Going North: Finding Meaningful Work at the End of the Trail
Diana Baszucki, Marketing Coordinator at Carnation Farms
Last year, I spent six months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, walking from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. I slept under the stars most nights, swam in countless rivers and lakes, and walked for about ten hours every day. It was a way of life completely unlike anything I’d ever experienced, one wholly oriented around the present moment and rooted in the natural world. When I finished the trail, I returned to normal life with a lot of momentum and no idea what direction to orient myself towards.
Today’s world is a strange one, and it’s an especially strange time to be a young person choosing a career path. I’ve spent most of my life teetering between hope and nihilism, all-too aware of climate change, widespread habitat loss, and humanity's strained relationship with planet earth. It’s not a rare impulse to want to make the world a better place, but in the face of so many interwoven crises, it’s difficult to know where to start.
After being immersed in natural beauty for half a year, with both feet firmly planted on the Earth, I had no idea how to continue forward in the fractured, manic, digital world I found myself thrown back into. Luckily, during this pivotal time, I received some wonderful advice from Precious Phiri, a smallholder farmer and regenerative agriculture practitioner. She told me to get out into the world, to cast my net wide and immerse myself in community. Abbey Kingdon, the founder of UVE and the Savory Global Network Coordinator, gave me another crucial piece of wisdom: trust my gut.
Perhaps because I had just spent six months walking towards Canada, I felt a distinctive nudge pulling me away from my hometown in California, a tug urging me north. Through UVE, I found Carnation Farms, a regenerative beef, lamb, and vegetable farm nestled in the Snoqualmie Valley of Washington state. From educational programming to farm-to-table dinners, the nonprofit farm was working to make regenerative agriculture something everyone could play an active role in. The more I learned about Carnation Farms, the more it felt like a place I wanted to be, so I loaded up my car and retraced the hundreds of miles I had recently walked through California, Oregon, and Washington.
Today, I am honored to be part of the passionate team that makes up this farm. In my role coordinating events and providing marketing support, my work keeps me deeply connected to the local community. Every day, I am inspired by the natural beauty of the farm, teeming with wildlife and birdsong, and the sense of shared purpose that drives everything we do here. I feel incredibly fortunate to be working towards a future that isn't distant or abstract but deeply rooted in the land, the community, and the living ecosystem around me. More than anything, I feel lucky to have a job that’s as grounding, meaningful, and inspiring as walking a few thousand miles across the country.
