Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

8 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 Though we are a small, humble nonprofit, we are also growing rapidly to meet the needs of our community and our greater bioregion. As we view it, we are simply developing plans at the scale needed to address the challenges humanity now faces. THE FARM’S FUTURE Last year the name of our organization was officially changed to Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice (Agraria, for short), which speaks to the work to both reclaim and reimagine a more rooted way of life in deep relationship to the land and one another. So what is the role of the farm in all of this? We are realizing that Agraria is a farm, but it is also a model educational and cultural center that can serve as a nexus for learning, healing, and growing. Looking ahead, we envision the farm as a place for these practices: 1. Training and incubation of beginning farmers and herbalists. Our focus is on marginalized communities, with the goal of seeding new economic enterprises and cooperatives to serve our bioregion with healthy, locally grown food and herbal medicine. 2. Educational programs that focus on nature literacy and cultural reclamation, and can likewise be shared and replicated at other sites in the bioregion or through training the trainers. 3. Land restoration efforts to showcase how conservation and agricultural production are not mutually exclusive, but can work in concert to both feed people and regenerate nature. The path to our collective future is opening before us, and Agraria is charting new territory in partnership with larger networks dedicated to the regeneration, restoration and renewal of our natural environment and our communities. Our interconnectedness with one another and with the earth cannot be understated. Those relationships give our lives meaning; they will be the basis for the transformation of ourselves and the world. As John Muir said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Our destiny is together. Together, we fall — or rise. Megan Bachman is the assistant director of Agraria. Agraria is in its second year helping to develop and implement a Climate Action Sustainability Plan (CASP) for Yellow Springs. In 2021, we took part in a collaborative community process to assess local carbon emissions and recommend climate actions. Because of Agraria’s work in support of the local food economy, community composting and the restoration of Jacoby Creek, we participated in groups looking at strategies for food, water and waste reduction. The other focus areas of the plan were energy and transportation. Agraria’s Outreach Director Alex Klug was also selected as a CASP Sustainability Champion. Her project involved supporting two Mills Lawn Elementary School sixth graders in their initiative to compost food scraps from their school lunchroom in order to turn them into nutrient dense composting material. In partnership with Agraria, their goal is to eventually recover and compost all food waste from the school district, process it at our farm, and redistribute it to local gardens. This year, Agraria convened a committee of environmental organizations to continue the work of the CASP in partnership with the Village government. Our group includes representation from the Village Environmental Commission, Glen Helen, Tecumseh Land Trust and Miami Township Trustees — a diverse group of stakeholders committed to mitigating climate change and increasing the resilience of our community. A Plan for Climate Action ILLUSTRATION BY BOB HUSTON