The Seltzer Project

This article first appeared in The Leader Vindicator newspaper.

Drink a seltzer.  Save the Allegheny River.

That’s the message posted on a billboard positioned to inspire commuters who, upon completion of their work day, might be hankering for some uncontrolled alcoholic indulgence counterbalanced with a healthy dose of environmentalism.

I admit scoffing the first time I read the message on my drive home from Pittsburgh, where I’d spent the morning reveling in the food relationships we’ve established in the city.  “Here we go again,” I thought.  “Some faux do-gooder program like a cereal box that saves trees or a laundry detergent that saves the ocean.”  Bah, humbug.

Then I researched the project and decided to stick the proverbial foot in my perpetually pessimistic mouth.  It turns out the seltzer company has chosen just nineteen water projects across the United States, and two of those happen to be in Pennsylvania.  The Allegheny project is focused on the Farnsworth Branch, a tributary to Tionesta Creek, which itself is a tributary to the river that runs through Pittsburgh.  The tributary will be stabilized to improve fish and wildlife habitat by cleaning up the water.  Full funding for the Farnsworth Branch is provided by the seltzer company.

If you’ve read any of my ramblings over the years, you know I’m obsessed with water.  Water is so obviously crucial for life, yet so blatantly overlooked.  Consider this: 80% of each of my cattle, those individual members of the glorious grassfed herd in which I take so much pride, is water.  Eighty percent water!  And what do we talk about?  Their food.  Clean, clear, living water is so much more important.

I grew up surrounded by unusable water.  Nearly every creek in the proximity of our farm is dead, flowing with acidity that suppresses life.  Only recently have I realized how tragic that is, when I’m standing with a herd of thirsty cattle on a hot summer day beside a full flowing creek and there isn’t a drop to drink.  Our hydraulic environment is totally unusable, so in place of it we’re dependent on the municipality.  Truth be told, I’d be much more at ease with Nature on my side.

In an attempt to regain independence and establish a healthy water system on our property, I’ve been drawing insight from permaculturalists the world over to better collect, store, and utilize the water that interfaces with our farm in the form of rain, mist, and dew.  The problem I’m encountering is a lack of just about everything: experience, equipment, assistance, funding, time, etc.  Though I have some pretty interesting attempts in place, my crude representations are akin to my three year old son’s play-doh sculptures: He knows what they are, but Mom and I have trouble discerning a tractor from a dinosaur.

My question now is this:  If I could refine on our farm a similar water project as the seltzer plan, would that not resonate with customers?  In fact, it would create stronger connections due to the more immediate proximity.

One gripe about the seltzer project is that the whole thing is too impersonal.  I have no doubt the streambank rehabilitation project is a worthy effort, but our aforementioned thirsty commuter who is drinking for the environment will not observe noticeable improvements to the river outside his apartment window each time he pops the top of a can.  It’s safe to say that nobody imbibing to support the cause will ever observe a difference in the world around them.

That reality changes when we scale down.  A person who buys beef from our farm can come here and actually visit the property.  Year on year, they can see exactly what has changed, and they can observe how that affects their food.  It’s a real-time relationship that does not get filtered through layers of ever-increasing detachment.  In other words, instead of thinking that their funding is doing good, they can come and verify it.

Only major companies seem to have the resources and staff to tackle a project for good, yet the size of those companies dilutes the impact of their efforts for customers.  A small business like ours can have a monumental impact with our customer base, but we lack resources to rapidly implement an idea.   In my case, I know what I want to do, but I’ve simply hit a saturation point where the tasks required exceed my personal ability; I truly don’t know what the next logical step is.  I need my own personal seltzer company to step up, brimming with ambition to see this thing through to the end.

Will that happen?  I doubt it.  But there is, I believe, a method to implement good projects on a micro scale.  We don’t need much funding, though some would help.  Ideas, ambition, and ability will make the greatest change.  My approach to attract these assets is to simply start a dialogue and see who pops up and sticks around.  So I write and post and photograph and, most of all, I keep on trying to shape the environment around me so it can thrive in natural wonder.

Maybe someday you’ll read about us and the supercharged water efforts we’ve poured in to. The message won’t be on an expensive billboard poised beside a major thoroughfare, but I guarantee you the results will be much more tangible.