Greenability Magazine

Kansas City’s Green Lifestyle Magazine

http://www.greenabilitymagazine.com/

Greenability magazine is a bi-monthly publication designed to help you discover "green" lifestyle alternatives for everyday living in Kansas City.

What’s a “green” choice? Learn about local options for sustainable living for your home, work and family. Whether you’ve been making healthy environmental choices for years, or are just now looking for some easy alternatives for greener living, Greenability is your local source for news, events, resources, products and ideas.

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MOA Annual Conference - Feb 2-4, 2012 - St Louis, MO

The Missouri Organic Associations Annual Conference will be in St. Louis, Feb 2-4 featuring Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, as well as almost eighty other great speakers! This isn't just for farmers! It is for anyone interested in furthering our local organic food supply! Make plans to attend!!

MOA Annual Conference

www.missouriorganic.org

Mission StatementAs residents of this Earth, we share one Responsibility. . .to support Sustainable systems which will ensure the quality of life for all people. Together we can promote a Healthy food supply and restore Balance to our planet.

REGISTER at
http://www.moamarket.org/category/3-moa-conference.aspx

See also
http://www.missouriorganic.org/Events/MOAAnnualConference.aspx

GOOD YOU! Customer Appreciation Night - SATURDAY, JAN 14th, 2012

When ~ Saturday, January 14, 2012
Time ~ 7:00pm until 10:00pm
Where ~ The East Side Co-Op

504 E. 18th St. Suite 101

Kansas City, MO

View Map · Get Directions

Description ~ I can't think of a better way to celebrate meeting and feeding you all for over a year than to feed you all for the night... FREE.


The Black Beauty will be out serving petite versions of our Best Burger and Pulled Pork: made with 100% FIRST BORN Unicorns and the tears of tiny angels, as well as our WORLD FAMOUS Sweet Potato & Red Bean Burrito with Chocolate Molé sauce. Which was recently featured in "Burrito Magazine".


"...that's whats up" - Snoop Dog


voted: "Best Food Ever" by everyone in America


"..it's like taking a round house right to the palate" - Chuck Norris


"...so good... so good..." - James Brown


Flaps open at 7 and we serve until we run out. (special line privelages will be granted to guests in costume, gypsys of any kind, Whiskey bearers and SOME family members. Hecklers pay double.)


Libations and La Croix provided inside along with live music from Mike Borgia & The Problems AND Hot Dog Skeletons. Vintage photo booth for $5 per group provided by M&E Photo Studio and 10% off ALL Scarlett Garnet Jewelry purchases.


Come down to The Crossroads district and celebrate Kansas City's orgiinal Mobile Organic Eatery. A year ago we were just a food truck. Now, we are one of the best in the country and by the end of 2012 we will have served our grub in over 16 states. We couldn't have done it without you, Kansas City. Come celebrate, you deserve it!


Eat well... Be Well... Good You


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MISSION: We believe that dining out doesn't always need to involve a knife and fork- or even a table. the idea of creating food to be enjoyed on the go is an art we've put our passion into.  while supporting local farmers and purveyors, we want to provide a creative and honorable approach to street-side edibles that is both urban and organic.

eat well… be well… good you

THIS IS re-POSTED FROM A FACEBOOK EVENT 

(for you to JOIN and INVITE friends:

https://www.facebook.com/events/209475295806827/ 

GOOD YOU is one of nine (9) eateries in the 
Kansas City Food Circle's 2012 DINING CLUB program.
http://www.kcfoodcircle.org/restaurants/diners-card/

SAN - Sustainability Action Network - Announcements - Greater KC via Kaw River Valley (Lawrence, KS ~ K.C.)) 2012-01-03

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

3 January 2012
"Nothing like a little Pronoia."  What is Pronoia?   "The suspicion the Universe is in a conspiracy on your behalf."

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Support Our Community Building and Re-Skilling Efforts!  We can use your support.  As a 501(C)(3), you get a tax deduction on your 2011 tax return.

We NOW have a PayPal link on our website!

Please donate $25, $50, $100 online at: http://www.sustainabilityaction.net, or mail checks to:

Sustainability Action Network, P.O.Box 1064, Lawrence KS 66044.
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SUSTAINABILITY ACTION NETWORK ¤ ANNUAL MEETING
Sunday, 15 January 2012, 5:30pm 
Panda Garden Restaurant, 1500 West 6th St., Lawrence, KS 66044


Eileen Horn, the City-County Sustainability Coordinator, will be the keynote speaker at our Annual Meeting.  The pleasant atmosphere in a private dining room will provide a great opportunity to share policy ideas with Ms. Horn for the upcoming year.

Come help us celebrate our 2011 achievements in permaculture, bicycle improvements, community gardens, and more.  Since forming in late 2007, the Sustainability Action Network has been bringing to our community local solutions for transition to a sustainable economy. Everyone is welcome, non-members and members alike, so we hope to see you there!

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KKFI COMMUNITY RADIO ¤ ECOLOGICAL SHOWS THIS WEEK

Listen at KKFI-FM 90.1, or web-streaming at http://www.kkfi.org/


Friday, 30 December 2011, 9:30am ¤ Bioneers Radio Series 

Bioneers presents "What's Good for Life Wins: The Biomimicry Scientific Revolution".  Bathing suits modeled on sharkskin that win theOlympics.  Low-energy display screen based on peacock feathers.  Nature has done everything human societies want to do technologically - without mining the past or mortgaging the future. Acclaimed author, naturalist and biomimicry leader Janine Benyus uncorks a mind-boggling bouquet of breakthrough innovations that, like nature, create conditions conducive to life. The astonishing work of biomimics Stephen Dewar,Jason McLennan andBob Hawkins in this genuine scientificrevolution shows why preserving nature and biological diversity is our best survival strategy.


Monday, 2 January 2012, 6:00pm ¤ locally produced Eco-Radio KC

Host Steve Mann will be joined by Dillon Thomson to discuss the culture of resistance and the battle to save planet Earth.  In 2008, Dillon Thomson co-founded Fertile Ground Environmental Institute an environmental and social justice organization that advocates rapid deindustrialization to defend the natural world.  He has worked on issues such as organic foods, indigenous rights, tar sands, and environmental education.
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FUKUSHIMA DAI-ICHI NUCLEAR DISASTER ¤ DAY 284

We suggest readers avail themselves of reports from the following sources.  Japan Focus - Japan Focus, Fairewinds Associates -Fukushima Updates, and China Syndrome - China Syndrome news series.

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LAWRENCE "TREE-CYCLING" COLLECTION
Friday, 6 January 2012 and 13 January 2012
Lawrence KS


The after Christmas "tree-cycling" of live-cut trees will take place on two Fridays, 6 January and 13 January 2012.  Remove all artificial items including tinsel, lights, and tree stand, and have the tree by the curb or in the alley by 6:00am.  For more info call 832-3030 or visitwww.LawrenceRecycles.org.
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FRACKING: WHERE ARE THE REGULATIONS?
Tuesday, 10 January 2012, 6:30pm
Overland Park Lutheran Church, 7810 West 79th St., Overland Park KS 66204


Joe Spease, Legislative Chair of the Kansas Sierra Club, and C.E.O. of WindSoHy, will discuss the dangers of hydraulic fracture gas drilling, or "fracking".  Over the past decade, industry lobbyists were able to prevail in having the extraction process unregulated.  As a result, drillers do not disclose the toxic soup of chemicals that they inject into the rock fissures (and ultimately the groundwater).  How did this happen, and what can be done?  For more info contact Craig Wolfe at (913)299-4443
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TRANSITION KAW VALLEY MEETING

Thursday, 12 January 2012, 7:00pm

Public Library Auditorium, 7th & Vermont St., Lawrence KS 66044

Transition Kaw Valley will resume our small-group community presentations in January, to familiarize organizations with the Transition Movement.  If your church, fraternal organization, or neighborhood association would like to host such a presentation, please contact the e-mail address below.


The T.K.V. workshop series continues, and folks are welcome to help out:

• Garden Planning & Seed Order - 21 January
• Cold Frame construction - 18 February
• Raised Bed Gardening - 10 March
• Rocket Stove - date TBA
• Solar Food Dehydrator - date TBA
• Permablitz - date TBA
• Water Purification & Storage - date TBA

Transition Kaw Valley is a wide range of folks from neighborhoods, churches, and civic groups whose goal is to create a relocalized, sustainable community from the grassroots up.  Transition US has just officially recognized T.K.V. as the 100th local initiative in the country!  For more info, e-mail .  To get on the S.A.N. Transition Kaw Valley list-serv, join at Transition Kaw Valley discussion.

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"THE TRANSITION COMPANION" ¤ COPIES AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE


As a guidebook for local transition communities, Rob Hopkins has published this sequel to the original Transition Handbook.  This includes the same organizing methodologies,
but expands greatly on solutions and examples from many communities around the world. 


Transition Kaw Valley has a limited number of copies, so first come, first served.  Price is $27, or join the Sustainability Action Network for $35 dues, get the Transition Companion free.  For your copy, e-mail Michael at  and arrange for pick up.  If you want it mailed, shipping will be additional.
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DOUGLAS COUNTY FOOD POLICY COUNCIL
Monday, 16 January 2012, 7:00pm

location TBA, Lawrence KS 66045

The Food Policy Council seeks to identify the benefits, challenges and opportunities for a successful, sustainable local food system.  By advising the Douglas County Commission on public policies that will support local producers,preserve local agricultural resources and land, and create more local jobs, the F.P.C.. hopes to improve the community's access to a local food supply and distribution networks.  For more info go to Dg County Food Policy Council.
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LAWRENCE SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD

Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 5:30pm

location TBA, Lawrence KS 66045

The January agenda is not available yet.  The S.A.B. meets monthly to discuss any and all aspects of furthering sustainability policies and practices by the City of Lawrence government and private persons.  The public is welcome.  Minutes are finalized in about a month after each meeting http://www.lawrenceks.org/wrr/envadvisoryboard 
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KANSAS CITY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
Wednesday, 18 January 2012, 4:00-6:00pm
Mid America Regional Council, Rivergate Center 2nd floor, 600 Broadway, KC MO

The Environmental Management Commission promotes environmental awareness and resource efficiency to the City's leaders and staff, to assist the progress of Kansas City toward sustainability.  The General public is encouraged to attend and observe meetings and to join and participate in its efforts.  More information is at KC Environmental Mgt Commission

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GARDEN PLANNING & SEED ORDER WORKSHOP ¤ TRANSITION KAW VALLEY
Saturday, 21 January 2012, 1:00-5:00pm  -  FREE
location TBA, Lawrence KS 66044


The time for indoor seeding of your plant starts will be soon in February and March.  So now is the time to plan your selection of vegetables and order seeds.  Experienced gardeners from T.K.V. will teach you the best varieties and best seed houses, and help determine the quantities of seed needed for how much you want to grow. 
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URBAN FARMERS ANNUAL MEETING ¤ CULTIVATE KANSAS CITY
Saturday, 28 January 2012, from 9:00am-12:00pm
Rainbow Mennonite Church, 1444 Southwest Blvd., Kansas City KS 66103

Come meet other growers and supporters and learn about our projects over the past year.  We'll have pie, coffee, conversation, and learning together (and, if you'd like to bring a pie or two, it would be much appreciated!).  Founded in 2004, Cultivate Kansas City operates the Kansas City Community Farm, and trains folks as urban growers.  Their vision is for urban areas of small community farms, providing a livelihood for growers, and local healthy food for the community. 

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MISSOURI ORGANIC ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Thursday - Saturday, 2 February - 4 February 2012  -  $$$
Marriott Hotel at Union Station, 1820 Market St, St. Louis, MO 63103

An extensive slate of speakers include Dr. John Ikerd, University of Missouri Prof. Emeritus, Jeff Moyer of the Rodale Institute, Jim Long author of "Edible Landscapes", andJeffrey Smith presenting "Seeds of Deception" about the dangers of GE organisms (and right at the front door of GE giant Monsanto).  There also will be 67 workshops, a trade show, an organic cooking competition, and an auction.  More info and registration form available at - MOA Annual 2012 Conference.
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KANSAS PERMACULTURE INSTITUTE ¤ SPRING PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE
Wednesday, 8 February to 19 May 2012  -  $$$
Dreher 4-H Building, Douglas County Co-op Extension, 2110 Harper St., Lawrence KS


Students who complete this 72 hour course will receive a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Kansas Permaculture Institute.  The course will include ten 3-hour class sessions, six field trips, four practicum sessions, and a student project presentation.  Lead instructor will be Steve Moring, and assistant instructor will be Michael Almon, with consultation by Michael Morley.  The fee is $700 for the full course, and $600 if registered before January 2.  The Course Syllabus and registration form are available at - K.P.I. Spring 2012 PDC Course.  For more info contact Steve Moring at (785)691-7305 

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We welcome suggestions for Newsletter items.  
Send to paradigm (a) ixks .com


Join the Sustainability Action Network by clicking this link - Become a Member of S.A.N. - and follow the instructions.  The S.A.N. mission is to bring awareness of the global crisis caused by climate change, energy vulnerability and economic instability to communities in the Kansas River bioregion, and the tools needed to re-skill and re-localize our economy and create a more socially just and ecologically sustainable world.  


Current S.A.N. projects include:

1) Transition Kaw Valley - initiating transition to a relocalized post-carbon economy, and municipal-level Peak Oil response planning -Transition Kaw Valley

2) Kaw Permaculture Collaborative and Kansas Permaculture Institute - developing skills and resources for polyculture sustainable food production - Kaw Permaculture Collaborative   

3) Eco Village Land Trust - Designing and focalizing a sustainable intentional community near Lawrence.

4) Growers' Land Trust - organizing interested stakeholders to acquire prime farmland in the urban fringe for land-based economic development and regional food security.

5) Weekly Newsletter - informing and encouraging others to become active in the Sustainability Action Network, or other action driven groups.

6) Water Rights and Watersheds - protecting the water commons, the source of all life, from privatization and contamination, and restoring our watersheds.

7) Electric & Human Powered Vehicles - promoting neighborhood electric vehicles and utility tricycles, including infrastructure and pro-active regulations.

8) Energy Conservation & Renewables - advancing a green economy through decentralized renewable energy and conservation.

9) Collaboration with sister organizations - such as: Films for Action; The Light Center eco-village; Kaw River Valley Food System farm-based economic development; Transition Kansas City; Citizens for Responsible Planning; Kansas River Valley Growers fighting for local water rights; national efforts by the Sustainable Energy Network; the Kansas City Food Circle, the All Species Project, and more.

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To subscribe to this newsletter, please click this link »Subscribe to the Sustainability Newsletter.  Enter your name and e-mail address, and follow the instructions.  The system will send you a confirmation message with a "Confirmation Link" which you MUST click in order to complete your subscription confirmation.  If you don't get the confirmation message, check in your junk mail folder for blocked as spam.

Sustainability Action Network, P.O. Box 1064, Lawrence, KS 66044, USA

What's the Big Secret? Water Pollution from BIG CAFOs ~~ EPA needs public input...

Much of the pollution in U.S. rivers and streams today comes from the manure generated by CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), which confine thousands of animals on a single site. To determine the extent of the problem and how it might be better addressed, the public and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) need to know more about these facilities and the waste they produce. But unlike many other industries, CAFOs do not regularly disclose facility-specific information to the EPA--and the powerful interests behind CAFOs want to keep it that way.
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MY PERSONAL ADDENDUM TO THE WRITE-IN LETTER - It is important that this sort of regulation be formulated to monitor and control the big CAFO offenders, not to cripple and oppress our exemplary sustainable small farms and growers whose sustainable free-range methods do not pollute our environment nor do they threaten our community with rapidly mutating disease vectors.


To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
http://info.pewtrusts.org/site/Advocacy?s_oo=0FwYNmpIwiLV2a0KbshN0w&id=1269
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link or it wraps across multiple lines, then you may copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

blue bird bistro - beginning the new year with a bang

the green light is on and the champagne is flowing 

at blue bird bistro

benedicts & bacon tomorrow

red eye is on and the champagne is still flowing

beginning the new year with a bang 

we will be offering our full menu plus these specials and a pre-fixe offering New's Years Eve night  organic ginger orange vegan soup  $7 roasted garlic onion soup with a parmesan tuille  $7 Campo Lindo Farm chicken breast stuffed with house made dried tomato, basil andricotta made from Green Hills Harvest Dairy Farm, wrapped in Rain's Farm heritageTamworth bacon, served on house made pasta  $25 KC Buffalo bison tenderloin medallions Rossini, roasted Beau Solias Farm oystermushroom floret, organic broccoli buds and cognac sauce   $37 USA wild caught all natural scallops drizzled with a vanilla champagne sauce stackedon Thane Palmberg Farm sweet potato wafers and organic spinach, topped with Beau Solias Farm radish pea shoots    $39 house made quinoa cakes in a pool of smoked tomato and vegetable sauce with Thane Palmberg Farm heirloom fingerling sweet potatoes $19     house made velvet chocolate ice cream or grapefruit sorbet with candied ginger slivers  $9 Prefix - $55       wine pairing - $20  USA wild caught all natural scallops drizzled with a vanilla champagne sauce stackedon Thane Palmberg Farm sweet potato wafers and topped with Beau Solias Farm radish pea shoots     roasted garlic onion soup with a parmesan tuille KC Buffalo steak Oscar, blue bird styled with basil béarnaise and American wild caught Gulf shrimp cake over organic barley     velvet chocolate ice cream with candied ginger slivers

blue bird bistro thanks you for all your support through the years!!! Happy New Year - may 2012 be your best follow our year of farmers' tables at farmerstable.bluebirdbistro.com and LIKE us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kansas-City-MO/blue-bird-bistro/73291406623

FARM BILL ~ Can the 2012 Farm Bill protect the Ogallala Aquifer?

(NOTE: Can we assume that any route chosen will PREVENT THE XL PIPELINE FROM DELIVERING A DOUBLE-WHAMMY TO OUR FARMLAND? (that's grist for another article, we hope)  The arguments made here echo our own common-sense understanding of the abusive and long-term negative effects of conventional agriculture AND tar-sands development on our environment... the water comes first.)


FROM GRIST:
grist.org/farm-bill/2011-12-29-can-the-2012-farm-bill-protect-the-ogallala-aquifer

FARM BILL

Can the 2012 Farm Bill protect the Ogallala Aquifer?

29 DEC 2011 7:45 AM

BY JULENE BAIR

Kansas wheat.Photo: Brian McGuirk

My father farmed in Kansas and envied those lucky farmers in the wetter states to the east of us, who could grow 200-bushel corn and other lucrative crops like soy beans and sugar beets. He had to satisfy himself with wheat, a drought-tolerant crop first brought to the States from a place in Russia much like ours. There, they called such arid places "steppes." Here, we called them "plains."

To look at the pale-green buffalo grass that covered the High Plains, you would never suspect that an aquifer holding as much water as Lake Huron lay beneath. But we knew about the aquifer. Its waters seeped to the surface in some otherwise dry creek beds, feeding rare ponds where we sometimes went fishing. And my pioneer grandparents had drilled down into the aquifer and erected windmills that we relied on to pump the water we needed to exist.

The technology to tap more water from the aquifer arrived in the 1940s, but it wasn't until the mid-sixties that my family had saved enough to drill our first irrigation well. Bumper profits rolled in. By the time we sold our farm in 2006, we had five wells pumping 200 million gallons out of the aquifer every growing season. In all, Plains farmers were pumping 6 trillion gallons. That's 1.5 trillion more than the Colorado River carries to the Southwestern United States.

The Ogallala Aquifer sits below 174,000 square miles of crop and rangeland from South Dakota to Texas.The Ogallala Aquifer is vast. It underlies portions of eight large states -- 174,000 square miles of crop and rangeland all the way from South Dakota to Texas. But it is also invisible. So it's not surprising that until the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline erupted, few people had ever heard of it. Then for several months, its melodious name was broadcast all over the national news. Now that the aquifer is safe from the pipeline (for the time being), there's another risk worth examining:industrial agriculture.

Nebraska landowners stepped up to protect the Ogallala from potential pipeline spills. Now they should do their damndest to stop the overpumping and nonpoint-source pollution that have already made parts of it unusable. If it is not protected, then many parts of the aquifer will either run dry or be too polluted to use by the end of this century. This is especially frightening because it would take thousands of years for the Ogallala to replenish itself.

While in most cases groundwater is "owned" by states, which oversee the rights of farmers to tap it, the federal government greatly influences how much farmers use. Corn is one of the most water-intensive crops grown in the region, demanding over a foot of irrigation water in the western Kansas climate, and closer to 20 inches in hotter parts of Texas. Yet the federal government mandates ethanol production. Responding to the resulting increase in corn prices... (more at Grist.org...)

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT
http://www.grist.org/farm-bill/2011-12-29-can-the-2012-farm-bill-protect-the-ogallala-aquifer