BLM

 To start, appreciated the pun of BLM, usually Black Lives Matter but in this case, Land.

Once again, I love the anecdotes and stories of real people. I looked up a video of Olivia Watkins and Oliver's Agroforestry because it sounds so interesting. I love that she had an interest in sustainable agriculture from such a young age, and has now tied that into her heritage. I think its great that she tried out different farms in South Korea, NY, New Zealand, and Hawaii! The book mentioned how Watkins, like many young farmers desire to build their own sustainable farm. This is true for the young farmers I work with! They all are working to make money and gain experience before they go off to the woods, start a commune, or begin a homestead.

Despite all of the other horrible and racist actions described in the chapter, I did appreciate the "40 acres and a mule" concept. The government was actually making an effort to make a tiny repair in the mess of systemic racism.

Agroforestry makes me feel alive. I love the concept and hope to have my own homestead where I work with the land in this way. There are so many benefits to this, as well as other methods like alley cropping and silvopasture. I love hearing about these techniques in places outside the one regenerative agriculture class- from my coworkers, in this class, and in these articles and books!

Mycelium- so freakin cool. The whole communication connection is so symbolic of the intelligence and holistic-ness of nature and is so counter to everything we see in monoculture and human society today. I also now think of Ava immediately whenever mushrooms are mentioned :)

I loved learning that in some African languages, the word for the sustainable stewardship of land is the same is for "family' or community". Again, this expresses how holistic and alive nature and agriculture can be.

I also loved the history, especially information about George Washington Carter I never knew!!