Greybeards in Feedcaps: another reason to preserve public farmlands

Image via WikipediaBecause the biggest barrier to young people getting into farming is access to affordable land. Thus, when places like Salem sell an easement that will prevent farming 200+ precious acres of fabulous farmland located right in the City, they sold out young farmers. As Wendell Berry says, "Eating is an agricultural act."

WORD: Why the (vanishing) sea ice matters

Image via WikipediaWhy the disappearance of the sea ice matters to Salem.

(Or, "Why it matters that the President of Willamette University sits on the board of the utility that is Oregon's biggest polluter and biggest emitter of gases that are causing the ice to vanish and how that is going to screw Willamette students' future.")

Salem Progressive Film Series Fall 2010 Schedule

Thursday, Sept. 9
7 PM

"Before being dubbed the Motor City, Detroit was once home to the nation's most extensive streetcar system. In fact, it was that vast network of streetcars that carried workers to the area's many car factories. And it was the cars made in those factories that would soon displace the streetcars in Detroit — and in every major American city.

Over the last 30 years, much of the world has moved on, choosing faster, cleaner, more modern transportation and leaving America — and Detroit — behind. Viewers are taken on a journey beyond Detroit's blighted urban landscape to Spain, home to one of the world's most modern and extensive transit systems; to California, where voters recently said yes to America's first high speed rail system; and to Washington, where Congress will soon decide whether to finally push America's transportation into the 21st century."