Immense Change Offers Challenges & Opportunities for Agriculture, Spurs New Community

ST LOUIS (February 3, 2021) — Bridging the rural-urban divide can't just happen by having a small number of people sitting in on an occasional keynote. And yet, that divide may be one of agriculture’s most daunting challenges.  That is what led to the creation of a new community called Grounded and Rising. 

Grounded and Rising is the brainchild of Janice Person, one of the industry’s most active advocates. According to her, the divide has grown in 2020, and she wants to help reverse that trend. 

“The change that is underway in cities due to a combination of generational change and from people slowing down this past year is significant and offers both challenges and opportunities for agriculture,” Person explains. 

“Living in the midst of all that change, my head was spinning at first. I looked for research, data and opinions to try and understand it all. I started talking with peers, friends and more. It took a while to get grounded and I immediately remembered how hard it is keeping up with the cotton crop when there’s none planted nearby. It’s nearly impossible to keep a finger on the pulse without time and proximity. And yet agriculture needs to understand all of this and think about whether and how paths may shift,” she says. 

Grounded and Rising is a new community that helps streamline access to people and information as societal change is underway. With the rapidity of change happening, hearing directly from people who are in the midst of this flux will enable those in agriculture to better understand and determine what pivots they may need to make. Grounded and Rising offers regular connectivity on this via live sessions, online classes, workshops, and a community, as well as training on communications and online tools.

Few individuals have the unique perspective that comes from standing on the bridge between rural and urban, food and farm. Person grew up in cities and didn’t find agriculture until adulthood. She’s been immersed in it ever since. She started Grounded Communications, LLC when she left Bayer/Monsanto. While at the companies, she developed and initiated the online consumer and agriculture outreach efforts that led to her speaking at SXSW and for groups like the San Francisco Professional Food Society as well as dozens of agricultural conferences. She’s been active in and recognized for her work in the Ag Relations Council and National AgriMarketing Association and was one of the founders of the pioneering AgChat Foundation.  

Details about membership options are available at https://www.groundedandrising.com/join-grounded-community. 

Grounded Communications, LLC is a communications firm based in St. Louis, Missouri that places the focus on connected food and farm. The company works with a range of clients on communications strategy as well as offering speaking and training services. 

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