The 'greening' of the Grange
By Mike A'Dair/TWN Staff Writer
Article Launched: 04/27/2007 12:25:04 PM PDT
(The Willits News)«1»
Over the past three years, an influx of middle-aged and late middle-aged baby boomers, mostly from the Willits Economic Localization Group (WELL), has brought an infusion of relative youth and energy into the Little Lake Grange.
The Grange is a grass roots organization with roots going back to 1867, when it was founded in the United States. It arose as a grass roots organization of farmers and rural folk in opposition to the power of the railroads. As American rural society changed, so did the Grange, but it retained its emphasis on promoting agricultural concerns and in supporting agricultural life.
In Willits, where small scale, family-farm agriculture has been in decline since modern American life took recognizable shape here in the mid-1930s, the Grange's focus on agriculture has been sighted on a shrinking target. It was founded in Willits in 1938, and moved into its present location, the old school house on School Street, in 1964. Since about 1990, Grange membership had been in decline and the organization not just in Willits but all over California seemed to be on its last legs.
"We were not actively recruiting new members and our older members started passing away," said Erica Bruce, treasurer of the
Little Lake Grange and a Grange member since 1984. According to Bruce, beginning in the early 1990s, "The Grange here in Willits was just holding our own. When I joined, lots of people were joining for the insurance. This was happening not just in Willits, but all over California."
One of the steps in the resurgence of the Little Lake Grange came in 1999, when Bruce became interested in the work that One Town-One Vision (OTOV) was doing. She joined the roadways subcommittee of OTOV and offered the Grange Hall as a meeting place for the group. It was there that Bruce made the acquaintance of Richard Jergensen, an alternative energy expert and transportation activist who works with the Renewable Energy Development Institute (REDI) and who also is a member of WELL.
"We are an agricultural organization we're here for the farmers," said Bruce. "Course, there's not a lot of farmers here. But Richard said, maybe the Grange has something to offer WELL."
In a recent interview, Jergensen explored some of the conditions that led him to form a link between the Grange and the WELL. "Based on the connectivity of agriculture the Grange's history and mission, and the interests of Jason (Bradford) in relocalizing, especially in relocalizing agriculture in Willits, and then you throw in Peak Oil into the mix, I recognized that our food situation is so precariously unstable. And the fact that we are so dependent on fossil fuels." Although he could not be made to specifically say it, Jergensen may have thought that the situation was dire enough to warrant massive and innovative cooperation between community groups. "I had been going by that building for 30 years. I just remember driving by one day, and a light went on in my head and I said to myself, 'Of course,'" he said.
Bradford, a co-founder of WELL in 2004 and a Grange member since 2006, explained what led him to join the 150-year-old organization. "We talked about the Grange in the WELL food group and we thought that, rather than having WELL sort of restart local agriculture, why not have the Grange do that?" Bradford said. "Because WELL can't do everything. It won't work that way. Why reinvent the wheel?"
Led by Jergensen, WELL members began to join the Grange. Between 40 and 50 people, most but not all of them from WELL, have joined the Grange since early 2005, increasing the Grange's membership to its current total of, according to Bruce, "about 200."
Since the green infusion, the focus of the Grange's activities seems to be swinging back to its original mission. In recent months, the Grange has sponsored three evenings of "Elder Talk," conversations with community elders on how life was "in the old days." In October 2006, The Grange sponsored a day-long Harvest Festival featuring a community meal largely comprised of locally grown foods, as well as demonstrations of old-time self-reliance techniques such as canning, pickling, and juicing. The Grange donated $1000 to support the Brookside School Farm, and also has become involved with the Howard Hospital Commonwealth Garden.
Bruce described the difference between the older version of the Grange and the way the Grange is now. "We used to do things that maybe weren't as visible, like donating to Our Daily Bread or to the Food Bank. Our efforts were more immediate," she said. "Now we're more focused on the future. We're working at making our community more self-sufficient in food-growing, growing our own food, stuff like that. We're focusing now on what our community will need for the future. I think that's where the Grange is going now," she added.
For his part, Jergensen is clear about the direction he would like Willits to move in.
"It's about developing community awareness and cohesion, getting people out of their homes and helping us to find ways we can play together and talk together and relax together in public or community settings," Jergensen said. "It's about, let's turn off our TVs and let's learn as much as we can about living together."
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