In spring 2019, Bennington College was awarded $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a three-year collaborative
effort with local partners to address the systemic causes of food insecurity in Bennington County.
“Food insecurity—the inability to access affordable, nutritious food—affects one in eight Americans, or approximately 40 million people,
and is particularly acute in southern Vermont. This collaboration aims to both address the pressing problem of food insecurity in the area
and to develop an interdisciplinary and responsive humanities curriculum with students, faculty, and the community, creating a model from
which other higher education institutions can learn and build.”
To inaugurate the Food Summit, in the spring of 2021, I began Food Forest Futures at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum.
Food Forest Futures draws from Indigenous, permaculture, and bio-intensive design strategies to introduce seven layers of a food forest,
attract beneficial animals, microbes, and insects, and integrate plantings of beneficial, medicinal, edible plants. Rather than having one
plant crop per row, plants are mixed together based on how they can help one another—through nutrients, structure, resistance to
pests. These plant companions spark new understandings of how the cultivation of biodiverse food and habitat for our nonhuman kin
simultaneously generates food and habitat for humans. Food Forest Futures recognizes differing opportunities for cultivating commons,
and invites visitors and participants in the Food Summit to choose the combinations of plants, seeds, and associated reading materials
on offer to continue commoning in backyard, community, or guerrilla manifestations.
Many thanks to Tatiana Abatemarco and Erin McKenny for the invitation and the support for this project. Thank you to Elodie Fourquet and Nate C for the immense help and comradeship. Also thanks to the plants and
critters.
Food Forest Futures takes place on the traditional and unceded territories of the Abenaki.
Margaretha Haughwout, 2022
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