I’m just now (sort of) getting my feet on the ground from last week’s Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) conference in Mobile, Ala.
Leaders of organic and sustainable nonprofits from across the South meet to brainstorm on how to better collaborate at the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) annual conference in Mobile, Ala., Jan. 19, 2014. (Photo by Daniel Doyle, Mississippi Sustainable Ag Network)
I’ll post more photos later, but I thought this one was important, maybe even historic. (It was taken by Daniel Doyle, executive director of the Mississippi Sustainable Agriculture Network.)
It shows basically all the heavy hitters for organic and sustainable agriculture in the South. (Though maybe not such a heavy hitter, I’m in the lower left corner.) There are a few exceptions, naturally; I could name a handful of folks who are not in the photo – but you can bet that those who are not in attendance knew what was going on.
The purpose of the meeting was to develop strategies for organic and sustainable nonprofits to better coordinate their efforts. The group has been meeting since last summer. There’s no name for this group; it sort of decided on calling itself a think tank at last Sunday’s meeting; the membership is fluid; its meetings unpredictable. But I have a tremendous amount of hope and optimism that it will accomplish great things.
We’ll see…
More later!
Jim PathFinder Ewing is a journalist, author, writer, editor, organic farmer and blogger. His latest book titled Conscious Food: Sustainable Growing, Spiritual Eating (Findhorn Press) is in bookstores now. Find Jim on Facebook, follow him @edibleprayers or visit blueskywaters.com.
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