Sunday, June 26th was the starting day for WYSE 2016, which will without a doubt be one of the most influential weeks of my life. This is not to mention also, it will be one of the busiest.
My journey started early Friday morning in the small town of Claysville, Pennsylvania. I quickly ate breakfast and readied myself before starting my day. I eagerly loaded all of my luggage for WYSE into my mom’s car and we drove into the sunrise. I’m partially kidding on that of course, although we left at around 10:30 (am). The trip took about four and a half hours before we reached our destination, a small camper located in a secluded glade in Virginia. This may sound like a weird place to consider the end of a journey, but my dad lives here t ensure a shorter commute to is work in DC. On the saturday that followed my family and I had a great meal at Golden Corral and spent some close family time together.
The day that followed was full of excitement and slight fear. I was dropped off early at around noon and, after some assistance, settled into my room. The next few hours were spent making new connections and getting more comfortable with the other delegates.
In the early afternoon we had our first color group meeting of the week. The team i have the honor of being in is the Red Hot Tamale group, we had some brief introductions before heading to dinner. The dinner was calm and relaxed, the food was good, and we all looked great in our professional attire.
After dinner we had a wonderful speaker, Forrest Pritchard, the author of two wonderful books and the third-generation farmer of the Smith Meadows Farm located in Virginia. His presentation was informative as well as entertaining, knowledge with a fair amount of humor dashed in. Forrest discussed many topics regarding sustainable agriculture. Some of these topics included: pesticide use, GMO farms vs organic farms, bandwagon in advertising for many stores and the like, and the growth of sustainable organic agriculture. I learned many new things from hearing Forrest speak, and became inspired to learn more about how i can help my own community understand it better.
Forrest talked a lot about his farm while covering the topic of sustainable agriculture. His farm, Smith Meadows farm, is located in Virginia and is certified organic. Mr. Pritchard explained that he values the opinion of the public and he wants them to know where their food is coming from.
He also explained what he calls the Three T’s and they include the following:
Transparency- Knowing where your food is coming from. Forrest’s farm is open to the public 24/7 including visitors and inspectors.
Trust- Knowing what’s in your food, the Smith Meadows farm is certified organic with no GMO’s.
Truth- Having balance on your farm, in your food, and ultimately in your life.
Some more of the many facts I learned are listed below:
- Forrest graduated from the University of Maryland in 1996 with majors in English and Geology
- His first year only reaped a profit of $18.16 from selling corn and soybeans
- His farm is a free rang livestock farm housing chickens, cattle, and sheep
- 97% of all meat comes from large scale feedlots
- It costs 33% more to raise a cow organically
- 18% of all families go to a farmers market regularly
- 80% of all antibiotics manufactured are made for livestock
- People tend to know brands better than the farms those products could have come from
I learned a lot from my first day at WYSE and i hope to learn more as the week progresses.
Until Next Time ^_^
Kaity Mitchell
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