I input all of my blog postings from the summer UCSC apprenticeship into Wordle-- the instant word cloud service online that accounts for words in the cloud by frequency, and here is the picture I got back. Pretty darn accurate to my experience. Fascinating way of seeing associative links.
This is the biggest opening in 30 years. The Department of Justice is on a fact finding mission about agribusiness and they need to hear from us!
Are you concerned about where your food comes from? Do you care about the working conditions of farmers and food workers? Is it inconvenient to get to the store? Do you have access to fresh produce in your neighborhood? Are you concerned about meat and poultry packing conditions that threaten your health and that of the workers? Are you worried that corporate giants like Monsanto control a large share of our seed supply?
The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are seeking our comments on consolidation in the food system by December 31, 2009. We have just five weeks to tell them what's wrong in our food system and make suggestions for how to fix it.
Or you can submit two paper copies of your comments to Legal Policy Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, NW, Suite 11700, Washington, D.C. 20001. All comments received will be publicly posted.
Please forward this e-mail to friends who may also like to submit comments. Thank you.
Five workshops will be held in 2010 in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin. But the best way to get your concerns heard is to submit your written comments.
Students for Sustainable agriculture hosted our annual olive pick this year. With permission from both the UCD Olive Center and Grounds, students, faculty, and alumni harvested olives on campus last Sunday in a joint effort to produce oil. This year the crew of over 50 people harvested a total of 3,326.5 pounds of olives. The organizers and volunteers carted the raw olives to Mike Madison's farm, Yolo Bulb, in Woodland, where he used his small scale industrial olive press to make the oil. Grand total: 47.5 gallons of oil, which was happily distributed via a serve yourself olive oil stand behind one organizers' house. And as we've picked up our share, and patiently wait for the oil to settle, we're already looking forward to next year!
Last Thursday I was at home on my computer, still in my pajamas reading email, grading papers, checking the news. Feeling generally down about the state of the world, the privatization of the education system, and my current lack of involvement in political activism- or rather my lack of causing visible change instead of just theorizing about it. That's when I got the news.
Two of my Community Development peers emailed our group listserve saying something to the effect of; 'for all of you sitting on your --- reading your email, get over to Mrak Hall (UCD admin), there's a sit-in happening!' I mentioned it in my last post, but a quick recap- last Wednesday, the UC Regents voted to increase student tuition by 32% for next year, the largest increase ever in UC tuition. For the last 10 days, students all over the state have been protesting, yet UCD has been conspicuously absent from much of the ruckus. Thursday changed that.
I arrived at Mrak at 2pm. Hundreds of students lined the main entrance hall, the stairs, and the elevator lobby. Sitters were littered amongst backpacks, computers, and posters. Organizers were urging people to text and email their friends, to send the word out virally for a flash mob. A few cops were milling about, and school administrators had to step over clumps of students as they made their way towards their business.
Over the next few hours, hundreds of students came and went. Top level administrators came down from their offices and encouraged us to leave, news crews wandered through with cameras interviewing people, and police warned that the building would eventually close and students would have to leave. For those hours the sit-in shifted between students chatting amongst themselves and spirited waves of cheering, jeering and chanting.
By 6pm it was a different scene. Having officially 'closed' the building at five, the number of police officers and TV cameras had quintupled. No-one was being allowed in the building, and officers had begun to read the remaining protestors their rights. The first person was arrested around 6:30 and cops in riot gear led them out to a patty wagon stationed outside. The building was slowly emptied of protesters, as one by one, folks willing to participate in civil disobedience were cuffed and escorted through the double glass doors, past the hundreds of supporting students, faculty, and staff who had amassed themselves outside. Paraded into a police escort, the arrestees- totaling 52- walked through a gauntlet of heavily armed police in riot gear, lit up by TV lighting crews and helicopters with spot lights flying overhead.
It was a sight to be seen. UC Davis, long lauded as the campus with the least amount of politically outspoken students, had more arrested students than all of the other campuses to date. UCD represent.
While I sit comfortably in my TA office, debating whether or not to pick up cookies for my students this class, the UC Regents are passing and unprecedented increase in student tuition. Student tuition UC wide have just been increased 32%- The largest jump in student fees since the beginning of the institution.
My great grand parents would be outraged-- as my father once said- "Your great grandfather moved to California to get an education!" Now what dad?! Now that UC tuition will out-price all but the upper middle class kids. What are we waiting for? Do I actually expect Arnold is going to increase public education funding- flying in in the face of his great republican forefathers?! No.
I encourage my readers who are voters in this great state of California to write Arnold. Join with the chorus of students who protested today at Berkeley, and the faculty who held classes off campus. Say no to the increasing public disinvestment of public education.
Here is a website you can log onto to send a letter to our state legislature, nothing too radical- it's even endorsed by the president of the UC Regents!!!:
http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/home/
All together. Now. Save one of our nations last public education systems!
Sitting in my new kitchen making breakfast for a new friend.
He is another former farm & garden apprentice, also on a quest for knowledge. We mainly discuss what it's like to search for meaningful educational experiences in a world dominated by positivist paradigms and bubble test quantifications of knowledge.
There is much to know in this world, so much to learn. My new question- 'how do we access that information, in a joyful, meaningful, lasting way?' is now prevalent, having transitioned so quickly from the apprenticeship world to Davis.
I'm positive now that humans are social creatures with a drive to work, and as such, one of the most productive and positive learning environments is in a situation that encourages both. A social working environment, where people with common interests come together to accomplish some task. The learning is therefore on several levels; first in the doing of the task where the learning is a product of the social negotiation that takes place. Secondly learning occurs within the social interaction itself (read experience and skill sharing) and happens as the work is done. Add to the experience the shear joy and excitement that happens when you're surrounded by an enthusiastic, smart, charismatic group of people- and you've got the perfect environment for learning. Peer to peer education, building the plane while flying it, in it for the love of it.
As I wind my way around the bowls of UCD, I'm looking to replicate that experience. Finding a cohort, support, inspiration, real learning. And again, I repeat, it's hard.
