I attended the virtual Organic Association of Kentucky (OAK—what a great acronym!) conference in February. It wasn’t as fun as in the past when I attended in person, but it was very accessible, and there were many wonderful presenters.
Farmer/activist/author of Farming While Black Leah Penniman from Soul Fire Farm talked about the African origins of some of our current-day sustainable farming practices. She also spoke about discrimination and violence against African-Americans, including African-American farmers.
And permaculture came up. From what I understand, Leah takes issue with the word permaculture, which she says is connected to appropriation and making specific histories invisible. And how permaculture uses indigenous people’s knowledge without their consent and without compensation.
Here’s a quote from Leah from an audio clip from Black Permaculture Network. “I actually choose not to use the term (permaculture) because my understanding is that, our African Indigenous ancestors came up with climate smarts, people smarts, Earth smart technologies to produce food without harming the Earth and then college educated white folks branded that as permaculture, packaged it and sold it for a profit.” (Listen to the clip to hear more from Leah.)
I am open to potentially “abandoning” the term permaculture. Maybe the framework of permaculture can’t be “fixed.” Permaculture was packaged by white men, and its content is taken/stolen from the wisdom and experiences of many people and cultures. As a white person involved in permaculture, maybe the solution to give credit to the origins of practices and find ways to share financial and other benefits with those whose cultural wisdom I benefit from. I don’t want to die as part of another generation of white people mostly continuing indigenous erasure and death around the Earth. (I will probably still die this way, but that won’t stop me from doing what I have the capacity for.) Or maybe the solution is something else entirely.
Here’s an article that conveys some of the issues. Additional good readings are here, here, and here.
Thoughts? Reach out to me on Instagram.
Going back to the OAK conference, a few of the many other great presenters were Elizabeth Whitlow from the Regenerative Organic Alliance, Matt Wilson from Grow Appalachia, Justin Duncan from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, Jeff & Lisa Windhorst from Spade and Table Farm, and The Market Gardener author Jean-Martin Fortier.
If you missed out and want to join in, you can register and pay for access to the recordings. OAK had scholarships available before the conference happened, but they don’t have any available for after-the-fact-only viewing.
High Mowing Organic Seeds was one of the sponsors of the conference, which got me thinking to share a list of my favorite seed companies given the time of year it is. It may be too late for some people on spring and summer crops, but better a little late than not at all. Other options for sourcing seeds include local seed libraries and finding/starting a seed swap in your area, although these are sparser/more difficult this year than normal. If you’re interested in saving some of your own for next year, Beth Bridgeman from Antioch College presented about this at the conference). And The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving is a good book.
Native Seeds/Search
Hudson Valley Seed Company
Fedco Seeds
Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Sow True Seed
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Maine Potato Lady
High Mowing Organic Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange
Adaptive Seeds
Strictly Medicinal
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Wild Garden Seed
Peaceful Valley
P.S. Here’s a seed list from Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.
Happy planting,
Anna