I had the pleasure of meeting David Baldwin who is heading up this farm project a few weeks ago. David brings to the local farm movement a professionalism that is refreshing and has a very inspired and organized approach to the ROCF. That being said, I am going to present an arguement here that the model for the ROCF is not beneficial for the community as it is.

Here is what I have understood about the ROCF (Royal Oak Community Farm).

1. It is on school property

2. Profit’s go mainly to the royal oak school system

3. Executive management fee’s are unknown, not in place, or simply not considered at this stage

4. Food will be sold locally in royal oak

5. So far 1 job has been created – which is 1 more than we had.

6. The long term vision is to use more school land(s) to propogate this model.

7. Fundraising activities are in place but currently no 501c3 is.

It is awesome to see more and more energy and attention being moved to producing food locally and I applaud David for his work here. That being said, I am personally concerned with the model he has in place given that an undisclosed, yet substantial amount of profits are going to public schools…which…already recieve state and federal money from YOU and I…and statistically, they waste it. There is something for me about this that feels like the bank bail outs. If this program was aimed to fund local schools so they could turn down federal dollars and thus directly control their education locally…I would be ALL for it. As it is, I personally rather see Mr. Baldwin profit from this endevour than a school. Let me explain…

1. I can sit down with Mr. Baldwin and have a discussion with him about how he spends his money in the community. You cannot do this with school boards and get anywhere. They are not going to change their educational model…that much has been proven. More useless tests, less time outside, less time to eat, more stress, less to no art, less to no music…UGH! Music, Art, Play – take it all away and you wonder why your kids hate school, dislike learning and are not inspired?….!!!

2. I personally rather see individuals or families profit than ‘institutions’

Here is another idea for school farms:

1. Hire a private company to work with the school to design a farm/education model for the students at that school. Transition existing school landscape expenses in the direction of said farm – thereby saving money via transforming it’s direction.

2. The children learn to grow food, eat healthy, run a business and care for their environment/bodies.

3. The farm is intergrated into the schools educational program. It is a farm for the students, by the students with only support and guidance from the outside.

4. The school stays a place of education and does not become a source of competition for other local business.

Now, clearly I am biased in my opinion here given what I do for a living – and still what I am saying makes sense. Schools are paid for by You and I to provide education for our children and our greater community – which, we know for sure they are failing at – but that is another topic. There is no reason that schools should be in the business of competing against local business – which is EXACTLY what the ROCF model is doing.

My children go to Royal Oak public schools. I would LOVE to see a farm at their school that THEY work on, learn from and help grow. There is no way I would support a farm being built on their schools property that profits the school board while my kids get 20 minutes a day to play outside and 15 minutes to eat lunch…which is what our crap school model has told us is part of their ‘education.’ This may sound harsh and angry and it is.We have gone to the moon but we have not figured out children need to spend 50% of their time playing, running, outside, in the open air? Absurd.

Giving money to the public school system is as bad as giving money to banks -yet without looking any deeper into it it feels nice to think you are supporting a “School” -which – the very word in our mind relates to education, higher learning and a better life – yet, in fact, this is not the case.

Here is another idea for Mr. Baldwin:

1. Assist in connecting for profit local companies with cheap land within the city to farm. Let those businesses profit from school land with the conditions they must provide a comprehensive educational model for that school and those kids as part of getting the free land and water. Mr. Baldwin, as owner of the Royal Oak BUsiness Association would then be not only helping provide local restraunts with cheap local food, but also providing local farm business with cheap land to grow that food. That, to me, is a win win win. As it is now, the school board profits, Mr. Baldwin profits and a few restraunts will possibly benefit from the food – but the farmer moves from being self employed to becoming an employee for a school baord and Mr. Baldwin. Better still, Mr. Baldwin could assist in connection said farmers to said schools as consultant/guidance for developing functional educational farm models for the school.

Quick Recap.

1. School Farms? - AWESOME IDEA – for education and run by the students along with consultant/advisor support – within the community.

2. School Farms that profit the school board, are not integrated into the cirriculum, whose food is not going into the cafeteria and whose presence essentially is but eye candy for children staring out of windows in a dull and boring classroom?…NO THANKS.

It is important that we critique each other in a positive way. I love what David is doing in terms of raising awareness and generating energy around local food. Love it. I love that he is making something happen – love it. I do feel the long term effect of the current model he has is detrimental. I have explained why. I would love to hear your take on this.

Remember, small business is the HEART of the American experiment. Without it, we all end up employees. My grandfather started his company fixing toilets and went on to help build Nuclear Power Plants. He always told me growing up “Michael, it is better to be broke and work for yourself than to work for someone else.” True or not – the spirit of that comment is something I really value and is a way of living I advocate for myself and my children. I feel if the ROCF model succeeds and is expanded it will hurt small farmers – NOT help them. I do not see how this position can be argued otherwise…please enlighten me if I am missing something here.

I leave you with a clip from one of the luminaries of our time talking a little about education.Be warned, there is some heavy langauge in this clip.

Lastly, it is a good thing to have food growing around us – no matter what the details of the matters are – so long as this farm is producing organic food – without the use of GMO or any kind of chem – then it adds to our food security. This article is made to stimulate thought and to encourage investing our time and energy in the ‘best’ direction. I support David’s efforts, will continue to post on his farm and am an advocate for local food. I simply feel the model he has set up could be improved upon a great deal. This is not an attempt to discredit anyone – I have lots of bad ideas as many of you know. I am excited to see how Mr. Baldwins vision develops over time and I hope this sort of input will assist in refining the vision of the new world we are all actively building right now.

Love,

Michael

Posted by admin on February 10th, 2010 at 3:55 pm under Articles.