I have been told for many years that when a young person heads off to university, they should go there seeking not just a degree, but an entirely different way of thinking, feeling, and perceiving. We spend a lot of time studying the soil and vegetable propagation in our classes, but an equal amount of time pondering the science of spirit and the integrity of man.
I sometimes worry that I feel more drawn to exercising intellect than exercising muscles out in the field, but I think we are entering an age where intellect needs to come back to the farm, and it is coming back with a vengeance. In order to dismantle the industrialization of food (and essentially the natural world) we need to bring critical thinking but also deep respect back into agriculture for the western world. The following blog post is about a modern issue that has been plaguing me for a couple of weeks.
How much power does the consumer really have?
This may be a 'chicken or the egg' question. The consumer is indoctrinated by the society in which it shops. But what came first, the ignorant consumer or the ignorant society? Every dollar (or pound) that is put into the hands of a local grower, takes a dollar away from a corporate evil. Consumerism has equal capacity to disempower as it does to empower.
We in the organic movement often say that a conventional system lacks foresight; it has no concept of consequence. Buying local food has the potential to solve the problem of a standardized, global food economy--but maybe that philosophy lacks foresight as well. Call me a pessimist, but I sometimes feel that the organic food movement is too quick to say that the power lies in the consumer.
It is very easy to feel inspired by a place like Forest Row, with farm shops and health food stores that thrive within the community. But while it is easy to feel inspired, it is also easy to forget that a bubble such as this one is not as common as we think in the Western world. And even more so, forget that bubbles such as these begin with a strong economy in the first place. And unfortunately, by that I mean affluence.
It is fairly obvious that there is a lot of money in Forest Row, so if I were to hear someone using Forest Row as an example of a place with a strong local food economy, strengthened by the power of the consumer, I would ask them to check the context in which the consumer finds themselves. To be frank, it's an economy boosted by people who are less likely to have a tight budget for food, and as a result are predisposed to be able to support their local grower. I'm fairly certain that if Tablehurst or Plaw Hatch farm found themselves in a lower income neighborhood, they would either fail or break even year after year--because they wouldn't have the kind of consumers that have the resources to support them as a business, let alone a 'movement'.
I've been to many places just like Forest Row, and they all share one thing in common: big money. So how do you bring local food to a place that can't even afford it? I think that this is the sort of question we in the organic movement should be asking ourselves. Bring me an example of a large community of working class, 1st-world, poverty-line individuals with families that collaboratively support a local food movement, and then I will feel that the organic movement is attempting to help the world at large, not just those who have the spare income to buy into it.
I am hopeful and welcoming to evidence that this sort of thing may exist, but certainly not nearly in the same way as it does in high income neighborhoods. 'Urban food' initiatives are quite commonly funded by external organizations or charities, not necessarily the community itself. It is a lot to ask for a person who can barely save money in the first place to take moral responsibility for their fruits and vegetables by joining an organic box scheme--socio-economic dilemmas like this need to be taken into consideration before we can agree that we have some sort of solution.
Now here is where we can find ourselves asking if the chicken came before the egg. So what came first, the consumer or the business? A business cannot do business without the consumer, but the consumer cannot consume without the business. What needs to be changed first? But (!) this isn't so simple, because we must look at each consumer as an individual. Are they wealthy? How did they become wealthy, rags to riches or from old money? Are they poor? Are they poor because of a lack of opportunity in their community, oppression from the higher classes, educational suppression due to high tuition costs or admittance rates, or just plain bad luck?
The reasons why the poor are poor are endless, and it is becoming quite clear that poor people are not poor because they are choosing to be poor. They are poor because they are living in a society that wishes to keep them exactly how they are, so that people who are more fortunate can thrive. So before we look to the consumer to boost a local food economy, the crimes against people who are absolutely predisposed to being poor and staying poor need to stop. It is dismissive and ignorant (and dangerously right-wing) to look down upon a person who shops at a corporate low price grocery store instead of a higher budget farmers market, without looking at why a person would need a cheap product in the first place.
But when too many people require the absolute need to buy cheap products (because of the social circumstances listed above), we begin to live in a world where the only 'thing' of value at all is the price tag, and not the quality of the product. And that itself may be what fuels the power of corporations in the first place--monopolizing poverty. But that is a discussion for another blog post.
This has been a rather depressing rant from your local biodynamic student. But fear not, I still believe in the power of the individual, we just have some serious hurdles to jump through.
Stay tuned ! X
Salvatore is a sculptor from Milan. He works in a cluttered shed near the storytelling, eurythmy and visual arts huts. He has the face of a man who lives deeply in his work, fully entering the physical experience of the materials he uses. Some days he exits the shed with his face and hands layered in soot. Then he grins and opens his eyes wide and his spirit shines through, white and clear. Yet dear Salvatore struggles to learn languages and work with words, particularly English. And so the student community have gathered round him and he now has teachers everywhere, who listen to him and provide him with phrases and questions that have meaning for him.
For me, this shows how supportive and educational a community can be. He is learning English through living English, interacting in each moment with the people he encounters as he moves around the campus. And of course, if you adopt the belief that language is alive, that it breathes in the landscape all around you, then there are many more ways for a person to listen and express himself than learning from books or in a classroom. Clearly, the experience of not being able to communicate in the most-used language on campus could dishearten Salvatore. It could bring him down. Yet it is this “down” that allows the “up” to exist, and the flow of his confidence is growing. From a trickle to a stream, then a river, down to the ocean. He will learn and in his own way.
Most people on the campus experience that same flow of ups and downs, leading towards a deeper pool of awareness, about themselves and the world they live in. Some become homesick. Some find the constant interaction with others overwhelming. Some find these interactions inspiring, even addictive and so create no time for themselves and tire quickly. I remember speaking with a Tibetan monk many years ago. He told me that it was not the lifestyle of praying, fasting and physical work that was difficult. It was the other monks that provided the difficulty! And all of us, no matter how we live and work encounter this issue. How do I live and be me, when someone in front of me challenges me to my core? How do I respond when I see someone in pain? How do I feel when someone disrespects my boundaries? Such are the questions that we live with day-to-day in an educational community. We don't have the answers, but perhaps just living with the questions is enough?
Speaking of living questions, what about the albino squirrel that has been sighted by two people on the same day? It has apparently been around for some time, but is rarely seen. Is there a significance to its appearance, like the white buffalo in Native American culture? Or is it whimsical to see a deeper significance when one may not exist? Eka and Katie reported to have felt it had meaning for them, and so, for me, any significance that they derive from their personal sightings is for them alone. For they had the direct experience!
Now this brings me nicely round to the front door of Rudolf Steiner and his living pantheon of ideas. Emerson College was established in 1962 to teach the teachers of his educational framework. Presently, it no longer provides this training, and some would argue that interest in Steiner and the body of work he built – Anthroposophy – is in decline. Some may go further and say that his ideas are no longer relevant in the modern world. I disagree. There is relevance in the work of Salvatore, in the ups and downs of community life and in albino squirrel sightings. For Steiner always encouraged people to question his ideas for themselves, to adapt to the needs of the times and to go deeper into the experience of who we are and how we live in the world. And such encouragement has no limits. For we can always go deeper. We can always experience more, of ourselves, and of the world around us through ourselves. A man covered in soot could provide an insight; ups and downs, a breakthrough; and an albino squirrel, a revelation.
My name is Graham and I am on the 3-month, residential, Heart and Craft of Storytelling Course. I have been living at Emerson College for almost four weeks now. The College and the local villages of Forest Row and East Grinstead are not new to me, as I lived in the area three years ago. However, what is new to me is community life and being a student again. In this weekly journal, I will share some of my thoughts and feelings about the course, the College and their relationship to the many initiatives taking place throughout the world that are re-examining the way we live and work together. I will begin by sharing a few words on why I chose to study at Emerson.
There have been many times in my life when I have felt that the decision I was about to make would change the course of my life. When I reflect on those times now, they stand out vividly in my memory and have a particular colour and feel to them. What distinguishes them is their intensity and the sense of meaning that come with them. That sense of meaning is a deep feeling, a feeling of heightened awareness and knowing. There is also the sense of what I have come to call "yesness", a sense that has developed in me through a dedicated path of inner work. And so when I meditated on whether or not to pick up the phone and call the College to inquire about the course, that sense of “yesness” was clear and true.
Many people who come to Emerson say that their destiny brought them here. This journal is not the place to discuss the nature of destiny, but I do understand what they mean. If you are the kind of person who thinks and feels deeply, and who is sensitive to Nature, then walking around the campus at Emerson can bring up a special quality inside of you that makes you feel like you belong here. I ascribe this to the intention of the founder, the activities that have taken place for over 50 years, and the thousands of people who have studied, taught, and lived here together. They have left their unique impressions. Every tree, bush and flower has a story. Every bench has supported the weight of many people lost in thought. The rooms and halls have heard thousands of singing voices, watched hundreds of hands shaping clay and witnessed countless personal transformations. And the landscape surrounding the College, with its thick woods and rolling folds of green, long horizons and Sussex earthiness, completes the picture; a picture that has inspired many poets and writers, most famously A.A.Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh.
So, back to the present. I am in my room in Linden Avenue. There are 10 of us on the ground floor and 10 above me. It is early, before dawn, and I hear the gentle snoring of one of my colleagues vibrating through through the walls. There are no sounds apart from this, but soon, when dawn comes, birds, cows and dogs will all call to the sky and students will begin their slow ascent out of sleep. Alarms will be snoozed. Heads will be scratched. Giant-mouthed yawns will not be suppressed. Another day at Emerson will begin.
Next week: the “teaching of Salvatore”, the ups and downs of community life, albino squirrels and the legacy of Rudolf Steiner.
Hello!
Welcome to our new campus blog! We'll be posting impressions, photos and stories from our students, staff and visitors throughout the year to give you an up to date picture of what's going on on-campus at Emerson College.
One of the most wonderful things about studying at Emerson are the people you meet along the way, so we're hoping to encourage many different voices to share their experiences here, to give a fuller and richer story and go beyond the usual prospectus-style information to a more personal encounter with the College.
To start things off, we have the first impressions of one of our new Biodynamic Agriculture students, Hanna Williams. We're very grateful to Hanna for taking the plunge and sharing her experiences, and can't wait to hear what she makes of her time at Emerson as the year goes along!
With love,
Matt and Naomi
Emerson's PR Team
I arrived at Heathrow after a red-eye flight from Denver, Colorado on September 15th. Combined, my luggage probably weighed about 50kg. After a harrowing journey through the London Underground's complete lack of elevators and packed corridors full of generally miserable city folk—which I'm actually quite accustomed to—I found myself riding in a taxi up to Pixton Hill, suddenly realizing that I was finally arriving at Emerson College. I had visited here once before, just under a year before. I felt a sensation of familiarity wash over me as I lumbered towards the reception building with my belongings to do our registration, remembering all of the excellent foliage and gardens and the welcoming Steiner architecture. I got my key, had some dinner, and then proceeded to sleep for 13 hours (the past couple of weeks had been hard on me, finally a chance to catch up on sleep!)
The next morning we had a communal breakfast and I started to get a feel for the group I was going to be living with—everyone was surprisingly nice. As a life-long Philadelphian, the warmth I felt with the people I met was refreshing, a stark contrast from the usually disgruntled and stand-offish people I've always known. We gathered at the Storytelling hut for an "ice breaking session", listened to some totally excellent stories from the instructors, and went off in groups to complete our task: build a vessel that will safely carry a chicken egg, when thrown off the side of a building. There were probably about 9 groups… all of the eggs were safe… our group failed. But it was all in good fun, it was interesting to see the different approaches with the designs and concepts. I guess we tried our best and just had a good laugh in the end.
The first week of school went like this:
-Anthroposophical biography work in the early morning
-Coffee mid-morning
-Farm tours (!) in the afternoon
-Group lunch around 1pm
-2nd year Biodynamic student work placement presentations.
The farm tours were inspiring, we saw quite a variety of businesses. From a small Steiner school garden, to a massive dairy farm. The work placement presentations definitely added to this feeling… it's almost as if I have too many options. Too many directions that I can go in for work. I've been spending the weekend contemplating what I would like to do for my placement--hopefully I'll head back up to Sweden. But I'm also keen on apprenticing with an Urban Revitalization project in a large city, which would likely land me back in the United States.
Stay tuned!