Bill McKibben, Lexington native, author, activist and founder of 350.org wrote to the Lexington Minuteman this week in support of a community farm on the Busa Property:

“Since I grew up in Lexington, I’m always pleased to hear about how the town is joining the growing movement away from suburban sterility and towards sustainabiliy and engagement.  I was particularly pleased to hear that a committee appointed by the Board of Selectmen recommended that the Busa Farm be left a community farm and not turned into more playing fields.”

“This strikes me as very far-sighted. Since I spend a great deal of my time on various college campuses, I know that there’s a strong move towards engagement with agriculture at most of them, including some of the very best. There are, within the last decade, hundreds of college farms; now, where schools once favored athletes or musicians, there’s at least equal interest in kids who know how to garden and grow. The number of farms in America is on the increase for the first time in 150 years – that’s one of the best statistics I know.”

“It’s exciting to think of Lexington poised to help accelerate this revolution, and of the engaged and involved young people (and old people!) that the farm will produce in the years ahead. I’ll look forward to seeing it in operation, and to seeing the people it inspires move out into the world to do good!”

Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College