Category: Health

We follow local stories of well-being in the Hill Country Observer, from physical and mental health to systems of healthcare and insurance and the challenges of medicine today.

  • Issue:

    A menu of constant change

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    Restaurants struggle to navigate pandemic, partial reopening   Railroad Street in Great Barrington is car-free on a Friday night in June, allowing the street’s many restaurants to serve more customers at outdoor tables. Scott Langley photo   By KATE ABBOTTContributing writer GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. At the Prairie Whale, strings of lights are gleaming in the read more

    A menu of constant change
  • Issue:

    From hemp, cures for body and soil

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    Hudson Valley operation stresses mission of regenerative farming   Hemp seedlings are ready for transplanting at Old Mud Creek Farm in Columbia County. The farm rasies hemp to meet the demand for CBD oil, but the health of the soil is a big part of its mission. Scott Langley photo   By STACEY MORRISContributing writer read more

    From hemp, cures for body and soil
  • Issue:

    The art of venturing outside

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    Grounds, gardens become destination for visitors to cultural sites   Atelier Van Lieshout’s “Blast Furnace” is among the works in the sculpture park at Art Omi in Ghent, N.Y. The arts center’s grounds have remained open to visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic even as its indoor galleries have been shuttered. Many other cultural sites across read more

    The art of venturing outside
  • Issue:

    Filling a need for food

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      Cars line up to receive an emergency food packages May 26 at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. Regional food banks and local charitable organizations have organized a series of similar events around the region as unemployment has spiked upward amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Scott Langley photo   By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   Inside the local read more

    Filling a need for food
  • Issue:

    Putting worms to work

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      Bill Richmond, owner of Adirondack Worm Farm in Kingsbury, N.Y., displays a bin in which red worms consume food wastes and other organic materials collected from area homes to produce compost. Joan K. Lentini photo   By STACEY MORRISContributing writer KINGSBURY, N.Y. When Bill Richmond bought his 40-acre farm two decades ago, he had read more

    Putting worms to work
  • Issue:

    Fresh food in a pandemic

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    Region’s farmers forge ahead as shutdowns scramble local-food networks Lisa MacDougall holds two flats of kale inside one of her many greenhouses at Mighty Food Farm in Shaftsbury, Vt. photo by Joan K. Lentini   By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer As the Covid-19 outbreak began to shut down the nation last month, the region’s farmers and read more

    Fresh food in a pandemic
  • Issue:

    Advocates push to curb use of herbicide

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    State, towns weigh new limits on glyphosate   Bruce Winn and Elia del Molino of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team stand amid a large patch of hardy kiwi at Burbank Park in Pittsfield. The group has organized a volunteer effort to control the invasive species without the use of herbicides like glyphosate. Hardy kiwi’s vines read more

    Advocates push to curb use of herbicide
  • Issue:

    Legal fight over an epidemic

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    Local governments push drug industry over costs of opioid crisis   Tom Haley, executive director of the Turning Point Recovery Center in Bennington, stands in the meeting room of the center, which helps people who are recovering from addiction. photo by Joan K. Lentini   EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer BENNINGTON, Vt. As opioid addiction has devastated read more

    Legal fight over an epidemic
  • Issue:

    Worker rights arrive at the farm

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    Farmers, advocates weigh effects of New York’s new labor law   Roman Chaidez drives a tractor past the heifer facility he manages for Walker Farms LLC in Fort Ann, N.Y. Joan K. Lentini photo   By TRACY FRISCHContributing writer   A Guatemalan man who works at a dairy farm in southern Washington County describes himself read more

    Worker rights arrive at the farm
  • Issue:

    With good, healthy food for all

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    Nonprofit Hudson store tests a new model for reaching ‘food deserts’ Selha “CeCe” Graham, the retail co-manager of Rolling Grocer 19 in Hudson, N.Y., says the nonprofit store’s mission is to “provide access to quality food for people at all income levels.” Scott Langley photo   By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer HUDSON, N.Y. For local people read more

    With good, healthy food for all