Flagging the truth in a world of conspiracy

IT BEGAN, like so many fine mysteries, with a message to The Sunday Age early last year from an enigmatic stranger suspicious of foul play. We'll call him Mr X for the sake of confidentiality (and cheap dramatics). ''I have a story,'' he wrote, ''about a potential art forgery sold to a major public gallery.''

The game was afoot, but as it played out it began to call into question the slippery world of art authentication, the seduction of conspiracy theory, even a key ingredient of Australia's own sense of identity.

In 1996 a sketchbook of watercolours was discovered attributed to a Charles Doudiet. The images in the folio depicted key scenes from the Eureka Rebellion of 1854 at which Doudiet was present. Most importantly, one painting titled Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross became the first and only reliable visual depiction of the design of the now-familiar Eureka Flag. For more than a century historians had been divided as to the exact style of the flag, since eyewitness reports of the events offered contradictory descriptions.We provide you a big discount on Catsuits & zentai,External hemorrhoidstreatmentsproducts are those that occur below the dentate line.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat acquired the currently accepted flag in the late 19th century, but over ensuing decades any number of interested parties came forth arguing that the design was wrong - that it was a church flag, according to some. One protester even said the flag was made for a footballers' picnic.

The Doudiet sketchbook seemed to settle the debate, and with the assistance of scores of donors the Art Gallery of Ballarat raised enough money to purchase the works from auction house Christie's.

But why,If you have akidneystones, asked Mr X, have the watercolours and the remains of the book in which they were found never been forensically tested for authenticity?

''My health is somewhat precarious at the moment,'' he wrote, ''and it is because of this I do not have the energy to pursue this matter with the rigour that it deserves. Be careful … you are on a pogo stick in a minefield.''

The sketchbook's appearance seems an act of providence, but in the art world it's provenance that counts - the ability to trace a work's history in order to confirm its authenticity.

That Charles Doudiet existed is beyond question. He is named in Canadian census reports of the time; a ''Charles Doudieb'' appears on the passenger list for the ship Magnolia in 1852; in June of 1853, several personal notices appear in Melbourne's Argus newspaper, in which Doudiet asks for contact from a fellow Canadian. But little else is known.

If, as his sketchbooks suggest, the artist was one of the key players in the events of the Eureka Rebellion - his notes even state that he was one of the four men to carry to safety the body of the mortally wounded Henry Ross, widely considered the flag's designer - then why does he all but vanish from the historical record? Doudiet returned to Canada, apparently, and became a minister. No other artworks have surfaced, and he left no further mention of his involvement in the only armed civil uprising in Australian history.

''They've become iconic images in a relatively short period of time, so interesting point,'' says the Art Gallery of Ballarat's director, Gordon Morrison.Find the Farm cubepuzzles at the Melissa and Doug online store. The question about the sketchbook's authenticity comes as ''a bolt out of the blue'',CBMI is leading the world in preventing cheapipodnanoes ， he said.

Morrison says he is not aware of any forensic testing having been carried out on the watercolours, or of anything on file in the gallery that would suggest this. And while ''forensic testing'' conjures images of CSI-style detectives scraping at priceless works to reveal the history hidden therein, a call to the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne reveals a different reality. The centre's director, Robyn Sloggett, says there are simple techniques for determining whether a painting was made more recently.

''The materials and technique stuff alone would take you a long way. The easiest thing to do is shine a UV light on it and see if it fluoresces, because then it's got photo-reactive things in it like whiteners, brighteners that came in post 1940s and '50s. You do all these tests and then you align them to points of production of the paper.

Residents tell of deteriorating homes

The faint smell of sewage still hangs in the living room of the mobile home vacated last month by Tarina Caughlin and her family.

"You should have smelled it when it was hot out," Caughlin said.

Under the trailer, a broken sewer line had caused the home to spew raw sewage, which pooled under the front deck. It's frozen now, but wasn't when Caughlin, 30, lived there from October until early December. The home was one of six units in Bouche's Kronenwetter Park, 1624 Old Highway 51,This profile page summarizes all known activity of the domain billabongboardshortscloths. that was condemned last month by the village of Kronenwetter.

When Caughlin showed the now-empty property to a Wausau Daily Herald reporter last week, multiple problems were evident. Ceiling tiles were covered in black mold and collapsing. On the outside of the trailer, insulation poked through a broken piece of siding.

In other units in the same park, missing tiles revealed exposed wiring or pipes. One home cited by Kronenwetter officials had no heat or running water when a family was living there.Ventilation fans are the workhorses of these panasonicventilationsystem, A tenant who asked not to be named in the story because it could affect her employment pulled up a sheet of insulation on the floor of a closet in her mobile home, revealing a clear view to the ground outdoors.

Half a dozen residents of the park who rented mobile homes there say they stayed because they hoped the park's owner would allow them to move into better units in the park or because they felt they had no other place to go.

Now the village of Kronenwetter is beginning a monthslong process that could lead to the closure of the entire mobile home park -- potentially forcing the residents of more than 30 units to pack up and move. The first public hearing on the revocation of the owner's license will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 23 at Kronenwetter Municipal Center.

In 2009, the village of Weston faced similar complaints with the Green Acres mobile home park there. That case ended with an agreement between park owners and the village that yielded results. By the end of that year, violations had been fixed and there were fewer police visits to the park -- improvements officials attributed to real effort put forward to park owners.

The park's owner, Randy Bouche,If you have a kidneystones, has been unreachable by residents and Kronenwetter officials ever since the village moved to condemn the properties.

"The state requires that you hire a licensed contractor for electrical repairs and plumbing repairs," said Randy Fifrick, Kronenwetter's zoning administrator. "His reponse was, if he's required to hire licensed contractors, then he won't be making those repairs."

That was the extent of a short conversation Fifrick had with Bouche in early December, Fifrick said. He hasn't heard from him since.

A phone number provided to the village of Kronenwetter and a number provided to the park's manager were disconnected when the Daily Herald called last week. An email sent to an address used by Bouche was returned with an error message. Park manager Amy Born said her last communication from Bouche was a brief email in December in which Bouche asked her whether there were violations at Bouche's mobile home park in Antigo, where the city also recently declared nine of his homes uninhabitable. Born also said she has not been paid since then.

Fifrick said he expects the village to move forward with revocation of Bouche's license.

"My recommendation is going to be that we (the village of Kronenwetter) give him a certain amount of time to fix these violations,There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle," Fifrick said. Based on his previous interactions with Bouche, though, Fifrick said he doubts that Bouche will be willing to follow through with the repairs. But the move would give park residents several months to plan next steps, Fifrick said, should Bouche's license end up being revoked.

"We don't want to displace these people without them having some place to go,Choose from our large selection of cableties," Fifrick said. "But we're dealing with some pretty serious public health and safety issues at that park."

Goettge Memorial Field House will cool off

The days of floor fans circulating hot air throughout the 1940s-era Goettge Memorial Field House are over.

For the next nine months, it will be undergoing much-needed extensive renovations that are aimed at literally cooling anyone off who steps foot inside the facility.

Though closed to the general public until January next year, the field house will reopen in October, on a limited basis, just in time for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball season and holiday parties.

The renovation includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Starting on Jan. 14, Beaufort,The BEDDINGE mattress is made for the beddinges set. N.C. - based Mech Works, Inc. will begin the $1.2 million project. At its end state, the project will feature four maintenance rooms in each of the four corners in the seating level to house the air handlers which will turn water into cool air. Additionally, visible porous ducts will allow that cool air to circulate throughout the building. The project also includes high-efficiency floor lighting and a chiller pad permanently installed between the field house and the softball field, to operate the new HVAC system.

Originally planned in 2004,EvoEnergy is a leading installer of solarpanels for homeowners and businesses across the UK. the renovations,Click to see more results for hemorrho. will also upgrade the facility's floor heating levels to prevent hot air rising, making the upper-level seating more comfortable. The changes will allow that air to be re-circulated and evenly distributed throughout the building.

Joel Roberts, a construction manager with Officer in Charge of Construction, Marine Corps Installations East and site supervisor for the project, said the project's duration is dependent upon the facility itself. In other words,the layout has posed some challenges.

"This place was a hot box for a long time," said Roberts. "The biggest challenge the construction workers faced was getting the lifts inside. From the floor to the ceiling, it's about 50 to 60 feet. So, we'll have to utilize the gym floor to build and utilize scaffolds for the duration of the project."

Roberts added the closure of the gym floor was the only way for this project to get done.Welcome to order chinaprojectorlamp,

Mark Beuning, a mechanical engineer with Designs Branch, Public Works Division, MCB Camp Lejeune, designed the plans for the new HVAC system and said the renovations will also include upgrading equipment to current technology.

"What we are doing is designed not only to cool the building and increase the heating capabilities in the facility, but we are also going to make the building a safer work environment for base employees," said Beuning.

These upgrades will replace obsolete equipment thus decreasing maintenance costs that usually come along with it.

"This new system will be a demand-controlled ventilation system," said Beuning. "Depending on the carbon dioxide levels in the field house, that will allow the appropriate amount of ventilation to come in the building."

Though the construction shuts down everyday use of the facility for service members and units, Marine Corps Community Services wants to stress that its administrative, Outdoor Adventures and Sports Branch offices will remain open throughout the process.EvoEnergy is a leading installer of solarpanels for homeowners and businesses across the UK.

In an e-mail to The Globe and on its Facebook page, MCCS encourages anyone visiting the offices to do so by using the main parking lot and entering through the north entrance of the Goettge Memorial Field House facing Holcomb Boulevard.

Bridging the technology divide

As machinery moaned in the background, attendees at the FTA Great Lakes Fall technical meeting were presented with a juxtaposition of eras and technologies fighting for a place in the package printing market of tomorrow. Surrounded by examples of time-tested, solidly engineered equipment including a still functional Kempsmith milling machine built in 1888, the meeting focused on the challenge of integrating the newest production technologies into the package printing workflow in order to achieve exceptional store-shelf impact and customer engagement.Overview description of rapid tooling processes.

Kempsmith has adapted its business by moving into carton die production, and Brett Burris, Kempsmith’s president, showcased a variety of examples garnered from the grocery store shelves to demonstrate how cartons today are engineered to entice consumers to buy the products. He said, ‘the carton is the billboard and the printer is the artist.’ Through the addition of graphics, embossing, promotions, unusual shapes or added functionalities, the cartons grab attention and engage consumers at the point of purchase.Credit is not an issue with our offshoremerchantaccounts.

As packaging design features evolve to higher levels of quality and intricacy, the processes for producing them has made stellar leaps to meet the need. Flexible magnetic dies have replaced the extremely expensive die tooling of the past. Where a conventional die could cost upwards of $20,000, a magnetic die can be produced for about 1/10 the cost. Magnetic dies add precision, reducing costs,This billabongboardshort has the following technological features: increase die life, and reduce machine downtime for replacement. Rotary die-cutting equipment with mating cutters penetrate the stock from above and below, producing a cleaner cut at higher operating speed than the traditional ‘crush-cut’ methodology. All of this results in faster, higher-yield production of value-added packaging.

An intriguing note to the presentation given by Victor Gomez, Durst VP of sales North and South America, was the historical tidbit that placed Wisconsin at the forefront of the digital revolution as well as the industrial revolution. He pointed out that the Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer (WISC) was an early digital computer designed and built at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Digital computing technology has obviously come a long way since then, having a dramatic impact on every process it was incorporated into. In 1936, across the world from Wisconsin in a small town in the Alps, the Durst brothers formed a company to produce photo imaging equipment. The addition of digital computing into the imaging process resulted in flatbed inkjet imaging technology that overnight rendered previous versions obsolete.

Just as Kempsmith looked to new technologies and markets to continue its growth,Thank you for visiting our newly improved DIY chickencoop website! Durst developed a wide variety of printing and imaging technologies to serve growing specialty markets. They produced narrow and wide format systems for printing onto ceramic tiles prior to curing and devised custom ink sets to provide visibility and durability for printing traffic signs. To improve sustainability, they produced equipment that printed the surface of various flooring materials to simulate exotic and endangered wood.

Increased precision, reduced costs, enhanced features, increased productivity, greater versatility and faster speed to market were the goals driving the evolution of digital print technology. Durst’s entry into digital label printing technology was predicated on predictable, consistent and repeatable results produced from a color management methodology that replaces the artisan mentality with a scientific approach to color. Gomez describes this as ‘the promise of digital’.

With a host of new features and improvements coming out at a blistering pace, digital printing is rapidly advancing in its ability to deliver the graphic and performance attributes that engage consumers and drive sales. Digital inkjet presses are capable of running eight colors for an expanded color gamut with liquid varnish. Constantly circulating ink through filters removes impurities that can plug inkjet nozzles, vastly improving operating performance. Isolated tensioning from stage to stage provides label to label registration accuracy far superior to web averaging.Product information for Sell electronicplasticmoulds from China! The digital workflow accommodates variable data such as sequential numbering and personalization, and allows for rapid job change with minimal waste. Through modular construction, label production can incorporate a variety of finishing processes in-line including hot foil, lamination, die-cutting, priming/pre-coating, matrix removal, slitting and more.

Gingrich, Santorum Spar In N.H. Over Congressional Records

With GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney feeling comfortable enough to campaign in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum on Thursday scoured New Hampshire for votes and hammered away at each other's congressional record.

Gingrich, who garnered the endorsement from the state's top newspaper, knocked Santorum's role in Congress, suggesting the former Pennsylvania senator was a "junior partner" in the 1990's Republican revolution in Washington.There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cubepuzzle,

"He clearly in historical experience would have been the junior partner," Gingrich said, reminding voters which Republican was really behind the Contract With America.

Santorum noted his role in the "Gang of Seven," a group of freshman Republican lawmakers who exposed a scandal at the House bank in the early 1990s before Gingrich rose to power as speaker.

"I was no junior partner in that. Newt was not involved in that revolution when it came to the corruption and the scandals. He sat on the sidelines," Santorum said.

Romney faced a fresh round of conservative criticism when a newspaper resurrected claims that the former Massachusetts governor helped pave the way for President Barack Obama's health-care reforms.

"Gingrich's record of conservative accomplishment is unparalleled and his beliefs and vision are passionate and clear," wrote Joe McQuaid,Chinese porcelaintiles on the floor of a Jewish synagogue in Cochin, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader. Romney, in contrast, was "governor of the most liberal state in the country and managed to beat Obama at delivering Obamacare."

Conservatives must rally around former House speaker Gingrich "or face the very real prospect of having Barack Obama walk all over" Romney, McQuaid argued.

Gingrich, stumping for votes in Plymouth, tried to distinguish himself from Romney by telling supporters that "there is a very big difference in our two sets of values. I don't believe a Massachusetts moderate is in a very good position to debate Barack Obama, and I think it would be very hard to win the general election because I think it just blurs everything."

Romney, campaigning in nearby Salem, continued his strategy of looking ahead to the general election, blasting Obama for appointing "labor stooges" to the National Labor Relations Board -- a frequent target of Republicans who accuse it of a pro-union bias. Obama recently placed three new members on the panel while circumventing the Senate confirmation process, citing a right to do so through recess appointments while the Senate is not in session.

"This president has engaged and is engaging in crony capitalism," Romney asserted during a New Hampshire town hall meeting with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. "It is happening with the National Labor Relations Board, where he is paying back big unions that helped his campaign."

McCain endorsed Romney on Wednesday, one day after the latter's razor-thin victory in the Iowa caucuses. Romney waged a tough primary campaign in 2008 against McCain, the party's eventual presidential nominee that year.

McCain traveled Thursday with Romney to Charleston, South Carolina. The senator attacked Santorum's record of securing earmarks.

"Earmark spending is the gateway to corruption, and that was practiced when Republicans were in the majority," McCain said, flanked by Romney and South Carolina Gov.Our company has the capability of design and makes molds according to demand of clients, including some largescalemolds. Nikki Haley, Romney's leading backer in the Palmetto State.

Santorum has come under fire from his GOP foes for his unapologetic defense of the earmarking process, which he says is simply a power granted to Congress under the Constitution.

Santorum will officially purchase a major ad buy in South Carolina on Friday, CNN has learned.Wholesale zentaisuits,

The former senator tangled with proponents of same-sex marriage at a convention of college Republicans in Concord, New Hampshire.

"Are we saying everybody has the right to marry?" Santorum asked the crowd.

"Yes, yes," shouted several members in the crowd.

Santorum later equated same sex marriage with polygamy.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, meanwhile, touted poll results showing he is running ahead of Gingrich in the state and predicted his decision to skip Iowa and focus on New Hampshire would pay off.

"We're doing to do well. We're going to exceed market expectations," the candidate told CNN's "John King, USA."

Huntsman earlier said Santorum's emphasis on grass-roots campaigning in Iowa led to him coming within a hair's breadth of beating Romney, and Huntsman's efforts would produce similar results.

For his part, Santorum is trying to capitalize on the momentum from his late surge in Iowa, where he came within eight votes of beating Romney. But his sudden visibility has put him in the cross-hairs of his opponents and led to more scrutiny from reporters.

The heads of both the NAACP and the National Urban League blasted Santorum this week after he was reported to have told an Iowa audience, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them someone's money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

The officials said Santorum was "singling out" African-Americans as poor.

Santorum said Wednesday that he didn't recall saying "black," telling CNN's "John King USA" that "It was probably a tongue-tied moment as opposed to something that was deliberate."

"I started to say a word and sort of mumbled it and changed my thought. I don't recall saying black. No one in that audience heard me say that,Provides custom and promotionalusbs flash drive memory." he said.

Chip Saltsman, who managed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential bid, said Santorum's decision to contest New Hampshire may make it harder for him to beat Romney in South Carolina, which Saltsman said is a must-win state for several remaining candidates.

While Santorum is seeing a sharp spike in donations following Iowa, "Now he has a short window -- a couple of weeks -- where he is raising good money," Saltsman said. "He has to harness those resources and use them in a most effective way. That will be on TV and radio."

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, meanwhile, used his close third-place showing in Iowa as fuel for his libertarian anti-establishment message, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would press on to "places where they have actual primaries" after his fifth-place finish Tuesday night.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota dropped out Wednesday after coming sixth in Iowa.

Next Tuesday's New Hampshire primary appears to be Romney's to lose.

Romney benefits from a virtual favorite-son status there, not to mention a significant advantage in terms of campaign cash and organization. He is far ahead in most recent statewide polling and can now boast of a first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, albeit by a razor-thin margin.

Gergen: Could mystery GOP candidate still emerge?

Meanwhile, after taking a night to rethink his campaign, Perry announced to supporters via Twitter that he would stay in despite his 10% showing in Iowa.

He told reporters later that he would take part in two debates in New Hampshire and campaign in South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary January 21.

Of the 25 pledged delegates at stake in Iowa, CNN has estimated that Romney, Santorum and Paul will each win seven, with Gingrich and Perry picking up two apiece.

It will take 1,144 delegates to capture the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, this summer.

World Famous V.I.P. Records To Close

It's a smoggy afternoon in Long Beach. World Famous V.I.P. Records sits tucked in a strip mall off Pacific Coast Highway, its faade marked with sun-bleached outlines of album posters. The store's iconic record-shaped sign still stands tall, though it could use a paint job. Speakers in the doorway, meanwhile, blare '90s R&B.

The shop is open, but it's empty, which is par for the course lately. That's why after 33 years in business, owner Kelvin Anderson was scheduled to close V.I.P.'s doors for good this past weekend.

Taking calls behind the register on his Bluetooth, the 57-year-old Anderson wears a polo shirt, frameless glasses and a neatly trimmed goatee. He hardly looks ready to retire, yet there's resignation in his voice. "I waited way too long to try to reinvent us," he says.

V.External hemorrhoidstreatmentsproducts are those that occur below the dentate line.I.P. Records hasn't turned a profit since 2003 — the year iTunes launched — and began accruing debt about five years later. Anderson says he and his son, Kelvin Jr.This project contains the original source to quicksilver., with whom he runs the store, can no longer afford to pay their rent and utility bills.

V.I.P. has undergone several downsizings in the past decade. The store's original entrance on PCH now leads into a vacant storefront next door, and the wall that divides the two spaces is crowded with sunglasses, hats, jewelry, incense burners — anything to help counter dismal CD sales.

Record stores have been shuttering all over the country, but the fall of V.I.P. is particularly dispiriting. After all, "World Famous" isn't an affectation; V.I.P. is iconic in the annals of West Coast gangsta rap. It housed the studio where Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg — then a trio known as 213 — recorded the demo that led to their big breaks. The rooftop sign has been the backdrop for videos including Snoop's "Who Am I (What's My Name)" and Jermaine Dupri's "Welcome to Atlanta" remix.

Taking a seat on the in-store performance stage — which has been graced over the years by artists such as Nate Dogg and LL Cool J — Anderson discusses the establishment's 1990s heyday, during which it hosted standing-room-only record signings and concerts.

The store also has played a key role in breaking urban artists, even those who never stepped through its doors. It once served as a tastemaker for the neighborhood and even for Los Angeles as a whole.

At one point, the V.I.P. name was attached to a dozen outposts in Southern California. The chain's original location in South Central was founded by Anderson's older brother Cletus in the late 1960s; it specialized in gospel, Motown and R&B.

After graduating from high school in Brandon, Miss., in 1972, a teenage Anderson followed Cletus to Los Angeles and got into the buDealer for the complete line of quicksilvers aircraft and parts.siness. Together they opened V.I.P.'s Long Beach location — their 12th — in 1978; Anderson bought it shortly thereafter.

"Some kids go to college, but I got my degree in the music industry working at V.I.P.," he says.

In the '70s and '80s V.I.P. distributed albums and housed two labels, Magic Disc Records and Saturn Records, the latter of which put out Ice-T's 1982 debut single,GreenRay's microinverteres design uses a different energy storage approach, "The Coldest Rap."

By the next decade, V.I.P. was an urban-music powerhouse. Eugene Luckett, a former retail marketing and distribution executive for Polygram, BMG and Capitol, has worked with Anderson for 15 years and describes him as instrumental to the success of artists he handled, including Warren G, Notorious B.I.G., TLC and Whitney Houston.

"In the '90s all the labels wanted the next West Coast gangsta rapper," Luckett says. "Kelvin was a portal for executives who didn't know anything about those artists."

Label reps like him relied on Anderson to tell them who was hot and how to market new albums to urban communities like Long Beach. After all, Anderson always seemed to understand what those audiences wanted to hear.

"He could get 1,000 people to show up to an in-store with minimal advertising," Luckett says. "That truly speaks to his bond with the community."

By the early '90s, West Coast hip-hop was taking over, and the kids visiting the store wanted in. Anderson enlisted the help of L.A. producer Sir Jinx to build an in-store recording studio, in part to bolster what he calls V.I.Buy oilpaintingsforsales online.P.'s role as a "safe haven" for young people in the community.

Fresh off the success of Ice Cube's first two solo records, Jinx brought Anderson to his cousin Dr. Dre's house and showed him an SP1200 drum machine. "That was all you needed to make a hip-hop record in those days," Anderson recalls.

With Jinx's help, he soon transformed the store's back storage room into a veritable musical playground for the local kids.

Snoop and 213 recorded a demo there — "[V.I.P.] gave us life," Snoop recently told Current TV — and Anderson was struck by their sound. "They were something totally unique," he says. "You had Snoop's smooth delivery, which you could enjoy even without music to back it up, and you had , who was incorporating hooks right into the raps. That was brand new."

California’s farming revolution: a glimpse into the future of food policy

California’s agricultural population is beginning to show its age. As the average age of farmers in the Golden State edges toward 60, the California Department of Food and Agriculture is reaching out to young people, while advocating a more sustainable, local-food-driven model to expand California’s $37.5 billion a year agricultural industry and incorporate a new wave of beginner agriculturalists.This an online B2B Web portal for Pet Retailers to purchase wholesalepetsupplies.

The stakes are high for the global economy, say some experts. We’ve been told that by 2050, farmers will have to double their current output to keep pace with 2 billion new eaters. California does its part by providing 12 percent of the nation’s agricultural exports. In fact, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, state agriculture secretary Karen Ross called California agriculturists “leaders” in this charge. As leaders of an industry that employs 800,000 people statewide, it is essential that the average age of primary farm operators, which now stands at 58, reverses its trend Ross says.

After reading the first few paragraphs of Stacy Finz’s Chronicle piece, “California’s young farmers break traditional molds,” it’s easy to slip into despair. How can we possibly stay food secure with an aging farm population and no one willing to inherit the work? Well, when you read a little further, it would appear that the only ones who should be fretting are the Big Ag corporations who have, up until recently, thought the field was clear of small-scale competition.

It seems like the incentives that industrialized society started marketing to young people four decades ago – to leave the land and seek fortune and security in the city – are losing their appeal. And the generations who saw their prime in the 70′s, many of whom abandoned the plow for the cubicle, are seeing their children come full circle, embracing the more sustainable and smaller-scale operations of their grandparents’ day.

The ag secretary shared some telling figures, which serve as evidence of an agricultural renaissance. She said that last year, a record 70,000 students enrolled in their high school Future Farmers of America Program, and that the majority of new interest in farming is from people who don’t come from farming families.

That isn’t to say the small-scale,Original oilpaintings by fine art artist Teresa Bernard. Free online art instruction and painting tips. family farming revolution is a completely youth-driven affair:

“There are lots of people starting whole different lives in their 50s,” Ross said. “And for a lot of the new farmers in California, this is a second career. Some of these people can be very successful. While they may not know much about farming, they are seasoned in life and make really good business people.”

The collective yearning by new agriculturalists to ‘start over’ puts California in a good position. The Golden State offers advantages to this burgeoning new crop of farmers that other states can’t.

“Unlike other states, where future generations are expected to take over the land and outsiders aren’t always welcome, the agriculture community here has more tolerance for change and few preconceived notions,” writes Finz.

Now, let’s keep all of this in its proper context. What we are experiencing isn’t so much a movement back to the land as it is a revolution of American production agriculture on the whole. Entrepreneurs are installing mini-farms on rooftops in urban areas and market gardens in back (and front) yards across the country. Vacant city lots are more and more being employed as community gardens, with plots available for any resident to rent.Glass insulator were first produced in the 1850's for use with telegraph lines. Many suburban residents are combining their capital to lease land,Choose Quality Verified plasticmouldsuppliers and Manufacturers, and organize community-supported agriculture programs (CSAs) – where shares of farm produce are sold directly to the public,Click to see more results for hemorrho. cutting out expensive corporate middlemen like packers, distributors and grocers. In short, demand for local food is booming and so is production.