Taming Lido's invasives

By Cathy Zollo

Published: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 8:01 a.m.

LIDO KEY - A cool breeze cuts across North Lido Park, stirring sighs from Australian pines and drying the sweat on six volunteer lumberjacks.

Through the trees around them, you catch glimpses of blue -- the Gulf of Mexico to the west and to the east, Pansey Bayou.

Three years ago, when county workers and volunteers first attacked the riot of Brazilian pepper trees here, no water was visible through the underbrush. Not a whisper of wind made it back here.

The tangle of trees also made the city's largest park a haven for drug use and outdoor sexual encounters that drove away nature lovers and families.

"It was an area that you were afraid to go into," says Sandy Bower, who has vacationed or lived on Lido for the past 30 years. "It wasn't a safe place, and by no means was it a family environment."

But North Lido Park is again a favorite of nearby residents, birders and beachgoers, thanks to volunteer work and collaboration between the county and city.

It is also a favorite of birder, amateur naturalist and veteran police officer Jeff Karr, who took on this 71 acres as a personal project three years ago.

He gets distracted from talking about reclaiming North Lido and points out a peregrine falcon skimming the treetops.

"You also have some blue-gray gnatcatchers," he says. "I can hear those, and you have some downy woodpeckers, and you also have some red-bellied woodpeckers moving through with them."

Click here to continue reading article at Herald Tribune.com

Santa Comes Early for SLCO - SNN Video

Construction Company Willis Smith is donating construction repair to the building that was damaged over the summer as the result of a high-speed police chase through Newtown. Click here to visit the SCLO website and learn more about the Community Non-Profit.

Living Green - Locally grown organic food - WWSB Article & Video

Everyone has stocked up for Thanksgiving, trying to create a feast for family and friends. And some will do it with locally grown, organic foods.

Those who love organic produce know all about Jessica's stand in North Sarasota. They are firm believers that organic food grown here at home is a win-win.

Bill Pischer is harvesting some of his organic spinach. It will go on sale soon about a hundred yards from where it's grown at Jessica's Organic Farm. You can get an appetite walking down the aisles of produce - all ripe and ready to eat.

Loyal customers say it's a gold mine for those who love fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. "I'm a gercen therapist and I teach people how to become well by eating fresh, organic veggies...This is the place to come."

Owner Bill Pischer is a man of few words, but he does have an idea why people love what he grows. "The freshness. Something that isn't transported thousands of miles, something indigenous to the community...sure."

And this story gets even greener. Andrew Noune will deliver your fresh organic produce on his bicycle. "Bill Pischer has been doing a great job with this farm for the last 30 years, growing some of the healthiest, freshest food available. And what better way to get it than by a bicycle. There's no emissions, no money spent on gas, the environment is sustained and it just goes to prove these environmental solutions may be right under our nose all along and we just have to enact them."

Andrew says his longest delivery is about 7 miles one way. But he and his sister do have a car they can use for longer deliveries. 25% of their profits will go to the Alliance for Responsible Transportation, or ART, which promotes biking, walking and public transit in Sarasota.

Jessica's stand is on 47th Street in Sarasota. You can visit their website at www.jessicasorganicfarm.com/, or visit Andrews website at www.harvestcycle.com/.

As the price of oil increases, organically farmed food is the most profitable option

Organic food: no flash in the pan fad
Far from being niche, our research shows that as the price of oil increases, organically farmed food is the most profitable option

Peter Melchett
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday September 03 2008 15:30 BST

Are sales of organic food dropping as a result of the economic recession? Retail sales of organic food rose by 25-30% in 2006 and 2007 – worldwide, sales have grown by an average of 30% a year for 30 years. Some slowing down of growth is certain this year, as with all food sales. But the picture varies – Asda has seen their fastest-ever growth in organic sales in the first six months of this year, mainly because they have made more organic products available in their stores, and because they are attracting more customers. Waitrose say their organic sales are holding up. Half of our expenditure on food is now spent on eating out rather than in the supermarkets, and here organic sales are growing strongly. In the meantime, people buying organic fruit, veg, meat and other food through organic vegetable box schemes are enjoying the best-quality food at prices that are often the same or even lower than non-organic equivalents in the supermarkets. But farming and food is now the UK's largest industry actually producing goods rather than services, and all farmers and food manufacturers will suffer until the economy starts to recover.

While this short-term slow down in the growth of organic food is inevitable, a more fundamental question is whether this is the start of a longer-term trend. Have organic sales reached some natural limit? Is organic simply a fad, an expensive indulgence for well-off Guardian readers? As my colleague and fellow organic farmer Helen Browning said in a Guardian article last week:
Ethical shoppers are not just middle class faddists. The assumptions that those on less than middle incomes just don't care, can't be bothered, aren't interested in better food anymore, or the health of farm animals, or our environment, are hideously patronising and fundamentally flawed.

So is the idea that organic farming a food is simply a "niche".

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING ARTICLE AT THE GUARDIAN UK

47th Street House auctioned off

College students lament loss of communal home - The end of the 47th Street Saga continues

By Carol E. Lee
Published Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
Last updated Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 12:27 p.m.

SARASOTA — The north Sarasota house where New College students have lived communally since 1992 was sold in a public auction Wednesday morning for $100.

The buyer was HSBC Bank USA, which held the mortgage that the home's owner failed to pay. There were no other bidders for the house.

The tenants at "The 47th Street House," as it is called, vowed to again attempt to buy the home, even as they were told they had 10 days to move out. Six of them sat in the front row of the courtroom during the foreclosure sale of their residence, an anticlimactic event that took just minutes.

"I wish we could have done something," tenant and New College graduate Sarah Kell, 28, said after the sale.

"I felt a mixture of anger and frustration," added tenant April Doner, 25. "I really hope we can save the house."

The renters said they tried to buy the house after learning in January that their landlord had not used their $2,075-per-month rent to pay her mortgage.

They said the bank rejected their offer to buy the house.

The 47th Street House was built by New College student Al Leonard in 1992 with yellow pine and cypress lumber from local sawmills. His goal was to create an off-campus residence where New College students could live in a communal atmosphere.

The house has served that purpose ever since. Chores are divided evenly among the tenants, and they hold potluck dinners and house meetings every other week at their kitchen table. The tradition became threatened when Leonard, now 53 and living in Vermont, sold the home to Carmen Palomino for $190,000 in 2006.

Palomino said in an interview this week that she could not afford her mortgage after her homeowners' insurance increased.

"Heartbreaking," tenant Lynn Jacobsen, 26, said of the situation with the house. "It's part of our life."

Average Shoppers Are Willing To Pay A Premium For Locally Produced Food

ScienceDaily (Jun. 8, 2008) — New research suggests that the average supermarket shopper is willing to pay a premium price for locally produced foods, providing some farmers an attractive option to enter a niche market that could boost their revenues.

The study also showed that shoppers at farm markets are willing to pay almost twice as much extra as retail grocery shoppers for the same locally produced foods. Both kinds of shoppers also will pay more for guaranteed fresh produce and tend to favor buying food produced by small farms over what they perceive as corporate operations, according to the study.

“Our conclusion is that if a farmer wants to consider producing food for local distribution and marketing it locally, there are people who are willing to pay more for it,” said Marvin Batte, a co-author of the study and the Fred N. VanBuren professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State University. “We are not saying that we should be producing all of our foods locally, just that this may be a viable, profitable activity for farmers.”

And what’s good for farmers also benefits consumers in this case, said Batte, director of the research project.

“This is an indication that certain groups out there value locally produced food and if farmers deliver that, it makes these consumers happier, so it’s good for them, too,” he said.

Click here to read entire article at Science Daily.com