Crop Mob – Guerrilla agrarians in the information age
I have been involved in the Crop Mob since the first time the group convened to do work last October. I missed the initial meeting of people who created the idea and named it, so I take no credit for its inception only its implementation. I push the idea whenever and wherever I can, attending every call of the Mob in the process.
I have been a strong proponent of the young agrarian movement, writing essays, giving interviews, taking photographs. The Crop Mob is the physical realization of all those words and images, the sinew, muscle and breath behind the imagination.
With the Crop Mob there exists the possibility of something beyond what we usually perceive of as farming.
The idea is bigger than barn-raisings, more technical than workshops, more thoughtful than textbooks. It is guerrilla agrarianism in the information age. Maybe that isn’t an apt description, but when I watch shovels hitting dirt on a foreign farm with a crew assembled using email, social networking and word of mouth, it surely feels like it.
The Crop Mob is unstoppable, yet flawed on some levels. Reciprocity from the farmers we have helped is greatly lacking. We are all busy, yes, but if we are to keep donating our labor, the labor pool must continue to snowball and include previous beneficiaries of that labor. On that end we can improve our pitch, farms can understand better what they are getting and everyone involved can get what they need out of the day.
We are not unskilled; we bring decades of combined experience in dozens of areas – bed building, fencing, transplanting, harvesting, permaculture, food/farm activism, media outreach – so we are capable of making substantial impacts in a handful of hours.
Where to from here? The next step may be to franchise the idea or mutate it or trim it down or use it differently. In the meantime we will continue to do what we have been doing – showing up and getting shit done.
May 28, 2009 at 9:46 am
Trace and mob,
LOVE your existence so so much. It is a brilliant thing on the face of the earth, beyond the Piedmont.
I appreciate hearing concerns and needs for its continued success; I’d also like to hear the factors you can name that have been vital in creating is as is. Seems this area is rich beyond measure in young activists with a tremendous range of skills who have this cooperative vision and spirit. We are very blessed.
I’m curious about your thought to franchise . . . I’m guessing I’m missing your meaning as to me to franchise is to sell rights to an idea? . . . (as in RRFM, no one is profiting on that concept, just spreading them like wildfire)? What are the insights you could offer to locales where perhaps that resource exists but is not so visible or cohesive? I.E. how can we create crop mobs in places where the environment is very different from the triangle? What are the key factors to replicating?? (group willing to get shit done obviously, but you id some others as you talk about reception from farmers?)
of course it would look different in each locale . . . and there are MANY places in the country where a Crop Mob just like this one would thrive immediately, like the RRFM has done from one end of the country to the other. Certainly, start with assets, right? Get as many Crop Mobs in as many places where they can successfully be started quickly. If I could bank roll sending crop mobbers to various parts of the country to help start-ups everywhere . . . hehe, love that image . . . but tis really just the idea that needs to be spread, yes? Trace particularly, thanks for putting it out there so brilliantly, compellingly, beautifully, again and again, as well as for diggin in the trenches, again and again! as ever, you are my favorite blogger.
tes
May 28, 2009 at 10:02 am
Tes,
My idea about franchising is to completely remove the idea of ownership. To spread the cop mob we have to let go of intellectual rights while still setting up the parameters in which the mob should function once exported. Just like Food Not Bombs serves rescued vegetarian meals no matter which one you attend, any where in the country, a Crop Mob would not show up to pick sugar beets for export or fumigate apple orchards or clean out an industrial chicken house. There have to be clean parameters to work within, and I personally don’t think the idea would very hard to replicate no matter where it happens. The ideology is simple; at the core is work and around that work is sustainability, humane treatment of animals, the betterment of the soil and the community. Might be a good workshop idea for conferences or tabling, anything to get the idea into folks’ heads.
Trace
May 28, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Trace,
What is up man, you dont know me but I have heard your name spoken a couple times. I just moved down from Iowa to attend the sus. ag. program at CCCC. I believe I live really close to you also, rufus brewer rd? I may be wrong. Any how, I just wanted to drop a wat up! I am VERY interested in starting to attend these crop mobs, how do I get in this uber cool crop mob ya got goin’ on here in the Pied?
Veen
May 28, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hey Ramsey,
You do live close by. We refer to that road affectionately as “Rufus Beaver”. Don’t know why, just thought it was a better name. Even named one of our chickens Rufus Beaver. Take a left on Jessie Bridges then a right on AW Buckner. That’s us.
Anyway, if you go to cropmob.org you can sign up for the listserv and get the notices. Mobs are once a month…
Stop by when you get a chance. Nights and weekend afternoons are best.
Trace
June 2, 2009 at 3:02 pm
these are beautiful pictures, trace! though i’m kind of happy i left before the cameras came out (camerafright)
June 2, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Trace- I found your blog about a month back, and I’m glad I did. You write some insightful and challenging stuff. I’ve been thinking about the concept of a crop mob since I read about it here. I love the phrase “guerrilla agrarians.” I think that most communities striving to support small, local farms would benefit greatly from a crop mob. I’ve been thinking of starting one here in Fort Collins, CO. I’ve looked through the cropmob.org website a number of times, but I think it’s more the type of thing that needs to be done, first hand, rather than to read about. Have any insights on starting it up?
June 3, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hey Trace. I was planning to write a little ditty on the Crop Mob for my book, but would love to use your words instead, with just a few of my own to introduce the concept. Let me know if this is OK with you. I’d credit you and list your blog. Will get back to you with final details, but please email me directly if you’re up for this. Book’s not out until spring 2011, so we can only hope Crob Mob will still be around. Be around, Crop Mob! — Diane Daniel
June 4, 2009 at 9:44 am
Stephen:
Since I’m not familiar with the Fort Collins agricultural scene, I’ll have to make some guesses on where to start.
The apprentices and interns in this area tend to come out of the Sustainable Agriculture program of the community college in Pittsboro (NC). Many attend classes and work on area farms part time. Given that, I would start at the universities in Fort Collins. Seems like there is an organic curriculum? – http://organic.colostate.edu/ Also the specialty crops curriculum – http://www.specialtycrops.colostate.edu/
Flyers advertising an organizational meeting could go out to the instructors to announce to their classes. Also post in local shops, grocery stores, farmers markets, CSA boxes, etc.
You should approach any farmers you know in the area as well as the ones you don’t know. Once you have about 15 to 20 committed folks, you should be able to quickly do most projects within 5 to 7 hours.
To keep it all together, set up a basic email list and a basic wordpress blog to keep the community updated.
After that, pick the first farm, setup your time frame, decide on what should be accomplished, make a sign up sheet, delegate and make sure the projects are successful and completed to the host farm’s liking. Repeat in a month or so on a new farm being sure to get the previous farm residents to participate in the next one.
Please keep us updated on the progress and let me know if I can offer any more help.
June 5, 2009 at 8:43 am
Trace- thanks for the info. I’m involved in both the specialty crops and organic program at CSU. I’m working on the universities 8 acre organic farm this year. We have a 75 member CSA as well as many many variety trials and other research projects. I love it, but it can feel a bit insulated from the rest of the local food scene. Thanks for your advice and encouragement. I’ll keep you updated on how things move along. peace.
June 8, 2009 at 9:16 am
Stephen/Trace,
I lived in Ft Collins for a few years working for the state forest service and now live in the Charlotte NC area … I have no experience with Crop Mobs (just read about them here), but it is an intriguing idea. I’d guess that the students in the sustainable development program @ CSU (if they still have it) would be game for a Crop Mob trial. Several of our friends at the time had their own impromptu farms in the Wellington area, and while they are long since gone, they would have been up for the experiment. Any connections at the co-op in Old Town?
Anyway, good luck.
Seth –