Schoolchildren Teach Organic Farming to Troops
by: Lauren Reichelt on June 10th, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Camino de Paz Team
In May of 2010, a group of northern New Mexico middle school students helped to train the 2nd 45th Agricultural Development Team of the Oklahoma National Guard techniques of organic permaculture farming. The youngsters showed troops how to milk goats, clean eggs and care for bees in preparation for their deployment to Afghanistan in September, 2010. The three week training was coordinated by the Pojoaque, NM-based Permaculture Institute.
These children from my community are the only youngsters who have ever trained US troops.
The Oklahoma 2nd 45th Agricultural Development Team is a battalion of guards formed to assist Afghanistan to rebuild the small farm infrastructure indigenous to that country prior to the Soviet invasion and subsequent simultaneous rise of poppy farming and the Taliban. Leaders of the 2-45 settled upon Northern New Mexico because of its many similarities to Afghanistan. The arid climate, elevation, clan-based cultures, small sustenance farms and use of acequias (or irrigation ditches) seemed to make mountainous Rio Arriba the perfect location for a hands on workshop.
They approached Scott and Arina Pittman of the Permaculture Institute, leading experts in organic semi-arid farming techniques, for help. Scott and Arina sketched out a three-week intensive hands-on permaculture workshop. And they solicited the staff and children of Camino de Paz, a Montessori school that has been integrated into an organic farm, for help. Camino de Paz leapt to mind because they raise goats and sheep which are common in Afghanistan, because they are thrifty with water, and because they rely on draft animals rather than gasoline driven engines to farm.
Chicken Harvest
I stood in the kitchen with Camino de Paz headmistress Pat Pantano while a team of teachers bustled about, beginning preparations for a farewell luncheon for their guests. “They’ve learned beekeeping, permaculture principles, how to milk goats, how to make cheese, and how to butcher animals,” Pat explained. “They’ve butchered chickens and a goat…”
At that moment two men and a women in fatigues clattered noisily into the kitchen carrying trays of steaming goat meat. “Smells good, y’all!” greeted one of the young men.
“Did it work?” asked Pat.
“Sure did!”
Pat turned to me. “We slathered the goat with marinade, wrapped it in muslin, put it in a pit and covered it with apple leaves and then tin and then put sand on top of the tin. We created an underground oven.”
“You could tell when we got to the tin cause all the heat came up,” chimed in Matthew Heath, from Apache OK, a little town just north of Wichita Falls, TX.
Pat continued. “And so every morning that they’ve come they participated in the farm chores with the students who are 11-15, so the kids have been teaching them de-worming, milking, cheese-making. They learned about drip irrigation, laid drip irrigation.”
With Mules
“At first when I presented the idea to the kids they were sort of standoffish because we talk a lot about peace and diversity here,” said Pat. “I mean, we’re Camino de Paz. It’s our name. So we went to the website of this unit and we looked at their goals for this mission and as a unit and we actually found that we have some things in common: teamwork, responsibility, discipline, helping eachother make a difference. We learned that there are some people in the military willing to risk their lives on a daily basis to try to help people rather than destroy.”
“Why’d you volunteer for this mission?” I asked Heath.
Heath said, “I personally thought it was going to be more beneficial. So I just went and jumped onto it. I been on a lot of mission trips with my church and my community. My community, we go out and get together and we do stuff.”
“The troops also went to both the Santa Fe and Los Alamos farmers markets to see about developing that kind of structure in Afghanistan,” Pat told me.
At that point, Major Chris Shoffner joined the conversation. He seemed older than the other troops in the kitchen. “I’ve got 23 years of service,” he explained. “For me it’s … people laugh, especially hearing about the ag mission … but I love it. I have an agriculture background.”
I asked him if being taught by children had affected him. “Working with the kids was a great experience. It makes you slow down, listen to the kids, let them instruct you. It made me miss my kids. I just like comin’ here to New Mexico, seein’ the different cultures. I have not experienced an agricultural school like this before. Until all the NGOs are able to get established in a combat zone, we’re a temporary fix. We’re out there to counter the insurgency.”
“You’re a Peace Corps,” I tried to clarify.
Goat Wrasslin'
“With weapons,” he added. “Everybody in our unit has an ag background of some sort. Mine was in the city in horticulture. Lt Col. Arnold works for DOT as a civil engineer.”
A short spunky woman with a thick Oklahoma twang entered the kitchen carrying a bucket of eggs. “I’m Sargeant Lacy Spanier,” she introduced herself, setting down the eggs. “I was active duty with the 101st airborne. I was active duty for three years and then I decided to transfer into the National Guard. I’ve deployed one time to Iraq. I’m a truck driver in the army and a Deputy in the civilian world.”
Major Shoffner resumed speaking. “Just understand that we’ve got large animal husbandry, horticulture, Agronomy, all sorts of backgrounds. We even got one fellow…name of McComas, with rodeo experience. He’s out wrasslin goats right now. You don’t wanna be caught in a van with him today!”
You can view more photos of the OK 2-45 through the Permaculture Institute.
You can contact Pat Pontana to donate, learn about or otherwise support Camino de Paz Farm and Montessori School at this site.
Photos courtesy of Karen Koch.
How refreshing and uplifting to read this, especially in its details that are so important and meaningful! This should fill our newspapers, newsletters and screens with pictures and requests for participation. What better way to inspire others to act similarly in schools and communities all over the world.?
To restore a positive spirit while offering the most practical of information toward a realistic, sustainable and do-able future — what better messages to put out everywhere possible.?!
Thank you for sharing this. It’s made my day.
Shira
This is one of the coolest and most hopeful and inspiring things i have read or heard about in recent memory!!!!I It’s too cool to be true! I mean i know it is–but i am astounded. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this…what we could do, in place of what we too often do do
Alhumdullilah, Ya Ha Tay and Keshi …, et al
including of course Buenos, and Vaya con Dios, Que le vaya bien
Fascinating post, Lauren. Really nice piece of reporting. I feel very happy to hear about the kids learning these skills. I can’t say I feel so happy about the Ag Team going to teach people in Afghanistan: it’s not just the military context, it’s that I imagine the Afghanis know more about how to farm their lands than any outsiders, especially ones who had to go to New Mexico to get some relevant skills. There has been an assumption for so long that “we” teach “them,” the rich countries teach the poor countries. This has led to so much misdevelopment in poor countries: but maybe the ag team know all about that and can avoid it somehow. I hope so. I am sure they will learn a lot from the Afghanis. And I’m not disparaging the Permaculture Institute: they sound terrrific. I am just a little skeptical after hearing so many tales of westerners with great good will but unconscious arrogance whose aid was not, in retrospect, so helpful.
The kind of “meta-learning” that can happen in a rural area of a very poor country when the foreigners come in as Peace Corps or whatever, even when teaching cool things, is that the locals discover with new clarity that they are poor, uneducated, powerless, and “stupid”; their elders not to be trusted. Their young people start to dream of having a radio or watch or cellphone or clothes like the foreigner, and to long for the city where these things are to be found. It’s like the meta-learning that all too often happens in our education system, that I doubt those Montessori kids are getting but that many of us did get: that we are not smart, and can’t rely on ourselves. The unconscious effects of aid workers on poor countries are a dilemma for the whole development aid industry. When they come wearing guns and uniforms, backed by the most powerful military in the world, I can’t really begin to imagine what the meta-learning is. Did you get any sense of how aware the ag team might have been of this kind of dilemma?
Yes those are serious issues. I didn’t talk to them specifically about this, and I am sure they were not trained extensively in comparative culture. Mostly, these were young men and women from rural Oklahoma. A few had been to Iraq but I didn’t meet any who had been immersed in another culture. And yes, guns certainly inhibit communication.
I think learning from the children and briefly experiencing some of the diverse cultures of northern New Mexico were a step in that direction, and show that somebody in senior command is aware of these issues. Some commander somewhere in Oklahoma decided to contact the Permaculture Institute and to allow children to train their troops although nothing like this had ever been done before. This individual must have been wracking his or her brain to find a way to teach humility and cooperation in a very brief time period. The selection of a farm that uses draft animals rather than technology was probably intended to teach the troops empathy and an appreciation for the skills required to eek out a living on a subsistence farm. In fact, many of the troops spoke to me about how moved they were at being invited into the local church for services and supper, and by the hospitality extended by local Hispanics and Native Americans. They also talked about learning to slow down to listen to what children were trying to say. The excursion definitely raised this type of awareness for them.
Did they achieve a masters degree in appropriate economic development in the developing world? By no means. Did they learn valuable lessons that might cause them to think creatively about cultural differences? Absolutely.
how wonderful to read this “good news!!” thanks, Dave & Tikkun!! may the “camino de paz” energy & teaching continue w/each of the soldiers no matter where they go!
Just write like you’re talking to your friends. And soon, they will be.