To understand the development of the post-World War permanent agriculture movement and the movements that followed, we need to follow the trajectory of the movement of the field of ecology, and we cannot trace this evolution without talking about the Odum brothers. Eugene and Howard T. Odum were the sons of sociologist Howard Washington Odum & Anna Louise Kranz and would go on to change the trajectory of agroecology, for better or worse.

In 1954, both were hired by the Atomic Energy Commission to study a coral reef at the Eniwetok Atoll atomic test bomb site.3 Just the year before, Eugene had published the first edition of Fundamentals of Ecology, the first textbook focused on the concept of the ‘ecosystem’. As they had refined their beliefs on ecology and systems thinking (while Eugene had been the primary author in the book, Howard T had contributed chapters to it), their time working at this test bomb site provided the foundation for both brothers and their belief around ecosystem energy. The coral reefs were described by the brothers as a steady-state system; it was their assessment that the coral reef system used most of the energy it consumed through photosynthesis to regulate the system. It would be the example that the brothers would point to of what a mature ecosystem looked like— self-regulating, self-maintaining, and a steady-state system. Both brothers would go on to study different ecosystems and each provided new data that the condition of stability was characteristic of all mature ecosystems.

To read about The Odum Brothers' contributions to history, check out the following substack for sources and further details: https://poorprolesalmanac.substack.com/p/the-odum-brothers

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For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org

For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com

For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com

For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org

To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/

Through a confluence of events I was connected with one of the elders of the tree crops world, Bob Seip, and was invited to his farm, buried in rural Pennsylvania. Bob, or Robert, depending on how you know him, has seen a lot at 94, and after walking around the property buried in a foot of snow, it became clear he didn’t feel remotely finished yet.

We gathered around his kitchen table, surrounded by recording equipment and dogs and bowls of cracked hickories and butternuts, outside of cell phone services, talking about 70 years of farming and memories of his contemporaries and the trees that covered his landscape. Upon arriving, Zach Elfers, a prior guest on the podcast, shared his own stories of Bob. Robert’s daughter, Emilie Swackhammer and her husband Scott joined us under the cocktail tree, a tree next to the home with countless grafts, some of which may be cultivars thought to have been lost. For everything Robert has forgotten, his wife Cindy remembers and candidly chimes in between making sure everyone is fed.

There’s nothing quite like a conversation around a kitchen table about the things we are passionate about. This was a joy to share and I am incredibly indebted to the Seip family, as well as Zach & Carissa for sharing the moment with me. Of course, no good deed can go unpunished, as it goes, and after trekking offroad as the sun set to view some of the oldest planted trees on the property, my phone went missing and was only found by flashlight. Further, despite bringing backup recording gear, because of course when it’s the worst possible time for something to go wrong, it will, we still managed to have some audio issues. The most prominent issues are at the beginning of the episode, so please make it through the first few moments and it gets better.

Read more about his farm here:

https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/every-tree-tells-a-story-arborist-shares-the-history-behind-10-of-his-favorites/article_9fb7fb16-e238-11ed-8de0-4bc5a36bb310.html

To support this podcast, join our patreon for early episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac

For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org

For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com

For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com

For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org

To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/

This episode is a callback to an earlier episode on Tomorrow, Today, with Dr. Scott Cave. We chat about cemeteries, their unique place as third spaces, how they can be sources of community and radical ecology work, and more!

This is one of my favorites so if you didn't listen before, listen now!

Check out Citizens Cemetery (now Citizen Botany) on Instagram at @CtznBotany

To support this podcast, join our patreon for early episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac

For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org

For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com

For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com

For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org

To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/