18:32:09 Good evening everyone, and thank you for coming to the first of six events for the soil health and community resilience stories from the north series. 18:32:18 This 2021 series is our third annual soil series. 18:32:23 Tonight's event is called connections between soil food climate and resilience, and it features grace Christiani Stacey doll, Kenya Zhu Li, and micro justice. 18:32:34 I learned Weston tonight's facilitator and one of the organizers of this series. 18:32:40 I'd like to first thank the other members of the organizing team, including Grace, Grace uni, Becky pulpits Melissa Laurita Cole. avi Bauer and cat Buxton. 18:32:50 I would also like to thank all of you who are here this evening or watching the recording in the future. 18:32:55 Thanks to those of you who filled out the survey that we sent around for the community to gather input on this series, your responses priorities and resources, informed every step of the planning process, and we hope that you enjoy the series that you 18:33:10 all helped to design. 18:33:13 I would also like to thank all of our incredible partners who have made this series possible. 18:33:19 The 45 plus organizations and businesses that you see on the bottom and side of your screen, have helped us fundraise for our speakers, spread the word about these events and shared countless resources with us. 18:33:30 And we are excited to share them with you. 18:33:33 We'd also like to give a special shout out to the Cooperative Education Fund. The Vermont healthy soils coalition, and the little tin food Co Op. 18:33:42 To learn more about all the partners and to take a look at all the resources gathered from partners, and through the, the pre event planning survey, please visit our website for the series, I will put that into the chat now. 18:34:01 We would like you all to know that we are recording tonight's event. 18:34:06 Additionally, we ask that you keep yourself muted and your video off until the q amp a portion of tonight's event. 18:34:12 Our team will be doing our best to keep disruptions to a minimum. And we will be disabling everyone's ability to unmute yourself for the beginning of the event. 18:34:21 You will also be turning your videos off for the beginning of the event, we suggest that you set your current zoom view to gallery view by clicking the word view in the top right corner of your screen and selecting gallery, you'll be able to see all of 18:34:36 the panelists. At the same time, if you are in that view. 18:34:41 You should also have a button at the bottom of your screen, called the live transcript. If you click the up arrow next to those words you should be able to turn on or off an auto generated live feed of subtitles of tonight's discussions. 18:34:57 We apologize in advance if that transcription service captures any of the words incorrectly. 18:35:08 If you have any questions for us, please submit them through the zoom chat box. 18:35:23 We would like to open this event, with the land acknowledgement. This land acknowledgement for what is referred to by some as the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and the North Country of New Hampshire has been shared with us, and others by Chief john Stevens, 18:35:36 have been all he can band, the classic American nation. 18:35:41 Many of us are on the land, which has long served as a set of meeting and exchange among indigenous peoples for thousands of years and is home to the Western Abernathy people. 18:35:58 The team organizing this event today honors recognizes and respects these peoples, especially the event icky as the traditional stewards of the lands and waters, on which we gather today. 18:36:03 And that spirit. Today we will begin by acknowledging that we are guests in this land. We need to respect and help protect the lands within our use. 18:36:13 Additionally, we would like to take a few moments of silence to honor and respect the elders of the past and present, who were and are stewards of this land. 18:36:28 Thank you all. 18:36:34 And making this series we want to create a community for all together safely. We created a list of community values and guidelines that are being shown on your screen now in this space. 18:36:46 We agreed to respect and recognize all voices lived experiences perspectives and worldviews we seek to create a safe space for learning and sharing and we ask that we all use inclusive and respectful language. 18:36:59 Violations of these values and guidelines will lead to remove them from the event by our team this evening. Thank you for understanding with those in mind, let's get to know each other as you feel comfortable, please introduce yourself in the chat box 18:37:14 with your name, where you're participating from tonight, and a response to the question, What do soil health and community resilience have in common. 18:37:24 That should get us rolling for an exciting evening. 18:37:28 While you're all introducing yourself, I'll tell you about tonight's survey and raffle. We do have a post event survey that shouldn't take you more than three minutes to complete, and will be sent out with the recording of tonight's event, the event bright, 18:37:41 so make sure that you have registered on event bright. 18:37:46 You shouldn't have been able to join me up the zoom link that was being sent out from a band right as well. If you fill out that survey within one week of tonight's event, you will be entered into our raffle for prizes. 18:37:59 And so this week we have three separate prizes. 18:38:02 The first is the book organic revolutionary by our very own grace cushy. 18:38:08 Second is me and white supremacy combat racism, change the world and become a good ancestor by Layla sod and compost and worm castings from black dirt farm. 18:38:20 In addition, for all participants. 18:38:24 Chelsea green Chelsea green publishing has generously offered a 35% off discount code for their books, and more from their website Chelsea green calm. 18:38:41 The code is p web 35 is on your screen right now as well, and it's good for all participants here tonight, and watching the recording this spring. 18:38:44 Thank you, Chelsea green. 18:38:47 With that, I am very excited to introduce our speakers this evening, we will be hearing stories from grace Christiani author educator, organic consultant organizer for this series, and Vermont healthy soils coalition board member, we will be hearing stories 18:39:04 from Stacey doll, Executive Director of route to rise, and the community resiliency planner at the North Country council Regional Planning Commission and economic development district, and really hearing stories from Kenya Lazuli the co founder of radical 18:39:19 imagination, who's current focus is on the every town project. 18:39:24 We will also have a short recorded feature from Merida Canadian oh and Madeline shero of Migrant Justice that we will show prior to opening the event, up to q amp a for the majority of the second half of our time together tonight. 18:39:38 To learn more about these speakers and their projects, in addition to resources, they've shared that haven't formed their own journeys, please visit our website and scroll down the page to the section for event one. 18:39:53 With that, I am very excited to turn it over to Grace, Grace God, who is going to open the evening, I will stop sharing my screen grace. 18:40:07 Thank you, Lauren and thank you, all of you amazing people are showing up. 18:40:15 I really a bit gobsmacked right. 18:40:20 That's the number of people and how many old friends are, are there in the list that I've scan so I'm going to start out with a little bit of my history and, or, or my story. 18:40:36 But I'm really going to be talking more about the, the science of soils, and the an overview of what we're really doing for this whole series. So this will be a little bit less story. 18:40:55 And I'm going to share my screen. 18:40:59 And I guess I need to do that. 18:41:03 Before I open this slide show. 18:41:11 And here we go slideshow from the beginning. 18:41:16 So that's, that's my memoir which I had to write for various reasons, but the major thing that that really is grace we can't see your screen you didn't share it. 18:41:31 Oh I thought I did. 18:41:35 Sorry. 18:41:38 Oh, okay, there's the little blue button that I didn't click OK, Here we go. Perfect. 18:41:48 Now, do we have, do we have. 18:42:01 Oops, wait a minute, from the beginning. There we go. 18:41:56 That's my book, and the reason one of the major motivations for me to be getting it out there and try to push it on people is that it's really gets at the imperative of working with soil to slow, and in fact reverse climate change, and that's one of my 18:42:23 big my big issues, and motivations and. 18:42:29 And it's also very much about the all of the connections and the holistic meaning of what you get when you take care of soil, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff about what I've done with my life, including writing the National Organic program, and 18:42:54 then that was, that was a huge thing which I won't even mention anymore. So, this is my, my representation of the holistic nature of what we're going through right now. 18:43:13 This was showing the fact that all of these things are related to how we manage land, the refugee crisis. 18:43:27 The, the scarcity conflict, climate change very much so extinctions, and we might add, there's a little disease up there. Yeah, the pandemic is also related to all of these things so we can't really on tangled them, they're, they're all related and that's 18:43:51 what we're going to be showing in the rest of this series we're going to be really bringing in different aspects of what we can do what we can do as a community as a culture. 18:44:11 In order to really begin to address these, these issues and and how we grow food, and how we manage land is really at the center of it, as well as of course, our economic system and our political system, and so on and so forth. 18:44:29 They're all related. 18:44:32 And one one quote I'll share with you is from speaker who named Sally Calhoun who was spoke at the EF Schumacher society or the center, Society for new economy. 18:44:51 And what she was talking about was what they got at when they were changing their land management practices to Holistic Management and went about asking the root cause of the problem. 18:45:09 And really what she said is, we usually determine that the root cause is cultural. 18:45:16 The root cause is disconnection between humans and natural systems, and all of that, the cascading effects. The, the inequities. The pollutions, the extractive economies, etc. 18:45:35 So, 18:45:38 I will 18:45:41 move along to to really talking about soil, and I'm not going to give a comprehensive comprehensive explanation or tutorial but what I'm going to do is just try to give you a sense of some of the newer and more exciting information that I've been learning 18:46:05 in the last few years as a soil freak. I certainly didn't know it all but I I start I considered myself somewhat of an expert, but I don't really consider myself an expert anymore I think a lot of a lot of others and younger people have have surpassed 18:46:27 me, but we will be also I want to point out, looking at a range of practical solutions and practical methods that people are using in the Northeast Kingdom and in the North Country of New Hampshire and in fact all over the world to support the health 18:46:53 of the soil, and to create the conditions for healthy soil and this slide, comes from our dear friend and collaborator cat Buxton, who is one of the people I've been learning from in the last few years. 18:47:16 And this is just a few tidbits of information about what is, what, what healthy soil does for our ecosystem. 18:47:32 And in particular, the idea that it draws down carbon. 18:47:38 And you know the the whole thing is, is a microcosm of our society. There is a lot of diversity needed in order to in order to have health, their, their scores and scores workers who are unseen and unknown, but they are what make soil healthy. 18:49:32 I'm getting an unstable internet connection so I hope this is not going to crash. 18:49:29 So, what, what all of this means is that. 18:50:02 OK, so the recording is still going on. 18:50:02 So where this starts is with Photosynthesis, photosynthesis is the source of food for the billions of organisms that live in the soil and that create healthy soil photosynthesis is the solar collector for for the whole earth for all of our food. 18:50:06 And it provides the food through a liquid carbon pathway. 18:50:11 And the root system that is in symbiosis with fungi, and that exudes the plant roots exude the carbon, the fun guy who can't photosynthesize. 18:50:28 Take it up, and they also bring needed nutrients as well as water to plants, even if there is an ending water right in the media environment. 18:50:44 And 18:50:51 so the next slide is just an illustration of the mycorrhizal fungi, which are really the most important. 18:51:05 If there can be said to be the most important group of organisms, all working through a mutual ism which different players have different roles that are really important. 18:51:20 And that need to be working together 18:51:25 more cool pictures. 18:51:27 So the principles of maintaining soil health are kind of our, our mantra. 18:51:37 Living roots in the ground. 18:51:39 The more living roots are in the ground the healthier your soil will be maximize diversity above ground and below ground, different plants and different routes, promote different organisms that all help to minimize disturbance disturbance meaning tillage, 18:51:59 but also chemical disturbance and I think that that's an important thing to remember, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides all those biocides eliminate or or minimize bare soil. 18:52:16 Maintain animals in contact with the soil and let the water, slow and sink, instead of running off and cat does a really cool demonstration of bread and and flower that if you haven't seen it go look at last year's recordings and each, each session starts 18:52:40 with cats demonstration. 18:52:45 So, I want to just talk a little bit about water. 18:52:49 Because if we were to stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow. 18:52:58 And if we were to even continue building healthy soil at a fast clip. What we would need to do immediately is to call the planet is to bring down the temperature to allow green plants to be able to grow. 18:53:17 Because right now, climate change, and the increased warming of the planet is making it in inhospitable for green plants to even be able to grow. 18:53:29 So, these beyond carbon soil healthy soil helps us cool the planet, through the water cycle, then this is just a, you know, off the off the web, graphic about the water cycle and that thing that really is important to remember is that just having the 18:53:53 soil covered with green brings the temperature down. 18:53:59 You can you can certainly experience this for yourselves. 18:54:05 And moreover, moreover, even with the amount of water vapor in the air. that is forming what's called a haze. 18:54:18 That will not fall as rain, without something to seed, the raindrops, and the raindrops are seated by only certain things, including some minerals and salt. 18:54:37 But most rain is seated by bacteria that are released from the leaves of green plants and trees in particular, and trees are amazing. 18:54:46 So, I will not go much more into the technicalities I know I've gone over on soil is important for human health. This is from Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. 18:55:04 Just a small indication of what healthy soil does for us as humans as healthy humans, and keeping us healthy. 18:55:19 And I think that, you know, this is this is one of my favorite photos that health, also is stimulated by contact with the soil. 18:55:35 And I certainly feel that myself, that being in touch with the soil being in touch with green plants and trees and the outdoors is important for our physical health. 18:55:53 So, in conclusion, I will hand it over to Stacey doll, who's going to talk more about community resilience, if I understand it and that's a big piece of what we're talking about here. 18:56:08 And thank you all for listening. 18:56:11 I will stop sharing now. 18:56:18 Great. Thanks, thanks guys thank you for passing it along for setting a really good foundation for our conversation tonight. 18:56:27 I'm going to share my screen I have just a few slides to share with you this evening. 18:56:34 Um, so one of my favorite quotes, and I shared this quite a bit when I'm teaching permaculture classes comes from Wendell Berry, and he says that soil is the great connector. 18:56:48 You know, it's the destination, it's the Restore, it's the resurrection. 18:56:53 And for me in this quote it reminds me of the importance that soil is that full cycle of life. 18:57:01 The birth the life, the death and the rebirth cycle. And that without proper care for it we have no community and so without proper care for it. we have no life. 18:57:13 Our life is intimately connected with soil. And so this is such an important conversation to be having tonight. 18:57:21 And I think my relationship with soil started at a very young age. When I would find myself spending hours outside playing in the dirt. 18:57:32 As I used to call it as a kid or in the mud, you know making mud cakes for my friends and my family and playing down by the creek, and just coming home every evening covered in soil. 18:57:46 And so that was my first relationship not really understanding all the science behind it that I learned later in life. But there was something very freeing that happened. 18:57:56 You couldn't really put words to what it was like to, to play in that in the soil. And what's interesting is at almost 47 years old I still feel like a kid, every time I'm playing in the soil. 18:58:10 And then that relationship was further developed for me in my childhood because I grew up outside of Washington DC, with two parents that work for the Environmental Protection Agency. 18:58:21 So I would come home covered in soil and Creek water from being with my friends outside and listened to my parents use really big words around public policy and the clean, clean air act and clean water act and not quite understanding what they were talking 18:58:40 about but I think that was building the soil within me to get more and more curious about how it is that places get developed, how it is that humans live together in spaces, how do we make the decisions that we make and who makes them for how we live 18:58:59 our lives. And of course this image here of this subdivision is very representative of where I grew up in very much planned bedroom community outside of Washington DC, with a little you know carpool parking lot at the entrance and everyone would go into 18:59:16 DC and everyone would come back. And right on the fringes of those subdivisions was that little teeny sliver of wild Lamb that was left. The where the soil wasn't compacted and that's where we played. 18:59:30 So, this sort of kind of further developed for me and as I started to think about like where am I going to go to school. What is it that I'm going to study, what do I want to be when I grew up, I found myself going deeper and deeper into community planning. 18:59:48 Environmental Planning and sustainability planning. 18:59:53 And probably, if I were to add up the years I think I spent a good 20 years of my life as a community and regional planner. And then that transitioned over the last 10 years to getting more intentionally focused on humans relationships to soil in the 19:00:11 environment. 19:00:13 And that as as Wendell Berry says that, that inner connection that play between the health of the soil and health of us as humans. 19:00:22 And so really my work over the last 10 years has been honing in from that broad based, you know, how do we design places, how do we decide where homes and and you know where businesses are going to be all the way down to how do we work in community. 19:00:39 How do we work in relationship to each other. How do we learn more from the environment, just as much as we learn from each other. 19:00:49 So some of the images here to pick you know the gardens in my backyard which for very manicured at first. 19:00:57 And now are very wild very poly cultures and perennial plants as well as annual plants and really letting there be wild edges, and the importance of building soil and bringing in organic matter, year after year and looking at the things that we would 19:01:16 call waste and seeing them now as a resource to building more soil and spending time like weaving together conversations and stories and community with people, realizing that we all have something to add to our social soil composition. 19:01:34 And I've also spent some time especially over the last year or two, through some grants that we had working with kids, and teaching them about soil, you know, and they're looking at me going do you have gloves on want to get my hands dirty and so I just 19:01:49 emerged my hands deep deep in the soil and I'm like come on get dirty with me and we play in the dirt we talked about it we talked about, pick it up. Do you know that there's more life in your hand and there are people on the planet and kids are fascinated 19:02:03 by this information. So I my relationship with soil has continued to deepen and the two really quick projects, and organizations that I work for that I want to talk, tell you about. 19:02:18 And then, happy to go further in our q amp a. 19:02:21 Is it about three years ago, I helped found a nonprofit organization in the North Country of New Hampshire called route to rise. 19:02:31 And our mission is planting seeds and growing permaculture everywhere with everyone. 19:02:36 As a permaculture educator I saw a gap that those that were learning these principles and practices were only those that had the resources to do so, and yet at the same time I've seen gaps and needs in my community where folks didn't have access to healthy 19:02:55 food healthy soil, soil or even the training and education to shift that situation for themselves. 19:03:03 So what route to rise does is we come in and work with community partners in organizations throughout the region and say we can teach permaculture right here, out of the classroom and into the world. 19:03:17 Anyone who wants to learn as welcome to come, we're going to put our hands in the soil together, and not only create a vibrant garden full of food and pollinator plants, but we're also going to build our soil and our mycelium together. 19:03:34 We, we like to say that our organization is a teacher person to fish organization. It's more about empowering those that aren't aren't usually part of the conversation, and making those spaces more accessible to everyone. 19:03:50 Now recently, I've transitioned into a position still working for route to rise, but also had the opportunity to go back to North Country council Regional Planning Commission, where we are leading right now, an effort to kind of recover our economy from 19:04:06 coven 19 and talk about what is a more resilient future look like for the North Country. 19:04:13 And what I'm doing is I'm taking a lot of those ecological practices and philosophies the things that we learned from building soil and building connections in nature and saying, Well, what does that look like in our economy, aren't we, the ecosystem. 19:04:28 How is each sector of the economy being affected right now and then, where are those intersection points where is it where the mycelium crosses over that there might be very specific projects or solutions that help all sectors of the economy, how do we 19:04:45 bring people together who might not have been part of economic development planning in the past but, boy, are they important to our economy into our region. 19:04:56 So, that planning process is underway and we'll go through the summer of next year and we hope, even beyond that. 19:05:04 But that's a little bit about what I do and again I'm happy to share more. When we have time during q amp a but I want to give some time for my new friend Kenya to also introduce herself and the amazing work that she's doing. 19:05:19 So I'm going to stop sharing and pass it over to Kenya. 19:05:23 Thank you, Stacey Thank you grace also. 19:05:26 This was the, the evolution of this conversation is just, just right. 19:05:32 And it was like the perfect lead in for me so thank you. And my name is Kenya Lazuli I live in current Vermont, and I am from here I grew up here and left for 25 years and then came back to have my baby at home. 19:05:45 And she is now six so that it's been a while. 19:05:49 So, the reason. So, let's say the reason I'm here today is to talk about every town which is a project that, that sort of came about, like at the beginning of covert because I usually run an arts residency of my home, and host artists during the summer 19:06:05 months, and feed them from my garden and because we weren't allowed to gather this year, or this past year in 2020. 19:06:15 Instead I started looking at into like land access work because one of my residents So, um, prior to 2020. I had been hosting seven, seven artists at a time three sessions a year, and I would give scholarships for people of color who wanted to come and 19:06:31 be in nature and be you know here in Vermont with us. 19:06:35 And one of those residents. Last year, contacted me and told me the story about how she had been in the woods here, and she's from the border of Texas and Mexico and her family, most of her family lives in Mexico, and she was doing a lot of border crossing 19:06:46 and so like being in nature was like very triggering and scary for her, And she called me at the beginning of 2020 and said, I wanted you to know that when I was in the woods at your house I had a moment where I was like collecting these things you know 19:07:03 like pine cones and things for a project and she said I had this moment where I realized I'm not afraid in the woods here, because I'm at Kenya's house. 19:07:12 And that, like I'm going to cry. 19:07:15 That like really hit home for me because it was very clear in the work that I was doing that the majority of people that could afford to take time off, and come here and access this space were wealthy white people. 19:07:27 And you know with with what happened with George Floyd. This past summer and Brianna Taylor and it's just like all of the things that had been happening in our world so publicly. 19:07:39 This past year, sort of, you know, I had this moment where I was like I can't do this work anymore in the way that I do it and so I sort of shifted gears and I now teamed up with two other women of color to create radical imagination. 19:07:52 And so, because we couldn't host people and just do the arts residency. The three of us started working together on like skill shares like outdoor events and like how to support people during a pandemic but also just like support black people indigenous 19:08:07 people and people of color who don't, otherwise have access to nature, or like the outdoors and the way that I do because I live here, and support them in connecting and so that that has sort of like taken up a lot of our energy but then also, I started 19:08:21 to feel more strongly about how I can I live here I grew up here I feel comfortable here that's not the case for a lot of people of color, when they come to Vermont, or any real space, and so I started this work called every time I was on a walk with 19:08:36 my with the woman who owns the house I live. And I said, wouldn't it be cool if there was, you know, like land in every town in the state that was like reserved for people of color to like calm and feel safe and have community. 19:08:46 And she said, Yeah, that would be cool. 19:08:48 So I started calling people and emailing people and just like sort of asking lots of questions about like how we can make this happen. And one of those people was my, my co conspirator Mindy. 19:08:58 I applied for a grant through her organization and I got the grant but she also afterwards was like let's work to get together on this and and make it happen. 19:09:06 So, we're every time is right now is there's, there's two branches almost so we're collaborating with the Northeast farmers of color Land Trust, and they are, they will hold land interest permanently for by POC access and stewardship. 19:09:23 And what that looks like for us is not only like finding land stewards or matching people with properties but it also looks like creating safe space in these communities before these people come and making sure that like the neighbors surrounding these 19:09:35 properties are going to act as like a mutual aid network for these communities. 19:09:40 So there will be, you know, there will be a network of land stewards throughout the state, there will be a network of neighbors throughout the state. And they can support each other and themselves you know like as an overlapping network of resources and 19:09:57 see. So, since every time started and since Monday and I started working together and talking more about it, we, um, we also started talking with legislator. 19:10:06 Ryan Gina representative right Brian Gina, and he was already working on a piece of legislation to support land access for bypass in Vermont. And so we teamed up, and that legislation is like, about to be turned in tomorrow. 19:10:19 We've been working super hard on it. Um, it's not perfect, but it's like, it's a step in the right direction. And, you know, like, like everything like this takes time it's process. 19:10:31 This is a step it's not the first step. There's a lot of other people doing a lot of amazing work. 19:10:35 And, but it's a step that were involved in in that we're going to help move forward if we can. 19:10:40 And so that's sort of like, like the overview of these two of these projects and like how I got here. 19:10:50 The last thing I want to say is that like there are already like we're, we're like, catch it playing catch up with this whole process as soon as like we started talking about it with people. 19:10:56 A lot of they gained a lot of interest and people wanted to be involved. And so we don't have like a website yeah like a shiny website to show you right now, like, you know, like any of these things that like I would have loved to bring five but my slides 19:11:08 already you know, because we're playing catch up but at the same time, I will tell you that with another thing that's like very exciting about this whole process is that we already have three properties, being donated, and we already have like two land 19:11:21 stewards set up for like two of the properties, and one of them, they're like, and the donor the landowner is reaching out to their community to see who in their community is in need of land and in need of space. 19:11:33 So it's happening, it's a lot of work, and a long process. And if people want to get involved, I'll put our email address in the chat. 19:11:42 Because that's like honestly the easiest way to get in touch with us right now. But, um, yeah. But, so I think that's like my like big summary. I started reading questions in the chat and that was like not a good idea. 19:11:56 I got distracted but thank you all for listening and like coming and paying attention and like I think that it's like, This is like the the perfect plan. 19:12:04 Sorry, transition from soil to community to the actual people on the soil who like, have they been removed from the soil or removed from their own soil so it's like, it's a. 19:12:19 Yeah, it's sort of like came full circle and like I'm really excited to be a part of this so thank you. And I'll pass it back to you, Lauren. 19:12:24 You can you think through all of our incredible speakers. I completely agree it worked out beautifully. 19:12:33 I would like to now share a video clip that was sent to us from Migrant Justice about the milk with dignity program. 19:12:42 They aren't in person with us tonight but they did prepare a little 10 minute video clips for us to all learn more about the projects that they are involved with. 19:12:52 So, I will share my screen, 19:13:02 everyone. Thanks so much for having us. 19:13:05 My name is Ronald chair I'm part of the micro justice team, pass it to my colleague. 19:13:12 Hi, my name is Maria I'm also part of the mic and Justin. Thank you for another space. 19:13:19 So we're going to be talking today and we are going to be sharing about a little bit about micro justice, and specifically talking more about the local community campaign, and how to get involved. 19:13:30 So Migrant Justice is grassroots farm worker founded and farm worker led organization that is based in the immigrant farm worker committee in the dairy industry and Migrant Justice works to build the voice capacity and power of the farm worker community, 19:14:02 also engage allies to advanced human rights and economic. And so to talk a little bit more about the context for immigrant workers on dairy farms in Vermont. 19:14:11 It's important to know that farm workers from Mexico and Central America are working to sustain the dairy industry in Vermont. 19:14:20 And, as well as around the country and other food systems and other industries Mayra justice conducted to extensive surveys of working conditions on farms and found that wages in many cases are incredibly low hours are very very long in some cases even 19:14:39 six up to like 16 hours a day or longer, and housing, which is almost always provided on the farm. 19:14:48 Housing conditions can be really deplorable. And, and undignified. 19:14:55 Also, the farming in general and the dairy industry is. It's a dangerous industry and so we see a lot of workplace injuries and general lack of protection for workers, 19:15:15 about how the community is organizing these issues. 19:15:18 So that's why you know the the Melbourne a program. 19:15:23 the Melbourne a program. We call the new day, the dairy industry because solve the problem as a group, and includes the entire supply chain, how it works, mega justice science a legally binding agreement with a corporation for them to take responsibility for the conditions in 19:15:38 their supply chain, the corporation's commit to buy from farms in the program in pay them a premium. 19:15:44 These premium that the farms receive has to go and comply with a code of conduct that has been written by workers themselves. 19:15:52 This code has the standards for wages, hours arrest, how see health and safety includes protections against retaliation harassment and discrimination, it really represents the community definition of dignify work. 19:16:07 But this is done, there's need to be meaningful. 19:16:11 In, need to be known by everybody that's why mega justice conducts education sessions with everybody at the farm. 19:16:18 And this brings power to the workers to defend the rights of the frontline also to ensure that the farm comply with the code. There is the nobody the Standards Council which is an independent organization with investigators that conduct audits and have 19:16:36 a 24 seven support line for everybody at the farm. It's a resource for the find for better communication and comply. 19:16:47 If the farm doesn't comply with the code, the mobile the standard castle can suspend the fire, which will lose the premium, and the ability to serve the companies in the program. 19:16:55 And that's something we don't want. 19:16:57 So, when, after created this program, we launched a campaign. 19:17:02 And for three years. We were asking publicly to Ben and Jerry's to join the program. 19:17:10 And at the beginning they do the next step because it was a model that they weren't familiar with. And we had many many actions, it was a 13 mile March, the factory speaking tours, and they finally signed on October 3 2017. 19:17:44 farms in New York. 19:17:46 As I said, Megan justice is given the education session, the farms have been monitored by the Standards Council in hundreds of thousands of dollars have flown directly from Ben and Jerry's to the workers pockets in the form of races bonuses paid vacations 19:18:00 and much more. 19:18:01 We can say that they knew they had arrived in vintage a supply chain. 19:18:07 So we're just talking about the incredible success of the month with the new program. And so far muggers have been also planning and strategizing how to expand it to cover more farms. 19:18:21 And so this is a picture of rally in front of the supermarket Hannaford, which is a local supermarket chain with Alma with almost 200 stores around the Northeast, and so that makes them a really significant buyer of dairy in the region 19:18:45 and farm workers first approached the Hannaford supermarket. And in the summer of 2019, to ask them to sit down at the table and talk about enough of the Union why why it's important, and they received no response. 19:19:07 So, in the fall of 2019 farmworkers decided to launch a public campaign, calling on the Hannaford supermarket to join up with dignity. 19:19:19 Since that day. 19:19:21 And in the fall of 2019. 19:19:23 There have been many different actions. This is a picture from March to one of the Vermont and effort supermarkets. 19:19:31 There was a coordinated day of action, where farm workers and allies, not only across Vermont but across the whole Northeast region, held rallies at their local Hannaford stores. 19:19:44 There's been petition support from national organizations. 19:19:50 And then the spring. 19:19:53 The the pandemic hit. 19:19:56 And guys were impacted, how we've been able to organize and. And while we know that the covert 19 pandemic is impacting food workers all all throughout the the food chain. 19:20:10 We're seeing companies like Hannaford having their, their profits only increase during this crisis. 19:20:19 And so while Hannaford continues to ignore the cause of farm workers. 19:20:25 Margaret justice has, has been organizing this is a picture from a mass calling day of action that we held in the summer last year. 19:20:34 We've been doing virtual presentations, like this one, around the northeast and also around the country to build support for the campaign, and continuing to hold socially distance, small rallies. 19:21:01 us to 19:20:58 pass it back to America. 19:21:02 Thank you, Madeline So, yeah, we implemented this program, regardless of its functioning. 19:21:11 And, on October 3 2020, there was a 30 year anniversary of Ben and Jerry's joining the program in one year of the companion for expansion would Hannaford. 19:21:20 So we release the biennial 2020 mil would be the report. In a press conference. 19:21:28 The report documents their success and impact of the program of the under in the beginning. 19:21:34 And it's very important, and you know we can share the link is shows really how things are changing. 19:21:41 In the farm level. And you can see the testimonies and you can see data, and really understand how this is impacting the community. 19:21:52 At the same time of the day of the release. We have a national day of action. 19:21:58 25 different delegations in Vermont New Hampshire Massachusetts Maine in New York made a trip to their local Hannah for to deliver a copy of the report in cold on the store to journal with the meeting, and supporters from afar also help boost and are 19:22:11 willing to report released on social media. 19:22:17 You can see here a picture of the workers complaining as well. In this has been ongoing online, commenting on Hannah first place with web page. 19:22:29 You can see that the workers are milking the cows, bringing them out to the supermarket and also buying it they are consumers they are reading the report they are sharing with their family members. 19:22:47 And it's really important that they are really leading this campaign and we invite you to be part of this and support all the efforts for the community to go to the Nordic Region and really bring the new day for everyone. 19:22:55 So thank you so much. Here's a list of managers the social media handles, please get involved, will be sharing a copy of the milk with dignity report which Marita mentioned, as well as a multimedia action toolkit, which goes into more detail about how 19:23:11 to get organized how to get involved and what you can do to take action to support our members. 19:23:17 Thanks so much. Thank you everyone. 19:23:27 Alright. 19:23:29 Hello again everyone, I would like to add as well that Migrant Justice is holding an event on this Saturday. 19:23:39 In St Albans if anyone is interested please do get involved with them. 19:23:44 The links for their resource report, it went into the chat, and they're also on our website as well. 19:23:53 If you have any questions for Mike and justice as well, please put them in the chat and I will make sure that the messages get passed along to those two lovely speakers Marina and Madeline, so please still ask questions of them even though they're not 19:24:07 here with us tonight. 19:24:11 We are at the stage of the evening now for some question and answer with our lovely panelists. 19:24:20 I'd also like to thank obby, who has been collecting all of the questions in the chat and is sending them to me separately, so thank you. 19:24:31 I'm going to start with a question, or I'm going to. 19:24:37 Sorry. I'm going to ask one of the question asked is to unmute themselves and to join the conversation and to ask one of their questions. 19:24:46 cigar saw, I'm going to allow, I'm going to ask you to unmute, and hopefully that you can come on screen and ask your question. 19:24:55 Yes Hello, can you hear me. Yes. 19:24:59 Yes, thank you for the opportunity and all the talks from the eloquent speakers. 19:25:06 My question was firstly with regards to phytoremediation and photosynthesis. So I'm not a farmer been doing a lot of research last few years, in benefits of industrial hemp. 19:25:21 And I do know this bills coming out because there is a massive push for legalization but I don't really know if those benefits are going to be good or not, but I just wanted to know if there is much research in not just how to do the soul organically 19:25:38 as you as you are purporting but also how to enhance it further by growing cannabis or hemp as you want to call it in rotation with other crops and rotation throughout the year. 19:25:52 Because is, as I understand a very big nitrogen fixer. 19:25:58 And, yeah, there's so many things to talk about it so I just wanted to know about that and also just one last thing is, what is it that we can learn all around the world, from the farmer process. 19:26:19 also fighting for the small farmers wherever they are in the world. Thank you. Thank you for your question. 19:26:22 With any urban North like to take a first stab at this 19:26:30 grace, you go ahead grace. 19:26:34 Okay, well, I actually am not aware of any information about him being a nitrogen fixer. It is definitely not a legume, which is the class of plants that is that fixes nitrogen but it is a very hardy plant, and creates a lot of biomass and a lot of root 19:27:02 mass, which is going to help the soil. 19:27:07 I think that harvesting it is, is, is a question that I would have and cultivating it, to the extent that it disturbs the soil and requires tillage and gets dug up at the end of the harvest season so those are questions that I would have about, hemp cultivation. 19:27:28 I know it shouldn't be necessary to actually pull it up. 19:27:34 It makes, I'm sure it makes a great rotation crop. 19:27:38 So, there are there are so many crops that are both soil improving and marketable that it is that it really makes a lot of sense to have those crops as alternating crops. 19:27:59 And I certainly don't claim to know much more than that, about, about hemp per se, but the farmer protests in India yeah I just actually been working with my social ecology colleagues I'm also on the board of the faculty of the Institute for social ecology, 19:28:25 want to give a shout out to them as a 19:28:30 radical political organization that that educates people about things like protest movements against capitalism, which is basically what the farmer protests in India are and, and it's unbelievable how little attention has been given us this. 19:28:52 This is like millions and millions of people, General strikes, all, all on account of government proposals to give corporations more authority to buy a farm land which, as I understand it is not permitted that corporate ownership of farmland isn't permitted 19:29:17 in India, and they want to make, make it permissible for the corporations to buy up the farmland. So, I mean it's outrageous. It's going on all over the world, and it's one of the major causes of of the mass extinctions, and in fact the pandemic could 19:29:36 be linked to corporate buyout of tropical lane for us to plant palm palm oil plantations so I hope that you will probably know let people know about it look into it and keep us posted about it. 19:30:02 I'm Stacey or can you do you like any, would you like to add anything. 19:30:07 I think the only thing I'll add and I think that this was said but hemp thinking about hemp and cannabis says, you know, are they, do they have a good relationship with helping us build healthy soil. 19:30:20 I think it gets to this point of integration to have other crops. I mean, regardless of what crop it is steering away from the more monoculture having one crop that takes the same sort of nutrients out and replanting that time and time again is going 19:30:37 to have an impact on the soil, but I know of a farmer in Vermont who was working with berms and swales so trying to capture the water in between the berms, and he'd have a row of hemp and then he'd have a row of C berries and then he'd have a row with 19:30:54 something else and then he would repeat it and he was trying to see what so what sort of companion plantings he could, he could use in a field setting and work with the contours of the land with berms and swales to capture the water in between. 19:31:09 So I think in that respect. Yes, you know, as with other plants that could really help build the soil, but I think it has to be looked at and designed as a whole system, just one particular plant itself is not going to do all of the work, it has to be 19:31:29 designed as an ecosystem. And then, yes I'll echo what grace is saying I'm, you know, we're seeing this kind of play out across the globe right now if, if anything, the pandemic is shine a bright light on injustices everywhere. 19:31:46 And we're all in this together so what we're seeing play out on on other places and other countries, we need to be very vigilant about what does that look like and how does that transpire here. 19:31:59 I think some of the work that we heard that Migrant Justice is doing the work that Kenya is doing with every town like we need to get behind these movements and and let it build from the grassroots up and really have a strong case for making sure that 19:32:14 inclusion and equity is is a part of every conversation moving forward but yeah we need to keep our eyes open because you're not going to find some of these really important stories that are unfolding and mainstream media we have to look a little bit 19:32:44 Wonderful, thank you so much Stacy if you're building on that. 19:32:47 Can you read you like to add something or we can move on to the next question. 19:32:50 Experts handled that quite well. 19:32:54 Perfect. 19:32:57 Um, So moving on to the next question. Um, I'm going to ask a Charlie Costello, I'm going to unmute you if you want to come on and ask your question. 19:33:22 Yeah. 19:33:22 We can hear you. 19:33:24 Nope. 19:33:30 I will ask Charlie's question. How do you measure carbon in the soil and. 19:33:45 I'll take a crack at it. 19:33:50 It's tricky. 19:33:53 Carbon is is very mutable element in the soil, it can take many different forms and it can be stored at different depths. Most carbon measurements are made only in the top six inches of soil which as we are learning is not necessarily as far as deep as 19:34:36 goes when you have very deep rooted crops like alfalfa. There is a good buildup of carbon and organic matter and much greater depths in the soil. The other thing is that carbon can change the from day to day. 19:34:37 And so that also kind of. 19:34:42 Certainly, Vice season to season it can change. 19:34:46 So there are standard measurements for soil organic matter which essentially burns the organic, the soil sample and then the carbon that's left is is measured, or not, not burns it but dries it so that you can, you can see how much carbon was left. 19:35:12 But there are big, becoming beginning to be more sophisticated ways of measuring it. 19:35:21 But essentially, soil organic matter is a proxy for carbon measurement. 19:35:28 And there's just a lot of controversy about what is the most accurate and reliable way to measure it. 19:35:40 Thank you, grace. 19:35:42 I'll chime in as well I know this is an ongoing discussion, at least in Vermont in terms of the payment for ecosystem services. Working Group in the legislature, that is starting up again in February. 19:35:55 So please, if you're interested in that topic. Make sure you check them out. We also have a couple more resources on the forum on healthy soils coalition website. 19:36:03 Can you say see anything to add to that question. 19:36:08 Alright, and Stacey I've got a question for you from cat Buxton cat, I will come down and you. 19:36:24 Okay, I was hoping you'd ask for me because I can't quite remember but it was something about. 19:36:29 I'm really intrigued by the work you're doing and community planning. 19:36:34 I want to learn more and I'll check out the links on the website that I'm sure are there to be able to do that. 19:36:40 But I'm really interested in. 19:36:44 Have you or are you reaching out beyond your community and what in, in terms of regional work and cross regional work. 19:36:53 Because it sounds like you're bringing a framework that's really necessary to community planning. 19:37:03 Thank you, Kat. 19:37:05 I'm gonna sleep well tonight with that comment. Thank you very much. 19:37:09 I am actually reaching out and you know to be honest the, the funding that North Country council received to do disaster relief planning. I mean, you know, most of us, none of us, we've never had a plan or framework for how do we plan for recovery from 19:37:29 a global pandemic you know this is, this is new territory. But I'm coming back from, you know, spending the last 10 years working with permaculture and looking at ecological systems and thinking, well, doesn't that relate to our economy doesn't that relate 19:37:47 to the way we organize our communities. What if we started to look at our communities as ecosystems instead of hierarchy structures. aren't we a network of people. 19:37:59 Don't we have other forms of capital beyond financial that are important, like social capital intellectual capital cultural capital. So I'm taking these principles and practices that I've been engaging in through a more traditional sort of environmental 19:38:16 sustainable lens and seeing where they overlap and where they match up with community planning. And what I'm finding is there hasn't been any resistance so far, if anything, people are are very happy to see that it's a more inclusive view of what economic 19:38:35 development recovery could look like. And we are reaching across you know one of the conversations we've been having is, you know, North Country councils region is the northern part of New Hampshire but you know we're talking about economy when we're 19:38:51 talking about community and relationships, it doesn't like fall off. 19:38:55 When you hit the Connecticut River. 19:38:58 And if anything, especially I live in little to New Hampshire. We have a lot of connections with folks in the Northeast Kingdom my husband works at Northern Vermont University. 19:39:08 I've taught at Green Mountain College so you know we have a lot of relationships there. So, I've been talking with the folks in the Northeast Kingdom collaborative about what they did this last year for recovery plan, learning from that effort. 19:39:23 I'm also a part of an effort here in the state of New Hampshire, a series that's been going on for three years, around race and equity in New Hampshire and there are six different sectors. 19:39:35 One of them is economic development, and I've joined that team so I'm working with folks in the southern part of the state, who are talking about how do we start to find the pathway stories and and develop metrics for economic development, that, that 19:39:53 are more inclusive and more equitable and one of the things that we presented just this morning was the idea of using the eight forms of capital which I learned through permaculture that we're utilizing for this planning process. 19:40:08 As a framework for measuring more equity within economic development throughout the state of New Hampshire so I'm definitely reaching out I'm sharing, you know what I know and where I've come from and seeing where it's fit, but I think, I think the time 19:40:26 is really right right now, we're, we know now that those linear systems and and hierarchy structures just aren't working. And we saw how they fell apart during a really really challenging time so folks are open to looking at things more like networks 19:40:43 and and thinking beyond just financial wealth as a way of recovering our economy. So, and we're going to keep reaching out and keep working together. I think there's a lot we can learn in the, the sort of rural region of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 19:40:59 even into upstate New York, that we have similar conversations and similar things that we can learn and build off of with each other so we'll continue to reach beyond just north country councils borders. 19:41:14 Thank you, Stacey, and Kenya I'm actually going to throw a similar question towards you. 19:41:20 In terms of what if there are any models that you're building every town off of. And if you know of similar things going on in New Hampshire. And I guess also just a general overview I'm sure some people on the call don't know much about the new folk 19:41:34 Land Trust if you wanted to share a little bit about those different models as well. 19:41:38 Yeah, sure. And I wish that I knew of other examples of people starting projects like this, and I don't, unfortunately, I don't know, really what's happening in New Hampshire I was sort of actually glad to hear what Stacy was saying. 19:41:55 But as far as like, as far as the every time project it was sort of like. 19:42:01 It started just with like an idea. And so it just sort of like branch off from there and like I've tried to like, connect with other people doing similar work around land access but I haven't really found a good match and I haven't found, like a state 19:42:14 doing this kind of work, statewide. 19:42:18 As far as the focal interest, and that's northeast farmers of color Land Trust, and they are the only Land Trust I know of in this, in this on this coast I guess I'm are really at all, that are that are holding them permanently for by POC, and holding 19:42:36 land interest permanently for by pack. And that's part of like, that's definitely like a big part of their mission but the other part of their mission there, there's like, when they hold land like they're the land has to be held regenerative Lee, or stewarded 19:42:49 regenerative late, no matter who is living on it, that's like part of the agreement for them to hold the land, and that the soil and the mountains and the plants and like everything is cared for in a way that is healthy for the land, the land has rights 19:43:02 in these relationships, and they also will with regard to when they hold land for the every time project it's sort of like, there's a two, a two part two part I'm relationship I guess with me folk. 19:43:16 And one of those things like they require, not only that the land be held regenerative Lee but also that the land stewards, have a relationship with the indigenous community in the area where the land is. 19:43:27 And that, that sort of like speaks to like their holistic approach to like land in general and that it's not to be owned or were like yeah like tended to tended to or, you know, lord it over. 19:43:39 So, and there's much more, I could say about them but they're like I highly recommend looking them up and getting in touch and they also are interested or they offer negotiation for equitable leases for people who don't want to donate land, but have land 19:44:03 that they want to like share with the community. And so, I highly recommend you like utilizing that service because a lot of times those relationships can go really wrong. 19:44:15 And so I think that's like one of the most powerful things they're doing is just sort of like helping people negotiate safely and equitably. 19:44:25 Thank you can Yeah, I agree. It was a wonderful overview of those programs so thank you so much. 19:44:33 But, I agree. It was a wonderful overview of those programs so thank you so much. I'm going to ask Marsh Hudson nap to come on and ask your question. 19:44:41 Scrolling down to the EMS, so many of you on tonight so great. 19:44:47 Mark, are you there. I'm right here I just unmuted myself. 19:44:54 So I'm involved in climate advocates Bennington 350 Vermont, and it's a part of 350, and we've been working on trying to sequester carbon by planting trees, and obviously the pandemic is made that really difficult so we kind of got installed for a while, 19:45:14 and then we got reading two books that have really gotten us excited. One is by like fell whose last name was Wormsley on dirt on, excuse me, lawns to meadows, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but on Wormsley is his name. 19:45:32 And that led us to another person Gabe. 19:45:35 Brown, who is the farmer in North Dakota, who's written a book called dirt to soil, and a lot of the principles grace that you lifted up are his operating principles for how he farms, but we've been so we've been thinking about trying to encourage people 19:45:51 in our community to to convert lawns to wildflower gardens, and then we got looking at games work and we thought. Geez, you know, maybe we should be looking at converting lines, not just to wild flowers, but to principles like he's using on the farm. 19:46:10 And so we're looking for guidance to try to convert what we're reading about in gay Browns work into something that we might be able to do as a movement in the bank scenario. 19:46:23 Thank you so much for the question. 19:46:26 I'm going to throw it to grace. First, just to respond a little bit. 19:46:31 So I heard I heard some comments but didn't quite get a question out of it. 19:46:38 Can you restate it short, the question is in terms of how to adapt those principles to Vermont and New Hampshire and home gardening, and how to really encourage those principles to try and actresses on the land here is my understanding. 19:46:56 Okay, well, that's what we're all about in the Vermont healthy soils coalition basically, it's not a, it's not a single strategy, it's multiple diverse strategies depending on the particular soil and geographic features and climate zone which is shifting. 19:47:24 As we speak, had an incredibly mild winter so far. But, so that's, it's really a long term educational project that we're trying to speed up a little bit because of the urgency of changing those practices and you're going to see in the next few. 19:48:07 I'm particularly excited to have the session the concluding session is going to really be about the menarche approach. 19:48:20 And we are, we have a lot to learn from the indigenous folks who are who are becoming more and more active in preserving their cultural traditions, including how they care for land. 19:48:38 And so that's about all I can tell you it's, it's a huge topic how how you can adapt these principles and people like Gabe brown are doing great things on large Midwestern tracts of land, or the plains, is actually where he is but there there are different 19:48:59 strategies suited to different ecosystems agro forestry is is a major one that really needs to be brought into the North Country and Vermont, much more than it has been so that's just one example. 19:49:20 You grace for that overview, Stacey or Kenya, anything to add. 19:49:27 Um, I'll just add that we we run into this a little bit with the work that we do for route to rise to put on my other hat for a moment. 19:49:36 And, you know, in that scenario, what we're doing is we're working with organizations within the community who may not have access to food or they might not have access to, you know, not even quite sure what to do. 19:49:52 And and how to, you know, start growing food, how to build garden spaces and one of the things we run into right off the bat is well we need to get somebody to come in here to rip up this grass so that we can build the garden bed and so there's an opportunity 19:50:08 there for us as as an educational organization to step in and go, actually. Could you say, do you have cardboard boxes saved someplace or we'll go by the food Co Op right down the street and get some cardboard boxes and we teach about sheet mulching and 19:50:24 the idea of taking things out of the waste stream to start to build that soil. And what happens when you rip up that grass to convert it into a garden space, all the micronutrients that you lose all that biological life that you lose, and it really resonates 19:50:41 when folks when you say, and isn't it kind of back breaking work to rip upside. You could just cover it with organic matter. 19:50:50 And, and I think people like to see those examples I here in my little house right in downtown Littleton, we've converted our entire front yard into perennial gardens and pollinator plants and really thinking about what sort of plants can handle the salt 19:51:09 in the sand from the road as since our home is really close to the road. 19:51:14 And I've taken pictures. One of the things I tell folks that they're doing the sort of grassroots work is document everything, take pictures of before and after show laying down the cardboard show the appalled neighbors in the back in the background looking 19:51:29 at you going, why are you laying cardboard on your front lawn, but then show the beautiful organic matter that sort of lasagna layering. And then the beauty afterwards and and how it transforms the space so I think through education and just small demonstration 19:51:47 projects. And then, and I love the idea that one of the principles of permaculture is create no waste, look at the things that are organic matters that we're, we're tossing and getting rid of or recycling and thinking about how do we recycle that into 19:52:05 soil and building more soil. 19:52:08 I do actually just want to add one thing I'm sorry say that I have to fit. 19:52:25 of indigenous practices from all over the world. And so it's sort of like ties into what grace was saying also is just like look to our look to our ancestors look to native practices and and there's a lot to be learned there and it's. 19:52:35 Yeah, like that's a really important piece of permaculture that I think often is left out. 19:52:42 Thanks for bringing up. 19:52:44 Sorry, go ahead grace. I definitely agree with that and they have taught taught that idea in various contexts. And I actually I have a slide that I had prepared that I had used in a, in an earlier presentation for the Vermont healthy soils coalition that 19:53:08 kind of sums up my litany of ways that we can begin to change that paradigm and build the social mycelium so I think this might be a good point to share my screen again and just show that one slide with its list, if that's okay. 19:53:33 Go ahead. 19:53:34 Okay. 19:53:52 We're gonna try to get this. Yeah. 19:53:54 So these are the different things that I've that I've seen that are all part of 19:54:05 what we need to do to get more people practicing the soil health methods on on whatever land they have access to and increasing the access of all kinds of people, and supporting our communities and one of the things about the Northeast Kingdom and the 19:54:31 North Country is that we're among the poorest parts of our respective states, and we have huge poverty issues and we're also losing population, and in that is a problem that that has been, you know, worried about and so it was really be to everybody's 19:55:01 benefit to welcome people who have who need access to and who need, and we're eager to be able to produce their own food, and and generate more of a more of a community food sovereignty system, which is a really important idea that we should be keeping 19:55:23 the production of all of the necessities of life within our control as communities and not be basing everything on these stupid global supply chains and industrial centralized systems. 19:55:39 So that's, that's my rant. And these are just some of the things that people are already doing. And we need to do more of and get the word out to everybody. 19:55:52 That's it. 19:55:55 Thank you, Grace, I think that sums up very nicely I would like to give Kenyan Stacey also a minute or two to just have a final thought. 19:56:07 So you can go first. 19:56:11 I was pointing at Kenya to have her go first. 19:56:13 But I'll go. 19:56:17 Um, yeah I think there's so much to learn here about soil and and and I guess one of the things that I will say is, it's really easy to get very heady with this and, you know, study soil and you know do soil test and all. 19:56:37 I'm a big believer of just learning by doing. And and playing and trying things out Don't, don't be afraid to try new things so you know I was talking about sheet mulching and building soil on people. 19:56:48 Well, how many layers of what I'm like, I don't. What do you have Do you already have leaves in your yard you already have grass clippings Do you already have food just use what you have and build it from there and and study it through observation take 19:57:04 notes, see what works well, what didn't work well. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, build off of the knowledge that has been here for forever and then try new things and don't be afraid to just play by play in the dirt again. 19:57:29 fun. Yeah, I just actually really just want to say thank you to everyone, especially Stacey and grace for, for sharing your wisdom and, and your experiences with soil and dirt and I think that like we all can just strive to be more welcoming and more 19:57:45 spacious, with regard to our own privilege and our own access to land that, that's all really I would ask you know from my community, so thank you. 19:57:55 Thank you, Kenya, and thanks everyone else as well. I am going to share one final slide for the evening. 19:58:02 And then we will wrap up. 19:58:09 So, if you are interested in staying connected with the speakers and other people on the call today, please fill out the survey that we are going to be sending you in link from event bright, along with the post event, as I would be recording up tonight 19:58:27 so you'll receive the recording of tonight, as well as a post event survey on that survey, there'll be an option to engage in a Google group with these speakers, and it'll also be good for the entire series this spring. 19:58:43 And it is reserved, especially in only for this series, so please do join that. 19:58:50 Make sure you check your promotions or spam folder on your email, I noticed, I was getting my own notifications my event bright and my spam folder so make sure you double check those. 19:59:02 And please do join us in two weeks, we will be having our second event of the six part series. It's called partnering with plants, and it will feature.