Living Soils Symposium - About

(4) Living Soils Symposium - About
Our Work Ahead of Us

LIVING SOILS SYMPOSIUM·THURSDAY, 4 JANUARY 2018
Instagram.
It all started there.
I saw the evolution of this photo sharing site morphing into another networking tool with a freedom of communication that many other social sites didn’t have.
I started following people from all walks of agriculture- vegetables, orchards, cannabis, organic, regenerative, permaculture, homestead, advocates, whatever and whoever……
The amazing ability to connect with agriculturists across the country or even the world blew my mind.
“Let’s bring those people together in one room together and continue the conversation offline.”
The synergy would be unreal, I hoped.
That’s how the Living Soils Symposium was born.
Currently we have two Symposiums under our belt and we are looking forward to the third.
We feel like we have grabbed the attention of a really amazing community of people. We want to use that attention and push our creative skills forward to grow the community and find more folks that can collaborate with us as presenters and participants. Both are equally important in our eyes.
Over the coming months, you’ll see us grow our online presence experimenting with all of the social avenues to reach out and figure out what the “story” of this Living Soils movement really is.
And that is a small (yet immense) detail that I want to point out-
The Living Soils movement is not a movement at all. It’s just how things are. We’re just looking to describe, grasp, understand, share, and find what it’s really about- the story beneath us. In the soil. In our lives. In the plants. Those intricate interactions are what drive and support each of us on this planet daily.
That’s what our LSS team is going to be hunting for and documenting throughout the year and then presenting with others at the 2018 symposium.
📷Blue Fox Farm — Applegate, Oregon
Besides the narrative of the LSS team, you will also hear my voice from the viewpoint of my life on my farm in Oregon, of my travels around the country working with other farmers and business people, and in some new amazing arenas that are just starting to unfold. All told with the idea that for there to be a healthy biotic soil layer continuing beneath our feet, we have to find solutions that are regenerative in nature.
This term- regenerative- you will see pop up a lot in our narrative. It may be (and probably is) the hottest and newest catchphrase out there. And many will end up using it as a catchphrase that is used solely for marketing and to drive another layer to our already over-labeled lives.
The beauty of true regeneration is that it has no final destination, metric, or definition. It is and will be a continuing evolving process of learning how we can actually approach our lives and our stewardship with the land beneath us in a systematic way that can be a win-win for everyone.
True regenerative agriculture is accepting that farming and agriculture is not about reaching a destination but being forever on the journey. This journey is one of trial and error, continued iterations of cropping techniques, ongoing observation, scientific reasoning, cursing, laughter, continuing education, social awareness, community involvement, and the list goes on.
The answers will always be nuanced. But if we keep in mind that the soil must remain intact and holistically alive, then we have a chance to see a net positive result in our lifetimes.
I am really excited to see what we as a community can do with these tools set in front of us.
Chris Jagger Founder, Living Soils Symposium