why call this 'grass roots'?

Table of Contents

• why name it 'grass roots'?

• grassroots change & the IC movement

• the golden age of local activism?

• my updates & logo/merch vote!

hello hello, especially to everyone joining us for the first time this week! i hope your new year is off to a fresh & warm start.

why did i name this newsletter grass roots? don’t i hate grass lawns?

if you knew me as a teenager, lodged deep in suburbia, you’d likely have heard me hemming and hawing about how the pristine grass lawns I was surrounded by were contributing to environmental decline — from pesticides, to oil used in lawnmowers, to increasing flood risk, to depriving pollinators.

my parents received the brunt of this, but eventually proved to me that nagging your relatives really can be an effective way of promoting change — after many years of my soliloquies, my mom has now replaced huge sections of her lawn with native plants sectioned to match the different temperate zones in our yard (go mom!!).

but often, native plant gardens contain grasses! wild grasses are diverse, luscious, and beneficial! wheat, rye, and oat are all types of grasses, and they are so yummy. so the point here is: the problem with grass lawns isn’t grass, it’s monoculture.

grass roots change in the intentional community movement

part of my research was analyzing the structure of the intentional community movement. i found that there is no unilateral organization, no leader or steering committee. intentional communities are truly building from the ground up, connecting with their community members, then forming connections with other community groups — just like how plants share information and resources through their roots, and pollinators then transfer information between plant communities. 

the golden age of local activism?

Just yesterday, President Trump’s next term was confirmed, and the likelihood of the pressing national changes that we urgently need to see to protect the climate coming from the top-down (that is, coming from the national government or big corporations) has slimmed significantly.

as the urgency of change-making grows, and top-down approaches seem unlikely, the potential of bottom-up change-making methods is swelling. scholars refer to this past decade or so as the “golden age of local policy,” as local governments are stepping up in response to national policy stagnating.

i’d argue this is similarly a golden age of community-based change-making. we have more urgency and motivation than ever to work with our friends and neighbors to “make the changes we want to see,” and groups like intentional communities are building the tangible skills and infrastructure we need to work together in new (yet old) ways.

personal updates

as the beginning of 2025 rolls in, i am feeling reenergized and optimistic! i think it’s going to be a great year ahead.

one of the projects i teased last week was merch, & it’s coming! i’m not 100% set on the name GRASS ROOTS. now that you know the thought process behind it, what do you think?? should i consider other names? let me know in the comments!

throughout this i’ve dropped some drafts of a logo: please VOTE VOTE VOTE in the comments section! the images here are just rough drafts, they’d be edited. whichever is ultimately chosen i’ll turn into a blockprint and start making merch wooooo!

other exciting news: just as I was writing this, I got word that I received the Nina Amir Nonfiction Writers’ Scholarship, and I’ll be using it to attend the 2025 San Francisco Writer’s Conference.

here’s to a great year ahead :)

much love,

jasper