African Farm Project Is World Model

“The best way to fight poverty is to turn the poor people into active producers. Communities can only be developed by involving all the members as productive and valuable contributors.” ~ Songhai Project

Much of Africa is difficult … no, hard to live in. You can literally be eaten by something. Wild animals, disease, or the greediness of the World Trade Organization that has systematically imposed crippling financial restrictions on Africa that has burdened it for decades.

But Fr Nzamujo Godfrey looked at starvation, the restlessness of youth, and poverty and came up with the Songhai Project. By teaching people to grow crops, raise farm animals, and create “Value Added” food-based products, Songhai is able to instil moral values that uplift both the individual and the wider culture as a whole.

The objectives of the Songhai Project is to develop technical skills, moral awareness, and empower people with entrepreneural techniques that lead to socially relevant, environmental consciousness and sustainability so that people can lift themselves out of poverty and become productive members of society.

Naturally, the State of any country doesn’t have to worry about farmers involving themselves in demoralizing crime nor involving themselves in activities that threaten civil society. People who are taught social consciousness along with integral facets that foster living balanced, happy, and productive lives with others are able to free themselves from hopelessness, addiction, and the mental illnesses that come out of self-hatred.

Please watch the video below and view the others posted on YouTube. You’ll quickly see why I–and others, view agriculture as a much needed “emerging field” for people who live in cities and country sides throughout the world.

I haven’t Been Posting …

I haven’t been posting for a while.  

I got laid off in November. Thank God.
(All diver’s AVOID US Xpress !)

Time to re-group. I saw the country. Assessed where I could live. Small Farming … fantasy or reality. It’s real. Very doable. Very profitable. Controlling one’s destiny.

Now to switch my skill-set to “New Media Marketing” … with a Green twist.

There’s going to be new blogs.
Stay tune Space Travelers.
It’s going to be interesting.

Green-Collar Jobs?

Green-Collar Jobs Provide Pathways Out of Poverty

Most Green-Collar jobs are middle-skill level jobs. They require more than a high school education, but less than a four-year degree. Hence, they are well within the reach of lower-skilled and low-income workers. As long as a person has access to effective training programs and appropriate supports … it’s really not that big of a deal to get “job-ready” training in a reasonably short period of time.

Felon? Recovering Addict or Homeless?
Here in the California Bay Area, there are even “Green” programs designed just for you. (SEE Van Jones’ book, “The Green Collar Economy.”

Green-Collar Jobs are GOOD jobs. Like blue-collar jobs that often allow a person to earn a higher wage, quicker than recent grads with Batchelor and sometime Masters Degrees, Green jobs pay “family wages” and provide opportunities for advancement along a career tract of career tract of increasing skills and wages.

It’s time to begin moving away from the model that to live well, one HAS to have a college degree and live in the middle of a crowded city. With the high cost of tuition and other fees continually rising, college for many has already reached a point of diminishing returns.

The bottom line is that we’re going to have to start doing things differently. As the old saying goes, “The only constant is change.”

Click on the link to view your FREE copy of “The Green Jobs Guidebook.“

A Black Agriculture Secretary??

1910 was the peak year of land ownership for African Americans. Collectively, blacks own over 15 million acres of land of which  218,000 black farmers are full or part owners. A steady decline of landownership begins after 1910.

[Click here to read The Federation of Southern Cooperatives timeline]

The idea of undoing the many years of backroom deals that robbed blacks of their land is not simply a notion of justice. It’s a matter of wholeness. Not just for African Americans… but for whites … and … for all of us.

Each year, singers like Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Kenny Chesney perform for white farmers (Farm Aid) who lost or are in danger of losing their land.  How much of that land was formerly held by black farmers is not the question. I mention them because during my trucking through the South I heard from blacks who used to pick cotton in some of those fields.

Apparently, in their opinion, when minimum wage came into law, many white farmers refused to pay blacks “that much money.” So they invested in huge combines, larger tractors and other farm equipment to replace the African Americans who historically worked the fields. Then when they discovered they were over invested couldn’t keep up the payments to the banks loans and subsequently… they either reached across the Mexican border and found even cheaper labor, or were too in dept, and lost the family farm. All those dollars spent on  mega-machinery in the effort to both make a profit and deny blacks from improving their economic lots appears to have created a karma that was inescapable. Then, like small-minded crooks, in efforts to make up for all the lost, each year more small black farmers were targeted for their lands, and huge, mega corporate farms were created … hurting the smaller white farmers even more.

[NOTE: Does volunteering their time and talents to raise money for Farm Aid make the afore mentioned recording artist racist? Not when the lineup also includes artists like Neil Young, and Dave Matthews, and Arlo Guthrie.]

The agenda to correct the wrongs done to black farmers is not a vendetta against white farmers … nor Hispanic nor Asian farmers. It’s more a matter of finally doing the right thing allowing the turning of the page so entire new chapters can be written.

The very idea that President-Elect Obama is considering a black man for the Secretary of Agriculture, is an awesome sign that America is emerging from the dark shadow of “Good ‘Ol Boy-ism” that has plagued its heart, stifled its creativity, and literally, driven the economy into the ground. (Any time the mega American automobile industry is on its back, gasping for what may be its last breath, YOU KNOW creativity and innovation left the room a very long time ago.)

John Boyd, isn’t just a black political token available to fill this very important position. Mr. Boyd has been an advocate for the fair treatment of black farmers for over three decades. He is credited with building up the National Black Farmers Association  (NBFA) to a membership of 94,000.

To read more on who he is and how he did all this, click here: (NBFA)

Vallejo Woman Saves Thousands In Georgia

Her father had been ill. She’d bought a house for him to live in here in California. Then the downsizing began. The next purchase was an 800 sq ft 2 bedroom loft in the San Francisco Bay Area. But her desire to lower her over-head so that she could devote precious time to all the projects she dreamed of doing continued.  So eventually she sold every thing, bought 30 acres of RAW land in the deep south (Georgia—between Warner-Robbins and Macon) and in a few months ago, moved into an idea she calls an ecologically centered Convertible Community.

The World Help Training Center is currently working on residential housing and agricultural planning in advance of the 2009 spring planting season,” writes LaRahana Huges on the Intentional Community that already has 30 lots slotted for the next Katrina-like disaster. She and 9 other equity partners (each of them purchased $2500 of equity input) now live on the land, and are TOGETHER, pioneering a black Intentional Community that frees them from all the constraints modern urban living straps us with.

So now, she has “downsized” to the point of freedom. She has paid for the land she’s on. With the money added by the other equity partners, her ongoing living cost is about $100 a month. Did you get that? All she has to earn … is ONE HUNDRED (“100”) DOLLARS a month, plus food cost (until the land is producing this summer) and fuel to live. If you were LaRahana, and you’re a writer, artist, farmer … you would now have time and energy to work on the main dreams and pursuits you have in life.

But basic ongoing costs (for the land) $100….ONE HUNDREN DOLLARS. That alone is freeing. The equity contribution ensures we can install the complete infrastructure, wells, septic, power and provide food and living expense stipends for 6 months. After that…$100 is what i need to spend time earning. I have no water bill. I have no electric bill….My life changes when I can decide how to use all of my time for things that are vitally important to me, rather than chasing dollars for someone else to maintain an illusion that will never be satisfying. I don’t mean to get on a rant, but that to me is HUGE.

Freeing up my life so that I own it ALL, every hour of the day is like early retirement! And that is life changing. Being able to live doing the things I want to do, which happen to be growing stuff and planning stuff and writing stuff…..is the reality of my new adventurous life.

But the move is not without “pain.” She speaks about the pain of letting go of the old so that she can fully enjoy the new involves “pushing through the fear and the pain … which is really is a good thing! It’s critical to learn how to keep moving long until the clearing occurs. Being able to look back to tell others that to venture out and get on this road is a awesomely beautiful gift…to be able to tell them that there IS a clearing ahead is vital. It really does feel like pioneering, except its not uncharted land, but it is a new society emerging!”

So … there it is. LaRahana Huges, former Vallejo resident, is saving thousands in Southern Georgia. Thousands of dollars … and one day … thousands of people. Good on ya LaRahana Huges. Proud of that girl. Check out her Mission Statement. Who knows … you might even want to join them.

LaRahna’s Links

The Open Toolbox
http://theopentoolbox.com

The Mad Houser’s Group
http://www.madhousers.org/

Food Not Bombs
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

Other Links:
Hetep Land Project
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Heteplandproject/

Happier Abroad
http://www.happierabroad.com/

The Blue Goose Community
http://members.bluegoosenews.com/

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Tribes is a short book that explodes with big ideas. Best selling author Seth Godin argues powerful and lasting change can be best be created by a “tribe.” Godin’s premise is that top-down, un-yielding organizations led by CEO’s (or “Kings”) can be out-maneuvered by sleek, motivated little people connected together by an idea, a movement, or an improved product. Like-minded “smart innovators” can use tools like the Internet to quickly attract more like-minded people … if they act consistently and quickly. (For example look at the recent success of President-Elect Obama’s campaign. He sidetracked the big guys and unleashed the power of the powerless and, BaM! Change really did happen.)

The Civil Rights Movement illustrated how black and Working Class people can out-power a Super Power if given an idea they can believe in, and simple tools to take the ball and run with it themselves. But the 60s also showed us how entire movements can be killed when the single charismatic leader is shot down.

White supremacist groups also learned the same lessons when in the 80s, they created, “Cells” … small groups of people united under an idea and armed with simple doctrines, duplicated themselves all over the nation. Like bees in a hive, they needed no visible leader, counsel, or governing body to enlist members, raise money, buy property and equipment, and successfully market their ideas. Bad ideas maybe … but successful marketing.

Godin says that Tribes can be inside or outside a corporation, and almost everyone can be a leader. “Most people are kept from realizing their potential by fear of criticism and fear of being wrong.” (Sound familiar?) Like a school-yard bully delivering blows to the head of a squealing nerd, ideas and messages erupt from the pages, motivating the reader and stimulating change simultaneously. Any and everyone can be leaders in the tribe. The tribes success is its openness. I imagine there are potentially all shapes, sizes and types of tribes. Their effectiveness have already been shown. The entire top-down, un-yielding culture of the Pentagon was changed my one, low-level, powerless guy after 9/11.

• The Green Movement is on the runway.
• People are yearning to either start their own businesses.
• Intentional Communities are springing up all over the world, contradicting modern alienation and creating safe places for people to live together while “watching each other’s backs.
• Many of us want to move out to the country … are stopped by fears over how we’ll make a living and who’ll be our friends when we get there.

As a truck driver I’ve talked with people from The Carolinas to Yakima, Washington. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans … all yearning for something different. Many young people realize that chasing that same old-dried out carrot is futile and Baby Boomers are just plain tired of it. No, not everyone wants something different, but like Tribes states … you don’t NEED everybody. Just a few like-minded people to work with on the road to creating your happy destiny.

Visit Seth Godin online and find out about his books, download his free eBooks, and subscribe to his informative blogs. In short, join the community!

The Farm Dog

So, what say you get that little 5, 10, or 20 acres out in the country … not too far from a city or college  town. How are you going to protect your critters? Coyotes, Raccoons, skunks and snakes are all predators  capable of wreaking havoc on your chickens, goats, sheep and calves.

Enter: The Farm Dog
The South African Boerboel was raised to fight off lions and protect the homestead. The Boerboel is also reported capable of herding, hunting, and tracking. Due to this Mastiff’s size, (140 to 200 lbs.) their bite is reportedly so strong that if it bites an intruder in the arm, chances are they’ll break it.

Loyalty
It’s important to know that this dog is bred to be loyal. It will protect—with its life—anything it was raised up with. It’s common for children to ride them like horses. Their mouths are dryer than English or American Mastiffs and they are a great deal more active than the Mastiff. Due to being a mixed breed, they don’t commonly have the same hip problems that their mastiff brothers do.

Confident But Not Aggressive
You don’t have to train a Boerboel to protect. If you’re away, no one is going to get in. Hence, it’s also important to be a responsible owner and keep these dogs securely fenced. These are not good “first time” dogs. The owner should know how to be the Alpha Pack Leader. You’ll most likely want to lean on the socializing side rater than doing something like Wrap Training (bite), or chaining this sensitive, intelligent, easy to train dog. Oh, and Boerboels want to be with you. Don’t relegate this fine friend to the backyard with rare visits. And never, never beat on your Boerboel. Like a Great Dane, he’ll remember it…

Best Boerboel Breeder
I’ve traveled the country and I’ve sought out Boerboel breeders to talk with. These dogs aren’t cheap. Think: $1,000 to $1,500. More if you want a proven female that’s ready to breed. The best, most knowledgeable breeder I’ve found is a brother named Roger who lives just outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Roger’s mother showed dogs so he grew up with deep, inside knowledge of breeding, showing, and training dogs. One of the problems I’ve experienced with many Boerboel breeders is that after paying all that money for your dog, they want you to sign contracts stipulating what THEY want you to do with the dog. But Roger, while he may express openness to continually work with you in raising this high quality animal, he too is amazed at the arrogance of other breeders and will not attempt to over-step normal boundaries. Click here on: Atomic Boerboels to visit one of his websites.

Other Flock Guardian Breeds

• Great Pyrenees
• Cane Corso
• Rotweiler
• Doberman Pinscher
• German Shepherd
• Beaucheron

Good Companion Dogs (With Boerboels on farm)

• Rat Terriers
• Jack Russell Terriers

Faces On Today’s Black Farms

“We need to make sure African-American farmers are visible because for a long time we’ve been invisible. We, as people, have played a tremendous part in agriculture throughout the United States. This is one last-ditch effort to say we do exist, even if it is in a small number,” said Fresno, California Black Farmer Will Scott, Jr.

The African American Farmer isn’t any more monolithic than the story of the black businessman or woman. To touch the surface is to feel a womb pregnant with thousands of stories. Will Scott Jr’s story … that of the “New” black farmer is merely one. But his is the type of farming that reflects the greatest possibility for immediate change in the quality of life for African Americans fleeing urban comfusion.

Currently we’re facing what some prognosticators predict might become FIVE years of the greatest economic challenges since the Great Depression. (I can still hear some of the stories my mother told me about life on 40 acres in Mississippi during the greatest period of economic challenge this country faced in its modern history. Her story in short? “We didn’t miss a meal.”)

Blacks migrated to build farms on the West Coast more than half a century ago. Many left the soil for jobs in California cities. Others, due to over a hundred years of USDA’s Institutionalized Racism, were forced off the land. Currently there are at least 300 African-American farmers in California. While it’s true that there are 80,000 farmers total, the fact that 300 of them are black is a heroic story in itself. It’s also something that Scott would like to change. As President of the African-American Farmers of California, Scott and co-founder Will Robinson, are helping new farmers setup in the area. In recent years they have even built a demonstration site where beginning farmers can test their skills and earn valuable, hands-on experience.

“We bring in new farmers and existing farmers and we do training. They can lease an acre or two and grow something and then they take the technology back to their farm,” Will said.

Another way Will is trying to market not only his produce, but the produce of all African-American farmers, is by making the nearly 400-mile round trip journey to one of the newest and most unique markets in California: West Oakland’s Mandela’s Farmers’ Market. Every Friday and Saturday, come rain or shine, this is where you’re sure to find Will and his family out sharing the fruits of their labor. Besides selling his fruits and vegetables, he’s also selling a little bit of the rural life to people who normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to see a ripe tomato or a fresh ear of corn.

“I think regardless of where people live, they should have access to fresh, quality produce, and that’s one of the main reasons we started coming to the market in the first place,” Will said.

Art and Science in Rural Maine

Yeah, Guy (that’s his name) has a great brain. His resume includes having worked on “Star Trek the Motion Picture” in 1979.

The Hip Quaker

Somewhere around 2001, he and his artist wife Rebekah packed all their belongs and escaped California for rural Maine. I’m highlighting them because we urban folks tend to dismiss everyone who lives in the sticks as “potentially dangerous ignorant hicks.”

But regardless if you want a home in the country or not, you still need to have a look at Guy’s website. He’s got everything on there from thermal window insulation solutions and info about solar differential temperature controllers, to links and comments about wireless surveillance equipment, and robotic equipment. (No, he doesn’t have any robots running around the acreage, but he does have a solar powered lawn mower … and I’m sure he’ll gladly answer any questions on robots you send him….)

Arttec.net is intentionally folksy and down-to-earth.  One trip to the site and I guarantee you’ll … feel smarter. It’s like a mini Smithsonian for geeks, homesteaders, and art lovers. You quickly discover there are no high or low-tech problems that can’t be solved. Some solutions are expensive and others … relatively cheap. (After all, he was one of the Visual Effects engineers for Star Trek…)

Guy and his wife Becky are wonderful examples of “Back-to-the-Landers.” I doubt if they’d classify themselves as such, but this team of art and science lowered their overhead, escaped the rat-race, and now live healthy and extremely creative lives. They have time and space to create far more than they would had they remained in an urban space where problems like … well … everyone knows the problems.

Oh yeah, any woman curious about fashion, click on the Chicago Native’s link to her  textile art … and while there, explore her latest photos that came out of a recent MFA program. These are folks. Smart folks … but folks… aware … GOOD folks. People who enrich the “neighborhood” they move into—if allowed. They do their homework before picking a spot in paradise, and then they become “neighbors.” Neighbors are important in the less alienated rural countryside. You have to be. One wet spring morning you might need one to pull your car out of a ditch. Isn’t that part of the allure?

Becky continues to travel to market her textile art and Guy… creates high tech toys, teaches homesteaders how to insulate their homes, answers high tech questions and provides solar and wind solutions. He even built a canoe.

Visit the hip Quaker at: http://www.arttec.net/

Becky’s newest art site: http://www.rebekahyounger.com/default4.asp

Her older mainstay website is: “Younger Knits”: http://www.youngerknits.com

Van Jones: The Green Movement’s Black Hero

“When people think about climate change, often the first thought that comes to mind has to do with all the solar panels, wind farms, and green rooftops we need, and how quickly it needs to be done. But the question that rarely follows is, “how much manual labor will this take and who’s going to do it?” It’s also becoming clear that more and more people in under-served communities, especially young people, are getting left behind while the rest of us struggle to climb closer and closer to the American dream. Can we think of these people not as a burden, but as an underused resource? The man who isn’t afraid to ask these questions, and who has an answer, is Van Jones, President and co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC) based in Oakland, California.” (Excerpt from, “community Heros” by Rosemary Prizker. Click on this link to read entire article.)

Van Jones inserting the reality Gratefully, there is a development occurring that makes us ask, “Is the Overwhelmingly White, Green Movement finally reaching out to blacks and other people of color … or are people like that black people can and will play an integral part of this “New Green Movement“?

“What’s a nice black guy like me doing in a movement like this?” asks Van Jones. The tall, 39 year old cuts a striking silhouette in a black turtleneck and blazer as he strides the stage at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. A charismatic lawyer who grew up in rural Tennessee, Jones graduated from Yale Law, and founded the Ella Baker Center for jobs and justice in Oakland.
“>”The Prius people, the polar-bear crowd are great,” Jones says. “We’re not mad at them. We like them! At the same time, if the only people who can participate are the kind who can afford to put solar panels on their second home, the green movement is going to be too small to fix the problem. If we want to beat global warming, there’s no way to do it without helping a lot of poor people. If you design a solution that does not do that, it’s a solution that’s too timid.”

“In Jones’ eyes, the first wave of environmentalism, led by Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, focused on preserving the nation’s natural beauty in parks. The second wave, led by Rachel Carson of “Silent Spring,” concentrated on federal regulation of toxics. The third wave, he says, is about investment. Initially, that meant individual consumer choice: hybrid cars, organic food, energy-efficient light bulbs. Now, it’s evolved into major public spending and community-wide action.

Jones’ grand vision? Think New Deal and civil-rights movement combined with a clean-green industrial revolution. The nation needs to train masses of “green-collar” workers to conduct energy audits, weatherize and retrofit buildings, install solar panels and maintain hybrid vehicles, wind farms and bio-fuel factories. The icing? Wiring buildings and installing solar panels can’t be outsourced.

“Brother,” Jones says, “put down that hand gun and pick up this caulk gun.”

[Partially re-written from article written by Paula Bock. Click this link to read the entire article.]