Words on the Title

"Covering Ground" has multiple meanings.

1) This is a time of transition, of movement. As a young person there is ground to cover, places to go and be. I drove a zig-zag through the West to get here, but my mind takes me back always to the Bay Area, and to Connecticut.

2) A major facet of my education has been Colonialism, which has historically (and is still very much) concerned with land. Agriculture as a geography and an idea has always been a site of colonial encounter. Think of the attempts to 'civilize' American Indians by introducing agriculture and private land ownership, the illegibility of West African agriculture to colonial bureaucracies, or the theft (er, patenting) of indigenous seed varieties by multinational seed corporations.

3) Cover crops are one of the key methods of improving soil: dream in thick beds of clover, high stalks of barley.