Welcome to the August Green Tech issue of NorthBay biz magazine. This month’s issue focuses on the evolving world of green technology and reports on varying aspects of this increasingly important business niche. From innovations in electric vehicles to a blossoming local energy independence program, NorthBay biz is at the reporting forefront of local business happenings. In addition to all the stories, you’ll find dozens of local columns and special features in this month’s magazine—information about local business often unavailable anywhere else. We welcome your comments, suggestions and ideas on how NorthBay biz, the area’s only locally owned business publication, can continue to serve you and the business community as the voice of business in the North Bay.
Now if you’ll be kind enough to indulge me, I’d like to take you back eight years to July 2001. At the time, we had been owners of (then) Sonoma Business magazine for just over one year—and were just beginning to figure out and truly appreciate Sonoma County and the North Bay. I thought I’d share these reflections with you again as a sort of juxtaposition to our Green Tech issue. Over time, opinions change and strongly held beliefs of yesterday sometimes morph into new viewpoints, but that’s not the case this time. If anything, my beliefs of eight years ago are even stronger today.
In today’s high-tech world, in which an ever-growing market is being inundated with a never-ending stream of gadgets designed to streamline our increasingly complex world, it’s easy to forget our roots, but there seems to be a trend growing. One that perhaps is easy to correlate with the increased stress related to urban living. Drugs, drug-related crime, dirty air from too many vehicles crowding too few roadways, overcrowded, unsafe schools. The list could fill this page. Many people have had enough. They long for simpler times—safer times, where kids could take their time growing up. The longing for wide-open spaces without the constant press of humanity. Picture the perfect pastoral scene—rolling hills set off by hard wood forest, a white frame farmhouse perched above a fish-filled pond. In the near foreground, farm animals graze verdant pastures overflowing with wildflowers. A vegetable garden whose fresh bounty is footsteps away. Sound idyllic? It’s rural Sonoma County. So that’s why the nouveau riche, stressed-out dot-comers flocked here.
With the advent of sophisticated telecommunications, we’re increasingly freed from brick and mortar institutions. More and more, we don’t have to go to the job, the job will come to us, if we have the right skills. The need to live in urban areas, to be close to our jobs, is decreasing; our ability to live where we choose, in a setting we prefer, is becoming an actuality. Why live on top of your neighbor? Why fight traffic? Why not choose the country? Close enough to a big city to indulge our needs for fine dining and cultural events, but far enough away to separate us from all the downsides of urban living. Sixty-five miles north of San Francisco sounds about right. Right in the heart of Wine Country…perfect!
Now it’s starting to make sense—what all the growth/no growth fuss is all about. People migrating to Sonoma County because they realize in many ways this is the ideal place to live. Nestled between the ocean and the mountains among rolling hills enjoying wonderful weather year-round. And all those people who’ve come here to get away from wherever they were living don’t want to change a thing. It doesn’t matter if there are traffic jams. Don’t build any more roads because it will only bring more people here. That’s to be discouraged at all costs—now that “they” are here. No more houses, no more schools, no public transportation and no new construction of any sort. We have too many people here already. Quite an attitude emanating from some folks who can count their time living in Sonoma County in months, not years. Hell, I can’t blame them. I sure can see their point. Who wants the countryside polluted with immigrants from elsewhere? I’ve only one question to ask. What if people who share their feelings had gotten their way and stopped all growth, six months ago, before they got here? Built a moat, kept “them” out. I guess they would still be living in Jersey, looking for a nice place with a few acres in the country back East.
Back to the farm and the county’s agricultural roots. The farmers don’t have it easy, despite what you may think about federal subsidies. They work a lot harder than we do, for a lot less money. For every millionaire farmer or rancher, there used to be thousands who were earning the equivalent of minimum wage. That’s not true anymore, of course, because so many have been forced to give up, finding it impossible to support their families tilling the soil. It’s a loss of a natural treasure. The farmers and ranchers are the real stewards of the land. Before it was fashionable, they were the original ecologists and conservationists. They knew and appreciated what a precious commodity clean water was and how important it was to protect against pollution of any kind. It was more than just their livelihood; it was a respect for what nature had provided.
Now stirring in many of us is a yearning to return to the land—maybe not as farmers, but at least as fans. There’s a peace that’s missing from urban dweller lives—a serenity of almost spiritual quality that’s found in the country if you’re willing to open yourself to it. I guess I’ve given myself away. I might as well come out and admit it. A big city boy, born and raised, is suffering from a bad case of farmer envy. There I said it. I feel better. If I could do it all over again, as much as I love the publishing business, I think it would be a newsletter written from my family farm. Maybe as life continues to become more complex and stressful, the desire to return to the land will grow further and, someday, family farming will be the next hot industry. We can only hope.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
