Expanding Local Food Production through Aquaponics and Hydroponics

Presentation by speakers and panel discussion recorded at Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County 2014 speaker series.

Andy McGhee (Chicago Botanic Garden's Aquaponics Specialist) is the staff aquaponics specialist for the Chicago Botanic Garden's Windy City Harvest (WCH) educational programs. He designed, implemented and manages the operations of two aquaponics systems for the Chicago Botanic Garden's WCH: One, a modest educational and research system for the WCH adult education program, is located at Richard J. Daley College. A larger training and small production system is located inside the Cook County Jail V.R.I.C. facility. He has worked for many years as a construction project manager, specializing in historic and landmark building re-use/development. He has a life-long interest in community development, the natural environment and issues of environmental sustainability.

Kirk Cashmore (local hydroponics farmer) is the owner of Cashmore’s Produce and Ponics, a farm started in 2010 with a different approach to traditional growing. Its current approach is vertical hydroponics with a twist of adventure, ingenuity, and self-sustainability. Now, after three years of construction, design, and tweaking a barn for inside year round food production, the operation in Harvard, Illinois is capable of producing 3200 heads of lettuce and 180 tomato plants. Heated with one bio mass heater and a homemade solar air furnace, its fuel footprint is relatively small. Kirk delivers his fresh produce weekly to local establishments and farmers markets.

David Nabong is a garden and horticultural specialist with Brew and Grow Alternative Garden Supply located in Crystal Lake, IL. This position involves product support with sales and horticultural support for hobbyist customers as well as being the liaison to area high schools that benefitted from Brew and Grow's donation event. At MCC, David is an adjunct instructor to the horticultural department, currently teaching Topics in Horticulture: Intro to Hydroponics. This semester long course involves hands-on experience and theoretical study on hydro/aquaponic plant production and system maintenance.

Green Means Go! Jobs, Renewable Energy, and the Future of Power

From the Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County 2014 Speaker Series. Sarah L. White is a Senior Associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), a national policy center at the University of Wisconsin dedicated to high-road economic development. Her work focuses on the intersection of labor, education, and energy policy at state and federal levels, and she is a national expert on jobs and training in the emerging green economy. White has written widely on education for sustainability and social change, including, most recently, Greener Reality: Resilience, Equity, and Skill Formation in a Cleaner U.S. Economy. She sits on the Leadership Council of the National Skills Coalition, chairs the National Working Group on Solar Career Pathways for the US Department of Energy, and served as the Secretary’s policy advisor for federal employment and training programs at Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development.

Recorded February 4th, 2014 at the Luecht Conference Center, McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Linda Mallers of FarmLogix, LLC speaks about working with local farmers to relieve growers of logistical concerns, and help the Chicago market to support local businesses and put dollars back into the Midwest economy.

FarmLogix, LLC is a farm-to-plate online aggregation platform connecting local farmers with commercial kitchens, cafeterias and schools. Growers each get a free webpage listing their products, and smaller farms can aggregate their availability to meet institutional needs. The network includes 300 growers within a 250-mile radius of Chicago.

A separate division offers home-delivered boxes of local farm products for non-profit and school fundraisers, as well as for corporate wellness programs,

Taped February 5, 2013 at Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County speaker series at the Luecht Conference Center, McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Fracking 101: What, Where and Why? High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas

Presented by Jack Darin, director, Illinois Sierra Club. Taped February 12, 2013 at the Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County speaker series at the Luecht Conference Center, McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, Illinois

Towards an Economics of Shared Prosperity in a Finite World

Presented by Jon Erickson, professor of ecological economics and the interim dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. Explores the foundations from which to build an economy for the century of the environment, designing resilient systems that align human nature with the realities of growing resource scarcity. Taped January 22, 2013 at Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County speaker series at McHenry County College.

Erickson has published widely on energy and climate change policy, land conservation, watershed planning, environmental public health, and the theory and practice of ecological economics. His books include "The Great Experiment in Conservation: Voices from the Adirondack Park" (2009), "Frontiers in Ecological Economic Theory and Application" (2007), "Ecological Economics of Sustainable Watershed Management" (2007), and "Ecological Economics: a Workbook for Problem-Based Learning" (2005). He is also an Emmy award-winning producer of films such as the four-part PBS series, "Bloom," on sources and solutions to nutrient pollution in Lake Champlain. He was the Managing Director of UVM's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics from 2009-2012 and is past president of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania and a visiting professor at several universities overseas. He is a graduate of the doctoral program in natural resource economics from Cornell University.

Engaging In Transformation

Nancy Tuchman, director of the Institute of Urban Environmental Sustainability (IUES) at Loyola University Chicago, speaks about how Loyola is seeking to become a carbon-neutral institution, which engages all stakeholders in the process of sustainable decision-making considering the social, economic and environmental impacts through a transformative educational experience.
Recorded at Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County 2013 Speaker Series

Rating Your Energy Thinking

Taped at the 10th Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon,Illinois on August 13th, 2011.
Kurt Cobb discusses four rates of change and their implications for our energy future in this keynote address at the tenth annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, Illinois on August 13th, 2011. Kurt Cobb is the author of the peak oil-themed novel Prelude, and has contributed to the blogs Energy Bulletin, The Oil Drum, and Scitizen, and is a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas-USA.

Moral Ground - A Discussion of Environmental Ethics with Kathleen Dean Moore

Kathleen Dean Moore speaks with a diverse audience including environmentalists, people of faith and public servants about the issues raised in the book she and Michael P. Nelson edited, Moral Ground - Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. Taped June 20, 2011 at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Moral Ground - A Discussion of Environmental Ethics with Kathleen Dean Moore from Steve Wenzel on Vimeo.

Healthy Food and Schools

Presentation on alternatives to typical school lunch programs in the region, including farm to table. Taped November 6 at the 2010 McHenry County Bioneers conference at McHenry County College. Warren King, Seven Generations Ahead "Fresh from the Farm" school project; Melissa Ritter, Heartland Flavors Ltd.; Chef Zak Dolezal, Dukes Alehouse & Kitchen;

Building a Low-cost Solar Hot Air Collector

A workshop by Robert Croteau of Springfield's City Power & Light. Taped August 8, 2010 at the IREA 2010 Energy Fair, Oregon, Illinois.

Building a Low-cost Solar Hot Air Collector from Steve Wenzel on Vimeo.

Testing Efficiency of Building Materials & Designs

Victor Zaderej describes new approaches to maximizing energy efficiency and how it's being quantified with instrumentation from Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Especially interesting is a discussion of the use of phase-change materials in insulation to multiply the effective R value. Taped August 8, 2010 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's Energy Fair at Oregon, Illinois.

Testing Energy Efficiency of Building Materials & Designs from Steve Wenzel on Vimeo.

Peak Oil: A Community Response

Bloomington, Indiana Peak Oil Commission chair Dave Rollo provides an introduction to peak oil, the probable social consequences and his city's pro-active response. Taped August 7, 2010 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Fair, Oregon, Illinois.

Peak Oil - A Community Response from Steve Wenzel on Vimeo.

Energy Saver Homes - Field Demonstrations

Senior research engineer Dr. William Miller of the Building Envelopes Research Progam at Oak Ridge National Laboratory presents four homes built to study high-efficiency lighting, water-to-air and water-to-water heat pumps, Energy Star appliances, reclaiming heat from gray water and other techniques.
Taped August 8, 2009 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's Eighth Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, Illinois.

The State of Wind - 2009

A portion of an update on the state of wind power development in the United States by Hans Detweiler of the American Wind Association. Taped August 9th, 2009 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's Eighth Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair at the Ogle County Fairgrounds in Oregon, Il.

Rapid Holocene Deglaciation of te Laurentide Ice Sheet - An Analogue of Our Future?

Dr. Anders Carlson of the School of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wisconsin discusses the rapid deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the early holocene and it's implications for our future. Taped August 9, 2009 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's Eighth Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair,
Oregon, Il

The Path to Low and Net-Zero Energy Buildings

Andy Robinson of SEDEAC Building Research Council at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois discusses SEDAC's work to encourage energy efficiency in commercial buildings with the hope to reduce energy use by 70%, followed by a reduction to net-zero energy use as renewables come online.
Taped August 8th, 2009 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Association's Eight Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair, Oregon, Il.

On the Path to Deep Energy Reductions in Existing Buildings

Linda Wigington discusses the feasibility of achieving deep energy reductions in existing dwellings through the North American Thousand Homes Challenge. Linda Wigington is founder and special project director of Affordabe Comfort, Inc.

Taped August 9th, 2009 at the Illinois Renewable Energy Associations's Eighth Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, Illinois.

Beyond Sustainability - Surviving Oil Depletion and Climate Change with Community Solutions

Pat Murphy discusses the background & implications of global oil depletion, why the most widely-discussed "sustainable" and "green" solutions are inadequate, and offers viable energy curtailment tactics for food, housing and transportation. Pat Murphy is the executive director of Community Solutions, has organized numerous conferences on climate change and peak oil and is the author of
Plan C - Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Taped August 8, 2009 at the Eigth Annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair, Oregon, Illinois. The fair is produced by the Illinois Renewable Energy Association.

MC2030 07/23 Meeting

Parts 1 and 2 below of raw video of the first of the Regional Plan Commission working meetings to refine the 2030 plan following a round of citizen comment. An unpopular map is discarded, a plan to evaluate a possible reliever airport is retained and a discussion of whether a sizable portion of land between Marengo and the tollway should be included in an ag map are among the actions and discussions.
Note: due to hosting size limits, these two videos are presented in low resolution.

MC2030 Plan Commission Special Meeting

Four members of the McHenry County Regional Plan Commission called for a special meeting to discuss possible proxy voting, concerns about the time left to complete the plan, how public comment should be treated, the mapping policies and the non-policy portions of the plan text. Raw video of the 2 hour meeting in Parts 1 and 2 below. Learn about the plan at www.mchenrycounty2030plan.com

MC2030 RPC Special Mtg 7/16/09 Part 1



MC2030 RPC Special Mtg 7/16/09 Part 2