December 22, 2008 by Mark.

(We received a generous outpouring of money and volunteers after our last message. Thank you!! We’re still looking for volunteers to help watch and transcribe a few hours of exciting, raw YERT footage. Join over 30 other volunteers to help us meet our transcription deadline: 500 hours by Feb. 28, 2009. E-mail mark@yert.com if you’re interested!)

Dear YERTians,

Right in heart of Kansas we found two extraordinary but very different approaches to creating healthy, smart, and local food. Wes Jackson will light up your mind with genetic innovations at The Land Institute, while Hilary Brown will light up your taste buds at Local Burger. Neither are to be missed…

With a 25-year plan and a staff filled with PhD’s, Wes Jackson and The Land Institute are on a mission to create a farm that works like a prairie. They call it "Natural Systems Agriculture," but we like to call it "the mother of all environmental solutions." Their work targets fundamental changes to agricultural systems that will have a positive impact on common human challenges including fossil fuel dependence, pesticide pollution, fertilizer runoff, water shortages, soil erosion, cultural erosion, and climate change. This is one of the most potent stories that we encountered all year– we would love to know if you agree, so let us know at team@yert.com.

Hilary Brown has quite possibly established the first and best fast food restaurant in America to use primarily local healthy ingredients and practices. The restaurant is called Local Burger, and she regularly converts vegetarians into carnivores after they try her elk burgers and learn about the humane practices of her farm sources. She certainly converted us into rabid fans and we can’t wait to return!

That’s all for now. May your holidays be evergreen, and if you’re still trying to figure out how to simplify the season, consider the concrete suggestions in YERT’s Simple Living 101 video here.

Peace,
Mark, Ben, and Julie

team@yert.com

P.S. For information about the topics in this video, check out these breadcrumbs!

The Land Institute - It is difficult to express their mission statement better than they do: "When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting Nature as the source and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring." http://www.landinstitute.org/

Prairie Festival - Every year the Land Institute throws one heck of an informative and inspirational multi-day festival. People travel from miles around to listen to Wes Jackson and his friends and peers. If you’re on the continent, we highly recommend it. Here is the link from 2008’s festival: http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2008/02/24/47c304bb0d842

Most Important Human Challenge Ever! - Our interview with Wes Jackson was filled with incredible quotes that we couldn’t fit into YERTpod30. One of our favorites is particularly timely, as Wes indicates what he would tell America if he were President of the United States. Check it out here and share it with friends and president elects!

Local Burger - Ok, so you haven’t really lived until you’ve tried the elk burger at Local Burger. Trust us. It is as good as our faces say in the video. Stunning flavor. And for the vegetarians out there, you’re also saved– Hilary has created the mother of all veggie burgers just for you. Here’s the rest of the scoop from Local Burger’s website: "Established in historic downtown Lawrence, Kansas, the restaurant sources all of its meats locally and features a variety of burgers, including beef, buffalo, elk, lamb, pork, turkey, and tofu, and is home of the World’s Best Veggie Burger (it’s gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free, and DELICIOUS!)."

Posted in Video, Mark | 2 Comments »

December 10, 2008 by Ben.

…AAAAAAAND WE’RE BACK!!!!!

First and foremost, a gigantic YERT shout out to any and all heroic YERTians who are still dutifully tuning in.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.  Yes, it’s been quite a while since our last YERTPod as I (Ben) have gotten sideswiped by fatherhood and premiering a new musical.  Sorry ’bout that.  Oh, how I’ve missed the weekly all-nighter editing sessions!  And so it is that I honor that YERT tradition once again tonight at 4:29am. You had to know that we’d get around to editing Oklahoma, SOONER or later.  Turns out it was later, but here it is…finally.

Once we arrived in Oklahoma City, we went "underground" and "dug in" at Oklahoma City University for a few days, giving ourselves some "constructive" criticism and "building" a plan to ask some "LEEDing" questions over the coming days.  Turns out we didn’t have to look too hard. 

Brad Thomas and Sam Johnson gave us the dime tour of all the nifty bells and whistles on BOLDT Construction’s very cool LEED Silver south regional headquarters building.  We thought it only fitting that a company which offers green construction services have a LEED-certified regional HQ.  And it’s the first private LEED building in OK to boot.

We then spent one cold and rainy day with Aaron McRee of Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity and liked it so much, we came back for another equally cold and wet interview the next day with Kelly Parker, President of Guaranteed Watt Saver, a engineering/inspection/consulting firm whose mission is "to assist in creating working and living environments which are durable, healthy, safe, comfortable, and resource responsible through a comprehensive application of building science principles."  Sounds pretty good to us.  Habitat and GWS have joined forces in central Oklahoma to bring energy efficiency savings into the lives of those who need it the most by building "the largest green development in Habitat for Humanity history" - an entire neighborhood of highly-insulated, geothermal-heated/cooled, extremely affordable homes.  We learned that, while it may have been the middle of December and we were freezing body parts off, there’s apparently still enough geothermal potential under the Oklahoma turf to warm even the chilliest home.  And not only is the heat home grown, but nearly everything in the houses’ geothermal systems (from the piping to the mechanical units) are made right in Oklahoma.  Now if only the state made geo-thermal-underwear, they really could have scored some points with us.  Get on that Oklahoma.

Finally, as luck would have it, Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma, so we spent some quality time with OK State Representative, Randy McDaniel (R), who demonstrated to us that caring for the planet really is a non-partisan cause.  And, for balance, we hopped over to the other side of the political aisle and sat down with OK State Senator, Andrew Rice (D), the man looking to unseat America’s most notorious Global Warming Skeptic, US Senator James Inhoff.  Rice may have lost that bid last month, but he certainly gets kudos for trying.  

Oh, and not surprisingly, every Oklahoman we asked knew "Oklahoma," the song.  Apparently there’s this musical…

YERTfully Yours,

Ben, Mark, and Julie (Your YERT Team)
team@yert.com

P.S. If you’re looking for more goodies related to the video, check out these yummy breadcrumbs….

• Wanna find out just how much energy your house is leaking?  Or become a Home Energy Rater so you don’t have to hire someone else to tell you?  Guaranteed Watt Saver can help you here: http://www.gwssi.com/
• BOLDT may have a sweet building in Oklahoma, but the company HQ is actually in Appleton, Wisconsin.  Find out more about the company at:  http://www.theboldtcompany.com/home.html
• Habitat For Humanity does remarkable work.  Learn all about "the largest green development in Habitat for Humanity history" including "20 things YOU can do to reduce your home’s energy impact" right here:  http://www.centraloklahomahabitat.org/HopeCrossing.htm
• Last but not least, here’s a fun and funky website all about the wonders of geothermal heating and cooling.  If you wanna learn about how it all works, this site has everything…and we mean EVERYTHING — http://geothermal.marin.org/
  

Posted in Video, Ben | 3 Comments »