A crash course in changing the world.

IMAGINE2 It's March 10, 2020. What are you eating for dinner?

It's March 10, 2020. What are you eating for dinner?

I´m on the Yamanote Line. If I had kept on learning Japanese I would have less trouble now trying to understand the voice in Japanese in the loudspeaker. I think she says

-"Yoyogi station, next stop Harajuku station"

That´s my stop. I need to contact Agents of the EVOKE Network.

Harajuku station is a busy station full of Gothic Lolita´s that are now retro and making a come back. I try to blend in so I disguised in Visual Kay style, but apparently that´s so last week. A couple of Rockabilly girls point at me, laugh, cover their mouths and say "Kawaii, kawaii". A big crowd gathers around a man playing a saxophone. He is playing a familiar tune. I´ve heard it before in Cameroon or was it Honduras? Such a skilled performer playing that same tune can only be Agent Falconer, Reid Falconer His new approach to one laptop per child and one smart phone per child improved the lives of billions of kids all around the Planet.

- Where are we going? I ask
- To the roof. He says as he points to a skyscraper in the distance- Midtown Tower, the tallest building I can see around.

Some hours ago I was having a delicious meal in Mexico City, celebrating the 13th anniversary of Sembradoras Urbanos www.sembradoresurbanos.org the group that inspired me to build a global network of Community Urban Farms. I was eating together with Agent Sayel Cortes http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/strategy-for-making-an-urban and Agent Mario http://www.urgentevoke.com/photo/album/show?id=4871302%3AAlbum%3A36... and other Agents from all over that were part of the first Community Urban Farm pilot. We were having some delicious non-GM corn tortillas from Contreras neighborhood and some nopales from a chinampa (floating garden) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa in Xochimilco and salsa made out of the freshest organic tomatoes from a rooftop farm in Colonia Condesa neighborhood. Suddenly I got a call from Alchemy, a call to all available Agents to travel to Tokyo.

As Agent Falconer and I step into an elevator he says:
Agent Claire Moylan has all the latest info here- http://groups.diigo.com/group/evoke_team As he projects a hologram from his mobile phone.

Agents Panamericana and Raymond M. Kristiansen just uploaded the latest data from the satellites. Says Agent Reid Falcone r.

Right when I am expecting to see really bad numbers for Food Security. The elevator door opens, we are in the rooftop. Ahead of us the sun is rising over Tokyo, I can only see the silhouettes of skyscrapers. Where is that scent coming from? It smells like Misoshiru (Miso Soup), I´m getting hungry and I fear that we are going to face another food shortage like the one in the Netherlands after the levees broke. Thanks to Agent

Shakwei Mbindyo and the Uganda´s idea of a Garden in a Sack http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/garden-in-a-sack and this video http://vimeo.com/7264277 people in the region of Ultrecht had a chance to feed themselves while the reconstruction of the leeves and infrastructure was still going on. Some Doctors from the African Medical and Research Foundation http://www.amref.org/ volunteered to help people in the Netherlands. Interesting how things change.

- This is the best Miso Soup ever! I say
- It was all produced here. Says Agent Nick Heyming We are applying what we learned at http://www.growcology.com/ and it´s working in Tokyo too. Crystal Bellar applied her knowledge as a Social Worker and her vast experience and research in the African continent.

I learned so much from Agent Nick Heyming and Will Allen http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537249/ from Growing Power http://www.growingpower.org/ and from Agent Bongumusa and his project

http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/food-security-17 from Agent Lynda Holt also on food sack gardens http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/solidarities-humanitarian... from Agent Ayala Sherbow http://www.urgentevoke.com/and the very important point of food waste profiles/blogs/closing-the-foodwaste-loop and also from Agent John Tsangaris and his fundraisng skills http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/newskill-fundraising and aeroponics http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/looking-for-projects and all the other Agents around the planet, we are all learning from each other.

- My team and I built all this aquaponic tanks from scrap material says Agent Cian Gregory Accuardi Shelley we learned a lot from The Rebuilding Center http://www.rebuildingcenter.org/

We were lucky Agent Cian Gregory Accuardi is in Tokyo, he was presenting his new best seller book with a compilation of his newest short stories.

- We crowd-sourced for food security solutions in Tokyo. All thanks to the one laptop per child program and thanks to Agents Hannah Petropoullos and Amanda Jeffrey and Kevin DiVico me who developed a Video Game that taught food security skills to everyone, it´s a fun game too!!! Says Agent Reid Falconer

That´s the beauty of of the EVOKE Network. Anyone can help as much as they can in any project they want to. Everyone is a leader in a different project. We Collaborate as a Distributed Network http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cybergeography/... It´s biommimicry, we

learned from Nature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome and even Philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizome_(philosophy)

It´s 2020 and we are having an amazing meal in a Community Urban Farm in floor 54 of Midtown Tower in Tokyo. Everyone has food. The anonymous EVOKE Network celebrates and has some fun playing games, dancing, eating, relaxing, sharing. Life should be fun too as Agent Jane McGonigal proposes here http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/mcgonigal

The EVOKE Network once again has successfully collaborated with locals, their knowledge and traditions. Together with locals the EVOKE Network innovated creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges humanity faces.

Everyone gathers forming a circle. Agent Kevin Divico who has built resilient communities all over the World quotes Edward Hale:

I am only one,

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something;

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

We get another call from Alchemy, we are needed in the Philippines. For now the Sun is rising in Japan.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY URBAN FARMS http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/next-step-community-urban-1

"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." – Ethiopian proverb

PS- I tried to mention as much people as possible. My apologies to all of you who have brilliant ideas and skills and I forgot to include and to those who I misinterpreted their skills, experience and dreams. Please post bellow in the conversation EVERYTHING I missed. Thanks!!! Patricio.

Tags: Community, Farm, IMAGINE2, Urban

Comment by Claire Moylan on March 15, 2010 at 12:45am: I'm in awe of your ability to bring folks together! Definitely a wonderful skill. I'd have given you a +1 for collaboration, but the writer in me just was totally inspired by your post. So, I gave it a +1 for creativity. Definitely a keeper and will have to look back at this post often.

Comment by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on March 15, 2010 at 12:45am: Agent Sean Michael Stimac http://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/SeanMichaelStimac made a very good point here http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/local-farming-and-personal food production should be more localized. I think many Food Security issues can be solved with distributed networks of food production.

Comment by Sayel Cortes on March 15, 2010 at 5:57am: Awesome way of bringing it all up!!! I didn´t know some of the posts! This post is a great resource as a funny story and also as a way to keep some very good links to other blog posts. I wish I could give you more points for this one!!!

Comment by Bongumusa on March 15, 2010 at 6:02am: I like the way you intragrated information together to form on meaning and understandable thing. Your work was so good. I am so interested.

Comment by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on March 15, 2010 at 4:07pm: Claire- Thanks for posting it in http://groups.diigo.com/group/evoke_team
Sayel- Yeah, the idea is to show some of the post I found more interesting, but I missed many of them like http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/ray-anderson-on-the-business from Agent CianGregoryAccuardiShelley
Bongumusa- You have very interesting posts too. Please keep on posting all this interesting blogs- http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/fighting-disease-fighting so much starts with healthy eating
Panamericana- I also forgot to include this great blog of yours http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/learn2-market-forces