FREE SEEDS FOR EDUCATORS
Educators in Chico are invited to pick up free packets of garden seeds (vegetables, herbs, flowers) for use in their classrooms, school gardens, community gardens, and other educational settings.

Yes, free. Totally free. Do you know an educator in town? Tell them to come by!

Pick up seeds at the Chico Country Day School garden (102 W. 11th Street) on Monday, February 22 or Monday, March 1 between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., OR, come to the Seed Exchange at GRUB on February 28--See below!

SEED EXCHANGE FOR ALL!
The Chico Permaculture Guild and the GRUB Cooperative are hosting at Seed Exchange at the GRUB farm on Sunday, February 28 from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at the GRUB Farm, 1525 Dayton Rd.

Bring labeled seeds to exchange/swap. The potluck-style exchange will feature hundreds of varieties of seeds as well as educational information about getting them to grow. A limited supply of soil, pots, and envelopes will also be available. Children are welcome and encouraged to participate.

In addition, educators with a school ID card will be welcome to take seed packets from the "Teacher Boxes." These seeds are intended to be used in educational settings (i.e. not for personal use.)

Contact Stephanie (828-6390) or Francine (965‐1073) for more information.

"Join us as we celebrate seeds, local food, and genetic diversity!"

There are quite a few of us who believe that the Chico Unified School District can do better when it comes to the health and quality of K-8 meal offerings.

Pizza in mildly varying forms was on the menu four days a week in November, including twice on Thursdays, when it was offered for breakfast as well. Most of the other main entrees were equally as. . .Well, you can see the menu for yourself on the Nutrition Services website. Be sure not to miss the "peanut butter and jelly uncrustables."

"I-5 Live" on KCHO rebroadcast their coverage of this issue a couple of weeks ago, I was not very impressed with the guests, who represented two local school districts.

I have heard two basic points in the District's defense. The first goes something like this:

"We we are doing the best we can with the money we have. Organic costs more, and we have not found a local source that can provide product in the form we need (minimal prepwork required) in the quantities we need at a price we can afford."

And the second:

"The students who eat at our cafeterias get better nutrition and healthier food than they would if we did not offer any meal options."

With these two points may have their validity, that has not kept the district from being accused of both setting the bar too low and failing to think outside the box. While there are murmurs of a pilot project to improve and localize cafeteria food over at Hooker Oak School, I think there is plenty more that the District can and should be doing. Here are my thoughts for tackling Chico's K-8 culinary conundrum:

1) DOWNSIZE & SIMPLIFY
The present lunch menu offers up to three entree's per day, and the breakfast menu rotates through ten different offerings over a two week period, including healthalitious "Chocolate Chip Muffins." Nutrition Services needs to provide tasty, nutritious meals, but they don't need to be a restaurant. Cut costs by going down to one lunch entree each day, and for breakfast, eliminate foods such as chocolate muffins which sugarload the students in a way that drives teachers bonkers.

2) FOCUS & IMPROVE
Zero in on those menu items that have potential for improvement or even diversity: Burritos, a sandwich bar, or even the existing salad bar. Money saved by downsizing can be put back into quality. If it doesn't look like food--like chicken nuggets--drop it from the menu if it can't be replaced with the real deal.

3) EDUCATE
Yes, a lot of students qualify for free or reduced cost meals, but there are many others who buy their meals outright. I would like to see the responsibility of keeping children well-fed be returned to the parents. Nutrition Services can help here by educating the parent community about how to prepare inexpensive, healthy meals for their children. How? By having an educational presence at key school events such as Back-to-School nights where they give cooking/meal prep demonstrations and pass out literature, such as pamphlets with 20 or so different recipes and ideas of where and how to buy cost-effective healthy food items. A simple breakfast or lunch recipe should have its own location on every weekly flyer the school sends home. And lastly, schools should continue to embrace the nutrition education programs offered by programs such as Harvest of the Month offered by the Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium (SCNAC), The Butte County UC Cooperative Extension, Opt 4 Fit Kids, and others.

4) ROLE MODEL
Over the course of the year, students will see their teachers eating. Therein lies a learning opportunity, by simply encourage school staff to make a concerted effort to partake of healthy meals.

These items to me represent the "low hanging fruit." The golden apples, so to speak, are seeking out and working with local growers to provide local, fresh, in-season produce, and coming up with creative inexpensive ways to get the food prepped in a manner appropriate to a cafeteria setting.

Do you have any additional thoughts? Feel free to send ideas to me--I'll post'em, but better yet, send them on to district superintendent Kelly Staley:

Superintendent Kelly Staley
Chico Unified School District
1163 East 7th Street
Chico, California 95928
Or e-mail: kstaley@chicousd.org

The fact that the board of the Butte County Air Quality Management District failed to adopt the proposed wood stove and fireplace rule has left me shaking my head.

The proposed rule needed 6 yes votes out of 10 board members to pass. Only 7 board members were present; there were only 4 yes's.

My mind turns first to the "coulda-shoulda-woulda's":

--Would the addition of the three remaining board members yielded two more yes's?
--Could my letter to the board have been stated differently?
--I spoke at the meeting, with my baby daughter on my hip. Is their something that I might have said differently that could have swung two more votes?
--What if more people from the community had been able to turn out and speak, or write more letters? Could I have done more to get the word out?

I was not the only one surprised at the vote--All four board members who voted yes simultaneously did a double-take when the tally was made.

So what happens next?

--We will continue to see smokey air during the winter, as the voluntary programs that have been put in place by the district to curtail PM 2.5 emissions don't appear to be working.
--Perhaps the City of Chico will adopt their own air quality ordinance.
--If our region remains out-of-compliance with regards to PM 2.5, the feds can step in and limit access to transportation funding (I don't understand this piece too much, but a few speakers and board members didn't seem to thrilled by this idea).

On a personal level, my wife and I might consider taking some longer vacations away from Chico in the winter, for the sake of our daughter's health.

If others make this same decision (or even decide to move away permanently), this would be an unfortunate blow to Chico's economy, especially during the holiday season.

On Thursday, September 24th at 10:15 am the board of the Butte County Air Quality Management District will hold a public hearing, after which they will give their final vote on whether or not to go ahead with new rules to reduce Chico's winter particulate pollution problem. If adopted, the rules will restrict wood burning on the most polluted days to cleaner burning wood stoves (EPA Phase II certified). The meeting will be held at the Chico City Council Chambers, 421 Main St.

The proposed rule includes exemptions for people whose homes have wood as their only source of heat, and also for people undergoing economic hardship.

I, for one, am ready to forgo the ambiance of a fire in the fireplace on a cool winter's eve in favor of having improved air quality. A crisp January bike ride at eight in the evening should not feel as if you are cruising through the smoke of one massive campfire.

If you are in favor of this proposed rule but cannot make it to the meeting (it is at an awkward time) the last day to submit a letter to the Air Quality Management District voicing your opinion on this issue is Tuesday, September 15. Click here for the complete text of the rule ("Appendix A: Proposed New Rule 208").

I myself have submitted a letter that echoes this blog post.

Say what you will about those who are taking exception to the proposed Butte County Mosquito and Vector Control District Substation on Otterson Drive for environmental reasons. Some argue that local enviro's are simply gumming up the system, resulting in thousands of dollars in additional studies and delays to an inevitable project.

But in my opinion, this issue boils down to the following questions of public health:
--What is the best method to control the spread of West Nile Virus?
--If chemicals are to be used, where should they be stored?
--Is a site adjacent to a waterway and within few hundred yards of two farms (Riparia and GRUB) an appropriate location for the storing of these chemicals? (In the photo, the waterway is in the thick green band of trees snaking roughly diagonally through image, the proposed substation would be located in the vacant lot at the end of Otterson Drive).

I have made this point before: While protecting the public health from West Nile Virus is important, I believe that the District can and should be aggressively pursuing less toxic and more effective strategies that don't require the use, transfer, or storing of the chemicals pyrethrin and piperynol butoxide (PBO).*

And I certainly don't think that using public funds to build a facility to store insect-killing chemicals so close to two farms that supply hundreds of Chicoans with organically grown veggies each week is a good idea, ESPECIALLY when said facility for some reason has been declared exempt from the environmental review process.**

*While these are the chemicals that are commonly sprayed in Butte County's urban areas, it is a reasonable assumption that other chemicals used by the District will be stored at the site as well, including the organophosphates Naled and Malathion.

**Local environmentalists are especially concerned about this last point, which is presently under deliberation by the City Council.

Hooray for Enloe, following in the footsteps of Kaiser and other hospitals, for establishing a weekly farmers market.

The market will run ever Tuesday from 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. from June 2 through September at the Enloe Conference Center's North Parking Lot, 1528 Esplanade (at 5th Avenue.)

Some are concerned that the market may adversely compete with Chico's other three farmers markets, but I disagree. I think both its location and day of the week will help to fill a void, rather than create competition.

So how do you get fresh local produce in Chico?

TUESDAY, 2 - 6 p.m.: Enloe Farmer's Market
WEDNESDAY, 7:30 am - noon: North Valley Shopping Center Farmer's Market
WEDNESDAY: 6 - 8 p.m.: Gardeners Swap Meet Free! (Locations vary, details soon!)
THURSDAY, 6 - 9 p.m: Thursday Night Farmers Market, Downtown
FRIDAY, 2 - 6 p.m.: Chapman School Farmers Market, Chapman Elementary School
SATURDAY, 7:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.: Saturday Farmers Market, 2nd & Wall Downtown

ALSO:
GRUB Community Supported Agriculture (food pickups at Dayton Road Wednesday evenings)
S&S and Chico Natural Foods both support local growers throughout the season.

The loss of midwife Lisa Catterall's association with Enloe has made news in both the Enterprise Record and the News and Review.

Why mention this here? Because by treating childbirth as a natural process rather than a medical event, births attended by midwives have been shown to be just as effective as hospital-based physician-attended births, (if not more so) at concluding low-risk pregnancies in a safe and joyous manner. And it is cheaper, too.

A routine hospital birth in the U.S. often can cost $8,000 to $10,000, with higher bills for cesarean section deliveries that now account for 31 percent of U.S. births.

By comparison, home-births attended by a midwife average around $2000 (though lab costs and additional fees can double this).

A 2006 Canadian study found that on average each midwife-attended birth in a hospital setting saved their health care system $800 ($700 U.S.) over births attended by physicians. Home births saved $1800 ($1572 U.S.).

Reasons for the savings included a shorter hospital stay by the mothers and babies, lower rates of caesarean sections, and a reduced need for additional medical interventions.

The irony here is that in California, it is very difficult, if not outright impossible, to get an insurance company to cover home-births, no matter how qualified and experienced the attending midwife.

Those of us who give birth at home in Chico (there are two practicing home-birth midwives in our town) must pay out of pocket, AND some percentage of our insurance premiums are covering someone else's $10,000 routine hospital birth.

Don't get me wrong. Even though our daughter was born at home, I fully appreciated that Enloe was just down the street should complications have arisen. Similarly, had my wife's pregnancy been "higher risk" we also would have taken the hospital route.

While I respect and support women who believe the hospital is the safest, most comfortable space for them to conclude a low-risk pregnancy, it is sad that there are many that choose this path over home birth for monetary reasons (Again: Hospital births are covered by insurance, home births are not).

On a larger scale, however, it is even sadder, that on a societal level, home births and midwives are perceived by both the establishment as well by the vast majority of the American public as something on the fringe, rather than as a legitimate alternative to a hospital birth. As one of my friends so succinctly put it, "Your daughter was born at home? On purpose?"

Yes.

Two hot topics for Tuesday night's (February 3) City Council Meeting at 6:30 p.m. Exercise your right to make your opinion known.

From S.W.A.T. (Safety Without Added Toxins):
The Chico City Council will be reviewing recommendations related to the Butte County Mosquito Vector Control District's (the District) practices and we need your help!

SWAT! (Safety Without Added Toxins) and the public (YOU!) will have the opportunity to provide valuable input regarding:

--Extensive notification requirements, including disclosure of all chemicals used
--Education, habitat reduction, ways to avoid or reduce exposure
--Personal experiences
--Share your story about exposure to fogging!
--Organic gardening concerns
--Where did all the bees (and other beneficials insects) go?

Chico's future: No Spray!

We urge you to please come and show our City Council members and the District that we want active participation in decisions being made that concern our health and well-being for generations to come!

From the Chico Healthy Air Alliance:
The Chico City Council will discuss new recommendations on reducing Chico's PM 2.5 pollution from household wood burning at its meeting Tuesday 3 February. If adopted, the recommendations from the City Council's Sustainability Task Force would change the current voluntary 'Check Before You Light' Program into a mandatory one for the winter of 2009.

Over 20 local Medical Professionals submitted a joint letter to the Chico City Council in advance of the Feb 3 meeting. "As local medical professionals," they wrote, "we have first hand experience of the serious health hazards associated with the high levels of air pollution in Chico. High levels of particulate pollution are known to cause and aggravate cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, respiratory infections, asthma attacks, and other lung problems including abnormal lung development in children."

"We feel it is our responsibility to emphasize the gravity of the air quality situation in Chico. It is a community responsibility to tackle air pollution at its source, whatever that may be. When considering whether and how to budget for, prioritize and move ahead with new measures to clean up the air, we urge you to bear in mind that the advantages in reducing the enormous cost to the public health."

For full study go to http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/4/376
Air quality data is available at www.arb.ca.gov

For more information contact Luke Anderson by phone on 530 680 5713 or email ChicoHealthyAirAlliance@gmail.com

The city council agenda can be found online at: http://www.chico.ca.us/common/_mod_minute_list.asp?grp_id=58

A group of concerned community members is mobilizing to move/nudge/push/cajole/badger the Chico Unified School District towards adopting a District Wellness Policy that will direct the district's Nutritional Services department to incorporate locally purchased organic fruits and vegetables into school cafeterias as well as reduce or even eliminate processed, pre-packaged foods.

While verbally supportive of the concerns of the these citizens, the CUSD Nutritional Services Department is at best wary of addressing the requests of the group, essentially stating that though the nutritional health of our students is their number one priority, money remains the bottom line.

LaDawn Hall echoed these sentiments in the ER this past Sunday when she lamented about the costs of "going organic," pointing out the price of organic products (such as milk) can be up to twice as much as conventially-produced foods. She writes:

"I've come to the conclusion the principal difference between a regular food product and one marked "organic" is about $12. That colleague's lunches, for example? Each one could have kept my family of five in Froot Snax for several weeks. . . There's really no contest for me. . . I cannot imagine a reality in which a claim of organic would mean more to me than my money, no matter how well the economy were doing."

I find both of these points of view extremely depressing and short-sighted, especially considering the number one issue: The health of our kids.

I found this sticker attached to the top of the San Jose Mercury News this past November. It would be great if the powers that be in our county had the backbone to implement such measures.

In the mean time, those of us for whom wood is our key source of heat should do what we need to do to stay warm this winter, but let's keep an eye out for those rebate programs to help purchase more efficient EPA certified wood-burning stoves. (Unfortunately this program was not offered in 2008).

As for those of us who would like light the fire to "set the holiday mood," I would instead recommend trying out these smoke-free ways of staying cozy during the winter months:

--Rent your favorite winter movie with the family while cozied up under piles of blankets and pillows
--Cook a seasonal meal: Winter squash soup, hot cider, cabbage salad, and fresh-baked cookies
--Dance around the house
--Read a good book in bed