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  • From: <eureka AT hctc.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Healthy Harvest (was Re: Community, the importance of)
  • Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:04:21 -0500

Jerry,

Thanks for your wonderful encouragement! I hope you will allow me to share your comments with our Heathly Harvest group.

I do think this could be implemented anywhere, even in the suburbs on a vacant lot. Maybe someday when all cars are electric and there is less pollution we'll be farming the roadsides instead of mowing and spraying them.

Although my husband is orginally from Wisconsin, he more recently lived in Chicago for five years and has been a long-time a supporter of Growing Power. His greatest dream is to farm when he retires from teaching. He is still learning about growing things here where the growing season lasts about 235 days.

This thing sort of evolved...both of us share a passion for community building and food issues. First we looked into taking over our friends' CSA on a certified organic farm (now defunct, they could not make a profit after 10 years) about 40 miles from us but it didn't feel right. Their customers were mostly in San Antonio and I could see a lot of their loss was from gasoline. We wanted to feed our own community.

Our friend Gerry, an organic grass fed longhorn beef rancher, decided a year ago to work with his local ISD to get fresh vegetable snacks to the school kids twice a day. Our CSA friends donated their commercial refridgerators to the cause when they folded. Although the veggies come from a Texas grocery chain sponsor, I think the school's Ag department is trying to grow some of it. Gerry is working on our school district to adopt a similar program. We began to notice how all the elderly people around us didn't eat any greens.

Last year we joined TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) and Rick (my husband) became our county's TOFGA community organizer. He wanted to start a farmers market, but I reminded him it would take more than one farmer to make a market, as we don't have a big enough place to support the entire community (50 in our town, 300 in the one just north of us). People already come to our house to buy eggs, so I wasn't keen on picking vegetables before I knew there was a buyer or spending my Saturdays sitting by the side of the road. Having worked for a public botanical garden and taught people about plants, I knew I'd rather teach people how to grow (and cook) their own food than to grow it for them. So we really wanted to approach the same problem different ways.

We decided to first read everything we could get our hands on regarding food issues: Plenty, 100 Mile Diet, Omnivore's Dilema, Eating: A Manifesto, Animal Vegetable Miracle, Slow Food Nation, Fast Food Nation, One Straw Revolution, Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front, etc...and then started talking about these ideas with absolutely everyone we came in contact with. Pretty soon we discovered there was local interest in food issues and diverse talents among community members, so my husband took the initiative to get Healthy Harvest started. We purposely picked a name that did not say organic or local--even though that is our focus--but used words that would resonate with descendents of self sufficient pioneers. As you know Texas is big on high school sports and competition. To tap into that spirit, I'd like for people to want to say "we're the town that feeds itself".

We attended the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, TX this weekend http://theroundup.org/index.php and heard lots of inspiring speakers, particularly Brad Stufflebeam from HomeSweetFarm who worked for a non-profit teaching 3rd world people to farm organically but ended up in Texas local food movement by starting a successful CSA serving 100 families with 22 acres. You may have seen him featured in Hobby Farms Magazine, May/June 2008 www.homesweetfarm.com He had a lot to say about developing partnerships in community.

Also of note, we met the publisher of Edible Austin magazine, which has other magazines across the country, devoted to the local food movement in central Texas www.edibleaustin.com/content/index.php and she was very excited to hear about Healthy Harvest and wants to keep up with our progress. Of course, it's too new and early to know what will develop, but I think you are right, this is going to be the new economic order soon. I'll keep you posted.

--Sage
Way Out in Texas



On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:07:32 -0400
Jerry B <liberty AT kaballero.com> wrote:

I can't let this post pass by without comment. To emphasize how great I think is the venture you and your neighbors are undertaking, I must say I think it is representative of the next step, even the new economic order of tomorrow! That's all. :-)

Totally free and voluntary association for the joint production, distribution, and consumption of goods not only "cuts across party lines", but lines of culture, education, financial status ... in short all human differences. The focus on food, in this case, works as well for any type of economic activity ... building, selling and buying houses, raising chickens, or even manufacturing automobiles. (Note: If such things are done by and for oneself and/or one's family then this limited definition of 'economic' as a *social* activity, does not apply. However, it is rare that even such private activity does not include some element produced, distributed and consumed by others, known or unknown. And yes, James, 'do-it-yourself' has social implications as well.)

Though it is the product that is the goal, a very important 'by-product' of these endeavors is the meeting and rubbing-shoulders with very different persons, learning to cooperate in a neighborly manner. The common need and desire for the product provides motivation, but the process can lead to, what to call it? ... brotherhood? fraternity? (sure need more genderless terms) friendship? camaraderie? communion? Or the opposite if not done aright in freedom. It turns out that in striving to fill our human needs, opportunity is given to mix with a wide variety of persons, not just those who think like we do, look or act like we do ...our very lives depending on it.

This type of free and voluntary association is a far cry from either Capitalism or Socialism. It transcends both, in synthesis, hence the next step. Each individual remains his or her own boss ... freely choosing who they wish to work with, choosing what they want to do, and determining how much time and labor they choose to apply to it. One's 'time' and 'labor' are no longer made into commodities. There is no 'servitude' in the negative sense involved, or making a few rich from my time and labors ... each working for fulfillment of their own needs, self-determined, yet in company. As the 'company' succeeds so do the individuals and their dependents.
Any one that wants to, and can, provide any or all of their own needs is left totally free to do so. No one is telling them they must associate with others, how or where. In such joint ventures, leaders arise quite naturally and spontaneously, in fact changing often or having several at the same time as different aspects of the project arise. No vote need be taken. The degree of expertise in the particular economic activity soon becomes obvious to all. The 'authority' of skill and knowledge, not social position or financial position, is the determinative factor. As this increases, so does compensation for the quality and quantity of the product produced No dole, nor hand outs. No salary based on time (who can put a value on how much one hour, one week, or one month of my time is worth?). The product, in this economic order of social life, is the thing. No product, no pay. More product, better quality, more pay. This is quantifiable, understood by all participants.

Profit becomes a just means of measurement of demand and value. Voluntary contracts are made between persons and between other associations, even contracts across borders and nations. It works on any scale. I don't know if your dreams for Healthy Harvest include these types of exchanges and outreach but I would think it well might. I am interested in continuing to hear more about what you all are learning from this adventure. I want to keep up to date with developments. If I were a neighbor, I would be right there in middle of it. I'm thinking already how such a group can be initiated in our own neighborhood.

Was it you that began this activity? Are there other projects that serve as a model? btw, I recently saw a piece done on TV about 'Growing Power'. http://growingpower.org/Index.htm. The TV article was specifically about the city food center in Chicago and it's remarkable founder, Will Allen http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01genius.html?ref=style but the home page reveals its broader scope including farming communities as well. I am much impressed.
The underlying promise, to me, of all this, is that there are indeed new things that can be and are being, done, independently and along-side the old. This allows for simple free choice by anyone as to which is the better way. As the 'old' ways fail, no longer encompassing present circumstances, vital alternatives can grow and thrive on new ground. I think it is mainly through such joint ventures that some can survive what is quickly coming down upon us as a result of our past choices. So as you notice, I think what you all are doing is most important, and exciting. Jerry

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