Farmer and the Cheese - Introduction

Once upon a dream my friend Chanda Lindsey said that she had a dream. In this dream she read a book I wrote called The Farmer and the Cheese. She said that in this book the parts that talked about Claire had a smaller font than the rest of the book. I will dedicate this blog and maybe that book to her.

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I started graduate school in the Fall of 2014. The plan was to finish a Masters of Regional Planning. To promote the program, Dr. Mark Hamin said that I should use this as a period of reflection. For a while, I did not see that. With this blog, I plan to remedy that and use this blog as both a period of reflection and as a way to satisfy this requirement to do a dairy value chain assessment in the Pioneer Valley. The purpose of the later is to look at activities that are a bottleneck or a benefit to see what can provide an economic advantage to dairy farmers in our region.

A three-legged Milk Stool

When I refer to the three-legged stool, it is to discuss the core-meaning and values of the term "sustainable." Today this is a diluted term, but I will use the three legs or pillars of sustainability (economic development, environmental conservation, and social justice) as I consider all of my posts.

The concept of "sustainable" or "sustainability" comes from the "Brundtland Report" or "Our Common Future." They are one and the same. Published in 1987 by the United Nations Wold Commission on Environment and Development (CWCED). This was the first time that the environment and development were firmly placed together in policy as a single issue. Like the word "Natural" this is a diluted term, but I hope to bring some meaning back to this term.

I encourage meaningful comments and discussion. I will speak from my experience and my research. I admit that I am not always "right" and will discuss controversial topics. Please share wide and let me know what you think!

~Shannon