Transitioning Out of Comfort Zones
by Pamela Boyce Simms
When was the last time you
were excited about not knowing what was about to happen, or
about undertaking something you hadn’t even remotely considered tackling? Making peace with uncertainty and unfamiliarity is the need of the hour. The kaleidoscope of shifting economic and climactic patterns may compel us to live very differently, if not now, soon. Confidence in our collective ability to “make it work,” stretch limits, and step out of our comfort zone form the bedrock of the Transition Towns movement.
Transitioners don’t wait for
“authorities” to do what friends and neighbors can do themselves. For many
however, the idea that “we can do it ourselves” feels like stepping out on a
limb. A convenience-driven lifestyle underwritten by cheap oil has become a
warm and cozy cocoon of comfort. Yet the cocoon is vaporizing around us. The
times in which we live no longer afford us the luxury of long stretches of
predictability. Lessons from Hurricanes Katrina, Irene and Sandy encourage us
to embrace the inevitable unexpected;
resolve to be resilient; and own our
interdependence with each other as we gaze confidently into the future.
The challenge is to remain
grounded as unfamiliar circumstances arise during our emergence from the fossil
fuel dependent cocoon. Creating Earth-honoring alternative ways of living,
working, and playing; i.e., of swimming upstream together is the Transition Towns adventure.
An increasingly eclectic
group of New York State (NYS) farmers have left their comfort zones in the dust
to honor their value systems and follow their passion for the land. Pockets of
savvy, versatile, and innovative small farming groups with tremendous vision,
dot the length and breadth of the NYS landscape, and model Transitioning at its best.
Carol Clement a filmmaker
and graphic artist with a background in perceptual psychology convinced herself
that she could farm. She stepped out on the proverbial limb to engage a
personal passion in service to a community. A veteran of the anti-war,
feminist, and civil rights movements, Carol’s passion in the late 70’s was to
experience the combined self-reliance and interdependence of an agricultural
community. Determined to wrest control of her life back from New York City
where she had gone to school, Carol commuted to a rented farm-space in
Schoharie County.
Over the course of the next
six years she watched two hundred year-old dairy farms started by land grants
to Revolutionary War veterans and maintained for centuries by their
descendents, go out of business. As the government bought out small forty-cow
dairies in New York to facilitate growth of massive Mid-western mega-dairies,
the community Carol loved unraveled.
Motivated by this turn of
events, Carol began designing projects to help farmers save money, improve
their marketing skills and diversify their operations with the establishment of
an advertising agency in Windham in 1985.
She opened demonstration gardens that grew products in the country that
were in demand in the city, and found outlets for their sale.
Carol officially caught the
bug. She was hooked on farming while producing a videotape on rotational
grazing which demonstrated that the technique didn’t require an enormous
capital investment. And, the animals did most of the work! In that moment she
knew she would excel at work that was completely out of her realm of direct
experience. Propelled by her passion and personifying the Transition notion of
non-attachment to outcome or, “letting it
go where it wants to go,” she decided to farm purely for farming’s sake.
Carol and her husband John Harrison progressively
purchased the neighboring Revolutionary War era Heather Ridge Farm with the
assistance of the original owners’ children, who were thrilled that the sale
meant keeping the land out of the hands of a developer. Knowing from the outset
that the success of Heather Ridge was intertwined with that of the community,
Carol worked systematically for years with a small group of farmers who called
themselves MADE in Schoharie.
The group revolutionized the local farming
infrastructure. Holistic farm management methods guided the group’s research,
identification of farm needs, and brainstorming sessions on innovative
marketing. They networked as they farmed, and educated the public through
workshops and conferences.
MADE
in Schoharie successfully
amended NYS governmental regulations when they demonstrated the need for what
would become the first mobile meat-processing unit in the state, Cowboys Custom Cutting. They then helped
the owner Eric Shelley apply to Schoharie County for grants and
low interest loans to get the unit started.
Among the farm
group’s most impactful milestones is the establishment of an internship program
with an ever-expanding ripple effect. Four farms offer dedicated, interns top
quality classes and total immersion in all facets of farm operations. They send
highly qualified young pioneers out into farm communities who, like themselves,
will “make it work” in service to the whole.
In addition to operating the charming Bees Knees
Café on site, Heather Ridge farm offers an array of grassfed-meat cuts,
specialty meats, honey soap, candles, and products from other area farms.
Today’s Transitioning
farm entrepreneurs are producers, educators, marketing wizards, innovators and
leaders who seed the future. In a transitioned
world, constant change, enthusiastic acceptance of uncertainty, and working
with whatever emerges becomes the new comfort zone.
“It is my
business to manage carefully and dexterously, whatever happens” ~ Epictetus
Pamela Boyce Simms is a Certified Transition Trainer,
Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) of Transition US
Transitionmidatlantic.org
~ TransitionUS.org
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 10:54 AM.
Filed under
buy local,
Farming,
Feature,
Transition Field Notes
.
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