About 6 months ago, Vanesa from the Gripia project in Catalunya (Spain) had contacted Crop Mob to say that ‘[t]he farmer’s job is changing and a lot of people want [to] take part of it!’. This school, about 3 hours’ drive from Barcelona, is one of only a handful of similar schools in Spain, and the only one to be so firmly based on combining theory and practice. 25 students graduated in 2009, and this year 23 new students started classes on Monday 8 Feb – able to call on the combined forces of almost 60 teachers and farming professionals in the region. Classes also contain an element of re-education, in an attempt to replace entrenched ‘bad’ practice with new and more sustainable techniques.

The context in Spain generally and Catalunya specifically has to be understood against the twin backdrop of Franco’s dictatorship – which came to an end with Franco’s death in 1975 & the adoption of a democratic constitution in 1978 – and Spain’s incorporation into the European Union (formerly EC) in 1986. In addition, it is worth considering the adoption of the Euro in 2002 and the current financial crisis, which has driven Spain to ~20% unemployment on the back of a real estate bubble and increased immigration.

As explained by Gripia, being part of the EU has led Spanish farmers to subsist through centralised funding, rather than thru production, and has led to stagnation in the agricultural sector. To understand this, note that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has historically represented almost 50% of the EU’s budget. The policy was intended to maintain minimum prices and allow for some Keynesian intervention in what was effectively a forced market; however, by rewarding larger producers – effectively ignoring economies of scale – the policy has come under increasing fire both from free market and alternative economy perspectives. It was against this backdrop that Vanessa & I were invited to speak about Crop Mob to the incoming class on their first day.

Our preparation had consisted in reading the detailed notes that Trace and Rob had sent us, as well as the anthropology article by Alice Brooke Wilson. However, rather like this article, we found it necessary to give a little context up-front. Given that the class was made up for the most part of Catalan agricultural professionals, many of whom had not spent time in the US, there were two key elements we wanted to touch on – the overall food market in the United States, and the shifting contexts over the past few years. The former was characterised as a spectrum from locally produced food primarily obtained via farmer’s markets, CSAs and co-ops, to the hulking Wal-Mart and endless aisles of plenty … with a shadow organic economy sitting over the top which could be considered as occasionally a marginal improvement but more often part of the problem. The latter was characterised in terms of the more recent ‘revolution’ in food origins and small farming, the authenticity or viability of such can be discussed ad nauseum. We followed the opening comments with some statistics and commentary regarding the North Carolina specific context and the growth of small farms – particularly with reference to other states and communities where similar demographics may be more challenging.

We then took the opportunity to explain Crop Mob in more detail, starting from initial origins to the current working model;  here we were, as commented, very much dependent on the excellent notes that Trace and Rob had provided us, particularly with reference to some of the pitfalls, some of the learnings, and other areas which we have neither the experience nor the authority to comment upon. We translated directly from English to Spanish, so we do not as yet have updated Spanish language versions of the handouts.

After having laid out the details and functional logistics, we closed the presentation with commentary which was intended to close the circle a little on the initial contextual remarks. Three key points were teased out – the importance of ‘community’ as a driving force for Crop Mob, which could be contrasted by our audience with their own understanding as such; the political existence of Crop Mob as aligned to and derived from various ideologies including Critical Mass, Food not Bombs, etc – however not an explicitly political or ideological group; and the importance of alternative food economies in which the notions of cyclical produce and human involvement are brought to the fore.

Questions and comments were multiple, and revolved around a number of recurrent themes.

Seems at odds with the usual portrait or image of the US

• Since neither of us presenting are from the US, we were able to take this one without any level of defensiveness. Yes – there is a level to which Crop Mob is at odds with the standardised image of the uS beyond your borders. At the same time, it is our shared belief that this type of activity is not atypical. A long heritage of praxis-driven silent revolt is not incompatible with most of the external US myths and arguably embodies quite specific elements of the hegemonic weltanschauung.

How to change from being ‘just a day in the country’ to something more [political, politically aligned]

• This drove a lot of debate and in the case of the presenters, also provided a significant learning. From the perspective of politicised Catalans, whose perspective on the US is not likely to be kind, a politically mute movement bringing largely socially similar people together in an occasional and idealistically driven workforce … is just that: a day in the country. The question hinged closely on another that was brought up – ‘is this something that you can talk about with others’, or, is this a socially acceptable activity. We had several chances to answer this question, from numerous angles. In essence we concluded that the lack of an explicitly ideologistic aim (no unifying banner or flag – or even flag color!; no insistence on allegiance with any formalised group or party) is a powerful selective force for the Crop Mob meme. We underlined several times that the activity, while not bucolic / utopic / politicised, is expressly ideological in nature; that underneath each and every barrow pushed or bed built lie collective forms of radical subjectivity; and that this invisible politics (c.f the Invisible Committee) is key to Crop Mob.

What is the model for growth (ie how to make sure that the movement doesn’t stop in NC?) – How can you stop people from becoming disinterested and ‘drifting away’

• We referenced the additional Mobs in Maryland / Colorado / etc; however, we also noted that there are a number of factors to bear in mind. Trace’s most recent post at Cricket Bread highlights a good example of this:

It is hard to evaluate how many people have chosen not to come back to Crop Mob.  There is no way to really measure their reaction since we are not setup to do exit interviews with every participant.  Reasons for not coming back are probably extremely variable – not feeling welcomed, the work was too hard or too easy, the weather was horrible, expectations were not met.

• Does it matter if people don’t come back? The question becomes critical through the life of the group. As activity begins, matures, and changes, peoples’ attitudes and experiences will also undergo change. As Crop Mob changes from an innovative activity to one that has fostered community and interdependencies between people and activity, it will acquire a different experience-value (use-value?). For the time being, Crop Mob works; and, critically, the notion of praxis as spontaneous action was well received and discussed by the extended group

This is nothing new … movements for agrarian reform of this type have a long local and global history

• Between 1936 and 1939, Anarchist Catalunya chose ‘a lesser evil: participation in government rather than dictatorship’ (Goldman), and associated collectivisation of land as well as other activity was a key element in the struggle against Franco. There were those in the audience who equated this with Crop Mob; little discussion was had over other, related elements altho the Argentinian factory recoveries were mentioned.

Key here was as has been stated – that Crop Mob does not, itself, assume an innovatory stance, but instead, an innovatory application. Furthermore, the existence of an increasing number of links to Transition Towns in the UK, Slow Food in Italy, UPP in France and MST in Brazil suggest a burgeoning movement that must be accorded increasing respect.