Love Letter to Appalachia

This week, the Hazard Herald wrote a love letter to its host city, Hazard. We liked the idea, and thought we would write our very own love letter to Appalachia. Dear Appalachia, Many people from many places have had many things to say about you. To them, you are a “dark and bloody ground,” a “strange land of peculiar people,” an isolating place of imprisoning power. Don’t listen to them, Appalachia, because to us, you are a “River of Earth,” a place of great potential, and our home. We can see all that you have to offer: lush mountain forests; rich cultural heritage flowing through music, art and story telling; resources that power the nation; and strong, proud people who open wide in welcome and work hard for community. You are modest, but we both know how truly incredible you are. You’ve lived a hard life, Appalachia, but you’ve persevered through it all. There has been feast and famine, literally and figuratively, in food, ideas and people. But you are strong, and resilient, and it’s hard to keep a good region down. Times have been especially hard lately, Appalachia. You’ve stuck with your sometimes dear, sometimes strained, companion, Coal, through many a threat of leaving. But this economy, this world in which we now live, and the rising importance of other resources is all forcing Coal’s hand. It’s leaving, and you’re left to pick up the pieces. We know the hole Coal creates is a hard one to fill....

New Appalachia Proud program could boost eastern Kentucky agriculture...

Eastern Kentucky’s local food and agriculture sector has struggled to match the progress seen by its neighbors in West Virginia, southeast Ohio and southwest Virginia. But yesterday, Kentucky’s agriculture secretary, James Comer, unveiled a new brand and program that could give the region’s small farmers a leg up. “Appalachia Proud: Mountains of Potential” is a new brand that falls under the statewide “Kentucky Proud” label. Along with the new branding opportunity, Appalachia Proud wants to work with area universities to develop “niche agricultural products” and Farm to Campus programs, as well as reviving Future Farmers of America and farm-to-school programs at eastern Kentucky schools. (The plan also calls for “Economic Freedom Zones” in the region, a problematic proposal that we’ll explore in a later blog post.) Place-based branding is an important part of developing a local food economy. For consumers inside the region, it helps to know that what they’re buying comes from nearby and supports the local economy. For buyers outside the region, an Appalachian brand sells a sense of place and connection to heritage foodways. Other Appalachian regions already have their own brands, including Food We Love in southeast Ohio, Appalachian Harvest in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, Greenbrier Valley Grown in West Virginia, and Appalachian Grown in eastern North Carolina. For a place-based brand to work well, the customer must be able to trust the standards of that brand, according to a study commissioned by the Central Appalachian Network. The promotional material for Appalachia Proud states that...

Appalachian Snow

Much of central Appalachia is getting walloped by a winter storm. We're hearing reports of over a foot of snow in some places! These pictures come to us from Pam Brashear in Perry County, Kentucky. Certainly beautiful, but we hope everyone's staying safe and warm.                           ...

Ken Ward Jr. on the West Virginia Chemical Spill

It's been weeks and West Virginia is still struggling with the aftermath of the massive chemical spill that poisoned the drinking water of over 300,000 residents. Ken Ward, Jr. of the Charleston Gazette has been providing top-notch coverage of the spill, and continues to ask the tough questions about why it happened and who's responsible. He recently had an interview with NPR's Fresh Air, where he discussed the catastrophe and the problems with lax oversight and regulation of industrial chemicals: On Jan. 9, people in and around Charleston, W.Va., began showing up at hospitals: They had nausea, eye infections and some were vomiting. It was later discovered that around 10,000 gallons of toxic chemicals had leaked into the Elk River, just upstream from a water treatment plant that serves 300,000 people. Citizens were told not to drink or bathe in the water, and while some people are now using water from their taps, many still don't trust it or the information coming from public officials. Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies that the spill included "a chemical called crude MCHM, which was sold by a company called Freedom Industries — sold to coal companies for use in the process of cleaning and washing the impurities out of coal before they ship that coal to market." For Ward, the episode is far more than the story of an accident and a cleanup: Ward says the spill and the sometimes confusing information authorities have provided about the risks to citizens...