Davis Lindsey Addresses Millbrook Community on Environmental Stewardship
Millbrook welcomed Davis Lindsey, director of the Growing Farmers Initiative at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, to address the community on October 6. The Yale alumnus discussed his path to stewardship through organic farming.
“I work on a farm, and what I’ve found from working on farms is pretty simple: stewardship is much more than an ecological service. Stewardship is a feeling, a farm is a place of healing, and we are not just healing the land—we are healing ourselves. In fact, the unwritten qualities for knowing how to heal a piece of land may be intimately connected with our personal sense of self,” said Davis at the beginning of his address.
He went on to discuss the critical moments in his life that forced him to reflect and make thoughtful choices about his future. He admitted that his privileged upbringing both benefited him and challenged him, as working on a farm for a small salary was not perceived as being "ambitious." But when his father was diagnosed with cancer and told he had just a year to live, Davis realized the importance of taking risks, “and that’s when I enrolled in the environmental science program at Yale, despite my fear of failing,” he says.
Through this experience and and then a post-Yale career in farming, he realized that it’s important to “become comfortable with not knowing,” and that developing the ability to be comfortably uncomfortable opens many doors.
It is because Davis took a risk that he was able to determine his path to living a life of stewardship, and in his current role he works towards creating a healthy and sustainable food system each day. He referenced an African proverb at the conclusion of his speech:
“If many little people do many little things in many little places, we can change the world. The word “little” is important in this proverb because it recognizes humility, and to be stewards we need humility.”
Our community service program, which has been a vital part of the Millbrook experience since day one, fosters that sense of humility in a community where no member is “too big” for any “little task." We work together daily to care for our community, and this now includes our farm, where students learn about sustainable agriculture and while planting, caring for, and harvesting crops for our dining hall. Knowing this, it is fitting that the 2016-2017 academic spotlight is on stewardship of the natural world. Davis’ address perfectly supports the importance of our philosophy and academic focus.
After the chapel talk, the community gathered in the dining hall with other farmers from the Hudson Valley region to enjoy a meal made from locally sourced ingredients. Over dinner, the community had the opportunity to converse about the many topics from Davis’ address and to ask questions from our guests who have “real world” experience farming our local land.
Watch Davis’ chapel talk on Millbrook in Motion.
