POET, the world’s leading ethanol producer, does a story about Project Gaia  in their quarterly magazine, Vital. Thanks to Julie Flannery-Allen for the wonderful article “Stoves that Save”. We met POET at COP 15 in December and were impressed by their mission of putting a face on the ethanol industry. Read the full online version of the article here.

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Press the popcorn button on the microwave. Turn the knob to med-high on the stovetop. A cooked meal seems simple enough. But for many people across the across the globe, it’s anything but simple. It requires a significant part of your day while sacrificing your health, safety and even the environment.

“It sort of hits you over the head. Here in America we take for granted our ability to turn on the gas or the electric and cook,” says Harry Stokes, Executive Director of Project Gaia, Inc. and a champion of the development of alcohol fuels and their stoves in Africa and South America. “We don’t realize what a struggle it is just to cook a daily meal.”

Project Gaia, Inc. based out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is a U.S. non-profit organization that is part of a global initiative promoting clean-cooking fuels, particularly alcohol cooking stoves, to the poorest part of the population. These fuels can cleanly and safely enable families to meet their daily household requirements for cooking, lighting, heating and refrigeration.

Currently, Project Gaia’s first focus is on cleanburning stoves because nearly 3 billion people worldwide cook and/or heat their home using polluting fuels of wood, charcoal and dung. Burning these fuels results in a smoky and unhealthy living environment. The majority of the households in need of these stoves reside in Africa, Latin America and Asia…