Articles

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Mecklenburg County Community Food Assessment 2010
   September 17, 2010

Elizabeth Racine, Qingfang Wang & Christina Wilson

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No fear: on becoming a locavore
   September 17, 2010

Christy Shi
This is the first in a series of articles by Christy Shi. She lives, grows, and eats in Davidson NC. She speaks on a range of topics, mostly focused on sustainability and local food systems. She grows food in her edible landscape and teaches people about the connection between food and farm. Shi founded Know Your Farms, LLC in 2008, an organization focused on rebuilding the local food system in... Read more


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Building an oasis in the desert
   September 17, 2010

Robin Emmons

Is it possible to build an oasis in the desert?  Not the desert that brings to mind scorched earth and stretches of hot sand miles away from water and civilization.  No. The question speaks to deserts that exist in urban centers across our country. Neighborhoods in the very heart of our otherwise thriving cities where the USDA’s daily recommendation of 3-5 servings of fruits...

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New Book - Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South City
   September 8, 2010
Jeff Michael
For both serious and casual observers of Charlotte’s economic and cultural history, a new book released in July provides a fascinating look at the effects of globalization on the city’s recent development. Published by the University of Georgia Press and edited by UNC Charlotte geography professors Bill Graves and Heather Smith, the book Charlotte, NC: The Global Evolution of a New South City is... Read more


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Learning Lesson on Infrastructure
   September 8, 2010

I'm writing this essay because I'm worried. I've grown attached to America in the 27 years I've lived and worked here but I'm forced to look elsewhere for useful examples of government action, corporate innovation and citizen activism to meet the fast approaching crises of climate change, future declining oil supplies and sustainable energy production. At this crucial time I look back to...

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Rethinking the relationship between subsidized housing and surrounding property values
   September 2, 2010

Dustin Read

Efforts to construct subsidized apartment complexes in two South Charlotte neighborhoods were recently abandoned after Ballantyne and Ayresley residents raised concerns that the proposed projects would have a detrimental impact on surrounding property values by overburdening public infrastructure and increasing crime.  The failure of these real estate ventures has been described by some as the...

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Food for Thought
   August 26, 2010
Crystal Cockman
With our warm late summer temperatures, moist conditions from humidity and evening thunderstorms, this is certainly the time of year to spot mushrooms in the woods. Growing up in the area, I’d always took note of mushrooms, but rarely given them more than a passing glance. Read more


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Experiencing Cities: Convenience and Carbon
   August 23, 2010

One of the delights of an academic life is the opportunity to spend time in the summer traveling on research trips to foreign countries; there really is nothing like studious foreign travel to give useful perspectives on conditions here in America. This year I went home to England and traveled to several other European countries without a car, and focused on how the transportation...

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Black-throated green warblers
   August 17, 2010
Ruth Ann Grissom

I’ve traversed some rugged country in the Uwharries.  My dad and I have bushwhacked through laurel thickets and scrambled up and down steep and slippery slopes to blaze trails and mark property lines.  In general, though, our land is more accessible than isolated coves in the mountains or impenetrable swamps at the coast.  And yet we often have better records of natural communities in those...

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500 Million Years To Create Such Gentleness
   August 16, 2010
Ruth Ann Grissom

“They come from Tennessee in a covered wagon.”  That was all I could get out of my grandfather..." So begins this essay by Ruth Ann Grissom, first published in 1998 in the newsletter of The LandTrust for Central NC

Guest contributor Ruth Ann Grissom is a freelance writer who splits her time between Atlanta and the Uwharries. ...

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