Anna Hess: Citizen Reporter

I'm a biologist and artist who dreamed about moving back into the countryside ever since my parents dragged me kicking and screaming from our family farm at the ripe old age of eight. Since then, I've grown up and gone back to the land --- where I quickly realized that real farm life involves a lot more hard work than the eight year old was involved in!

But the reality is also much more fulfilling. I love harvesting my own vegetables, pigging out on sun-warmed strawberries, and bathing naked in the yard. (There are many perks to living in a secluded setting.) In my more industrious moments, I'm a web designer, field biologist, and grant writer, focussing on environmental justice issues. Check out my homesteading blog to stay up to date on my adventures!

Experience

Between leaving the farm and buying my own plot of earth, I wandered off to Swarthmore College where I received a double major in biology and art in 2000. Post graduation, I spent a year wandering around the globe and drawing plants, funded by a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, then settled back in the central Appalachians to inventory public and private lands for a few years.

More recently, I spent two years as the Environmental Director of a small grassroots non-profit. I devised pro-active campaigns to implement long term environmental solutions and complement their reactive forest watch program, multiplied their budget and website visitations by 6, and turned them into a force to be reckoned with.

Every few years, I'm ready for a change, so in December 2008 I'll bid my non-profit a fond farewell and set out on my own as an independent contractor. You can read more about my current projects on my website.

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Eggs, the other red meat

I've never been a vegetarian --- not quite --- though for the first twenty odd years of my life I ate meat sparingly and mostly under duress.

I blame my budding vegetarianism on pacifist parents who looked on in amusement the summer that I decided it was immoral to kill anything. Soon thereafter, I spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina stoically and gently brushing mosquitoes from my skin.

And now I'm a chicken killer and soon to become a deer killer. What happened?

The chicken or the egg?

It all started when I bought a few hens to provide eggs for my table. I slowly came to realize that vegetarians who eat eggs but not chickens are deluding themselves into believing they cause no pain to another living thing.

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Comments (1) | November 24, 2008
Holistic Agriculture

The buzz of the honeybee may soon be a thing of the past. Colony collapse disorder (or CCD) is a fancy term to refer to the recent decline in honeybee populations, a decline which has been scientifically documented but which stems from causes that are less well understood.

Although scientists aren't quite sure what's causing this sudden decline in honeybee populations, they are united in the opinion that loss of the honeybees will have profound implications on our agricultural system. Approximately a third of our food crops --- ranging from canteloupes to almonds --- depend on the honeybee for proper fruit set. Without the bee, flowers will wither unpollinated on the stalk and the farmer will have nothing to harvest.

I am concerned ...read full post

Comments (5) | November 14, 2008