COVID-19 Recovery Is a Chance to Make the Africa Food and Farming System More Resilient
The pandemic has acted as a giant magnifying lens. It has shed light on inequality, the vulnerability of people’s livelihoods, and the fragilities of a hyperconnected global economic system. Optimists say the pandemic is focusing policy minds on the need for more decisive, collective action on many resilience issues, including food and agriculture. As governments invest enormous resources to recover from COVID-19, many civil society groups are insisting on changing the system for the better. Optimists are saying: “build back better”. Pessimists respond that the pandemic is only a moment that s …
The Barefoot Guide to Surviving COVID-19
The Barefoot Guide to Surviving COVID-19 addresses how people across Africa can weather the COVID-19 pandemic, and, in the process it debunks many of the misconceptions that exist in the food industry, provides real, sustainable solutions to the challenges families face in their pursuit for access to healthy food, and explains how families can start their own gardens. The Natural Food Barefoot Guide Writer’s Collective, which includes Groundswell International’s Peter Gubbels, wrote the book. It is the first book in a new agroecology series produced by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Afri …
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 …
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 …
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