Here’s a thoughtful tuber worth picking out of the ground and chewing on for a bit: there’s nothing stopping you from making real change right now. It is this thought that is inspiring and challenging me after seeing 8th street Urban Farm and meeting the man who runs it.
Prior to my visit, I was browsing the social internet when I came across an old friend’s profile. He had a link embedded there: 8thstreeturbanfarm. Following it, I discovered a farm in my hometown that is feeding people in need, practicing agricultural methods that restore the earth, and accepting bitcoin donations. Immediately, I think to myself, that’s quite a lot of signal. I probably set a personal record right then for how fast I completed a lightning transaction.
Because lightning is instant and I elected to add an email address to my donation, I received a message that evening from the director and lead farmer. It was clear we were both curious about each other - I wanted to know all about the project and he wanted to know who could possibly be sending sats out of the blue. So we connected over email, and in a short time I found myself standing on the corner of 8th and Lee, taking in the trellised tomatoes, picket fences and neatly plotted rows of the small-scale independent growing site, one of six in the metro area. With each day that passes, this plot of land is cultivated to bring forth sustenance that is good. It’s run with a business mind, but a servant’s heart. Everything is done like a for-profit operation except instead of going to the market on the weekend, the bundles of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, tomotaoes, watermelon, zucchini are delivered to hospitals, food pantries and city shelters.
The existence of this urban farming operation speaks for itself. It’s unlikely and it’s hard work. It would take major conviction to grab hold of an individual for a nonprofit farm in the middle of the city to come to fruition. And that seems to be exactly what happened. A network engineer reads an article about bitcoin in 2011 and thinks to himself, hmm, that’s interesting: “I was big into decentralized file sharing back in the day so this was fascinating to me to be able to decentralize money.” Save that idea in the memory bank, come back to it later. After a series of personal journeys, the kind of twists and turns that life is generous to hand out to those who seek knowledge and adventure, he learns about growing, he lives in distant lands, finds connection with people and earth, he learns about mining, he dabbles in shitcoinery. Until finally, “Got burned obviously and then started studying bitcoin. I went way way way down the rabbit hole, have seen what cannot be unseen lol, realized it was the only thing worth owning, and that was that.”
The story of coming to know bitcoin as the money of the future is one we’re familiar with. But how many people do you see plugging into their community today to offer something better than what we’re expected to accept? Of our food, of our community, of giving and receiving, eating, storing, living, of the day to day of life? Because a bitcoin mindset is a long term mindset, I find myself disconnecting from what’s happening now, lessening the importance I place on the impact I could make in the present. We do this, we say, ‘it’s just clown world’ and we live for an unrealized future that moves perpetually into the distance. It’s too easy to abstract away reality, and with it, all the problems we could meet if we tried.
That’s what I see in 8th Street Urban Farm. I see hard work that is relentlessly meeting reality and saying, it’s going to be better today. Not for the whole world, but for this group of people right here.
This is exactly what I think bitcoin is for. It is shaking individuals out of the matrix, guiding them to realize their unique contributions.
I hope you consider a donation to the farm by zapping this post. It’s going to go a long way. I invite @8thsturbanfarm into the comments for any questions worth answering that show up here.