Chapter in Review: Georgia Tech
trees, trails, and the conversations in between
Plant Futures is a network of student chapters taking similar questions around food access, sustainable farming, climate, and working them at the scale of a single campus.
Over the past few months, that work at Georgia Tech meant two trees planted in the city,
time on the trail, and conversations recorded close to home.
Trees in the ground
The chapter joined our Emory chapter and Trees Atlanta to plant two trees around the city. Trees Atlanta supplied the trees and the know-how; the students brought the shovels and the afternoon. It's the kind of partnership we want more of: chapters working next to each other, and next to the groups already rooted in their cities, instead of going it alone. Both chapters are already planning the next planting.
Time on the trail
The chapter also got out of the city for a hike along Vickery Creek with the GT Trailblazers, plant-based jerky from Lou Vegan Jerky packed for the walk. The community a chapter builds on a trail is part of the work, not a break from it. A chapter that hikes and eats together holds together past any single semester, and a good plant-based snack in someone's hand makes the case as plainly as any meeting.
The conversations behind the work
Some of a chapter's work is making the argument out loud. Georgia Tech runs a podcast for that, a place to hold the conversations our field turns on: restorative farming, food access, and what it actually takes to eat sustainably on a campus and beyond it. Recent guests include Dr. Valerie Thomas on sustainable energy and resilient agriculture in Rwanda, and chef Ed Harris on plant-based food. The format belongs to the chapter; the questions belong to all of us.
One chapter, a wider network
Georgia Tech is one of more than a hundred Plant Futures chapters, on campuses across four countries, each shaping this work to its own place. The chapters grow stronger when they meet, the way Georgia Tech and Emory did over two trees and a shared afternoon. If you're a student who wants this work on your campus, reach out.
