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Bombarded with confusing information fueled by the “weight loss industry,” the focus on a “buy a new product for instant results” approach costs Americans $121 billion annually in spending on diet products. Industry purposely generates a fear of food, particularly of the “calorie.” A calorie is actually positive, a unit of energy necessary for the body to function, not an enemy. “Empty calories” devoid of a broad range of nutrition needed to build and heal a healthy body are the culprits. Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food) points the way — the body not gaining enough nutrition, keeps searching for more food.

More than calorie counting, shifting to a more natural way of eating isn’t so much “a weight loss diet,” but rather a sensible, more natural lifestyle leading to a normal weight. Becoming aware of eating for nutritive value is not as simple as starving the body with very limited calories. Dieting obsession with calories often leads to inadequate nutrient intake. A different approach focusing on nutrients satisfies the body’s needs for maximum health, reducing cravings for unhealthy foods, while increasing everyday healing of the body. Eating for maximum nutrition leads to gradual, sustained weight loss. Increased awareness of your individual body is the key to making these choices.

Best for your health and also socially responsible as “a diet”– this eating “style” (as I call it) provides plenty of choice, is easily accessible and highly dense in nutrients. Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live; Eat for Health) recently introduced a term for this way of eating. A nutritarian chooses foods on the basis of maximum nutrition, providing maximum body support available per food dollar. In the long run, we are better off eating less, choosing high quality food, maintaining normal weight and avoiding degenerative illnesses.

A SENSIBLE EATING STYLE

Developing an eating style that works for your particular body, and gives you maximum energy is well within your reach. The best news about the positive approach of nutritive choices is being able to eat the satisfying amount of food your body wants and needs. We have many food choices in this country, regardless of income level. By shifting attention to the good things to eat, the end result is only a short list of the ones to avoid. Here are a few easy guidelines.

1. Emphasize whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. If you eat meat, keep it to a minimal amount (3 to 4 oz portion) and “natural” – no added antibiotics or hormones.
2. Avoid sugar, alcohol, and fried foods.
3. Eat organic foods, avoiding hormone disrupting pesticides, as they lead to imbalances in the body.
4. Avoid processed foods (including organic processed foods – they also contain fillers and sugars).
5. Avoid allergy foods – they cause inflammation.
6. Eat good fats, such as Omega-3s (fish, flax and olive oil) and avoid bad fats (e.g. hydrogenated, transfats in processed foods, saturated fats)
7. Exercise –even a gentle walk for 30 minutes a day.

Protein, fat, and carbohydrates are known as macronutrients. Essentially important vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients are called micronutrients. Whole, fresh foods provide both types of nutrients, with fruits and vegetables as the source of most micronutrients. A website valuable for understanding the nutrition in foods is www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp. Whole, fresh foods are the essential choice for maximum nutritive value. These foods look like they do in nature, with no barcode, no packaging.

How to make eating well affordable? Shop at farmers’ markets or from a CSA share (Community Sustained Agriculture) for the best prices. The perimeter of a grocery store and the bulk food bins are where the whole foods are stocked. Perhaps the best news of this eating style is the reduced cost in avoiding processed foods. Organic foods contain on the average 25% more nutritive value than non-organic foods, quickly closing the price gap when value-per-purchase is considered. (See Everyday Green, July 2010, www.greenfiretimes.com)

Processing destroys most of the nutritive value — wasting one’s food dollar. Eating fresh, organic foods is one’s best bet for avoiding the degenerative diseases (diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, cancer). How does this high rate of disease happen? Mehemet Oz explains in Staying Young, that the body, poorly nourished, can sometimes clip along fairly well in our early decades, but then tends to fall apart rather suddenly later on in life. In short, nurturing the body provides essential support for everyday healing, a necessary step for avoiding illness.

Modern science is only beginning to “discover” micronutrients, now totaling several thousand. The interactive relationship between nutrients, particularly in relation to healing, is just beginning to be perceived, and not yet really understood. Diversity in plants consumed is important for daily healing, to obtain a broad range of nutrients. Indigenous peoples have understood this importance of diversity and the healing value of plants for thousands of years.

Healing the intestines with a diet of nutrient-rich foods combined with avoiding acid foods (e.g. sugar, coffee, alcohol) reduces candida, which produces excess yeast, disrupting intestinal effectiveness in absorbing the maximum available nutrients. Going beyond the concept of “we are what we eat,” we truly “are what we absorb,” and this highest level of absorption only occurs from a healthy digestive process. Additionally, whole foods with fiber and maximum nutritive value balance blood sugar, reducing the vicious cycle of food cravings that often lead to poor food choices.

Another important factor in maintaining health and an optimal weight is the alkaline/acid balance in the body. A slightly alkaline pH (7.2) is recommended to keep the intestines healthy and balance in the body’s regulatory system. Your pH can easily be measured with a litmus strip kit from a natural food store. Green foods tend to be the most alkaline, and lemons, a truly amazing food, turn alkaline once in the body.

The Green Goddess juice recipe that follows alkalizes the body, improves intestinal health, detoxifies, is filled with calcium, magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin C, and provides an energy boost. Dark green vegetables are the highest in nutrient density. My idea of a perfect drink!

Green Goddess Vegetable Juice

3 stalks kale or chard

3 stalks celery

1 cup fresh parsley

½ a fresh lemon

Rinse and trim vegetables. Slice lemon. Size of vegetable pieces depends on the opening in your juicer. Push vegetables through electric juicer. An alternative way to make the juice is in a high-power blender, retaining the fiber. Makes 1 cup of juice. Drink on an empty stomach to maximize effectiveness.

Rather than focusing on the total amount to be lost, envision increments of weight – e.g. 10 pounds at a time. The shift to real foods brings the body into balance, eases the process and tends to shed a pound a week. The end result is a sense of accomplishment and appreciation for well-being. While eating habits are often difficult to change, recognizing and appreciating the broad range of available foods enables you to tailor your own eating style.

ETHICS OF EATING

A new paradigm for eating is urgent for:

1)      Recognizing that over-eating in the context of global hunger is not a sustainable path if we are to provide enough food for everyone.

2)      Focusing on whole foods for maximum nutritional intake, absorption by the body and achieving a state of optimum health.

Knowing that maintaining good health is important for the allocation of resources. Each year over $33 billion in medical costs and $9 billion in lost productivity due to preventable degenerative illnesses (heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes) are attributed to poor nutrition in the U.S.

Seen in a sustainable context, short-term destructive choices versus nutritious choices affect long-term quality to life. Our bodies enable us to carry out our contributions to family and community, rather than becoming a burden.

There is a spiritual dimension to eating healthy food, that of appreciating our bodies and giving them the best quality of care. Respecting one’s body, learning about the nutritional content of foods, not wasting one’s food dollars, and enjoying real food contribute to a satisfying life.

The well nourished body needs much less food. In the face of global food shortages, it is important to not destroy the nutrition of foods through processing and to retain the maximum of nutritive gain, leading to less food required per individual. Put another way, the actions of each individual in purchasing better quality food contribute to the overall demand for responsible food production. Examining how we allocate our resources as a nation, rather than continuing the resource-depleting emphasis of producing more and more, will lead to more sustainable choices. An example of this is the government’s subsidizing of questionable quality processed food.

Being present with food starts with the picking or shopping, then a little attention in the kitchen, with a finale at the table. Slow food, or real food, enhances the enjoyment, as well as the nutritive gain. Once you feel the inner glow of good health, increased energy, and better tasting food, there is no going back to the cardboard, bitter taste of pesticided, processed foods. The release from consumerism and wasteful packaging is also a relief.

Have a happy new year exploring and enjoying optimal health!

Susan Guyette, Ph.D. is Métis (Micmac Indian and Acadian French) and a planner specializing in cultural centers, cultural tourism and native foods. She is the co- author of Zen Birding (www.zenbirding.com) and the author of Planning for Balanced Development.

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Recently during a quiet stroll around the extraordinary hillside of a gardener friend of mine, she commented that our crisp blue skies and sunny, dry New Mexico winter sure make for good living and happy smiles…and isn’t it so true! “But what about our plants?” she asked. Our summer watering routine (mostly with harvested rain) had been once weekly for everything, and more frequently for veggies.

It’s most important to remember in our high desert climate – it’s crucial – perennials, shrubs and trees need to be watered in the winter. Watering in a dry winter IS absolutely essential for the wellbeing and survival of our planted trees, shrubs and perennials. The parameters for winter watering vary somewhat according to the type of plant and depending on the stage of root development. Trees planted in the fall will take a couple of months and up to a year (or more) to really begin establishing their root system. Shrubs and vines take a couple of months. Perennials will begin to establish their roots within 2-4 weeks after planting. Water is crucial for all plants during these periods of root development. Once plants are established, it’s not necessary to water as often. Under any circumstances, don’t soak the soil when it’s very cold and the ground is frozen. And, remember to drain your hoses after a winter watering.

Trees and Shrubs – Following the initial fall planting of trees, or in the first and second years of growth, it’s usually recommended to reduce watering only after the daytime temperatures are lower in November. Especially while the winter temperatures remain above freezing most of the time and the soil is not frozen, it’s possible the roots are not completely dormant, and regular watering (at least every 3 to 4 weeks) is required. Again, watering is particularly important for plantings where the roots are not yet completely developed, especially for trees and shrubs planted in the past two years. It’s crucial that these are watered every 3 to 4 weeks in the winter. Regarding more established trees, a good soaking once a month, or perhaps every 6 weeks, in well-amended water-retentive but well-drained soil may be adequate. The amount of water should approximately correspond to the volume of the original root ball or container from which the tree or shrub came and should be around 2 to 3 feet deep. Water slowly so that the moisture soaks in slowly from the well around the tree.

Perennials – As the perennials begin to go dormant, they use less water than during the summer. If it’s a full sun area that dries quickly, watering may be needed every 2 weeks through November and December, especially if the plantings are new. Otherwise, if the soil has been enriched, watering once in 3 weeks should be adequate. In January and February, watering perennials lightly every 3 or 4 weeks should be adequate. Once in a month is ample if there is some precipitation or if the soil retains some light moisture. Outdoor containers with perennials or shrubs should be watered lightly as well as plants in the ground. When the soil is cool, it will retain water longer than during the hot summer. And, mulch will support water retention. Be careful not to waterlog the soil in the winter. Watering can be increased to once every 2 to 3 weeks as spring comes on, and then every 2 weeks as the frozen soil thaws.

For any type of plant, timing of watering is important, relative to the temperature. If you can out-guess the temperatures for the next couple of days, that’s great. It’s ideal to water when the temperatures will linger above freezing for a few days. Sometimes when I think I have it nailed and believe it’s the magic moment to water, and then I do go ahead and water, that’s the night the thermometer drops down in the teens, and stays there for several days. Fortunately, I haven’t lost any plants because of this. These are the conditions when mulching is important to stabilize the soil temperatures and also to prevent frost heaving of tender roots, especially in the spring when temperatures are really fluctuating. The mulch under springtime conditions is actually keeping the soil frozen so that the roots are not pushed up and out. Mulch can be a few inches, say 2–6 inches deep, and can be various materials like straw, bark of various textures, wood chips, cotton burs or pecan shells. In a pinch, use layers of newspapers if unexpected freezing or frost heaving becomes a concern.

In the spring, resume more frequent watering at the first signs of green appearing at the base of perennials. Make sure the trees are well-watered as buds begin to break. And keep in mind that our April winds can be very drying to the plants and soil.

Susan Waterman has a Ph.D. in botany and over 25 years experience in sustainable agriculture. For more info, visit www.harvestbyhand.com. Questions? E-mail green@harvestbyhand.com

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US Green Building Council-NM Luncheon

MCM Elegante Hotel, 2020 Menaul NE.

An update from the Technical Advisory Committee on 2010 LEED projects and a presentation of the UNM student case study of the LEED Gold Certified Barcelona Elementary School. Also, a couple of perspectives on the recent GreenBuild conference in Chicago, and a preview of the 2011 legislative session. Emerging Professionals: $18, Members: $25, Non-Member: $30 Open to the public. Pay in advance with PayPal at

www.usgbcnm.org.

USGBC-NM Membership Directory

As a service to members and the general public, the USGBC-NM has launched a new Membership Directory to help members promote their services and products. Members are encouraged to log on and update their profile with more complete information. www.usgbcnm.org.

Jan 13, 2011, 8:30 am – 4 pm

NM Water Dialogue

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

The Dialogue is a nonprofit with a diverse statewide board and seeks to foster communication and education about NM water issues. This year’s focus will be “Economic Stress: Hard Times for Water Planning and Management?” Speakers will discuss market-based transfers of water rights and how planning changes during a time of both scarce finances and water resources. Update on the state water plan. Lunch catered by the IPCC. Fees reduced for early registrants and Dialogue members. Register online at http://www.nmwaterdialogue.org.

Jan. 15, 9 am-4 pm

Winter Bird and Bat Festival

2901 Candelaria NW

The festival offers talks and slide shows, bird and nature walks, kids’ crafts, and live birds and bats. Event benefits Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Center. Day-use park pass: $3. For more info, call Peter Kelling: 505.856.2922

Jan. 29, 11:30 am – 2 pm

Souper Bowl 2011

5840 Office Blvd. NE

Roadrunner Food Bank invites you to attend this popular event, held at the Food Bank’s new distribution facility. The event features dozens of Albuquerque’s finest chefs and restaurants, live entertainment and prize drawings. Proceeds help feed the growing number of hungry New Mexicans. For more info, visit: www.rrfb.org/souper_bowl.htm

Feb. 18-19 7:30 am – 5 pm

2011 NM Organic Farming Conference

Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid North, 5151 San Francisco Rd. NE

Organized by Farm to Table, The NM Dept. of Agriculture, NM Organic Commodity Commission, NM State University Cooperative Extension Service. Jane Sooby of the Organic Farming Research Foundation will give the keynote address: “How Organic Research Can Improve Your Farm.” There will be many workshop sessions and opportunities for networking. Exhibitors will offer displays and information. For a special lodging rate, call 1.800.262.2043 or 505.821.3333. To register for the conference: www.farmtotablenm.org. For info, call Le Adams at 505.473.1004, ext. 10 or leadams@cybermesa.com (Santa Fe) or Joanie at 505.841.9067 (Albq.)

Focus Group on Food Safety Requirements

Farm to Table is hosting a focus group during off-conference time at the Organic Farming Conference to answer questions regarding this issue. To participate, contact Ilana Blankman: 505.473.1004, ext. 12.

Feb. 24-25

16th Water Conservation & Xeriscape Conference

Hilton Albuquerque, 1901 University Blvd. NE

“Connecting People, Nature, Environment” Exhibitors, speakers, free seminars. Contact the Xeriscape Council: 505.468.1021, PO Box 14311, Albq. 87191, www.xeriscapenm.com

Feb. 26, 9:30 am – 6 pm; Feb 27, 10 am – 5 pm

Water Conservation & Xeriscape Expo

Expo NM – The Fairgrounds

Vendor registration is now open. http://xeriscapenm.com/xeriscape_conferences/2010/expo.php

March 24 – 25, 2011

Albuquerque Low Impact Development-GI Conference

Albuquerque Marriott Uptown

Second annual Albuquerque Arid LID-GI Conference. Sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, Bernalillo County, SSCAFCA, City of Albuquerque, US Forest Service, AMAFCA, NMDOT, Middle Rio Grande Stormwater Team. Conference will focus on Green Infrastructure/Low Impact Development in Arid Environments. More info and online registration and to subscribe to our news feed to receive future updates.

http://www.aridlid.org/

Albuquerque Backyard Farms Collaborative

A group of organizers who lead gardening and farming education organizations are coordinating efforts in teaching how to grow and eat healthy foods and herbs, and live a more sustainable lifestyle. Groups include: The Gardeners Guild, Mother Nature Gardens, Mid Region Council on Governments, Sunstone Herbs, Albuquerque Backyard Farms, The Source, Girls Gone Green, Transition Towns NM, UNM Sustainability Studies, San Jose Elementary School Gardens, Zia Elementary School Community Garden, and the Albuquerque Chicken Coop Tour. For more info, visit www.abqbackyardfarms.com/ABQ_Collaborative.html

2012 Edible Albuquerque Gardens Registry

See what people are doing in ABQ. An “edible garden” is any place you grow food near where you live – from growing on your terrace – to having a full-scale frontyard or backyard farm. E-mail: info@abqbackyardfarms.com or visit http://.2012abqgardens.ning.com

Beneficial Farms CSA

Now accepting members in Albuquerque. Weekly distribution at La Montanita Coop Warehouse, 3361 Columbia Dr. NE. Beneficial Farms CSA works with up to 40 regional farms each year, and offers abundant, affordable shares of fresh fruit and vegetables and other local and regionally produced foods year round. All produce is grown with sustainable chemical free methods.

SANTA FE

Jan. 2, 11 am

On Wisdom – Craig Barnes

The Travel Bug, 839 Paseo de Peralta

Journey Santa Fe presents Craig Barnes, author of Democracy At The Crossroads, Growing Up True, and In Search of the Lost Feminine. Barnes’ radio show in Santa Fe is on Saturdays at 9 am on KSFR (101.1 FM) $3-$5 contributions are encouraged. Journey Santa Fe is a group of thinkers who meet each Sunday to explore life values and seek community. www.journeysantafe.org

Jan. 3, 6:30-8 pm

Reversing Heart Disease with Dietary Changes and Nutritional Supplements

Integrative Holistic Healing Center, 826 Cam. De Monte Rey, Ste. B2

A presentation by Daniel Cobb, Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Free. For more info, call 424.9527

Jan. 6, 6:30 – 9 pm

Why Slowing Down Matters: Finding Satisfaction in the Here and Now

Academy for the Love of Learning, 1012 Marquez Place, Ste. 306A

Free introductory Evening of Exploration ask: “What can we learn about ourselves if we stop and taste the moment? Through an interactive dialogue, explore how learning can lead not merely to the accumulation of knowledge but perhaps more – personal transformation and the expression of our innate gifts, longings, and individual natures. RSVP is necessary to attend: 505.995.1860 or patty@aloveoflearning.org, www.aloveoflearning.org

Beginning Jan. 8, 4 pm MDT

Green Talk Radio

KTRC – 1260 am

A new weekly show with Faren Dancer. At a time when our culture is requiring a major shift in how we relate to the Earth and our fossil fuel-based economy is poised for transition to a renewable future, awareness and knowledge are keys to true sustainability. Each week we will explore the issues, the politics, the science, and the evolution of consciousness that impact the balancing of life on our planet.

Jan. 8, 1-5 pm

How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci

Santa Fe Soul, 2905 Rodeo Park Drive East # 3

Learn the secrets of Leonardo’s genius. Michael Gelb, internationally best selling author, will take us through the 7 principles and guide us to applying them to challenging life issues. Access deeper levels of intuitive wisdom and harmonize them with critical thinking skills. Cost: $60. To register, call 505.474.8555, www.santafesoul.com

Jan. 10, 6:30-8 pm

How to Reverse Osteoporosis with Dietary Changes and Nutritional Supplements

Integrative Holistic Healing Center, 826 Cam. De Monte Rey, Ste. B2

A presentation by Daniel Cobb, Doctor of Oriental Medicine

Free. For more info, call 424.9527

Jan. 10 Deadline

Logo Contest – Multicultural Alliance for A Safe Environment

MASE envisions respectful, peaceful communities cherishing a healthy environment. The organization is rooted in the experiences of uranium-impacted communities of the southwestern U.S. working to restore and protect the natural and cultural environment through respectfully promoting intercultural engagement among communities and institutions for the benefit of all life and future generations.

Current MASE Objectives are to:

• Stop Roca Honda Mine Permit through a legal challenge and a community organizing strategy

• Amend RECA to include Post 71 workers

• Move the homestake tailings pile, and reset the background cleanup standards.

• Find Funding to cleanup abandoned uranium mines.

• Do a water study to evaluate the extent of groundwater contamination and its movement by obtaining a comprehensive water study through the USGS.

• Do a comprehensive health study to evaluate uranium effects on our health.

MASE Core Groups include the Bluewater Valley Downstream Alliance, Dineh Bidziil Coalition, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment, and the Post-71 Uranium Workers Committee.

The logo must communicate MASE’s vision and mission. It will be used online, in print, and in all marketing applications. It must resize easily and look good in black & white as well as color. It must contain the words “Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment.” The winning designer will receive a $500 cash prize. See complete submission guidelines on MASE’s website: masecoalition.org

Jan. 13, 4 pm

Buckman Direct Diversion Project Board Meeting

Santa Fe City Council Chambers

Jan. 18, starting 3:30 pm

New Innovation Center Opening

Discovery District, 560 Montezuma (2nd fl., to the right of the World Market near Sanbusco)

Following the opening will be 3 days of keynote lectures, discussions and presentations by notable innovators, inspiring entrepreneurs and senior business executives on topics such as accelerating the process of innovation, the development and adoption of products in the marketplace and how to enhance sustainable entrepreneurial growth in NM. Presented by the High Desert Discovery District, an independent nonprofit dedicated to helping NM entrepreneurs succeed. For a full description of activities, visit www. hddd.org.

Jan. 20, 7 pm

Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour and Eco-Short Film Competition

Lensic Performing Arts Center

Presented by WildEarth Guardians (www.wildearthguardians.org). Contact Terry Flanagan, 505.231.5180 or Angelisa Espinoza, 505.988.9126, ext. 0. General Admission: $15. For tickets: 505.988.1234, www.lensic.org or Sangre de Cristo Mountainworks: 505.984.8221, www.sdcmountainworks.com

Jan. 25

Green Drinks

La Casa Sena Cantina, 125 E. Palace

Networking for green-mined people. Learn what environmental initiatives are on the 2011 legislative agenda. Enjoy chef Patrick Gharrity’s Farm to Restaurant appetizers. www.santafealliance.com

Jan. 29, 11:30 am – 2 pm

Souper Bowl XVII

SF Convention Center

A benefit for The Food Depot, northern NM’s food bank. More than 25 restaurants compete for the honor of “Best Soup.” Pick up tickets in advance (adults $25, children $10) or at the door ($30, $10), downtown at the SF Convention Center. Gp to www.thefooddepot.org or call 505.471.1633 for info on participating restaurants and ticket prices.

Through Jan. 30

Tree Seedlings for Sale

The Natural Resources Conservation Service, in cooperation with the NM Natural Resources Dept., Forestry Division, is offering applications for low cost tree seedlings. Applicants must own at least an acre of land, and plant the seedlings for windbreaks, reforestation, Christmas trees, erosion control, conservation education, or wildlife plantings. There are many species available that are adapted to our area in both deciduous and conifers. For more info call 505.988.6253, ext. 3.

Feb. 23-24

10th annual Española Basin Workshop

Santa Fe Community College Jemez Rooms

The theme: “Española Basin Surface and Groundwater Quality.”

Who should come: Everyone who is conducting geological, geophysical, and hydrological studies within the greater Española Basin region. Attendees are encouraged to contribute a poster presentation to the meeting. Abstracts are due Feb. 11. Further info on registration and instructions for submitting abstracts are posted on the website: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/ebtag/upcoming.html

Santa Fe Creative Tourism Initiatives

Artists and craftsmen who offer workshops and classes within SF County are invited to list their offerings with Santa Fe Creative Tourism at www.SantaFeCreativeTourism.org. See “Get Involved” tab to list. This service is free and provided by the city of SF Arts Commission.

Save A Ton Recycling Campaign

The city of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe New Mexican have launched a campaign to double recycling in Santa Fe in one year. Santa Feans score way below state and national averages. For a city with its own recycling facility that envisions becoming a Zero Waste community, we can do better! People should get The Green Line in the Santa Fe New Mexican on the third Thursday of each month for a full page of recycling information. Find information on the Save A Ton campaign at www.sfnewmexican.com and click on Green Line or on Facebook. Contact Regina Wheeler, SF Solid Waste Director: 505.955.2209 or e-mail rawheeler@santafenm.gov

HERE & THERE

Now through February

Earthship Intern Program

Taos

Winter learning opportunities: month-long sessions. Participants work up to 5 days a week on Earthship projects. Those who complete a month will earn a certificate to attend a future Earthship Seminar (a $450 value). This opportunity is open to those who would like to live in an Earthship on site while learning. For dates for each session and an email application, contact Kirsten Jacobsen, Education Director, Earthship Biotecture: 575.751.0462, kirsten@earthship.com

Application Due: Jan. 7

EPA Integrated Assessment of Greenhouse Gases and Climate Impacts $2 million in grants available. Eligible entities: States, local governments, territories, Indian tribes, international organizations, public and private universities and colleges, hospitals, laboratories, other public or private nonprofit institutions.

The EPA is soliciting proposals to advance comprehensive, integrated modeling and assessment of multiple greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Proposals should provide ways to enhance understanding of climate change impacts and their economic implications in order to assist decision makers and the public in effectively responding to the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change. More info: http://www.epa.gov/air/grants_funding.html

Application Due: Jan. 12

NOAA K-12 Environmental Literacy Grants

The U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requests proposals. $8 million in grants available. Eligible entities: Institutions of higher education; other nonprofits; K-12 public and independent schools and school systems; and state, local, and Indian tribal governments. This RFP will support education projects that advance inquiry-based Earth System Science learning and stewardship directly tied to the school curriculum, with a particular interest in increasing climate literacy. Up to 10 awards are anticipated. For more info, contact Carrie McDougall at oed.grants@noaa.gov or go to: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=56016. Refer to Sol# NOAA-SEC-OED-2011-2002608.

Jan. 14 Deadline

Public Comment on LEED Rating Systems

USGBC is accepting public comment on an update for the LEED Rating System. This update affects the Building Design and Construction, Neighborhood Development, and Homes rating systems. For more info, visit ttp://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2360

Jan. 18-19

Sustainable Foods Summit

San Francisco

How do organic, fair trade and other eco-labels contribute to sustainability? What are the sustainability needs of consumers and food companies? The summit is geared at business, marketing and technical professionals from food manufacturers, ingredient firms, retailers & distributors, industry organizations & certification agencies, researchers, investors as well as others looking at sustainability in the food industry. E-mail: info@sustainablefoodssummit.com, www.sustainablefoodssummit.com

Jan. 21-23, 9 am-6 pm

8th Annual Red Paint Powwow and Indian Market

Grant County Business & Conference Center, next to Ace Hardware, Hwy. 180, Silver City, NM

Dance demonstrations, storytelling, performers and music. Friday is an educational day for schoolchildren. Saturday and Sunday offer Competition Dancing as well as Gourd Dancing and Grand Entry. The Indian Market is open all three days. Cost: $10

Jan. 25-26

Solar Power Generation USA Conference

Rio Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

Networking opportunity for educators, solar professionals, utilities, developers, policy makers, vendors and government agencies. Speakers, seminars, training courses, exhibitions. For more info, call 971.238.0700, visit www.solarpowercongress.com or www.greenpowerconferences.com

Jan. 26-29

Annual EcoFarm Conference

Asilomar Conf. Center, Pacific Grove, CA

www.eco-farm.org

Jan. 31- Feb. 2

EUEC – Energy and Environment Conference 2011

Convention Center, Phoenix, AZ

www.euec.com

Feb. 8-10

2011 Green Jobs National Conference

Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC

www.greenjobsconference.org

Feb. 11-13

2011 Southwest Food Convergence

Arizona State University – Tempe, Arizona

All over the Southwest, the food sustainability movement is growing. In south Phoenix, community members and nonprofits are planting gardens to help reverse food deserts. Students are asking their campus food service providers to purchase ethical and environmentally-sound products. Activists are working to ensure farmworker rights and fair wages. These seemingly disparate actions fit into the creation of a sustainable food system as a whole. In the context of the unique SW cultures, economies and environments, this conference, hosted by United Students for Fair Trade and the Real Food Challenge (http://realfoodchallenge.org/), will create a space for students and allies from across the food sustainability and justice movement to share knowledge and skills, cultivate relationships, and deepen our commitment. $35 registration. Info: http://www.usft.org/

Feb. 25-27

Go Green Expo: For Business & the Public

Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

www.gogreenexpo.com

Gifts from the Source

Visit Rio Grande Return’s online store to order gift packages with products from local farmers and producers. Each gift is in turn a gift back to the source – The Rio Grande. Conservation donations go towards spring and watershed restoration projects at Zia Pueblo and Hamaatsa. Info: www.riograndereturn.com, or call 505.466.1767 or toll free: 866.466.1767, E-mail: contact@riograndereturn.com

Veterans Green Jobs Academy

Northern NM College, Espanola

Workforce training and specific degree programs to support military veterans in fully accredited academic certificate and degree programs in areas of environmental science related to renewable energy, hazardous materials response, forestry, sustainable agriculture, wildland fire science, construction trades and others. A partnership with the NM Dept. of Veterans Services. For more info, call Dr. Biggs at 505.747.5453 or visit www.nnmc.edu/vetacademy.htm.

Community Land Trust Forming

For those seeking a truly affordable home, stability and self-sufficiency, the Community Land Trust model provides an alternative to landlessness and its accompanying ills. We are forming a rural, self-sustaining, Community Land Trust in northern NM and seek donations of land/funds, or founding members who can invest at least $10,000. To learn more about CLTs, read Kidnapped by the House, a 6-part series in Green Fire Times beginning in April 2010 at www.greenfiretimes.com or call Rebekah at 505.424.9475.

Statewide Computer Recycling Program

Computers do contain some environmentally sensitive materials. These can be safely removed or recycled, but only if the computers are kept out of landfills in the first place.

Goodwill Industries of NM, in partnership with Dell, is offering a free drop-off program for consumers who want to responsibly recycle any brand of used computer equipment in any condition, and request a donation receipt for tax purposes. All proceeds of value recovered from the equipment go to help New Mexicans seeking to overcome barriers to employment. For more info about Goodwill Industries of NM or to shop online, visit goodwillnm.org. For info about computer equipment donations, contact Ryan Stark: 505.881.6401, ext. 1920

Equipment can be brought to one of Goodwill/NM’s ten retail centers during regular business hours:

5000 San Mateo NE, Albuquerque (Northeast Heights)

6636 Caminito Coors NW, Albuquerque (Westside)

3211 Coors SW – Suite E, Albuquerque (South Valley)

1108 Juan Tabo NE, Albuquerque (Sandia Foothills)

2003 Southern – Suite 113A, Rio Rancho

3060 Cerrillos, Santa Fe

2601 N. Main, Roswell

1861 Hutton, Farmington

2005 N. Prince, Clovis

1820 E. Highway 66, Gallup

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A worst-case scenario shows that the American Southwest could experience a 60-year stretch of heat and drought unseen since the 12th century. University researchers studied temperature changes and droughts in the region over the past 1,200 years and used them to project future climate models in the hope that water resource managers could use the information to plan ahead. Human-kept records as well as rings in the cores of trees showed that dry spells of earlier centuries were much worse than any we have seen in modern times.

“We’re not saying future droughts will be worse than what we see in the paleo record, but they could be as bad,” said lead author Connie Woodhouse, an associate professor of geography and regional development. “However, the effects of such a worst-case drought, were it to recur in the future, would be greatly intensified by even warmer temperatures.”

In the mid-12th century, a six-decade-long heat and dry spell covered most of the western United States and northern Mexico, the researchers found. During 25 years of that period,

the Colorado River – an important tributary that today feeds seven U.S. states including the big cities of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque – flowed at a rate of 15 percent below normal. Over the past decade, sampling of the Colorado shows the river is at its lowest point since measurement records were first kept in 1906. Rio Grande flows from 2000 to 2009 averaged just 77 percent of normal.

But indications such as temperatures that are higher than noted in the previous 1,200 years, coupled with research that predicts falling winter precipitation in the southwest, bode ill for the future. “The bottom line is, we could have a Medieval-style drought with even warmer temperatures,” Woodhouse said.Growing population and rising food demand will place increasing stress on the region’s water supplies. The study closes with a prospectus for reclaiming freshwater sustainability (renewable surface water and its allocation to people, farms, and ecosystems) including a series of recommendations for reducing region-wide human appropriation of streamflow to a target level of 60%. Groundwater as a source of freshwater was excluded in the analysis because it is not as immediately renewable.

Two Major Water Cases Headed to State Supreme Court

The New Mexico State Engineer’s authority over the state’s water management regulations, as well as domestic well law is being challenged in separate cases that have been appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

The NM Attorney General’s Office has petitioned the court to reverse an Appeals Court decision in the case of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Authority vs. D’Antonio. In 2007, Tri-State, the NM Mining Association and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District took legal action, claiming that NM State Engineer John D’Antonio’s Active Water Resource Management regulations were unconstitutional. The regulations created a framework to provide water to junior users such as Tri-State while still protecting senior water rights such as acequias and farmers users pending adjudications.

However, traditional acequia associations were not happy with the new regulations either because they thought they gave too much power to the state engineer and in the long run could harm senior water rights, which are under growing demand by cities and towns. A state District Court and the Appeals Court agreed, in part. The Attorney General’s petition claims that “the ruling leaves senior rights holders without protection from improper junior uses during times of scarcity and frustrates the will of the Legislature.”

The other case questions whether the state engineer can issue permits for new domestic wells in an area (the Upper Mimbres River) where water is fully appropriated and limited; in effect, whether the state’s domestic well law is unconstitutional. Tribes and the city and county of Santa Fe also filed legal briefs, arguing that the “unregulated proliferation of domestic wells” creates crises “that tribes and other senior rights holders disproportionably bear.”

A lower court declared the domestic well law unconstitutional. The NM Appeals Court disagreed. Southern NM farmer Horace Bounds, along with the NM Farm and Livestock Bureau has appealed this decision.

Indian Water Rights Legislation

Over the last century, the nation’s federally subsidized water development projects have often bypassed Indian Country. At a White House signing ceremony last month, President Barak Obama said the bill he would sign will provide “permanent access to secure water supplies year-round” for seven Native American communities around the West.

In 2005, in return for federal help in building a pipeline to carry San Juan River water to Navajo communities in western NM, the Navajos signed an agreement with the state of New Mexico agreeing to accept less water from the San Juan River than what many thought they were entitled to.

The bill Obama signed, engineered by Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, and other legislators, locks in $180 million over the next three years. This will allow a pipeline to be built to serve communities north of Gallup using locally pumped groundwater, at least until the San Juan water is made available. The projected cost for the entire project to be completed sometime after 2020 is $870 million.

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Governor Richardson had been pushing for the “Outstanding National Resource Waters” designation since 2008. State officials say the “no pollution” standard will prohibit any activities, including cattle grazing, that would degrade water quality.

“These protections will provide impressive water quality protections for not only these headwaters, but downstream towns, ranchers, farmers and others,” said Rachel Conn of the conservation group Amigos Bravos. “The decision respects the people’s connection to these waters by grandfathering pre-existing activities such as acequia irrigation on the lands.

The commission’s decision was not, however, unopposed. The NM Cattle Growers Association and others sought to derail the public hearings by resorting to litigation, a tactic that was soundly rejected by the NM Supreme Court in October. Some ranchers and water associations have criticized the designation as being too broad and may continue to fight it through the state legislature.

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The Plains of San Augustin—a vast graben that spans the Continental Divide, a grassland surrounded by pine-forested mountains, was once a great lake whose waters disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene, the last ice age that ended around 12,000 years ago when mammoths, dire wolves, and even horses that had roamed the Southwest for millennia were slowly chased into extinction by climate change and early human hunters.

Within today’s ephemeral geopolitical context, the Plains of San Augustin are contained within western Socorro and eastern Catron Counties of southwestern New Mexico. Near the south end of this enormous dry lakebed, the surface of which extends to nearly a mile and a half above sea-level, is Bat Cave, a site of early human habitation whose middens revealed corn cobs of different sizes and periods that give some idea as to just how deep into antiquity maize was harvested and consumed in southwestern North America. Bat Cave is thought to have been inhabited by humans of the Cochise culture at least five thousand years ago, and possibly earlier. These hunter-gatherers left remnants of their passage around the area in other sites as well, especially in nearby mountains about twenty-five miles due west of Bat Cave.

Thirty years ago, I camped at Bat Cave with my old pal, Michael Harner, who had been an undergraduate in 1948 when he was a member of the archaeological team headed by Herbert Dick who excavated the site, and found the corncobs that chronologically placed southwestern maize within time’s continuum. Those young archaeologist-anthropologists missed an arrowhead that I found, which now lies before me as I write, a treasured artifact that connects me, somehow to a fellow human who preceded me by a hundred generations, someone who worked very hard to survive, and whose consciousness was still wild, unencumbered by the technofantasy that dominates today’s Western culture.

Sitting at dawn in the entrance to Bat Cave, I looked out over the Plains of San Augustin, a beautiful habitat that I have loved for nearly fifty years, since before the arrival of the Very Large Array (VLA) of radio telescopes constructed by the National Observatory to use the heart of this enormous natural parabola as the place from which to observe cosmological phenomena in the firmament. This VLA is one of humankind’s highest technical applications of modern scientific consciousness—listening to the cosmos, finding echoes of the Big Bang that ushered our universe into being over thirteen billion years ago.

Scattered around the Plains of Saint Augustine are cattle ranches run by a curious breed of true individuals who prefer to govern their lives as they see fit through hard work and John Wayne-ian true grit. They prefer to be left alone in this enormous span of grassland that elicits fits of agoraphobia in visiting urbanites who happen to be driving from Magdalena to Datil. This is indeed a habitat perfectly suited to itself, a biotic community contained within a geophysical cradle sculpted by volcanic activity with an ancient tectonic nudge that resulted in an exquisitely defined watershed that apparently drains to either side of the Continental Divide. Both the Río Grande to the east and the Gila River to the west are fed by waters from the San Augustin aquifer.

*****

Today, a family of speculators is seeking legal right to drill thirty-seven wells deep into the San Augustin aquifer and pump 54,000 acre feet of water per year for 300 years, or until the aquifer runs dry, for undetermined purposes other than to sell this water to the highest bidder. Or, put another way, a family of modern-day carpetbaggers wants to pump the lifeblood of a living bioregion, create a water hemorrhage with no thought of tourniquet, despoil a vibrant habitat, rape the Earth—for money, lots of money to satisfy the insidious greed that has come to dominate so much of the darkening consciousness of Western culture. The privatization of common waters for profit is absolutely unethical.

The local population is aghast at the evil frivolity being visited upon them by a neighbor who acquired a ranch two decades past, for the sole purpose of reaping vast profit at the expense of habitat, of common waters, of a watershed held in common by the human population as well as the rest of the inhabiting biotic community—a watershed that contributes to both the already over-allocated Río Grande and Gila River, the lifeblood of the O’odham Nation and various riverine communities that it nurtures in both New Mexico and Arizona before it empties into the Colorado River in Yuma hundreds of miles west of its headwaters near Silver City.

Bruce Frederick, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe who also holds a Masters degree in hydrology from New Mexico Tech in Socorro, is representing the inhabitants of the Plains of San Augustin with the intention of thwarting this debacle. I conducted a recorded interview with him, included here in its entirety that portrays the nature of water law in the West.

BF: “From a Western water law perspective, where the Prior Appropriation Doctrine grew up around miners, the ‘forty-niners’ really, the practice they had was to divert water from a stream and take as much they needed for their particular mining practices, and they would leave the rest in the river for the next person to use. Obviously, if the first person who arrived dammed up the entire river, and sold it to everybody else, he obviously would have been lynched. So for the last 150 years, essentially, that’s been the law. The law of prior appropriation in all Western states written into their constitutions is the beneficial use — the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right to use water.

“Before the state engineer was invented in 1907, essentially, you established a water right by actually taking water out of the stream, diverting it out of the stream and applying it to beneficial use. So everyone around you could see how you were using the water. The state engineer started the application process in 1907, but the concept is still the same — the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right to use water. But now you file an application first and then the state engineer determines whether there is any water — called un-appropriated water — available, and whether your new use is going to impair existing water rights. He should also look at your application — and this is clear in other states that are well developed, particularly in Colorado—to see if your intended use is speculative. It’s one thing if you intend to use the water yourself on your land, say for irrigation or domestic purposes. That’s very easily quantified. So we can tie what you want to use the water for with how much you’re applying for, and put the two together to see if they are reasonable. So historically what an applicant does is – say they have a particular use in mind at a particular place– they ask for a particular amount of water. Then the state engineer can assess the amount they’re asking for, and measure that against the water needed for their anticipated use.

“The San Augustin application turns that whole concept on its head. Instead of looking at a particular use, what they’re doing is looking at a basin, an enormous basin with potentially lots of water, and they’re saying, ‘We think there is enough there to take 54,000 acre feet of water per year for 300 years until we drain it dry, and we want it all. We don’t want it for our own use. We want to sell it to third parties.’ And there are people they haven’t identified… the highest bidder. They want to sell it to the state if the state has trouble complying with its Compact. Well the state has protested the application.

“They (applicants) want to offset diversions, for example Río Rancho hundreds of miles upstream — the idea is that if Río Rancho pumps groundwater, eventually that’s going to deplete flows into the Río Grande because the groundwater’s connected to the surface water. And because the Río Grande is fully appropriated, Río Rancho can’t do that unless they either buy up surface rights, or find some source and dump that into the river. That’s the role that San Augustin says they might want to play.

“Of course there’s a big disconnect between where Río Rancho’s depletions occur, hundreds of miles upstream, and where San Augustin will pipe water into the river from groundwater. It’s also somewhat absurd because the San Augustin Basin, pumping that much water will eventually deplete the Río Grande, because it’s connected to the Río Grande via the Alamosa Creek, which is spring-fed creek which drains into the Río Grande, and those springs are fed by the San Agustin aquifer, we think. The San Augustin aquifer also drains into the Gila Basin and eventually ends up as surface flows in the Gila. Pumping that much water out of the Augustin (Basin) will eventually deplete flows in the Gila River and deplete flows into the Río Grande.

“Those are issues of fact. We’re going to contest this application on the anti-speculation doctrine. Our position is that this application is invalid on its face because neither the state engineer, nor the people with existing water rights…can tell when this water will be taken out of the aquifer, where it’s going to be used, how much return flow there might be, or anything else. We’re saying that the application is invalid on its face for that reason.

“The Augustin Plains Ranch, or APR as it’s sometimes referred to, is a New Mexico corporation owned by foreign investors, as far as we can tell. One in particular is an Italian speculator—somewhat mysterious—named Bruno Modena. His son might be involved in this as well. His name is Vito. Bruno may be a holocaust survivor. He’s Italian. …He’s apparently a wealthy person. …He’s proposing a lot of speculative things, and nobody knows for sure who he is and what he wants to do.

“Anyway, APR has owned thousands of acres of land out there in the San Augustin Plains for about 20 years. Whether they bought this land purely for its own value, or whether they had this intention all along, we don’t know. The ranch is an active ranch, apparently. There’s no irrigation on that ranch as far as I know. Now, after 20 years, they’re saying that they want to irrigate 4000 acres of high desert land. We don’t know if they really have plans to do that or not.

“It’s about 20 miles east of Datil. The Very Large Array (VLA) is close to it. They are protesters in the case. Pueblos have protested it, federal agencies have protested it, state agencies have protested it, numerous individuals have protested it. The Middle Río Grande Conservancy District has protested it. The original application and the amended application together drew about a thousand protests… As far as I know, it’s the most protested application in the history of the state engineer’s office.

“It would be unconstitutional, I think, because one of the fundamental tenets in prior appropriation doctrine is that you put water to beneficial use after you apply, and there’s no way to determine when, if ever, this water would be put to beneficial use. It’s entirely speculative. We can assume that in a hundred years, we’ll be more desperate for water than we are now. We can assume that an individual, or a group of investors would like to corner the market on water. And that’s what they’re trying to do, essentially, to corner the market on water in this particular area. It’s unethical, and in this case it’s unconstitutional. You can’t use water in the West for speculative purposes like that. It’s for use, not for speculation.”

*****

Carol and Ray Pittman are residents of Catron County. In an interview, Mrs. Pittman told of how several residents happened to read legal notices in late 2007 that mentioned the application to pump 54,000 acre feet per year from the Plains of San Augustin Aquifer. A meeting was held that drew over 400 residents. They formed the San Augustin Water Coalition. An excerpt from the Coalition overview published in February 2009 reveals: “At a public meeting in December, 2007, hundreds of residents met to consider the threat. The overwhelming consensus was that local people should decide appropriate use of local groundwater, not predatory and far-removed speculators whose sole aim is to profit financially at the expense of local residents.”

Shades of John Wesley Powell!! Appearing before the House Committee on Irrigation in 1890, Powell vigorously advocated for local governance from within individual watersheds claiming that local residents were the most appropriate to determine how water and other natural resources should be used, and that indeed each watershed of the arid west should be regarded as a commonwealth. He also advocated that there should be no inter-basin transfers of water, that each watershed should be self-sustaining.

Carol Pittman and her fellow residents are working indefatigably to forestall this theft. They work closely with Bruce Frederick from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and are determined to thwart the application placed before the state engineer by the Augustin Plains Ranch. They formalized their Coalition and applied for a 501(c) 3 status to provide for tax-deductible donations to help defray expenses. She said, “All of the people of this area, some in Socorro, some in Reserve and some even as far south as Glenwood, everyone came together to oppose this application. I think some people are mostly afraid about what will happen to them and their water rights and their way of life. It’s a very bad idea. It’s a precedent-setting thing… We’re not going to let it happen… It’s been apparent from the start that this application moved forward because somebody somewhere in the system wants it to move forward. Bruce (Frederick) told us that this is a speculative application and it should have been thrown out on the simple face of it. That makes us all very suspicious.”

She went on to say, “We need Bruce very much, but we also need the entire state to look at this and say ‘this is not the right way to go.’ And if this happens, the way that I look at it anyway, there will be new policies, a new vision, a new way of looking at things. It’s very difficult for the state engineer, because he has to deal with all these little political entities who are constantly approving more and more development, and what does he do about that? The way I envision the state engineer is that he’s constantly scrambling with the applications with this day-to-day stuff. How does he ever have time to think about what really should be done, what changes should be made? …I think this case might really bring that kind of thing to a head so that people all over the state concerned about water will think in terms of a new vision.”

It’s high time for another kind of speculation here—philosophical speculation, or perhaps a query into ethical considerations about transfusing water, the lifeblood from this vibrant, evolving habitat known to humans as the Plains of San Augustin into another as yet undisclosed overburdened oasis. First, what are the moral implications of privatizing these finite common waters into vast sums of money for carpetbaggers whose collective mindset precludes any known intuitive understanding of what a miracle the integrated biotic community of the Plains of San Augustin really is. Second, to transfuse its waters into the Río Grande, or elsewhere to satisfy legal requirements rendered three-quarters of a century ago before we, as a culture began to perceive that “growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell,” as Edward Abbey so blatantly articulated, is but a failing bulwark that exacerbates rather than relieves the water disaster that is already imminent for the over-abundant human population of New Mexico — to say nothing of the rest of this extraordinarily diverse biotic community. Thus we are about to trip over yet another stopgap measure. It’s as though we’re concurrently siphoning off our wisdom pool, our common sense as we pander to a failing economic paradigm.

The Plains of San Augustin is a beautiful living organism unto its own. Metaphorically, because of the VLA, it is a sensory apparatus from whence we “listen” to the cosmos for information about radio galaxies, remnants of supernova, gamma ray bursts, radio-emitting stars, our solar system, black holes, and other phenomena. It will also serve as a model for how we comport ourselves through the coming decades as we face very real global warming and climate instability. Human over-population in a high desert habitat where common waters are already strained does not bode at all well for our children, and especially their children. We wash our cars and irrigate golf courses with the drinking water of our grandchildren. We must not only thwart the madness of the water heist in the plains of San Augustin, but also triumph over our prevailing lack of commons sense, and use our preservation of this fragile, beautiful habitat as a banner leading us to ethical recovery in this time of desperation when all too often human intent and law violate natural law.

To register your opinion, contact:

Office of the State Engineer:

130 South Capitol Street

Concha Ortiz y Pino Building

P.O. Box 25102

Santa Fe, NM 87504-5102

Phone: 505.827.6091

Fax: 505.827.3806

Jack Loeffler is an aural historian, bioregional folklorist and author of many books. He has also produced hundreds of documentary radio programs including “Lore of the Land,” “The Spirit of Place,” and “Moving Waters: The Colorado River and the West.” Loeffler was recognized with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2008, and was designated a Santa Fe Living Treasure in 2009.

Possible pull-quotes:

A family of speculators is seeking legal right to drill thirty-seven wells deep into the San Augustin aquifer and pump 54,000 acre feet of water per year for 300 years, or until the aquifer runs dry.

What they’re trying to do, essentially, is to corner the market on water in this particular area.

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Raise your hand if you’ve ever been arrested. No? Me neither. Ok, well almost. I was in eleventh grade, an award winning, budding young writer, inspired by a high school teacher who was pursuing his master’s degree in history and happy to encourage students to speak for ourselves and stand up for our rights. So when our administration decided to cut back our two forty-minute lunch periods, condense our in-between-class breaks, and make 1200 students have one one-hour lunch break, I rallied. Actually someone else rallied first and started a petition to get student support. My small circle of friends was enraged by the injustice of administration making the decision without student input. I complained that the local restaurants surrounding our school could never handle that many students all at once because there was no way we’d all stay in the cafeteria for lunch. Our history teacher suggested civil disobedience, a rally cry to show solidarity beyond a petition. A student walk-out was quickly planned, and off I went to the local newspaper to “leak” the story.

Much to our surprise and delight, the faculty voted against the change, supporting the students. But on Monday morning, on the PA system came the Principal’s voice: “Students. Would the person who went to the press please report to my office. Immediately.” I reluctantly stood up from my computer lab class and strolled down the hall. Suddenly clapping came from the classrooms I passed. Were they clapping for me, I wondered as I approached the Principal’s office? Did my “outing” of the injustice at the local high school in the local press really have this affect? I was floored. At 17, I had no real idea what civil disobedience really was – I was a transplant to the suburbs of Toronto from the backwoods of northern Ontario. What did I know? I knew I’d done something because the Principal had also invited the Vice Principal, and a police officer.

I was not arrested that day. I was threatened with an arrest but the Principal decided that since I had recently won a writing award and represented my high school at a regional competition, surely I couldn’t be that bad a kid. Instead of an arrest record, I was given the opportunity to “explain” myself. And so begins my story of why I have to stand to represent the voice of the under-represented.

The voice of the locally owned-independent business is often underrepresented; it’s no surprise that I landed in a job where I can easily help. Each year when our citizen legislature goes into session at the Roundhouse, the Santa Fe Alliance is there to represent our members on issues that impact them. Since our founding in 2003, we have been involved in numerous local, regional and state issues where our members have had a strong representation: closing a corporate tax loophole that siphons millions of tax dollars out of our state; moving our state’s money out of large corporate banks and into local community banks to strengthen the balance sheets of local banks, expanding their ability to lend badly needed funds to robust local businesses; increased local procurement to give preference to locally owned independent business; supporting climate change policy and legislation that will create more green jobs and allow more homegrown New Mexico businesses to serve the green economy; healthcare reform for access to affordable healthcare for business owners and employees; supporting the film tax incentives to keep movies in NM and keep over 3000 New Mexicans employed and the industry spending at locally owned independent businesses. These are the moving parts in a local living economy and the ways in which we can keep our economy local and sustainable.

Turns out I’m not alone in this phenomenon of high school organizing and civil disobedience. In a recent meeting of 12 of our national network leaders of business alliances, I discovered over breakfast that over 50% have organized student protests in the past. Some rallied against dress codes, some protested the teachers themselves. Others organized students into coalitions of support to change school policy.

None of this surprised us; we do this every day. We represent locally owned independent business owners and organize coalitions around issues that impact our members. We speak for those who have not had the representation of their local business organizations. We plan special forums and press events to get attention for our cause. Santa Fe Alliance member Tom Matthews, owner of Matthews Office Supply, a long time Santa Fe family owned and operated business (with, in my opinion, the nicest delivery people in town!) said it to me best: “In the current economic climate of uncertainty and challenge, it is more important than ever before for small businesses to have a local advocate and partner who can stand with them against the onslaught of global big box corporations. The Santa Fe Business Alliance is a steady, trusted ally who refuses to cave into economic pressures and continues to represent small local businesses as a means of sustainable economic development.” Thanks Tom, for fueling my inner high school rebel.

Vicki Pozzebon is the Executive Director of the Santa Fe Alliance, a nonprofit organization working toward building a local living economy through community, local ownership and advocacy. Visit www.santafealliance.com for more information.

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The office building was awarded a “Gold” certification in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system in 2009. A.C.E., headquartered in Massachusetts with an office in Santa Fe, developed, engineered, and managed the project. PPCSolar, of Taos, installed the array.

This installation consists of 840 235-watt Yingli polycrystalline modules and an Advanced Energy Solaron 250 inverter, and is a roof mount bi-polar system. It is projected to produce 20 to 30 percent of building’s electricity usage.

American Capital Energy has managed and installed solar projects across seven states, generating a combined output of more than 30-MW since it’s founding in 2005. “We believe that this is the model of building sustainability and local partnerships that should guide all new construction in NM,” said Tom Anderson, A.C.E.’s Chief Operating Officer. “This is not only an exceptional opportunity to harness Santa Fe’s plentiful sun to create clean energy, but also this creates local jobs,” said Daniel Weinman, Chief Executive Officer of PPCSolar.

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Cultivation of irrigated land in the beautiful high-desert oasis of Chimayo has been intense for several centuries. By 1625 it was well known in the Spanish Crown for its agricultural bounty and through the present it still enjoys a reputation for its signature crop, the native Chimayo chile strains. The Chimayo valley is a genuine oasis, which was extended from three high mountain streams — the Rio Quemado, Rio En Medio and Rio Frijoles — by an extensive man-made system of 16 autonomous acequias, which now collectively irrigate about 1,100 acres. Among others, the main Hispano families that have continuously owned and farmed this valley are the Trujillo, Martinez, Ortega, Jaramillo, Vigil, Espinoza, Baca, Chavez, Cordova, Dominguez, Pacheco, Romero, Lopez, Sandoval, Coriz, Ortiz, Ruiz, Salazar, DeAguero,  Naranjo, Medina and Abeyta families.

As a result of Chimayo’s long history and limited available irrigated acreage, the parcels of irrigated land became successively smaller through the descent of the generations to the point where it is not unusual to now find irrigated plots smaller than one twentieth of an acre. Our family farm, El Rincon Trujillo Farm, is a good example of this land tenure history. In 1922 the federal government surveyed this area of Chimayo under the Small Holdings Claims Act. A number of the parcels had already been significantly reduced in size over successive generations of the large extended Trujillo family so that many parcels were reduced to a fourth of an acre or less, some strips measuring 400 feet long by 20 feet wide. The “strip” pattern of land division was necessary in order to allow each parcel of land access to the acequia. Family oral history recounts that these strips could not be narrower than 15 feet in width, which was the minimum width needed to comfortably turn a horse-drawn plow. Although these narrow fields were modest in size, they were nonetheless sufficiently productive to sustain the families working them through the hardest of times.

While available irrigated land was sharply reduced over the generations, the extended family unit managed to maximize its use of this invaluable resource by a high level of cooperation and organization in all aspects of cultivation. Foremost in this land ethic was the careful management of water resources through the community acequia organization, especially in the allocation of water during droughts so that the vegetable garden had priority for water, followed by the orchard and lastly by the hay field. The area of Chimayo known as “El Rincon De Los Trujillo” is a natural bowl shaped formation encircled by foothills, below which lies the encircling irrigation ditch named “Acequia De La Canada Ancha.” This 1700’s communal earthen canal draws its water directly from the Rio Quemado, which drains off the Sangre de Cristo Truchas Peaks, and lies on the opposite side of the divide from where the water is applied to land. A second lateral irrigation ditch, named “Acequia de los Sabinos”, diverts off the Acequia Canada Ancha and has the distinction of being one of the few acequias in northern New Mexico that irrigates properties from either bank of the ditch. This was accomplished by building the ditch on the top of a ridge that ran the length of the property. Below these two man-made watercourses lie the irrigated lands of El Rincon, which gradually slope down to the community road connecting Chimayo and Truchas. This land was shaped over several generations of cooperative management and land use. The high dry ground above the irrigation ditch was reserved for adobe houses and structures of every kind and purpose: animal pens, corrals, barns, and various types of storage structures made of adobes, rock, mud and logs. Below the ditch the irrigated land was carefully terraced to follow the natural contour of the land in order to facilitate irrigation. The highest terrace was used for planting fruit trees of all kinds. The next terrace was allocated for the all-important vegetable garden. Below that were fields for growing grain for flour, and last were the fields for growing hay for livestock.

This family cooperation extended over every season of the year. For example, in the non-growing season, all owners of the various parcels in El Rincon would open their gates so that their livestock could graze together anywhere within the large perimeter fencing of the neighborhood. This all took place in a close-knit community containing about 110 acres and owned by about 30 families, several of them large in numbers.

In the 1930s government agricultural researchers classified these land use practices of our native Hispano families as “subsistence farming.” There may be some truth to this harsh characterization, but I would observe that it is not a great leap from “subsistence” to “sustainable” farming and except for the size of the agricultural bounty, they really are the same process. When viewed over a longer period of time, the traditional Hispano land tenure practices compare quite favorably to our current attempts to achieve sustainability by using large amounts of fossil fuels in the form of plastic mulching, drip lines, pumps, electricity and gasoline for tractors. Modest as these subsistence farms were, their agricultural production was achieved without imported fertilizers or inputs of any type.  Their primary energy resources were human, beast of burden, the gravity flow of the acequia system, the sun that dried its harvests for storage, whether used for man, poultry or the livestock and the spiritual practices that sustained the faith that the crops would come. At best, the human population of these types of communities remained stable and often times out-migration was necessary to maintain the balance between man and land.  While these types of traditional communities did not dominate, they did endure, leaving us invaluable lessons to guide our entry into the coming age.

Ted Trujillo is a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Colombia, South America. He is a retired educator who taught at all grade levels, k through 12, and was Vice President of Northern NM Community College in the 1980s. He currently is an attorney who concentrates on land, water and natural resource issues for various local governments in the area. Adan, Omar, Masha, Pilar, Marisela and Ted Trujllo operate the Rincon Trujillo Family Farm.

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