Month: February 2020

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

On Friday night, before a sell-out crowd, the Memphis Grizzlies fell to the Sacramento Kings, 104–101. Memphis has now lost five straight games and hasn’t won since February 12 (against the Portland Trail Blazers before the All-Star Break).

The Grizzlies still hold a slim lead for the eighth seed in the Western Conference, as they fell to 28–31. The team has struggled without Jaren Jackson, Jr. (knee injury) and Brandon Clarke (hip).

And yet, with five consecutive losses, Coach Taylor Jenkins is still pleased with his team’s effort, especially in the final period. Jenkins said after the game, “Very proud of our guys. The way that we fought in that fourth quarter to give ourselves a chance to win a ballgame.” 

He added, “I hit them after the game and said, ‘We have to play like that from the start of the game.’ I thought we came out playing pretty well in that first quarter, definitely could have played a whole lot better, but that second and third quarter we kind of just had a little let-down there. But that fourth quarter, just the intensity that they played with  —  the fight, the grit  —  that’s what we’re going to need right now.”

“The guys are finding a way,” Jenkins continued. “Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to a win tonight  —  credit to the Kings. We threw a couple [of ] different things at them. They just made the right plays at the right time. Great passes to the roller, to shooters. They made the shots that they needed. We fell short a little bit with a couple of shots there in the fourth quarter and throughout the game, but the resolve and the competitiveness from our guys were great tonight.”

Dillon Brooks led Memphis with a season-high 32 points, before fouling out late in the fourth after playing nearly 40 minutes. Ja Morant added 20 points and 11 assists to mark his 10th double-double of the season. No other rookie in the league has more than five double-doubles of the season, according to Grizzlies PR.

Morant talked about how the team is processing the losing streak: “I feel like a lot of people are panicking; not us though  —  we know there are going to be bumps in the road. We know we’re going to face adversity. We’re just going to continue, keep our head high, keep positive energy, and just try to go out and get something good out of it. We’ve learned a lot from the games after the break, playing 48 minutes, having to compete, and knowing we have a target on our back.”

Josh Jackson led the Grizzlies’ reserves with nine points, three rebounds, and three assists. Jenkins spoke about Jackson’s contribution to the team: “He’s [Jackson] getting better every single day. Continuing to find his comfort zone. As we’ve said, he just has to keep making an impact on the defensive end shooting the three, attacking downhill.

Jenkins added, “He’s playing with force on the offensive end, and he’s playing actively on the defensive end. That’s what we expect out of him. So the more he does that, obviously, for any of our guys, you make an impact on both ends that is winning basketball, you obviously earn more opportunities.”

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game

The Other Guys

De’Aaron Fox led the Sacramento with 25 points, five assists, and four rebounds on 10-of-19 shooting, as the Kings moved to 25–34 on the season. Harry Giles III chipped in 16 points, five rebounds, and two assists on 8-of-14 shooting. Nemanja Bjelica posted a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Buddy Hield added a bench-high 14 points to go with four rebounds and two assists. 

HBCU Night and Memphis Legend Zach Randolph Returned Home

The Grizzlies honored HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) throughout the night. 

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game (3)

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game (4)

“50 for the City,” Mr. Zach Randolph — respectfully known as ZBo — returned to Memphis for the first time since his retirement announcement in December. Randolph and former Grizzlies player Tony Allen will be ambassadors for the Grizzlies. There hasn’t been a formal announcement by the team regarding the details.

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game (2)

Grizzlies Drop Fifth Straight Game (5)

Up Next
The Grizzlies have to get over the Kings game quickly,  because Saturday the team is back in action against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers at FedExForum. And this one won’t be easy. Tip-off is at 7 pm CST.

Categories
News News Blog

UTHSC Website Has Current Coronavirus Information

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) today launched a website to provide the public with information and resources about Coronavirus.

The site, uthsc.edu/coronavirus, is designed to be a one-stop resource for the public that includes the best available information about Coronavirus, as well as frequently asked questions and links to global, national, and local organizations monitoring the virus.

There is also an interactive option that allows the public to ask the experts at UTHSC questions about the virus and receive answers. Visitors to the site will find links to information from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Tennessee Department of Health, and the Shelby County Health Department.

A press conference was held Wednesday at UTHSC to offer the public information about preparations underway locally for any possible spread of the Coronavirus and to discuss UTHSC’s role in research to discover more about the virus. Information from that press conference is here.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Fam Opens Second Location on Highland

CREDIT: Fam/Facebook

Fam/Facebook

Asian restaurant Fam opened a second location this month on the Highland strip.

Fam, a fast-casual restaurant Downtown that focuses mostly on Japanese cuisine, is expanding and introducing new menu items –– such as Maine lobster bao buns. Fam is known primarily for hibachi-style rice bowls and sushi, but they also offer a number of sides and appetizers, like tuna salmon poke and octopus dumplings.

The first location opened Downtown at 149 Madison in late 2018 with a slightly smaller menu and has been evolving ever since. Owner Ian Vo says the name “Fam” is short for “family.”

Fam is also available for delivery via Uber Eats, BiteSquad, and DoorDash, as well as curbside pick-up and catering.

The new location is open at 521 S. Highland, and both locations are open for lunch and dinner daily.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

New Cajun Restaurant Opening Soon Downtown in Former DejaVu Space

The restaurant, called Ben-Yay’s, will serve po’boys and other classic Creole dishes, include a coffee bar, and also offer homemade beignets. Additionally, they’re planning to offer a “scoop and serve” lunch special that will include a half po’boy and a cup of soup, such as gumbo, turtle soup, or jambalaya.

Ben-Yay’s will be operated by Tandem Restaurant Partners, which is run by partners Tony Westmoreland, Stephanie Westmoreland and Cullen Kent. They’re known for their work with restaurants like Interim, Growlers, Zinnies, and Mardi Gras.

Ben-Yay’s will open in mid-March at 51 S. Main.

Categories
Book Features Books

Take a Leap: Corey Mesler’s Camel’s Bastard Son

Corey Mesler is something of a Renaissance man in the world of literature. He’s a poet, a fiction author, a book reviewer, and the owner (with his wife, Cheryl) of Burke’s Book Store in Cooper-Young.

This Saturday (Leap Day), February 29th, at 3 p.m., Mesler will celebrate the release of his 10th novel, Camel’s Bastard Son (Cabal Books), with a reading and signing at Burke’s. In advance of the event, I caught up with Mesler to talk about separating the parts of his practice, living with the absurd, and his new novel, which he calls “your typical boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, something-goes-horribly-wrong-with-the-time-machine story.”

Corey Mesler

Memphis Flyer: I’ve primarily thought of you as a poet. Is that wrong?

Corey Mesler: Some people think I’m a poet, some people think I’m a fiction-writer, and some people think I’m neither. [laughs] I’ll take any of ’em.

MF: Do you feel that practicing in other forms make you look at writing differently?

CM: You know, when I’m doing it I’m not conscious really of the fact that I do both. In a finished novel, I hope it sometimes shows that I have some sense of the poetry of the music of the line. But while I’m doing it I’m not conscious of anything except — well, sometimes I’m not conscious of anything. In a novel, I’m working on the big canvas. A novel takes a couple years to write. That’s all I’m focusing on — what are the characters going to do, where are they going?

MF: It seems to me that absurdity is an important element in the book.

CM: [laughs] Yeah, in my writing and in my life. When I was a young man, I read a lot of Kafka and Camus. And you know, Camus’ statement is “The absurd is the first truth.” So I like to think that when I’m being absurd, I’m being truthful. This novel is deceptively silly. One of my early readers compared it to Vonnegut, and I sort of took that and ran with it.

MF: I couldn’t help thinking about — and I don’t want to ruin anything — but the joke at the end, the recurring motif of not understanding. And I feel like you have to be able to live with a certain degree of absurdity just to exist right now.

CM: I think we’re skirting around mentioning the squatter in the White House.

MF: Well, I didn’t want to make you go there if you didn’t want to go there.

CM: I wrote this book when I thought he was a joke. I thought what would be really funny is if I wrote a novel from the perspective that he won. And then I’d already finished it and sent it to a publisher, and then he won.

MF: Oh, my god.

CM: Yeah, which still to me is more science-fiction than my novel is.

MF: It definitely feels like we slipped through the wormhole. But getting back to the book, before we make ourselves upset, I noticed the husband and wife relationship is pretty important.

CM: The first part of the book is basically a love story. … Basically it’s a guy who falls in love with the wrong woman, and she plays all sorts of havoc with his life. And the second half is my idea of a metaphor for that.

Camel’s Bastard Son

MF: As someone who owns and runs a bookstore, do you have a literary North Star you use to help guide you?

CM: I didn’t set out to write a Vonnegutian novel, but he is very important to me. Years ago, I wrote a book called Following Richard Brautigan, and everyone assumed, “Oh, well, he’s telling us who his gods are. Richard Brautigan is one of his favorite writers and that’s what the book’s about.” And it really wasn’t.

It was more the fact that I thought Richard Brautigan as a ghost would be a really funny character. But having said that, I loved Brautigan’s books when I was younger. I have my touchstones. Kafka and Camus and Vonnegut were the first authors I read when I decided that I didn’t really learn about books in high school. And I went to the library and was going to teach myself what good books were. Those were the first three [authors] I checked out.

MF: Has being on the retailer side of the book business ever soured you on the creative aspect of it?

CM: No, they’re pretty much compartmentalized in my brain. I don’t connect the two.

MF: One last question — with time travel and absurdity being components of Camel’s Bastard Son, was it intentional to have your booksigning on February 29th?

CM: It’s Leap Day, so it’s actually sort of a fake day. So we can pretend that none of this exists. It’s a metaphor for my life.

MF: That’s perfect. Sort of like, “None of this should have happened, but here we are on this fake day.”

CM: Exactly.

Corey Mesler discusses and signs Camel’s Bastard Son Saturday, February 29th, 3 p.m., at Burke’s Book Store.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

The Invisible Man

Elisabeth Moss is brilliant in The Invisible Man.

Would you rather have the power of flight or the power of invisibility? That’s a parlor game question designed to find out if you’d be a superhero or a supervillain. Why would you choose flight? The feeling of freedom, the immortal human dream of soaring with the birds, the ability to swoop in and rescue people in trouble. Why would you choose invisibility? To sneak around, engage in voyeurism, commit bank robbery, maybe try some light espionage, and just generally mess with people. Maybe the two abilities don’t flawlessly map to good and evil intent, but they’re illuminating.

Noted socialist H.G. Wells wrote The Invisible Man, his third science fiction novel, in 1897. Wells’ protagonist Griffin is a right bastard who intends to use his invisibility to conduct a “reign of terror.” The book got a fairly faithful adaptation in 1933 by the father of horror, James Whale. The high-visibility starring role made Claude Rains a movie star, and the Invisible Man one of the classic Universal Monsters. Over the years, everyone from Chevy Chase to Kevin Bacon have played some version of Wells’ transparent protagonist.

In the 21st century, Universal Studios has been obsessed with the idea of replicating Marvel’s success using its existing IP — which means, Universal Monsters. Their last attempt, 2017’s The Mummy, is one of the worst films of the last decade which reportedly lost more than $90 million. Showing rare wisdom, Universal execs decided to punt on the “Dark Universe” and go for a one-off Invisible Man movie produced by horror maestro Jason Blum.

This time around, the nowhere man Adrian Griffin is played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen. But he’s not the star of the picture. Instead, the film is led by Elizabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass, Adrian’s wife. Writer/director Leigh Whannell sets the stage for the story with a tense, cold opening. Cecilia awakens in the middle of the night in the sprawling beach house she shares with Adrian, packs a bag, and sneaks out through an intimidating array of security systems. Just when she thinks she’s escaped their abusive relationship, Adrian attacks; she and her sister Alice (Harriet Dyer) barely escape.

Cecilia goes to ground at the home of her friend James (Aldis Hodge), a police detective. She bunks with his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), and for weeks, she is too paranoid of Adrian’s revenge to even leave the house. Then Alice comes with news: Adrian has been found dead of suicide. This doesn’t sit right with Cecilia at first. Narcissistic sociopaths like Adrian just don’t kill themselves — they’re usually more into homicide. But then Tom (a marvelously sleazy Michael Dorman), Adrian’s brother/attorney, informs her that Adrian set up a $5 million trust fund for her in the event of his death — provided she is mentally competent and doesn’t commit any crimes for four years. Cecilia tries to move on, but she can’t quite trust this kind of happy ending. That’s when stuff around her starts to move on its own.

Moss delivers a performance worthy of an artist at the height of her creative powers, playing each scene with perfect nuance. I’ll admit, I haven’t exactly been a fan of the past work of Whannell, who is one of the co-creators of the Saw horror franchise. But this time, he nails it. There’s nothing I love better than a high-concept, sci fi horror with sociopolitical resonance (yes, I’m a blast to talk to at parties), and The Invisible Man pushes all my buttons.

This isn’t a film about “what would you do if you could be invisible?” It’s about domestic abuse. Cecilia’s experience reflects all the familiar patterns of an abusive relationship. Adrian is controlling, right down to dictating what she eats and what she wears. He tells her she’s nothing, and he is the only one who understands her. He isolates her from her friends and family. Crucially, once the invisibility-related weirdness gets rolling, no one believes Cecilia’s version of events. In the context of “there’s an invisible dead man out to get me,” that’s understandable. In the real world, not believing a woman who says “my ex is stalking me and I think he’s going to kill me” all too often ends in tragedy. This version of The Invisible Man is both a terribly frightening horror film and a thought-experiment exploration of a pressing social issue worthy of grandmaster Wells himself.

The Invisible Man

Categories
News News Blog

Gov. Lee Pushes Constitutional Carry, Harsher Penalties for Gun Crimes

CREDIT: Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock


Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and a handful of legislators are pushing to make Tennessee a constitutional carry state.

Lee announced Thursday that he would be introducing a bill this legislative session that would allow Tennesseans to possess and carry firearms without a permit.

“The liberties guaranteed to us by the Constitution are sacred and we have a responsibility to uphold the framework that those founding fathers established,” Lee said. “They firmly believed that to protect the inalienable rights that they set out, that they needed to ensure citizens had the right to bear arms, which was cemented in the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is clear and concise and secures the freedoms of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.”

Lee said the legislation he is proposing would “extend the constitutional right to carry a handgun to all law-abiding citizens with or without a permit who are 21 years and older except in restricted areas.”

The governor added that the legislation would increase the penalties for those who steal or unlawfully possess a firearm: “With the freedom and liberties guaranteed to us in the Second Amendment, also comes a great responsibility to steward them wisely and to protect our citizens.

“The bill is not only focused on protecting our Second Amendment liberties, but also on increasing safety for all Tennesseans. This legislation is about increasing freedoms for law-abiding citizens and implementing harsher penalties for criminals.”

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Lee said there was an 85 percent increase in guns stolen from vehicles from 2016 to 2017.

“In light of this reality, we need to be increasingly vigilant in also enacting laws that strengthen our ability to protect our citizens,” he said “That’s why the legislation I am proposing will significantly increase penalties to those who steal or unlawfully possess a firearm including a mandatory minimum sentence for those who steal a firearm.”

The penalties for gun-related crimes that would be included in the legislation include:

• Increasing the penalty for theft of a firearm from a misdemeanor to a felony

• Enhancing sentencing for the theft of a firearm from a car

• Increasing the minimum sentence for theft of a firearm from 30 days to 180 days

• Increasing the sentences for unlawful possession of a firearm by violent felons and felony drug offenders, as well as unlawfully providing a handgun to a juvenile

Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) also spoke at Thursday’s announcement. He said “it’s a great day” for law-abiding citizens who want to carry guns, as well as “our partners in law enforcement.”

“Communities all across our great state of Tennessee will find this to be an effective tool in combating gangs and violent crime because we’ll be taking guns out of the hands of criminals and taking criminals off the streets in Tennessee,” Sexton said.

Rep. William Lambert (R-Portland) said Tennessee’s bill is the “first of its kind constitutional carry bill that to my knowledge has ever been filed anywhere in the nation.”

“This bill reduces penalties for otherwise law-abiding citizens, individuals who have done nothing wrong other than exercise their Second Amendment right, individuals that would be eligible to get a carry permit, but for whatever reason, did not do so before they came across the attention of law enforcement,” Lambert said. “These are individuals that are mothers and fathers. These are individuals that are business owners. These are individuals that are employees throughout the state of Tennessee that choose to carry firearms for their own protection. And to criminalize that behavior is ridiculous.”

“On the other hand,” Lambert continued, “for those criminals out there, those felons, those that choose to misuse their firearms and attack their fellow citizens, hear this now, if you steal a gun in this state, if you use that gun, or if you possess that gun and you’re a convicted felon, you will go to prison and you will go to prison for a very long time.”

Currently, 16 states have constitutional carry laws in place.

One group pushing for this type of legislation nationally is the National Association for Gun Rights. The group is currently working with legislators in five states, including Tennessee, to encourage the passing of a constitutional carry law.

The group has also started a petition asking legislators to pass the law.

“Study after study proves more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens means less crime,” the petition reads in part. “Yet politicians in BOTH parties in Nashville haven’t stopped infringing on our God-given rights.”

The petition continues saying that “requiring law-abiding citizens to beg for government permission through the permit system before they can exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms is a clear violation of that right.”

Currently, in Tennessee to carry a handgun openly or concealed, one must apply for an Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit. Requirements for receiving the permit include payment of a $100 application fee and the completion of an eight-hour handgun safety course.

As of January 1st, to carry a concealed handgun, the law requires a $65 application fee and proof of firearms training that the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security “deems adequate.” This could include online courses or courses administered by law enforcement, wildlife agencies, or organizations specializing in firearms such as the NRA.

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Ahead of Thursday’s announcement, the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action voiced opposition to permitless carry in a Facebook post.

“There are basic safety and training standards that should be met when it comes to carrying guns in public,” the group’s post reads. “It’s common sense. It’s unacceptable that our lawmakers keep trying to pass bills that threaten our public safety, especially after Americans across the country have called for stronger gun laws in unprecedented numbers after the horrific school shooting in Parkland.”

The group’s post includes a link to a petition created by Everytown for Gun Safety opposing the legislation.

Also ahead of the governor’s announcement, Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) released a statement opposing the legislation.

“Whether you live in a city or suburb, no family is made safer by laws that encourage more untrained and unlicensed people to carry lethal firearms,” Akbari said. “Tennesseans support the Second Amendment, but they also believe firmly in responsible gun ownership and policies, like mandatory background checks that promote accountability. Permitless carry is a bad idea that endangers every Tennessean.”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

It’s Time to Get “Real”

It’s time to get real.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not real yet, though I hope to be soon. Getting real will require me to look through my vital documents and spend hours waiting in line to present those papers to an agent of the state, in order to become recognized as real. Right now, I’m still undocumented, and if I don’t become documented by October 1st, I won’t be able to get on an airplane.

Most of you have probably heard about the “enhanced” or “real ID” we’ll all be required to obtain in order to fly on a commercial aircraft in the U.S. after October 1, 2020. If you haven’t, well, here’s the official drill from the TN.gov website.

“The REAL ID Act of 2005 establishes minimum security standards for license issuance and production, and prohibits federal agencies from accepting for certain purposes driver’s licenses and identification cards from states not meeting the Act’s minimum standards. Beginning October 1, 2020, all persons must have a REAL ID license or other approved identification for accessing certain federal buildings, entering nuclear facilities, and boarding commercial flights within the United States.”

Technically, you’re not required to get a real ID. You only need one if you plan to fly, and who does that, really? Hardly anyone. Sure, if you have a passport, you can present that at the gate and still get on a plane, but most Tennesseans don’t have passports, and others, like me, do not want to carry their passport around every time they fly in the U.S.
It would be different if getting one of these things was easy. But it isn’t. It’s difficult and time-consuming. The state requires the following:

Proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residence: That would be a birth certificate or passport — or proof of citizenship, if you’re a naturalized American. If you were born abroad, well, there are some papers you’ll need to dig up, amigo.

Proof of Social Security number: You can use your Social Security card (unless you laundered yours, like I did), a W-2 form, or other proof of employment.

Proof of Tennessee residence: You need two documents that show your name and physical address. These would include such things as a utility bill, a vehicle registration, a current driver’s license or — duh, it’s Tennessee — a handgun permit.

After you’ve gotten all four documents together, you head to one of Tennessee’s 44 Driver Service Centers and prepare to stand in line for a few hours.

Let’s leave aside the fact that thousands of Tennesseans will have trouble coming up with these documents and proofs of residence, and that thousands more don’t have the ability to access computers and apply for missing documents or the luxury of standing in line for hours and missing work. And that doesn’t even address the problem of the thousands of people who have no idea that they won’t be able to get on a plane come October 1st because they’ve never heard of real ID.

Folks who can’t find their birth certificate or don’t have a driver’s license or passport or don’t have their name on a utility bill or who live, say, in group housing or assisted living or are out of work, are basically grounded. As are people who’ve lost vital papers due to moves or a fire or whatever. And to make things even more difficult, the state will only accept a debit card or credit card as payment. In other words, you need to have a bank account to get the ID. That’s messed up and discriminatory.

I see this affecting the elderly, in particular. Imagine that Meemaw’s on her way to meet her brand-new grandson (let’s call him, Mavrick, just because that’s now a thing) in Seattle and steps up to the ticket agent without a real ID. Lawd. How’d you like to be in the line behind her?

And let’s also just imagine the chaotic scenes at our 44 Driver Service Centers as we get closer to October and people start to catch on. September should be loads of fun! Literally millions of Tennesseans will want — or need — to get a real ID. The state should begin throwing lots of people-power and resources at this problem, pronto. This process has got to be streamlined or people will be storming the capitol building with pitchforks.

I did learn yesterday that on Friday, March 6th, the state will be issuing real IDs at the baseball park in Jackson for four hours. That’s a good start, but it needs to be happening all over the state, and it needs to be happening every week. To put it bluntly, the state needs to get real about this.

If not, Meemaw’s really gonna be ticked.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Sweetgrass Smash, Morgan & Morgan & Morgan & Morgan

Sweetgrass Smash

Details are fuzzy, but it’s clear that something definitely happened at Sweetgrass in Cooper-Young on Saturday, according to a post by Brad Gilmer on Nextdoor.

The restaurant did not post anything formal about the incident online. Nextdoor users had questions and theories.

“Looks as if a vehicle would have come in at a very odd angle?” asked Kathy Ladner.

“Someone ordered the large plate of nachos and then couldn’t fit through the door on the way out!” exclaimed Michael Cairo. But Cairo later explained that a driver lost control before midnight and hit the building.

“It was so loud it shot me out of bed. I thought someone was about to drive through my apartment. Wild Saturday night!” said Cady Mink.

Morgan & Morgan

Posted to instagram by memphisasf_ck

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Farm to Table Conference at CBU Monday

CREDIT: Winnie Forbes

Since 2011, Mid-South Farm to Table Conference has striven to cultivate a healthier and thriving local food system through educating, providing resources, and by bringing together local and regional farmers, food justice advocates, educators, nonprofit leaders, and consumers.

This year, they’re zeroing in on conservation and regenerative agriculture, and they’ve invited keynote speakers David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé to speak on the topic. The couple has authored three books together on regenerative farming, and they have plenty of insight to share.

“Anne’s a biologist, and I’m a geologist,” Montgomery says. “And those are the two things: Life and minerals are what you need to make healthy, fertile soil.”

Winnie Forbes

David Montgomery (left) and Anne Biklé

Restoring soil and maintaining its health through regenerative farming is essential to producing good crops, as degradation of land occurs with conventional farming methods, wielding one-third less agriculture and doing damage on the rest of our ecosystem. Montgomery and Biklé say more productive and eco-friendly practices under the umbrella of regenerative agriculture include using no-till or reduced till practices, feeding plants and land with organic fertilizer, rotating crops to put a bigger variety of nutrients back into the soil, and using cover crops to address weeds.

“It makes farms way friendlier places for people and for other forms of life and is far less toxic [than conventional farming],” says Biklé.

Montgomery adds, “The big picture and challenge of regenerative agriculture is to try and rebuild the health and fertility of the land so that future generations will have as fertile a planet as we have.”

2020 Mid-South Farm to Table Conference, Christian Brothers University, Monday, March 2nd, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., $25, free for college students with I.D.