Why Eco Practicum Matters
What is really going on in the field of environmentalism...
Examining the global systems through which we manage our natural resources is both challenging and necessary. At Eco Practicum, we take a wide approach to understanding systems that guide societal decisions regarding food, animals, energy, and land. In pursuing environmental stability, omitting one of these resources leaves out a critical link in the chain. This lens allows us to look at challenges holistically and understand the ways in which these systems are interconnected. When we begin to see the ways in which our systems are connected, we can accept that there is no action without consequence, and each impact affects the whole.
But the truth is, we’ve been divided and conquered. Even our mechanisms for addressing major challenges are fragmented. One organization advocates for farmers, another works for animal rights. Yet another organization addresses climate change, and another combats poverty. While it is useful to break down our complex problems into manageable parts, it is dangerous to mistake a part for the whole.
At Eco Practicum, we are changing that. We engage partners who work at many scales and use various tactics to improve the ways we manage resources. These experts, activists, and farmers are actively identifying problems and testing solutions, letting their successes motivate them just as much as their failures. As our participants meet with them and learn about their work, they piece together a map that exposes both conventional and re-envisioned resource cultivation, acquisition, and management. As they discover how these systems interconnect, they are also making an on-the-ground impact by connecting between professionals who otherwise might not know about each other.
Eco Practicum participants see that there are plenty of people doing good work. There is a strong community restoring our land and cultivating resources responsibly. The greatest opportunity yet is for them to continue to find ways to join forces and work together cooperatively. Synergies lead to new ideas, miscommunications, mistakes, innovations – and it is the successes and failures born of new partnerships that will create and strengthen models we need to understand our systems and ourselves as inextricably interconnected.
Examining the global systems through which we manage our natural resources is both challenging and necessary. At Eco Practicum, we take a wide approach to understanding systems that guide societal decisions regarding food, animals, energy, and land. In pursuing environmental stability, omitting one of these resources leaves out a critical link in the chain. This lens allows us to look at challenges holistically and understand the ways in which these systems are interconnected. When we begin to see the ways in which our systems are connected, we can accept that there is no action without consequence, and each impact affects the whole.
But the truth is, we’ve been divided and conquered. Even our mechanisms for addressing major challenges are fragmented. One organization advocates for farmers, another works for animal rights. Yet another organization addresses climate change, and another combats poverty. While it is useful to break down our complex problems into manageable parts, it is dangerous to mistake a part for the whole.
At Eco Practicum, we are changing that. We engage partners who work at many scales and use various tactics to improve the ways we manage resources. These experts, activists, and farmers are actively identifying problems and testing solutions, letting their successes motivate them just as much as their failures. As our participants meet with them and learn about their work, they piece together a map that exposes both conventional and re-envisioned resource cultivation, acquisition, and management. As they discover how these systems interconnect, they are also making an on-the-ground impact by connecting between professionals who otherwise might not know about each other.
Eco Practicum participants see that there are plenty of people doing good work. There is a strong community restoring our land and cultivating resources responsibly. The greatest opportunity yet is for them to continue to find ways to join forces and work together cooperatively. Synergies lead to new ideas, miscommunications, mistakes, innovations – and it is the successes and failures born of new partnerships that will create and strengthen models we need to understand our systems and ourselves as inextricably interconnected.
