“I practice permaculture. So when I look at the city, it’s like, ‘Why does it need all these inputs to function?’ When I look at nature, it doesn’t need any inputs. So why can’t I have something like that in the city? So when I have a job, I think about, ‘How would nature do it?’ So I don’t have to do the work – ’cause I’m lazy. So one day, I was at work, and my assignment was to go to this yard and weed this whole yard. And I got there, and there was weeds everywhere! And I was thinking, ‘This sucks. How would nature take care of this problem?’ Then I thought about it, and brush clearing – goats. So then I was like, ‘I need goats right now!’ I looked on Craigslist, and then got goats the next day.
I’ve had them for a month. I raise them at my house. And uh, it’s changing my mom’s hair to white quickly – ’cause of stress. What’s stressful is that she comes from a different understanding of culture. And I do it to be sustainable and regenerative. But she can’t confront some of the things you need to confront to be part of that system, lke, local production of meat. Yeah, so it’s just like, these baby goats, I mean like, weeds are going to be transferred into fertilizer and meat. There’s nothing more sustainable than that. An abundance of something that I have, and I can’t use, and I’m going to change that into something that – two things I need – it’s way better than a cat or a dog.
When I was young, I had a lot of opportunities that were presented to me, that were once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Those experiences changed my whole world view. So like uh, when I was 15 to 16, I was part of this non-profit organization. And we studied social justice, and we raised money. So I – we studied fair trade, and it made me realize that not only do my choices affect me, but they affect people around the world. And the more sustainable things are, the better. And the way I can make things more sustainable is to make everything local. Because the main reason why things are unsustainable is because of the distance they travel to get to you. So I’ve been practicing local production. And I feel like local production gives the people a sense of pride in things that they make instead of buying something to have it emulate their personality. They have more opportunities to be creative and use the things, the skills, and knowledge of the area, and the plants and the materials, to assemble those in a creative way that they wouldn’t be able to purchase.
I feel like, I don’t have anything to be proud of yet. My ultimate goal is to empower communities to build the places that they want to live in. ‘Cause society is a reflection of the physical aspect. They mirror each other. So if you change the physical aspect, you change to social aspect. If you change the social aspect, then you change the physical. It’s called placemaking. The main reason why environments is dangerous is because of social isolation. So by getting tools to break through that social isolation, we create safer places.”
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.