OMAHA - Metro area residents will have the opportunity to learn how to green their living environments this fall in conjunction with the 2008 Green Home Tour. The event, the first of its kind in Omaha, is set for Saturday, Sept. 6, from 1 to 5 p.m.

The tour, presented by the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Neighborhood Council, will feature four homes. Each will focus on a different sustainability topic – food, water, energy and materials. Participants will also be able to take a guided walking tour of one of Omaha’s sustainable neighborhoods, Gifford Park, including stops at the Gifford Park Community Garden and the Community Bicycle Shop of Omaha.

“We want the public to know that greening your home or apartment can be easy, affordable and even fun,” said event organizer Tim Hemsath, chair of the Flatwater Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. “The tour will be a great way for people to learn about sustainable practices by observing them firsthand.”

The tour stops are outlined below.

• The Food Home
Located at 1412 N. 35th St., this tour stop will feature an edible garden and orchard tour.

• The Energy Home
Located at 350 N. 36th Ave., this tour stop will feature examples of energy-saving practices that will work in your home or apartment. (The guided walking tour of the Gifford Park neighborhood begins at The Energy Home.)

• The Water Home
Located at 5073 Jackson St., this tour stop will feature indoor and outdoor examples of water conservation practices.

• The Materials/Resources Home
Located at 1018 S. 36th St., this tour stop will feature a home that’s been constructed with repurposed materials and designed with energy savings in mind.

Tour goers will receive free “green” giveaways at each home while supplies last. A “green” grand prize drawing also will be held at each home.

The cost of the tour is $5 per person. Proceeds will help fund the Green Neighborhood Council’s programs and activities. Tickets can be purchased at any of the tour homes the day of the event.

Media sponsors for the 2008 Green Home Tour are The Reader and KIOS 91.5 FM.

Hemsath said a host of organizations have collaborated to help plan the inaugural tour, including the Flatwater Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Sierra Club, City Sprouts, the Community Bicycle Shop of Omaha, the Gifford Park Neighborhood Association, Omaha by Design and Destination Midtown.

Financial support is provided by the Omaha Public Power District, the Metropolitan Utilities District and Home Energy Defense.

For more information about the tour, contact Hemsath at 402.472.4472 or themsath@gmail.com.

Ask seven Omaha foodies why it’s important to eat locally and this is what you’ll learn.

• Taste & Nutrition: Local produce - harvested close to the “sell date,” - is fresher and more nutritious than national/global food because fewer “in transit” days are required to bring the food to your table. Choosing locally means you eat kale from Blair, Nebraska, not California.
  

• Food Security: Good food for all, this is “Food Security” at its simplest. Growing and purchasing locally grown/raised produce/meat increases the local food supply - providing greater access to healthy food for families/citizens. For more information see www.foodsecurity.org or www.usda.gov and search “Community Food Systems”

• Resiliency: – Producing and consuming within one region (e.g. local) reduces dependence on external resources. A “resilient” community indicates a city’s/town’s ability to be resilient enough – i.e. produce enough food locally – to prevent a crippled economy in the face of food or oil shortages.
  

• Economics: Purchasing food/meat from local farmers/ranchers, who direct funds back into the community, builds a sustainable economy. When you pay a local grower/rancher, you are paying for the production of your food – not for packaging, long-term storage, or long-distance transportation. And when food is in-season and plentiful, it’s usually inexpensive too!

• Bio-diversity: Liberating your food choices from a commercial market, dominated by a few hybrid varieties, means you have more decision-making power about what varieties of fruits/veggies/even meat you eat. A dwindling agricultural gene pool creates concern about the vulnerabilities of monotypic crops – think Irish potato famine and Food Security.

• Lifestyle: Gardening creates connections - connections between people and nature, consumers and producers, and citizens and their community. Growing food for yourself/family/friends/consumers can engender a sense of awe and it’s fresh-air-exercise!

• “Peak Oil”: Peak Oil is the concept that oil is a finite natural resource and the world is running out of cheap, easily accessible oil. If your food was 1) grown with commercial chemical inputs, 2) harvested with oil dependent equipment, 3) transported long-distances via trucks/ships, and/or 4) wrapped in petroleum-based packaging – then your food is Oily! Growing and eating local food can reduce our oil dependence and mitigate effects of “peak oil.”

Start “Eating Locally”

• Visit Farmers’ Markets in Omaha

o Omaha Farmers’ Market-Downtown – 11th & Jackson Streets – Saturdays, 8:00 am to 12:30 pm www.omahafarmersmarket.com
o Village Pointe Farmers’ Market – 168th & Dodge – Saturdays, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm www.voterealfood.com
o Omaha Rockbrook Farmers’ Market – 10744 W. Center Rd. – weekdays 10am to 6pm
o Benson Farmers’ Market – Military Avenue & Maple, Saturdays 8am to noon
o Bancroft Street Farmers’ Market – 2702 S. 10th Street, Sundays 10am to 1pm
o Cirian’s Farmer’s Market – 4911 Leavenworth Street, 402.551.1879
o For markets in the State of Nebraska, visit www.agr.state.ne.us/pub/apd/produce.htm or www.localharvest.org

• Join a Food Co-op Visit the Nebraska Food Co-operative – www.nebraskafood.org - to find a variety of local meats, cheeses, eggs, and baked goods.

• Join or start a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Visit www.csacenter.org or www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml. The Alternative Farm Systems Information Center defines a CSA as a “community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farm becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the grower and consumer providing mutual support and sharing responsibilities and benefits of food production.”

• Community Gardening allows you to cultivate food on a nearby plot of land with other food-interested folks. You can learn and grow side-by-side with neighbors and friends. Omaha’s community gardens include the City Sprouts garden at 40th & Franklin (www.omahasprouts.org), the Gifford Park Community garden at 35th & Cass St. (www.giffordparkomaha.org), and 13 BIG Garden Project gardens (www.gardenbig.org). To find out more about community gardening visit www.communitygarden.org.

• Be a Local Food Advocate Talk to the managers at your local grocery store and restaurants, members of the school board, representatives of your city, and your local corrections system. Explain to all these folks why choosing locally produced/raised food/meat is important and see how you or your organization can work with them to begin buying local!

• Grow Your Own Food: Land doesn’t need to be “set aside” to produce crops. You can plant a kitchen garden (www.kitchengardeners.org) or a square-foot garden (http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Build_a_Square_Foot_Garden) - a modified style of Biodynamic & French intensive gardening. Better yet, become a permaculturist. Developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, permaculture – permanent culture and permanent agriculture - includes good practices from many disciplines and systems, and offers them as an integrated whole, a sustainable earth care system. Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture explains, "Permaculturists can grow food just about anywhere, repair environmentally damaged lands, design lovely and long-lasting green buildings, produce power, run successful, people-oriented businesses, and build authentic community--all by using the same fundamental permaculture principles and applying a Permaculture Ethic: Care of People--Care of the Earth--Share the Surplus." (www.midwestpermaculture.com)

Don’t limit yourself – try locally “value added” foods like flour! Visit www.agr.state.ne.us and click the “Food & Meat Directory” link under “Brochures.”

Collaborative effort by Food Choices Committee of the Green Neighborhood Council – (Trilety Wade, Kathy Townsend, Mary Green, Nancy Williams, Katja Koehler-Cole, Daniel Lawse)