Folder Onderzoek Dynamiek en Robuustheid Multifunctionele Landbouw

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Voorkant folderOnlangs hebben we een mooie informatiefolder gemaakt voor ons onderzoek ‘Dynamiek en Robuustheid van Multifunctionele Landbouw’. In deze folder is, naast een beknopt overzicht van de onderzoeksfasen, ook informatie te vinden over o.a. de achtergronden, doelstellingen, resultaten en partners van het project.

De folder is hier te downloaden.

Overige informatie is te vinden op ons ‘Multifunctionele Landbouw Weblog’. Op deze plek houden we u op de hoogte over de recentste ontwikkelingen en resultaten van het project.

Food democracy

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Nothing but corn in Iowa. So I did some serious weeding and hoeing of corn this weekend……..Of white corn. Not the regular uneatable corn which goes into feed fodder, energy production or corn sweetener. These immense fields are round-up ready anyway. The corn grown in the community garden in Marshall town (see blog) can be eaten, it will be used to make corn flour tortillas.

my garden in wageningen

my garden in wageningen

It has been a wet summer so far. So weed is quite a challenge for the starting community gardeners. I was glad I could help out; a sort of substitution for missing my own 20 m2 in Wageningen.

 

Self sustenance in food. Once a dismissed and declining (if we could help them) ‘farming system’. Bound to disappear under influence of progress; by ever increasing economies of scale and market integration. However, self sustenance or small scale production is loosing its negative connotation of backwardness. It is being redefined and revalued in both developed and developing countries, in both urban and rural circumstances (see yeomanry).

Our global agro-food industry has not been able to reduce hunger as it privileges capital accumulation for already wealthy elites while externalizing environmental and social costs to societies. The consolidation of power in the food chain, the world food crisis and environmental degradation have instigated a variety of movements towards self reliance and community focus, towards returning to a scale which can be influenced. It can be seen as a re-appropriation of a sense of self determination and autonomy to increase resilience of livelihoods and to reduce dependence on situations with high levels of power asymmetries.

While we do not accept anything less than democracy to rule our societies we are nearly being ruled by autocracy in the food chain, hidden behind the myth of ‘consumer choice’. The diversity of food and farming initiatives emerging, points to a process of democratizing food, the people’s right to

“healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (Food First)

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Suburban Ag

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Land use planning and housing development can bring farming and food production closer to (sub)urban citizens. Similar to trends in the Netherlands, suburban agriculture is taking form in new developments projects. There are two pathways. First, development organised by citizens in co-housing projects such as the Ecovillage in Ithaca. Co-housing projects often involve the creation of an ‘intentional community’ of people who have chosen to live and work together in a lifestyle that reflects their shared core values. Projects often include a community owned and operated farm.

Intentional communities rebel against two dominant American features; individualism and property rights/ownership. Both features are reflected in the overall perspective on land use planning and housing development here. In order to understand it, Dutch assumptions on land use planning need to be left behind.  In most places, state and county legislators refrain from ‘interfering’ with land ownership. Without zoning or specific designations, any land, no matter how far from an urban centre, represents a bundle of rights. For example water rights (see blog), and more importantly ‘development rights’. Development takes place where developer and landowner agree. Around cities, this causes a large ring of ‘urban sprawl’; fragmentation of land and a random patchwork of malls, offices, agricultural land, housing and roads without any visible coherence. Although farmers, who farm in the middle of this, oppose to the developments, they oppose to land use planning at the same time; nobody wants to give up their right to sell their rights.

A second type of suburban agriculture, therefore, is often led by private or public land trusts.  This means that land use planning is applied on the coherent whole of land owned by the trust on a certain location. Some parts are developed for housing, other parts for farming and other parts for nature conservation. A good example of this is Prairie Crossings, set up in 1987 by a group of citizens. This can only take place if development rights are taken off the land even though it is not used for building (‘easement’) to prevent future unwanted development. Rights are taken off by conservation easements in two ways; by being sold or being donated to the trust (the latter for receiving advantagous tax breaks). Whereas until 10 years ago, easements were only for nature conservation, nowadays there are agricultural easements possible too now environmentally sustainable farming is becoming a practice.

It is remarkable how absent the state is in land use planning. Planning in the Netherlands, such as Reconstruction Law land use planning, including the movement of entire farms for preserving natural habitats, equals to an unthinkable intrusion of property rights here.

Urban Ag

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Concern about our food, the quality, the exploitation of farmers and workers in the production chain and how it affects our health has induced conscious and political consumerism. But making a statement with the wallet supporting sustainable production might only be the first step. Once food conscious is awakened, it is a small step to grow your own food. Probably also fuelled by the recession, the demand for seeds has skyrocketed recently. The Washington Post (19-6) comments that

“After years in the doldrums, the consumer demand for vegetable seeds has abruptly climbed at a rate even industry veterans have never seen.”

Growing your own food is rapidly becoming a trend as part of an urban agriculture movement. There is a continuous emergence of new initiatives. For example, initiatives which somebody called “Gleaning social networks”; groups who harvest from public places and private places. Wild edibles, such as nuts, berries, fallen fruit, mushrooms and herbs are collected, sometimes to be distributed among the poor. In LA, 120.000 pounds of fruit was harvested within the city last year. Recently Amsterdam was mapped for its wild edibles.

Another type of urban agriculture initiative is “peer-to-peer agriculture”, initiatives which are about sharing land, tools and other resources for more efficient use. For example, how to find an allotment if there are waiting lists? Through internet people can search for pieces of land or gardens which might be (partly) used by someone willing to grow food.

With the rise of more and more urban agriculture initiatives and local food production, new farmers are born each day. These examples show that our idea of what a farm is will soon need serious reconsideration.

Day labor and immigrant rights

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The fifteen day travel throughout the south western part of the US came to an end yesterday when we arrived in Ames again. I met many wonderful people. We drove through seven states which gave me a taste for the radically different landscapes existing here. STA71965On our way home we stopped briefly at the Mesa Verde National Park to experience the Canyon landscape and the remnants of Ancestral Puebloan life, far before ‘white man’ came to this country. Until the late 1200s, ancestors of the Hopi and other pueblo tribes lived here in elaborated stone buildings in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.

In Denver we joined Gabriela Flora, who works for AFSC in a voice-raiser event for immigrant workers. AFSC stands for the American Friends Service Committee, founded by the Quakers in 1917. The organization carries out service, development, social justice and peace programs throughout the world. One of their projects is Coloradans for Immigrant Rights, which allies in support of immigrant rights.

This is important because I learned that day labor – waiting on street corners to be picked up each day – is not a foregone phenomenon. Immigrant day laborers are a vulnerable group, often victim of exploitation by employers and harassment by the police. The various hardships they endure to sustain families back home were shown in a short film. The film followed the lives of a few of the mostly Hispanic day laborers in their struggle to make a living in highly insecure circumstances. One of the many problems for these workers is employers who do not pay at the end of the day or week. The AFSC helped immigrants to organize themselves in the now independent Centro Humanitario. The center provides education and help in many kinds. For example, through the center, the workers can ask for help in trying to trace employers and outstanding payments. After the film questions could be asked to the workers who figured in the film. They expressed a strong wish to be really (legally) part of the US one day, to be able to walk the street without fear, to be able to participate in the society as full members. Just like the stories of those working in the processing plants of the agro-industry, their stories show how much an immigration reform is needed.