THE BEGINNING & AGRI-CULTURE
We are delighted to introduce our new podcast, We Are Foodshed / Somos Foodshed, with this first episode featuring two of our amazing Foodshed crew members—Cris Juarez [of Pixca Farm] in conversation with Nan Cavazos [of Solidarity Farm] talking all about Foodshed’s humble beginnings and the movement for the return of agri-culture.
Click here to listen and follow this new stream! We will host conversations with farmers, eaters and other community members about our food system and what’s happening in our region to create thriving farms, an equitable distribution of locally grown food, and how our communities mobilizing mobilized around food.
There’s nothing like the intimacy and texture of hearing the voices in this conversation, so we encourage you to listen for yourself (and share it with your people!). This first episode is mostly in Spanish, and we’ll be alternating between languages as the episodes continue. Click here if you want to read the full transcript, including English/Spanish translation. And for everyone still in the the here and now, here’s a peek at some of the words coming from that conversation:
Nan: My name is Nan, Nan Cavazos and we are here in the wonderful Pauma Valley, Luiseño territory. We are in this stage of the world that we had to live where we as people and as farmers have to create alternative forms and ways of organizing ourselves to be able to combat this system that is in decline, this capitalist system where things only have economic value and if it does not have that economic value, then it has no value as a person or as a society or as a culture. So through this feeling of struggle and of trying to do things differently, several of us have come together to propose a different means of cooperation regarding the relationship between agricultural producers and the consumer. And how to make sure that we create routes where there is communication between producers and consumers. Including producing the food, agriculture with dignity and respect for Mother Earth, as well as a focus that the product that comes out of that energy reaches the table of people who really need healthy food.
So, on that premise of the need to cooperate, Foodshed was born. To create a center, a distribution that is organized by farmers in a cooperative model where we all have equity and where both the farmer and the people who work can have equity in the way in which the product is distributed. Yes, a well-organized chaos…
…in general we are trying to bring what is "agri-culture" again, which is "agri" and "culture", right? So, for us, for many of us, it is to bring back that relationship between the people of the city and the people of the countryside and how those two circles are related in a society where, well I don't want to say it negatively, but a society that is in decline, no, a society that is looking for this relationship again with the land and a society where it is necessary for children to get back in touch with the land again and to be able to understand where the food on their tables comes from, right?
…hey, if one comes from Mexico here to work hard and I'm going to grow a non-toxic product and the product is going only to certain people… for us it felt like we had to do something so that something could change.
And for us, also with Foodshed, to create a way, I have always said it here at the ranch--the only way that we are going to be able to win-- and not even win--to subsist in this new world of giant corporations is to unite with all the small-scale farmers and grow more small-scale farms so that this valley and this state can be what it was before: People who really produce and feed their communities instead of exporting and importing exploitation without us seeing it. It is very complicated, I can go very far. (laughter)
Photo: Crop-planning with New Roots urban farmers.
Cris: Well just to remind those who are listening that we are talking with Nan Cavazos, one of the founders of Foodshed. Foodshed is a new distributor of agricultural products grown with regenerative practices on small-scale farms in Luiseño territory in San Diego, California. And what we have been hearing in other words is that one of Foodshed's missions is to strengthen social interconnection while we try to survive economically and in a dignified way by generating new old ways of doing things between agricultural producers and consumers.
Nan: Several of the people who work at Foodshed already have experience working together on other projects before. On food justice, as well as social justice, community organizers. Then it was like something natural. Something was already coming. And also we were all working in food production. So this was like a double call to change that social paradigm and also help each other. To see, you know, that we have to subsist as farmers and as consumers and as people in the community and here is this project.
Photo: Nan Cavazos and Ellee Igoe, Foodshed Co-Founders
We told them you know that the time is now.
…And that also started the talk about why to start Foodshed in the city. How can we work with the community to have a little of that reciprocity. You don't just get the food. Here is the food at a good price without chemicals, but also the farmers need your help and you have to invest a little. That is what we are doing right now. Trying to find ways where it is mutually supportive but also creates a sense of responsibility amongst folks in the city. That this is one of the most difficult things to change in a society that is fragmented by different cultures and different aspects of our culture that are not necessary or good for the future of our people.
Cris: And that's another thing - that agricultural workers can not only survive but have a decent life and have a life that is also valued for the work that is working the land, having your hands in the dirt because there is a very large devaluation of agricultural work here where we live and in all parts of the world actually, food is devalued.
Nan: Yes, and what you just said makes a lot of sense to us because the way that we are proposing in Foodshed is that when we set all those goals that you are commenting on, the most important one is also to grow the local economy because sometimes we get confused about what is capitalism and what is the local economy. Well, for us the local economy is one of the most fundamental things. And I tell almost everyone - if you support the farmers and go and buy directly from them, then there’s that commitment of what am I going to do with that money. I will probably go and spend it in the community. Our dream would be to be able to create that relationship that existed before when there was exchange, be it food or money, it remained in the community. It did not have to be an extraction. Unfortunately now with so many companies, it is almost always an extraction.
Cris: …Right now I am seeing that we are here in the field seeing the mountains and the clear sky, breathing fresh air, horses, goats, chickens and all the plants and food and abundance to live here and live a life in connection with abundance. Why that mission to connect the city with the countryside?
Nan: That for me is the most wonderful part when I talk to people like the promotoras or people from the community in the city, for me that is the most wonderful thing it does to me is that there are still people in the city who remember that relationship between people of the countryside and the people of the city. They still remember what real flowers smell like. They remember what a freshly picked squash smells like. There is no better time to create all that comes with being in contact with nature and mother earth and its abundance. And above all the healing that exists between the work of the land and our communities. We have a few years to rescue that before it disappears completely. [laughter]
Cris: Wow [laugh]
Nan: They told you not to talk to me! They had already warned you. Don't ask me anything! [laughing]
Cris: Two things that come to mind. One is that there are many people who from their corners have been plotting these projects and sometimes someone that comes from abroad, comes from another country, you arrive here and it takes years, it takes years to find a circle not only of trust but a circle of people who have a vision similar to yours, similar and who are willing to create a now collective vision. So coming from outside wanting to meet all these people that we know exist in the community that we know are somewhere and also raising these projects and making them visible is like a call - here we are too! And to manage to connect these projects—it does not happen magically. It is work that has been done to establish projects and also to reach other communities. Not just staying where we are, but seeing how far we can achieve a similar vision and create these bridges that will strengthen us.
Photo: Synergy! Foodshed collaborates with BCDI (Botanical Community Development Initiatives) in Oceanside.
Nan: We want to be very clear that we do not necessarily have a path already figured out for this. It is more of a call to the farmers that, hey, here we see where we get stuck and we are going to do this because we are stuck and we feel that this is what is needed but we do not have a plan b or c. Here we want to listen to everyone to see--so what do you propose? So that's the most important thing because sometimes people come and say - well, what are we going to do? And, what ARE we going to do? Well that's the truth. For people in the city, well. What are we going to do? If we are sick, our children do not put down the cell phone and we are eating food that hurts us. What are we going to do? That is the question we want to ask ourselves. How we are going to move forward? And that is the same with agriculture, with the countryside. What we are going to do is the word because, if not, then we are going to disappear, as you said.
Cris: You said! [Laughter]
Nan: I thought you weren't going to notice. I thought you weren't going to notice. [laughter]
