The challenge

The economies of southwest Virginia and east Tennessee remain tied to the land. Farms and forests are entwined with family histories. Traditionally, the region's major industries have been coal, small tobacco farms, and timber. In recent decades, as economic conditions have changed, many towns in this region have had to make the hard choice between jobs and preservation of land, and have lost both when employers moved away. Given the long history of abuse from outsiders, trust is not easily won in Appalachian rural areas. Even so, poverty and despair have caused historically self-reliant communities to become increasingly dependent on outside jobs, capital, and experts. Profits, when they come, often flow out of the area.

Seeds of commitment

Anthony Flaccavento, originally from New York City, has lived in the Appalachian region of Virginia and Tennessee since 1985. The son of an organic gardener, he earned his undergraduate degree in agriculture and ecology from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and then worked as an intern for the Soil Conservation Service in Harlan County, Ky. The experience, he recalls, “was startling and humbling, especially as there surfaced in me ‘dumb hillbilly’ assumptions I had no idea I harbored.”

After graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Flaccavento became director of the Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace in St. Paul, Va., a 12-county community-development office of the Catholic diocese. There he initiated local and regional assistance programs. Over time, he realized that traditional approaches didn't always bring the results he sought. "For many church and social-justice activists, the credo was: 'Think your way to a new way of living.' Over time, my philosophy evolved from there, into ‘Live your way to a new way of thinking,’” Flaccavento says. Immersion in the culture he served became the foundation of his activism.

Accomplishments

High levels of unemployment are common in coal-mining economies, but Flaccavento saw an alternative in "sustainable livelihood" jobs. In 1990, he helped organize the Coalition for Jobs and the Environment (CJE). The group brought environmentalists and community activists to the same table with developers, businesspeople, and state agencies. In 1995, Flaccavento founded Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), an outgrowth of CJE. Its aim: build a new economy based on organic agriculture and ecologically sound harvest and production of forest products. This would be an economy that would keep local dollars at home. ASD sees sustainable community development as locally rooted, fitting within the region’s ecosystem, promoting regional self-reliance, adding value to raw materials, and lasting indefinitely through the continued building of regional assets -- ecological, human and financial.

In the late 1990s, tobacco farming went into a rapid decline. Many small-scale growers -- feeling under siege from health advocates, shrinking markets, and environmentalists -- were ready to quit farming, even though their families had known no other life for generations. At ASD's inception, "there were no models, no practical examples of ecologically sound, socially just economic development in the central Appalachian region. It was all talk," Flaccavento recalls. Recognizing the plight of small-scale tobacco farmers and the simultaneous gap in the region’s organic-produce supplies, ASD launched Appalachian Harvest, a co-op program for new and experienced organic farmers, in 2000. Co-op participants now sell their fresh, organic produce wholesale to major retail markets.

"When people hear that tobacco farmers -- the 'enemies' of health and environment -- are switching to organic produce (and now livestock), they are amazed. Communities around the country are seeking our help in starting similar efforts," Flaccavento says. The co-op is part of ASD's strategy to keep local dollars at home by involving local people in the production, marketing and consumption of goods. The growers' network includes 30 certified-organic growers, and pasture-based livestock farmers with annual sales over $400,000. Six of the farmers with whom the group regularly works are women. Flaccavento and his eight-member staff also have brought Cooperative Extension and the Land Grant Colleges into organic-farming research and education.

The forestry industry posed an equally complex challenge. In 2001, ASD launched the Sustainable Woods Initiative, a collaboration of local economic-development agencies, grass-roots environmentalists, the Nature Conservancy, conservation-minded loggers, small-scale landowners and the departments of forestry in Virginia and Tennessee. This unlikely partnership led to a regional shift toward low-impact timber harvests, and construction of a solar kiln and wood-processing facility, which turns out nearly 20,000 board feet of kiln-dried lumber per month. In the past, timber had been cut locally and sent to other parts of the country for sawing and processing. Now that is done locally. Also, in the past, local companies had bought their lumber from other states to produce furniture and other manufactured wood products. To change that, ASD helped create a network of small, local companies that now buy their processed wood locally. Because of the new, more sustainable system, “a single log produced in the region is up to ten times more valuable to the local economy,” Flaccavento says.

Leadership style

“Living your way to a new way of thinking” has its downside. As part of his immersion in the local economy and culture, Flaccavento operates his own SEVEN-acre, certified-organic farm. “Because I farm, too, if there’s a generally a bad year, my farm gets hit just like the others.” He feels first-hand the absence of the kind of economic and research support system that subsidized the growth of the tobacco industry. Just as immersion is a keystone of his leadership style, so is his belief in teaching by peers. He organizes workshops and demonstration tours for farmers and foresters.

“We use our new networks not only to produce and sell products, but as effective vehicles for teaching the new skills and disseminating information. When, for instance, a farmer tries a new technique, we bring other farmers to his farm to learn from him. It’s a hands-on approach, and much more effective than telling farmers to go to a Web site. Because I also farm and share in the risks and in the successes of our agricultural program, other growers see me as more of a peer." Creating a sense of ownership in ASD requires that growers be deeply involved in all aspects of the program, from ordering supplies and materials to hiring staff and evaluating successes and failures. Flaccavento says his work is about “radical collaboration” for a new kind of economy. By radical collaboration he means: err on the side of full-participation, immerse oneself in the community and share the risks.

The future

Although the great majority of the 10-county rural population he serves is white, Flaccavento hopes to reach out through African-American churches and associations to inform people of color who may not know about ASD or about sustainable-development opportunities. He'll continue to focus nurturing his newest efforts, on sharing the success stories of local people in his frequent newspaper columns, and on collaborating radically.

More about Anthony Flaccavento and Appalachian Sustainable Development

"He's straight-up, honest… and he truly thinks out of the box. There's a lot of respect for him throughout the community here, and not just in the 'environmental' community."
– Matthew Crum, Program Director, Nature Conservancy

"He's looking at issues systemically. …He's trying to get people to another level. He's telling them, 'Let's not settle …. for the Wal-Marts and KFCs, but for something we can keep in our community.'..."
– Vic DeLuca, President, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

"This is one of the few places I can do forestry that I feel good about – being part of the process of selling wood locally and connecting with the community."
– Emily Lachniet, Forester for Appalachian Sustainable Development