This week’s Star Tribune article about how the USDA’s school lunch program is no bargain here in Minnesota despite its reliance on highly-subsidized commodities reminded me of a conversation I had some time back with Robin Gaines, who is in charge of providing food for people on the other end of the age spectrum: retirement home residents. Read the rest of this entry »

John Tuma’s Capitol Update

“We, the people of the state of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

-The preamble to the Constitution of the state of Minnesota, August 29, 1857

On Thursday of this week, Governor Pawlenty, following the time-honored tradition for over 150 years, delivered the gubernatorial State of the State address to a joint convention of both the House and Senate within the House chambers.

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Conservation Minnesota’s northwest blogger, Kristin Eggerling, reports enthusiastically on a conference to help develop locally-based food systems.

The conference begins on Monday, February 15 at Southwest State University in Marshall with a local food and wine reception with music, short films and clips about community-based food systems.  On Tuesday the conference will be broadcast at a number of college campuses in the 7th congressional district, including the University of Minnesota-Crookston, the University of Minnesota-Morris, Bemidji State University and Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls and will feature a keynote speech by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack who will be attending in Marshall.

More here.

What has the world come to when one of our leading food and farming writers is moved to pen a book with the subtitle, “An eater’s manual”? That was my first thought when I heard about Michael Pollan’s latest work, Food Rules. Now we need a list of rules on how to eat? What’s next: A Human’s Guide to Breathing In and Out? Read the rest of this entry »

John Tuma’s Capitol Update

As the legislative session opens this week, legislators and Gov. Pawlenty have taken some positive early steps for the environment with the capital investments bill.  Hopefully they will take some lessons from the leadership of former Governor Floyd B. Olson in 1933.

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By Elena Velkov, media center coordinator, Fresh Energy

If you’ve been keeping up with Fresh Energy’s Transportations Connections Department, you’ve probably heard about its push for a state Complete Streets policy. The measure aims to make streets safer and more accessible through various planning measures. This includes sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and shoulders. But as far as understanding how exactly these road changes would equal improved safety and a cleaner environment, it’s a little bit difficult to get from point A to point B–no transportation pun intended. I didn’t have a clear understanding of it, myself, until I actually saw it last week. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the MPCA has finally gotten around to taking steps to shut down that horrific health hazard that its owner, Excel, chooses to call a dairy farm, neighbors are left to wonder: what about the millions of gallons of manure left behind? Read the rest of this entry »

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – The Pre-Session Version

“There is a basic law of nuclear waste often overlooked – all waste remains where it is first put.”
 
- Richard Wilson Riley, Then Governor of South Carolina, 1982*
 
This little bit of southern frankness from South Carolina happened to find its way into Minnesota history when it was quoted by administrative law judge Allen W. Klien in his opinion advising the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reject Northern States Power’s (NSP, now Xcel Energy) petition to store nuclear waste at the Prairie Island nuclear plant in April 1992.  One of NSP’s central arguments was that storage outside of Prairie Island would only be temporary.  It appears that former Governor Riley’s “Law of Nuclear Waste” was truer than the predictions of the high-priced experts hired by NSP who claimed back in the 1992 at the administrative hearings that the waste would be removed by 2010.

By the way, it is still there and still causing problems. 

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By Erin Stojan Ruccolo, senior policy associate, Fresh Energy

A new report finds that Twin Cities building owners could save up to $10 million a year by implementing day shift cleaning. The report, “Clean Sweep: How a New Approach to Cleaning Buildings in the Twin Cities Can Protect Our Health and the Environment While Securing Jobs and Saving Money,” was released today by the Blue Green Alliance and SEIU Local 26. It finds that a day shift cleaning transition could save 4-8 percent in office building energy costs, and adopting green cleaning practices–which encourages the use of less toxic cleaning products–would protect the health of janitorial and office workers in commercial office buildings. Read the rest of this entry »

By Alison Lindburg, global warming solutions coordinator, Fresh Energy

The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) is speaking out in strong support of national energy and climate legislation. Keith Dittrich, chairman of the board of the ACGA, spoke January 15 in Chicago. A corn and soybean farmer from Nebraska, Dittrich addressed cap and trade policy as an opportunity to “save our productive environment.” Read the rest of this entry »