New Vrindaban Bloggers

by Tom Rooney, SPG Solar
Published: August 31, 2010

Conservatives, let’s talk about energy. And why so many conservatives are so wrong — so liberal, even — on wind and solar energy.

Let’s start with a recent editorial from the home of “free markets and free people,” the Wall Street Journal. Photovoltaic solar energy, quoth the mavens, is a “speculative and immature technology that costs far more than ordinary power.”

So few words, so many misconceptions. It pains me to say that because, like many business leaders, I grew up on the Wall Street Journal and still depend on it.

But I cannot figure out why people who call themselves “conservatives” would say solar or wind power is “speculative.” Conservatives know that word is usually reserved to criticize free-market activity that is not approved by well, you know who.

Today, around the world, more than a million people work in the wind and solar business. Many more receive their power from solar. Solar is not a cause, it is a business with real benefits for its customers.

Just ask anyone who installed their solar systems five years ago. Today, many of their systems are paid off and they are getting free energy. Better still, ask the owners of one of the oldest and most respected companies in America who recently announced plans to build one of the largest solar facilities in the country. That would be Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal.

Now we come to “immature.” Again, the meaning is fuzzy. But in Germany, a country 1/3 our size in area and population, they have more solar than the United States. This year, Germans will build enough solar to equal the output of three nuclear power plants. What they call immaturity our clients call profit-making leadership.

But let’s get to the real boogie man: The one that “costs far more than ordinary power.”

I’ve been working in energy infrastructure for 25 years and I have no idea what the WSJ means by the words “ordinary power.” But, after spending some time with Milton Friedman whom I met on many occasions while studying for an MBA at the University of Chicago, I did learn about costs.

And here is what every freshman at the University of Chicago knows: There is a difference between cost and price.

Solar relies on price supports from the government. Fair enough — though its price is falling even faster than fossil fuels are rising.

But if Friedman were going to compare the costs of competing forms of energy, he also would have wanted to know the cost of “ordinary energy.” Figured on the same basis. This is something the self-proclaimed conservative opponents of solar refuse to do.

But huge companies including Wall Mart, IBM, Target and Los Gatos Tomatoes figured it out. And last year so did the National Academy of Sciences. It produced a report on the Hidden Costs of Energy that documented how coal was making people sick to the tune of $63 billion a year.

And that oil and natural gas had so many tax breaks and subsidies that were so interwoven for so long, it was hard to say exactly how many tens of billions these energy producers received courtesy of the U.S. Taxpayer.

Just a few weeks ago, the International Energy Agency said worldwide, fossil fuels receive $550 billion in subsidies a year — 12 times what alternatives such as wind and solar get.

Neither report factored in Global Warming or the cost of sending our best and bravest into harm’s way to protect our energy supply lines.

Whatever that costs, you know it starts with a T. All this without hockey stick graphs, purloined emails or junk science.

When you compare the real costs of solar with the fully loaded real costs of coal and oil and natural gas and nuclear power, apples to apples, solar is cheaper.

That’s not conservative. Or liberal. That comes from an ideology older and more reliable than both of those put together: Arithmetic.

“Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban. Vrindaban is also known as Gokula. Go means cows, and kula means congregation. Therefore the special feature of New Vrindaban will be cow protection, and by doing so, we shall not be loser.”

Letter to Hayagriva 14 June 1968 (Montreal)

“Yes! Go on acquiring the surrounding lands and in this way we will establish a local self governing village and show all the world a practical example of spiritual life as Krsna Himself exhibited in Vrindavana. Agriculture and protecting cows, this is the main business of the residents of Vrindavan, and above all simply loving Krsna. The cows, the trees, the cowherd men and gopis, their chief engagement was loving Krsna, and in New Vrindavan we want to create this atmosphere and thereby show the whole world how practical and sublime our movement is.”

Letter from Srila Prabhupada to Kirtanananda Swami…27th July 1973

“You say we must have a gosala trust, that is our real purpose. krsi-goraksya-vanijyam vaisya karma svabhava-jam, [Bg 18.44]. Where there is agriculture there must be cows. That is our mission: Cow protection and agriculture and if there is excess, trade. This is a no-profit scheme. For the agriculture we want to produce our own food and we want to keep cows for our own milk. The whole idea is that we are ISKCON, a community to be independent from outside help. This farm project is especially for the devotees to grow their own food. Cotton also, to make their own clothes. And keeping cows for milk and fatty products.”

Letter to: Yasomatinandana — Vrindaban 28 November, 1976

“Prabhupada: Yes. Anyway, just inquire. These are our garden flowers.
Jayatirtha: Oh, very nice.
Prabhupada: This is also?
Bhagavan: Yes.
Prabhupada: Yes. Anything grown in the garden, that is hundred times valuable than it is purchased from the market.”

Room Conversation With French Commander — August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm)

“Without protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained; and without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be fulfilled.”

Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 8: Chapter Twenty-four, Text 5: PURPORT

“One cannot become spiritually advanced without acquiring the brahminical qualifications and giving protection to cows. “

Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 6: Chapter Eighteen, Text 52:PURPORT

“The basic principle of economic development is centered on land and cows.”

SB 1.10.4

“Prabhupada: …They are interested with these bricks and stones, not green vegetables. Such a rascal government. Give them facility. We know how to do it. Annad bhavanti bhutani parjanyad anna-sambhavah, yajnad bhavati parjanyah [Bg. 3.14]. Let them engage in kirtana. There will be more water for gardening, and it will be moist, and then produce fodder for the animals and food for you. And animal gives you milk. That is Vrndavana life. And they are absorbed in this so-called opulence. Krsna has taken birth.

“They are bringing so many nice, pleasant foodstuff, very well-dressed and ornamented. These are description. In the morning we were reading. How they were happy, the inhabitants of Vrndavana with Krsna and living and cows. That I want to introduce. At any cost do it and… Don’t bother about big, big buildings. It is not required. Useless waste of time. Produce. Make the whole field green. See that. Then whole economic question solved. Then you eat sumptuous. Eat sumptuously. The animal is happy. The animal even does not give milk; let them eat and pass stool and urine. That is welcome. After all, eating, they will pass stool. So that is beneficial, not that simple milk is beneficial. Even the stool is beneficial.

“Therefore I am asking so much here and…, “Farm, farm, farm, farm…” That is not my program — Krsna’s program. Annad bhavanti bhutani [Bg. 3.14]. Produce greenness everywhere, everywhere. Vrndavana. It is not this motorcar civilization. If it has taken in his brain, then it is to be understood that he can do this plan. He’ll be able. “

Conversation Pieces — May 27, 1977, Vrndavana

Letter from Tamal Krsna Goswami, Secretary to Srila Prabhupada, to Hari Sauri Das, ISKCON Melbourne, August 10th, 1977 (sent from Krsna Balarama Mandir, Vrndavana):

“Srila Prabhupada always enjoys hearing from you as you have gained an eternal position at His Divine Grace’s lotus feet. Srila Prabhupada appreciated your opening prayers.

“Srila Prabhupada was most enlivened to hear the report of New Govardhana Farm. His Divine Grace in the last month or so has been stressing the importance of these farm projects, and said, “This is the next aspect of Krsna consciousness which I wish to push forward. If I am able to travel again, then I shall visit the farms and make them perfect. On these farms we can demonstrate the full varnasrama system. If these farms become successful then the whole world will be enveloped by Krsna consciousness.

“From your letter I can understand how nice this farm is. I am very happy to see fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, grains, the devotees taking sumptuous prasadam and chanting Hare Krsna. This is the actual meaning of human life. It is a very good farm, from your letter I can understand. Whatever you build, get the building materials locally. If you can manufacture tiles locally, then your house problem is solved. Build up bamboo frame, and on it place tiles. In any event get everything locally. I wish to make a farm tour and then I shall surely visit your farm.”

“I suggested to Srila Prabhupada that he was the Farm Acarya, but Srila Prabhupada said, “Krsna is the Farm Acarya. Baladeva is holding a plow, and Krsna is holding the calf. Krsna advised Nanda Maharaja not to perform Indra puja but to worship the land, Govardhana because it was supplying all foodstuffs for the residents of Vrndavana and the cows as well.” So Srila Prabhupada wants you to develop this farm very nicely as it will be the future program to present to the world as the ideal of Krsna consciousness. In the cities, we are interested for preaching but we cannot present the ideal varnasrama system, this is only possible at the farms, so they are very important.”

(end letter)

“TRANSLATION

“In My last birth I was born in the family of cowherd men, and I gave protection to the calves and cows. because of such pious activities, I have now become the son of a brahmana.

” PURPORT

“The words of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the greatest authority, herein clearly indicate that one becomes pious simply by keeping cows and protecting them. Unfortunately, people have become such rascals that they do not even care about the words of an authority. “

Adi-lila: Chapter Seventeen, Text 111

I have been weeding, harvesting, planting fall crops, dehydrating, freezing, cooking tomatoes into freezable sauce, numerous non food producing projects, recuperating on the couch.

Repeat. I swing from very busy to very tired and not having enough energy to deal with everything.

The blog is suffering.

We were a couple of days late starting peach harvest so some of them have soft spots.  I was freezing some yesterday and whenever there was one with a soft spot I was sorting them out for fresh eating or giveaway (anyone stopping by in the next few days will leave with organic peaches. (consider this an invitation)).

Some were mostly good with a small area of softness. These are fine for fresh eating but the recommendation is to not use them for freezing so as I came upon a soft spot slice, I would eat it.  This is not an austerity because although small these peaches are so sweet and flavorful it is almost like eating candy.

As I had already eaten my evening meal, I soon got to a point where I had eaten so many I was starting to feel a little sick. Remember when you were a little kid and got into the candy stash and no adult around? Remember overeating to the point of  of stomach uneasiness? Well, that is what happened.

After that I was putting them in a bowl for Tulasi to eat, a chore he had no resistance to performing.

Recipe for freezing peaches.

Peaches need to be covered in a sugar solution for freezing according to all the recipes I found. I didn’t want to make a sugar syrup but one alternative was to use white grape juice so I did that. It was recommended to add one tablespoon of citric acid or lemon juice per quart of solution to help keep them from browning.

I sliced the peaches right into the solution so they weren’t exposed to air, then ladled them into one quart freezer bags using a mason jar funnel to make it easier.  The idea is to make sure there is enough solution to cover all the slices and to leave an inch of head space for expansion. I don’t have a vacuum packer so I slid the tab on the top of the freezer bag until it is almost closed then I push out as much air as I can before closing it completely.

Then it was off to the freezer.

I know they won’t be as good once they are frozen but they will still be better next winter than the insipid and flavorless peaches that sell in the supermarkets.

The Gulf oil spill is the latest in a series of warnings that we must reduce our dependency on petroleum with an eye toward moving away from oil entirely. While “getting off oil” remains a distant goal, we can choose to halt oil expansion today. Technologies exist to improve the efficacy of biofuels and to stretch the availability of existing petroleum supplies through increased efficiency. Rather than choosing more offshore drilling, we can choose demand-side innovation to meet our current energy needs without the risks associated with further oil expansion.

A few weeks back I accompanied Vidya, my wife, to the Pennsylvania Gourd Society Festival. It was held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania which  is the original  Amish community in America. There are over 25,000 of them there so it is a pretty unique experience — it affects the ambiance.

They don’t use electricity in their homes, but do use it for workshops and milking machines, like that.  Even then they don’t hook up to the grid but use generators.

I asked the owner if they use generators, why wouldn’t they use solar power. He pointed up on the roof of his shop and sure enough there were solar panels there.  It wasn’t enough to run the electric for the festival and it would be cost prohibitive to set up a system that would, but it was enough to run office equipment (they are allowed to use copiers, no computers), some lights and a blower fan on a propane heater.

He had a big gourd washer that I could tell the solar panels were insufficient to power, so I know he must use a generator for that too, but it was interesting to me that he was using any solar panels.

I don’t know if this is common amongst all Amish, or about as common as in is for us English, but it was an example that simple living can include solar power.

One nice thing about it being held on an Amish farm was they are strictly religious and so the show ended Saturday night.  We were able to get home and still make it to the 24 Hour Kirtan that was going on that ran from Saturday to Sunday noon in New Vrindaban, always a treat to see the young people so enthusiastic for kirtan.

I even got a chance to meet my blogging shiksa guru, Sitapati (he runs Planet ISKCON besides his personal blog(s)), who was visiting from Australia for the event.  We got to have a nice visit.

“That is Vrndavana life. And they are absorbed in this so-called opulence. Krsna has taken birth. They are bringing so many nice, pleasant foodstuff, very well-dressed and ornamented. These are description. In the morning we were reading. How they were happy, the inhabitants of Vrndavana with Krsna and living and cows.

“That I want to introduce. At any cost do it and…Don’t bother about big, big buildings. It is not required. Useless waste of time. Produce. Make the whole field green. See that. Then whole economic question solved. Then you eat sumptuous.

“Eat sumptuously. The animal is happy. The animal even does not give milk; let them eat and pass stool and urine. That is welcome. After all, eating, they will pass stool. So that is beneficial, not that simple milk is beneficial. Even the stool is beneficial. Therefore I am asking so much here and…, “Farm, farm, farm, farm…” That is not my program — Krsna’s program. Annad bhavanti bhutani [Bg. 3.14]. Produce greenness everywhere, everywhere. Vrndavana.

“It is not this motorcar civilization. If it has taken in his brain, then it is to be understood that he can do this plan. He’ll be able.”

Conversation Pieces — May 27, 1977, Vrndavana

“The prosperity of humanity does not depend on a demoniac civilization that has no culture and no knowledge but has only gigantic skyscrapers and huge automobiles always rushing down the highways.

“The products of nature are sufficient. When there is a profuse supply of milk, yogurt, honey, food grains, ghee, molasses, dhotis, saris, bedding, sitting places and ornaments, the residents are actually opulent. When a profuse supply of water from the river inundates the land, all these things can be produced, and there will not be scarcity. This all depends, however, on the performance of sacrifice as described in the Vedic literature.”

Purport from Srimad Bhagavatam 5.16.24 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

“We live in a time of no room, which is the time of the end. The time when everyone is obsessed with lack of time, lack of space, with saving time, conquering space, projecting into time and space the anguish produced within them by the technological furies of size, volume, quantity, speed, number, price, power and acceleration.”

Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New York: New Directions, 1966). p. 70.

Last year and this year I planted a bunch of  different kinds of berries.

Of the ones I planted last year I am getting some berries this year. Blackberries and elderberries will be a lot of them, but not here yet. I planted some raspberries in the fall and got a handful from a few of them. I got a handful of blueberries. I got three jostaberries which were good and I look forward to them.  The chokeberry bush has a bunch on  it but not ready yet.

What I did get a quart of was black currants. I can see that when fully producing it is going to be a very abundant bush.  I didn’t pick them right away though. I had picked one and tasted it and it was terrible. I waited, thinking they might not be ripe even though the color had changed.  After a week, one of our neighbors was visiting so I was showing her the currant bush.  We both tasted one and she spit hers out it was so bad.

Googling, I found out black currants are not for fresh eating, though apparently the pink ones are, of which I also planted one, not bearing this year.  They are used for jam and as flavoring for sauces.  Many Americans have never even heard of them and for a long time cultivation of black currants was illegal because it is an alternate host for white pine rust. New York has only recently legalized their cultivation.

In Europe they are more popular.

I got a recipe I adapted proportionately to my quantity. It was as follows:

Black Currant Jam recipe

4 pounds black currants

3 pints water

6 pounds sugar

Add water to currants and cook until they break down and volume is reduced by 1/3.

Add sugar and cook for ten minutes or until the jam sets on a cold sheet.

What gives black currants the bad taste is they are very sour, but that sourness is an advantage when making jam because you don’t need to add any pectin, it sets easily by itself.

Result? Really great jam! The flavor is incredible. I took some to my neighbor who had spit out the raw berry and she could hardly believe it was the same fruit the jam was so good.

I might play with using less sugar because it is almost too sweet, but next year with the new growth I see on the black currant bush, the harvest will be lots more and lots of jam will be forthcoming.

I am guessing that for the chokeberries there will be a similar scenario when they ripen.

With electrical rate increases of over 40% in the pipeline for New Vrindaban, my faith in the idea of installing some alternative energies remains unshaken.

What I need is a researcher to get some quotes. I mean a serious researcher, not just someone to spend a half hour on Google and then send me three links. Like a purchasing department researcher.

Anyone interested? Contact me if you are.

http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/539279.html

WHEELING – The West Virginia Public Service Commission this week gave the green light for American Electric Power to raise residential customers’ rates by about 7.4 percent, effective today.

The increase, which will affect tens of thousands of customers in the Northern Panhandle, is the second stage of a planned four-year phase-in, with additional hikes of about 8 percent per kilowatt-hour expected each of the next two years, according to AEP officials.

The decision to grant the request came despite nearly 900 individual letters of protest and numerous petitions of protest filed with the PSC between March 2 and Tuesday, according to information from the PSC.

AEP now will charge its residential customers 8.6 cents per kilowatt-hour – up from the 8 cents it previously charged. That means a customer’s average monthly bill, based on 1,000 kilowatt-hours of usage, will increase from $80.47 to $86.40. In 2000, the average monthly bill was $70.91.

In its request for a rate increase, AEP cited increased coal costs and other production expenses incurred during 2008-09. The rate increase will provide an additional $95.5 million in revenue for AEP, which last year laid off 2,000 workers throughout the company.

According to the PSC, the original projected increase in revenue for this phase of the rate hike was $165 million.

The power company and others in the area could be facing more costs in the coming years as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeks to tighten restrictions on smog and other emissions from coal-fired power plants.

In 2009, the EPA proposed a decrease in the allowable levels of ground-level ozone – the main component of smog. Last month, it proposed tighter limits on sulfur dioxide.

Fact Box

Not the Same Rate Increase Request

This increase is separate from a 17 percent base rate increase AEP requested in May, revenue from which could be used for distribution lines, labor costs and other infrastructure. The commission has until March to decide on this hike for customers.

Inertia:

1. Physics The tendency of a body to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.
2. Resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change

So my inertia has shifted from writing blog daily, staying in motion, to not writing, tendency to remain at rest.

It has not been for lack of things to write about, just either too busy or too tired and something had to give.

I will say I ate my first tomato out of the garden today, and just had the last of the peas. There are beets, carrots, potatoes, kohlrabi, broccoli, basil (and other herbs) and black currents available from the garden. The first of the green beans are ready to pick and some green peppers if I wanted them, though we usually let them ripen first.

The black currants I have discovered are too sour to eat raw, and I am planning to make some jam out of them.

The dipper gourds are growing madly on the arbor we finished up. I started that about ten years ago and it got set aside when I got sick but finally functional and some male flowers showing up, soon the females will be there and we might get a good gourd crop if it doesn’t get too dry.

Lots of mulching and weed control going on and training of vines and a hundred other things to do in the garden, never a lack of stuff to do.

Plus I have a bunch of non gardening projects running simultaneously.

“One cannot become spiritually advanced without acquiring the brahminical qualifications and giving protection to cows. “

Srimad-Bhagavatam   6.18.52

Prabhupada: So new… When they are trained up, they can come, live, especially grhasthas. My point is whether the farm is attractive. Not very much.

Yogesvara: The potential is wonderful.

Prabhupada: And therefore I’m asking. Potential is wonderful, so why they are not attracted to live in the farm and be self-independent and chant Hare Krsna? That is our farm project. Our farm project is they should be satisfied with simple living. That is nice living. If you get milk, if you get fruit, if you get grain and open air, it is very healthy life. Why they should not be attracted?

Yogesvara: It is still the beginning, and because it’s the beginning, it is a little difficult sometimes.

Prabhupada: That may be. But this should be our aim. We should not be attracted by the modern city life. Simplified life. Save time and utilize for advancing in Krsna consciousness. That is perfect life. Just like Vrndavana. Vrndavana life means agriculturist, cowherd boys, uneducated girls, cows and calves, and tree, fruits. This is Vrndavana. The center is Krsna.

Yogesvara: Simple living.

Prabhupada: But they are the topmost devotees. These (chuckling) uneducated, without any town life, cow-men, they are Krsna’s best friend. Unsophisticated, no education, but love intense -that is perfect. That attracted Krsna more. Vrndavanam parityajya na padam ekam (sic:) na kartavya… Krsna is so much attached to Vrndavana that He goes nowhere… What is that? They are not educated girls, up-to-date fashion, (indistinct) or nothing. Crude. As soon as there was blowing of the flute, immediately they began to run towards Krsna. Somebody is taking care of children, somebody is engaged in boiling milk, and somebody was even lying down with her husband. Still, immediately… Very crude, unsophisticated, but intense love for Krsna — that is Vrndavana.

We want to introduce this farm project means intense love for Krsna. And other things — very simple: little milk, little food grain, little vegetable, that’s all. And that is very nice. If you get fresh vegetable, fresh milk, and food grain, what do you want more? And from milk you can prepare so many nice preparations, unlimited number, all very palatable, sweet.

This civilization we want to introduce, not so-called rascal civilization and become implicated in this cycle of birth and death. This is not civilization. This is killing civilization. Human being got the opportunity to get out of these clutches of birth and death. They do not understand. They’re so rascal, they do not understand how they are implicated in this cycle of birth and death, nor they do take it seriously, that this is the problem, janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam [Bg. 13.9]. They are so blind rascals, they do not see that this is real suffering. They do not know it. Simply theorizing, making plan, and they do not know what is the suffering. Such a rascal civilization. So we have to introduce real civilization. Therefore we are struggling so hard. So make in such a way. That’s a very nice place, center of Europe and very nice place.

Room Conversation — January 31, 1977, Bhuvanesvara

-

Letter from Tamal Krsna Goswami, Secretary to Srila Prabhupada, to Hari Sauri Das, ISKCON Melbourne, August 10th, 1977 (sent from Krsna Balarama Mandir, Vrndavana):

Srila Prabhupada always enjoys hearing from you as you have gained an eternal position at His Divine Grace’s lotus feet.  Srila Prabhupada appreciated your opening prayers.

Srila Prabhupada was most enlivened to hear the report of New Govardhana Farm.  His Divine Grace in the last month or so has been stressing the importance of these farm projects, and said, “This is the next aspect of Krsna consciousness which I wish to push forward. If I am able to travel again, then I shall visit the farms and make them perfect.  On these farms we can demonstrate the full varnasrama system. If these farms become successful then the whole world will be enveloped by Krsna consciousness.

“From your letter I can understand how nice this farm is.  I am very happy to see fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, grains, the devotees taking sumptuous prasadam and chanting Hare Krsna.  This is the actual meaning of human life.  It is a very good farm, from your letter I can understand.  Whatever you build, get the building materials locally.  If you can manufacture tiles locally, then your house problem is solved. Build up bamboo frame, and on it place tiles.  In any event get everything locally.  I wish to make a farm tour and then I shall surely visit your farm.”

I suggested to Srila Prabhupada that he was the Farm Acarya, but Srila Prabhupada said, “Krsna is the Farm Acarya. Baladeva is holding a plow, and Krsna is holding the calf.  Krsna advised Nanda Maharaja not to perform Indra puja but to worship the land, Govardhana because it was supplying all foodstuffs for the residents of Vrndavana and the cows as well.” So Srila Prabhupada wants you to develop this farm very nicely as it will be the future program to present to the world as the ideal of Krsna consciousness.  In the cities, we are interested for preaching but we cannot present the ideal varnasrama system, this is only possible at the farms, so they are very important.