NM CareerMatch is available for job-seeking graduates of the University of New Mexico (UNM), UNM-Valencia, Central Community College of New Mexico (CNM), Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) and New Mexico Tech who register on the nmcareermatch.com web site. More schools will be added in the future. After their graduate status is verified, graduates may search posted job positions, upload their resumés, use a cover letter builder and check tips for job hunting and resumé writing.

NM CareerMatch’s ultimate goal is to stimulate business and employment growth throughout NM by helping to link employers with skilled graduates. The service is working to encourage NM university and college graduates now living out-of-state to return home for good job opportunities, particularly with the state’s growing number of green companies. The service also provides an efficient way for employers of all sizes to search for qualified NM graduates who currently live either out-state or in-state, and an easy, no-cost way to post job openings to a pool of qualified potential applicants.

More than 1,250 employers in NM, including Affordable Solar Group, CleanAIR Systems and Green Ideas LLC, are currently enrolled to post job openings on the site. NM employers who would like to participate may go online at nmcareermatch.com to register.

Funding of $400,000 for NM CareerMatch is being provided from a $5 million grant from WIRED, which is administered by the NM Department of Workforce Solutions. The WIRED grant serves the counties of Bernalillo, Los Alamos, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance and Valencia. Additional funding for the service is being provided from a $50,000 donation from French Funeral and Cremation Services in recognition of the company’s 100-year anniversary.

To learn more about NM CareerMatch, graduates and employers should check nmcareermatch.com or email info@nmcareermatch.com.

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The Indispensable Community Land Trust

“Whereof what’s past is prologue, what to come in yours and my discharge,” the celebrated words of William Shakespeare summarize all too precisely our present predicament. We are circumstantial inheritors of land tenure patterns spanning centuries that typify gross disparities in land distribution and the accompanying maldistribution of social and economic benefits, along with a limitless expansion of destructive “externalities” (a term used by economists to describe the largely unaccounted-for fallout of economic progress) such as ecological collapse, resource depletion, and massive social dysfunction. That the majority of people lack access to affordable housing is just one example of lost benefits. Thus, the return of those benefits accruing back to the people can only be accomplished through land reform.

The Community Land Trust (CLT) is a type of land reform that doesn’t simply redistribute land but radically alters underlying land tenure arrangements. It provides enduring relief from the unrelenting rise in land values and reverses destructive land tenure patterns that have led to our predicament. It is a form of common land ownership and common stewardship for the common good, as opposed to private land ownership for personal gain, and is based on very old land use patterns that existed for millennia. The CLT model is not simply a philosophical idea for the eventual attainment of affordable housing in decades to come but provides a proven, practical means by which affordable housing is attainable now.

The way this is accomplished, quite simply, is by eliminating the cost of land from the cost of housing. There are only two major costs to housing, a) land, and b) the house itself (including infrastructure, if there is any, to be explained in Part 5). Land is typically a major expense, if not the major expense in housing and that is why “affordable housing” is typically concentrated in areas where land prices are lowest, such as the south side of Santa Fe, while the amount of land provided to homeowners shrinks to a pinhead. The ever decreasing availability of “affordable” land, and congestion, trying to fit more and more on less land, are a growing problem for affordable housing initiatives. Houdini-like attempts to escape these realities are chimerical.

A CLT eliminates the cost of the land to the homeowner because the land is held and owned in common by the community, in perpetuity. The homeowner does not purchase the land on which the home sits. No one person owns, controls, or can sell any part of it. The land in a CLT is held in trust by a democratically-governed, not-for-profit organization (federal tax-exempt status not necessarily recommended) with membership open to any resident in the region. The trust removes land permanently from the speculative market and facilitates multiple uses of the land through the drafting of a sustainable land-use plan with affordable housing being a primary component. Other uses for the land can include: farmland preservation; appropriate small-scale industry, CSA’s, co-ops, and guilds; community gardens; community facilities such as arts & crafts workshops, libraries, dining halls, and schools; outdoor recreation areas for parks, playgrounds, and walking trails; and land conservation. The CLT leases land for affordable housing (or other agreed upon purposes) to individuals or groups (e.g. co-op), with an inheritable and renewable long term lease, typically for 99 years. The lessee pays a nominal, yearly, ground lease fee for use of the land.

The reason that homes remain affordable for future generations is twofold, a) homeowners are simply leasing land from the CLT at a trifling expense as opposed to purchasing it, and b) the homeowner owns the improvements to the land, namely the home only, not the land itself. Homeowners build equity in the home, but do not build equity from the land. The home can be sold at a profit but there are re-sale restrictions that the CLT imposes to ensure that future homebuyers can afford the home.

Individual home equity profit is balanced by community needs and each CLT decides what is fair and equitable in their re-sale formula. Homeownership in a CLT provides an opportunity to not only obtain an affordable home but provides an opportunity to build equity, unlike renting which does neither but assure the impoverishment of individuals and communities.

The land for a CLT is obtained in any number of ways: through a private gift of land; through a public gift of land (city, county or state); through a private monetary donation or a public donation (city, county or state grant); or through direct purchase. If the land is donated or the money is supplied through a donation or grant, there is nothing to pay off or pay back. If the land is purchased, the original purchasers can choose to recapture their investment through the ground leases over time. Once the land is free and clear of any financial encumbrances, the cost of housing to all future generations is reduced dramatically, whatever type of housing there is, because a CLT member only pays for the home and not the land.

Hopefully, as people become accustomed to the myriad social, economic, and ecological benefits of community land trusts, people will consider it natural, sustainable, and sane to gift land to CLT’s for the long-term, well-being of their communities.

Land for a Community Land Trust need not be rural and there are many examples of successful urban CLT’s around the country, with or without homes already standing. Urban CLT’s, like rural CLT’s, were originally designed to provide affordable housing to disenfranchised, low-income communities plagued by absentee landlords, concentration of ownership, land speculation, displacement, and gentrification. In the city, gentrification leaves people homeless, but in rural areas, the influx of recreation enthusiasts and the wealthy seeking vacation or second homes has the same effect.

One of the most successful urban CLT’s is located in Albuquerque, NM. The Sawmill Community Land Trust is located in a traditional neighborhood near the downtown business district and historic old town. This low-income neighborhood was threatened with displacement due to rising land values and gentrification so they banded together to save their homes and way of life. Since 1997, Sawmill has reclaimed 27 acres from the city of Albuquerque. They now have 23 affordable homes, a park, plaza, community center, offices, retail space, manufacturing, senior apartments, and live/work spaces for home businesses.

A Community Land Trust is exceptionally versatile and adaptable and there is no one way to do things. Besides being urban or rural, a CLT can be very small or very large. The Jacona Farmland Trust in Jacona, NM is just 3.8 acres. It has five homes and a two-acre farm. One of the largest CLT’s is in Vermont, the Champlain Housing Trust, with over 2,000 households stretched across three counties. Rhode Island, Delaware, and Montana boast emerging statewide CLT’s. There is however great merit in “small is beautiful,” as coined and discussed in E.F. Schumacher’s classic book on community economics, and so a CLT should consider the implications of size on participatory democracy, social well-being, ecological impact, and other quality-of-life factors. A convincing argument can be made for a natural limit to the size of communities as demonstrated in traditional villages and among indigenous peoples.

Another example of the natural elasticity of a CLT is that it can be located on contiguous or non-contiguous land. It needn’t be altogether in one place. Many CLT’s are in the business of acquiring more land for affordable housing, either urban or rural, and often the land acquisitions are non-contiguous. In a city, with land ownership so checkerboard, this approach can prove very practical in creating affordable homeownership opportunities, eliminating affordable housing concentration in any specific area. Furthermore, CLT’s can form alliances and confederations for greater economic and social benefits.

Origins

The roots of the community land trust are very ancient. The underlying principle, which has been accepted by most people throughout time, is that land and natural resources are by nature bequeathed to all of us communally as our inheritance, one generation to the next, and it is our obligation to use these resources equitably and wisely. The land and resources are not ours to own. The land owns us (we come from, are nourished by, and return to earth) and we are merely stewards for the moment. In the timeline of human habitation on Earth, the idea of private land ownership is very recent. Our indigenous ancestors could never for a moment dream of owning land, something given by the spirit world that no human created. It was as inconceivable as owning air, rivers, or mountains. The only conceivable corollary to contemporary notions of private property were personal items, like clothes or tools, which were made from the land by the people who used them and were often buried with them.

The social philosopher Ralph Borsodi is the first individual to be associated with the CLT movement. He was concerned about the problems of urban society as early as the 1920’s and assisted in the development of several communities based on Georgist principles. Interestingly enough, he was corresponding with Peter Van Dresser, who in 1949 was building solar and wind-powered homes in northern NM for similarly decentralized, self-sufficient communities. Borsodi noted that governments were reluctant to institute a land-vale-tax as proposed by Henry George, so he discovered a way to translate George’s ideas into the field of applied economics. He resurrected the ancient idea of land stewardship and trusteeship in Seventeen Problems of Man and Society, published in 1968; that land does not come into existence as a result of human labor and thus cannot be morally owned but can only be held in trust. And that with land being a limited commodity with increasing demands put upon it, it must be regulated for the long-range welfare of all people.

Consequently, the CLT idea is as much about common ownership as about ownership for the common good, a point that can be easily missed, and in the final analysis is the more significant piece of the equation. This is the ancient and indigenous way of understanding our correct relationship to land, natural resources, and one another. “All our relations” is a clear and simple expression of that understanding. A corporation (an elite form of common ownership) can own land as well but its aims and interests are only for profit and gain, because it is situated within the old land tenure structure that allows and perpetuates parasitism. Within the CLT structure, land cannot be bought and sold, and that imposes in some real, material, economic sense, a new relationship to land and a new relationship to one another. That, in itself, is a rather significant byproduct for human evolution and has important implications to be discussed in the summary.

The official founding of the CLT movement began in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, and is largely attributed to Robert Swann who took his inspiration from Borsodi, but was influenced as well by the events of WWII, Gandhi, Henry George and other great minds. There were many other brilliant social thinkers/collaborators as well that joined in the momentum, such as Chuck Matthei and Charles Geisler. Mildred Loomis and Susan Witt (executive director of the EF Schumacher Society since 1980), the respective partners of Borsodi and Swan, deserve belated recognition. The International Independence Institute, which later morphed into the Institute for Community Economics, was an unparalleled think tank for the development of the CLT idea. The groundbreaking publication on CLT’s, authored by Swann and others, came out in 1972 and was titled, The Community Land Trust, A Guide to a New Model for Land Tenure in America.

Borsodi worked with Vinoba Bhave, a disciple of Gandhi in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Vinoba and others walked from village to village requesting land from those who had more than they needed to give to their poorer brethren but what he discovered was that without tools and resources the land was soon sold back to landowners and abandoned for jobs in the cities. Vinoba recognized that his approach was failing because the land was given to individuals rather than villages. A village gift system or what was known as the Gramdan movement subsequently evolved and all donated land was held by villagers in common and leased to those capable of working it. The Gramdan movement was the prototype upon which Swann developed the modern CLT model. He and others also studied Native American land tenure arrangements, biblical writings, the Jewish National Fund, which acquired lands in Israel for kibbutzim, the Mexican ejido system, the history of “the commons,” historical religious and intentional communities, and communal land tenure arrangements around the world.

The ancient pronouncements give clear instruction about what is acceptable and what is not. The Book of Leviticus, being just one example, is filled with admonitions about the individual’s right being limited by the interests of the community and future generations. The land belongs to God and is a gift with conditions attached. People must care for the land and not waste it or trade it away for profit, and every 50 years all land must be returned to its original owner at the time of the Jubilee so that a race of slaves and paupers does not arise. “The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” (Lev 25:23)

St. Chrysostom wrote: “God gave the same earth to be cultivated by all. Since therefore his bounty is common, how comes it that you have so many fields and your neighbor not even a clod of earth?” And another early Christian father wrote: “The soil was given to the rich and poor in common. The pagans hold earth as property. They do blaspheme God.”

Pagan, heathen, savage, Indian, wilderness dweller…how the words have switched identities over the centuries. History, that well-preserved cache of gold nuggets that were probably never intended for generations hence, are so very instructive.

Robert Swann worked with Slater King, a cousin of Martin Luther King, to develop the first recognized CLT, New Communities, Inc., incorporated in 1968 in Leesburg, Georgia. New Communities Inc. was founded by people who were concerned with the land issue as it affected the security and opportunities of rural blacks throughout the south during the civil rights era. Swann and others traveled to Israel to study the Jewish National Fund, which was founded in 1901 to acquire land for Jewish settlement. They applied what they learned about leaseholding, legalities, and infrastructure to the new CLT and purchased 5,735 acres, primarily for agricultural purposes and affordable homeownership in order to obtain financial independence and self-sufficiency. They were very successful, and more CLT’s followed, in Appalachia, Maine, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Vermont, California and New Hampshire. The community land trust movement was born.

The National Community Land Trust Network is holding their annual conference in Albuquerque, the week of November 8th, 2010. Anyone interested in CLT’s or wanting to form one should attend.

If anyone has land to donate for an emerging rural, self-sufficient, sustainable CLT, please contact Rebekah (contact info below).

To be continued next month, Part 4 will investigate modern community land trusts and the future of the CLT movement. This article is also available online at The Santa Fe New Mexican website http://www.santafegreenline.com/

Rebekah Zablud Azen is a long-time student of traditional indigenous lifeways, non-revisionist history, economics, and land tenure issues – passports to understanding humanity’s present predicament and enabling us to identify practical solutions for survival and restored balance in a new era. Rebekah can be reached at 505-424-9475 or rebekah@cybermesa.com.

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The three dialogues will include jurisdictions, agencies and community organizations, which have been invited to design and create a partnership model. Participants will include leadership from the City, County, State and Santa Fe Public Schools, as well as business and faith-based communities, youth groups, foundations and service organizations.

What: La Resolana is a Northern New Mexico tradition for community problem solving. It literally translates as a southern wall – “the place where the sun shines.” It is a safe place of warmth and light where the resolaneros – the local citizens – gather to discuss and reflect on community issues, share ideas, gain knowledge and wisdom, and collaboratively make decisions about their future.

Why: Budget shortfalls are forcing service cuts even as our most vulnerable families are already struggling. Only by partnering to leverage resources can we offset these cuts and actually lower costs, while increasing the effectiveness of services and processes to improve children’s life chances.

How: By using a “Whole Child” model and the principles of Positive Youth Development to create a regional context and entity dedicated to improving the wellbeing of children and young people. This entity would bridge silos, enlist partners and increase community capacity to make delivery of services more affordable for jurisdictions and more accessible to children and families.

When:

The near future. Contact Shelly Cohen (contact info below) for details.

Where: To be announced

Sponsored by: the Santa Fe Partnership for Communities and Schools, the NM Forum for Youth in Community, The Center for RelationaLearning, Jovenes y Padres Unidos and Somos Un Pueblo Unido.

For more information, call Shelley Cohen, Executive Director, Santa Fe Partnership for Communities and Schools: 505.955.1812, or e-mail: community.learning09@gmail.com.

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2nd Annual ¡Sostenga! Garlic Harvest Festival

Camilla Bustamante

The Second Annual Garlic Harvest Festival will be held on Saturday, July 3rd at the Sostenga Farm on Rail Road Avenue at Northern New Mexico College in Espanola. The annual harvest usually falls on the 4th of July but this year the holiday fell on a Sunday, which presented a double conflict for many community members. “Most years it will not coincide with the Santa Fe Farmers Market, but since it does, this year we invite all the farmers to get an early morning breakfast burrito on their way to Santa Fe,” said Jan Matteson, farmer and manager of the Sostenga Commercial Kitchen. Breakfast burritos will be served for 5 dollars or 5 gallons of garlic.

The¡Sostenga! Garlic Harvest Festival provides a holiday weekend place for community members and visitors to celebrate, participate in fun activities, eat and raise money for the Sostenga Center, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Familias Unidas del Norte, and other related initiatives. This year’s guest of honor will be Dr. Nancy (Rusty) Barceló, the new president of Northern New Mexico College.

Schedule of Events:

6 am – Sunrise Harvest – Breakfast Served till 10:00 am

9 am – Music and Dances

Aztec Dancers, music by Frances Castellano and Elijah Trujillo

10 am –1 pm – Garlic pull Contests

11 am – 12 pm – Welcome and Invocation; Meet Dr. Barceló, Northern’s new President Dances, Music and snacks

Garlic Picking Contest

Teams may register to compete in the garlic harvest. Teams of five with two substitutes can download the registration form at www.sostengalavida.com. First place – $500, second place – $200, and third place – $100 will be awarded for the most garlic pulled by weight.

Booth and Table Space for Local Vendors

Interested parties who would like a table to demonstrate local products, arts and crafts or goods may download an application at www.sostengalavida.com.

History of the ¡Sostenga! Center

Established in 2007, the New Mexico State Legislature recognized the purpose of the ¡Sostenga! Center: “to serve in the interest of preserving the natural heritage of Northern New Mexico through hands-on learning and economic development, and as a center for collaboration and research.” Inherent in the indigenous metaphor “healthy environment, healthy people, healthy culture” (Cajete,1999), ¡Sostenga! seeks to support projects that foster sustainable living based on the premise that healthy food has long been a tradition

of Northern New Mexico and only in recent decades have generations moved away from the natural agricultural and land based heritage of the northern Rio Grande.

In fall of 2008 the ¡Sostenga! Center for Sustainable Food, Agriculture and Environment at Northern New Mexico College embarked on a systems-based ecoEconomic* effort that would create a cash crop that provides a location for students to learn basic principles of soil chemistry, water and crop management, and sustainable agriculture.

¡Sostenga! Garlic Supports Community-Based Commercial Kitchen and Student Learning

Community-based commercial kitchens must be affordable to local value added producers and still cover overhead, maintenance and unexpected costs. Successful kitchens are subsidized. Entities reliant on external funding collapse when the economy changes. The majority of the revenue from garlic and garlic product sales from the ¡Sostenga! field is used to cover expenses of the kitchen in order to keep costs to producers to a realistic minimum.

Student Master Farmer, Elijah Trujillo planted lettuce, radishes and other produce in the Sostenga greenhouse, of which the majority will be allowed to go to seed to assure yearlong salad ingredients that will be served in the Sostenga Tiendita. Currently the greenhouse uses conventional energy sources, which will be supplanted by more efficient and stable means with assistance from alternative energy resources.

Preparing for the Harvest

The 2009 Sostenga garlic crop was carefully planted deep enough to garner a strong root system. Since the first harvest the soil has revealed more beneficial organisms such as earthworms and other healthy soil bugs. Because only one seed was planted per shallow space, garlic will be harvested with one person turning over the bulbs and others collecting the turned garlic. The bulbs will be sorted by size and quality and placed on racks for drying. The garlic should never be pulled by the stock, as it will break off. The bulb continues to get moisture from the stem into the year, which is why braiding is a common way of preserving for the year.

Garlic Basics

Irrigation will stop at least 3 to 4 weeks prior to harvest in order to develop the protective hull of the garlic. Bulbs that are over watered get stressed and the hull cracks, which makes them more likely to mold or shelf harden. Drying of the garlic, both in-ground and after harvest increases shelf life and flavor. “Fresh” garlic has not developed full flavor.

Sostenga garlic will be available at local markets around Northern NM throughout the season. Northern will offer continuing education Sostenga Garlic classes starting fall 2010.

* Definition: ecoEconomics is the science and practice of living within our planet’s capacity to sustain us – indefinitely.

More information is available at www.sostengalavida.com. Camilla Bustamante, PhD, MPH is Chair of Math and Science, and Director of Environmental Science at Northern NM College. Email cbustamante@nnmc.edu.

Camilla Bustamante

The Second Annual Garlic Harvest Festival will be held on Saturday, July 3^rd at the Sostenga Farm on Rail Road Avenue at Northern New Mexico College in Espanola. The annual harvest usually falls on the 4^th of July but this year the holiday fell on a Sunday, which presented a double conflict for many community members. “Most years it will not coincide with the Santa Fe Farmers Market, but since it does, this year we invite all the farmers to get an early morning breakfast burrito on their way to Santa Fe,” said Jan Matteson, farmer and manager of the Sostenga Commercial Kitchen. Breakfast burritos will be served for 5 dollars or 5 gallons of garlic.

The¡Sostenga! Garlic Harvest Festival provides a holiday weekend place for community members and visitors to celebrate, participate in fun activities, eat and raise money for the Sostenga Center, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Familias Unidas del Norte, and other related initiatives. This year’s guest of honor will be Dr. Nancy (Rusty) Barceló, the new president of Northern New Mexico College.

Schedule of Events:
6 am – Sunrise Harvest – Breakfast Served till 10:00 am
9 am – Music and Dances
Aztec Dancers, music by Frances Castellano and Elijah Trujillo
10 am –1 pm – Garlic pull Contests
11 am – 12 pm – Welcome and Invocation; Meet Dr. Barceló, Northern’s new President Dances, Music and snacks

Garlic Picking Contest

Teams may register to compete in the garlic harvest. Teams of five with two substitutes can download the registration form at www.sostengalavida.com. First place – $500, second place – $200, and third place – $100 will be awarded for the most garlic pulled by weight.

Booth and Table Space for Local Vendors

Interested parties who would like a table to demonstrate local products, arts and crafts or goods may download an application at www.sostengalavida.com.

History of the ¡Sostenga! Center

Established in 2007, the New Mexico State Legislature recognized the purpose of the ¡Sostenga! Center: “to serve in the interest of preserving the natural heritage of Northern New Mexico through hands-on learning and economic development, and as a center for collaboration and research.” Inherent in the indigenous metaphor “healthy environment, healthy people, healthy culture” (Cajete,1999), ¡Sostenga! seeks to support projects that foster sustainable living based on the premise that healthy food has long been a tradition

of Northern New Mexico and only in recent decades have generations moved away from the natural agricultural and land based heritage of the northern Rio Grande.

In fall of 2008 the ¡Sostenga! Center for Sustainable Food, Agriculture and Environment at Northern New Mexico College embarked on a systems-based ecoEconomic* effort that would create a cash crop that provides a location for students to learn basic principles of soil chemistry, water and crop management, and sustainable agriculture.

¡Sostenga! Garlic Supports Community-Based Commercial Kitchen and Student Learning

Community-based commercial kitchens must be affordable to local value added producers and still cover overhead, maintenance and unexpected costs. Successful kitchens are subsidized. Entities reliant on external funding collapse when the economy changes. The majority of the revenue from garlic and garlic product sales from the ¡Sostenga! field is used to cover expenses of the kitchen in order to keep costs to producers to a realistic minimum.

Student Master Farmer, Elijah Trujillo planted lettuce, radishes and other produce in the Sostenga greenhouse, of which the majority will be allowed to go to seed to assure yearlong salad ingredients that will be served in the Sostenga Tiendita. Currently the greenhouse uses conventional energy sources, which will be supplanted by more efficient and stable means with assistance from alternative energy resources.

Preparing for the Harvest

The 2009 Sostenga garlic crop was carefully planted deep enough to garner a strong root system. Since the first harvest the soil has revealed more beneficial organisms such as earthworms and other healthy soil bugs. Because only one seed was planted per shallow space, garlic will be harvested with one person turning over the bulbs and others collecting the turned garlic. The bulbs will be sorted by size and quality and placed on racks for drying. The garlic should never be pulled by the stock, as it will break off. The bulb continues to get moisture from the stem into the year, which is why braiding is a common way of preserving for the year.

Garlic Basics

Irrigation will stop at least 3 to 4 weeks prior to harvest in order to develop the protective hull of the garlic. Bulbs that are over watered get stressed and the hull cracks, which makes them more likely to mold or shelf harden. Drying of the garlic, both in-ground and after harvest increases shelf life and flavor. “Fresh” garlic has not developed full flavor.

Sostenga garlic will be available at local markets around Northern NM throughout the season. Northern will offer continuing education Sostenga Garlic classes starting fall 2010.

* Definition: ecoEconomics is the science and practice of living within our planet’s capacity to sustain us – indefinitely.

More information is available at www.sostengalavida.com. Camilla Bustamante, PhD, MPH is Chair of Math and Science, and Director of Environmental Science at Northern NM College. Email cbustamante@nnmc.edu.

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In Los Lunas, NM, Carlos Munoz supplements his work in the yard of a construction company with family farm work. He rises early to milk goats and care for his rabbits, ducks, geese, doves and chickens. He hopes to turn the milk into added-value products, and to be able to grow all of his own alfalfa to feed his animals. Don Carlos has a ranching degree from the University of Chihuahua, the state from which he hails. His dream is to sell his products beyond his family network, acquire his own land, and make farming and ranching his full time profession. In order to achieve these goals, what Don Carlos lacks is not the ability to run the operation, but the land and the credit with which to empower the purchase.

Across the US we have seen the average age of our farmers rise, and the number of farms diminish, though there are many creative strategies being implemented to challenge this trend. While farming is still a strong tradition in New Mexico, we are not producing enough food to feed ourselves. The National Immigrant Farming Initiative (NIFI) believes that immigrant farmers who come to this country with farming experience have an important role to play in supplementing our local breadbasket, and adding to the diversity of available products.

NIFI came to NM under the leadership of Espanola Farmer Don Bustos, who is the president of NIFI’s national board. Though the Bustos family, having farmed the same land for generations, are far from immigrants, Don was moved to be supportive of the immigrant farming community after marrying a woman from Guatemala and seeing the struggles local immigrant farmers have in accessing markets, grants and other supportive programs. NIFI has worked with and inspired local sustainable agricultural projects across the country, from African farmers in Maine to Asian farmers in Washington State. “Our goal is to create access to resources, information and political empowerment to groups and individuals that have consistently been excluded from these opportunities,” said Bustos.

At a March NIFI meeting of urban immigrant farmers in Albuquerque, their passion, knowledge, and desire to share with others was inspiring. Some are producing enough food from their patios to bring to local farmers’ markets; yet many feel they have the capacity to work with up to 10 acres. Don Carlos encouraged the group, “we have to look for and seize any opportunities so we can become producers.” He reiterated his eagerness to pass on his knowledge to others so that all can develop together.

Four meetings were held statewide in March with the help of Heifer International. The meetings took place in Albuquerque, Anthony and Espanola with co-sponsorship from local chapters of the American Friends Service Committee and Plaza de Encuentro in Albuquerque, Las Colonias Development Corporation, and the Anthony Water and Sanitation District in the south, along with many other organizations. The meetings were advertised in local print and radio media, as well as through flyers and social networks. Immigrant farmers were invited to share their aspirations, challenges and current work. The dialogue included NIFI’s National Director, Mapy Alverez, sharing information on resources in Spanish, and Don Bustos discussing opportunities and challenges that exist.

The farmers completed a needs assessment to ground the discussions in data. The information gathered from over 40 surveys revealed that 8 of the 40 farmers are currently raising animals, and that the majority are growing hortilizas, or various common garden vegetables and herbs. Nearly all participants expressed a desire to grow for home consumption and for market. Some individuals also shared an interest in vermaculture (worm composting), hydroponics and other sustainable technologies. The greatest challenges identified were access to land and credit. There was an overwhelming amount of experience evident at all the meetings. Nearly half of the participants in Anthony had Ph.D.s in various agricultural and conservation fields. One individual grew up in and specialized in the indigenous agricultural practices of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and many individuals had grown up farming and ranching. There were very few individuals who were truly beginning farmers. In total, there was over 309 years of collective experience, with 7 years the average for each individual.

Jen Silverman of the Mid-Region Council of Governments echoed the sentiments of many people when she said, “this is very important work that no one else appears to be doing.” Though no one is combining quite the same issues, there are many allies and supporters who want to support the creation of a space for immigrant farmers at the table, not only in terms of creating access to information and resources, but also political power. All participants agreed that the immigrant farming community need not go unheard and unseen, and that by coming together as a group of stakeholders, there is a better chance of being recognized.

In May, community leaders came together again to examine how to establish a long-term project supporting immigrants who are farming or interested in becoming farmers or ranchers in NM, to build their capacity, network, political and growing power.

Serafina Youngdahl Lombardi is a labor organizer and educator currently farming in Espanola. If you are interested in participating in the NIFI initiative, e-mail: serafina3333@yahoo.com.

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A credit union is a cooperative of individuals with a common bond who save their money and make loans. Credit Unions are member-owned, not-for-profit institutions. They are regulated by the chartering state and the federal government, and as with banks, all deposits are federally insured for up to $100,000, in this case by the National Credit Union Administration. The first credit union in the US was organized in 1909.

In a financial economy where most consumers are simply worried about their money’s security, member-owners of the Permaculture Credit Union also invest in sustainability

for their communities. The Santa Fe-based organization was specifically designed as a sustainable business model focused on saving members’ money while also saving natural resources. That is its members’ common bond. It is said to be the first values-based credit

union in the country, and the only one based on the ethics and principles of permaculture

– care of the Earth, care of people, and reinvestment of surplus for the betterment of both. All members have completed a recognized permaculture design course, or are a member of an affiliated Permaculture Institute.

With more than 1020 members from around the country (80% outside of New Mexico), the Permaculture Credit Union specializes in responsible lending in areas that promote environmental sustainability including alternative home construction, fuel-efficient vehicles, sustainable and organic farming, energy efficient home upgrades and water capture systems. The credit union’s rates are competitive with other financial institutions.

On May 6th, the organization celebrated its decade of success with a community celebration at the (LEED Gold-certified) Santa Fe Community Convention Center with a

theme of “Going Way Beyond Sustainability.” The event featured a keynote address by author/eco-entrepreneur Gunter Pauli.

For more information about the Permaculture Credit Union, call 505.954.3479, e-mail pcustaff@pcuonline.org or visit www.pcuonline.org.

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Seth Roffman

On May 6, the Santa Fe-based Permaculture Credit Union celebrated their 10^th anniversary at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. Global eco-entrepreneur Gunter Pauli, founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) Network, was the special guest speaker.

Pauli introduced his new book, The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs,” which has just been published by Taos-based Paradigm Publications. The book explains how a new generation of entrepreneurs can bring innovations to the marketplace and make sustainable businesses competitive. Over one hundred such innovations, including many that have been brought to fruition and integrated into real world economies, are profiled in the book. Based on industry studies, Pauli estimates the jobs that could be created and the cash flow potentials. His insights provide a positive outlook to the future.

Pauli’s “blue” business model redesigns production and consumption into clusters of industries inspired by natural systems, and works with what is locally available to generate multiple revenues and respond to a community’s basic needs. The central principle of The Blue Economy is the idea of cascading nutrients and energy as ecosystems do. A cascade is a waterfall. It requires no power and flows with the force of gravity. It transports nutrients between biological kingdoms; absorbed minerals feed microorganisms, microorganisms feed plants, plants feed other species, with the waste of one being nourishment for another. Cascading energy and nutrients leads to sustainability by reducing or eliminating inputs such as energy and eliminating waste and its cost, not just as pollution but also as an inefficient use of materials. In ecosystems there is no waste because the byproducts of one process are inputs to another process.

A project at Picuris Pueblo in Northern New Mexico is cited in Pauli’s book as an example of true economic sustainability. Cascading nutrients and energy produce income while preventing forest fires. “Slash” (the small diameter wood that intensifies fires) is usually removed with machines that do their own ecological damage. Instead, fire prevention is integrated into a whole systems model compatible with Native culture. The slash in not burned but chipped into mulch. Some of the mulch is used as a growth substrate and inoculated with local, native mushrooms and spread on the tracks left by the equipment used to harvest the slash. In as little as two years, the forest floor is restored. The bulk of the wood is dried and preserved. The fumes created by incomplete combustion of charcoal production are used to preserve construction-grade lumber. The chips that remain after the process of collection, charcoal, and carpentry are inoculated with native mushrooms obtained from a tissue culture. After harvesting the very marketable mushrooms, the spent chips are fed to a bison herd. Something is replaced with nothing and produces sustainable forests, wood for construction, food for people and animals. There is no waste.

Pauli also explains how “MBA” analysis makes it impossible for large companies to innovate because of the “inside the box” thinking demanded by corporate systems and the many, sometime conflicting interests of management and shareholders. In essence, corporations are locked out of sustainable advances by the logic of their decision making process.

An interesting example is cited of how a company’s efforts to control the supply, cost and timing of the materials it needs for the items it produces, can integrate a sustainable technology. Natural enzymes can sequester carbon dioxide, making it available for other processes that require it such as the carbonic gases used in the production of construction materials. Industry has resisted conventional scrubbing technologies because of their cost. However, when Canadian entrepreneurs devised a means of using enzyme sequestration directly in the existing scrubbing systems of coal fired power plants and cement factories, even the least progressive management can be inspired to invest. The fact that the sequestered carbon dioxide can create additional revenue may be inspiration enough.

The non-profit Sustainable Communities/ZERI-New Mexico, Inc., in its 15-year history, has brought Gunter Pauli to Northern New Mexico many times for trainings and lectures. They have initiated two major projects in the last decade: the Picuris Pueblo Integrated Waste Management Project, which is winding down, and the Waste-As-Value Links (WAV-Links) Project, which is now starting up. WAV-Links is looking to provide matchmaking between local producers of waste with local (potential/new) consumers of waste in a way that provides economic development based on zero waste design and ZERI principles. For more information, to participate or make donations, e-mail Margo Covington, executive director, SCI/ZERI-NM: margo@wavlinks.org or visit www.scizeri-nm.org.

For more information on Gunter Pauli’s book The Blue Economy, visit www.TheBlueEconomy.com. To learn more about the ZERI Network, visit www.ZERI.org.

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Colegio sin Fronteras, a new charter school, provides skills building, social support and workforce development training for at-risk students.

For the past several years, I have been part of a network of community educators across three continents who have been deeply engaged in a “Community Learning” praxis that has had a profound impact on our understanding of this sort of work and its essentialness to all social development. Economic Development, Community Development, School Reform, Healthy Families, Healthy Communities, Workforce Development, Quality Universal Early Childhood Programs, Green Economies; you name it. None can exist and succeed in a socially sustainable manner without well-developed systems and processes for Community Learning that are both pre-existing and co-occurring. We also know that communities will opt out of and actively resist, if necessary, social development schemes that are perceived as threatening to the values, cultures or histories embodied by their Community Learning frameworks.

In New Mexico, as in other post-industrial communities, much of the conversation has surfaced in the ongoing debates about school failure, dropouts, graduation rates, college preparedness, economic competitiveness and other symptoms and surrogates for a failing economic system. The system of schooling and education that once worked perfectly to sort and separate the classes and the cultures; that insured working class kids would have working class lives; that rewarded privilege and punished poverty; that imposed dependency and group non-think, is now gasping for survival due to its own successes. And, those in power find it almost impossible to do anything except insist that it succeed, without evolving with the new world order; as if sheer will and blind commitment to a failing system will somehow change reality.

An understanding of Community Learning processes as essential components of reaching decisions about how we educate ourselves, and for what purposes, eventually identifies the need to build Social Capacity (people’s ability and willingness to engage with others to take action on perceived problems, needs, or dreams). This is accomplished through dialogue throughout the community. Dialogue builds capacity. The better we get at it, and the more intentional and facilitated it is, the more Social Capital we build as well. Social Capital is thus an outcome of increased capacity. Social Capital is the sum of networks, resources, and bonds that are formed across the community.

Our local community dialogues, and the community learning that arose from it, led us to embark on a project that we have called Colegio Sin Fronteras. Colegio, or college in English, means “a gathering” in its original language. Sin Fronteras, which in English means no boundaries or borders, refers to the notion that we should have no limits to our learning nor our yearning. We chose to focus on young adults from the south side of Santa Fe who had not finished high school as our target population. The reasoning was as follows: This sector of the population has a higher incidence of unemployment, a lower level of high school completion or GED participation, a higher fertility rate, a lower workforce readiness level, lower income, higher homelessness, disproportionate contact with the legal system, less English proficiency, and they are more likely to have had multiple school suspensions if they attended school locally. The United Nations and other international organizations involved in social development have also focused on this sector, with a special focus on young women. It is understood that this is the sector that will be predominant in any given country’s labor force within a few years. It is also true that this sector is having the most babies and thus enrolling the most children in school where it’s available. And finally, it is known that this sector’s behavior has a disproportionate impact on community and personal wellness.

Based on a volunteer effort, and with the support of several local community based organizations, we embarked on our journey that, through a convergence of interests, brought us to the point in October, 2009, of opening a Santa Fe branch of an Albuquerque-based charter school. At that historic moment, we had succeeded in engaging families, young people, community organizations, a successful charter school, and two school districts in support of a dream that originated in dialogues almost three years earlier. More importantly, there had been Community Learning around the issue of supporting young adults’ education, and the reasons why it was a mutually and socially beneficial endeavor.

But there were issues. The problems we ran into were two-fold. On the one hand, there is no official enabling language in the Charter School Law that allows for creative and collaborative work across district boundaries, and the charter we were working with was a district (APS) authorized school. Thus the NM Public Education Department ruled that the school we proposed was not officially allowed. The other problem is that adult education is given short shrift by the NM Legislature, even less than for traditional Pre K-12, due to all the tax breaks for out-of-state corporations and the wealthy. Call any General Equivalency Degree or Adult Basic Education center at your local community college and they’ll tell you that offerings are limited and usually fill up rather quickly. It is not unusual to be told to come back in 3-4 months. So there was not another source of funding that we could tap into.

After a community consultation we decided to keep moving forward even if it meant staying all volunteer and working out of public spaces and the offices of supporting organizations. There remained, however, the question of how to grant high school credit for the work that students would be accomplishing. Simultaneously, juvenile court and the juvenile probation office developed an interest in our work because they too felt the need for more educational, supportive and integrative resources for adjudicated youth. The SFPS Board and administration stepped in and brokered a relationship with a local charter school, and made available, for a fee, an unused facility.

We officially opened for business the first week of March and concluded our semester the last week of May. We in fact had been holding “classes” since September in a variety of locations with several dozen young people and some parents. The year was much more than many anticipated in a variety of ways. There were many successes and several challenges that arose, some internal but mostly external, although nothing is really external when we’re talking about Community Learning systems. Several students are now at the community college; others were motivated to return to traditional high schools. A couple have re-offended, and are now incarcerated. One lost his life after being shot, and another is awaiting trial charged with that crime. A couple of dozen have been busy finishing final papers and projects in the hopes of accumulating more credits in one semester than they did in several years of traditional high school. All of them, now, have a better sense of themselves and the world around them.

Thank you to everyone that made this year possible.

(Next month: What We Learned)

Miguel Angel Acosta is the Director of the Community Learning Program at the Santa Fe Partnership for Communities and Schools as well as a Principal Associate at the Center for Relational Learning, an international educational consulting firm based in Santa Fe. He has more than 30 years experience in community learning and development for underserved populations. For more information on Colegio Sin Fronteras, call 955.1812 or e-mail: macosta.csf@gmail.com.

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A diverse crew of archeologists and interns is about to finish excavation of an impressively large pre-Columbian site in a narrow strip of land on US Highway 54 just south of Carrizozo. In a grid barely 100 feet wide and 200 feet long, three Navajos, a Pueblo-Comanche, two women of German and Jewish heritage, and two Mexican Americans have worked side by side since last October, squeezed in between roaring semi trucks, cars and recreational vehicles on the two-lane highway, and the Bonito water pipeline supplying Alamogordo and Holloman Air Force Base, running beside the barbed wire fence of a privately owned ranch.

“Each of us were ancient enemies at one time or another but now we work together to find out about the past together,” smiles Mary Weahkee, who grew up at Santa Clara Pueblo with Comanche and Pueblo family members.

“I apply a lot of the old knowledge to this site. I see a lot of Pueblo tradition. You have a stabilized living quarter’s area and you have work sites outside of those. As you head south, here you find a ceremonial site. I say that because the colored red and yellow ochres that have been found are only in that kind of structure where I live,” said Weahkee.

Vernon Foster, a Navajo from Tohatchi, wasn’t interested in archaeology but then “I found out that what my ancestors did in the past, we still do today. For example, roasting pits for meat or corn. We know about these things. That is why I am still working in archaeology,” he said.

Foster noted a clan among his people called the Kia`ani clan, those who lived in tall two-story buildings like the Pueblo people who would alternate lifeways by shifting to a nomadic lifestyle.

Dorothy Zamora, field crew chief, grew up in Carrizozo. In 1978, she hired onto her first archaeology project at Agnes corner where the paved road rising through Nogal meets the road connecting Ruidoso to Capitan.

“This site is completely different from Agnes village, which was a lot closer to water. I am thinking they were farming here,” said Zamora. Circular clay walls about three to five inches high emerge above the surface, and extend like well-shaped clay jars almost three feet below. The work requires sensitive and experienced hands using a variety of trowels and brushes to find and follow the different feel between compact adobe walls, loose fill and the natural base clay.

“I have never seen clay collared storage pits for seeds. They probably had roofs. We can date the burned corn we found and that will give us the best dates. I am guessing 900-1100 A.D. It may be earlier or later depending on C14 carbon dating and the ceramics, which give a broader date. We have found six storage pits, a clay preparation site, two living areas with posts and roof, one with a hearth, and a possible ceremonial feature,” she recounted.

Ceramic trade pottery that was found will probably be identified by labs in Santa Fe as mostly Jornado Brown, while some will come from Mimbres manufacturing regions south of the Gila Wilderness and even Cebolla, an area close to the present Zuni lands.

Zamora had one of the crew present a preliminary report at the 2010 Tularosa Basin Conference in mid-May. There the public encountered many archeologists who are working in the basin, and heard them present their findings (www.tularosabasinconference.nmsua.edu).

As of May of last year, the state register of cultural properties has professional reports on more than 12,400 archaeological sites in the Tularosa Basin ranging from archaic to ancestral Puebloan to early nomadic sites to historic homesteads and military sites, explained Tom Drake, public information officer with the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division based in Santa Fe.

“Over 80 percent of sites in the Tularosa Basin relate to Native American occupation and culture.”

Isiah Coan, also from Tohachi, is a Navajo intern trained in GEIS mapping methods as well as excavation techniques. After careful study of available aerial maps, he was first to enter the narrow strip and lay out the stakes and string for grids to be used for excavation, and exact locations of finds—from ceramics and postholes, tools and weapons, turquoise and abalone and even a probable rare “cloud blower.”

Coan noted that the site extends all the way east under the highway and west under the Bonito Pipeline and on into the private ranch. “I will produce all the mapping of walls and artifacts electronically with the GEIS programs back in Santa Fe,” he said.

In the meantime, Weahkee has identified the directional landscape features she believes would have been significant to the ancestral residents. For example, “Where the lava comes out, a small point now called Little Black Knot, represents the underworld,” she said. Each morning I pray to them and feed them corn meal. Let us see what you want us to see in a good way. I think they wanted to be found and remembered.”

Virginia Prajoda is fascinated by how the people survived as indicated by the findings and her knowledge of previous findings at other sites. “There is so much misinformation about the past,” she exclaimed. “My gosh, they had means of storage, and everyone had a job providing for the whole village. How would we survive without Wal Mart?!”

Crewmember Karen Weining concurs. “One plant could have 100 different uses. We have lost so much of that common knowledge. There must have been a serenity then,” she muses.

But this special site may never provide all its clues—the public lands under the highway and the pipeline portions are destroyed without surveys—and the ranch owner may or may not give permission for the rest of the site to be excavated. They will soon cover up the layout they have revealed as nearly $13 million in stimulus monies widen the highway. As required by laws of cultural preservation, $200,000 went to reveal the unusual features that had been recorded in four previous visual surveys, according to Zamora. There are no plans for public exhibition of the effort at this time. Like so many sites, it may become a report in several boxes on a shelf. The public will drive by, unaware.

Joan E. Price is a free-lance writer and photographer based in Tularosa, New Mexico. You can contact her at rainhousejoan@hotmail.com.

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