One man tries to cut his carbon footprint by moving food by sail, from Vermont down to New York City. Does it work? Find out. Transcript Erik Andrus: We are taking food cargo from the north to the south. This is a sailing cargo vessel, built by volunteers in six months, to revive sail-powered freight in the Champlain-Hudson waterway. This idea of using sailboats for cargo sailing has had several failed iterations in the last 20 or 30 years. We were too stupid to know that this just couldn’t be done; we just went ahead and did it. I love to paint. I can do that all day long. It’s the last thing—nothing goes after paint. Steve Schwartz: I’m coming at this with a healthy dose of terror. This is a homemade boat, and we’re going to put it into a commercial operation in really rough conditions that intimidate a lot of seasoned sailors. We don’t have a lot of modern technology safety features to fall back on, and so we’ll have to become good crew. Andrus: If this doesn’t work, then nothing will work, OK? Then nothing will work, and the world’s just not ready for trade by sail at all. I feel like it IS ready. And we’re poised for success. I mean, the fact is, you go up and down the Hudson, and there are all of these public spaces right on the water. These towns on the Hudson would never have existed were it not for the fact that water trade works. Schwartz: This is what I signed on for. I signed on for the sailing, not all the hard work that’s involved before you get to go sailing. Andrus: Our energy intensive life, the clock is running out. And when my kids are my age, they’re not going to be able to consume energy thoughtlessly. By giving up speed, we can encounter meaning in new and unexpected places. I just want to find out as much as I can about how the boat is leaking so that I can solve this later. Child: My feet can't go on the floor. Andrus: I understand. I'm sorry. We took a situation that was at least maybe manageable, and now it’s not manageable anymore, the leak is too fast. 250: The Hudson river hadn't seen sail-freight food delivery for nearly half a century until Oct. 24, when Vermont farmer Erik Andrus sailed a homemade barge into the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a crew of volunteers. Andrus built the barge, named Ceres for the Roman goddess of grain, as a business model for carbon-neutral food transportation. “A lot of people know on a gut level that a new boat from a different area coming into your town is a big deal and a cause for celebration. We’re trying to take that and actually make it an economic event,” said Andrus, who grows rice in Ferrisburgh, Vt. He hit upon the idea of sailing food from Vermont to New York City via the Hudson River partly as a way to ship his own crops in a carbon-neutral manner. But he also wanted to prove that, in a future he believes will see energy shortages, rising fuel prices and deteriorating road infrastructure, the riverways should once again be used as a link in a sustainable food chain. He also wanted to give consumers yearning for food that is healthy both to humans and the planet a model of what could be possible: the farmer selling his goods at the market, his boat docked in the river behind him. “Sail freight is poised for a comeback,” said Andrus, “and we want to be at the forefront.” But the question of whether Ceres can serve as a model for a revived water transport system is still open. Backstory: Funding a floating store Building the boat wasn’t easy—and neither was raising the money. Andrus enlisted funding and marketing help from two local nonprofits that support young farmers: the Willowell Foundation and the Greenhorns. A Kickstarter campaign this spring raised nearly $17,000 and attracted several skilled volunteers to help Andrus, a former carpenter, build the boat and a veteran sailor, Steve Schwartz, to act as captain. The boat ran its business like a floating grocery store: they bought and re-sold food from farmers. Vermont’s Champlain Orchards, an early cheerleader of the boat, sold Ceres six tons of cargo, including four varieties of apples, apple cider syrup and apple butter. The orchard sells primarily in Vermont and eastern New York State, and joining the sail freight project was a chance to expand their market while staying true to the company’s ecological values, said Ted Fisher, Champlain Orchards’ sales and marketing manager. While shipping by water is both cheaper and less polluting than trucking, relying solely on wind power makes scheduling unreliable, said Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. "If time is not an issue, the method is efficient," he said. "But it's not realistic because you need to bring stuff to market fast and reliably." vermontsailfreightproject.com; willowell.org; thegreenhorns.net.

• published: 04 Dec 2013
• views: 674

One man tries to cut his carbon footprint by moving food by sail, from Vermont down to New York City. Does it work? Find out. Transcript Erik Andrus: We are taking food cargo from the north to the south. This is a sailing cargo vessel, built by volunteers in six months, to revive sail-powered freight in the Champlain-Hudson waterway. This idea of using sailboats for cargo sailing has had several failed iterations in the last 20 or 30 years. We were too stupid to know that this just couldn’t be done; we just went ahead and did it. I love to paint. I can do that all day long. It’s the last thing—nothing goes after paint. Steve Schwartz: I’m coming at this with a healthy dose of terror. This is a homemade boat, and we’re going to put it into a commercial operation in really rough conditions that intimidate a lot of seasoned sailors. We don’t have a lot of modern technology safety features to fall back on, and so we’ll have to become good crew. Andrus: If this doesn’t work, then nothing will work, OK? Then nothing will work, and the world’s just not ready for trade by sail at all. I feel like it IS ready. And we’re poised for success. I mean, the fact is, you go up and down the Hudson, and there are all of these public spaces right on the water. These towns on the Hudson would never have existed were it not for the fact that water trade works. Schwartz: This is what I signed on for. I signed on for the sailing, not all the hard work that’s involved before you get to go sailing. Andrus: Our energy intensive life, the clock is running out. And when my kids are my age, they’re not going to be able to consume energy thoughtlessly. By giving up speed, we can encounter meaning in new and unexpected places. I just want to find out as much as I can about how the boat is leaking so that I can solve this later. Child: My feet can't go on the floor. Andrus: I understand. I'm sorry. We took a situation that was at least maybe manageable, and now it’s not manageable anymore, the leak is too fast. 250: The Hudson river hadn't seen sail-freight food delivery for nearly half a century until Oct. 24, when Vermont farmer Erik Andrus sailed a homemade barge into the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a crew of volunteers. Andrus built the barge, named Ceres for the Roman goddess of grain, as a business model for carbon-neutral food transportation. “A lot of people know on a gut level that a new boat from a different area coming into your town is a big deal and a cause for celebration. We’re trying to take that and actually make it an economic event,” said Andrus, who grows rice in Ferrisburgh, Vt. He hit upon the idea of sailing food from Vermont to New York City via the Hudson River partly as a way to ship his own crops in a carbon-neutral manner. But he also wanted to prove that, in a future he believes will see energy shortages, rising fuel prices and deteriorating road infrastructure, the riverways should once again be used as a link in a sustainable food chain. He also wanted to give consumers yearning for food that is healthy both to humans and the planet a model of what could be possible: the farmer selling his goods at the market, his boat docked in the river behind him. “Sail freight is poised for a comeback,” said Andrus, “and we want to be at the forefront.” But the question of whether Ceres can serve as a model for a revived water transport system is still open. Backstory: Funding a floating store Building the boat wasn’t easy—and neither was raising the money. Andrus enlisted funding and marketing help from two local nonprofits that support young farmers: the Willowell Foundation and the Greenhorns. A Kickstarter campaign this spring raised nearly $17,000 and attracted several skilled volunteers to help Andrus, a former carpenter, build the boat and a veteran sailor, Steve Schwartz, to act as captain. The boat ran its business like a floating grocery store: they bought and re-sold food from farmers. Vermont’s Champlain Orchards, an early cheerleader of the boat, sold Ceres six tons of cargo, including four varieties of apples, apple cider syrup and apple butter. The orchard sells primarily in Vermont and eastern New York State, and joining the sail freight project was a chance to expand their market while staying true to the company’s ecological values, said Ted Fisher, Champlain Orchards’ sales and marketing manager. While shipping by water is both cheaper and less polluting than trucking, relying solely on wind power makes scheduling unreliable, said Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. "If time is not an issue, the method is efficient," he said. "But it's not realistic because you need to bring stuff to market fast and reliably." vermontsailfreightproject.com; willowell.org; thegreenhorns.net.

• published: 04 Dec 2013
• views: 674