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Please stay on topic–in this case YERT their yearlong project, sustainable farming, green building and green living.

If you want to jump in about health care or anything else not about please find a post elsewhere on FDL to do so. Thank you.

Please–and I can’t believe I still have to say this, but–no ad hominen remarks. And please be respectful of our guests and of each other. And yeah, I tpye badly…

Hi all!

project Your Environmental Road Trip

Very cool idea!

How are YERT doing now? You’re off the road and making a movie and raisng a baby and…?

Hi Lisa

…and finishing the film (I spend most of my waking hours in an editing “cave”) :)

Hi there! Great to be chatting again on FDL this evening.

I spend most of my waking hours in front of spreadsheets.

My dad’s family was from Brown County KS in the north east…milo and corn, some soy beans…

Perennial wheat sounds awesome, btw..

I am thinking of planting potatoes in my back yard

I grew up in Leawood, KS near the MO border – so it was a real treat to get back to that area on the trip.

We had a big fundraising month in December, receiving over $20,000 in donations to help us finish the feature film. We’re also figuring out how to market our film once we release it– fingers crossed for this summer. In the meantime, we’ve been submitting to film festivals.

We’re still waiting to hear back from several big film festivals. Our cut is currently about 2 1/2 hours long right now, so we’re working hard to trim it down to 90 minutes – very hard with all the amazing things we saw that year!

Brown County had a 4 points where you could stand in KS and see NE, MO and IA.

But then a walmart came and the town center collapsed…

Thumbs up to perennial wheat. I particularly appreciate how Wes Jackson is using biomimicry in his project at the Land Institute– mimicking the polyculture of a prairie to reduce fuel inputs, pesticide inputs, and water inputs. It just makes sense.

Ha ha – 4 points. I thought that was only in four corners (NM, CO, AZ, and UT) – interesting…

Heh. Surprise surprise. Wes talks about keeping the knowledge distributed on the land– which seems like the opposite of the centralizing role that Wal-Mart often plays.

That seems so logical and wise…like the farmers who put chickens in the cow pasture after they move the cows to another…allowing nature to nurture

You got it – we visited one of “those” farmers too – Joel Salatin. He’s in the feature film. ;)

So what’s happening wiht your feature film? You have a trailer up at YERT.com

And okay, the museum was amazing! Tell us a bit about that..

and if you like, tell us about YERT’s overall a project…

Well, we’re whittling it down from 550 hours of footage to an hour and a half – no small task. We have an editor working with us now in Louisville and will be bringing some other creative talent on board soon (music, motion graphics, etc.) Thanks for checking out the trailer, btw!

The City Museum is THE most amazing place on the planet – my favorite building ever – just an incredibly creative use of “junk.” I’m not sure why every city in America doesn’t have one. Bob Cassilly is my hero!

Where did Bob Cassilly get his funding? His inspiration is…inspirational!

And overall about the project, YERT stands for “Your Environmental Road Trip”– through which we’re documenting the road trip that we took to all 50 United States in one year, exploring all the weird and wonderfully sustainable things that people are doing all around the country. Ultimately we hope to personalize sustainability– make the concept familiar by making the people behind the idea familiar. All throughout the project we put ourselves through challenges, like keeping our garbage in the car the whole time (including recyclables), restricting our water use, eating locally (for a week), and a few other challenges along the way.

I’m not sure where he got his funding, but he bought the original building for a song, and gets most of the materials in the City Museum donated by local businesses.

How were the elk burgers to Local Burger?

Yeah, he was a pretty highly regarded sculptor prior to doing City Museum, so, in addition to getting most of his materials scavenged for free, I think he had some money saved up from his sculpting career.

The elk burgers were DELICIOUS! I had committed to being a vegetarian for the trip – so it was a wonderful excuse to fall off the wagon for an afternoon.

The elk burgers WERE spectacular. I’m glad that I didn’t get pregnant!

I’ve had venison but never elk. Plus Ive eaten lizard, frogs, snails, and alligator.

Local fast food seems so logical, especially after reading about and seeing the ammonia beef that goes into commercial fast food beef. Ugh

In planning the road trip, how much research was there, is there a secret team of researchers hidden in your office?

Wow! Quite the adventurous taste buds!

Haha, yes we pay the traveling gnomes (our secret team) very well. Actually, pretty much all of the research was done in house by the three of us before and during the trip – it took quite a bit of time, but I LOVE maps, Mark LOVES spreadsheets, and Julie has tons of friends – so it worked out well.

Have you been to Catalina Island off LA? They have great buffalo burgers.

It also helped that we had put together a mobile internet hookup in the car – so we could research and plan in real time from the road. That was essential.

Your research was great, so original stories, not the usual fare from so many “green” tv shows. Where did you find these?

I used to live in LA and _have_ been to Catalina Island! That said, I never did try their buffalo burgers. Instead, I sang at a karaoke bar. I wish I had had the buffalo burgers.

LOL

We talked to people on the ground in the area and followed our noses – turns out, just about everyone knows someone who’s doing something really cool. Our problem was never a lack of interesting people/activities to cover. :)

What is the time, work force, going into the final movie? Your short video showed some editing going on.

We found our best stories by actually going out and visiting the places where they’re happening. That was one of the original reasons for doing YERT – to get out and meet the people doing the work of creating a more sustainable planet. I found that when I just read books and blogs I got more and more confused, because there are so many counter-arguments for everything. But when you go out and meet people, they tell you what is most important– and perhaps most interesting about their local place. And since we figured that lots of other people might be finding the same circular arguments online, we decided to share the adventures and insights with video.

Tell us about The Land institute please…Wes is RAD!

That is what is great about the environmental movement, so many good ideas coming out and being tried. Did you find any particular age group, community that is more active in the movement?

Editing, research, brainstorming, editing, writing, more editing, fundraising,….did we mention editing. Our editor Scott and I are putting in 50-60 hour editing weeks routinely here in Louisville and doing a lot of on-the-fly directing trying to sort out this beast of a film. Mark is doing a lot of fundraising, intern screening, and general marketing/logistics back in Pittsburgh – it’s a full-time, non-paying “job” right now. :)

where did you sleep on the trip?

Vermont (and Seattle, Portland, and California) were all hotbeds of eco-activity. The 18-40 year old crowd definitely has a fire under their butts about these issues – I think they realize full well that they’re going to have to figure out a way to fix the mess that previous generations have left them (not that they’re not culpable, too).

We could go on and on about the Land Institute. So many benefits from such a simple, yet profound concept. As we approached Kansas we began to hear about The Land Institute– over and over and over again. When we finally arrived IN Kansas the encouragements grew more urgent– encouragements to SEE The Land Institute and meet Wes Jackson. We gave them a call and they agreed to see us, but then there was a crazy ice storm that shut down everything, including their Insitute, so we had to change our plans and backtrack a bit to actually make it out to them. It wasn’t really until we sat with Wes Jackson for a few hours that we realized what a profoundly revolutionary project they’re working on. It sounds so simple: changing an annual monoculture into a perennial polyculture. Yet the list of benefits goes on and on. They mention some of them in the short film. Ultimately they’re system changers, and could be pivotal in upcoming times of peak oil and peak water.

We slept everywhere from inside the world’s largest Beagle to a yurt to a Native American mud hut.

But for the most part, we stayed with friends, family, and kind strangers – and shacked up at the occasional hotel/motel when necessary.

Thanks, I would have thought the 15-25 year olds, but then I have to remember their frame of reference is different from mine (50s). I remember the first Earth Day, it is old history to them. Yes, they are going to have to clean up the mess.

We also slept in a cave, a YERT, VW Bus, an Earthship, the floor of a sustainability center, some Disney Princess beds. All sorts of places. When we stayed in a hotel/motel, we tried to find the lowest priced place that had reliable wi-fi. We often used Super8. Some B&B’s gave us free lodging, but not all of them, and they’re more pricey if you don’t get lucky with a free stay. ;-)

The midwest though has dedicated farmers who are discovering the financial and spiritual benefits of sustainability. they may be coming from diffferently, but gradualy change is happneing. And it’s non partisan, no politicla agenda.

I’m sure the 15 year olds are on it too. The younger generation is definitely growing up with these issues as part of their lexicon in a way that is pretty new – and necessary.

What’s your favorite?

I’ve got quite a bit of moose chili in my freezer. My hunter friend bagged it in October in VT and gave me 6 pounds of ground moose as well as some steaks.

It seems that the more active the young person in the environmental movement, the more focused they are. We learned a lot from them about how to get stuff done.

a beagle?

I love snails. venison is delish. Goat has its place, as does alligator. I dont really have fave non-trad meat. However I don’t care for veal or cooked fish.

Have you found any of the big Con-Agra businesses doing anything progressive with the land, sustainability farming that small eco farms do?

I agree that the sustainability movement is making inroads into the heartland. We’ve got a section in the feature film about how wind energy is helping to bring money to farmers in Texas– you can see their eyes light up when they talk about the opportunity AND the sustainability of it all.

Yeah, we visited the Dog Bark Park Inn in Idaho: http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/ . It is a beagle. I slept in the head, Ben and Julie in the belly. It stands next to a giant fire hydrant.

Anything in Ulster County, NY? We’ve got an organic beekeeper, he set up my hive and monitors it. And my fave organic farmer, has heritage tomatoes in every color of the rainbow, is 4 Winds. Visited the farm. He doesn’t till, has a solar panel, uses his tractor only to turn the compost manure pile. He has grass fed beef (I buy mine from another local farmer) and free range poulty to die for.

I frankly haven’t heard of much progressive news from big agricultural businesses. Thinking… thinking… they seem to have some crop varieties that help in water-scarce environments, but I’m not certain about the details of that at all. They are also prone to use genetic engineering, and I don’t believe that’s an appropriate way to use our knowledge about genetics.

My hunter friend hunts on my property, in exchange for which I get venison. So when I watch them, I say: ha, you can eat my plants, but I can eat you.

That is absolutely hysterical.

Hi! Curious here. I’m originally from Wyoming, yeah RedLand.

What I’m curious about is politics and stewardship. Have you had the pleasure of running into crusty ol Red Bastards who simultaneously are really good stewards of the land?

I have some in the family (don’t take their guns and they hate healthcare, but if you leave any trash around or waste any part of an elk, you’re gonna get a knuckle sandwich!), and I just wonder how many are really around anymore, and if you got to meet any….

It sounds extraordinary! I’d love to visit. I don’t have anything new to add to the pile of sustainability that you describe in Ulster County.

LOL – that sounds like sweet revenge. Or is it savory?

And the issues involved in the patenting of seeds, selling the seed corn each year..and that pollen can get into other non GMO and/or organic corns.

And the poor chicken farmers are basically share croppers, leasing the chickens and forced to raise them by Tyson or whoever’s methods.

Yeah, actually we visited a cattle rancher in Oklahoma – about as red-blooded conservative as they come – real salt of the earth cowboy – and he takes great pride in taking good care of his grass to feed his cattle. He considers it his primary responsibility to be a good steward of the land. That said, he still uses pesticides on rare occasions, so he’s not perfect.

There’s quite a lot of it going on. Only 70-90 miles from Manhattan, so niche farming is the way to go with a high end market nearby. Although the ones I mentioned are strictly local. Of course, there are still hundreds of acres of apple orchards which are anything but organic.

Fair trade.

The YERT episode about the Presidential Heads – and having a talk about the environment – who’s idea was that?

Yeah. If there was a way to prevent accidental cross-pollination with genetically modified crops, I wouldn’t be so concerned with its development, but we’re playing with fire when we can’t control the final destinations of crazy genetic building blocks that nature never intended. Too much risk for my stomach. Literally and figuratively.

….and we got to shoot pistols at coffee cans on his ranch. Suffice it to say, our only experience shooting guns on the trip. RED STATE to be sure.

We almost didn’t get into the park with all those Presidential Heads. We arrived shortly after it closed, and just waited at the entrance for somebody to come by, trying to decide what to do– Ben was insistent that we not leave without filming those Presidential Heads. Eventually somebody DID come by and against all odds, they let us in and let us film– with the park all to ourselves. Crazy fun!

I have to confess that the Presidents Heads came mostly out of my own twisted head – I spent much of the trip dragging the rest of the team along pursuing one of my hairbrained ideas…not always successfully. In fact we had to basically sneak in to the Presidents Heads park. I spent countless hours combing through old Presidential radio addresses trying to cut and paste together conversations that never could have happened – but should have, in a perfect world.

One thing brough up in the kansas episode we featured tonight was that Kansas once had orchards, berry farms, etc all replanted wiht corn now.

And fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder will remember thta she moved (in the later books, once married) to the Land of the Big Red Apple–Mansfield, Missouri.

We also asked that red-blooded cowboy if he could accommodate Ben’s vegetarian ways. The cowboy replied that he didn’t know how to make anything for dinner except beef stew. So we ate beef stew that night. With an awesome cowboy. Then shot his guns the next morning.

Have you decided on a story arc for the new film, with so many short videos, must be a hard job? Or are you going state by state in chronological order?

LOL! Good! You got the full treatment. I’m sure he meant to “make some damn libruls fire a God Given weapon!”

I miss that piece of my family actually. As wrong headed as they are about civil stuff, they sure were/are staunch about “Don’t F*** Up The Land!” And while they haven’t been 100% perfect about it, they sure have been committed.

Did the OK rancher feel he had to apply pesticides because of water yield/Ogalla Aquifer? Or do you know?

What is the YERT team up to this coming year? Showing the movie, film festivals? Planning new trips?

Any episodes about honeybees? After I got my hive I started learning about colony collapse disorder, and how essential they are for fertilizing such a large percentage of human food. Their disappearance would be a human disaster of major portions. Einstein said that without honeybees, the human race will disappear in 4 years. Don’t know whether he did the science on that, but it’s the thought that counts.

And also Can we see the new film when it is ready? Help promote it?

Yes, settling in on story arcs is extremely hard given the 50 short films already (however those 50 short films only cover the first 25 states or so, so there’s plenty of new footage to mine). We’re going in fairly chronological order so as to capture our personal evolution on the trip and the some of the internal team character arc (baby, challenges, etc.). Creating the right story arc (or, in our case, arcs) is perhaps the most challenging part of doing the film as the chronology does not always lend itself to covering the issues in a logical order that builds dramatically. If that makes any sense.

We don’t have any episodes finished about honeybees, but we did film some bees in Minnesota– even spent time attending to some hives in full beekeeping gear, all on camera. I totally agree with you about the importance of the little guys. That footage will eventually come out in a short film or in our feature film.

Yep – berries per pound at the local megamart are about as expensive as Kobe Beef by the pound.

The Farm Bill – don’t get me started….

He honestly felt like it was the only way to kill some of the weeds/pests and didn’t really think it posed any longterm risks (we, of course, disagreed). But he was pretty clear on the idea of “don’t F*** up the land.” :)

Yeah, but couldn’t you make story arc by issue? There’s Price, Agronomy, husbandry, Water, Finance… So many things.

On second thought, it would def. be hard to tell super coherently.

Air pollution may be part of hive collapse. It is harder for bees to pick up the scent of flowers.

I keep planting local native plants to help out my local eco system.

I’m watching KO & Rachel, so I haven’t played the clips yet.

Orchards are not very good environmentally. They spray like crazy, AND must get fertilized with honeybees, so the bees get it too. Thought to be important in colony collapse disorder. The almond monoculture in CA, hundreds of miles of nothing but almond trees, is absolute murder to bees. The commercail beekeepers who truck them around the country lose 30% in the almond trees, which much be done in February, when the bees are weak from the winter.

Yup! All of those things! We’ve been submitting to festivals, and will continue to submit to festivals as we work to finish the film, doing screenings to raise awareness and finishing funds. Right now when we “screen the film” we are actually screening select chapters of the film, with live narration in-between. So far the reception has been great– particularly when we screened it at Sony Pictures in Los Angeles last November. We’re also looking at doing more travel to give live presentations around the country. Looking at an east coast, west coast, and Chicago-ish tours right now, though no official dates yet. We’re also getting the ball rolling on a massive national marketing effort to get the word out about the film to college communities nationwide. We’re actively recruiting film marketing interns, and have a couple working right now to build contact lists, reach out to blogs, and figure out strategy. Definitely lots to do, but it is all very satisfying work.

Don’t think that matters much. I recently saw an article about beekeeing on Parisien roofs (link lost to history). Seem to do very well. I went to a lecture on honeybee anatomy. Their smell receptor system is extraordinary.

Tragic. i had a hive in my walls and the guy couldnt get the out without killling them. Luckily it was a small hive, but it broke my heart.

So I put in a more diverse blend of natives to help out the hundreds of other bees in my hood.

I do recall another articl eabout how air pollution keep sbees from going further afield to find flowers…

Yeah, that was the real struggle for me trying to hash out a film plotline. Ultimately, going issue by issue is simply too disruptive to the personal story arc for the team. However, we will be dropping in some scenes and characters out of chronological order to fill in some of the issues when we hit them – we’re trying to focus on regions and tell the most important stories we can from those regions. Turns out that’s a pretty good template for covering different issues (ie. southwest is a great place to cover solar issues and water issues, east coast is a great place to cover community issues and urban issues, gulf coast is good for peak oil and wetland conservation, etc.). It’s definitely a hybrid of chronological and issues – we’ll see if it works. Sometimes my brain really hurts from all of it…

Once agian, YERT team, thankyou soooo much for dropping in nd stimulating our brains and green goals.

Keep us posted on your films and thank you pups for beig here!

My beekeeper would have told you to keep the hive in the wall (assuming it was an outside one), as they do no harm & it’s good insulation.

Turf coverage! Good idea – people can relate to regional issues.

Hadn’t seen that. I’ll ask my guy next time I see him.

Wow – that stinks about the bees. :(

We’re delighted to visit! Thanks for the invitation. The videos you chose are some of our favorites, so happy to talk about them anytime. You’re all welcome to keep up the conversation with us at team@yert.com if you have any additional questions.

Thanks for having us on here – our pleasure!

Are ya done already? DANG!

Thanks for explaining. I had an unformulated Q about putting it together in my brain. Sounds like a plan, although 5500 hours into 1-1/2, no wonder your head hurts.