The Roots

The Ozark Area Community Congress (OACC) is the first and longest-standing bioregional congress on Earth. The Congress first convened in the Ozark hills in 1979, and has agreed to reconvene each year since. In the early years, the Congress created and adopted a set of resolutions with which it was hoped the human inhabitants of the Ozarks might create a regionally oriented culture. The resolutions were grounded in ecological principles and were intended to create a culture that might sustain our children and their children. It seems now more than ever, we need the wisdom and the wealth embodied in the Ozark Area Community Congress.

The Trunk

A core idea of the Congress is that of the Bioregion. Bioregions are bounded by things that immediately register to the human senses, such as bodies of water, changes in terrain, changes in flora and other features of natural systems. Bioregions may also be bounded by cultural differences and other things that people readily see as making one place different from another place. Part of the idea of the Bioregion involves reacquainting ourselves with the places in which we live, and broadening our personal and group identities to include that which is special and unique about our home. This process has been called reinhabiting the spaces in which we live. The Ozarks may be an ideal place for this process to emerge because the people of the Ozarks never entirely lost their regional identity.

The Branches

Practices that are consistent with the values of the Congress are shared and celebrated when we come together. One such practice is making choices that support a thriving regional economy, robust enough to sustain the people of the region should that ever become necessary. The Congress itself, as much as possible, turns to local growers and businesses to provide for the needs of the Congress when it convenes.

The Leaves

The people who make up the Congress have the opportunity, when we come together, to practice the cooperative values inherent in a thriving locally self-reliant culture. Participants in the Congress are the providers of goods and labor necessary to create our temporary community. The Congress provides an opportunity to meet remarkable Ozarkers, and an opportunity to learn from others about new and old ways of doing things. We learn from each other how better to manifest a regional culture, and we support this emerging culture when we learn about and support others who provide products and services within the region.

The Fruit

The acorn is the fruit of the oak trees that clothe the forested Ozark hills. Just as oak trees are prolific producers of acorns, OACC has borne much fruit over the years. In the seasons that followed the first Ozark Area Community Congress, other bioregional Congresses sprang up around the globe and in 1984 the first Continental Bioregional Congress (CBC) convened. The CBC has convened on average every two years since then. Numerous books, writings and academic projects have been inspired by the bioregional perspective and the Congresses. Many people inspired by participation in Congresses have made choices in their lives that are in the interest of a thriving human future. Just as an acorn waits dormant through the winter to take root, in many ways the potential of the bioregional movement has yet to be tapped as a voice of reason and a beacon of light.