Composting Ecofeminism: Caring for Plants, Animals, and Multispecies Flourishing in Molly Chester’s Dream Farm
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
What is a “multispecies”? It’s in the article and the article title. Do you really mean multiple species?
Also, “compositing ecofeminism” in the title sounds like you’re proposing putting ecofeminism in the compost pile because we should be done with this concept and need it to become something else now.
Some grammatical issues in the abstract—e.g., agreement in “the Chesters has presented.” Could also be a bit more concise.
Grammatical issues in the essay include agreement problems, a couple instances of atypical preposition use, missing punctuation (commas), misuse of articles, lack of transitions, awkward sentence structure, several incomplete sentences, awkward word choice. Sometimes these issues mar reader comprehension.
No transition from Todd paragraph to environmental humanities discussion paragraph.
The terms introduced promise an illuminating discussion that is both intellectually invigorating and pragmatically grounded.
They bought “farms”—really multiple? Doesn’t seem that is true, judging from the next sentence.
The paragraph that begins “Monoculturalism” has great points but lacks clear transition between sentences. Needs more specificity/fuller elaboration to be clear.
What is an “alert tone”? How is that related to monoculturalism in the previous paragraph or ecofeminism?
In medias res term and analysis: neither are clear or convincing. Please review the term and elaborate clear film analysis related to the actual definition of the term related to storytelling.
Why add emphasis on the word volunteers? Not unusual for such farms to use volunteers and interns.
“to mimicry”?
Last paragraph in part one, multiple “farms” again—really plural?
Why is refugia italicized in part one and then not italicized in the quote from Tsing? Why, besides the fact of it being Spanish, is it necessary to emphasize its foreignness” by italicizing, especially when Tsing normalizes it in the quotation? I would like to have seen a definition of the refugia term early on, and a clearer introduction to its significance to Molly and John’s farm documentaries and your analysis. Should the idea of refugia/refuge appear again toward the end of the essay?
In terms of refuge, even though her focus is not agricultural reclamation, Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge is an early environmental humanity text that has become a standard for me as a teacher of ecofeminist lit.
Isn’t the idea of refuge from systemic male—and white/Western—supremacist thinking essential for women’s, as well as the land’s, health and well being? See Susan Griffin’s Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her, a fundamental very early ecofeminism text that, like Williams’s, speaks lyrically to the power of the thinking behind the misuse and mistreatment of women, the earth, and the rest of Nature. The paradisial lyricism of Molly’s vision calls these texts to mind. A lyrical vision has its own power, and perhaps, as Williams and Griffin definitely show through their texts, this is a female power that sees its own way, empowered pragmatically by that vision, to ecological wisdom and health, with an attendant clearer, healthier relationship between humans, the earth, and the rest of Nature, which you term one large ecosystem. Ecosystem thinking itself defies Western patriarchal hierarchical and dualist thinking, capitalist thinking, racist/supremacist thinking. As you go on to point out, agricultural production demands even more complex thinking when the humans wresting particular value from a constructed ecosystem must dismantle Western paradisial ideals and develop a new paradigm. Very nice, clearly presented examples in the next paragraphs showing John in the film learning ecosystem possibilities and wisdom.
No need to say “wild coyotes”—coyotes are wild animals.
“True care”—nice points in that paragraph.
Do you want to define “guardian dog”? Interesting possible shift from the exploitive, violent “guard dog” concept.
Interconnectedness—fundamental, and definitely ecofeminist thinking. If you haven’t ever read it, check out Charlene Spretnak, “Radical Nonduality in Ecofeminist Philosophy.”
Great last sentence in section three. Western thought privileges entropy/chaos, but another way to think about it is harmonious disorder.
Section four: Attachment site. Nice—regenerative farming as pragmatic and intellectual-emotional-relational. You seem almost to want to talk about spiritual connection to land—e.g., culture-defining relationship re attachment sites with indigenous appreciation of sacred landscape, but maybe nonindigenous people just don’t have the thousands of years of relationship to this land to have gained that depth of relationship and accountability.
Nice compost thinking discussion. How is this “feminist,” particularly?
Seventh-generation thinking and practice is naturally educative. Have you read Winona LaDuke? See her article/chapter proposing a seventh-generation amendment, and her thoughts on economics for the seventh generation.
Might be nice to mention for unfamiliar readers that this certainly is by no means the only regenerative and (I am assuming since it is not stated) organic small farm and teaching farm. These farming communities have been revolutionarily present and influential in the US since at least the 1960s, changing the way we think about food production, what we eat, the quality of what we eat, and to some extent among grocery-story food consumers the health of the agricultural and greater environments supporting and affected by the growing of food.
The integration of theory is very nice throughout.
If this is an essay analyzing the films from what the author describes as a loosely ecofeminist perspective, I feel the essay could do more direct analysis of the films themselves—how they are put together to do the work that they do.
Also, do these films offer new dimensions, techniques, etc. in the field of environmental and specifically ecofeminist filmmaking? What similar films have come before these?
Why was the first film considered Oscar worthy? The quality of the filmmaking? And what are those qualities, and perhaps especially in relation to the ecofeminist perspective of the article?
Do the films’ contents offer original information when compared to other eco/ecofeminist documentaries? Or are these two farm films somehow unique?
The essay is, overall, informative and makes the theory accessible while using the films and the farm info as engaging evidence of the living work of those ideas.
Author Response
Please see the attachment. Thanks.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall, I find the argument in this essay original and interesting, especially in its investigations of soil and compost. You make a convincing case for envisioning this farm--at least in its representations in film--as a good example of what Haraway calls "staying with the trouble."
I would like to see a little more of Anna Tsing's ideas emerge in this piece, however. I think there's much to make, for example, of her thinking on alternative economies and undercommons that emerge when one abandons capitalist/plantationocene logics. You could perhaps work some of this material in where you describe the workers' stake in the Chesters' farm.
I also recommend another pass through the sentence-level editing for general clarity.
Some minor notes:
Can "multispecies" be used as a noun? I think I've only ever seen this word as an adjective (i.e. "multispecies flourishing" or its inverse).
Why rely on Mitman so heavily in the introduction? Why not work with Haraway and Tsing and the films directly here? Additionally, character and setting from the films are discussed before the films themselves are introduced, which could be confusing for readers.
I think there are too many instances of passive voice in this essay overall, and I'm not generally bothered by such constructions, so if I'm noticing it, other readers will notice it as well.
I'd revise the word "poop" out--the silliness of this word is jarring in academic prose.
Are there some missing references? You mention Catriona Sandilands at one point, for example.
Author Response
Please see the attachment. Thanks.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
