Monthly Archives: September 2006

Delphi Association to Present “No on I-933” Presentation

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The Delphi Association is sponsoring a presentation by Sandra Romero, of Futurewise, regarding the impacts of I-933, if it were to pass. Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm, at the Old Delphi Schoolhouse. “Find out why to Vote No!” reads their flyer about the event, which continues, “Keep the Delphi Valley pristine. Years of hard-fought environmental protections would be abandoned if I-933 passes.”

The Old Dephi Schoolhouse is located at 7601 Delphi Road. Click here for a map.

For more information, see the Delphi Association’s web site at www.delpiassoc.org.

Griffin Neighbors Invited to “Grub Stake” a Truck for Madrona Grove

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Most Steamboat Islanders know the Summer Fruit Truck. For the past two summers it’s been parked by the Grange where customers enjoy the best of Northwest and more exotic produce. The banana masthead had been hard to miss!

The Fruit Truck is a transformation of the big tent opposite the Island Market where the community first came to know Madrona Grove Seasonal Open-Air Market, and its owners Michael Manos and Jeannine Anderson.

THE CHALLENGE

For the past four years, Michael and Jeannine have been using their 1987 Buick Station Wagon, “Roselle,” to do all the hauling of fruit from Eastern Washington. Built to haul families on vacation, Roselle rose to the challenge and has performed an outstanding job, even after a roundtrip of 9000 miles, from Washington to Central America, the year before Madrona Grove was started. All those years, miles and pounds are finally taking their toll, and now Roselle is no longer able to make the long trip over and back across the Cascades. In addition, the weight and capacity of the station wagon proved inadequate even last year as the demand for great fruit steadily increases. This past year the Toyota, the Banana Truck, has had to pick up the slack and pull double duty as “The Fruit Truck” retail outlet, and to make the 20 or so trips over and back with fruit. It’s been a challenge for the truck, and Michael and Jeannine, but they’ve managed to pull it off with a lot of shuffling of stuff and many early mornings and late nights. In this fifth year of operation, it is clear that the business has become a part of the community that would be missed. A bigger, better vehicle is needed to carry on.

Choosing a life of voluntary simplicity, as Michael and Jeannine have done, has meant opting out of eligibility to obtain financing for a new vehicle.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are proposing to the community and opportunity to “grub stake” a new fruit truck so that Madrona Grove can continue to bring local food to the community on a seasonal basis. The purpose of these community funded micro grants is to “seed” the financing of an economical, flexible vehicle which can transport fruit and produce in the summer, and, in the off season, do small hauling jobs to begin to support itself.

A grub stake was money put up to finance prospectors in their mining operations. In a sense, agriculture is a form of mining. It extracts nutrients from the sun, soil and water and makes the foods that nourish and sustain us. By brining the fruits of many farms to our community, Madrona Grove participates in the mining operation.

Madrona Grove is asking for micro-grants, or “grub-stakes” of $75 to help finance a 2006 Dodge Sprinter Cargo Van. Michael and Jeannine can manage the down payment. Oyster Bay Farm has offered to sign for the financing of the vehicle via a Guarantor’s Agreement on the financing contract (see The Fine Print). We have estimated that if we can get commitments for a $75 grub stake from 110 households, the payments for the first year of the truck’s operation will be covered. After that, we expect the truck to be self-supporting.

Click here to download the brochure. To put up a grub stake, complete the small form, on the brochure, and mail it with your $75 check (payable to “Madrona Grove”).

THE REWARDS

In today’s fast paced, instant gratification society, it’s easy to lose track of what it takes to put food on our tables. Few people get the chance to experience a life dedicated to growing food for others, and yet none among us could survive without those few who do. Many farmers don’t have the opportunity or time to sell their food directly to the consumer. By going to the farms to bring back food to our neighborhood, Madrona Grove provides farmers a much-needed market and offers the benefits of:

  • Access to the best produce of the summer season.
  • Building a sustainable, local economy.
  • Supporting small, independent businesses.
  • Supporting small family farms.
  • Taking part in securing a local food supply.

WHERE TO FOOD COMES FROM

Over the past five years Michael and Jeannine have been developing relationships with small, family farmers living in Eastern Washington where land and climate come together to create a perfect growing environment for those luscious summer fruits we love. They also work directory with several small farms here in Western Washington for farm fresh veggies. Direct sales and sales to small retailers such as Madrona Grove allow these small farmers to keep more of the return on their farming investment than if they sent all of their food to the packing houses. Better for farmers, better for Madrona Grove and its customers.

Some of the farms Madrona Grove works with:

  • Schilter Family Farm, Nisqually, WA
  • Lopez Farm, Nisqually, WA
  • Kirsop Farms, Tumwater, WA
  • Edible Acres, Tonasket, WA
  • AppleCart Fruit, Tonasket, WA
  • River Valley Organics, Tonasket, WA
  • Bartella Farms, Omak, WA
  • Filaree Farms, Okanagan, WA
  • Rest-A-While Orchards, Pateros, WA
  • RAMA Farm, Bridgeport, WA
  • Fiel Orchards, Wenatchee, WA
  • Dick Boushay, Grandview, WA
  • Farmland Fruits, Wapato, WA

They also buy produce in season from neighbors here on the peninsula with gardens more bountiful than they can consume.

MICHAEL AND JEANNINE’S COMMITMENT TO THE COMMUNITY

“We will continue to do what we do for as long as we are able; to cooperate with small, family farms to bring their harvest to our community; and to maintain high quality standards at prices that make the food accessible and the business viable.

We recognize that the constant in life is change, so we will have to remain flexible to the tug and shove of the changing commercial and personal landscapes as we work to serve the community in which we live.”

Click here to download the brochure. To put up a grub stake, complete the small form, on the brochure, and mail it with your $75 check (payable to “Madrona Grove”).

THE FINE PRINT

The Dodge Sprinter is a top-of-the-line Mercedes Diesel vehicle with the Dodge name on it. It’s capable of hauling up to 3800 pounds, averaging 25-30 miles per gallon, depending on the load size. Pioneer Organic in Seattle bought several for their home delivery service, as did Essential Bakery and many other small food related businesses, including Western Meats in Tumwater. Pioneer Organics and Essential Bakery both run their vehicles on bio-diesel. The demand for this vehicle is very high and the manufacturer is preparing to expand their production facilities to meet that demand. There are limited quantities of them available this year, with availability pushed back to March 2007 after those are sold. The resale value of this vehicle is one of the highest in the industry.

All grant funds (grub stakes) will be deposited into the Community Funded Micro-Grant account with Sterling Savings Bank. All grant funds over and above the cost of 1 year’s monthly payments will be applied directly to principal, until such time as the financing is complete. All grant funds over and above the complete cost of financing will remain in the Community Funded Micro-Grant account for future use by other community projects.

A 10% down payment will be made by Michael Manos and Jeannine Anderson dba Madrona Grove, to Lynwood Dodge on a 2006 Sprinter 2500 SHC/140.Pat Labine and Kathleen O’Shaunessy, dba Oyster Bay Farm are guarantors for the financing. A monthly finance payment will be automatically withdrawn by the financing agency from the Community Funded Micro-Grant account.

Copies of the guaranty contract between Madrona Grove and Oyster Bay Ram, as well as the finance contract are available by request.

Click here to download the brochure. To put up a grub stake, complete the small form, on the brochure, and mail it with your $75 check (payable to “Madrona Grove”).

I-933 is wrong: Private property rights and the common good must be protected together

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A Declaration of Interdependence

The property rights movement, which has been gaining increasing political power in Washington state, proposes an interesting foundation for human rights: property ownership. Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights, a Washington group that backs I-933, the “property fairness” initiative, tells us that “Property rights are really human rights and the very foundation of a free society.”

So, what about the rights of people who don’t own property?

Imagine a patch of woods owned by a dozen families. Right in the center flows a stream where salmon swim. These woods and stream connect with wetlands that drain into a public reservoir and a neighborhood lake where children splash and play in the summer. In a basic sense, every member in this community is part owner of these waterways that travel through private and public land. Homeowners, homeless people, and apartment-dwellers alike drink and swim in clean, sparkling water and are legally prohibited from poisoning it or blocking its flow.

In November, Washingtonians will vote on Initiative 933, known variously as the “property fairness” and “developers’ loophole” initiative. If I-933 passes and the courts uphold it, a broad range of environmental and zoning restrictions on private property will be redefined as government “damage” to property. Most likely, the owners of that small patch of woods will be permitted under I-933 to build right up to the edge of their stream — or demand financial compensation from the state for the fair market value of that lost commercial opportunity. Oregon passed a similar but less extreme law, Measure 37, and property owners are filing hundreds of claims demanding many millions of dollars from the state.

Air and water don’t obey property boundaries. Transmission fluid running off a quickie mart parking lot into a stream will enter the blood of a nursing mother and baby who never go near that property. I-933 denies this physical reality of our connectedness. It denies as well the social reality that all people share the responsibilities and benefits of livable communities, whether we own land or not.

It is no wonder that over 200 Washington organizations including the Sierra Club, the Washington chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the Washington State Council of Firefighters ask us to vote NO on I-933. Washington State Grange, which has not taken an official position, warns that it finds cause for concern to agricultural lands in I-933. Sightline Institute tells us that it will cost over a billion dollars per year to administer. Washington’s Department of Ecology tells us that it will deprive Washington of the ability to regulate its own waterways and air.

And yet there is a good chance that I-933 will pass. Why?

• Special interest support

I-933 gains tremendous power from the funding of developers who will gain financially from the overthrow of Washington’s environmental laws. It is also supported by organizations that believe, as Grover Norquist said in 2001, that government should be made small enough “to drown in the bathtub.” The biggest financial contributor to I-933, $200,000 so far, is Americans for Limited Government, an Illinois group that is funding tax and environmental law rollbacks in 10 states this year.

• Private citizen support

I-933 also has significant support from private citizens.

In both urban and rural areas, laws protecting increasingly vulnerable resources have proliferated, impacting property owners. Property taxes have become increasingly unfair. Poor people, the middle class, and small businesses pay much more than the wealthy and experience more hardship from inadequate public services. Washington farmers are in trouble. Some communities lose several farms per winter. Some wheat growers receive less per bushel of wheat in 2005 than they did in 1948. Too many people in farm country are eligible for food stamps. In such conditions, it is natural that people will assert their private property rights.

But I-933 is not the answer. It has a fatal flaw, proposing to protect private property while ignoring the common good.

The environmental movement has been criticized for the opposite mistake: fighting for ecological protection while ignoring the economic welfare of individuals. In recent years, environmentalism has been learning from this mistake.

Private rights and the common good are interdependent. They cannot be effectively protected in isolation from each other. Property values fall in blighted neighborhoods. People suffering from economic injustice are unlikely to support laws that protect the environment. It is time to leave failed ideas behind us and adapt to current realities. Washington faces profound environmental and economic challenges. We can meet them successfully only if we learn to protect people, communities, and the environment together.

By NOEMIE MAXWELL, Institute for Washington’s Future

Noemie Maxwell is on the board of the Institute for Washington’s Future, a nonprofit research and education center dedicated to the renewal of progressive values: community, equity, participation, and a sound environment.

Originally posted at http://realchangenews.org/2006/2006_09_06/declaration.html