This month's newsletter is chock full of useful resources-- whether you're working to preserve your rural downtown (scroll down to "The New Rules Project"!) or you're interested in travel that benefits the community you visit (learn about the 1st Minnesota Sustainable Tourism Conference, coming this spring!).

Or maybe you're just in the mood for a movie that makes you feel hopeful about the future of rural America (don't miss our review of The Real Dirt on Farmer John!). Whatever has you interested in Renewing the Countryside, we hope you'll find something helpful in our newsletter, and if you think of something we didn't, be sure to let us know!

People living in houses built entirely out of recycled newspaper and phonebook--using chairs that, if broken, can be smashed to a pulp only to be crafted into another chair-- landfills never receiving another piece of paper again--welcome to the future as proposed by Stan Shetka, creator and head of All Paper Recycling, Inc. (APR Inc.) and professor of art at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Read the rest of the story...

Suburbia in Bloom: The Story of Oberle Botanical
Fort Collins, Colorado

Suburban sprawl may not jump to mind as a hotbed for new agriculture start-ups, but Oberle Botanical blooms strong and solid in the heart of Fort Collins, Colorado. Run by Matt and Sue Oberle, this diversified operation blends a variety of horticulture ventures with a commitment to keeping things local and using sustainable agriculture methods.

Read the rest of the story...

This spring, the University of Minnesota Tourism Center is hosting the 1st Minnesota Conference on Sustainable Tourism. Whether you?re in the hospitality industry, or are a community leader, resident, student, or elected official, we hope you?ll join us for this unique opportunity to meet regional, national, and international experts, and share your practical examples, ideas, and strategies.

The event is scheduled for April 20, 2006. For registration information, go to the U of M's Tourism Center's website: http://www.tourism.umn.edu.

Funding for Two New Green Routes Initiatives

Thanks to generous funding from the Emma B. Howe Memorial Foundation, Renewing the Countryside will hold 7 regional workshops in Minnesota, designed to provide businesses with information and training about incorporating more environmentally sound practices into their business strategies. Renewing the Countryside will also work with Green Routes communities to develop and implement tours for media and policymakers in order to showcase their regions? existing assets and call attention to initiatives, events, and policies that impact rural communities and the role sustainable tourism can play in these communities.

In a section called ?The Hometown Advantage,? The New Rules Project?s website showcases hundreds of real-life policy examples?on local, state, and national levels, as models for communities to follow. For instance, you?ll learn how the town of Greenfield, Massachusetts came to require big new retail stores to undergo special impact studies?paid for by the developer?which look into the project?s impact on traffic, public revenue, the environment, the local economy, and the community overall.

The site also provides an easily navigated index of ?rules? throughout the country that pertain to community development ?from rules about ownership of energy to rules about governance, retail, the environment, and taxation.

Find out about The New Rules Project and ILSR?s other projects

Through the Partnerships, which operate in Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Central, and West Central Minnesota, citizen leaders work to address community-identified agriculture, natural resources, and tourism issues in partnership with University of Minnesota faculty, staff, and students. The Partnerships catalyze and support research, demonstration, education, and organizing projects that will enhance the social, economic, and environmental well-being of communities throughout greater Minnesota by strengthening the natural resource-based industries on which their regions rely.

Learn more about the Partnerships...

Most likely, it was the way that after a recent Minneapolis screening of the film, he charmed his way through the after-party I attended, leaving grins and hopeful faces in his wake. Whatever it was?I?m hooked, and John?s story will stick with me for a while.

John Peterson is a 55 year-old organic farmer, writer, artist, and all-around whimsical soul who has witnessed the rise, fall, and resurrection of rural America in his own backyard. A 3rd generation Illinois farmer, John inherited his Dad?s corn and soybean operation before he was twenty, hardly flinching as he stepped into his Dad?s hard-to-fill shoes. When the trials of the 1980s forced him to auction off most of the farm, John?s life took a dark turn. To watch him reflect on these years is to mourn the million hearts that broke during the 1980?s farm crisis.

But what makes The Real Dirt such an outstanding film, in addition to the incredible archive of footage it draws from (dating back to John?s early childhood), is its heartfelt rally cry for the future of rural America. Despite the shadow of his failures, and the spite of his neighbors, John Peterson resurrected his farm?pouring half a lifetime of loss, loneliness, and dreams into a bucket of compost tea, and sprinkling it over his hard-won land.

John?s farm, Angelic Organics (which is profiled on our website!) is the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation in the country, and hosts a CSA Learning Center for aspiring growers. It?s become a mecca for the organic movement, and with its big, beautiful, rebuilt timber frame barn, it stands as a monument to a bright new era of love and appreciation for good food, grown from healthy relationships between consumer and farmer, farmer and land. No wonder the soil tastes so good.

--by Andi McDaniel

Find out where The Real Dirt is playing in your area...

A trip to the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee, is an excursion both into the cultural history of the Mississippi Delta region and into quintessential ?southern hospitality.? Whether you?re a blues connoisseur or a lost tourist, the Center staff provide an excellent introduction to the colorful history and present day culture of Memphis and the Mississippi Delta.

The Center for Southern Folklore is the only organization in the Memphis/Mid South region devoted exclusively to preserving and promoting regional culture. For nearly 35 years, this combination cultural hub and historical archive has showcased the lifestyles, people, and history of the South. Through public events, performances, exhibits and media that creatively present folk culture to audiences of all ages, the Center is preserving and promoting the music, culture, art, and rhythms of the South.

Judy Peiser, Executive Director of the Center for Southern Folklore, co-founded the Center in 1972 to document the people and traditions of the South. 10 years later, the Center sponsored the first Mid-South Folklife Festival and this year will host the 19th annual Memphis Music and Heritage Festival

While the Center has consistently been an outlet for local artists and musicians, its edible fare should not be overlooked. Some of their more popular traditional southern delicacies include savory hot water cornbread and awesome peach cobbler, made from fresh peaches, on-site, by Ella Kizzie.

If you?re lucky, you?ll get to hear some live music too.

Center for Southern Folklore, 119 S. Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee, Phone: (901) 525-3655

Visit their website...

As always, you can support our work by purchasing books from the Renewing the Countryside store. We're grateful to the Beim Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Emma B. Howe Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and North Central SARE, for contributing to our work.

Find out more about Renewing the Countryside...