Dear Greenhorns,
I' m sending you this message today from California.
It seems cruel to mention, but here in Berkeley there are Magnolias about to burst.
NEWS on many fronts.
New books!
New film festival!
Great radio guests!
Lineup of heroes reflecting on land transition:
Anuradha Mittal who's just released a great report
Down on the Farm, about wall street investing in Farmland. Joel Salatin, who just published a book:
Fields of Farmers, about inter-generational farm partnerships. Sjoerd Wartena, founder of Terre De Liens, a 7 year old initiative in France that now owns 100 organic farms, a '
new commons for beginning farmers.' Gayle McLaughlin, Green party mayor of Richmond California under the shadow of the Chevron refinery she's
taking on the banks in her company town. Gary Nabhan, legendary ethnobotanist and writer, will be talking about the history of Agrarian resistance.
Thanks to our co-sponsors we'll be able to record the sessions for podcast. Join the
mailing list to get news of podcasts, workshops and other
Agrarian Trust news.
Busy times in the Land Access dimension.
For other Greenhorns events, please see the sidebar.
You'll notice quite a comprehensive
MAP of Land Access resources at our long-time GIS site, now beautifully revised and made vibrant by Ann Marie Rubin, Ines Chapela, Hallie Chen and Pete Land. Join! It is Drupal, it is open-source!
A new guidebook!
“It’s clear that we face common challenges. It’s also clear that by working together, we get more than just a solution to a problem: we get solidarity.”
The Greenhorns presents
Cooperative Farming, an in-depth resource for forming collaborative businesses. Compiled from a 42 interviews with collaborating farmers and allies, this is a how-to handbook on structuring and operating a group venture.
Why work together? Collaboration allows us to do more with less, by sharing access to equipment, labor, land, or markets. It means more people power, reducing the workload for each operator and improving quality of life. This guidebook covers the myriad ways that farmers are working together for mutual benefit, by forming group businesses and sharing resources between their farms.
Free, Online. Thanks to the efforts of Faith Gilbert who got a
SARE grant through Greenhorns to pursue her own education in cooperative business development, and in doing so created a resource for others. Go faith!
Now live on the Greenhorns website, just in time for your Campus organizing push.
A 3- DVD packet of young farmer filmic fun. Prepared lovingly by the Greenhorns for Greenhorns everywhere to use in their recruitment efforts! So pester your librarian, apply to the Student congress for a little budget, rent out the amphitheater, pop some popcorn, xerox off some
Greenhorns guidebooks, and may the force be with you.
All information about the films in the collection, ordering, organizing, posters to print,
contact us.
Grange Future, a community history project proceeds. Jen and Severine continue to coordinate the collection of stories, interviews, anecdotes from the grange revival and grange survivals across the country. If you are interested to join this effort, conduct interviews, find relic artwork at the museum to open source, partner with grangers in useful ways, and please
be in touch with us directly so we can coordinate together!
Greenhorns Radio-- goes on!
News from GH Headquarters:
A solid winter freeze in the Adirondacks provoked a much-needed firm up our organizational backend, -22 degrees, and the only cozy room was the office. We got her done, and are please to welcome two new members onto the team. Hannah Aitken is a chicken grazer in Monkton VT, she's replacing Cara Siprelle ( now a full time farmer in love with another full time farmer down the road..) as office manager. High spirits! You can reach her at
hannah@thegreenhorns.net. Tyler Christie hails from Philly. He's come on to edit our ongoing OUR LAND series, which we've been chipping away at over the past year and a half, shooting between times, perhaps you've been following it and waiting.
An interesting new place to think outside the box about Farm policy.
BEYOND THE FARM BILL,
This is a project of
IATP, and I've put in a few ideas, as has Sophie from
NYFC-- if you have ideas to contribute, please to be in touch.
Severine + Team-mates
Patrick Kiley, Tianna Kennedy- Vermont Sail Freight Follow-up Report ( Thanks to New World Foundation)
Hannah Aitken, office manager
Ines Chapela, Database, Library
Brooke Werley, Agrarian Trust profile coordinator
Anne Dailey, Blog
Faith Gilbert, Cooperation Guidebook outreach ( SARE)
Jillian Bunge, Up up Film festival
Tyler Christie Jeff Hylton Simmons, Our Land editor+ Soundman
Audrey Berman, Zoe Brent, Young Farmers Worldwide+ mix-tape
Brian Dewan+ Jeremy Fleishman, Grange Song recordings
Evan Driscoll, Radio!
Ann Marie Rubin, Agrarian Trust workshops, mapping
Jen Griffeth+ Christian Ripley+ Paula Brooks Grange Future project
Kristen Loria, Agrarian Trust events coordination and Guidebook
Brooke Budner, Illustrations for guidebooks
Louella Hill, Henry Tarmy, Bruce Forrester, New Farmers Almanac 2015 ( Thanks to Flora Foundation)
James Most, Chestnut Agroforestry project ( Thanks to Nutiva)
Tim Humphrey, Chris Roddy, Pete Land, tech team!
Tracy Lerman, research and writing
Erik Burg, Social media coordinator
We are are looking for more blog contributors, so please be in touch if you are interested
blog@thegreenhorns.net