Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Phil Bunch" <pbunch@cox.net>]

Liz:

 

I think you are bringing a very interesting perspective to the list. Rural life is very much about community. Many forces at work in our society often erode community and the awareness of its importance. I think that anything we discuss which helps us pull together to create markets for our produce and other rural productions as well as social structures that provide local satisfactions strengthens us as families and individuals. In the long run the success of an individual depends on the success of their community. I think that thee is no sustainability without vital communities.

 

Phil Bunch

 

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From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Liz
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 8:20 PM
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Additional pressure on food availability

 

At 11:41 AM 12/13/2007, you wrote:

Our daughter has gone to work in McDowell county WV and has a different perspective.  Before she went, I did a little research.  My aunt Helen went to War, WV to teach school after she retired for Kanawha County schools. The reason then was because she saw education as the only way out of the hit and miss economy of the coal fields.  Today over 25% of the residents of McDowell County are disabled.  The reason is black lung disease caused from inhaling coal dust.  These people struggle to breath and are not able to do much in the way of exertion.  However, there are two big changes coming about: the first is the awareness of the local students needing a higher education to find meaningful work.  The second is the population has gone down.  It is really hard to "leave home" to find work, and it often takes help that is not available to facilitate relocating. 

Yes, that's an area I know very well. I didn't mention the disabled population, but they share many elements of vulnerability with the elderly. War and the surrounding areas of McDowell, Mercer and Monroe counties, and the adjacent counties in western Virginia, are prime examples of places where corporate greed has destroyed both the topology of the land and the spirits of many of the formerly independent and hard-working people.

Liz

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