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Guest Opinion: Crashing into climate change
The Monticello quilt club show
Co-op Postcard: The bikers are coming
The art of the longrifle
Historic traditional art forms related to what has been called the Kentucky Rifle will be on display at the 12th annual show and meeting of the Contemporary Longrifle Association at the Lexington Convention Center on August 14-16. A special feature of this year’s show will be a separate display area devoted to antique Kentucky rifles and related objects. The show will include more than 180 booths and tables of contemporary artists and collectors vying for one of five education awards. For more information, including attendance costs, call (540) 886-6189 or visit the Web site www.longrifle.ws.
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Guest Opinion: Crashing into climate change
by Paul Wood
It seems like every time America discovers a crisis on its hands, our government proposes a crash program to fix it. Henry Ford named it the “crisis-crash syndrome.”
Not enough engineers? Create a crash program in our schools to graduate more of them. Need to stop flooding? Not a problem: build new levees and make them higher and wider.
Sometimes crash programs don’t harness the good wisdom and judgment necessary to ensure success. Consider the current Washington struggle to address the “crisis” of “climate change” with another “crash program.”
It appears almost inevitable that Congress will get tough on greenhouse gas emissions next year by passing new crash program legislation. The process of hammering out language has already begun.
Special interests are telling Congress that the way to reduce carbon emissions is to let the price of electricity rise, and, they argue, by letting the price rise, utilities can afford to pay for new technology to meet growing demand. These interests contend that the cost of energy is simply too cheap. If their view prevails, some electric co-op members, particularly those retired or on fixed incomes, will not be able to afford electricity.
The climate change debate is one with real consequences for real people—people like you and me whose views ought to be taken into account. My concern is that no one is talking to consumers.
Each of us has a role to play in making sure our representatives know where we stand and, most importantly, know the importance of exercising good judgment when it comes time to vote. We have elected them, after all, to read, study, and, finally, to vote in the best interest of all their constituents—not just those who have the funds to pay for a seat at the table.
Be in touch with your policy leaders and elected officials. Tell them about the importance of keeping electricity affordable and reliable. If you’re not sure where to begin, start with this question: “What are you doing to make sure we’ll have the power we need in the future?”
America needs a plan as carefully executed as President Eisenhower’s idea for the Interstate Highway System. Public-private partnerships have worked in the past, and they can do so again. But it will require an active role by our elected officials to provide guidance and support to those charged with the heavy lifting.
Paul Wood is president/CEO of Georgia Electric Membership Corporation, which represents the electric co-ops in that state.
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Got cookies?
Kentucky Living invites you to be part of a cookie recipe exchange. The winners will be published in the December issue and on KentuckyLiving.com.
Send in your favorite cookie recipe and we’ll print as many as we have room for. You might even be chosen as a winner by the cookie-loving staff at Kentucky Living. We’ll award $75 for what is judged the best-sounding and best-tasting cookie recipe, $50 for second place, and $25 for third.
Here’s how to be a part of the Kentucky Living cookie exchange:
1. Choose your one (that’s right, narrow it down to your absolute favorite) top cookie recipe.
2. Send it to us along with: an explanation, in 50 or fewer words, why it’s your favorite; your name, address, phone number, e-mail if you have one; and the name of your electric cooperative.
3. Mail to:
Kentucky Living
Cookie Exchange Recipe Contest
P.O. Box 32170
Louisville, KY 40232
or e-mail e-mail@KentuckyLiving.com and be sure to put in the subject line Cookie Exchange Recipe Contest.
4. Make sure it’s dated on or before September 20.
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The Monticello quilt club show
The Quilt Show of the Little Mountains, held by the Contented Heart Quilt Guild, takes place at the Aspire Center in Monticello during Labor Day weekend August 29-30. The photo shows a class on Civil War-era quilting techniques, one of the Guild’s classes held at their Quilt Shoppe on Main Street in Monticello.
The Guild began as an informal group in 1989, and has grown to hold benefits for a number of organizations and causes, open its shop, hold adult and children’s classes there, and in 1994 start the annual quilt show. Last year’s show displayed 147 quilts, and this year will include porcelain and pottery as well as the popular antique quilt display. This year’s quilt show runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $2 a person, children under 12 free.
More info is available at www.contentedheartquilts.com or call (606) 340-0015.
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Mergermania, Kentucky
Those of us in eastern Kentucky have been hearing a lot lately about city mergers. It sounds like a good economic move for the tri-cities of Cumberland, Benham, and Lynch. I’d like to suggest a name for what we should call the newest unified city in Kentucky: Cumbenly. While we’re at it, why not combine some other nearby cities as well:
• Baxter and Brookside would become Baxside, Kentucky
• Wallins and Dizney would become Waldizney, Kentucky
• Rockhouse and Ages would become Rock of Ages, Kentucky
• Coldiron and Pathfork would become Silverware, Kentucky
• Loyall and Dayhoit would become Allday, Kentucky
• Treemont and Page would become Paper, Kentucky
• Blackmont and Smith would become Blacksmith, Kentucky
• Big Laurel and Crummies would become Big Cookie, Kentucky
• Cranks and Grasknob would become Handle, Kentucky
• Bell County and Lonejack would become Bologna, Kentucky
• Cutshin and Bledsoe would become First Aid, Kentucky
• Gulston and Soneyfork would become Gulstones, Kentucky
• Hyden and Lost Creek would become Hidenseek, Kentucky
• Teetersville and Totz would become Teetertotz, Kentucky
—Titus J. Boggs, Big Laurel
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Festival with a Heritage
The theme of this year’s Laurel County Homecoming Festival will be “Looking Back and Moving Forward,” and will be held August 21-24 at Levi Jackson State Park in London. The festival is free with kids’ activities and contests, entertainment, food and flea market vendors, genealogical and historical information, and a living-history encampment. The first Homecoming Festival was July 14, 1935, to raise money for the London Firemen’s Band, and to showcase Levi Jackson State Park. In the early years, the event was held to coincide with the full moon in August so there would be light at night. These days it is usually held the third week of August. For more info, phone (606) 878-2775.
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Why food prices are rising
Food and energy prices are the fastest increasing components of the Consumer Price Index this year, says Larry D. Jones, Extension professor, writing in the June 20 issue of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service’s Economic and Policy Update.
Inflation, on an annual basis through May, increased at a 4.2 percent rate while food and beverage prices were up 5 percent and transportation costs (primarily energy) were up 8 percent.
Reasons Jones cites for increasing food prices include:
• strong global demand, particularly in rapidly increasing income countries such as India, China, and Brazil;
• a weakened value of the U.S. dollar;
• increased agricultural exports from the U.S. (partly as a result of a weaker dollar);
• higher prices for imported food (also partly related to a weak dollar);
• weather-related production problems around the world;
• increased use of food and feed products for bioenergy;
• rapidly rising input prices that are primarily energy derived.
Jones says the recent rapid increases in energy prices have a tremendous impact on the food system since oil and natural gas are essential inputs.
Jones concludes: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently estimated annual food prices will increase 5-6 percent this year. However, recent flooding in the Mid-western U.S. with a seemingly unrelenting higher price for a barrel of oil suggests that the USDA’s estimate could be on the low side. Food price increases in the 6-8 percent range are possible for the year.”
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Co-op Postcard: The bikers are coming
