Florida Matters; 3; Going Green in Florida

I. Major funding for Florida matters comes from the mosaic company a leading producer of fertilizer made from phosphate and natural resource found in Florida. America's farmers depend on Florida phosphate for their crop nutrition needs. Mosaic helping America grow. I am Irene mayor. Since Earth Day is right around the corner we thought you might enjoy an encore presentation of Florida matters going green. As always if you have any comments or questions please join the discussion at WSF dot o r g slash Florida matters. What does it mean to go green in Florida. Well it might mean getting less energy

from oil and more from wind solar and other renewable resources. For many it means recycling which isn't always just a bin on your curb. Recycling can also include selling donating and buying second hand goods. Some people go to thrift stores and online to sites like E-Bay Craigslist and many more. GREENE Can be making your home more energy efficient and conserving water. And to some people green means meeting your needs locally. So food and materials don't have to be shipped from all parts of the globe. Jim Koval LESKIE of Newport Richie does his part to create sustainability by turning his yard into an edible garden. Jim Cole the Lasky is a farmer and his fields are the yards around his house in the suburbs of Newport Richie. I do a market garden here. I planted it in October and. Started harvest in December. He seems to embody the idea of sustainable living.

I'm actually surviving on the piece of land I occupy there's an interaction going on which is so different than the traditional suburban urban mentality. I'm actually producing something in off a piece of land I'm occupying where most people grow decorative plants shrubs and border grass. Jim cultivates a variety of delicious leafy greens alongside carrots radishes and the rest of his winter crop he grows his produce his salad area farmers markets and to share and trade with his neighbors food really transcends a lot of barriers I really found that people especially when I show up on my bicycle. I also distribute around the neighborhood for more letters. We've got a great group. Yes I do. Oh. I trade some of my produce for citrus. And then take that to market all those things kind of a neighborhood thing going on which is really cool and start to meet my neighbors a lot. And when it comes to getting rid of pasts he has his own philosophy. I've got a definite problem with Phil bugs in this area I think it's because it's newer mulch

and they eat a lot of my seedlings especially the bok choy calles. And I'm really trying to instead oppose my will and try to find a low kill him. I need to find out what's out of balance because there are so many of them. Every other morning Jim goes to pick up seaweed at a park next to the beach. It gives the pill bags something to eat other than his garden and it seems to be working a little bit what I think's happened instead is they like the seaweed better than my plants. Well the green idea of a sustainability is being able to you know if they in an area and not consume more than you produce and that's exactly what I'm doing here. I mean very little leaves this property. I use a thumb thing called permaculture which is an idea of permanent culture which is very green I think we're going to hear more and more about it as the years go by here because it's really an interconnection with everything how it used to be like on a small farm. Permaculture is a concept developed in the 70s and has taken root in Jim's approach.

I read a book called guy in Garden about permaculture and interconnectedness with food in nature and our living space in a really changed the way I look at the world. That's what I see Permaculture is really opening the door to all these connections that can strengthen especially our small communities you know because that's the human scale. I mean yeah I really believe that. I see the suburbs as becoming the small farm of the future. And it's got the infrastructure close to cities. You mean you've got water pipes you've got all the easy transportation and you could I mean if you imagine this street producing what I'm producing every week I mean you could be you know supplying most of the fresh food for this. I mean I really can feel it happening. It's really a civilian thing and it's just building on itself. I'm in love with you. For a lot of Floridians going green is about not wasting damaging or using up what we have so that it can be enjoyed now and for years to come. Carson Cooper from WSF eighty nine point seven is here with Kim

buttons from Greenwell consulting. She's here to give us some ideas for greener and healthier living. Well thanks Irene Kim here you are welcome to our show. Thank you for having me here. Well these look like very familiar products but I have a feeling they have something to do with green living. They do one of the most important aspects of green living and that is if you can choose greener cleaners traditional cleaners have a lot of chemicals which are not healthy for you inside your home and they're not healthy for the earth they're going to be getting into the waterways into the air. Killing wildlife. So any time that you can go more natural more plant based that's going to be the best. All right I see vinegar here. Vinegar is a standout in the cleaning world. It can clean anything it's anti-microbial an anti-bacterial it kills mold it can do it all so you can use it on almost any surface. Now Irene I would be worried about the nigger making my house Milliken a jar of pickles. Absolutely. Is there anything you can do to counteract that. Definitely you can use essential oils if you combine some vinegar and some water and put in some essential oils whether it's a lemon scented peppermint scent that's going to counteract the effect of vinegar it's

also going to leave a pleasing aroma throughout your home. That's also eco friendly. I say now I'm pretty sure what's in here is water. You got it. If you're wanting to be eco friendly then you don't want to be using a lot of disposable water bottles and having to put those in the landfill. So get something that you can reuse and when you're buying a reasonable water bottle you might be tempted to get something like this it's a plastic number 7. Some of those can contain a chemical called BPA which is not healthy for us or the environment. So a better option would be stainless steel. And this is something that's going to last for years. It could be around like 10 years or so reusable. Great for the environment and for you as well. And how about the line of personal care products that's another place where we should be really thinking about what we put on our body. Exactly it's one of the most important things that you should be thinking about as well because anything that you put on your skin is going to be absorbed into your bloodstream. It's going to get into your body. So if you're using any type of personal care products whether it's soaps lotions shampoos that's all going to be something that could potentially get inside your body. So choose more

natural. You can choose things like that Shabelle glycerin for soaps as wonderful soaps coconut oil when you're talking about like body lotion so if you do something like this in kernel oil it's really hydrating for your skin. Just pressed right from the Apple kernel nothing could be more right. Are there specific words that we should look for in the labels of these products. You want to choose something that makes sense to you something that sounds like it's natural that Shabelle glycerin is great that's going to be in a lot of products. Coconut oil palm kernel oil things that you're familiar with that sound natural are going to be some of the best alternative. Now we want things that work that do the job but also break the bank. Are these more expensive than the typical products. They can be not all of them are those things like glycerin soap is going to be cheaper then the traditional soaps. If you get a product that's more natural that might cost a little bit more such as a body lotion you might need to use less of it. So in the long run it's going to end up costing the same.

And you think that when we get into the linen closet that's another place where we can also go green as they say. Right. Cotton production It uses about 25 percent of the world's pesticide use pesticides is not something that we want to continue to have a lot in the world. So if you can choose organic cotton products especially towels washcloths and sheets these are things that are going to be on your skin. So any other residue from pesticide production that might be left in those products is going to be absorbed into your skin. You don't want to be sleeping in inhaling that all night. Are these products easy to find. Are they carried in most average you know department stores for that. This one's from Target. This is a target for Intel. So yeah they are extremely easy to find nowadays. OK good. And last but not least very lovely. Yes. Chemical exposure. Indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than your outdoor air. According to the EPA that's as surprising as it is sick. And that's because of all the chemicals that might be off gassing from things that you're going to have in your home carpeting furniture and any personal care products as well. So if you choose plants that purify the air and you know you have a natural indoor air purifier

so they sting like Snake plant Gerber Daisy Haas those English ivy they're all really easy to take care of. First of all low light levels low water levels so you can't really kill them. And they're going to be great for the environment. How many should you have to really reap some sort of benefit do you need to turn your house into a garden. Ryssdal Yeah saying no you don't need a lot of them ideally at least one per room especially in the kitchen in the bedroom. The places where you spend the most time if you just have one plant in each you can have a couple if you like but you don't have to have a greenhouse inside your home. Very good Bill thank you. Lots of good information junkie Thanks Kim. We have even more tips from Kim about keeping your home healthy and eco friendly just visit us on our Web site at WSF dot au argy slash Florida matters. And Carson What more do you have for us today. Well these are green cleaners is one thing but Irene where do you stand on the new earth. I hope.

Organic farmers certainly believe in the use of a newer and organic farming is really not a new idea. It sort of gained traction back in the 1930s when the use of synthetics pesticides became more popular and who could argue against them in the Depression era Dust Bowl era they words. But there were farmers back then who were concerned like many people are today about the health aspects of using pesticides. And there's another very important component of organic farming and that is the health of soil organic farmers learn to rotate crops and use manure and compost and things like that. And there are several organic farms right here in the Bay Area. I didn't know that that's right we found a little bit of country and town and country it's a place called Sweet Water organic community farm. It bills itself as an Urban Organic Farm providing healthy food educational programs and community building opportunities. So let's go there now. How do you follow.

It's. Not far from the hustle and bustle of Tampa International Airport. Hidden from view. Is Sweet Water organic community farm. Here members pay a yearly fee and reap the harvest of vegetables grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers. We sell out all of our memberships every year. To me the biggest thing is the community and the family I mean the breeders you know. And it keeps growing. We're green because we believe in living sustainably. We grow most of our own food we grow food for a lot of people who would otherwise not buy food that shipped in from all over the world. On Sundays they hold a market that's open to the public and outside vendors where the two most popular colors appear to be tied I am green. I love the energy here Gary. These are rain barrels a 55 gallon drum from recycled food grade

Merrill's that were in the citrus industry we grow produce organically from sweet potatoes to cane syrup to every vegetable possible in Plant City more able to bring it down here and sell it and then I do recycled crabs from like I said before bed linens and a lot of recycled T-shirts I do T-shirts into skirts or dresses are so not natural nontoxic cleaning products. These are eco friendly friendly biodegradable natural but commercial strength cleaning products. Rain barrels are for collecting free water because everybody knows in Florida we're having a bunch of water restrictions and. Also people don't like putting city water on their plants and vegetables or garden because you know they put fluoride and chlorine in the water. The green aspect is that I'm using recycled fibers there are fibers that people let sit and biodegradable landfills or like polyester which doesn't biodegrade. And I can reuse it and make it into another life cycle of clothing. For me its about being sensitive to what you do to the environment.

We talk to family. Live to Tampa city council member Mary Moore heard a believer in the right. I like the vegetables best and I like the community aspect of it. I like the fact that it's been here for like 15 or 20 years and now it's becoming. A successful model for other community supported agriculture and community gardens. Hellstrom how many in this part of the state. Well. For starters it gets its all grounded in the earth and the natural processes of growing you can get healthier food than what's grown here and sweet water. This just feels like you know my shopping is now growing my own politics and ideas about sustainability. Yes I follow. Crime. That really is a best kept secret in the area. Are there other organic farms or is sweet water the only one well that's a great question because it's such a neat place to

go there are several here in the Bay Area in fact according to the Florida certified organic growers and consumer group. There are actually 130 certified organic farms in the state which make up around 14000 acres. Now we have a link on our Web page where you can get more information about fighting at a farm near you. Just go to WSF dot org slash Florida matters. And while you're there you might want to listen to my radio broadcast of Florida matters. Absolutely sounds good thanks a lot Carson. Now from organic gardening to eco friendly transportation Michael lowkey has his own ideas about how to do it well. You might recognize the name Loki grew up in the car business and his family owns several local dealerships so it's no wonder that his passion revolves around cylinders and big wheels. However it's his green approach to these gas guzzling vehicles that may surprise you. Take a look. You might not think so at first especially looking at what he drives but Mike Loki is

actually the green sheep of his family. The third generation car dealer uses his passion for big wheels as a vehicle for Sustainable Energy advocacy. When I found out about this technology people doing this I was drawn to it and found out that I could have a big fun truck that I could run on a fuel that comes from a renewable resource that scrubs carbon from the from the environment and is free to run. Lowkey competed in the Baja 1000 and driving all the way from Tampa to Baja California and back on used vegetable oil. Well we briefly built this truck so we could demonstrate that you know we run in a modern vehicle and it isn't get more complex of an engine than the Duramax. It really was. Born out of two desires one to prove the theory and also one to experience that race and it was incredible. Converting his personal vehicles wasn't enough though. Loki saw the bigger picture. When I started really thinking about. How hard it is to get one person to change their vehicle and

what impact they had in the environment I realized that if there was a customer out there who had a lot more vehicles then that would have a bigger impact on the environment. He convinced Chris Bentley at legacy products in Orlando a fresh seafood company to begin converting his fleet of delivery trucks to run on vegetable oil. We started this business arrangement with Mike Low key. After doing some research this summer when fuel prices reached 450 a gallon for diesel. We were listening to our customers who were complaining about the fuel surcharge that we had to impose during that time. And we thought. There's got to be a better way how can we control this. After the initial startup costs and time to convert the legacy fleet the average conversion of one of our vehicles is somewhere in the neighborhood of about $4000 per vehicle. It takes about two days for them to convert it. And. Very painless seamless operation for us. It didn't take long for Bentley to see the results.

Each one of our trucks burns about three to four hundred gallons of diesel fuel a week which now is been converted to waste vegetable oil. So we have about a 10 week return on the investment of the truck. In other words in 10 weeks the conversion had paid for itself. And the best part for Bentley was the new fuel was coming from his own customers. Traditionally restaurants have been paying to have ways vegetable oil removed from their facilities and we said well we need that resource. And we thought OK we approached them and said. Does this make sense to you and most everybody said yes I really that's a great idea. And that's how we got to get started. It's a win win situation for participating restaurants because they don't have to pay for waste removal. Plus legacy customers no longer have to pay a fuel surcharge and Bentley says there have been other unexpected benefits too. We've actually been able to employ more people. And still not increase our operations costs. By the savings that we use. We've utilized in the way flexible.

The other thing is we've noticed that we've had customers. Restaurants call in that we're not currently customers with us and had heard about our. Program and decided they want to be a part of that so that's been a great benefit for us. Mike Murphy says he expects more companies will get on board when they realize how ideal Florida is for vegetable oil conversion. We're actually the second largest consumer of diesel in the U.S. and we have the climate to make collecting vegetable oil easy. So you can collect it filter it and burn it easier. And beyond that we have a huge agricultural industry that's looking for new crops to expand into. So Ford is very quickly becoming the Silicon Valley if you will of liquid alternative fuels especially with vegetable oil. Michael luck is having a lot of fun with his passion. And now Larry Ellison is here with this week's Florida story. Welcome good to see you again. Good to see you. I got a question for you. What's up. What do you do when you open up your electric bill.

I want to faint I NEED OXYGEN Usually it's pretty bad. Well I tell you I open my electric bill up very slowly and take a quick peek and you know if it's been a a cold month for heating or a hot month for air conditioning I really might even cringe. Yeah it seems that I don't know whatever we do to conserve electricity between fuel surcharges and rate hikes. The bill just keeps going up. However I met someone recently who has reduced her monthly $300 electric bill to practically nothing. And she couldn't be happier. In the shadows of the early morning here are the Tanglewood drive in St. Petersburg. It looks like a Florida house. Sounds like one. Too. But when it comes to paying the rising monthly electric bill for climate control and all the other conveniences connected to life in modern Florida slow search I think she's found the answer.

Came so. Low as one source and. That got three arrays of PV panels that's photovoltaic panels and that's what brings the energy to my home. I've got one panel P.T. that's progressive tubing that heats the water for my home. So that's the system that's on the roof flows rooftop five and a quarter kilowatt solar electric system produces enough power to run her entire house even the pool and this is the new DC system that is the solar pump and this is what is running my core now. I decided to go solar because I am very environmentally conscious and have become even more so in the last few years. I just felt that it was important for me as an individual as an American to do what I could do for our environment. Not only does it make sense to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere and

reduce our dependence on foreign oil to generate electricity. Flew search believes serves sizable investment makes dollars. And then there's also. A rather large tax credit that I'll be giving this year on my taxes with federal and state rebates and an assortment of other incentives thinks are $40000 expense will wind up costing her about $8000. I think that this was a great investment to take my money and put it in the solar system. I have it paid off in about two and a half years of not having electric bills. And then from there on I will not have electric bills and that will be that much money saved every year. The thought of being less energy dependent as this Floridian beat me every time I flip on a switch or turn on anything that's powered by electricity. I feel great. I know that I'm producing the energy myself here and that I don't have to pay for it on a monthly basis.

So it's a great feeling and I know I'm helping the environment too. Energy's. Somewhat falls into two. Categories. All right. Renewable. And nonrenewable for being a good steward of the environment is something fluid search is really serious about there. As a fifth grade teacher at Perkins elementary she sees the Earth's future seated right in front of her high more regard to what we're doing with the planet in the ozone. So how about we'll say for renewable. It can be replaced or it won't run out. At least not for a very long time now. Yeah. Right very good. So when science class rolls around and the subject is renewable energy like kind of wind and solar or slue knows now water comes in and this is on the roof of my house and it comes

into the black tubing. So what do you think's going to happen to the water running through the black tubing as it's going through. And if the sun's out since it's black it will put the sun will probably hear that up and then when the water's coming through it it will get harder and then you have hot water. Exactly. And it comes out the bottom as hot water and runs right into my house. I've always kind of wanted to. You know somebody had to wear panels on your house. And. My teacher does it is really sound seems a lot of people nowadays think solar is possible. With a recent suggestion from his son the governor. Dr. Charles Crist will now heat up his chilly swimming pool with the good old Florida sun. And for us not to utilize that sun for energy is really a mistake. So I think that's the way to go. And it's once you install it it's free.

And they're free and many of them. After all Florida is the Sunshine State. Bill Gould president of solar direct says Florida's Future looks bright. Florida right now is on the brink of what potentially could be them standing as probably the leader in the solar industry in the United States. So let's think about the renewable. In the meantime back at the Perkins elementary we could also use solar energy or wind energy here a 5th grade class loves search remains a ray of Florida sunshine. It makes me realize that even though the children are 10 and 11 years old that they care about our worldly environment and that they really want to do their part to help even though they're young and in order to collect

that solar energy that's coming from the sun. We use a few different things mostly what's called a photo voltaic. I think I'm really going to want to get one because I know I would like to have like less stuff to pay on my house. Because I want to have a big house. Yes so Larry what will keep the solar industry moving forward in Florida. Well to keep homeowners like Flo search going and commercial property owners. Florida needs to find a way to keep those solar rebates flowing. One idea is for the state of Florida to fund a public benefit fun with you guessed it a charge on electric. Sure So how big is that charge going to be. Think well 57 cents on each monthly electric bill could raise one hundred fourteen million dollars. Wow that's a lot of

money. Thanks Larry. We'd like to hear your ideas about going green and we welcome your questions also join our continuing conversation at WSF dot o r g slash Florida matters. We're glad you spent some time with us this week. We'll see you next time on Florida matters. Major funding for Florida matters comes from the mosaic company a leading producer of fertilizer made from phosphate and natural resource found in Florida.

America's farmers depend on Florida phosphate for their crop nutrition needs. Mosaic helping America grow up.