Values
At the heart of CAMPO is the need to form meaningful, grounding bonds between the Portland area’s diverse communities. Particularly, we aim to bridge the gap between the rural and urban populations and the one between the Spanish speaking and English speaking communities. Portland, like most cities, experiences a disconnect from the agricultural regions surrounding it. By coming together and considering and expanding our roles in agriculture we believe we can shift some of the benefits of the land and its bounty away from the multi-trillion dollar industry that funnels them ever upwards. In the short term we can create an agriculture with fair pay, humane working conditions and no poisons, at least here on Stoneboat Farm. In the future we can expand that reality to more land in the region; we can build more solidarity and explore models of collective ownership. Food has been turned into a commodity; we believe we can restore its transformational and even spiritual power to build a better world. We turn to the international campesino movement, La Via Campesina (https://viacampesina.org/en/) for guidance and inspiration.
The hands on, popular education model of CAMPO results in valuable work performed by instructors, interns, volunteers and students, thus it promotes the success and development of a small local agroecological farm.
What is Agroecology
Agriculture is one of the leading causes of climate change and ecosystem destruction…. Agroecological systems actually sequester carbon and restore ecosystems.
Agriculture uses unjust systems of labor exploitation, creating oppressive work conditions for members of our community here and around the world….
Agroecology grows out of rural social movements that start from the ground up, demand and construct healthy lifestyles for farmworker agroecologists around the world from Brazil to Kenya to Oregon.
“Organic” falls far short of explaining complex and necessary systems of scientific regeneration and nutrient rich food production. Agroecologists could easily certify their farms as organic, but they often prefer to explain their practices to eaters and supporters as “organic” has become an industry that allows for many destructive practices and doesn't usually revitalize ecosystems or build climate change fighting environments…
Agroecology will hopefully never become a nationally certified term (until the state and federal Ag departments completely shift course to support social production on a mass scale). If it does, we'll have to come up with another one to define the movement that grows from the collaborative, revolutionary actions of farmers determined to rebuild and support an edible ecosystem while rejecting and fighting the corporate food industry in all its forms.
Agriculture is built on the mechanisms of world war and exploitation. Things like the green revolution in the seventies were never meant to feed the world but to create dependencies and take away the ability of campesinos and rural communities to feed themselves. The chemicals, machines and the idea that super exploited labor is necessary to feed ourselves have been exported around the globe by the United States under the veil of loans and “aid” …
Agroecology is based on supporting the re-emergence and fortification of rural communities that are self sufficient and food sovereign. Governments can work with agroecological movements, there are examples in Latin America, Asia and to a very small degree, even here in the belly of the industrial food beast. We need to grow these people's movements by looking openly and honestly at the big picture of agriculture here and in this global food chain. We can change it!