PHOTOS BY JASUN PLAEDO WELLMAN

My name is Plaedo and I’m a story telling hippie hop philosopher of play. I got into Occupy as soon as I heard about it, my gut said I had to get involved, there was just too many problems that needed to be addressed, i had too much energy and was tired of just watching the news talk about the problems. I wanted to occupy and create change.

I am very grateful to have experienced Occupy and look forward to the ‘next great moment of people’s uprising’. In the meantime I became involved in developing the Avant Gardeners because I realized the essential importance of food (everybody needs to eat) and healing our relationship to the natural world. Avant Gardening was a way to make a change, to commit direct action in a non-confrontational way, and to have fun creating ‘farmily’.

The Avant Gardeners is a organizational platform to facilitate the creation of a localized resilient food system. Avant Gardening is not solely about gardening, however, it is about the way we garden. We utilize a socialistic permaculture approach, we practice gift economics, we organize horizonally, as we seek to create mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships in the world.

Eugene Avante Gardeners