Another great, local idea: Harvest Public Media

Something good needs to be said about this new--to me, anyway--development that is Harvest Public Media.

What a cool idea.

More importantly, it serves such a great function, locally, regionally and nationally for farming and agriculture news and information.

It is a production/reporting group, as nearly as I can explain it and they report on global food security, according to the site, and all that goes along with farming and farm production throughout the country.

They are also, apparently, an outgrowth of our own local area NPR radio stations, too, which is really great.  Their site tells more about them, naturally:

OUR MISSION:   Global demand for food and fuel is rising, and the push and pull for resources has serious ramifications for our country’s economic recovery and prosperity. Today’s emerging agenda for agriculture is headlined by energy and climate change, food safety, biofuels, animal production and welfare, human health, water quality, and local food systems. By examining these local, regional and national issues and their implications, Harvest Public Media seeks to create a rich multimedia resource devoted to food, fuel and field.

HOW WE REPORT:  Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio — regular reports are aired on our six member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television reports, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking.  

FUNDING:  Harvest Public Media is one of seven Local Journalism Centers nationwide created with the support of a two-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  The initiative is intended to strengthen collaboration among six Midwest public broadcasting stations. Additional editorial support comes from American Public Media, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.

PARTNER STATIONS: KCUR in Kansas City (lead station); Iowa Public Radio; NET which operates statewide public TV and radio networks; KBIA in Columbia, Mo.; High Plains Public Radio/KANZ in Garden City, Kan.; and Kansas Public Radio/KNAU in Lawrence.

I've heard some of their reporting on NPR, nationally, already, too and they are stories we just wouldn't otherwise get, but for their creation and existence.

Some of the stories they're reporting on right now, for instance, are:

--Making (not so much) hay
--Stripped down: How ecosystems could help farmland weather climate change
--Floods, droughts, pests, oh my!
--No need to worry about Chinese buying farmland in Iowa

I thought it important to maybe put this out here, so more people know they're there, what they do and what we can look for from them and use their information for.  I thought it important, too, to just say how great it is and how rather proud I am of the fact that it's a local product, born and raised right here in the heartland.

So kudos and many congratulations and thanks to Harvest Public Media and the people and stations making all this information available to us.  Terrific job!

Link:  http://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/

The very racist United States of America

Let there be no mistake.

We can't pat ourselves on our collective backs any longer.

First, there was Douglas Blackmon's book, "Slavery by Another Name," out last year, that received a Pulitzer Prize last week, about the United States true and until now, ignored and really, unknown history of a second kind of slavery for African-Americans after the Civil War.

There was untold cruelty, punishment, unfounded incarceration, what could easily be described as torture, rampant, sanctioned discrimination and even murders, all passing under the eye of local and Federal government. And it lasted from after the Civil War until deep into the middle of the 1900s.

Now, the country's Supreme Court is considering throwing out the Voting Rights Act of 1964 because parts of it only apply to what we understood was always known as the more racist "Deep South."

What a travesty.

And in Missouri?

Our Republican representatives are trying to push through a constitutional amendment that would require a government-supplied photo identification in order to vote.

Gee whiz, to use a phrase.

Could we get more "Jim Crow" about voting and disenfranchisement?

Clearly, this is an attempt to make it more difficult for the poor, minorities and the elderly (read: Democrats) to vote, let there be no doubt.

So on both the national and local/regional level, the conservative, clearly Republican groups are trying there hardest to make discrimination and disenfranchisement the law of the land.

It's pitiful.

It's pathetic.

It's sad.

It's tragic.

It's brutally unfair and should be made clear this is what's going on.

Ask yourself--why don't we vote on Saturdays?

Wouldn't that make sense? Wouldn't it be a great deal easier to get large groups of people in polling booths than how we do it now?

And the answer is, unequivocally, resoundingly, yes.

We don't vote on Saturday because the powers that be don't want us all voting.

These national and state attempts to change these laws are at least partially, if not completely, for one of them, racist in their attempt, let there be no doubt.

We are the racist United States of America and we should be far better than this.

Links to stories:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103610184
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kbia/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1499514§ionID=1
http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/