LFF as a Non Profit!

I am so excited about this internship this summer with LFF. I was always interested in local food in school, but now that I work for a non profit providing local food to the valley, my passion has ignited! It has been such a great experience to see how a local food system can work and be successful. I think for the future it is a great new norm and that it is really going to become an important aspect of peoples lives all around the country and the globe. I think that LFF is a wonderful organization because it allows the farmers to set their own price for the market and it pays directly to them. There is no middle man in this system so the farmers are benefiting 100% along with the members, who are receiving the healthy local organic food each week from the hard working farmers. I feel like I am learning so much about local food and the importance of farms in this internship and I am really lucky to be front and center for all of it. LFF is a great non profit and is in a stage of growth. Each week there are more and more orders. It is great to see such a nice minded organization thrive. It proves that local food is important now and in the future.

Art and Science Speak the Same Language (Full Interview)

Artists & Scientists Speak the Same Language 

By: Ryan Mudgett

Ariel E. Lugo, director of the Forest Service’s International Institute of  Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico.Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service

 In El Toro, Ariel Lugo director of the Forest Service's International institute of Tropical Diversity, and board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration, noted from his experience that the highlight of the month was the changing perception between artists and scientist.

Q: Why is the intersection of Art and Science so important to you and your work?

A.L. One intersection that was interesting to discuss with the artist was complexity. I have a lot of respect for artists because they are similar to scientist in the sense we are both creative people and are both trying tackle complex situations while constantly trying to interpret them through some type of model. The models of course are different but the objectives are the same. I think there is a natural affinity there. So I was curious to find out how they would react to the complexity of a tropical rain forest and what kinds of insights they would have. 

Q: What was the highlight of the month?

A.L.  I took artists on field trips outside the wilderness to see other types of wilderness. My role was to interact with them over the weekend. I participated in the synthesis and introductory parts of the program. 
The highlight for me in the interaction was the perceptions that the artist had about the complexity of nature. I found out quickly in my interactions with them, that we spoke the same language. We both deal with complexity and we are both sensitive to complexity. Another interesting thing is we are equally interested in how humans interact with natural systems. That part really amazed me because we got into some heavy duty discussion about how nature and humans interact and develop novelty, or new systems of nature. The depth of the discussions and the topics of the discussions were the highlight because for me, science is only for scientists, but to discover that the artists are  looking at the same phenomenon but from a different perspective was, ohhh, wow, how interesting.

"we are dealing with a living system and living systems change and always respond to our presence. "

Q: As a scientist do you feel like you influenced the artists?

A.L. First of all the artists inspired everyone at the institute.  At the end when we had the summary which was done at the museum, I was in the audience listening to them, because at the beginning the scientists did most of the talking and then towards the end the artists did most of the talking. This was logical, because we introduced the wilderness towards the beginning and then during the closing stages they were telling us what they saw and interpreted.

When we had our final activity, we had all of our technicians as well as the scientists that had been out with them in the field throughout the month.  This activity gave us all two minutes to say something and I was really taken back by our technicians. They were very expressive of what the experience had done to them to the point that one of our technicians that had a lot of experience in the field and I’m talking in the order of 30 years.  She said that going out with the artists had been the highlight of her career.

That completely took me back and I said to her how can you say this? Were you overstating or what? Or was that really the way you felt? She said  that going out with the artists had been her highlight with the Forest Service. That impressed me because the person that I’m talking about is a very serious technician.

In the final activity I also realized the artist perception had changed because I don’t think we ever told this to them specifically, but they perceived that the Forest Service looks at things long term. They highlighted the importance of looking at things long term and they made a case for observing nature that way. That came out of them! We did not see that coming, it was their changed perception. So I am thinking to myself my god! They really found the heart of the research program and the Forest Service.The one thing that we all agreed within the agency is that our research is long term, this is what gives us value and the ability to understand forests. To have this group of strangers come to us and spend a month with us was truly an amazing thing. But to notice that they came out with a strong ethic of how important the long term is was absolutely remarkable.This really flabbergasted me and then to top it all, after the artists realized what the residency had done to them, they proceeded to ask the scientists how they felt about repetition.

Artists question scientists: "you guys, every week for the last month and year go out and visit the same place to do the same thing. how do you feel about the repetitive nature of your actions do you still have the wonder?"

A.L. - Of course our technicians, which are the ones that actually have to go the woods to the same place every single week, were then able to express that each time they find ways to entertain themselves in the woods.  Each time the forest becomes a new experience just by looking at them differently or by concentrating on a particular part of it so that it maintains the freshness of the first experience.It is never old for us to go to a litter basket, or data collection station, or a river reach. It is always wonderful for us even though we do it every week for the duration of our careers.

I would say that it was a very moving experience for me because I had never thought that our job would ever be visualized by anyone that would think that our work is boring because we are always doing the same thing. In reality we are not because we are dealing with a living system and living systems change and always respond to our presence.  So no matter how many times we visit we still have that sense of wonder that our eyes were capturing for the first time.

The artists for example all these artists, there style is to use whatever nature gives them to do their thing, and document there art and leave it behind. For example they were experimenting with pigments that they found in the woods or certain substances and their interpretations became something I have never seen before.  They looked at the forest from different angles and they did wonderful things to highlight parts of our job that we do as routine yet never pay attention to.

 So all of that was part of the magic of the month. For the artists it was their first time in our wilderness, for us we rediscovered what we did through their eyes. It was fantastic; everybody here in Puerto Rico was uplifted by the experience.

Q: What was the most absurd situation you experienced at the El Toro Wilderness?

A.L. Well I told the artists that they made me feel stupid because you go out with the artists and they start asking you questions that you can’t answer. They ask you questions like, what is this, what is that? 
There was one woman that I took into the forest, and she asked me so many questions that I couldn't answer, because when you look at a complex system for the first time your eyes, they are looking at everything!  So she would point out to a color, or to a substrate, or an object and ask a question for each thing.  As a trained scientist when you don’t know the answer you have to say I don’t know because we don’t try to speculate. Personally, I am not a super naturalist, I am a systems ecologists. I am looking at the forest and I see functions in a visual process, and as the artists they are confronting you with the pieces of the forests.  So to me I felt dim-witted because I could not answer a lot of the questions that they were posing to me. It was an unusual situation because you always think that you are in control and when they start barraging you with questions that you can’t answer, it can really throw you off. 

Q: What was the most beneficial outcome of your experience?

A.L.  It’s the bliss thing that takes place. Everybody at the institute felt better about what they do because of the interactions. But what I really treasure is that I made new friends. For example I now have some way to work with these artists here in Puerto Rico and we have the contacts of the people that are outside of Puerto Rico. So basically you have created new colleagues, and new people that are interested in what you do.  This new communication flow is important for the future of all of our emerging goals.

CookBook

For the LFF Cookbook that I am writing for ORE, there are a lot of ins and outs that need to be addressed in order for this project to come out successful. For one, contacting the farmers can be a challenge because they have such hectic schedules. It is sometimes hard for them to have a few minutes to sit down and answer my questions and get them to send me some pictures via email. Another challenge is finding the right format for the cookbook to be in once I have all of the information about the farms. It is a new process for me and the executive director told me that I  can be as creative as I want with it.  So there is a challenge in how rustic, modern, or contemporary I want to be when it comes to actually putting the cookbook together. This is by all means a wonderfully fun project to be able to work on. It is so fun to contact the farmers and to hear their stories, and to get new creative ideas about their recipes. I have defiantly enjoyed this process and am excited for some of the items in their recipes to be available this summer so I can try them out myself! Writing this cookbook is a lot of fun and will be really rewarding when it is complete.

Paonia Trip!!

Local Farms First had a farmers training in Paonia!! This took place on May 23^rd, me and the executive director, Maya and the market manager, Kristen drove down to Paonia and met with some of the farmers who participate in LFF. We visited Holy Terror farm and got a tour of their gorgeous farm and wonderful crops and cute farm animals. We also visited Dog Patch Farm, which is a new farm that has a large variety of organic produce. We went to Ela Family Farm and saw their huge orchards and described how to use the website to the owners. This trip taught me a lot!! Not only was it really fun and beautiful to see Paonia in the spring time just when things are starting to bloom, but I learned how to use the website a lot more, and got some great contacts with the farmers. After we toured some farms and talked to some farmers, we had the training session at the library. We got local appetizers from The Living Farm Café that was absolutely delicious! And then we taught new farmers how to access the website, create a profile, and how to add products to the market and adjust things as they become available. This was a learning experience for me too; I learned so much of what it takes to make LFF work. This experience was great for me and such a fun time!

Contacting The Farmers

For the LFF cook book that I am writing for the non profit, I am contacting many of the farmers that are part of local farms first. For the cookbook we are looking for about 20 farms to participate, each will have a short bio, a recipe featuring a product that they grow and pictures of the family farm. This will be a great way for members of local farms first to get to know their farmers more, and to try out fun new recipes. So far there are a lot of interesting recipes from the farmers like zucchini cookies, and really fun bios about how each farmer got into the profession. I have learned a lot about the particular farms and how each one has specialty crops. I have also learned a lot about how farms work and operate because each farmer tells me stories about hardships and benefits of certain crops and about how each farm is run. There are a lot of different ins and outs about how farms are run, family farms vs. bigger farms with hired help and volunteers and interns. There are a lot of cool interesting facts that you wouldn’t always think about when it comes to farming in a dry climate. Contacting the farmers has allowed me to get valuable contacts that will help me in the future and also taught me a lot about the logistics of being a farmer.

The Beginning

For my summer internship, I am the Local Farms First Intern for the Office of Resource Efficiency. Local Farms First (LFF) is a program of the Office of Resource Efficiency (ORE) that is basically an online farmers market. The market is open for customers to order on Thursday night at 5 PM until Monday morning at 7AM. During this time, LFF members can log in and order the produce and products from over 50+ farmers that are mainly in Paonia and Hotchkiss. There are a few in Gunnison and in the surrounding area. All of the farmers are chemical free and organic. This ensures that this local food on the market is the best quality.

For my internship I help out with the weekly pickups in Gunnison and Crested Butte. This happens on Wednesday after the food order is picked up from each farmer and delivered to the pickup locations. The farmers receive a purchase order of what was ordered by customers each week on Monday and on Wednesday it gets driven over Kebler pass and sorted out. I am the sorter of the local food before the customers pick it up. I am also responsible for 2 weekly newsletter reminders to the customers that the market is open and local food is available to order. This has allowed me to learn how to use the website and make new contacts of the consumers as well as the producers.

I am also going to be writing a cook book for LFF. This will include recipes from the farmers and highlight their local produce that they grow. This will allow me to make valuable contacts of the farmers and producers that will be essential for this internship.

This internship is all focused around local food and the importance of sustainability. I am working under some wonderful people who are eager to teach me how the market works and the skills I will learn are very valuable for my future. Local food is so important in our troubled times, and I’m excited I get to learn firsthand how local foods can become a more popular part of society.

Artists and Scientists Experience a Similar Phenomenon

Ariel E. Lugo, director of the Forest Service’s International Institute of  Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico.Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service

I recently have been interviewing various artists and scientists from Colorado Art Ranches, El Toro Wilderness residency in Puerto Rico. In particular I noticed that everyone has been extremely excited to let me know how their experience went.  After speaking to a few, I feel inspired to further my interdisciplinary art/science career.

 In El Toro, Ariel Lugo director of the International institute of Tropical Diversity, and board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration, noted from his experience that the highlight of the month was the changing perception between artists and scientist.

   

One of the questions I asked Ariel was what he believed to be the highlight of the month. 

A: “My role was to interact with the artists over the weekends. I participated in the synthesis and introductory parts of the program. The Highlight form me of the interaction, was the perceptions that the artist had about the complexity of nature. I found out quickly in my interactions with them that we spoke the same language. That we both deal with complexity and we are both sensitive to complexity. Another interesting thing is that we are both interested in how humans interact with natural systems. That part really amazed me because we got into some heavy duty discussion about how nature and humans interact and develop novelty, ya know, new systems of nature. The depth of the discussions and the topics of the discussions, they were great for me.  For me, science is only for scientists, but to discover that the artists are looking at the same phenomenon you are, but you just happen to be looking from a different perspective; that was ohhh wow how interesting! I have a lot of respect for artists because they are similar to scientist in the sense that they are both creative people and they are both trying tackle complex situations and trying to interpret them through some type of model. The models of course are different of course but the objectives are the same.”

Then I asked him what the most absurd situation he experienced at El Toro?

A: “Well I told the artists that they made me feel stupid because you go with the artists and they start asking you questions that you can’t answer.. They ask you questions like, what is this, what is that? There was one women that I took into the forest, and she asked me so many questions that I couldn’t answer because when you look at a complex system for the first time of course your eyes, they are looking at everything so she would point out to a color or to a substrate or to an object and ask a question and as a trained scientist when you don’t know the answer you have to say I don’t know because we don’t try to speculate. Personally, I am not the super naturalist, I am a systems ecologists. I am looking at the forest and I see functions in a visual process, and as the artists they are confronting you with the pieces of the forests.  So to me I felt dim-witted because I could not answer most of the questions that they were posing to me. It was an unusual situation because you always think that you are in control and when they start barraging you with questions that you can’t answer, it can really throw you off.”

One of the goals for Colorado Art Ranch is to create these unsuspected scenarios for artists and scientists. I think the El Toro Residency really kept these guys on their toes.  Part of the magic of the month was artists experiencing a sense of wonder while viewing the forest through a scientific eye, and for the scientists it was enlightening to rediscover what they do through an artistic eye.

For more on Airel  E. Lugo visit http://www.fs.fed.us/news/2013/releases/04/lugoforesthero.shtml