4: Farm Living

Alana talks with farmer and community organizer Ariel Berman about his farm education and the Access to Agriculture project.

Ariel cultivates a vegetable farm in Concord, Massachusetts with fellow-farmer Laura Sackton.  He also works to remove physical and architectural barriers that hinder people from picking or growing their own wholesome food.

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Episode 4: Farm Living

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View imagesimage #2 image #3 image #4 image #5 image #6 image #7 image #8 image #9 image #10 of First Root Farm

About Our Guest

Ariel Berman is a soil-loving, community-organizing, aspiring access nerd. His farm project, Access to Agriculture, aims to bring together farmers, environmental architects, independent living centers, and an awesome crew of volunteers to brainstorm, trial and build universal access on/to agricultural soils.

He is co-manager of First Root Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, nanny and sitter to a number of stellar kids, a part-time student, a researcher of sex offense at Brandeis University, and he sits on the steering committee of the Transgender Emergency Fund. His past jobs have included running a hotline and safe home for Queer and Transgender survivors of partner abuse, corralling teenagers, comic book store clerk and stall mucker.

Resources

First Root Farm is a small vegetable farm located on an acre of land in Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. It is cultivated and managed by Ariel Berman and Laura Olive Sackton.

Agribility is a USDA-sponsored program that assists farmers, ranchers, other agricultural workers, and family members impacted by disability.  

The Farm School, located on a family farm in Athol, Massachusetts, provides educational programs for young people and teachers. It is also home to the Practical Farm Training Program, a year-long program in which beginning farmers learn hands-on skills within the context of a working farm.

The Farm-Based Education Association provides resources for experiential education that connects people to the environment, their community, and the local food systems that sustain them.

Good Food. A collection of short films on food and sustainability that you can watch online, from Media that Matters.

Food, Inc.  A documentary film examining the American agricultural-industrial complex.

Books & Articles

Berry, Wendell. 1996. The unsettling of America: culture & agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Clare, Eli. 1999. Exile and pride: disability, queerness, and liberation. Cambridge, MA: SouthEnd Press.

Shiva, Vandana. 2007. Manifestos on the future of food & seed. Cambridge, Mass: South End Press.