May 2021
Chris Pawelski gave a presentation about the challenges facing small farmers and the need for more awareness and help at the national level, where Chris has been doing advocacy work for 20 years. There’s a great need for more help in loan forgiveness for small farmers, and here are a couple requests from Chris for assistance:
Please call your Senators and Congressional members and ask them to co-sponsor Sen. Gillibrand's "The Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act” (or in the case of the House Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s “Relief for Small Farmers Act”: https://bit.ly/3v3s0WF) and ask them to push for its inclusion in the next infrastructure measure.
If you are a constituent of Senators Gillibrand and Schumer and Rep. Maloney, please call and thank them for their support of The Relief for Small Farmers Act and support of helping small farmers being helped with this crushing burden. These members and their staff have been champions of NYS agriculture and small family farms and farmers.
Check out the new offerings of produce from Chris’s new mixed veggie and fruit operation.
Here's a followup letter from Chris, with lots of good links.
We'd like to know: Now that the CDC says vaccinated people can start meeting again, what is our next step? Please take this survey to let us know how you feel about meeting in person or via Zoom.
Wickham Works - has announced they will be holding “Too Good To Toss @Home” this year. Rather than gathering people and possessions in a central location, everything will be swapped from individual homes, with a map to guide the new owners. Check out this web page for more details.
Zoom Garden Plot - The Zoom Garden Plot is flourishing, with about 12-20 people joining our biweekly sessions. The ZGP page is among the most-visited pages on the SW website. Just hearing about it? You don't have to miss a thing, check out the videos of each meeting going back to the first one on April 20, 2020.
Triple Win Campaign - The Climate and Energy Committee is ready to launch the Triple Win Community Solar Campaign. Mayor Michael Newhard and Trustee Corey Bachman worked with us to apply for and receive approval from NYSERDA for the campaign, which means the Village will be adding a huge boost to our efforts. The campaign will run from June 1 through July 15, and most O&R customers can participate.
The EPA has analyzed Orange County’s former landfill off Route 6 and determined 16 of the 90 acres could support a solar array, either to generate electricity for the county or for a community solar venture. A couple members have agreed to start working on this project, and more volunteers would be welcome.
Green Screen - The Green Screen interviewed a few candidates for the school board election, but many candidates would not participate, and both The Advertiser and the Dispatch now publish interviews with all the candidates, so it is more difficult to get wide reach on our interviews. The Green Screen team plans to meet to discuss their most useful role going forward.
Off Fossil Fuels - Bill Greene reported that air samples taken near the CPV plan do not seem too bad for the time being, presumably because it is not running all the time.
CLCPA Update - Pursuant to the CLCPA, the Advisory Panels have submitted their recommendations to the Climate Action Council, which will start a phase of integration analysis. Collectively the recommendations make for quite a plan to address the climate crisis. Details are available here.
Book Club – The Sustainable World Book Club just read the Dali Lama’s book on climate change, “Our Only Home,” and it was widely agreed that the book was kind of average. Our next book is “Buzz, Sting, Bite” about the important role insects play.