Farm Fresh News - September 2017
- My Last Farm Experience
- Justice Served: Building Community through Art
- Market Day Under the Dome October 21 - The Pumpkin Decorating Contest!
- Essay: Class, Privilege and Our Spiritual Roots
Market Day Under the Dome October 21 - The Great Pumpkin Decorating Contest!
Carve or paint your pumpkin to win cash prizes!
Carve or paint your pumpkin to win cash prizes!
Hi Friends,
This month has been very full and it has delayed me in sending out the September issue of Farm Fresh. A call went out from Communities Magazine asking for articles relating to class and privilege. The Farm has a unique perspective and set of experiences, and so you are getting a sneak preview of the piece I wrote.
Not long ago a friend made mention of an online personality test and felt it got him spot on. I never put much stock in those things, but decided to take it to see how wrong it was. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised when it identified me as a “campaigner.” It seems I am always campaigning for one cause or another.
So it should be no surprise to see me use this issue as another opportunity to talk about the work of Plenty International.
I also want to introduce you to a new project by my friend and collaborator, artist Bernice Davidson.
As many communities around the country grapple with the removal of statues that represent the cause of racism, Bernice is working with the historical society of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee to commemorate a little known, but important civil rights trial, where justice was served.
If you have been waiting to attend a Farm Experience Weekend, but have been procrastinating, I hope you will make an effort to join me in October. As it stands now, I will not be scheduling any Experience Weekends for 2018. It has been 16 years since I started hosting The Farm Experience, and I am feeling it is time to move on to new things. I want to thank all of you who have come in the past for your support and I hope you feel I delivered on my promise of a unique and fulfilling experience.
Peace,
Douglas
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Mural for the Lawrence County Courthouse Depicts a Historic Event in Civil Rights
In 1946, shortly after the end of World War II, African American soldiers, who had become accustomed to equality and fair treatment in the U.S. Military, returned home to the Jim Crow South, a place where segregation and prejudice was in full force.
Tensions boiled over in Columbia, Tennessee, resulting in the round-up and arrest of over 20 business leaders from the African American community. The trial was moved to Lawrence County, and the NAACP sent in their legal defense team to work the case.
Facing an all-white jury, those on both sides were shocked when everyone accused was acquitted, thanks to the brilliant legal arguments developed by a young Thurgood Marshall. Marshal went on to serve as lead Defense council for Brown v the Board of Education and in 1968 became the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
This historic trial will be memorialized in a large mural on a wall inside the Lawrence County Courthouse, a project of the Lawrence County Historical Society, working with local artist Bernice Davidson.
It is important to note that no public funds have been used for the production of the mural inside the Lawrence County Courthouse. The project is being funded entirely through private donations. All contributors and supporters of this project will be recognized in a plaque adjacent to the mural.
Join me by making a contribution toward this important work of art. Visit: www.bernicedavidsonart.com
For tax deductible donations, make checks out to: The Lawrence County Historical Society
Mail checks to: Bernice Davidson, PO Box 259, Summertown, TN 38483
For tax deductible donations, make checks out to: The Lawrence County Historical Society
Mail checks to: Bernice Davidson, PO Box 259, Summertown, TN 38483
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class and Privilege: Multicultural Hippie Roots and Spiritual Foundations of The Farm Community
The Hippie movement that came into being at the end of the 1960’s was spawned in part by a direct rejection of the consumer driven materialism embraced by their parent’s post-depression era generation, and it was elevated by an awareness of the essential spiritual nature and oneness of the universe and all people.
At the same time, the civil rights movement opened the eyes of young people developing a broader sense of cultural oppression. This awakening made it possible to recognize the expanding corporate influence as a shiny veneer of an ever-expanding military industrial complex that was sending the youth of the nation to maintain colonial dominance over socialist movements around the globe.
Without waiting for society at large to change, the youth of white America took a fast track to integration through music. Blues beget rock and roll, with stages at clubs and festivals able to showcase artists of all ethnicities, changing hearts, minds and lives on many levels.
The original founders of The Farm who left San Francisco were aware from the very beginning that the hippie movement was primarily a white phenomenon. The hippie culture’s step away from privilege and wealth was in direct contrast to the trajectory of many in Black America, seeking to claim their fair share of the American dream. Consequently, the community demographic was and remains primarily from the white, middle class.
Our naive idealism aided what some might call the bravery it took to settle just 35 miles from where the Klu Klux Klan was founded. We were attracted to the beauty of the land, the climate and length of growing seasons, and the fact that we were able to acquire 1000 acres for only $70 an acre. We were less sensitive to the fact that the deeper, underlying racism embedded into the Southern culture at that time would make people of color uncomfortable anywhere outside the community, and so they would be less drawn to live here. While much has changed over the ensuing decades, the Confederate flag still flies outside numerous homes around us.
In those early days, we recognized that in order to survive, The Farm would have to make peace with our neighbors. It was a time when the children of rural America were leaving family farms for factory jobs in the cities. Here we were, a bunch of city kids, anxious to learn the homesteading skills the local folks took for granted. In a way, the community served as bridge to our neighbors’ understanding of the greater cultural revolution that was taking place elsewhere in the country. Fortunately for us, a nearby Amish settlement that had come to the area before us had paved the way, demonstrating that hard work and honesty could surmount differences and generate respect, a standard we embraced.
The Vow of Poverty
For the first 12 years, members of The Farm signed a vow of poverty, affirming a commitment of a life in service to humankind. It was good for our souls to get a taste of being poor, something we called living as “voluntary peasants.” Those drawn to The Farm were heeding an inner call, to drop out of college, out of prescribed career paths, and leave lives of relative privilege to live in tents and old buses, deep in the woods, immersed in nature. Many inheritances were absorbed by the communal economic structure, donated to the dream of a society where all were equal, and like it said in the Bible’s Book of Acts, “given to each as they had need.”
For the first 12 years, members of The Farm signed a vow of poverty, affirming a commitment of a life in service to humankind. It was good for our souls to get a taste of being poor, something we called living as “voluntary peasants.” Those drawn to The Farm were heeding an inner call, to drop out of college, out of prescribed career paths, and leave lives of relative privilege to live in tents and old buses, deep in the woods, immersed in nature. Many inheritances were absorbed by the communal economic structure, donated to the dream of a society where all were equal, and like it said in the Bible’s Book of Acts, “given to each as they had need.”
After a few years, as the community got on its feet and felt solid, there was a recognition that the purpose was not just to establish the ultimate hippie commune. As the benefactors of western dominance over indigenous people both in our country and around the world, we recognized a responsibility to give back. The success of the revolution would come about, not by “bringing the top down, but by bringing the bottom up.”
The Farm established a nonprofit called Plenty, based on the idea that there is enough for everyone, if we just share. An opportunity came to express our ideals in a real way, after a devastating earthquake in Guatemala in 1976. A couple of folks were sent down to see if there might be something we could do to help, and they came back with an important observation. If our experiment as voluntary peasants were to fail, we could always run back to our parents and reclaim our position of privilege. If life fails you as an involuntary peasant, you die. The earthquake in Guatemala had left a lot of people homeless who might not make it through the approaching rainy season.
The dozens of Farm community volunteers who went to work in Guatemala returned with firsthand experience of true endemic poverty. We gained a deeper understanding of the entrenched colonial racism that still existed in the form of a 20% Latino society and government which maintained dominance over the 80% Mayan population.
My wife Deborah and I were in Guatemala from 1978-80.
Our children Leah and Jody, with a red headed friend, open the spigot of the new water system installed by Plenty for the village where we lived.
The experience in Guatemala transformed the energy of the community, and we looked for more places to serve. Our work with Plenty took Farm members to the slums of Bangladesh and to the depths of desperation in Haiti. In 1978, a group of mostly white hippie volunteers moved into the heart of the South Bronx, taking over an abandoned building to start a free ambulance service. In the South Bronx it was apparent that our black neighbors, though materially poor, benefitted from their strong community ties, and the hippies from Tennessee were welcomed into that community because they were there to help. Plenty’s work came to define what The Farm was about and represented the best of who we were.
Things Change
Bad luck, bad investments, poor management and youthful inexperience came head to head with the oil crisis of the early 1980s and a slumping U.S. economy. Creditors came knocking at The Farm’s doors, and it became clear the community had to either change or lose everything. Our economic and societal structure changed in the 80s, from an income sharing model, where no one held personal money, to more of a democratic cooperative, where adult members were expected to contribute financially to the community budget. It became up to each individual to maintain a commitment to service in their own way, and together in smaller circles.
The ensuing years were a time when The Farm had to pull itself out of poverty and its members establish lives that were truly sustainable, developing skills that could support a family in modern times, while continuing to stay true to the core principle of Right Livelihood, work that is seamless with your ideals.
Plenty International
Plenty International remains as a means for expressing those ideals. Plenty continues to manage and maintain a variety of programs and projects that support economic self-sufficiency, cultural integrity and environmental responsibility in partnership with families, community groups and other organizations in Central America, the U.S., the Caribbean, and Africa. Its base of support comes from people all across the country and around the world, and its volunteers and staff include people who no longer, or have never lived at The Farm Community. Ultimately Plenty is a tool that allows individuals to channel their beliefs into action.
Today: School children line up for soy "ice bean" cones at the soy dairy in San Bartolo, Guatemala
The soy dairy was constructed and set up by Plenty volunteers in 1980 (I did the electrical wiring). The adjacent school was also built by Plenty.
Plenty’s first soy nutrition project in Guatemala has been in continuous operation now for over 37 years. The Asociacion Dearrollo Integral de Belen or ADIBE functions as a village cottage industry, marketing soy products like tofu and soy ice cream or “ice bean” throughout Guatemala.
Karen’s Soy Nutrition Project works in the slums of Guatemala City, providing bi-weekly servings of fortified milk and cookies for the children of families living off what they are able to salvage and recycle from the Guatemala City dump.
In towns and villages of southern Belize, Plenty provides educational and technical support to primary schools, women’s groups, and community efforts to reduce poverty, produce food, clean energy, water and protect the environment. Gardens were started at all 50 schools in the Toledo District, teaching organic growing methods while supplying fruits and vegetables for healthy lunches. Students learn solar technology installing panels to provide light and power for classrooms, and to run pumps for village-wide water systems.
Since its inception Plenty has worked alongside Native American partners on a variety of projects. The Slim Buttes Agricultural Development Project at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota provides seeds, tools, soil preparation and garden support so that Oglala Lakota families can augment their diets with fresh organic produce. Over the years, the project has grown from a humble start of six gardens in 1985, to as many as 400 gardens, involving up to 2500 tribal members in eight of the nine Pine Ridge reservation districts.
Since its first response to the earthquake in Guatemala in the 1976, Plenty International has continued to be an avenue for relief efforts after national disasters. Much of this is driven by the volunteers themselves, who come to Plenty as a way to facilitate their desire to help, after Hurricanes Mitch (Nicaragua 1998), Iris (Belize 2001), in India and Sri Lanka following the Tsunami of 2004, and more recent earthquakes in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015).
Relief efforts after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav developed into a decade long series of projects along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Working with Tribal leaders, Plenty provided emergency distributions of food and clothing to some of the most impacted Biloxi-Chitimacha Indian families. Since 2008, thanks to the efforts of Plenty volunteers, the annual “Bayou Christmas” has provided toys, books, groceries and other aid to over 100 families.
Books to Kids was started after learning that virtually all of the books in New Orleans’ libraries and public schools were destroyed after Katrina. Since 2006, Books To Kids volunteers have distributed free, quality books to disadvantaged children in Louisiana, Tennessee, and most recently, rural Kentucky. Over 250,000 books have been provided to children through schools, families, community centers and libraries.
Left, the school gardens in Belize, Right / Jim Selin in the blue Plenty t-shirt, founder of Books for Kids, at a school in Louisiana
At The Farm Community in Tennessee, Plenty’s Kids To The Country (KTC) program offers children from the homeless shelters and refugee centers in Nashville week long experiences immersed in nature, a chance to explore creativity and learn conflict resolution skills away from the pressures of inner city strife. Teachers and students from The Farm School, along with other volunteers, serve as counselors. Operating continuously now for over 30 years, KTC provides a valuable cultural exchange between urban children of color, and the children growing up in the rural surroundings of The Farm Community.
Kids To The Country offers at-risk urban kids the opportunity to develop a connection to nature through hands-on experience.
A Life Seamless with Your Ideals
Understanding your position of privilege is not about feeling guilt. It is about finding and acting on opportunities to make a difference. The ideals we shared from the beginning still persist today: if you want to create peace in the world, be peaceful, and if you want to get along with your neighbors, be loving and respectful. Every one of us has the power and potential to make positive change, starting with how we treat those closest to us. From this strength, comes our ability to leverage our efforts for greater impact, reaching across cultures to build community.
You can learn more about Plenty International and Kids To The Country at www.plenty.org, and Karen’s Soy Nutrition Project in Guatemala at www.ksnp.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A big thanks to everyone who has become a patron of Farm Fresh!
When you become a subscriber, your contribution helps spread the word about community based alternatives.
Take this one small step to be part of the solution!
When you become a subscriber, your contribution helps spread the word about community based alternatives.
Take this one small step to be part of the solution!
You can help keep Farm Fresh going by pledging $2, $5, or $10 a month, or by making a one time contribution.
Click here to take the survey. I look forward to hearing from you.
I hope you'll make the effort to take a firsthand look at The Farm during one of my GreenLife Retreat Weekends, and that it will inspire you to pursue your dreams and find your chosen path!
Speaking Engagements
At the same time, I recognize that I can reach a lot more people if I go outside the community. One of my goals is to speak at colleges and universities where I can talk to young people about Right Livelihood, Service, and Finding Sanity in an Insane World. This is a time when people need to hear an uplifting message of hope.
At the same time, I recognize that I can reach a lot more people if I go outside the community. One of my goals is to speak at colleges and universities where I can talk to young people about Right Livelihood, Service, and Finding Sanity in an Insane World. This is a time when people need to hear an uplifting message of hope.
If you are part of an organization, event, or school (or you just want to learn more about my life's work), I invite you to visit my web site www.douglasstevenson.com, where you'll find information on my lecture topics and how to bring me to speak in your area.
Douglas
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
An Incredible NEW BOOK!
Following 7 years of research, Farm Community member Thomas Hupp uncovers the subtle forces that presently affect Politics, Economics and Your Health.
Only $15 plus $5 for shipping!
|
 |
Oct 20-22 Farm Experience Weekend
Fall Colors and a Fire Circle: Always a jam packed weekend. A time of reflection and introspection.
Fall Colors and a Fire Circle: Always a jam packed weekend. A time of reflection and introspection.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.awakeningbirth.org - the Web Site
www.awakening birth.net - The Podcast
Our new birth resource web site is up. The Awakening Birth podcast is now available on iTunes.
Please spread the word to anyone in your circle who is thinking of having a baby, expecting, your favorite midwife, or care provider.
Please spread the word to anyone in your circle who is thinking of having a baby, expecting, your favorite midwife, or care provider.
Please like us and give us a good review on iTunes. It helps!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Permaculture Apprenticeships: Learn straw, cob, earthbag, turf roofs, bamboo, thatch, clay plaster, adobe, alis, and food self-reliance at The Farm Community.
Spiral Ridge Permaculture - Workshops and Classes at a Permaculture Homestead down the road
Green Life Retreats
A division of Village Media Services
PO Box 259Summertown, TN 38483
931-964-2590 - office 931-626-4035 cell
Douglas@villagemedia.com
www.villagemedia.com
www.greenliferetreats.com
www.douglasstevenson.com
Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com
A division of Village Media Services
PO Box 259Summertown, TN 38483
931-964-2590 - office 931-626-4035 cell
Douglas@villagemedia.com
www.villagemedia.com
www.greenliferetreats.com
www.douglasstevenson.com
Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com
