Ep 77 Tammi Jonas - hands-in-the dirt activist encouraging a de-growth model of farming

2021-10-17

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Sharing her evolution from academic keyboard warrior to her current reality of being an agroecological pork and beef farmer who's pretty darned handy with the butchers knife and equally as sharp of mind in her contributions to the UN small scale farming policy initiatives.Tammi Jonas is indeed a force of the natural world, never backwards in coming forwards but mellowing with every decade and sharing her successes and failures for the sake of thousands who are following in her footsteps towards a life of farming...

Sharing her evolution from academic keyboard warrior to her current reality of being an agroecological pork and beef farmer who's pretty darned handy with the butchers knife and equally as sharp of mind in her contributions to the UN small scale farming policy initiatives.

Tammi Jonas is indeed a force of the natural world, never backwards in coming forwards but mellowing with every decade and sharing her successes and failures for the sake of thousands who are following in her footsteps towards a life of farming democracy.

Episode Summary

We dive right into how she fits it all in
Leadership - her style of leading from the front with doggedness and squared soldiers
Research and UN food systems mobilisation
Credibility that comes out of the dirt
Her commitment to food sovereignty across aaaalllllll the tiers of the movement
The brain breaking need to relate local practices to global policy
Linking good global initiatives to local practices
Applying food sovereignty thinking to general consumption issues
Taking power back one skill at a time
We can’t buy ourselves out of this mess - we literally need to joyfully work competently through the upskilling and sharing of
The illusion of choice when you see thousands of items for sale in a supermarket is not a place to genuinely begin
Why she considers herself an “agroecological” farmer (political, social, Agroecological theory of change is considered a science, social movement and practical - dedicated to circular bio economies rather than a purchasing of inputs. Agroecology rejects capitalism but values labour over yield.
‘Benefaction’ - enabling the farm to do their tasks joyfully
The rich reality of running internship programs - who are welcomed with the knowledge that they are becoming food sovereignty warriors
AFSA - first-peoples-first initiative
Solidarity - garnering unexplained wholeness but remembering we are all here for each other
Why there's value in building a new system rather than creating one from the ashes of the old one.
Why the rise and fall of farms and community orgs is part and parcel of the movement and should be encouraged
Being comfortable to share the successes AND the failures as a gift for the greater good
Building a de-growth mentality to avoid the ruthless capitalist system
Creating small scale farming businesses that are FUN rather than slaves to growth
Keeping her eye on the end game dilutes her need to be binary and rage filled
Why the States are not actually similar to the Australian culture - they are wedded to a growth mentality that we don't have so we have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
Why it’s ok to scale back from the initial vision
Framing ‘enough’ as being disentangled from the capitalist system - seeing the sky, feeding her community and others and being ok to go slow when needed.