The document discusses the need for Appalachia to transition to a more sustainable economy and agriculture over the next 30 years as coal dependence declines. It proposes diversifying the economy by investing in alternative energies like solar and wind. Old mining sites could become parks or farms. A sustainable Appalachia would have a more localized food system with community supported agriculture and education about farming techniques. The transition may be difficult initially but create long-term stability through a more diversified economy and locally focused agriculture.

1. Sustainability in Appalachian Economy
and Agriculture

2. • A sustainable Appalachian region in 2039 would be very different from the one
which exists in today’s society. One of the major differences would be felt
economically. In order to keep a sustainable economy in the region the current
economic situation needs to be diversified. The region has relied on coal revenue
for over one hundred years. The institution that has been instilled into the minds
of people of the region is a great thing when coal is in high demand. But the major
question is: What will the people of Appalachia rely upon if there is a movement
away from traditional coal powered electricity to greener forms of energy? If this
happens too fast there will be an unsustainable state developing in Appalachia.

3. • How will Appalachia transform
to this movement to greener
forms of energy? First the
region must begin to develop
their own forms of alternative
energy. Forms of energy that
will be possible in the region are
solar power, and wind power.
The central Appalachian region
will need to invest heavily in
these new forms of energy to
slowly move away from the
institutionalized use of coal.
Dependence on coal is currently
extremely high, and the region
must be slowly removed from
their dependence on the
resource. Coal will not last
forever in the region, and thus
will not be a smart choice in a
sustainable Appalachia.

4. Regaining Jobs
• The jobs lost in the coal industry will not have an effect on the economy of the
region because the jobs lost here will be converted into jobs gained in the
alternative energies that will take the place of coal in the region. The new
greener policies of the nation will force these policies into effect. With more
national attention on the region because of its vast coal extraction, it will be
harder for coal companies to resist the change to alternative forms of energy.

5. Big Spending is Key to Sustainability
• The current trend in the economy of the nation is big spending to try and get
the economy back on track. This is because of the current recession, which
will change over the course of the next thirty years into a more
conservative, but still high spending projects, especially in the Appalachian
region. The high spending will be mostly because of the change in the
national policy of the movement towards greener forms of energy, and the
costs from pulling away from coal. This spending of federal tax money in the
Appalachian region is essential to creating a sustainable Appalachia within the
next thirty years.
• The big spending trend in the Appalachian region will bring the region down in
the first decade. During this time President Barack Obama is reelected for a
second term, and more regulations are sent down by the EPA. Because of
these regulations and the push by the President for greener forms of
energy, the region suffers during this first decade. In other words it will get
better before it gets worse (greener energy policies lead to unemployment
and a rise in the poverty rate of the region). This suffering will bring about the
changes that need to happen in order to create a sustainable Appalachian
region. Because of this suffering former coal companies in order to sustain
themselves create jobs in other forms of energy, thus helping to reduce
unemployment. The energy companies evolve to sustain themselves and
doing so thus sustaining the region itself.

6. No More Spec Buildings?
• The current trend of Spec buildings being built at every slight chance of a company
coming to the region will stop. There will be no need in hoping for jobs to come to
the region because the new movement toward a greener Appalachia will form
more jobs, and more entrepreneurs in the region. The entrepreneurs will begin to
build up their own energy companies, and they will also begin to invest heavily on
local agriculture. These new investors in the region will help people to see that
they will be able to make it on their own, and not have to rely on someone to
come in and save them

7. Mountain Top Removal Legislation
• The old Mountain Top removal sites will continue to be used, although it is risky to build
on these sites because of the weakness of the soil and the possible collapse of the
ground beneath them. There will be no more ads in the papers or on T.V. about how
the TVA is using the reclaimed land for farming and raising animals, because these are
unrealistic goals. It will take many years for the soil to grow to the state in which it can
be farmed and animals can graze upon it again. The land that has been used for strip
mining will be tested and we will be trying new ways to use old strip mine land for
agriculture or recreation.
• With the new movement toward greener forms of energy the national legislation will
put into place policies that will get rid of mountaintop removal in all unwanted forms.
Only the landowners will be able to surface mine the land, no exceptions to the rules.
The national government will make up for its lack of enforcement in the past half
century by making strict punishments for the people who do resist and continue to use
surface mining operations where they are not authorized to do so. The old policies of
just letting it slide because the coal companies gave contributions to political campaigns
will be stopped because of the real threat of government intervention. This will bring
back accountability to Appalachian politicians.

8. National Parks
• One easy way to improve and sustain the Appalachian economy is to set up more national
parks in wilderness areas. Wilderness brings people to the area, and brings in money
because of the people coming to the area for travel, and also from the people who come to
the area to live there. These wilderness areas would be set up in central Appalachia, mostly
in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. People in the region will visit these new
parks to recreate. People will participate in hiking, fishing, hunting, climbing, etc. all of which
will force them to spend money in the area for food and drinks, which stimulates the
Appalachian economy. Another good aspect of recreational parks is that they do not need to
be built; they are part of the environment. Besides the benches and any playgrounds they
are already ready to be a park. Using old mountain top removal sites for these parks would
be a great way to use the land that can no longer be used for agricultural.

9. Systems Thinking Analysis
• One of the worst economic problems that could develop an unsustainable future
for the Appalachian region is the lack of adequate jobs. The lack of adequate jobs
problem sets up a perfect shifting the burden scenario. A shifting the burden
scenario occurs when a symptomatic “short term” solution is used to fix a problem
symptom. The symptomatic solution is reducing the ability of people to see and
use the fundamental solution (the real answer to the problem) because of side
effects of the continual use of the symptomatic solution. In this certain situation
the symptomatic solution would be the building of spec buildings, and the hope of
someone to come and save the people of Appalachia by giving them jobs. This
solution of spec buildings only reduces the ability to see the fundamental
solution, education and job training. The side effect of the symptomatic solution
in this circumstance is dependency; the dependency on the fact that there will
always be someone to come save the people. This dependency reinforces the
symptomatic solution, which reduces the “need” for the fundamental solution. To
stop this process, and create a more sustainable Appalachia we must slowly pull
away from the symptomatic solution, and begin to put the fundamental solution
into place (for more info on shifting the burden and this circumstance in
particular, see documents attached). This is where the leverage in this diagram
lies; strengthening the fundamental solution, while at the same time weakening
the symptomatic solution.

10. Systems Thinking Shifting the Burden
Symptomatic
Solution
Problem Symptom
Side Effect
Fundamental
Solution

11. Systems Thinking Diagram
Building of Spec
Buildings, Bringing
Hope to the
Region.
Lack of Adequate
Jobs
Dependency
Education and Job
Training

12. Application of Systems Thinking
• Using the systems thinking analysis talked about above, Appalachia over the course of the
next thirty years will be able to create a stable economy. The economy that does develop out
of this strategy will be much more stable than an economy like the one that has existed and
has relied on coal for over one hundred years. The cause for the reliance on other
people, and the problem which has led to this systems maps creation happened because of
hope. When Appalachia was down economically in the past, coal has come back and has
given everyone in the region jobs. Now every time Appalachia goes through a shortage of
jobs, and a rise in unemployment the people of the region expect someone to come back
and save them again just like the coal industry had in the past.
• If these particular cautions, and suggestions from the systems thinking diagram are taken
seriously in the central Appalachian region, the economic stability of the region will stay
intact. These suggestions will only strengthen the regions hidden ability to persevere
economically. The reliance on coal will slowly decrease as new and more rewarding
alternative energies develop in the region, and create many jobs for the area. One thing that
should be obvious from the discussion above is to realize that the Appalachian economy is
not a separate entity. The problems that are affecting the Appalachian region are affecting
other regions as well. The change in National energy policies is what affects the Appalachian
coal industries, not Appalachian energy policies.

13. Agriculture
• A major appeal of the region of Appalachia is the vastly diverse agriculture that
can be grown there. The ground in this region can be used to grow cash crops
such as tobacco, and can be used to grow foods for the whole family such as corn
and tomatoes. During the next thirty years the agriculture of the Appalachian
region will change, though not too drastically. The region is already full of farmers
markets and local farmers selling the crops that their family will not use to receive
cash. The region will slowly begin to develop more local markets that produce
goods for their communities first, then the region as a whole.

14. New System for Agriculture of the
Region
• More organizations such as the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project will develop. The
organizations will put forth efforts to keep the region nourished. The group’s goals will be to
expand community based food systems. These food systems are locally owned and operated
and most importantly promote healthy foods. The region will no longer be subject to just
fast food commercials on T.V., in the next five to ten years there is a push towards healthier
more organic foods in the Appalachian region. The farmers in the region will flourish because
the people will want to buy locally produced food. By the time the year 2039 rolls
around, the farmers of the region will still appear the same, but the system behind them will
be completely reworked to support more locally run organizations and markets.

15. Learning the Ways
• Farming and agriculture will be taught in
schools in the region. It will be taught that
without these farmers in the region who sell
their crops locally there would be a much
higher price tag on the food that they eat for
dinner every night. The new group’s will run
workshops to show people who just want to
be able to produce food in their own garden
how to do it efficiently and safely. These
workshops will provide people of the region
with enough knowledge of the soil and crops
for them to produce their own food if
needed, and teach their children and family
the knowledge that they have learned in
these workshops.

16. Community Supported Agriculture
• During the next decade, due to the end of the economic recession and the push for greener
forms of energy the people of the region will suffer. The region is already the poorest in the
country. During this first decade it will be hard for people to get the right kind of
nourishment that they need to survive. CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) will raise
awareness about these undernourished families. More organizations will form during this
time period to grow food and send it to the people of the region. CSA’s help the local
agricultural economy by buying into these local producers, and they help to bring back small
farms to produce for their own families as well as their own income. The overall goal of
these organizations will be to slowly begin to rebuild the Appalachian food system. With the
CSA’s organizations help the people of the region will get through the hard times of the first
decade, and will be able to become stronger economically and agriculturally because of the
hardships that they have suffered. The CSA’s will give people the food that they cannot get to
until the region gets out of the condition that it is currently in.
• The movement toward more locally owned and operated farms will produce a much more
sustainable Appalachian region. The locally produced farms will still be connected to the
national and global economy for income purposes, but locally they will produce the produce
that the area needs to survive on their own if they needed to. The great thing about locally
produced food in the Appalachian region is that the people in the region have a high demand
for local food. This trend of wanting locally food is also a national trend according to research
done by the Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project. The study also showed that people
are willing to pay more for locally grown food than for the non-locally grown food that they
are used to getting.

17. Global Local
• The way to make the Agriculture of the Appalachian region better would be to get
the restaurants and supermarkets in the region to also carry only the locally
produced goods in the region. Unfortunately this is not a realistic goal for a
sustainable Appalachia in thirty years. The transitions needed to get to this state
would affect far more people far more drastically. The middle ground is where the
region is heading towards in the next thirty years. Locally produced foods are
slowly starting to take the place of the nationally produced foods at supermarkets
and restaurants, but overall the major corporations such as Tyson are still king of
food in the region.

18. Bringing it All Together
• The Appalachian region will get great
economic benefits from the movement
in the agricultural sector. Locally
produced goods will cost more, but will
also bring bigger benefits to the
community where the products are
grown. Because of the major
corporation’s presence still in the
area, more non-profit organizations such
as the Appalachian Sustainable
Agricultural Project will start to get
people to grow more locally, moving the
region forward even after this thirty year
time period. This will be a slow but
steady process moving Appalachia
forward agriculturally. When these goals
are met, Appalachian will have a more
stable agricultural sector, with less
people moving out of the region and
more farmers wanting to move into the
area.

19. Sources
• http://www.asapconnections.org/
• http://nrv-magick.livejournal.com/97989.html
• http://www.maced.org/
• http://www.asdevelop.org/
• http://www.acenetworks.org/
• http://defendappalachia.blogspot.com/2009/03/coal-creates-jobs-and-
strong-economy-in.html