Sharing my undergraduate thesis

As an undergraduate I worked on farm to college work. That is, I attempted to get more organic, local, and fair food into my college dining services. My three years of activism culminated in writing a thesis. It was in part a grand reflection on my successes and failures in altering the food services of my Alma Mater. It included a national survey of farm to college programs and I integrated that information into a critique of how I went about my personal organizing.  As I finished, I concluded that I hadn't been successful in my attempts to change the food services at my school and thus that my thesis would be a waste of time for others to read. Out of respect to the organization that had housed the survey, the Community Food Security Coalition, I gave it to them and they linked it to their website, but I didn't share it with any of my fellow student organizers and I began to explore other facets of the food system when I graduated.

Fast forward 3 years. It's now 2008. My boyfriend is working on a dissertation on student involvement in campus student farms, and he is forwarded my thesis by a colleague who found it online. He questions why I never really shared this potential resource with any of the many people that I know who are working on this issue. All of my feelings of failure bubbled up, and I realized that I have hidden my thesis because I didn't want others to think that I failed. The irony here is especially thick. Here I am, touting to be someone who wants to forward the collective food/farms/student/justice movement and I've hidden perhaps the greatest resource that I have to offer. 

So. Here it is. For all of you students, staff, administrators, activists, and fellow rabble-rousers to use and forward at will. If you click on the title, you'll be taken to my undergraduate magnum opus of food. 

My Mother: Organic Farmer

Out of respect to my other parental half, I must post again. 

My father makes wine with his friends for personal consumption, my mother, is an organic wine grape grower. She has a ranch, Mesa Del Sol, and has grown organic grapes in the Arroyo Secco Valley for 10 years. The place is truly spectacular and the wine has won top awards. If anyone is looking for a get away, she and her husband have decided to rent it out for weeks at a time to families, groups, and individuals who are looking a place of serenity that encourages peace of mind. I feel so privileged to have grown up on her farm. It's been radicalizing and eye opening to be a daughter of an organic farmer. Just click on the title to see more of her project.

My Father's Wine

In a dark basement in old Monterey, three men bustle about, rattling bottles and soaking corks. The room is darkly lit, below ground, and you can hear the sounds of ocean waves and seagulls in the distance. 

Steinbeck novel? Nope... my dad. He and his friends are wine makers. They grow and make wine for personal consumption just as many families used to do. They have a small winemaking license and are able to make wine for familial consumption. (I fit nicely under that umbrella.) I get the benefit of coming down for an afternoon to bottle with his crew and walking away with a case of fresh wine. There is something so satisfying about spending time with my family creating sustenance together. It's a phenomenon that most people of my generation have never experienced. Inspiring to share time, skills, and culture with my dad.

Transition Town Santa Cruz January Events

There are several events being put on by Transition Town Santa Cruz this January. The theme of the month is creating resilient Food Systems. Please see details here listed:

Movie: Good Food

Thursday, January 15, 7pm

1st Congregational Church, 900 High Street

Description: The Pacific Northwest has seen a renaissance of small, organic farms in recent years. This beautiful, hour- long film provides a snapshot of the trend in interviews with farmers and grocers, with a sprinkling of peak oil awareness and of course, lots of footage of farms and produce. 

To bring it home we will be following the film with a short presentation and Q and A with Darryl Wong of Santa Cruz' Freewheelin' Farms.

Local Farms Slideshow and Panel

Friday January 30, 7pm

United Methodist Church, 250 California Street

$5-$15 dollars sliding scale

Tana Butler, who has been documenting local farms in photos and words on  her blog "I heart farms", will start us off with a local farms slideshow. Next we'll hear from local voices on farms and food: Ildi Carlisle-Cummins from CAFF, Mark Lipson from OFRF, and Deborah Yashar from ALBA, with Michael Olson of Food Chain Radio moderating. Audience participation and discussion afterwards. 

Local Food Open Space Day

Saturday January 31, 10 to 4

United Methodist Church, 250 California Street

Free, delicious lunch for $10 provided with RSVP (jess.beckett@gmail.com)

A day  of community participation and action! Open space is a format for enabling groups of any size to take on important, complex issues with input from all stake-holders involved. It works by providing a schedule of small group meetings, but no agenda. The participants fillin the schedule by proposing topics (in this case about local food supply) according to their interests.  

Car-free

As January arrives, I am celebrating my own anniversary. I have made it in California with no car for one year. Though I've already blown the punch line, here's the story. 

I bought my first car at 16, proud as any American to have graduated into vehicular independence. I never questioned its necessity, nor thought it odd that seemingly everyone owned a car. I didn't miss public transportation because to put it quite simply- I had never experienced it as a daily possibility. That all changed when I left my car and moved to New York City, where millions of every-day non-radical folks take public transportation and refrain from owning vehicles. There I too, learned to live without one. I took trains, buses, and subways everywhere I needed to go. I even commuted to see friends who lived hours away via public transportation. I did it because I didn't have a choice. And more importantly- I enjoyed it! I began to realize that there were other ways to be mobile, aside from personalized transportation. 

When I moved back to California to farm, my family assisted me in the purchase of a truck. A new truck. A big truck. A non-environmentally friendly, heavy duty, gas guzzling type of truck. Useful as it was when there was dirt to move and farmers markets to haul for, the truck outwore its welcome when I moved into town and began to work 40 hours a week at my computer producing movies. I could walk or bike anywhere I needed to. The truck lay idle. It accumulated parking tickets. I was paying for insurance, monthly payments, gas, maintenance up to $400 a month for...? Driving it once or twice. And on top of all of this, the environmentalist in me was screaming about peak oil and global climate change and air pollution and.... At that point, I woke up. 

I looked for options and I found out that a) Santa Cruz is pretty accessible by bike and public transport and b) a new program of car-sharing had just come to Santa Cruz. Enter- Zipcar. Not to promo for a private company, but Zipcar has revolutionized my life. Please google them if your curious about the details. I sold my truck, joined Zipcar, and upgraded my bike with Ortlieb panniers (another product placement). 

I now bike everywhere in town, and rent a Zipcar when necessary, which is usually about twice a month. I spend under $100 a month on total transportation and take the bus and train often. (The money from selling the truck is in a CD at my community bank from which the interest all but covers my expense.) I'm making it a personal mission to hold out on buying a car until I can buy a currently non-available plug-in hybrid or fully electric car. I am not holding my breath.

California still may be the place where it's taken for granted that you need to own a car. But as my one year anniversary without a vehicle rolls around, with my hot pink road bike, shapely thighs, and train pass in hand,  I have little hesitation looking into a car-free future.