Debate flares on limits of nature and commerce in National Parks

Furor over a lease to harvest oysters at the Point Reyes National Seashore, as told in this New York Times article, has also drawn in partisans across the country. Playing into an old debate, the question is raised: Are the national parks primarily for preserving untouched wilderness, or for preserving the historic human imprint on the land, too?

Ideas for Badlands Raise Land-Use Fears

Should local residents be involved in land-use decisions made by government?

Federal and state officials are at odds over listing about 12,000 acres of North Dakota Badlands on the National Register of Historic Places to recognize an area that inspired Theodore Roosevelt.

The U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service are pushing for the designation to highlight the significance of the region, where Roosevelt ran his cattle more than a century ago. But ranchers and state officials fear it would hinder development and say local residents were not consulted.

Sense of Taste from a Sense of Place

Blogger April McGreger writes about her personal experiences and the many rewarding aspects of eating locally. In particular, she has enjoyed exploring her own region (North Carolina) in depth. She aptly quotes the wisdom of Wendell Berry, who says, “You’ve got to know where you are. You’ve got to consult the genius of the place.”

McGreger discusses her increased awareness that the food choices she makes are governed by the competing considerations of identity, convenience, price, and responsibility.

Sense of Place, for many people, revolves around not only physical spaces but also the food, community, and culture of a place - be it a house, a city, or a larger geographical region.

Growing the ‘Good Food’ movement - A Conversation with Will Allen

Blogger and grassroots coordinator Erik Hoffner recently caught up with Will Allen who was keynote speaker at the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Annual Conference in Amherst, MA. Allen is founder and CEO of Growing Power, the country’s premier grassroots urban gardening program. He is also a MacArthur Genius Award Winner and former pro-basketball player.

Growing Power demonstrates growing methods through on-site workshops and hands-on demonstrations, and has farms in Milwaukee and Merton, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois, where they grow vegetables, fish, bees, livestock, worms, and more. They have also established satellite training sites in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Mississippi.

Wendell Berry - The Agrarian Standard

Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America was published over thirty years ago; it is still in print and is still being read. As its author, Berry says he is tempted to be glad of this, and yet, if what is said in the book is to be believed - and many do believe it - then we perhaps should be anything but glad.

The book, says Mr. Berry, would have had "a far happier fate if it could have been disproved or made obsolete years ago." This essay is a reflection by Mr. Berry written for Orion Magazine in 2002.