While this coming weekend marks July 4th, Independence Day, this year we invite you to celebrate our interdependence: our sense of mutuality and relationship with each other and the earth. We acknowledge the long, painful history our nation’s agricultural system is built upon, including land theft and enslavement, and we call in another way forward that centers equity and relationships—to place and each other.
Farmers and food providers have long understood the need for interdependence, sharing a tool with a neighbor, bringing food for an elderly community member, and working in active relationship with the land. This knowledge is vital to survive (or even thrive) during the current pandemic, and critical for the long road ahead to address climate chaos and rebuild a healthy ecological and social system.
It is our sense of relationship with our place as well as each other, our understanding that we can only survive in partnership, that will sustain us. These skills have been practiced by farmers and land-tenders for generations, and offer us a path to a resilient future.
