It’s a critical year for our planet, for eco-agriculture, and for Acres U.S.A.
As the seasons change this time of year and we witness a world rapidly changing before our eyes, we at Acres U.S.A. felt it was time, amid all the white noise, toxic moralism and constant distractions, to issue a call to action to the eco-agriculture community. Let’s focus. Let’s pay attention to the work at hand, to what we are good at, to the common ground we are all working toward. Let’s not allow hefty distractions and irrelevant personal differences to deter us from the work to be done.
One fundamental truth we have learned from the past two years of COVID-induced separation is that today’s soil health revolution, of which you are all actively leading, will not be televised, or on Zoom. It will not be done in text messages or on Facebook. The successes will take place in your fields, on your farms, and in the hallways of conferences like ours, where the term eco-agriculture was given life in the ’70s, where leaders first drafted organic industry regulations in the late ’90s, where attendees meet their future spouses, where young farmers connect with their heroes, where the modern regenerative movement embodies living revolutionaries … you get it. At Eco-Ag, our collective representation is nothing less than a measuring stick for common-sense resistance to toxic industrialization and pollution in our food supply.
We are asking our wonderfully diverse community, separated by COVID and travel restrictions for more than a year, to put our differences aside and connect for the progression of the soil health movement. We do not need to pause, or create more division in our ranks, ever. The opposing forces certainly do not. Will it be more challenging this year? How could it not be? Yet, times of real adversity often illuminate the greatest need.
This December, if you desire a safe place to talk about the future of farming and agriculture, please join us. Let’s connect in the spirit of an old-fashioned barn raising, ready to jump in and help, ready to teach and learn ecological practices, ready to further our desire for a healthier world, and ready to depend on and celebrate each other. Let’s set our goals at nothing short of using this year’s eco-agriculture conference to leverage the diversity of thought, background and interests within our community as a real strength. In a time of imminent darkness, let us continue to stand as a positive beacon of light to the world.
We can’t wait to see the light you all bring. We’ll see you in Cincinnati.
Ryan Slabaugh
GM/Publisher
Acres U.S.A.
2021 Eco-Ag Conference
Dec. 6-9, 2021
Cincinnati, OH
Learn More here. Register here.
