by Kobe Stites, Student, Washington State University
To support the future generation of sustainable agriculture, CSANR sponsors travel for students to attend the Tilth Conference. Over the next several weeks, we will showcase student experiences at the this year’s conference held in Vancouver, WA. View this year’s and previous years’ reflections via the CSANR Tilth page.
My name is Kobe Stites, a senior at WSU in Pullman, Washington; majoring in Organic and Sustainable Agriculture, with a minor in Soil Science. With the interests that are inherent in deciding to be in this major, attending the Tilth conference was an obvious decision. Especially when considering the funding that allowed us students to attend without spending our own pocket money, as well as escaping the monotony of student life.
Here at WSU, it is difficult to find others that share the ideals that are prevalent in this agricultural major; the same cannot be said about the attendees of the Tilth conference. All of the people present at this conference shared nearly all the same values as one another; that the Earth and the soil need to be respected and saved before irreversible damage has been done. With this sense of oneness in the crowd, a sense of community blossomed; despite not knowing most of the attendees. This community feeling was clearly a popular opinion at the conference; conversation sparking at the slightest of motivation.
Beside immediately feeling part of a new community, the presentations themselves made the trip worth it. Attendees were able to choose what presentations to attend, suiting their own interests and ideals. With this freedom of choice, attendees were inherently interested and excited to see what else they could learn at this conference. This may have been dry farming, the integration of livestock, the challenges and opportunities associated with climate change, etc. With this personal tailoring of the topics being discussed, attendees could not fail to be enticed by the conference.
The decision to attend this conference will remain one of the highlights of my college career and helped shape who I hope to become and what career path I may choose in the future. If the opportunity arises to attend this conference again, I will go without second thought.
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