Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
Creating Healthy Communities BY ANN ADAMS
I recently read an article written by Wendy Millet, the Executive Director of Tomkat Ranch in their e-letter. TomKat is one of our key collaborators and a funder, and they are doing a wonderful job of engaging their local community at critical points of need, like school lunches, as well as supporting and engaging in strategic initiatives such as research that has helped develop easier ways to measure the amount of soil carbon using a combination of on the ground sampling and global satellite imagery. Wendy notes that “in ecology, natural communities are described by their diversity,
Connecting People to the Land INSIDE THIS ISSUE Connecting consumers to the land is a critical strategy with 98% of Americans playing that role in the food system. Learn how Grassburger is connecting with consumers on page 3 or Fozzie’s Farm is engaging the next generation on the land on page 4, or the Farm to Table approach at Peculiar Farm on page 19.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
NUMBER 188
W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G
productivity, equitability, and relationships. In well-functioning communities, different players fill a variety of niches and the whole is strengthened and made more resilient by the synergies that are created…[it] describes co-existence and interrelatedness.” Wendy also talks about community reciprocity and how we must continue to welcome new perspectives, capabilities, and participants to the work at hand. What struck me when I read her article is how we have communities within communities or wholes within wholes. In the Holistic Management framework, the intent is to increase the health and effectiveness of the “parts” of the we focus on what we have been able to achieve, whole by better understanding the relationships acknowledge what we already have, and and synergies within a system. We know that determine together key desired outcomes, that timing is critical in a grazing system—how long articulated common ground begins the process to stay and how long to stay out. While there is a of recognizing and building on the relationships great deal of complexity within that system, the that are already there. We are hard-wired to goal is also to engage that complexity to better solve problems so we look to the problem more support ecosystem function. readily than the opportunities. Yet, regenerative Yet even on the family level, and more outcomes come from articulating those desired so on the community level, the complexity outcomes and creating systems and processes of human systems can seem overwhelming. that engage human creativity as well as the What leadership and communication tools help different points of view that come from the us better manage that complexity and create diversity of human life. relationships that strengthen the community, The concepts of multiple intelligences, Myers even when you have perceived “pests” in Briggs personality tests, and Five Hats thinking the system? are among many of the techniques we know If we look at an issue like thistles or that help us recognize and better utilize human snakeweed, we know that many people utilizing diversity. Likewise, the efforts of numerous social holistic planned grazing have made remarkable CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 progress in their landscape goals by changing their perspective on the Ways to Create Healthy Communities “problem species” and recognizing 1. Make time for relationships—family and the value that the species bring by community engagement covering bare ground or providing 2. Define common ground nutritious forage from their tap roots. 3. Listen Certainly we have judgments about 4. Help each other certain species being lower value, 5. Share your knowledge, experiences, and skills but when graziers stop focusing 6. Invest in your community and its businesses on what they don’t want and start 7. Eat together focusing on what they do want, 8. Work together that’s when their grazing systems 9. Celebrate milestones together can become regenerative. 10. Celebrate diversity If we can change our family and community engagements so that
