Hi All,

This has been a very rich and fulfilling Earth Day week! I had pre-recorded last weeks show, so that I could free myself up to participate in Long Island Food’s Coalition’s Conference last Thursday at Hofstra University. Our key note speaker was Mark Winne, who I introduced to all of you on March 8th, when he was a guest on my show. Mark is the author of the book, Stand Together or Starve Alone: Unity and Chaos in the U.S. Food Movement, which is a call for grassroots organizations to work together, finding the common ground in our missions, so that we can combine our efforts and resources to change policies that would help to catapult our work forward. This was the theme of the conference. What steps can we take that would bring all of our local keynote players around a common table, to create food policies that would support our health, the environment, our local economies, and be good for our communities? This was a great first step, but now we need to keep up the momentum that would create real change. If you are interested in getting involved with the LI Food Coalition‘s work, please reach out to us! We are planning another conference for the Fall!

On Monday, we celebrated Earth Day by joining the LI Progressive Coalition, Food and Water Watch and NY Renews for a Walk the Talk March and Rally up in Albany! It was a powerful day with many speakers, inspirational stories, and a call out to Governor Cuomo to use his power to get NYS off of fossil fuels and on a path to 100% renewable energy. We are also demanding that he end the build up of fracking infra-structure, put an end to all of the pipelines transporting fracked gas from Pennsylvania, and hold corporate polluters accountable for their mess, and cost to public health and our environment. 

While in Albany, I learned about the CPV Valley Power Plant, which is a massive fracked gas plant, which is being built in Orange County, just 60 miles outside of NYC. According to Cornell scientists, this one plant will increase our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10%, and if you figure in the leakage rate, which always happens, it will release over 20 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. This is huge!!! Along with methane, which is 4x more toxic than CO2, it will emit toxic chemicals and radio active particles that will impact everyone’s health who is living within a 30-50 mile radius, not to mention the effects it will have on the food and dairy farms nearby. Being close to the Croton Reservoir, it has the potential to contaminate the drinking water of all of New York City! And why was this permitted? It seems there was a bribery scheme between the CPV executives and one of Cuomo’s closest aides, who already pleaded guilty. So it would seem to reason that Cuomo would stop this power plant in its tracks, before the damage is done, but he has not made a move in that direction. We need the power of the people to make that happen. Monday was a start, but we need everyone to make a call. Please call Governor Cuomo’s office at 518-474-8390, and tell him to stop the construction of the CPV Power plant, or we will vote him out of office!

This week, my guest on the Progressive Radio Network is David Montgomery, who is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies landscape evolution and the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. His latest book, Growing a Revolution, explores innovative and cost effective practices being used by farmers around the world based on conservation agriculture, to restore soil health and fertility. He also co-authored the book, The Hidden Half of Nature, with his wife, Anne Biklé, ( who I interviewed last week) which explores the parallels between garden health and our gut. David has also been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, and on a wide variety of TV and radio programs, including NOVA, PBS NewsHour, Fox and Friends, and All Things Considered. Please join us on Thursday as we learn about some of the practices that are being used to replenish our soil, and bring back the organic matter and soil life to our earth.

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With love and gratitude,

Bhavani