Georgia Organics 12th Conference: A Success

With more than 1,100 attendees, the Georgia Organics 12th Annual Conference and Trade Show was the largest in Georgia Organics history, demonstrating the growth of the good food movement in the South.

Held March 20-21 at Agnes Scott College, the conference saw two days of sustainable local farm tours, panel discussions, and in-depth workshops on subjets ranging from the science of composting with worms to food security, and culminated with the keynote speech of best-selling author Michael Pollan, who charged attendees to take advantage of the openness of the Obama Administration and push for meaningful, lasting agriculture reform.

Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, called for a new approach for the country’s agriculture industry, one that would link health, local economies, and food production for the first time.

“Here’s the core idea: we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th century diet of fossil fuels and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine. To the extent that we do that – at the level of policy and at the level of shopping for dinner – it diminishes the fossil fuel in our diet,” Pollan said. “This is easier said than done and will require changes at every link in the food chain: in the field, in the marketplace, and in the culture.”

In addition, Georgia Organics awarded its annual Land Stewardship Award, which was created by the Georgia Land Stewardship Association, now Georgia Organics, to honor an individual or individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the tenets of organic agriculture – soil fertility, biodiversity, on-farm recycling, and water quality – and also the larger community through leadership, education, and outreach.


The 2009 Land Stewardship Award was presented to Daniel Parson for his influential leadership and work with emerging farmers, 12 years of organic growing, and an incredibly popular mushroom workshop. Parson is a former Georgia Organics board member, and has worked with dozens of groups, promoting the health and environmental advantages of organics farming, including Team Agriculture Georgia, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, North Georgia Technical College, and the African American Family Farmers Foundation.


Parsons received the award from Cynthia Hizer, a farmer with Hazelbrand Farms, who received the inaugural Land Stewardship Award in 1997.

The conference also saw the presentation of a new Georgia Organics award. The Barbara Petit Pollinator Award honors an individual or organization for outstanding community leadership in Georgia’s sustainable farming and food movement. The award acknowledges exceptional success in advancing Georgia Organics’ mission by spreading—pollinating—the movement throughout community life, such as the food industry, faith communities, public agencies, schools, and institutions.

The award is named after Barbara Petit, a committed leader, culinary professional, and organizer who served as President of Georgia Organics from 2003-2009. She continues to serve the good food movement through her involvement in the Atlanta Local Food Initiative and Georgia Organics’ Farm to School program. During her term as president, the organization evolved from a non-staffed, member, and program-driven nonprofit to a professional group with expanded outreach, programs, and communications, 1,300 members and five full-time staff. Petit’s strategic drive, organizational tenacity and team-oriented approach shaped the organization in profound and lasting ways.

More Georgians then ever are choosing to eat local produce. The number of farmer’s markets across the state increased 588 percent between 2003 and 2008. There’s also been an explosion of interest in Community Supported Agriculture, which are grass-roots groups that directly link consumers to local farmers. There are 35 such groups in Georgia now, a 600 percent increase since 2003.

For more information about Georgia Organics and their upcoming events, visit www.georgiaorganics.org

Van Bekkum Leads Agnes Scott Sustainability Efforts

­After earning her bachelor's degree in psychology at Agnes Scott College, 2008 graduate Lies Van Bekkum returned to campus almost immediately as the college's first sustainability fellow.

Van Bekkum's recent college experience on campus at Agnes Scott is key to her new role in helping to build a "green" culture among the college's community of about 900 students. She is also supporting the effort to design and launch educational programs to foster personal and community sustainability at Agnes Scott.

Van Bekkum's role as Agnes Scott's sustainability fellow is shared with the city of Decatur where she works closely with the city's new Environmental Sustainability Board which held its orientation meeting in late January.

This partnership, according to college administrators, is just another example of how the college and city work well together. And is one of the reasons The Princeton Review consistently cites Agnes Scott and Decatur with having "a great town/gown relationship."

Agnes Scott Director of Sustainability Susan Kidd sees Van Bekkum's role as essential to the college meeting its goals for sustainability.

Van Bekkum was born and reared in the Netherlands, home of multiple man-made answers to environmental challenges. Fifty-five percent of the Netherlands sits below sea level while the same area is home to more than 60 percent of its people. In addition, that low-lying part generates 65 percent of the country's gross national product. Van Bekkum's formative years helped her understand the need to change how the college impacts its environment.

In Sept. 2007, Agnes Scott President Elizabeth Kiss became a signatory to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, and college leaders have committed themselves to making Agnes Scott more sustainable. In September 2008, Agnes Scott met its first deadline by reporting its greenhouse gas emissions, creating an important benchmark. By September 2009, the college must have developed and initiated a climate action plan.

"At the end of the day the most rewarding part of sustainability work on a college campus is the work with students," Kidd said. "It is incredible to see the Agnes Scott students using their intelligence and energy to help make this change happen."

Woodruff Scholars Support Adopt-A-Highway

Woodruff Scholars Tammy Leverette, class of 2011, and Lelania Ottoboni, class of 2009, searched for a community service project that was workable for the nontraditional students they represent. After much discussion, they decided to adopt a one-mile stretch of East College Avenue from South Candler Street to the intersection with Adair Street and Atlanta Avenue.

"We discovered that it's kind of difficult for Woodruff Scholars to meet the college’s community service requirements for campus organizations because of our busy schedules," Leverette said. "So one day I sat with Lelania and we discussed it, and she came up with a fantastic idea of Adopt-A-Highway – it's easy and it's convenient. We're right here on campus and it's right up in front of the college."

A street sign posted on East College Avenue just past “The Loop” entrance to the college announces the Woodruff Scholars’ new affiliation with the litter- will control program. Managed by the Georgia Department of Transportation, the Adopt-A-Highway program saves taxpayers money by empowering Georgia residents to pick up litter along designated stretches of highway.

The Woodruff Scholars Program is named for Irene K. Woodruff whose generous financial gift to the college funds the program for nontraditional-age students.

Beginning this fall, Woodruff Scholars will gather on the first Saturday morning of every month to pick up litter along the one-mile stretch of East College Avenue. The simplicity of this regular date and time for a community service gathering appeals to Leverette and Ottoboni, both of whom work for the Agnes Scott Department of Public Safety.

Leverette is a women's studies major and Ottoboni majors in English.

"It's easy and it is convenient – we're right here on campus and the sign is right up front," Ottoboni said. "One day we came to school and there it was."

"The Adopt-A-Highway program we have initiated is going to be open not only to Woodruff' Scholars," Leverette said. "We're going to encourage the entire student body, staff and faculty to join in with us."

Agnes Scott Goes Green

Agnes Scott College will cross a major milestone to create a sustainable future when it reports its first greenhouse gases inventory this September.

Among the first group to sign the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment in September 2007, Agnes Scott will mark the one-year anniversary by completing and reporting its inventory of greenhouse gases, which help the earth maintain its warmth but may also contribute to a phenomenon known as "global warming." Reporting the inventory – due Sept. 15 – marks the end of year one in a two-year process that calls for completion of an action plan for climate neutrality at Agnes Scott, which ACUP recommends be evaluated and updated every two years.

“That's really our number-one priority for the summer – to get the inventory complete and reported," said Susan Kidd, sustainability director for Agnes Scott. Project faculty adviser John Pilger, William R. Kenan Professor of Biology, is working closely with Kidd to ensure the inventory’s accuracy.

By summer's midpoint, Pilger, Kidd and other members of Agnes Scott's sustainability team are committed to running whatever peer review might be needed to gauge accuracy of results before they are reported.

After signing the climate commitment last fall, Agnes Scott President Elizabeth Kiss and Kidd worked with students, staff, faculty and alumnae leaders committed to fighting the effects of global warming to organize the college's sustainability advisory committee. The planning process began with an early spring charrette titled "From Footprint to Blueprint” dedicated to information gathering that would move the college forward in its commitment to become an environmentally sustainable community.

More than 60 participants began the day by dividing into three groups to tour the college’s historic campus, known for its collegiate Gothic architecture, trees and overall beauty. The oldest building on campus was constructed in 1891 and its newest dedicated in April 2008.

Nationally recognized environmental leaders named to Agnes Scott's National Sustainability Advisory Committee joined members of the college's Sustainability Steering Committee to advise the planning process. Atlanta-area experts, Agnes Scott College faculty, staff, trustees and students committed to the goals defined in the ACUP Climate Commitment participated.

When the group convened, numerous ideas and suggestions emerged through the dialogue that followed. Discussion ranged from the importance of simply turning lights off when they aren't needed to thinking through the implications of constructing buildings that should last another 100 years.

Furman University President David Shi, a member of Agnes Scott’s National Sustainability Advisory Committee and a leader in ACUP, encouraged the college to follow the “BIS” plan – Borrow Ideas Shamelessly. He then shared what he has learned through his work in college sustainability, and in particular what Furman University is doing.

Other environmental leaders who shared their expertise during the charrette include student Dara Satterfield, class of 2009, Agnes Scott Trustee Clayton Rolader, Associate Dean of Students Michelle Hall, whom Kiss credits with bringing the Presidents' Climate Commitment to her attention, Carol Couch, director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, DeKalb County Commissioner Kathy Gannon and Julian Keniry, director of campus ecology, National Wildlife Federation and Agnes Scott alumna from the class of 1989.

“This is an ongoing learning process,” Kiss said. “We don’t have all the answers, and we will make mistakes.

“But that’s okay, because we’re learning along the way and it’s a pleasant thing," she added. "It is a process that has already engaged people from every segment of this campus. I’m excited about this sort of shared joint learning process.”

More than 500 colleges and universities are expected to report their emissions inventories on September 15. Data generated by the inventories will provide benchmarks for every college and university involved, Kidd said.

"We will be setting the goals for year two and beyond based on that inventory," Kidd said. "The inventory reduction we hope to achieve going forward will be based on the facts we have gathered so far.”

Agnes Scott College formalized its commitment to sustainability by making it part of the Living Honorably initiative in its seven-year strategic plan, “Engaging a Wider World.” In addition to endorsing the strategic plan, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution supporting the college’s efforts at sustainability.