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first off, there arent "no more tobacco farms", and secondly people arent "doing just fine", in fact i know multiple farmers who without tobacco are doing terribly financially. and what exactly does that have to do with smoking? farmers producing tobacco and the state's laws against smoking it are not the same thing at all.
there is NO crop that can produce profit like tobacco in kentucky (besides a certain illegal one). its gradual phasing out has certainly had negative economic impacts on the state. hell, you take away the state's most profitable crop and replace it with nothing. phasing out coal is different, because the vast majority of the profits lie in the hands of the coal companies. tobacco however was the only way small farmers could live off their land. they didnt call it the golden leave for no reason.
Tobacco had a benefit in quite a bit of the state since the scale of the farms and hilly topography meant that Midwest/Great Plains style industrial ag wouldn't be too feasible. Sure, farms could consolidate, but if you had a lot of steeper slopes and broken land as part of the proprety you couldnt get the big efficiencies from large scale row-cropping in corn and soybeans.
Tobacco generated a lot of profit off smaller acerages, so was the ideal crop for the kind of landscape and smallholdings that characterized much of KY (thinking of the hill country outside of the flatter Bluegrass, Jackson Purchase and Pennyrile reigons)...places like, say, Roberston County or the country around Carlisle or Mumfordville.
But we are digressing from coal. Mountaintop Removal....are there any attempts at all to do reclamation or reforesting? I think a big issue with this is if the topsoil and subsoil is stripped away there is nothing to reclaim it with. I thought there was supposed to be some strip minining regulation in place that required reclamation?
Tobacco had a benefit in quite a bit of the state since the scale of the farms and hilly topography meant that Midwest/Great Plains style industrial ag wouldn't be too feasible. Sure, farms could consolidate, but if you had a lot of steeper slopes and broken land as part of the proprety you couldnt get the big efficiencies from large scale row-cropping in corn and soybeans.
Tobacco generated a lot of profit off smaller acerages, so was the ideal crop for the kind of landscape and smallholdings that characterized much of KY (thinking of the hill country outside of the flatter Bluegrass, Jackson Purchase and Pennyrile reigons)...places like, say, Roberston County or the country around Carlisle or Mumfordville.
But we are digressing from coal. Mountaintop Removal....are there any attempts at all to do reclamation or reforesting? I think a big issue with this is if the topsoil and subsoil is stripped away there is nothing to reclaim it with. I thought there was supposed to be some strip minining regulation in place that required reclamation?
I don't really know how you can reclaim the devastation done by strip mining. You really have to see it first hand to understand the scale of the destruction. In my limited experiences of being back in abandoned strip mines, reclamation means throwing down a bunch of grass seed. The most memorable mine I was back in was in Letcher Co almost 10 years ago. I was driving around with my buddy in a 4 wheel drive, it seemed to go on forever. We drove around for a couple hours and he said that we only saw a fraction of it. There were people that had pulled trailers back in there and had obviously been "squatting" for a long time, they had laundry strung up, junk in the yard... It seemed like the principal use for this mine was a place for 4 wheeling, shooting guns and a place for teenagers to go drink. It was depressing.
I hate MTR....I'm going to start all my post on this thread as such because some think I'm for MTR and it's just not true.
Now to business at hand. How many that have posted on this thread thus far actually live in Eastern Kentucky? I know some will say...what's that got to do with it, and I guess it don't matter to some. Well, I think it's got a lot to do with it...kinda like walking a mile in my shoes thing.
Point is, using coal for energy is not going to last forever & it's on the outs. Once it happens, you're basically gonna be left with no economy & a once beautiful landscape that's been torn to shreds.
NE Pennsylvania is dotted with dying cities and little hamlets from the end of coal mining in the area.
I recall the 'interesting' colors from mineral deposits formed along stream banks from run off.
In today's (Feb 18, 2011) Louisville Courier Journal an articles states that the Kentucky Senate is just about to approve a measure that would make certain areas of Eastern Kentucky exempt from EPA laws. These areas will be called "sanctuaries".
Anyone who thinks the mountains are beautiful better hurry and have a look. Take photos to show your children how the area once looked.
As I already stated, my sympathies are for the wildlife.
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