Storm Cloud Media spent some time with us in Appalachia. Watch to learn more about the heart of Accelerating Appalachia and our participant businesses.
We are so excited to partner on HempX Asheville! HempX is the first festival in North Carolina with a focus on educating the public on the multiple uses and diversity of products that come from industrial hemp. All proceeds benefit Accelerating Appalachia. Join us at Highland Brewing for two days of talks, hemp foods, networking, and of course, live music and beer.
The 2015 Accelerating Appalachia nature-based businesses will be presenting at the Pitch Party in Asheville on May 14th. We are so proud of this incredible group of graduates in food, farming, eco-services, seeds, botanical essences, natural building and games! Our keynote is the fabulous Judy Wicks, thought leader in growing good economies, co-founder of Be A Localist Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and reading from her book, “Good Morning Beautiful Business”. Emcees for the evening, from Our Southern Community, are the lovely Michelle Smith and the handsome Ned Doyle! Join us for a meaningful and fun-filled evening with yummy local appetizers and cash bar. Tickets available now.
Ecological Services & Markets, Inc. is an environmental consulting firm that mixes research and management, working with private landowners, Federal agencies, and academic institutions to determine the best ways to establish tradable credit systems for natural resource assets. The team has a strong background in natural resource policy, environmental economics, both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and computer science. Services developed and provided by ESAM include: metrics for trading habitat at a landscape scale including climate change scenarios; landscape-scale population viability analysis; habitat suitability models, using soil, vegetation surveys, and remotely sensed data; estimation of dispersal behaviors of cryptic species using indirect methods such as genetics and inverse simulation modeling; evaluation and prioritization of species monitoring programs; workshops for public and private landowners; software for evaluating the ability of habitat trades to provide conservation value at a landscape scale; high-performance computer network for evaluating uncertainty in landscape-scale management decisions; and quantitative Adaptive Management approaches for managing habitat networks. Contact ESAM founder, Doug Bruggeman, via email: dougbrugg@gmail.com.
Farmer-Baker-Sausage Maker is a company that seeks to energize the local economy by returning to foods crafted by hand. Their restaurant, Harvest
Moon Grille, nourishes its patrons and the local economy by sourcing its ingredients from small scale farms within 100 miles. http://www.harvestmoongrille.com
Green River Picklers strives to produce the highest quality pickled vegetables using the simplest and most sustainable means. Locally sourced, consciously produced, and hand packed in small batches, Green River Picklers aims to pay tribute to our southern heritage by continuing family traditions & preserving local food, while continuously fostering growth in our community. www.grpicklers.com
Green River Picklers has a Kickstarter campaign under way right now. Click the image above to contribute!
GrowJourney is a seeds of the month club specializing in certified organic heirloom seeds. We make organic gardening simple for members across the United States and Canada. https://www.growjourney.com
River Island Apothecary is a product line of all-botanical perfume and skin care designed and produced in thoughtful batches by Katie Vie. http://www.katievie.com/
Smiling Hara Tempeh is the only company offering soy-free tempeh on the market today. Over consumption of processed soy in the vegan/vegetarian populations is causing health issues, and consumers are looking to companies like Smiling Hara to offer nutrient dense, high quality plant-based protein. http://www.smilingharatempeh.com/
“The Underdog Crew” is a Hip Hop toy and game that promotes the ultimate positivity. These figurines are the next “little green army men,” only these warriors do not carry weapons. They dance! They have no particular nationality, nor are they gender specific. They can be imagined to be anyone from anywhere. These toys are tokens, or symbols, of all things good and possible. Everything that you believe to be good, everything that you believe to be possible – so do they! The toys are functional, and players can battle one another in a game of skill. Players are also challenged by the question, “How many ways can you play?” Players are welcomed to create their own rules and games, customize their figures, and to imagine a better world for us all. Do you care to play? Contact Joseph Adams at bboyeducator@gmail.com
The 2015 Accelerating Appalachia nature-based businesses will be presenting at the Pitch Party in Asheville on May 14th. We are so proud of this incredible group of graduates in food, farming, eco-services, seeds, botanical essences, natural building and games! Our keynote is the fabulous Judy Wicks, thought leader in growing good economies, co-founder of Be A Localist Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and reading from her book, “Good Morning Beautiful Business”. Emcees for the evening, from Our Southern Community, are the lovely Michelle Smith and the handsome Ned Doyle! Join us for a meaningful and fun-filled evening with yummy local appetizers and cash bar. Tickets available now.
In 2014 the Capital Institute published its Field Guide for a Regenerative Economy and featured Accelerating Appalachia as a leader in the field of nature-based business support. The Field Guide focuses on the use of story telling as a means of developing a supportive network for regenerative businesses. You can read the early story of Accelerating Appalachia, our 2013 cohort of businesses and plans for our growth.
The Capital Institute published a follow-up study to the Field Guide, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy in the spring of 2015. Accelerating Appalachia is listed on page 88.
The Guardian published a great overview of the study here.
Accelerating Appalachia is honored to be featured in a new organizational trailer by the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE):
This video includes Accelerating Appalachia founder and BALLE Fellow, Sara Day Evans, with Kimberly Hunter, Jennifer Flynn and Dayna Reggero, as well as the beautiful city of Asheville, our partner Warren Wilson College and inspiring sustainable students, and several 2013-2014 Accelerating Appalachia nature-based businesses: Bark House, Riverbend Malthouse and Echoview Farm and Fibermill.
Here at BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, we know that real prosperity is local by its very nature. It’s in our place where we recognize that how we treat each other matters. That we are connected. From Seattle to Cincinnati, Asheville to Minneapolis, New Orleans to Buffalo, BALLE is celebrating, recognizing, supporting, and connecting the leaders of a new economy.
Narrated by BALLE Executive Director Michelle Long, this organizational trailer highlights a sampling of BALLE Local Economy Fellows in action in their places — James Johnson-Piett, Alfa Demmelash, Aaron Tanaka, Kimber Lanning, Carlos Velasco, Sara Day Evans, Malik Yakini, Nikki Silvestri, and José Corona — along with many other Localist leaders who together form the BALLE Community.
We’re thrilled to host Judy Wicks, co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and author of “Good Morning Beautiful Business” at our upcoming 2015 Accelerating Appalachia Pitch Party in Asheville on May 14.
In her October 9, 2015 Voices of Industry article “Hemp, Industrially”, Adele Stafford eloquently describes the subtleties we must attend to as we re-awaken hemp farming after 70 years dormant. We must take care that we don’t build hemp into another extractive ag industry as we have done with corn and soy. I could not be more aligned with Adele’s thinking, love her writing and am excited for her Kentucky visit in November. She has also unwittingly permitted me to pen my own swirling and colliding thoughts on hemp, abundance, Appalachia, biocultural diversity and People, Planet & Prosperity meets Private, Public & Personal. FB, I thank you in advance for this archive.
- “Let’s just go ahead and say it: People across southern and central Appalachia are crazy about plants and animals. In my lifetime of interacting with Appalachian farmers, gardeners and wildcrafting enthusiasts, I have never ceased to be amazed by their knowledge and love for all things green and growing. Whether they save seeds, graft fruit trees, dig roots and bulbs, can foods, harvest wild plants, hunt game, or raise heritage livestock breeds, it is a truism that older people and a smattering of younger people across the region have immense wildcrafting and agricultural skills. The deep mountain backcountry areas of North Carolina, East Tennessee, southwest Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia are pockets rich and diverse in food crops within the central/southern Appalachian foodshed. This should come as no surprise: Appalachian people live in one of the world’s most bio-diverse temperate zones. Global areas of high agrobiodiversity correlate with high degrees of economic, cultural and geographic marginality—conditions that are no stranger to the highlands of Appalachia. Additionally, most of the world centers of agrobiodiversity are in mountainous areas. Given these factors, southern and central Appalachia has the highest documented levels of agrobiodiversity in the U.S., Canada and northern Mexico. Appalachia is the longest continuously inhabited mountain range in the United States, and it has an extensive history of indigenous agriculture by the Cherokee and other American Indian peoples.”
We will be in Louisville, Kentucky November 12-13. Accelerating Appalachia founder Sara Day Evans will be speaking alongside international thought leaders and local change makers at Neighborhood Economics:
We are coming together from a wide variety of sectors to look at economic development within a relational, community oriented perspective. Our goal is to change the story of the economy from empire to community.If you want to be part of amazing conversations between local change makers learning how to get it done together, and participate at the ground level of a collective learning network, then you need to join us for this unique summit of action oriented change-makers.
While in
We’re excited to be featured in a new Climate Listening Project for our work accelerating sustainable businesses in Western North Carolina, along with Riverbend Malt House and Echoview Farm, two great businesses that participated in our inaugural program, as well as Accelerating Appalachia’s sustainable business class at Warren Wilson College. Also featured are NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, The Collider and Center for Climate and Resilience, and Facebook Data Center, among others.
Watch the trailer below:
We are proud to connect and accelerate businesses, investors and networks that are creating sustainable solutions in local communities. Every community has a story, from Western North Carolina, throughout Appalachia, and beyond. This storytelling project focuses on people and place and inspires more local conversations about climate resilience.
People are invited to share their climate stories on Facebook @ Climate Listening Project.
The Climate Listening Project is produced by Dayna Reggero, with support from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Western North Carolina Alliance (WNCA).
Accelerating Appalachia is excited about making real connections throughout Appalachia.
Smiling Hara Tempeh, LLC in North Carolina is campaigning to create the first-ever Hempeh, soy-free tempeh, with hemp from Kentucky’s Growing Warriors.
From the Smiling Hara kickstarter campaign:
Sarah Yancey and Chad Oliphant started Smiling Hara (which translates to “happy belly”) in 2009 with the intention of providing an organic, non-GMO and locally sourced tempeh to customers in the Southeast. The hemp seeds and beans in Hempeh will be sourced from Growing Warriors, a working farm in Kentucky that teaches military veterans how to grow their own food. If brought to market, a portion of the profits from Hempeh will be donated back to Growing Warriors. Brothers and military veterans Mike Lewis and Fred-Curtis Lewis started Growing Warriors Project to address the needs of other veterans transitioning to civilian life.
Sara Day Evans of Accelerating Appalachia, with Chad Oliphant, Smiling Hara Tempeh, and Fred-Curtis Lewis of Growing Warriors.