Not very often do I get the feeling that good things are finally coming together, but recently an undercurrent of events leads me to believe that people are finally beginning to “get it.”

By “it” I’m talking about habits that could change, or revert our collective lifestyles.

It’s nothing new. We’ve just been too busy drinking our sodas and eating our chips and Twinkies to pay close attention. Fast food is convenient and affordable but seldom the most healthful.

The announcement that Batesville will have a farmers market after months and years of talk is refreshing. It needed the right “engine” behind it and those “engines” in the names of Bobbie Jean Pounders and Glenda Bailey have given the local farmer’s market new impetus.

Not only are trendy, smaller farms producing specialty items and selling locally good for the local economy, good for the landowners, and good for the consumers. It is also good for the environment.

During a “Beef and Bobwhite” Field Day held Tuesday for cattlemen with interest in using native grasses and increasing good habitat for quail, it was mentioned that the smaller farms of the past were more conducive to larger quail populations. At the 3,800 acre Charles Ray Nix WMA, biologist have broken up large tracts of farm land by planting trees as barriers, giving quail and residual wildlife cover.

Did I mention that grass fed beef is considered more healthy than beef fed from a massive feed lot?

And lower grade schools in the South Panola School District have or are getting  gardens where youngsters can learn that food does not necessarily originate at the nearest super market. The same agency is partnering with Boys and Girls Club to assist with a garden there.

The City of Batesville is building a walking track at Trussell Park through a grant from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Another one is proposed at Batesville Intermediate School in the Pecan Grove and is near ground zero of Batesville’s population. Anyone who has walked the track around Tiger Field at Dunlap Stadium knows that walking is serious business in Batesville.

And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Most of us have agrarian roots — if not current just a generation or two back. And there are plenty of models to study and grants for which to apply as government and foundations alike have recognized  problems with obesity and sedentary lifestyles and are offering financial assistance.

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just jump on board and take advantage of what’s being offered. Mississippi has been labeled  both the most malnourished and the most obese state in the nation. Panola County doesn’t need to lead the state in either of these categories.