Go Grow, UGA: Lessons from the Georgia Organics Conference

The first weekend of SBXI, a few friends and I drive down to Savannah for the 41st Annual Georgia Organics Conference. The conference was attended by approximately 1,100 individuals featured workshops, farm tours, and some of the best food I have eaten all year. The combination of people and enthusiasm left me truly inspired. Though most of the workshops I attended focused on topics of policy, business, or farming many of the lessons I took away from those sessions ring true for all types of campus work. 

Here they are, the top five lessons I took from the Georgia Organics conference:

1. Know your mission, and use it. Sandi Kronick, the CEO of Eastern Carolina Organics, pointed out that we write mission statements while building organizations, but the true power of a mission statement lies in relating all the activities of your organization back to it. She encouraged everyone in her workshop session not to let mission statements collect dust on plaques, but to realize the value of being able to answer the question “what do you do here?” in “three sentences or less.”

2. Fear of asking questions leaves you waiting for answers. Attending the conference as a student and consumer, I definitely came prepared with a slate of questions about changing the food system, and was happy to find myself in the majority. Multiple workshop presenters highlighted the value of curiosity for two reasons: you have to “survey your market” to see what issues you need to address, and asking questions about a subject is one of the best ways to express interest in a topic or person – a way to start establishing a positive relationship. 

3. Walk around the red tape. The leaders of the “Farm to School” workshop I attended discussed their efforts to start culinary clubs in school in the Decatur area. While they had originally intended to work with the public school system to change school purchasing policies, the amount of red tape involved far exceeded the amount time they could devote to the program. Instead, they chose to side step the current system by focusing their efforts on awareness and education. They decided to start culinary clubs, which allowed them to work more directly with kids and teachers – taking their message direct to the audience.  Adapt your efforts to your timeframe, making a difference can mean working within a current system as well as changing it.  

4. Focus on the leverage points. In an effort to stray outside of my food policy fiefdom, I attended a session called “Bringing Meat to Market” held by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, where we discussed food safety regulations pertaining to farmers trying to sell sustainably produced meat – a policy issue some may see as of concern to conventional producers, but understanding such policy is critical in promoting positive environmental change. As students we often gravitate towards advocacy of “trendy” causes, but we do not always ask about the set of conditions that leads to those problems. Learn about the system as it is, then offer suggestions by focusing on the leverage points, the places where you can help grab the “low hanging fruit” of problem solving. 

Rachel Spencer, Blog Author
UGA Office of Sustainability Intern

5. Acknowledge our power as youth. Though it may not always seem it, we possess immense power as college students. Our educational experiences are what we make of them; we are in a place in our lives where we can equate asking tough questions to intellectual and individual development. As students, we must charge each other to experience college in a way that challenges the current state of things, and to live in a way that makes the world better. Remember that our strongest connections are with each other; by learning from the successes and failures of those that came before us and those that work towards similar goals at other institutions, we can affect real change. Our collective voice is powerful, but we cannot be afraid to sing. 

American farmer, writer, and thinker Wendell Berry once said “You can’t be a critic by simply being a griper… One has also to search out the examples of good work.” In additional to the days we spend prioritizing, recruiting, communicating, and organizing, we must find time to celebrate the small victories. Have a potluck, write a thank you note, or bask in the springtime sun. The mountain of issues facing any environmental advocate can seem insurmountable at times, and it is important to take time to acknowledge and applaud the positive – in our efforts, and in the efforts of others.