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The Grange movement, Greenhorns' founder Severine von Tscharner Fleming declared last week, is no longer a bastion for "fuddy-duddy pot-luckers." The cool kids, it seems, have arrived. And indeed, the 70 or so souls gathered at SHED to hear Fleming discuss her "Grange Future" project could have been there to hear a band, if babies liked rock music.
"It's hard work," Severine von Tscharner Fleming says simply. "It's incredibly challenging economically, it's incredibly challenging personally. But having autonomy as an individual, running a business, and being of help to your community is a move for personal security, personal autonomy."
Fleming is speaking about the rigors of being a farmer, a job that the latest U.S. census reports is filled with folks 57.1 years of age, a job that is increasingly attractive to folks closer to 27.1 years of age.
Fleming should know. The founder of the Greenhorns, a national grassroots coalition that helps connect young people to each other, to mentors, to land, and to best practices, Fleming got involved in agricultural activism while still a student at UC Berkeley. Her eponymous Greenhorns documentary did more than give direction for her first post-collegiate decade; it spawned a movement.
Fleming appears on Friday, March 7, to discuss the movement, their Grange Future project, and more in a special evening at SHED.