CAMPO’s base of operations and Escuela Helvetia’s classroom is Stoneboat Farm, a sustainable vegetable and turkey farm in the Helvetia region of Hillsboro, Oregon. Brothers Aaron and Jesse Nichols started Stoneboat in 2014 with a team of horses, great pyrenees dogs and many great friends, family and community partners. From the beginning Stoneboat has sold top quality veggies to restaurants, farmer’s markets and also their ever growing CSA program. As a sustainable farm, Stoneboat grows a diverse array of vegetables utilizing cover cropping, crop rotation and lots of hard work. The pest and pollinator management involves primarily flower planting, well planned rotations and no pesticides. Nutrient management is based on cover cropping to build organic matter, turkey rotation and fertilizing with minerals and sometimes feather meal. As we move towards a progressively more regenerative model we are planning for the incorporation of fruit trees and bushes into our product and plant mix. This, in addition to the native plant corridor which runs along Storey Creek through the middle of the property, will provide habitat for birds and insects, making Stoneboat a biodiverse haven in a mostly cleared surrounding agricultural and suburban landscape.
Stoneboat is an ideal classroom for CAMPO and Escuela Helvetia, not only because it reflects the efforts of farmers committed to the environment and the healthiest food possible, but because it also reflects the struggles of maintaining this type of farm in the USA’s agricultural landscape and political economy. Students will learn how it can be done, despite the uphill battle small scale farmers must wage to make ends meet. But they will also see that if we want this type of agriculture to have the revolutionary potential that inspires us to dedicate our lives to it, we need a mass movement for change. Working and studying here, it becomes clear that the sustainable food movement has several potential future paths.
It could remain a niche market which feeds delicious, nutrient rich foods to those who can afford it. It could remain a niche employment opportunity for idealistic young farmers, fortunate enough to get their hands on ever more scarce and expensive land. Participating in this movement as it is, is fun and worth it. But the changes we need in agriculture and the environment demand more, which is what CAMPO aims to teach and the movement we hope to help build.
By learning and working together we can build the food movement we need; a mass movement of diverse and dedicated people who demand access to land for those willing to care for it. A movement away from destructive agriculture to a regenerative model which can:
bring back our plant and animal biodiversity,
sequester instead of release carbon into the atmosphere
create fulfilling and hands on jobs in healthy communities connected to their own agriculture.
But to do this we can’t see agriculture as a separate struggle, an independent consumer choice or a series of small businesses fulfilling a demand. Though at Stoneboat we love that we’ve met the success we have in the current conditions, we realize the precariousness of the position of sustainable farming in the agro-business dominated, hyper exploitative landscape of modern agriculture. We have to link the struggles for healthy food and a healthy environment for all and realize the scale of political and social organizing we’re really talking about when we talk about revolutionizing agriculture.
