Stories from the Agroecology Shortcourse

Last Day

2010-07-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

Today's the last day of the course-- a diverse group of people who've been together for 2 weeks sharing and learning from each other. How will this course impact each of us as we return to our farms, coops, schools, gardens, communities?....We'll continue the blog with more summaries and reflections. In the meantime--here's some photos to share:
1) La Tierra a la mesa group prepares a great dinner for us--agroeco style
2)The CAN researchers held their annual meeting
3) Course participants tour the training center and farm where the course is being held outside of San Cristobol de las Casas in Chiapas
4) Kippy and Irene welcome the group on the first day
5) Local anthropologist and course leader, Ron, and farmer and course participant, Bernancio, look over the farmer's organic tomato crop.

Coffee Talk

2010-07-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

Coffee production/ exportation/ consumption is an important theme of the course.
There is a track that is focused on this and last night we had a public presentation on the topic. The thing about talking coffee is that it is always so much more than about coffee. At the course there are small-scale coffee growers and coop ‘tecnicos’ who work with the producers. Many are able to participate in the course because of generous scholarships offered by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Discussion ranged from how to put the marketing more in the hands of the producers/cooperatives rather than the large importers (Kraft/ Procter-Gamble/ Phillip Morris); to how to diversify coffee landscapes so that coffee farmers can produce food for their families and avoid ‘los meses flacos’- the thin months when they don’t have enough to eat. This coffee talk is very important-it addresses the common issues of export crops—that often leave the farmers without enough food for themselves; the transformation of markets as more direct relations are being established between producers, consumers and progressive roasters. Nothing quite like transforming the world over coffee.

From Moises

2010-07-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today with the speed of travel and communication groups increasingly face the problem of finding a common language. On this occasion we gathered together to discuss our connections and disconnections with the world of Academia, which is a force that forms through systematic analysis of experience, and the world of the campesino, which is designed by pure experience. From both ends of the spectrum there are frustrations. Investigators have to decide if we choose to play the role of parasite, cold collectors of information, or beneficial diplomats from a world with far too many options. The campesino problems are directly related to the intrusive ¨industrial¨ world. The fascination with bigger and better products fetishize the position of the investigator, agronomist, and scholar. If a people are uninformed we hold a power which is based on blind faith. Sergio, one of the Anthropologists of the group, shared an experience he had with an indigenous community in which the community saw him as a Government official. They gathered their identification documents thinking he was there to offer government benefits. What I see is a lapse of nonhierarchical information. An agronomist can offer chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but not information of the world's problems. The connection we made today is the construction of a language that humbly spreads experience.

Moises

Emel's the Coordiator

2010-07-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

Here's Emel! She is the ultimate coordinator of the course, making sure everything runs smoothly and we're well taken care of. (Not an easy job.) Emel graduated from UCSC and was a CANista. She is now living in San Cristobol and will start a masters here in anthropology in the Fall. While at UCSC she did a CAN internship in Huatusco, Vera Cruz, Mexico. She lived with the Jacome Avendano family and has stayed in touch with them over the years. When she became involved in organizing the course she went out of her way to get a scholarship for their son, Chucho (pictured with Emel). He is being sponsored by Green Mountain Roasting Company---as the next generation of small scale coffee producers.

Thanks Emel from all of us for all you are doing to make the course wonderful!

Market of the Mind

2010-07-16T18:47:00.001-07:00

A collections of ologies, intricately designed sustainable, anthropological, agroecological, biological presentations. The affirmation of decades of wisdom amalgamated into a group whose main concern is "Whats for Dinner." Whether or not the meats and veggies we consume offer us nutrients or death; or if the better people are found in a fortune five hundred magazine or in the mountains of Chiapas on an organic farm. the 11th annual agroecology short course has introduced intellectual and spiritual guapos y guapas. 45 + people who's life paths have come together or two short weeks to attempt to find solution to todays cultural and nutritional depression. Agroecology is not an abstract science which methodically calculates unacademic communities out of the system, but welcomes and helps synthethsize a language which unties both limbs of humanity. To quote Steve Gliessman "put the culture back in agriculture." This is the mission and our journey.

Bazooka Moe

Update from Robbie

2010-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

We’re in Day 4 of the International Agroecology Shortcourse—the 11^th one—taking place in San Cristobol de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The group of 44 from 7 countries come from various walks of life…campesinos, coffee cooperatives, educators, students,

Ngos, academics. Togetther we are finding our common connectors—our concern for

the maintenace of culture, for the value of the small producers, for the environment.

Our theme is: Linking tradition, education and science for sustainability

and after the first day we had an intense discussion full of concern for how the youth in the rural communities have no interest in their culture, in maintaining their culture, in valuing the knowledge of their families.

In Day 2 we went to market! The amazing Great Market of San Cristobol. Endless stalls

of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, live chickens, ducks, turkeys (the chickens being held upside down on the women’s arms as if they were large handbags.) —such diversity, the fruits looking so ripe.

Everything from live fauna to traditional medicinal herbs to tamales to grains of every kind. We then sat around in a circle sharing our observations. Many of the local indigenous and farmers in the group share info for how different items are used.

I was part of a team including Lorena who comes from Tuxtla Guiterrez and doña Reina, who as a local indigenous, was an amazing guide through the market.

In Day 3 we compared our visit to the traditional market with visits to large supermarkets including Sam’s Club. Once again I was with Doña Reina as we went into a large Mexican supermarket chain. She had never been there before and we were both amazed by how much ‘stuff’ was there. More than half the store was non-food items –everything from plastic toys, to clothes, to televisions and exercise machines. The food was from everywhere—local herbs and vegetables to packagde lettuce and strawberries from Watsonville, CA to pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at $8 a pint! While Ben & Jerry’s was very expensive, most things were very cheap. The best example was the tortillas which are made there and are 5 peso a kilo compared with 10 pesos/kilo at local tortillerías. There was a line of at least 20 people waiting to purchase their tortillas—the staple of the Mexican diet. As I stood to the side to take a picture, a man said to me: “Buen precio pero no buen sabor.” Good price but not good flavor. Yet when your family may eat 2 kilos of tortillas a day, price drives the decision. After our investigation, Doña Reina and I waited outside for the rest of the group. I asked her what she thought of the supermarket. She said she would go back when she needed something like an iron because it was cheap.

hasta pronto!

Robbie

Hola de Devon, Moi and Robbie

2010-07-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a birds-eye view of the XI Annual Agroecology Shortcourse taking place in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico outside of the city of San Cristobol de las Casas. The three of us will do our best to keep you updated on all the goings on from new insights about agroecology, solutions to all the world problems and the course chisme. Follow us July 11 - July 24th. We'll be here--will you?