Mud City Press

I traveled to Cedar Rapids with friend and fellow author William H. Kötke on Thursday the day before SEED I would begin. That morning, the two of us stood outside the security zone at the Eugene airport wondering how we would be received by the guards at the electronic entry. There was growing concern within the alternative culture that the names of radical activists and writers were accruing on a list–that there were people the government was watching and would not allow to fly. If this was indeed the case, both William Kötke and I had some reason to fear. Kötke's book The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization had been out since 1993. He had lived his entire life as an activist of one kind or another, union rep, anti-war protester, adjunct to Native American tribes in the southwest United States, and member of Earth First. He hadn't been on a plane or in an airport in nearly ten years and there was no telling how his name would scan through the system. I was little more than a loud-mouth website editor living in Eugene with opinions on everything from Lee Harvey Oswald to no-till agriculture to the impeachment of King Dick and his sidekick George. I had traveled within the calendar year with no problem, but that was before I'd launched the website. Unfortunately there was no way of knowing what would happen at the check point without our actually going through.

I walked the gauntlet of TSA officials first, showing my boarding pass, driver's license, removing my shoes, belt, jacket, wallet, and loose change and pushing it all through an electronic scanner with my one piece of luggage. I then passed through the metal detector–with a momentary wave of trepidation–and moved on into the secure zone with no other hassle than gathering up all my belongings and putting on my shoes.

Kötke watched all of this from the outside, then with a little nod to me entered the labyrinth. Wearing hemp pants and carrying a medical marijuana card from California, a true American mutant, he passed easily through the first stages of the process, showing his driver's license and boarding pass, but the metal detector went off as he passed through the sensors and he was immediately pulled aside.

I watched a TSA officer wave an electronic wand around Kötke's body. The wand beeped several times and the TSA officer gave him an intimate pat down. Kötke rolled his eyes at me as this transpired, but maintained his calm. He was then told that it was his suspender clips that were setting off the metal detector and he was asked to remove his suspenders. This solved the problem and we headed off to board the first of three flights that would get us to Cedar Rapids. So much for paranoia…

The first flight was a puddle jump to Seattle. The second flight, from Seattle to Minneapolis, was three hours. The seats were arranged three on either side of the aisle. I took the window seat. Kötke got the center seat, and a young man in his early twenties by the name of Colin took the aisle. Fifteen minutes into the flight, Colin informed us he was a private in the U.S. Army and was headed to Iraq in the next month. I nodded soberly and he grinned "no-fear," saying he was eager for action and with Christ as his savior he was sure he would return safely. Kötke looked straight ahead keeping his thoughts to himself, and I nodded again in sympathy for him and the rest of the world.

The earth was suffocating with carbon emissions and the United States was fighting a religious war in order to sustain an economy based on petroleum. I had to wonder how the Prince of Peace would reconcile this kind of systemic hypocrisy. Oh well, Kötke and I were environmental flag wavers traveling in a giant carbon eating and exhausting beast. What was our excuse? Make no mistake, we all offer our little concessions, but short of living entirely off the grid–which Kötke will soon be doing, we're all contributing to this horror show.

Michael Richards met us at the airport in Cedar Rapids Thursday night. He was a warm, bear of a man with a close-cut beard and a quiet easy manner. I knew Richards only through email exchanges and a few phone calls, but felt like he was already a friend and comrade long before actually meeting him–that feeling of connection would only strengthen in the ensuing three days. He took us to the home of Carolyn Berg where Kötke and I would stay for the duration of the conference. (Many thanks to Carolyn for her hospitality and generosity.)

Friday afternoon at three, the thirty-six conference presenters met with Michael Richards at the Matyk Building on East Third Street in Cedar Rapids to talk about what would go on in the next 32 hours. It was a remarkable and diverse group of individuals, including farmers, peace advocates, environmentalists, writers, and energy entrepreneurs. We sat in a circle of well-worn couches and chairs on the first floor of this old building in the heart of Cedar Rapids' New Bohemia District and introduced ourselves. Then we divided up into six small groups corresponding to the six conference tracks to talk about strategy, label key issues, and gather another level of acquaintance.

As your basic roving reporter, I had not been assigned to a track, so I sat down with three members of the Ecological Economic Development/Jobs for Seven Generations track that included Shari Martinez of Cedar Rapids Women for Peace, Molly Cantrell-Kraig, candidate for Alderman at Large for the city of Muscatine, Iowa, and Kimberley Dickey, Environmental Sustainability Manager for Frontier Natural Products Co-op. After an affirmation of what we were there that weekend to do, we decided to focus on an introductory piece for the track the next day. The reference to seven generations in the group's title seemed the best way to set the stage for an open discussion of sustainable economics.

The concept of seven generations came from the Great Law of the Confederacy of Iroquois tribes. According to this law, all decisions and tribal practices must take into account how they would effect the next seven generations of Iroquois. Thus immediate pressures and needs were always addressed through a longer view. In a culture where we hardly ever look any further ahead than the next business quarter and our society changes with each new expansion of computer memory, this is a difficult proposition. But in the big picture of caring for the planet, managing resources, and designing our society, the Iroquois law is an important concept. Even if seven generations is a stretch, looking at least one generation ahead–to the lives of our children–is absolutely imperative. Part of the reason for the SEED Conference was our failure to do just that.

Despite thirty years of foreknowledge, we had neglected all warnings for the effect of greenhouses gases, we had consumed petroleum like it was an infinite resource, and we had gobbled natural resources like there was no tomorrow. But, of course, there is a tomorrow. And that tomorrow is now! If our economic model of unlimited growth needed grounding and some sound advice, our little group decided that it came, aptly, from the Native Americans who had maintained this same stretch of land for thousands of years with little impact. The nation of white men that took their place seemed intent on desertification in less than 300 years. We may not be able to change that in our circle of discussion the next day, but this was the message we would begin with. Think as far ahead as possible.

After this initial gathering, we all walked two blocks down Third Street for dinner at a local bar and grill, The Chrome Horse. During the meal, I spoke with Steve Fugate of Green World Biofuels. Steve told me of his Ester Machine System that enables the operator to turn used fryer or virgin vegetable oils into high quality finished fuel” and can produce 80 gallons in a day. Steve, who designed and marketed the system, used it himself as part of a biofuel co-op. A group of ten friends would collect used vegetable oil from local restaurants, then get together one day a week and turn out fuel for their personal use. At a time when the price of petroleum products is shooting through the roof, what could be better than having the ability to brew your own from restaurant leftovers? Green World Biofuels was working proof of one of the most basic lessons of these changing times; there really is no more room for waste—even that ugly looking grease we fry potatoes and chicken in can be used to good purpose. To me, a mere writer, Fugate’s hands-on technical approach was an inspiring example of what one individual could do through thoughtful innovation.

After dinner, we walked another two blocks to the P-3 Union Hall and reconvened with many others who came to attend and learn. Ken Meter from theCrossroads Resource Center out of Minneapolis, Minnesota was the keynote speaker and his Friday night talk would kick off the conference.

Meter’s poignant presentation, "Finding Food in Farm Country," put the conference focus squarely on food and farming. In some ways this was the most powerful presentation of the conference in that it revealed in a series of Power Point slides the perverse predicament of small and mid-sized farms in America. He began by drawing an economic picture of agriculture in Iowa. Two trends stood out: farming in Iowa, and the United States in general, has been operating at a net loss since 1998 and more than ninety percent of all Iowa farm produce is sent out of state, while a similar portion of all food products that are bought in Iowa come from outside of Iowa. With skyrocketing petroleum prices heavily impacting farm costs, particularly product transportation, this is crazy and unfortunately exemplary of how our economy is designed—back-ass-wards. Relocalizing agriculture is one critical way to turn things around, but, as Ken Meter said, the problems are bigger than localized markets; farm policy (what we grow and how we grow it) and subsidy programs must also be addressed. In net, the world’s greatest agricultural nation is operating at a deficit and survives only because of the existing and wasteful subsidy programs. This disturbing array of facts set the stage for Saturday’s six discussion groups.

SEED I

Sustainable Living, Renewable Resources, and the Future of Iowa

by Dan Armstrong