MANIFESTO
CHESTNUT
CHERRY
WILD
APPLE
HAWTHORNE
ELDER
BERRY
CURRANT
NETTLES
ROSE
STRAWBERRY
THYME
SPRING
ONION
FOOD
FOREST
FUTURES
LACE THE UNDERSTORY WITH WILD STRAWBERRY. GRAFT FRUIT. BEFRIEND WEEDS. LEARN WHAT DANDELION CAN DO FOR YOUR SOIL YOUR MEDICINE CABINET YOUR SALAD. LET RADICAL FOOD FORESTRY OFFER YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT WITH DIFFERENT WORLDS - PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE.

WALK THE SAME PATH EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR, OBSERVING OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTRA-ACTION. WHERE COULD YOU TUCK SOME CORN, BEANS, AND SQUASH (HAUDENOSHAUNEE PLANTING TECHNOLOGY) OR ELDERBERRY CUTTINGS FROM A NEIGHBOR’S YARD? LET FOOD FORESTRY SHAPE ALL YOUR RELATIONS.

UNDERSTANDING THAT ALL OF THE AMERICAS WERE FOOD FORESTS PRIOR TO EUROPEAN COLONIAL CONTACT. UNDERSTANDING THAT THE GENOCIDE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, AND FORCED LABOR THAT WORKS ALONG A GLOBAL COLOR LINE ARE ALSO PART OF THE SAME GLOBAL PROCESS THAT SIMPLIFIES ECOLOGIES AND ENCLOSES MULTI-SPECIES COMMONS FOR
THE FACTORY
THE MONOCROP
THE PLANTATION
THE CORPORATION.
RADICAL FOOD FOREST FUTURES RECOGNIZE THE PAST-IN-THE-PRESENT WHILE HELPING US TO RECUPERATE AND IMAGINE JUST, THRIVING, TASTY FUTURES.

LEARN THE COMPANIONS OF CRATAEGUS AND MALUS FUSCA. BEFRIEND A RANGE OF FRUIT EATERS AND POLLINATORS THROUGH EXCESS OFFERINGS.

RADICAL FOOD FORESTS ARE MULTI-SPECIES COMMONS THAT DEFY THE BINARY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY. COMMONS ARE SHARED SPACES OF COOPERATIVE LABOR, WHERE ENGAGEMENT AND RELATIONSHIP FOSTER ABUNDANCE. COMMONS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR CULTIVATING ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE IN THE CAPITALOCENE. LET RADICAL FOOD FORESTS BE THE COMMONS OF YOUR WILDEST DREAMS.

In spring 2019, Bennington College was awarded $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a three-year collaborative effort with local partners to address the systemic causes of food insecurity in Bennington County.

“Food insecurity—the inability to access affordable, nutritious food—affects one in eight Americans, or approximately 40 million people, and is particularly acute in southern Vermont. This collaboration aims to both address the pressing problem of food insecurity in the area and to develop an interdisciplinary and responsive humanities curriculum with students, faculty, and the community, creating a model from which other higher education institutions can learn and build.” To inaugurate the Food Summit, in the spring of 2021, I began Food Forest Futures at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum.

Food Forest Futures draws from Indigenous, permaculture, and bio-intensive design strategies to introduce seven layers of a food forest, attract beneficial animals, microbes, and insects, and integrate plantings of beneficial, medicinal, edible plants. Rather than having one plant crop per row, plants are mixed together based on how they can help one another—through nutrients, structure, resistance to pests. These plant companions spark new understandings of how the cultivation of biodiverse food and habitat for our nonhuman kin simultaneously generates food and habitat for humans. Food Forest Futures recognizes differing opportunities for cultivating commons, and invites visitors and participants in the Food Summit to choose the combinations of plants, seeds, and associated reading materials on offer to continue commoning in backyard, community, or guerrilla manifestations.

Many thanks to Tatiana Abatemarco and Erin McKenny for the invitation and the support for this project. Thank you to Elodie Fourquet and Nate C for the immense help and comradeship. Also thanks to the plants and critters.

Food Forest Futures takes place on the traditional and unceded territories of the Abenaki.

Margaretha Haughwout, 2022
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