Dana Drugmand in the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog writes about “An Ecosystems Services Approach to Water and Food Security” : UNEP and IWMI Advocate Agroecosystems to Improve Food, Water Security | Nourishing the Planet. I’m hoping to activate a portion of a “corridor” that follows the Mississippi and its major confluence points especially St Louis, Cairo, Memphis and New Orleans since those are the ones I have “boots-on-the-ground” experience with. I especially wish to link-up ecologically aware efforts in a most pervasive and inclusive way.

For example:

• St Louis: Kelley Greene Bio-diesel stops at the Soulard Market and fuels up the Wiki Bus. The Wiki Bus goes by The Whole Wheat House and picks up a team consisting of some Seasoned Wheaties and some new summer recruits that have already been screened, trained and assembled. Next Stop:
• Cape Girardeau: To Family Friendly Farm to help with a massive pasture sweep and eggmobile class. After a fun and productive two or three days working, playing and touring Cape with the Fosnocks it’s on to:
• Carbondale Illinois: We’ll tour R. Buckminster Fuller’s old stomping grounds and learn about Earthships and see what’s up in and around C’dale. Several EcoFarms and Villages dot the Southern Illinois landscape from what I’ve seen. And so on up and down the line.
• Your town here
• Cairo, Illinois is our hub. Airship Parked Here

The WikiBus offers ecosystem services to a whole range of businesses that are tuned to a new set of standards (quite above those of the US Government and its Bedfellows). Running on 100% biofuels, the refurbished school bus (later – larger commercial buses) are scheduled and routed with the whole ecosystem in mind through a highly interactive real-time web interface (a laptop on board) that is aware of wireless access points along the way.

Commercial venders, food co-ops, CSAs, urban permaculture projects, rural ecofarms, ecovillages, universities, … this list can grow massively… can each tune into the OzoneFarm Network and fill in its own blanks.

The Buses also serve as poverty alleviators for severely disadvantaged urbanites who need a break from the concrete jungle and some solid capital for starting their own gigs. (Everybody’s gotta have a gig – 2 Thessalonians 3:10 – for the organizationally religious). So the Expected Question is never answered the same way twice.