William Tolbert, a Liberian citizen educated in the US, was inspired by the organic movement here and moved back to his home country in 2010 to implement organic farming techniques. He exemplifies the “Triple Bottom Line” – Environment, Economy, and Ethics – it his farming practice. Now Tolbert is building a program to provide training, support, and microloans, and connections to quality buyers for subsistence farmers so they can grow more and better produce and generate higher incomes and profits.
Read more: One Man’s Revolution to Change Farming in Liberia – Organic, Restorative, Profitable
By the time they were planting, the good seeds were gone. The problem is that the other farmers didn’t have money to buy the good seeds when they were available. Sometimes there’s no money. A small loan can make all the difference.
Read more: Small Amounts of Financing Earn Big Rewards for Vegetable Farmers
Laura Zera, November 12th, 2013 
You won’t find a lot of Big Ag in Suriname; in fact, you won’t find a lot of big anything there. With a population that barely eclipses the half-million mark — most living along the northern coastal area — the largest venture in South America’s smallest country is bauxite mining. And while there are some export food crops, primarily rice and bananas, start heading deeper into the Amazon Jungle and soon the scale of farming operations shrinks.
Read more: Village Farming in the Amazon Jungle: Penpe, Suriname
Nicholas Parkinson, October 23rd, 2013 
Liberia is one of Africa’s poorest nations steeped in a domestic food crisis. This is how one man aims to increase food safety and food security without raising the price.
Read more: The Revival of the Grain Coast: Organic Farming in Liberia
Devon Peña, September 20th, 2013 
Burlington is not a very old city center and got its start in 1902 as a logging camp. Today the small town of 8,380, located in the Skagit River watershed north of Seattle, does count with a prosperous fruit and vegetable agricultural industry. Of course, the industry relies on mostly migrant families for farm labor. This is especially the case during harvest work and strawberry crops present an opportunity for workers to seize the current condition of ‘labor scarcity’ and high demand for skilled pickers during harvest time to organize for their workplace rights. And that is exactly what has happened in the State of Washington, and not in the Yakima or Wenatchee valleys but on the western side of the Cascades where peri-urban farming is increasingly big business.
Read more: Sakuma Brothers: Unique Farm Worker Struggle in Washington State
Gail Nickel-Kailing, September 20th, 2013 
Fruit farms in Washington have been in the spotlight for years, from employing children to unfair tiered wages. Sakuma berry pickers have walked off the job three times since July when this video was aired by King5 TV.
Read more: Sakuma Berry Pickers Organize and Strike in Skagit County
Nicholas Parkinson, September 11th, 2013 
Before Liberia’s civil war, Augustine Tamba’s farm had a water pump, a sprinkler system, and a reliable well. Neighbors worked for Tamba to grow rice, cassava, corn and vegetables in the lowland farm outside of the town of Johnsonville in Montserrado County, Liberia. Tamba had market outlets in Paynesville—20 kilometers away—as well as Monrovia, the country’s capital. Before starting the farm in 1982, Tamba worked as a bank manager in a small town nearby. After a brief stint, he returned to agriculture, “the soil is Liberia’s only bank…the bank of life,” as he explains. During the war, Tamba’s farm laborers either migrated to other countries or became entangled in the bloody conflict. In addition, the market for Tamaba’s produce disappeared when Liberia’s entire economic and social system came to a halt.
Read more: Development Aid Programs Target Small Scale Farmers to Ramp up Production in Food Insecure Liberia
Devon Peña, August 4th, 2013 
The theme of the conference reflects part of a global social movement response to the enclosure of the biological heritage of humanity by the biotechnology industry – the “Gene Giants” like Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta – which seeks to privatize ownership of seeds and make all living things patentable.
Read more: Justice Begins with Seeds
Scientist, author, and activist, Vandana Shiva presented the University of Victoria’s President’s Distinguished Lecture and Special Convocation address marking the school’s 50th anniversary.
Read more: The Future of Food, Dr. Vandana Shiva
Devon Peña, November 27th, 2012 
The wild strawberry has been recognized and used by indigenous peoples since the dawn of time. Native Americans have valued the wild strawberry as food and medicine, recognizing it as a blood purifier. Native Americans also have a spiritual understanding and relationship with the groundcover plant as illustrated by the Anishinaabe name for the wild strawberry, odeiminidjibik, which translates as “root of the heart” and illustrating the intimacy of the people and this wild berry.
Read more: The Wild Strawberry: a Sacred Purifier
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Vermont organic growers on food and farming and building natural webs of biological communities. Growing and eating organic is better for the farmer, better for the animals, better for the environment, better for your health.
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