The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia
12 Responsible Consumption and Production

12 Responsible Consumption and Production (48)

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Monday, 09 December 2024 23:42

Edible Abundance Foodscapes @ Green Drinks Knoxville

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, 5:30 p.m. at Albright Grove Brewing Company (2924 Sutherland Ave, Knoxville TN). RSVP on Facebook

To round out this year of great guest speakers we are thrilled to bring on Daniel Aisenbrey, the founder of Edible Abundance Foodscapes. Come hear why every landscape can and should be a foodscape! 

Edible Abundance LandscapesGet inspired by the story and experience of this great local initiative.  Edible Abundance Foodscapes

For Daniel, it all started back in 2012 with a hatchback full of lumber, some borrowed tools and a passion for helping people grow food. In the decade since, Daniel has built on that passion by establishing farms and community gardens, fighting for food access in local government and even managing Knoxville’s top farmers’ market. In 2023, the culmination of that passion and experience burst from the soil as Edible Abundance Foodscapes! When he’s not building your new garden, Daniel (and partner, Beth) run Hey Moon Farm, a family farmstead for sheep, chickens, heirloom produce and two feral children. His favorite weird fruit are kiwiberries.

Green Drinks Knoxville is a social and professional organization that convenes open-minded folks to encourage education and conversation about the environment, green technologies, sustainable lifestyles and more.

Our events are free and open to the public. We welcome all and support racial diversity, gender equality and LGBTQ inclusivity.

Last modified on Monday, 06 January 2025 15:30
Saturday, 21 September 2024 23:21

CANCELED Rural Resources 2024 Incredible Farm Dinner Downtown

Rural Resources The Incredible Farm Dinner DowntownThe annual Incredible Farm Dinner Downtown is a Greeneville tradition celebrating local farms and community. Hosted by Rural Resources Farm & Food Education Center, many local sponsors, business, farms, churches and the Town of Greeneville make this grand event possible. This dinner sells out every year — a testament to its success and the value of the Rural Resources programming it supports.  Rural Resources

 

With the devastation across Greene County, we have decided to cancel this evening’s Incredible Farm Dinner Downtown.

Thanks to your support, we will donate the meals to those displaced, as well as first responders. 

Please join us in praying for Greene County as we all help each other get through this difficult time.

Our Sincerest thanks for your continued support of the Rural Resources Farm Education Center.

Warmest Regards,

The Rural Resources Staff & Board of Directors

GREENEVILLE — This year the superlative annual fundraiser for the Farm & Food Education Center of Rural Resources will benefit Rural Resources’ Teen Training Program. The event will start at 6 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 28 at 615 West Main St. and feature Chef Elise Clair. She is creating a colorful seasonal menu sourced by our Greene County and East Tennessee neighbors.

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, and a graduate of East Tennessee State University, Clair has a solid 25 years of experience in the culinary industry and scratch kitchens. Now with 15 years as vice president of JDD Enterprises, Clair maintains operations for The Main Street Pizza Company locations in Johnson City and Kingsport, River Creek Farm based in Limestone, River Creek Catering, and County Line Pie in Chuckey.

Claire focuses her menus and garden on seasonal Appalachian standards, highlighting local products from other Central Appalachian region growers and producers. On the farm, Clair and her partner maintain a non-certified organic practice fruit and veggie garden across multiple acres.

We invite you to desire, smell, taste and experience the quality of the freshly harvested meal prepared for you at The Rural Resources Incredible Farm Dinner. Hurry to secure your seats at the table!

Last modified on Wednesday, 23 October 2024 14:09

service pnp fsa 8e00000 8e00900 8e00992v“Freedom of Speech.” Norman Rockwell/Library of Congress

Stand up for wildlands, wildlife and water — all threatened by proposed Congressional bills

Dan Ritzman is director of the Sierra Club Conservation Campaign.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our public lands are facing unprecedented threats, and time is running out to protect them. Scientists tell us we need to double the amount of protected lands and waters in America by 2030 to fight the climate and extinction crisis. Congress is pushing through several dangerous bills that could dismantle essential safeguards and open up our natural treasures to devastating exploitation.

Here’s the urgent situation and what we’re fighting against:

  • Fix Our Forests Act (HR 8790): This bill could weaken environmental protections, promote excessive logging and bypass crucial reviews, risking the health of our forests and worsening climate change.
  • Save Our Sequoias Act (HR 2989)While claiming to protect Giant Sequoias, this legislation could actually harm these iconic trees by speeding up logging projects and removing key environmental protections.
  • Forest Information Reform Act (FIR Act) (HR 200) & Senate Bill S 1540: These bills would exempt the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management from critical environmental consultations and reviews, ignoring new information and putting endangered species at risk.
  • Cottonwood S1540: This bill aims to undermine important environmental checks established by previous court decisions, threatening sensitive habitats and wildlife.
  • Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (S1348): This proposal could compromise protections for Wyoming’s public lands, increasing resource extraction and reducing conservation efforts.

Protecting wild places will keep drilling and logging from dumping pollution into the air, sequester emissions, provide protection from extreme weather, homes for wildlife and opportunities for people to enjoy the outdoors together.

Your support today will help ensure that our public lands remain protected for future generations.

Last modified on Saturday, 21 September 2024 00:12
Friday, 13 September 2024 13:40

Join the Rally for the Valley 2.0

TVA protest

NASHVILLE — Join the rescheduled Rally for the Valley on Sept. 21 2024 at Centennial Park for a day filled with fun, music, learning and community spirit.

The rally, organized by the Clean Up TVA Coalition, which includes Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and other allies, calls on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to stop its gas buildout and lead the way to a fossil-free future.

The decisions in front of TVA are significant. They will impact the health and safety of our communities, how much we pay to keep the lights on, and whether we meet our climate targets and achieve energy justice. We are mobilizing with communities from across Tennessee to urge TVA leaders to change course before its too late. 

Are you in? Register today!

Last modified on Saturday, 21 September 2024 23:03
Friday, 13 September 2024 11:11

Don’t hate the diggers. Hate the ginseng game.

Written by

ginsengA ginseng digger works a hollow somewhere in the Appalachians. Traditional ‘sangers’ generally follow centuries-old protocols for sustainable harvest of the plant and pose much less of a threat to ginseng than habitat destruction and extractive industry.  Photos from American Folklife Collection/Library of Congress

Wild ginseng is declining, but small-scale ‘diggers’ aren’t the main threat to this native plant — and they can help save it

This article was originally published by The Conversation. Justine Law is an associate professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies at Sonoma State University.

KNOXVILLE — Across Appalachia, September marks the start of ginseng season, when thousands of people roam the hills searching for hard-to-reach patches of this highly prized plant.

Many people know ginseng as an ingredient in vitamin supplements or herbal tea. That ginseng is grown commercially on farms in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. In contrast, wild American ginseng is an understory plant that can live for decades in the forests of the Appalachians. The plant’s taproot grows throughout its life and sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, primarily to East Asian customers who consume it for health reasons.

Because it’s such a valuable medicinal plant, harvesting ginseng has helped families in mountainous regions of states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio weather economic ups and downs since the late 1700s.

Last modified on Friday, 13 September 2024 23:28

Ginseng life cycleThe long maturation time of American ginseng makes it susceptible to overharvesting. A ban on collecting the plant in Nantahala and Pisgah national forests remains in place.  Illstration: Ohio State Extension Service

Wild populations of the plant remain too low to sustainably harvest

Adam Rondeau is a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.

ASHEVILLE — The Forest Service pause on issuing permits to harvest American ginseng in the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests will remain in place for the 2024 season.

Efforts to restore ginseng populations on both national forests continue. However, wild populations of the plant currently remain too low to sustainably harvest for the foreseeable future. The plant is known as both a folk and medical remedy and preventative for myriad ailments.

“We stopped issuing permits for ginseng harvesting in 2021, when the data began to show a trend toward lower and lower populations each year,” said Gary Kauffman, botanist for the National Forests in North Carolina. “We’re seeing that trend reversing slightly, but ginseng plants take a long time to mature before they reach the peak age to start bearing seeds.”

Native to Western North Carolina forests, wild ginseng is a perennial plant that can live for 60-80 years. It can take up to 10 years before a ginseng plant will start producing the most seeds; however, overharvesting in the past has made older plants increasing rare.

Last modified on Tuesday, 03 September 2024 10:37

Get plugged in to the facts about electric vehicles during SACE webinar

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KNOXVILLE — You’re invited to join a Southern Alliance for Clean Energy webinar, “Understanding EVs: Real People Share Real Stories of Electrifying Their Ride,” at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29. 

A panel of electric vehicle (EV) owners and drivers will share stories and insights from their experiences with EVs. Learn more about what it’s like to own, charge, travel and save money with an EV, plus hear advice from real people who have gone electric! Panelists for this webinar will include: 

HP FactoryHiwassee Bruderhof builds vermicomposting equipment at its manufacturing facility on the grounds of what was Hiwassee College in Monroe County, Tennessee.  Hiwassee Products

Intentional Christian community settles into old Hiwassee College campus

HIWASSEE —­ We gathered in the old Hiwassee College theater to see “Common Ground” and hear from one of the farmers featured in the film.

Members of the new Bruderhof (from the German word, a place of brothers) community in Monroe County sat with us for the screening.

A few folks asked me: “Are you a farmer?”

“No, I am a United Methodist pastor,” I replied. The community is on the old Hiwassee College campus. The Holston Conference closed the college in 2019 and then sold the property to the Bruderhof in 2021

One older gentleman said, “I hoped to sit with a farmer.” I understood that. The community, in addition to being a self-supporting Christian Intentional Community, hoped to sell some of its new equipment to local farmers. Hobby gardeners, like me, would not want to invest the money in the new tools being offered. 

Last modified on Thursday, 08 August 2024 00:31

BushslowfoodSlow Food Tennessee Valley co-founder Sarah Bush picks heirloom tomatoes at Vuck Farm in Riceville.  Élan Young/Hellbender Press

Slow Food ramps up regional food resilience efforts

RICEVILLE On a hot summer day in late June, Sarah Bush, co-founder of Slow Food Tennessee Valley, slices some varieties of tender heirloom tomatoes freshly picked from tall rows of plants strung up in a giant, covered hoop-style greenhouse before serving them on a cutting board with a bit of farm-fresh chevre and basil.

The tomatoes span hues of yellow, red, green and purple, some a solid color or slightly striped and bearing intriguing names not found in grocery stores: striped Heart, Cherokee evergreen, chocolate stripe and Valencia. The flavor combinations explode into farm-to-table bliss. 

The tomatoes are especially terrific for a reason: Bush, 46, has practiced regenerative farming since she was 28.

Mentored by other small farmers around the country who taught her how to exist and thrive in an economy that favors Big Ag, she now splits her time between Vuck Farm, a biodynamic farm in Riceville owned by her partner TJ Teets, and managing the produce department at Three Rivers Market in Knoxville — Tennessee’s only cooperative grocery.

She also serves on the planning committee for CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training), which is run by the Southeastern Tennessee chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition 

Not a bougie supper club

Founded in 2008, the Tennessee Valley chapter of Slow Food is the only chapter in the state that has remained active since its founding. 

A little more than two decades earlier in 1986, thousands of Italians gathered at the base of the sprawling Piazza di Spagna in the center of Rome to protest the country’s first McDonald’s restaurant. Slow Food’s founder, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, was among them. Instead of bringing a sign with a slogan, Petrini brought a big bowl of penne pasta to share with the crowd chanting We don’t want fast food. We want Slow Food! Three years later the movement became an official organization and today spans 160 countries

Last modified on Tuesday, 27 August 2024 21:50

Duck River 023 2048x1366 John McEwan, whose family has lived on the banks of the Duck River since the 1860s, skips stones on the Duck River. Environmental groups fear excessive demand is fueling drawdowns that are affecting the rich biodiversity of the Middle Tennessee river.&nsp; Tennessee Lookout/John Partipilo

Long time residents and conservation groups say industry lured by the state, population growth are draining water from a river prized for its biodiversity

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

COLUMBIA ­­— When Gov. Bill Lee announced the state had lured a General Motors lithium battery supplier to Spring Hill three years ago, it was his largest economic announcement to date:

A $2.6 billion corporate investment; 1,300 new jobs; a major stepstone along Tennessee’s path to become an EV hub — helped along by a then-record $46,000 per job in taxpayer incentives.

The factory deal’s less conspicuous specs — its continuous need for 1.4 million gallons of water per day — is now figuring in a larger battle pitting citizens and conservation groups against state environmental regulators.

Last month, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) granted permission to Columbia Power and Water Systems — which pumps water to the new Ultium Cells plant — to increase its current withdrawals from the Duck River by 60 percent.

It’s one of eight water companies along the Duck River seeking to dramatically increase water draws to meet rising demands for water in the rapidly growing five-county region southwest of Nashville. 

Last modified on Friday, 24 May 2024 16:10
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