An overview of South Georgia Growing Local—coming up on
February 6, 2016 at Pine Grove Middle School — supporting
local farmers, finding access to clean foods, learning how to being
a garden or cook with fresh local ingredients.
You can register online or print and mail the registration form you’ll find through that link.
Schedule and Continue reading
Layered gardens as ecosystems that have persistent community and environmental benefits: permaculture.
Description: We will be discussing how permaculture practices with
an emphasis on land stewardship and building communities.Who should attend: Anyone interested in community gardens,
permaculture, and environmental philosophy.“Benjamin Vieth has a BA in Continue reading
Her students Carol and Jerry Baskin wrote for the
July 2014 Southeastern Biology newsletter of
The Association of Southeastern Biologists,
OBITUARY: Professor Elsie Quarterman: In Memorium, 1910-2014
Dr. Elsie Quarterman known fondly to her students as EQ passed away
on 9 June 2014 at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of
103 years. She was born on 28 November 1910 in Valdosta, Georgia.
Dr. Quarterman obtained her B. A. degree from Georgia State Women’s
College (now Valdosta State University) in 1932, Continue reading
Received 13 June 2014 and permission to publish granted today. -jsq
From: J Richard Carter
To: Patrick QuartermanI am very sorry to hear about Dr. Quarterman. She was a remarkable
person. I started graduate school at Vanderbilt in 1978, a few
years after Dr. Quarterman retired, so I didn’t have the privilege
of taking her courses. However, she was still very much a presence
in the department, attending seminars and interacting with faculty
and students informally in the departmental conference room.I also
remember that she very kindly gave me a set of reprints of
her classic Continue reading
The Vieths will talk about gardens that continue to grow season after season, at
South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
Permaculture is a regenerative and sustainable food production
design system combining bio-mimicry with local food system
knowledge. The scalability of permaculture lends itself applicable
to everyone from beginner gardeners to seasoned farmers. Our
presentation will focus on how we can apply permaculture principles
to our homes and gardens, no matter the size of your space.
Their conference bios: Continue reading
Bryan Walsh writes in Time that
Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Green Movement:
Even as traditional environmentalism struggles, another movement is
rising in its place, aligning consumers, producers, the media and even
politicians. It’s the food movement, and if it continues to grow it may be
able to create just the sort of political and social transformation that
environmentalists have failed to achieve in recent years. That would mean
not only changing the way Americans eat and the way they farm — away
from industrialized, cheap calories and toward more organic, small-scale
production, with plenty of fruits and vegetables — but also altering
the way we work and relate to one another. To its most ardent adherents,
the food movement isn’t just about reform — it’s about revolution.
Food is something that affects everybody, and now that people are
starting to realize that the mainstream food supply is poisoned:
Opportunity knocks, and
what does Georgia do?
President Barack Obama’s plans for a national high-speed rail network is bittersweet for Georgia.
The state is now eligible to win millions of dollars in federal funds for high-speed rail projects.
But transportation advocates say Georgia is so far behind neighboring states that the best it can hope for is money to fund more studies.
Who are these un-named “transportation advocates”? Sounds like they’re
“paving is progress” advocates.
Oh, my:
The department says it is changing. It has recently hired Erik Steavens
to oversee rail projects, and he said he will push for a rail line
linking Atlanta to Chattanooga.
Changing from thinking paving to thinking small. That’s change that
will miss a great opportunity.
Actually
even worse than thinking small:
The only other rail project, with guaranteed cash available, is a line from Atlanta to Chattanooga that was part of a 2000 bill from the state legislature, HB 1348. In fact, the bill, which was passed when the Democrats last controlled the State House, contains plans for several lines around the state, but only the Atlanta-Chattanooga high-speed track is specifically guaranteed funding “should federal or private funds be made available for such high speed rail.”
Unfortunately for Georgia legislators, though, President Obama’s rail plans do not include a line between the two southern cities, meaning that if the state still wants to build that line, it needs to come up with the money itself.
Up until the 1950s Georgia had a rail system that connected almost every
town in the state.
The rails
from Atlanta through Macon and Valdosta to JAX
are still there, and
in use constantly for freight. Sure, Valdosta would have to build
a station, but those are not complicated. And somebody would have to
convince CSX to share the rails. But
JAX already did that for commuter rail,
so it’s possible.
5 million people in Atlanta, 3/4 million in Jacksonville, and Valdosta halfway in between….
If the same entities that repeatedly banded together to keep Moody Air Force Base
(VLD, Lowndes County, VSU, state and national reps and senators, etc.)
lobbied DoT (state and federal), they could do this thing.
They could even use the rail line to Barretts to run commuter rail to
Moody while they’re at it.
Here’s a chance for Valdosta and Lowndes County to lead the state
in making real progress.
