Will Harris is a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866. Born and raised at White Oak Pastures, Will left home to attend the University of Georgia's School of Agriculture, where he was trained in the industrial farming methods that had taken hold after World War II. Will graduated in 1976 and returned to Bluffton where he and his father continued to raise cattle using pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. They also fed their herd a high-carbohydrate diet of corn and soy.
These tools did a fantastic job of taking the cost out of the system, but in the mid-1990s Will became disenchanted with the excesses of these industrialized methods. They had created a monoculture for their cattle, and, as Will says, "nature abhors a monoculture." In 1995, Will made the audacious decision to return to the farming methods his great-grandfather had used 130 years before.
Since Will has successfully implemented these changes, he has been recognized all over the world as a leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability. Will is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors of Georgia Organics. He is the Beef Director of the American Grassfed Association and was selected 2011 Business Person of the year for Georgia by the Small Business Administration.
The White Oak story has been featured in Forbes, the Huffington Post, the New York Times, Popular Science, Garden and Gun and the Washington Post, as well as a host of other print and broadcast sources.
Will lives in his family home on the property with his wife Yvonne. He is the proud father of three daughters, Jessi, Jenni, and Jodi. His favorite place in the world to be is out in pastures, where he likes to have a big coffee at sunrise and a 750ml glass of wine at sunset.
The Kiwanis Club of Atlanta Board of Directors has voted to continue Virtual Club Meetings through the end of August. They will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed of any changes. You can still join us each Tuesday for our meetings through Zoom! Just log in from your computer, tablet or phone and join in the virtual meeting at Noon each Tuesday!
Luncheon Credits:
Regular and Corporate Members will have their luncheon credits for August either posted to their accounts, made as a donation to the club Foundation, or contributed back to the club, as previously indicated. If you would like to change how your August luncheon credits are applied, please contact Karen at KiwanisClubAtlanta@gmail.com.
We have had some great speakers recently during our Kiwanis Club of Atlanta Zoom meetings! If you couldn't participate, we have saved them to the cloud or Dropbox and happy to share them with you. The list of saved meetings is below. If there is a hot link of the speaker name, you can click and view it through the web. If it is through Dropbox, send an email to KiwanisClubAtlanta@gmail.com and let us know which meetings you would like to have.
The club is creating a contact list of Kiwanis members directly on our Zoom account to make it easier to share speaker files, distribute any data they have sent, etc. Only members that have a Zoom account can be on this contact list. If you access the Zoom meetings through a direct link, but have not downloaded the Zoom app, then I cannot add you at this time.
Are you having trouble receiving the KCA Bulletins and other email communications? It appears that computer systems/servers who use Symantec are having trouble getting communications from our ClubRunner system delivered to their inboxes. While we work on this issue with ClubRunner, I have an email list serve set up through Outlook to send the bulletins out each week to those who need it. And if you are having trouble receiving your quarterly bills, I can send them to you through QuickBooks. Just email me at KiwanisClubAtlanta@gmail.com and I will add you to the list!
Welcome to Jennifer Pearson, our newest member and Social Media Guru! Jennifer, along with our Public Relations team chaired by Thornton Kennedy wants you to connect, friend and like the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta on all of our social media!
Social media is a great way to stay connected during these disconnected times. We created a Google document to update your fellow Kiwanians about what you, your companies and your organizations are doing right now.