MLT NEWSLETTER

Spring 2013

Cultivating Resilient Communities

MLT Board of Directors:

Rita Bober
Norm Bober
Ken Dahlberg, Chairperson
Maynard Kaufman
Ron Klein
Suzanne Klein
Michael Kruk

Jim Laatsch
Lisa Phillips, Treasurer
Michael Phillips
Thom Phillips, Managing Director
Jan Ryan, Secretary
Jon Towne, Newsletter Editor
Dennis Wilcox

This newsletter makes no apologies for relying on MLT's talented board for its content. But that doesn't mean we reject contributions from the membership. Please contribute! Thank you Maynard, Ron and Rita! Ken closes this issue with an update of recent MLT activities.

RAISING FOOD IN A CHANGING CLIMATE

Maynard Kaufman

We know that the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels acts as a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. Cheap oil during the twentieth century has made cheap food available so that the growth of human population exploded, from 2 billion in 1930 to 7 billion in 2012. But now fossil fuels are harder to extract and more costly. Thus one of the challenges we face is how to raise food with only minimal or no fossil fuel inputs at a time when demand for food is at an all-time high. Burning the remaining fossil fuels will eventually have to be curtailed to reduce the damage of climate change. Despite these grim considerations, there is much that can be done to cope with a damaged climate, and surely more will be discovered as food shortages make us think more seriously about food.

Can food be grown without fossil fuels?

Fossil fuels were not used directly in food production until the past century, so it is likely that we could do without them in the future. The industrial system that now produces our food needs a great deal of energy to do so, about ten calories of energy to produce one calorie of food. According to Sara Scherr, food and fiber production are leading sources of greenhouse gas, greater than the transportation sector. The industrial food system grew because cheap energy allowed it makes a lot of money. It has nearly replaced household food production, but, as we have already seen, its profligate use of energy is threatening the stability of our climate. It is not sustainable without those massive energy inputs for fertilizer, mechanization, transportation, and processing of raw materials into manufactured food products. As the food we buy continues to rise in price, more and more people will want to raise some of their food. And with high rates of unemployment, many people have time to do so. This shift can gradually replace parts of the energy intensive corporate system. Since some energy efficient and ecological farms will also continue, there will likely also be local stores that sell their produce and the surplus that self-provisioning growers can offer.

Although the transformation of the food system is a gradual process, it is part of the movement toward a post carbon future that will be very different from how we live now. A great majority of the people, even in what were industrial societies, will be involved in food production in contrast to the few that are now farmers. As intelligent human labor gradually replaces the brute power of fossil fueled machines, a new society will emerge with new values and, hopefully, a deeper sense of earth-centered spirituality. People who begin gardening, as they live from season to season and participate in the cycles of nature, recognize that raising food has changed their consciousness.

It is also possible that as climate change becomes more noticeable and inconvenient, other voices will urge various geo-engineering projects to “save the earth.” This is a typical response from the industrial mindset, and of course it would make money for some. But a more ecological response is first to reduce the burning of fossil fuels with more efficiency and conservation, and replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy. Second, we can sequester carbon dioxide in the soil while raising food. That this is possible and feasible without great cost or difficulty is the really good news in this paper.

Strategies for raising food in a changing climate

We can expect that climate change is not a static condition but an ever-changing process. As the global atmosphere continues to warm and glaciers continue to melt and oceans rise, new problems will emerge. At this time we can count on droughts in some areas, such as the Great Plains, and flooding in other areas, along with more violent storms. Warmer winters will allow more insect pests to survive and do more damage. Continuing loss of biodiversity will upset the balance of nature. We as Americans can try to adapt to these conditions, and as the momentum of climate change continues, we can continue to adapt once we have begun. Bill Mckibben warned that a warmer climate itself can reduce crop yields by at least 10%, and drought will impose even higher losses. We may have less to eat. Trickle irrigation, which minimizes the waste of water, may be helpful in areas where groundwater is available.

The remainder of this paper is focused mainly on what small communities can do to slow climate change while raising food. This should not imply that small-scale farmers and gardeners can simply retreat to their gardens and ignore the larger society, Many agricultural policies are in need of the lobbying that citizens can do to push for changes. Ending the disastrous subsidy for ethanol production is one example. Other policies, such as the facilitation of land redistribution, can help to make the transformation to a post-carbon food system possible. Meanwhile, we can expect that industrial modes of farming will also continue for some time, powered by the remaining fossil fuel or by bio-diesel.

As a small-scale organic farmer and gardener who had worked with other organic growers to promote organic food and farming in Michigan since 1973, I am glad to report that the writers who worry about climate change continue to recognize the value of organic methods. Although this “new” postcarbon organic food production will include some significant differences from traditional methods, it is still organic insofar as it rejects the use of petrochemical substances for fertilizer and pest control. It also works to feed the organisms in the soil rather than following the recommendations for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to feed the plant. Sara Scherr explained that ending dependence on anhydrous ammonia is especially important in reducing greenhouse gases, since it emits nitrous oxide, which, as the third major greenhouse gas, has about 300 times the warming capacity of carbon dioxide. Organic growers often depend on compost, green manure, legumes, blood meal, and livestock manure, on wood ashes and on bonemeal to help the organisms in the soil make plant nutrients available.

This new organic growing differs from some older organic methods in that it urges the need for reduced tillage or no-till production. Turning and exposing the soil allows carbon in the soil to oxidize and escape into the atmosphere. Albert Bates and Toby Hemenway report that “long term research studies reveal average losses of 328 pounds of organic matter per acre per year with plowing, whereas no-till studies report an average increase of 956 pounds of organic matter per acre per year”. It is important to recognize that carbon is stored in this organic matter and that its conservation enhances soil productivity. Although no-till drills and planters can be used in large fields, the use of mulch is an effective method on the garden scale to control weeds and conserve moisture. Most books on gardening extol the virtue of mulch and explain what to use for mulch and how to use it.

Two other strategies may be of great value in sequestering carbon in ways that help in the growing of food crops: planting trees and making and incorporating biochar into the soil. Perennial woody plants not only store carbon in their root systems, they can improve the soil and help with water retention in hot climates. Mark Hertsgaard was so impressed with how trees helped food production in Mali in a program called “farmer managed natural regeneration” (FMNR) that he called it “the largest environmental transformation in Africa”. As we anticipate more heat and drought in our grain raising area, lessons from Africa may help us cope. The emphasis on trees leads on to agroforestry and permaculture, and while both can be seen as integral systems, each can also offer useful suggestions apart from the whole system. Although trees can be food producing, they may take more space than the kind of biodynamic, French Intensive method of organic gardening proposed by John Jeavons in his 1970s classic, How to Grow More Vegetables than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine. And trees can sequester more carbon than gardening based on tillage.

The importance of planting more trees raises the question of whether there is enough land to do this. The answer is that we do. Douglas Tallamy as pointed out that millions of suburbanites and rural residents maintain almost 40 million acres of land in lawns. This could be gradually converted to deep-rooted perennials, or permaculture, and thereby help to raise food while also sequestering carbon with perennials. Still another way to raise crops while conserving organic matter in the soil and avoiding tillage is to grow some of the perennial grains that are being developed at places like the Land Institute by Wes Jackson and his associates. The root systems of perennials are much greater than annual grains, and while the yield is smaller the protein content is sometimes about the same. Another advantage of perennial grains for small-scale growers is that harvesting the grain could be done by hand.

Biochar is a fairly recent emphasis in relation to climate although it may have been made in the Amazon forest thousands of years ago where patches of black earth, terra preta, have been found and continue to remain fertile in areas of otherwise thin acidic and infertile soil. In the past biochar has been made and used mostly by small-scale growers, and some writers think it should remain that way because they fear that its commercialization might do more harm than good if its development were not regulated. Corporate interests might be tempted to plant and harvest trees for biochar production, so that it could become another form of geoengineering, though more benign than some. Industrial applications of biochar production already exist, and they work best when they are set up in connection with a steady supply of biomass, such as chicken litter from a large poultry operation. Biochar, like charcoal, is made by burning some kind of biomass, often wood, in a low oxygen environment. This method of pyrolysis is often achieved with specially designed stoves, some of which are described and evaluated by Albert Bates.

John Bruges, another critical advocate of biochar, suggests that farmers and gardeners may need help from an extension service and a fee for carbon sequestration, a “carbon maintenance fee”, to help them get started. Once the growers see that biochar can increase yields they would be inclined to continue using biochar. The potential for biochar to sequester carbon is great. Mark Hertsgaard reports that “according to Johannes Lehmann, a professor of agricultural science at Cornell University and one of the world’s foremost experts on biochar, if biochar were added to 10 % of global cropland, . . . it would store 29 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, roughly equal to humanity’s annual greenhouse gas emissions”.

According to writers on raising food in a changing climate, livestock can continue to play a role in food production. Livestock can utilize land that is not fit for raising crops, and some animals, such as chickens and pigs, can thrive on waste from household and garden. The amount of grain that is needed can be greatly reduced for many animals, and cattle can grow and produce milk on grass without grain. Rotational grazing, where cattle are grazed intensively in a small area and then moved to another small area, can actually improve pastures when the grass is given a chance to recover. This also conserves carbon in the soil, especially when the grasses are perennials with deep root systems.

Although consumption of meat has been increasing with the temporary wealth of industrialization, it will eventually be necessary to eat less meat in a time of deindustrialization. Nut producing trees can reduce the need for protein from animals, and some animal-based protein sources are more efficient than others. According to Vaclav Smil, the most efficient animal product is milk, with eggs and chickens for meat second. Chickens are easiest to keep, and when allowed to range freely on a homestead, they forage for nearly all their feed from waste and insects.

Can we expect a transformation of consciousness?

If climate change can be slowed it may be possible that food could be grown to feed most of the people alive in 2100. But many questions remain and more will emerge. Will there be enough water to irrigate crops in droughty times? Can insect pests be controlled as the climate changes and more exotic pest varieties emerge? Will loss of biodiversity threaten ecosystems? Can the nations of the world avoid war over scarce resources? Will a modicum of social order prevail within societies? Will people be willing to work together for the good of the community and the earth? Any one of these issues could threaten the survival of social groups. There is no hope for humanity without the healing of people infected by the industrial/commercial disease of selfish money grubbing. But this is possible. We do need to keep in mind that the dominant cultural characteristics that shape people’s attitudes in a given age are not necessarily universal or given by human nature.

So we will need some sort of transformation. Many New Age writers have written about, and expect, a spiritual transformation. Anything is possible, of course, but we can imagine a transformation that is not only possible but probable in terms of social dynamics and not dependent on supernatural intervention. As people live through the very difficult transition from a life which is still easy even now at the end of the industrial age, to a much more difficult life of hard work with far fewer energy slaves, they will remember. They will remember that they are living in the ruins of the twentieth century with its extravagant use of energy. They will remember that their suffering was caused by a culture that sought an easy life through fossil-fueled technology. They may recognize that they have moved beyond the Age of Separation into an Age of Reunion in which they are able to work together for the good of the community and the earth, as Charles Eisenstein predicted.

As communities succeed in raising food and surviving against enormous odds, they regain the hope that life is possible. The challenge of adapting to a changing climate will require and absorb all social and mental energy. At the same time, living and working in a natural environment offers its own power of spiritual regeneration. In a post-industrial time there will be less pollution and natural health and vitality is once again possible. It is also possible that some communities will benefit from a changing climate with a more favorable growing season or crops that thrive with more carbon dioxide or a longer growing season.

As more and more people work at raising food, food becomes a central, and centering, activity in their lives. New ways of thinking about nature become normative. Raising food helps people relate to nature as the dominant power in their lives. They recognize they do not control nature but are dependent on it. They participate in natural cycles, living from season to season, and gradually forget the noxious myth of progress in linear time through technology. Thus food provides grounding for the desired transformation of consciousness.

The following sources provided data for this paper.

Bates, Albert, The Biochar Solution. (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2010.)
Bates, Albert, and Toby Hemenway, “From Agriculture to Permaculture,” in State of the World, 2010 (Washington, DC, (Worldwatch Institute, 2010)
Bruges, John, The Biochar Debate. (White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.)
Eisenstein, Charles, The Ascent of Humanity. (Berkeley: Evolver Books, 2007 and 2013.)
Hemenway, Toby, Gaia's Garden. (White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2000.)
Hertsgaard, Mark, Hot. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011).
Lehmann, Johannes, and Stephen Joseph, , Biochar for Environmental Management. (London: Earthscan, 2009).
McKibben, Bill, Eaarth. (Henry Holt Times Books, 2010).
Scherr, Sara, and Sajal Sthapit, “Farming and Land Use to Cool the Planet,” in State of the World, 2009 ( Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2009).
Small, Tom, and Nancy Cutbirth Small, Using Native Plants to Restore Community. (Kalamazoo: Kalamazoo Area Wild Ones, 2011.)
Smil, Vaclav, Feeding the World. (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000.)
Tallamy, Douglas, Bringing Nature Home. (Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2007.)
_____

Editor's note:
Maynard Kaufman is the author of: Adapting to the End of Oil: Toward an Earth-Centered Spirituality, available from Xlibris, Amazon, Google Books and other sources. Maynard and his wife Barbara live on their “off the grid” homestead: http://www.michiganlandtrust.org/Sunflower.htm Maynard also recommends Taylor Reid's resource-full website: http://www.beginningfarmers.org/

Reflections on the year 2012

Ron and Suzanne Klein

To you farmers who focus on sustainable and diverse agricultural practices; listen to, nourish and cherish the land and our living soils—our time is coming.

Who would have thought in February of 2012 that the year would be one of such hardship for local farmers?

We marched into 2012 with banners flying, and why not? Our small dairy parlor was now online. Our dairy goats were healthy, and expectant. Our herd of dairy water buffalo was looking great. Our 18 cows had all delivered nice calves the year before and were due to freshen throughout the spring and summer. Folks had driven from as far as eastern Ohio to buy our bull calves at nice prices. We had 12 really nice heifer calves! Our butterfat tests had come back averaging 9.1%! And our fantastic cheese maker, Cathy Halinski, had produced an exquisite Camembert from our water buffalo milk that was selling both in Michigan and Chicago-simply the best cheese we have ever tasted-and customers agreed. This was the year we would turn the corner!

Reality. On a Friday in Mid-March of 2012 one of our friends who sells 2,500 tons of quality hay each year called with the hay prices at auction in northern Indiana. “Ron, they hit $230 a ton today for marginal first-second cutting.” I looked again at the NOAA drought website and talked with fellow grazers in western Wisconsin. “We’re selling animals. This is going to be a buster year-some of us aren’t going to make it.”

I went back to look more closely at my inputs and discounted the usual blather that “. . . prices would fall,” “. . . corn would return to normal…” and on and on. Looking like a spreading ink stain was that huge brown blob over the upper Midwest on the NOAA drought map---rippling a rainbow of colors indicating dropping soil moisture. The spread was lapping at our farm gate.

Suzanne and I looked at our freshening schedule, a possible continuation of rising hay prices all complicated by not having access to additional pasture. Could our freshening schedule provide enough milk to make enough cheese to pay for the buffs, or was the schedule staggered too much? This would be the last year we would use a bull. We were planning to go to artificial insemination and be able to drop calves within a short time to assure adequate milk to satisfy customers who would pay a premium to reserve our cheese. With a one year staggered freshening schedule and reasonable costs we would be fine, but if costs went up the dark blob over the Midwest spelled disaster for us.

It was a long weekend. I put pencil to paper. Sent e-mails to fellow grazers in the Midwest. What came back was sickening. Herds were being sold off, stocking rates were dropping. Demand for hay was pushing prices to $350-$400 a ton, with much of the hay imported from storage in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. We paid $90 a ton for first cutting, and $120 a ton for good second cutting in 2010-2011.

The call about hay prices came on a Friday, our buff herd went on the market the following Monday and was sold two weeks later with a 15% herd discount. A loss but had we held them--- the loss would have been disaster. The animals had been trained to the parlor and we had saved some excellent dairy genetics from the burger-mill. They went to a new dairy in South Carolina (but not before I had my body rearranged by our bull—another story). Most of our savings had gone into the herd, a lot of time developing the animals, and we had a marketable product. But, if prices held and there was a drought—better to get out now and focus on our dairy goats.

It was time to tuck in our wings and hunker down.

I think one local farmer summarized community thinking. “Why would you sell the herd? Everyone is saying we’re going to get four cuttings of hay this year. It is already March and look at the grass!”

Well folks, it was a very warm March and a very dry summer. Cold weather in the spring following one of the warmest March’s on record destroyed Michigan’s fruit crop. Four cuttings?—hardly. Our second cutting hay was harvested in September of 2012! And we felt damned lucky to have prepurchased that earlier in the year!

It was so dry here at Windshadow Farm that our electric fences shorted out! We use a New Zealand style high-tensile fencing system with a large charger. The charger is spider web grounded with five 8 foot grounding rods driven into “moist” areas. But if there is no moisture—there is no grounding. Our fence compass indicated our metal gates were carrying a charge in excess of 7,000V and were acting like capacitors. We were picking up stray voltage on stock panels near the charger. OUCH!!!! We had to soak the ground around the rods either with hoses or five-gallon buckets with weep holes. We ran a 1,111 foot trench across our northern border for a water line, dropping the trench as deep as five feet—it was bone powder dry heading down to the center of the earth.

Climate change and farming

I really don’t give much of a crap anymore about the idiots who deny climate change. We are seeing unprecedented changes. Can we adapt? We are trying to address the issue of our economic survival at this farm by planning a few things. We put in three irrigation ponds to stockpile water. They will be a water source for our grazing animals using two solar operated on demand pumps, and some irrigation for specific rotational grazing areas. We are working on putting in a four acre pasture of warm season grasses. (Warm season grasses in Michigan? Say what????) Talking with grazers in the upper Midwest, I’m thinking to start grazing annuals, maybe annual rye, to delay putting our dairy goats on pasture. These guys are seeing nice improvement to tilled land—the winter cover crop contributes organic matter and the grazing adds additional nutrient in the form of manure—need to talk to the neighbors about this….. Thinking to see if we can lease or buy an additional 10 acres or so specifically for this. Some dairy farmers are actually hauling animals to pasture between milkings-such is the problem with so much farm land being broken apart over the years.

Some folks are actually reseeding pastures with a wider variety of plants that can tolerate different soil types and moisture levels. I think diversity is good for the earth and that means it is good for the farmer. Just hedging our bets. So, we reconditioned 8 acres of pasture last year and seeded with a diversity of warm and cool season grasses as well as forbes. We had to seed late because the ground was so dry. But so far, knock on wood, it is greening up nicely.

Optimism? Well, we built a milking parlor over this winter with a bulk tank, pipeline and clean-in-place system, mostly used equipment and did a lion’s share of the work ourselves-including welding. We also finished a large amount of cost share work with NRCS (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov) to deal with mud, pasture access and water for rotational grazing. We got to put in a biological filtration system of our own design for wash water from the parlor. So we plan to be milking 100 dairy does by 2014. The number is what the pasture system we have can comfortably support using a managed rotational and sustainable grazing system.

Most significant: It is tough for a single small farm to go it alone. We have joined forces with Evergreen Lane Farm and Creamery in Fennville; a formal partnership with good friends Cathy and Tom Halinski-cheese makers and organic farmers. We milk and birth kids, they have a very nice nursery for the kids—sort of a goat kid heaven. They also take our milk and through the skilled hands of Cathy—convert it into artisan cheese. We are looking to have the cheese plant on this farm operational this year –an Evergreen Lane Creamery South- to supplement our partner’s very nice microdairy in Fennville. On farm sales of our cheese at Evergreen were good last year, our cheese is featured in several restaurants San Chez in Grand Rapids, New Holland Brewery in Holland, and Food Dance and Rustica in Kalamazoo. Our cheese is also available in some retail outlets in West Michigan, as well as at the Ever Green Lane farm store on 66^th street near Fennville. And it all started with a couple of goats.

AND our solar powered utility vehicle arrived this past Thursday!!!! We bought a Polaris Ranger EV and-since I could not quite get the engineering right (OK I am a Bozo)-we hired a Canadian Company to retrofit it. I gave them my design and the specs. It has a 3,000w marine heavy duty inverter, a 260watt solar panel on the roof and can run my 1,800w log splitter and small electric chain saw. It also has a DC outlet so I can run my Ron

Tumble Bug to move 6’x6’ round bales. Though is can be charged off the grid-hooked to the BIG battery than comes in from the road-it will mostly be charged off the solar roof panel. So, we figured almost 85% of our chores currently using our diesel Kubota can be performed by the solar powered UTV---Solar power. Check out these two links:

http://www.unconqueredsun.com/ this is the company that did the retro fit—great to work with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FsyyBd1BM One of my favorite U-tube clips. We use the Kubota instead of the horses—and will use the electric UTV this summer—did I say it was Solar Powered!!!

Lots of opportunity to use alternative energy for farming.

Above all, I’m hoping that the drought and the economic pressures that are beginning to concern us will cause some reflection and resurgence of more tolerance and commitment to cooperation in our farming community. And draw us all closer to cherishing and nurturing the soil, life around us and each other.

My electric fence—putting in three ten foot grounding rods near the ponds—if the ponds go dry we’ll be milking camels………

Warmest regards to all,

Living the dream one sleepless night at a time,
Ron & Suzanne

Ron and Suzanne Klein, with two livestock guardian dogs, and 85 spoiled dairy goats, own and operate Windshadow Farm & Dairy in Bangor. They are partners with Tom and Cathy Halinski of Evergreen Lane Creamery in Fennville where the farm’s goat milk is magically converted into excellent soft and ripened cheese. http://www.evergreenlanefarm.com/

A Book Review:

Book: Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture, by Sharron Hayes, Left to Write Press, Richmondville, NY, 2010.
By Rita Bober

In a recent Kalamazoo Gazette (Jan. 22) there was an article about Michelle Obama and how she was letting feminists down by focusing her role as First Lady to being “mom in chief” and that her daughters are “the center of my world.” What was the whole feminist movement all about anyway? – allowing women the freedom to choose whatever role they felt most important in their lives.

There are other women and men who are choosing a different lifestyle for themselves and their families. In the book, Radical Homemakers, Shannon Hayes describes families and individuals who are pursuing homemaking as a “vocation for saving family, community and the planet.” She also believes it is possible to be a feminist and still can tomatoes.

Living in the United States, it seems that having a two-income family is the only way to survive, especially for the middle class. But there has been a cost – a high divorce rate, increase in overwork, the reckless pursuit of affluence, a distancing of families as one moves to “where the jobs are”, lack of time for our children, lack of time to pursue enjoyable interests, lack of time to be part of our community, depending on others to provide the services we need such as afterschool childcare, gardening and lawn care, caring for our elderly parents and so forth.

Hayes interviewed 20 families that chose alternative lifestyles where they grow their own food, live within their means, provide much of their own health care, and where they rely on community, extended family, friends, and barter for meeting their remaining needs. They embodied a strong ecological ethic, held equal power in the household, and are living a full, creative, challenging and socially contributory life. Most did not have conventional jobs, many homeschooled their children, and they were great at nurturing relationships and working with family and community.

There are numerous resources outlining how to design an ecologically sustainable, self-sufficient, home-centered life: gardening, preserving food, raising animals, repairing equipment, managing money, etc. But it takes more than these skills to survive in an alternative lifestyle. What abilities are needed to support their sidestepping conventional employment and transforming their homes into units of production?

One of the most important skills to learn is the art of building and nurturing relationships. Interpersonal attributes help sustain our connections to community, extended family, neighbors, and our own immediate families. By giving compliments, helping with tasks, engaging in interesting conversations and expressing affection, playing together, and sharing, we can nurture our relationships.

Sharing isn’t about things so much as the sharing of who we are, our essence, and the intangibles in life. You give yourself by sharing meals, preparing food together, conversing, and working on chores/jobs. Neighbors can collaborate to plant and put up the harvest, co-own large machinery or tools, and they can borrow/trade with each other. In our current society, we are isolated, disconnected from those around us because most families need two incomes to survive. They have little time to give to others.

In building an alternative lifestyle, folks may practice thrift, frugality and debt avoidance. It’s hard to do this in a “money buys all” culture. Our current economic system revolves around money. Money is paid for every service: child care, health care, housecleaning, car repair, eating out, etc. This commoditization of social relationships leaves us with nothing to do together but to consume.

Critical thinking skills are most important – key questions to ask are why am I doing what I’m doing; who defines the parameters for success and happiness; who benefits from our daily labors away from home; and who ultimately suffers from a family's lack of self-reliance? It’s true that many lower-income families are much better at living a simple and more self-reliant lifestyle. I remember growing up in a blue-collar family where the children in the family helped with chores, we entertained ourselves (no T.V. or video games), we had a garden and helped Mom can tomatoes, green beans, etc. When we gathered with extended family, we were entertained by family members playing instruments and singing together. I heard recently that a study of happiness showed that the level of happiness in the United States has not increased since the 1950’s. We are the richest country in the world, yet this increase in wealth has not brought us happiness. Why is that?
Hayes’ words exemplify my thoughts: “Whatever life path we choose, building an identity is important. Contributing to society in a meaningful way, challenging ourselves, and being true to our core are ideals present in all feminist theory.”

Let’s visit with two families in Southwest Michigan that share the Radical Homemaker lifestyle:

Dennis and Shawna Wilcox:

Dennis and Shawna with their son Taiyo (almost one) and two boys from Shawna’s previous marriage, Indio and Benjiro, ages 14 and 12 are owners of the off-the-grid Blue Dog Family Farm (http://www.bluedogfamilyfarm.com/) in Bangor. Certified organic, they operate a summer and winter CSA, sell at the Kalamazoo Bank Street Farmers Market and maintain wholesale business accounts. The farm consists of 28 acres, about 7 of which are under cultivation. Dennis was born in Saginaw, MI and became interested in farming in college when he worked a big garden and realized he could do this for a living. He had several internships before buying the farm in Bangor in 2000. Shawna grew up on a dairy farm in Caledonia, MI. When milk prices bottomed in the late eighties, the farm was sold. Shawna attended college at Niagara University as well as Western Michigan University. Dennis and Shawna met initially at the farmers market in Kalamazoo before becoming a couple. Although their income is well below the average MI family of $48,000, they feel very rich and blessed by their lifestyle. They were able to borrow money from relatives and friends to finance the house and other farm endeavors thus avoiding traditional bank loans. They have a great network of friends and CSA families who are very supportive of the farm. They barter farm products, trade skills and rent the tractor they use for the farm from their neighbor. They both feel that “a life that is crafted from ourselves holds deeper meaning and connection and this meaning and connection fosters a sense of gratitude that permeates our everyday life.” They work together as a team for the greater good of the family and farm. There is a definite division of labor but “one has to support the other for the whole to co-exist. What good is it to work so hard to grow nutritious food but come in from the fields exhausted with no dinner prepared?” Shawna feels lucky to have grown up in a farm community where “women were truly the base on which the whole family and farm thrived.” They also cultivate a sense of humor and laugh together often. “There is an almost irrepressible nature to children and farming that lends itself to many comical situations and so we actively try to cultivate a sense of playfulness to engage this energy and not take ourselves too seriously.” Shawna definitely sees herself as a feminist She believes that feminism is “about having choices as a woman and having the ability to manifest her feminine self in a way that represents her deepest wild self, aside from patriarchal cultural values.” As any housewife can attest, there are many mundane jobs to be performed which our culture does not value, but as a couple, Dennis and Shawna recognize “how important these jobs are to a functioning and healthy family.” Another value they hold is that of being certified organic. They both feel deeply that they need “to farm in a way that leaves the land and soil productive and fruitful for generations to come and that the gift of fertile soil is a precious gift to give to the next generation.” Both are interested in food justice issues and offer a limited number of free CSA shares to low income single mothers. Through their apprenticeship program they will offer hands on experiences for young people seeking to live in close connection with the land and to pass on skills of self-reliance to those looking to learn these ways.

David Veale and Rachel Kopka:

David and Rachel with their son, Henry, age 8, live on their diversified, pasture based, low carbon farm in Three Rivers. Bluebird Farm (http://www.bluebirdfarmandorchard.com/) is nearly 60 acres; about 25 of that is pasture/hay, 10 acres includes their home, garden, barnyard, orchard, etc., and the remainder is woods. David grew up mostly in western Washington State where his family kept a small vegetable garden, a berry patch and a few fruit trees. He got a BS in Forest Resource Management from the University of Washington and was employed in that field for a few years before going into the information technology field. Recently, he changed to an off-farm job in that field. Rachel grew up in Plainwell, MI where her parents gardened and had a small orchard. Both were teachers so the family had blocks of time in the summer where Rachel gained skills in roofing a house, installing flooring, doing basic carpentry, and other skills through family home improvement projects. The family also traveled across the United States and visited just about every state and National Park. Rachel graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Botany and moved to Washington State where she and David met through mutual friends. When one of their friends loaned David copies of Richard Heinberg’s books “The Party’s Over” and “Power Down;” these ideas and his lifetime passion for environmental concerns, started to change his view of the world. When David and Rachel moved to their farm, their goal was to live entirely from their farming operations. With last year’s drought, the dream of garnering a living from the farm receded back over the horizon. At this time, David sees “our farm’s value as an excellent educational experience . . . and as demonstrating the viability of farm production without the use of fossil fuels or chemical inputs.” He is convinced that “community is perhaps the most critical piece of the puzzle to sustainability. Knowing your customers individually, you treat them differently than you might treat faceless customers a thousand miles distant. You treat your shared environment better as well.” Both David and Rachel thought they could both work full time and still manage the farm. They learned how impossible that was. Farm work consumes enormous amounts of time. “If you want to eat well without breaking the bank, you have to cook . . . and if you want good, responsibly grown ingredients in sufficient quantity to make it the majority of your diet, you’ll likely have to grow them.” The family currently produces about 2/3rds of their own food which includes growing, harvesting, processing, and cooking (which alone could easily employ a single person full time). Besides gardening, bee keeping, processing maple syrup, chickens/eggs, milking cows, foraging, canning and other food preservation, home brewing, the family also makes soap and candles from their animals’ fats (deer too). When their sheep are sheared, they send the wool to a mill to be washed and carded and Rachel knits quite a lot and also has a floor loom. They use animal power as much as possible with their team of Belgians horses who cut, rake and pick up hay, plow, disc and cultivate, haul firewood and the manure spreader. They heat and cook with wood from their own farm. David has taken a blacksmithing course at Tillers International and now has a forge. He also does his woodworking and repairs with non-electric hand tools. David also hunts and tans the deer hides to make leather. They even have a composting outhouse – although it is not their exclusive “facility.” David feels incredibly blessed that Rachel is able to take the time to handle all the home tasks, as well as furthering her knowledge and experience in such things as spinning, knitting, and weaving. Rachel realizes that staying home enables her to do a small part to keep more of their money in their own pockets and out of corporate coffers. “I’m feeding my family clean, (extremely) locally produced food. I’m maintaining my health by working outside, not working out at the gym, I’m happy with the variety of activities that make up a typical day here on the farm, and I’m constantly challenged wi Rita

th problems to solve and new skills to be mastered. In addition, I’m lucky that I have a spouse that sees value in having a pantry full of canned tomatoes, freezers full of home-raised meat &veggies, shelves stocked with mead & wine, and wool socks and sweaters to keep warm in winter. We both appreciate that security comes in many forms, not just money.” Rachel is grateful to the women who have gone before, who fought hard to gain equal rights for all women. She is “truly grateful to have the choice of staying home or having a career” (she previously had a job as a CAD drafter for a civil engineer). If the circumstances were different, she knows “David would gladly be the one to be on the farm full-time.”

Rita Bober and husband Norm operate
Stone Circle Farm and Learning Center:
http://www.stonecirclefarm.com/

Recent MLT Activities

Ken Dahlberg

MLT has been a longtime member of the Michigan Environmental Council, one of the most effective state- wide environmental groups. We continue to provide input to them on issues we’re interested in and attend relevant meetings they hold.

Your Chair continues to participate in the Good Food Kalamazoo coalition. We are developing plans to hold a meeting with additional groups to join us in a strategic planning process for strengthening food systems in the greater Kalamazoo area. As part of that I’ve been working on an introductory Food Systems 101 presentation/activity. Also, in June, I’ll be reporting on all of this at a roundtable at the annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society. This year its being held at MSU.

Just prior to this, those pre-conference attendees interested will - thanks to Maynard’s organizing efforts - tour the former Land Trust Farm as well as the three organic farming and dairy operations that he has “devolved” from the original Homesteading Farm - thereby helping to raise a new “crop” of organic growers.

MLT helped in the early coordination of getting climate activist Bill McKibben to visit Kalamazoo this coming autumn.

At our last meeting in February, we met with a Board member of Fair Food Matters - which has been going through a “rough patch.” Over the years FFM has taken over operation of various projects for which MLT provided “seed money.” We decided to provide them significant financial support to help them through. Since our meeting, it appears they are getting back on track.

Other activities since our last meeting include:
*Signing on to a letter to Governor Snyder urging him “to support energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy like wind and solar power in order to move the state away from fossil fuels and toward leadership in the global clean energy economy.”
*Signing on to an appeal to FDA to extend the comment period - just recently approved - on its very lengthy and complicated proposed Food Safety Modernization Act rules for produce safety standards and hazard analysis plans.
*Receiving a thank you e-mail for an earlier sign on. It was from Healthy Traditions, stating: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published its final rule on Animal ID.  Thanks to the pressure from the grassroots, . . . we have come a very long way from Big Ag’s and USDA’s proposal . . . . In this final rule, there is no premises registration, no mandatory electronic identification, no centralized databases, no reporting of movements, and no requirements for in-state movements. . . .”

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