usresilienceproject.org - October 31, 2011

U.S. Resilience Project (USRP) reports are designed to showcase how public policy can benefit from private-sector best practices in security, business continuity, risk management, and disaster preparedness.

Harness the Power of Intelligent Networks and Social Media

The focus for national preparedness should be on creating situational awareness, enhanced decision-making and rapid response; Platforms like the U.S. Resilience System, that are based upon distributed intelligent social networks and crowd-sourcing, can enable far more agility and adaptability than a highly structured, hierarchical capability with significantly better outcomes at far less cost. Exploiting U.S. leadership in this area has the potential to create significant engagement in preparedness, disaster response, and regional resilience building.

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott stands before the Senate on Tuesday as they debate the GMO food labeling bill at the Statehouse. (Photo: EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS )

burlingtonfreepress.com - by Terri Hallenbeck - April 15, 2014

MONTPELIER – The Senate gave a decisive 26-2 vote Tuesday for a bill that would require labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, a strong indication that Vermont could become the first state in the nation to enact such a law.

“We are saying people have a right to know what’s in their food,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor.

Campbell and other supporters argued that they believe they have written a bill that is legally defensible.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

vpr.net - by Bob Kinzel - March 12, 2014

(Vermont) - State officials have announced a plan that they hope will control health care costs in the future by redesigning how providers are paid.

The goal of this new approach is to encourage providers to work together on a patient’s total health care needs and to improve medical outcomes by allowing the providers to be reimbursed for preventive care.

State officials are optimistic that if these changes are made, it will significantly slow down the growth rate of health care expenses.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ecowatch.com - by Kiley Kroh - August 16, 2013

While the national debate remains largely focused on President Obama’s impending decision regarding the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, communities across the U.S. and Canada are grappling with the oil and gas industry’s rapidly expanding pipeline network—cutting through their backyards, threatening water supplies and leaving them vulnerable to devastating spills.

As production booms in Alberta, Canada’s tar sands and fracking opens up vast oil and natural gas deposits around America, companies are increasingly desperate for new pipelines to get their product to market. “We’ve so narrowly focused on Keystone that a lot of these other projects aren’t getting the scrutiny they probably need,” said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Newsletter - June 24, 2013

News - Wellspring Farm CSA

About Wellspring Farm!

Since 2003, we have been growing five acres of high quality certified organic vegetables and flowers on our beautiful farm on the banks of the Winooski River in Marshfield, Vermont. The majority of our produce is sold via community supported agriculture, or CSA. See our CSA Membership information Our enthusiastic CSA members pick up their produce weekly at the farm or in Montpelier from mid June to early October. Shares include an abundance of fresh, organic, seasonal vegetables and fruit direct from our fields. Enjoy pick-your-own crops like peas, beans, cherry tomatoes and flowers for an on-farm experience. Notice the changes in the season, cut flowers in the garden with a friend, and keep farmland active in your community! Wellspring Farm is the recipient of the 2005 Conservation Farm of the Year Award Awarded by the Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District.

First, there is great value in a systems approach as a heuristic for understanding interlocked social-ecological-technological processes, and in analysis across multiple scales. Yet we need to move beyond both systems as portrayed in resilience thinking, and the focus on actors in work on vulnerability, to analyse networks and relationships, as well as to attend to the diverse framings, narratives, imaginations and discourses that different actors bring to bear.

For More:

http://resilienturbanism.tumblr.com/post/7573475902/reframing-resilience

There are many definitions of resilience from simple deterministic views of resilience anchored in Newtonian mechanics to far more dynamic views of resilience from a systems perspective, including insights from quantum mechanics and the sciences of complexity.  One baseline perspective of resilience sees it in terms of the viability of socio-ecological systems as the foundation for sustainability.  For those that are ready to look beyond resilience as the ability to return to the "normal state" before a disaster, take a look at:

http://www.resalliance.org/

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) announced Monday she will introduce bail that would "significantly change the nation's food policy" by supporting local and regional farmers. The package of reforms and new programs, dubbed The Local Farm, Food, and Jobs Act, would encourage the production of local food by helping farmers and ranchers and by improving distribution systems, building on the success of farmers markets across the country.

Source: Food Safety News  Author: Helena Bottemiller | Oct 25, 2011

"This is about healthy local food and a healthy local economy. When consumers can buy affordable food grown locally, everyone wins," said Pingree, who owns an organic farm in North Haven, Maine. "It creates jobs on local farms and bolsters economic growth in rural communities."
Pingree tied local food system growth to creating jobs all over the country.
"We've seen explosive growth in sales of local food here in Maine and all across the country. This bill breaks down barriers the federal government has put up for local food producers and really just makes it easier for people to do what they've already been doing," the congresswoman said.