Episode-1567- Curtis Stone on Making a Living of the Land, New Anarchism and Local Trade
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Get ready and strap in today. We are going to really blow things up with our guest Curtis Stone. Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres (est. 2010), a commercial urban farm based out of Kelowna, BC. Farming under a half acre of land spread over multiple plots in the downtown core, they sell vegetables to some of the cities best restaurants, wineries, and a weekly farmers market.
Curtis also works as an educator, consultant, and writer on the subject urban farming throughout North America. He joins us today to discuss three explosive topics…
- 1. Implementation of quick cash flow based annuals into pasture and perennial based farms.
- 2. The New Anarchist Front; escaping tyranny by using urban ag as a vehicle to build social equity in cities through production, education, outreach, and getting rich at the same time. Urban farmers as a decentralized unified front for State dissent from within the belly of the beast.
- 3. Local trade economics; food production is like printing money. Leveraging what everyone needs to get what you need. Farmers sit at the center of a multi ring circle. Food production is central, value add food is next, then food services, and from there we have skilled labor and trades, and outside of that is specialized services and expertise. Farming is the backbone of the local economy. In this new decentralized local economy, farmers are the lynchpin to the whole system, not the indentured laborers.
When I met Curtis I was excited to talk to him knowing about his successful 6 figure business, that began on land he didn’t own, in the suburbs, in the back yards of others. Basically he had set a high bar for himself, one he easily cleared. There are few times that I meet a person and immediately feel I am talking to a true brother in spirit, Curtis is one such person. Today’s show will absolutely rock!
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1567
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- AgriTrue.com
- GenForward
- Knife Kits – (sponsor of the day)
- Backwoods Home – (sponsor of the day)
- The Duck Chronicles – Video Series
- Profitable Urban Farming – Curtis’ Course on Urban Farming
- Curtis’ Podcasts on Permaculture Voices on Urban Farming
- Green City Acres – Curtis’ Farm Site
- Article on the 8 Forms of Capital We Were Discussing
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.
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This was an awesome interview. Love your ideas for making a difference through farming.
What about a show on how to market directly to chefs? Maybe include Chef Snow from the expert council for tips/tricks to help small local farmers make contact with their local restaurants.
Great question/request Adam.
Jack?
agreed. would love to hear an interview with Chef Snow or someone else who has a lot of experience in that.
Hopefully its ok with Jack to post this — until we get an episode on this topic you may be interested in another podcast i listen to — the ruminant podcast, episodes 31 and 32 are about best practices in selling to chefs.
Curtis Stone has already done exactly what you are requesting on at least Permaculture Voices and I believe on TSP.
PS: Jack, this was another truly outstanding show. My only hope even just one person makes the connection and difference between capitalism and crony capitalism/neo-fascist government control and manipulation of our lives for the benefit of government, multi-national corporations, the major financial institutions and the uber-rich.
Anarchist John “Caribe”
GREAT SHOW
Another rocking show!!! I love it. Listening to this after planting 50 strawberry plants and my husband is off working at his new business.
Loving it!
Great show. Where can we see a picture of Curtis’ cute truck? I’m wondering what kind it is.
You know, … when I first saw the synopsis for this episodes I was like Rolling My Eyes and thinking “Meh – I can probably skip this episode.”
Then, for some reason, I had time to kill and so I played this episode in the background.
I was SHOCKED to learn that Jack and I are “brothers” on the whole “Actifed fiasco” that being wtf did they do with the anti-allergy drug that took care of ALL of my symptoms? LOL
I found the interaction between Jack and Curtis to be fascinating and a joy to listen to!
Good on you!
KK
I’ve been told more times than I care to count, that I’m very picky when it comes to the people I like, or the media I consume. I’ve come to realize that I just don’t care to listen to people that don’t know anything that they are talking about. With that said, this was a great show because both of you clearly “get it”
Great interview. Curtis is doing great things. I hope to meet him one day. Maybe a road trip to Kelowna is in my future!
Great show. You two touched on many issues and it just wasn’t a permaculture promo. Well done guys!
Awesome show! Thanks as always!
Health Co-op.
Jack, These are already happening in the USA.
Most of these are Christian based because of a loophole in the Obama Care plan: https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/
http://samaritanministries.org/
If I wasn’t on Tricare I would seriously be using one of these. They have some stipulations on vices but as you discussed it’s a co-op of people with similar values and beliefs that pool their money and help others.
I have several friends that use this and it works.
Can we clarify what the term ‘Purple Breathers’ means? Jack used it a couple times in this episode…
Never mind, found this:
http://permaculturenews.org/2015/04/03/the-duck-chronicles/
Now if I could just calculate ‘the square root of fµ¢k-all’, I’d be all set!
“You can’t get into permaculture and avoid becoming an anarchist.”
Boy howdy, ain’t that the truth? I probably come at a lot of things from a starting point much closer to Curtis’s than Jack’s — but since embracing permaculture not just as a practice but an organizing principle for my whole life, I know that I’ve abandoned many of my previously held core beliefs as shibboleths, and instead work to change my own life first and then hopefully inspire neighbors and friends through that example. Great interview.
I see purple breathers everywhere, they don’t know they are breathing purple!
The term was coined by Larry Santayo and most people that don’t like it indeed don’t even know what it means, but most of the time it does mean them.
Ironically most purple people like Larry Santayo and have no idea he is the source of the term!
I recently had one person upset with the term and they decided it meant anyone committed to the ethics or anyone that is “spiritual” and said that clearly that meant people like Masanobu Fukuoka and Bill Mollison.
Now the upset party was an absolute breather of purple but absolutely wrong in his definition of purple breather, likely because he was one. He also wants to identify with men like Fukuoka and Mollison but both are about as purple as I am!
The general characteristics of a purple breather
1. More concerned about what they think you do wrong then in their opinion then doing what is right for themselves. Also often more concerned with how people think, rather than what they do.
2. Wants to make permaculture about social justice via politics and can’t comprehend that BOTH founders are anarchists.
3. Generally they are highly non productive, doing almost nothing but enamored with a twisted version of Permaculture ideology.
4. Every other sentence has something in it about Carbon Footprints and Global Warming, though they actually do the square root of fuck all for the bettering of the environment.
5. Full of excuses about why they can’t get land, get something done, etc.
6. Generally of the hippy like vibe yet actually I find it insulting to real hippies to say this. I call them drainbow hippies. Even the real hippies would rather not have them around.
7. Far more concerned about feeling than doing.
8. Considers profit wrong, hence has little to no grasp about the realities of economics, farming, agriculture, business, etc.
9. Carries massive emotional baggage, tosses around words like “white privilege” and wants you to acknowledge their baggage and carry some of your own out of some twisted sense of moral obligation.
10 . In general a person that likes the idea of permaculture but doesn’t want to do the work required to actually establish productive systems, wants to live in unsustainable cities while, lecturing others on sustainability, considers people like me “right wing”, etc.
Or the short answer, no real firm grasp on reality and they want to make permaculture about social politics vs. getting meaningful shit done.
For what minimal value it may be worth, I can definitely attest to what Jack is talking about being generous. I have experienced first hand his generosity.
I can see it the deeply embedded artificial scarcity I have inside of me. When you work a job, and your livelihood is barely in your own control, that is exactly what it produces.
Great podcast. I already miss hanging out with you guys around the fire. It didn’t take but a few minutes of meeting Curtis to realize just how much we have in common. What a great role model.
Loved this show. Have him on again!!!
IMO breaking your DOLLAR addiction is the top thing you can do to promote your personal liberty.
The DOLLAR is a product, that you’ve been brainwashed into believing you can’t live without. How do you get it? By trading your LIFE for it.
Why do governments love money monopolies? They make taxation possible. Without a ‘standard’ yardstick to measure every value exchange against, there’s NO WAY to figure out how much ‘your contribution’ needs to be.
So.. seriously.. work on your ability to NOT HAVE TO work for dollars. If you stop making dollars, you stop paying (most) taxes.
How?
Check out Mr. Money Mustache, Early Retirement Extreme or the classic Your Money or Your Life.
Working towards your freedom from the tyranny of the DOLLAR should be on your short list of ‘paths to freedom’.
Stop trading your time for dollars. Start trading them for WHAT YOU WANT. Starve the beast while working less! (true win-win)
Another thing that pops to mind is the idea of ‘enough’. Once you get out of scarcity mode and scarcity thinking.. there is no temptation to violate your integrity to make a buck.
It’s just not even appealing.
Nor are you going to work at ANYTHING that you DON’T GIVE A S*** ABOUT. How many of your are working at something that DOESN’T MATTER (to you)?
That’s ALL about your messed up relationship with the DOLLAR.
(I know.. yelling.. but this is SERIOUS stuff.. this is YOUR LIFE..)
What ‘who’s gonna do x?’ really means:
I want SOMEBODY ELSE to do x. (educate my children, care for my parents, plan for my retirement, protect me..)
the anarchist answer:
Me. I’ll do it.
But for me, not for you.
Because I do not exist to be a slave, and neither do you.
I hope you have him back. Good stuff!
What is the video on YouTube that Jack mentions in this show. Does anyone have link or a search term?
Be more specific, I do a show a day and don’t remember.