I have been calling myself an urban homesteader for years.  I knew
it was a movement a decade ago.  In fact, it was a movement started in
the sixties with my mom’s generation of people “getting back to the
earth”. 

Urban homesteading is a growing movement of people re-learning
homesteading skills on a city-scale.  There is a fairly well known
website of a family who’s also been a part of this movement who believe
they are solely responsible for coining the name of this movement, so
much so that they have trademarked the term “Urban Homesteading”.

I have never personally liked the “Path to Freedom” website run by the
Dervaes family but I was happy enough to see another website
where people could get information about growing food on small
city lots.  I have always thought that the more people talking about urban homesteading and sharing ideas the better.

Now I’m angry. 

The Dervaes family is trying to enforce their dubious trademark on the term “Urban
Homesteading” (and “urban homestead” too, I believe).  I don’t know all the
details but I don’t need to know much more than that it is a betrayal of
this movement to try to own its name and control its use. 

The spirit
of the urban homesteading movement is a non-commercial, non-corporate
approach to self sufficiency on a small scale.  What part of this
movement is about ownership of its name?  What part of this movement is about owning what and who other people are?  None of it.  What I have loved about urban homesteaders across the board is their willingness to share information for free, their encouragement to others to come join the fun, to explore self sufficiency with the goal of becoming less dependent on corporate America.

Supposedly all of us who have been calling ourselves urban homesteaders for years must no longer use that term.

Trademarking the term urban homesteader and urban homesteading is no
different than trademarking these terms: housewife, animal husbandry,
homesteader, farmer, plant conservationist, home gardener, city dweller,
marathon runner, anarchist, American citizen, nurseryman, self
sufficiency, dairy farmer… and this list is infinite.

You can’t own me.  You can’t own who I am.  You can’t own the life I lead and my ability to succinctly describe it to others.  You can’t own a grassroots movement.  If a movement can be owned at all (which I don’t believe it can) the minute someone owns any part of it it is no longer a grassroots movement but a business.  You can’t own what people call themselves.  You can’t own the words that describe what a person does and what they believe in.

Trying to own the term “urban homestead” in any of its forms is like trying to own the term “Christian” and then forcing all Christians to come up with some other way to identify themselves and what person on earth is arrogant enough to try to own the faith of others?

Urban homesteading is my faith.  It’s my spirit.  Growing my own food and herbs, raising chickens, sewing my own clothes, recycling, composting, choosing open pollinated plants, building raised beds and coops, making my own medicines… this is who I am.  It’s what I believe is more important than anything else.  Even when I’m not able to work on all the projects I want, even when all I can do is dry some of my own thyme and cook great food for my family, I am still an urban homesteader and no one can take that away from me.

No one can own me.

No one can own you either.

Please read about this and if you can donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation who is helping to fight this issue, please do.  If you have a blog or a website and can write about it- please do.  Everyone who has ever considered themselves an urban homesteader should speak up and shout out. 

Riding the Fences of the “Urban Homestead”: Trademark Complaints and Misinformation Lead to Improper Takedowns 

Urban Homesteading

Take Back Urban Homesteading