Over the last 5 years, Portugal has forged ahead in the use of renewable energy.  Now nearly 45 percent of the electricity in their grid comes from renewable sources, up from 17% five years ago.  They use a mixture of wind, hydropower, solar and ocean waves, according to an article in the New York Times.

Next year, in 2011, Portugal expects to be the first nation to establish a national network of charging stations for electric cars.

Prime Minister José Sócrates used a landslide victory in 2005 to push through the program over the objections of the country's fossil fuel companies.  It cost him.  In 2009 he won by a far smaller percentage.  It cost the ratepayers as well.  The Portuguese have long paid about twice what Americans pay for electricity and prices have risen 15% in the last five years, accompanied by much grumbling.

The small city of Tieton in the upper Yakima Valley has established six Farmers Markets for this summer.  The first one was on Saturday, July 17th.  Others are scheduled every two weeks through September.  We here at IWF were instrumental in helping the community and a very dedicated group of volunteers start up the markets so we have a pretty good idea of what was involved.

A new study has found that 1/3 of all counties in the lower 48 states will likely face water shortages by 2050.   The study, commissioned by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) assessed future water availability in the face of a changing climate.   The study found that climate change is likely to exacerbate existing pressures on water resources caused by population and economic growth.   Examining the impact of global warming on water supply and demand, they found that 1,100 counties will face higher risks of water shortages.  More than 400 will face very high risks of water shortages. 

Noodling around the Internet, I came across a year-old Scientific American article about the coming disappearance of the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground water source that lies under America's breadbasket and irrigates crops that supply one fifth of the total annual agricultural harvest in the U.S.   The High Plains, the area above this endangered aquifer supplies a large amount of the corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and cotton that America produces for itself and the world.

There is a growing awareness that it is important for us to have easier, cheaper, healthier access to fresh fruit and vegetables.  Yet another example of this is a bill that has been filed in the U.S. House called the Greening Food Deserts Act by Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio that is meant to increase the supply of fresh produce in American's cities.  The bill, H.R. 4971, has the following stated purpose:

I had the pleasure of attending a large community dinner in Bellingham to honor Cesar Chavez last week.  Our partner organization, Community to Community (C2C), hosted the event, as they do almost every year near his birthday.  Community to Community, under the leadership of Rosalinda Guillen, a former organizer with the United Farm Workers, has served and organized farm workers and former farm workers and their families in the Whatcom County area for years.