Martha’s Vineyard is a bellwether of climate change, sea level rise and socioeconomic dynamics. It also is a place with both the interest in and commitment to dealing with its effects.

Imagine sheep grazing at Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick, or goats and cattle browsing the greenery at Long Point Wildlife Refuge.

It’s not a long shot if farmers and conservation groups can manage land together, says David R. Foster, an ecologist and director of the Harvard Forest.

“This is a fabulous time for agriculture and there’s a wonderful opportunity for agriculture, land owners and conservationists to come together in a way that they haven’t previously,” Mr. Foster said in an interview at his home this week.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about the world famous sushi chef in Japan, made waves in the food world last year with its high definition celebration of the tiny basement level restaurant and their impeccable selection and treatment of the most appetizing seafood imaginable. Jiro continues to make his name serving what is thought to be one of the most expensive meals on earth, which is calculated partly by the length of the meal that often lasts less than 20 minutes as simple dish after dish is prepared in rapid succession, almost immediately after the last is consumed.

The lamb had been tethered in our yard for days in advance of Candice’s visit, peacefully keeping our grass down. A southerly breeze carried the fragrance of lanolin across the yard that drove my brother’s dog mad. Candice was a new friend about to graduate from college in Brooklyn, and the lamb would play an important role in her graduate thesis.

The Island Grown Initiative, the nonprofit farm and sustainability network, announced an $800,000 capital campaign this week to build the Vineyard’s first U.S. Department of Agriculture permitted slaughterhouse.

In an interview with the Gazette this week, IGI president Sarah McKay and Island Grown Meat coordinator Richard Andre said the organization is considering two locations for a 3,500 square foot facility – Thimble Farm or behind the new barn at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society in West Tisbury.

A crowd hovered at the entrance gate to the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, as workers from Morning Glory Farm unloaded 32 bushels of corn intended for sale at the farm’s market booth. The market didn’t open for another 10 minutes, but this crowd was armed and ready, with tote bags and baskets as their weapons of choice.

Editor’s note: What follows is a paper read at the leadoff session to the Living Local Harvest Festival on Sept. 26. It responds to the question: From your point of view, what do we need to think about and do to ensure that your grandchildren can live well on the Vineyard?

The future for living local is moving beyond eating Island-grown vegetables and fruits. Vineyarders are already eating Island-raised poultry on an increasingly large scale, and a growing group of farmers would like to see that expanded to include local beef, pork, lamb and venison.

In a special forum at the Living Local Harvest Festival on Saturday at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, three farmers and a local chef spoke about their hope for a slaughterhouse on the Vineyard, despite a daunting array of government restrictions.

How to be more environmentally responsible: we all approach it on many different levels. But every little bit helps. This year especially is important to take the threat to our environment seriously. You read about “going green” everywhere. But what does that really mean? Whether you recycle regularly and have a compost bin in your backyard or are just beginning to switch your lightbulbs over to the new more efficient bulbs, each of us can strive to make less of an impact on our already overburdened resources.

Following on the success of the Island Grown Initiative’s mobile poultry processing unit, the organization has won a $40,000 federal grant to look at doing something similar with four-legged livestock.

The grant was announced on Friday, as officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture came to the Vineyard to school locals on how they might share in hundreds of millions of dollars available from the government.