We’re nearing the end of our first official year as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our board of super heroes will be convening next month to approve the 2018 budget and the plans for the year. As we prepare for that, we asked a few of our board members why they signed on to help us in the first place. Here’s what they had to say:

Terra Cultura gives me immense hope, sharing a living example of a symbiosis of food systems, education, and culture that can create and sustain thriving communities. I am honored to be part of such a supportive and nurturing organization, as we work to inspire and empower both ourselves, our neighbors, and our surrounding communities.

– Nathan, Advocacy Committee

The idea behind Terra Cultura is simple: getting back to our roots. Culture—the products of human invention, including literature, music, art, food, and technology—was developed in tandem with and made possible by agriculture. Before we could be makers, we had to be eaters, feeders, and growers. But in a world of complex systems, twisted logics, and savage ennui, culture’s connection to the earth is growing ever more tenuous, and our communities and our futures are suffering for it. Terra Culture is interested in developing new models for resilient and sustainable communities in the face of the twin crises of capitalism: industrial over-production and environmental catastrophe. What happens when we bring agriculture and culture together again? How can we equip our children with the tools for solving the problems of the future? And in 2017, what does it mean to live, work, and be together? By getting back to the land, we seek to build new and enduring relations between people and the environment. Terra Cultura is the community that we’ve always needed.

– Tom, President

I’m a board member for Terra Cultura because I believe in the power of education and collaboration to transform agriculture. Agroecology has augmented our potential for sustainable, community-centered food production; to harness that potential, we must connect new ideas to those who can leverage them. If we take an active role as stewards of the land, agricultural education can form a vital link between communities and a healthy, vibrant future.

– Alex, Treasurer

Terra Cultura gives me hope for the future. It is a place where people learn how to respect the earth, how to collaborate and appreciate the value of community, how to open their heart and their mind to their own capabilities and the potential within the unknown.

– Hester, Vice-President

Terra Cultura is about creating an alternative way of existing in the world, a model for regenerative living that not only sustains us, but builds, strengthens, and revitalizes our relationships, our communities, and our environment. It provides us with an opportunity to play and experiment, a sandbox where we can explore a future built on multidisciplinary collaboration, creative risk taking, and a vast array of diverse ways of thinking. I look forward to seeing the solutions we are able to devise once we step outside of the boundaries of competition and scarcity thinking that so often limit us.

-Jessica, Development Committee