Trick or Treat: Agroecology, Community Resilience, and the Impending Fright of the Climate Crisis

By Corinne Hill-James

May 7, 2021

Farmers are always at the whim of the weather. One drought or storm can mean the difference between bounty and bankruptcy. As the global climate crisis unfolds, our food systems are becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and unpredictable weather. How can we, as farmers and the people who depend on farmers, prepare for the changes in climate that are to come?

As the climate evolves, how we practice agriculture must evolve. Agroecology is not new, but it has been forgotten by much of our industrialized, profit-driven system of agriculture that predominates in the United States. In an agroecological approach, farmers begin to rebuild networks of resiliency within the greater community they are part of, something that conventional farming neglects. According to the Warf Encyclopedia definition of agroecology written by V. Ernesto Méndez, “in agroecology…farming communities are seen as part of a broader social and ecological landscape in which farmers and other rural actors interact and negotiate to pursue their particular goals.”

This is what the resiliency of those community networks looks like in practice:

October 31, 2019 was a memorable day for farmers that depend on the rich, fertile land of the Winooski River floodplain in Burlington, VT. 3.3 inches of rain fell and temperatures reached a balmy 71 degrees, breaking records on a holiday where trick-or-treaters would ordinarily plan to hide their costumes under down jackets and hear the crunch of dried, frosted leaves beneath their feet. On a landscape that has been prized for thousands of years for its productive agricultural soils fertilized by the frequent flooding of the Winooski River, this Halloween brought farmers one scary trick. Eight farms operate on more than 250 acres of land in the floodplain that is managed by the Intervale Center, a nonprofit that supports sustainable local food systems. The land of Burlington’s Intervale, insulated by the river and the surrounding hills of the Champlain Valley, usually supports a longer growing season than other frost-prone farmland at higher elevations nearby. A Halloween flood, however, caused the sudden fright of a season cut short. Farmers feared damage like that from 2012’s Tropical Storm Irene, a storm of unprecedented impact that affected the state for years. Crops contaminated with floodwater become unsellable, rendering anything left in the field a lost investment. A landscape that usually provides the community with $1.4 million worth of food each year forced the community to sacrifice their final months’ bounty to the monstrous power of Mother Nature.

Figure 1: Drawings throughout this post are taken with permission from an original comic created by Iona Fox following the flooding of Tropical Storm Irene in 2012. Iona created these comics to reflect her experience as an employee of Pitchfork Farm on the Intervale following these floods. Visit Iona’s website at http://ionafoxcomics.com/.

Now, in October 2020, one year after the Halloween flood, weathered shards of blue and green glass sparkle in the soil alongside agricultural fields. The glass is left over from when the land was used as a dumping ground after being abandoned by dairy farmers who had never recovered from a tragic flooding event in 1927. While gentle in comparison, the flooding in 2019 was powerful enough to wash up buried glass and metal artifacts and scatter them across the floodplain. The tool shed on Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm still bears a shocking waterline revealing the ghost of several feet of floodwater. 

The fright for farms on the Intervale was severe. Diggers’ Mirth would normally have at least a month left to harvest and sell late-season crops, but as the rain fell, they had to rush to salvage everything they could before water reached their fields. 

But something special happened during this scare that brought Diggers’ Mirth and other farms on the Intervale a surprising Halloween treat. Overnight, the farms gathered an army of dozens of volunteers to help salvage their end-of-season produce from the fields.

Figure 2: A Facebook post from ICF calling for community help to save crops from floodwater.

Figure 3: Community members rushing to the Intervale to save their farms.

Figure 4: Iona's depiction of community volunteers harvesting crops before floodwater reached them, highlighting the irony of a good season prior to the flood.

Hannah Baxter, Gleaning and Food Access Manager at the Intervale Center, refers to the response as a true example of “community-supported agriculture” (CSA). Diggers’ Mirth and its neighbor, the Intervale Community Farm (ICF), had developed deep ties within the greater Burlington community that created a network of resiliency in the face of a natural disaster. Micah Barritt, one of the five co-owners of Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm, spoke of the farm’s commitment to community while leading a tour to students in the University of Vermont’s undergraduate Advanced Agroecology Course: we “give people what they really need,” he said. He explained how they pioneered the Old North End Farmers’ Market in a neighborhood of Burlington where the lack of access to fresh, healthy food makes it a food desert. Vendors sell produce here at a fraction of the price they would sell it for at other markets. Furthermore, due to the transportation and access barriers created by COVID-19, the farm began offering a home delivery service to get their produce directly to the doors of people in need. Micah explains that these management decisions do not make the farm rich—they do things this way because they are committed to serving their community. 

Figure 5: The Old North End Farmers' Market in Burlington in June 2016 taken from the market’s Facebook page.

Commitment to community pays off in other ways. Hannah, a professional crop salvager, joined the gleaning efforts at ICF after the Halloween flood because she wanted to make sure she, a member of ICF’s CSA program, and others would have veggies to eat for the rest of the Fall. These farms grew by listening to and responding to the demands of their consumers. They set aside maximizing yield and profit and instead ensured that they were truly meeting their communities needs for access to healthy, local, delicious food. 

This connection to community is an essential dimension of agroecology that sets it apart in practice from conventional farming. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that the agriculture industry lost $20 million due to Tropical Storm Irene in 2012. The department lists potential strategies to help farmers to adapt to flood risks associated with climate change in their resource page on their website, “Farming the Floodplain: Trade-offs and Opportunities,” but they fail to mention anything about the power of community relationships. 

Figure 6: Iona's illustration of volunteers shuttling crops into safety before flooding reached the farms.

Our national food system will risk a complete collapse as the climate crisis unfolds if we do not begin to move away from industrial farming that exists in isolation from its neighbors and consumers. Agroecology’s value of community-interdependence will become essential. The response to flooding disasters on farms on the Intervale prove how valuable strong communities are for farms. If we follow the example of Diggers’ Mirth and ICF and bring farming back to the community, we will begin to regain resiliency.

Figure 7: A season cut short, but offering invaluable lessons in agroecology practice