The Maine Sail Freight Project completed a cargo run with the sailing ship Adventure. This sail cargo project is part of The Greenhorns, a non-traditional grassroots non-profit organisation made up of young farmers and a diversity of collaborators. Their mission is to recruit, promote and support the new generation of young farmers.
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Artist Statement – Maine Sail Freight Project
This is a story about a group of young farmers staging a pageant-like protest about the terms of trade in our agricultural economy, and the nature of transportation and exchange within that model.
It’s an elaborate stunt, invoking colonial history and the maritime extraction economy of coastal Maine as a platform for discourse on a more regional, more prosperous, and more diverse food economy for the future. We claim the ocean as an ally and a commons—a venue to imagine what a world where 60% of the retail price goes to the farmer, and viewpoint from which to watch the farmers of the region operate, and co-operate to circulate wealth and add value. We raise a fag for food sovereignty on the mast of our sail boat.
We are not content to labor where 70% of the agricultural work is performed by those without citizenship. We are not content to operate in a high-volume, low-value commodity extraction economy. We are not content to be silent while our nation negotiates yet more free trade agreements freeing only those at the top of the capitalist slag heap and chaining the rest of us to their terms.
This project is our retort!
Marada Cook
Abby Sadauckas
Severine v T Fleming
