commoning. We attempt to use commoning or community development to push back against capital accumulation and racialization. Specifically, we try to produce a different type of space, a sort of counter-space. Future work leads more into the policy world, trying to curb processes of gentrification and segregation in favor of policies that promote commoning. We will also look into securing land so that we can start aquaponics cooperatives, increase our donor base, and develop a more appropriate fundraising strategy. other cities such as Chicago and because there is relatively little upfront capital investment. Aquaponics cooperatives would be viable further 194 down the road, but with a more significant capital investment. Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, a system which addresses the weakness of both. Aquaculture’s weakness is that fish waste dirties the water. Hydroponics’ weakness is that it requires chemical inputs to fertilize the plants. In aquaponics, fish wastes fertilize the plants and plants clean the water, requiring very little in the way of external inputs. Aquaponics is also highly productive on relatively small square footage, making it perfectly suited for urban settings. Through all of our programs, we address racialization, capital accumulation, and
Conclusion Like the environmental movement, the alternative food and agriculture movement is overwhelmingly white. Many mistakes of the environmental movement are being repeated by the food movement. In Birmingham, the spectre of segregation and gentrification—and the movement’s complicity in both—exacerbates racial division. This is not just a problem around race but, frankly, an issue of effective strategy and tactics for the movement. Thus far, movement actors have built power by networking and building alliances almost exclusively within the white community. To some degree this is changing because of the black and diverse organizations working within black communities. However, most forms of direct action are off
the table, and the language available for organizers to talk about food is severely circumscribed because they have to adhere to the technocratic and nominally apolitical language and practices dictated by powerful organizations located squarely within the white community. The correct strategy to address segregation, and the strategy that MCAP advocates is bottom-up economic development in all black, low-income neighborhoods. This could take the form of cooperatives, which is our strategy, but it could also take the form of attracting high-paying, unionized jobs to these areas. There are empty industrial parks throughout Birmingham just waiting on tenants. There is no reason why Birmingham can’t shift course away from consumption-led development to production-side development. Only after low-income black neighborhoods are brought out of poverty can whites be coaxed back into the city. By building up black neighborhoods first, the power differential between blacks and whites would be minimized, mitigating the effects of gentrification. Whites moving back to the city should also undergo anti-racist training and get involved with the neighborhood associations. This sort of “smart integration” should be the agenda for the city, instead of the conventional wisdom of gentrification.