from an independent station if you can find one, and use a local repair shop you trust.

–Eat independently! Households spend about $2,300 a year on restaurants; unfortunately most of that is spent at fast food chains. This one is a simple matter of choice with very little effort required to find a wonderful independently owned restaurant.

–Local arts and entertainment! Most people opt for a movie at a corporate multiplex at the mall. Enjoy homegrown talent! Visit the small repertory theaters to see a real play instead of a movie. Visit an art show and buy art from local artists. Buy music directly from the bands.

–Localize your health care! Get your meds from an independent pharmacy, preferably one that also uses local suppliers

–Buy locally grown! Eating locally by buying fresh vegetables, meats, and dairy products from nearby farms reduces transportation costs and vitamin loss. The closer you eat to home, the more you improve your health, your view, and your local economy.

–Localize electricity! We could save thousands a year just by increasing our energy efficiency.

–Give locally! More than 6 percent of the U.S. economy is nonprofit according to Shuman. Most of these nonprofits are in the forms of hospitals, universities, and churches, but locally we also have arts organizations, environmental groups, and many others.

–Buy local! In the time it has taken you to read this, Americans have collectively spent $23 million. Shuman says that $16 million of this figure could be spent in small locally owned stores. How far would $16 million go in your hometown today?

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

It’s not for money.

Rather, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association is suing Monsanto Corp., the genetic engineering giant, to protect itself from being accused of infringing patents on transgenic, or genetically modified, seed.

The seed growers filed suit on behalf of 300,000 organic farmers and growers who shun genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Monsanto’s seed monopoly has grown so powerful that it controls the genetics of nearly 90 percent of five major commodity crops: corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets. This has resulted in onerous costs to farmers through high technology patent fees for seeds as well as burdensome litigation costs in defending themselves against lawsuits asserted by Monsanto, which has filed a motion to dismiss the current lawsuit.

This is ironic, considering how often Monsanto has dragged farmers through lawsuits. From 1997 through April 2010, Monsanto filed 144 suits against American farmers in at least 27 states, for alleged infringement of its transgenic seed patents and/or breach of its license to those patents, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. As a result of these aggressive lawsuits, farmers live in fear of accidental cross-pollination of their fields by genetically-engineered crops. Monsanto has generated an atmosphere of fear and loathing in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.

“I don’t think it’s fair that Monsanto should be able to sue my family for patent infringement because their transgenic seed trespasses onto our farm and contaminates and ruins our organic crop,” testified farmer Bryce Stephens of Kansas-based Stephens’ Land and Cattle Co. “We have had to abandon raising corn because we are afraid Monsanto wouldn’t control their genetic pollution and then they would come after us for patent infringement. It’s not right.”

Some 200 million acres of the world’s farms grew biotech crops last year, with many of these farms located next to, or near, organic farms. Genetically Modified Organisms move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind, and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two separate independent laboratory tests on non-modified seeds “representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply” for corn, soy and oilseed rape.

The test found that half the corn and soy, and 83 percent of the oilseed rape were contaminated with modified genes eight years after the genetically modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the United States.

The reports state that “Heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level.” There could be “serious risks to health” if drugs and industrial chemicals from the next generation of GM crops were consumed in food.

Some organic and conventional farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops in order to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Jim Gerritsen, the president of OSGATA and owner of Wood Prairie Farm in Maine states: “We are family farmers and we are in court to let the judge know that our survival as farmers depends on this lawsuit. We’re not asking Monsanto for one penny. We just want justice for our farmers and we want court protection from Monsanto.”

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Winter weather has struck hard this year, and many people and municipalities are pouring on the road salt. According to the National Research Council (NRC), we Americans dump 8 million to 12 million tons of salt on our roads per year.

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York report the highest level of salt use, with New York weighing in at 500,000 tons per year. The New York State Department of Transportation requires a road-salt application rate of 225 lbs. per lane-mile for light snow and 270 lbs. per lane-mile for each application during rapidly accumulating snow.

When you consider that there are approximately 6,000 miles of paved roadways near New York watersheds, you begin to see how all that road salt adds up. Some roads may get up to 300 tons of salt per lane-mile each year. Recently, many scientists have begun to study the effects of so much road salt on ecosystems, water quality, public health and road quality. Here are a few things you should know before your break out that sodium chloride (NaCl) the most commonly used deicer:

–Salt destroys soil structure by killing some bacteria. This allows more soil to erode into streams, taking the salt with it. Salt erosion contaminates drinking-water supplies to levels that exceed standards.

–Salt doesn’t evaporate or otherwise get removed once applied. So it remains a persistent risk to aquatic ecosystems and to water quality. Approximately 55 percent of road salt runs off with snow melt into streams, with the remaining 45 percent infiltrating through soils and into groundwater aquifers according to a 1993 study.

–Salt slowly kills trees, especially white pines, and other roadside plants. The loss of indigenous plants and trees on roadsides allows hardier salt-tolerant species to take over.

–Salt can change water chemistry, causing minerals to leach out of the soil, and it increases the acidity of water, according to Dr. Stephen Norton, a professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Maine.

–Salt cracks animals’ paws. House pets are particularly susceptible.

–Road salt seeping into drinking water changes its flavor, and supplies the excess dietary sodium associated with hypertension.

–Salt corrodes metals like automobile brake linings, frames, and bumpers, and can cause cosmetic corrosion. Auto makers pay almost $4 billion a year in efforts to prevent this.

–Salt can penetrate concrete to corrode the reinforcing rods of bridges.
Canada is considering classifying conventional deicers as toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. California and Nevada restrict road salt use in certain areas to reduce damage to roadside vegetation. Massachusetts is using alternative deicers to prevent contamination of drinking water. New York is considering doing the same to protect New York City’s watershed.

There are alternatives to sodium chloride that are relatively harmless to the environment and still get the job done. Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) and potassium acetate (KA) are two such alternatives currently available. They are much more expensive than salt, but if you factor in the loss of wildlife, soil erosion, water quality and corrosion, these alternatives start to look like a real bargain.

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Our buildings account for more than half of our carbon emissions and three-quarters of existing buildings will need to be renovated or remodeled in the next twenty years. We also have a small army of unemployed and underemployed contractors with tools just itching for something to do.

What if these ingenious folks were put to work retrofitting existing buildings with energy-efficient upgrades?

In Massachusetts, the city of Cambridge is doing just that, and setting an example for municipalities across the nation. Cambridge set the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent, and drawing 20 percent of municipal power from renewable sources. To meet these ambitious goals, a nonprofit, city-sponsored group was formed to create green collar jobs and increase building efficiency.

The Cambridge Energy Alliance connects local business owners with energy efficiency experts and bankers willing to loan them the money for these upgrades. The Alliance generally reduces a business’ energy use 15 to 30 percent. The loans it helps to secure are low-interest and can be repaid by the savings from the business’s utility bill.

Retrofitting thousands of old buildings has helped to stimulate a “green collar” job market in Cambridge.

Green collar jobs that are generated by encouraging energy efficiency would include tasks by such people as home energy auditors, insulation installers, weatherization workers, retrofitters for buildings, and solar installers for electricity and solar hot water systems, among others. According to Van Jones, from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Oakland, California’s Apollo Alliance, green collar jobs are manual-labor jobs that can’t be outsourced.

“You can’t take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back,” said Jones in a recent New York Times interview. “So we are going to have to put people to work in this country — weatherizing millions of buildings, putting up solar panels, constructing wind farms. Those green-collar jobs can provide a pathway out of poverty for someone who has not gone to college.”

Picture this, your child graduates from high school and has the option of going away to college, or enrolling in a local trade school, which now includes green alternatives. Let’s say that young Sally might have opted for “beautician” as the only viable local career last year, but now can choose a $12 an hour job weatherizing senior housing with potential to grow to $40 an hour as a certified home energy auditor.

Or perhaps your fledgling will start at $18 an hour as a solar technician, and work his way up to $50 per hour as a certified solar installer.

“If we can get these youth in on the ground floor of the solar industry now, where they can be installers today, they’ll become managers in five years and owners in 10. And then they become inventors,” Jones told The Times. “The green economy has the power to deliver new sources of work, wealth and health to low-income people — while honoring the Earth. If you can do that, you just wiped out a whole bunch of problems.”

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Times Community Newspapers has committed to take the 10 Percent Challenge, and reduce energy usage by 10 percent (or more) in the coming year. This is no small feat considering the company’s home is a 30-year-old brick colonial-style building that was “never designed for year-round use,” according to editor and publisher Carl Aiello.

The building has been home to the publishing company for five years. Formerly, the publisher inhabited a small building in Walden that was a converted seasonal farm market. Aiello describes it as drafty. “And the pipes, which ran through the attic crawl space, froze at least once every winter,” he says.

The new office houses three publications, archives, and a conference room. The bigger building brought much needed space, but also higher utility costs and overhead. Aiello went through NYSERDA to schedule an energy audit, and was connected to Daylight Savings Company, which handles commercial audits.

The audit was quick, and the findings were fairly typical for commercial buildings. The biggest energy wasters in any building are usually heating and cooling systems, lighting, and insulation. Daylight Savings wrote up an extensive report suggesting that Times Community Newspapers upgrade the outdated HVAC and fluorescent tube lighting system, install some lighting controls, as well as temperature controls, and improve the building’s “envelope” by sealing, caulking, and insulating.

The auditor’s report states that the total cost of improvements would be $14,186, which would deliver an annual savings of $1,820 in utility bills, with an estimated payback time of 7.8 years. A follow-up call to Daylight Savings led to the recommendation that Times Community Newspapers find BPI certified contractors through the website BPI.org. There are two locally: New York State Foam & Energy LLC. of Cornwall and TNT Green Energy Solutions of Balmville.

Aiello invited TNT Green Energy to his building. TNT’s suggestion was to install 6 inches of open-cell spray foam on the slopes of the attic at a cost that far exceeds the original estimate for “improving the building envelope.” When Aiello forwarded the estimate to Daylight Savings, he was told that “at this time, NYSERDA does not offer any incentives through the Existing Facilities Program. However, your upgrade should qualify you for tax credits.”

Like most small business owners, Aeillo weighed the cost effectiveness of this upgrade and decided against it for now. He upgraded the lighting instead. Again, the price was higher than anticipated, but this time it came with an incentive program through Central Hudson.

Alliance Energy Solutions, a Connecticut-based business, replaced all the inefficient T-12 fluorescent lights with L-M4 lights. The fixtures were also outfitted with reflectors, making the rooms brighter, but with a wattage that was reduced from 188 to 49 watts per fixture. He similarly replaced 18 U-shaped lights and 10 of the old incandescent bulbs for an anticipated savings of $2,244 per year for electricity.

The upgrade cost Times Community Newspapers $6,077, but it came with a Central Hudson rebate of $3,767. The remainder is spread among 14 monthly payments of $165, while the reduction on the monthly utility bill is estimated at $187, so Aiello is already saving money.

“Other measures are common sense,” comments Aiello, “like getting people to turn off computers at the end of their workday (there are 18 here) and making sure the last person out the door lowers the thermostat and turns off lights.”

One first-floor thermostat has already been replaced by one with an automatic timer. Aiello is planning to replace the others, and possibly add some motion-activated lights in the stairway, rather than keeping them on all the time. These changes may seem small, but they add up to far more than 10 percent of Times Community Newspaper’s yearly electric usage.

Join the 10 Percent Challenge (visit Sustainable Montgomery’s website and sign on there), and tell how you are planning on saving 10 percent or more on your utility bills and I’ll write about you!

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery, www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Lucky for us Santa is very kind, or we would have received a lump of coal in our stockings for being major contributors to climate change. Instead of giving us more stuff, I imagine Santa probably snuck into our houses and swapped out those incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents. He’s probably pretty peeved about the climate changing at the North Pole, and that his flying reindeer may soon join all the other Arctic creatures on the endangered species list. Indeed, we Americans have been very, very, naughty.

Most of us realize that we can’t go on this way. We are running out of planet to consume, and will need three to five more earths to keep up our current consumption. We cannot continue to gorge ourselves at the all-you-can-eat buffet created by our fossil-fueled agricultural system. Nor can we keep adding more and more coal burning plants to feed our lust for power. Or continue driving gas-guzzling SUV’s. We have already burned through our share of the world resources and are now dipping deeply into our children’s and grandchildren’s meager allotments.

Each American household has to commit to change, changing light bulbs and changing paradigms. Let’s embrace a culture built on conservation of resources instead of waste and excess. Here are a few New Year’s resolutions that will set us on the right track:

1.     Go on a “low carbon” diet; Woodstock author David Gershon leads you through energy-slimming actions to lose 5,000 pounds of carbon or more. Considering the average American household has a carbon footprint of 22,000 pounds per year, there’s plenty carbon to cut. www.empowermentinstitute.net

2.     Take the “100-mile diet” challenge; Eating local is the single best thing you can do to curb climate change. The average American fork-full of food traveled 1500 miles to reach your mouth. By eating locally, we save emissions of transporting food and aid the livelihoods of local farmers. We eat fresher, more nutritious food, and we become intimately connected to the land and the seasons. www.100milediet.org

3.     Set the “zero waste” goal; Make recycling, composting, reusing a common practice. Carry your own mug or reusable water container to avoid generating more petroleum-based plastics. Stash a set of tote bags in your car for shopping, and refuse to accept any disposables. www.grrn.org

4.     Take the 10 percent challenge; Try spending 10 percent of your income at locally owned businesses. Move your mortgage to a local bank or credit union. Buy from consignment stores instead of chain stores, and eat at locally owned restaurants. This keeps your money flowing locally, where it grows and multiplies as local businesses frequent other local businesses. This one act will improve your local economy, save Main Street, and maybe even your job. www.livingeconomies.org

5.     Curb 30 percent of your family’s emissions by switching to renewable energy. If solar panels or a wind turbine are out of your price range, consider buying wind energy through your utility for about $15 per month. www.newwindenergy.com

6.     Exercise your political will! We need real leadership at all levels of government willing to address climate change, and stop the growing disparity between rich and poor. It is time for creative direct actions like our young people demonstrated in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

7.     Create Community. Be the change you want to see. Take time to know your neighbors, walk to the store and see what small businesses you could be frequenting that you didn’t even know existed. Spend precious time and energy getting involved in your community by volunteering and becoming politically active. Become deeply rooted in your community and bloom where you are planted!

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School of Art in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Americans, already cash-strapped from a sagging economy, are shelling out more than $22.9 million this holiday season to buy toys for lucky little girls and boys. This $22.9 million would make a sweet bail-out for U.S. toy manufacturers if we actually had any. Unfortunately, most of that money is already on its way to China where almost all toys are made that are commercially available in big box stores.

Chinese produced toys are far cheaper than American made, but are they worth it? More than 60 percent of the recalls issued this year and 79 percent of toys recalled last year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission were from China. But those products were just a tiny drop in the flood of 17 million shipments of everything from Chinese organic produce to medicines and housewares.

The flood of consumer goods from China has nearly tripled since 1997, and the number of recalls has grown proportionately. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is deluged by this flood. The FDA has only 1,317 field investigators for 320 ports of entry. The agency inspects just 0.7 percent of all imports, half of what it did a decade ago. David Acheson, an assistant commissioner for food protection at the FDA, points out that it would be impossible to test all Chinese imports. “It’s got to be based on risk,” says Acheson.

And risky it is. Just think of the 100 Panamanians who lost their lives using cough syrup made in China with diethylene glycol (mislabeled as glycerin). Or the people who were injured from ingesting tainted seafood, slipping on faulty swimming pool ladders, or in auto accidents caused by shoddy Chinese-made tires. Even worse are the homes lost to fires caused by faulty electrical wiring in Chinese-made lighting, extension cords and heaters. China has even reintroduced lead poisoning to American children through paint and metal on cheap toys.

“After discovering that a toy I purchased for my grandson was recalled in May,” says Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., “I asked myself the same question parents across the country are asking today: Who is in charge?” Durbin was disturbed to learn that one employee at the CPSC is responsible for testing toys and ensuring toy safety throughout the country. Durbin is sponsoring legislation to expand the CPSC.

FDA inspectors report tainted food imports from China are being rejected with increasing frequency because “they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.”

Last summer, China quietly surpassed the United States as the world’s top polluter. China has no real environmental safeguards in place to protect drinking water from contaminants, no labor laws to keep children out of sweatshops, no legal ethics to keep entrepreneurs from producing dangerous products. In addition, our communities suffer financially when we buy imports over locally made goods. When we opt for a cheaper import, our dollars flow out of our community and fund a system that degrades people and the planet. Our small businesses suffer, manufacturing jobs leave, and we find ourselves with boarded-up storefronts in our downtowns. This economic exodus further devalues our currency and increases the demand for “cheap.”

A recent economic study conducted in Austin, Texas found that if each household in Travis County redirected just $100 of planned holiday spending from chain stores (carrying cheap imports) to locally owned merchants, the economic impact would reach approximately $10 million. Imagine what $10 million could do for your community.