Food Sovereignty - Reclaiming Our Agicultural System

John Peck is an economist by training and is the executive director of the Family Farm Defenders, a group started in Wisconsin to address the concern of small dairy farmers, but the group's focus is community-wide. This talk he gave to a small group at the Illinois Renewable Energy Fair is an eye opener (I seriously look at food labels now as a result). John engaged the audience so that they did their own thinking about food, rights, locality and equity.

The Family Farm Defenders is based in Madison and is a member of international farmer advocacy organization Via Campesina.

No Comcast Playback? (there's still the web)

It's been a a month since GreenScreenMC was last seen on McHenry Public Access. We've endeavored to resolve this, but as of now, the reason for loss of playback is unknown. We've left messages by phone and at the front desk for the playback person, the only public access staff remaining since Comcast closed the McHenry studio, but he's not responding.

I know Comcast doesn't particularly want to be in the public access business anymore, particulary since rival AT&T got cable regulations re-written so that if the state doesn't require public access, no municipality can require it independently.

We'll keep producing material for the web, though.

20% energy from Wind by 2030?

Sept 26 and Oct 9 will be Hans Detweiler's presentation on wind energy to the Illinois Renewable Energy Associations annual fair at Oregon, Illinois. According to Bob Vogl, Hans was one of the people that helped Bob & Sonia start the energy fair, now in its seventh year. He was formerly with the State of Illinois Climate Change Task Force and the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and is now with the American Wind Energy Association.

Hans summarized the recent AWEA and the Dept. of Energy report on how the U.S. can obtain 20% of it's electrical energy from wind by the year 2030. The major challenge seems not to be turbine site identification and construction, but re-configuring and updating the energy grid (think new generation DC long distance transmission) to get the electricity from the states where the wind is to the states where the load demand is. Robert Lieberman suggested in his presentation (airing Sept 15, 22) that, because of expense, there hasn't been much interest in the past in modernizing the national grid by the utilities that use it to buy and sell power. To get this done, there will need to be public support, and two senate bills are intended to assist this with this.

A Carbon-free, Nuclear-free Roadmap

Dave Kraft of the NEIS presents a plan to convert nationally to renewable electrical energy generation with no carbon emissions and without resort to nuclear energy by the year 2050 in this 2-part presentation. Taped August 9th, 2008 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's annual fair in Oregon, Il.

The End of Cheap Fossil Fuel

Energy policy analyst Robert Lieberman muses on the implications of the end of cheap fossil fuel in this keynote presentation at the Illinois Renewable Enery Association's annual Energy Fair on August 9th, 2008 in Oregon, Illinois.

John Richter - The Wolf is at the Door

John Richter of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Education explains in this update to his Crude Awakening presentation why he thinks peak oil (the beginning of the end of global supply) has already arrived, and what we and our leaders need to be doing now to transistion away from petroleum. Two parts. Recorded June, 22, 2008 at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association's ( http://themrea.org ) annual fair in Custer, Wisconsin.

Project Quercus

The Land Conservancy's Lisa Haderlein tells what Project Quercus (http://conservemc.org/projquercus.htm) is doing to to stem oak loss in the county and begin active re-planting, as well as what citizens can do to help. Taped February 23rd at the Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee's Natural Landscaping Seminar held at McHenry County College.

Voices of the Land

Joel Greenberg reads from his book Of Prairie, Woods and Water with music and readings by Tom and Chris Kastle, which brings to life the voices of early settlers and visitors to the Chicago region and their impressions of the natural surrounds. Taped April 27th, 2008 at Garfield Farm Museum in Kane County. Event produced with a grant from the Illinois Humantities Council. Of Prairie, Woods and Water is published by University of Chicago Press.

Mike Nowak - Choosing a Landscape Professional

Midwest Ecological Landscaping Association ( http://www.melaweb.org )co-founder and WCPT radio host Mike Nowak provides questions homeowners should ask before hiring a landscaping professional. Presentation given to attendees of The Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee's Natural Landscaping Seminar held February 23, 2008 at McHenry County College ( http://www.thewppc.org )

The Home Landscape - Naturally

Presentation by Keith Nowakowsi, author of Native Plants in the Home Landscape for the Upper Midwest on how he approached his own home's native landscaping. Taped February 23rd at the Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee's Natural Landscaping Seminar held at McHenry County College February 23, 2008. http://www.the-wppc.org

The Land First Ordinance

The ammendments to the county's subdivision ordinance explained. What's conservation design, and what would trigger its requirement on a particular parcel of land slated for residential development. Part 2 of a presentation taped Jan 15, 2008 at MCC sponsored by Imagine McHenry County. Features real estate attorney Joe Gottemoeller, USDA NRCS's Dave Brandt, conservation design consultant Dennis Dreher, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County's Lisa Haderlein and conservation developer Jack Porter.