Radical Black Farming, Black Farmers Resistance, and Representation In Media

My question when starting may blog post was, "What are black farmers doing now?" I couldn't just dive right in to modern Black farming practices without looking back a bit. Check out this article about 7 contributions of Black farmers to agriculture. 

7 Contributions of Black Farmers to Agriculture

https://www.farmproject.org/blog/2017/2/4/hikqys8igvv0bo368aco3mrb1rv

Check out their website!

http://www.nationalblackfarmersassociation.org/about_us

In addition to farming, Black Farmers have had to look out for each other which is why the National Black Farmers Association w created

Check out this video about the founding of Hydroponics! Did anyone know a lack man created this technology?

Philson Warner, Cornell University Cooperative Extension associate, founded the Cornell Hydroponics, Aquaculture and Aquaponics Learning Labs at Food and Finance High School, an Eco-School in Manhattan.

"Our greenhouse—with its mutually sustainable hydroponic and aquaculture systems—is used for teaching, food production and as a science hub for the New York City area. Using minimal energy, it may even contribute to the city's power grid," says Warner.

http://www.cornell.edu/video/hydroponics-aquaponics-scientist-philson-warner-nyc

Our system is broken, we know that. Here are some things Black farmers do to help out each other and finesse when  they have to to make a living. 

Mapping existing pieces of the value chain to locate missing links

Gap 1: Get certified! To sell to larger buyers, farmers need USDA certification that they are following best practices. This takes time and costs money, both scarce for low-income farmers. DSCAN coached them through it. In just one year, 22 Alabama farmers working with The Cottage House became Global GAP certified, the highest certification level.

Farmers got needed labor; local youth gained new opportunities in agriculture. Photo ©Kertis Creative

Gap 2: Produce more and better. Supplying higher-volume markets means using the land as productively as possible. Experts from Tuskegee University helped Network farmers adopt growing protocols and practices to meet buyers’ standards, increasing crop yields by at least 40%, along with their value.

Gap 3: Capture more value. Farmers earn more for produce that is cleaned and packaged. Mississippi’s MileSton Cooperative worked with local youth to turn an old gas station/convenience store into a facility to wash and bag peas and other produce. In Alabama, TUCCA secured space for an aggregation and production facility that now employs 13 people.

Gap 4: Find workers. Producing vegetables requires lots of people and partners struggled to find workers to meet growing demand. The solution? Engage young people. Farmers got labor at a fair price and 47 local youth in 2015 alone gained new opportunities in agriculture. Another value chain is tapping the prison reentry program to find willing workers.

Black Farmers in Oakland California reconnected with the earth, and farming practices through growing Cannabis. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDbeD5TCyGRTg&v=beD5TCyGRTg

The food movement in Detroit is bussing! Check out this video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJsXev3eU0

Questions: 

1. What did you know about black farming contributions before this class? 

2. What didn't you think about Black Farmers / farming practices that shocked you. 

3. How do you think these ideas come into play when thing about our food moment on campus? 

4. How can we make the food movement on campus more inclusive? 

5. The growing of legal cannabis is expanding quickly, I want you to imagine yourself as the one person who dictates how this new industry will work. 

Who gets to grow? Who will actually be doing the hard labor? How much will a gram cost? How many plants can a single household have? How many plants can a farming household (like Amy who also trades and sells produce)? Who gets to smoke? What else will the hemp be used for? What will happen to people in prison because of weed charges?, and any other questions you can come up with to create your perfect industrial cannabis industry. 

Week 10 on the Farm: Final reflection

Weather Forecast: Mid-70s, mostly cloudy.

It's been a delight working and learning with all of you this quarter! This week is crunch week on the farm, when we need to finish up most of our planting, so we're going to ask you to help us with that. We'll also take some time to walk through the gardens to see how things have grown over the past two months and maybe even harvest a few things to share during our Wednesday class.

 

I know that we've covered a lot of interconnected topics this quarter, so I hope this final reflection will be an opportunity for you to pause and think back over the course to what has had the most impact on you and what you most want to remember. This final reflection will be 10 percent of your grade, so please spend a little time thinking about it. You can post your reflection in the comments section or email it to me by this coming Friday, June 7.

Before you start writing, read back through the comments that you've made on this blog to refresh your memory about the ideas and questions that came up for you during the course of this class. (This will also give you the opportunity to note how many blog comments you have posted. If you had difficulty with technology during the quarter and find that some of your comments did not post, you are welcome to rewrite them and email them to me for credit by June 7.) You may also want to browse back through some of your classmates' comments that you didn't have a chance to read earlier.

  

Then, write a reflection on your experience in this class that addresses the following questions:

 

What questions, themes, and/or ideas from this class have been the most interesting for you to consider? What new ideas are you taking away from this course? What new questions do you have?

 

What do you think you’ll remember most from this class one year from now?

What is one thing you’ve learned in this class that you hope to put into practice in your life after graduation?

Throughout this quarter, John and I have shared with you some of the ways we are working to make a positive difference in the world through experimenting with and teaching small-scale, localized farming. Following our passions, talents, and curiosities has led us to this way of giving to the world. What passions, talents, and curiosities will you be pursuing after graduation and how might these lead you to ways you can make a positive difference in the communities in which you’ll be living and the world at large?

What suggestions do you have for improving future versions of this course?

Technology and Innovation in Farming: "Old" and "New"

Hello Everyone!

So for my presentation this week, I was playing around with ideas surrounding technology/innovation in farming. In one of the earlier weeks (1st Week? 3rd week?) we talked a bit about technology and its good and bad sides. I decided it would be interesting to pursue this further and get some further thoughts/discussion about this.

(Note: I use “old” and “new” as ways of thinking about Indigenous technology/farming practices vs. Modern technology/farming practices in loose terms, emphasizing the way that “old” ways of doing things are still technology/innovation.)

“Old” Technology 

I especially wondered how people grew things in areas that don’t have an environment that is typically thought of as “farmland” (ie deserts, mountainous regions etc.) However, in the midst of newer technology and innovation, I was reminded by Amy that people did farm and survive in many of these areas without these “new” ways of farming.

In looking up articles and material, I thought about the time a friend of mine spent in Australia and how she talked about the food and the bush. Additionally, Australia was also colonized, so much of the traditional knowledge was lost when huge amounts of people died (I’m no expert on Australia or Australian history, but in many ways the way people discussed Aboriginal farming practices reminded me of similar discussions surrounding Native Americans in the United States. Here are a few videos with articles talking about Aboriginal farming practices in Australia. I found them to bring up interesting points. Feel free to look up more information about this, because this is a pretty general overview.

https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Environment/Biodiversity/Biodiversity-book/Chapter-6 

https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/land/aboriginal-land-care

“New” Technology
In thinking about innovations in farming, I immediately thought about Hydroponics and other methods that don’t use soil. Here are a few definitions to clarify differences in some of these systems and how they work.

“Hydroponics – The plants roots are ‘submerged’ in a continuous flow of nutrient based water. Aeroponics – The plants roots hang in the air & a sprinkler system sprays them with nutrient based water rather than it being submerged. Aquaponics – The plants roots are exactly the same as the hydroponics example. Only difference with aquaponics is how the plant nutrients are created. With hydroponics you manually provide the nutrients into the system. With aquaponics you have a fish tank connected to the plants & the fish wastes are the nutrient source.” (https://originhydroponics.com/hydroponics-vs-aquaponics-vs-aeroponics/)

In thinking about these, it is easy to see how these could be beneficial for areas where the ground is toxic or unable to easily grow things.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/aquaponic-farming-saves-water-can-feed-country https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9f59usLfI 


One of the major “innovators” in farming is the Netherlands. They use many of these technologies to boost their production and allow them to be one of the largest exporters of food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNCpEn2csGk 

A video about the Netherlands and how it became an agricultural powerhouse. (Also talks about other places in the EU) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUmP8Tli-Mc 

A short video praising greenhouses in the Netherlands. (Disregards traditional agricultural knowledge…) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CMfPLEtQMQ 

Yet, like most things, there is controversy surrounding using these methods. Specifically, in the organic community, because of the emphasis on taking care of the soil and striving to improve soil quality, because all of the –ponics don’t use soil, many in the organic community are pushing back against certifying –ponics as organic.

Here is an explanation of some of the controversy.
https://www.igrow.news/news/a-growing-battle-in-the-47-billion-organic-food-industry-could-fundamentally-change-the-program-and-some-farmers-are-worried 

Another article about how some farmers are pushing for a separate certification. https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/fresh-food/real-organic-project-creates-new-food-label 


Questions:

In thinking about new technologies in agriculture, there are obviously both benefits and drawbacks. I encourage you to get really specific about what potential pitfalls farms may experience when using technologies like these.

1.I used “old” and “new” as words to classify ideas surrounding technology and innovation in farming. What did you think about “old” and “new” farming practices before this class? (This hearkens back to our discussions surrounding indigenous knowledge) Which do you feel is more sustainable? Would a combination of both be possible? If so, what would it look like?

2. What do you think about not using soil in farming? What are the benefits? Drawbacks?

3. I’m thinking a bit about what Karina shared in class about how she couldn’t find who were working on the farms/in the greenhouses in the Netherlands. What types of systems of oppression could these technologies perpetuate? Would it be different from the way many farms currently work?

4. Would you use one of these systems to grow food?

5. What are some ways that these technologies could be implemented on smaller scales, perhaps in a community near your hometown or Kalamazoo? Do you think it would be beneficial? What are the limitations of this technology?

6. Anything else that the videos/information brought to mind!

Before Wednesday I encourage you to do three things to help bring more knowledge/ideas/perspectives to bring to the discussion:

1. Look up how people traditionally grew food in deserts (Was it the seeds? Was it specific tools? How did they survive?)

2. Look up a specific farming tool/technology and see where it originated (For example, I think the wheelbarrow was originally invented in China. This may relate to the previous research about “old” technology!)

3. Spend a little time learning a little more about –ponics systems. Which one do you think would be the most feasible for you to personally implement (if you wanted)? (You can also answer this in your comment if you like!) 

Thanks! See you all Wednesday.

 (It’s tenth week and it’s crazy…but it also means we are almost done! :D)

Genevieve

Walking in Beauty: Harmony, Balance, and Entanglement

For my presentation, I wanted to focus on thinking about balance, connection, entanglement, and harmony, centered in the context of nourishment and food and the relationship between these two things and communities. I spent 2 months in a rural part of the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona and I was honored with learning and experience while there. Before I continue my writing, I want to acknowledge the land we are on. 

We gather(learn, share, and grow) on the land of the Three Fires Confederacy: the Ojibwe, the Odawa and the Potawatomi. They speak Anishinaabemowin. Kalamazoo College itself is located on a part of the reservation established for Match-e-be-nash-she-wish and his band of Potawatomi. I acknowledge the stewards of this land and our privilege to produce,co-create, and benefit from this insitution built on stolen land. 

Secondly,  I also want to preface this post by urging you all to consistently remind yourself and me, as we read, think, and discuss that indigenous communities everywhere should not be reduced into one single moniker or identifier. I acknowledge the land we are on as Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, the knowledge I was gifted as Dine/Navajo, and privilege in mobility and settler identity in moving knowledge across the country as a second hand experience. 

When I lived on the Reservation, the very first thing I learned--in addition to how good fry bread is--was the concept of Walking in Beauty. I was working in an Indian Health Service clinic that incorporated the concept of Walking in Beauty into their protocol, their mission, and their values. I soon discovered that this concept was ingrained into law, farming, schooling, activities, and just about everything else. As an English speaking person, when I heard the word beauty, an aesthetic and moral valorization was usually attached to it, bringing with it a connotation of desirable emotion, mental placement, and rightness.However, the use of this word escaped my tongue's grasp, my imagination and interpretations could not capture the difference between desirability and beauty, the way in which beauty was something inherent, light, built in to our beings rather than something gifted to us by an observer's judgement. The way of Walking in Beauty is captured declaratively in prayer and ritual and it becomes the foundation for relating, grounding, and guidance. If you would like to hear a version of the prayer, narrated by a member of the Dine, you can find that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idgz85YS70o&feature=youtu.be. The prayer written out has many variations, but the following is  one of the most accepted. 

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again
Hózhóogo naasháa dooShitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa dooShikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa dooShideigi hózhóogo naasháa dooT’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa dooHózhó náhásdlíí’Hózhó náhásdlíí’Hózhó náhásdlíí’Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…

The relationship between the land, each other, and time is highlighted as being the base for a life that is fulfilling and above all centered in happiness, harmony, balance, and joy. In the interest of not redoing work that has already been done--acknowledging that so much is lost in translation--this https://nativeamericanconcepts.wordpress.com/walking-in-beauty/ is one of the better breakdowns of the concept that I have been able to find on the web. Please peruse it and write down any initial questions, challenges, or thoughts you have. As you will read in this piece, the concept is suspended around the root, or the idea/symbol/word hozho, which means natural order. Whenever this natural order is disturbed, we fall into dis-ease, a state that is only remediated by seeking, enacting, and embodying balance, communication, and understanding. Fundamentally, living beautifully is about healing--it is a way of life situated in time, movement, growth, and connectedness.

I was inspired by Yuri's presentation and their use of the Biocultura theory in understanding our relationships to food systems, the land, and our placement in the world. What I found myself constantly asking as I read was how we begin to center and privilege indigenous way of interacting and acting with and on the land in ways that sustain and implicate. As I remembered what I was taught about Walking in Beauty, I realized how much the Dine had impacted my engagement with and understanding of extraction, ritual, relating, and time. When people would fall into dis-ease, rather than throw pharmaceauticals at folks, a big swa dance was performed, in addition to speaking to the person, holding the person, and feeding the person. This took time, energy, community, and compassion. They taught me to apply the same concepts to food, violence, alcoholism, and ownership. I bet at this point youre wondering what this has to do with food. This may be the longest preface in the world but what this has to do with food is the way that storytelling, ritual, dance, and song can not only entertain us but sustain us, can be movement and body and also offering and honor. Accepting that we are entangled is the only way to walk in true beauty. Judith Butler argues this beautifully as she talks abut mourning. She says, 

See, even though I was taught what corn means for the Dine--and even for the Hopi as I was privileged enough to also learn and live with them for a bit--the actions of the State and the general state of  our world was one where people told how to do and grow to people who could not afford to as poverty is rampant, the land is not theirs, and the rains cannot feed the soil. This is not true for the entirety of the Reservation but where I was, where fields once stood, lived a greasy chicken hut and a pizza parlor. For the entirety of the surrounding communities, all that could feed people was fast food and one grocery store. Industries such as coal mining are what keep many Navajo employed, something I was told was akin to needing to feed yourself with the blood of your children. Walking in beauty, I was told, meant self-sustenance, integrity, and pride, a growth of self that came with helping the Earth grow too. Removing the conversation from the Reservation quickly, the concept of Walking in Beauty is something that could change the way that we interact with the world; acknowledging this way of life, is to acknowedge that we are entangled and inseparable from one another and therefore have a responsibility to nourishing one another spiritually, mentally, and physically, particularly through the modality of food. How do we over work land? How do we choose what will be our crop? What is a weed and why? When is it a weed and when is it life? Why do we fear the world's natural processes of destruction and decompostion?

        “Be still and the earth will speak to you.”

-Navajo Proverb

Here is some beautiful news from a part of the reservation very close to where I stayed. 

https://www.hcn.org/articles/state-of-change-navajo-small-businesses-stabilize-booms-and-busts it is a 2 part series so please read both and again note anything you see--language, rhetoric, mission, ideology, structure, etc. 

Lastly, I want to talk about the difference between desirability and beauty--mostly the way that beauty is a relationship and a component of love. Beauty is about ritual--the process of storytelling, dancing, retaining tradition, and cultural production. Beauty is about connection--the earth speaking to you, you paying attention, you both giving and taking. Beauty is about performance--the respectful stewardship, the honoring of land and being, the celebration by eating. Beauty is about joy--the conversation, the laughs, and the stories. Beauty is about change--the temporality of everything, the evolution from seed, to kernel, to husk, to dust. Beauty becomes about the presence, the commitment, and the connection, not just the extraction. Beauty is about the dichotomy--the you in me, and the me in you, the entanglement of particle, breath, body and soul. Beauty is about us. Peace be with you. 

1. How can you envision/how have you embodied Walking in Beauty in your own life? What words stand out to you and how do you live them? 

2. Thinking back to our piece on Biocultura and our conversation about community and nourishment, how do you find yourself implicated in the systems that govern our food interactions? Do you feel like this is a violence done unto you, that you participate in partly, or that there is ownership to claim in that violence(according to your upbringing and current positionality)? What informs that and how does even that understanding rely heavily on privileging one way of knowing over another? 

3. When is the last time you listened to the Earth and let it speak to you? Was the moment beautiful? Explain. 

4. How do we Walk in Beauty together? How can we think of walking as a unit with independent parts but that is a collective nonetheless? What are the barriers? What is surmountable? What brings you joy? 

5. If you would like, please reflect publicly. Are you in a state of dis-ease? Have you any beautiful rituals that recenter you? Is it done in community or alone? 

p.s. i dont like how this is written all the way but its cool to read about initiatives that are Native led. (we should hear from them more!) https://civileats.com/2018/10/17/how-the-navajo-nation-is-reclaiming-food-sovereignty/ 

Week 9: Michigan Agriculture

Hello everyone and happy ninth week!

This week I wanted to focus in on my favorite place in the world, the State of Michigan as well as an unique treasure from our forest. Through this post and our class time, I hope to share some of the influence food has within Michigan and with our respective home states.

When I think of Michigan, the first things that come to mind are the cherry festival in Traverse City, apple cider mills in the fall, and Saturday farmers markets, but these token events do not demonstrate the large-scale production that is occurring. The food and agriculture industry contributes $104.7 billion annually to the state’s economy and accounts for 22% of our labor force (as recognized by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development). In fact, Michigan ranks #1 in the nation for production of tart cherry, several bean varieties, potatoes for processing, asparagus, and in the top 5 for several other foods staples (https://www.michigan.org/article/trip-idea/michigan-agriculture-facts-might-not-have-known). There are several other interesting resources I found while googling whose links I will add to the bottom of this post if you would like to check them out!

I believe that becoming aware of the food and food production in your region is immensely beneficial and crucial to tackling issues surrounding the system.  However, as we have seen through our class discussions and various assignments, this information is difficult to come by. Therefore, for class on Wednesday, I am challenging everyone to identify a food that is unique or a staple to your home state and why it is meaningful or interesting and I am going to do the same!

One of the foods that I have become particularly interested in recently in our Great Lakes State is Maple syrup. Although I grew up in Michigan, I would not have been able to tell you the process for the creation of maple syrup before I took Sara Tanis’s “Trees” course this past winter. We were able to go and observe the production on a small scale and taste the sap and syrup at every stage!  I tried really hard to find a good, concise overview of the process to share with you all but that proved to be more difficult than I imagined.  There are several videos online that look at large scale production of maple syrup such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1UYfRdH7rs. However, I find the small-scale process much cooler so I will talk about it in class! Something that you can glean from the video that I always find incredible is the sheer volume of sap that is needed to produce the syrup. I have heard estimates between 35-40 gallons of sap needed to produce one gallon of syrup (depending on what species of maple you are tapping). Further, as you can see from their taste tasting, the syrup is not consistent throughout the season. The beginning of the season yields lighter, sweeter syrup while the end of the season gives a darker, more “maple-y” flavor.

On top of researching a food for class, I ask that you answer the following questions to guide our upcoming discussion, thank you!

1.)    Prior to this blog post or this class in general, what did you know about the food industry in Michigan? Were there certain crops or traditions you were aware of?

2.)    Why (or possibly why not) do you feel it is value to become knowledgeable about the food and agriculture in your region?

3.)    What did you know about the production of maple syrup before reading this post? Had you ever had a real maple syrup before?

Michigan Agriculture Links:

https://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-1572-7775--,00.html

http://geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/ag_regions.html

Campus Farms

Weather: Tuesday, highs around 70 degrees F, 90% chance of rain. Friday, mostly sunny, highs around 70.

On Tuesday this week we'll explore how student-run campus farms and gardens can serve as spaces for healing, learning, and social change as we tend to the land inside our campus hoop house and in the garden behind Hoben Hall. It looks like the weather will dictate what we are able to do when, but plan on meeting at the Hoophouse during your designated class time. We may move over to Hoben from there depending on how the work and weather is going.

I would like to invite you to think about this as an opportunity to leave some love on this land that has supported you over the years of your journey at K. I'm also wondering how we might enact the admonishment that Leah Penniman got from her elders that "the seed and the soil are alive, living beings in relationship and community with us and so you have to bless and thank the seed" through song, dance, prayer, and making beauty. What sort of beauty could we offer the land this week in thanksgiving for all she has given and continues to give us every day? Think about that while I give you a little (recent) history of the student-run gardens at K:

The Jolly Garden was established at 1324 Academy Street in 2010. It is named for Seema Jolly '07, who taught the first Gardening PE course. Check out this reflection from a student writing about the early years of the Jolly garden, as well as an even older student-run community garden that used to exist on campus: https://reason.kzoo.edu/garden/assets/Final_gardening_story__Claire_Eder.pdf


Though I don't know the name of the student or the date it was built, I do know that the Greenhouse on the Facilities Management roof was designed by a student. It has been an important space in being able to start seedlings in a protected space so that they can be transplanted into the Jolly and Hoben Gardens.

The Hoben Garden was started in 2014 by members of my Slow Farming class who wanted a place on campus where they could practice what they were learning on my farm. It has expanded since then from a tiny 2 ft strip along the Fac Man roof line to include two raised beds and a patch of out-of-control sunchokes that we should probably dig out on Tuesday! This past Winter's Permaculture PE course drafted some ideas transforming that garden into a permaculture space and, weather permitting, we'll move some of those plans forward on Tuesday as well.

The idea for the campus Hoophouse sparked in 2016 by members of the Just Food Collective, who wanted to put more practice into their praxis by increasing the opportunities for K students to gain skills with growing food through direct experience on our campus. Anika Sproull's SIP was instrumental in moving this project from idea into possibility. Watch her SIP presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtYBncbuTc&feature=youtu.be

Despite Anika's eloquence, it took another year and a half of student research, planning, budgeting, and fundraising before the Hoophouse was finally built last Fall. Here's a video featuring John and Paige helping to pull on the roof: https://www.facebook.com/emiline.chipman/videos/2709921932367430/

I've been at K since 2011 and one of the things I have appreciated most about the K students I've worked with is how much effort they have put into initiatives to make our campus community more just and humane, even when they were aware that these initiatives were not going to come to fruition until after they graduated. To me, this demonstrates the best kind of "seventh generation" thinking and is one of the reasons that I cannot believe that humans are fundamentally individualistic and selfish. This week, I'm going to ask you to engage in this sort of "future work" by doing some visioning about what these garden spaces could become and how they might meet the needs of future K students like yourselves. I will take your ideas into my planning for the Food and Farming Justice pilot program that I'll be working on next year.

For your comments this week, please reflect on the following:

Think back on our conversations over this quarter about food, land, labor, soil, seeds, justice, community, citizenship, embodiment, hunger, sovereignty, ecology and so much more. Think about your engagement with these issues in other spaces at K or elsewhere. What could you imagine happening in these campus garden spaces that might deepen students' experiences and understandings of these issues? 

Think back on your personal experience at K. Do you see ways that opportunities for direct engagement with the living soil, living seeds, living plants, and other living humans in the gardens on our campus might have supported your emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical, or relational well-being? If you could create any type of on campus garden to give as a gift to future K students, what would it look like? This is a dream garden, so dream big! And be detailed in your description--what would the garden look like, smell like, taste like? What would happen there? Who would be there? What intentions would guide their actions and interactions with the Earth and with each other? 

Also, think about what songs, dances, poems, or other acts of gratitude we might create together in the gardens on Tuesday!

Intentional Communities

Hello friends - I hope everyone is doing well this Monday.

For my part of this Wednesday’s class, we will be discussing some aspects of intentional farming communities! 

In our collective process of learning about farming practices, responsible and reciprocal relationship to land, and indigenous and westernized food ways, I have been thinking about how the principles of honorable harvest, sustainable farming and living, and, of course, capitalism relate to one another and might apply themselves to potential future lifestyles and practices. In this, communal living, intentional communities, and sustainable communities - several names for similar ideas - are all very easily romanticized yet interesting to me in their practical application, benefits, drawbacks, and potential functions as part of anti- or peri-capitalist ways of living and sustainably producing food in community. 

From my brief research, there is surprisingly little material on intentional farming communities, and apparently no material on ties they might have to indigenous ways of living, indigenous food ways, and indigenous resistance to capitalistic colonialism. While this is an issue for many reasons, I would also like to take it as an opportunity to discuss intentional communities in terms of what we understand them to be as well as what they could be - imagining new alternatives.

While there are some intentional farming communities which do not promote themselves as contradictory to, or outside of, capitalism (such as co-housing communities) there are some which promote themselves as - and to an extent operate - outside of the capitalist system. Many of these surviving communities originated in ‘back-to-the-land’ movements of the 60’s and 70’s.  Here ( https://youtu.be/351TKxYg7M4 ) is the link to a short video about one such community and its relationship to the ‘mainstream’ world. 

I also find interesting the ways in which these communes affect human-human relationships (if we can pretend it’s that simple). Here ( https://youtu.be/EusOgAAlFG0 ) is the link to a Ted Talk by Bianca Heyming and her story of founding and living in an intentional community. And here ( https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/07/commune-farm-sustainability-mineral-virginia/ ) is a photo-essay and brief article about life inside another community. 

Some discussion questions: Pick one.

1. What relationship do you have to intentional farming communities or communes? How have they been represented in your exposure to them or the idea of them? 

1. Do you think that intentional farming communities are a viable way of living? Why or why not?

1. Do you see connections between the ways in which intentional farming communities live and indigenous ways of life and resistance?

Food Positivity!

Hi Farm Friends!

This week, as we continue to consider various issues surrounding food, I wanted to turn our attention to a discussion about food messaging. We have obviously all have grown up in different households with different relationships to food, I wanted to share a few things that might allow us to think about what our experiences have had in common. Though these articles touch on different things, they all address different ways in which food is being talked about in our society. I know that our relationships to food are highly complex and ever-changing, as well as profoundly personal, so as you think about these questions, please take care of yourself and share only what you’re comfortable with. In class, I would like to discuss what we have read here, but also maybe talk a little more about our perceptions of, and relationships with food both as they relate to these sources and stray from them.

So, I am issuing a trigger warning at this time. We will be thinking about and reflecting on our own food journeys, so I want to offer a few things. First, one of the things I’ll be doing will be to give us time to free write some ideas in class, and then to ask those who are willing to share some thoughts. DO NOT feel pressure to share these if you are not comfortable doing so. Also, if you find you need space during our discussion, please feel free to leave the group at any point because I totally understand and support you. Again, I have struggled a lot with food in my own life, and therefore will do my best not to ask terribly probing questions, but I want to acknowledge that everyone has different levels of comfort with this topic.

As far as our discussion, I am excited to hear your thoughts and will leave room for us to take it in many directions! All my love and I hope you all are taking moments to reflect amidst the busy time that is 8th week of senior spring!

Now for a little reading:

Here are a few things on the Museum of Disgusting Foods, which had/has locations in Mälmo, Sweden and Los Angeles. Check out the website and then head over to this interview with the museum’s creator, Samuel West on the intended purpose of these exhibitions.

https://disgustingfoodmuseum.com

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/4/17934242/disgusting-food-museum-psychology-samuel-west

Food criticism is an interesting and highly subjective topic… so let’s look at these. First, have you ever wondered what it takes to earn a michelin star? And then, read this food critic’s thoughts on what it takes to be like him (lol).

https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/illinois/chicago/article/news-and-views/how-to-get-michelin-stars

https://www.foodnetwork.ca/dining-out/blog/what-it-takes-to-become-a-1-2-or-3-michelin-star-restaurant/

https://www.businessinsider.com/jay-rayner-how-to-become-a-food-critic-2016-4

And here’s just a brief history of the emergence of “calorie” into American food vernacular. Nationalism, Hollywood, and Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters!

https://dailyhistory.org/index.php?title=When_did_Americans_begin_to_get_obsessed_with_weight_loss%3F&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile

Here are some questions to respond to:

1. Okay so how are we feeling about the Museum of Disgusting Foods? Is West’s interview in keeping with your impressions of the exhibitions from the website?
2. What have been your experiences consuming food criticism-related media? Have these opinions influenced yours in any way?
3. Where and when in your life have you learned about “nutrition” and how do you define it? Do you feel that your definition is in keeping with a national or cultural narrative, or does it feel more distinctly yours?

Week 8 on the Farm: Transplanting

Weather Forecast: Tuesday, cloudy, mid-60s. Friday, possible storms, mid-80s.

Hi ya'll! Whew, it's been a full weekend on the farm. We are harvesting asparagus, finishing up the last of our soil blocking, potting up transplants for sale, and transplanting into the garden beds. And fencing. And weeding. And finishing pruning. And chasing the ducks out of the road.

This week is going to be a big push to get plants into the ground, so that's probably what we'll have you help us with. As you help us plant the seeds and plants that will fill our gardens during the coming season and we draw our time together to a close over the next few weeks, I want to make space for you to think more about where you (as an embodied person whose body is sustained by food) are located within the web of human and nonhuman relationships that involve food. And I want to share stories of resistance and inspiration about the good food work that folks are doing across the globe.

Leah Penniman is one such inspirational model. She runs Soul Fire Farm in New York. Check out her farm's website and some of their videos to learn more about what she does: http://www.soulfirefarm.org/

Then, watch this short documentary video in which Leah talks a little about her personal path to this farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPaoepZj-yI&feature=youtu.be

Finally, check out this 50 minute talk in which Leah discusses how her farm is rooted in 3 "stones" or principles as they work at their mission of ending racism and injustice in the food system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5TPTxllBjI

This week in the comments section, I invite you to reflect on the questions that Leah poses to her audience in her talk: 

1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?

2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system? (As you answer this question, think about what Leah said in the documentary about how all parts of herself and her experience are relevant on her farm. What gifts, talents, skills, and experiences do you bring to your work in the world and how might they all come together to make positive change in whatever community you end up living in post-graduation?)