South of the North for Organics

On March 18, a bunch of people got together on a conference call. Nothing earth shattering about that. Happens all the time. But I could feel the earth move slightly—I know. I was there. The immediate result was we birthed a new entity…a brain child, a child of hope and determination for all southern organic farmers. Welcome SORCE to the world, folks. That’s Southern Organic Resource Center for Education. And it’s a whole new community—a virtual barn-raising. We are gathering our strength and our ideas and our needs about farming and eating organic in the south. And we invite you to the party.

Where is south? As Tevie Tillman from Georgia put it as this idea was being imagined into being in earlier this year…”It’s everywhere that is south of the north.” We had representatives from Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, southern Illinois, Indiana, and lots more who were invited and couldn’t come…from Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia…the list goes on. We are just the beginning. This is bigger than we are and this will grow.

At the heart of this child is our diversity. Who we are, our farming needs, our land, our weather, our soil, is just plain different! Different from northern lands and weather…different from northern soil…different from northern farmers---persnickety, sometimes, often times downright ornery.Droughty or drowning…dryland or flooded fields.

Each bioregion, each farm…has a unique personality that demands care and management. What works in higher latitudes often times just doesn’t work on southern farms. As organic farmers, we need to share what we know about taking care of this land so we grow along with it—grow and prosper. Along with our families, our communities and the people who eat what we grow or buy our organic cotton, our beef, our flowers and herbs.

Sue Baird, Missouri Organic Association, said that we need to come together and create a way to gather our strength, pool our knowledge, and give a voice to the organic south. We are building this organization because we share a love of the land wherever we are, a love that goes deep into the muck of a rice paddy, the red clay, the piney woods, the foggy mountains and dry hills, the muddy rivers and coastal plains, the green pastures and brown bayous.So here is the call, y’all! Welcome SORCE and stay tuned! We’ll be seeing you soon. There is plenty of good work to be done and it’s high time to be about it!