Adventist Agricultural Association Seeks Adventist “Roots”
January 12, 2017: The Adventist Agricultural Association (AdAgrA) is a fairly young ministry whose mission is to “to encourage and support all seeking to understand and follow God’s plan for agriculture through networking, mentoring, and information sharing.” The About Us page on their website states, in part, “Agriculture is an important aspect of Adventism both past and present. More and more are convicted by God to revive the focus of agriculture, a vital part of our educational approach, as well as a part of every family’s sustainability in view of current and coming events.” Their motto is “Returning to our ‘Roots’.”
For some years, individuals such as Bob Jorgensen of North Carolina, Lynn Hoag of California, John and Edwin Dysinger of Tennessee, and others, saw the need to form some kind of association or network to help those persons and families who wanted to learn more about a more self-reliant lifestyle. Jorgensen organized seminars with various speakers, emphasizing “the importance of agriculture as a means of education (they’re inseparable), and as a part of the preparation of God’s people for the final events of this earth’s history.”
In 2012 at Uchee Pines Institute Daniel LaFlair attended one of these seminars and was inspired to hold a meeting of interested individuals in 2013. From that meeting, AdAgrA was formed.
Their objectives, taken from their About Us page, are:
- “To promote a biologically-driven, scientifically-sound system of agriculture in harmony with principles found in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.
- “To stimulate prayerful study and discussion of the role of agriculture in preparing God’s end-time people.
- “To educate families and individuals about the “Country Living Message” and embolden them as they transition to an agrarian lifestyle.
- “To train and equip a new generation of Adventist farmers to fill the need in schools, institutions, and communities.
- “To work with the Seventh-day Adventist church, its supporting ministries, and individual families to elevate and inspire agricultural evangelism and education.”
In 2014 AdAgrA held their first annual conference; the third is coming up January 25-28, at Camp Kulaqua, High Springs, Florida. The wide-ranging subjects include beginning gardening and beekeeping courses, soil fertility, growing specialty crops, modern homesteading, online marketing, agriculture as a tool in soul-winning, and more. Expect an Adventist Today report on this conference and, we hope, several features coming from connections made there. An interesting feature of this conference is that AdAgrA does not charge for it. They want to make it affordable to all who wish to attend, so they ask for donations from those who can help defray expenses.
The website is informative, well-organized, and easy to navigate. It includes resources, training, archives of past conferences, and some well-written and interesting reports on a recent trip to Jamaica.
Interesting. Bob Jorgensen is deceased and has been for a number of years.
Sounds interesting, but they have a long way to go to catch with the massive movement on this that started back in the 60s and has grown into a very sophisticated movement with tons of great information on country living, sustainability, even planning on how communities can be sustainable, environmentally sound, organic, and the nuts and bolts of the family farmstead. All of this is already out there for all to see and well pioneered, just like the reform movements for temperance, alternative medicine, vegetarianism, organic and whole food lifestyles, all started with gusto back at the end of the 1700s [read Vegetarian American, a History] well before EG White uttered a word on any of this. [Although Capt Bates was a “long sea mile” ahead of the Whites and others on this,] We don’t need to re-invent the wheel here. The results of all of this is now the integrative medicine movement which is sweeping secular hospitals, here in Ft Myers, Florida the Lee Memorial Health System is getting into and helping to sponsor a first time SW Florida Veg Fest that promises to be fantastic! Adventists just need to come get informed, and share their own points of views about how all of this fits into the times, but you will find more then likely a lot of agreement from others on that issue. Time to interface with others who are of like mind and have pioneered all of this for a long time.