[act-ma] New Addition to the January CME Events Schedule: Agrotowns: Ecological Pathways to Development

[Center for Marxist Education]

*Agrotowns: Ecological Pathways to Development*

Saturday, January 20 | 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Presented by Donald Donato, Secretary, CPUSA-Boston

Imagine living in a town surrounded by ecologically friendly farms;
walkable, green, with world-class cultural and health institutions, and
flexible working schedules. Envision a comfortable, rural town, devoted to
growing the highest quality produce with the least amount of chemicals,
packaging and transportation costs.  These are the basic concepts an
“agrotown”, which are rooted in the Communist Manifesto.

Thanks to the work of the late Richard Levins at the Harvard School of
Public Health, and W.A. Halabi at the Center for Marxist Education, there
is revived interest in agrotowns as a part of ongoing work on agroecology
and sustainable development.  Agrotowns were first developed in the USSR in
the 1930s, but they were almost completely forgotten in recent decades. In
a forthcoming article published by Routledge in *International Critical
Thought*, the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS),
Donald Donato has reviewed a selection of research and historical resources
on agrotowns which explores early examples and provides evidence that they
can play a vital role in the implementation of agroecology.