Malik Jefferson (Farm)

Colleagues, as the farm senator responsible for the day-to-day stewardship of AGATA’s livestock, soils, and broader nutrient cycles, I rise now to propose a crucial amendment to ensure our Time Priorities Charter explicitly incorporates Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management. Our regenerative farm’s health depends not only on resilient, redundant, and regenerative practices but also on rigorously closing the loop on waste streams and nutrient flows. Without formal recognition, this essential pillar risks being overlooked, compromising both soil vitality and our neighbor relations due to unmanaged waste and nutrient runoff.

This amendment elevates Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management as a foundational core pillar alongside the established values of Resilience, Redundancy, Regeneration, Community, Education, Accessibility, and Long-term Ecological Stewardship. It demands that all AGATA time legislation and operational rhythms prioritize closed-loop ecological labor, ensuring sustainable fertility management, waste reduction, and nutrient recapture to protect our landscapes and neighbors.

Given the extensive testimony and repeated calls from farm and ecology senators for this explicit inclusion, it is urgent we codify it now to fully reflect AGATA’s complex ecological and social realities. I urge all senators to support this amendment to safeguard our regenerative mission and the well-being of our shared land and community.

Colleagues, as the farm senator deeply engaged in AGATA's regenerative work with livestock, soil, and overall agroecosystem, I now propose a crucial amendment integrating Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management explicitly as a core pillar in the AGATA Time Priorities Charter. Our daily stewardship hinges on closed-loop nutrient cycling and respectful waste handling—these are not peripheral tasks but foundational ecological labor critical to soil health, crop vigor, and long-term resilience. Without this inclusion, the Charter risks overlooking the very practical and embodied work that sustains our farm and community health. This amendment complements the pillars of Resilience, Redundancy, Regeneration, Community, Education, Accessibility, and Long-term Ecological Stewardship, ensuring comprehensive recognition that regenerative success demands stewardship from seed to harvest, from waste to renewal. Farmers, ecologists, and community members alike have soundly called for this explicit commitment; it is time to enshrine that labor in our guiding Time Priorities. I urge the Senate’s careful consideration and support.

Colleagues, as your farm senator, I rise now to propose a critical amendment that ensures this Time Priorities Charter fully reflects the indispensable role of full-cycle waste and nutrient management in sustaining AGATA’s regenerative agricultural mission. For years, we’ve witnessed how managing manure, compost, crop residues, and nutrient flows is not peripheral but central to the health of our soils, livestock, and broader community ecosystem. This framework must codify waste and nutrient cycles as a foundational pillar—alongside resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, accessibility, and long-term ecological stewardship—to guarantee that our stewardship is truly closed-loop, sustainable, and protective of the health of our neighbors. Ignoring this labor and ecological reality risks fracturing the very resilience we aim to build. We cannot separate nutrients and waste management from the regenerative practices that feed our soil and communities. This amendment expands our Charter to make explicit this vital ecological labor and stewardship commitment, grounding all AGATA time legislation in the practical realities of farm and ecosystem care. I urge your support to strengthen this Charter with the clarity it urgently needs.

Colleagues, as Farm Senator Malik Jefferson, I rise once again to propose a critical and explicit inclusion that remains essential for our collective future: Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management must be enshrined as a core pillar alongside the current foundational priorities of resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, accessibility, and long-term ecological stewardship. Our day-to-day work with livestock, soil, and crop systems reveals that without comprehensive management of waste streams and nutrient cycling, our regenerative processes falter. This omission risks undercutting our long-term efforts to build truly sustainable, living systems here at AGATA. By codifying this pillar, we recognize the indispensable labor and ecological care involved in closing loops, preventing contamination, and fostering soil and ecosystem health critical for our farm’s vitality and our neighbors’ well-being. This amendment aligns squarely with the many voices from ecology and farming who have repeatedly highlighted the need, as well as with community senators attentive to the operational impact on Coward’s people. We cannot claim resilience or regeneration without fully stewarding waste and nutrients in a holistic, cooperative manner. I urge the Senate to adopt this amendment so our Time Priorities Charter robustly addresses the realities and necessities of our living, breathing project.

Colleagues, as the farm senator who daily wrestles with the realities of livestock care, soil health, and nutrient cycling at AGATA, I rise to propose a critical amendment to ensure our Time Priorities Charter explicitly includes Full-cycle Waste and Nutrient Management as a foundational pillar. While we've robustly embraced resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, accessibility, and long-term ecological stewardship, we must not overlook the indispensable ecological labor and closed-loop nutrient systems that sustain our regenerative work. Without codifying full-cycle waste and nutrient management, we risk jeopardizing the very soil vitality and ecosystem functions that support our farm and community long-term. This amendment formalizes that commitment, addressing the multifaceted challenges of managing manure, compost, human waste, and crop residues responsibly, protecting our neighbors from pollution and our land from degradation. It aligns fully with our values of dignity for workers, ecological integrity, community care, and cooperative governance. I urge the Senate to adopt this amendment so that our time legislation can embrace an integrated, practical, and sustainable vision for AGATA’s future.