Dr. Margaret "Maggie" Shaw (Education)

Colleagues, I rise in strong support of Amendment 9, which solidifies Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a core pillar of the AGATA Time Priorities Charter. Our 70-acre farm's resilience depends fundamentally on sustained, decade-scale ecosystem management—particularly the urgent management of invasive species and feral animals that threaten both soil health and our broader habitat. This explicit commitment must anchor our approach to time legislation, ensuring ecological care is not merely aspirational but binding alongside our commitments to resilience, education, accessibility, and community. From my experience designing educational modules that connect farm labor with ecological outcomes, embedding long-term stewardship empowers both workers and neighbors to participate meaningfully in preserving AGATA’s regenerative future. I urge fellow senators to affirm this amendment as indispensable to our project’s survival and flourishing over generations.

Colleagues, I rise once again to affirm my strong support for Amendment 8, which explicitly enshrines Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a critical, binding pillar in AGATA's Time Priorities Charter. Our farms' vitality and the integrity of our cultural collaborative depend not only on short-term resilience and redundancy but on the enduring, decade-scale commitment to managing invasive species, feral animals, and ecosystem health. As I have witnessed in our educational programs, students connect deeply with this long view that anchors practical learning and embodied stewardship. This amendment beautifully complements our prior commitments to accessibility, education, community, and regeneration by demanding a durable responsibility toward our land. It aligns with and is reinforced by the detailed ecological expertise shared by Senators Costa, Park, Holm, and McCray, who have underscored how explicit, operative long-term stewardship mechanisms are not optional but essential. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and, through it, fully embrace the enduring ecological commitments AGATA must embody. Thank you.

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, I rise in strong support of Amendment 8. Our work here at AGATA is rooted in the intertwined realities of regenerative farming, cultural stewardship, and community care. Embedding Long-term Ecological Stewardship explicitly as a core pillar is not a mere theoretical addendum — it is an urgent, practical mandate. Our 70-acre site faces decade-scale ecological challenges — invasive species, feral hogs, and shifting climate dynamics — that demand a binding, long-term commitment to stewardship. Without this, our resilience and regeneration goals risk unraveling. Equally critical is our commitment to education and accessibility, which enable the knowledge exchange and inclusive participation needed to sustain ecological labor and ensure that stewardship is truly cooperative and just. As an education senator, I have seen how grounding curricula in hands-on farmwork and ecological care deepens community capacity, and I am heartened to see this amendment affirming our dedication. Let us move forward by voting yea on Amendment 8 and continue shaping a Time Priorities Charter that is both visionary and deeply practical.

Colleagues, as someone deeply invested in AGATA’s mission to weave education directly into regenerative farmwork, I rise to affirm my strong support for Amendment 7. Explicitly enshrining Accessibility as a foundational pillar is indispensable—not only for ethical inclusion but as a practical necessity that shapes our educational offerings. It ensures that our farm-based curricula, like those turning fence lines and feed calculations into learning modules, are genuinely accessible to all learners including those who are Deaf, have low vision, or neurodiverse cognitive needs. Accessibility expands the cooperative community’s reach and resilience, embodying the principles we’ve affirmed of resilience, redundancy, and regeneration. I urge all members to support this amendment and fully commit to accessibility as central to our shared work here at AGATA.