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A meeting took place on April 15th at Santa Fe Community College for solar contractors and installers interested in the County of Santa Fe’s Renewable Funding Program for the new Renewable Finance District. The “RenewSantaFe” program leverages the local government’s borrowing power to allow property owners to cover the large up-front costs of installing their solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind or geothermal project from a special assessment to their property taxes. The county and Renewable Funding are developing the program, which was approved by the 2009 state legislature. The program aims to begin funding projects in June. Contractor and property owner training will begin in May.

A lot of effort has gone into designing the program, and many people have closely followed its development. The program will be the model for other counties in the state. Some very good dialog between the contractors/installers, the program developers, and the County came out of the meeting, which ran close to two hours. There was much discussion about how the program would work, and what areas need to be revisited because of the contractors/installers concerns and potential issues.

Two things that have generated a fair amount of misunderstanding came out of the meeting:

1) The program was never intended to be everything for everyone. It was designed for those who have no other means to install solar on their homes. There are other great incentives and options for many property owners who want to improve their property through a renewable energy system.

2) There is still some work and time before the program is completed and ready for implementation. The County, Renewable Funding, and all the stakeholders are continuing to work very hard to develop and implement the program. It will be a great asset as part of ongoing efforts to make solar energy systems affordable to all across the State of New Mexico.

This program will help reduce a property’s carbon footprint, as well as help develop and sustain green jobs, generate demand for local products and services, and help rebuild Santa Fe and New Mexico’s economy. And, it will certainly he helpful to all who support the protection of our environment, and the development of renewable energy.

Michael Connolly is with Q, S, and V Electro/Mechanical, which specializes in solar electricity and solar hot water and space heating. Call: 505.6609047 or e-mail: user970159@aol.com

Duncan Sill is the Santa Fe County Development Director. His e-mail is: dsill@santafecounty.org

Brian Cassutt is the New Mexico Program Manager for Renewable Funding. Call: 505.690.1377 or e-mail: brian@renewfund.com.

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Experiencing New Mexico has shaped who I am and what I want to learn. This unique and wonderful place is part of my bone marrow. Marveling at the ruins at Bandelier National Monument or the stunning petroglyphs that are found in the most unexpected places gave me an insatiable craving to understand who lived here before and how they did it successfully for so long. Through the study of anthropology I understood that many of my lifelong friends, playmates and mentors were decedents of these very special ancestors, and that far from being a footnote of the past, their rich culture and traditions are alive and well.

New Mexico has six of the world’s seven life zones, everything but the tropics. Observing the incredible variation of insects, plants, animals and birds became an incurable addiction. As a botanist, plant ecologist, avid gardener and practicing veterinarian with an interest in wildlife rehabilitation, I have fed that addiction with every step I have taken across this incredible place we call home—New Mexico.

My teachers and mentors have been as varied and diverse as our landscape. Ranchers, schoolteachers, union leaders, scientists, sportsmen, nuns, tribal elders, ditch riders, politicians, and my constant companions from the animal kingdom have been extremely patient and generous in sharing their wealth of knowledge and their deep respect and passion for our land.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate for the opportunity to integrate my interests into public service for our state. Currently, I’ve had the privilege to work for Dr. Jane Goodall on service-learning programs for young people in our state and around the world.

So why do I want to be your next elected State Land Commissioner?
My reasons for wanting to return to the State Land Office are two-fold. First, I’ve been appalled at how the Land Office has been managed the last eight years. There has been a lack of transparency, inclusion and accountability. This period of time has been marked by investigations, audits and controversy; and most recently, a firestorm of protest for trading away important hunting lands at White Peak on the border of Mora and Colfax Counties. It became increasingly clear to me, it’s time for trusted, new leadership.

My second reason for running is the desire to use my life experiences, knowledge and relationships to make the State Land Office one of the top land management agencies in the country—again.

My four priorities for the Land Office are:
1. Protect Our Public Lands for Future Generations
2. Create Good Jobs by Building a New Energy Economy
3. Improve Our Children’s Schools
4. Set the Highest Ethical and Honest Standards

Protect Our Public Lands for Future Generations
As New Mexicans, we are blessed with marvelous public lands. These lands sustain us, provide economic opportunities, and help fund our educational system. Public lands are truly a legacy that we leave our children.
It is crucial to the long-term management of our working lands—and our children’s education— that we protect our State Trust Land resources from pollution, from being sold, and from misuse or mismanagement.
Good land management provides sustainable returns from our state trust lands and a better quality of life for our adjoining communities.
Create Good Jobs by Building a New Energy Economy
As a native New Mexican, I know the need for good jobs. Using NM’s trust lands we can foster public-private partnerships that protect natural resources and create good jobs. This is not merely something I believe—it’s something I know to be true.
In my previous tenure as Land Commissioner, I worked with utilities to establish the first wind farms in NM. This was just the beginning of establishing renewable energy as one of our top economic engines—using our abundant wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass resources. I am an advocate for renewable energy production and I am committed to helping make NM the world’s leader in developing businesses and technologies that restore the health of our planet. NM can lead the way in developing a restoration economy.
We have the intellectual capability in our universities, national laboratories and the private sector, along with a knowledgeable and conscientious work force to make this happen.
I also worked with private businesses, local governments, and community groups throughout NM to create affordable housing projects, recreational facilities, youth and senior centers, master planned communities, business parks, and new jobs. Two extremely successful examples are the Sandia Science & Technology Park and the Mesa del Sol economic district.
Improve Our Children’s Schools
Our children’s future and our state’s economic prosperity depend on quality education. As Land Commissioner, I will again make investment in our schools a top priority. Our working lands produce over $550 million dollars a year that you and I do not pay in additional taxes to support our public schools, universities and hospitals. Wise land management means our schools can be supported forever.
Set the Highest Ethical and Honest Standards
I believe in the highest professional and ethical standards in government and my record speaks for itself. During my previous tenure at the Land Office I instructed my employees to “just do things in a manner that the closer anyone looks, the better you look.”
I have held individuals and global companies accountable to take care of the land and to pay what they owe. I audited 16 global oil companies that lease state trust land, resulting in over $140 million of additional revenue for our state.
To conclude, my commitment to New Mexico—the land and people—are what drives me today. Like you, I love New Mexico. With you, we’ll continue to make our state great.

Ray Powell is running for State Land Commissioner in the Democratic Primary against PRC member Sandy Jones and Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya. His candidacy has been endorsed by the Conservation Voters New Mexico and the Sierra Club, Northern Chapter. Powell served as NM Land Commissioner from 1993 through 2002. For more information on Ray Powell, go to www.raypowell4land.com.

Photo captions:
Ray at his acequia head gate
Ray getting a tutorial about the natural world from young leaders

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I am a committed community advocate who is running for the Santa Fe County Commission. I live in Chupadero, where I grow rye and oats, and I am a parciante on the Acequia de Chuparero.

I have been working for over a decade to help improve the lives of my neighbors and all of the residents of the county. I took on Qwest to bring high-speed internet to the valley, worked with the county to create an Agricultural Revitalization Initiative, and I am a founding member of neighborhood associations, water basin alliances, and the United Communities of Santa Fe County.

As County Commissioner, I will continue to fight for equitable water distribution, agricultural revitalization, and a cooperatively owned electric utility. I understand that if the people are involved in decisionmaking processes, we will all benefit from a better government and a better society. That is why I have pledged to make meaningful public outreach and honest evaluation of public input a cornerstone of my term on the commission.

As a resident of Santa Fe for over three decades, I am keenly aware of the value of traditional farming methods. My neighbors and I rely on the acequia for our gardens and orchards, and I don’t want to see that way of life replaced by a water diversion and centralized distribution system. That is why as a court appointed negotiator in the Aamodt case, I fought for a pueblo only water system, and against capping of domestic water wells.

As County Commissioner, I will continue to fight to preserve water rights. I will work to help residents establish community farms, preserve heirloom seeds, and work to revise the state’s outdated “use it or lose it” water rights policies.

I am a supporter of the farmers’ market and the Farm to Restaurant program, and would like to see the county take a more proactive role in protecting and promoting local agriculture and value-added food products. One idea I would like to see enacted is a county operated co-op from which area farmers could borrow heavy equipment like tractors, based on the Zuni Pueblo model.

I am very concerned about the future availability of water in northern Santa Fe County. I see both the Buckman Direct Diversion and the proposed Aamodt Diversion as dangerous projects that will provide water for more development but do little to address the question of “what is sustainable water use?”

As county commissioner, I would pursue more forward thinking projects that take into account the limited available water in the county, in good years and bad. I think that all new development should be water neutral, with rainwater and greywater systems the norm on all new projects. I applaud the residents of the city who have reduced their average per capita water consumption from 168 gallons to 101 gallons in just a few years. I see no reason why county residents can’t do the same.

Another area of great concern for me is Green Energy. Of course Green Energy means breaking away from dirty coal and gas fired plants, and going with renewables; but it also means going local. PNM takes tens of millions of dollars out of our local economy every year for its Wall Street investors. What if that money stayed in Santa Fe, stimulating the local economy, creating jobs and enabling us to control our own energy future?

I propose a cooperatively owned electric utility similar to the rural electric co-ops already in operation throughout the state. Electricity users make up the ownership of the system, elect the board of directors, and are not bound by the corporate mantra of profit over all else. Such a co-op could create outstanding programs empowering homeowners to create their own electricity and minimize the need for long transmission lines that blight our landscape and operate with much less efficiency than home based systems.

Switching to this system would have wonderful ripple effects as well. A massive investment in renewable technologies would create jobs – for example, in Austin Texas, over twenty new solar installation companies were formed when the city adopted an incentive program for homeowners. Companies need skilled laborers, so Northern NM College and Santa Fe Community College’s programs to teach our young people and displaced workers the skills for these new, high paying jobs, would be in even greater demand.

The county is making strides in this area. The new Renewable Energy Financing District is set up to help provide money and facilitate our going Green. I promise to make sure this program succeeds by working with all interested entities, including federal, state and local agencies.

I have been working tirelessly to bring people together on important issues that affect our quality of life. As County Commissioner, I will do even more to make sure the county makes sound fiscal decisions based on input from the people most affected by them – the residents of Santa Fe County.

For a better future – Vote Paul White for County Commission on June 1. For more info: www.white4county.com

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Twenty miles south of downtown Albuquerque, in the valley near Los Lunas, sits a garden that’s an inspiration to those of us who love plants, trees, clean air and the comfort of green. It’s called the Arboretum Tomé, a botanical garden of trees, rich healthy soil, more oak species than you can shake a stick at (over 40), a grove of Giant Timber Bamboo, Walnuts from Japan, Eucalyptus and Redwoods from all over the world. Developing the arboretum has been a passion of mine for almost a quarter of a century, and it now represents the largest species collection of trees found anywhere in New Mexico and possibly all of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Region.
My quest to develop this amazing collection of trees didn’t start off so easy because the soil on the site presented a serious challenge. So serious in fact that many of my professional associates who are Ph.D. soil scientists and horticulturists suggested that I sell the site and find a place that could actually grow trees. I was dealing with a triple whammy of problems including but not limited to the fact the soil was a saline, sodic and alkaline clay, the kind that turns white in winter (called white death by farmers), and is toxic to most plants. The pH ranged from 8.3 to 9.2, and for those of us who understand pH and soil, that’s horrible. Or as my Dad would say, “Michael what you have here is a situation.”
I’ve never been accused of being a genus, but I have been accused of being very stubborn and persistent, and for this reason the soil on the arboretum site is now rich with life and humus-rich topsoil that can support this amazing collection of exotic trees along with the largest collection of NM Native Hardwoods found anywhere on Earth. This is the Arboretum Tomé, my personal Garden of Eden. The secret to fixing the soil on this toxic site is the reason for my company name, Soil Secrets LLC, where we manufacture the highest rated materials used by organic farmers across the nation for fixing soils.
I didn’t haul away all the nasty toxic soil, as some suggested was necessary, and I didn’t haul in tons of compost either. Instead I used the same technique I use to grow all our plants at my Trees That Please Nursery in Los Lunas, one of the oldest nurseries in the state. Over the past few decades I’ve grown hundreds of thousands of trees, shrubs, ornamentals and vegetables, and it has always been my core belief that the best way to grow a landscape of plants or a farm is to observe the natural process of nature and copy that. The science of soil and the way plants take in water and nutrients is all contingent upon a healthy “soil food web,” a cycle of life and nutrients taking place in the soil and that results in a gradual development of topsoil, what I call Pedogenesis, the Creation of Soil. The very essence of rich dark topsoil is the presence and concentration of a biologic material we commonly call humus. In science the word for humus is humic substance, and within this substance is an essential product of soil chemistry called humic acid. The word substance is from the Latin substantia, which is the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists. For example, humic acid is the substance of humus.
For purposes of distinction, we must understand that a soil can contain soil organic matter and it can also contain humus. What we must understand in order to know how to make dirt into a healthy soil is that humus and organic matter are not the same thing, and it is humic acids that are essential for a healthy and productive soil. It is also the humic acids that give us a long lasting benefit, because unlike organic matter, which decomposes rapidly turning back into CO2, humic acids have a resonance time in the soil that can last for thousands of years. Nothing else in nature can bio-remediate a soil as fast or as well as humic acids, and it’s the black carbon-rich molecules of humic acids that, when concentrated, give a topsoil its appearance along with its chemical, physical and biological characteristics.
In a Journal of Chemical Education (December 2001) article titled Humic Acids: Marvelous Products of Soil Chemistry, it is stated that “Humic acids are remarkable brown to black products of soil chemistry that are essential for healthy and productive soils. They are functionalized molecules that can act as photosensitizers, retain water, bind to clays, act as plant growth stimulants, and scavenge toxic pollutants. No synthetic material can match humic acid’s physical and chemical versatility.”
Soil organic matter, which can come from the decay of old roots, green manure, mulches or compost, is beneficial for contributing a fertilizer value of needed nutrients, but it is not a significant source of the humic acids, and therefore is the wrong material for trying to build a topsoil or for trying to remediate a saline, sodic, alkaline clay such as what I was facing 24 years ago. I fixed the soils of the Arboretum Tomé by applying a material rich in the humic acids once per year as an easy top dress, much like spreading a fertilizer. While I continue this annual ritual, the total amount I’ve applied is small in comparison to how much humic acid can now be found and measured by soil analysis on the site. In other words there has been a huge net gain in humic acids that have accumulated by way of nature, exceeding what I have applied by over 100,000 pounds per acre, and found in the top 3 inches of soil.
Today the Arboretum exemplifies the potential for saving farm soils worldwide by giving us a tool to instigate and substantiate the Pedogenesis of soil, which is also sequestering the carbon rich greenhouses gases of the atmosphere, converting the atmospheric carbon into biological carbon of the soil called humic acids. With this we are able to finally fix 7,000 years of conquest where we have destroyed the soils of many civilizations. Only healthy soil can grow a healthy plant, and only a healthy plant can produce nutritious tasty food. Without humic acids in great concentration in your soil, you don’t have a healthy soil! For over 80 years farmers have been depending on fertilizer inputs that are dominated by N-P-K nutrients, which will certainly grow a greater yield. The problem is that these fertilizers contribute to a host of many problems, resulting in the cascading failure of the “soil food web” and the loss of topsoil. It can be said that no N-P-K fertilizer has ever made a soil healthier, and in fact can do the opposite. If this statement is true, and I believe it is, then while the fertilizer can grow more yield, it cannot grow a more tasty or nutritious plant because those factors are contingent upon the soil being healthier.
At the Arboretum Tomé we are talking that talk and we are walking that walk. The Arboretum is opened each spring to the public for our annual Spring Fling, a free day of informative lectures, live music and a tour of the trees. You can get directions by emailing me at soilsecrets@aol.com or by calling my Trees That Please Nursery at 505.866.5027. The day is May the 15th from 9 am to 4:30 pm. I invite you to our garden.

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I appreciated reading the passionate and thoughtful article on Housing, Land and The Green Imperative. I look forward to the next installment. Green Fire Times is the kind of publication that we need to counteract the mind-dulling media to which so many people have become accustomed. But because I believe that power comes from not believing oneself a victim, I have some thoughts to share with you. I am one of the 27% of New Mexicans who own my home, and until last year was categorized in the lowest income bracket. I am not a member of a Pueblo or Land Grant, though I live near both. I was a single mother and a teacher for twenty years, until 2003, when I became a self-employed artist.

One of the many ways I was fortunate when building my home was that I had a loan officer at New Mexico Educators Credit Union who advised me wisely as to what I could comfortably afford on a teacher’s salary. My home is energy efficient and modest; the land is beautiful, a ridge-top of the eastern foothills of Sandia Mountain. It is not an investment but my home, and I am thankful for the peace it gives to our family and the opportunity to be part of the nature and community that surrounds it. My $500 per month mortgage was paid off after 24 years. Although I now have a partner, and the last $20,000 came from an inheritance, I made choices during most of the mortgage years that enabled me to stay out of other debt.

It is appalling (and criminal) that the loan industry has been so irresponsible, immoral and greedy, and that we continue to allow it. But only blaming authority keeps personal growth stagnant. Accepting responsibility for one’s own decisions is a lifelong lesson and practice. We are constantly making choices and learning from our mistakes.

Changing wrongful laws is a process. As Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” We are being challenged to bring to light a false authoritative value system. Too often, what we want is different from what we truly need. Finding what we truly need brings us happiness. We in America have amazing resources to be honored: political, educational, and of course, natural. Our lack of appreciating what we have, the lack of questioning and examining authority and the disassociation from sense of place and community has pushed us off balance.

To understand complex issues, we need to acknowledge different perspectives and experiences. We need to be more compassionate. Personally, if someone I know has an opposing belief system to mine, yet has a kind heart and wants good in the world, I’ll listen to them and try to understand and perhaps work with them in some capacity. To believe in the abundance of simplicity and the ability to share without loss is a foundation of the revolution and evolution I believe in. It is a difficult and constant practice to acknowledge the fear, envy and greed by which each of us is tempted.

Although what you wrote in the “A Short History of Land Tenure” is a true perspective, I believe choosing words carefully – especially when generalizing – is important. Though “free land” was the “norm for millennia,” the oldest legends and myths include stories of innocent or wise, contented or cooperative people who must bravely and creatively counteract greed. Although I believe there have always been people (of all races and cultures) who have shared wisdom, lived in peace and have walked in beauty, they have had to be extremely wise and powerful to protect themselves from invaders or those who would want more than their fair share.

Clearly – we know that peace is, that love is, and we must embody faith if we choose to see ourselves as part of this legacy; that we actually are evolving toward a peaceful and just world.

So yes, it is a difficult time for people to buy houses and pay mortgages. Yes, people who have always had some extra money and have not had to live paycheck to pay check can only vaguely imagine how stressful it is to work in order to survive or support a family. But being thankful for what we do have is healing. We can be creative and find alternatives that do not depend on or involve existing misguided authority that wastes our time and energy. Green Fire Times and your [Kidnapped by the House] article helps this networking. This recession offers opportunities for us all to reexamine and prioritize our needs. We can stop seeing ourselves as victims even as we are being wronged.

In this time of history, as others have done before us, many are working towards a balanced civilization that honors our entire planet. Those of us who see the definition of land ownership as temporary caretakers and protectors of land agree that we are blessed to live on the Earth. We are somehow part of many joining circles of sub-cultures, and live in cities as well as rural areas. I am thankful to everyone who is working for a kinder, more sustainable and natural world. I am constantly impressed by how many people are involved in some kind of cooperative, caring endeavor. Thank you, Rebekah, for your informative writings and bringing these issues to light. I’m inspired by your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Laura Robbins

P.S. Please check out the grassroots organization I am part of: Pathways – Wildlife Corridors of New Mexico: www.pathwayswc@wordpress.com

RE: Kidnapped by the House

Your first installment in Green Fire Times was right on target! This has been pretty much my thinking also… at 62 and unemployable, I had to pretty much find ways to survive beyond the trap of jobs, where one is nearly FORCED to sell off 1/3 or more of one’s precious few earthly hours, just to have a roof over one’s head.

I sold my house in Virginia, owned outright by me (left to me by my father when he died in 2003), to my sister in 2006, a house we both grew up in, because I couldn’t afford the real estate taxes (town and county taxes were about $1,100, and both due the same month), and because I pined for northern NM. I moved to Taos, and will be drawing Social Security in about 10 days… until SS goes broke in 2 or 3 years…

About those taxes: how can we be said to OWN our homes, when if we don’t pay the taxes, the town or county will take it away from us? Isn’t this EXTORTION? Maybe you could deal with this in a future installment!

Anyhow, I loved the article, and look forward to the next installment!

William Burke
Taos, NM

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Private Property – The American Dream
Coming to a new land where the institution of private property had never touched these shores, settlers and their descendants had an unprecedented, golden opportunity to not only question, but throw off the worst of feudalistic land tenure arrangements. However the opportunity for change was entirely lost.

The colonists were more than observers; they studied Native land tenure arrangements in an effort to find parallels (there weren’t any) with English property, organized as it was for exploitation and expropriation, in an effort to secure “legal title” to Native lands. It was apparent that Indian land tenure arrangements were entirely different from anything they had ever known. And the colonists were exposed to new philosophies about land tenure. As early as 1678, John Locke extolled the idea of “the natural right of land for all,” as part of Natural Law philosophy, and though he was influential in liberalizing politics, his pronouncements about land were ignored or muddied to advance the “right to private property” for the wealthy minority. By the time of the revolution, British contemporaries Thomas Spence and William Ogilvie, having witnessed the atrocious social ills generated by land engrossment, were engaged in radically questioning ingrained land tenure patterns. They sought change, but nothing took here.

In spite of this blindness, there was formidable protest against the feudalistic tyranny of the past, but it was riddled with “New World” hypocrisy. Thomas Jefferson, for example, went on record as “opposed to the private engrossment of land,” yet kept a bevy of slaves on his plantation following in the footsteps of his father who was a prominent land-grabber. The new elite on these shores, coming from the mercantilist class, simply re-created the old landholding structures with a few adjustments to the system, strictly born of the conditions which they encountered here, rather than a conscious acknowledgement of needed reform. Like a younger generation in vain protest of their elders’ ways, the colonists and their descendents managed to perpetuate the status quo under a new guise. The Americans only honed a land tenure system that operated for the benefit of the few, at the expense of the many.

As Sir Frederick Pollock noted in The Land Laws (1896), “And to this day, though the really characteristic incidents of the feudal tenures have disappeared…the scheme of our land laws can, as to its form, be described only as a modified feudalism.”

It was a land-feeding frenzy right from the start, beginning with the earliest joint stock companies, now known as “corporations,” such as the Plymouth Company and the Virginia Company, both formed in 1606. Though they were ostensibly organized for trading, they were really colonizing ventures; ownership of and profit from land were central to their enterprise. The momentum continued, and by the 18th century, speculation in land was huge. It was the investment game at the time, pre-Wall Street. Our “founding fathers,” President George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, were notorious land speculators, and bought up land by the truckload at pennies an acre. Settlers, since the time of the Pilgrims, were invited onto the land, not for any humanitarian or “freedom of religion” reasons, but to raise the value of land through the improvements generated by their labor.

A central irony of the American experience is that democratic ideas and principles that shaped the US Constitution were originally observed in Native social organization, in particular the Iroquois Confederacy, but the newcomers, though they observed Native land tenure patterns just the same, chose not to imitate them. Their sole objective with regard to land was simply to obtain it, and that they did. All the lands of the US were transferred through purchase, trade, treaty, trickery, theft, coercion or force from the indigenous inhabitants to the newcomers in a span of just 300 years.

The present schism between political and economic democracy, which is so blatant, and accounts for so much misery, is due to this terrible lack of foresight and understanding of democracy in its wholeness, grounded in the equitable distribution and right relationship to land.

After two centuries of land grabbing, Alexis de Tocqueville, that astute observer of the American way, politely penned the following:

“In no country in the world is the love of property more active and more anxious than in the US; nowhere does the majority display less inclination for those principles which threaten to alter, in whatever manner, the laws of property.”

The history of land tenure in America is a long, fascinating story that cannot be told here, but suffice it to say that land acquisition, land “disposal,” first through European and then through state and federal government, land engrossment, land speculation, and land concentration, proceeded at a very rapid pace. But it was only the rich, the wealthy and the powerful who procured lands. They had the upper hand right from the start, and were either government officials or were assisted time and again by government. The masses of people, the landless working poor, were excluded from obtaining land. Finally, after more than 250 years and pressure by land reformers, the Homestead Act was passed in 1862 in an attempt to even the playing field. But it was soon to be seen, even by the government, as a wash and a miserable failure.

Land Rights and Land Reform in America
Contrary to modern opinion, the “third world” is not the only place where land rights and land reform efforts have taken place. US history began with Indian resistance, and has a long and distinguished record that persisted through five centuries right up to the present. Here in NM, the Pueblos courageously fought Coronado’s entrada in 1540, and the Spanish were sent packing back down the Rio Grande in the great Pueblo uprising of 1680. Hispano land grant struggles, mired as they are in complex layers of unjust land-grabbing, are a second layer of resistance. And today, Santa Fe County, and now Mora Valley residents are fighting off oil and gas corporations to preserve their land, water, health and way of life.

Early in the nineteenth century, land rights agitators such as Thomas Skidmore, George Henry Evans and Horace Greeley declared the unequal division of land the basis for social injustice. The following is a typical message from a handbill widely distributed by Evans and Greeley in 1848:

“Are you tired of slavery, of drudging for others, of poverty and its attendant miseries? Then vote yourself a farm.”

The labor movement rallied for the “liberal disposal of the public domain,” and the National Reform Association, which opposed land monopolization and every person’s right to own land, was formed along with the Free Soil Party, which secured 10% of the popular vote in the presidential election of 1848. Newly elected Abraham Lincoln said of pending homestead legislation that he was “in favor of settling the wild lands into small parcels so that every poor man may have a home.”

Due to mounting agitation and pressure by the populace for land, the Homestead Act became law in 1862. The law allowed citizens to acquire 160 acres of public land. The problem for landless Americans was that speculators had already consumed much of the choicest public domain before 1862, and rampant fraud dominated the entire process. In addition, much of the land was given to the railroads, colleges and the states; two-thirds of the land was not arable, and a portion was held for Indian reservations. Between 1860 and 1900, 600,000 homestead patents were issued, yet it is estimated that only one in six acres went from the government to farmer-settlers as intended. By the 1880 census, it was found that landlordism had become entrenched, and farm indebtedness and farmland concentration was on the rise.

Extraordinary land wealth continued to accumulate, and a new crop of land reformers arose, influenced by the violent labor struggles, riots and bloodshed following the widespread depression of 1873–1877. Indignation grew over the coexistence of monumental wealth and dismal poverty.

The most famous land reform spokesperson of the time was Henry George who noted in the progressive rise in land values the presence of an unearned increment which Ricardo had identified earlier in his “Law of Rent.” George subsequently wrote the masterpiece “Progress and Poverty” in 1879, in which he charted a new course for land reform based on the return of the unearned portion of land rent back to society rather than to the landowner. He argued for the imposition of a tax, a single tax on land (while eliminating the tax on labor) to absorb the unearned increment that would provide ample revenue for the operation of government. George effectively identified the fundamental reason for the gross disparities in the distribution of wealth and provided a simple solution, a single tax on land. He discovered a principle of such immense importance that it should put all economists before him to shame. His book became a bestseller and attracted the attention of scholars, statesmen, and the general public both here and abroad for decades, and remains to this day a classic.

At the turn of the century, the conservation movement spearheaded by John Muir coincided with growing public sentiment opposed to the continued expansion of special interests getting an unfair share of land and natural resources. An enormous amount of public land was nationalized, but unfortunately, once again, the wealthy and the corporations prevailed; our public lands became grossly privatized for ranching, mining, forestry, and the oil and gas industries. “Public lands” in many respects are not “public” (only in that we support them through taxes), and they do not consistently serve public interests, but largely profit private industry.

There were other land reform efforts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but the momentum suddenly stopped around 1940 when there was no more land left to be had, and the nation had largely turned from agrarian to urban. The national discourse changed from “land reform” to “agrarian reform,” meaning better productivity of land and better management of resources rather than alteration of the fundamental disparities in land ownership.

A curious thing happened at the same time. “Land ownership” morphed into “homeownership,” a shift that can be traced to President Hoover’s Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership in 1931, and the revolution in credit, which fostered the “illusion of homeownership and fulfillment of the American dream.” Residential mortgage debt grew from $2.9 billion in 1900 to $260 billion in 1965, and homes became the largest single item of credit in the new debt-based economy.

Perhaps this scenario is now sounding familiar…lack of land availability, continually escalating and unaffordable land prices, land-reform-a-foreign-concept, skyrocketing mortgage debt, and unaffordable homeownership.

From the 1930’s on, amnesia about land rights and land reform descended, but it took one last brilliant turn in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s with the appearance of the Community Land Trust land reform model. The little flame has been lovingly tended by a handful of dedicated souls for the past few decades, awaiting its new dawn.

Affordable Housing and Land Reform
Living in an urban environment obscures our relationship to land, and so we don’t think in terms of land rights and land reform as people in agrarian societies do, being that their sustenance and survival is dependent on land in a very direct way. They do not have industrial economies and jobs to fall back on as we do to cushion the loss.

Our landlessness is not anything we ever consider. We only think in terms of jobs and employment, something we have come to expect. The job pays the rent, it pays the mortgage. Should there be an economic downturn, then we’re simply “out of luck.” We are conditioned to believe that the gods or some amorphous gravitational force sets the economy in motion, which is beyond our human control and that there is nothing we can do beyond creating jobs, jobs, and more jobs, while land gets eaten away for more factories, industries and businesses that produce endless supplies of needless consumptive garbage. And the price of land steadily rises.

The fact of the matter is that land issues never go away just because we think they’re gone. The dis-equitable distribution of land and the problems generated by this reality are always with us. The crisis in affordable housing is just one manifestation of the problems generated, and it affects everyone.

Since land is the number one obstacle to affordable housing, there is only one route forward, land reform. There are many types of land reform, but the one that can best assist the rapid development of affordable housing for the most people with the least amount of time, energy and expense, the one has been implemented successfully in communities around the country for over 40 years, is the Community Land Trust (CLT). That is not to say that other types of land reform cannot assist us in achieving the same goal. They can.

Other land reform models include:

a) limit the amount of land anyone can own
b) directly transfer lands that are not being used when there are people in need of land
c) adopt land-value-capture policy as articulated by Henry George where the unearned increment of land value is taxed and goes back to the people, instead of into the hands of private land owners (models exist throughout the world, implemented to some extent)
d) emulate public institutions such as the Alaska Permanent Fund, a public fund of revenues generated from oil and gas reserves owned and held in common by the people, and returned to the people (though not so good for the environment)
e) nationalize land (this is very problematic as experienced by a number of African nations since their “independence,” because exploitation of land and people have been exacerbated with corporate takeovers, courtesy of government-ownership of land)
f) shift the tax burden to land for large landowners and off of small homesteaders and off of labor (very enlightened policy)
g) legislate the constitutional rights of nature (this one is a beauty though not directly land reform).
“In September 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection. Reflecting the beliefs and traditions of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, the constitution declares that nature “has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. The new constitution redefines people’s relationship with nature by asserting that nature is not just an object to be appropriated and exploited by people, but is rather a rights-bearing entity that should be treated with parity under the law. “

The best models don’t just redistribute land or put it into new hands, but change the underlying land-tenure structure. Many of the models don’t do this. They provide a temporary or limited fix. Land-value-capture, land taxation models, and revenue capture from public control of resources do redistribute wealth, which is a worthy goal, but they do not alter underlying land-tenure arrangements based on exploitation and expropriation (private property). The best models reject the commodification and privatization of land and promote access to land as a basic human right for all.

Land is life and we are a part of the land. It owns us and not the other way around. Anyone can observe this most basic truism. The land owns us and not “we own the land.” We all come from the land and to that we shall return. We are all dependent on the land which nurtures and sustains all of us, and all generations, for all time.

All the problems that private property engenders, from rising land values to unaffordable housing, servitude, poverty, environmental degradation, war, and all the social ills, have no foothold where land has not become “property.” The best land reform models acknowledge our natural, proper and right relationship to land and are inherently democratic examples of collective, respectful stewardship.

Before investigating Community Land Trusts, there is one more very important land tenure model that can’t be labeled “land reform” because it was never a reaction to land commodification, the parallel being socialism as a reaction to capitalism. Nineteenth century socialism was a reaction and a response to inequitable economic arrangements, and land reform efforts were its corollary. But we can forget about actions and reactions and start from the beginning, because right here in New Mexico, we are blessed with some of the oldest land-tenure arrangements anywhere; pre-Anglo, pre-Mexican, pre-Spanish, pre-feudal and pre-conquest.

The Pueblo people are our window to the future. They have amazingly maintained communal land tenure patterns over five centuries of conquest. Though they have lost much of their land, they have not capitulated to Western land tenure patterns. The Pueblos are not for sale, and nobody owns them. They have their own internal rules for land distribution and use, and the land is sacred. It exists to support all life, and is not a commodity to be bought and sold for personal gain. The Pueblo cultures and languages have survived because they kept their promise, oath and loyalty to the land, our Mother Earth. The people can go home. There is a home, and there’s no landlord waiting outside to evict them. They can live, survive and flourish from the land. We newcomers, we younger siblings, have a great deal to learn from them, and maybe this time ‘round we can get it right.

To be continued next month. Part 3 will investigate the Community Land Trust model, the foundation of affordable homeownership. 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 that enable 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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Rio Rancho city councilors have approved arrangements to provide land and financing. $500 million in industrial revenue bonds will enable Green2V to build the plant. The company will be required to repay the bonds. The city will buy the 124-acre site from the State Land Office and resell it to Green2V. The city councilors have authorized a number of other major incentives as well.

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A Multiple-part series from the Dreaming NM Project
Project Co-Directors: Kenny Ausubel and Peter Warshall
Production, Writing, Research: Peter Warshall and Arty Mangan
Project Coordinator: Nikki Spangenberg

Can you trace in your mind the ingredients that will soon become your flesh and blood?

Where Does Your Food Come From?

When you sit down and say grace or gobble a burger, can you trace in your mind the ingredients that will soon became your flesh and blood? Most food now arrives like the proverbial stork carrying the baby. But all dreams about healthy food and sustainable agriculture must actually start with Nature. What soils and water grew the food? Who grew it? We must look at farming and ranching in a special way.

Farming and ranching are, for the most part, human managed ecosystems; landscapes in which our species has tried to govern soils, water, weather, plants and animals. Dreaming New Mexico calls these diverse landscapes “agro-ecoregions” to reflect the long history – thousands of years – in which humans have hunted, gathered, cultivated crops and raised livestock in what is now New Mexico (Colorado Plateau, Southern Rockies, Central Plains, High Plains, Arid Lowlands, Transition Mountains).

The six agro-ecoregions are not pristine. With the addition of irrigation from massive waterworks, natural rainfall has become “effective soil moisture.” Hoes, plows, tractors, soil amendments, domesticated livestock and fertilizers greatly altered the soil’s tilth. Custom-designed plants and animals dominate; many are special cultivars from industrial-breeding programs. Hand labor, machines and herbicides remove unwanted plants (“weeds”). Companion plants, crop rotations, integrated pest management, petroleum-based pesticides, and traps and rifles limit unwanted animals (“pests”). Hoops, greenhouses, anti-frost irrigation systems and fans, windbreaks, mulches and greenhouse gases, modify the weather.

Farmers and ranchers dwell in New Mexico’s quilt of agro-ecoregions. “Home” can be on the flat High Plains above the Ogallala aquifer or tucked away, near an acequia, in a mountain valley of the Rockies. Home can be a slot farm on the Rio Grande or on the grasslands between two isolated mountain massifs in New Mexico’s Arid Lowlands. Home can be herding sheep on the cold, desertic Colorado Plateau or out among the windy cap rock of the
Central Plains.

Every New Mexico citizen and elected official knows, and every school teaches which agro-ecoregion they live within. They know its weather, soils, sources of water, five agro-ecoregional crops and the best dates for planting and harvesting. They learn the specific constraints on crops, and a few cultivars custom-designed for an eco-regional and eco-friendly agriculture.

Agro-ecoregions are your most local “foodshed.” They give pride and identity to community life by local, seasonal eating and practical gossip about the rain or drought, gardens, equipment, soil amendments, pest management, new crops, government regulations, and now climate change. They encourage citizens to preserve qualities of home that are not just financial – blue corn, pikki bread, Chimayo chiles, pinon nuts. They shape farm and livestock operations as well as regional food-system businesses, buyers and farmer/rancher organizations. They provide a rhythm to daily work and honor the hard work of farmers, farm workers, ranchers and ranch hands.

DREAM
A public that is more in tune with seasonal harvests, celebrates them, preferentially buys from their agro-ecoregion, and relies less on imports.

In short, there is a local coherence to soils and seasons, and agro-ecoregions anchor social and economic life. With recognition, they literally become the fertile local ground for innovation and investment; a way to connect all the dots from farm gate to home plate; to build a more reliable prosperity and revitalized communities. Throughout this multiple-part series of articles, we try to put our dream inside agro-ecoregional frames.

DREAM
Farm legislation and policy are custom-designed, not to the abstract political State, but to each agro-ecoregion, making sure they are all treated equitably.

Six milestones would describe success: teaching agro-ecoregions in schools and colleges; branding New Mexico crops/meats with agro-ecoregion labels; creating agro-ecoregional labels, creating agro-ecoregional research/extension services to help farmers adapt to climate change; finding new agro-ecoregional crops; legislation based on agro-ecoregions; and development of food centers for each agro-ecoregion.

AGRO-ECOREGIONS

New Mexico’s mountain ranges, the Continental Divide, the Rio Grande Valley and the eastern plains create the quilt of agro-ecoregions. Each agro-ecoregion lists the main sources of irrigation and most profitable crops. Look at your agro-ecoregion and what grows best and which crops/livestock could be locally raised and processed.

Southern Rockies
Agro-Ecoregion:
SNOW, APPLES AND CHIMAYO CHILE

This is the agro-ecoregion of headwater streams of the Rio Grande and, in part, the Canadian rivers. Think snow. Farms are in mountains (mostly 6,000 to 8,500 feet) with a short growing season based on freezes, deep snowpack, snowmelt and spring runoff. It is the only agro-ecoregion with significant surface runoff. The growing season lasts between 100 to 120 days. Elevation and slope are more important than latitude. The highest elevations have very short seasons (as short as 50 days with the threat of freezing at any time). Depending on elevation and slope, precipitation is from 17 to 55 inches, the wettest agro-ecoregion in the state. Farms may need windbreaks and mulches to protect plants that can perish from wind, freeze or winter sun. Fruit trees must be grown on slopes to escape cold air drainage. In some summers, despite the monsoons, high temperatures can cause droughts. At these times, the remaining runoff from snowmelt and shallow wells becomes crucial for irrigating. Wells tap into the valley aquifers fed by snowmelt.

The Southern Rockies is a heartland of Indo-Hispanic farm cultures with many legacy crops. Innovative projects – to regionalize food, aid local farmers, and feed consumers fresh and healthy food – flourish. Truck farms increasingly supply vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs to urban markets, farmers markets and Pueblos. Farms are comparatively small; many farms belong to acequia associations, and a few thrive within Pueblos and reservations (Jemez, Jicarilla Apache, Ohkay Ohingeh, Picuris, Taos, Tesuque). Nevertheless, 70% of agricultural income comes from cattle and sheep seasonally grazed on pasture, on montane grassland in spring and summer as well as on brushland. Grazing requires close cooperation among the Forest service (Carson and Santa Fe Forests), former land grant families, BLM and the pockets of State and private lands.

COLORADO PLATEAU AGRO-ECOREGION:
COLD DESERT, NAVAJO IRRIGATION, SHEEP AND THE THREE SISTERS

This is Navajo country, but perhaps not as romantically envisioned. The San Juan River feeds the Navajo Irrigation Project with two dams, lift stations, canals and drainage works. It is the largest irrigated area (presently over 80,000 acres, scheduled for 110,000) in the agro-ecoregion with hay, wheat, tomatoes, cantaloupes and beans as commercial crops. Besides the Navajo Irrigation Project, irrigation is difficult. Most groundwater is typically 3,000 feet deep with little near-surface groundwater to help resource-limited farmers.

The agro-ecoregion is predominantly Navajo Nation and BLM lands with pockets of private and scattered State lands. It has two parts: the western plateaus with many unfarmable areas (mesas, shale outcrops, cuestas and badlands); and the high intermountain valley (San Luis Valley), which is counted in the southern Rockies for economic data. The growing season is relatively short (120-155 days without frost) with a definite winter season (75 to more than 100 nights below freezing). The Colorado Plateau is semi-arid to arid (7 to 16 inches of precipitation) with relatively high elevations (4,000 to 7,000 feet). A cold winter desert. In addition, the Colorado Plateau – furthest agro-ecoregion from the Gulf of Mexico and blocked by the southern Rockies – has scant summer rain.

The Colorado Plateau has the highest percentage of income from harvested crops (74%), though not the most in cash receipts. Livestock income (26%) depends on irrigated hay, Great Basin shrub and Great Basin grassland. Traditional scattered, “dryland” (non-irrigated) farming features the three sisters (beans, squash and corn) and low-density sheep grazing.

Central Plains Agro-Ecoregion:
SHEEP, SUNFLOWERS AND CAPROCKS

The Central Plains lie at the foot of the Rockies and slope southeastward toward the flatter high Plains. The summer rains produce moisture for growth. At other times it is too cold or too dry. (Average rainfall varies between 12 and 20 inches, depending on elevation.) Crop income is small (22% of total agriculture income), relying on hay (Union and Torrance counties), alfalfa and sorghum. Cattle, sheep and lamb raising – the most important agricultural activities – support themselves on brushland grazing, the irrigated feed, and plains grassland. Most of the land holdings are private with sections of State lands and a few pockets of federal land. Many areas are unfarmable and ungrazable with solution-subsidence basins of karst, cap rock tablelands and steep escarpments.

Irrigation comes from the upper Pecos (Sumner Dam) and upper Canadian (Conchas Dam) and wells in the Santa Rosa aquifer, the Estancia Basin and the valley-basin fill of the Pecos.

High Plains Agro-Ecoregion:
INDUSTRIAL DAIRIES, CATTLE, GROUNDWATER AND FARM/RANCH WEALTH

This formerly homesteaded agro-ecoregion, flat to rolling plains, once supported extensive plains grasslands and prairies of little bluestem. The prairie grassland now grows winter wheat for export and grain corn for the cattle and dairy business.

The High Plains straddles New Mexico’s eastern border and extends from the extreme south to the extreme north. Elevations vary from 4,700 to 7,000 feet. The growing season shortens from 220 days without freezing in the south to 120 days in the north. Snow increases from about 4 to 18 inches. The High Plains closest to the Gulf of Mexico receives 80% of its yearly rain in summer. The northeast section has the second largest number of thunderstorms in the nation. The agro-ecoregion sustains “dryland” (summer season rain) bean farms, short season grain fields and rangeland.

The low rainfall (13 to 18 inches) pressured farmers to irrigate. The Ogallala and Roswell Aquifers and water transfers from the Lower
Pecos and Canadian river provide for irrigated agriculture. The central and southern High Plains now grow paprika, chile, peanuts, pecans, watermelons and other vegetables as well as all kinds of cattle feed (sorghum, hay, alfalfa, corn silage, grain corn). 40% of New Mexico’s commodity sales come from the High Plains.

The flat terrain, predominantly private lands with large pockets of state lands, is good for pasturing and growing grain crops; and the relative low humidity is good for outdoor and semi-confined Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs). The railroad connections to America’s breadbasket as well as Midwestern CAFOs, feedlots and slaughterhouses facilitate even more grain and livestock trade. The High Plains support the largest dairy CAFOs with the largest herd sizes in the US.

Arid Lowlands Agro-Ecoregion:
PECANS, CHILES, ONIONS, DAIRY AND THE RIO GRANDE

The Arid Lowlands produce more crops, nuts, and fruits than any other agro-ecoregion (94% of fruit/nut sales; 93% of orchard acreage; 59% of New Mexico crop sales). Chaves and Dona Ana counties dominate, but northern Bernalillo and Valencia counties produce grapes and potatoes, and raise horses in greater numbers. The southern counties grow chile, pecans, onions, pumpkins, watermelon and many vegetables. Otero has specialty crops like pistachios and sweet cherries. The Arid Lowlands are also the second largest producer of dairy and beef after the High Plains. Livestock feed on hay and graze the Chihuahuan grasslands.

The Arid Lowlands have been blessed and cursed with long hours of sunshine. Blessed by the longest growing seasons (220 days near the Mexican border) and cursed by high evapotranspiration (five to eight times greater than the rainfall, except at its northernmost edge near Albuquerque.) Rainfall is commonly 9.5 to a bit over 13 inches per year, the driest of agro-ecoregions. Think perpetual moisture deficits. The southern lowlands, the most distant part of New Mexico from the north Pacific, experience the smallest winter rains.

The Arid Lowlands has many differing landscapes: the Rift Valley of the Rio Grande, the mountains and valleys of the Basin and Range, the Madrean Sky Islands, and the separate Lower Pecos section. There are unfarmable areas like White Sands, the lava malpais and military bases; and areas limited to grazing on BLM and state properties. Many of the soils need treatment for high levels of calcium carbonate and salt. There are geothermal pockets that have spawned year-round nursery/greenhouse production.

To compensate for an arid climate, extensive water works have been built. The western part of the agro-ecoregion irrigates from the completely controlled lower Rio Grande; the eastern part from the equally controlled lower Pecos. These supplies depend on Southern Rockies snowpack and State Engineer politics. To provide irrigation security, farmers supplement surface water with groundwater – the western section from valley and basin-fill aquifers as well as a major limestone aquifer in Valencia and Bernalillo counties; the eastern section from another limestone aquifer (in Eddy and Chaves Counties). The Tularosa Basin irrigates the exceptionally productive farmland and orchards near Alamogordo.

Transition Mountains and Plateaus Agro-Ecoregion:
RUGGED LAND AND PINON PINES

The Transition Mountains is rugged; all lands are above 6,000 feet with short growing seasons (100 to 180 days) and large expanses of Forest Service property and the Mescalero Apache reservation.
Small numbers of farms grow crops in isolated private properties with long distances to markets. There is no principal aquifer and the canyons of the Gila are so deeply incised that there are few extensive floodplains to grow crops. It is little surprise that this agro-ecoregion has only 903 farms and ranches (4% of New Mexico’s) and 70% of the farms and ranches are losers of agricultural income. In every recent year, commodity and livestock sales have decreased.

The agro-ecoregion has two parts: the Gila Basin (Mogollon mountains, Plains of St. Augustine, Black Range, San Mateo Mountains, Pinos Altos range, Sierra Mimbres, Tularosa/Gallo, Zuni, Mesa and Ladrone highlands) and the Sacramento/Guadalupe mountains. Annual precipitation is 14 to 20 inches a year with snow between 16 to 60 inches. Both increase with elevation. Commonly, there are two distinct drought periods (April/May/June and September/October). Warm season evaporation is about three times precipitation.

Cattle and sheep (in Cibola) predominate with grassland, woodland and brushland grazing. Seasonal grazing occurs in a mix of montane and mixed conifer meadows, riparian vegetation, a fourwing saltbush extension of the plains as well as some Great Basin and Chihuahuan grassland. The extensive wilderness and forestlands of the upper Gila have caused friction between the re-introduced and endangered wolf and graziers.

SEASONAL CYCLES

Each crop has its own seasonal schedule of planting and harvesting.
There are few generalizations. The diagrams give examples of a few New Mexico crops. Seasonal cycles also govern when pesticide, herbicide or integrated pest management tasks should occur; when soils should be tilled and amendments added; and when orchard trees should be pruned. New Mexico has six agro-ecoregions, each with its own frost-free growing season and many more microclimates. New Mexico agronomists breed special varieties of crops and livestock for each region. Climate change has already altered the harmony between cultivar and seasonal cycles, and farmers may need special help as temperatures rise and rainfall changes.

Each kind of livestock has its own seasonal cycle of birth, movements and culling. Seasons determine when free-range livestock young need most protection from predators.

For more information on the DNM Project or to order the Local Foodsheds map and pamphlet from which this article is excerpted, visit www.dreamingnewmexico.org or contact Project Coordinator Nikki Spangenburg: nspangenburg@bioneers.org.

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I respectfully dedicate these words to Lou Schreiber, Stewart Udall and sustainable innovators and visionaries everywhere throughout space and time. We need you now.

Without a government that is fiercely protective of local human rights, we will fail.]

We humans are slipping and sliding on the shifting ground, water and air of an unprecedented moment in history. Looking one way, it’s almost too horrible to contemplate. But looking another way, vast windows of potential, of meaning, of redemption open to us. The entire planet, the entire universe even, welcomes us to rejoin with all life, with all living systems, with each other. The two poles reflect a deeply split and wounded species.

If we were just killing ourselves it would be tragedy enough; but we’re killing an entire living planet with all of its wonderful diversity of living systems, animals, plants, geology, evolution, beauty, wildness and space. The essential question here is…why? And how can we stop this rush to destruction? Is there anything, anything at all that makes destruction on this scale a path that we should want to support? Once you get past the crazies (outer and inner), the answer is a resounding “NO.” But when asked “what part of this word don’t you understand?” the corporate brain responds with a fierce energy, not of just ignorance, but of destruction – mountaintop demolition, war, famine, poison, corruption, dead oceans, polluted air, rivers, earth, endocrine systems, global climate disruption, economic insanity. And it answers through the mouths of our own politicians and judges through billions of dollars worth of ads, billions of dollars in lobbying, our own TV sets, our own newspapers, our own (cough, cough) city and county governments.

But most importantly for this article, it answers us with our own feedback, our own story… “We are helpless… it would be illegal to resist… things are just this way… resistance is futile… it would cost too much! We’d have to change… go without.” We answer the most challenging question in human history with (pax T.S.Elliot) a whimper, not a bang. Some do; not all of us. It’s you that still have non-colonized minds who I want to talk to in the next few paragraphs. If you’re with me this far, you’re tough, positive, awake, resilient and really smart. It wasn’t easy to write those opening paragraphs and I’m sure the reading was none too delightful either. Let’s help each other to look over the next several million years and talk about how to re-chart our course.

First and foremost, we need to revive our common language(s). We have to conspire to do this, a word that simply means breathing together. Take the word “sustainable.” Like so many other words, it has been degraded; hijacked into service of non-sustainable interests. John Ehrenfeld defines sustainability as “the ability of all life, human and non-human, to flourish on Earth forever,” a beautiful, succinct definition that is one example of the level to which we must restore all language. We cannot proceed with other essential restorations – earth, water, air, and culture – without restoring meaning and life to our own language. This restored language will provide us with an invaluable base from which we can begin to restore our own stories, our own interactions, and our own politics.

Take the term “green jobs.” Certainly others have taken that term for greenwashing purposes. But what legitimate meaning does it have? Any job that creates a locally based alternative to fossil fuel based heat, electricity or liquid fuel would be green. Installation of biomass heat, solar heat, energy efficiency or biofuels, as long as they replaced fossil fuels, would be green. Helping to create, run and maintain a municipally owned electricity grid would be way green.

So politics itself can qualify as green when it is of service to local sustainable endeavors. Putting solar panels on a coal/nuclear grid does not qualify as green – shocking, no? Green jobs also have to have a sense of empowerment – they must stand on their own. A green economy will not exploit labor anymore, nor the Earth; in fact, it will re-elevate labor to a position of importance.

Labor unions are an obvious and threatened example of a non-exploitive structure, but so are the emergent forms of organized labor – cooperatives, guilds and even organized entrepreneurs. Open source data sharing in business, politics and education is green. Any administrative job that furthers green labor from finance to advertising would be green. Any job that created as part of a locally based food system would be green – from growing food to shipping it to cooking it to processing it to writing about it to sitting down to enjoy it together – would all be green as long as they were locally based.

Here, you can read bioregionally based or watershed based. Any job that created water catchment or water recycling from individual systems to large industrial systems would be green. Any restorative work of natural systems would be green, as would locally based manufacturing of water harvesting, agricultural, energy, housing, transportation technology, as well as participation in the educational and administrative aspects of all of the above.

So what emerges is a compelling picture of the potential of a green, local economy. Consider just one major local dollar leakage that could be plugged up in a totally green way. That’s the $70 million dollars a year that we as PNM customers pay for dirty, inefficient, coal fired electricity. 85% of every one of those dollars leaves our local economy immediately, with not so much as a thank you. If we owned our grid and based it upon renewable energy, not only would that money stay in our local economy; it would multiply many times over, all without the destructive qualities of non-green dollars. That would be a huge source of completely green local revenue and local jobs, year in and year out. Plus, the level of smarts that creating such a grid would take would raise our collective brainpower substantially. Now add in all those other examples of green jobs plus the ones that you will naturally think of, and we’re talking a lot of (non-destructive) local economic activity.

To accomplish all of the above and more, we have to transition to a deeply democratic political system. Not a system of elected officials split off from the people, but one in which citizen’s councils are empowered to create and guide the various aspects of sustainability (the real kind) in a convergent manner with government; Democracy, in other words. As the second article of our state constitution reads: “All political power is vested in and derived from the people: all government of right originates with the people, is founded upon their will and is instituted solely for their benefit.” That is an extremely clear statement of citizen based democracy and empowerment laid out by our New Mexico founding fathers nearly 100 years ago. And it is the opposite of the teabag movement, as it’s one of deep responsibility, accountability, inclusion and respect. We can and must include citizens and citizens’ ordinances in government again. Without a government that is fiercely protective of local human rights, we will fail.

Finally, the successful onset of a true sustainability movement will depend on innovators – you readers and contributors to Green Fire Times in other words. No one else can move us out of the intense gravity field of non-sustainability, no one. I realize this makes the holders of the status quo a little jumpy, but that’s ok. Our founding fathers were innovators after all. Now we will be able to also benefit from founding mothers, youth, elders, and multiple cultures and multiple stories; all with a common goal – the restoration of a sustainable, resilient, democratic culture and ecology rooted in honesty and deep respect for all nature, human and other. Sound like a pipe dream? When the original people passed the pipe, it was indeed to facilitate dreaming, a common dream of peace and harmony with one another and all life. At this awesome historical juncture, let’s rededicate ourselves to following the Bioneer’s course and begin dreaming New Mexico’s future together, at least for the next three million years. To be continued…

David Bacon is a 38-year resident of Santa Fe. He has spent the last 15 years living in the San Marcos area. He and Mark Sardella installed the first net-metered solar array in NM on David and his partner Louise’s house in 1996.

David ran for Governor (with Kathy Sanchez) on the Green Party ticket in 2002, and for PRC in 2006. He switched to the Democratic Party in 2008 to campaign for Obama. He has been active in local agricultural, ranching, forestry, democracy and energy issues, and especially the fight against oil & gas drilling in the Galisteo Basin.

David is currently running for Santa Fe County Commissioner in District 3. The primary vote is June 1st. Some of his most important education has come from Democracy School work (www.celdf.org). David is running on a platform of democracy, sustainability and community. E-mail: tocino8@cnsp.com or visit www.bacon4district3.com.

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