To be sure, farming is not a major part of Boyd County’s economy. But, in a sense, the lack of farming in this corner of Kentucky makes events like the annual 4-H Farm Day even more important. It helps show young people the importance of agriculture, and it may even inspire some to test their own “green thumbs.”
While there are only a handful of full-time farmers in Boyd County, there are scores of part-time farmers who supplement their incomes and put food on their tables by raising a few head of livestock or planting large gardens. We think their numbers will grow. After all, what better way to trim expenses than growing your own vegetables or raising a steer or hog for slaughter? Even a relatively small number of chickens can keep a family in eggs and supply meat for a few Sunday dinners — and they don’t require much land, just the proper zoning.
About 120 students from the Fairview School District traveled to the Boyd County Fairgrounds on 4-H Farm Day Wednesday to get a small taste of farming.
They were greeted by Danny Blevins, a retired agriculture teacher who now is a full-time farmer. While he may no longer teach agriculture to high school students, he continues to introduce new generations to the joys of living off the land.
Blevins hopes the one-day lesson helps teach the young people how plants, the soil, the environment and themselves are bound in an interconnected web. That, in turn, should make them better stewards of the Earth and its resources, he said.
During the field trip, the students planted flowers, sheared sheep, saw some horses, grimaced at some bugs and learned some exercises. Most important, Boyd County 4-H extension agent Becky Stahler hopes the day in the country helps increase “awareness that there is more than TV and video games to do in the summer.”
While it’s doubtful that any of the children attending the 4-H Farm Day went home and immediately convinced their parents to plant a garden or buy some chicks to raise, the day did plant the seeds of possibility that could eventually blossom into cutting expenses and eating healthier by raising gardens and livestock and to being more responsible stewards of the Earth.
Editorials
Day on the farm — 06/06/09
Event can be more valuable in a non-agricultural county
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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