North Bay Report: Mussel Farming, Bicycle Commuting, Tea Party Book Review

Climate Change and Agriculture

Using chicken manure to create electricity, and the benefits of getting to know your local farmer. These were among the myriad topics covered at a conference yesterday on "Preserving Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change."

Farming organically is a good thing, says Paul Kaiser of Sebastopol's Singing Frogs Farm (speaking in a windy corner outside the conference). But it's not necessarily the same thing as farming sustainably.

Sonoma County's small farms are impressively productive, Kaiser adds. That's the good news. The downside is that most of that produce gets shipped out of county, eroding the benefits of growing it locally.

CSA subscriptions have seen enormous growth in the past decade, benefiting small farmers here and across the country. Yet they are still often seen as an expensive, luxury purchase, which Kaiser contends is exactly backwards.

The manure-fueled methane plant is more officially known as a "bio-gas" generating facility. Amy Bolten of the Sonoma County Water Agency says the basic process is being implemented at various sites across the county. But this one adds a new wrinkle.

Interested in this story? Listen to the full report from KRCB by clicking here.

Mussel Farming

Demand is high and the costs are relatively low for a new aquaculture crop that holds rich potential for expansion along the North Coast — mussels.

Farming of mussels is not new to North America, says Bodega Bay Marine Lab adviser Paul Olin, but the potentia for growing them in California's coastal waters  remains mostly untapped.

Getting mussel longlines started can be done naturally, Olin explains, or they can be seeded with "starter" shellfish from hatcheries in Oregon and Washington.

Listen to the full story here.

Bicycle Commuting

The 36 mile round trip from Occidental to Santa Rosa Junior College is hardly flat, but it just a day's ride to work and back for Sonoma County's Bicycle Commuter of the Year.

Although he's been making the trip from Occidental to Santa Rosa and back for many years, John Daly has had to make some changes to his preferred commuter route, as vehicle traffic patterns shifted over time.

Early morning darkness in wintertime will curtail Daly's ride a bit--he drives out of the hills to the flatter lands, then boards his bike--but the weather is not a consideration. Mostly, he says, he'll just power on through it.

Get the whole story at KRCB.

Book Review: "Real Common Sense"

Members of the Tea Party movement often invoke elements of the US Constitution to buttress their political positions. In doing so, they often distort those sources, argues writer and radio host Brian Kahn, whose new book sets out to set the record straight.

Corporations exert an inappropriate influence over 21st century culture and politics. In Real Common Sense, Brian Kahn offers a straightforward proposal to rein that in, and cites key American leaders from the past to bolster his assertion that making such a change is consistent with the Founding Fathers' democratic values.

Nowhere is the abuse of corporate power more apparent and egregious than in commercial broadcasting. Here. too, Kahn says, the current problems are a result of abandoning the checks and balances of the past.

Kahn's solution? An excise tax on broadcast advertising, to be used to fund public radio and television, and revive serious journalism.

Listen to the full story here.

Editor's note: This story was reported and produced by KRCB, and written for Rohnert Park Patch with the permission of KRCB News Director Bruce Robinson.