Amber Eady wrote for WALB, Deal requests disaster designation for Lowndes County:
Gov. Deal sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking that 22 Georgia counties be declared disaster areas because of Georgia’s ongoing drought.
Lowndes County was on that list of 22 counties that Deal wants to be declared as disaster areas.
-gretchen
Lots of people and vendors last Saturday, buying local food in downtown Valdosta!
Every other Saturday around the historic Lowndes County Courthouse
is
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days, 9AM to 1PM, May through September.
It’s organized by
Valdosta Main Street.
Amanda Peacock and shy Mara Register
explain what’s going on
at the beginning of this
playlist showing most of the vendors and the general atmosphere of community festival.
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days Grows 4 June 2011 Part 2 of 2:
, Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Still pictures in the flickr set.
-jsq
Jeremy Redmon wrote in the AJC 27 May 2011, Governor asks state to probe farm labor shortages
State officials confirmed Friday that they have started investigating the scope of Georgia’s agricultural labor shortages following complaints that the state’s new immigration enforcement law is scaring away migrant farmworkers.Gov. Nathan Deal asked for the investigation Thursday in a letter to Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. Deal wants Black’s department to survey farmers about the impact Georgia’s immigration law, House Bill 87, is having on their industry and report findings by June 10.
The labor shortages have sent farmers scrambling to find other workers for their fall harvests. Others are making hard choices about leaving some fruits and vegetables to wilt on their fields.
Proponents of HB 87 say people who are in the country legally have nothing to worry about concerning the new law. They hope the law that takes effect July 1 will deter illegal immigrants from coming here and burdening the state’s taxpayer-funded public schools, hospitals and jails.
However, I have seen suggestions that the state send taxpayer-funded
prisoners to do the agricultural labor.
Should we go back to slave labor on plantations?
Better: we don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County. Spend that money on education instead.
-jsq
Migrant farmworkers are bypassing Georgia because of the state’s tough new immigration enforcement law, creating a severe labor shortage among fruit and vegetable growers here and potentially putting hundreds of millions of dollars in crops in jeopardy, agricultural industry leaders said this week.Who could have predicted such a thing?
Anyway, how is it going? Continue reading
Downtown Valdosta Farm Days begin two weeks from tomorrow:
Bringing the best of the country to the heart of the City!There’s a calendar on their website, along with how to become a vendor.Downtown Valdosta Farm Days is a bi-weekly farmers’ market featuring local farmers and artisans and also serves to educate the community about eating local, nutrition and food choices.
Downtown Farmers Market
First and Third Saturdays from May to September
9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Lowndes County Courthouse Square, Downtown Valdosta
More on this story as it develops.
-jsq
Mara Register came to the Lowndes County Commission regular meeting
to talk about Downtown Valdosta Farm Days,
following up from the
Farm Days organizational meeting Monday.
I think her main points were:
Where? The parking spaces around the historic courthouse.
No livestock. Local produce. Here’s video of the first part of what she said.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Logistics, such as no cooking, because Continue reading
I applaud the activism of
the many and varied biomass opponents!
Let me repeat my prediction: the biomass plant will never be built.
That’s no reason to stop doing what you’re doing.
You know opposition is having an effect when
VLCIA repeatedly denies it.
You might be surprised how many other people think this plant will never be built. Ashley Paulk told me Continue reading
Carol Hazard wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 21, 2011,
Organic, natural food catching on:
U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages grew from $1 billion in 1990 to $24.8 billion in 2009, according to the Organic Trade Association.The article didn’t link to the study, but here it is: Industry Statistics and Projected Growth.The sector saw double-digit growth — often more than 20 percent — every year over the past decade except 2009, at the tail-end of the recession. Even then, organic sales rose 5.9 percent from the previous year while total food sales increased only 1.6 percent.
Further from the Times-Dispatch article:
National grocers are pumping up their organic and natural food selections. Even Wal-Mart and its Sam’s Club warehouse division are paying attention.Continue reading
It’s like denying the earth goes around the sun. Why would they identify with such a silly thing? Because of what actually dealing with climate change would mean: Continue readingAnd the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue on the right. People are defining themselves, like they’re against abortion, they don’t believe in climate change. It’s part of who they are.
It’s a really great speech and still relevant 45 years later.
This is just a little excerpt:
In the last few decades entire new categories of waste have come to plague and menace the American scene. These are the technological wastes–the by-products of growth, industry, agriculture, and science. We cannot wait for slow evolution over generations to deal with them.Continue readingPollution is growing at a rapid rate. Some pollutants are known to be harmful to health, while the effect of others is uncertain and unknown. In some cases we can control pollution with a larger effort. For other forms of pollution we still do not have effective means of control.
Pollution destroys beauty and menaces health. It cuts down on efficiency, reduces property values and raises taxes.
The longer we wait to act, the greater the dangers and the larger the problem.