Ecotrain Question of the Week - What changes have you seen in the world in the last 10 years...

What changes have you seen in the world in the last 10 years, and in which direction do you think we are headed?
That is the question posed by @eco-alex to the @ecotrain members. This will be my first post as a member of the Ecotrain and I am excited for the challenge and am honored to get to contribute and learn from these people who are dedicated to making the world a better place.

One very encouraging change that I have seen is that a new generation is going back to the land and realizing the importance of growing their own food and healing the land.

Photo credit : http://www.thefarmandfiddle.com/home.html

In our local area family farms were dying out and most farming is large scale mono crops. Then probably around ten years ago there emerged the first CSA in the area. Now there are probably 10 or more and also many “pick your own” fruit farms. Many of them are created by some young people in their early 30’s and they are networking with others and creating communities that support each other and value organically grown food, music, and creativity.

These young people didn’t choose the corporate world. They choose to get up before the crack of dawn and feed and care for animals or pick their crops for the farmers market.

Their entrepreneurial spirit has revived our dying downtown area and turned it into a very hopping place to be. The old crusty people who wanted to stifle progress are either falling to the wayside or getting on board and loving the changes. When I say progress, I don’t mean tearing down the charm and character of our town, I mean reviving it and making it even better than before.

I follow a lot of blogs and people on social media who are into similar things and I can see that it is happening all over the place. My niece who lives in Paris just spent 14 weeks last year traveling around France to different farms and learning about permaculture. She is in her early 30’s and it seems that the majority of the group was in that demographic.

When I see these things, I know there is hope for the future. My four year old grandson says that he wants to be a farmer when he grows up. I think that is a very noble goal.

Thanks for stopping by!