http://1.usa.gov/desertlocator
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
March 28, 2012
Spring planting 2012, Sanger (3-4)
March 25, 2012
Seed swap in Glendora
Hello fellow gardeners, I've been thinking how fast Spring is coming
and thought it would be a good time to get together and trade seeds,
plants, info or anything else you want to bring. Here are the
details:
and thought it would be a good time to get together and trade seeds,
plants, info or anything else you want to bring. Here are the
details:
Seed swap
Saturday, March 31st 1-3pm
310 S. Vermont Ave.
Glendora, CA 91741
(right next door to the Liddle and Liddle law office)
*Mary Beth and Todd, would you mind forwarding this to the food not lawns group?
Happy gardening, Juanita
www.foothillfriendsfoodcoalition.snappages.com
--
Cuatro Caminos Collective
*Meaningful Work,
*Wholesome Local Food,
*Appropriate Technology,
*Intergenerational/Cross-Cultural Dialogue and
Cooperation
ivcaminos.blogspot.com
562-448-2619
March 18, 2012
Greece on the breadline: cashless currency takes off
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency
Greece on the breadline: cashless currency takes off
A determination to 'move beyond anger to creativity' is driving a strong barter economy in some places
Jon Henley in Volos
Saturday March 17 2012
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency
In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.
None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work ? repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light ? for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.
In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek [http://www.tem-magnisia.gr" title="]) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people's accounts.
"It's an easier, more direct way of exchanging goods and services," said Bernhardt Koppold, a German-born homeopathist and acupuncturist in Volos who is an active member of the network. "It's also a way of showing practical solidarity ? of building relationships."
He had just treated Maria McCarthy, an English teacher who has lived and worked in the town for 20 years. The consultation was her first tem transaction, and she used one of the vouchers available for people who haven't yet, or can't, set up an online account.
"I already exchange directly with a couple of families, mainly English teaching for babysitting, and this is a great way to extend that," said McCarthy. "This is still young, but it's growing very quickly. Plainly, the more you use it the more useful to you it gets."
Tems has been up and running for barely 18 months, said Maria Choupis, one of its founder members. Prompted by ever more swingeing salary cuts and tax increases, she reckons there are now around 15 such networks active around Greece, and more planned. "They are as much social structures as economic ones," she said. "They foster intimacy and mutual support."
The network is currently busy transforming a disused building owned by Volos university into a permanent exchange and barter space. It will host a daily market from next month at which members can meet and exchange without using cash. Several highly successful open-air markets were held throughout last summer, Choupis said, until the weather got too cold.
"They're quite joyous occasions," she said. "It's very liberating, not using money." At one market, she said, she approached a woman who had come along with three large trays of homemade cakes and was selling them for a unit a cake. "I asked her: 'Do you think that's enough? After all, you had the cost of the ingredients, the electricity to cook ...'
"She replied: 'Wait until the market is over', and at the end she had three different kinds of fruit, two one-litre bottles of olive oil, soaps, beans, a dozen eggs and a whole lot of yoghurt. 'If I had bought all this at the supermarket,' she said, 'it would have cost me a great deal more than what it cost to make these cakes.'"
What rules the system has are designed to ensure the tems continue "to circulate, and work hard as a currency", said Christos Pappionannou, a mechanical engineer who runs the network's website [http://www.cyclos.org" title="] using open-source software.
No one may hold more than 1,200 tems in the account "so people don't start hoarding; once you reach the top limit you have to start using them."
And no one may owe more than 300, so people "can't get into debt, and have to start offering something".
Businesses that are part of the network are allowed to do transactions partly in tems, and partly in euros; most offer a 50/50 part-exchange.
"We recognise that they have their fixed costs, they have to pay a rent and bills in euros," said Pappionannou. "You could say that their 'profit' might be taken in Tems, to be reinvested in the network."
Choupis said she thought the network would have grown even faster that it has if people were not so "frozen, in a state of fear. It's like they've been hit over the head with a brick; they're dizzy. And they're cautious; they're still thinking: 'I need euros, how am I going to pay my bills?' But as soon as people see how much they can do without money, they're convinced."
The Greek parliament recently passed a law encouraging "alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development", including exchange networks such as Volos's, giving them official non-profit status for tax purposes.
Choupis said there was a new mood abroad in Greece, a determination to "move beyond anger to creativity".
"You are not poor when you have no money," she said, "you are poor when you have nothing to offer ? except for the elderly and the sick, to whom we should all be offering."
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Greece on the breadline: cashless currency takes off
A determination to 'move beyond anger to creativity' is driving a strong barter economy in some places
Jon Henley in Volos
Saturday March 17 2012
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency
In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.
None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work ? repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light ? for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.
In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek [http://www.tem-magnisia.gr" title="]) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people's accounts.
"It's an easier, more direct way of exchanging goods and services," said Bernhardt Koppold, a German-born homeopathist and acupuncturist in Volos who is an active member of the network. "It's also a way of showing practical solidarity ? of building relationships."
He had just treated Maria McCarthy, an English teacher who has lived and worked in the town for 20 years. The consultation was her first tem transaction, and she used one of the vouchers available for people who haven't yet, or can't, set up an online account.
"I already exchange directly with a couple of families, mainly English teaching for babysitting, and this is a great way to extend that," said McCarthy. "This is still young, but it's growing very quickly. Plainly, the more you use it the more useful to you it gets."
Tems has been up and running for barely 18 months, said Maria Choupis, one of its founder members. Prompted by ever more swingeing salary cuts and tax increases, she reckons there are now around 15 such networks active around Greece, and more planned. "They are as much social structures as economic ones," she said. "They foster intimacy and mutual support."
The network is currently busy transforming a disused building owned by Volos university into a permanent exchange and barter space. It will host a daily market from next month at which members can meet and exchange without using cash. Several highly successful open-air markets were held throughout last summer, Choupis said, until the weather got too cold.
"They're quite joyous occasions," she said. "It's very liberating, not using money." At one market, she said, she approached a woman who had come along with three large trays of homemade cakes and was selling them for a unit a cake. "I asked her: 'Do you think that's enough? After all, you had the cost of the ingredients, the electricity to cook ...'
"She replied: 'Wait until the market is over', and at the end she had three different kinds of fruit, two one-litre bottles of olive oil, soaps, beans, a dozen eggs and a whole lot of yoghurt. 'If I had bought all this at the supermarket,' she said, 'it would have cost me a great deal more than what it cost to make these cakes.'"
What rules the system has are designed to ensure the tems continue "to circulate, and work hard as a currency", said Christos Pappionannou, a mechanical engineer who runs the network's website [http://www.cyclos.org" title="] using open-source software.
No one may hold more than 1,200 tems in the account "so people don't start hoarding; once you reach the top limit you have to start using them."
And no one may owe more than 300, so people "can't get into debt, and have to start offering something".
Businesses that are part of the network are allowed to do transactions partly in tems, and partly in euros; most offer a 50/50 part-exchange.
"We recognise that they have their fixed costs, they have to pay a rent and bills in euros," said Pappionannou. "You could say that their 'profit' might be taken in Tems, to be reinvested in the network."
Choupis said she thought the network would have grown even faster that it has if people were not so "frozen, in a state of fear. It's like they've been hit over the head with a brick; they're dizzy. And they're cautious; they're still thinking: 'I need euros, how am I going to pay my bills?' But as soon as people see how much they can do without money, they're convinced."
The Greek parliament recently passed a law encouraging "alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development", including exchange networks such as Volos's, giving them official non-profit status for tax purposes.
Choupis said there was a new mood abroad in Greece, a determination to "move beyond anger to creativity".
"You are not poor when you have no money," she said, "you are poor when you have nothing to offer ? except for the elderly and the sick, to whom we should all be offering."
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2012
Registered in England and Wales No. 908396
Registered office: PO Box 68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit guardian.co.uk - newspaper of the year
www.guardian.co.uk www.observer.co.uk www.guardiannews.com
On your mobile, visit m.guardian.co.uk or download the Guardian
iPhone app www.guardian.co.uk/iphone
To save up to 30% when you subscribe to the Guardian and the Observer
visit www.guardian.co.uk/subscriber
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may also
be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify
the sender and delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately.
Do not disclose the contents to another person. You may not use
the information for any purpose, or store, or copy, it in any way.
Guardian News & Media Limited is not liable for any computer
viruses or other material transmitted with or as part of this
e-mail. You should employ virus checking software.
Guardian News & Media Limited
A member of Guardian Media Group plc
Registered Office
PO Box 68164
Kings Place
90 York Way
London
N1P 2AP
Registered in England Number 908396
March 16, 2012
Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California
This seems like an interesting book worth reading. Fellow growers have talked about some of the challenges inherent in organic farming, land (and access to it) being a huge hurdle. There's a joke about farming, and it goes like this: "How do you make a small fortune in farming? Start with a large one."
From what i've read so far, the book seems to be alluding to the fact that all our talk about consuming and producing organic stuff don't mean jack if the land ain't ours and it's priced out of our ability to work with it in a natural way. No time to cover crop, 'cause that mortgage has to be paid...because the banks gotta eat.
Another thing. By all the lists out on the interweb about young, white organic growers making headlines, you'd think that California's fields would be a english speakers paradise. I guess it makes sense, in light of the fact that these young, white farmers have access to capital that other minority farmers do not.
"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce. The wood of the forest, the grass of the field, and all the natural fruits of the earth, which, when land was in common, cost the labourer only the trouble of gathering them, come, even to him, to have an additional price fixed upon them. He must then pay for the licence to gather them; and must give up to the landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces. This portion, or, what comes to the same thing, the price of this portion, constitutes the rent of land ...."
"la accion es la madre de la esperanza."
-Pablo Neruda
"la accion es la madre de la esperanza."
-Pablo Neruda
March 12, 2012
Institute of Domestic Technology: March Classes
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March 06, 2012
Fresno Solar Cooking at Earth Day and more.....
Fresno Earth Day is Saturday 4-14-12 from 11 am to 4 pm at 2672 E
Alluvial Ave., Clovis ( @ the Unitarian Universalist Church's facilities).
Thank you, to everyone who has already offered to help with our
presentation. We would like to demonstrate a variety of cookers and
different foods that can be solar cooked. Carl will start setting up about
9:30 am and would appreciate a couple helpers then. Those of you who can
bring your own cookers or ovens it would be nice if you could be there by
10:30 am so we are ready to go by 11am. If you would like to bring
something to cook in our oven or cooker let us know so we can be
organized. We also need people to help with explaining solar cooking to
Earth Day attendees and help signing up new members.
April 26,2012 Reedley College is having a Green Summit from 9 am to 2
pm. We have agreed to do a demonstration there too. This is a Thursday so
if you could help with this let us know.
Our first cooking meeting is scheduled for April 29th at the San
Joaquin River Parkways River Ranch on old Friant Rd. from 1-3pm. They
have a nice picnic area. We would like to make this meeting a pot luck.
So bring something to cook, some thing you cooked at home or just a salad,
fruit or snacks. Everyone should bring their own plates, utensils and
something to drink.
Ellen and Carl Peters
Central Valley Solar Cookers
http://cvsolarcookers.org/
Alluvial Ave., Clovis ( @ the Unitarian Universalist Church's facilities).
Thank you, to everyone who has already offered to help with our
presentation. We would like to demonstrate a variety of cookers and
different foods that can be solar cooked. Carl will start setting up about
9:30 am and would appreciate a couple helpers then. Those of you who can
bring your own cookers or ovens it would be nice if you could be there by
10:30 am so we are ready to go by 11am. If you would like to bring
something to cook in our oven or cooker let us know so we can be
organized. We also need people to help with explaining solar cooking to
Earth Day attendees and help signing up new members.
April 26,2012 Reedley College is having a Green Summit from 9 am to 2
pm. We have agreed to do a demonstration there too. This is a Thursday so
if you could help with this let us know.
Our first cooking meeting is scheduled for April 29th at the San
Joaquin River Parkways River Ranch on old Friant Rd. from 1-3pm. They
have a nice picnic area. We would like to make this meeting a pot luck.
So bring something to cook, some thing you cooked at home or just a salad,
fruit or snacks. Everyone should bring their own plates, utensils and
something to drink.
Ellen and Carl Peters
Central Valley Solar Cookers
http://cvsolarcookers.org/
March 05, 2012
Culture Club 101 March 2012 Newsletter
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culture Club 101 | 30 S. Wilson Ave | Pasadena | CA | 91106 |
--
Cuatro Caminos Collective
*Meaningful Work,
*Wholesome Local Food,
*Appropriate Technology,
*Intergenerational/Cross-Cultural Dialogue and
Cooperation
ivcaminos.blogspot.com
562-448-2619
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