Mar 5: Sustainability Salon on Food (Part I)

Marking two years since the first virtual Sustainability Salon, the 122nd salon (still on Zoom) will return to our annual focus on Food.  Our food choices matter.  To the climate, to the land, to our health, and to other animals involved in the process.  The 2008 film Food, Inc. explores several dimensions of the food system (currently available on YouTube and Vimeo).  More recently, this New York Times piece shows (in text and short videos) that many of these issues are as bad or worse today (note this interesting response from Civil Eats), and Only Human looks at ways looks at ways the food industry manipulates eaters.  Salons haven't been having our annual Wintertime Film Series during the pandemic, so I figured I'd point you to a few good ones.  Back to the actual salon...  we'll be talking about garden education, food access, food sensitivities, soil health, urban agriculture, and food justice.  This month's speakers will include:

•  ReImagine Food Systems is part of the ReImagine Turtle Creek Watershed & Airshed Communities initiative.  RiFS helps households in under-resourced communities east of Pittsburgh establish home vegetable gardens by providing structures, soil, seeds, plants, and education. We'll have an introduction from project coordinator Rhea Homa, and master gardeners Cristin Mitchell and yours truly (Maren) will provide an update on our expanded program, field questions, and invite volunteers for our upcoming activities.  

•  Master gardener Tamara O'Brien is founder and director of Plant it Further, raising awareness of native pollinators;  a founding co-president of the local chapter of Wild Ones, encouraging native landscaping to promote biodiversity;  a mentor for Pitt's Plant2Plate student garden;  and sits on the Pennsylvania Farm to School Policy Implementation Group and the national School Garden Support Organization Network.  She and her family have also learned their way around food sensitivities -- from allergies and dairy intolerance to celiac and lupus -- for nearly two decades.  They've become very creative with their food choices, and comfortable making their own gluten- and dairy-free baked goods (often decorated with edible flowers).  Tamara will share some of these insights, and help us sort out many different aspects of  autoimmune disorders and attendant food sensitivities.  

•  Miriam Cheng is a lifelong gardener, garden coach, educator, and landscape designer,  She owns and operates Wild Child Native Gardens, helping people understand how their landscape works (and how it can work) to improve their lives and the local ecosystem, and is a board member of Plant it Further.  She'll talk about soil health, and how we can improve it to grow more and better food.

•  Neashia Johnson has worked on environmental justice and food access in a variety of roles in Pittsburgh, from UrbanKind's Black Environmental Collective to the Hill District Consensus Group.  She's currently a board member of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, part of the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers Co-op, and an independent consultant.  Neashia will share her work on BUGS, the Pittsburgh Eco-Agriculture Leaders Initiative, Chatham's EnvironMentors program, the SOKO Market (tackling food apartheid in the Hill District), and PFPC's campaigns for the Good Food Purchasing Policy and the Food Justice Fund.  

•  If there's time, Maren Cooke will also hold forth on the many members of the Allium family.  How can they benefit our health, our tastebuds, and their garden companions?  How to grow garlic?  What's a scape?  How does a walking onion walk?  What's the tricky part of preparing leeks?  Plus bulb onions, chives, shallots, and ramps!

More speakers may be added as the date approaches.  The next salon -- Food (Part II) will take place on April 9th.  

In the meantime, a few other items of note:

•  If you'd like to learn more about law in the context of climate change, there's an ongoing environmental law conference happening in Oregon with free online access.  March 3-6, easy access (sessions are linked from the PDF program book).  There's a film screening and panel as part of it (Necessity:  Climate Justice and the Thin Green Line).  

•  If you'd like to explore local food here in Southwestern Pennsylvania -- and are comfortable in a crowded environment -- the annual Farm to Table Conference is happening March 4-13, in conjunction with the Home and Garden Show at the David Lawrence Convention Center (I hope you wear a very effective, well-sealed mask -- see the bottom of this section if you'd like a really great one for future outings).  

•  Starbucks is one of the many companies discouraging union organizing among its workers.  Some have succeeded, though, and employees at one of our local branches here in Pittsburgh are working to unionize.  This Saturday (March 5th) at noon, there'll be a rally to support the effort.  Come sing with the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, and hear from local luminaries like State Representative Summer Lee and Pittsburgh Councillor Deb Gross!

•  On April 7th, PennFuture will host a discussion among environmental artists Ann Rosenthal (familiar from salons 31 and 109), Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry of LAGI (here for salon 31), Stacy Levy, and Amara Geffen.

•  Two different events (at least) are in the works for Earth Day 2022 here in Pittsburgh.  On Friday April 22nd, a youth-led climate strike/rally downtown (email Ilyas to get involved);  on Saturday the 23rd, a grassroots event in Hazelwood celebrating forests, blueberries, collaboration, community, health, and sustainability efforts around Pittsburgh (email Matt to get involved).

•  In June, activists from all across Pennsylvania will gather in Harrisburg to call our government to task on climate change, fracking and pipeline hazards, and the necessary transition to a new clean energy economy.  The Pennsylvania Climate Convergence will take place over three days -- a festival with arts, education, and tabling;  a march and other actions around the city;  and a day of direct action at the Capitol.  Lots more information is on our web site (in development) -- and many opportunities to help shape the event!  

•  Are you a Penn State alum?  If so, you have an opportunity to help move PSU toward a more progressive, climate-aware stance.  Penn State Forward aims to place three young progressive alumni on the Trustee ballot, folks who prioritize climate, equity, safety, and transparency.  The election will occur in April.

•  Did you see the film The Story of Plastic, or the PBS doc Plastic Wars?  (and/or join us for Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon six years ago?)  ...What if you could bring up imagery of the toxic impacts of plastic production, and commentary by the people and communities living with them, over the world?  You can do all that with the interactive Toxic Tours tool.  Check it out!  

• Mask update:  Breathe99 masks (featured at November's salon on Pandemics and Air (video), and one of TIME's 100 Best Inventions of 2020) are now being distributed by Our Children Our Earth, a local purveyor of alternatives to disposables (as well as classy wooden toys).  Contact Dianne via OCOE's Facebook page, or call (412) 772-1638 to coordinate a curbside pickup.  

•  We cover a lot of important topics at Sustainability Salons.  If you're looking to get involved in any of them, feel free to connect with me (email with "salon" in the Subject is always a good method) and I can probably find a good match!  I also often post job opportunities on the Resources side of MarensList.  

Talks and discussion will run from 4 p.m. to 7:30 or so on Zoom (sadly, no potluck supper these days).  You're welcome to join the call for informal conversation after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the main program right around 4.  If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful.  If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away.  If you're not already on my Eventbrite list, please email me (maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to be added -- and let me know how you heard about salons!

For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum;  it's a mini-conference;  it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues;  it's a house party with an environmental theme.  Each month we have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic).  

Past topics have included forest restoration, the history of American consumerism, regional air quality, preserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modeling, approaches to pipelines, pipeline hazards, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the judiciary and fair elections, consumption, pandemics and air,  election law and activism, air quality and environmental justice, social investment,  local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme;  with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).

Coronavirus update:   As you know, people in Pittsburgh and around the world are sequestered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Social distancing is still the rule for most Americans.  That's a bit of a misnomer, though -- we need physical distancing to flatten the curve, but technology now allows for rich interactions even so!  I believe that community is one of our greatest strengths, so in March as events began to be cancelled, I hosted the first virtual Sustainability Salon via Zoom teleconference -- rather than gathering our usual 50-80 people in a contained space.   It went quite well (even engaging participants from hundreds of miles away), and we're looking forward to June's salon!  Please be sure to RSVP (via email with "salon" in the Subject: line, or via Eventbrite) so you'll receive the sign-on information.  

And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, think back to our evening sings -- we typically ran the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time was had by all.  Folks would bring instruments, and/or pick up one of ours.  Conversations would continue through the evening, as well.  With a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!