Commoning the Elderberry? Considering Agrarian Resistance in the Rural Midwest U.S.

Keywords: commoning, agriculture, livelihoods
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

The elderberry is a plant well known in varied herbal medical practices for the immune boosting properties of its fruit. As the demand for “nature based” remedies grows, the elderberry is having a moment and elderberry farmers, a field encompassing both new-entry and established farmers, are organizing in response. This paper examines the potential for elderberry as a pathway to economic justice in a midwestern U.S landscape still dominated by an agrifood regime. To frame this potentiality I consider the ways in which the anticipated growth of the elderberry market is intentionally being responded to, focusing on the collective organizing of current and future growers. While there is not a readily identifiable elderberry commons, as production is occurring by individuals on privately owned land, there is room to consider how farmers are in-common or common-ing around the elderberry—and that these relations are about more than just individual farmer income. I take up the distinction that DeAngelis (2017) makes between commoning around a goal and commoning around values to explore if and how this emergent system of farmer subjectivities is positioned to (re)produce relations that are broadly agitating against the logics of extraction and exploitation.