Agraria_Journal_WINTER_2022

22 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 of these systems are not only the fragile food chains that are now breaking apart, but degraded soils, broken rural communities, impaired hydrological cycles, collapsed biodiversity, a decline in human health, mass migration, and conflict. Yet our largest challenge may be in our belief that we can’t repair the human and biotic community, and that we are locked into the global system, even as it continues to collapse. These are the false narrative strands that bind us and the counter-narratives that offer another perspective: • The suggestion that we need to end animal agriculture and feed the planet with lab-grown meat. The truth is that animals managed well, in an intensive rotational grazing system, generate healthy soils, people, and planet. • The idea that CRISPR technology, which allows for selectively modifying the DNA sequences of living organisms, and GMOs are healthy ways forward. The reality is that technological tinkering with seeds and plant stocks has challenged human and ecosystem health, and the commodification of seeds has bankrupted farmers and the future. • The belief that large scale farms feed the planet. And yet small scale farmers, mostly women, continue to feed most of the world. • The insinuation that planetary hunger is rooted in a lack of food. In truth, plenty of food is grown, but doesn’t make it to everyone who is hungry because of monetary and social policy, transportation and processing challenges, conflict, and waste. Heber Brown and regenerative growers everywhere are not only shifting these false narratives, but also encouraging growing at every scale, engendering agency and hope. As Fannie Lou Hamer wrote: “Food is used as a political weapon, but if you have a pig in your backyard, if you have some vegetables in your garden, you can feed yourself and your family and nobody can push you around.” CRITICAL AGRARIANISM The path back to a healthy future is being explored and implemented by organizations across the planet. Here in the U.S., critical agrarianism explores how the back-to-the-land movement can address equity and social justice through land access and rebuilding local food systems. Land access is a pressing issue in Ohio and other states that are experiencing immigration from the cities and the coasts and whose abundant water and relatively cheap land are taking thousands of acres out of farm production season by season through solar development and sprawling suburbanization. We are the colonizers and the colonized, facing a future where we may not be able to feed ourselves despite agriculture being currently our number one industry. At Agraria, we are exploring the deepening connections between our legacy and future, recognizing that our programs like the Regenerative Farmer Fellowship and support of local farmers are not just an opportunity for rematriation and repair, but also a map to a different future for all of us. This year, our support is expanding through, for example, a Regional Conservation Partnership agreement in collaboration with the one.two.five Benefit Corporation, which will bring conservation and carbon-storing funds to several of our BIPOC farming partners. A policy fellowship program is in the works for next September, and we also plan to launch a series of trainings and support for the second-year farming fellows. The BIPOC Farming Network will also continue to deepen and expand. Our conferences and workshops provide practical support on land access, as well as historical context for why reparations to each other and the planet are crucial tools for moving forward. The need for system transformation at every level is apparent, just as it was for the biblical Joseph. And like him, we are learning as we work together that a regenerative harvest is rooted in restoring connections with our places on the planet, with the land and the soil and the way food is grown, and with each other. We look forward to working with you toward this (r)evolutionary future! Susan Jennings is Executive Director of Agraria. Food is used as a political weapon, but if you have a pig in your backyard, if you have some vegetables in your garden, you can feed yourself and your family and nobody can push you around. ~Fannie Lou Hamer