The People’s Agroecology School of Vermont
Rural Vermont was formed out of the organizing work of farmers, community members, and allies in the face of the farm crisis of the 1980s, a direct response to the corporate consolidation and globalization of our food system. Led by farmers and farmworkers in Vermont, Rural Vermont has long been in solidarity with national and international agrarian movements for food sovereignty through our membership and work with the National Family Farm Coalition and La Via Campesina. The Vermont Agroecology School, operating under the provisional name the People’s Agroecology School of Vermont, is an emerging, independent project of Rural Vermont. It joins a global network of agroecology schools aiming to facilitate educational experiences that foster people's self-transformation into land-based organizers and stewards of social change. The “Each One Teach One” Agroecology Encounter, hosted in Marshfield, Vermont in July 2022 marked the launch of the Vermont School (see video below).
What is Agroecology and Food Sovereignty?
Agroecology is the systematization of ancestral, indigenous peoples’, peasant, farm worker, and migrant ecological knowledge applied to food and farming systems. Agroecology is the basis for food sovereignty: the right of peoples to collectively build and control their own food systems, lands, waters, seeds and territories, based on ecology, culture, and social justice. Many popular organizations of small scale farmers, peasants and farm workers around the world, among them Rural Vermont, have been working to work to globalize agroecology.
What is the People’s Agroecology School of Vermont?
The Vermont School is led by a Collective of Vermont-based farmers, educators, and organizations, with support from international leaders with experience co-founding and working with agroecology schools across the world. The model of the Vermont School is inspired by the success of agroecology schools around the globe while being rooted in the political and agrarian context of Vermont. The School is itinerant, meaning we do not have a permanent base or classroom site, but rather partner with local farms to offer education to the community.
The School's intention is to model what we want to see in the world, including an internal culture of uplift, care and responsiveness to emergencies, strategic action, diversity, solidarity and collaboration. The School builds on the work of many local, national and international farmers and farmworkers, food sovereignty organizers and educators that have long worked to grow and adapt the region's agroecological movement.
The school's work is inspired by the educational schools of La Via Campesina, the Peoples' Agroecology Process, and other local, regional and international experiences, and is oriented to support and share lifelong agroecological skills, political education, and uplift the culture of collectivism and internationalism. While being connected to and strengthened by broad agroecology networks, the school is focused on addressing the needs of agrarian communities in Vermont.
What the School Does
Supports community scale farmers and agrarians through technical agroecological education, catalyzing self-organization, and common purpose
Facilitates farmer-to-farmer exchanges to explore solutions and responses rooted in our community to nourish people and the ecosystems we inhabit
Works to create and strengthen social movements and popular struggles that advance our shift away from an imperialist and agri-capitalist food system and towards community food sovereignty
Uplifts a people-led effort to combat global climate change, social inequality and other capital-generated crises
Provides political education, especially focused on cooperation, solidarity and internationalism of the people, building on the movement for Food Sovereignty
How We Do It
Hands on agroecological educational experiences and Work Brigades as tools to support farmers, build community resilience, and reinforce traditional knowledge and other ways of knowing
Political Education Workshops centering a culture of solidarity to connect the needs of local agrarian communities to the global movement for food sovereignty
Farmer-to-Farmer exchanges focused on agroecological skill building and horizontal transfer of knowledge, hosted in Vermont and by allies across the world
Connection to the global movement for food sovereignty through La Via Campesina and local and global allies and trusted educational partners
Get Involved
Learn about and RSVP for our series of on-farm work brigades and educational events October 3-10 as part of the Short Course in People’s Agroecology
Join our mailing list to keep up to date on offerings and events
Submit a Request For Brigade to host an upcoming work brigade at your farm (Coming soon. Interested? Email us!)
We are moving this process forward slowly, at the speed of trust, in partnership with a network of individuals, organizations, activists, and leaders. For more information on this initiative contact mollie@ruralvermont.org
Modeled on the structure and success of similar schools around the world, The People’s Agroecology School of Vermont is an autonomous project of Rural Vermont. The School seeks and receives funding separately from Rural Vermont.
Check out this short video of the July 2022 Each One Teach One Agroecology Encounter: