Defending Diversity

Why are you so woke?”

I just answered yet another reader who wondered what diverse cultures have to do with homesteading. While many readers thank us for covering all people within “can-do communities” and the long history of farming in all cultures, we also receive complaints. Many complaints wield the word “woke” and accuse us of being “political.” These subjective terms seem to refer to anything or anyone they don’t like. But our goal is to include varied cultures with multiple solutions for self-sufficiency. Further, the topics we publish transcend the politics of the day�…–�…no political party or platform has the sole claim on caring for people and the planet.

Since 1970, we’ve included stories on people who start farms, run community gardens, or create food initiatives. Some of those people have shared stories about how they’ve faced roadblocks because of their backgrounds and race. Recently, readers have said, “Just focus on sustainability!” But their experiences are part of their journeys toward sustainability, as is true for all of us.

In Reno, where I lived for 20 years, volunteers with the Reno Gleaning Project pick extra fruit from urban trees so it doesn’t go to waste. They then donate the fruit to hungry people in the community. Many of these recipients use the apples to make pies. The initiative combines urban gardens, waste diversion, food access, and apple pie. Most would consider this the perfect focus for Mother Earth News. So, how is this different from an article discussing initiatives that use Black ancestral practices to encourage community gardens in Akron, Ohio, bringing together urban gardens, waste diversion, food access, and culturally relevant foods? (See “Black Foodways,” August/September 2023.)

Issues such as redlining, generational poverty, and food deserts are obstacles within many communities, and a majority of those communities consist of diverse races, religions, and cultural backgrounds. Many people have had their access to land restricted. Indigenous Americans, after the Trail of Tears, were often “gifted” inhospitable tracts of land for reservations, and boarding schools removed whole generations from their culture. After Pearl Harbor, many Japanese Americans lost their land when they were forcibly relocated and incarcerated. And Black Americans, though their enslaved ancestors were forced to work the land, were unable to purchase decent property to continue agriculture among free people.