When Marginalized Communities Organize & Lead Themselves, Liberation Farms
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Release Date: 04/28/2022
Looking to Ecology to Build a Cooperative Farm Future with Andrew Adamski of Full Circle Community Farm
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Andrew Adamski, or walkie talkie callsign gopher, is one of the farmer owners of in Wisconsin, the land of coops in the US. He came back to his generations old family farm in 2017 after college, along with his now wife heather, to not only continue the family farming tradition, but diversify both its production and membership. He talks about his returning to the farm, their simplified and flexible business structure, using what he learned about ecology to develop the farms ownership/membership model, and that you don’t have to have it all figured out to begin to include other members of the...
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Practical Tools & Advice When Starting a Co-op w/ Kelly Maynard of UW Center for Co-op Development
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
is a cooperative development specialist at the university of Wisconsin center for cooperative development and we're going to get into some practical advice and tools you can use when thinking about going into cooperative farming, yourself, or yourselves, as it were. This is the second coop development person, or forth depending on how you define that role, I’ve had on this season to, if nothing else, drive the point home that there are people out there who’s life work it is support the development of your “working together” ideas. Not only do you not have to farm alone, you...
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Looking to the past to move decentralized regional food systems forward with Lexi close of Appalachia regional cooperative development
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Welcome back to Collab Farm, the podcast where we talk about all the ways small- and mid-scale farmers can work together, even in big $10 million food system rebuilding kinds of ways. Like this conversation that I had with Lexi Close from Appalachia Regional Cooperative Development and the Appalachia Producers Co-op. Now, Lexi is involved with much of the work going on in a cooperative beef processing facility that's currently under construction in Washington County, Eastern Tennessee. We get into how the project got started from the initial idea to the feasibility studies to raising such a...
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A Simple Cooperative Farm Model & a Short History of Modern Co-ops w/ Chris Bodnar of Close to Home Organics
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
I’m going to be real honest with you, I’ve been working hard lately. If you’re listening to this, I bet you’ve been working hard, too. Case in point, I JUST got our garlic in the ground in down here in zone 7, but better late than never I suppose. So, I thought I’d seize this opportunity to bring back an old episode, the very FIRST episode of collaborative farm, actually, a conversation I had with Chris bonder of and . This one still comes to mind as one of the best collab farm episodes ever and now that we’re reaching a wider audience, I wanted to give it the opportunity to reach...
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Growing on Principles: Soil Health, Farmer Health, and Community Health... An OAK Field Day w/ Jackson Rolett
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
In the spirit of collaboration, I'm gonna do something a little different. A couple weeks ago I did a field day with OAK--that's the --If you're listening to this and live in Kentucky you should totally be a member. We and acouple of dozen other farmers and farm professionals walked through our gardens. We talked about the conservation practices we're currently using on our market garden along with some of the lessons learned and fielded some questions. Before the talk, last minute, I decided to put on a wireless mic and record it so that we could share it with all of you. Now, I know it's...
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Perspectives on Starting Different Cooperative Business Models, Roundtable at the TN Local Food Summit (Live Recording)
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
This roundtable with Jameson Parker of the Moonlight Collective, William Crenshaw of the Nashville Food Coop, Rhianna Michelle of the Waterbear cooperative land project, & Lexi Close of the Appalachian producers co-op offers different perspectives on starting a cooperative business and was recorded at the '23 TN Local Food Summit. A special thank you to Natalie Seevers for inviting us down and coordinating the live recording. Folks who support Collab Farm is your one-stop shop for cover crops, soil amendments, tools, and more. Save 20% on your first order now with code: NOTILL24....
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Coordinated Crop Planning with Emma Busby from Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Emma Busby used to be the former Chapter Coordinator for the and has since moved on to be a board member of the . We met back at the ’23 whose focus that year was "cultivating cooperation" and she had some really interesting work and insights to share, particularly some work she facilitated with a group of small-scale farmers around coordinated crop planning (CCP) and building aggregation systems from the ground up rather than the top down. Folks who support Collab Farm is your one-stop shop for cover crops, soil amendments, tools, and more. Save 20% on your first order now with code:...
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Big Team Farms w/ Sarah K. Mock
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Sarah K. Mock has written two books that I absolutely love and have had a profound effect on how I view my own farming outside of just growing better carrots, and , about how we can begin to chart a path forward by… you guessed it… working together. She has a substack, , and a much better podcast than this one, . Folks who support Collab Farm is your one-stop shop for cover crops, soil amendments, tools, and more. Save 20% on your first order now with code: NOTILL24. Apply for a commercial account for year-round savings and dedicated support! Visit are engineered to face...
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The Modern Farm Commons with Ian & Kristina of The Farmers Land Trust
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Ian McSweeney & Kristina Villa, co-directors of The Farmers Land Trust, are responsible for creating and supporting farmland commons, a vehicle for preserving farmland and ensuring its dedication to regenerative agriculture in perpetuity while respecting both the farmers and the communities they feed. I mean, what's better than that? If you like what you hear, are a farmer or a landholder, and want to know more, you can reach out to them at the Folks who support Collab Farm is your one-stop shop for cover crops, soil amendments, tools, and more. Save 20% on your...
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Mike & Armonda of Rose Hill Farm Stop
The Collaborative Farming Podcast
Hey folks, it’s and today I’ve got a bonus episode of with Mike & Armonda of in Bloomington, Indiana. I attended a session with them at the Organic Association of Kentucky conference '23 and was really impressed. You’ll see why in a minute... Now, you may have heard with the great Alex Ball speaking with the owners of the in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and thought, 'yeah, yeah, yeah... that’s great you can do that there, but probably not here.' That is exactly why I love Rose Hill Farm Stop. They spent some time at Argus and have adapted the model to be a producer coop and replicated it...
info_outline"Liberation Farms is food justice in action. It is a demonstration of the success that is possible when marginalized communities have the opportunity to organize and lead themselves."
Today, we hear from Lana and Muhidin, the farm manager and executive director respectively, of Liberation Farms in Lewiston, Maine. Liberation farms is a 200+ acre farm in the Little Jubba Agrarian Commons. Sound familiar? This was one of the first farms moved into the agrarian commons framework by the Agrarian Trust (listen to my conversation with them here).
Lana and Muhidin tell us how the farm and commons began, how the land is used to meet the personal, economic, and cultural needs of the Somali Bantu community, the ways in which the farmers self-organize into iskashito groups, a little about access to farmland in Somalia, and how they are working to bridge the agricultural divide between Somalia and the US as well as current and future generations of Somali Bantu farmers.
Follow Liberation Farms on Instagram
Check out their very informative website & contribute to Liberation Farms
Mentioned in the show...
The history of the Somali Bantu peoples
The Seed Growers Podcast w/ Dan Brisebois
Thank y'all so much for listening. This podcast is brought to you by Certified Naturally Grown & Growing for Market Magazine. It's also brought to you by growers like you. If you got something from this podcast, or any of our podcasts, you can support our work for a few bucks a month at notillgrowers.com/support. Please rate/review, follow us on Instagram @collaborativefarming or @notillgrowers, share this podcast with your farming friends, and let us know who/what you'd like to hear on The Collaborative Farming Podcast.
Remember, many hands make light work.