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Hayseed (album)
''Hayseed'' is the ninth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Susan Werner. It was released in 2013 (see 2013 in music). The project was commissioned by the University of Nebraska's Lied Center for Performing Arts. The album is a concept album about people and lifestyles in farm towns in rural America, with songs inspired by local characters. Werner, an Iowa native from a farming family, has taken a strong interest in promoting local and sustainable agriculture, themes which are dealt with on the album in songs such as "Herbicides" about herbicides and marriage equality and "Snowmobiles" about global warming. The album was initially funded through PledgeMusic, with ten percent of donations earmarked for Practical Farmers of Iowa, the Midwest Organic and Sustainability Education Service (in Spring Valley, Wisconsin) and The Land Institute The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susan Werner
Susan Werner (born 1965) is an American singer-songwriter. Much of Werner's work has been in the contemporary folk genre. Career Werner was raised on her family's farm near Manchester, Iowa, about an hour west of Dubuque. She became interested in music at a young age and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in voice at the University of Iowa. In 1987, she moved to Philadelphia, and earned a master's degree in voice at Temple University. Werner initially wanted a career in opera, but after seeing a Nanci Griffith performance became inspired and began composing songs of her own on acoustic guitar. Performing around Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City, Susan began making a name for herself in the folk scene of the early 1990s. She recorded five albums from 1993 to 2001, and in 2001 she moved to Chicago. Her first five albums were all in the folk genre, but Werner's sixth album, '' I Can't Be New'' (2004), was a substantial departure, with original material in the vein of T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbicide
Herbicides (, ), also commonly known as weedkillers, are substances used to control undesired plants, also known as weeds.EPA. February 201Pesticides Industry. Sales and Usage 2006 and 2007: Market Estimates. Summary in press releasMain page for EPA reports on pesticide use ihere Selective herbicides control specific weed species, while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed, while non-selective herbicides (sometimes called total weedkillers in commercial products) can be used to clear waste ground, industrial and construction sites, railways and railway embankments as they kill all plant material with which they come into contact. Apart from selective/non-selective, other important distinctions include ''persistence'' (also known as ''residual action'': how long the product stays in place and remains active), ''means of uptake'' (whether it is absorbed by above-ground foliage only, through the roots, or by other means), and ''mechanism of action'' (how it works). Historica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Land Institute
The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops". History The institute was founded on in 1976 by plant geneticist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Wes Jackson along with Dana Jackson, who has worked with the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota. The Land Institute promotes "natural systems agriculture" through plant breeding. Using selective breeding and other techniques, they are working to domesticate wild perennials. The organization's concept of developing perennial crops is modeled after the ecological design of prairies, which are known for their soil quality, deep root systems, and self-sufficiency. In an interview, Wes Jackson called the concept "an inversion of industrial agricultu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring Valley, Wisconsin
Spring Valley is a village in Pierce and St. Croix counties in Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,352 at the 2010 census. Of those, 1,346 were in Pierce County and six in St. Croix County. The village is mostly within the Town of Spring Lake in Pierce County. Small parts also lie in the Town of Gilman, also in Pierce County, and the Town of Cady in St. Croix County. Geography Spring Valley is located at (44.847111, -92.240130), along the Eau Galle River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has an area of , of which is land and is water. Natural attractions Crystal Cave is about a mile southwest of Spring Valley. This privately held natural attraction, formed millions of years ago by ground water eroding the sandstone and dolomite that underlies the area, has been open to tourists since 1942. A local 16-year-old discovered an opening to the cave in 1881. It was excavated, developed and promoted to the public by an Eau Claire, Wisconsin a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Practical Farmers Of Iowa
Practical Farmers of Iowa (also known as PFI or Practical Farmers) is a non-profit farmer organization supporting agricultural producers in Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ..., and around the central United States. PFI's mission is to advance profitable, ecologically sound, and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture through farmer-led investigation and information sharing. Practical Farmers of Iowa is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization. For fiscal year 2012, Practical Farmers had an operating budget of approximately $1.1 million. History Practical Farmers of Iowa was founded in 1985 by Richard Thompson, Larry Kallem, Rick Exner, and Rick Voland. References {{reflist External links * https://practicalfarmers.org Agricultural organizati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PledgeMusic
PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist payment platforms as ArtistShare, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon, RocketHub and Sellaband. The company announced it was facing bankruptcy in May 2019, after a year of artists reporting slow payment problems. The company was granted permission to wind up on August 19, 2019. History Formation PledgeMusic was formed in the UK and registered with Companies House on October 1, 2008. In the next few years, a number of complementary companies were also formed under the PledgeMusic banner. They were: PledgeMusic Retail Ltd on June 18, 2009; PledgeMusic Recordings Limited on August 18, 2010 (originally named PledgeMusic 2.0 Limited); and PledgeMusic Publishing on November 11, 2010. Early successes Ginger Wildheart was awarded the 2012 C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Global Warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global average temperature is more rapid than previous changes, and is primarily caused by humans burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices increase greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight. Larger amounts of these gases trap more heat in Earth's lower atmosphere, causing global warming. Due to climate change, deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Increased warming in the Arctic has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss. Higher temperatures are also causing m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marriage Equality
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Same-sex marriage in Mexico, Mexico, constituting some 1.35 billion people (17% of the world's population). In Same-sex marriage in Andorra, Andorra, a law allowing same-sex marriage will come into force on 17 February 2023. Same-sex adoption, Adoption rights are not necessarily covered, though most states with same-sex marriage allow those couples to jointly adopt as other married couples can. In contrast, 34 countries (as of 2021) have definitions of marriage in their constitutions that prevent marriage between couples of the same sex, most enacted in recent decades as a preventative measure. Some other countries have constitutionally mandated Islamic law, which is generally interpreted as prohibiting marriage between same-sex couples. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change (food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions), water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contemporary Folk
Contemporary folk music refers to a wide variety of genres that emerged in the mid 20th century and afterwards which were associated with traditional folk music. Starting in the mid-20th century a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. The most common name for this new form of music is also "folk music", but is often called "contemporary folk music" or "folk revival music" to make the distinction. The transition was somewhat centered in the US and is also called the American folk music revival. Fusion genres such as folk rock and others also evolved within this phenomenon. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, it often shares the same English name, performers and venues as traditional folk music; even individual songs may be a blend of the two. While the Romantic nationalism of the first folk revival had its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Local Food
Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system. Local food (or "locavore") movements aim to connect food producers and consumers in the same geographic region, to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to affect the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place. The term has also been extended to include not only the geographic location of supplier and consumer but can also be "defined in terms of social and supply chain characteristics." For example, local food initiatives often promote sustainable and organic farming practices, although these are not explicitly related to the geographic proximity of producer and consumer. Local food represents an alternative to the global food model, which often sees food traveling long distances before it reaches the consumer. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rural America
Rural areas in the United States, often referred to as rural America, consists of approximately 97% of the United States' land area. An estimated 60 million people, or one-in-five residents (17.9% of the total U.S. population), live in rural America. Definitions vary from different parts of the United States government as to what constitutes these areas. Rural areas tend to be poorer and their populations are older than in other parts of the United States, in part because of rural flight, declining infrastructure, and fewer economic prospects. This declining population also results in less access to services, such as high quality medical and education systems. Definitions The United States Census Bureau defines these areas in the United State as sparsely populated and far from urban centers, which make up an estimated 3% of the land area of the U.S., but is home to more than 80% of the total population. The United States Office of Management and Budget defines rural areas in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
