Appalachian Beekeeping Collective is headquartered at an old camp that was once owned and operated by coal mining companies that saw thousands of kids of coal miners go through the camp from different mining states.
“These people are so tied to this place. When I was there over the summer, at least twice a week somebody would drive by and say, ‘I went to camp here 50 years ago. This place means so much to me’ so it’s a really special spot,” said Delaney. “There’s so much rich history there.”
Because the people are tied to the land and invested in the history of the area, Delaney said that it made sense to get them involved in beekeeping.
“They’re native and they’ve been there for generations and they know every mountain, every hill has a name even though it might not be on a map. Because they’re so tied to the land, this operation had to be something that was sustainable and that was also very connected to the environment and beekeeping is definitely both of those things,” said Delaney.
The area also has a rich history of beekeeping as Delaney said she would find antique beekeeping equipment at area flea markets.
“Everybody’s grandfather had bees. It’s because it’s all hardwood forests there, which all produce nectar and pollen and so it’s a really good area for beekeeping, really high quality forage. I think both of those things make it ideal,” said Delaney.
The plan is for those beekeepers to keep their own apiaries but get bees raised by the Appalachian Bee Keeping Collective.
“We’re trying to raise a strain of Appalachian honey bee that is mite resistant and that’s a big piece of what Debbie is doing,” said Asquith. “She’s really skilled with natural beekeeping methods and has been a really big help for us.”
Asquith said that the first class of beekeepers, who will be trained over fall and winter, will number around 35 but next year the program will ramp up to include 85 beekeepers.
You
know Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner from Looney Tunes? How the roadrunner
always just confidently runs off a cliff, and then the coyote runs
off after him, but the coyote always goes “wtf” and looks down
and then he falls while the roadrunner keeps on going? And yet
somehow the coyote never a) just lets the road runner go or b) dies of
his injuries?
Congressional Republicans remind me a lot of the coyote.
As
of this writing we haven’t come up on the red line, which is if
Trump moves to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller. That’s not
because we hope he will #lockthemup. I mean, we do hope that, but
it’s not the core issue. Getting rid of Mueller would be an
announcement that Trump and his Republican enablers are no longer
interested in pretending that they are bound by the rule of law.
So
whether or not you care about Trump-Russia, you need to care about
this. If this happens, there are rapid response events planned all
over the country, so you need to be ready to hit the streets. I’m serious. If it’s
cold where you live, go find your warmest coat. Put gloves, a scarf,
a hat, and a couple of protein bars in the pockets now. Go
find your snow boots or your old sneakers or whatever you wear in the
snow and put a pair of clean socks in them. If your state ACLU has a
mobile justice app, download it now. Keep your phone charged.
If
you’re sick of or overwhelmed by this story: If you can focus on
something else, great! There’s plenty of other work to do. All you
need to know is that yes, it did get louder this week, in large part
because the entire Republican establishment has joined in the
shouting in Trump’s defense. If something happens that you do need
to know, trust me, it’ll be impossible to miss.
If
you do care about Trump-Russia, you might still be overwhelmed and
confused. That’s because the entire Republican establishment is
making a deliberate effort to overwhelm and confuse you. So we’re
going to walk through recent developments, because fuck them.
Wicked problems are endemic complex systems with components that interact in complicated, poorly understood and unpredictable ways. 1 Interventions into the system produce downstream consequences that cannot be known in advance and cannot be undone. It is impossible to establish as single locus for a wicked problem because changing one element of the system changes the dynamics of the entire system. The wicked problem definition changes depending on both the focal point of interventions and the responses that any proposed solution generates. 2
The opioid overdose epidemic meets the criteria for a wicked problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of overdose deaths involving opioids quadrupled since 1999.3 From 2000 to 2015, more than half-a-million people died from drug overdoses. Ninety-on Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. 4 On October 26, 2017, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency. 5
To gain a broader, multiple stakeholder perspective on defining and tackling the opioid crisis, I consulted with Omar Manejwala, Md, MBA, Senior VP and Chief Medical Officer of Catasys. According to Dr. Manejwala, no simple solution will work. Those who advocate for reducing opioid prescribing fail to see the Ohio experience where opioid use simply went underground or shifted to illicit drugs. Those who advocate for no adjustment to opioid prescribing fail to see the correlation between prescribing and overdoses observed in many communities. Those who argue that this is purely a problem of social determinants of health fail to see the overdose and addiction rates in affluent communities. Those who argue that medication assisted treatment (MAT) will solve the problem fail to see that most patients who are prescribed MAT do not continue it, and in fact relapse to opioids. Buprenorphine is a tool, but it will no more solve the opioid overdose epidemic than antihypertensive medications have solved the hemorrhagic stroke problems – engagement of the patient is key. Those who push and access-to-care argument fail to see that access is just the first step – we need appropriate utilization of resources. Those who are going after the “opioid crisis” fail to see that over 50% of opioids in the US are prescribed to people with mental health conditions and unless we treat those underlying mental disorders, we cannot solve this problem. Ultimately, we need solutions with shared value creation that combine sensible prescribing, social determinants of health, decriminalization, evidence-based interventions including MAT, and treatment of comorbidities. Most importantly, innovative engagement strategies such as community care coordinators, telephonic coaching, and digital apps are necessary to attract patients to care, develop trust, form partnerships, and support long-term recovery. (x)
Hearseeno 