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"Growing the change we want to see in the world"
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We are actively building up our network of farms!
- Map of farms with which we're working or hoping to work in solidarity.
- Add farms to the OccupyFarms database.
[edit] Farms in Occupy Farms Network
- Arc 38 in Wassaic, NY
- The 1780 Farm in Chesterfield, NH has a market garden of approx 2 acres, operates a farm stand in season, has U-Pick Blueberries, sells eggs, raises grass fed beef, chicken, ducks and sheep. Richard and Jeanny sponsor educational field trips to our farm for the Chesterfield Elementary school which is located walking distance away. They have a beaver pond, 17 acres of woodland and stream. There are 10 acres hayed and 5 acres grazed and about a 2.5 acre homestead.
- Ferndale Hill Farm in Dade City, FL is 40 acres. We use entirely organic methods and are moving to a whole farm system. Our goal is to feed local migrant communities with pot luck dinners and to feed the occupations across Florida.
- Rhio's Garden in Eldred, NY is a bio-intensive farming operation / raised bed gardening on a commercial scale. We aspire to be organic but first have to do some sampling of the soil. Further down the road we may not pursue USDA certification because of the accounting necessary and the potential cost (this depends on whether we are producing more than $5,000 a year). We are influenced by perma-culture, where unnecessary work is seen as a pollution and the operation of the ecosystem is learned and co-operated with. We are also influenced by bio-dynamics, where the Earth is viewed as an organism and the relationship between constellations, humans and Earth is illuminated. It is a little odd to try to grasp that last part for me, which reaches backwards to seventeenth century thought. Finally, we like to use minimal fuel, so much of the labor is to be done by hand. A property of 23 acres, about 5 of which are currently cleared for use. The other 18 are forest sloping down towards wetlands. The soil is acidic and has high water retention, a prime advantage of raised beds is that soil drainage is increased. Our resources include large piles of wood chips scattered about the property, a nearly depleted ton of rock dust, three compost corrals and a pile of organic soil. Many other resources are available such as a variety of peat moss that proliferates the wetlands below and behind the cleared property.
- Nama Farm in Jericho, VT is 5 acres in total and less than two acres are in cultivation. The farm is organic, biodynamic and they have a sincere relationship with everything they grow. This season, Nate and Ama and focus on diversity and this season plan to grow several different varieties of tomatoes, peas, lettuce, salad mix, peppers, squash and potatoes. No livestock on the farm, though neighbors have animals. Ama also makes jam, pickles, sauces, sauerkraut and other types of canned goods.
- Nine Mile Farm in Delmar, NY is a farm with 90+ acres, 60+ in woods, 2 acres in veggies, some fruit, remainder in pasture. Great pond for fishing and swimming. We grow organically, use permaculture principles, are in the process of planting forest gardens to supplement existing orchards. Although we do have tractors, we do all of our planting, harvesting, and mulching by hand.
- Common Hands Farm in Claverack, NY. In 2012, we plan to farm a total of three acres, growing organic vegetables, using no pesticides, and eventually very few outside inputs. We are providing for an 80 share CSA and will supply to local farmer’s markets and wholesale buyers, with a full array of vegetables, herbs and some fruits. We are very interested in biodynamics as well as permaculture, and include these practices when we can. We are also interested in developing a summer educational program offered to volunteers and other participants and will engage the local community in many workshops and events on the farm. We use the wwoofing program in the summer and have other hired interns throughout the season. We really desire to create our farm as a community hub, and will work towards that in the future.
- Sylvester Manor Farm on Shelter Island, NY has 243 acres of woods, fields, wetlands, salt water inlet. 8 acres are cultivated, 12 more in cover crop. NOFA-NY Farmers' Pledge (open accountability of holistic sustainable practices). Mixed vegetables, flowers, herbs, berries, chickens, goats, pigs planned for 2012. 135-family CSA, farmstand, farmers' market, restaurants, value-added & preserved. Arts (especially music) incorporated into farming and events. Education incorporated into farming and events.
- Fair Food Farm in East Calais, Vermont has a total of 50 acres and is currently using 13 for vegetables. Everything is organic. Chickens are raised near the house. Until recently Emily and Matt were raising pigs. Planting begins in March.
[edit] Three-Season Volunteer Infrastructure
We’re partnering with well-known permaculturalists to build three-season volunteer infrastructure on interested farms. The infrastructure consists of
- tent platform & military tent with capacity to house ~8 adults
- water catchment system
- outdoor shower
- outhouse with compost toilet
Infrastructure is being made available at little to no-cost for farms that want to consistently host occupiers on their land with less impact on their home, life and septic system.
[edit] Occupy Farms Website
The new (as of June 2012) Occupy Farms website. The old NYCGA-hosted Occupy Farms blog.
- Collecting events. There are awesome farms-related events taking place all the time relevant to our community in the NYC area. We're looking for one or more people to find these events and post them to the site. This would involve (a) checking websites, (b) subscribing to listserves, (c) monitoring social media and (d) reading emails send to occupyfarmsevents@gmail.com.
- Curating Farm news feeds. Going through the Tiny RSS reader, reading the content coming in from the farms’ individual blogs, and flagging high-quality posts we should repost on OccupyFarms.org. This task can include soliciting, editing and posting articles, videos and other content submitted to OccupyFarms. You’d be responsible for responding to email sent to occupyfarmscontent@gmail.com.
- Becoming an author on OccupyFarms.org. We’re looking for farmers and activists who passionately want to produce consistently high-quality content on OccupyFarms.org. We’re hoping for a variety of personalities and interests so that we have a range of content on the site: anything from how-to guides to policy analysis to book reviews and beyond. All content will be licensed under creative commons -- so other websites will re-publish it, including other occupy websites.
- Helping with OccupyFarms’s social media presence. We’ve got social media accounts on twitter and facebook. This means staying up on OF news and events, and also scouring other news sources for relevant articles to point to. We’ll get you outfitted with a Tiny RSS reader to make this easy for you.
- Collecting videos on YouTube and photos on Flickr.
- Managing comments on OccupyFarms.org. We get a lot of spam and also a lot of awesome comments. We need someone to take responsibility for filtering through and letting the non-spam comments get posted for the world to see.
[edit] New Occupy Farms Website
Wireframes for future Occupy Farms website (from June 2012)
Notepad specing out future website (from March 2012)
The new website will be built as a sort of database, organized to be searchable by:
[edit] Projects
Projects will include:
- Individual Farms
- Bike Trips
- Centers
[edit] Locations
Organized along two, maybe more, axis:
- Farms&Agricultural Projects
- Bike trips showing routes
Could, alternatively, be one map with different kinds of projects color coded such that, for instance, all farms are red, and community gardens are green. Can turn on all the community gardens or all the farms or both.
[edit] Skills
Self-generating list of skills people are acquiring or coming across along the way and for which they're documenting how-tos.
[edit] Subblogs
Each "project" should be outfitted with a subblog, or somehow have their current web presence linked into the Occupy Farms network. Subblogs should have intuitive functionality whereby project point people can (1) document projects via either video or text (2) list events (3) give ways for people to plug in to the project, stating needs for volunteers/work-exchangers (inc. specific projects and timeframes)
[edit] Profiles
People should have profiles whereby they populate YTD fields. Their profiles can earn badges as they prove competence in a particular skill area, as "proven" by uploading content illustrating their knowledge and ability. Content is tagged according to the skill completed, and, when relevant, the project with which it's associated. How else? What would the validation process look like? Ideas:
- Trust networks
- Manual filtration of content
- People make claims, validated through experience. False claims will be revealed organically, reported transparently a la couchsurfing
[edit] Film Series
Biweekly (?) events designed to build community and raise funds for farms and reskilling workshops. Currently thinking $5 per person recommended donation. Coordinating efforts with TimesUp, InOurHearts, OWSSustainability, and maybe others.
[edit] Film Ideas
- Dirt
- Blue Gold
- Flow
- Secret Life of Plants
- Koch Brothers Exposed
- Gasland
- 2012: Time for Change
- 13 Grandmothers
- There Is No Authority But Yourself
- Garbage Warrior
[edit] Location Ideas
- La Plaza
- El Sol
- Brooklyn Commons
- 33 Flatbush
