Climate Reality and Sustainability

Climate Reality and Sustainability

Climate Reality and Sustainability. I don’t even talk about Climate Change anymore. This is climate reality we are living in now.

Climate Reality and Sustainability
My #Future50 Cohort and me at Mezzacello planning the #ColumbusTreeCanopy Project

Columbus CEO, Future50 and the Columbus Tree Canopy Project

In 2022 I was part of the Columbus CEO #Future50 cohort. The project I chose to work on was the tree canopy project. My team was incredibly passionate, focused, and committed. Together we created a great plan of action and I am very grateful to them.

Karen, Trent, Brian, Dean and I worked hard on this project. We KNEW we were dealing with #ClimateReality and we KNEW we needed to do something. So we did.

Carbon Sinks

Just about every project I undertake at Mezzacello is to attempt to lock as much carbon and CO2 back into the ground. From growing plants from cuttings, to building compost and dirt composite soil beds, to collecting, reusing and leveraging biowastes. It is all about the Carbon Sink.

Martian Beds of Compost, Diatomaceous Earth and Dirt. Advanced Carbon Sink.

My standard growing beds at Mezzacello are typical. 75 CM W x 1.4 M L x 30CM D. The matrix of this bed is a hybrid lasagna compost bed, layered with waste manures, compost, dirt, compost, diatomaceous earth, compost, minerals, dirt, and burlap. Every last element produced or recycled on site and endlessly reused.

Even the Future50 project I worked on (which I reference above) was focused on being the best carbon sink I could manage. In addition to the careful planning, partnering, modeling, and planning, I did a lot of hands on work in carbon sequestration. I helped distribute and prepare over 3,000 trees to my community here in Columbus.

This not only met our stated goal of creating a green canopy of trees around Columbus, it locked a significant amount of carbon into the ground around our city. One of the central tenets of sustainability is to create a circular feedback. In this case, a hexagon (carbon has an atomic number of six!)

Periodic table of life
We most definitely recycle atoms and molecules!

We have to love NHCOPS if we want to start making real change in the issue of Climate Reality. We need that Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur to come as locally as possible. This urban farm and the technology within it is my first salvo in meeting the challenges of this crisis.

And just for fun, a chicken diaper. It doesn’t get any more local than that!
Recycling Boxed Wine Bags
Sabra and I trading empty wine bags for bioproducts for her garden.

Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report

Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report

Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report
Mezzacello Urban Farm in the 2021 Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Report

I was surprised and delighted that Mezzacello Urban Farm was a highlight of the Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report. I really loved working with them last year. And working with the kids, parents, schools, communities, and businesses was a privilege and learning opportunity for me.

The OFB ExploreAg Program Rocks!

ExploreAg at OFB

I want to highlight the OFB ExploreAg program. I have been involved with this program for a few years and I have met some amazing young people in this program!

They continue to serve as inspirations and mentors to me on social media and at OFB events. These bright young ag-minded people inspire me to look at issues and problems in unique and innovative ways.

If you can at all, get involved with or support this program. It is such an important and ongoing program and is very dear to my heart – and mission – at Mezzacello.

Local Collaboration and Support

A huge shout out to The PAST Foundation for serving as my fiscal sponsor while I am waiting for my 501c3 status to clear. Also a shoutout to Bronzeville Agricademy, and Highland youth Garden. They kept me grounded and extended my mission greatly, even during pandemic.

It makes me proud to see what I did in print. It transformed Mezzacello completely. And through that transformation, I am committed to continuing to leverage that grant opportunity to create meaningful change in my community, and around the world as well.

Global Reach

Last year I shared the research and programming I was doing at Mezzacello with global audiences through the UN Food Challenge and through the Invent Future Global Innovation Field Trip; 200 kids from 16 countries all around the world. That was thrilling.

Growth, Health, and Change

But mostly it was thrilling that I get to leverage my unique health crisis, my passion for Applied STEM and my home to make meaningful and replicable change.

Change in my neighbor, my city, my region, nation and ultimately the world. I am a very lucky person and I am ready for even more transformation!

This year, I am continuing to innovate, run summer camps and as a member of the Columbus CEO Magazine’s #Future50 2022 cohort, I expect even more innovation and change!


Mezzacello and the Harvesting of Gratitude

Mezzacello and the Harvesting of Gratitude

When you have more than you need, but it still doesn’t seem enough; recenter yourself.

Today is 11/24/2021. It’s the day before Thanksgiving here in the US, and I am filled with ennui. It’s not that it’s a dark day, or bad things have happened. Quite the opposite, actually. Today is the day to realize the need to reflect on Mezzacello and the harvesting of gratitude. Harvesting gratitude? What does that mean?

2021 was the most amazing summer. The year was spent working with kids and experimenting. There were many great successes – and failures – in my gardens and in the people I worked with. I won a spot in my city’s Top 50 most influential futurists. The farm’s systems are more sophisticated and effective than ever. Things are great, but still I feel like I am not enough. I was lacking dignity and grace.

Grace, Dignity and Purpose

My problem is – put very simply: I do not know how to be enough for myself.

I spend way too much time comparing and resolving to be “better tomorrow than today” that I take precious little time to reflect on the change I am and what else I have done. I am terrified of being caught sleeping on the job, or resting on my laurels. And like all artists, when I look at my work, I am only able to see WHAT ELSE I should have done and not what I actually did.

Jim

The Meta Modern Plague

This in a nutshell is the meta modern plague. Meta Modernism is a new concept; it was coined by a barkeep at Harvest Pizza one night spent having cocktails with my friends. Meta Modernism in short is this:

We have to compete not just with our hopes and fears but also with our reputation — and our legacy. So one must resolve to spend “today “as an attempt to make a tomorrow’s meaning thankful, gracious and kind. Kindness is what the world needs more of. It is such an easy feast.

Show Up for People

A dear friend of mine sent me a lovely note out of the blue a few months back and a small gift. I was caught off guard because I was feeling so much stress about getting Mezzacello closed and ready to sleep through the winter. I wanted to give tours, but I was paralyzed by feelings of stubborn – and stupid inadequacy. Here is a picture of the book my friend sent;

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse

This was a literal breath of fresh air for me. I was exhausted, conflicted and struggling. This summer I was diagnosed with a condition that overwhelmed me and filled me with relief. It was an explanation why everything seems so jumbled and important and ridiculous all at once. My friends already knew, but as usual, I was late to the party. That’s where kindness comes in.

Running #UrbanAgTech summer camp was a transformational opportunity this summer to be sure, but this tiny little gesture of kindness and grace made everything fit together. I could see the whole and the puzzle was complete.

Be Thankful and be the Gratitude in Someone Else’s Day

So this post is about more than Autumn or the hard winter, or the Thanksgiving Holiday or even your own self. Just as the trees shed their leaves, this season is about unloading the nonsense that you don’t need anymore. The one benefit to being a tree is that the DNA of the tree knows when to transform; but humans, we need a reason.

If change is the one constant in this universe, then be the change. More importantly, be grateful for the opportunity to face any obstacle; Name it and change it. If you see others that can’t make that leap of faith, then offer your hand. There is no shame in kindness, and there is no weakness in vulnerability.

We are so afraid or stuck in our notion of what OTHERS think, or that we are not ENOUGH for others, that we forget to ask ourselves, are we enough for US right now? I feel like I am. I will tamp down the #NotEnough raging fire; and I will feed the lamp that lights my way forward instead. Gratitude is light. It is a form of vulnerability, and it births only love, grace and wisdom. Be wise enough to want to change for yourself. Thank you to you all.