Pinboard (robertogreco)
https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/
recent bookmarks from robertogrecoCounter Space - YouTube2024-03-27T16:33:09+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnPDn1Lb79JH6dWwG2aflVRfg4OKl1fob
robertogrecofood towatch youtube international travel mexico lebanon france russia climatechange farming cooking breakfast 2023 2024 china japan iraq kenya foraging mushrooms coffee foodjustice insects economics hongkong spain españa yemenhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3a074f345860/Farming Under Israeli Occupation Is Brutal2024-03-25T05:47:31+00:00
https://jacobin.com/2024/03/west-bank-farming-water-apartheid-occupation
robertogrecopalestine israel agriculture farming water labor occupation 2024 rashidkhudairihttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:aa5b9084a2bf/The hunter-gatherers of the 21st century who live on the move | Aeon Essays2024-03-22T03:11:21+00:00
https://aeon.co/essays/the-hunter-gatherers-of-the-21st-century-who-live-on-the-move
robertogreconomads anthropology society paleolithic jungles jungle culture agriculture farming ceciliapadilla-iglesias republicofcongo mbendjelebayaka possessions ownership territory land accumulation surplus scarcity socialdarwinism behavior communities richardborshaylee irvendevore georgepetermurdock juliansteward marshallsahlins 1966 1960s kungsan congobasin australia gidjingali kalahari !kungsang jareddiamond 1987 yuvalnoahharari yuvalharari hunter-gatherers humanity howwelive movement centralafrica fertilecrescent wendat hadza aché knowledge knowledgetransmission genetics agta philippines demography migration evolution humans humanevolution jeromelewishttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c2601a4e91b3/Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System – Robin Wall Kimmerer2024-02-24T22:55:22+00:00
https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/corn-tastes-better/
robertogrecorobinwallkimmerer corn indigenous indigeneity food cultivation farming culture science technology decolonization 2021https://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:19e691b54ee3/Why We Can’t Build Better Cities (ft.Not Just Bikes) - YouTube2024-02-23T21:19:07+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lHNkUjR9nM
robertogrecocities urban urbanism rural countryside 2024 philosophytube stevenconn farming environment bikes biking place urbanplanning planning howwesee suburbs notjustbikes jasonslaughter estheraddley saraahmed bernadetteatuahene davidbanks adambarnett judithbutler alicecapelle lisachamberlain samueldelaney garethfearn hannahfry edwardglaeser davidharvey tiffanyhsu franklaundry davidlawler eishamaharasingham-shah michaelnaas fearguso'sullivan elliotsang chrisstanford darintenev trashfuture joywhite kimwillsher suburbia us uk canada cars cardependence infrastructure taxes roads parking strongtowns financing maintenance sustainability behavior privilege london gentrification creativity capitalism race racism racialviolence entrepreneurship wealth housing detroit culture homes development police policing class contact networking neighborhoods neighbors nyc timessquare manhattan loneliness publicspace genz generationz conformity crime criminalization sexworkers homeless homelessness anxiety fear homogenization qanon conspihttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7d8546e03f21/Where You Are Is Where You Are - by Hadden Turner2024-02-20T19:22:14+00:00
https://overthefield.substack.com/p/where-you-are-is-where-you-are
robertogreco“A couple who make a good marriage, and raise a healthy, morally competent children, are serving the world's future more directly and surely than any political leader, though they never utter a public word. A good farmer who is dealing with the problem of soil erosion on an acre of ground as a sound grasp of that problem and cares more about it and is probably doing more to solve it than any bureaucrat who is talking about it in general. A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and the industries mend their ways.”15"]]>haddenturner 2024 via:daniellucas democracy technocracy wendellberry local national global globalization centralization decentralization scale zoominginandout fulfillment governance government place placemaking community responsibility slow small burden individualism collectivism neighbors neighborliness environment politics distraction farms farming land bureaucracyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c0ce9b2b8f2e/Helpless Growth - by Dougald Hine - Writing Home2024-02-20T19:16:02+00:00
https://dougald.substack.com/p/helpless-growth
robertogrecodougaldhine 2024 growth farming gunnarrundgren food climatechange economics progress gdp development future agency modernity sensemaking understanding culturaldarkmatter culture degrowthhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e4646997a7fa/Scott Nearing - Wikipedia2024-01-04T00:26:31+00:00
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Nearing
robertogreco... economists part company with the ominous pictures of an overpopulated, starving world, prostrate before the throne of "competition," "individual initiative," "private property," or some other pseudo-god, and tell men in simple, straightforward language how they may combine, re-shape, or overcome the laws and utilize them as a blessing instead of enduring them as a burden and a curse.[13]
Much as Karl Marx drew radical implications from the ideas of the conservative Hegel, Nearing took the economic logic of his department head, Simon Patten, and made radical inferences about wealth and the distribution of income that his mentor had hesitated to draw.[14] He believed that unfettered wealth stifled initiative and impeded economic advancement, and hoped that progressive thinkers among the ownership class would come to realize the negative impact of economic parasitism and accept their civic duty of enlightened leadership.[15] Nearing outlined an economic republicanism based on "four basic democratic concepts—equality of opportunity, civic obligation, popular government, and human rights."[16]
While living in Arden in 1910, Nearing learned about The Landlord's Game, the forerunner of Monopoly, and taught it to his students. This use of the game as an instructional device led to its spread among colleges.[17]
But Nearing's aggressive social activism in the classroom and through the printed word brought him into conflict with his employers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, resulting in his dismissal and his emergence as a cause célèbre of the American radical movement during the next decade. On the morning of June 16, 1915, Nearing's secretary telephoned him to report that a letter from the provost had arrived, saying that "as the term of your appointment as assistant professor of economics for 1914–1915 is about to expire, I am directed by the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to inform you that it will not be renewed."[18] Penn's board of trustees was heavily stacked with bankers, corporation lawyers, financiers, and corporation executives, and Nearing's writing had not gone unnoticed.[19] His tenuous situation had been exacerbated by an open letter to The North American in which he challenged the right wing evangelist Billy Sunday to apply the Gospel to the conditions of industrial capitalism, including "the railroad interests ... the traction company ... the manufacturers ... the vested interests."[20] Reaction to Nearing's dismissal from the academy was swift, with department head Patten and others issuing statements condemning the decision. Progressives in the Wharton School quickly compiled a summary of the facts of the case and sent it to 1500 newspapers, journals, and academics around the country.[21] Even conservatives in the faculty were deeply troubled since, as one Wharton professor observed, "the moment Nearing went, any conservative statement became but the spoken word of a 'kept' professor."[21] Conversely, some radicals felt vindicated in their belief in the conservative nature of the American academy. Socialist writer Upton Sinclair told Nearing in an open letter that "You do not belong in a university. You belong with us Socialists and free lances . ... Instead of addressing small numbers of college boys, you will be able to address large audiences of men."[22] Nearing's dismissal was retrospectively called by one historian "the most famous breach of academic freedom" of the era.[23]"]]>scottnearing history simpleliving economics academia academicfreedom politics socialism communism marxism activism highered highereducation upenn wharton pacifists vegetarians farming homesteading simplicity voluntarysimplicity radicalism radicalization asceticism rural dissidents dissidence thoreau us gandhi jesus christ karlmarx animals philosophy economists competition growth degrowth backtotheland backtothelandmovement coldwar left leftism ussr sovietunion palmerraids property markets marketfundamentalists belief ideology simonnelsonpatten ralphwaldoemerson tolstoy self-reliance society labor capitalismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4b7b26fe6482/Forest Against the Trees | Sarah Aziza2023-10-24T03:23:19+00:00
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/forest-against-the-trees-aziza
robertogrecosarahaziza 2023 palestine nakba zionism israel monocrops agriculture settlercolonialism farming farms trees repatriation occupation settlements memoricide westbank gaza memory archives water technology desalination imperialism colonization colonialism wells desert deserts psychogeography indigeneity indigenoushttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9713d47e5404/Long Land War w/ Jo Guldi · The Dig2023-10-02T15:32:05+00:00
https://thedigradio.com/podcast/long-land-war-w-jo-guldi/
robertogrecojoguldi land 2023 danieldenvir imperialism us uk poscolonialism ireland india mexico landredistribution politics england china russia ussr sovietunion history rural urban urbanization mikedavis un fao leagueofnations japan korea displacement theft europe northamerica canada indigeneity indigenous latinamerica guatemala unitedfruitcompany humanrights feudalism capitalism capital inequality famine genocide geopolitics geography power economics democracy coldwar vietnam southafrica kenya climatechange water waterrights governance benedictanderson bureaucracy systems justice food hunger agriculture data statistics sociology socialsciences property ownership landback landlords tenants tenantsrights cooperatives infrastructure information maps mapping roads empire socialism trains kimstanleyrobinson soil rent socialjustice malthusianism paulehrlich population overpopulation malthus williampaddock paulpaddock globalsouth propertyrights decentralization elizabethpaddock 1970s globallandreform maotsetung industrializahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3ed4c88b40eb/The Decentralist: A look back at the idea that small is beautiful, by John McClaughry2023-08-15T03:21:38+00:00
https://reason.com/2017/04/22/the-decentralist/
robertogrecosmall kirkpatricksale 2017 wendellberry billmckibben environment environmentalism peterkropotkin anarchism albertjaynock libertarianism decentralization capitalism johnmcclaughry scale sustainability aristotle lewismumford arnoldtoynbee alexisdetocqueville robertputnam thomasjefferson leopoldkohr government governance state autocracy corruption waste donaldtrump antipathy socialism statesocialism ecocide grwoth famrs farming place local kibbutzim cooperatives rural agriculture communalism communism luddism cooperation consensus self-sufficiencyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8e3049bffd44/Wendell Berry: A review of The Need to Be Whole.2023-08-15T02:51:03+00:00
https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/wendell-berry-need-to-be-whole-review.html
robertogrecowendellberry daeganmiller 2022 donaldtrump bellhooks paulkrugman 2016 2020 slavery civilwar enslavement politicalcorrectness politics revisionism liberalism race agriculture farming love luddism luddites technology labor work industrialism anarchism anarchy utopia exploitation class gender pierre-josephproudhon violence land racism landuse environment capitalism proudhonhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e10be98e401d/Other Kinds of Violence: Wendell Berry, Industrialism, and Agrarian Pacifism | Environmental Humanities | Duke University Press2023-08-15T02:38:24+00:00
https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/3/1/25/8106/Other-Kinds-of-Violence-Wendell-Berry
robertogrecowendellberry williammajor 2013 pacisfism militarism environmentalism philosopy industrialism rural farminghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:dabf267d0b75/nurturing – The Homebound Symphony2023-08-14T23:44:31+00:00
https://blog.ayjay.org/nurturing/
robertogrecoWhereas the exploiter asks of a piece of land only how much and how quickly it can be made to produce, the nurturer asks a question that is much more complex and difficult: What is its carrying capacity? (That is: How much can be taken from it without diminishing it? What can it produce dependably for an indefinite time?) The exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. The competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order — a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery.
What Berry has done both as a farmer and a writer is to practice this nurturing; and I have tried as both a writer and a teacher to do the same, within my rather different sphere of effective action.
Since I do not have a farm I am more of a hunter-gatherer — my practice of nurture is perhaps better described by Ursula K. LeGuin in her essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”:
If it is a human thing to do to put something you want, because it’s useful, edible, or beautiful, into a bag, or a basket, or a bit of rolled bark or leaf, or a net woven of your own hair, or what have you, and then take it home with you, home being another, larger kind of pouch or bag, a container for people, and then later on you take it out and eat it or share it or store it up for winter in a solider container or put it in the medicine bundle or the shrine or the museum, the holy place, the area that contains what is sacred, and then next day you probably do much the same again — if to do that is human, if that’s what it takes, then I am a human being after all.
And for me the challenge has always been to become more cunning in my gathering, more scrupulously attentive to objects and ideas that others have discarded as worthless. To nurture the neglected, the forgotten. "]]>wendellberry ursulaleguin alanjacobs nuturing care caring 2023 hunter-gatherers land place carryingcapacity capitalism exploitation farming gathering writing howwewrite organizations order humanhorder teaching howweteachhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3fe85c86650a/The Earth for Man - Boston Review2023-07-04T03:20:39+00:00
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-earth-for-man
robertogrecojoguldi 2023 redistribution land johnboydorr unitednations development decolonization theft capitalism finance mexico bolivia japan taiwan india philippines latinamerica 1950s 1960s fao foreignpolicy us norrisdodd asia africa poverty farms farming food history agriculture paullamartineyates honduras colombia perú revolution emilianozapata ireland britain marxism peasants indigenous indigineity doreenwarringer guatemala egypt rural edmundoflores economics uk coldwar ussr sovietunion franklidgettmcdougall race antiracism anticolonialism johnrussell kenya southafrica australia labor anti-colonialismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a30c203d0a5f/The Ezra Klein Show: How ‘Being Animal’ Could Help Us Be Better Humans on Apple Podcasts2023-06-27T21:01:36+00:00
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-being-animal-could-help-us-be-better-humans/id1548604447?i=1000618460588
robertogrecomelaniechallenger multispecies morethanhuman animals 2023 ezraklein relationships behavior attraction love pregancy childbirth climatechange sustainability intelligence human humans gillianrose daniellecelermajer terrancehayes human-animalrelations human-animalrelationships nature technology ecology environment ai artificialintelligence farming philosophy society waysofbeing psychology howwwelive humansupremacy politics morality predators food diet pathogens predation scarcity evolution competition cooperation friendship change armsraces survival community communities kinship persistence beauty goodness communism communal groups alliances intimacy goodsamaritans help mutualaid exchange assistance trust bodies cavepaintings altamira caveart cognition culture agriculture civilization foodsources hunter-gatherers domination humanism secularhumanism posthumanism worth dualism religion belief exceptionalism theology wildlife spirituality exploitation soul superiority rationality freewill science scientism rationalhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8e21c90f21d8/Opinion | What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal - The New York Times2023-06-14T23:21:17+00:00
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/opinion/ezra-klein-kristen-ghodsee.html
robertogrecocommunes housing loneliness society 2023 community care kristenghodsee utopia universalbasicincome communism families economics love collectivism aaronbastani chosenfamilies kinship affection rutgerbregman waste work stevenkotler peterdiamandis futurism future abundance support parenting children agesegregation architecture networks multifamilyhousing zoning cities urban urbanism class islolation atomization capitalism socialconstructs beliefs politics childraising childrearing kibbutz socialism individualism egalitarianism sharing childcare eldercare kibbutzim oneidacommunity socialsafetynet inequality privilege hoarding intentionalcommunities agriculture self-labor farming france israel alternative rural cooperatives mothers mothering denmark sweden privacy production colleges universities elderly retirementhomes retirementcommunities retirement relationships neighbors twinoaks portugal ecovillages sustainability permaculture shakers religion belief secularization isolation sharedbeliefs bowlingalone compethttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:342fab0b1129/Wendell Berry: The Work of Local Culture | The Contrary Farmer2023-01-21T22:04:57+00:00
https://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/wendell-berry-the-work-of-local-culture/
robertogrecowendellberry rural education local slow small unschooling deschooling centralization decentralization 2011 farming democracy community communities power storytelling professionalization professionals standardization standards extractivism extraction exploitation elitism culture society urban urbanization suburbs suburbia homogenization entertainment distraction belonging purpose environment land soil memory enrichment knowledge highered highereducation academia canon insurance corporations corporatism corporatization mutualaid sales advertising economics consumerism consumption gdp sustainability pollution degradation money poverty generations parenting media television tv classics bible shakespeare williamwordsworth kinship institutions institutionalization schools schooling publicschools indocrtrination children careerism professionalism careers place placebasededucation home meritocracy conservation environmentalism green ecology landscape garbage methods agesegregation government salaries income love memohttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:46a2ab19fd3d/Wendell Berry’s Advice for a Cataclysmic Age | The New Yorker2022-05-14T19:15:18+00:00
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/28/wendell-berrys-advice-for-a-cataclysmic-age
robertogrecowendellberry slow small farming place radicalism conservatism writing environment ecology agriculture land 2022 dorothywickenden modernity howwewrite poetry books history dan wickenden thomasfriedman alberthoward earlbutz protest resistance community neighborliness neighbors solidarity technology luddism luddites canon bobbieannmason fiction nonfiction tobacco us politics johnberry roberthazel edmcclanahan jamesbakerhall gurneynorman marriage tanyaamyx wallacstegner slavery race racism bellhooks home homes gardening stewardship economics policy monopolies capitalism corporatism corporations humanism school schooling highered highereducation education deschooling unschooling alternative rural roots belonging deracination placemaking cycles cyclical seasons hope present future pollution mining coal appalachia organizing christianity catastrophe climatechange globalwarminghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7e8e47d35401/The idea of primitive communism is as seductive as it is wrong | Aeon Essays2022-05-01T02:45:13+00:00
https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-primitive-communism-is-as-seductive-as-it-is-wrong
robertogreco2022 anthropology development evolution primitivism primitivecommunism communism manvirsingh karlmarx friedrichengels daskapital property ownership privateproperty adamsmith economics society civilization agriculture farming history humans humanity lewishenrymorgan jung-kyoochoi rutgerbregman christopherryan kimhill paraguay aché indigeneity indigenous culture hiwi venezuela control relationships patriarchy hunting foraging richardlee kalahari!kung mbuti shoshone paiute colinturnbull ainu yaghan reallocation orphans selfishness hunter-gatherershttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1f78ba51b267/Here's Why California Pistachio Farmers Lobby for War (and Represent the Failures of Late-Stage Capitalism) - Paste2022-04-05T05:25:01+00:00
https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/trade-war/heres-why-california-pistachio-farmers-lobby-for-w/
robertogrecocalifornia power farmers farming politics iran lobbying us harrytoddhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c001f624295e/Secolo Nuovo by Fulvia Ferrari – Detritus Books2022-02-17T00:21:12+00:00
https://detritusbooks.com/products/secolo-nuovo-by-fulvia-ferrari
robertogrecobooks toread fulviaferrari anarchism history anarchists anarchy indigeneity indigenous outlaws california labor organizing electricity trains guerillas capitalism hobos farming uprising longshoremenhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:358e48664fb7/Review: ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’ - The Atlantic2021-10-22T02:38:46+00:00
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/graeber-wengrow-dawn-of-everything-history-humanity/620177/
robertogrecowilliamderesiewicz davidgraeber 2021 anthropology history davidwengrow civilization unschooling deschooling anarchism possibility humans organization hierarchy creativity generosity sociability crime punishment liberty freedom mutualaid cooperation civics activism hospitality care caring violence sovereignty bureaucracy charisma electoralpolitics statism kingdoms empires imperialism republics rome mesoamerica mongols wurasia ancientgreece urbanism cities autonomy power government inequality ecology environment farming agriculture settlement china perú egypt mesopotamia ancientegypt technology teotihuacán thedawnofeverythinghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7950de802782/Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s | LOW←TECH MAGAZINE2021-10-21T16:36:47+00:00
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html
robertogrecoagriculture europe farming fruit gardening 2015 history solarpunkhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:21fd9fde09a9/Dr Sarah Taber on Twitter: "Hey all! I'm a crop scientist who's been working in "real America" for decades. I'm also a political operative, organizing in the rural red-state South since 2007. This is absolutely spot-on. Here's my plan- speaking from insid2020-09-20T04:00:28+00:00
https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/1307372018921361410
robertogrecoIn the long run so much comes down to the Republican/rural tilt of the Senate given current party coalitions. Maybe Democrats can win the occasional Supreme Court battle but they’ll lose more often than they win and they’ll never the *war* so long as that persists.
Rural areas are ultra-conservative because they’ve been engineered to be that way on purpose.
The narrative about “agribusiness taking over and forcing family farms to compete with each other”
is nearly 100% fabricated. That’s not what happened.
So what DID happen?
Tenant farming & sharecropping were commonplace in most of the rural US- not just the South.
20th century landowners replaced farmworkers with machines. This wasn’t just about money. It was about purging radical laborers out of rural areas.
[image]
Have you ever noticed that we have a split mental image of what “family farmer” means?
We have a mental image of struggling dirt-poor farmers.
We also have a mental image of comfortable, clean, secure, independent families.
Tenant farming is why. The struggling dirt-poor farmers we remember were the tenants.
The prosperous, thriving families were the ones who owned the land.
Tractors & other farm automation got their start as a way for landowners to evict tenants. Not “compete against each other.”
The New Deal sped this. So did the Civil Rights movement.
Sharecropper & civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer saw our day coming. She saw landowners evict her & other Black farmworkers just for registering to vote.
It was a project to starve political opposition out of the South.
The Midwest, PNW, California, & other regions underwent the same in the 20th century- if much quieter due to the lack of a civil rights movement.
Incarceration of Japanese American farmers in WW2 and the ~mysterious disappearance~ of small midwestern family farms? Same thing.
It was a series of racial & class purges. They weren’t just economic battles over land. They were deliberate projects to consolidate property owners’ political power over huge blocs of territory.
And thus, the Senate, EC, & national policy.
Hamer saw the writing on the wall. She saw where mass evictions of Black farmworkers would mean if it was successful.
Black folks would gain the vote, & it wouldn’t even matter that much because they’d all been herded out of their homes into a few concentrated urban districts.
We’re living in the world Fannie Lou Hamer tried to stop.
She launched a coop farm in the Mississippi Delta to give Black farmers a place to go after eviction.
It quickly grew to 680 acres, under the stewardship of experienced Black farmers flooding in from all over the South.
But thanks to an economic crash from the oil crisis, 2 years of severe flooding on the Mississippi, & the Hamer’s failing health after years of beatings & attempted assassinations, the farm folded.
It was a last bulwark of Black land ownership, & it was allowed to fold.
The 50-odd years after Hamer’s experiment have proved her right. We desperately need equality, economic opportunities, and diverse voices in the countryside
but they’re not there
and that’s on purpose.
I’ve written on this…uh… a lot.
https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/1303033211661045764
All this is to say- if we’re serious about fixing the food system, I think big employee-owned farm/food operations are the only way to fly.
And WHAT A COINCIDENCE, they could also fix this “we’re all being herded into expensive slums and it’s destroying our democracy” problem.
We need to finish what Fannie Lou Hamer started.
We have, at our feet, all the elements we need to bring people and jobs back to the countryside. But we’re going to have to DIY it bc there’s no way in hell we’re getting that done through the political process right now lmao.
We have a mighty need for farms and food processing that are employee-owned, closer to the consumer, and more accountable for how they farm than today’s private farm estates.
We have a lot of grown farm kids who know how to farm & have connections to land
who are outraged at how their own families have wrecked the environment, destroyed local infrastructure, & enabled abusers with land & power to run unchecked in their own communities.
(yeah the family farming system is corrupt as hell & a lot of farm kids are starting to speak out against it. in real life, family farmers are problematic faves at best.)
We have a tech industry that’s about to shed tens of thousands of remote white-collar workers into the countryside.
I really worry for these folks- that a lot of them are going to try & do small farms, bc that’s what we’re told the good life is
and there are so many ways it can go badly. You can lose all your money, just wind up gentrifying the area you’re trying to live in, wind up leaving due to total lack of infrastructure, or worst of all, assimilate into the local landowning elite lmao.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
If we play techxodus right, it can bring a lot of quality, accessible jobs to rural areas.
It can combine really well with employee-owned farms that reinvigorate and rebalance today’s carved-out, beat-up countrysides.
[GIF]
“Playing it right” is challenging. It takes support. Truly rural areas are off-limits for a lot of remote workers thanks to lack of high-quality data connections. That means it takes a commitment to build some infrastructure, not just a “woohoo let’s go” effort.
But it’s what we need to do. I truly believe there’s no other real solution for the trouble our democracy’s in. We have to finish what Hamer started.
That’s it for today. Right now, we need to be focused on corralling senators & winning the election.
Watch this space for more.”]]>sarahtaber rural civilrights fannielouhamer farming history us voting farms 2020 race racism farmwork labor organizing land ownership technology capitalism repopulation politicshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:86807ccd0594/Libsyn Directory: THE RED NATION PODCAST: Learning & unlearning w/ Noname2020-08-29T19:31:29+00:00
https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/15743372/tdest_id/1617341
robertogrecononame rednation radicalization unlearning learning howwlearn howweread education unschooling deschooling paulofreire pedagogyoftheoppressed angeladavis frantzfanon 2020 interviews nickestes georgejackson activism politics politicization violence prisonabolition self-defense autonomy prisons blackpanthers blackpantherparty capitalism socialism economics poverty radicals left bookclubs nonamebookclub mutualaid care caretaking anarchism survivalists sovereignty multispecies howwelearn howethink thinking philosophy colonialism decolonization imperialism gardening farming twitter socialmedia democracy reading race racism us covid-19 acabspring blackness dialogue walterrodney pronunciation language impostersyndrome impostorsyndrome organizing inequality motivation revolution oppression incarceration revolutionaries whitesupremacy statues monuments property land ownership indigenous indigeneity landreturn liberation freedom solidarity internationalsolidarity hypodescent cedricrobinson settlercolonialism michelleobahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bb3e0eb583b4/How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change - Wikipedia2020-04-30T00:26:55+00:00
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Let_Go_of_the_World_and_Love_All_the_Things_Climate_Can%27t_Change
robertogrecojoshfox climatechange fossilefuels 2016 documentary film us fracking optimism future activism china australia mining emissions environment pollution capitalism petroleum morality moralimagination imagination ecuador amazon brasil brazil renewables ellachou jummycarter ronaldreagan policy resistance organizing documentation forests clearcutting inequality environmentaldegradation economics poverty airpollution corevalues solidarity success goldmansachs mckinsey technology ingenuity wind windenergy carbonnegative permaculture topsoil fossilfuel divestment innovation humanrights democracy mongolia vanuatu marshallislands zambia generosity progress revolution development virtues virtue community storytelling care caring governance time scale solar electricity beagoodancestor legacy ancestors freedom health healthcare gender feminism farming local gardening hurricanesandy samoa ariadoe climatejustice love protest perú death life amazonia amazonrainforesthttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7492a2d7deeb/The Pandemic is a Portal - YouTube2020-04-24T04:29:02+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmQLTnK4QTA
robertogrecoarundhatiroy 2020 haymarketbooks imaniperry capitalism travellinglight howwethink covid-19 coronavirus environment india us sustainability mining earth pandemic freedom liberation fascism politics economics policy fiction morality future solidarity democracy nationalism authoritarianism borders globalization markets land pandemics degrowth undoing dams landuse food farming imagination harmony exloitation inequality writing howwewrite kashmir palestine elections voting protest resistance surveillance digitalsurveillance berniesanders incarceration medicareforall injustice donaldtrump leadership elitism feminism policestate creativity militarization othering xenophobia race racism class stigma islamophobia violence discrimination persecution collectivewisdom wisdom collectivism organizing dissent patriarchy vulnerability antidammovement movements society exposure sectarianism joy ephemerality self-care entitlement happiness emotions fear grief feelings discomfort meaning meaningmaking affection love purpose forhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:81a7f32b4499/More-Than-Human Lab. » What I mean when I talk about more-than-human design2020-03-13T20:47:21+00:00
http://morethanhumanlab.org/blog/2020/02/07/what-i-mean-when-i-talk-about-more-than-human-design/
robertogrecoI’m not trying to say that anyone is “more” or “less” (than) human, but explicitly recognising that the world has never been a place made only, or even primarily, of or for humans.
While this isn’t a radical notion for many researchers, I’m trying to teach design from an anthropological perspective and I like that it encourages me to poke at both anthropology and human-centred design and see what falls apart.
I found my way to design through my archaeological and anthropological experience with material, visual, and discursive culture, and the recognition that culture is actively created and recreated by persons in these more-than-human worlds. I’m not fond of professional design’s problem-solving imperative or reliance on technoindustrial metaphors, but I am utterly captivated by world-building and thing-making.
My favourite design tool is speculation. It isn’t required for more-than-human design but I have a lifelong love of speculative fiction, and to design within that general framework appeals to me in many ways. Besides its obvious capacity to imagine different ways of being with others, I find it well-suited for intervening in difficult or messy relations between people and nonhuman animals.
Fiction affords people space to think or act differently without the terribly fraught ethics of designed — through expectation or force — behaviour change.
While I’ve spent the last five years doing ethnographic fieldwork and re-thinking human-livestock relations, the design courses I teach have moved further and further away from human-centred approaches. For example, last year I taught a course in multispecies design ethnography and although our “client” was Wellington Zoo, I stressed the importance of designing with the otters and for otter-human relations (and questioning what that actually means). In my speculative design course, students were tasked with re-imagining kinship in ways that explicitly include, and so ethically bind us to, nonhumans.
While some excellent design/researchers use the phrase “more than human” to refer to a range of technologies, my interests remain in the multispecies or environmental realm. This doesn’t mean that technology is irrelevant; it’s important for me to assess the political and ethical implications of any technology that attempts to mediate human relations with other forms of life. My research simply focusses on farmed animal life because I think that how we relate to, and with, these animals have an enormous impact on their well-being, human well-being, and the well-being of the Earth.
Agriculture is also one of humanity’s most heavily designed activities, which should remind us that it can be re-designed, and needs to be re-designed when it stops working for all of us.
But I’m not a believer that technology under capitalism will be the planet’s salvation, and I tend to part ways with (commercial?) designers and technologists who aim to design more “precision” agriculture through “intelligent” machines, and I’m constantly watching for bad omens. The ethos of the More-Than-Human Lab draws on Donna Haraway’s “staying with the trouble” and tries to go beyond the design of human-nonhuman interactions to reimagine human-nonhuman relations. For me, this means not trying to “fix” the world, and resisting both purity and progress to live well together through uncertain and difficult circumstances.
The deep irony (?!) is that indigenous cultures all around the world and many non-Western religions have always understood that nature and culture aren’t separate, and that humans aren’t superior in our abilities or experiences. Western intellectual history and industrial capitalist societies have not allowed this kind of thinking to take hold except for amongst a fringe few, and I think this has played a pivotal role in the current climate crisis and the impoverished range of corrective measures on offer.
I’m inspired by anyone who is trying to figure out how more vital, embodied, and inter-dependent traditions can be brought into situated practice.
Right now I’m drawing sustenance from ecological and political theology, cosmopolitics and animism. When it comes to design, I’ve long admired the work of Superflux (amongst many others!) and I’ve most recently enjoyed Arturo Escobar’s Designs for the Pluriverse.
Laura McLaughlan – in her paper at the most recent Australian Anthropological Society conference – said that “Ethnographers walk through landscapes both soft and hard.” I noted it because it struck me as both literally and metaphorically true. We do walk through a lot of landscapes, and both the going and the ground are often so much harder than expected. And yet along the way there are always spaces and moments of gentleness or softness that provide relief and comfort. I don’t know anyone who suggests that tenderness is our only viable option, but many of us refuse to hand it over to those who would render it weak.
I’m committed to using ethnography and everyday design to restore and support more situated, intimate, and vulnerable relations between humans and farmed animals. In a world dominated by the mass production and consumption of nonhuman animal life, these kinds of relations are often dismissed as sentimental or naïve. But in my experience they require a great deal of strength and a practical willingness to both hurt and be hurt. This is central to my personal committment to be with the world, instead of against it.
I also believe that a full, rich experience of humanity in more-than-human worlds is already being lived by billions and I wish that even more could experience it. But please don’t mistake this for an attempt to convert you! In dire times it may be tempting to conjure all too familiar utopias and dystopias, but I’m interested in reconnecting with violence, suffering, decay and death as part of life, entangled with all the love, beauty, and wonder.
As humanity, and the planet, face the climate crisis I’m interested in protecting (and, if necessary, reclaiming) the kind of ethical relations with animals and lands that can take us down a different path. No one knows if this path will avoid the same end, but I’m hopeful.
Our small farmstead is my living experiment in what kinds of relations are possible with the animals I care for, and sometimes eat. Watching a lamb take her first breath, and a year later holding her with love as I kill her has profoundly changed the way I see myself and the world around me—not to mention how others see me!
The sheep have taught me to slow down, and to look and listen more carefully. They’ve taught me humility and patience and strength, both physical and emotional. That there is such a thing as caring too little, and too much. The sheep have taught me to fight more playfully, and to always choose kindness.
And I bring all of this experience to my understanding and practice of more-than-human design.
Many thanks to our cats Enid Coleslaw and Beatrix Lemonade, the sheep Ursula, Grace, Mercy, Emmaline, Victoria, Glory, Melvin & Mingus, Edith, Ulla & Ulrich, Gus, Max & Murray, Esther and Eddard (Ned), Maeve, Godric and Gregor Samsa, and to all the ducks and ducklings."]]>annegalloway 2020 morethanhuman multispecies design kindness animals sheep cats farming farms designfiction fiction superflux arturoescobar lauramclaughlan animism cosmopolitics ecology interdependence interconnectedness politicaltheology humanism posthumanism humanity anthropologyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9c8bf5bc4e71/How South Korea Is Composting Its Way to Sustainability | The New Yorker2020-03-13T20:44:11+00:00
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/09/how-south-korea-is-composting-its-way-to-sustainability
robertogrecorivkagalchen solarpunk composting recycling food ecology 2020 korea southkorea mushrooms morethanhuman multispecies gardens gardening urban urbanism farming sustainability environmenthttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:84f91a085498/On the Tragedy of Paul Volcker2019-12-11T08:13:57+00:00
https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/on-the-tragedy-of-paul-volcker
robertogrecomattstoller paulvolcker 2020 economics middleclass finance us policy toobigtofail labor employment unemployment inflation richardnixon jimmycarter corruption democracy work banking unions smallbusiness farming albertwojnilower austerity creditunions wages responsibility savingsandloancrisis felixrohatyn barackobama larrysummershttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:783c3a12ce96/Dr Sarah Taber on Twitter: "it's happening folks time to talk about agrarianism in the United Federation of Planets send tweet" / Twitter2019-11-29T20:50:55+00:00
https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/1200166974292140033
robertogrecosarahtaber startrek agriculture land water future economics inheritance farming agrarianism monoculture iowa picard desalination waterrights technology ubi universalbasicincome chinampas forests forestry agroforestry wetlands dams damming rivers government blm bureauoflandmanagement subsidies indigenous amazon grazing livestock bison megafauna europe northamerica us scifi sciencefiction science food fooddeserts klamathriver klamath california colonialism salmon nature naturalresources wild culture stewardship futurism restoration rewilding publicland ownership libertarianism earth health diabetes diet orchards ecology landmanagement indigeneity tenochtitlan terraforming cornfields gardens gardening fire money inequality capitalism preservation bias amazonrainforest klamathrivervalley timber justice sustainability amazoniahttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ba5bcfcdac0a/Dr Sarah Taber on Twitter: "Rudolf Steiner's work was like 60-70% racist theory, and organic was just the "so this is what my racist theory means for farming" side of his work. German racism was soon judged to be "embarrassing" so later editions of his wo2019-11-18T00:28:25+00:00
https://twitter.com/sarahtaber_bww/status/1084192419149762570
robertogreco@SarahTaber_bww antisemitism through food!!! i had never stopped to consider this but the moment i read it i realized “of course that has to be a thing”
where do I start learning about this
I mean organic was literally invented in 1920s or so by German dude named Rudolf Steiner w some whack-ass theories on race
funny how nobody ever does the math on that
but yeah if you ever wondered why fascists prance around yelling BLOOD AND SOIL there’s the feckin answer
Rudolf Steiner’s work was like 60-70% racist theory, and organic was just the “so this is what my racist theory means for farming” side of his work.
German racism was soon judged to be “embarrassing” so later editions of his work just deleted those chapters.
Eventually 1960s US counterculture kidz picked up editions of Steiner’s books w the most egregious race theory material deleted
They picked up on the “yay nature & back to the land, down with ARTIFICIAL” vibe & had no idea that it was all an antisemitic tirade
goddamn hippies
Anyway, that’s how a bunch of racist mumbo-jumbo made up by the kind of back-alley philosophers who usually just stick to seances
got transformed into the Pinnacle Of Sustainable Living
the best part is organic’s main function is still allaying upper-class white people’s anxieties about class, privilege, & saving white farms from existential threats of the Other
meaning it has both completely changed and not changed one damn bit”]]>sarahtaber rudolfsteiner 2019 farming organic history racism race antisemitismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4c1dea2f61fc/Wendell Berry’s Lifelong Dissent | The Nation2019-09-13T18:59:27+00:00
https://www.thenation.com/article/wendell-berry-essays-library-of-america-review/
robertogrecowendellberry 2019 jedediahbritton-purdy dissent climate climatechange agriculture farming kentucky amandapetrusich activism writing christianity violence land communities community individualism left humanism morality life living howwelive environment environmentalism interconnectedness us ecology economics labor ronaldreagan inequality growth globalization finance financialization politics storytelling mining stripmining pacifism collectivism collectiveaction organizing resistance mobility culture popefrancis wholeness morethanhuman multispecies amish localism skepticism radicalism radicals jedediahpurdy innovation competition hypercapitalism anticapitalismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6d8a09425293/Living With the Land: Four Seasons in Tibet • Lu Nan • Magnum Photos2019-09-09T22:21:45+00:00
https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/nature/living-with-the-land-lu-nan-rural-four-seasons-everyday-life-of-tibet-peasants/
robertogrecotibet lunan photography nature morethanhuman weather time multispecies buddhism religion belief faith animals agriculture farming happiness epicureanism stoicism spinozism goethe spinoza relationships life living peasants machines land landscape geography pleasure pleasures simplicity leisure work seasonshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:56557c608c57/Gabriel Rosenberg on Twitter: "Ok y'all did it: A thread about hogs, ferality, and race in American history." / Twitter2019-08-06T23:05:23+00:00
https://twitter.com/gnrosenberg/status/1158702396505284608
robertogrecopigs hogs multispecies history colonialism gabrielrosenberg animals human-animalrelations human-animalrelationships us animalstudies morethanhuman imperialism feral ferality farming land ownership agriculture livestock food landscape settlercolonialismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3d9465ffbf14/The discovery and rediscovery of metabolic rift - Ian Angus - YouTube2019-07-28T19:39:50+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOs_T6c-Fsc
robertogrecoianangus economics nature cycles metabolism ecosystems metabolicrift capitalism 2019 plants animals biology life earth environment karlmarx emissions climatechange globalwarming balance lucretius chemistry agriculture biochemistry science farming restitution justusvonliebig socialmetabolism friedrichengels soil uk britain ireland imperialism colonialism geology microbiology marxism carbon carbondioxide oxygen nitrogen bacteria biogeochemistry vladimirvernadsky biosphere anthropocene greatacceleration historyofscience rosaluxemburghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:97fe1cc96afb/Going Home with Wendell Berry | The New Yorker2019-07-16T02:27:01+00:00
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/going-home-with-wendell-berry
robertogrecovia:anne wendellberry rural slow small empathy kindness georgesaunders relationships neighbors amish care caring maintenance human-animalrelations human-animalrelationships culture farming agriculture local locality place trees history multispecies morethanhuman language restorativejustice justice climatejustice socialjustice johnlukacs environment sustainability kentucky land immigration labor work gender ownership collectivism conversation lancieclippinger god faith religion christianity submission amandapetrusich individualism stewardship limits constraints memory robertburns kafka capitalism corporations life living provincialism seamusheaney patrickkavanagh animals cows freedom limitlessness choice happiness davidkline thomasmerton service maurytilleen crops us donaldtrump adlaistevenson ezrataftbenson politics conservation robertfrost pleasure writing andycatlett howwewrite education nature adhd wonder schools schooling experience experientiallearning place-based hereandnow presence learninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8fe586521de3/The Book That Made Me: An Animal | Public Books2019-07-03T15:59:23+00:00
https://www.publicbooks.org/the-book-that-made-me-an-animal/
robertogrecovia:timoslimo jmcoetzee multispecies morethanhuman senses writing howwewrite language whywewrite fiction animals bodies unachaudhuri philosophy elizabethbarrettbrowning virginiawoolf vincianedespret animalrights vickihearne rainermariarilke tedhughes narration thomasnagel imagination messiness janeausten perspective novellas kafka johnberger marianengel jrackerley hope solidarity communication embodiment emotions persuasion mattmargini canon books reading howweread teaching howweteach farming livestock sensory multisensory animalstudies poetry poems complexity grief literature families 2019https://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c238dd995165/Anne Galloway 'Speculative Design and Glass Slaughterhouses' - This is HCD2019-06-03T01:10:06+00:00
https://www.thisishcd.com/episodes/anne-galloway-speculative-design-and-glass-slaughterhouses/
robertogrecoannegalloway design 2019 speculativefiction designethnography morethanhuman ursulaleguin livestock agriculture farming sheep meat morethanhumanlab activism criticaldesign donnaharaway stayingwiththetrouble taoism flow change changemaking systemsthinking complicity catherinecaudwell injustice justice dunneandraby consciousness science technology society speculation speculativedesign questioning fiction future criticalthinking whatif anthropology humanities reflexiveanthropology newzealand socialsciences davidgrape powersoften animals cows genevievebell markpesce technologicaldeterminism dogs cats ethnography cooperation human-animalrelations human-animalrelationships slow slowness time perception psychology humility problemsolving contentment presence peacefulness workaholism northamerica europe studsterkel protestantworkethic labor capitalism passion pets domesticationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:35224909d3b1/No. 360: Ruth Asawa, Angela Fraleigh – The Modern Art Notes Podcast2019-05-01T20:10:41+00:00
https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-360-ruth-asawa-angela-fraleigh/
robertogrecoruthasawa 2018 art artists bwc blackmountaincollege craft labor work tamaraschenkenberg angelafraleigh weaving knitting crochet identity arteducation education activism hands-on rural handmade materials simplicity repetition layering wire imogencunningham buckminsterfuller mercecunningham movement sculpture farming learninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:191fd3539cca/Un muro invisible se alza entre los buitres de España y Portugal | Ciencia | EL PAÍS2019-04-07T19:30:27+00:00
https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/02/15/ciencia/1518707418_741915.html
robertogrecospain portugal españa 2018 animals multispecies borders law laws vultures carrion birds wildlife nature morethanhuman cattle farming ranching brunomartínhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4a9a407e16a3/Ultimate Wasabi Guide ★ ONLY in JAPAN 究極のワサビ #28 - YouTube2019-03-25T04:12:09+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XTncCmFabM
robertogrecowasabi 2015 japan farming agriculture foodhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4faa4a6fcbbd/Visit to a Rare Wasabi Farm - YouTube2019-03-25T04:10:46+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6SXk4ez1fc
robertogrecooregon waaabi agriculture farming 2012 aquaponics gardeninghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b9f6b4c7dbce/The Truth About Wasabi - YouTube2019-03-25T04:07:45+00:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhlklE9wBSY
robertogrecowasabi film documentary farming japan 2019 agriculture food classideashttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7be77f57e512/Cooperative Economy in the Great Depression | Jonathan Rowe2019-03-12T21:48:05+00:00
http://jonathanrowe.org/money-cooperative-economy-in-the-great-depression
robertogrecocooperation coopeatives greatdepression socialism history california us 1930s economics solidarity jonathanrowe losangeles compton farming agriculture labor work ucro oakland carlrhodehamel uxa community mutualaid detroit coops local fdr wpa communism uptonsinclair povertyhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2a465f9068c4/Climate Change and Technology Define the Rural Future - The Atlantic2018-11-02T23:20:37+00:00
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/climate-change-and-technology-make-rural-areas-vital/574447/
robertogrecoclimatechange rural ruricomp 2018 darrananderson technology utopia dystopia carboncapture communication transportation agriculture deserts energy electricity oceans farming algae forests trees plantshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5441545b09e6/Thread by @am_anatiala: "this is the twitter version of the lecture I gave to an undergraduate wildlife management class, called "Conservation and How Colonialism Fu […]" #bloodparks #s2018-10-17T21:59:52+00:00
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1052537605256933378.html
robertogrecocolonialism asiamurphy climatechange environement eugenics science westernism 2018 wildlife multispecies morethanhuman conservation bloodparks deforestation poaching indigeneity indigenous extinction race racism land landmangement scientificracism georgescuvier carllinneaus naming classification terranullis lynnmeskell timber forests exploitation resources naturalresources animals maheshrangarajan india africa imperialism bison globalsouth glboalnorth europe welth mongolia yellowstone bogdkhan local nezperce britain newzealand maori ireland nationalparks ngos earth nature money economics ecosystems ecotourism elephants tigers farming agriculture work labor jobs tourism property namibia nepal ivory botswana somalia madagascar virunga congo drc billgates vox zimbabe sumatra Māorihttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ca91fb5bb219/Here's How America Uses Its Land2018-08-02T18:48:01+00:00
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/
robertogrecomaps mapping us land landuse visualization data environment 2018 farming livestock grazing agriculture forests pasture urban urbanizationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:74f60cb2deb5/Matt Haughey on Twitter: "My favorite grad school geography/history tidbit came from a Soils professor that worked around mining. It goes like this: In the American West and Midwest you can tell who settled a city by how it looks on a map. Let me explain?2018-06-22T18:57:36+00:00
https://twitter.com/mathowie/status/1001461764825927680
robertogrecomatthaughey geography cities towns architecture culture design environment history farming time mining lumber speed money americanwest maps mapping patterns midwest settlementhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cd5e0663bdf1/On how to grow an idea – The Creative Independent2018-04-08T07:57:49+00:00
https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/jenny-odell-how-to-grow-an-idea/
robertogrecoThe basic idea came to him one day as he happened to pass an old field which had been left unused and unplowed for many years. There he saw a tangle of grasses and weeds. From that time on, he stopped flooding his field in order to grow rice. He stopped sowing rice seed in the spring and, instead, put the seed out in the autumn, sowing it directly onto the surface of the field when it would naturally have fallen to the ground… Once he has seen to it that conditions have been tilted in favor of his crops, Mr. Fukuoka interferes as little as possible with the plant and animal communities in his fields.
Fukuoka’s practice, which he perfected over many years, eventually became known as “do nothing farming.” Not that it was easy: the do-nothing farmer needed to be more attentive and sensitive to the land and seasons than a regular farmer. After all, Fukuoka’s ingenious method was hard-won after decades of his own close observations of weather patterns, insects, birds, trees, soil, and the interrelationships among all of these.
In One Straw Revolution, Fukuoka is rightly proud of what he has perfected. Do-nothing farming not only required less labor, no machines, and no fertilizer—it also enriched the soil year by year, while most farms depleted their soil. Despite the skepticism of others, Fukuoka’s farm yielded a harvest equal to or greater than that of other farms. “It seems unlikely that there could be a simpler way of raising grain,” he wrote. “The proof is ripening right before your eyes.”
One of Fukuoka’s insights was that there is a natural intelligence at work in existing ecosystems, and therefore the most intelligent way to farm was to interfere as little as possible. This obviously requires a reworking not only of what we consider farming, but maybe even what we consider progress.
“The path I have followed, this natural way of farming, which strikes most people as strange, was first interpreted as a reaction against the advance and reckless development of science. But all I have been doing, farming out here in the country, is trying to show that humanity knows nothing. Because the world is moving with such furious energy in the opposite direction, it may appear that I have fallen behind the times, but I firmly believe that the path I have been following is the most sensible one.”
The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
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In my view, Fukuoka was an inventor. Typically we associate invention and progress with the addition or development of new technology. So what happens when moving forward actually means taking something away, or moving in a direction that appears (to us) to be backward? Fukuoka wrote: “This method completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. It throws scientific knowledge and traditional farming know-how right out the window.”
This practice of fitting oneself into the greater ecological scheme of things is almost comically opposite to the stories in John McPhee’s Control of Nature. There, we find near-Shakespearean tales of folly in which man tries and fails to master the sublime powers of his environment (e.g. the decades-long attempt to keep the Mississippi river from changing course).
Any artist or writer might find this contrast familiar. Why is it that when we sit down and try to force an idea, nothing comes—or, if we succeed in forcing it, it feels stale and contrived? Why do the best ideas appear uninvited and at the strangest times, darting out at us like an impish squirrel from a shrub?
The key, in my opinion, has to do with what you think it is that’s doing the producing, and where. It’s easy for me to say that “I” produce ideas. But when I’ve finished something, it’s often hard for me to say how it happened—where it started, what route it took, and why it ended where it did. Something similar is happening on a do-nothing farm, where transitive verbs seem inadequate. It doesn’t sound quite right to say that Fukuoka “farmed the land”—it’s more like he collaborated with the land, and through his collaboration, created the conditions for certain types of growth.
“A great number, if not the majority, of these things have been described, inventoried, photographed, talked about, or registered. My intention in the pages that follow was to describe the rest instead: that which is generally not taken note of, that which is not noticed, that which has no importance: what happens when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds.”
Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by George Perec
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I’ve known for my entire adult that going for a walk is how I can think most easily. Walking is not simply moving your thinking mind (some imagined insular thing) outside. The process of walking is thinking. In fact, in his book Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, David Abram proposes that it is not we who are thinking, but rather the environment that is thinking through us. Intelligence and thought are things to be found both in and around the self. “Each place is a unique state of mind,” Abram writes. “And the many owners that constitute and dwell within that locale—the spiders and the tree frogs no less than the human—all participate in, and partake of, the particular mind of the place.”
This is not as hand-wavy as it sounds. Studies in cognitive science have suggested that we do not encounter the environment as a static thing, nor are we static ourselves. As Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch put it in The Embodied Mind (a study of cognitive science alongside Buddhist principles): “Cognition is not the representation of a pre-given world by a pre-given mind but is rather the enactment of a world and a mind… “ (emphasis mine). Throughout the book, the authors build a model of cognition in which mind and environment are not separate, but rather co-produced from the very point at which they meet.
[image]
“The Telegarden is an art installation that allows web users to view and interact with a remote garden filled with living plants. Members can plant, water, and monitor the progress of seedlings via the tender movements of an industrial robot arm.”
✶✶
Ideas are not products, as much as corporations would like them to be. Ideas are intersections between ourselves and something else, whether that’s a book, a conversation with a friend, or the subtle suggestion of a tree. Ideas can literally arise out of clouds (if we are looking at them). That is to say: ideas, like consciousness itself, are emergent properties, and thinking might be more participation than it is production. If we can accept this view of the mind with humility and awe, we might be amazed at what will grow there.
breathing [animation]
✶✶
To accompany this essay, I’ve created a channel on Are.na called “How to grow an idea.” There you’ll find some seeds for thought, scattered amongst other growths: slime molds, twining vines, internet gardens, and starling murmurations. The interview with John Cage, where he sits by an open window and rejoices in unwritten music, might remind you a bit of Fukuoka, as might Scott Polach’s piece in which an audience applauds the sunset. The channel starts with a reminder to breathe, and ends with an invitation to take a nap. Hopefully, somewhere in between, you might encounter something new."]]>intelligence methodology ideas jennyodell 2018 are.na masasobufukuoka francesmoorelappé farming slow nothing idleness nature time patience productivity interdependence multispecies morethanhuman do-nothingfarming labor work sustainability ecosystems progress invention technology knowledge johnmcphee collaboration land growth georgesperec walking thinking slowthinking perception language davidabram cognitivescience franciscovarela evanthompson eleanorrosch buddhism cognition johncage agriculturehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:a3681d7be3e8/Vikings Razed the Forests. Can Iceland Regrow Them? - The New York Times2017-10-29T18:01:45+00:00
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/climate/iceland-trees-reforestation.html
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps8J6a7g_BA
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https://memoryofgod.itch.io/where-the-goats-are
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http://www.today.com/video/nick-offerman-of-parks-and-rec-talks-about-documentary-look-and-see-980412995931
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http://votrongnghia.com/projects/farming-kindergarten-2/
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http://www.nyrb.com/products/the-one-straw-revolution?variant=1094932353
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https://ooblets.com/
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http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20160805/
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https://orionmagazine.org/article/no-mans-land/
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http://farmhack.org/tools
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https://orionmagazine.org/article/thoughts-in-the-presence-of-fear/
robertogrecovia:anne education capitalism economics wendellberry peace war terrorism consumerism food farming sustainability 9/11 violence humanism environment children parenting responsibility military self-sufficiency technology technosolutionism progress innovation nature decentralization newworldorder growth degrowth prosperity labor work poverty freemarket business corporatism freetrade vulnerability freedom civilrights government security peaceableness islam soil air water thrift care caring saving conservation agriculture freemarketshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5a868caae82f/Wendell Berry on Climate Change: To Save the Future, Live in the Present by Wendell Berry — YES! Magazine2015-10-19T05:08:00+00:00
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/together-with-earth/wendell-berry-climate-change-future-present
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https://farmlogs.com/
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https://soundcloud.com/gastropodcast/field-recordings
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https://projects.propublica.org/killing-the-colorado/story/arizona-cotton-drought-crisis
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http://tinyletter.com/vruba/letters/6-55-dilution-of-precision
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https://medium.com/matter/let-it-rain-ac793178d51c
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http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065939
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http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nakuru/purple-chicken-dye-confuse-predators/-/1183314/2655920/-/gpl4ql/-/index.html
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