Posted on a fence near the entrance to Greenfield Village is this quote from Daniel Webster:

“When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.”

If Webster’s pithy claim was true for an upstart America two centuries ago, could it also resonate in today’s post-industrial post-modern post-information America?  It would seem that more and more people believe so.  On Thursday I found myself enjoying their company at the Food System Economic Partnership (FSEP) Conference for “Building a Better Food System in Southeast Michigan” held in Jackson.  Jeff Bodtke, our new Account Coordinator at MOVE, who grew up on a blueberry farm in west Michigan, joined me for a full day of informative, interactive sessions, with topics ranging from savoring local flavors in Jackson to food and agriculture policy for Michigan.

Jeff and I attended separate sessions and we made some discoveries throughout the day:

Sandhill Crane Winery of Jackson makes a delicious, sweet raspberry wine—a dessert in itselfJ.

A grassroots campaign called Ten Percent Washtenaw affirms the enthusiasm for "locally grown" in our area, but wants us to know that at present only ½ of 1% of the $1 billion in food we consume annually is actually grown in Washtenaw County.  Ten Percent’s goal is to get us to 10% locally grown by 2010.

Ginny Trocchio, Project Director for The Conservation Fund/Ann Arbor Greenbelt, noted that, as Greenbelt land is being acquired, the Advisory Commission is strategically identifying critical areas for farmland preservation.  For a tour of Greenbelt farmland, check out the Greenbelt Bus Tour on July 17^th.

The keynote speaker really brought it all together for me.  Michael Sands, founder of the Farm Business Development Center, described the Prairie Crossing project in north suburban Chicago as "an incubator for beginning organic farmers committed to creating financially rewarding and ecologically healthy farm businesses in the suburban landscape."  The incubator is not just a cool design for a suburban development connected to a local food source.  It makes economic sense.  One acre of intensively farmed organic vegetables can generate up to $20,000 in revenue, in contrast to the same acre of corn or soybeans at $600-$700! This revenue generates local jobs and pumps money into the local economy. 

Could Ten Percent become a reality if Ann Arbor developed an incubator program in the Greenbelt?

As a business committed to helping our local economy go and grow, MOVE sees local farming as an essential ingredient of our area's future.  Hats off to Jennifer Fike and her team at FSEP for organizing a terrific event.  I wish I could have mentioned all of the incredible things Jeff and I heard, saw and tasted on Thursday, but hopefully this post will serve as a reminder that Webster’s fencepost quote rings true today.

July 3, 2009, marks our 25^th Anniversary as a company.  Twenty-five years ago I went down to the Washtenaw County Building in Ann Arbor and filed a d.b.a. of Donald Hart called Hart Productions.  At that time I had no idea of the adventure and trial I was inviting my wife and family into.  Thank goodness!

Over the past 25 years, we’ve changed our name from Hart Productions to Hart Media Group to MOVE Communications, but all along the way we’ve endeavored to help our clients move ahead by moving hearts and minds.  Our core ability is to distill the essence of your story and express it through the right idea.  Within the communication arts we work as strategic artists to glorify God, provide for our families and enrich the human community.  We hope we’ve helped to shape a better world by connecting people to people, and people to brands.

And to some of those people, our customers and colleagues…

In business, nothing happens without a customer.  In our case, our customers are primarily other businesses. It is because of your initiative, skill and determination to deal with all the ambiguities of this thing called business that products and services are brought to market. We honor you for what you do for communities in Michigan and around the world.  And we thank you for commissioning us to do some of the work that has helped you succeed.  It has been a privilege working together.

Equally true, without people a business would not go and grow.  And here we want to highlight our great debt to employees and supplier partners.  Through the years, your skills of insight and creativity, practical know-how and human sensitivity have seen us through the inevitable ups and downs, fires and floods of business life.  Thank you for coping with our quirks and mistakes, for filling in the many gaps and lifting us on your shoulders.

Robert Greenleaf, in his work Servant Leadership, points to Jesus as the consummate servant leader—because his life and mission epitomized love of God and love of neighbor.  It is this model that we’ve endeavored to emulate and hope to grow in going forward.  Greenleaf expresses the test of servant leadership this way and invites businesses to take the test:

“Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servants?  And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least will they not be further deprived?”

We hope we’re passing the test.

As I look back over the years, I also “know with my knower” that it was God and his great goodness that has sustained us as we follow him.  We have at times been stretched to the absolute limits of what our family could sustain, but always, always, there has been a divine mercy to carry us through.

May all of us move ahead with that confidence—knowing that the best is yet to come.