Blog#1

What do you want to get out of the course?  What interests you about “green politics?”  What do you want to explore?

After looking over the syllabus in class, I hope to gain a fuller understanding of "green" communities and networks. That is - I have been interested in these communities for some time, but my work and school have prevented me from becoming any more involved than a committed consumer of local foods and goods. I have also always thought of "green politics" as just another way of saying ecological policy. I never have been able to divorce the word Politics from the popular connotation of city, state, and national governments. 

I would love to explore the potential for stabilizing neighborhoods and other similar sized communities through pervasive, low intensity food and durable goods production. For example - What would happen if every household in America grew just one tomato plant? How would the current "crisis" among American mega corn farmers be affected if all the vacant plots of land in cities were planted with corn? I guess what I am saying is - How can local reciprocal networks of production work to lessen our dependence on heavily mechanized, outsourced, or otherwise intensive systems?