To all fellow gardeners, farmers, singers and musicians!
I’m on the hunt – or forage, if you will – for songs about plants, food, farming, labour and land.
Do you have any suggestions?
Last summer, some friends and I explored songs and sang as we worked in the fields of urban Vancouver, planting out and weeding. Every other row of kohl rabi or onions we’d be immersed in discussions and reflections on global food systems and our relationships with land and plants. And then we’d start another song.
Around the same time, I read this, from Raj Patel:
Agricultural sustainability doesn’t depend on agritechnology. To believe it does is to put the emphasis on the wrong bit of ‘agriculture’. What sustainability depends on isn’t agri- so much as culture.
from The Value Of Nothing, Raj Patel
We’re really excited to find more songs, to learn and share stories of food and culture through song – and we’d love to hear from you. If you’ve got ideas of songs which could be part of this project, please share them on the Field Songs Suggestions Page.
Songs from anywhere around the world, in different languages, are very welcome – so far the people involved in this project can speak English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Welsh, and it would be wonderful to explore more.
The working title of this fledgeling project is Field Songs and Field Singers – though field, in this context, has its widest possible interpretation, as we’d most certainly include ‘forest’ as part of our food systems… and rivers… and seas… and gardens… Ok, you get the idea!
Thank you – we are so much looking forward to hearing from you!
> > > Go to the Field Songs Suggestion Page
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