Farming In the Shadow of the Shadow State

“Thousands of mutual aid projects launched, notably grocery deliveries and community fridges, operating on the premise that food can be free and that neighborhoods possess the ability to manage this resource.”

“In Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (also known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) Marcus Henderson of Black Star Farmers planted vegetables in the occupied city park, saying in an interview “if we can free the land, everything else will literally become free.””

“Visions of abolition, decolonization, socialism, and the end of racist violence converged around food and land as a site of struggle.”

“For our modest little tenant farm to continue, we entered into a web of dependency on non-profit organizations, USDA funding, and private philanthropy alongside “the market” and our own costs of living.” *Note: The market (that is, the profit motive) is the problem. But large scale planning and organization cannot be thrown out with the market. *

“This is an exhausting and deeply stupid system. Posed against it are a few necessary pillars of thought: food as a human right, food sovereignty for oppressed communities, immediate return of land to Indigenous communities, reparations for slavery and its legacy through land distribution, and the decommodification of food.”