West Virginia – Bright, shiny objects!

A farmer in West Virginia blogs:

My morning routine gets me moving and my brain awakening. After I get my coffee and breakfast prepared, I carry it to my desk where the computer is first turned to email. I was happy to see today that this blog has a new subscriber who lives in the Philappines. We can safely assume she will not be shopping our farmers markets but something I wrote struck a cord for her and she signed on. Welcome! The local food movement is growing!

As I wandered down my email I came to my daily subscription for the New York Times. One of the op-ed pieces caught my eye and I want to share it with you: Dirtying Up Our Diets was written by Jeff D. Leach, a science and archaeology writer and founder of the Human Food Project. In the New York Times piece Leach poses one benefit to the increase in farmers market participation that I had not considered: we will be eating more dirt!

During the 20th century more Americans moved off the farm into the cities and no longer grew a good percentage of their own food. As food distribution industrialized, packaging of fresh produce became more prevalent and now we can get prewashed plastic bags of salads, vegetables all cut up ready for stir frying, and even prepared trays of fruit to bring to the next office party.

That popular time saving package saves you germs too. Sounds good, right?

Well, Leach says it is not all good. While he is not truly suggesting that we actually go eat some dirt and therefore ingest some harmful bacteria, he does say that all this washing has resulted in a reduction of the GOOD bacteria that our guts need.” Get more here: Eat More Dirt « wvfarm2u.

: Image via Wikipedia

How effective new media can be for candidates looking to convert an online presence to a victory on Election Day, however, is still a subject for debate.

Some believe that while effective Twitter or Facebook accounts can make candidates more approachable, they also can make politicians into more polarizing figures.

The prime example discussed at the event, titled “Going Viral: How Campaigns Are Using Social Media,” was Sarah Palin, who has the ability to drive a news cycle with a 140-character tweet or drive a policy conversation by tapping out a Facebook note, as she did last year when she wrote of “death panels” during the debate over health care reform.

By tweeting, Palin — who often gets taken to task by the media for making errors in her casual notes to followers — is able to preserve and build support from fans who care more about her approachability than her accuracy. Just last week, Palin accidentally tweeted that John Raese was from Pennslyvania, when he actually is running for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia.

“She’s definitely more likely to be the Republican nominee for president but less likely to actually be president,” said Matthew Hindman, GW assistant professor of media and public affairs.

Read more here: politico.com

Kudos to Steven Allen Adams who was recently named the top political blogger in the State of West Virginia by the Washington post…

“Who is the best political reporter in the Mountain State? That would be Steven Allen Adams, of West Virginia Watchdog, according to a Washington Post Top-50 list. We would like to congratulate Steve on a job well done.

“I’m am humbled to be chosen by the Washington Post for this honor,” said Adams. “West Virginia Watchdog is only two-weeks old, so that fact that someone has taken the time to nominate our website and my writing tells me that we’re doing something right. Now I must work to live up to the honor bestowed upon me.”” Source: Washington Post Names West Virginia Watchdog State’s Best Political Reporter

Steven’s West Virginia Watchdog site is proudly powered by e1evation, llc! Special thanks to my team of Heather and Jesse who did all the heavy lifting…

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