By Trimmel Gomes, Florida News Connection
On a 42-acre sustainable farm in Orlando, the 4Roots Foundation is putting nature to work.
The farm teaches regenerative practices to families, health-care providers and children, using circular systems where water is captured and reused, waste becomes fertilizer and solar panels generate all the energy needed for its buildings.
Tommy Ward, executive director of 4Roots Farm, said the approach is about working with nature, not against it.
“So if we look at the entire story from front to back, fast forward to the ending, we know Mother Nature is going to win, right?” he said. “So why not work in concert with nature? So why not use what mother nature, what intelligently designed ecosystems are already trying to give us.”
The farm is home to the first certified “living building” in Florida, a structure that produces more energy than it uses, captures and filters all its own rainwater, and was built with mass timber sourced from Alabama to reduce its carbon footprint. 4Roots partnered with VoLo Foundation and the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 125 trees on the farm campus, with a ceremonial planting of the final 10 trees on Tuesday.
John Rivers, founder and CEO of the 4Roots Foundation, started the farm with his wife to create something sustainable that would have long-term impact.
“We wanted to find one thing to make a difference,” he said, “to not put our name on a building, but truly feed the community and teach them something that was sustainable that would have a long-term impact and food, the land, the soil, there’s nothing more that sustains life.”
Rivers noted that on-site businesses at the farm generate the revenue needed to sustain operations. The farm also takes in produce from local growers and hosts a farmers market to increase access to fresh, locally grown food.
Just off a busy Orlando roadway, commuters pass a different kind of climate message: a massive mural of a pink Florida panther staring at a discarded plastic bottle. The artwork is part of an effort to educate through art.
Thais Lopez Vogel, the VoLo Foundation’s co-founder and trustee, commissioned the piece and said art speaks where data can’t.
“VoLo Foundation invests in education, usually through data and science, but that only speaks to the mind,” she said. “I love to educate through art because that speaks to the heart.”
Lopez Vogel said the panther, an endangered species whose survival depends on clean water and land, is meant to remind Floridians that small daily choices matter. She encouraged switching from single-use plastic bottles to reusable ones, saying we use millions of them a day in the United States.
Editor’s note: VoLo Foundation is a financial supporter of The Invading Sea. Banner photo: A new mural of a Florida panther at night captivated by a crushed plastic bottle at Orange Avenue and Colonial Drive, next to the iconic Orlando Postcard mural. It was created by Orlando artist Justin “Skip” Skipper of A Pivotal Character Artworks (Trimmel Gomes).
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