B5. Resilience, Third Nature, and Transition

Economía solidaria: un panorama histórico Por Melanie E L Bush y Nokuthula Hlabangane Introducción Nuestra época se caracteriza por una intensificación de las disputas. El sistema-mundo capitalista ha entrado en su etapa final y todos los aspectos de la vida —políticos, sociales, ecológicos, económicos y otros— enfrentan crisis cada vez más profundas. Actualmente, cinco hombres poseen tanta riqueza como la mitad de la población mundial en conjunto. Las disparidades globales son claramente e…

Solidarity Economy: A Historical Overview By Melanie E L Bush and Nokuthula Hlabangane Introduction Our era is one of heightened contestation. The capitalist world system has entered its end stage and all aspects of life - political, social, ecological, economic, and more -alternatives)))Alternatives)---Alternatives)TapestryAlternativesalternativesTapestryAlternativesGTAGTAGTAGTA))))-!.TapestryAlternatives.......vs........

Nota editorial – Tejiendo economías para la vida Por Melanie E L Bush, Halwest Karim y Madhuresh Kumar Introducción El mes pasado, el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) celebraron sus Reuniones Anuales en Bangkok, Tailandia, reuniendo a gobiernos, instituciones financieras y responsables de la formulación de políticas para deliberar sobre el futuro de la economía mundial. Más de ochenta años después de su creación, estas instituciones continúan ejerciendo una enorme infl…

TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #21: Boletín del Tejido Global de Alternativas Tejiendo economías para la vida: Economías solidarias, bienes comunes, cuidados y futuros pluriversales Noviembre de 2026 Nota editorial El mes pasado, el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) celebraron sus Reuniones Anuales en Bangkok, Tailandia, reuniendo a gobiernos, instituciones financieras y responsables de la formulación de políticas para deliberar sobre el futuro de la economía mundial. Más de och…

Editorial Note – Weaving Economies for Life By Melanie E L Bush, Halwest Karim and Madhuresh Kumar Introduction Last month, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, bringing together governments, financial institutions and policymakers to deliberate on the future of the global economy. More than eighty years after their establishment, these institutions continue to exercise enormous influence over the economic policies and dev…

Jinwar: el enfoque colectivo de las mujeres para gestionar la economía local Por Halwest Karim Introducción Jinwar es una aldea ecológica para mujeres e infancias en Rojava, en el Kurdistán occidental. Está situada entre tierras agrícolas y la colina de Kibaz, en las llanuras del noreste de la gobernación de Hasakah, Siria. La aldea fue construida por el movimiento de mujeres kurdas como un hogar seguro donde las mujeres afectadas por la violencia y la guerra pudieran reconstruir sus vidas …

Jinwar: Women’s Collective Approach to Managing the Local Economy By Halwest Karim Introduction Jinwar is an ecological village for women and children in Rojava-Western of Kurdistan. It is located between agricultural lands and the Kibaz Hill, in the northeastern plains of Syria’s Hasakah Governorate. The village built by the Kurdish women’s movement as a safe home for women affected by violence and war to rebuild their lives and live together in a community based on solidarity, freedom, an…

La aritmética del fuego Por la Dra. Lebohang Liepollo Pheko Nos dijeron que enfriáramos las llamas mientras seguían incendiando el mundo. Llamaron amor a nuestro trabajo, deber a nuestro agotamiento, nuestra desolación y nuestro despojo se convirtieron en «desarrollo».

A fox trots down a street in Berlin at dusk. A troop of baboons moves through a residential garden in Cape Town. A coyote is caught on a camera trap behind a Chicago strip mall, one data point among hundreds of thousands flowing in from cities across the world. Do these urban dwellers get a […]

Rural communities have always adapted to change. In Eastern Kentucky, business owners and farmers have weathered the decline of whole industries, population loss, and economic uncertainty while continuing to revitalize and invest in their communities. Today, many face a new challenge: rising energy costs that put increasing pressure on already thin margins. 

For nearly two decades, Mountain Association has worked alongside small businesses to help reduce energy costs through efficiency improvements and renewable energy investments. One challenge comes up again and again: finding the upfront capital to make those projects happen. 

Sustainable Harvest Farm in London, KY is a REAP recipient.

The USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP, has been a key reason many of the energy savings projects across Eastern Kentucky have been able to happen. By helping rural businesses and agricultural producers invest in energy-saving upgrades, REAP lowers the barrier to projects that can reduce operating costs, strengthen businesses, and build long-term resilience. Our clients’ REAP-funded projects in Eastern Kentucky are saving them over $564,000 per year on their energy bills. 

REAP was created as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, building on earlier USDA energy initiatives aimed at helping rural businesses and farmers reduce energy costs. It has been one of USDA’s most widely used energy programs, helping thousands of farms and rural businesses finance projects that improve competitiveness and long-term sustainability, and has long enjoyed bipartisan support.  

Over the years, Congress has reauthorized and expanded the program through subsequent Farm Bills, and funding even increased significantly through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which provided additional resources to support renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across rural America. However, earlier this year, the program was paused while the USDA evaluated its policies. 

In October, they issued their final rule for the program which includes significant changes (a summary of which is provided below from LightShed). The one we are most concerned about is that the program will require upgrades like solar and energy efficiency to have been in operation for 12 months prior to receiving any reimbursement.  

Effectively, with these new rules, REAP may only help businesses and farms that can already afford their projects without needing assistance. In regions like rural Eastern Kentucky, access to capital is often limited, and cash flow is critical. Requiring businesses to fully fund a project before even having a chance to apply for assistance excludes many of the very enterprises REAP was created to help. 

We hope USDA will continue to evaluate the impacts of these changes and consider ways to ensure the program remains a practical tool for rural businesses and farms seeking to lower energy costs and improve long-term sustainability.  

As more guidance becomes available, we’ll continue sharing updates and working with businesses across the region to navigate the changing landscape. 

Summary of REAP changes from LightShed

What is on offer. 

Grants of up to 25% of eligible project cost, capped at $500,000 for renewable energy systems. A $400,000 solar project, for example, could receive up to $100,000. Awards are competitive and ranked nationally, so funding is not guaranteed. 

The biggest change. 

REAP will now fund projects after they are built. A system must be installed and operating, and the owner must submit 12 months of actual production data along with 12 months of pre-installation utility bills. In the first application window, projects completed 12 to 36 months before the application date can apply. After that, the range is 12 to 24 months. 

Other eligibility points. 

• Agricultural producers and rural small businesses remain eligible, and the project must be located in a rural area. 

• Ground-mounted solar on cropland is not eligible. Rooftop systems are not affected by this restriction. 

• Systems installed on or after October 1, 2026 cannot include any component (panels, inverters, racking, monitoring) made in a “foreign adversary” country, a list that currently includes China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia. Systems installed before that date are exempt. 

• Energy used for a residence is not eligible. A business [or farm] that shares a meter with a home needs its own dedicated meter. 

• Each application can cover only one site/location, and each owner may submit one application per federal fiscal year. 

What we are still waiting on. 

USDA has not announced the application window or the amount of funding available. They have also not indicated whether the application process will use the same forms/protocols, or if they’ll have a brand new submission platform to digest. All of this should come in an annual program notice, and we will pass those details along as soon as they are published. 

The post A Program Built to Help Rural Businesses Just Got Harder to Use  appeared first on Mountain Association.

Solar panels above, fish below: That’s the idea behind aquavoltaics, an emerging way to pair solar power with fish farming. Freshwater aquaculture produces more than 160 million tons of fish, crabs, and shrimp a year, emitting an estimated 438 million tons of CO2 equivalents (tCO2eq). A new study finds that covering the world’s aquaculture ponds with floating solar panels could generate nearly as much electricity as the United States uses, far more than enough to offset the industry’s carbon footprint.

Photovoltaic electricity is Earth’s most abundant potential source of renewable energy, but it requires lots of surface area. So people have tried to combine it with other types of land use, spawning agrivoltaics, in which solar panels are spaced across farm fields or pastures—harvesting a fraction of the incoming sunlight without appreciably reducing crop yields. People have also tried covering lakes, canals, and reservoirs with photovoltaic panels—but the wildly fluctuating levels and large size of these water bodies present major challenges. Aquaculture ponds, in contrast, are generally small and shallow, with consistent water levels.

In the new study, the authors analyzed satellite imagery and other data to estimate the total global area of aquaculture ponds. They identified 50,000 square km of these ponds worldwide, of which only 423 square km currently host water-surface photovoltaics. Some 97 percent of this  aquavoltaic area was in China, with most of the rest in Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, and Israel.

 

.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl , .IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {height: auto;position: relative;}.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby:hover , .IRPP_ruby:visited , .IRPP_ruby:active {border:0!important;}.IRPP_ruby .clearfix:after {content: "";display: table;clear: both;}.IRPP_ruby {display: block;transition: background-color 250ms;webkit-transition: background-color 250ms;width: 100%;opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: #eaeaea;}.IRPP_ruby:active , .IRPP_ruby:hover {opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: inherit;}.IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl {background-position: center;background-size: cover;float: left;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 31.59%;position: absolute;top: 0;bottom: 0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {float: right;width: 65.65%;padding:0;margin:0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text {display: table;height: 130px;left: 0;top: 0;padding:0;margin:0;padding-top: 20px;padding-bottom: 20px;}.IRPP_ruby .IRPP_ruby-content {display: table-cell;margin: 0;padding: 0 74px 0 0px;position: relative;vertical-align: middle;width: 100%;}.IRPP_ruby .ctaText {border-bottom: 0 solid #fff;color: #0099cc;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .postTitle {color: #000000;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .ctaButton {background: url(https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts-pro/assets/images/next-arrow.png)no-repeat;background-color: #afb4b6;background-position: center;display: inline-block;height: 100%;width: 54px;margin-left: 10px;position: absolute;bottom:0;right: 0;top: 0;}.IRPP_ruby:after {content: "";display: block;clear: both;}Recommended Reading:Magenta solar panels may be agrivoltaics’ cleverest trick yet

 

So what if the entire 50,000 square km of ponds were 40 percent covered with photovoltaics? The authors estimated that the electricity generated (4,100 TWhr/yr) could replace enough fossil fuel-derived energy to avoid 2.5 billion tCO2eq per year—nearly six times the current emissions of aquaculture worldwide. This electricity production would concentrate along the coastlines of South and East Asia (including Indonesia and the Philippines), with additional hotspots in coastal regions of the Middle East, Egypt, Southern Europe, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the U.S.

This locally produced power could cover the current national electricity needs of Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This aquavoltaic energy would be produced in non-industrial regions that are often not well connected to larger power grids—potentially sustaining over 800 small- and medium-sized cities worldwide.

These calculations rest on baselines that will need to be refined for different regions, fish and crustacean species—including the assumption that 40 percent coverage of the water surface won’t compromise aquaculture yields. But it raises the possibility that aquavoltaics—a sector that didn’t even exist prior to 2010—could help drive our transition to renewable energy.

Xia, et al. “The global potential of aquavoltaics for power generation and offsetting the carbon footprint of freshwater aquaculture.” Nature Food, 2026.

Photo: IMAGO/Xinhua/Alamy Images

How many people driving on California’s roads, right now, have multiple drunk-driving offenses? How many have driven recklessly and caused crashes where someone was killed? Almost no one knows. Of course, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) knows, but it probably won’t tell you. Last year the journalism nonprofit CalMatters pried some of these numbers loose, and they were disturbing. Known dangerous drivers are common, and all too often they go on to hurt or kill more people. 

Does the DMV erect barriers to public information because it wants California’s roads to be unsafe? Almost assuredly, no. More likely, the DMV exhibits some of the worst instincts that afflict large institutions: insularity, and a reflexive fear of oversight and accountability. Over decades, these organizational habits have manifested as a culture of obstruction, so now, when someone seeks public information about what happens on our roads, the DMV’s first, second, and third responses are to refuse. 

As transportation researchers, we have some experience here. The DMV oversees California’s disabled parking placard program. In California, like many other states, people who hold these placards can park in designated “blue” spots that offer more access. Unlike many other states, however, California placard holders can also park free at meters for an unlimited time. This benefit, combined with lax oversight, has created a lot of fraud. Particularly in places where street parking is expensive, illegal placard use is rampant. News organizations, government agencies and academic researchers have all documented this abuse. People buy and sell placards on the black market, doctors charge people to falsify applications, and—-as California’s state auditor has found—people regularly report their placards lost so they can sell or give away the replacements (some placard holders received up to twenty replacements over a three-year period). This abuse deprives local governments of revenue, casts unfair suspicion on people who really need accessible parking, and makes it more difficult for those people to find such spaces.   

In an effort to study this problem, last fall we asked the DMV, through a public records request, for data showing how many placards it was issuing, and the reasons why. This information is plainly in the public interest, and we stated explicitly that we did not want any personally-identifiable information. This information should also not be hard to provide; this is a task that could be handled, in almost any imaginable circumstance, via a rudimentary spreadsheet program. 

 It has now been roughly a year, and the DMV has provided us a total of zero records. What it has provided instead is a master class in obfuscation. Over the course of many jargon-laden emails, the DMV told us (among other things), that the data we want are in a format that would require (depending on the message) expensive hand tabulation, or a mysterious procedure called a “file pass,” which seems to involve the DMV writing custom software (at huge expense) to extract it. We asked for a plain language explanation of what this data format was. We got no answer. The DMV told us repeatedly that the data we wanted were not in its “driver database,” so we asked, multiple times, if any of the data were in other DMV databases, or in already-compiled reports. We got no answer. More than once the DMV said our request couldn’t proceed until they estimated the total likely cost to us of meeting it. When we asked for that estimate, the DMV never provided one. When the DMV said there were too many records, we said we would happily work with a sample. Rather than produce the sample, the DMV offered new explanations about why it didn’t have to share the data. The goalposts, in short, kept moving. Eventually the DMV stopped replying completely and we threw up our hands. This felt like the outcome the process was designed to produce. 

Did we just get unlucky, and correspond with a uniquely uncooperative DMV representative? No. This was our third attempt at getting these records, and the other two experiences were similar. And one of us, for a separate project, was similarly stonewalled by DMV officials who were wary of being interviewed; one official didn’t come to a scheduled interview but a PR staffer did, who proceeded to ask the researcher questions.  

All this behavior runs afoul, at least in spirit, of California’s Public Records Act. The law clearly requires agency staff to explain how data are stored, and to help the public access it. The DMV did neither.  If we believe the DMV’s excuses, then its data management system is essentially unusable. But given its shifting explanations and evasions, there is little reason to believe them. It seems more likely the DMV goes out of its way to not share information. That’s absurd; the DMV isn’t the CIA. There are few benefits to shrouding depersonalized DMV data in secrecy, and there are real costs. People may or may not think placard fraud is important. But driving is the most dangerous thing most of us do on a daily basis, and the part of our life where we pose the greatest risk to others. The DMV plays a big role in managing this everyday risk, and we cannot continue on with their status quo of doing so in secret. 

Marcel Moran, PhD is assistant professor in the School of Planning, Policy, and Environmental Studies at San José State University. Michael Manville, PhD is professor of Urban Planning at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Miriam Pinski, PhD is Research Lead at the Shared-Use Mobility Center.

• With the cost of living a major issue for American voters, the American Public Transportation Association reports that using transit instead of driving can save and average of $14,000 a year when fuel, maintenance, insurance, parking and depreciation are taken into account. (Governing)
• New governors in states like California, Georgia, Colorado and Michigan have a chance to overhaul transportation so that families don’t have to spend a fifth of their income on car ownership. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• The Open Markets Institute warns that robotaxis could put control over transportation in the hands of a few big tech companies.
• Millennial homebuyers want to live in the suburbs, but they also want the suburbs to look a lot more like cities. (Business Insider)
• What if cities had randomly chosen juries make decisions instead of letting the same handful of NIMBYs with too much time on their hands kill every good idea? (We Can Have Nice Things)
• Pete Hegseth’s “Fortress America” plan for military bases sounds an awful lot like 15-minute cities. (CleanTechnica)
• Plans for a new Chesapeake Bay bridge include widening a highway, $40 million for vague transit improvements and “consideration” of a bike lane. (Fox Baltimore)
• The Houston Metro is spending $4 million on road repairs along bus routes, but some advocates think it should be used to improve bus service instead. (Click 2 Houston)
• Almost 80 percent of voters in the San Antonio suburb of Converse opted to stay in the VIA transit system. (Texas Public Radio)
• Los Angeles landlords are turning parking into accessory dwelling units, prompting lawsuits from tenants. (L.A. Times; paywall)
• Denver’s transit agency is funding free first mile/last mile micromobility. (Mass Transit)
• It’s taken Seattle almost five years just to build a small parking lot for electric vehicle charging. (The Urbanist)
• Missoula passed an updated complete streets policy. (Missoulan)
• Amtrak is promoting snowy views on some of its Northern and mountain routes. (Quartz)

“Careless Driver Slays Innocent Lives; Held for Drink and Drug Testing.”

You’ve read that headline a hundred times, or one very like it. A photo of a crumpled bicycle, perhaps, or a small shoe on the pavement. A neighbor quoted saying the motorist always drove too fast. The reader shakes his head and turns the page.

I have very nearly been that driver. More than once. I was not drunk, I was not on drugs, and I was not driving too fast. But I still almost killed someone, because of structural conditions that made it almost impossible not to.

I live in Skyline Plaza, a condominium in Falls Church, Virginia, and park in the building’s mostly-underground garage. Several doors used by pedestrians open directly from that garage into lanes used by moving automobiles.

One day in 2023, I was driving towards the garage just as someone stepped through one of those pedestrian entrances. A mother was taking her three young children to their car parked outside, and I suspect the children enjoyed racing each other to it. All three burst through the door at once, directly into my path.

The mother shrieked in stark terror.

The children stopped dead in their tracks — figuratively, not literally—and I drove through the place where, had their mother not screamed, I could easily have killed three young souls in two blinks of an eye.

Recommended EXCERPT: There are No ‘Accidents’ — We Have Been Fooled into Thinking There Are Jessie Singer February 15, 2022

Here’s the thing about that pedestrian door: someone, at some point, recognized how dangerous its placement is. When it opens, two warning lights come on to alert approaching drivers.

They are shriveled little things, those lights, installed behind two pipes, so that a driver cannot see them until he is a few feet from colliding with a walker — which is to say, too late for them to do any good.

Compare that with the street outside. Nearby Arlington County has installed highly visible flashing lights at pedestrian crossings, giving drivers ample time to react. Car-on-pedestrian crashes can be prevented — if you use the right tools well.

In April 2024, I reported the problem to our condominium’s Safety Committee and demonstrated it in person to a committee representative. In November 2026, she confirmed that the committee had notified management. Still, nothing had been done.

At least six garage doors have inadequate warning lights, or none at all.

Recommended Why Does the Vision Zero Movement Stop At the Edge of the Road? Kea Wilson April 18, 2024

This was not the first time I narrowly avoided striking a walker, though.

Garland, Texas, 1982. Behind our house ran an alley bordered by a six-foot wooden fence. You could not see over it or around it. Normally I drove the alley at ten or fifteen miles an hour. That day, for no reason I can recall, I was poking along at five or seven.

A boy shot out from behind the fence, directly in front of my car, without looking. Thank goodness, I thought, I was barely moving.

Then a second boy, chasing the first, crossed in front of me. Another near miss. That one was Adam, who lived next door.

By now I had stopped. A third boy, plainly hell-bent on catching the other two, came around the corner at full tilt and ran smack into the side of my car.

My stopped car.

He bounced off, unhurt. He was, as it happened, a member of the youth soccer team I coached.

What happened next told me a good deal about two families.

Adam’s father heard about it and made his son come to my door and apologize. Adam hadn’t touched my car, but his father understood what had nearly happened and wanted his son to understand it too.

The third boy’s father reacted differently. I went to explain what had happened, opening rather clumsily with, “I hit your son.”

Once I explained that his son had actually run into my stopped car and was unhurt, the father relaxed. He seemed to regard the whole affair as nothing worth discussing.

Two fathers. One recognized a narrowly avoided tragedy and acted. The other saw that nobody was hurt and left it there.

Forty-four years later, I’ve encountered the attitude I experienced from the second kind of father again. This time, though, it’s coming from the condominium association.

Recommended Does the Media Help Create the Traffic Violence Crisis? Streetsblog March 25, 2025

I still think about the headlines that would have run if I’d actually killed those children.

They would not have been about the six-foot fence. They would not have been about warning lights hidden behind pipes, or a safety recommendation that management ignored. They would have been about me — “careless driver slays innocent lives.”

I was lucky twice. Once because I happened to be poking along. Once because a mother screamed.

Neither of those is a safety system, and we can do better.

TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #21: Boletín del Tejido Global de Alternativas Tejiendo economías para la vida: Economías solidarias, bienes comunes, cuidados y futuros pluriversales Noviembre de 2026 Nota editorial El mes pasado, el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) celebraron sus Reuniones Anuales en Bangkok, Tailandia, reuniendo a gobiernos, instituciones financieras y responsables de la formulación de políticas para deliberar sobre el futuro de la economía mundial. Más de och…

 When I got to the Kentucky Food Truck Championship this September, I didn’t realize how much an event like this would contribute to tourism and local economic activity. 

When you live in Eastern Kentucky, many of us call small towns and rural communities home. Because of both geography and cultural habits, we often stay close to our communities. It is common for people to drive long distances for medical care, shopping, concerts, or other cultural experiences. During the summer and fall, however, festivals become gathering places where people can experience a variety of food, arts, crafts, and music all in one location. 

The Kentucky Food Truck Championship, for example, takes place in Rockcastle County. This year the event was held at the county industrial park, but for its first five years it was hosted at Renfro Valley Music Hall. The fact that the event has continued to grow and attract loyal visitors is a testament to its success and community support. 

Visitors could sample food from dozens of vendors, browse handmade crafts, and enjoy bluegrass, gospel, and country music throughout the day. Local organizations offered activities for children, while students, volunteers, and first responders helped manage parking and logistics. 

The Spatzle Factory is one of our food truck clients based in Irvine, Kentucky.

Anyone who has attended a festival, concert, or community celebration in Eastern Kentucky knows that some of the best conversations happen while standing in line for food. Food trucks have become part of that experience. They give local entrepreneurs a chance to share their passion, introduce new flavors to the community, and create places where people naturally gather. 

A food truck can expose someone to a new cuisine for the first time, inspire a future business owner, or become a memorable part of a family outing. For communities that may have limited dining options, food trucks bring variety, creativity, and a sense of excitement while still celebrating the local character that makes each town unique. In that way, food trucks do more than serve food. They help create memories, connections, and experiences that make a community feel alive. 

I spent some time having conversations with attendees, waiting for my food, sitting under the music pavilion, and visiting the craft vendors. Some were first-time visitors, while others had attended from the very beginning. I met people who had traveled from Indiana and had been returning for four consecutive years. Many proudly wore event T-shirts and talked about organizing groups of friends for an annual weekend of food tasting. I also spoke with food truck owners who told me they look forward to this event every year and have participated since the beginning. 

Roadhouse BBQ is another food truck client based in Hazard, KY.

Events like this bring new visitors to our communities, and when people travel long distances, they often need lodging, fuel, shopping opportunities, and additional activities. Some may spend a weekend exploring nearby attractions. Others may return again in future years. Every visitor creates opportunities for local businesses. 

The economic impact of this type of tourism in Kentucky continues to grow. According to the Kentucky Department of Tourism, in 2024, visitors spent $10.1 billion during their trips, including $2.7 billion on food and beverages alone, supporting more than 97,000 jobs statewide. Approximately 80 million travelers visited Kentucky in 2025. 

These numbers highlight a growing opportunity for entrepreneurs, particularly in Eastern Kentucky. As outdoor recreation, festivals, agritourism, and cultural tourism continue to attract visitors to our region, the demand for local food experiences grows as well. 

For many entrepreneurs, a food truck can be an affordable and flexible entry point into the food industry. Some businesses remain successful in mobile operations, while others use food trucks as a stepping stone toward opening restaurants, catering companies, or packaged food businesses. Products that begin at a festival booth may eventually find their way into farmers’ markets, local retailers, gift shops, or regional grocery stores. 

A food truck can be a testing ground for recipes, a way to build a loyal customer base, and the first step toward a larger business dream. 

If food is your passion but you’re not sure where to start, we can help. Whether your vision involves baking bread, creating specialty products, serving barbecue, or developing a full restaurant concept, there may be an opportunity to turn that idea into a successful business.

Talk to us about start-up financing or business support today.

The post Rolling Into Entrepreneurship at the Kentucky Food Truck Championship appeared first on Mountain Association.

Travelers can now stop at the Somerset-Pulaski County Visitor Center for access to a free electric vehicle charging station, helping welcome a growing number of EV drivers to the Lake Cumberland region, one of south-central Kentucky’s busiest tourism corridors. 

The new Level 2 charger was installed with support from a $7,000 grant from the Mountain Association via General Motors, and the energy use will be offset by recent upgrades at the visitor center. 

The project began after staff at Lake Cumberland Tourism noticed a recurring question from travelers.  

A QR code on the charger’s sign connects drivers with information about things to see and do in the area, along with an option to donate to the nonprofit Master Musicians Festival.   

“Over the years, we’ve had calls from travelers asking where they could charge, so when I learned about this funding, it felt worth exploring,” said Katie Colwell, assistant marketing director for Lake Cumberland Tourism. “We had a parking spot on the side of our lot that was almost never used. Turning it into a charging station was the perfect way to put that space to work for our visitors.” 

After connecting with the Mountain Association in late 2025, Lake Cumberland Tourism worked with the Mountain Association’s Energy Team to evaluate potential charging options, identify funding opportunities, and find energy savings to offset the additional power use. 

Mountain Association staff conducted a free energy assessment of the visitor center and found opportunities for efficiency upgrades, thanks to support from the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy. Through our partnership with Kentucky Utilities Small Business Direct Install Program, we were able to install more efficient lighting and smart thermostats for free. We also found ways to improve the facility’s building envelope and outdoor lighting as well as combining meters, which would eliminate meter fees. 

“Our goal is to help communities find solutions that make economic sense,” said Hope Broecker, Mountain Association Energy Specialist. “Energy efficiency is often one of the easiest ways to lower expenses, and those savings can create opportunities for new investments like EV chargers that benefit residents and visitors alike.” 

Level 2 chargers can provide meaningful vehicle range, but also give travelers time to grab a meal, shop at local businesses, or explore community attractions while their vehicle charges. The charger was installed by Solar Energy Living of Corbin. 

The need for rural charging infrastructure continues to grow. EV registrations in Kentucky increased from approximately 11,000 in 2024 to 24,000 in 2025, with more than 5 million on the road throughout the US. 

As more Kentuckians and visitors choose electric vehicles, accessible charging stations in small towns and rural destinations become increasingly important.

Learn more about EV chargers in Eastern Kentucky here.

The post Partnership Brings Free EV Charging and Energy Savings to Somerset Visitor Center appeared first on Mountain Association.

WEAVING ALTERNATIVES #21: A periodical of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives Weaving Economies for Life Solidarity Economy, Commons, Care and Pluriversal Futures November 2026 Editorial Note Last month, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, bringing together governments, financial institutions and policymakers to deliberate on the future of the global economy. More than eighty years after their establishment, these institu…

AGUAFIESTAS: APO-CALI-DOS-COPIO. PERIÓDICO PAL POPO DEL DOG Por Elba Mercedes Palacios Córdoba DE TEATRALIDAD EN LA BIOREGIÓN EN TORNO AL AGUA Río Teatro Desde Cali, Colombia —en el Sur Global—, observo nuestra ineludible interdependencia cotidiana como organismos vivos. Frente a un modelo que normaliza prácticas y discursos de explotación, desigualdad y destierro, surge el imperativo de «sentipensar» —un proceso que implica sentir y pensar simultáneamente— por las vivencias en zonas racial…

AGUAFIESTAS: APO-CALI-DOS-COPIO. PERIÓDICO PAL POPO DEL DOG By Elba Mercedes Palacios Córdoba Río Teatro: Theatricality in the Bioregion Around Water From Cali, Colombia—in the Global South—I observe our inescapable, everyday interdependence as living organisms. Faced with a model that normalizes practices and discourses of exploitation, inequality, and displacement, there arises an imperative to tapestryalternatives