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Urban Farming is Not a Crime: Get the Dirt on Novella Carpenter
Posted Tuesday November 20th by Mike McKee
While the Bay Area garnered headlines throughout the 1990s as an epicenter of unconventional food distribution thanks to Food Not Bombs, in more recent years, the focus has shifted to unconventional food production--or, perhaps, it's more accurate to say hyper-conventional food production. That's right, getting your food the old fashioned way: growing it.
Few in the movement have emerged as prolific, outspoken and recognized a voice as Novella Carpenter, proprieter of Oakland, California's Ghost Town Farm. Having started with little more than a squatted abandonned plot, Novella has grown her project into the fully fuctioning farm named for the neighborhood it calls home. She was already a key name in the region's urban farming scene in 2011 when the City of Oakland attempted to make an example out of her farm, ostensibly unlicensed to sell surplus food to her neighbors and customers. Instead of spelling the end of Ghost Town Farm, the incident propelled Novella and her work to even greater prominence as a lightning rod for the movement.
Her best-selling Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer and co-author of the Essential Urban Farmer remains a go-to resource for those just picking up the hoe now in their own city. This spring, Novella will be stepping away from the farm for a number of in-person speaking engagements exploring how her farm and its bounty interact to enrich her blighted neighborhood, sharing some handy, high-brow cooking tips along the way. In this context, abstract issues of food justice and farming act as immediate forces in each of our lives with enormous transformative potential.
Dates along the west coast are being organized now, so if you'd like to see Novella come speak in your town, or for more information, contact Mike today!
Building a Pro-Voice Movement: Exhale Tour on Abortion Stories
Posted Monday November 12th by Isaac Lev
This February Exhale, an Oakland-based organization created by and for women who have had abortions, will set out on college campuses to connect with students, professors, and health staff to transform culture around abortion from one of stigma and shame to one of support and respect. These women have shared their stories publicly on MTV, the BBC, and New York Times, […] Keep reading
Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair 2013: March 16-17
Posted Monday November 5th by Jen Angel
When I lived in Ohio, every couple of years I would travel to San Francisco to go to the Anarchist Book Fair. Coming from a region where there weren't very many political bookstores or spaces, it was awesome to be able to see all the people and books and things that I could only look at over the Internet, all […] Keep reading