The Mother+Land Project Outreach
A Letter to The Agrarian Trust
Every day is outreach day here at The Mother+Land Project Headquarters (a.k.a., my dining room table). Here is my most recent submission to a fabulous organization called The Agrarian Trust out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I highly encourage a visit to their very comprehensive and informative website. Their mission is to support land access to the next generation farmers. It got me to thinking, and then it got me to writing. Below is an edited (for sake of clarity) copy of my letter to them, requesting their support for The Mother+Land Project's search for land donations.
Dear Agrarian Trust,
I am the founder of a developing organization that seeks to give free land to willing and able mothers and their families. The land will be provided with one free year of sustainable living education and assistance in developing their homes, food and energy systems.
The concept is one where I wish to acquire land for research, development and demonstration purposes to determine whether or not 100 acres of farmland (for example) can produce as much food, if not more than traditional methods, by converting the land into agri-hoods using permaculture methods.
Each participating family will receive a 2.5 acre parcel upon which they will be guided and instructed on how to build their own eco-dwellings (according to predetermined sustainable designs), and install food forests, gardens, fish ponds, sustainable energy systems, etc... to feed themselves and their surrounding communities. As you state on your website, there are approximately 400 millions of acres of farmland soon to enter into new hands. would it not then be feasible, and highly beneficial to utilize a portion of these lands for this sustainable living education, research and demonstration?
There are thousands of permaculture design instructors, experts and students around the world, who could provide the skills, training and know-how to develop this concept. There are millions of families collapsing under our current systems of energy, housing and food production. There are thousands of farmers who are also collapsing under the current systems of monoculture. Last, but not least, the health of our environment and all who live upon the earth are collapsing under the current systems we live under. If all systems are collapsing, as they indeed are, should we not provide sustainable living education and opportunities to as many families as we possibly can, as swiftly as we possibly can?
The ultimate questions to be answered are: (1) Whether or not humans should be given the opportunity to learn how to live sustainably, and (2) Can the problems of pollution, hunger, crime, disease and poverty be eradicated by doing so? As stated on our website, "It is estimated that the average American family adds approximately 80 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. By providing free land and sustainable living education, The Mother+Land Project can reduce a family's carbon footprint to zero. Multiply this by 100, 1,000 or 10,000 families, and we can eliminate up to 800,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year."
If climate change is truly a threat we must address or perish, it seems the logical imperative that we transition from unsustainable, toxic and fossil fuel dependent living and open as many doors as we can to establish sustainable living education and demonstration immediately. I propose we do this by marrying the skilled instructors and graduates of permaculture design schools with willing and able families upon farmlands that what would otherwise collapse under toxic and unsustainable monoculture farming practices.
I have spent 24 years of my life as a Mother, grooming my family toward the goal of co-developing a permaculture community. We still have much to learn, but cannot do so without the land upon which to learn, grow and develop. To do so sustainably, requires the land be donated, free of charge, without taxation, in perpetuity, and never to be sold. In the 24 years of my research and training, I have learned that creating a debt-free foundation is the most crucial step to the success of sustainable living education centers and family homesites.
The land and education must be provided free of charge or it is simply not sustainable. By providing a debt-free foundation for participating families and instructors, a system of sustainable reciprocation can develop. This will be achieved when participants donate all surplus food and energy produced to their surrounding communities. To force anyone into debt for the right to learn to live sustainably is to subject them to duress and lack before they have ever begun. It is simply not sustainable.
Thank you for your consideration of the thoughts of a Suburban Mother and Wanna-be Developer of Sustainable Education Centers. I speak only from my experience and passion for nourishing and nurturing life. I pray you will listen to the experts in this department... The Life-Minded Mothers. We know what needs to be done to right this ship. All we need is the Land, the Freedom and the Liberty to do so.
Sincerely,
Marlowe Brown
Founder of The Mother+Land Project
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