The United States is entering the fourth year of its deepest downturn since the Great Depression. The official unemployment rate is rising again, and labor force participation among many groups has plummeted to historic lows. A stillborn economic “recovery” has distributed 88 percent of its benefits to corporate profits and one percent to wages and salaries. The financial press is full of warnings that we have forgotten the causes of the collapse and are doomed to repeat it. Ordinary Americans, pollsters tell us, have little faith that the economy will improve, and attribute hard times to the misdeeds of capitalists.

If ever there was a time to challenge economic orthodoxy, this would be it. Yet there has been no effective movement in the United States to ease the suffering of millions, shift patterns of growth and investment, and make job creation a priority. Handed opportunity on a silver platter, progressives have failed to seize it. Understanding that failure is the key to reversing it.

Why no jobs movement?

The most immediate explanation is that there has been no mass protest by the jobless. Since the beginning of the recession, none of the pillars of the progressive community—organized labor, community organizations, civil rights groups, youth and student groups—have invested deeply in organizing the unemployed. Some online jobless networks have emerged, particularly around the extension of unemployment benefits, but they’ve acquired little focus, mass, or momentum.

To be fair, the challenges of organizing the jobless are formidable. In contrast to past recessions, today’s unemployed are widely dispersed rather than concentrated in particular industries, constituencies, or communities. They often hold themselves responsible for their condition and feel a strong sense of shame and powerlessness. Three decades of conservative politics have legitimated a radically individualistic ethos and eroded the once widespread belief that unemployment is a collective problem that society is responsible for fixing.

Moreover, the solutions to large-scale unemployment aren’t obvious. There is no shortage of thoughtful and creative ideas for job creation: infrastructure banks, work-sharing, community jobs, “on-bill” financing of energy projects, worker-owned businesses, lowering (not raising) the normal retirement age. But none of these has captured the imagination of progressives, much less the public at large. Without a compelling solution to point to, it is difficult to sustain protest.

Behind this policy conundrum is a more fundamental political obstacle. Progressives generally assume that public concern about unemployment translates into support for aggressive government intervention. But the majority of Americans believe that only business –not the public sector – can create “real” jobs. A fundamental skepticism about government has led many to conclude that cutting public spending is the best way to create jobs, or to accept high unemployment as “the new normal.” Winning policy change in this climate requires more than good ideas; it requires mass political education.

All of these problems are mutually reinforcing.  In the absence of a mass movement, ideas for change have little weight. In the absence of strong, compelling ideas, people lack the confidence to challenge ideological orthodoxy. Without the reality of people in motion, it is hard to generate a sense of hope and potential for collective action.

In sum, progressive efforts to promote job creation face a classic threshold problem. Incremental strategies—whether in the form of policy analysis, public education, community organizing, or local economic development projects—have a hard time getting lift off. The issue is simply too big, too baked into our economic and political structure. Only something on the order of a social movement can achieve the scale and intensity required to shake up the status quo and create space for a serious effort at job creation.

Pre-conditions 

Social movements, by nature, cannot be programmed, but neither are they entirely spontaneous. As the right has demonstrated in recent years, certain activities and investments can foster the conditions from which movements emerge. These activities include:  

Relentless outreach and recruitment: The current base of progressive activists is simply not large enough or broad enough to support an effective movement for jobs. We need to bring in lots of new people—hundreds of thousands if not millions—who are jobless themselves or passionately concerned about the impact of unemployment on their communities.

Creating space for authentic conversations: Movement-building requires opportunities for people to make sense of their personal experience, in reflection and conversation with others.  Some of this must be in person, in small groups that offer diverse perspectives with sufficient intimacy to build trust. Online and social media are great tools for exchange of ideas and mobilization of people, but they do not substitute for face-to-face conversation.

Identifying and nurturing grassroots leadership: Social movements rely on a deep stratum of leaders with the capacity for autonomous action and close alignment on values, principles, and goals. These leaders often seem to appear out of nowhere, but they are usually the product of an active cultivation process that includes information, training, and political education.  Like authentic conversations, leadership can be facilitated through online tools but almost always requires some “face time” and one-on-one relationships to thrive.

Developing a clear story: Ask a progressive why so many Americans are unemployed, and the answers one might get include Wall Street, free trade, corporate criminality, lack of public investment, structural inequality, bad schools, a flawed growth model, and much more. There is truth to all of these explanations, but they don’t add up to a cogent story. Creating a coherent economic narrative means choosing some elements to highlight and subordinating others. The same goes for policy solutions—if the list is too long, no one will remember it, much less fight for it.

Building strategic alliances: Movement-building is not well served by a progressive ecosystem dominated by short-term, transactional relationships. Even when progressive organizations play well together at the tactical level there is too little strategic coordination to take on really big, ambitious projects—like full employment. We need to create deep institutional partnerships that build on the complementary strengths of organizations and focus talent and resources on the hardest challenges.

Putting it into practice

These are the guiding aims of a new project on jobs and the economy by the Center for Community Change and its affiliate, Change Nation. Through conscious experimentation, we seek to build a robust network of community-led “action pods” that can simultaneously pursue local job creation strategies and unite around a common national agenda.

Want Jobs? Reclaim the Dream
Van Jones is leading a national mobilization to rebuild the middle class—through decent work, fair taxes, and opportunities for all.

At present, for example, we are using a movement-building model originally developed by the National Organizing Institute to train thousands of grassroots leaders in how to connect their own personal story to a broader economic narrative. We are collaborating with Van Jones and a host of national groups to develop a working message on the economy and a short list of demands for change. And in partnership with MoveOn.org and other groups, we conducted more than 1,000 house meetings on July 16-17 where Americans could meet with their neighbors to make sense of their experience with the economy.

It is too early to predict what will come of these experiments. What we have learned for certain is that Americans have an intense hunger for authentic conversation about what is happening to their country, and a strong desire to work with others in their community to create jobs and renew the economy.

Portia Bougler was amazed when 21 neighbors—ranging from age 16 to 85—showed up at her house meeting in Chillicothe, Ohio. “We had to keep grabbing chairs, but I was thrilled by what people said, their passion and commitment for change. Everyone signed up to volunteer.” Similar reports came from meetings in living rooms, urban cafes, suburban diners, homeless shelters, and hundreds of other venues across the country. If this energy can be captured and sustained, we can create a national jobs movement, a movement of scale with soul.    

Seth Borgos wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. Seth is director of research and program development at the Center for Community Change. He has also worked for the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, an alliance of more than 100 grassroots organizations, the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, and ACORN. He is the co-author of This Mighty Dream, a pictorial history of social change movements in the United States.

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Organic cotton production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture. Organic cotton represents 1.2 percent of global cotton production, according to the Textile Exchange Farm and Fiber Report 2010.

1. Organic and Fair

Much of the clothing we purchase every year carries hidden environmental and social costs. Growing non-organic cotton, for example, uses copious amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and water. That’s one concern for people who want to make low-impact, ethical choices as consumers. Another issue is that clothing sold in the United States is often produced in the developing world, in factories with poor wages and working conditions. To ensure that you’re buying fair labor clothing, look for companies that are transparent about their production process. Green America’s National Green Pages is a good source of information if you’re looking to buy the most sustainable and fairly produced clothing available.­—K.V.

• Interested? Visit greenamerica.org
  

2. Swap Some

Before you toss your old clothes into the nearest charity drop box and go shopping for new ones, consider a clothing swap. You can arrange one yourself with friends in your living room or take part in a clothing exchange with a difference. Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a community clothes-swap party that also raises funds for nonprofits.

The cost? A bag of old clothes and a donation of no more than $10. Once you pull your finds from the communal heap, volunteers at sewing and silkscreen stations help you decorate and mend your “new” clothes. Artist Wendy Tremayne founded Swap-O-Rama-Rama with a “no mirrors” rule. Swappers give each other face-to-face feedback instead.

Clothes swaps are an attractive alternative to buying, given that the average American household spends $1,725 every year on apparel. But even more attractive is the assurance that

The EPA estimates that each person in the United States throws out 10 pounds of clothing every year.

your new outfit won’t support sweatshop manufacture or farming with harmful pesticides.­—L.H.

• Interested? Find a wap or start your own by visiting swaporama.org.

3. Recycle to Insulate

You can wear recycled cotton—or use it to insulate your home. Home insulation is available that is made from 90 percent post-consumer recycled denim and cotton fibers, uses less energy to manufacture than traditional insulation, contains no fiberglass or formaldehyde, and doesn’t off-gas.

The cotton industry’s “From Blue to Green” campaign showed that consumers are eager to recycle when it collected more than 40,000 pairs of old jeans in 2010. These were used to make insulation that was then donated to community housing projects.—K.V.

4. Make It With Old Jeans

Reuse your old jeans to create a tool belt or gardening apron. Cut the legs off as if you were making a pair of cutoffs. Cut along the seams of the inner legs, and cut out the front fly. Trim the back into an apron shape, leaving the pockets intact. If the waistband is too small, cut off the front button and use an old belt to hold your tool belt in place. Sew on strips of leftover denim to hold hammers, etc.

You can leave the cut edges raw, finish them on the sewing machine, or apply some leftover latex paint on the edges to prevent unraveling. ­—K.V.

5. Wear Local

We’re more likely to find evidence of the “buy local” movement in our refrigerators than in our closets. A pair of organic cotton jeans leaves an 85-pound carbon footprint after its 10,000-mile journey from the field in India to the store in North America. That’s no walk to the farmers’ market.

That’s why Rebecca Burgess’ challenge—a year of wearing only clothes made from materials sourced within 150 miles of her front door—is especially innovative. Of the 20 pieces in Burgess’ wardrobe, her favorite is what she calls the “Golden Pants,” made of local, organic, color-grown, undyed cotton.

Burgess started the Fibershed Project to show what really sustainable clothing production looks like. She and other textile artists produce stylish, eco-friendly clothing from local materials.

The results shown on the Fibershed blog are so desirable that you’ll be tempted to try a sustainable clothing project yourself, like dyeing wool using homemade natural plant dyes.

Burgess is raising funds through the project to build a solar-powered fabric mill in Northern California. That would make wearing local easier—and show what can be done elsewhere. —L.H,

Krista Vogel and Lily Hicks wrote this article for New Livelihoods, the Fall 2011 issue of YES! Magazine. Krista and Lily are editorial interns at YES!

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Standard water-based sewage systems account for about 30 percent of household water use: Even low-flow toilets use 1.6 gallons of water with each flush.

Composting toilets don’t use water and are odor-free and sanitary if maintained properly. In a matter of months, they break human waste down into unobjectionable compost. Municipal planning authorities across the country are coming around to the idea that composting toilets are not only better for the environment, but safe for public health, too.

One example comes from a private elementary school in Seattle with 233 students. The Bertschi School’s new science wing is designed to be completely self-sufficient, which includes composting human waste. A vacuum flushes the toilet into two composting tanks, which can hold a total of six months’ worth of waste. Janitors dump bark dust into the tanks to add carbon to the mixture, and slide a handle in and out to aerate.

Composting toilets can cost more than $1,000 at home stores, but the Humanure Handbook says you can do it yourself. Mount a toilet seat atop a 5-gallon bucket. Use sawdust to cover your “business,” eliminate odor, and encourage the composting process. Use undyed, unscented toilet paper. Add the results to the rest of your compost, making sure it’s safe from flies, rodents, and the like. Some people empty the bucket into a container like a 55-gallon drum.

This only works with a well-tended compost pile that gets hot enough to kill any pathogens. Experts recommend composting for a year to add a margin of safety, since common germs and parasites don’t survive that long in soil.

The result will make great compost for trees, flowers, fruits, and fruiting vegetables, although cautious gardeners avoid using it on root crops. Contact your County Health Department to find out the regulations about composting toilets in your area.

Oliver Lazenby wrote this article for Beyond Prisons, the Summer 2011 issue of YES! Magazine. Oliver is an editorial intern at YES!

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Imagine a neighborhood with clean air, safe places for children to play, and abundant green spaces—all the attributes of a healthy community. Many people lack these basic amenities and I ask myself, why? Are these fundamental needs not the rights of all people?

Majora Carter has spent a large part of her life fighting for environmental justice and promoting the idea that "you don't have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one." As a child growing up in the South Bronx, she watched her once thriving neighborhood disintegrate under the weight of poverty, industrial waste, and the worst kind of urban planning. Subsequently, pollution rose, health rates declined, and the economy weakened. Carter began fighting for the revitalization of the South Bronx and secured a $1.25 million federal grant to redevelop the south Bronx waterfront to bring environmental improvements to her community. 

 To continue this fight, Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming underserved urban communities into sustainable places to live. Her work at SSBx boosted the creation of environmental education programs, green job training, and community projects. Carter now serves as the President of the Majora Carter Group, where she concentrates her efforts on environmental remediation with clients.

People like Majora Carter make me believe that a healthy and sustainable community is indeed attainable for all people. Her work promotes the idea that a collaborative model where government, developers (business and industry), and community unite to create environmental justice is possible. A clean green economy can exist where all people can thrive and live healthy sustainable lives.

Joanna Gangi: There is a major social equity gap in the environmental movement. Why do you think that has been the case? What can we do to make our movement more inclusive?

Majora Carter: Most real social change in societies comes from the advancement of equality. The American Revolution, the Suffrage movement, Labor Rights, Civil Rights, even the Internet. 

The environmental movement has traditionally left people behind in environmental sacrifice zones, which are almost always populated by poor people—usually non-white, but not always.

So, for instance, while the environmental movement may have had past successes in getting land preserved or making automobile emissions cleaner, it has not worked as hard to ensure that working-class people living near preserved land can make a living through sustainable stewardship of the area; nor have the oil refineries near where poor people live become any less toxic.

If we had located our power, waste, transport, and mega-agriculture infrastructure near wealthy people like we have with poor people, we would have had a clean, green economy decades ago. Instead, the environmental movement turned its back on the point sources of greenhouse gases and pollution in favor of their own backyards and favorite animal species. The public health stats illustrate this phenomenon quite clearly.

If we can turn the "environmental" movement into an "environmental equality" movement, I believe new allies will come on board with more passion and tenacity than we've seen before. Clean air, water, and land is not evenly distributed. Poor people are more likely to breathe dirtier air, drink dirtier water, and live, work, or go to school on toxic soils.

The hunger for equality will always be greater than support for Cap and Trade or some other effort that's not directly tied to the lives of people. If we bring everyone together for environmental equality, many of the traditional environmentalists' goals will surely be met as well.

Joanna Gangi: As you have said, economic degradation begets environmental degradation, which begets social degradation. What do you see as the key leverage points for breaking that cycle?

Majora Carter: I think comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the long term consequences of environmental management is the best place to start. For example, look at coal country in West Virginia: You have a traditionally poor rural area, so you can assume the people there have little to no political power. Mountain top removal strip mining moves in and destroys their water table and their air quality while producing very few jobs. So now they have no cheap clean water supply, dirty air, and continuing unemployment. It adds up to hopelessness, which leads to drug and alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, poor school performance among kids, increased teen pregnancy, etc. 

Mountain Memories: Interview with Judy Bonds
Before she died, West Virginia activist Judy Bonds gave this interview about fighting to save her home from mountaintop removal coal mining.

These problems all cost a lot to combat, but the company pulling the coal out of the area does not pay; taxpayers do. If we look at the two to four years' worth of coal energy produced in such an operation, against all the social and environmental services costs in the context of quality, it's not economic development in any rational sense of the word.

I think this template can be applied to everything from shopping malls to feed lots. Positive alternatives to bad projects will make better economic sense when we first look at the fallout from inequalities among our fellow Americans that a given proposal might produce.

Joanna Gangi: What is your message to people living in underserved neighborhoods who want to make a difference, but may not know where to start or have the appropriate resources?

Majora Carter: Your local elected officials and your fire, police, and parks departments are there for you and most of them really do care—but you have to engage them in a constructive manner. Start by talking among your friends about what you would like to see different in your area. This is not just for "underserved" neighborhoods—all communities can benefit from some intelligent discussion.

So, if it's a traffic light that doesn't give enough time to cross a dangerous intersection, a truck route near residences, not enough green space, or locating a landfill, power plant, or other noxious infrastructure near people, it all matters.

Start with the people responsible for your area and see what you can accomplish. Not everyone will respond, but that might mean your approach is not appropriate for what they can do. Make sure you ask, they will probably say yes. Positive momentum can go a long way.

When I wrote a $1.25 million federal transportation planning grant, I had no idea what I was doing. But I kept the conversation alive in various settings and asked for help. People came out of the bureaucratic woodwork to guide the process and help shape the language for the system. It worked, and today the project has secured over $20 million in local funds and another $30 million in Federal Stimulus funding (shovel ready). This is more money for a project designed with positive community impacts in mind than the South Bronx has seen in almost a century.

But it all started with regular people talking constructively to one another.

Joanna Gangi: You've said that the economic and environmental injustices inflicted on the South Bronx were a direct product of urban planning. When you look at large scale urban planning projects going on now, do you see signs of improvement?

Majora Carter: Not really. I think the use of eminent domain to promote purely private development is a disturbing national trend. Government-subsidized stadium construction is often lurking in the shadows of these undemocratic land deals. In my hometown, we watched with disbelief as New York City's Mayor Bloomberg and our former borough president, Adolfo Carrion, supported a new Yankee stadium to be built on an 18-acre public park with trees over 100 years old—all gone now. This is the richest baseball team in a part of the city with the lowest parks-to-people ratio. And now both of these characters are running around the country promoting themselves as "green." I can't think of any current large scale projects that are going to bring about more equality.

The real intelligent planning and execution is happening on a community/neighborhood level. This is where the real heroes are, but they remain largely unsung. I am currently putting together a new TV series with Sundance Channel to highlight these innovative attempts.

Joanna Gangi: You've identified the players involved in making the triple bottom line work for development projects: developer, community, government. Can you think of an example when these three entities have really come together for the greater good?

Majora Carter: Yes, of course. My favorite is Bogotá, Colombia. In the late '90s while Enrique Peñalosa was mayor, he took a hard look at how much money was going into transport infrastructure and who was benefiting. He didn't have much money to work with, so he looked for low cost investments that would produce the highest quality of life impact. 

How to Build a Happy City:
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The former Bogotá mayor is convincing city planners from Beijing to Mexico City to create lively public spaces that center around people and community, not cars.

His administration purchased large tracts of suburban land, beyond the slums that ringed the city. The DOT connected the land via bike and pedestrian routes to local shopping areas and mass transit hubs—but no automobile access except for emergency and delivery vehicles.

In a short time, developers were putting private investments into housing along these non-auto routes. Simple, resident-generated community improvements were implemented in the existing poor neighborhoods, while relatively higher income Bogotaños occupied most of the new housing.

Bike repair and juice stands opened along the route—owned and operated by previously unemployed people. Police spent less time on car theft and more time on community. Public health improved. Everybody gained, and I hear it's gotten even better since I was there in 2005.

Joanna Gangi: The International Living Building Institute is hosting the Living City Design Competition. The competition calls on designers, students, and activists from around the world to create inspiring but realistic visions for the future of civilization. Competition teams will conceptually retrofit existing cities, demonstrating how real communities might transform their relationship with the resources that sustain them. What do you think the most important consideration should be for teams working on this competition? Do you think communities like yours in the South Bronx would be interested in this kind of visioning process?

Majora Carter: I think that people in communities across America, who currently experience environmental inequality, would be interested in seeing the teams demonstrate how to transform the relationship with resources that sustain others. How do we remove the unequal environmental burdens that currently befall some people disproportionately? 

Beyond that, locally maintained horticultural infrastructure should be integrated into all new and renovated buildings and landscape design. The technology is there to utilize greywater, manage stormwater runoff, incorporate high-yield agricultural systems, reduce the urban heat island effect, and more.

The effects of smart policies that incorporate those environmental services' cost savings would be a great thing to see—what would the government savings over the typical 20-year municipal bond issue be?

Joanna Gangi: Your personal story is a major source of inspiration to many people who have felt marginalized by the green movement. What have you learned along the way that surprised you the most?

Majora Carter: I learned that my message plays just as well in "red" states as they do in "blue" states, based on the heartfelt personal reactions I get. I come from the most urban place in the U.S., but I have directly comparable experiences to people in rural areas and places in between. The solutions are often based in shared experience, too. I am so happy to see that an idea like "you don't have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one" is gaining ground everywhere!

Joanna Gangi is Communications Coordinator for Cascadia Green Building Council and managing editor of Trim Tab. This article was originally printed in the Fall 2010 issue of Trim Tab, the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s magazine for transformational people and design.  To see this and other issues of Trim Tab, go to www.cascadiagbc.org/trimtab.

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Video from Earthjustice on YouTube.

When Jen Slotterback found a well pad stake in a local park, she realized the forest would soon be taken over by a natural gas drilling—and the controversial process hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—unless she did something to stop it. Jen and her husband Jim had never organized a campaign before, and they only had 11 days before the vote on whether to allow fracking in the park. In that short amount of time and with the help of the Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA), the Slotterbacks mobilized their community to save Rider Park. The board unanimously voted against the drilling.

Now the Slotterbacks and RDA are campaigning to save more than 700,000 acres of forest throughout Pennsylvania from fracking.

To learn more and sign the petition, click here.

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Biology is destiny, declared Sigmund Freud. 

But if Freud were around today, he might say “design is destiny”—especially after taking a stroll through most American cities.

The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. Neighborhoods built without sidewalks, for instance, mean that people walk less and therefore experience fewer spontaneous encounters, which is what instills a spirit of community to a place. That’s a chief cause of the social isolation, so rampant in the modern world, that contributes to depression, distrust, and other maladies.

You don’t have to be a therapist to realize all this creates lasting psychological effects. It thwarts the connections between people that encourage us to congregate, cooperate, and work for the common good. We retreat into ever more privatized existences.

Of course, this is no startling revelation. Over the past 40 years, the shrinking sense of community across America has been widely discussed, and many proposals outlined about how to bring us back together.

One of the notable solutions being put into practice to combat this problem is New Urbanism, an architectural movement to build new communities (and revitalize existing ones) by maximizing opportunities for social exchange: public plazas, front porches, corner stores, coffee shops, neighborhood schools, narrow streets and, yes, sidewalks. 

This line of thinking has transformed many communities, including my own World War I-era neighborhood in Minneapolis, which thankfully has sidewalks but was once bereft of the inviting public places that animate a community. Now I marvel at all the options I have for mingling with the neighbors over a cappuccino, Pabst Blue Ribbon, juevos rancheros, artwork at a gallery opening, or head of lettuce at the farmer’s market.

"That's public space.
Nobody can use it."
How neighborhoods across Portland are reclaiming—and redefining— their neighborhoods.

But while New Urbanism is making strides at the level of the neighborhood, we still spend most of our time at home, which today means seeing no one other than our nuclear family. How could we widen that circle just a bit, to include the good neighbors with whom we share more than a property line?

That’s an idea Seattle-area architect Ross Chapin has explored for many years, and now showcases in an inspiring and beautiful new book: Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating a Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World.

He believes that groupings of four to twelve households make an ideal community “where meaningful ‘neighborly’ relationships are fostered.” But even here, design shapes our destiny. Chapin explains that strong connections between neighbors develop most fully and organically when everyone shares some "common ground."

That can be a semi-private square, as in the pocket neighborhoods Chapin designed in the Seattle area. In the book’s bright photographs, they look like grassy patches of paradise, where kids scamper, flowers bloom, and neighbors stop to chat.

Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating a Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World

By Ross Chapin
Taunton Press, 2011, 224 pages, $30

Support YES! when you buy here from an independent bookstore.

But Chapin points out these commons can take many different forms—an apartment building in Cambridge with a shared backyard, a group of neighbors in Oakland who tore down their backyard fences to create a commons, a block in Baltimore that turned their alley into a pubic commons, or the residential pedestrian streets found in Manhattan Beach, California, and all around Europe.

The benefits of a living in a pocket neighborhood go further than you might imagine. I lived in one while in graduate school, a rundown 1886 rowhouse with its own courtyard near the University of Minnesota campus. At no other time in my life have I become such close friends with my neighbors. We shared impromptu afternoon conversations at the picnic table and parties that went into the early hours of the morning under Italian lights we strung from the trees. 

When the property was sold to an ambitious young man who jacked up the rents (to raise capital for the eventual demolition of the building to make way for an ugly new one), we organized a rent strike. And we won, which would never have happened if we had not already forged strong bonds with each other. Because the judged ruled that the landlord could not raise our rents until he fixed up the building, he abandoned plans to knock it down. It still stands today, and I remain friends with some of the old gang that partied in the courtyard.

Jay Walljasper is a contributing editor to YES! Magazine, author of All That We Share, a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler, editor of OnTheCommons.org, a senior fellow of the Project for Public Spaces, and a contributor to Shareable.net, where this article originally appeared.

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 PEEK INSIDE THE SPRING 2011 ISSUE OF YES! MAGAZINE

Joel Salatin is no simple farmer. When he speaks, he at times takes on the air of a Southern preacher, philosopher, heretic, businessman, activist, or ecological engineer. Since Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the film Food, Inc. brought him to fame as the man who raises meat the right way, Salatin has become a sought-after speaker. But he still spends most of his time on his rural Virginia farm—with the chickens, baling hay, moving cows from one paddock to another. He is a self-described “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic” and has a penchant for perplexingly long catchphrases. It is perhaps Salatin’s unwillingness to compartmentalize that has made him such a compelling moral voice for the food movement. For Salatin, farming is inseparable from ethics, politics, faith, or ecology.

Salatin’s farm, Polyface or “the farm of many faces,” has been in his family for 50 years. At its heart is a practice called “holistic range management,” where cattle mimic the grazing patterns of wild herd animals. The strategy cuts feedlots out of the equation altogether and stores carbon deep in the roots and soil of Polyface’s lush perennial pasture.

There’s a missionary quality to Salatin’s farming. He speaks of his work as a ministry and as healing. He calls his animals “co-laborers” and “dance partners” and says he respects each animal’s distinctiveness. Who better to articulate an ethic of how, when, and whether we should raise and eat our fellow animals?

Madeline Ostrander: What do you think a sustainable diet should look like?

Joel Salatin: What would a sustainable diet look like? Oh, my!

Ostrander: Because it’s often talked about as a vegetarian diet.

Salatin: No, not at all. I think we need to go back to localized diets, and in North America, yes, we can really grow perennials, so there would be a lot of herbivore—lamb, beef—in a diet. And our fruits and vegetables, which have a high water content, would be grown close to home, preferably in our backyards. In 1945, 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in the United States were grown in backyards.

I think a local diet would have an indigenous flair. If you’re along the coast, you’d eat more seafood. If you’re inland, you would eat more herbivore and vegetables. If you’re in Florida, you would eat more citrus. Historically, it’s not about the relationship of meat to vegetables or whatever. It’s more about, what does this area grow well with a minimum of inputs?

Ostrander: Cows have gotten a bad rap lately for their contributions to environmental problems. What’s your response?

Salatin: Don’t blame the cow for the negatives of the industrial food system. All of the data that the anti-meat people use assumes an irrigated, concentrated animal feeding operation. Over 50 percent of the annuals that we grow in American agriculture are to feed cows. Cows aren’t supposed to eat corn. They’re supposed to mow forage. It’s completely inverted from nature’s paradigm. To use that inverted paradigm to demonize grazing, the most efficacious mechanism for planet restoration, is either consciously antagonistic to the truth or is ignorant of the kind of synergistic models that are out here.

Here’s the thing. There’s no system in nature that does not have an animal component as a recycling agent. Doesn’t exist. Fruits and vegetables do best if there is some animal component with them—chickens or a side shed with rabbits. Manure is magic.

Counterpoint: If you have to kill your conscience to eat, it's not worth it.

Now, we could argue about how many animals we should be eating. I really don’t think Americans should be eating so much chicken. Because chicken requires grain; it’s an omnivore. Historically, herbivores—beef, lamb, goat—were every man’s meat because they could be raised on perennials. The kings ate poultry because they’re the only ones who had enough luxury of extra foodstuffs for birds.

Poultry used to fill a recycling niche. Today, if every single kitchen had enough chickens attached to it, there would not be egg commerce in America. All the eggs could be produced from kitchen scraps. What a wonderful thing that would be. There’s no excuse for an egg factory.

Beef cattle—there’s no excuse for a feedlot. We don’t need all those irrigated acres in Nebraska. See? And suddenly all of the data that the animal demonizers are using just crumbles like a house of cards.

Ostrander: Your website says that your farm respects and honors the animals you raise. What does it mean to respect an animal and then eat it?

Salatin: It is a profound spiritual truth that you cannot have life without death. When you chomp down on a carrot and masticate it in your mouth, that carrot is being sacrificed in order for you to have life. Everything on the planet is eating and being eaten. If you don’t believe it, just lie naked in your flower bed for three days and see what gets eaten. That sacrifice is what feeds regeneration. In our very antiseptic culture today, people don’t have a visceral understanding of life and death.

Ostrander: What do you feel is your responsibility to the animals that you raise on Polyface Farm?

Salatin: Our first responsibility is to try to figure out what kind of a habitat allows them to fully express their physiological distinctiveness. The cow doesn’t eat corn; she doesn’t eat dead cows; she doesn’t eat cow manure, which is what is currently being fed to cows in the industrial food system. We feed cows grass, and that honors and respects the cow-ness of the cow.

Chickens—their beaks are not there for us to cut off, as industrial operations do. Their beaks are there for them to scratch and to hunt for insects. So we raise them out on pasture, in protected enclosures, in a free environment, so they can be birds.

We look at nature and say, “How do these animals live?” And we imitate that template.

We have the chickens follow the cows, the way birds follow herbivores—the egret on the rhino’s nose. The chickens sanitize behind the herbivores, scratch in the dung, eat out the parasites, spread the dung into the pasture, and eat the insects that the herbivores uncovered while grazing. 

The pigs make compost from cow manure, which we mix with wood chips. They love to do it, and they don’t need their oil changed, they don’t need spare parts, and they’re fully allowed to express their pig-ness. Then animals become team players—partners in this great land-healing ministry.

This is all extremely symbiotic and creates a totally different relationship than when you’re simply trying to grow the fatter, bigger, cheaper animal.

But the animals also have an easier life than they would in nature. Nature is not very philanthropic. I mean, every day the gazelle wakes up and hopes she can outrun the lion, and every day the lion wakes up and hopes she can outrun a gazelle. We protect our animals from predators and weather. We give them good food and care for them, and in return, they are more prolific.

Ostrander: So honoring the pig-ness of the pig is about ecology as much as ethics.

Salatin: Honoring the pig-ness of the pig establishes a moral and ethical framework on which we build respect for the Mary-ness of Mary and the Tom-ness of Tom. It is how we respect and honor the least of these that creates an ethical framework on which we honor and respect the greatest of these.

A culture like ours—that views plants and animals as inanimate piles of protoplasmic structure to be manipulated however cleverly we, in our hubris, can imagine—will soon view its citizens and other cultures in the same kind of disrespectful way.

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Page 2

Ostrander: You claim that the kind of agriculture that you do could feed the world. How would that work?

Salatin: Well, for example, take cows. If we do what I call mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization, we could triple the number of herbivores and the amount of carbon we’re storing in the soil.

Ostrander: What was that long phrase?

Salatin: Mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization. The idea is you’re mob-stocking: Herbivores in nature are always mobbed up for predator protection. Now we don’t have predators, so we use an electric fence to keep them mobbed up. So we’re not Luddites. We’re using high-tech.

We farm grass, and we harvest that grass with cows. But we don’t just turn the cows out into a field. We move them every day from paddock to paddock and only give them access to a single spot a couple days a year. We let the grass grow to what we call full physiological expression, the juvenile growth spurt. By doing that we’re actually collecting a lot more solar energy and metabolizing it into biomass than you would if the grass were kept short like a lawn.

The difference is, for example, Augusta County, where we are, averages 80 cow days per acre (a cow day is what one cow will eat in a day). On our farm we average 400 cow days per acre, and we’ve never bought a bag of chemical fertilizer and we’ve never planted a seed. We’ve taken the soils on our farm from 1.5 percent organic matter in the early 1960s to an average of 8 percent organic matter today. That cycle of herbivore, perennial, and predation builds up root biomass below the ground and sequesters carbon and organic matter. It’s the same process that built all the deep soils of the world—the Pampas in Argentina, outer Mongolia with yaks and sheep, the American plains with the buffalo.

Now, if you consider vegetables, we could do edible landscapes. There are 35 million acres of lawn in the United States. I tell people, we’ll know that we’re running out of food when the golf courses around Phoenix start growing food instead of petroleum-based grass to be irrigated with precious water. We’ll know that we’re short of food when we can’t run the Kentucky Derby anymore, because we need that land for farming. Go to Mexico. They don’t mow the interstates. Every farmer along the highway has a staked-out milk cow. 

Ostrander: Can you describe how you slaughter animals at Polyface?

Salatin: Well, the chickens, for example, are taken from the field right into our open-air slaughter facility, and we don’t electrocute them like the industry does. We do a kind of a halal, or a kosher type of kill, which is just slitting the jugular, and they gradually just faint or fade away.

We have raised them. We have nurtured them and cared for them. It’s different from the compartmentalization of the industrial system, where we have people who have never seen the animal alive doing the slaughter.

And frankly, I believe it is psychologically inappropriate to slaughter animals every single day. Even in the Bible, the Levites drew straws; they ran shifts in the tabernacle where they did animal sacrifices.

Ostrander: Is there a different emotional experience that people have when they’re eating food raised on Polyface than if they’re eating a McDonald’s hamburger?

Salatin: We have a 24/7, open-door policy. Anyone is welcome to come at any time to see anything, anywhere without an appointment or a phone call. We encourage anyone to come and walk the fields, pet the animals, bring their children, gather the eggs out of the nest boxes—in other words, to build a relationship and create a memory that can follow them all the way to the dinner plate.

Download clips from the
original audio interview.

Our culture has systematically alienated people from the experience of dining. I can’t believe how many kids come here and watch a chicken lay an egg and then say, “Oh, is that where they come from?” The amount of culinary and ecological real-life ignorance in our culture is unbelievable.

So what we want to do at Polyface is provide a platform, so that anyone can come and partake of this marvelous theater that was all a part of normal life 150 years ago. We want to create a greater sense of all the mystery and appreciation for seasons and for the proper plant-animal-human relationships.

Some people even want to process some chickens with us. And that is a very powerful memory to take to the table with you. If the average person partook of the processing of an industrial chicken, for example, they probably wouldn’t eat chicken. But by coming here and seeing the respect that’s afforded to that animal all the way through, we can create a thankful, gracious, honoring experience when we come to eat. 

Madeline Ostrander interviewed Joel Salatin for Can Animals Save Us?, the Spring 2011 issue of YES! Magazine. Madeline is senior editor at YES!

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Grow vines as a living curtain or awning to shade your windows, cool your house, and remove carbon from the atmosphere. Deciduous perennials work well for living curtains because they let sun through in the winter and don’t require yearly replanting. You’ll get the best cooling benefits if you shade south-facing windows (north-facing if you’re in the southern hemisphere).

To grow a curtain, plant your vines in the ground, in pots, or in a window box. Lean a trellis against the wall, then guide your vines up the trellis and over the window as they grow. Using a wooden trellis with pots works well for apartments; it’s portable and doesn’t require wall fastenings. In permanent settings you can use netting or wire to support the plants instead.

A living awning provides shade without blocking your view. Attach shelf brackets (salvaged, built, or bought) at each side of the window. The awning should ideally extend far enough to cast a shadow below the window in the middle of summer. Fasten wood or wires across the top of the brackets to support the vines, or make a shelf and grow trailing plants in containers above your window.

Double the benefits of your living curtain by growing vines that are beautiful or edible. Runner beans, wisteria, grapes, and hops are good choices, depending on your climate and whether you prefer food, flowers, or beer.

Alyssa B. Johnson wrote this article for Can Animals Save Us?, the Spring 2011 issue of YES! Magazine. Alyssa is an editorial assistant at YES!

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The idea behind UK Uncut— a grassroots movement that asks why public services like libraries and health care are being cut while corporations skip out on paying taxes—is spreading to the United States, with dozens of actions planned for Februrary 26. Want to hold your own Uncut protest? It's simple, says filmmaker Oonagh Cousins:

1. Choose a cut.
2. List the action.
3. Tell everyone.
4. Get props.
5. Bail-in

Video by Oonagh Cousins

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• Dear Glenn Beck: It's Not a Conspiracy, It's Courage
  Glenn Beck thinks the spread of anti-corporate protests is a little too convenient. But this is what happens when ordinary people discover their power.
• Wisconsin: The First Stop in an American Uprising?
  It took a while, but protests in Wisconsin show that poor and middle class Americans are ready to push back against the policies and cuts that hurt them most. Madison may be only the beginning.
• The UK's Progressive Tea Party
  Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 inspired ordinary people to take on corporate tax evaders. The name of this parallel universe is Britain.
  

Tired of paying car insurance, sitting in traffic jams, and guzzling too much gas? Do you never want to dig your car out of another snowstorm?

Perhaps your family already cut down from two cars to one, but taking the car-free step seems impossible. Maybe you loved your car-free life back before you had kids, and every time you wrestle the kids into their car seats or take the car to the shop you pine for the old days.

You can do it—you can completely get rid of your car, even if you have a family. Yes, it can be daunting, and you will certainly have to figure out new ways to do some things, but you'll feel a payoff quickly in your health, your place in your community, and your pocketbook. There's nothing better than the feeling of freedom that comes from knowing you'll never pay a parking ticket again.

Bikes (and gear) that grow with your family

The ability to ride a bike makes being car-free much easier for anyone, but especially those of us who have kids.

You may already have bikes in the garage that will work just fine if you pump up the tires and get a tune up at your local bike shop. If you have kids, you may well have picked up a child trailer, trailer bike, or child seat along the way (or maybe your neighbor has one sitting unused in the basement). Spend some time looking at the bike gear you already have, and think about how you can transport cargo and children.

Families often already have gear for carrying children for recreational riding, but don't have a good cargo set-up since errands like grocery shopping have been done by car. If you already have a child trailer, that can easily be used for moderate cargo, though it can be difficult to carry both cargo and children at the same time.

If you have a child bike seat, consider adding either front or rear panniers (large removable bags that attach to your bike rack) to hold gear or some groceries. Note that compatibility between panniers and seats can be a problem. Consider a rear seat with front panniers (or vice versa with a seat on front and panniers on back, though rear seats generally have higher weight limits).

If you are trying to solve compatibility issues between racks, seats, and trailers, all competing for precious space on your rig, note that many European child seats attach directly to the seat stem, in contrast to American seats that occupy your back rack. This can leave you more room for a trailer hitch or panniers. If you'll be using a trailer or a trailer bike, consider attaching hitches to all adult bikes.

Let It Snow: The ABCs of Winter Biking
Tips for winter riding from the coldest big city in America.

You also might consider adding some rain gear to your set-up (like a raincover for the trailer, and rain pants and jackets for adults). The number of days that you can ride comfortably, at least where we live in the New England, goes up dramatically once you are moderately protected from water.

Keep in mind that as your family grows, your biking needs will change. Kids will outgrow standard bike seats during the preschool years (most American seats have a 40-pound limit). Trailers will work for a while after that, but soon that won't work either.

The most common next step from the trailer is a trailer bike (a one-wheel bike extension that allows your child to ride behind you)—but like the trailer, that has an extremely limited lifespan and even worse, provides no cargo capacity.

One of the best options, if you can afford it, is to get a bike which is designed for carrying cargo and children. We love our Xtracycle for its ability to carry both kid and stuff in a relatively compact and maneuverable package. There are other great cargo options out there, including the Ute, a Bakfiet (Dutch "box bike"), and the Madsen (a great option for more than two kids). Prices on these options vary quite widely, ranging from about $500 to extend an existing bike into an Xtracycle, to over $3,000 for a Dutch Bakfiet.

But if you have some gear, you don't have to worry about this now. You can wait, see how your car-free lives unfold, and assess what purchase will give your family the most use when your kids are outgrowing your current gear.

What about those of you that don't bike? If you live in an urban area, you can absolutely live well without a car and without biking by using public transit. But if you are physically able, consider getting a bike and learning to ride well in traffic. There are bike instructors and schools that train adults both basic riding and riding in traffic. You can also find additional resources online.

Backup Options & Public Transportation

In general, it is best to have at least two possible ways to get anywhere you need to go on a regular basis.

If you've had a car, even if it's just one car that you rarely use, you've always had a fail-safe backup plan for any required trip. Even if you took almost every trip by bike, foot or public transit, if the weather turned sour or you felt kind of sick that day, you had another option.

Biking is a fabulous primary method of transport for the car-free who are physically able, but most parents, at least those who live in northern climates, find that it's not possible to bike every day. For those of you that live in urban areas, you will likely find a wealth of backup plans, mostly based on public transit. Taking a train or bus may take longer than biking, but is generally reliable and affordable, especially if you are able to get discounts through your employer.

Even if you live in a place with good a good train or subway network, it is also useful to get to know your local bus system. Buses generally cover far more area than subways and can provide a useful backup in case of train delays.

Before you automatically dismiss this option, thinking that maybe your area is too suburban or your town is too small for decent buses, check out what your region actually has to offer. Dorea lived for four years in Lincoln, Nebraska, a moderately sized college town, and there were ample bus options for commuting. Suburban areas of larger cities often have buses or trains designed precisely for commuters that can provide a great backup option for a biker, even if they might take too long for comfortable use every day.

Think through all of your transportation options, including walking and "making do." We almost always shop for groceries by bike at a store about two miles away. When the weather is prohibitive, as it sometimes is in the winter, we will sometimes borrow a car, but more often we will simply make do by shopping at a closer store with higher prices and less variety.

Car-sharing

Another great backup option is a car-sharing program (Zipcar in our area—you can find a list of car sharing services on Wikipedia).

This can be particularly good for someone making the transition away from car ownership. With car-sharing, if you are used to driving for occasional trips, you'll still have that option easily available. Car-sharing can really help you to take the plunge; at first, you can use a car whenever you don't see another easy way to make a trip. It won't feel like much of a lifestyle shift, and you won't feel deprived and resentful.

How to Make Biking Mainstream: Lessons from the Dutch

But one of the beautiful things about a car-share is that it attaches the economic cost of the car to the activity itself because you pay by the hour. So even if at first you use it a lot, you'll soon find yourself motivated to find ways around using the car. After all, is it really worth it to spend $30 to get to Target when you could pay just a tiny bit more for a similar product from the hardware store on the corner?

When we first got rid of our car we were fairly heavy Zipcar users (2-3 times a month). But that was ages ago, and while we still maintain a membership so we can have the option, we now use it only very rarely (the last time was more than six months ago).

Borrowing a car is a great way to build community and to avoid having to have your own car. It is cheaper (and friendlier) than a formal car-sharing service. If you are going to borrow your friends' cars, it is a good idea to set some parameters ahead of time (How often can you borrow the car? For how long? How much do you contribute for gas/repairs?) and then to check in periodically to make sure your friends are still comfortable with the relationship.

Alternatively, if you know another family trying to shift away from driving, consider making your own car-share, where two families share a single car and split expenses.

Finally, you can use a taxi as a fairly expensive backup option, but one that is nearly always just a phone call away.

Keep it Simple: Live Locally

The real gift of being car-free is discovering that much of what you need is available within a mile or two of your home.

There are wonderful people living in your neighborhood who would love to come over for dinner. There's a doctor and a hairdresser right around the corner and both are great with your kids. Your neighborhood park is a social hub and you'll find you can attend a birthday party there nearly every weekend. Your children's friends all seem to live within walking distance, so playdates are a breeze. When you take the time to look around you, and stop spending so much time behind the wheel, you will find that your neighborhood is a rich area.

When we were first car-free, we remember frequently feeling like we were backed into a corner. Suddenly there was something we couldn't do without a car and we hadn't planned far enough ahead to think of another way.

But now that we've settled into our car-free lives, we find we have ready access to two or three methods of doing our most frequent tasks, and we rarely miss having a car. Even when we do, we can get one through the car-share or borrow one from a friend, who likely barely uses her car anyway. We don't have to spend much time or energy trying to figure out how to do things without a car. We just live our life, and enjoy the sense of local community and belonging that living without a car has brought to our family.

Angela and Dorea Vierling-Claassen live in Cambridge, Massachusetts with their two children, where both are mathematicians. Together, they write the blog Car Free with Kids. They originally wrote this article for Shareable.net.

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	Purchase the How To Keep Love Going Strong poster. JUST $3 (+ shipping) Download the PDF for free.

Why is marriage so tough at times? Why do some lifelong relationships click, while others just tick away like a time bomb? And how can you prevent a marriage from going bad—or rescue one that already has?

After years of research, we can answer these questions. In fact, we are now able to predict whether a couple will stay happily together after listening for as little as three hours to a conflict conversation and other interactions in our Love Lab. Our accuracy rate averages 91 percent. Gay and lesbian relationships operate on essentially the same principles as heterosexual relationships, according to our research.

But the most rewarding findings are the seven principles that prevent a marriage from breaking up, even for those couples we tested in the lab who seemed headed for divorce.

Emotionally intelligent couples are intimately familiar with each other’s world. They have a richly detailed love map—they know the major events in each other’s history, and they keep updating their information as their spouse’s world changes. He could tell you how she’s feeling about her boss. She knows that he fears being too much like his father and considers himself a “free spirit.” They know each other’s goals, worries, and hopes.

Fondness and admiration are two of the most crucial elements in a long-lasting romance. Without the belief that your spouse is worthy of honor and respect, where is the basis for a rewarding relationship? By reminding yourself of your spouse’s positive qualities­—even as you grapple with each other’s flaws—and expressing out loud your fondness and admiration, you can prevent a happy marriage from deteriorating.

In marriage people periodically make “bids” for their partner’s attention, affection, humor, or support. People either turn toward one another after these bids or they turn away. Turning toward is the basis of emotional connection, romance, passion, and a good sex life.

The happiest, most stable marriages are those in which the husband treats his wife with respect and does not resist power sharing and decision making with her. When the couple disagrees, these husbands actively search for common ground rather than insisting on getting their way. It’s just as important for wives to treat their husbands with honor and respect. But our data indicate that the vast majority of wives—even in unstable marriages—already do that. Too often men do not return the favor.

Start with good manners when tackling your solvable problems:

• Step 1. Use a softened startup: Complain but don’t criticize or attack your spouse. State your feelings without blame, and express a positive need (what you want, not what you don’t want). Make statements that start with “I” instead of “you.” Describe what is happening; don’t evaluate or judge. Be clear. Be polite. Be appreciative. Don’t store things up.

• Step 2. Learn to make and receive repair attempts: De-escalate the tension and pull out of a downward cycle of negativity by asking for a break, sharing what you are feeling, apologizing, or expressing appreciation.

• Step 3. Soothe yourself and each other: Conflict discussions can lead to “flooding.” When this occurs, you feel overwhelmed both emotionally and physically, and you are too agitated to really hear what your spouse is saying. Take a break to soothe and distract yourself, and learn techniques to soothe your spouse.

• Step 4. Compromise: Here’s an exercise to try. Decide together on a solvable problem to tackle. Then separately draw two circles—a smaller one inside a larger one. In the inner circle list aspects of the problem you can’t give in on. In the outer circle, list the aspects you can compromise about. Try to make the outer circle as large as possible and your inner circle as small as possible. Then come back and look for common bases for agreement.

Many perpetual conflicts that are gridlocked have an existential base of unexpressed dreams behind each person’s stubborn position. In happy marriages, partners incorporate each other’s goals into their concept of what their marriage is about. These goals can be as concrete as wanting to live in a certain kind of house or intangible, such as wanting to view life as a grand adventure. The bottom line in getting past gridlock is not necessarily to become a part of each other’s dreams but to honor these dreams.

Marriage can have an intentional sense of shared purpose, meaning, family values, and cultural legacy that forms a shared inner life. Each couple and each family creates its own microculture with customs (like Sunday dinner out), rituals (like a champagne toast after the birth of a baby), and myths—the stories the couple tells themselves that explain their marriage. This culture incorporates both of their dreams, and it is flexible enough to change as husband and wife grow and develop. When a marriage has this shared sense of meaning, conflict is less intense and perpetual problems are unlikely to lead to gridlock.

Adapted for What Happy Families Know, the Winter 2011 issue of YES! Magazine, from Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, by John M. Gottman, Ph.D., and Nan Silver, Three  Rivers Press, 1999.  For further information on practical, research-based relationship tools for couples and therapists, contact The  Gottman Institute.

Illustration by Ivana Forgo/istock and YES! Magazine 

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OK, not everyone is in a position to quit their job to spend more time at home. And not everyone wants to. That doesn’t mean that the household can’t shift toward increasing production and decreasing consumption. The transition can start with simple things, like hanging out the laundry or planting a garden. For those people who need or want to push further into the realm of living on a single income or less, here are a few secrets for survival we’ve learned on the family farm:

Get out of the cash economy

Sometimes a direct barter—“your bushel of potatoes for my ground beef”—works. But we don’t always have something the other party needs. At those times, gifting may be the best answer. Gifts are often returned along an unexpected path. Last summer I canned beets and green beans for my folks—of course, for no charge. In the process, I discovered that my solar hot water system wasn’t working. I called a neighbor and asked him to look at it. He fixed it, free. We have a facility that a butcher uses to process chickens for local farmers. On chicken processing days, Bob, Mom, and Dad help out, at no charge. At the end of the summer, the neighbor who fixed our hot water wanted to get his chickens processed. He got them done, no charge. Mom and Dad got a winter’s supply of veggies. Bob and I got a repaired hot water system. The butcher had a place to do his work, and the neighbor got his chickens processed.

Homemade Prosperity
Producing things at home lets Shannon live on a fraction of what she thought she needed.

Be interdependent

It would be handy sometimes to have our own tractor and tiller. But it seems foolish for us to own that equipment when we can borrow from my parents. It’s cheaper to borrow and lend money, tools, time, and resources among family, friends, and neighbors and abandon the idea that it’s shameful to rely on each other, rather than a credit card, paycheck, or bank.

Invest in your home

One of the most solid investments Bob and I have discovered is spending to lower expenses. Examples are better windows, more insulation, solar hot water, photovoltaic panels, or even just a really big kettle for canning.

Tolerate imperfect relationships

Living on reduced incomes may require more family members living under one roof, husbands and wives spending more time together, or greater reliance on friends and neighbors who may stand in for family. The families depicted on television, in movies, and in advertisements show dysfunction as the norm—with an antidote of further fragmentation of the family and community. That gets expensive. While no one should tolerate an abusive relationship, learning to accept or navigate the quirks of family and friends will keep the home stable and facilitate the sharing of resources.

Shannon Hayes wrote these tips to accompany her article, "Homemade Prosperity," in the Winter 2011 issue of YES! Magazine, What Happy Families Know. Shannon is the author of Radical Homemakers, The Farmer and the Grill, and The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook.  She works with her family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm in upstate New York and blogs at YES! Magazine.

Interested?

• More stories from What Happy Families Know, the Winter 2011 issue of YES! Magazine.
• Freer, Messier, Happier:
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• You Are Who You Eat With:
  Why hectic times call for a return to the family meal.
  
  

The next time you find yourself waiting forever for a light to change at a busy intersection, practice this visualization: Imagine the streets around you completely devoid of cars. Replace the painted lane lines with lush, green, flowering plants. Zap that smog-spewing SUV and manifest a café table in its place, complete with a shady umbrella and chairs. Vanish the ugly traffic light and see instead a whimsical statue.

Think it’s all just a wishful fantasy? It’s actually happening, and in some unexpected places. From an artists’ collective in San Francisco’s funky Mission district to New York City’s Times Square, people are working to reclaim streets as public spaces, partnering with residents and local businesses to create a renewed sense of community while they’re at it.

Here’s how to make it happen in your own city:

Start small and temporary. 

Photo essay: Parking spots take on a whole new meaning.

Even something as small and car-centric as a parking spot can be transformed into a space for pedestrians to enjoy. In 2005, REBAR, an artists’ collective based in San Francisco, wanted to demonstrate the need for more urban green space in San Francisco. They put some quarters in a parking meter, brought in some benches and sod, and used the parking space for a rather unconventional purpose: a park instead of a car. They called it PARK(ing) Day. Park(ing) Day is now “an annual, worldwide event that inspires city dwellers everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good,” according to REBAR’s website. The website also offers a downloadable instruction manual ($6.99) with step-by-step instructions on how to transform a parking spot into a park, including ideas about creative uses for the space and advice on how to make your park safe and inviting.

Once you’ve successfully reclaimed 200 square feet, you’re ready to take on a whole street, or even a park.

Request a one-day street closure in an area that pedestrians and bicyclists already frequent, like a park or esplanade.

“Ciclovias” started in Columbia in the 1980s, when several of the country’s major cities declared main streets closed to cars on Sundays and holidays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. A staggering 2 million people (30 percent of Colombian citizens) now participate in these weekly events, where stages are set up for aerobics instructors, yoga instructors, and musicians to encourage people to move their bodies without the assistance of an automobile.

The cities of Portland, Ore., Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and even Cleveland, Ohio, sponsor  “Sunday Parkways”—events where park streets are closed to car traffic. On a recent Sunday in the streets of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, those enjoying the break from cars included families teaching kids how to ride bikes, joggers and runners of all shapes and sizes, and even old-school boom-box-toting roller skaters disco dancing their way across the pavement. 

After you see how much fun a Ciclovia can be, you’ll want to move on to a semi-permanent project. This type of project uses a temporary installation to test a street closure, with the goal of eventually closing the street permanently. For this one, you’ll need help.

To make a park permanent, recruit partners who will benefit from the experience, like community organizations and local businesses.

San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks project reclaims wasted space on overly wide streets and turns the space into temporary public parks and plazas, complete with benches and movable landscaping. City and community organizations help make sure the parks stay clean and coordinate community uses such as farmer’s markets, chess clubs, and concessions. In one “parklet," Pavement to Parks partnered with REBAR and three restaurants to turn parking spots in front of the restaurants into additional seating and bike parking.

Building the World We Want
When city officials told them, "That's public space. No one can use it," architect Mark Lakeman and his neighbors began a revolution in Portland's public places.

Perhaps the most well-known example of a successful temporary street closure that is now on its way to becoming a permanent pedestrian area is in New York City's Times Square, where, in May of 2009, Broadway was closed to traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets. The goal of the project, named “Green Light for Midtown,” was to improve mobility and safety in Manhattan’s Midtown area, and to make it a better place to live, work, and visit. Because this project would affect a large and diverse group of residents and businesses, New York City’s Department of Transportation held numerous public and private meetings with stakeholders before they started the project—with Business Improvement Districts, local community boards, elected officials, local media, the theater community, government agencies, and representatives from the taxi, hotel, real estate, and tourism industries.

This closure yielded some startling results. According to the Department of Transportation’s 2010 evaluation report, pedestrian injuries in the area dropped by 35 percent. In addition, the area has become a much more inviting place, encouraging people to linger and spend time there, which promotes social interaction and benefits local businesses. Again, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) report:

• 84 percent more people are staying (e.g. reading, eating, taking photographs) in Times Square and in another similar temporary pedestrian area (in Herald Square) than before the projects.

• 42 percent of NYC residents surveyed in Times Square say they shop in the neighborhood more often since the changes.

• 26 percent of Times Square employees report leaving their offices for lunch more frequently.

• 74 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by the Times Square Alliance agree that Times Square has improved dramatically as a result of this project. 


The DOT currently is upgrading and reviving the plaza with a temporary mural, and is designing a permanent pedestrian plaza for the space that will be constructed in 2012.

Like the song says, “if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” Here are some more tips to ensure that your new temporary pedestrian plaza will get built, be used, and turn into a permanent pedestrian oasis:

Make the space beautiful and inviting with plants, seating areas, and art.

Using reclaimed materials whenever possible is the inexpensive and environmentally responsible way to go. Pavement to Parks blocked off one street using reclaimed logs that were hollowed out and used as planters. In another plaza, they sanitized, painted, lined, and filled donated dumpsters and unused terracotta sewer pipes with trees and plants. For easy maintenance, make sure your plants are drought-tolerant.

Warn users of the space in advance of the closure with fliers, signs, handouts, and digital announcements.

Because the Green Light in Midtown project would potentially disrupt one of the most congested traffic areas in the United States, the DOT made a tremendous effort to involve the community and form collaborative partnerships long before the first orange cone was placed. In addition to meeting with key stakeholders, project leaders distributed thousands of fliers to inform the public about the proposed closure and invite them to participate in open house discussions. The DOT also welcomed feedback about the proposal on its website.

Make it fun! Have a party in your new park!

It’s easier than you think to turn a parking spot or even a street into a beautiful, safe place for people to relax and socialize, even in the middle of a big city. Look around, visualize, and then start talking to people in your community about it. Happy parking!

Erika Kosina wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Erika is a freelance writer and community organizer who explores ways to make our world a more connected, social place. She blogs about taking a break from technology at TechFreeDay.org.

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Sweeten With Honey

Before the global sugar industry, local honey was the universal sweetener. Because raw honey has antibacterial properties and  tends to crystallize, it can store indefinitely.

Stock up on raw, local honey in the summer when it’s been freshly collected. The freshest and purest honey will crystallize rapidly—and this is a good thing. It’s what preserves the quality of the honey. The actual rate of granulation will depend on the floral source: Blackberry honey may granulate in two weeks, while fall wildflower honey takes about a month. Honey granulates quickest at 57°F, so aim for that.

When you need some honey, scoop crystals into an open jar. Set the jar into a pot of hot water for a minute or so, and it will return to its clear and liquid state. Then you’re ready to use it.

For baking, substitute 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of honey per cup of white sugar. Reduce the amount of other liquids by 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup for every cup of honey used. Lower the oven temperature about 25°F because honey browns faster than sugar. Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey in your recipe, because honey is naturally acidic and baking soda will temper it. 

Darn a Sock

Put an old lightbulb or glass jar into the sock so that it shows through the hole. That keeps the material supported and gives a smooth surface for your needle work.

Thread a large needle with thread similar in weight to the thing you’re mending: Embroidery floss works for cotton or synthetic socks.

Use a small running stitch to circle the hole, far enough outside the damage that the fabric won’t unravel later. Don’t use any knots; leave the ends unsecured.

Use long stitches to stitch horizontally across the length of the hole. You will eventually weave a framework of stitches to fill in the damaged area. Sometimes it’s easier if you turn the sock upside down on every other stitch.

Once your horizontal stitches are done, turn your sock sideways and start weaving your thread vertically, in and out of the horizontal stitches. Secure the vertical weave at the end of the row with a couple of small running stitches. Turn your sock the opposite way and weave again. Keep going until your hole is filled in.

Capture Wild Yeast

You don’t need a package of yeast from the store to make a loaf of bread.

Mix 1/2 cup filtered or spring water (no chlorine!) with 1/2 cup of rye flour and 1/2 cup of white bread flour (using malted barley flour can also be helpful) in a glass bowl. Cover the bowl with a wet towel to let air in but keep bugs out. A warm day is optimal. Let the culture sit for 36 hours. After that, feed your culture every 12 hours by removing half of the old culture and replacing with a mixture of white and rye flour and an equal amount of 85°F water. Mark the level of the culture so you’ll know how much rising has happened.

The culture should get more vigorous with each feeding. When the culture is bubbly and doubles itself in 12 hours, around Day 4, you can start feeding with only white flour and water.

After about five to seven days, a successful culture can double itself in eight hours or less, smells pleasantly sour, and is full of bubbles. That’s when a “culture” becomes a “starter,” and it’s ready to bake with. Store as you would any commercial sourdough starter.

If your culture is slow to get going, some people suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon of unfiltered apple cider vinegar to raise the acidity, which encourages the yeast.

Save Kale Seeds

Kale is a winter green and offers more nutrients per serving than any other vegetable. In mild climates it can be a four-season crop. Once temperatures rise, older kale plants will start going to seed. Kale plants create hundreds of tiny flowers on stalks that emerge where the leaves attach to the stem. In a couple of weeks, the flower petals fall off and seed pods form on the stalks. Let the pods ripen and dry on the plant—they’ll get brown and brittle—then harvest the largest pods. Remove the seeds from their pods—there will be hundreds—save them in a paper bag, and plant them in early spring. 

Refrigerate Without Electricity

The pot-in-pot cooler uses the evaporative power of water to draw heat energy away from the contents. In Nigeria, where 90 percent of villages have no electricity, these pots preserve tomatoes for 21 days instead of two or three days.

In a well ventilated dry area, place a small clay pot inside a larger clay pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand and keep it moist. Cover the top with a cloth. Store produce in the inner pot.

As the water evaporates, it pulls heat out with it, making the inside pot cold.

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You're in the park surrounded by swaying willows, or maybe knee deep in goldenrod in someone's backyard, or sunk into the couch in a small apartment on Cayuga Street.

Usually, one way or another, a circle is formed. What are you doing here with a professor from Maine, a few pink-haired chatty teenagers from town, a local diesel mechanic, and a retired couple who brought cookies? You're here to learn how to weave baskets out of the long limbs of willow trees. You're discussing how Thor got along with the giants in Norse mythology. You are about to plant the first herb in your medicinal garden. Or you've been hearing about natural gas drilling, but want to get more information. Any one of these people might be your teacher today.

In Ithaca, New York, the Ithaca Freeskool offers you an alternative to traditional education. With classes like Mushroom Hunting, Bike Repair, Know Your Rights with Debtors, and D.I.Y. Movie Making, it's a refreshing variety of completely free classes for people of all ages. Started only a few years ago and run entirely by volunteers, the Freeskool gives the community an opportunity to share their skills and knowledge.

Anyone can teach for the Freeskool, so the semesters take on the flavor of whatever people are interested in at the time. We all have some sort of skill hidden up our sleeve, perhaps a hobby that's become something more. Often, sharing that skill—that love for what you've learned—with others is what brings about the most enjoyment. On the other hand, some classes arise out of a need. An issue becomes important in the community and there is a sudden hunger for information—then, the Freeskool becomes a vehicle for sharing, processing, and problem-solving.

Anyone can bring a Freeskool to life in their town. In fact, there are Freeskools all over the country and in other parts of the world. If you're thinking of starting one, consider some of the following:

• People: People make it possible. Get a group of interested folks together and talk about your visions for the Freeskool. Contact and collaborate with other organizations and local educators who might be able to help. Ultimately, you'll need teachers and organizers. Of course, you can be both. The Ithaca Freeskool has three to five organizers running most of the show—even such a small group can get a lot done. Teachers change from semester to semester, but it's good to have a core group of organizers.
• Classes: Get the community involved by asking what skills and needs people have. What local issues need more attention? What kinds of education are people seeking? What kinds of classes would foster social interactions that will bring people together? In Ithaca we put up big posters with two columns labeled “What I can Teach” and “What I Want to Learn” at community events. People are encouraged to put check marks next to the subjects others have proposed that they would like to see as a class. Then we put out the call for classes far and wide. (It's also likely that free classes are already being offered by other groups and can easily be incorporated into your calendar.)

• 

  Photo by Shira Golding

  Communication: It's important for interested people and organizers to keep in touch. Set up an email account, a website, a Facebook page, and even a listserve. Establish some way that people can get in touch when they have ideas. Set a date and place for regular meetings of organizers and invite new people to get involved throughout the year.
• Places: Scout out places for classes and meetings. Often, people host gatherings in their homes and backyards. In warmer weather, classes can be held outside in parks. You can also ask community centers or even local businesses if they mind having classes in their space—usually these partnerships are mutually beneficial as participants feel inclined to buy something during or after class. In Ithaca, an independent book store called Buffalo Street Books has provided a space for literary classes while The Shop, a downtown cafe and music venue, hosts a weekly origami class. The community can be very supportive!

• Guidelines: It can be really helpful for teachers and students if your Freeskool develops some guidelines. Ithaca Freeskool created a Tips for Teachers document and a consent policy that outlines ways that teachers should be sensitive to activities that include physicality and/or might push participants' emotional boundaries. These suggestions can help teachers get a sense of how to better run and publicize their classes. Currently, our Freeskool is going through a visioning process to better define our collective values and goals.

• Get the Word Out: Most Freeskools have a calendar of classes that comes out several times a year. Come up with a name, get artsy and make tons of flyers. Send out a press release when a new semester begins. Table at local grocery stores, conferences, farmers' markets, etc. It's good to have a few locations that reliably carry your calendar. List those spots on your website. Tell everyone you know! Thanks to a small grant we received from Sustainable Tompkins, we were even able to make a few Freeskool "Distance Learning" movies. We post them on our site, which helps people see what attending a class can be like.

Learn As You Go

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With a new fall calendar coming soon, we're pretty excited and motivated. We're also getting ready to have our first ever Freeskool Prom—a night of celebration, dress-up, and silliness that we plan to have at the end of each semester. We'll watch video footage and a photo slideshow of recent classes, drink punch, and give out some awards. People will have a chance to socialize, collaborate and, of course, dance.

If education is going to be sustainable, it has to be flexible and up-to-date. Freeskools provide an alternative that enable people respond to the month-to-month needs and interests of their community. Classes can evolve as they need to. Remember, if you've got skills and knowledge, you've got a Freeskool.

Lily Gershon is a contributor to Shareable.net and an organizer of the Ithaca Freeskool. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, she now devotes most of her time to building a sustainable homestead with a group of friends in Freeville, NY.

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