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Driving through his untamed patch of ranchland near Benbrook Lake, John Wood can’t help but think of the possibilities — not just for these 20 acres, but for all of Tarrant County.
Much has changed since Wood grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from Texas Christian University in 2008. While many of those changes have been for the better, Wood said, rising temperatures and disappearing green space have deprived kids of the chance to spend time outside and learn how to grow their own food.
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“We all grew up playing outside, and I feel like that seems like it’s closed to this generation,” Wood said. “It would be a victory if we could create a place where kids can come and play and eat and learn how to do that on their own.”
To fulfill that vision, the attorney and author has enlisted the help of TCU classmates and community members to reimagine the mission of his nonprofit organization, Econautics. Wood founded the organization in 2012 with the goal of promoting sustainability in business through research, training and advising.
Each year on April 22, millions of Americans celebrate Earth Day and demonstrate support for the environment through cleanups, educational seminars and other happenings. Events in Tarrant County include an April 21 pre-Earth Day celebration at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the April 22 opening of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge boardwalk expansion, and an April 28 Earth Day Market at Martin House Brewing. Search for more events here.
While the nonprofit’s values remain the same, Wood said its focus has shifted to building a “living lab,” where residents can demonstrate how to sustainably grow food without the use of petrochemical fertilizers or pesticides. Sustainable agriculture refers to a set of practices that promote soil health, minimize water use and lower pollution on farms.
With new leadership at the helm, including chief executive officer Talia McAllister and chief operating officer Katey Rudd, Econautics is exploring options for acquiring land in east Fort Worth, Aledo and the Granbury area. Wood’s Crowley property won’t house the demonstration farm but could be used as a food production site, he said.
The group’s goal is not to replicate the urban farming efforts flourishing in other parts of Tarrant County, McAllister said.
“There are people doing really amazing work with urban farming right now, but the resources are pretty limited and oftentimes they are really, really dependent on volunteers,” McAllister said. “A big thing that we’re working on this year is making relationships, meeting new partners and inviting them to tell us: ‘What have your challenges been? What areas do you wish you could address but you can’t?’”
The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at University of California Davis offers these examples:
McAllister and Rudd have deep roots in the food bank world, with McAllister previously working at the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas and Rudd currently serving as community impact manager for the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
Both knew Wood from their days as TCU undergraduates. Rudd and Wood cited the late professor Tony Burgess as an inspiration for their dedication to environmental policy and food insecurity. After graduating, Rudd was struggling in her job at the food bank and Burgess let her attend his classes for free, she said.
“He was like: This is your student loan. Are you promising to be a teacher for the rest of your life and promising to do this work for the rest of your life?” Rudd said. “That’s the price of this, that you will commit to doing that.”
The desire to pay it forward brought Rudd together with Wood, who posted on Facebook about his efforts to build an indoor farm, farmers market and kitchen inside a Beaumont warehouse.
While the project didn’t get off the ground, Wood understood that people would raise their hands to join his mission if he talked less about agriculture markets and more about who would directly benefit from sustainable farming.
“No one was going to jump on board when I said, ‘We should change the market conditions.’ It was: ‘We need to feed kids,’” Wood said. “The more concrete it became, the more interest and traction there was. That’s when it got to the point where we decided we needed to control a piece of land and start building programs around it.”
One program will likely focus on vocational training at their future farm site. Rudd’s food bank colleagues want to launch a vocational training program in urban agriculture for high schoolers and veterans, but they don’t currently have funding to do so, she said. Econautics could step in to offer job training or create a business — known in the business world as a “social venture” — to fund a similar program.
“We could fill in that gap with someone who’s already doing a lot of the same work that we’re talking about,” Rudd said.
Econautics is still in the early days of its regeneration. McAllister started her role in January, and the organization elected a new board of directors this month. The group aims to host a kickoff event, complete with a vendor market and concert, this summer.
With a background in nonprofit grant writing, McAllister knows there’s a long path ahead. She is excited to make structural changes to help improve public health as opposed to “putting a Band-Aid” on one part of the system. Every child should have the right to grow up with breathable air and soil that produces nutritious foods, she said.
“The more that we can do to partner with organizations that have that same mentality, the better,” McAllister said. “Let’s listen to what people need. Let’s go in and try to create a comprehensive system around them of support so we can potentially help them get jobs, help them improve their economic situation.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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by Haley Samsel, Fort Worth Report
April 21, 2024
This <a target="_blank" href="https://fortworthreport.org/2024/04/21/fort-worth-group-plans-living-lab-to-teach-staying-power-of-sustainable-farming/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://fortworthreport.org">Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?fit=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=123070" style="width:1px;height:1px;">
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org. Her coverage is made possible by a grant from the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman… More by Haley Samsel
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