Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Snack for thought...


As a follow-up to my earlier post regarding farm labor and food systems, I wanted to point to the Fair Food Project. This is a joint endeavor by photographer Rick Nahmias, who is probably best known for his social justice photography on The Migrant Project, and the California Institute for Rural Studies, which conducted the study on labor practices on organic farms that I referenced in my earlier post.

Nahmias and CIRS have collaborated on a series of short documentaries to show the dire straits that many U.S. farm laborers live in. Further, the documentaries explore ways to improve the American food system to make it more just for workers. According to the Fair Food Project site:

Through the stories and voices of farmworkers, growers, businesses and fair food advocates, viewers learn about the harsh realities of farmworker conditions and, more importantly, the promise of improved farm labor practices in American agriculture. The growing movement for “fair food” is tapping into rising consumer demand for food produced in accordance with their values.

Those of you who are curious about these issues may want to check out the videos to become better informed. Part One, "The Farmworkers," identifies the problems with the current agricultural system through photographs and interviews.



Parts Two and Three, "The Growers" and "The Advocates" looks at possible solutions and provides insight into organizations, businesses, chefs, and students who are committed to supporting fair labor conditions. The Fair Food Project's site itself provides resources on buying locally and finding/demanding more fair trade food options in our every day lives.





Hope you'll check it out!

*Note: For some reason the videos seem to embed off-center. The videos can also be found on the Fair Food Project homepage if you would like to watch them - including in HD!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

More Rural Prison Debate: Thomson, IL


Today's New York Times ran a story about the small rural town of Thomson, Illinois faced with the prospect of housing Guantanamo Bay inmates in its local prison. Thomson is located in Carroll County, right on the Mississippi River.

Map of Thomson, IL


Map of Carroll County, IL

Much like the other prison town stories found on this blog (see here and here), there is a combination of fear and desperation amongst the residents of the city. On the one hand, they're uncomfortable with the idea of having terrorist in their midst:

“It’s the terrorist-type thing that gets me,” said Donald L. Pauley, 64, who said he felt queasy at the notion of such prisoners being kept here, 150 miles west of Chicago, a place where everyone acknowledges that signs describing the population as 600 are overestimates by now.

Yet, on the other hand, Thomson residents deeply desire a boost to their local economy:

But, in one example of the split that is playing out all over this village, even within houses, Mr. Pauley’s wife, Merrie Jo, said she was firmly behind the idea of turning over the Thomson Correctional Facility, a barely used state prison, to federal authorities, in part for those from Guantánamo.

“We need the jobs,” Ms. Pauley, who was the village president here for 27 years, said as she and Mr. Pauley dined at the Sunrise Restaurant, one of the few restaurants still open in an area where unemployment was 10.5 percent in September. “This place has been changing, and we’ve been going in the wrong direction.”

Thomson Correctional Facility

The article also brings up issues of anonymity, rural brain drain and population loss - all things we've spent a lot of time discussing in class this semester.

The notion that a terrorism suspect could slip away into Thomson without notice was unimaginable to Ms. Pauley, who added, “If a stranger comes around here, everyone knows within 20 minutes, believe me.”

Leaders in Illinois have said moving the prisoners here could bring as many as 3,200 jobs to the area. They also say they believe federal officials are looking at prisons in Colorado and Montana; and in August, federal officials toured a maximum-security state prison in Michigan that was closed this fall because of budget cuts.

The prospect of housing terrorism suspects in Thomson has reopened a battle over the prison that began years ago.

In the 1990s, residents were divided over whether a state prison should be put here in the first place. Some said it would disrupt the quiet village once known for the watermelons grown on its farmland. Others said the jobs were desperately needed, particularly given the closings of several industrial plants, even before the national recession, and of so many businesses — two grocery stores, the five-and-dime, a barber, a pool hall — that old-timers fondly recall.

“Like most rural places, people just went away,” said Lee Schmidt, 92, who described the Guantánamo prison proposal as “lousy.”

The original prison debate was intense, sometimes personal, residents say; Ms. Pauley, who was village president then and supported the idea, said some people boycotted the ice cream shop she owned at the time. Some business owners along Main Street still refuse to speak publicly about the prison, saying they fear losing business.

Much like what we saw in "Prisontown," building a prison in rural Illinois hasn't been all its cracked up to be:

By 2001, the prison — beige, pristine, surrounded by electrified fence and able to hold at least 1,600 prisoners, maybe more — was built, at a cost to the state of some $120 million. But then it sat. No prisoners came. Year after year, local leaders here said, the state said it could not pay to operate the place. In 2006, about 200 minimum-security inmates were finally moved here, but that gave jobs to only about 70 people.

Over the years, too, there have been new hopes raised, then dashed. Not long ago, local leaders said, an older state prison was rumored to be closing, and there was talk that all the prisoners would come here. Some locals even trained to become guards. But the move never happened.

Consequently, this new push towards housing Guantanamo inmates in Thomson is creating a community-wide debate on the long-term effects this move will have to the community. Beyond the logistics of transporting inmates, residents are asking really important questions about long-range growth:

On both sides of the issue, there are questions. Some opponents of moving Guantánamo inmates to the prison here wondered aloud: How would they be transported safely? Might they target Chicago, for its tall buildings? Would they draw family members and friends to the area?

Supporters wondered: How many jobs will this really mean? How many businesses will move in to serve that many prison workers? How much will the federal authorities pay the state?

The Obama Administration hasn't made a final decision yet, but whatever the decision, it looks like it will be bittersweet for the 600 residents of Thomson. As questioned above, perhaps housing these Guantanamo inmates will negatively impact long-term growth in the area. And yet, if they lost the opportunity to a rival prison community, like Hardin, Montana, the residents of Thomson may feel like they lost a serious boon in the midst of terrible economic times.


Rural neighbors and property disputes

Read this interesting post called "Lawyers Cringe when Neighbors Fight." The true story is out of Texas County, Missouri, population 24,568. Don't miss the "What was accomplished" part near the end of the post. So much for the idea that informal order--not law--is the arbiter of choice in rural places.

This post is the work of Southwest Missouri lawyer, Harry Styron, who reveals here that the has roots in Newton County, Arkansas, my home. His post about Donald Harington's death, which I blogged about here, is also worth a read.

Styron's blog is called "Ozarks Law & Economy," and the subtitle is especially interesting to me because it echoes so many themes from our law and rural livelihoods course: "How people, businesses and nature compete."

Monday, November 16, 2009

Food security in suburbs higher than in nonmetro areas, central cities

Today's New York Times reports that "food insecurity" rose in 2008 to 14.6%, the highest it has been since the USDA began surveying this issue in 1995. Last year, for example, the rate of food insecurity was 11.1%. The rise to 14.6% for 2008 represents an increase of about 4 million households to a total of 17 million food insecure households.

Food insecurity is USDA's term of art for hunger--more specifically, it is defined as a household having “difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year.” Food security means having "access at all time to enough food for an active, healthy life." (See p. 3 at this link). Further, the "number of households in which both adults and children experienced 'very low food security' rose by more than half, to 506,000 in 2008 from 323,000 in 2007." Very low food security is defined as "at time during the year, food intake of household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns disrupted because the household lacked money or other resources for food." (See p. 5 here).

I clicked over to see the full report because I wanted to get a sense of geographic and demographic trends. I found that places outside metropolitan areas had the lowest rate of food insecurity. Food security was highest for households located in "principal cities" at 17.9%; "intermediate" for those in nonmetropolitan areas at 14.2%; and lowest in the suburbs at 12.7%. Read more here (pp. 10-11). The part also reports that food insecurity is highest in the South and lowest in the Northeast. Black and Hispanic households had significantly higher rates of food insecurity than did White households, but stronger predictors of food insecurity were (1) poverty and (2) single parent households with children present. (p. 8). For more data specifically on the situation of households with children, click here.

Poor economy results in rural Nebraskans feeling less positive about rural towns

The University of Nebraska's 2009 Rural Poll reveals that rural Nebraskans feel less positive about living in rural towns. In 2008, 30 percent of people polled said their community improved over the past year. The 2009 poll revealed that only 23 percent felt their community has improved. The Rural Poll has not revealed a number so low since 2003, a record low.

The poll was taken in March and April when projections of the economy were at an extreme low. Hopefully, next year will result in both a better economy and a better outlook. View the article here.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Law and Order in the Ozarks (Part XL): Federal and state investigations into grant expenditures reveal irregularities

Two recent issues of the Newton County Times have mentioned state and federal investigations into the county's expenditures of special funds. The first story appeared Sept. 24, 2009, and is headlined, "Compton Water Association probed by legislative audit." It tells of a report by the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee for the Division of Legislative Audit that reviewed operations and financial records of the Compton Water Association. Compton is a tiny community in northwest Newton County; it is neither a Census Designated Place nor the topic of a post on wikipedia.org. Among irregularities found by the audit are more than $5,000 in payments to the association bookkeeper for compensation not authorized by the board and a failure to comply with IRS regulations or with an agreed upon annual audit. The report has been forwarded to the prosecuting attorney.

The second story appeared in the October 15, 2009, issue of the paper under the headline, "FBI investigating county spending." It reports that the FBI is "investigating more than $200,000 in questionable expenditures of federal disaster funds and county road funds by Newton County officials." The main problem seems to be that some of the funds went to companies owned by a quorum court member and his family. The report states that while some county offices are in compliance with the law, "noncompliance with state law and accepted accounting practices was noted in the Offices of County Judge, County and Circuit Clerk, Sheriff and District Court clerk." Among the specific problems identified are $214,097 of "unauthorized and undocumented disbursements" and "noncompliance with state ethics laws, purchasing and bidding laws."

I see this as support for my hunch that inadequate checks and balances exist on small/rural county governments--except, that is, when the feds (or the state) happen to step in. Why else would local officials take the risk of unauthorized expenditures. Surely they expect not to get caught.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Diabetes assistance in rural Louisiana

Diabetes is on the rise in rural Louisiana and is projected to increase. In 2008, over 10 percent of Louisiana's adult population suffered from diabetes. A shortage of physicians in these areas results in many difficulties in seeking necessary treatment.

Recently, Foundation for the Mid South has announced it is awarding $150,000 to improve diabetes treatment in the rural South. Testing of the prototype program will begin at Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital and will likely spread beyond if the program proves successful. View the article here.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Farmville- a facebook phenonemon

The California Aggie, the University of California, Davis undergraduates' weekly student newspaper, published a front page article this week on "Farmville," a wildly popular Facebook application. The headline reads, "25 million users play online farming game daily." I have received several virtual invitations to play the game recently, so I decided to read on.

The on line game created by Zynga, a San Francisco gaming company, "gives players a plot of land and online money to buy their first set of crops." Players wait for their crops to grow in real time, harvest them, and take them to market where they can sell their propduce for more money to invest in their farms. As they advance through the game's levels, players can buy more crops, livestock or equipment. Additionally, "players can buy crops with real money." Zynga has raised a staggering $580,000 so far through this feature.

The bulk of the article describe the perils of becoming addicted to the game and the consequences for those who harvest during lecture instead of paying attention. I'll consider myself warned.

I would have liked to have heard more about what sucks players into the game in the first place, however. Neither the brief description in the article, nor the creator's explanation that "'farming is familiar to everyone, which is part of why we think the game is so popular," explains the game's extreme level of popularity for me. Is it just a well designed game, or is there something significant about the farming aspect of it after all?

Rural School and Community Trust education report released

The "contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states" is explored in the recently released report Why Rural Matters 2009: State and Regional Challenges and Opportunities. The report, fifth in a biennial series from The Rural School and Community Trust, seeks to meet two goals:
(1) to provide information and analyses that highlight the priority policy needs of rural public schools and the communities they serve, and

(2) to describe the complexity of rural contexts in ways that can help policymakers better understand the challenges faced by their constituencies and formulate policies that are responsive to those challenges
Each of the 50 states is ranked in order of priority based on 25 indicators including percentage of rural poverty, rural graduation rates, rural instructional expenditures per pupil, and percentage of rural minority students. The five states ranking highest on the "Rural Education Priority Gauge" are Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. State-by-state results can be viewed here.