WMMT’s Mountain Talk to Feature Growing Appalachia

From KFTC's Tanya Turner: Floyd County's upcoming Growing Appalachia conference will be highlighted on this week'sMountain Talk radio show, Appalshop WMMT's weekly public affairs program.  Mountain Talk airs on Wednesdays from 6 to 7pm on WMMT 88.7 in the central Appalachian region and streams live on www.wmmtfm.org all over the world!  Beverly May of the Floyd County chapter will be in the studio for the program and will be joined through calls by Growing Appalachia workshop presenters.  Folks from the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) and the Community Farm Alliance (CFA) will call in to discuss their upcoming presentations and field questions.  These conversations will include the How$mart program being offered through a collaboration between East Kentucky Rural Electric Coops and MACED, as well as extending the growing season through hoop houses and cold frames. This is Floyd County's 2nd annual Growing Appalachia conference.  WMMT's coverage of last year's event can be heard on their website here.  Growing Appalachia will be a full day of free workshops by local experts about ways to save and earn money through small-scale farming, forestry, and more on  Saturday, April 9th beginning at 9:30am in the Jenny Wiley Conference Center.  Register, view a list of workshops, and learn more atwww.kftc.org/growing!          About Kristin TraczKristin Tracz served MACED’s Research and Policy team from 2009-2012 working on clean energy policy, energy efficiency programs and the Appalachian Transition Initiative. She joined MACED after finishing her Master of Environmental Management degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She now lives...

Regional Food Beyond the Farmer’s Market

Recently, the environmental news site Grist featured a commentary titled, "Forget farmers markets—I want to sell my pastured meat at Price Chopper!" The author, Bob Comis, is a small hog farmer from New York, and declares that it is time to move beyond Farmer's Markets and CSA's (Community-Supported Agriculture, where a person can buy a "share" of a farm's harvest and gets boxes of food throughout the growing season) to get regional foods into mainstream grocery stores. It is time to make local passe. It is time to make regional the new local. Enough of farmers markets, CSAs, and direct on-farm sales. Yes, they are exciting — they feel like they are getting us somewhere. And, to be honest and give them their due, they have gotten us somewhere. The reality, however, is that they will never get us there, whither goest we must if we want to make a change — real change. I will say it as straight as I can: I want to see my pork in Price Chopper (a supermarket). Comis' reasoning is that, while Farmer's Markets and CSAs are a great resource for both farmers, communities and consumers, to truly make an impact we must integrate local (and regional) food into the fabric of our everyday shopping lifestyles. This is especially true for Appalachia, where the extremely rural geography makes it difficult for Farmer's Markets and CSAs to provide enough income for small farmers to live on. On the other hand, if Appalachian produce...

State of Environmental Justice in America 2011: Building the Clean Energy Economy with Equity — Registration Now Open...

From an email we received, announcing the Department of Interior's Environmental Justice conference to be held in Washington DC in late April: I am pleased to announce that the Department will be joining with several other Federal agencies and organizations in sponsoring this year’s Environmental Justice in America Conference.  The conference is in support of Executive Order 12898 (Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations), which states in part that “each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations…” The theme for this year’s conference is “Building the Clean Energy Economy with Equity”.  The conference will encompass several of Secretary Salazar’s high priority goals, such as renewable energy development, tribal consultation, and youth and community involvement.  This is a unique opportunity for participants to collaborate and network with a diverse and multi-disciplined audience that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage.  The Conference is open to all Department employees. The State of Environmental Justice in America 2011 Conference is scheduled to take place from April 27-29, in Washington, D.C.  The conference seeks to bring together Federal employees, state employees, tribes, academics, business and industry, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, local community activists, and others to participate in dialog on achieving environmental equality and environmental protection. Conference registration is open now with a reduced...

Demand Side Management & Renewable Energy Collective to Meet...

To begin the work of evaluating and recommending renewable energy and energy efficiency options to the East Kentucky Power Cooperative board, the Demand Side Management and Renewable Energy Collaborative will hold its initial meeting next Tuesday, March 29, at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort Hotel in Lexington.  MACED staff Nina McCormack will serve as MACED's representative and Kristin Tracz will serve as an alternate.  More information about the Collective's process will be available following the first meeting.  Tuesday's meeting is open to the public if you care to join! From the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth blog: KFTC begins clean energy collaborative with EKPC, co-ops, allies by Sara Pennington A great step toward new power will take place at the end of March with the first meeting of the Demand-side Management / Renewable Energy Collaborative–an effort called for in the agreement between the East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), and KFTC and our allies that canceled the $900 million proposed coal-burning Smith plant. The Collaborative will conduct its initial meeting Tuesday, March 29, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Marriott Griffin Gate Resort Hotel on Newtown Pike in Lexington. Collaborative meetings are open to the public, and KFTC members are invited to attend.  The group will meet quarterly for the next two years to evaluate and recommend actions for EKPC to expand deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Collaborative will also look to find ways members of the group can work together to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy...

Register for the Growing Appalachia Workshop

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth is hosting a follow up to last year's very successful Growing Appalachia gathering.  The day will be filled with workshops presented by local experts, featuring ways to save and earn money through local small-scale farming, forestry and energy solutions.  The event will be held at the Convention Center at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park on Saturday, April 9.  There is no cost for the conference but pre-registration is appreciated. Register here to attend the event. For more information, see the KFTC website.   Schedule 9:30 Registration 9:45 Opening Plenary (KFTC)  10:15 Workshop 1 (choose 1 of 3)  11:15 Workshop 2 (choose 1 of 3) 2:15 Lunch (Randy Wilson will provide music and encourage networking/conversation)  1:30 Workshop 3 (choose 1 of 3)  2:30 Workshop 4 (choose 1 of 3)  3:30 Closing/Wrap up  3:45 Adjourn   Workshop schedule Workshop Session #1 – 10:15 a.m. Growing your own edible mushrooms Tim Hensley, Forest Retreats What it takes to get your farm certified organic in Kentucky Ronald Bruno, Holy Mountain Farm How to get a community garden or community orchard going Sustainable Morehead Workshop Session #2 – 11:15 a.m. Setting up Community Supported Agriculture to benefit local growers and consumers David Wagoner, Three Springs Farm How$mart: An exciting new approach to home weatherization offered by the Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative Jeff Fugate of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development and invited participants from the utility Transition Town: ideas and strategies for working as a community to support more local and sustainable practices...

Student Series: Saving Seeds and Sustainable Agriculture

Another installment in our student series, this time featuring Caroline Coleman's interview of seed-saving pioneer and Appalachian agricultural wonder worker Dr. Bill Best. Sustainable Agriculture by Caroline Coleman The Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center (SMAC), located in Berea, Kentucky, diligently works to demonstrate to the people of Appalachia the importance and viability of small-scale farming. Whereas Appalachia used to be a region composed primarily of farmers, today an extremely small percentage of people in the region survive from farming. SMAC firmly believes in the productivity of farm land in Appalachia and the ability for the region to compete with farms across the nation, especially in terms of quality of produce. They focus on heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables and seek to achieve sustainability in the region. I interviewed Bill Best, the founder and president of the organization (as well as professor at Berea College) to learn more about the SMAC. To begin with, I asked about the history behind the organization. Bill Best explained to me his interest in collecting heirloom seeds and selling their products in local farmers’ markets dates back to the seventies. After discussing the idea of forming a non-profit organization with friends and family, Bill found several people who were interested in furthering the goals of sustainable agriculture and providing local organic produce for the region.  In the nineties, Bill received a grant from a local foundation that helped the organization start out, and provided all the facilities and equipment. Bill believes in the importance...

Love Mountains and Miners? Show Me the Money (or a Coalfields Regeneration Fund)...

Jeff Biggers has a provocative piece in the Huffington Post today, calling for the establishment of a transition fund for the coalfields of Appalachia.  What would you want to see happen if we were in fact 'shown the money' across the region? Love Mountains and Miners? Show Me the Money (or a Coalfields Regeneration Fund) by Jeff Biggers Author, "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland" A 42-year-old coal miner in southern Illinois recently asked me a question I couldn't answer: Who took Van Jones' job in the Obama administration as the green jobs administrator? Anxious to find a job in another field in a depressed town with no industry (but cross-country truck driving opportunities), my coal miner friend recognized that Van Jones understood, as a I wrote a year ago, that strip-mining operations have blindsided any progress for sustainable or diversified economic development and clean energy jobs in coal mining regions from Appalachia to Alaska. Van Jones, alone in Washington, had included coal miners in his green jobs crusade. Love mountains and miners? Want to end mountaintop removal strip-mining and get floundering labor, greens and jobs-scared coal-rich state Democrats at the same table? It's time to campaign for a joint public/private Coalfields Regeneration Fund. Or, as my coal miner friend in southern Illinois badgered me, if the federal and state governments can provide billions of dollars in subsidies for multinational coal corporations during record years of profits, why can't we establish a specific...

Rural vs. Urban? Rural and Urban? Rural with Urban?

Last week, a post by Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein teed off an exchange about rural versus urban living, subsidies and government spending, and whether the two are in opposition to each other.  The Center for Rural Affairs' Steph Larsen, who has lived in both environments happily, had an interesting commentary on the dialogue which came to include Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and a host of other opinions from across the spectrum.  We're reposting Steph's thoughts here, as originally appeared in Grist.  Your thoughts on what it means to live rurally and/or in an urban environment? I’m a rural resident. Where’s my subsidy check? BY Steph Larsen 12 MAR 2011 The view from Washington, D.C., of the rural Midwest: quaint scenery on the way to the West Coast. Photo: Scorpions and Centaurs I've spent the majority of my life living in cities, albeit mostly small ones in Wisconsin that New Yorkers might not call metropolitan. Before I moved to Lyons, Neb., I lived in Washington, D.C. I truly appreciate the virtues of both urban and rural living. So it's hard to understand why some urbanites criticize rural folks because we choose to make our home in a place without traffic where you can see the stars. My brow furrowed a bit when Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein wrote glowingly about the book The Triumph of the City and titled his post "Why we still need cities" as though a rash of people have suggested we get rid of them. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack jumped...