Featured – Page 36 – Building a better South

June 3, 2013July 13, 2013

Closed grocery store, Allendale, S.C.

“Food deserts” are often found in poor urban and rural communities because it’s hard to find grocery stores with lots of healthy options. People who live in food deserts may only have one store that stock more packaged and canned food than they do fresh foods. In turn, having fewer options tends to support unhealthy eating habits that lead to higher incidents of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity and more.

Map: “How to find a food desert near you,” NPR

Pictured above is the Galaxy Food Center in Allendale, S.C. It was one of the poor, rural communities two grocery stores, until it closed. Now empty, it’s a reminder of just how Allendale, county seat of South Carolina’s poorest county, is cut off from lots of amenities and services found in larger communities like Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and Columbia.

With just over 40 percent of Allendale County’s 10,000 people living at or below the poverty level, the median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.

More about Allendale County from QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

June 1, 2013November 16, 2014

Clothes line, Allendale, S.C.

13.0506.sc_allendale1 — Clothes drying in the sun, Allendale, S.C., May 2013.

This clothesline in rural Allendale, S.C., represents more than drying laundry in the full sun to get that “fresh” smell and feel. It is a reminder that a lot of people in distressed counties prefer saving money by letting the sun do its work on clothes than spend a dollar at a laundry mat to get them dry.

Allendale County with just under 10,000 people is one of South Carolina’s smallest counties, but also its poorest. With just over 40 percent of people living at or below the poverty level, the median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.

More about Allendale County from QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

May 30, 2013July 13, 2013

New store, Abbeville, Ga.

These construction workers are preparing a plat in Abbeville, Ga., for a new Family Dollar store that’s right across the street from the county courthouse.

That’s good news because the economic investment offers more shopping opportunities for people in rural Wilcox County, one of the Peach State’s smaller counties with 9,068 residents, according to the U.S. Census. About two thirds of residents are white and a third black. Estimates by the U.S. Census are that 27.4 percent of county residents live in poverty.

More QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

May 28, 2013July 13, 2013

Hives in Wilcox County, Ga.

If you’re traveling country roads across the agricultural South, be on the lookout for white boxes of beehives, as highlighted here near a corn field in the heartland of Georgia.

Bees are critical to successful crops, but have been having a hard time in recent years due to a wasting disease that is decimating a large percentage of hives. This Maystory in a recent edition in The New York Times explains more.

Wilcox County in Georgia’s heartland is one of the state’s smaller counties with 9,068 residents, according to the U.S. Census. About two thirds of residents are white and a third black. Estimates by the U.S. Census are that 27.4 percent of county residents live in poverty.

More QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

May 26, 2013July 13, 2013

Cropduster, near Pitt, Ga.

13.0526.cropduster — Cropduster, Wilcox County, Ga.

The cotton, peanut and watermelon cropdusting season is winding down fro Charles Timmons of AeroDusters in Wilcox County, Ga. Wilcox says his yellow and blue 1992 single-engine plane can spray up to about 100 acres per trip as he flies over fields stretching from middle Georgia to Florida. Timmons has been spraying crops for 44 years.

More QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

May 24, 2013July 13, 2013

Watering the corn near Leslie, Ga.

Photo by Michael Kaynard. All rights reserved.

Driving across the South these days in the early morning or at dusk, it’s fairly typical to see a lot of cornfields being watered by huge irrigation sprinklers, as shown here in a field outside Leslie in the heart of central Georgia.

Water — or the increasing lack of it — has been in the news lately with a recent story in The New York Times about a huge multi-state aquifer in the heartland that’s drying up in Kansas and Texas. These kind of water woes could forecast the future in the South.

In recent years, there’s been a three-state water war pitting the metro Atlanta area of Georgia with downstream users in southwest Georgia, eastern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Learn more here through the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Learn more about Georgia’s corn crop from this previous post.

May 22, 2013July 13, 2013

Young corn near Leslie, Ga.

Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.

Here grows a field of young corn in the heart of Georgia near the small town of Leslie in Sumter County. Based on 2008 numbers, Southern farmers this year are expected to grow more than 5 million acres of corn, including more than 310,000 acres in Georgia. [Learn more about Georgia’s corn crop.]

But that amount for the 11-state region pales in comparison to the corn grown in just one state — more than 12 million acres in 2008 in Iowa, and about the same amount in Illinois. [More.] This year, farmers across the country have planted more corn than anytime since 1936 — some 97 million acres — to take advantage of high prices due to last year’s drought, according to USA Today.

May 20, 2013July 13, 2013

Onion couple, Vidalia, Ga.

At left, a couple leaves a formal wear store in downtown Vidalia, Ga., At right, a life-size Onion Man and Onion Woman court the love of the sweet onions which made Vidalia famous across the world.

The yellow sign at the bottom of the Onion Couple reads:

There is no marriage sweeter,

Than the “Vidalia sweet onion.”

Like any good marriage, God

Provides the right environment

For a strong sweet marriage,

Soil – Sunshine – Rain.

As we noted in earlier posts, the onions seem to have made the Toombs County area more prosperous than neighboring counties. Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level. The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

The region has been in the news lately as labor unions and immigrant groups continue to accuse farmers of exploiting Mexican guest workers who do much of the backbreaking harvest work in May. And now, a group of mostly black American workers in the area are complaining they have a tough time getting work in the fields because of a preference for foreigh guest workers, as highlighted in this May 6 story in The New York Times.

QuickFacts about Toombs County, Ga., from the U.S. Census.

May 18, 2013July 13, 2013

Picking onions, Cedar Crossing, Ga.

Picking onions is dirty, back-breaking work, as highlighted in this huge onion field in Cedar Crossing, a few miles south of Vidalia, Ga.,

Photographer Michael Kaynard noted that workers, who appeared to be migrant Latinos transported to the field in a dusty blue bus, harvested hour after hour to fill tan and green onion bins.

“The only positives was that it did not appear to be overly dusty or hot, yet,” he said. “I cannot imagine having to work bent over day after day. It makes me feel guilty about the food that we eat and how hard other human beings have to work to help provide it to us.”

As we noted in a previous post, the world-famous Vidalia onions seem to have made the Toombs County area more prosperous than neighboring counties. Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level. The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

QuickFacts about Toombs County, Ga., from the U.S. Census.

May 16, 2013July 13, 2013

Onion harvest, Cedar Crossing, Ga.

Workers are now harvesting Vidalia onions, those sweet, delectable springtime delights, in a field just outside Cedar Crossing, Ga., in Toombs County.

Driving through Vidalia and Toombs County, it seems that these world-famous onions have made the area more prosperous than neighboring areas. Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level. The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

QuickFacts about Toombs County, Ga., from the U.S. Census.