Groundwork’s Philosophy

One of our mentors, Bill McDorman (interviewed in this month’s recommended podcast), always tells people that to really be in touch with life, you need to grow at last one food plant every year and save its seeds. When you begin to listen to another form of life, meet its needs, and tend to its seeds from generation to generation, you will begin to understand everything that the flourishing of human life requires on such a fragile world. And so, as summer begins here in North […]

Continue reading >>

Dear friends, After serving as Groundwork’s executive director since 2018, I’m stepping out of that role in order to create space in my life for other pursuits. I am looking forward to having time for some small sabbaticals, retreats at Buddhist monasteries, and time to devote to writing, media production, curriculum design, and weaving. You’ll continue to see my name on Groundwork’s emails—I’m moving into a part-time role with Groundwork as Communications & Publications Manager. Seeing Groundwork through the first seven years of growth and experimentation has been a dream […]

Continue reading >>

I want to write a few words about mental health in local food systems. Casey’s suicide has been overwhelming, partially because of the loss of such a visionary person and partially because in our agricultural community, there are most certainly people who have walked close to that edge and felt alone and unsupported during at their lowest moments. Small-scale organic farmers are being squeezed—crushed rather—between the economic pressures of a hyper-industrialized food system and the risky challenges of growing food for uncertain local markets in […]

Continue reading >>

There is a central question we wrestle with at Groundwork: with our world in trouble, where does real change come from? A trend in environmental thought blames the big things for our problems: corporations and governments. It’s easy to point to faceless entities liquidating the living world for profit. But if that’s the only answer, where then does hope come from for ordinary people? If we point out the window towards the CEOs and the politicians, a part of what we are pointing at is the reflection of ourselves […]

Continue reading >>

Listen to a conversation between Groundwork’s director Jeff Wagner and Kelly Moody, an incredible botanist, teacher about people’s relationship with land, and instructor for Groundwork’s field programs. Kelly interviewed Jeff for her Ground Shots Podcast. The conversation focuses on the Colorado River, industrial food production, and how the Colorado River is a microcosm of the U.S. relationship with the natural world. Listen Now

Continue reading >>

Shannon first introduced me to the adage that “a river flows between banks” many years ago. She was describing the need for a clear container in transformational education experiences. But the adage extends beyond the watershed of education and into other streams of creativity, community, and culture. The constant current of a river requires clear banks. Many systems and processes likewise benefit from such boundaries. Creative writing requires a form and an intention. Music generally finds its aesthetic in the structures of rhythm and scales. […]

Continue reading >>

The Bolivian community of Tiquipaya where I live and work made international headlines this month for the first time in over a decade. After three years of drought, the rains came all at once this month, consolidating an entire rainy season worth of precipitation into one week. It wouldn’t have made such big news, except for the forest. The Cordillera de Tunari forms a 16,000-foot tall mountain wall that defines the valley we live in, and its lower elevations used to be draped in trees. […]

Continue reading >>