Notes - Bruxelles - Wojtek

GROWL @ BELGIUM 11.2014 - notes by Wojtek Mejor

12.11.

- How do electromagnetic waves affect people? How are they measured? How to sense this?
- report about electromagnetic radiation effects: ‚Bioinitiative Report’ 2012
[ttt] - don’t force things just because they were planned; if they were already conveyed in an informal way you might consider skipping a presentation or shortening
- continuation of GROWL - establish ‚hubs’ that are a network of places-nodes in the degrowth network
- bioeconomy - ‚accounting’ rooted in physical flows

What actions do we envision for degrowth?
- create space for degrowth experience so ppl can have an emotional experience
- prototyping
- learn where degrowth is needed (dialogue)
- channel the discussion in positive ways
- using theatre and art techniques to involve ppl and disseminate messages
- establish convival practices
- put more time to things we like and focus less on bad things
- slogans: „Less is enough” „More or less”
- education - easier to get funding for an eco-educational facility

- efficiency can focus only on one or few aspects while at the same time neglecting other aspects and creating many inefficiencies - isolating only one aspect of problem
[ttt] - we moved the raporting of the discussion to the platform via assigned rapporteurs because of lunch time and not enough time for open forum sharing

The Vevy-Weron Farm:
- 43 ppl, 7 core team, 1 owner
- incomes: 1/3 ppl state help; 1/3 ppl working outside; 1/3 ppl live off the farm
- established 30 years ago by 2 families (which later split and one man bought all the land)
- agriculture, bakery, goats
- too much work affecting personal wellbeing and social relations
- for family with 2 children rent is approx 400€
- the only common project is living together
- newcomers have to be accepted by community
- 1 day per month everyone on the farm meeting (about 4h)
- people do projects within the farm community but they are independent endeavours - e.g. one guy keeps goats and sells the cheese to farm inhabitants and outside
- 15 years ago big crisis because of new wife of owner
- not following any model or ideal - everyone do what they are
- ppl can live for many years but they do not own the ground or houses, nor do their children
- grocery co-op: preorder through internet; pick up from farm; price = product + 12% fixed margin + 0,33€ per bought unit (e.g. 1 bottle of wine or 1 box of 6 wines - encouraging buying bigger amounts)
- the owner doesn’t intervene in other people’s activities
- decisionmaking: if 1/5 ppl don’t want something it is not done
- recently attempts to make consensus decisions
- in questions of land - owner decides; in other questions - the collective
- variation of AMAP: GASAP (only in Belgium?)
- renting land in Belgium costs approx 150€/year/hectar
- hierarchical power structure on farm - owner/inhabitants; no consensus among inhabitants about whether this is good or bad
- in Belgium: >50% is agricultural landscape; <2% agricultural workers
- growing on farm: Medlar (GB), Nieszpułka (PL), Mispule (CZ), Musmula (BiH), Neflier (FR) - fruit from rose family, very astringent, not suitable for eating raw, has to be ‚bletted’ by frost and eaten brown/‚rotten’

- sustainable economy, green economy, circular economy - controversial, non-sustainable concepts based on growing market

Philosophy Cafe:
- ‚Which education today for a concrete degrowth tomorrow?’
- p2p teaching - non-mechanical view of knowledge
- rigid educational system developed under influence from army and church
- cooperation can also lead to growth -> important are the underlying VALUES
- gratitude, equality, modesty, solidarity
- ethics > ways of pursuing values
- values can be misused and manipulated
- „For degrowth we need education with more values.”
[ttt] - while conducting ‚philo cafe’ you have to rephrase and synthesize each opinion

13.11.

What is Agroecology?
1. Objecives - how to feed the world?
2. History
3. Principles - 5 historical principles
- 850mln ppl suffer hunger; 1/2 are farmers
- Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)
- Agroecology tries to implement the results of ecology studies to agriculture
- Agriculture is (should be) an ecosystem - monocultures destroy ecosystems
- in middle ages all agriculture was organic but not all was agroecology - e.g. deforestation due to large sheep herds
- modern organic agriculture doesn’t have to take into consideration entire ecosystems or ecologically limited distribution; in contrast agroecology is holistic and coherent
- first paper about degradation of soil/ecosystem through farming was published in the 70s
- agroecology looks at the condition of the farmer and his struggle and social relations while permaculture only looks at local, closed systems

Social Dimension of Agroecology

observations of agroecology:
- top-down or botom-up?
- inclusive or exclusive?
- localisation (urban/rural, etc.)
- what are the actors in the project?
- collective/community dimension
- history of the project: relation btw territories, institutions, actions

questions about Vevy-Weron:
- what is still community/collective?
- how their expectations changed over time?
- how do they deal with differences?
- how they needs were fulfilled?
- can they support themselves from farmwork?
- are they sharing machinery within farm?
- how’s the childcare organised?
- are the children going to regular schools/kindergardens?
- what about elderly/ill people, retirement, health problems, etc.? care issues
- where are all the 40 ppl? we hardle see them
- is there enough work for everyone on the farm?
- many people want to come to live on the farm, but later they leave/complain. why?
[ttt] - possible communication deficiency: I didn’t realise when to ask these questions to farm inhabitants. did not see the connection in the appropriate moment.

AUROVILLE - 50000ppl project in India
- ppl in Europe have an experience in nuclear family living, that makes living in communitites and collectives very difficult; in India it is very different

David C. Korten - „The Great Turning”
Derick Jenson - „Endgame”, „Language Older than Books”
Naomi Klein - „This Changes Everything”

14.11.

Visit at Nos Pilifs farm
- 140 ppl working
- ppl with disabilities work with contracts life regular workers
- economic, social, environmental dimensions of project are important
- non-profit association
- 10% of workers (non-handicapped monitors) are edcuated social workers
- natural evolution goes towards forest (not the greates biodiversity)
- 5ha area

visit to educational Urban Farm:
- 3 trainers working (1 full time)
- training ppl for 2years to be farmers
- using donkeys to work soil
- 2ha land (owned by private person, precarious contract, aristocratic family)
- 1ha land worked, the rest for donkeys
- area protected, not for development
- for training purposes only / temporary solution due to precarious contract
- taking part in GASAP schemes
- 6 employees/trainees
- subsidies for ppl without higher education and unemployed
- our guide studied agronomy
- relations with neighbours need to be taken care of; skeptical towards farmers in the city; problems: flies, straw on street
- no vegs in winter
- GASAP: 15€ per week per basket
- Promata (?) collaborating with ngo in North Africa

Haren district visit:
- industrial district
- 4600 inhabitants
- plans to build prison for 1500ppl and housing for 10000ppl
- near airport (every few minutes very loud airplanes pass low above), area unknown to wider public
- ‚patatist’ movement occupying land
- occupation since 10th August 2014
- planting potatoes started in April, 400 ppl participated
- the prison project is sold to the public as an ‚open village’ (sic!) - reminiscent of our ideas while singing around the fireplace in Vevy-Weron: ideas for an eco-prison, non-hierarchical, vegan (megan), etc...

Presentation in De Linden Cultural Centre:
Pablo .... „Feeding Europe in Times of Crisis” (in French)
- Belgium only allowed to export vegs grown in water
- cicory growing discovered in Bruxelles - special role of Haren district
- people now invilved in ‚patatist’ movement previously made public action replacing GMO potatoes with organic; facing criminal charges - RESAP, Field Liberation Movement
- local, rooted initiatives are better to communicate global problems and easier to defend in view of wider public than very general, meta-debates
- community and public space (community garden) can be a  more important argument than urban food production (small space and yield)

Vandana Shiva:
- focus, do only one thing at a time
- be pasisonate in action and detached from results

Michael Reynolds - ‚earthships’, garbage warrior

15.11.

TTT:
[ttt] - group work: categorising experience into feeling and knowledge is way too rigid and reductionist
- how to make the learning moment ‚painful’ (meaningful, touching)?
- ‚cerveau global’
- pince-sans-rire
[ttt] - how to induce an atmosphere of extraordinarity and adventure? (vide simple ‚hands’ workshop/exercise in Greece)
[ttt] - how to make ppl produce interesting results on the platform?
Exercise: What would I do as a trainer? How?
[ttt] - make ppl write out a day plan for their normal day, what they routinely do every day; talk about it, present on the wall, discuss; try to influence/complete/remix eachothers day plans through an agroecological perspective; make warm-ups and exercises to create ‚safe space’ and take a great care that all the comments and feed back are respectful and not overly critical but constructive

[ttt] - previous morning exercise didn’t lead to meaningful results, nothing revealed or learned. we put the posters on the wall but didn’t do any follow up

GROWL preso:
[ttt] - Gualter consulted and improved his presentation
- ‚communities of practice’ Wenger 1998
[ttt] - G. is asking questions to audience and tries to build his own narrative on ppls answers
[ttt] - sometimes he tries too much to fit the answers to the next slide
- are we a ‚community of concept’?

Jonas and Binita preso:
[ttt] - well-prepared and elaborate course concept and presentation; ‚surprise effect’, text revealed on blackboard; audience involved
- energy slaves
- energy transformation sinks
- energy flows