Are Academics Relevant?

A question I've been asking myself recently. Good to self-reflect, as I currently identify as one. I came across a journal article of the same title in a class recently. Randy Stoeker, and academic, community organizer, and participatory action researcher came up with this list for academic guidance. Love it. Especially the last one.

Another grey day in Davis but,

Daffodils.

Tulips.

Almond blossoms.

Allergies.

Harbingers of spring.

Not Voting with My Fork

The sustainable agriculture catch phrase "vote with your fork" has always plagued me. I understand its sentiment. The idea that we, as consumers, have the right to choose the type of business practices that we want to support with the 'vote' of our dollar is powerful. Originally it made me feel elated, like I had a voice in a decision and therefore could create a shift in the market towards what I value. I liked the idea that there was an alternative to what at the time seemed like an ineffectual process of voting in US elections, (which has continually landed us with appointed representatives who favor and fund the support of large scale industrial agriculture- save Kathleen Merrigan.) Voting with my fork (or dollar) seemed like a clear and easy way to encourage people to participate in choosing the type of agriculture they would like to support.

However, recently, the idea of 'voting' with my fork has rubbed me wrong. You see, we in the sustainable agriculture movement are conflating basic democratic principles, such as the concept of voting, with the tenets of free market capitalism, like the market will determine which enterprises succeed and which fail. And by encouraging people to 'vote with their fork' we will squander the limited attention of our audience on a method of 'voting' that at the end of the day will mean nothing in the face of the hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies, corporate write offs and contracts, and favorable legislation toward large agribusiness.

Instead of encouraging people to be better consumers, we should be encouraging them to be better citizens. We should instead be encouraging people to become increasingly active in civil society, to change the laws that make it rare for a small scale farmer, a beginning farmer, a sustainable farmer to be viable in todays economy. Yes we need to continue to support those enterprises economically, but until we change the political climate in which they operate, we'll all have to increase our appetites exponentially to change our food system.

The new Agrarian Question

Over the last decade I've been had the privilege of flying around the world, visiting cities and farms, studying and working in agriculture. Now again a student, I am integrating the images I absorbed during my travels into applied theories of social change.

I'm realizing that the expansive slums that I drove through outside of Deli corresponded with the enormous spaces of uninhabited farm land in the Punjab, now mechanically cultivated. And that this rural displacement is not isolated to their state. I've seen the same pattern the world over, Guatemala, India, Egypt. Massive agricultural zones characterized by heavily capitalized export cultivation, green revolution techniques, mechanization, the privatization of land as capital, the depopulation of rural landscapes, mass migration to cities, or immigration to new states. Marx's proletarianization. Doubtful he would have predicted the speed and scale in which it would occur. This new proletariate resides in black plastic mega-slums surrounding major metropolitan cities, the shiny black transitional scars resulting from world agriculture's rapid integration into the neoliberal new world order- the newest iteration of capitalism.

I knew much of the story before my travels. Neoliberal economic theory- comparative advantage, structural adjustment, deregulation of agriculture, free trade, etc etc-- but the relatively short history of agricultural capitalism and its systematic dismantling of the world's agrarian peasantry is new and overwhelming. Mass migration, urbanization, starvation, unraveling before me like some giant unwieldy puppet show. I'm now realizing that the slums, and hunger I've witnessed were not a steady-state of affairs, status quo for time eternal, but rather the most recent belch of the first world neoliberal capitalist agenda. To paraphrase Mike Davis, another capital casualty of 'oops a million more dead'.

Perhaps that was why, when I heard Elliot Coleman, one of the fathers of the small-scale organic farming movement in the US, speak last week- I was moved to stand and shout, when he proclaimed in the face of a popular organic food company's CEO that although organic was now a branded seal of the USDA, capitalism would never be able to deny that small scale agricultural producers are amongst the most subversive and powerful people on the planet. Because as long as peasant producers can hold on to their means of production, he argued, they and only they, have the power to resist the capitalist paradigm.

My aspiration to be a small-holder remains true.

Gentrification

Hilarious, and somewhat terrifying portrayal of gentrification. It's an issue I definitely grapple with being a white upper middle class chick. Click the title to be taken to more insightful political images.

Coming Home

I am fully in graduate school now. A student academic- worldview blown open.

New possibilities unfold.

I've learned, or rather remembered, that school is all consuming. There is no time-sheet to check off, no reason to stop at the end of the work day. The possibilities of learning stretch on ad-infinitum. No end.

Recently the infinitum has zeroed in on an academic discipline that I'm thinking, looks more and more like home. Political Ecology. I could claim I had been doing it for some time. My interests and actions over the last few years to those in the know would look like Political Ecology in practice. But to state that it was knowingly so, would be misleading. For years I've categorized my academic interests as laying in the cross-section of environmental studies and politics. I identify with Feminist research methodology- academia, action, and emancipation combined. I favor a Geographer's view of the world as an interconnected whole. I study agriculture. But it took a certain professor here, and two weeks worth of Political Ecology readings, to realize- that all of this time, a collection of like minded individuals had been out there. I've read their theory, I've studied their research with interest. The sur-names Davis, Blaikie, Muldavin, Watts, and perhaps even Guthman kept coming up in my life, on my book shelfs, in my references.

And I've put it together. I am a first-world political agroecologist. Hurrah! My people! I'm home!

To Teach

In my time here in Davis,

I've learned that I can teach, that I love to teach, that I am challenged by it. It is, perhaps, one of the most difficult things I've ever attempted. Standing in front of a room of wide-eyes. Leading them into the complexities I am still untangling. I know that teaching is important because I wake up thinking about it, and go to bed wondering if it will go well. I know that it matters because my heart races when I begin to speak, to council, and to guide them.

Philosophically, I am attempting to democratize my classroom, using the ideas behind Popular Education as my beacons in the dark. I've had guides that lead in this direction, but as they're modest, they'll go unmentioned. Democracy in our public education system is, to be light, a challenge. As student- teacher ratios increase it's difficult to remain participatory and democratic. I struggle to simply grasp all eighty of their names. How can you have participation and democracy without names? What's in a name? Personality, life history, culture, background, belief, influence... and on and on. All that plays a role in how people learn, what the gravitate toward, what they value.

I'm learning by doing. Falling, faltering, getting up, trying again. Attempt, re-write. Breath, sigh. Wake up. Try again. True hands on learning. Learning about learning, learning how to facilitate and inspire and ultimately teach. Again, a challenge.

In short, my new understanding of the courage that teacher's possess is profound. As a student I am grateful for their daily leap into the unknown, a giant trust fall. As one of them, I am thankful for my ability to practice- and hope one day to be able to execute the feat gracefully.

A New Model of Urban Agriculture in NYC

Here is a little shout out for a new project in NYC started by one of my UCSC apprenticeship crew.

BK Farmyards is a new urban farming network in Brooklyn. Our mission is to increase access to healthy affordable food to Brooklyn residents through increasing urban food production and providing jobs for urban farmers. We started last year by turning backyards into farmyards, offering the first CSA with all produce grown in Brooklyn. We are building on last year’s success with new sites, more farmers and more CSAs. We are working with the High School for Public Service to create a new Youth Farm. We will be turning the school’s one acre lawn into a thriving, productive and educational farm. The Farm will provide fresh affordable food for the community through a CSA, while providing educational and employment opportunities for the students.

Urban farms across the country have been offering a glimpse of what is possible, but we want to push farther. We believe that cities have the capacity to grow more food and employ more people in agriculture. There are currently over 10,000 acres of vacant land in NYC, 1,500 in Brooklyn alone. If just 10 percent of the backyards in NYC were farmed we could grow enough food for 700,000 people. There is high demand for local and healthy food, all 26 Brooklyn CSAs have waiting lists, and farmers markets are becoming more and more popular. Additionally we have an abundance of people who are skilled and talented in growing food, and even more who are interested in learning how.

BK Farmyards is creating a new model for urban farms. Our goal is to create financially sustainable farms that serve the people and neighborhoods subjected to the worst systematic oppression from our current food system. Our model lowers the cost of farming by building relationships between existing assets in our community: an abundance of experienced and enthusiastic farmers, underutilized land, schools, homeowners, developers and government support for local farms and low income consumers. Our model allows for us to be independent of continuous grant funding, allowing us to expand our work as more land becomes available and more people want to farm.

Though we plan on becoming financially sustainable, we need a lot to get everything going. We are currently fundraising through grants, special events and online tools. We are using kicktarter.com as a fundraising tool and so we need to reach our $10,000 goal by February 26th to receive any of the money. Please consider giving us your financial support, even $5 will be of great help!

If you are interested in working with us please shoot us a line. There is a lot to do, a lot of land and a lot of food to grow!

www.BKFarmyards.com

bee (@) BKFarmyards.com

"Is Wal-Mart the future of local food?"- Grist

Author Tom Laskawy candidly writes about how Walmart is considering using it's huge distribution network to underpin some of the burgeoning local food movement. Recently published in Grist- click the title to link to the page.

A Tiny House on the Mind

So my mind has been wandering of late. Mom says that it's just a nesting instinct, but it feels stronger than that. I've been thinking about window and trim, about what to build the floors out of, about roofing material and skylights. A space, a small space to call my own.

I wrote a couple of years back about my growing interest in Tiny Houses. Studios on wheels. I figured that the obsession would soon pass, but as I'm a farmer graduate student in recovery from living in a very small tent at the top of the world, my mind has begun to wander. And where have I wandered in my finals week procrastinations you ask? Why google image of course.

Candyland for creativity, filled with a world wide movement of tinyhome pioneers, rife with photos.

I've begun to enroll my home building family members in my story. As one set of my parents sign the papers on a new house with thousands of square feet to decorate, I muse about the freedom of no furniture, little dusting, no frills. I aspire to park my house in the footprint of their garage. I never rebelled in my teenage years- perhaps this is my form of uprising. Except, in my mind I've designed the uprising to be one that brings me closer to my family- Oh yes, and it's very very tiny.

The photos are of the Martin-House-to-Go, a spin off of the popular Tumbleweed design.