AMYROSE FOLL on Free Food for Liberation /238
Photo of rose and gold kernel corn lined up in curving rows over an earthy background; photo by Achisatha.
This year approximately 42 million people will experience food insecurity in the United States, a perverse number when put in context to the surplus of food many of us have access to. In this week’s episode, we look at the work of Virginia Free Farm with guest Amyrose Foll. By providing free produce, plants, seeds, chicken, and ducks Virginia Free Farm is addressing the quality of food offered to their community, while also working to strengthen their local foodshed by getting more folks involved in gardening and small-scale farming. Amyrose continues to create a powerful example of how we can make meaningful interventions within the existing food system while also working on building an alternative model where everyone’s health and wellbeing is prioritized.
In addition to providing free food, Virginia Free Farms emphasizes the importance of disseminating and democratizing education around agriculture, especially as it has become a commodified field. In conversation, Amyrose shares a bit about the practicality of starting your own small scale farm, the importance of co-created and open source agricultural education, responsible land stewardship, and seed rematriation.
“You control the food, you control the people.”
Amyrose Foll standing outdoors at a table of harvested foods from the garden; photo by Storybook Imaging Chesterfield, VA.
Amyrose is an enrolled tribal member of the Abenaki, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and alumni of both Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Science, and S.C. Johnson Graduate School Of Management. She is cultivating the next generation of land and water protectors through sharing knowledge in Indigenous lifeways and ethnobotany. A passion for agriculture and deep concerns about community food security led her to become a stakeholder in the Virginia Dept. of Agriculture Equitable Food Oriented Distribution Taskforce, and founder of Virginia Free Farms, and 2020 Women's Earth Alliance Cohort.
Through Virginia Free Farm, Amyrose provides free nutrient-dense food assistance to those with need, free-of-charge plants and seeds to community gardens, schools, and community-based organizations, and educates young people in the Richmond metro area about Indigenous agriculture and lifeways. By growing her solutions, and impact in food sovereignty, security, and preservation of Indigenous food culture through seed saving and distribution, Amyrose is seeking to dismantle and transform the regional foodshed and create a community driven system based on Indigenous values of collectivism and respect for nature.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “L’Etang la Ville” and “The Wild & Untamed” by Ian George and “In the Shadows” by Edie.
EPISODE REFERENCES
Farmer’s Footprint / Amber Tamm
READING RECOMMENDATIONS
Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith H. Basso
Who Really Feeds the World? by Vandana Shiva
For The Wild Podcast is an anthology of the Anthropocene; focused on land-based protection, co-liberation and intersectional storytelling rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth and consumerism.