Byline: Chris Azbell/College of Muscogee Nation Extension Office
Hesci readers… welcome back to another edition of Chewing the Cud with CMN Extension. On this blustery March afternoon, I have been quite fixated on the idea of traditional ecological knowledge and how it can be shared to the masses in a self-perpetuating manner. How can we teach a topic that will in turn be shared and perpetuated without governmental intervention? The answer is culture. When everyone does a particular thing or engages in a particular practice that is the essence of culture and cultural identity. For CMN Extension, we are hyper focused on reconnecting people to the land to engage in traditional agricultural practices and bring about a Mvskoke food economy that lends itself to food sovereignty.
Right now CMN Extension utilizes various avenues of education, including a fully functional website (extension.cmn.edu), a monthly newspaper article via Mvskoke Media (Chewing the Cud), the Mvskoke Gardener Series (YouTube Series via Mvskoke Media with a second season to begin in Spring), and the first ever Mvskoke Gardener Program (MGP) which is taking place right now at the College of the Muscogee Nation. CMN Extension is simply meeting the demand for agricultural education. The interest in sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty is growing exponentially and I believe the next step in this media conglomeration is to have a radio program and podcast. I am proposing to have a weekly radio program on Friday afternoon at KOKL 1240 The Brew that will feature various players in the Native American agriculture community who can provide some guidance to our interested citizens. Please stay tuned for our official launch date.
The conversational format of the show will be similar to “The Joe Rogan Experience” with open-ended questions and ability to delve deeper into important issues of the day. Listeners will be able to call in with specific questions for guests to ensure citizens are being engaged in a meaningful and impactful manner. Topics may include food and agricultural policy for the Nation, food sovereignty, horticulture, greenhouse management, climate change, global warming, seed saving/storing, food preservation, GMOs, and a host of other topics that are becoming increasingly important to Native producers. Listeners will drive the guest lineup.
If you haven’t noticed, the world is changing. Artificial Intelligence, drone delivery service, self-driving cars, internet/phone connectivity via star link, and the potential colonization of Mars are all real-life happenings. Agriculture allows us to connect to practices that are locked in time. You have to put a seed in soil to make it grow and that is one thing that I will always cherish as real. Let’s develop and drive our food system forward as a cultural movement rather than another top-down governmental initiative.
