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Guest Column: Get Out of the WeedsBy C.J. Vadnais - June 04, 2008
iBerkshires Columnist
When I was 19, I was hired as a daytime line cook for large restaurant that was just opening up in Greenfield.
As with any new place, the first couple days were rocky. Day six came around (a Saturday) and the flood gates just opened up. We hadn't caught up from the last five days and the people just kept coming. We were, as we used to say at the former Le Jardin Restaurant, "in the weeds."
Picture trying to prepare a meal while waist deep in the weeds of Cheshire Reservoir. In the midst of this, I looked down the line and saw the head chef chopping lettuce. I went to him and said I could take care of that so that he could take care of something more urgent. He looked me in the eye with a defeated look that I'll never forget and said, "I don't know what else to do."
Needless to say, his locker was empty the next day. I've never forgotten that look or that feeling, that here is the person who is supposed to guide us through trouble like this, and all he can do is chop lettuce.
Why did I just waste the last 30 seconds of your life with that story? Because of the feeling I get after reading the latest articles regarding the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship meeting held at Berkshire Community College. I can't help but think all we are getting from our "leaders" is chopped lettuce — mounds of chopped lettuce.
The local variety of lettuce: Ripping out what could have been a very useful commuter rail system for a bike path; the lack of effort to restore the many power-producing dams lying dormant in our rivers (and the proposed removal of the dam in Clarksburg); the town of Adams banning a type of outdoor wood heater instead of requiring the exhaust be at the same height of a traditional chimney; the stored power left idle in Windsor Lake; the endless red tape for individual wind mills in our hills; little to no investment in solar power for our government and educational buildings; zero use of hydrogen fuel cells produced just over the Taconic range in Latham, N.Y.; little interest in keeping our farming community healthy; the list could go on and on.
Somewhere, at some point, someone made the decision to choose tourism over the year-round population. Sure tourism brings dollars into the community, but if there is no one to wait on the tourist or sell them the ticket, or maintain the theater — is it worth it? Could those dollars have been replaced with research and development money in alternative energy facilities, or recouped in tax dollars staying in the community or new tax dollars coming into the community with new residents and higher paying jobs? No doubt they could.
Colleen Taylor Reinhard hit the nail squarely on the head — "We need to raise prices to survive, but if we do so at the rate necessary, no one will be able to afford our goods and services" — because every aspect of our daily life is controlled by the cost to transport goods and services into and out of the valley.
I find it ironic that not long ago Senator John Kerry called for an increase of the tax on fuel (which I supported two years ago in hopes that the increase would spur development of alternative energy sources before it was too late) but yet now that fuel is at the equivalent price, he is at a loss for what to do — so he and many other leaders are just chopping lettuce.
So, what do we do? We could form our own power company using the existing dormant hydropower, as well as bringing more online, and sell the power locally — with help in reducing the red tape from Kerry and his cohorts.
Instead of local tax breaks, we could help finance fuel cells (that produce power and heat) for local businesses. We could convert many of our government and educational buildings to use a mix of alternative energies (geothermal, solar, wind, fuel cell, locally produced hydro). Maybe we could lease time on the remaining railroad tracks for a local commuter line (how many trains actually go through North Adams a day?).
I would love to leave my vehicle at home and take the train to work every day; or even a daily "once down and once back" route to Boston – the savings in fuel for local legislatures alone might be worth it. Can it be done? I don’t know, but has anyone looked into it?
There has been some important progress in helping farmers sell their products locally, but more could be done for our local farms. Processes, equipment, and funding to help farmers move from single-crop farms to diversified ones — including the production of energy.
There are a growing number of farms around the country that have been able to produce energy from the waste streams of their farms as well as organic fertilizer to help ease the need for petroleum-based fertilizers. With diversified farms, crop and pasture rotations will help to fix nitrogen back into the soil, reducing the amount of petrochemicals needed to produce an equivalent amount of product.
Getting cows back on grass, which they were meant to eat, and off corn-based feed not only is better for the animal but also those who consume the milk and beef. So is educating consumers to cook and eat what is in season rather than demanding the same produce be available year-round. Here in the Northeast, tomatoes were not meant to be eaten in winter, nor ears of corn in spring. Farming operations that use injections to increase milk production, or fields overfertilized with petrochemicals should not be rewarded with our grocery budget money.
And in the bigger picture — we can't let the Investment Tax Credit and the Production Tax Credit for alternative energy expire.
These ideas are not the end-all, be-all on solving our energy problems by any means, but they could be a start, they could spawn other ideas. They will cost some money and they will take some time to implement and some red tape will need to be cut, but not doing anything will be far worse.
We are in the weeds and we need to stop chopping lettuce and get some orders out.
C.J. Vadnais lives in Stamford, Vt. He writes occasional columns for iBerkshires. |
Exactly!
Quotes from Charles Wheelan, Ph.D. The Naked Economist on today's Yahoo financial page (http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/economist/86938):
"Of course, it's also true that if we'd implemented more of those policies in the past, such as more investments in public transit, then high gas prices wouldn't be biting us as much as they are now."
and
"If we want to be that "first mover," then the U.S. government should be investing Manhattan Project-type sums in alternative energy research. The private sector does a terrific job of turning knowledge into products, but only near the end of the product chain. Basic research -- the kinds of discoveries that are essential to progress but can't be patented -- is the catalyst for that process. Let's not forget that the Internet grew out of work that began in the Defense Department and was cultivated at Stanford and Berkeley." | | from: Barbara | on: 06-10-2008 |
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| A well-written, intelligent, thoroughly sensible column. Our lettuce-chopping politicians should take notice. | | from: Ellen | on: 06-05-2008 |
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