The sun is shining on those who want more competition in the N.C. energy marketplace. A series of bills recently introduced into the state legislature aim to diversify the energy business through independent solar sources and provide incentive for energy efficiency through a tiered rate system.
Cherokee is a community in flux. Decadeslong high poverty and unemployment rates are beginning to decline, but access to healthy food remains limited and cultural values seem to be changing. “It’s Western civilization versus our traditional Cherokee ways,” say community leaders. But community efforts are using gardens to reconnect the Cherokee people to local food, health and a collective heritage defined by knowledge of the earth.
Apitherapy — or bee therapy — is considered more anecdotal than scientific by much of the medical community. But local practitioners say bees can have a dramatic effect on healing — from the treatment of arthritis to recovery from trauma.
From the rancher with the cowboy hat and lasso to the grower on the tractor gazing out over the cornfield, our idea of a farmer is most often of a male — specifically an older, white male. In many ways, statistically speaking, that image isn’t wrong — but it may be changing. Diversity in agriculture is growing in WNC. Who are these new farmers? What challenges are they facing? And what new perspectives will they bring to agriculture in WNC?
