“And she came into the kitchen, her smile reaching from pigtail to pigtail, with a handful of little yellow flowers bunched together in a bouquet that she held out to me.”
This was the story that my grandmother told at all the family gatherings about the time when she had the earliest-season tomatoes on the block, the time when I picked each blossom to create this bouquet to give her. Being the generous loving soul that she was, she accepted the flowers with a thank you. I have zero memory of being chastised or punished.
I come from a long line of women who grew food to feed their families. My own family’s garden was huge, and the chore list each morning in the Iowa summer was long and garden-centric. The smell of the giant crocks of fermenting pickles and the horror of exploding pressure canners are deep in my childhood memories.
So, I too grow food for my family and loved ones. And, I use regenerative practices as I was taught because I know that dirt is alive and soil health is everything. I keep a notebook of observations and ideas—it really is a grand experiment from season to season and year to year. I got hooked on seed saving from an amazing community of radical community gardeners from the Frogtown neighborhood in Saint Paul, MN. And, while seed swaps are opportunities to gather socially, I have learned so much about how seed saving is at the center of building a resilient local food system.
This summer the water barrels in my yard are empty. The storm clouds have blown over and around us all season. The small strips of remaining yard have only stayed green because they are made up of broadleaf plantain, clover and creeping charlie, but even they are suffering. The strangest insect pests showed up this year, too—bugs that I haven’t even been able to identify yet. While this corner of the Midwest is said to be the place to come to as the planet continues to warm, one of the few places we will be able to grow food, the climate crisis is already impacting my little backyard farm.
As I write, I know people and communities in places like Costa Rica and the Philippines are experiencing consequences that are far more devastating than an empty rain barrel.
My friend Sarah, a practitioner in the ecovillage movement, is currently organizing mutual aid responses to super typhoon Noru’s devastation in the Philippines. A section of the Pan-American highway in Costa Rica will be closed for three months for emergency repairs following a landslide that claimed the lives of nine individuals; several other major routes are closed due to landslides after record breaking heavy rains. Locals are bracing for the indirect impact of hurricane Ian. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I am a mother to three young adults. My son, 22 years old, regularly looks at me and wonders out loud how he should plan for his future, what he should aspire to in the long term, when in 20 years we are likely to be on a planet that cannot sustain life as we know it. My middle daughter at 24 is simultaneously fierce and unsure, and is yet unable to process how her transportation and fashion choices are impacting that very bleak future her brother anticipates. My eldest daughter, who lives and teaches in Los Angeles, California, suffers from long COVID-19 shortness of breath; I fear that fire season will exacerbate this. All three of them laugh at me when I talk about creating a community-reliant family compound on our little urban lot. I want them, and all young people, to be liberated from these very real fears and anxieties, to live with hope. I want us to figure this out, to put people before profits, and create together a resilient and regenerative future.
Susan is one of Climate Generation’s Window Into COP delegates for COP27. To learn more, we encourage you to meet the full delegation and subscribe to the Window Into COP digest. You can support our delegates at COP27 with a financial gift today!
Susan Phillips is an activist, educator/facilitator/trainer, specialist in participatory and servant leadership, and an experienced non-profit leader. She has led programs for unhoused youth in the Twin Cities and Central America, held leadership roles in the food justice and education justice ecosystems, and volunteered in youth leadership settings. Susan has a BA in Cultural Anthropology and a MA in Leadership Studies. When not engaged in community building projects, Susan is a backyard farmer, artist, year-round cyclist, student of life, and parent of three fantastic young adults. Susan joined the Climate Generation team in September as our new Executive Director, and is excited to participate directly in our Window Into COP27 program.