Yearly Archives: 2010

Farmland for Food, Wildlife, Flood Control, Air Quality, and Agrotourism

Gretchen found this one, too (think I can get her to blog?). Judi Gerber writes about Why Saving Farmland Is So Important:
…without local farms, there’s no local food, or, as the American Farmland Trust (AFT) puts it: “No Farms, No Food.”.

And it’s not even just food:

Farmland is green space, even though most people don’t think of it that way. It is a significant contributor to environmental quality. As AFT states, “Farm and ranch lands provide food and cover for wildlife, help control flooding, protect wetlands and watersheds, and maintain air quality. They can absorb and filter wastewater and provide groundwater recharge. New energy crops even have the potential to replace fossil fuels.”

And there’s more:

Farmland provides fiscal stability to local governments and boosts the economy. It does this by contributing to a community’s infrastructure and helps a local economy through sales, job creation, and support services or businesses.

One of the most unique of these support services is tourism, or more specifically, agri-tourism. There are plenty of places that people visit to see rural scenery or to enjoy the food or drink of a specific region including the wineries in California’s Napa Valley, or popular farm stays like those found in Italy, and increasingly, here in the United States.

There are some plans afoot about agrotourism in Lowndes County.

-jsq

VDT on Farmers

Gretchen noted this VDT Editorial for 12 July 2010: What We Think: Thankful for our farmers:
Here in South Georgia, we are blessed with an abundance of farmer’s markets, both large and small, that enable us all to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables at low prices. Families, restaurants and schools all benefit from the local farms and markets year round, not just during the summer months.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are healthy, inexpensive, and an essential part of any diet. Take advantage of nature’s bounty that surrounds us and visit the markets. Take your family to one of the peach sheds and spend an afternoon picking your own and enjoying fresh ice cream.

Be thankful that the farmers are still willing to work hard on the land and be thankful you live in an area that encourages farmers and supports agriculture.

Here’s one of those farmers’ markets, in Hahira.

-jsq

Cultivating Organic Peanuts

Leeann Drabenstott Culbreath found this YouTube version of a Georgia Farm Monitor report on an Organic Peanut Field Day:

Note the cultivator. The host had to explain what it was and show it several times so people would understand it. Yes, that’s how farmers used to control weeds before pesticide vendor propaganda convinced people of things like “don’t throw dirt on peanuts.” The cultivator throws dirt on weeds next to the peanuts, thus suppressing the weeds and releasing the peanuts.

Gretchen remarks:

Organic growing isn’t a specialty market, it’s a matter of safety. Chemicals sprayed on peanuts, soy beans, cotton and corn are TOXIC. Good management and kindness to the earth can grow crops in a sustainable way. Just say no to chemical spraying.
Peanut growers may not like manual labor, but they’re having to resort to that anyway, because their pesticides have produced the mutant pigweed, which pesticides don’t kill. Spraying more and different herbicides doesn’t do it, either. The only way is physical removal of the pigweed. And a cultivator can do that without manual labor (the report mentions that). Oh yeah: and you don’t have to pay for pesticides to apply with a cultivator.

So, it’s time to stop poisoning our air, water, plants, animals, and people and move away from petrochemical pesticides. Organic is the way to go, and we know how to get there.

-jsq

Agents on the Case of the Korean War Marker

Having found for the widow Joyce Feazell a tombstone noted by her late husband, John Feazell, on a propaganda pamphlet dropped by the North Koreans in Korea about 1952, Agent John and Agent John are happy with their sleuthing:

Picture of John N. Feazell Jr. and John S. Quarterman by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 June 2010.

Here is a picture of my father, David S. Quarterman, Jr. (1914-2005), with his friend, John N. Feazell, Sr. (1930-2008): Continue reading →

Let’s See the Marker from the Korean War

The widow Joyce Feazell wanted to actually see a tombstone noted by her late husband, John Feazell, on a propaganda pamphlet dropped by the North Koreans in Korea about 1952, Previously we discovered it was real and where it was likely to be.

Joyce called in a field agent to go find it: her son John N. Feazell, Jr., who lives near Savannah. Joyce reported back on 5 June 2010:

It is in the Cemetery you referred to. John went and found the marker and took this picture so it is for real.

Picture of the marker in Gravel Hill Cemetery, Bloomingdale, Georgia, by John N. Feazell, Jr., 5 June 2010.

As I remarked to Joyce:

You can see how PFC Horner’s daddy might have been upset, having already lost every other immediate relative.

Too bad the North Koreans used it in their propaganda.

She agreed.

Roll credits.

-jsq

Searching for a Marker from the Korean War

Continuing the search commissioned by the widow Joyce Feazell for a tombstone noted by her late husband, John Feazell, on a propaganda pamphlet dropped by the North Koreans in Korea about 1952. Previously we determined the tombstone was real. So where is it?

Remember the front of the pamphlet gave a location for the tombstone. A bit of work with google maps showed the highway between Bloomingdale and Pooler would be US 80. So far, so good. Let’s try to narrow it down.

The deceased’s last name was Horning, and there is something called Horning Memorial Cemetery near Bloomingdale. But that’s not on US 80; it’s on US 17 between Bloomingdale and I-16.


View Larger Map

That might be the right location, but even though google maps has pretty good resolution there for both satellite and streetview images, the stone doesn’t appear to be there.

Ah, but the book

Continue reading →

On the Case of the Korean War Marker

The widow Joyce Feazell asked me to find a tombstone noted by her late husband, John Feazell, on a propaganda pamphlet dropped by the North Koreans in Korea about 1952.

Here’s the back of the pamphlet:

Note John’s hand-written note:

Found near the fort of GI Baldy, 26 March. Is it true?
So I told Joyce I didn’t know, but I’d take the case.

The back of the pamphlet has a transcription of the tombstone pictured: Continue reading →