Forestry is still ‘critical part’ of eastern Kentucky’s economy...

Long before coal mining dominated eastern Kentucky’s economy, logging was the big business in the region. Stories of log rafts barreling down creeks on their way to the Kentucky River when the water was high and on to the Ohio River still permeate regional folklore. There simply is no way to deny the impact eastern Kentucky’s  natural resources have had on the region’s past and present economy. Our forests may not be as abundant as they once were, but they still can be a driving economic force for the region’s future. MACED’s fourth new strategy brief about the forestry sector explains why: In 2013, the forest industry generated $12.8 billion for Kentucky’s economy and employed more than 27,500 people statewide. In eastern Kentucky, the industry employed more than 5,700 people in 320 businesses in 2011. Pulaski County’s sizable cluster of wood and paper products manufacturers employs more than 1,500 people. In addition to those promising figures, the housing market – the recent crash of which hit the wood products sector hard – is beginning to rebound, the price of hardwood logs is increasing, and the sustainable wood products sector has seen promising growth in recent years. The MACED report points out that “with the right training and technical assistance, eastern Kentucky’s many wood products manufacturers can take advantage of the growing market demand for sustainable wood products.” The economic potential of eastern Kentucky’s forests is not just about wood products manufacturing. From the report: Healthy forests act as “carbon sinks,” crucial for combating climate change. And eastern Kentucky’s headwater...

“Booming” local foods sector needs support to become “economic engine”...

MACED’s third strategy brief – released today – focuses on the local foods movement in eastern Kentucky, which truly is booming. A new farmers market in the region seems to open every summer. Local butcher shops, like JW Farms The Chop Shop in Hazel Green, are increasing interest in locally-sourced meat products. Small eateries and restaurants, like Treehouse Cafe and Bakery in Hazard, Summit City in Whitesburg, and The Blue Raven in Pikeville – all of which source some of their food from local producers – are becoming anchors of Main Street rebirth, and leading the way for others to do the same. It’s all no wonder, given Appalachians’ intimate history with agriculture and local food. Eastern Kentuckians have been subsistence farmers since they first settled this region. In fact, it’s likely the only thing we as a people have done longer than mine coal. To this day, the favorite foods of many Appalachians come from family gardens – fresh, ripe tomatoes with just a touch of salt, white half runner green beans cooked with salt bacon for flavor, new potatoes with a buttery texture that can’t be imitated. They are eastern Kentucky delicacies and staple foods. And now, they could become one of our economic saviors. Creating an infrastructure to better support local farmers and food producers is one of the most logical steps we can take toward revitalizing the region’s economy. It just makes sense to capitalize upon one of our most innate assets and find ways to create opportunities with it. Those...

Energy Efficiency has big potential to create jobs, decrease electricity demand...

MACED’s second strategy brief, “Energy Efficiency,” is out today. It’s a strategy that’s been gaining steam recently across eastern Kentucky, and one that MACED has touted for years through its How$martKY and Energy Efficient Enterprises programs. Among all the strategies MACED will discuss in its strategy brief series, energy efficiency perhaps has the greatest potential right now for large impact because of its current trajectory. From the brief: Sixty-seven percent of homes in Appalachian Kentucky were built before 1990, and 25 percent are mobile homes. This creates an enormous opportunity for energy efficiency retrofits to create jobs and save ratepayers money. Studies have shown that investments in energy efficiency across all of Appalachia could create 77,000 jobs and save more than $21 billion in energy costs. This opportunity and need will continue to grow as rates rise. Amazing things are already happening in the energy sector in eastern Kentucky that have great promise: the expansion of How$martKY, utilities increasing efficiency programs, post-secondary schools across the region increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy classes. But, as MACED points out in its brief,  much more could be done to maximize the impact of energy efficiency, including investing more in energy efficiency programs to bring them to scale and passing legislation that supports energy efficiency, like the Clean Energy Opportunity Act. Eastern Kentucky has led the nation in energy production for decades, and while that era in the region is swiftly coming to an end, a new age of being an energy efficiency...

Eastern Kentuckians ‘born ready’ to hear leaders discuss region’s future...

WFPL reporter Erica Peterson posed an interesting question in a report for Louisville’s public radio station recently: “Can a Kentucky Politician Win By Being Candid About Coal’s Decline?” She reports that Kentucky politics and the coal industry are “intertwined,” and that even though “coal’s fortunes in Kentucky have been declining for decades,” Kentucky leaders and politicians have been publicly “a bit myopic” about coal’s future. It’s true that the coal industry has always dictated politics in eastern Kentucky, and in the state at large. Yes! Magazine reporter Laura Flanders sums up the relationship this way: Replacing coal in coal country is like rewiring a state-sized home. From elections to electricity, the coal economy penetrated every system. Without coal, Appalachia needs not just energy change but systemic change and economic development of massive proportions. This is the change so many people and organizations are actively working toward. But it often seems as if our political leaders aren’t very interested in that change or in fighting for our region’s future – a future with far less coal production. Instead of presenting the region with viable options for a thriving and prosperous future economy, political leaders and candidates are busying themselves declaring their undying love and support for an industry that many – both inside and outside it – have accepted is a shell of its former self, and will never return to its former glory. The region needs leaders who are willing to be bold by telling us the truth. We’re a tough and resilient...

MACED releases five new strategy briefs

Thanks to the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) initiative, there are more ideas than ever surfacing about how best to advance eastern Kentucky’s economy forward. Some of those ideas have real potential to make a lasting and broad-based impact for a high number of people. Some others are unfortunately more of the same ideas that have gotten the region nowhere over the past 50 government-initiative-filled years. The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development has decided to provide some ideas of its own. MACED will release one new strategy brief a week through October 6 at this location. There are five briefs in all, each highlighting a specific sector: Entrepreneurship, Energy, Local Foods, Forestry and Investment. Each brief will outline the current opportunities that exist for each sector. They will then discuss real and tangible ways in which each sector could be better supported by individuals and local, state and federal governments. Those five sectors in particular are key to ensuring eastern Kentucky’s economy becomes successful, sustainable and is put in a much better position to thrive well into the future. They can help us reach a brighter future in eastern Kentucky, a future aimed at an ambitious vision that rests on a set of principles that can help shape how community and economic development strategies are implemented in the region: Create good, diverse and stable jobs and income opportunities; enable meaningful public participation and broad access to benefits; protect and preserve our natural world – water, forests, land and air quality; build...