MGG Archives - Page 2 of 13 - The future is what you make of it!

RichM September 3, 2015

Under Construction…

Ecologia (www.ecologiadesign.com) founder Michael Judd has spent nearly 20 years working throughout North and South America to promote edible and ecological landscape design. In Nicaragua his non-profit organization Project Bona Fide helps to develop solutions to provide food security and sustainable crops with higher market values in rural communities. He has recently published his first book, Edible Landscaping With a Permaculture Twist, and is now working building his own home.

Judd’s home is located on 24 acres of woodland at the entrance to Gambrill State Park and is inspired by a house he helped build at the Earthaven Permaculture in Asheville, North Carolina. It is a round frame made using poplar, cherry and locust from the property itself. The walls are strawbale infill with earthen plasters on the interior and lime plaster on the exterior. The roof is a living roof design for drought tolerant plants.

Expected to be finished in early 2015, this house will be a true showcase of Judd’s philosophy and aesthetic. It will feature a hand crafted sunken tub, and a soap stone style stove as the main heat source and will be approximately 1300 square feet with a loft when complete. As much of the house as possible will be constructed using recycled materials including doors, windows and insulation.

You can attend one of Michael’s workshops (schedule available on his website). His next workshop about mushroom growing is sure to be a fun event about fungi.

RichM June 3, 2015

Seed of Life Nurseries and CSA

Proverbs 22:9 A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

The idea of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is nothing new, but by truly putting the community first Seed of Life Nurseries has set themselves apart from the competition. For less than $23 a week a family of four can share in the all natural, pesticide free harvest while supporting an organization with a wide range of programs to address the needs of poor and at-risk families.

Founder Michael Dickson is a self taught horticulturist who has been in the landscape and nursery business for 20 years. He is passionate about the plants he grows, and about sharing knowledge with the young people of his community, building a generation of people from all walks of life who know the value of hard work and can take ownership of their futures. For Michael and his wife Michelle, farming is about more than food– it’s about family and community.

In partnership with The Asian American Center of Frederick, Seed of Life has developed a summer program for children K-10 where they learn about planting, sustainable farming, harvesting and cooking. Kids see the food go from seed to plate, and each Friday they take home food to their families. Children see what a little hard work can accomplish in a safe, fun environment with “Farmer Mike” and his AmeriCorps volunteers. And yes, the children learn about weeding too.

Currently Seed of Life Nurseries is working on installing urban gardens around Frederick County. They have already assisted in gardens at Lucas Village, the Frederick County Fairgrounds and at Restore (Habitat for Humanity). They’ll soon be installing a community garden for the Housing Authority City of Frederick (HACF) near their main office. They build and maintain these gardens to provide communities and families access to fresh produce through their own efforts.

Seed of Life Nurseries and CSA was founded 7 years ago with the idea to beautify local areas in crisis and build community around the production of all natural produce. They approach their mission from every angle by from providing programs to meet the needs of local restaurants to stimulate the economy to food bank donations (over 60,000lbs of produce donated to date) and community programs.

Michael and Michelle have really put their mark on the community. Come see them at the Frederick City and G.R.A.C.E. farmers markets to get a taste of what
they’ve been growing. www.solnurseries.info

RichM May 3, 2015

SkyTruth

Sometimes it’s impossible to see the changes in the world around you from the ground. You have to get a different perspective. That’s exactly what SkyTruth (www.skytruth.org) a local nonprofit accomplishes with their compelling satellite photographs showing environmental impacts from around the world. SkyTruth’s mission is to empower citizen scientists, government bodies and research organizations with knowledge of the true impact that humans have on the world around them through meticulously catalogued, scientifically credible images.

Last year SkyTruth launched FracFinder, a multi-stage project to track fracking sites using a combination of aerial and satellite imagery. SkyTruth employees and over 200 volunteers analyzed images spanning 5 years of time and the entire state of Pennsylvania to map the growth of well sites. Over 90,000 image analysis tasks were performed to produce this rigorously catalogued record of the expansion of the industry, from only 60 sites in 2005 to 1,410 in 2010. The project has recently expanded to begin mapping Ohio drilling sites and the data collected will be
invaluable in researching the environmental and public health effects of this practice.

The data sets produced by SkyTruth continue to be critical to peer reviewed studies analyzing the impact of mountaintop removal mining on fish populations. These studies will be used by regulatory agencies to make environmental and water use policies for the future.

SkyTruth shines a light on the true impact that our actions are having on the environment and present that information in formats anyone can understand. Their tracking methods and data analysis techniques

are paving the way towards a future where everyone can see the consequences of man’s actions on the environment and take action. Ultimately, SkyTruth’s goal is to make the tools, imagery, and data they use commonplace and accessible to the public. Just the way Google and other search engines provide access to the world’s knowledge stored on the internet, skytruthing will effectively be a search engine for environmental change. If you can see it, you can change it.