FALLING SHORT ON HOUSING

Can innovative apartment projects solve NoMi’s housing crisis?

+ Local construction industry woes

+ Renovating a 1900s schoolhouse

+ Décor trends: barnwood & Petoskey stones

“The

Talk”

My daughter had “the talk” with my 10- and 15-year-old grandsons a couple weeks ago. Oh, not that talk. This one was following the killing at The Covenant School in Nashville of three students and three adults at the hands of yet another school shooter.

Sadly, it wasn’t the first time they’ve had this talk. My grandchildren have grown up with active shooter drills as a part of their school experience. And certainly, the numerous school shootings during their years in classrooms have created, at some level for them and their fellow students, a culture of fear.

The talk that they shared this time included a strong conversation with my sensitive, caring, 10-year-old grandson about how he needed to get himself out of the school, if the situation allowed him to escape, rather than trying to locate his friends and make sure they were safe. He ultimately agreed and affirmed he understood, but it was very apparent that he really couldn’t imagine leaving without knowing his friends were okay.

In 2023, we continue to have more mass shootings than days on the calendar. Republican lawmakers from Benzie County, and across the country as a whole, continue to vote against virtually every commonsense measure designed to limit access to guns and to quell the violence. I am grateful for the effort of our Democratic leaders who are working tirelessly to create a safer world.

I hope for the day when parents will no longer need to hold this particular talk with their kids.

William Haggard | Lake Ann Thanks for the Veggies

I am a member of the VegMichigan group, and on behalf of our nonprofit organization, I would like to extend a “thank you!” to our local businesses and restaurants for their support of a plant-based lifestyle that, even if only practiced occasionally, helps our earth take those periodic deep breaths that we all need.

While there are a handful of restaurants that offer plant-based options on their menus, we hope to see more in the future. We would specifically like to extend our appreciation to Oryana Food Co-op and Edson Farms Market & Deli for their amazing support of plant-based lifestyles by carrying a large variety of plant-based products, offering cooking classes, and generously providing a space for our local monthly VegMichigan group to meet.

I would also like to send a big shout out of thanks to Stone Hound Brewing Company for offering a completely vegan menu. We are big fans and currently hold our monthly fun meetings there. Also to Third Coast Bakery & Coffee for being a great all-vegan and gluten-free bakery. Their great lattes are also made with plant-based milk options. And to Milk and Honey for offering a variety of vegan ice cream and menu options.

Sharon Vandenabeele | Traverse City

Fixing the Farm Bill

The 2023 Farm Bill is currently being negotiated in Washington. It is one of our best opportunities to fix our broken food system.

For too long, the Farm Bill has been used to subsidize factory farms at the expense of farmers, animals, and the environment. Michigan provides a stark example on this issue. The number of factory farms, also known as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) in our state has more than quadrupled between 1997 and 2017. Michigan is now home to nearly 300 CAFOs.

Local nonprofit For Love of Water reports “a single, large CAFO produces one-anda-half times more untreated waste than the human sanitary waste produced by the cities of Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Saginaw, Traverse City, and Warren combined.”

Because of weak regulation, these CAFOS are allowed to spread “400 million tons of solid manure, and 4 billion gallons of raw, untreated liquid animal feces and urine—5,000 to 7,000 gallons per acre—on 600,000 acres across Michigan” according to Bridge Michigan (Sept. 2022).

This waste is contaminating our rivers, streams, and lakes. CAFOs are one of the reasons why Lake Erie now turns green with toxic algal blooms every summer and E. coli contamination is widespread in our waterways.

The 2023 Farm Bill must begin the critical work of shifting federal dollars away from industrialized agriculture toward a more sustainable, humane, and resilient food system. To accomplish this, we need Congress to adopt the Farm System Reform Act (S. 271 / H.R. 797) and the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act (S. 272/ H.R. 805) and to include these provisions in the 2023 Farm Bill.

Schey

| Traverse City

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