"Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading" now trademarked by The Dervaes Institute

[Tory]

This is so effed up.  Please if you get a chance to check out my friend's blog post regarding the recent acquisition of the above phrases .    The Crunchy Chicken  I say, raise a commotion!

[Cornelia]

There is now a Facebook page called "Take Back The Urban Homesteading(s)"

 

[lasharb]

Could it just be me or does this sound a lot like what Monsanto and so many other large corporations are doing? I'm so disappointed in this family - they were an inspiration. They're wrong. They're just plain wrong.

[ConsciouslyFrugal]

I live out here in La-La Land and I have always found them to be over-the-top in their commercialization and need for recognition and fame. As a result, I've never found them to be inspirational or particularly impressive.  But perhaps the rampant fame grubbing of SoCal has just made me bitter!

 

Sheryl Dutton-Ramos said:

I'm wondering is this is a publicity stunt by the Dervaes family to gain further recognition and capital.  :/

[Lyndsay Officer]

Wow, how mean minded and greedy. It's been a while since I looked at their website and it's changed a fair bit, with their family illustration it looks just like a computer game! And their tag line 'the ORIGINAL modern urban homestead' it's similar to a cookie baking kit, as if biscuits never existed before. Pah, not nice.

[ohsweetie]

I agree, I think it's outrageous and crazy that the Dervaes Insitute thinks/was successful at completing trademarking on such common terms (or ones they didn't even originate).

 

but, that being said, LET THEM KEEP this out-dated and colonialist terminology!

 

I like this approach:

http://growandresist.com/2010/04/26/homestead-act-2-0/

[ohsweetie]

and this http://growandresist.com/2011/02/16/urban-homestead-act-2-1/

[ConsciouslyFrugal]

Ohsweetie--excellent points. You'd think as a halfbreed, I might have caught on to the implications of the term homestead. Oy! Thanks so much for the links. Great stuff.

[ohsweetie]

@consciouslyfrugal

 

i think that the contemporary resistance movement around urban farming, environmental stewardship, and self-sustainability owes a lot to the "heritage" of knowledge around homesteading, etc, but with all of the education a number of us have, we have an ability to step outside of the colonialist history of our documents and actions. very exciting times.

 

i'm rest assured the the Dervaes are firmly rooted in this colonialist past, especially as is evident in even their application for trademark status. so much for community-based grassroots activism people!

[Lucy Goodman]

here is a pdf of a letter drafted by a lawyer who is telling the Devreas to stop doing this

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eff.org%2Ffiles%2F...


the Dervaes have no legal footing it seems

[Aliza Ess]

I am taking a break from blogging right now due to a heavy workload at my day job and planning a super-large garden this year... just heard about all of this hubbub! Whoa.

 

I love the internet and sharing all this great stuff, but sometimes things can get out of hand when a culture really gets going!

[pelenaka]

It's all good here in the hood because we are walking the talk no matter what we call it.

I'll hollar back when Pasadena makes their way up to Buffalo.