Green Mass Group

Integrated Urban Agricultural Systems

gmoke March 1, 2012 2

On Monday January 30th, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) held a public meeting at Suffolk University, halfway between the State House and City Hall, to change the Boston zoning laws to allow for agriculture throughout the city, making it easier for local residents to grow and sell fresh, healthy, foods in Boston and the greater Boston Metropolitan Area. Nearly 300 people attended. Boston currently has about 150 community gardens serving 3000 gardeners, the highest per capita of any US city. Now the city is trying to figure out how to change zoning to increase urban agriculture beyond gardening and household use into businesses and economic development.

Mayor Menino, the newly appointed chair of the food policy task force for the US Conference of Mayors, opened the meeting and the keynote address was given by Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc. (http://www.growingpower.org), non-profit based in Milwaukee, WI which also does work in Chicago, Detroit, Ghana, and around the world. Growing Power addresses social justice and food access issues through building local agriculture and farm-based businesses and Mr. Allen won the 2008 McArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant for his work on urban farming and sustainable food production. Growing Power has grown an underutilized 2-acre lot into a farm that produces enough produce, eggs, honey, fish and other meats to feed more than 10,000 local residents and employs more than 100 people on 20 farms, 13 farmstands, and a year round CSA.

Categories Environment Tags agriculture, Boston, Cambridge, cities, community gardens, composting, food, fruit trees, gardening, permaculture, resilience, sustainability

Local Energy Policy

scott_laugenour February 28, 2012 7

ASKING OUR TOWNS TO AFFIRM THAT LOCAL ENERGY POLICIES WILL SHAPE THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS: THESE POLICIES SHOULD INCLUDE SEEKING MEANINGFUL MEASURABLE ACTIONS TO DEVELOP ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES OF CONSERVATION, SOLAR, AND WIND, FOCUSING ON COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP.

Following the issuance of the Lenox Wind Energy Research Panel’s final report, the Board of Selectmen held a public hearing on February 27 and then voted 4-0 on February 29 not to pursue the project as it was outlined in a feasibility study it had received from Weston Solutions.

Lenox will continue to develop solar projects and conservation programs. I will continue to argue that wind energy development should not be taken off the table, even while acknowledging that the feasibility study for wind energy that was prepared by Weston Solutions was not thorough enough for any actionable proposal to be voted upon.

I submitted the following statement to the Lenox Board of Selectment on February 28, 2012. It includes a call to affirm the town’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions through a town meeting vote and by incorporating such an affirmation into the charge of an Energy Committee.

Testimony on Restoring Free Speech

scott_laugenour February 27, 2012 1

The Green-Rainbow Party offers the example in Massachusett politics of not accepting corporate financial influence. As I noted ten days ago, Beacon Hill’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary is holding a public hearing tomorrow, for which I submitted the following testimony today, in support of an effort to amend the US Constitution.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Thom Hartmann’s The Big Picture

eli_beckerman February 25, 2012 11

Great to see some progressive media giving Jill some attention. I’m pretty disappointed that Democracy NOW! has ignored her strengthening campaign.

Stein made the case for her Green New Deal and the 25 million jobs it would create for the same price tag as the first Federal bailout of about $700 billion.

Tags Green New Deal, Green Party, Independent politics, Jill Stein for President, Progressive Media, The Big PIcture, Thom Hartmann

Jon Huntsman makes the case for campaign finance reform, alternatives to duopoly

eli_beckerman February 25, 2012 0

Categories Democracy Tags Independent politics, Political Alternatives, Third party politics

The race for ballot access & matching funds heating up

eli_beckerman February 24, 2012 2

From the Jill Stein camp:

We are on the ballot in: Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia

…

Next major priorities include: New Mexico and Nevada

…

We are currently petitioning in: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Iowa, Indiana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia

Categories Democracy Tags ballot access, Green Party, Jill Stein for President, Matching Funds

Supporting ‘Citizens United’ Challenge

scott_laugenour February 15, 2012 5

The Citizens United decision worsened an already terrible situation of big-money influence in democracy. I support amending the US constitution to remedy the situation.

Such amendments require proactive purposeful resolve by individual state representatives, whose legislative bodies must ultimately ratify what Congress passes.

Please join me in preparing testimony in support of a piece of legislation currently on Beacon Hill for a public hearing later this month. Read on for details…

When elected to Beacon Hill I will lead in that resolve by example, advocacy, and action.

Wind Energy

scott_laugenour February 8, 2012 0

In response to a question from a Lenox voter that was posted on the wall of my campaign’s Facebook page about my position on ‘industrial wind in the Berkshires,’ I submitted the following text.

Public Transportation Advocacy in Berkshire County

scott_laugenour February 5, 2012 1

I am a user and an advocate of the public transportation system in Berkshire County. I have posted on this subject in a prior blog, too.

The board of the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority consists of appointees from the towns and cities in the network. I represent the town of Lenox and have provided the following report to the Board of Selectmen and citizens. It will be incorporated into the Town of Lenox 2011 report, published prior to town meeting and town elections.

The number one request of both employers and users is that the system operate later into the evenings and on Sundays. The legislature currently does not provide the funding that would allow a public transportation service that would better serve the local economy. I will work hard to change budget priorities to that the funding is there.

The president who fueled the fire of climate disaster

jandrews February 2, 2012 1

If President Barack Obama gets his way with his new energy policy, he may go down in history as “the president who fueled the fire of climate disaster,” according to the still stunned Green Party presidential frontrunner, medical doctor Jill Stein. Stein’s remarks were a delayed reaction to the President’s State of the Union Address in which the President proposed opening 75% of public lands to oil exploration, massively expanding drilling for natural gas, removing “red tape” that stands in the way of construction projects, and delaying any comprehensive approach to global warming.

“With his State of the Union speech, President Obama adopted the apocalyptic ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ platform of the most rabid Republicans. He is parroting the fossil fuel lobbyists in saying that our public lands and our environment should be sacrificed for the goal of increasing domestic oil production.”

“The President’s spin ignores the fact that our most pressing problem isn’t foreign oil, it’s what fossil fuels, both foreign and domestic, are doing to our planet. The President’s ‘all of the above’ approach to polluting energy is an alarming denial of the climate emergency we face and the urgent need to substantially reduce the amount of carbon we exhaust into the atmosphere. Our nation and human society around the world are already experiencing serious climate disruption. The President has given up the fight against climate change just when we most need to expand our efforts.”

Categories Environment Tags global warming, Obama, stein