Anything is Possible - Social Change

On Friday afternoon, I had a chance to get away from the office for a couple hours and attend the Idea Festival at the Kentucky Center downtown. I was intrigued by a session called the "Abundance Farming Project" the brainchild of Paul Osterlund, a retired engineer. The project enables rain-dependent farming families in developing countries to increase crop yields, so subsistence farmers facing water scarcity can grow their way out of poverty.

By distributing a product called Zeba(TM) to farmers, they are able to increase the output of their harvest significantly which can mean the difference between success and failure to these farmers that are completely dependant upon the rain for their crops to grow and to live on. Zeba is a starch-based biodegradable superabsorbant soil product that can hold 500 times its mass in water. Just one teaspoon placed around a plant in soil can absorb 1 liter of water when it rains, then it slowly releases the water over a lengthy period between rains, and then repeats. For areas with scare rains or draughts, this product will allow farmers to grow crops many times the size they would otherwise be able to grow.

Paul's hope is that over time these farmers will literally be able to grow their way out of poverty in areas where now they are stuggling merely to survive. The project and the technology behind it is fascinating in itself (which you can read more about at abundancefarming.org), but just as important is Paul's focus on creating meaningful social change.

Some have said that if you can dream it, you can do it and Paul has taken that mantra to heart. He used to say that "somebody ought to think about getting this stuff (Zeba) into the hands of poor farmers" and now he is the one driving that key project and helping poor farmers to become self sufficient.

Paul talked in his presentation about the power of "declaration"... he said "Possibility is something that is spoken from our mouth and from that declaration it comes into existance." I think this is true in life and at work. All too often though we keep our thoughts to ourselves and we are disappointed when nothing happens. To create the change we want to see in our lives, in our job, and in the world, we first have to be brave enough to talk about it and then do something about it. Then anything really is possible!

Anything is Possible - Social Change