Discussions of diversity in mainstream agriculture circles/publications/narratives are almost entirely about diversity of crops, produce or ecology. This is deeply ironic & emblematic of a lack of awareness of the homogeneity that they proliferate.

The diversity they seek to attain is anemic, a shrivelled approximation of the diversity that has been paved and ploughed over for generations by Europoean colonialism. Blood and soil, trees and ropes, appropriation and bastardisation.

Meanwhile, back at the seat of colonialism, the jump-off point, we deny the underlying reason for why we are in this mess; white supremacy, exported abroad, literally killing off diversity. & we practice the techniques writ large across the lands we occupy, home and abroad.

And now we think we can fix the issue by bastardising indigenous knowledge, wisdom and techniques, presented to us in books by the same people who will speak at the conferences. Experts for all of a few generations, maybe even just a few years.

These ways, the practices themselves, are hollowed out if we deny their origins. Strutting through YouTube videos explaining how to make £50k a year pretty much sums it up. Hollow capitalism.

And so many of us think we are learning techniques from Curtis Stone, Richard Perkins, Joel Salatin, Chelsea Green roster etc. etc. My bookshelf is full of them & it's on me to at least ackowledge why their voices are amplified, why they are considered the innovators.

There needs to be more open & humble discussion of the white supremacy that haunts these lands, by those people & at those conferences. And there needs to be more listening to those who for the same reason have less chance of being heard, or access to land.

Without actual diversity in agriculture, without the voices of BIPOC people amplified in the mainstream, without acknowledgement of white supremacy- in the books, films, conferences, in the barns & fields- we should not be talking about how agriculture can help the world.

Here are some sources I am learning from. Each of them has lead me to other BIPOC voices. Please let me know of any more.
@agcconnect @SylvanaquaFarms @CheckoutRadio @whetstone_mag & their amazing Point of Origin podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4yvqe6J105w5AmafNeo6iJ?si=PN7h7rY4R_SpFPoTWGbHKg

@Jo_zinaC from #landinournames