This week, IGI's Ethnic Crops program which supports the growing, marketing and cooking of Brazilian crops on Martha's Vineyard, in collaboration with UMass Amherst, was featured on the Cape and Island's NPR segment: The Local Food Report, by Elspeth Pierson.

Here's the link to listen:
http://www.wgbh.org/cainan/article?item_id=4121212

And if you'd like to try taioba or maxixe, UMass + IGI will be hosting taste tests of these lovely vegetables at Cronig's Market in Vineyard Haven, over the weekend of July 25 + 26.

For more information, contact : info@islandgrown.org

Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Ocean Planning Alert

July 1, 2009

Draft Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan Available for Review: The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) has unveiled the draft comprehensive ocean management plan for public review and comment. The draft plan, which was mandated by the Oceans Act of 2008, was developed by EEA in the context of an extensive, and ongoing, public participation process. There will be a round of public comment after the release. The Act sets a deadline of December 31, 2009 for final promulgation of an ocean plan that balances protection of marine resources with uses such as renewable energy development.

For links to the draft plan and all maps and figures, see the Draft Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan website.

Dozens of wind turbines could sprout within sight of the Massachusetts shoreline under a first-of-its-kind state blueprint with the promise of generating both electricity and controversy.

The draft plan, scheduled to be released today, would allow a series of small wind farms of up to 10 turbines each in coastal waters that stretch 3 miles from shore. Substantially larger farms - similar to what’s proposed in Nantucket Sound - could be built off Cape Cod near Cuttyhunk Island and adjacent to another tiny island several miles off Martha’s Vineyard.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/
massachusetts/articles/2009/07/01/
state_plan_could_bring_wind_farms_near_coast/

Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels, a start-up company, are set to announce Monday that they will build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics. Because algae does not require any farmland or much space, many energy companies are trying to use it to make commercial quantities of hydrocarbons for fuel and chemicals. But harvesting the hydrocarbons has proved difficult so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/
business/energy-environment/29biofuel.html?hpw

Ravaging of the river herring population by midwater trawlers and an absence of round-the-clock environmental police protection were the hot topics at a meeting between Cape and Islands Rep. Tim Madden and members of the newly formed Martha’s Vineyard Dukes County Fishermen’s Association Friday.

http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?21671