Agro Escuela sin paredes y sin fronteras: Agro ecology School without walls or borders
2018 March
The Agro ecology movement in general is strong and growing, however most of it is based only on
organic food, and the Agro Escuela of UNSIF looks at the relation between people, food and
agriculture and how important these are to community and sustainability. Additionally, a whole
volume of knowledge from our ancestral communities show the historical evolution of food,
community and knowledge. Climate knowledge, astros knowledge, lunar knowledge were important
elements in a wholistic view of sustainability of communities.
The goals of the Agro Escuelas is to share knowledge and rescue ancestral knowledge thus provide an
emancipatory popular education around agriculture and culture and the growing a new social economy.
The agro school is program of the University Sin Fronteras, and eventually the vision is to develop a
degree program or trade diploma for graduates. The strategy is to work with children (6-10) and
adolescents (10-18) and adults inter-generational.
Locations
UNSIF in Puerto Rico plans to kick of the agroecology school project in rural Lares and Urban San Juan. Both projects will be incredibly unique based on their geographic location and nature of the land in which the projects will be developed. Nicolle Teresa will be coordinating this project.
We hope to expand our network to others doing similar work in the Caribbean and the US south. We have made contacts in Atlanta, North Carolina, Cuba, New Mexico and San Antonio.
Networking
The Agro-escuelas will form a networked infrastructure and communication and sharing of knowledge
and experiences in every day practice. The six campuses will hold regular calls to make this happen.
This trans-national education between campuses might include work brigade exchanges, curriculum
development in English and Spanish for all levels.
The growing of a new social economy, particularly after hurricane Maria, is most important based in
agriculture and food sovereignty and sustainability. As part of the Southern Movement Assembly and
the blueprint for change in a time of crisis, the Southern Peoples’ Initiative seeks peoples democracy,
new social economy and protect and defend community. The agro-escuela will be part of the SMA-SPI
Liberation mutual aid centers network.