Page 2 - Sustainable Life - December 19th 2013

C2 SuStainablelife SustainableLife
Pamplin Media Group Thursday, December 19, 2013

Market: Now
backers must raise big
bucks

■ From page 1
irst-born is.”
veggies are local.
Makers of hot sauce, pickles,
Market founder both worlds.”
from 1983 to 1998.
Not in competition
preserves and salad dressings His mother and father be-
In 1990, he was contacted
The point, Paul says, is to
make it easier for people — The James Beard Market and the Portland Farmers Market see also are held to the 25 percent rule. “We just met with vendors raised as foodie
longed to a gourmet cooking club and divided the menus of through his post as executive chef of Rex Hill Wines to be
from Portland and the suburbs — to shop more frequently for each other as complementary.
“I think it’ll be a perfect icon and went through their list of ingredients. When they can get Ever since he can remem- the month between their friends for shared meals.
the irst Oregon chef invited to cook at James Beard’s home.
fresher food.
for deining who we are (as a re- local, we ask them to do that,” ber, Ron Paul has been When he was a teen, Paul His task: prepare a ive-course
Labels detailing where the products come from and how gion),” Farmers Market Execu- tive Director Trudy Toliver says.
Toliver says.
Paul says the Beard Market thinking of food, quality in- gredients, and creating and his brothers — one older and one younger — prepared dinner for 85 people with as many Oregon ingredients as
they were pro-
duced will let
“I’m hopeful it will be a place for some will hold its vendors account- able, through spot checks of tags things from scratch.
He fondly recalls his moth- a gourmet meal for their par- ents’ anniversary.
he could bring to New York.
Paul and his sous-chef
shoppers consid- of our farmers to on the produce and via peers at “Nothing is er’s cooking as a child in Tuc- “We made bread and pasta brought gravlax they cured,
er the sustain- ability of the highlight their prod- ucts.”
the market. “Farmer John or Monger John isn’t going to want pure. You can’t son, Ariz., and his family’s trav- els in Europe and Mexico.
from scratch,” Paul says. “We paired it with wines and gave black-market Columbia River sturgeon caviar, and a New
products, howev- One facet Toliver to see his neighbor skimping on be dogmatic in One of his favorite memories our wine list to Dad to buy.”
York steak roast illed with
er they want to measure it.
will watch closely is how the Beard Mar- the rules,” he says.
Foodie gets political
the food world without putting was at age 10, eating a meal prepared by a Mexican chef in His brothers followed their mother’s footsteps and went an eye of wild mushrooms.
The New Yorkers thought
Take the toma-
to, for example.
ket holds its vendors accountable for the After an early career as a yourself in a New Mexico. “It was an amal- gam of tastes that were both into law. Paul, who moved to Portland in 1974, became a they’d bought their ingredi- ents at Zabar’s, the Upper
Which is more
claims they make.
Portland chef, Paul put food on small box.”
Mexican and French — what is self-taught chef.
West Side gourmet specialty
sustainable: the
one grown in
“If they say they’re only buying the back burner and got into politics.
— Ron Paul, called fusion cooking now — but this was in the 1960s,” Paul He opened a restaurant and catering business, Ron shop.
“I said ‘no,’ he recalls. “’This
Canby and
trucked into Port-
from Oregon and Washington, I expect He had been a citizen volun- teer on a task force under then- founder and executive says. “Having been in Europe, I just sensed this was the best of
Paul Charcuterie, which had three locations in Portland
is what we do in Oregon.’ ”
— Jennifer Anderson
land, or the one
to see that label,” she City Commissioner Charlie Hales’ director, James Beard Public Market
grown in Klam-
ath Falls in a geo-
says. “It’s got to be transparent.”
watch, and served as Hales’ chief of staff from 1999 to 2002.
big supporter of the public mar- raise $25 million to $30 million in The public market will be
thermal greenhouse and put on a train to Portland?
Over time, Toliver says the farmers market staff has been From his City Hall roost, Paul realized the power of public in- ket, although the city and coun- ty have not yet made any cash public and private funds, and the clock started nine months ago.
more than a place to showcase the best of the region’s food,
“There’s no answer yet,” Paul able to monitor vendors by get- vestments. He thought a food donations to the project.
Paul calls it a daunting chal- Paul says. It will define what
says. “Customers deserve to know exactly what they’re buy- ting to know them personally and by visiting their farms.
market — which he’d dreamed of since his years as a chef — Thanks to state Rep. Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, the Leg- lenge, but he and veteran fund- raiser Lucy Buchanan, hired this food and drink means to the Portland region — and making it
ing. The price of entry (for ven- dors) is being able to accurately Hot-food sellers at the farm- ers market must source at least should be a public market, not a private development.
islature appropriated $250,000 in seed funding. In 2015, Paul says summer, will cast a wide net.
This month they’ll set up of- transparent for all.
“Nothing is pure,” Paul says.
label those things yourself.”
25 percent of their ingredients He was able to convene a there will be more talk with leg- ice space half a block from the “You can’t be dogmatic in the
Besides, he posits, by the time the market is open, “there from locally grown products, and “many do much more than group of 30 stakeholders who met monthly for two and a half islators about capital funding.
To date, the market has raised market site. They’ll begin using social media and will launch food world without putting yourself in a small box. You
will be so many apps available, that,” Toliver says. For instance, years to deine a public market, $2 million in cash and $1 million marketing under the direction of want to be sustainable, and you
you can scan it and see the ped- igree of the farmer and who his
Salvador Molly’s can’t get its masa locally but its chicken and
and determine how to proceed.
Hales, now mayor, remains a
in in-kind contributions.
Organizers have 37 months to
local legend Jelly Helm, known for his Portland Timbers work.
want people to make smart decisions.”

Trusty computer printer now a relic

HP device is built
posters with the same problem, Hewlett-Packard has chosen not ink on an older model.
Mine was not a cheap inkjet
for the printers HP no longer supports, and sell them online
to last — until
to update the printer driver for printer, but a laser printer. as cheaply as $5 each. He says
you change computer
what once was one of its most popular printer models. So my Heiber says software engi- neers could write programs it probably would take a soft- ware engineer a few thousand
printer works, but it’s unusable so older printers could still be dollars’ worth of time to create
By PETER KORN
with my new computer.
Darren Heiber, director of used with newer computers, but only if manufacturers go the new driver for my comput- er. The problem for HP, he says,
Pamplin Media Group
public service for electronics recycler Free Geek in Southeast “open source,” making their software available for modiica- is that they have dozens of printer models to continually
My Hewlett-Packard laser Portland, says his nonproit re- tion by others via licensing
support.
printer has been a workhorse since I bought it about six ceived 9,000 donated printers last year. Many come from peo- agreements.
HP, he says, won’t make the
Kyle Wiens, CEO of Iixit.com, says some of the blame goes to
years ago, not once needing repair. It’s even been stingy ple in the same situation as me.
“Lots of people will say when previous drivers for my printer available, so nobody can create Microsoft. Iixit.com is a Califor- nia-based web company dedi-
on toner.
they bring in a printer, ‘This is a through backward engineering PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: JONATHAN HOUSE Amber Schmidt of Free Geek in Portland checks out a donated printer
cated to teaching people how to
Unfortunately, two months ago it became obsolete.
fully functioning printer, but I’ve changed my computer at the Windows 8-compatible driver I need.
fix “everything,” and Wiens says Microsoft made Windows to see if it’s worth salvaging.
I bought a new computer run- ning on Microsoft’s Windows 8 home and I’m not able to use it anymore,’ ” Heiber says.
Shelley Zimmer, manager of Hewlett-Packard’s environmen- 8 in such a way that writing updated drivers becomes more use less energy, she says, and mer says. “Sometimes the en-
operating system, so my old New printers also are sold tal leadership program in Boise, dificult.
some save paper by printing on ergy savings customers realize
printer needs software compat- ible with Windows 8. Usually cheaply, often as come-ons for more expensive computers, so Idaho, says HP focuses on pro- viding updated drivers for its “Microsoft has been saying, ‘We’re frustrated with all that both sides of a page. HP has programs to help people like by buying a new printer and some of the updated features
that software, called a printer driver, is supplied free by the customers have come to see printers as disposable electron- “most widely used models.”
Zimmer also says there is an legacy bloat that has been slow- ing us down,’ “ Wiens says.
me recycle their old printers, she says.
can save them a lot of money.”
Free Geek’s Heiber isn’t buy-
manufacturer.
ics, Heiber says. Sometimes, a environmental benefit to get- He guesses it would take con- “Even though the printer is ing that explanation.
But to my chagrin, and the chagrin of a number of Internet
new printer stocked with ink can cost less than replacing the
ting people like me to switch to newer printers. Current models
siderably more than a few thou- sand dollars, possibly hundreds still reliable (it) may be consum- ing quite a bit of energy,” Zim-
Energy use is just a part of a printer’s carbon footprint, he
of thousands of dollars, for HP says. The bigger piece is pro-
to supply the new printer driver. HP oficials declined to respond Happy Holidays
Java Platform duction of the printer itself. “If you compare reusing some-
when asked how much it would cost to write a new driver for May your holidays be healthy and full of laughter!
Bed Frame thing that already exists to building a new one every time a
my old printer.
in Sustainably new operating system comes
“HP has made a business de- cision not to invest in that. Is Harvested out, there’s no comparison there. The environmental cost
that planned obsolescence? Maybe it is,” Wiens says.
is going to be outrageous,” he says.
45757
All is not lost for my printer, Teak
Nabil Nasr, director of the In- 2.0114
says Free Geek’s Heiber, if I can open my mind to open-source stitute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technol- BEE
computing. If I were willing to install a free, open-source Linux ogy in New York, agrees that carbon emissions and materials
operating system to replace used to produce a new printer
the Windows on my new com- puter, he says, I won’t have any outweigh the energy eficiency gained in switching to a new
trouble inding a printer driver one. He likens the printer driver
for my HP.
Heiber wishes he could con- situation to smartphone manu- facturers that don’t provide or
vince all the Free Geek custom- ers who donate working elec- sell software so owners of older models can upgrade with the Certiied Organic
tronics to change over to Linux, latest applications.
Latex Mattresses Available.
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but he knows that won’t be possible.
“They want you to buy the new one,” Nasr says.
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