globalbriefs
News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.
Public Greenways Healthy Parks, Healthy People Spark a National Conversation
More than 100 leaders in health- care, environment, government, business and nonprofits recently engaged in a Healthy Parks, Healthy People US forum to determine how the National Park Service can help drive health and wellness programs in local, state and national parks. “We aim to increase the awareness of all parks as places for exercise and healthy living,” explains National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis. Parks across the country are
now joining others around the world in reconnecting the dots between a healthy, natural world and the health of humankind. As Jarvis notes, “Parks are a direct reflec- tion of the American ideal that… personal access to the natural world plays a vital role in our physical and emotional well-being.”
To locate a park, visit
nps.gov.
Summer Fun Host an Urban Youth’s Vacation and Change a Life
The Fresh Air Fund has provided free summer vacations to 1.7 mil- lion New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Again this year, another 5,000 will spend part of their summers with volunteer host families in com- munities across 13 states from Vir- ginia to Maine and Canada. Some 3,000 more will attend a Fresh Air summer camp in Fishkill, New York. Boys and girls, ages 6 to 12
years, visit 305 Fresh Air Friendly Towns each summer for one or two weeks. Sixty-five percent of the children are re-invited to stay with the same host families, year after year, sometimes up to the age of 18. Fresh Air children and volunteer families often form bonds of friendship that last a lifetime. There are no financial requirements to host a child, and host families are not
paid. The Fund also has a program for placing children who have special physical or emotional needs.
More than 75 percent of Fresh Air contributions come from individual donors. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to The Fresh Air Fund, 633 Third Ave., 14th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Those who wish to qualify as a host family may call 800-367-0003.
8 Knoxville
Hipster Farmers More Young Adults Put their Hands to the Plow
Conditions are perfect for a new generation of farmers in their 20s and 30s that distrust industrial food systems, are intent on meaningful employment and may well succeed an aging farm populace. More are starting small farms and joining net- works of like-minded agriculture en- thusiasts, according to a recent story in The New York Times, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to transform the budding trend into a fundamental shift. Last year, under a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill, the department distributed $18 mil- lion to educate young growers and ranchers across the country. Garry Stephenson, coordina-
tor of the Small Farms Program at Oregon State University, says he has not seen so much interest among young people in decades. “They’re young, energetic and idealist, and they’re willing to make the sacri- fices,” he says. According to the USDA’s 2007
Census of Agriculture, farmers over 55 currently own more than half of the country’s farmland. According to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the hope is that some of the begin- ning farmers will graduate to stakes in midsize and large farms as older farmers retire.
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