Eco Catholic

"Keystone Fight is Uniting Tea Partiers with Environmentalists." No, it's not a mirage. This good news headline actually appeared Monday on the Talking Points Memo website.

According to TPM journalist Brian Beutler, TransCanada, the company that wants to connect the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, is preparing to build in spite of the Obama administration's delay in approving the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada is circumventing the roadblock by moving ahead with the southern section of the pipeline that would link Nebraska to Texas. Its tactic? Going to court.

"TransCanada has threatened to use disputed eminent domain powers to condemn privately held land over the owners' objections," Beutler's article reads. "By taking this route, TransCanada avoids a review by U.S. authorities and the requirement for a presidential permit required to build the entire length."

Some of the tastiest whole grain bread I've ever eaten comes from the Worthington (Ohio) Winter Farmers Market. Every Saturday morning from November through April, the main hall at Griswold Senior Citizen Center turns into a bustling bazaar crammed with nutritious breads, cookies, pies, free-range chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, apples, asparagus, potatoes, spinach, handmade soaps, herbs, maple syrup, honey and freshly ground almond butter. Shopping there has become a weekly ritual.

It feels so blessedly satisfying to support hardworking local farmers and to return home with healthy, unprocessed, whole food.

Just out of curiosity, I went online to find out how many winter farmers markets there are in the United States. A December 2011 press release from the USDA reports that they've increased 38 percent since 2010, going from 886 to 1,225. Winter farmers markets represent almost 17 percent of the nation's 7,222 operating farmers markets.

They flourish in New York, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland, Florida Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, Wisconsin and Illinois.

When Carl Lindquist was growing up in Wisconsin as a young Catholic, he felt a disconnect between his love of the church and his love of God's creation.

In the early 1990s, his prayer was answered when he was invited to head up a new organization in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that would improve a local watershed. That organization, Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Trust (SWP), has, since 1999, expanded to include protection of the entire Upper Peninsula.

Subsidiarity in practice

The most effective aspect of Superior Watershed has been its focus on local initiatives and coalition building.

As Carl said, "So many Great Lakes watershed initiatives are too large. ... We know how the UP works and how these communities can work together."