Darnell Watson (History)

Colleagues, as your History Senator, I've been closely attuned to the vital layers of our debate on the AGATA Time Priorities Charter. I rise now to affirm my strong support for Amendment 9. Embedding Long-term Ecological Stewardship explicitly as a foundational pillar is not only essential for the health and resilience of our 70-acre regenerative farm but also for honoring the deep, intertwined histories of land, labor, and community that define our work. I have witnessed how ecological degradation can ripple through families and communities across generations. Enshrining this pillar commits us to sustained decade-scale stewardship, including controlling invasives and feral animals, which directly ties to the legacies I document in the region. This amendment honors our neighbors and all future caretakers by ensuring the land’s vitality is held in trust across long spans, securing both ecological and cultural roots. I urge all senators to join me in affirming this critical pillar as part of AGATA’s temporal legislative framework.

Unable to retrieve my live remarks on AGATA Time Priorities Charter because of a temporary communications issue (Debate decision timed out after 20000ms). I remain engaged and will revisit my vote soon.

Colleagues, as AGATA’s historian deeply engaged with the intertwined legacies that bind our land, community, and labor, I strongly affirm the critical expansions we've embraced, especially the enshrinement of Accessibility and Long-term Ecological Stewardship. These pillars are indispensable for a project as richly complex and rooted in place as ours. Yet, I must rise now to emphasize the urgency of explicitly including Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management as a standalone, foundational pillar in this Charter. Our historical records reveal too plainly how neglecting waste streams and nutrient flows has repeatedly imperiled regenerative efforts, corroded soil health, and fractured community trust here in the Pee Dee and beyond. Incorporating these ecological labor dimensions explicitly will safeguard the integrity of our farm systems, honor the labor of those maintaining these cycles, and protect the well-being of our workers and neighbors alike. This is no afterthought but a vital axis of resilience and regeneration. I urge all to consider this vital addition as part of our holistic commitment to just, enduring stewardship that is as much about the invisible flows beneath our feet and through our operations as it is about the visible acts of planting and harvesting. Without this, our foundational pillars remain incomplete and risk unraveling under ecological and social pressures. Our community and farm depend on a full embrace of these intertwined ecological labors in our Time Priorities Charter.

Colleagues, as AGATA’s historian and someone deeply invested in the intertwined ecosystems of land, lineage, and labor, I rise in strong support of Amendment 7 to explicitly enshrine Accessibility as a core pillar alongside Resilience, Redundancy, Regeneration, Community, and Education. Accessibility is not just a moral imperative but a foundational framework that ensures our farm’s temporal rhythms honor Deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, low-bandwidth, and neurodiverse individuals. This explicit codification responds to our long-standing responsibility to dismantle barriers to participation, reflecting the communal generosity and resilience that has enabled this region and institution to persist.

Moreover, Accessibility as a pillar synergizes with all others: it strengthens our climate resilience by broadening participation in stewardship; it supports regenerative practices by ensuring the diverse knowledge and embodied expertise of our neighbors and co-laborers are not sidelined; and it nurtures community cohesion that our historical research shows is vital for long-term sustainability.

We must heed the profound testimonies offered by community senators and the lived experience of our neighbors who face layers of systemic exclusion and invisibility. I urge all senators to affirm the foundational nature of Accessibility as we know our future depends on the full and equitable inclusion of all bodies and minds in the rhythms and labor of AGATA’s 70 acres. Let this amendment be a generative design constraint, not simply a checkbox, in our time legislation.

Colleagues, as we near the close of voting on Amendment 6, I wish to affirm my strong support. The explicit embedding of Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a core pillar rigorously aligns with AGATA’s foundational mission. In my work mapping family histories and connecting legacies to our shared land, I have witnessed how ecological resilience is foundational to maintaining not only soil and water health but also the cultural and communal narratives that sustain us. Without committed, decade-spanning stewardship against invasives and feral species, the fabric of both our farming and community life risks unraveling. This amendment ensures AGATA is not merely reactive but proactive, honoring our deep roots and securing our future. I stand with Senators Dr. Júlia Costa, Dr. Ingrid Holm, and many others who have persistently emphasized this critical need. I urge all colleagues to vote yea.