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LISTEN TO PODCAST HERE From For The Wild: "Around the world, churches own millions of acres of land. Globally, the Catholic Church owns an estimated 200 million acres of land, making it one of the largest non-government landowners in the world. This reminds us of the glaring inequalities when it comes to land ownership, especially […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNlel72eQc?ecver=1&w=640&h=360] The theme of the upcoming 37th annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures, taking place on November 4th, is "Choosing the Path that is Green",  a reference to the prophecy of the Anishinaabe peoples. Winona LaDuke, who is a member of the Anishinaabe is this years keynote speaker. La Duke is an activist, community economist and […]

“Hunger and poverty are perpetuated by undemocratic systems of power. Now, this great new resource lifts the veil hiding the history of dispossession and unequal land access in the US.” - Frances Moore Lappé Land access is the primary barrier for young farmers today. Ensuring access for young farmers who are passionate about the production […]

[vimeo 164326896 w=640 h=360] We have recently discovered fourthland, a collaborative art and performance community in the UK which first emerged in 2008. It's hard to do justice to fourthland and the work that they do in words. They create and explore objects, land, people and myths in interlinked creative and unconventional social and artistic […]

Great things are happening at the intersection between social justice, farming, and faith. Watch the latest episode of outland to get inspired!

[vimeo 103298566 w=640 h=360] Amanda Swimmer wild-harvests local seaweed in her home in British Columbia to sell for food and medicine. She talks to Greenhorns Radio about local foods, added value products, and the value of our ocean commons on the Heritage Radio Network this TUESDAY DEC 6 at 4:00 p.m.

Ever late to the party, The New York Times is finally giving Standing Rock some much-deserved coverage. This gorgeous and inspiring video (and its accompanying article) gives sober context to Thanksgiving celebrations all over this country last week. Caitlyn Huss, 25, a manager of a vegan hostel in Los Angeles, was closing up late one night last month […]

Reinventing the Commons: Social Ecosystems for  Local Stewardship & Planetary Survival A Friday evening public talk and Saturday one-day workshop With David Bollier and Dave Jacke Montague Common Hall (“Grange”), 34 Main St., Montague, MA 01351 Friday, January 20, 2017, 7-9 PM, $10 @ door or in advance. Saturday, Jan 21, 2017, 8:30-5, $85-125, includes Friday evening […]

Geographer Robert Szucs created this color-coded map to show which rivers and tributaries feed the water basins of the United States. That big pink one in the middle? That's the Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi, the basin the water protectors at Standing Rock are working so hard to keep safe.

We can do this .

For the love of all things good! Can we talk about something other than Donald Trump already? Thanks to Global Research for publishing this informative piece: "The first point is actually very simple: Native Americans standing up for themselves is not polarizing. In an age of institutionalized media divisiveness and hyper-partisanship, the story of Native Americans in North […]

Join us in November.

http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2016/10/24/standing_rock_police_arrest_100_water The indigenous peoples and activists at Standing Rock are facing militarized police and a impenetrable silence in the mainstream media as they work to protect the indigenous rights granted by treaty and our collective water commons. The camp still needs supplies, donations, and volunteers. If you haven't donated yet, this is a good time. […]

OUR LAND 2: Tracing the Acequia Commons A Symposium about land transition, continuity, and commons. NOVEMBER 9-17th 2016 Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico Films. Talks. Exhibit. Acequia Walk. Can our regions shift towards food sovereignty? Can our agrarian systems become more harmonious with their wild habitat? Can we maintain our traditional commons? The complete […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuZcx2zEo4k&w=560&h=315] The activists currently protecting the water commons, their indigenous heritage, and our planet against institutionalized corporate greed. We stand with them. See Thursday's post for more background on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the protest again it and for ways you can help, and, at the very least, sign the petition here.

Despite the resounding silence on the matter in mass media, the fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline continues at Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Hundreds of protesters, many of them Native Americans and very notably including members of the Souix Nation whose tribal water rights are threatened by the pipeline, are camped out at the Sacred Stones Camp […]

The Mojave Project is really just kind of the bomb-diggety. But don't take our word for it: to learn more, we recommend this absolutely gorgeous video. The project is an "experimental transmedia documentary led by Kim Stringfellow exploring the physical, geological and cultural landscape of the Mojave Desert." Browse the current projects here. And while we're talking about the Mojave […]

Anyone who has farmed in New Mexico can tell you any myriad of stories about the acequia  culture that exists there. Acequias community-managed irrigation ditches that, when stopped up, flood fields along their length. This practice is centuries old and integral to the traditional ways of farming in the high desert of the region, and it closely dictates […]

What is it about the ruthless sea? An acculturation in agricultural landscapes, full of flower buds, dewdrops, fresh hay, kittens and baby lambs cannot prepare you for the hard, chilling mechanics of a mechanized fish harvest. To my tender agrarian eyes, the fishing business is brutal. We may call them “stewards of the ocean” but […]

"For many terrestrials, and certainly for me, the ocean and fisheries are a foreign place. We cannot see into the sea and don’t know much at all about what goes on there, except perhaps familiarity with the blanket-term “over-fishing.” Young agrarians of the rangeland know well that a blanket critique—that the Bureau of Land Management and Forest […]

  This past Fall, Severine travelled to beautiful Alaska and wrote three comprehensive articles based on her experience for In These Times. From Halibut festivals to fish processing boats to the rugged Alaskan homesteaders, she explores three questions fundamental to her journey: What can the farming community learn from the highly managed, and highly abundant commons of Alaska? […]

[vimeo 23705248 w=500 h=375] We are beyond delighted to announce that Brian Donahue, author of Reclaiming the Commons, will be speaking on the Maine Sail Freight Panel in Cambridge on September 2!

   "The technology we need most badly is the technology of community: the knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done.” -Bill McKibbens