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Big Food, Big Ag, Big Org(anic), and Big Business have all convinced us that the “American Food System” is a wonderful thing to be maintained at all costs. Maintained on the backs of farmworkers, meat processing workers, food service workers, and other “invisible” workers, our food system delivers cheap strawberries from California, Mexico, and Chile year ‘round, and chicken nuggets and hamburgers by the barrel full. 
Traveling in a campervan – The Rainbow – for 10 months across South America with two kids and a dog; Nico Parco, our contributor, reminds us that with such limited space, the question of food is important. However, as they roam from country to country, from culture to culture, the pantry changes in appearance: a bag of aplanchados in Colombia, the finest chocolate in Ecuador, rich gourmet sauces in Peru, empanadas in Chile, pizzas and pastas in Argentina. 
Around 100 years ago there were hundreds of varieties of vegetable and fruit seed available to the farmer and home gardener. By 1983 those varieties had been reduced by more than a factor of 10. Or in the case of potatoes, by a factor of 1000… 
Traveling in a campervan – The Rainbow – for 10 months across South America with two kids and a dog; what could go wrong? Nico Parco, our contributor, explains… 
In October 2016, two Tolima coffee lots ended up in the top five at a country-wide coffee cupping festival, including first place, surprising judges and the public. The victory and recognition comes at critical point for coffee producers in the southern part of the department. Though geo-climatic conditions favor the production of specialty brews with unique flavors, coffee producers face obstacles in processing, accessing financial mechanisms, and finding new markets. 
In Columbia’s strategically located region Montes de Maria, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) roamed the countryside and destroyed entire irrigation systems, stole kilometers of pipelines, and stole or destroyed the pumps that fed the system from large water basins. Fear and destruction dissuaded many farmers from returning to their lands. 
The Phoenicians are credited with many things, but delivering the gift of wine to the shores of southern Europe is something for which mankind will always be thankful. Like the modern-day Lebanese, the fearless seafaring Phoenicians had an urge to meet distant horizons with zeal and brought grape growing and wine making in their wake. 
Liban Village was founded in 1992 as a farmer cooperative and grew to a small company that employs more than 50 people each year. Today, Liban Village works across the apple value chain, from production to sorting, packing and storage, as well as providing extension service training for smallholder apple farmers. Liban Village works with over 300 apple growers that employ thousands of laborers on Lebanon’s apple orchards. 
USAID and partners are increasing the quality and competitiveness of Lebanese freekeh for Middle Eastern foodies. |
 The Voice of Eco-Agriculture North America’s premier publisher on production-scale organic and sustainable farming. Learn more here. A Video You Don't Want to Miss!Clara Coleman, daughter of renowned farming pioneer Eliot Coleman, has a clear plan for a new collaborative farming model called the ARC Farming Project—Agrarian Resource Collaborative Farming. 
It is in response to today's particular agricultural challenges and embraces farmer entrepreneurial diversification. Watch the video here. |
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