This Wednesday, I’m moderating a panel called Grow a Damn at the Big Blue Economy summit on Cape Cod.
The title makes people laugh.
Then it makes them think.
Because that’s exactly the point — most of us don’t give a damn about where our food comes from. Not because we don’t care. But because we’ve been disconnected from it for so long that we forgot we were supposed to.
2026 Big Blue, Green Tomorrow: Connecting the Dots
Who’s on the panel
Here’s the part I’m most excited about:
I’m not bringing a panel of experts. I’m bringing three high schoolers from across Cape Cod:
Lily A. — Mashpee High School, where she works in the school garden
Aevea DeB. — Dennis-Yarmouth
Jack G. — Falmouth
Three different schools. Three different towns. One conversation.
I already know a little about Lily; she’s hands-in-the-dirt, working in Mashpee High School’s garden, learning what it actually takes to grow food in this soil, in this climate, on this Cape.
And honestly? I’m walking into Wednesday curious about Aevea and Jack the same way the audience will be. I know they care. I know they were chosen for a reason. I’m looking forward to hearing- alongside the room and where their passion lives. Is it the ocean? The plastics piling up on our beaches? Food sourcing? Something I haven’t even thought to ask about?
That’s part of what makes this panel exciting.
I’m not coming in with all the answers. Neither is the audience. We’re going to discover these three young people together.
What I’m walking in with
I have a list of questions. Some are fun. Some are a little uncomfortable. All of them are designed to get the room — and the panel — thinking past the surface.
A few I keep coming back to:
What does it feel like to plant something, nurture it, harvest it, and cook with it — versus grabbing the same thing off a grocery store shelf?
On Cape Cod, what we put in the soil ends up in the water ends up in the ocean ends up on our plates. Where do you see that loop in your own life?
What’s something adults keep telling you is “just the way it is” that you flat-out don’t accept?
If I handed you a seed right now — would you plant it? And if not, why not?
That last one is the one I’m most curious about.
Because the answer says everything.
What I’m hoping happens-
I’m hoping the room gets quiet at least once.
I’m hoping Lily, Aevea, or Jack says something that makes an adult rethink a habit.
I’m hoping somebody in the audience leaves and actually plants something; even if it’s a windowsill herb, even if it dies, even if they have no idea what they’re doing.
Because the point was never to turn everyone into a farmer.
The point is awareness.
The point is connection.
The point is- we’ve been buying our food the same disconnected way for so long, we stopped asking the right questions.
Why this conversation, why now
Cape Cod is a place where everything is connected. Soil, water, ocean, table — it’s all one system. You can’t pretend otherwise here.
And the Big Blue Economy isn’t just about industry and infrastructure.
It’s about whether the next generation grows up understanding the system they’re inheriting or just consuming it.
That’s what Wednesday is about.
That’s what Lily, Aevea, and Jack are showing up to talk about.
And I have a feeling they’re going to teach the room more than the room teaches them.
The real question
I’ll write again after the panel.
I’ll tell you what they said.
I’ll tell you what surprised me- because I already know something will.
But before any of that happens, I want to leave you with the same question I’m bringing into that room:
If someone handed you a seed right now -would you plant it?
And if not- why not?
That’s where the conversation begins.
If this resonated
Subscribe to follow the second half of this story. I’ll be back later this week with what Lily, Aevea, and Jack actually said and what it taught me.
In the meantime: plant something small. Visit a market. Talk to a grower.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
It just has to start.
