SAFE in Berkeley

Looking back on my last three years of school, it’s becomes ever more clear to me that chance and circumstance play a large role in dictating the direction one’s life will take. It must have been by luck that shortly after moving into a co-op in Berkeley I made friends there with a young man who introduced me to Severine Fleming, a food and ag activist, at a party. This wasn’t just any party, because moments later I was digging my fingers into clay and rolling balls of native Californian seeds between my fingers. I found myself surrounded by loud, joyous people eating fresh food from their gardens and sipping strange new drinks that I was told was fermented by a “mushroom,” all the while listening to stories shared of cross country travels from farm to farm. After the party, as I biked home down the hill and through the fog, my mind and heart raced – an excitement ran through my body, as I realized that I had met people who delighted in life, and in sharing ideas so loosely and informally. I saw that it was possible to translate these ideas into direct community actions: actions that could be great, or as simple (yet inspiring) as throwing a ball of dry seeds into an empty lot.

sunflower threshing at a harvest fest

I was hooked. The impressive accomplishments of my new friends – from starting farms at their schools to hosting cooking workshops in the city to building gardens on rooftops – prompted me to join the recently formed Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology. Severine was its creator and director-at-large who delegated tasks with fierceness and efficiency. A year after our first meeting, she and fellow SAFE momma Hallie Chen put together a semester of lectures entitled “Women in Sustainable Agriculture,” with speakers ranging from Anna Lappé of Grub fame to Temra Costa of CAFF. The lectures that I attended were truly inspiring, due not only to the compelling words spoken, but also in showcasing the collective existence of scores of women who were living and developing dreams they had created for themselves. I left each event filled with the sweet knowledge that I had found my calling in life – working with people who work the land.

The reality of rising to this challenge, to a level of community action satisfying to me, turned out to be a very gradual process. SAFE became an important part of my life, and with each semester I grew to be more involved and responsible for the events that we put on. A major catalyst that threw me and my fellow members directly into the nitty-gritty of organizing was the departure of Severine to work on her own post-collegiate projects (check out the greenhorns). We were suddenly faced with our own deadlines, communication problems, and the challenges of trying to maintain a non-hierarchical group. I think the lack of one person to be the “delegator supreme” proved to be the hardest, but also the most rewarding, thing about working together as a group. To fill the role that a director would normally occupy, we decided that each person was to spearhead two or three major tasks or events during the course of the semester. Thus the responsibility and stress associated with organizing large events could be shared by everyone.

This past spring semester has been a wonderful learning experience. After a successful Food and Farming film series last fall with attendant panelists and debates, we decided to scale down and host a series of “Grandmother Workshops” in partnership with Slow Food. It was our desire to reach out more directly to other students like ourselves who may not necessarily have known about such things as the wonders of fermentation or the joy of making a pie from scratch. We also wanted to establish a rapport between youth and the elders, so we invited experienced chefs as well as skilled community members to teach workshops such as chicken butchering and soap making. We learned simple, but important lessons, such as holding regular meetings to both ensure more accountability to each other, as well as to encourage us to share our problems and ask for help when needed. In addition, everyone was able to develop their own connections with other people in the Bay Area sustainable foods movement. This only added to our resources and strength as a group. A really positive aspect of each person heading several of their own projects was that everyone in SAFE gained a valuable sense of ownership, accomplishment, and community. This I believe is evident and attractive to other students that want to participate in a truly collaborative effort.

So as my final year of school begins, I’m excited because I can feel the eagerness and capability of the people around me. We have more experience under our belts, which gives us more inspiration and momentum to be ever more bold and imaginative in our undertakings. We can also look forward to continued and expanding alliances with both on and off campus institutions such as Cal Dining or urban gardens such as City Slickers. I’m proud to be part of SAFE because the decentralized way in which we organize ourselves is mirrored in the varied events that we create. From our publication “Lettuce Turnip the Beets,” to the series’ we host, to the annual campus Harvest Festival, we hope to bring together the diverse students that want take charge of their food lifestyle decisions, and to inspire others to consider food issues to be an important part of their lives. To be a part of SAFE has been for me a dynamic process of growth and development that will sustain itself. I’m grateful to that first spark of chance that has since evolved into hard work and a network of friends and colleagues that continue to urge me towards new projects and passions.

Anya Kamenskaya —-> Agrariana