Buying Local Helps Institutions, Farmers and Communities

It might still be pretty cold across much of Central Appalachia, but planting season has started for many area farmers. In the warmer months ahead, we can look forward to fresh, local produce at the Farmer’s Market, in many of our schools and restaurants, and even at some Appalachian colleges. It makes sense for all the same reasons as farm-to-school does – with the added bonus that college students are (hopefully) less picky about fruits and vegetables than grade-schoolers, and college cafeterias often have a more flexible budget to work with. The Roanoke Times recently profiled a Floyd County, VA farm that has begun selling to Ferrum College. On March 15, the college announced that Riverstone “will grow crops specifically for Ferrum College, including head lettuces, salad greens and baby spinach, tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, potatoes and carrots.” College President Jennifer Braaten said the partnership with the farm is a good fit for Ferrum, which she said is committed to environmental responsibility and supporting local businesses…. For Crenshaw, Riverstone’s business agreement with Ferrum College provides additional evidence that a regional organic farm can thrive. “By supporting local organic farm food, the college helps develop new markets and hence encourages young people who want to make a living on the land,” Crenshaw said in a news release when the partnership was announced. “The new agriculture — small scale, intensive, high quality, environmentally sensitive — provides economic development opportunities for rural Appalachian communities that struggle to remain economically viable,” he said. These...

Appalachia Funders Gathering Digs into Local Assets

On Tuesday and Wednesday, a group of philanthropists, bankers, government employees and non-profits got together in Asheville, North Carolina for the Appalachia Funders Network gathering.  The Appalachia Funders Network “is a group of public and private grant-makers who envision an entrepreneurial-based Appalachian economy that provides opportunity for all while sustaining the environmental and cultural assets of our region.” If you’re on Twitter, you might have seen their prolific postings, keeping all of us who weren’t there informed about what was going on, which included discussions of access to capital, entrepreneurship and building on our region’s numerous assets. Part of the meeting involved site visits to area enterprises that are working in promising sectors, including entrepreneurship, energy efficiency and local foods. The Daily Yonder profiled a visit to a local food business by the co-chair of the ARC.  To process their spicy ingredients into sauces, rubs and salsa, the Mowreys take advantage of a community commercial kitchen in Candler. The facility is run by Blue Ridge Food Ventures, and it serves as a sort of business incubator. Numerous individuals and small businesses share the kitchen, lowering the cost and hassle of getting into the industry. The ARC’s Gohl says this kind of community infrastructure is what’s needed to help local food businesses in Appalachia take off. “We’ve got good soil, a long growing season, and lots of local knowledge,” he said. “The challenge is to develop the ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ to make local foods a stronger part of the local economy.” …A...

Register Now: East Kentucky Leadership Conference

This year's East Kentucky Leadership Conference is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for April 25-26 in Middlesboro, KY. What is the conference all about? As it says on the website:  The East Kentucky Leadership Conference is not a conference for a few speakers and listeners. The goal is to make everyone a speaker, listener, and most importantly, an effective leader. The leaders of Eastern Kentucky must work together to solve the problems of this area. Through networking, discussion and sharing of time, we can create a unified front to address the problems facing Eastern Kentucky. The conference will offer networking opportunities for young professionals, workshops on strategic planning and grants, and a number of panels which include community philanthropy, building a high-tech economy in Eastern Kentucky, and the coal severance tax. Governor Steve Beshear will be the keynote speaker.  See the full agenda here, and be sure to register. This conference is a terrific opportunity learn about potential solutions to the problems facing the...

Southwest Virginia Group Sees Economic Opportunity in Natural Assets...

An increasing number of communities are seeing their lush, beautiful surroundings as an opportunity for sustainable growth. The Clinch River Valley Initiative, based in Southwest Virginia, is one of them. The Initiative has been working with a diverse coalition of area residents, businesses and organizations to create a plan for the area focused on making the Clinch River Valley a prime outdoor recreation and cultural destination. Recently, WMMT did a terrific report on the Initiative and what it’s all about: Though we often hear in the coalfields that job creation and environmental protection are two things that can’t happen at the same time, a growing coalition of individuals and organizations believes that the Clinch River—one of the most biodiverse river systems in North America—could itself be the backbone of a brand-new economy in Southwest Virginia.  From the Feb. 28 edition of WMMT’s Mountain News & World Report, we bring you this report on the Clinch River Valley Initiative, a in innovative, multi-dimensional approach to economy-building in the Southwest Virginia coalfields. Click here to...

Get a preview of Saturday’s Growing Appalachia Conference!...

It's not too late to sign up for tomorrow's Growing Appalachia conference being held at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, KY! The conference offers workshops full of practical information on energy efficiency, small-scale farming and renewable energy. Earlier this week, Appalshop's Mountain Talk program interviewed several of the conference's workshop presenters. Here's the description: In this edition of WMMT’s Mountain Talk, we discuss small-scale farming, energy efficiency, and renewables in the mountains with special guests Fern Nafziger, Cody Montgomery, Paul Wiediger and Will Bowling. All of our guests are deeply involved in this work in eastern Kentucky, and are all presenters at this weekend’s fourth annual Growing Appalachia day of free workshops to develop skills around all the above-mentioned topics (do-it-yourself energy efficiency, food preservation, small-scale mountain farming) and more.  The event takes place at the Jenny Wiley Convention Center in Floyd County, Ky., and begins at 9 a.m.   Listen to the interview here, and don't forget to register for the...

A West VA Town’s Community-Sponsored Rebirth

The little town of Williamson, WV is getting some great press these days, and deservedly so. Known as “the heart of the billion-dollar coalfield,” Williamson is proud of its coal heritage but is also actively preparing for what’s next. Sustainable Williamson is an initiative that has brought together the numerous community health, development and workforce training projects happening in the town. They’ve put together a fantastic video about their work, which you can – and should – watch at their website. Recently, the Charleston Gazette ran a lengthy story about Williamson. It’s an inspiring story, and the kind of thing we need more of throughout central Appalachia. And it began with people talking to each other: All those people – and others with their own dreams — started comparing notes. Sometimes they sat around the town’s little coffeehouse and talked. Sometimes they talked at meetings or on the street. They began to see they were working on pieces of the same picture. That was three years ago. “We saw we were all working on improving our quality of life and the local people’s health, and we shouldn’t just be looking at one little piece of the puzzle, like a campground or a 5K or a farmers market,” McCormick said. “Our project became more about the way all these smaller projects are related.” They saw that a health center would bring the city millions of dollars and lots of jobs. The city could help start the regular 5K run/walks Hatfield...

Good forestry pays off for Appalachian forest owners

Appalachia is rich with forest resources, but it's often too costly for landowners to manage their forests sustainably. The Appalachian Carbon Partnership seeks to reward forest stewardship by enrolling landowners in the carbon offset market – and it's paying off! Here's a recent story:  The Appalachian Carbon Partnership (ACP) recently paid seven landowners a total of $39,603 for the carbon stored in their sustainably managed forestland. The seven landowners own 3,254 acres of forestland throughout eastern Kentucky and Virginia. The money to retire the carbon offsets came from a combination of individuals, for-profit and nonprofit organizations and a large offset retirement sale to Stonyfield, an organic yogurt company based in New Hampshire.    “The sale of these managed forest carbon offsets represents an investment in the future of sustainable forest management by private individuals, companies and organizations who want to balance their carbon impact by purchasing offsets,”said MACED forestry program manager Scott Shouse. “Offsetting through the ACP is an easy and cost-effective way for individuals, businesses and organizations to account for their unavoidable emissions while investing in local sustainable development in eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.”   One carbon offset is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide. As trees grow, they take in carbon dioxide and store the carbon as new wood. The oxygen is then released back into the air. Landowners are compensated for the amount of additional carbon that is stored in their forest each year. “The ACP’s philosophy and my philosophy coincides,” said landowner...