I’ve found myself having a really deep interest in the ideas behind Twisted Fields since I first came across it and ended up spending a lot of time looking around for other groups with similar purposes and eventually I came across GOAT.
Their website will do a much better job as summarizing them than I will but essentially its an open collective of groups that all focus on open source technology to democratize farming and help revolutionize it in various ways. They hold monthly meetings and a live conference every few years as well as running a relatively active forum for all their different groups.
I was wondering if people here had heard of them before or if there’s a reason we’re not part of their group? I talked to an active member of the community and he’d never heard of Twisted Fields but looking into it he found it a really interesting concept.
I wasn’t sure if people here were aware it existed, I know I wasn’t, so I thought I’d bring it to attention here and maybe start a bit of a discussion around it. They feel like the allies with the closest ideologies to Twisted Fields and probably one worth working more closely with.
Thanks for posting this. I’m interested in attending as the meeting is only a couple of hours south of Berkeley.
Discussion: When I was first investigating the DIY biodiesel process, I found a local group that had two kinds of members. Greasy Gearheads with 80’s Mercedes that had boxes of used french fry oil in the trunk, and others that I will gently refer to as “Laptop People”.
The politics in that time were such that “No war for Oil” resonated but there were different economic motivations of both groups. Laptop People could afford to buy a virgin VW TDI and pay someone else to refine or convert to straight vegetable oil. Some Laptop People were just interested in politics yet still drove gas cars because used veggie oil is messy and tedious. Some Greasy Gearheads were rolling coal types looking for free fuel for large carbon footprint vehicles.
I can see the Acorn moving in the field, and look at github. I see a workshop at twisted fields. Tangible.
oh wow I didnt know there were entire groups of people working to produce biodiesel, how difficult is that process? Could local communities manage it with basic tools?
Laptop people definitely pop up alot, I think I’m probably a laptop person XD
Thank you so much for calling attention to this! I have fallen off of community work as there has been so much engineering to do, but that will be changing soon.
This looks wonderful! I am just before the deadline to apply so I will send that over.