llenges that have manifested in climate change, biodiversity loss, and rising inequality. Through EcoGather, these networked communities will become more resilient by locally controlling the production and means of access to nourishing and culturally appropriate foods.
In its initial phase, EcoGather will connect five partner communities in Puerto Rico, India, Bhutan, Colorado, and Vermont, and enable them to compare their strategies, challenges, and successes in building transformative communities and food systems.
Using the expertise of its faculty, alumnx, and extended network of ecological changemakers, Sterling College has begun to co-create a series of 24 modular online courses with the five partner communities. Together they are developing modular learning materials that can be used as a foundation for experiential, project-based learning. The first foundational courses will address Agroecology, Food Systems Thinking, and Communities of Care. Subsequent courses will cover subjects such as Soil Health, Water Management, Seed Saving for Food Sovereignty, Alternative Markets for Small Producers, and Culture, Coalition, and Change.
While Sterling will use its expertise in developing the courses, these are not the only sources of knowledge that will inform the courses. “Deep wisdom exists in communities. It is derived from relationships to place that unfold over time and is revealed through conversation,” observes Sterling’s Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Nicole Civita, a food systems educator and advocate who is leading the development of EcoGather. “Unfortunately, much of the ecological knowledge that enabled humans to live harmoniously with their environs was devalued when community-centered agriculture gave way to global agribusiness — a tech-heavy, extractive, profit-driven enterprise that inures to primarily to the benefit of a few multinational conglomerates.” This is not to say that traditional knowledge and modern advancements are incompatible. It is just a matter of selecting relevant technologies to support human-scale and community-oriented farming and knowledge transfer. “By blending place- and project-based learning with remote teaching tools, EcoGather can connect communities with similar struggles and shared objectives in their work with the land, enabling them to share knowledge and strategies that point the way toward a more vibrant and balanced future,” Civita explains.
Each of the five initial partners was invited into the network because the communities they serve face considerable challenges and they have already begun to address those challenges with a commitment to values-based action. The initial EcoGather partners are: the Gross National Happiness Center Bhutan, the Maati-Paani-Asha Center in India, FrontLine Farming of Colorado, the Puerto Rico Science, Research & Technology Trust, and The Center for an Agricultural Economy in Vermont.
Through EcoGather, these five communities will be working to recover the ecological knowledge that was devalued and displaced when community-centered agriculture gave way to the purported advancements of industrialized global agribusiness. The necessary next shift involves respecting place-based knowledge, returning power to communities, and carefully integrating select technologies for human-scale farming and education.
The introduction of EcoGather to communities in Maharashtra, India, is an excellent example of how the partnership will work. EcoGather is being facilitated by the Maati Paani Asha Center of Student and Education Support Association (SESA) in collaboration with Gopikabai Sitaram Gawande College, which uses education to create opportunity in an impoverished region that is poised to face some of the worst impacts from a changing climate.
“EcoGather will accelerate our efforts to reclaim indigenous knowledge as the foundation of a viable agrarian society in this region of India,” says Sumeeta Gawande, Director of Student and Education Support Association and co-creator of the Maati Paani Asha Center. “It will enable us to support farmers