Appalachian Transition Blog

After all the depressing news from the last post, here's something much more uplifting. The New Opportunity School for Women has been helping Appalachian women build their education, skills and self-confidence for 25 years now. Making Connections recently profiled this inspiring work on their radio program. Here's what they have to say:

Women in Central Appalachia are more likely to struggle with unemployment and a lack of educational opportunities than are their male counterparts or women in many other parts of the country. But a small non-profit called the New Opportunity School for Women has spent the past quarter century working to assist women from Central Appalachia overcome the various obstacles that stand in the way of a college education and a career.

Listen to the whole report here. 

Eastern Kentucky lost over 4,000 coal jobs in 2012, and production is down to its lowest levels since 1965. This news comes from the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence, according to a press release issued by MACED today. And you can't blame the so-called "war on coal," because Western Kentucky coal employment stayed steady and its production actually increased 2.5%. The fact is, Central Appalachian coal is more expensive to mine, and its low sulfur content is no longer an advantage, now that most coal plants have adopted modern pollution-control technologies. The federal Energy Information Agency predicts that by 2020, Central Appalachian coal production will decline 70.8% from 2011 levels. These jobs are not coming back. So what's next?

First and foremost, we need leaders who are willing to do the hard work of economic diversification. These layoffs, while tragic, are not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to energy trends. Too many of our elected officials seem to think that if they pass enough coal-friendly laws, Eastern Kentucky coal jobs will magically return. But you can't legislate thicker coal seams or flatter topography. You can't pass laws to make Powder River Basin coal more expensive. 

If it seems like we post a lot of editorials from the Hazard Herald, it's only because they have some great things to say about the need for economic diversification in Eastern Kentucky. This latest piece focuses on the upcoming closure of the Big Sandy coal-fired power plant in Lawrence County. The closure will have a big impact not just on coal-plant jobs, but also on mining jobs. The Big Sandy plant gets its coal exclusively from coal mines in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and it used a lot of it. The editorial quotes the Lawrence County Judge-Executive: “Coal is Kentucky. Coal is West Virginia. I mean that’s just what we live off around these parts," but goes on to say:

In reality, therein lies the problem. Our local economy is a single-minded one....

In Western Kentucky, according to our own reporting, there was a concerted effort to attract more jobs to the coal counties there. As of February 2013, of the counties in the Western Coalfields, only Muhlenberg recorded an unemployment rate of higher than 10 percent. The Western Coalfields’ average rate is 8 percent. And while their coal industry is doing better than ours, they don’t rely solely on coal to prop up their economy.

And neither should we.

It might still be pretty cold across much of Central Appalachia, but planting season has started for many area farmers. In the warmer months ahead, we can look forward to fresh, local produce at the Farmer's Market, in many of our schools and restaurants, and even at some Appalachian colleges. It makes sense for all the same reasons as farm-to-school does - with the added bonus that college students are (hopefully) less picky about fruits and vegetables than grade-schoolers, and college cafeterias often have a more flexible budget to work with. The Roanoke Times recently profiled a Floyd County, VA farm that has begun selling to Ferrum College. 

On March 15, the college announced that Riverstone “will grow crops specifically for Ferrum College, including head lettuces, salad greens and baby spinach, tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, potatoes and carrots.” College President Jennifer Braaten said the partnership with the farm is a good fit for Ferrum, which she said is committed to environmental responsibility and supporting local businesses....

On Tuesday and Wednesday, a group of philanthropists, bankers, government employees and non-profits got together in Asheville, North Carolina for the Appalachia Funders Network gathering.  The Appalachia Funders Network "is a group of public and private grant-makers who envision an entrepreneurial-based Appalachian economy that provides opportunity for all while sustaining the environmental and cultural assets of our region." If you're on Twitter, you might have seen their prolific postings, keeping all of us who weren't there informed about what was going on, which included discussions of access to capital, entrepreneurship and building on our region's numerous assets.

Part of the meeting involved site visits to area enterprises that are working in promising sectors, including entrepreneurship, energy efficiency and local foods. The Daily Yonder profiled a visit to a local food business by the co-chair of the ARC. 

To process their spicy ingredients into sauces, rubs and salsa, the Mowreys take advantage of a community commercial kitchen in Candler. The facility is run by Blue Ridge Food Ventures, and it serves as a sort of business incubator. Numerous individuals and small businesses share the kitchen, lowering the cost and hassle of getting into the industry.