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a new economy on the land: severine fleming, agrarian

Posted: July 13 2015

SEVERINE FLEMING, Agrarian

A New Economy on the Land
Severine Fleming
Severine is a farmer, activist, and organizer based in the Champlain Valley of New York. She is founder and director of The Greenhorns, a grassroots cultural organization with the mission to promote, recruit and support a growing movement of young farmers and ranchers in America.

The entering generation of Agrarians has demonstrated a bold vision to build thousands of farm businesses for local food security. We need many more to succeed. Many who try are confounded when they try to find durable land access and tenure. Severine argues that we need to design and enact new frameworks for community land-ownership. All of us benefit from the revival of these farm-steads, and the initiatives of young farmers, orchardists, and dairymen and women. Today, the macro-economy imposes extraction, speculation and degradation of our land, but that will not worktomorrow. How can our water-shed, our food-shed, and the historic cultural landscape inform the new economy we need? How can eaters reconnect meaningfully with both the eco-system and economic system that will sustain the quality of the places we love?