Keynote Address Report:
No More Fences
Dr. Wanda Sykes, NC Southeast District Extension Director
In her keynote address, Dr. Sykes drew on the metaphor and message of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Fences". She challenged her audience to look beyond barriers and see the promise of partnerships, particularly as they serve to preserve agricultural and rural knowledge. If citizens make a connection between the food they eat, or clothes they wear, and the agricultural practices which produced them, they are more likely to understand the issues inherent in new technologies such as GMO, or large scale agriculture and water quality.
Economic pressures have forced Americans to leave rural life during the past century, and so has gone our once daily connection to agriculture. Rural communities and their economies are at risk. Recognizing the importance of these communities in maintaining our collective connection to the land requires that extension and other "information providers" reconsider their roles and engage as participants and leaders in collaborative efforts. In North Carolina building partnerships has provided opportunities for collaboration among cooperative extension, community associations, tourism development, academic departments and rural students, commodity groups, the Farm Bureau, historical association, etc. These partnerships are furthering citizen understanding and promotion of their unique rural and agricultural heritage. They are also helping to re-invigorate and sustain rural economies.
Reported by Bonnie Avery
Original conference site design by Karen Stanley Grigg adapted by Carla Casler
Updated August 21, 2006