Cultivate Local Change
Changing local policies can be daunting, whether you’re working alongside officials to create solutions, or engaging your community to fight for your collective rights. We’ve gathered three firsthand accounts of folks who’ve helped transform their place on the planet at the city and state levels. Common steps led to the success of all three: speaking up, including the community, finding allies, and persevering. We hope you’ll be inspired by them and know that, no matter how daunting, positive change is possible when we work together to achieve common goals. — Mother
Policy Pollinators
When the conditions are right, planting a seed may be all it takes to reap a bounty. When making a case for urban agriculture in Lawrence, Kansas, the seed was a simple question about placing a bee hotel at a university farm site on the edge of town. The bounty turned out to be an opportunity to help define and build a set of policies specifically geared toward making urban agriculture more accessible. These policies would open the door for city residents to grow crops in their yards; sell their produce on-site; and keep goats, sheep, fowl, bees, and other small agricultural animals in town.
Organizing the Effort
At the time, city policy didn’t allow for beehives within city limits, so the university that oversaw the student farm site was initially unwilling to have a bee hotel placed there. Knowing that a bee hotel for
