Agroecology: A Ground-Up Solution Empowering Marginalized Communities to Address Climate Change and Forced Migration
Environmental consequences disproportionately impact the poor and marginalized because they are excluded from decision-making processes that affect the places where they live. This has been true for generations, but today the stakes are greater than ever as environmental challenges, such as climate change, generate uneven environmental consequences on a global scale. People living in low-lying places, especially island nations that are just a few feet above sea level, are obviously vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by a warming planet. Until more recently, it was less clear how climate ch …
Agroecology and Local Markets: Sources of Hope During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Latin America
In Latin America, centuries of intractable social inequality and the accelerating deterioration of ecosystems, which are rooted in the neoliberal economic “development” model, have dramatically exacerbated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation has become so dire that the lives of millions now hang in the balance. These long-smoldering social and environmental crises demand urgent action if we have any hope of salvaging the project of civilization in much of the region.
Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963 Food justice, racial justice and economic justice are deeply connected. Justice in the U.S. is linked to justice in Haiti, Ghana, Guatemala, Nepal and other countries where Groundswell International works with partners, strengthening communities and social movements to create better lives. We stand and act in solid …
From Crisis to Healthy Farming and Food Systems
In a few short months an urgent question has absorbed people around the world. How and when do we end the COVID 19 pandemic? The answers depend on what actions we take. They also depend on recognizing the profound connections between our human health and the health of our ecosystems, economies, communities and societies. All of these rest on our agricultural and food system. Groundswell International works with family farming communities in West Africa, the Americas and South Asia to sustainably overcome poverty and improve lives. These communities are accustomed to facing crisis. They are pio …
Agroecology and Food Sovereignty are Critical in the Fight Against COVID-19 in West Africa
For over 10 years, Peter Gubbels, Groundswell International’s Director of Action Learning for West Africa, has supported our national level network members to improve food and nutrition security in rural communities across the Sahel. Peter and his wife live in a village in northern Ghana. He is deeply and personally concerned with how the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving on the African continent. Read Peter’s thoughts on the spread of COVID-19 in West Africa and how the international community can help mitigate the long-term impact of the pandemic on the region’s farmers and overall food security …
Groundswell’s COVID-19 Response: People-Centered Solutions for Community Health, Food Security and Resilience
COVID-19 is spreading to developing countries, where high levels of poverty, inequality and inadequate healthcare infrastructure make controlling the virus even more challenging than it is in developed nations. Almost three billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, and hundreds of millions do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded conditions where social distancing is all but impossible. Without urgent action, the COVID-19 pandemic will kill hundreds of thousands of people and set millions more on a downward spiral of ill health and pover …
