Hello and welcome back to the Community Ag Project Podcast. In season 2 episode 7, we sit down with Yolanda Gonzalez, “an Urban Agricultural Specialist with the Harvest NY program. In this role, she provides technical assistance and educational programming for urban farmers and gardeners across the five boroughs of New York City.”

Yolanda has been in this role for 7 years, so I ask her some questions about her journey! In our conversation, we talk about what the agriculture extension does, who is serves, and what, more specifically, the agriculture community is like in NYC.

We also discuss her current initiatives, including CRAFT, the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training. We also talk about available online urban agriculture programming, and Yolanda’s ongoing Community Mushroom Educator project.

We later touch on NYC soil classification, city soil lead contamination, and experiments with growing ginger.

To learn more about Yolanda and her work, check out her instagram @the_agrotourista and the @urbanag.nyc page.

Here is an expanded profile on Yolanda and some other links that she mentions throughout the episode:

https://cals.cornell.edu/yolanda-gonzalez

Community mushroom educator:

https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/

CRAFT program:

https://craftfarmapprentice.com

Cornell cooperative extension page:

https://harvestny.cce.cornell.edu

Map of NYC ag:

https://mapnyc.herokuapp.com

Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check out the remainder of season 2.

Welcome back to the Community Agriculture project. In episode 6, we sit down with RJ Noble of the New Hampshire Hemp Company.

In our discussion, we cover the difference between CBD, CBG and THC, navigating the hemp laws in New Hampshire, industrial applications of hemp, soil practices on his farms, quorum sensing and more!

To get in touch with RJ about his work, you can visit his instagram @nhhempco

Hello and welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project Podcast.

In episode 5, we welcome Javier Flores, a farmer based out of San Diego. Javier got his start working in his local food system at the Wild Willow Farm and Education Center, and now works with the Seeds@City Sustainable Agriculture.

We discuss Javier’s transition into working in the food system and finding mentors in the agriculture space. We talk about the developing community at Seeds@City and around Javier’s work in general. We also get into farming seed vs growing food, Javier’s vision for his local seed bank, and gardening at the Tijuana River Valley Community Garden space.

Javier shares the key values that he holds while in farming/education spaces, and the rituals that keep him grounded in his work.

Below are some of the resources Javier shared throughout our talk:

Organic Seed Alliance

https://seedalliance.org

The Milpa Initiative

https://www.plantspeoplecommunity.org/the-milpa-initiative

San Diego Seed Farmer Training

https://www.plantspeoplecommunity.org/san-diego-seed-farmer-training

Native Seed Search and the ADAPTS Collection Database

https://www.nativeseeds.org

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Food Shed - Food Distribution Hub in San Diego

https://www.foodshedcooperative.com

Wild Willow Farm

https://www.wildwillowfarm.org

Seeds@City Farm

https://www.sdcity.edu/community/seeds/index.aspx

Thanks for tuning in!

Hello and welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project Podcast!

In episode 4, we sit with Ian Jiménez Barreras in Borikén aka Puerto Rico, and discuss his navigations of experiential learning in his field, finding his agroecology community, and his experimentation with ferments and Korean natural farming.

We cover his background, goals and intention when it comes to agriculture, and understand how he got started working with the land in Borikén. He gives us insight into his learning process for developing living soils, including being self taught through books, attending intensives led by Chris Trump, and experimenting with different ferments with the locally abundant resources of the island.

We hear from him about his shifting community throughout his learning journey, and how those community shifts led to the position he is currently in, which is a team member for projects like the Caribbean Regenerative Community Development (CRCD) and Ridge to Reefs.

We really follow the arc of Ian’s journey in this episode. In reflection, for people that are looking to embrace a new practice, he recommends to find good mentors and spend time learning and observing in the spaces you find yourself in.

You can contact Ian through his instagram @pr.knf and @ian_jo16

Ian’s resource recommendations:

JADAM organic farming: the way to ultra-low-cost agriculture

https://en.jadam.kr

@marco_is_growing

@soilsteward

@naturesalwaysright

Other resources:

https://www.crcdpr.org/projects/smart-ag-puerto-rico/

https://www.ridgetoreefs.org

You can always reach out to us if you have any questions communityagproject@gmail.com and don’t forget to check out our website communityagproject.com. Thanks for tuning in!

Hello and welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project Podcast. In S2E3, we have a conversation with Anthony Basil Rodriguez: storyteller, researcher, and documentarian of rare plants, humankind and the flux of global society.

Anthony defines ethnobotany and we hear about his expeditions to different countries and areas that have focused on specific documentation efforts. We talk about bananas, cacao and quinoa as well as a few other foods of interest.

We also talk food diversity, the loss of species and indigenous knowledge, seed saving, and land and displacement. Anthony shares insight on how he connects with people and the diversity of food while traveling.

One of our biggest messages was to get acquainted with plants in your own way!

If you want to continue following Anthony’s work, check out his instagram page and website:

@Anthonybasilrodriguez

Anthonybrodriguez.com

Don’t forget to check out our website: communityagproject.com

Hello and welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project, Season 2 Episode 2. Today we welcome our guests Maryam and Julien, who are born originally in France and currently living in Berlin and Paris, respectively. Maryam and Julien spent time in the US this summer working on various farms in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California through WWOOF.

We start off our conversation talking about their backgrounds and their relation to food and agriculture. We talk about why they wanted to come to the US to work on farms here. They give a description of the farms they worked at, the relation of those farms to their communities, and what they take away from their WWOOF and farming experience.

Here are some resources related to this episode:

https://wwoofusa.org/en/

https://madlavenderfarm.com

https://www.instagram.com/mohicanflowerfarm/?hl=en

https://www.cheesetrail.org/business-profile/spring-hill-farmstead-goat-cheese

http://savagemountainfarm.com

Complimentary playlist to accompany this episode thanks to Maryam and Julien: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1LOtridZI79xlNtnxAgIVt?si=TpRTqcUcTR6ht1H8zYfHlA&pi=u-DAiUBp1mQcmH

Be sure to check out our website communityagproject.com!

Welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project.

To start off season 2 of the Community Agriculture Project Podcast, we are delving into ways of being in community, specifically from an economic standpoint.

Our guest is Ebony Gustave, the founder of the Cooperative Journal - a resource for alternative economic models.

In our discussion, Ebony and I cover the values of the solidarity economy, different types of cooperative models, examples of both of these types of structures, and what it looks like to maintain them. We start by defining and talking about the solidarity economy.

Several resources are mentioned in the episode that are linked for you below! Be sure to check out Ebony’s ongoing work and all of the rich resources we cover.

New Roots Cooperative

https://newrootscooperativefarm.com

Indiana Black Farmers Cooperative

https://www.facebook.com/IndianaBlackFarmersCoop/

Jubilee Justice Rice Mill

https://www.jubileejustice.org/sri-rice

Fiber Shed

https://fibershed.org

Saint louis / Marsh Food Co Op

https://marshrivercoop.org

Ebony’s Podcast Cooperative Journal

https://www.cooperativejournalmedia.com/general-7

Karma Kitchen Established by Service Space

https://www.karmakitchen.org

https://www.servicespace.org

Solidarity Economy Principles

https://solidarityeconomyprinciples.org

Essential Food and Medicine Bay Area

https://www.essentialfam.org

Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective

https://www.chocolaterebellion.com

New Economy Coalition

https://neweconomy.net

US Federation of Worker Co Ops

https://www.usworker.coop/en/

Grassroots Economic Organizing

https://geo.coop

Community Agriculture Project Resources

Communityagproject.com

@communityagproject on instagram

PayPal: communityagproject@gmail.com

Artizen Fund: https://www.communityagproject.com/single-project

Welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project podcast.

In episode 10, we sit down with Vivian and Dorothy Lee to compare and contrast their experiences through time studying and working in the food system. Vivian discusses her experience working at farms and gardens in the New Brunswick area, and how that eventually lead to their position working with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) on the supply chain of different food/commodities like beef and leather. Dorothy reflects on their journey of starting a composting club at their university, their post-graduate experience with AmeriCorps, and working on a farm in Massachusetts. They also discuss their more recent experiences working as a linecook and baker.

We go on to reflect on the different forms of community that arise in these environments, and find ourselves discussing various scales of community as they relate to food or agriculture or both. We touch on community in family, friends, neighborhoods, work support groups, mutual aid and buy nothing groups, and just generally people with similar drives and passion. We talk about dreams of what agriculture can and might look like in the future, thinking about topics like seaweed, algae and carbon sequestration.