IWF has been awarded a partnership to work with the Spokane Regional RMA office to develop a bilingual outreach and educationlal program with a special emphasis toward Latino Farmers.  IWF will help to develop educational and promotional materials in Spanish and offer bilingual workshops on crop insurance and other risk management issues in Washington State.   Sean Hopps will coordinate the project and Miguel Urquiza will be the lead organizer and trainer.   

IWF is pleased to announce its joint venture with Calyx Sustainable Tourism We will be working in partnership with Heidi and Steve from Calyx on aspects of our rural economic development strategies that emphasize agritourism development, other forms of niche tourism and how these approaches can support meaningful job development and small business ownership, including small farms. They recently completed a valuable farmland acquisition report which IWF is using for its existing work in Eastern Washington. Most importantly, our values and mission are nicely aligned and we enjoy each other’s company and work style.

Over the last 5 years, Portugal has forged ahead in the use of renewable energy.  Now nearly 45 percent of the electricity in their grid comes from renewable sources, up from 17% five years ago.  They use a mixture of wind, hydropower, solar and ocean waves, according to an article in the New York Times.

Next year, in 2011, Portugal expects to be the first nation to establish a national network of charging stations for electric cars.

Prime Minister José Sócrates used a landslide victory in 2005 to push through the program over the objections of the country's fossil fuel companies.  It cost him.  In 2009 he won by a far smaller percentage.  It cost the ratepayers as well.  The Portuguese have long paid about twice what Americans pay for electricity and prices have risen 15% in the last five years, accompanied by much grumbling.

The small city of Tieton in the upper Yakima Valley has established six Farmers Markets for this summer.  The first one was on Saturday, July 17th.  Others are scheduled every two weeks through September.  We here at IWF were instrumental in helping the community and a very dedicated group of volunteers start up the markets so we have a pretty good idea of what was involved.

A new study has found that 1/3 of all counties in the lower 48 states will likely face water shortages by 2050.   The study, commissioned by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) assessed future water availability in the face of a changing climate.   The study found that climate change is likely to exacerbate existing pressures on water resources caused by population and economic growth.   Examining the impact of global warming on water supply and demand, they found that 1,100 counties will face higher risks of water shortages.  More than 400 will face very high risks of water shortages. 

Noodling around the Internet, I came across a year-old Scientific American article about the coming disappearance of the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground water source that lies under America's breadbasket and irrigates crops that supply one fifth of the total annual agricultural harvest in the U.S.   The High Plains, the area above this endangered aquifer supplies a large amount of the corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and cotton that America produces for itself and the world.