To Ecofem,
Having recently researched the market and tracking down manufacturers for
alternative products to timber as part of the Zero-cut campaign...
finding straw board and bales a respectable natural alternative, and having just
been forced to sit through the most needless requisite course of my college
career (Film Art) where the bottom line was weekly pronounced in billions of
dollars worth of entertainment, and being tested on how many millions are spent
in production of same, and
since this class and research having this recurrent dream of writing a letter and
asking Robert Redford (being environmentally conscientious in the public eye)
with his new Sundance Studios to use alternative fiber for set design and paper
stock....
thinking that all it takes is one of the big boys of the movie-making industry,
Copolla or Scorsesse, just one to make the move... surely the rest will follow.
What I've found is that there are maybe three viable strawboard business in the
United States, I've spoken to many upstarts who have been set up by their
individual states only to find lack of interest or awareness (Pacific Gold Board
made of rice straw in Redding, California and Golden Ag made of wheat straw in
the state of Washington) worried about how they are going to keep their doors
open. Boise Idaho Wheat Growers are pursuing this business, as is one of our
local Tribes, the Coeur d'Alene (using blue grass that all farmers here say they
must burn, causing untold angst one month out of every year in this region).
Texas, Louisiana, Dakota that's about all that I can find for viable producers of
this alternative to date. The newest manufactures are dedicated and working hard
to stay in business, not that business is right but eco-friendly business does
need a boost in circulation.
Is anyone interested in pursuing this with me? Does anyone have connections to
contractors, developers, or big name business who would consider making the
switch? Another goal I have while still alive is to see all federal institutions
in the US use 100% recycled or agrifiber paperstock, and use it in daily
correspondence... my university shoved kenaf out the door last semester
complaining of cost, hemp is illegal to these folks. As of today the University
of Idaho is using 100% virgin tree bleached paper. A travesty, but we're working
on it, hurdles with our biggest donor being Potlatch Paper Corp.
Is anyone interested in pursuing these things? Adding your name to a letter to
Sundance Studios insisting he, the Robert and all his friends, utilize the latest
alternatives to deforestation and dioxins? These are land use issues as well,
being pertinent to the Mother of all conventions (Mark Humbly quote) UN Earth
Summit and the upcoming ag/deforestation/dessertification conference in
Melbourne, AZ.
please let me know what you think of these meanderings,
/donna
