I spotted my accountant in front of her office this spring, planting perennials to spruce up the parking lot. I liked seeing her away from her desk, and it struck me as further proof of the way Central Virginia is just so packed with people who know and care about growing plants. Gardening is truly part of the culture here, like ranching in Wyoming and plastic surgery in Hollywood. I’m glad this is my place. When I meet someone new here, I find I can often connect with them by talking pea trellises or a good place to get horse manure.
If the local horticulture conversation is one aspect of Jefferson’s long shadow, it’s appropriate that it usually centers on the nurturance of things we can eat and drink. Earlier this year, a friend said she’d heard Charlottesville called the epicenter of the locavore movement. (How ’bout that, Madison?) I was only a little surprised. We’re not Berkeley, but we’ve got an amazing wealth of farmers, at least a couple of them famous. And Berkeley notices: Alice Waters came here to visit last month.
It’s a hospitable climate for growing many kinds of food, but it’s the small scale of our local agriculture that makes this such a welcoming place for humans to live. See the new Buy Fresh Buy Local guide, just mailed by the Piedmont Environmental Council, for listings of dozens of family farms. Such operations are good for the land and the landscape; they’re great for community, too. They give us all kinds of ways to connect with each other, body and soul.—Erika Howsare
BULLETIN BOARD
Give an earful: May 19 is the last of three chances to rap with a city councilor about the future of City Market, while shopping at City Market! Dave Norris will be at the Market Central booth, 9-10:30am, ahead of the council’s May 21 discussion of the recommendation by a City Market Task Force that the site be developed as part of a permanent “market district.”
No nukes: Preservation Virginia has come out against proposed uranium mining in Southside Virginia by including the Whitehorn-Banister Rural Historic Area on its list of the state’s most endangered historic sites for 2012. “If the mining and milling processes are allowed to take place, many acres of this historic landscape will be spoiled and its historic context disrupted,” said the group.
For fruit nuts: Local master grower Michael McConkey of Edible Land-
scaping teaches a three-hour, $35 fruit production course at Scottsville’s Maple Hill Farm on May 17, 4-7pm. McConkey will discuss what kinds of fruit grow around here (going well beyond apples—think kiwi and pomegranate!), plus site preparation, pest management, and propagation. Contact 286-2176 or info@localfoodhub.org.
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On May 7, an indoor vermiculture workshop taught worm composting skills to the curious at The Bridge/PAI. The session was the latest of Transition Albemarle/Charlottesville’s monthly “skill share” workshops, which aim to re-equip people with “basic skills our grandparents took for granted.” (Photo by John Robinson) |
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Breathing easy?
Summer sun can mean great beach and barbecue weather, but also comes with certain hazards. The dangers of UV rays are well known, but the state wants people to be aware of another warm-weather worry: ozone.
Ozone is an important component of the upper levels of the Earth’s atmosphere, because it deflects some of those harmful UV rays, but ground-level ozone is a manmade phenomenon. This “bad” ozone forms when certain components of car and industrial emissions undergo sunlight-induced chemical changes. The resulting toxic compound is the main ingredient in smog, and on sunny summer days, it can reach concentrations dangerous to people with respiratory problems.
“Those are the people who are going to notice any problems first,” said Dan Salkovitz, a meteorologist with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
The DEQ keeps tabs on the levels of ozone and a number of other pollutants all over the state, including here in Charlottesville, Salkovitz said. Data is fed to the DEQ website (www.deq.virginia.gov—check out the most recent Green Scene story on c-ville.com for more links) so residents can log on and check out how their area is faring on any given day.
The ratings go by color: Green means levels of ozone, particulates, carbon monoxide and other pollutants are low, and the air quality is good; yellow means it’s moderate. Orange is the level where more people need to start paying attention, says the DEQ, because it means those with asthma and other lung diseases and heart disease could be affected, and should avoid prolonged strenuous outdoor activity. Then comes red, when even healthy people could feel the effects if they spend too much time exercising outside, and purple—just stay inside if it gets that far.
The DEQ also issues night-before air quality forecasts for several metropolitan areas in Virginia throughout the summer. Residents can sign up to be alerted via e-mail if an area is expected to see unhealthy conditions.
Salkovitz said Charlottesville sees few orange-level alerts these days. There were only three that hit the threshold in 2010, and none in 2009—a relatively cool, wet year with fewer of the hot, sunny days that lead to ozone spikes.
Indeed, while Virginia’s skies are far from being totally clear, the current state of air quality in the commonwealth is something of a regulatory success story. Since restrictions on industrial emissions in the Mid-Atlantic region and Pennsylvania were put in place years ago, the number of ozone alert days in Virginia has dropped dramatically, Salkovitz said.
Ozone levels are down across the state, including in traffic-choked Northern Virginia and along the I-95 corridor, he said, where vehicle emissions ensure a steady supply of locally generated ozone. The real indicator of the effectiveness of regional regulations is the fact that rural areas, including Albemarle County and Shenandoah National Park, now see few to no orange alert days in the summer.
In those locations, most ozone floats in on air currents from industrial and heavily populated areas to the north, Salkovitz said. Cleaner-burning fuels and tighter byproduct rules have improved emissions all over the region, which has in turn kept that migrating ozone in check, he said. The improvement is especially noticeable in the park, where the number of high-ozone days has dropped from 47 in 1999 to zero to three over the last five years.
“The high elevations like that are kind of the canary in the coal mine,” he said.—Graelyn Brashear
Junk food
You may never have heard the word “excitotoxins.” More likely you’ve heard of MSG, aspartame (NutraSweet® and Equal®), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or yeast extracts.
Russell Blaylock, M.D., defines the term as any substance that causes brain cells to become very excited. “When neurons are exposed to these substances, they become very excited and fire their impulses very rapidly until they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. Several hours later these neurons suddenly die, as if the cells were excited to death.”
Some scientists believe certain human brain cells may respond this way after you ingest these additives, which are used in food as flavor enhancers. In recent years, many researchers and clinicians have come to suspect excitotoxins have a role in the increased development of a wide range of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, migraines, seizures, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease), autism, Parkinson’s disease, and certain types of obesity and hormonal disorders.
At this point, you may be saying “Yikes!” or wondering where these additives are found. Look for them in store-bought sauces, diet foods, soups, soda, gravies, even some cigarettes, and other processed (think boxed or canned) foods. If you want to reduce your intake of toxic chemicals, begin looking at the food labels of foods you have on hand. Perhaps consider substituting one food for another one without chemical additions on the label.
Though it may be difficult to find a processed food without unnecessary ingredients, you can always choose more fresh fruits and vegetables! When the reality of busy lifestyles and “no time” come into play, consider gathering with a few friends or neighbors to discuss ways to incorporate more homemade meals into your weekly or monthly routine.
Would it be possible for each family to cook one large meal (shared by you and your friends) on a weekend? Switch off weekends and before you know it that could be two to four meals a month (or more depending upon how many friends can participate).
See the Green Scene blog at c-ville.com for a list of additives (noted on food labels) that frequently and/or always contain excitotoxins.—Wendy Vigdor-Hess
Wendy Vigdor-Hess is a local dietitian and the author of Sweetness Without Sugar: A Resource Guide for Delicious Dairy-, Egg- and Gluten-Free Treats Made with Healthy Sweeteners.