Newly Launched: City Atlas

City Atlas' first "Atlas Beat," a weekly map featuring our top-pick of postings on the site.

by Carina Molnar

For the last year I have been working on a project called

City Atlas

, a user's guide to all things sustainable in New York City. This endeavor is the closest thing to having spawned a child that I have experienced thus far. It was certainly a labor of love. And it just launched yesterday!

City Atlas offers a daily feed of ideas, events, and tips to enjoy in a sustainable city. Interactive maps trace the city's changing present and possible future, while content throughout the site features news bits, choice nuggets of information and wisdom, and interviews with experts, thinkers, and ordinary New Yorkers. The site gives everyday people like you and me tools for climate change mitigation and access to some good old-fashioned fun in and around New York City.

Here are a few simple ways you can be part of the work we do:

• Like us on Facebook.

• Visit the site and find 1 entry (just 1!) that interests you and please leave a comment. Feel free to post comments to your own relevant stuff. (like, beer blogging for example)

• Follow us on Twitter if you do that. And tell all your friends on Twitter that they should follow us.

To learn more, visit

http://newyork.thecityatlas.org

.

Chipotle Hops Aboard the Sustainability Train

It's certainly odd to think of a mainstream foodsource as paving any inroads toward sustainability. And yet that's exactly what the folks over at

Chipotle

are doing.

In a new program they're calling "Food With Integrity", Chipotle chains seek to utilize as much sustainably raised food as possible; buying local wherever feasible and supporting family farmers who give their pigs room to run and offer veggies a chemical-free life cycle.

Of course, the "gourmet burritos and tacos" joint wasn't always a bastion of sustainable food distribution. In fact, the company used to be partially owned by none other than

McDonald's.

Kudos to Chipotle and the other food chains in its wake making ethically farmed food in vogue.

To learn more about sustainable food and life cycles, be sure to tune in to

Moving Planet

, an international day of action coming up this Saturday, designed to help move the world beyond fossil fuels and focus instead on sustainable means of living, eating, and working.

Internationally Renowned 'Painting Experience' Comes to Arts on the Square Nov. 4

The North Country Arts Council will host a three-day painting immersion workshop called "The Painting Experience" Nov. 4-6 at Arts on the Square in Watertown.

In this workshop, everyone is a beginner. All experience levels are welcome, including those who have never picked up a paintbrush. The course is an adventure into color, form, and image where no rules apply. Students will be asked to paint directly from intuition.

The Painting Experience appeals to those who are interested in the dimensions of the artistic/creative, healing/therapeutic, and meditative/spiritual aspects of expression.

Students will be given the environment, methods, facilitation, and overview with which to do in-depth self-exploration. The goal is free-expression, with an emphasis on the creative process rather than technique or expertise.

Facilitating the workshop is Matt Belay, a professional painter based out of North Carolina. Materials will be supplied. Cost for the three-day immersion is $295. For more information and to register, visit www.processarts.com.

Since its founding in 1976, the Painting Experience has touched the lives of thousands of people around the world by enabling them to explore their creative processes in an atmosphere of respectful non-judgment. Arts on the Square is located at 52 Public Square in Watertown.

Warming up to Soy Spray Insulation

Better Farm is up to two totally off-grid structures, the Birdhouse (powered with a small DIY solar setup and built with locally mined wood) and the Greenhouse (built with donated old windows and locally mined lumber, and utilizing passive solar).

But our biggest project to date, the Art Barn, is a task totally unlike the other two in that it involves a complete overhaul of an existing, on-grid structure: taking a 1,400 square-foot hay barn and transforming it into a totally green, state-of-the-line artspace, studio, and gallery. We've utilized found materials, upcycled items like overstock and/or discarded windows from a local hardware store and storage lockers marked for the dump over at Fort Drum, done much of the work ourselves, sought out energy efficient means to power the space, and scheduled our first on-site visit next week with

One Block of the Grid for our upcoming 10-panel solar system.

All of this is very well and good, but left out a major player in any renovation project: Insulation.

For smaller projects in and around the house, we've utilized 100% recycled cotton batting insulation, which is so eco-friendly and nontoxic you can actually rub your face in it. Makes for a very pleasant change from the days of masks, gloves, and long sleeves and pants to avoid fiberglass fill and other nasties.

Disadvantages to the recycled batting insulation are cost and effectiveness—the stuff we got from Lowe's was only R-19. So I began looking into other green options. Spray-in fiber fill is good and cheap, but continually settles over time

and doesn't add anything to the integrity of your walls. Then I discovered spray foam installation, which can strengthen walls but is often a toxic mix of chemicals you wouldn't want blown your way in a breeze let alone left to sit in the walls that literally surround you.

Then betterArts board member Scott Mueller tipped us off to Demilec.

These guys offer a Heatlok Soy 200 spray foam barrier that adds to the integrity of your walls, seals in all the gaps and cracks that might exist in your structure, is made from recycled plastic bottles and soybeans, and is in general just a totally amazing way to insulate your home or office. For each inch of sprayed soy insulation, you get an Aged R-Value of 7.4 (we're doing three inches on all the walls and the ceiling of the Art Barn's first floor). This insulation also offers five barriers: air barrier, insulation, water barrier, vapor barrier, and drain plane.

The company estimates that its Heatlok Soy 200 sprayfoam helped to keep 12 million plastic bottles out of landfills in the last year alone. It's not cheap, but adding to the barn's strength as a building, offering a great water barrier to the elements, and potentially (with wood stove installation) keeping the Art Barn at a sweet 75 degrees all winter long are all very attractive options.

Needless to say, we've decided to give them a try. Negotiations are underway for our Heatlok Soy 200 application to be completed in the next couple of weeks. We'll of course be documenting the process—and our thoughts—along the way. Stay tuned!

Want to find out more?

Demilec USA

1BOG Home Solar Power Discounts

Photos of Better Farm's Art Barn renovation so far

Survey to Examine Key Issues Facing Arts & Culture in the North Country

A survey released by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council seeks to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and key issues facing the arts and cultural sector of the North Country.

Individuals taking the survey will have the opportunity to contribute data that will be collected and shared with members of the North Country Regional Economic Development Council as its members create a strategic plan for the economic development of this region.

The North Country Regional Economic Development Council is part of a statewide effort in New York to focus on economic development strategies and initiatives. The arts and cultural sector has been identified as a "strategic cluster" in the economic development of the North Country region.

To take the survey, click here.

The North Country region includes Clinton, Essex, Hamilton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, and Lewis counties.

Call for Artists: 2011 Fine Art Show in Watertown

To download the application and for more information, click here.

Artist-in-Residence Brian Purwin Provides 'Bluegrass for Breakfast' at Local Festival

Brian Purwin plays violin. Photo/Erin Fulton

It seems like since arriving at Better Farm a little more than one year ago, Brian Purwin has played violin with everyone.

From the house band on Friday nights at the Dancing Dog to solo practice sessions during a part-time stint at the local wine store; from jam bands in smoky clubs to classical music as brides take the aisle, Brian's become a bit of a celebrity around town. His work has been utilized for full-length album recordings, private violin and piano lessons, and everything in between.

One of Brian's biggest efforts musically in the last year has been to get into the bluegrass circuit. And so, with due diligence and commitment, he has: as a major player in this year's "Bluegrass in the Vineyards" music festival held Aug. 27 and 28 at Coyote Moon Vineyards in Clayton, N.Y.





That festival featured local and national bluegrass artists picking and playing on-site at the winery, a two-day craft fair and market, and all the food and drinks you would ever need.

Brian's Foggy River Band performed Saturday and Sunday:

Foggy River Band is from left: Brian Purwin, Nick Piccininni, Chad Darou, Liza Atkinson, Perry Cleaveland, and Jim Treat. Photo/Erin Fulton

To contact Brian about private violin or piano lessons, to to book a gig, e-mail info@betterarts.org. To learn more about our betterArts residency program, click here.

Fall-ing into Autumnal Gardening at Better Farm

Raspberries growing like crazy in our raspberry patch.

Sure, we've got a couple of weeks before autumn is truly upon us. But at Better Farm, the gardens have sent a clear message that summer's a thing of the past. Instead of being overloaded with summer squash and cucumbers, the crop boom has changed to Brussels sprouts, raspberries, soy and lima beans, and our second round of lettuce. Here's a photographic tour of what's happening out here:

Baby Brussels sprouts

Round two of lettuce

Lima beans

Our second batch of onions going strong

Birdhouse gourds

Soybeans

Cabbage

Leeks

Celery

Stop in at our farm stand to get in on some of this organic freshness! And as always, we've got a ton of tomatoes and string beans. Anything we're out of, there's more in the garden so don't be shy!

For more information about Better Farm's gardens, visit www.betterfarm.org/the-gardens.

Ones to Watch: Bushwick City Farm

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Bushwick City Farm

has launched a new

campaign to expand its programming

of free food, clothing, and educational workshops for the community by spearheading an effort to turn a third vacant lot in the Brooklyn neighborhood into a mini-farm growing organic produce and eggs.

"Bushwick City Farms is a network of open spaces run by neighborhood volunteers that provides free food, clothing and educational programs for the community," Masha, the group's founder, told us. "Centered in the heart of Bushwick, Brooklyn, the farm creates a unique opportunity to experience active models of responsible food production. In addition to the farming practices at the farm's main location, we build and help maintain vegetable gardens for local public schools, host school field trips and youth service groups, hold free beginner's English classes for speakers of other languages at a nearby location, and coordinate with local businesses to distribute bread and fresh produce donations."

The vacant lot at Stockton Street and Lewis Avenue has for 30 years harbored violence, illegal dumping, and other illicit behavior which climaxed last August with a homicide. Bushwick City Farms volunteers this April cleared the garbage, spread wood chips, and planted flowers. Their idea? To convert a negative space into a positive one that offers tangible benefits for the community. Sounds like the

Better Theory

if I've ever heard it.

"All help we receive is on a volunteer basis," Masha said. "All materials used are recovered from the garbage or paid for by individual donations. We collaborate with property-owners for the free availability fo their space and in turn everything that the farms provide is also free. We operate solely on a 'give what you can, take only what you need' basis.

The group's already managed to meet its $5,000 goal, but additional donations will help with programming, seeds, and the acquisition of future farm spaces. Learn more about the campaign and how you can help

here

.

For more information about Bushwick City Farm, visit their website at

http://bushwickcityfarm.wordpress.com

.

DIY Pizza Oven: Part I of II

We were lucky enough to have staff member-at-large Tyler Howe stay full-time at Better Farm for the month of August. That meant no computer breakdowns for anyone in the house (or the hamlet of Redwood, for that matter), higher morale as we wound down the summer session of internships and artist residencies, and the ground-breaking for Better Farm's homemade, wood-burning pizza oven.

Tyler's a handy guy, but he's never built a pizza oven before; so there was a lot of research involved before he set the first spade into the ground. Any construction projects in the North Country have to take into account

frost heave

, heavy winds, extreme temperature ranges, and six months (on average) of winter. Piece of cake!

To start, Tyler staked out the 6' x 6' spot on the lawn where the pizza oven would go and he (with the help of intern Soon Kai Poh) dug a couple of feet down into the ground:

Into the dug hole went drainage gravel to help combat the floodlike waters of early spring, and to secure the pizza oven's base. Then it was time to set nine 2x2 pavers down in a square:

After letting them settle for a day or two, Tyler pushed some sand between the cracks and used a level to make sure the oven's bottom was sitting flat. Then it was time to build the base. This involved finding someone on Craigslist who was getting rid of a bunch of rock. This turned out to not be a problem; which makes me wonder just how different the 1970 Better Farm crew's stories might have been had they not decided to spend the better part of a week driving around in a pickup truck, collecting rocks for the addition on the house:

Putting in the library, 1970.

One trip to pick up the rocks was all it took (thanks to Jaci Collins, Eric Drasin, Soon Kai Poh, and Tyler for making that trip, and David Garlock for lending me the pickup to do the work with), and Tyler set to work piling them up into a horseshoe shape:

Han Solo and I inspect Tyler's work.

The Man.

Note the various levels of rock and sand:

To stabilize his creation, Tyler lined the inside with cinder blocks before laying down another set of pavers on top of the whole thing. The wood will be stored in the space between.

Left to do:

• Lay a hearth stone on top of the pavers

• Construct the dome with fire brick and mortar

Stay tuned for Part II of this project!

For more information about this project, please e-mail

tyler.howe@betterfarm.org

.

A Brief Rant on the Ever-Precarious, Desperate State of the Union

In spite of moves throughout his term toward

clean-energy tax credits

and the implementation of the first

fuel-efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks

, the president on Friday announced his decision to reverse positioning on tougher air-quality rules that some experts say would have reduced instances of premature deaths and heart attacks annually by 6,500.

The Washington Times reported Sunday that a "

slew of White House retreats on environmental issues has 'green' voters seeing red—and threatening political consequences for President Obama in next year's election

." This came at the heels of the aforementioned loosening of air-quality regulations and protests last week in defiance of Obama's proposed

Keystone XL pipeline extension

:

Everyone's favorite mermaid made a Splash and got arrested in D.C. last week at an XL pipeline protest.

And of course, let's not forget the total lack of governance that contributed to one of

BP's pipes bursting under the Gulf

.

Obama's most recent turning-of-tail has to do with changing the "ozone standard", which basically breaks down the amount of parts-per-billion allowed to be released into the atmosphere by U.S. industry. Though Obama's administration previously claimed the ozone standard of 75 parts per billion (set by the

Bush administration

in 2008) was based on outdated science, the new standard of 70 parts per billion (which the EPA and NRDC estimate would result in 4,300 fewer premature deaths and 2,200 fewer heart attacks annually by 2020) has been nixed. Ignored. Forgotten about. In fact, Obama cited the tragic economic climate as proof that protecting the environment at the cost of American jobs was, quite simply, not worth it.

Which brings me to my rant.

In order for us to have the luxury to play games with politics (in fact, to have politics at all) and the division of power; to invent an idea of currency that is totally abstract and without any actual basis in the real world; to make wonderful inventions and to live in them as though they were as literal as the trees that grow and the wind that blows; in order to do any of these silly human things—to make civilizations and destroy them, to obsess over material gains, to build great skyscrapers and jetset and work a 9-5 job and lobby congress and to invest and gamble and win and lose...

We have to, fundamentally, be able to breathe and eat and have shelter. Before we can worry about job loss in America, or our footing in the international economy, we have to remember we're animals who have to be able to breathe and drink water and eat food. And that the more we poison those things, whether by dumping oil in the water or ignoring the toxins we emit into the air or ripping down trees for big agriculture so forests eventually turn into deserts, the closer we bring ourselves to the point of no return, literally speaking.

Yes, in a short-term way you can create big, fancy water treatment plants that will allow the richest among us to drink the best water money can buy. You can make gated communities with poisoned, treated sod and no bugs at all. You can make more and more car factories (even some within

inexplicably "green" structures

), you can farm salmon indoors, you can break apart entire mountains and make pretty bands of gold to show how in love you are. You can keep doing these things, but the One Great Truth about sustainability is that these things, done in these ways, simply can't go on forever. The system itself is unsustainable.

So the longer we choose industry over environment, jobs over air, corporate loopholes over water, well, the less sustainable we are. And the closer we come to that dreaded point of no return. Come on, Mr. President. You who would be our "Yes We Can" agent of change owe it to those who believed in you to put fundamental elements of survival over the monetary gains of private interests and some conceptual bottom line. We can't keep pushing the pesky issue of finite natural resources out of the way to keep big business happy. Doing so secures only one thing: that we're going to run out of the very things we need the most.

Just a little food for thought.

Want to get even more worked up? Recommended reading:

What We Leave Behind

, by Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay.

Start a Traveling Compost Pile

A few hours' worth of compost from the Redwood Tavern in Redwood, N.Y.

Now that I've for two years lived in a place where everything (including disposable plates) is composted, it pains me to travel anywhere—even out to eat—and to consider the amount of wasted food. Nowadays, even if the food at a particular restaurant is no good, or all that's left on the plate is a piece of decorative leafy green, I take it to go and put the leftovers in my compost bin (or feed the food to the chickens, who absolutely loooooove takeout).

For many people working in the food-service industry, there is no compost system in place to deal with food scraps; and in many cases, you're going to have a hard time convincing non-believers of the upside of separating plate refuse into compost and regular trash containers (not that you shouldn't try—you should!). But if you can't get people to join you, why not simply take matters into your own hands?

If you're going to be a weekend guest at a friend's place, or if you take on shifts at your local tavern or eatery, or if a bunch of friends of yours get together to rent a beach house to enjoy these last weeks of summer, consider bringing along a container to stash food scraps in (remember, no dairy, meat or bones!). For those of you trying to create a lot of compost, this is a great way to up your bounty and diversify your biodegradable matter. One night in the kitchen at a restaurant can equal up to a month's worth of compost for someone who lives alone! And again, if you've got chickens, they'll be thrilled at the varied diet you'll be supplying them with.

Composting in new places, and in front of people who don't already compost, is a great way to spread the message of how easy and beneficial the process is. Once a person sees how much food is kept out of a landfill—and, down the line, how much unbelievably rich soil is created—it's hard to avoid making believers out of people.

Local Volunteers Lay Out New T-Ball Field in Redwood

Work crew: Thanks from left to right to Eric Drasin, Fran Farren, Erin Fulton, Tyler Howe, Nicole Caldwell, and Soon Kai Poh.

Volunteers yesterday placed bases and laid down foul lines for a new T-Ball field in Redwood, N.Y., to be enjoyed by the public.

With bases purchased by the Redwood Neighborhood Association and lime donated by Brooke Sourwine of Alexandria, residents of Better Farm and volunteers from the Redwood Neighborhood Association yesterday met to chart out the lines, measure for bases, and lay the whole field out so the space can be used by local children. Here are photos from the afternoon:

 

 

This is the latest in a series of community outreach projects undertaken by Better Farm, including participation in the Redwood Field Days parade, helping to paint the post office, sponsoring a group mural in Watertown, and volunteering at the Redwood Historical Society.

To find out about upcoming volunteer opportunities, please contact us at info@betterfarm.org.