A Note from my Home where I‘ve never lived.

Cellist Bob Cafaro at Juicey Lucy’s restaurant and juice bar in San Francisco

Several weeks ago I saw the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and have been unable to stop thinking about it since. The film is about the prematurely extinct automobiles that complied with California’s bold Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which also suffered an early death. It is about the electric car, but in many ways it has little to do with it. Spending time in California has made me realize it is about a widespread mindset and culture which is home to me, yet I have never lived here. Not blindly accepting the way things are done and constantly looking for “a better way” has always been my passion. My parents taught me these values from the time I was very young as they were both “street smart” and were always thinking of better ways to do everyday things. I have always been concerned about the environment, long before the sudden popular awareness of climate change.

When I bought my Cherry Hill NJ home in February of 2001, I noticed my neighbor’s lawn across the street looked dead but didn’t think much of it. But when spring came his lawn started looking like a lush green golf course. That summer saw a severe drought and everyone complied with the watering restriction, turning their lawns turn a sad shade of brown. Yet this neighbor’s lawn was a vibrant green. I asked him if he was doing “midnight” watering to get his lawn looking so perfect and he replied “Nope. I don’t water it at all.” In disbelief, I asked how that was possible. He continued “I don’t water it, feed it or use any herbicides or pesticides.” It turned out his lawn was not common grass but Zoysia grass, which explained the dormant winter brown. A revelation! I have always wished for an environmentally friendly lawn and here was the answer. It is no secret that Americans use massive amounts of potable water and fertilizer on their lawns – and we don’t even eat the stuff! A member of the Orchestra recently had his two dogs euthanized as they both had terminal cancer. His veterinarian swears this increasingly common fate is the result of the widespread indiscriminate use of lawn chemicals. To start a Zoysia lawn one buys Zoysia “plugs”, plants them in the lawn one foot apart and in 3 years they spread to give an environmentally friendly lawn. I immediately started trimming the edges of my neighbors’ lawn (a free service for both parties!) and planted the trimmings all around the house, and now about half of our lawn is Zoysia. Without watering the lawn, our water bills are a delight as our total usage averages about 2000 gallons per month. The list goes on as the attic recently needed to be insulated. Instead of the common fiberglass the choice was non-toxic insulation that is blown in and does a better job anyway. Every light fixture inside and outside our home has low energy florescent bulbs.

Ever notice how much garbage Americans produce? It is no surprise that we produce more per capita than any nation on earth. The solution to this one was a no-brainer as we compost our food scraps and produce about one third the amount of trash we used to. If I ran the country all grade school children would take 2 field trips per year – to a landfill. Sure they would gag and complain but if they saw where all the garbage actually goes, they might think twice about the volume of trash they produce. When we needed flooring in the house the choice was recycled wood with a laminate finish. Our laundry also fits the mold as our front loading washer uses 40% less water than a top loader and we always try to do laundry when the sun and clothesline can take the place of the dryer. My wife recently wanted a cutting board so I got her a really nice one made of bamboo, which is the perfect sustainable wood source.

Transportation is one of the worst sources of environmental damage and pollution in the world. Americans are 5% of the planet’s population yet we use 25% of the world’s oil. Most of that is used for transportation and it is estimated that 66% of all driving is elective. We have become a society that is hopelessly dependant on our cars for everything and I strongly believe the alarming rise of so many serious health issues is primarily due to lifestyle – lack of exercise and diet. Cars have become a substitute for walking and for this we pay a heavy price. Outside of the cities we do very little walking, so I bike to work whenever possible. The trip to the Kimmel Center from my home in Cherry Hill is 11.6 miles and takes 50 minutes. This is less time than it takes to drive to the train station, find a place to park, walk to the platform, wait for the train and ride it into town. This not only keeps one in top physical condition, but it saves the gym membership fees, the time at the gym, and the time and fuel used to drive back and forth. Safety during the ride is not an issue, as back roads are mapped out for the entire trip and the Ben Franklin Bridge has an awesome pedestrian walkway. The most unfortunate necessity is the car, so last year I picked up a 1984 Volkswagen diesel with that gets about 45 MPG. This car had low mileage and was never driven in snow so it looks almost new. This car is a dream as I installed a vegetable oil conversion kit from Greasecar.com and now the car is a dual fuel vehicle which runs on WVO (waste vegetable oil) as well as diesel. Where does one get WVO? Our favorite Japanese restaurant discards 5 gallons of used soybean oil every day and the owner is thrilled when I take it away. The oil is filtered, stored in containers and poured into the vehicle’s dedicated WVO tank. This messy process takes time but is well worth the effort as I have driven over 13,000 miles for free - on someone’s garbage! Even the 5 gallon metal soybean oil cans which the restaurant happily includes with the waste oil are put to good use as our local junk collector takes them on trash day and sells them for scrap metal. It should be noted that running a car on WVO is far less polluting than petroleum as there is no sulfur or particles, and the exhaust smells like someone is cooking rather than the noxious smell of diesel exhaust. The funniest part of this project is the owner of that restaurant now expects me to take far more WVO than I can possibly use. The answer here is to convert our furnace to WVO, taking more of that oil and heating the house for free. This is my next project and my wife is really going to love this one!

One of the best things about being out in California is the food available to people like me that prefer an organic vegetarian diet. I found my dream restaurant in San Francisco, Juicey Lucy's and the food is so good and pure that I am currently negotiating with them to get them to deliver to New Jersey! The produce is much better here than back east, no doubt because of the climate and the multitude of organic farms. On these Orchestra tours our trunks to be used for instruments and concert dress only, but I must confess to bending the rules slightly - to the point where my wardrobe trunk looks more like a health food store. After all, you are what you eat and I would never be able to play after a Big Mac and fries! Many of my colleagues in the Orchestra find it amusing when I constantly munch on raw seeds, nuts and dried fruit back home, but on tour my popularity among the musicians mysteriously increases!

While my wife is not quite as passionate about simple, environmentally friendly living as I am, she is very supportive – to a point. She tolerates long rides in a 23 year old car sans airbags and antilock brakes but is no doubt comforted when asked “Honey, should we pay $3.25 a gallon for fuel or drive for free?” She says I tend to go overboard with it, but I wish she was here to see all these Californians who are overboard as well! The people out here who share my passion say they need ambassadors out east and maybe this is my next calling in life. In so many ways I would love to live here, but the fact is Philadelphia has the better Orchestra!