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BULLETIN BOARD Radioactive sunshine: Governor McDonnell’s uranium work group—tasked with studying the potential ups and downs of proposed uranium mining and milling in Southside Virginia—has had its ground rules altered. Now the group is required to allow more opportunities for public input and to make summaries of its findings available throughout the process. Good, but not great, the Piedmont Environmental Council told the Richmond Times Dispatch: Transcripts would be better. Cash crop: Farmers with old machinery sitting around in their fields can make decent money recycling it, since scrap metal prices are unusually high these days, according to the Virginia Farm Bureau. A container-load of steel and iron might fetch $1,000, and aluminum and copper are worth even more. Derelict buildings with metal roofs are another common source of scrap. Seeds of knowledge: All Virginia state parks are holding special events for National Trails Day June 2. At Lake Anna State Park, there’s a free guided hike from 11am to 2pm on which a tree expert will lead hikers through the forest, explaining how various trees reproduce. See dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks for more info.
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I was walking in the woods today, searching for a lost goat. I had with me a feed bucket, a packet of grain, and a dog leash. It was a little hot for May, and the air was heavy with rain. But the woods smelled good—almost floral, in places.
I’d never walked in these woods before, though they’re right across the road from my house. There’d never been an excuse to trespass before today. Stepping across that invisible boundary—what’s mine, what’s someone else’s—felt delicious, as the land opened its secrets to me, the folded slopes and the old stone wall above the creek and the broken-down trailers listing toward the ground. The walk filled in what had always been a blank space in my mental map. I happened to be under a beech tree’s dense canopy when the rain started, and stayed almost perfectly dry.
That said, I didn’t find our goat. Banging the bucket—a sound she associates with treats—and shouting through the quiet trees failed to make her appear.
As I prepare to hand over the editorship of this page to Graelyn Brashear—and to retire from writing this column and its sister blog on c-ville.com, Green Scene—I’m looking for a handy metaphor to sum up what I’ve learned from all this eco-writing. Here’s one try. Making a sustainable life (as an individual or—why not?—a society) is like the unsuccessful goat hunt. Lots of times, you fall short, and the larger goal feels discouragingly out of reach.
But you learn about where you’re standing. And there’s a lot of beauty along the way.—Erika Howsare
Turkeys and foxes and bears—oh my!
A natural history center has been part of the mission of Nelson County’s Rockfish Valley Foundation since it formed in 2005, and under the guidance of a board of trustees and with the help of local volunteers, the Foundation will open the Rockfish Valley Natural History Center on Saturday, June 16.
Foundation president Peter Agelasto said Nelson County’s natural resources and historic geology make it one of the “more interesting places in the state,” and the Foundation’s focus is on the education and preservation of the area’s natural history.
The board and the executive director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, located in Martinsville, agreed to help create a pilot museum, and worked out a plan to move Martinsville exhibits to the new Rockfish Valley Natural History Center, housed in the former Wintergreen Country Store on Route 151.
“They have resources to create really interesting exhibits,” said Angelasto, adding that he hopes the center will eventually get enough momentum and support to create its own permanent exhibits. The challenge will be to continue attracting volunteers and donations, he said, because they don’t have any paid staff.
The center’s inaugural exhibit will feature a number of hands-on materials and activities for children, like animal pelts, a dugout canoe, and camouflage face-painting, as well as displays of native animals, including a giant black bear, wild turkeys, and fish. Agelasto said the first exhibit will include “lots of education about living off the land, for people who are so used to just going to the grocery store.”
Special features of the center will include a virtual classroom connecting viewers to a curator and researcher at the museum in Martinsville, and outdoor activities that go hand-in-hand with the indoor exhibits, like geocaching and other trail puzzles.
“We think we’re a very important part of the Nelson 151 Trail,” said Angelasto. The Nelson 151 Trail is home to seven wineries, three breweries, a number of bed and breakfasts, and Wintergreen Resort, and he said the Center will offer a unique, well-rounded experience for tourists who come to the area for other attractions.
“People should not come out here without enjoying the trails and exhibits at the Natural History Center,” Angelasto said.—Laura Ingles
Growers and eaters together
Several small family farms started the Firsthand Farmers Cooperative last year. We operate a diverse CSA program in Charlottesville and Lexington. I was asked recently about my reasons for founding this alliance, and realized the present and future of farming food informed my answer.
In the global economic system, there is little future for independent small farmers. The movement of capital and gaining profit supersede the needs of those who produce and eat real food, and small farmers struggle to remain financially solvent in the face of food commodification and corporatization. In other parts of the world, particularly India, many farmers commit suicide, driven to debt and despair by global trade of food and agricultural inputs like GMO seeds and fertilizer. In the U.S., few small farmers can support a family on farm income alone.
Globally, farming and craft communities trend toward cooperative organizing because there is greater security and ability in guilds of craftspeople to reach markets and provide mutual support. (In recognition of this movement towards cooperation, the United Nations has declared 2012 the “Year of the Cooperative.”)
The Charlottesville area is an excellent place to be a farmer because many eaters are enthusiastic about good food and support our craft—one based on skilled work, blessed by serendipity, and supported by community. The value of this craft goes far beyond the monetary trade. Eaters realize the benefits of our food: excellent nutrition, better health for people and the environment, a stronger local economy, and a more cohesive community.
By developing collaborations between small farmers and happy eaters, we strengthen this good food movement. It is incumbent upon small farmers growing for local eaters to provide the finest food we can, and to set an example for the way we wish our community to organize and revolve around food. We encourage our community to become involved with its farmers and to choose food that has value beyond what is paid for it.
We develop our alliances and community-based models of interdependence, such as cooperatives and CSAs, with the intention of providing excellent experiences for farmers and eaters. We farmers and eaters are in this for a lifetime; let’s plan and work together to increase our benefits. Ask your farmer how you can become more involved, or suggest ways in which your farmer can engage your community. By innovating together, we can overcome challenges faced from those corporate entities we do not wish to emulate or support, and provide great food to a wider more connected community.—Mark Jones
Mark Jones grows mushrooms and useful plants at Sharondale Farm in Cismont, Virginia, and is a founding member of the Firsthand Farmers Cooperative.