Mark your calendars for 1000 Friends of Iowa's 2010 Annual Meeting! The theme this year is  "Sustainable Cities". This year's meeting will be held Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the Griffieon Family Farm in Ankeny, IA. Details of the Annual Meeting will be posted as they are finalized. Please check back often for updates. We hope you can join us in Ankeny on October 30 for the 2010 Annual Meeting!

Press Release from American Farmland Trust

Contact Jennifer Morrill: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Washington, D.C., April 27, 2010—“The findings from the 2007 National Resources Inventory (NRI) serve as a stark reminder that our nation’s agricultural land base—and the benefits it supplies—is threatened by poorly planned development,” says Jon Scholl, President of American Farmland Trust (AFT).

The NRI is a survey of the nation’s non-federal lands conducted by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in cooperation with Iowa State University since 1982. It documents natural resource conditions and trends, including the conversion of agricultural land to developed uses, and is the most comprehensive natural resource database in the nation.

According to the 2007 NRI, 4,080,300 acres of active agricultural land (crop, pasture, range, and land formerly enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program) were converted to developed uses between 2002 and 2007. This represents an area roughly the size of Massachusetts.

More troubling, the nation has lost 41,324,800 acres of rural land to development between 1982 and 2007—an area about the size of Illinois and New Jersey. Rural land includes active agricultural land, plus forest land and other rural land. Fifty-six percent of the rural land developed, or 23,163,500 acres, is identified as active agricultural land.

In addition, there was a nationwide 13,773,400-acre decline in prime farmland between 1982 and 2007. Prime farmland soils are best suited to produce food and other agricultural crops with the fewest inputs and the least amount of soil erosion.

By Charles Hallman, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

This is a good fit with the growing "sustainability" movement, which Graddick, an educator and food justice advocate, believes more Blacks should understand and appreciate. He defines sustainability as simply ensuring provision of the basics needed to live.

Read more

1000 Friends of Iowa in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowans Fit for Life present

Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Location: Holiday Inn - Mercy Campus
Keynote speaker: Dan Burden, returns to Iowa for an informational and experiential workshop!
Cost: $85  (limited space) Registration opens May 3, 2010 at www.1000friendsofiowa.org

This one-day event will include morning lectures on sustainable development including national speaker Dan Burden , and regional speakers David Doyle (EPA), Craig Malin (Davenport City Planner), and Susan Roberts (Iowa Food Policy Council) and more. Afternoon bus tour of sustainable projects as well as a walking tour (comfortable shoes are recommended!) with Dan Burden in the 6th Avenue Corridor.

Workshop Collaborators: 1000 Friends of Iowa, Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowans Fit for Life, 6th Avenue Corridor, Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, Neighborhood and Natural Recreation Preservation Project, Center on Sustainable Communities, Home Builders Association, Federal Highway Administration - Iowa Division

CEUs are being applied for Planners through the American Planning Association and for Certified Health Education  Specialists (CHES) through National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.  Architects, please plan to self-report your attendance at this educational event.

Download the flier here and help us spread the word about this exciting event!

Click here to download the agenda. To view the agenda, and for additional information about this event, following this link will direct you to that section of our website. 

Online registration is NOW available! Click here and register today!

If you prefer to pay by check or money order, download the registration form and return it with your check or money order payable to 1000 Friends of Iowa to:

1000 Friends of Iowa

3850 Merle Hay Road, Suite 605,

Des Moines, IA, 50310. 

If you are interested in collaborating on this educational event, please call the 1000 Friends of Iowa office at 515-288-5364.

Mark your calendars and plan to join us on June 29!

Farma-Save Signs Grab Attention
Our Farma-Save signs are looking for new homes again!  Designed after the Burma Shave signs of the 1960s, they are a creative and catchy way to get people thinking about one or more aspects of land use. We currently have six sets on hand for placement around the state.  They are available for use to any member of 1000 Friends of Iowa.    

News Release From the Leoplod Center

AMES, Iowa -- Expanding the fruit and vegetable industry in the upper Midwest could have a huge economic impact in the region.

A new analysis from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in collaboration with regional partners estimated potential state and regional economic values associated with increased production of fresh fruit and vegetables in a six-state area. The study included two scenarios and was conducted by Iowa State economics researcher David Swenson and included data from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

One of the key assumptions in the study was that farmers in the region grow enough of 28 kinds of fruit and vegetables to meet demand, based on population, during a typical growing season (about four months of the year) and longer for crops that could be stored, such as onions or garlic. The study did not include potatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, apples, grapes, cranberries and cherries because ample supplies of those crops already are being grown in the region.

Read the news release

Read the full report by Dave Swenson

The following is a special announcement from Iowa's Water and Land Legacy Campaign:

We have exciting news!  The Iowa House & Iowa Senate have passed enactment legislation for Iowa's Water & Land Legacy Amendment!  The legislation spells out how the amendment will protect our water, conserve agricultural soils, and improve fish & wildlife habitat.  You can learn more about it here .

To commemorate, you have an opportunity to DOUBLE YOUR CONTRIBUTION to Iowa's Water & Land Legacy.  Pheasants Forever has announced that they will match DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR everything contributed to the campaign for the next 20 days!  Every contribution WILL BE DOUBLED. Contribute today!

Campaigns are expensive and we have a historic opportunity to permanently and sustainably fund conservation, water quality, and outdoor recreation opportunities.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Contribute today to show your support and take advantage of the MATCHING GIFT.  Your $25, $50, or $100 contribution will be DOUBLED to $50, $100, or $200 if received before April 15th.

IPS News

ENERGY: Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?
Analysis by Lester R. Brown*

WASHINGTON, Feb 24, 2010 (IPS) - The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States.

Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors.

The principal reason for opposing coal plants is that they are changing the earth's climate. There is also the effect of mercury emissions on health and the 23,600 U.S. deaths each year from power plant air pollution.

Over the last few years the coal industry has suffered one setback after another. The Sierra Club, which has kept a tally of proposed coal-fired power plants and their fates since 2000, reports that 123 plants have been defeated, with another 51 facing opposition in the courts.

Of the 231 plants being tracked, only 25 currently have a chance at gaining the permits necessary to begin construction and eventually come online. Building a coal plant may soon be impossible.

Read the entire article

***Release From I-Renew***
For Immediate Release
March 22, 2010       

Contact:
Mike Carberry, Executive Director
Iowa Renewable Energy  Association/I-RENEW
319-338-1076 (office)
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Beginning May 8th, 2010, I-Renew will proudly kick off our much anticipated Renewable Energy Training Series held in conjunction with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. These workshops will include introductory classes and site assessor training in Solar Photovoltaics (PV), Solar Hot Water (Solar Thermal), and Small Wind Systems. Classes will be held every month through October at Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids , IA. They offer a convenient local venue to attend MREA’s gold standard training classes and are a fantastic way to gain knowledge and experience within the growing renewable energy field.

NEW from Erv Klaas! Those of us who have been following developments on climate change and global warming are asked, “If the planet is getting warmer why is it so cold?”  James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climatologists, says that he often is asked the same question.  So, he has published an essay titled, If Its That Warm, How Come Its So Damned Cold?, and placed it on his web site, it will also be available soon at BluePlanetGreenLiving.com . In this paper he states that 2009 tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records based on analysis of data at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.  The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world.  

Read the entire review

Fortune

By David Whitford, editor at large December 29, 2009

DETROIT (Fortune) -- John Hantz is a wealthy money manager who lives in an older enclave of Detroit where all the houses are grand and not all of them are falling apart. Once a star stockbroker at American Express, he left 13 years ago to found his own firm. Today Hantz Financial Services has 20 offices in Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia, more than 500 employees, and $1.3 billion in assets under management.

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Duluth News Tribune

By Howard A. Learner, December 1, 2009

Rural transportation has traditionally meant cars, pickups, highways and Greyhounds.

While intercity buses are fewer and further between, that doesn’t change people’s needs to get from place to place. Most people have cars and trucks, but some elderly or disabled people can no longer drive; and with gas prices going up, some unemployed and lower-income people can no longer afford to drive much. In rural America, where the percentage of people older than 65 is expected to triple, mobility can be challenging, and more transportation alternatives are needed.

Smithsonian Magazine

By Lisa BramenDecember 31, 2009

The first decade of the millennium may have been a good one for cuisine, but it was a mixed bag in terms of food-related news. At the same time that Americans were expanding and refining their culinary repertoires, nearly every week they were getting new reasons to be fearful about what they ate-whether it was safe, whether it was healthy, and whether it would continue to be
available at all. Here's a look back at some of the biggest food news stories of the decade.

Read the entire blog entry