Health Care Reform

This is the part of the latest health care bill that will hold this thing up.

"And all but the smallest businesses would be required either to provide their employees with insurance, or to pay fees that help cover the cost of subsidies — subsidies that would make insurance affordable for lower-income American families"

This is a job killer. If you want to continue with this jobless recovery do this very thing. Keep making businesses pay the cost of their employees health care. Any way you structure an employer based health care system it's a loser. Making it more expensive to hire and retain employees is one sure way to make sure hiring is kept to a minimum. It's the kind of thing that has nearly wiped out our manufacturing sector. Businesses aren't the parents of the american population. It's not our job to take care of everyone. It's our job to create jobs and pay people a living wage or better when we can and it's each of our responsibilities to get health care for ourselves and to take care of ourselves too. We had an employee at my dad's now defunked business that used to come in our office once a week, smoking a cigaret demanding that we provide her with health care. She was 50 pounds over weight too.
Why do the democrats think they can shift the cost of things onto businesses without consequence. I guess I've discovered that I'm a Blue Dog because I want health care reform, I don't presently have any myself and I own a business, but this bill, as structured will damage our economy even further. I know it will make me think twice anytime I have to hire some one. We're actually trying to think about how to down size and do this with no employees. This bill will only hasten that process.

Greed

The big problem with our present economic decline is greed. Ever hear of it? The whole idea of hoarding goods and making lines on maps and creating deeds and thinking that we actually "own" something when in fact we're all just passing through this life is flawed thinking. Our problems all stem from a flawed initial premise so is no surprise that we've wound up at this cross roads, presented with choices no one wants to face because the solutions require us to re-evaluate the very core of our beliefs and we're not very good at doing that. Even when we do, we're fearful because we have to replace all that we discard with something new and that takes time and while we spend time doing that we have a void we can't fill and that scares the be'jesus out of people!

Resolution

A resolution has been acheived. Thanks to the help from everyone who wrote in, Vermont Compost and The State of Vermont have reached a temporary settlement that allows Vermont compost Company to continue operating while the permitting and site review process takes place and gets finalized. Thank you to everyone who wrote to the governor and helped show support for Vermont Compost Company.

Vermont Compost Company

August 23, 2008

For Immediate Release
Contact: John Hasen, General Counsel, 802-828-5444
MONTPELIER - The Natural Resources Board and the Vermont Compost Company, Inc., have agreed to resolve two cases in Environmental Court. The parties have stipulated that the Environmental Court may place both Vermont Compost's appeal of an Act 250 jurisdictional opinion and an enforcement action by the Board on hold, and the settlement allows Vermont Compost's Montpelier facility to operate until July 2010 without an Act 250 permit; in return Vermont Compost will abide by certain operational restrictions.
"This is a win-win result," said Peter F. Young, Jr, the Chair of the Natural Resources Board. "The agreement allows Vermont Compost's Montpelier facility to continue to operate - which keeps a lot of food waste out of the landfill. And Vermont Compost has agreed to address concerns expressed by its Montpelier neighbors."
The Legislature this year passed a temporary moratorium on Act 250 jurisdiction for composting facilities with solid waste permits from the Agency of Natural Resources. The law also requires the Agency to set up a committee to examine whether there are better ways to regulate composting, and to report recommendations to the Legislature by January 15, 2009. The moratorium runs until July 1, 2010, to allow time for implementation of regulatory changes. Under the agreement filed in Environmental Court, Vermont Compost will enjoy benefits similar to those granted by the moratorium in return for agreeing to reasonable restrictions on its operations.
"Today's settlement is a constructive, forward-looking solution that balances the state's mandate to protect Vermont's environment with its desire to promote composting," said Vermont Compost Company president Karl Hammer. "The agreement will enable the state and Vermont Compost to work together with farmers and composters, under the aegis of Act 130, to develop a set of clear and coherent rules that will help all composting operations operate safely, effectively and legally."
The agreement must be signed by the Environmental Court before it can take effect.

Vermont Compost

Environmental politics

Reformer.com

Tuesday, July 22
It's not yet up there with motherhood, apple pie and the flag, but it's hard to find people who will say a discouraging word about compost.
Turning table scraps into fertilizer for gardens is a great idea. It reduces waste and saves money.
Everyone seems to like compost, except for the Douglas administration.
The state Natural Resource Board recently shut down one of Vermont's biggest commercial composting operations, leaving a lot of people in the lurch.
The Vermont Compost Co. in Montpelier was recently fined $18,000 for not having an Act 250 permit. The NRB contends that the owner, Karl Hammer, is bringing in too much waste from off site and processing it on his farm. Hammer contends that much of his composting is connected to his farm and that farms are exempt from Act 250.
The action against Vermont Compost comes on the heels of the Agency of Natural Resources' attempts to shut down the commercial composting operation at Burlington's Intervale Center. The Intervale composting and gardening operations reportedly face substantial fines and up to $375,000 of fixes to make the site pass regulatory muster.
In case you're wondering, the third largest composting operation in the state of Vermont is Vermont Natural Ag Products in Middlebury, the folks who make "Moo Doo." It is run by Bob Foster, the brother-in-law of Gov. James Douglas, and it currently is not facing any regulatory problems.
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So why are the other two under fire?
Current Democratic candidate for governor Gaye Symington was the Intervale Center's development director and House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, farmed there. One can't help but think there was some political trickery going on when ANR went after the Intervale last fall for allegedly polluting the Winooski River with its composting operation.
ANR's current concern about the Intervale is quite ironic, considering it once was one of the most polluted sites in Burlington. Before it was cleaned up and turned into community gardens, the Intervale was a dumping ground with an unlined city landfill and pits for sewage sludge. And the public works director in Burlington when all of this dumping was going on in the 1980s? None other than current ANR Secretary George Crombie.
As for Hammer and Vermont Compost Co., the problems started when neighbors started to complain about health hazards. One of the neighbors who complained was Darcie Johnson, who happens to be the Vermont Republican Party's top fundraiser.
As things stand now, the state claims the Intervale is an area of archeological significance and jurisdiction over how the land should be used should be determined by the state Division of Historical Preservation. This seems a bit surprising, considering that no one cared about archeology when they were using the Intervale as a dump.
As for Vermont Compost Co., the concerns of one well-connected abutter appear to have trumped the dozens of businesses who have kept hundreds of tons of food waste out of landfills.
The economic value of the Intervale Center -- 114 full and part-time jobs, 200 community garden plots, 12 small farms and 1 million pounds of food produced annually -- is undeniable. And Vermont Compost is a key link in the state's efforts to turn organic waste into a useful product.
To go after these two entities makes absolutely no sense as environmental policy. If there are problems, ANR should work with the Intervale Center and Vermont Compost to correct them. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that ANR chose compromise over enforcement.
For example, take OMYA, the Proctor-based company that processes marble into calcium carbonate. In Florence, neighbors claim that OMYA dumps 150,000 tons of waste each year into an unlined landfill and that dangerous chemicals are leaching into their wells.
For years, Florence residents have urged state officials to do something about it. Reportedly, OMYA and ANR are negotiating to avoid enforcement penalties. So why is OMYA getting off easy compared to the Intervale Center or Vermont Compost? Is it the nearly $5,000 that OMYA has contributed to Douglas' campaigns? Is it the 250 jobs that OMYA provides? Or is the heavy handed regulatory approach on compost facilities not run by members of the Douglas family politically motivated?
In any case, considering the meager fines levied by ANR for solid waste dumping -- eight fines totaling $27,500 in 2007 and 12 fines totaling $12,260 in 2006 -- it seems that not all polluters are treated equal by the Douglas administration. It also seems that political concerns trump environmental concerns. But given this administration's record over the past six years, that's not a shock.

Plant A Row for a Food Bank in Your Neighborhood

 With gas and food prices soaring and stagnant wages and lost jobs everyone is feeling the pinch from the economy these days. And there is one frightening indicator that needs attention from our many gardening customers. Working families make up 41% of those receiving food stamps, a 30% rise from just a decade ago. So even families with one or two jobs can’t afford enough food to get through the week. There are even more families that don’t qualify for food stamps that visit food banks regularly. Second Harvest, the nation’s largest network of food banks, says demand is up an average of 15% to 20% from a year ago. More than 80% of its food banks reported that they could not meet demand without trimming operations or reducing the amount of food given out.

 We at Dirt Works are asking all of our customers out there that are fortunate enough to have a garden plot to Plant A Row for their local food bank. Most of us love gardening so much that we tend to over do it and end up with more produce than our families and friends can eat. It would make a huge difference at your local food bank if you gave all those extra veggies to them instead of letting them go bad. In the past year, the demand for hunger assistance has increased by 40%, and research shows that hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.

 For more information on this program please visit http://www.gardenwriters.org/Par/Donation.html

 To see a brief report about food bank shortages on the PBS show Bill Moyer’s Journal click here http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04112008/watch.html

 Here is a handy zip code locator for local food banks http://www.secondharvest.org/zip_code.jsp

 If all of our customers planted a few extra plants for the food banks it would make a tremendous difference without much extra effort or money. The quality of your donation will far outweigh the nutritional value of traditional can drives. Please write us and tell us about your experience with Plant A Row and we may include your story in a future newsletter update.

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. 

~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732


Organic Gardens & Landscapes For All: Biofuels

Organic Gardens & Landscapes For All: Biofuels