The Green Lands Blue Waters network demonstrates the economic, environmental, and social benefits of CLC farming and creates an environment where these crops and systems are competitive and thriving! Check out the kinds of things we’ve accomplished with researchers, agencies, nonprofits, businesses, policymakers, and farmers over the past year.
“The deep commitment that GLBW has to promoting and elevating diversity in our agricultural landscapes continues to inspire me! I have learned so much through my interactions with the GLBW community and feel truly fortunate to be part of an organization that so thoroughly embodies the principles of sustainability.”
-E. Britt Moore – GLBW Civic Scientist writer, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of North Carolina Wilmington
“Through the Civic Scientist writing project I’ve become more aware of ALL the work GLBW is doing. GLBW is so refreshingly innovative! I also love the newsletters, they aren’t stuffy. I truly enjoy reading them.”
– Gina Nichols – GLBW Civic Scientist writer, Assistant Research Professor, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Arizona State University
“As a young scientist in agriculture today, I am encouraged by the increased public dialogue regarding racial justice and the active work being done to address the issues of the lack of diversity in both our crop systems and farmer/ landowner demography.”
– Zenith Tandukar, UMN PhD Candidate & GLBW Civic Scientist writer
“Shifting a complex system like Midwest agriculture takes more than just good ideas. It requires building bridges between diverse interests, developing trust, and taking collective action. For 15 years I have watched GLBW take these steps and create the initial conditions for a thriving agriculture.”
– Mark Muller, Executive Director, Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
“I think of GLBW kind of like the ‘soil health’ of the continuous living cover agriculture community. We need GLBW in the important role of building the networks that make our ecosystem ready to grow all these changes needed in agriculture.”
– Colin Cureton, Supply Chain Development Specialist, Forever Green Initiative, University of Minnesota
“I really appreciate the granularity and transparency of GLBW’s updates lately, it really helps us ID where we need to be connecting and collaborating. Y’all are blowing us away with your work!”
– Elisabeth Spratt, Pasture Project
“I’m with GLBW for the mission, the opportunity to work with others toward transformational landscape change. Simply put, there’s a better way out there for farmers, eaters, wild things and the land, and we get there with CLC. It’s essential for healthy soil and clean water. It’s an adaptable, practical approach to land management that works for the land and people. Most important to me, it robustly demonstrates that cultivating and valuing diversity is the key to landscape health. When we embrace diversity through practice, it becomes first a personal, then community value. The ripple effect leads to the world I want to see: where farms and creatures aren’t just factories, where farmers and their efforts aren’t just low value widgets, and where clean water and healthy soils are worth their weight in gold – summarily, a world where our communities are enlivened and renewed through the resilience of a living landscape.”
– Jeri Neal, Leopold Ecology
“The Green Lands Blue Waters initiatives are some of the very few on-the-ground possibilities for improving soil health and sustainable farming. It is leading to a fundamental shift in water quality that is necessary to reduce the size of the Dead Zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico, indeed, in the rivers of the Midwest.”
– R Eugene Turner, Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University
“I appreciate the way GLBW has a broader vision that brings people and sectors together around cross-cutting issues of environmental quality and social sustainability. The Continuous Living Cover framing encompasses diverse farming systems, from conventional grain farmers thinking of trying cover crops to committed graziers and agroforesters. The focus on the Mississippi watershed brings together critical agricultural states while still maintaining geographic focus. And I also appreciate the commitment to social sustainability, equity, and diversity.”
– Diane Mayerfeld, Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator, UW-Madison, Extension Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS)
“The Green Lands, Blue Waters newsletter is a real gem! The stories highlight continuous living cover practices, work of students and researchers, and on-the-ground work being done by farmers and ranchers.”
– Helene Murray, Executive Director, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
“Green Lands Blue Waters weaves together the strands of various strategies for a socially and environmentally improved agriculture. Their tireless staff ensures threads aren’t lost among the network of collaborators, and I am grateful for their work.”
– Tessa Peters, Director of Crop Stewardship, The Land Institute
