The Farm as Open Air Classroom

I begin with this number because in terms of farming, food production, and care of the environment, it has resonance. One billion, twenty million is the number of people on our planet who are going to bed hungry every night. That is more than at any time in human history. No need to take my word for it. You can look it up for yourself. The number appears in a FAO report. That is the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

One of the things you may be thinking is, “Of course the numbers are going up, the human population is as well.” Though that is true, and that population is an area of equally great concern, what is clear is that the starvation of nearly one-sixth of all human beings is not a foregone conclusion. It simply does not have to happen.

The number is staggering, and looking at numbers alone can be an overwhelming, if not maddening, experience. Smaller numbers can be just as disturbing. Only three percent of all water on earth is freshwater; half of that is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Of what is left, 80% is used by industrial agriculture to irrigate crops. (As such, most is wasted.) Americans constitute 4.6% of the world population, but use 22.5% of all the energy produced.

See what I mean? Overwhelming.

There is, however, a flip side. Numbers can teach us a great deal; and, at the risk of sounding cliché, knowledge is power. For one thing, to have more people than ever before teetering on the brink of starvation confirms at least one thing: the Green Revolution has failed...unless, of course, you are a Cargill or Monsanto shareholder.

In my view, this is where Hayes Valley Farm can be of at least dual purpose. Volunteers and visitors to the farm are routinely demonstrating a real excitement for remediating a neglected landscape, building soil, and growing food. Many, myself included, are learning how to do some of these things for the first time. No doubt, what they learn can be shared with others, then knowledge of how permaculture can begin to reverse our neglect and abuse of the natural world becomes a recipe for the future.

This is not mere wishful thinking. Though many of us may have had backyard gardens in the past, making an education campaign part of our process of building community holds the potential to empower so many more at many different scales.

Consider last Saturday as an example. I had been contacted by the Director of the Center for Habitat Restoration at City College of San Francisco. She teaches several biology and ecology courses on campus as well and, during a recent class I took with her, must have heard the excitement in my voice when I spoke of work at the farm. A new weekend ecology course she had recently created was scheduled, and would I mind giving a tour of the site? Ha! Do bears like honey?

Eighteen people arrived on Saturday afternoon, and looked positively thrilled to learn that a site like ours, abused by cars for decades, then neglected for so long, was being transformed into a living, breathing ecosystem again. I talked permaculture versus industrial agriculture; sheet mulching and nitrogen fixation; maximizing food yield without chemicals; biodiversity as a means of countering species extinction; fruit tree grafting and potato towers; consumption reduction and recycling...and the students appeared transfixed. There were numerous questions and, though it was part of an academic process, it was clear some wanted to return to get their hands dirty.

Some might claim that because it works in San Francisco, it may not work elsewhere, but I think they would be wrong. I think there are entire communities out there who hunger for more than just food. Even when they are well-fed, they hunger for the means to counter the hierarchical structures of food production. They want to learn how to grow nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables while showing others that it is possible without destroying the soil, or poisoning our rivers. They hunger for these things and more. They hunger for things which may not even be a part of their conscious understanding.

Eric Fromm suggested a deep, psychological underpinning that drives human beings to seek out the natural world and find kinship within it. The famous scientist E.O. Wilson expanded on this theory and called it biophilia or, more literally, a “love of life or living systems.”

So driven, I cannot think of a better way to learn than to get my hands dirty in a classroom which has blue sky for a roof, and the rustle of leaves overhead as accompaniment to a lecture given by the whole of nature.

Professors, instructors, and teachers of all stripes: Hayes Valley Farm encourages you to consider the educational opportunities available to your students by arranging a visit. We are happy to do site tours, or simply provide a venue for you to conduct a lecture in biology, botany, ecology, environmental science, etc. Contact us to start the conversation. We would love to see you!

Photo by Hayes Valley Farm, May 2, 2010