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Renewing the Countryside Newsletter
July 2006
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In This Issue
-- This Month's Featured Stories
-- RTC News Flash
-- Resource Pick: Ecoventures
-- Partner Pick of the Month: W.K. Kellogg Foundation: Food Systems & Rural Development -- What We?re Reading: Simply in Season: Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More With Less -- Where We're Going: Green Routes -- Conference Pick: Sustainable Research & Agriculture Education (SARE) -- What Does RTC Do?
Welcome back to the Renewing the Countryside newsletter, designed to provide a monthly toolbox of resources, ideas and inspiration for your own efforts and interests in rural revitalization.
Thank you for your continued support of Renewing the Countryside as we celebrate our fifth anniversary this year. Jan Joannides, Executive Director |
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This Month's Featured Stories --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North House Folk School: Preserving History for a Better
Future
Grand Marais, MN North House Folks School was created to promote and preserve knowledge, skills and crafts of the past and present, and through them, to better understand the future and our role in it. The mission of the North House Folk School is to enrich the lives of individuals and build community by teaching traditional northern crafts in a student-centered learning environment that inspires the hands, the heart and the mind.
Tuscaloosa CSA: Entrepreneurial Agriculture in the Deep
South
In the Deep South, folks are pretty independent-minded, according to Jean Mills of Coker, a town on the western edge of Alabama just outside of Tuscaloosa. So when she and partner Carol Eichelberger enlisted neighbors and friends to come together and be part of their farm community, it was something of a revolutionary act. |
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RTC News Flash --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Youth Renewing the Countryside
As rural populations decline, community leaders across the country find themselves concerned about how to hold on to young residents?and attract young families to rural places. But young people are, in fact, making lives for themselves in rural America?launching new businesses, keeping family farms in production, starting new farms, and becoming involved in their local communities. In its newest book, RTC captures the best stories of hope and youth-led renewal in rural America which will form the basis for a national public education campaign about the role of young people in sustaining and revitalizing rural communities. With current fund-raising and outreach efforts, the RTC Youth Book will hit the shelf in summer 2007. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE) and the USDA are partnering with RTC on this book project. Do you know of a young adult under the age of 35 that would make a good case study profile? Contact Beth at beth@rtcinfo.org or (866) 378-0587 (toll-free) for more details. Renewing the Countryside: Wisconsin Book From organic apple growers to hand-crafted Windsor chairmakers, Wisconsin offers a stimulating cross-section of examples of what?s working today in rural America. Thanks to a generous grant from the Milwaukee-based BRICO Foundation, the next book in the RTC state series will bloom in Wisconsin. With a strong partnership team of the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). the Northern Center for Community and Economic Development (U of WI ? Superior and U of WI ? Extension) and Northland College, over 40 dynamic Wisconsin businesses and organizations will be profiled in this new book with the publication previewed at the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference February 22 ? 24, 2007.
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Resource Pick: Ecoventures ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imagine a world of sustainable communities and sustainable
livelihoods. This driving vision is behind EcoVentures
International, a Washington D.C. based non-profit that assists
this goal through training, mentoring, connecting, and inspiring
people, especially youth, to develop as socially and
environmentally committed entrepreneurs and ambassadors of
sustainable livelihoods. Launched during the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in
2002, EcoVentures leads a number of network and training
opportunities, including The EcoPreneurs Network (EPN), an
intergenerational network that provides learning, capacity-
building and support opportunities for environmental
entrepreneurs.
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Partner Pick of the Month: W.K. Kellogg Foundation: Food Systems & Rural Development --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A long-standing RTC partner, the Food Systems and Rural
Development (FSRD) program within the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation focuses its work in two areas: food systems and
rural development.
Through a variety of grant-making, networking, publications and resources, the rural development program promotes collaborative, comprehensive and inclusive approaches to rural economic development and raises national awareness of rural communities? potential and problems. The food systems aspect focuses on helping meet the needs for a safe and nutritious diet while ensuring that food production systems are environmentally sensitive, economically viable, sustainable over the long term, and socially responsible. |
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What We?re Reading: Simply in Season: Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More With Less --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As seasonal abundance starts to overflow in gardens and at the
local farmers? market, Simply in Season: Recipes that
celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More With Less by
Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
provides recipes and reasons to eat seasonal foods grown
locally. Published through the Mennonite Central Committee
that promotes the understanding of how the food choices we
make affect our lives and the lives of those who produce the
food, Simply in Season compiles the best of 1,600 contributed
recipes. Seasonally organized in a graphically engaging style,
highlighted ingredient lists enable readers to quickly identify
recipes that use what?s currently in local bounty.
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Where We're Going: Green Routes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As your summer travels bring you to Minnesota ? or if you?re
looking for an innovative example of sustainable tourism
marketing ? look to RTC?s new venture: Green Routes.
Green Routes helps travelers incorporate their values into
independent travels by making it easy to find one-of-a-kind
places to eat, play, shop, sleep and learn. This easy-to-use
website brings together community-nominated businesses that
contribute to the local economy, conserve and enhance natural
resources, use sustainably produced or organically grown
products and engage travelers through active, personal and
meaningful participation in the surrounding community, cultures
and ecosystem. Generously funded by the Minneapolis
Foundation, USDA North Central SARE and the Beim
Foundation, this program currently covers Minnesota with the
long-range vision of expanding nationally.
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Conference Pick: Sustainable Research & Agriculture Education (SARE) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 15-17, 2006
Oconomowoc, WI
Make plans now to attend "A Midwest Homecoming: Sharing a New Tradition of Sustainability," this August 15-17, 2006, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The conference is the 4th SARE national and regional gathering that draws together an eclectic mix of university research and extension staff, farmers, ranchers, youth and students, agribusiness representatives, policymakers at all levels of government, and nongovernmental organizations to explore current issues in sustainable agriculture. The conference will feature oral presentations, poster sessions, workshops, roundtable discussions and tours designed to recognize and advance sustainable agriculture throughout the nation. RTC will be presenting on Green Routes, the Youth Book Project and Farm Diversification. |
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What Does RTC Do? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Renewing the Countryside is a 501(c)3 non-profit
that strengthens rural areas by championing and
supporting farmers, artists, entrepreneurs,
educators, activists, and others who are
revitalizing the countryside through innovative
endeavors. We build awareness and support for these
initiatives by collecting and sharing stories of
rural renewal, providing practical assistance and
networking opportunities for those working to
improve rural America, and fostering connections
between urban and rural people.
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. |
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Contact Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
email:
info@rtcinfo.org
phone:
1-866-378-0587
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