• Install and use your ceiling fans during the hot summer months to cut the cost of your electricity bill and save energy!

• Don't throw away dryer lint! Put it in your back yard for birds to build nests, or use it as kindling in your fireplace.

• Bring re-useable bags to the grocery store. Plastic ones tend to end up in the ocean.

• Make your own earth-friendly cleaning supplies! For easy recipes see here.

Would you like to help educate our club

members and the general public about environmental issues? New program leaders are needed to fill the vacancy of Program Chair and committee.

For more information contact Janet Larson

247-1876 or [email protected].

Do you like working with kids? Inner City Outings (ICO) could be for you! ICO is a community outreach program of the Sierra Club that provides youth who have little opportunity to experience nature with trips to area locations. ICO works with local schools and organizations to plan and conduct six to nine outings per year.

With the guidance of ICO volunteer leaders,

kids discover the beauty of wild lands and how

to enjoy these places without harming them. Interpersonal skills and self-esteem grow as a

natural result of teamwork and an active relationship with the outdoors.

Interested in leading this wonderful outreach

program or co-leading with others? We offer a

solid budget, a strong group of volunteers, training, and the help of our former leaders. What more could you want! To volunteer or to get more information, contact Debra Westman at [email protected] or Mark Pettigrew at [email protected].

We have all heard the saying: "you are what you eat," but may not have taken it as literal as it is true. Currently, there are only four major companies that control mainstream, packaged meat: Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef. This monopoly has industrialized agriculture and breeds animals like machines to keep up with the mass demand for our familiar, prepackaged beef and poultry neatly lining the grocery store shelves.

 On these farms, chickens are given growth hormones so their breast grows
larger, quicker, sometimes disabling them from walking. Animals are fed corn because it is cheap and makes them grow larger although it is only natural for them to graze on grass. Even egg laying hens are crowded together into metal cages, never allowed to see the light of day. Although convenient, these meats contain the additives and hormones that the animal was fed. The addition of all these toxins eventually enters the consumer's body leading to many illnesses.

Small, family farms are now a distant, fading memory as factory farms take over. Big business has once again succeeded in monopolizing agriculture, making sustainable, humane agriculture harder to maintain financially. Supporting small, local farms is not only healthier for you, but it stimulates local economy as well. Jim Warmke of A3 farms in Melrose, Florida is a prime example of good, old-fashion sustainable farming. "We must use the resources we have in a way that does not wear them out faster than they can be replaced or regenerated," said Jim. "Here I am talking about land, livestock, facilities and machinery, and of course, our skills and the work we can do."

Supporting local farms creates a much smaller carbon footprint than buying from  factory farms. On these factory farms, energy, water, and land are used to first grow the corn to feed the animal. Then, there is fuel spent on transportation of animal feed to the factory farm, the animal to the slaughterhouse, and the butchered meat to your local supermarket. This, in turn, creates more air pollution, a greater need for roads, which cause runoff and water pollution, and increased methane released into the atmosphere.

Alternative agriculture works with the ecology of the planet as a whole system, not against it. As Jim puts it: "We use complementary enterprises. For example, we raise poultry in our pastures and hay fields. This has the side effect of adding fertilizer to those places. We plant field peas, a legume that fixes nitrogen in the soil, and finish our lambs on the peas. We move the animals around constantly. The idea is to have a large number of animals in a small area for a short period of time. Move them on, then allowing the area to rest. This builds up the soil and the forage on it, improving it over time. We minimize our use of machinery and fixed facilities. These things cost a lot of money and eventually rust away. It's better to invest in stock that grows and reproduces."

"Ours we take from birth to harvest. We sell directly to the consumer. Our lambs are born here and processed at one of two local facilities. I tell customers that if they have been to our farm and to the butcher shop, they have been everywhere that lamb has ever been. Customers are encouraged to visit both places. The poultry has moved around even less, because we do the processing ourselves here on the farm. We [even] grow plants to feed our livestock. 

We intend to continue to adapt and refine our operation. Things change all the time on any farm, ours is no different. We just want to do our best to supply ourselves, our friends and our communities with good, fresh food. We will never be big business, that's just not what we are about."

As consumers, we have the power to create change through our purchases. Investing a few more dollars on local groceries may also invest in the future health of our families and our planet.

To read Jim's full story click here 

or visit his website