Author: Paul Rogé
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M&R Log 2019
In October 2019, I broke my arm playing a late night game of roller hockey. My inability to do much physical activity for a month got me thinking more seriously about buying a sailboat. I purchased Grace November 2019. She was previously owned by a couple with a slip directly across from my father’s sailboat.…
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Discussing the Food Systems Minor at UC Berkeley: a three year report
This report highlights the accomplishments of the Food Systems minor at UC Berkeley. We hope to stimulate a conversation on how to showcase the importance of experiential education and critical thinking around food systems at public institutions of higher education like UC Berkeley.
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Improvisatory Activist Scholarship
I define improvisatory activist scholarship as attempts to disrupt commonly-held meanings in research through the skilled negotiation of unexpected circumstances and through attention to the circulation of power among collaborators. Metaphors from the dancing of contact improvisation (CI) serve as a bridge to highlight improvisational aspects of participatory action research (PAR).
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Indicators of Land Insecurity for Urban Farms
A 2018 study, based on surveys with 56 urban farm managers in California, finds that urban farms displaying greater land security receive more financial and institutional backing, and are generally located in economically prosperous census tracts.
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Perennial Grains for Africa
Perennial grain crops have been proposed as a transformative approach to agriculture. Replacing annual staple crops with perennialized growth types of the same crops could provide environmental services, improve labour efficiency and weather resilience, reduce seed costs and produce livestock fodder or fuelwood production. Yet, the technologies and science for agricultural development in Africa have…
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Urban Agroecology
Urban agriculture (UA) is becoming a major sustainable alternative for food security on an urbanised planet. Urban production of fresh fruits, vegetables, and some animal products, near consumers, improves local food security, especially in underserved communities. By improving access to fresh,nutritious food,UA can help in combating childhood obesity, diabetes, and poor nutrition that are prevalent…
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Perennial Grain Crops in the West Soudanian Savanna of Mali
We study the future possibility of integrating perennial grains into Malian farming systems from the perspective of agroecology, and more specifically using a gendered space approach. We interviewed 72 farmers across the sorghum-growing region of Mali. We found that perennial grains offer a vision for transforming human relations with nature that mirrors the resource sharing…
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Advancing On-Farm Climate Resilience with Citizen Science
Researchers and farmers across the USA are teaming up on science. The aim is to learn more about climate resilience on the farm by tracking and supporting farmers’ experimentation and practice. First things first: building a network and finding out what to measure together.
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Agroecological and Social Transformations for Coexistence with Semi-Aridity in Brazil
This article explores whether a shift in development paradigm resulted in coexistence with semi-aridity for residents of the Semi-Arid region of Brazil (SAB). If so, which strategies contributed and which conditions facilitated it?
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Ratooning and perennial staple crops in Malawi
Here we review ratooning, as well as the historic role of perennial staple crops in Malawi. Ratooning is a method of harvesting a crop which leaves the roots and the lower parts of the plant uncut to give the ratoon or the stubble crop. This review is completed with interviews with Malawian farmers.
