Volume 3 • No. 15 • New Moon • August 4, 2024

*Garden and Cat*, 24" x 28", oil on canvas
*Spring or Fall*, 57.5" x 46", oil on canvas
*Walnut*, 6" x 7", gouache on cardboard

Gabrielle Schaub • 2022-2023

an excerpt from

What Are We Moving Towards?

The Spectacle of the Self-Driving Car

The steering wheel spun. The blinker blinked. The vehicle turned a corner, but the driver’s seat sat empty. Someone had sent over a quick video taken from the backseat of a driverless car ride in San Francisco. What I could see looked comfortable. The rides are very safe, statistically. In the background, a buddy narrated, along with a laugh — “The AI future is here.”

It caught my attention. Does the self-driving car have a meaningful role in shaping the future?

The answer rests within a web of more fundamental questions:

How might cars, as they exist currently, be improved? How about transportation in general?

Modern transportation systems of the four-wheeled variety entail warfare, death, environmental degradation and contamination, and dislocation. There’s tremendous room for improvement — for drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and any being that finds itself on a street or is impacted by that which is. Cars (and the infrastructure that facilitates their traffic) have done more than anything else to fragment ecosystems, disrupt communities, usher out civic design revolving around living beings, and necessitate the sourcing, burning, processing, and waste storage of fossil fuels, metals, minerals, and more.

Does the self-driving car address these predicaments?…

Click here to read the rest of “What Are We Moving Towards?” (5 Minute Read, 1,239 Words)

Click here to listen to the audio version

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || The Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference is coming up awfully fast. By the time the next Whole Field hits your inbox, it’ll have concluded. If you haven’t yet had the chance to look through the workshops, roundtables, and tours, it’s worth a peek. Just glancing through, here’s a handful of connections from upcoming NMSFC offerings to whet your appetite:

Building Air Prune Boxes to Grow Tree Seedlings, with Madeline Baroli, Scott Kallek, and Robert Kraemer—I’ve been interested in these boxes ever since catching sight of themin Sean Dembrosky/Edible Acre’s work. The principles behind the design, simple, low-cost, effective, and DIY, also bring to mind Sean’s fellow New Yorker buddy Erik Zachko-Schellenberg’s (Black Creek Farm & Nursery) “mulchatron” experiment for improving slash-mulch planting.

Organic Farmer Roundtable with Sam Wallace—This makes me think of a recent emailfrom Real Organic that mirrors some questions that have bounced around in my mind. If the terms “organic” or “regenerative” are growing muddled for marketing, what positive effect can an add-on certification hold? Does requiring a preemptive USDA organic certification make sense? Or does its cost and procedure hinder keeping meaningful farming practices recognized as such?

Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing with Paul May—Here’s a concise, down-to-earth, and helpful observation on the philosophy and questions behind adaptive grazing, coming from Ann Arbor and Whitney Farmstead’s Malaika Whitney (who also was behind this Whole Field’s lovely artwork back in early 2023.)

Small-Scale Seed & Nut Oil Production with Bevin Cohen—By all means, check out the workshop and take in whatever you can about the subject of Bevin’s book on seed and nut oils. If there’s time, it might also make sense to ask about his work facilitating Michigan’s largest seed swap, which our family, the Bellaire library, and plenty of seed-sharing folks in this region can attest to appreciating.

I only include these knowing full well that I’m doing a disservice to many amazing presenters and subjects. There isn’t enough room in here to cover what deserves to be covered. Click here to pick up tickets to catch any of these, and all I missed. Also, order your meals by tomorrow (August 5th)!

|| 2 || “There were people who lived in this very place just a few generations ago whose ecological footprint was almost immeasurably small compared to ours today, and yet it seems that we would rather cover the world in solar panels than imagine there is anything worth remembering about how they knew how to live.”

That’s a quote shared by a “white-haired, retired historian of the built landscape,” who spoke the words while walking Sand River Community Farm. Adam, to whom the words were spoken and who has shared them in kind several times, recounted them in Making Amigos Along the Road, Headed Home. Like most Peasantry School writings, it covers great ground and offers further fodder on the “entangling visions” referenced in this newsletter’s essay What Are We Moving Towards.

One of the entangling topics Making Amigos touches on is how we choose to deal with (or not deal with) waste, as well as that which might be helpful but also might be considered trash. Adam’s thoughts reminded me of Kevin Finney’s black-ash basket-driven talk We’ve Already Been Through The Apocalypse.

And just for fun, here’s an interesting paradox to cap this off: Buy It For Life vs Biodegradable/Natural Material Tools (like Kevin’s black ash corn-washing basket.) In a sense, the strength of the former is all about never breaking down, while the latter is about quickly and naturally breaking down. They’re on opposite ends of a spectrum, yet fit neatly beside each other as valuable strategies that can shape consumption and waste patterns.

The Weft — News and Events

We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!

|| 1 || The Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference, now in its 25th year, is almost here. Check it out in Benzie County August 11th-12th. The schedule is now live on the website—find those details, and more, and get your tickets here.

|| 2 ||Transformational: Stories of Northern Michigan Arts & Culture. August 7th, 7pm at The Alluvion. Come discover a new anthology of poetry, essays, & creative nonfiction that celebrate the transformational impact of the arts and our northern spaces. Featuring readings by 12 of the anthology’s 36 writers, along with music, signings, refreshments, and camaraderie. Books available for purchase. Free, open to the public, no reservations necessary. Find more information here.

|| 3 || Intercontinental Biennial of the Indigenous Art. The grand opening of the show from The Indigenous School for the Arts is on August 9th at 7pm at Presbyterian Church of Traverse City, and pieces will be on display through the 18th. Find more information at the BIAI website or the event page on Facebook, or sign up for the August 10th children’s art workshop here.

|| 4 || “Nominations are now open for farmers and ranchers to serve on local U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Committees. These committees make important decisions about how federal farm programs are administered locally. Serving on a Farm Service Agency county committee is your chance to ensure that other producers who share your interests, your production practices, and your perspective are represented.” Find more information on eligibility and the process here.

|| 5 ||FACT Grants for Farmers—A bundle of resources, including grants, conference scholarships, and opportunities for networking and mentorships, all geared towards pasture-based livestock and poultry farming is available at the Food Animal Concerns Trust website.

|| 6 || The Water is Life Festival will be held on Saturday, August 31st, from 12-9pm. Find out more and register for the family friendly, free celebration of water and connection on the Petoskey waterfront here.

|| 7 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Funky Uncle, Mindful + Musical with Miriam Pico: Intergenerational Class, Transformational: Readings & Book Launch, Adrianne Evans with Andy Evans, Jon “Lindy” Lindenau, and Steve Stargardt, Big Fun, Book Launch of Bob Otwell’s The Real Two Hearted, Tilt Think Comedy’s After Dark Comedy, wtrbd & DJ Ras Marco with visuals from Super Nuclear, Slow Spell, and Miglodesh.

Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.