Living in the Fixer-Upper

This fantastic essay by Dee Davis, from the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, KY, appeared on the Daily Yonder earlier this week.  Elwood Cornett stopped by my office. He is a retired educator and a minister, a kind and decent man. He came by six years ago on the same mission: to tell me about the effort to bring a federal prison to our county and to ask for my support. Our county is poor. The few industrial jobs we’ve had are in coalmining and that ship is sailing away. For most of the last ten years Mr. Cornett’s volunteer group has been trying to attract a $300 million dollar prison project with its promise of good jobs and outside investment.  It is the kind of crummy choice rural communities often get. And in Appalachia it appears to be as close to a choice as anyone out there is going to give us. You preen for the Bureau of Prison screeners, you pledge all manner of local support, you turn your schools into corrections training facilities, and then if all goes well, you get outside contractors paying their own tethered suppliers to build a frightful facility with the few decent paying jobs going to qualified people mostly from long distances away.  From that day forward this community will be known mostly for the prison and the special notoriety of the individuals housed there: terrorists, drug kingpins, and if we are lucky, local politicians.   Of course some fast...

Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner Promotes Ag in the Mountains...

Mountaintop removal mining has left Appalachia with more than 800 square miles of empty land, much of it too remote and unstable to attract any sort of industry. Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture, James Comer, thinks more of this land should be used for agriculture – in particular, cattle and fruit orchards. A recent article in the Hazard Herald reports:  Though former mine sites aren’t normally suitable for vegetation like corn, other plant species grow well on these types of soils, including grasses for cattle and fruit trees. Comer used as an example his visit to Chavies this week, where roughly two inches of top soil covering the old surface mine is producing what Comer termed the “best stand of grass” he has seen in Kentucky this year. And there are many more opportunities for growing open to local landowners. It was great to see Commissioner Comer's support for local foods, wineries and agritourism in the region, types of businesses that have been growing in other areas of Central Appalachia but which have been slower to develop in Eastern Kentucky. Comer also promotes a slightly more controversial agricultural product: industrial hemp. It's currently illegal to grow hemp in the US, though it once was a very important cash crop for the country and Kentucky in particular. Used to make paper, clothing, and even plastic, hemp is not the same as its cousin, marijuana – it won't get you high if you smoke it. (However, the plants look similar enough that...

Making Connections: Laid Off and Looking for Answers

Another top-notch story from our friends at Making Connections:    Since January, thousands of coal miners have been laid off in Central Appalachia.  We’ve heard a lot of opinions about the causes of this decline and what the future holds – from industry leaders, elected officials and even the presidential candidates.  But what do those who mined the coal have to say?   Letcher County underground miner Gary Bentley lost his job with Arch Coal in June.  Mimi Pickering and Sylvia Ryerson sat down with Bentley in the WMMT studio, just hours before he left home for a new mining job in western Kentucky.   Listen to the interview...

WV Furniture Maker Finds Success through Local Wood and Sustainability...

Caperton FurnitureWorks is located in Berkeley Springs, WV and has been for nearly 40 years. When most furniture factories have gone out of business or moved overseas, Caperton is producing high-quality pieces using local wood and local skills for national companies like Crate and Barrel and Room + Board. (See the photo at right for a taste of the products, ready for shipping.) Demand for American-made furniture is growing, said owner Gat Caperton, and they're meeting that demand right here in Central Appalachia. A recent trade magazine article about the growth in American-made furniture featured Caperton: "Three to five years ago, when I told people I was a U.S. manufacturer, they looked at me with a sense of puzzlement, disdain, or just felt sorry for us," said Gat Caperton, president of solid wood bedroom, dining room and occasional furniture producer Gat Creek Furniture "I was almost apologetic telling people I was a U.S. manufacturer. They felt I was doomed to failure." Now, he said, the attitude is different, with people "looking to you with appreciation and even praise," he said. "This Made in America revival has been absolutely critical to our business and important to our country as a whole. We appreciate and feel fortunate people see the value in buying American products again." A proud West Virginian, Caperton sources nearly all of its wood locally, using a lumber mill in nearby Elkins. And the pieces his factory produces aren't built by machines on an assembly line – each...

MicroFest Art and Theater Event Coming to Appalachia

MicroFest USA is an innovative arts and theater event that is "part festival, part think-tank" to explore the impacts of the arts in creating thriving, successful communities – and it's coming to Appalachia! Knoxville, TN and Harlan County, KY will both be hosts to MicroFest, which includes performances and hands-on learning opportunities. According to their website, MicroFest aims to:  have fun, create art, and strengthen communities; offer a field-wide learning exchange to strengthen cross-sector, civic-engaged work; expand how we view and discuss creative placemaking; foster collaborations among local and national artists and community leaders; document learning and best practices for art-based community revitalization; and advance ensemble practices as tools for community development This is a great opportunity for both Harlan County and Knoxville. MicroFest will be in Knoxville on October 25 and 26, and then in Harlan County on October 27 and 28. Check out the jam-packed schedule here, and learn more about registration...

Mark Your Calendar: Balancing Nature & Commerce Course

Balancing Nature and Commerce in Rural Communities and Landscapes:"Thriving, Not Just Surviving" February 4 – February 6, 2013 in Shepherdstown, WV    During this three-day course, community-based teams will focus on the economics, community-character, natural resources, and partnership building skills necessary for creating sustainable communities.  Teams will identify opportunities to differentiate their communities based upon their unique assets, have the opportunity to hear the latest trends in bringing alternative energy or transportation or sustainable agriculture practices to their rural communities, and develop specific action plans for implementation when they return home! Community Leaders & Citizens: Are you interested in strengthening your community's capacity to manage economic and demographic changes in your area sustainably? Is your local economy vulnerable rather than vibrant? Are you struggling to keep your younger generations from leaving the area? Conversely, is your rural community feeling the pressures of rapid growth, increasing tourism, or resource development? Is your community concerned about losing its unique character and special places? Is your community seeking a better relationship with large landowners–whether public land managers or private sector interests such as agricultural or forestry concerns? Public Land Managers: Are you interested in improving communications and partnerships with nearby communities? Are you feeling the pressures of reduced budgets and changes in visitor patterns? Are you interested in opportunities for improved resource management by addressing adjacent land issues in your surrounding community? Private Landowners & Businesses: Are you interested in improving communications and partnerships with nearby communities? Do you want to invigorate economic opportunities...

On Local Foods and “Change Agents”

For all the talk about the local food economy, it can be difficult sometimes to really imagine what it looks like, in practice, in Appalachia. One of the folks who's been a part of the very successful 30 Mile Meal Project in Athens, Ohio, just published an article for the Rural Futures Lab that explains how each part of the local food value chain works in their community. From producer to processor to consumer and everything in between, the article explains how it works and who's involved – a great read.  One thing I find particularly interesting is this diagram that represents the parts of the value chain:  Right at the center are "change agents," or "those that work individually and collaboratively to support the system." In Athens, these are folks like ACENet, Rural Action, and the Athens Food Policy Council – in other words, folks who aren't farmers, distributors, restauranteurs, or processors (although ACENet does operate some processing infrastructure), but people who care deeply about their community's economy, their farmers and the quality of food their friends and family eat.  I like the idea of "change agents" because there are some in every community. Even if an area doesn't have a shared-use kitchen, or local restaurants who want to buy local food yet, a local foods economy can develop and grow if there are a few committed, innovative folks who will work to make it happen. I know of several change agents in Eastern Kentucky who are really...