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Groundswell International’s 2022 Year in Review

As another year comes to an end, we’re taking the opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made this year. 2022 was a big year for Groundswell International, our partner organizations, and our program communities, as we saw continued successes and instances of resiliency throughout the communities we serve. The year also saw our message of how agroecology is central to building healthy farming and food systems from the ground up spread further than ever before.

Take a moment to reflect with us on some of our favorite projects, publications, and events in 2022.

Youth Storytellers

This year we shared a project that was several years in the making: the Youth Storytellers program. Piloted in 2021, we joined our network partners Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD) and Vecinos Honduras, to identify interested young people in Honduras and Burkina Faso and provided these young changemakers with basic communications training and equipment to produce brief videos focused on their communities. The Youth Storytellers have documented the lives of smallholder farmers in Groundswell International program communities, including the strategies and techniques critical to their success and the universal elements shared with other farmers around the world, while also emphasizing the improved resilience achieved by these farmers through their use of agroecology. 

The Youth Storytellers shared their stories with their communities via social media to inspire their neighbors into action, but in 2022 we took the opportunity to finalize and translate 15 of the videos they filmed and shared them with you over the course of the year. This program has been successful beyond what we could have imagined, allowing these innovative youths to use communication as a catalyst to drive social change and shape the narrative internationally surrounding agroecology, climate issues, and how to ‘feed the world.’

Watch the videos and learn more about the program on our website or on YouTube, and find entries with a deeper look at the stories featured in these videos on our blog.

Field to Film: A Youth Storytellers Film Festival 

In December, we took our Youth Storytellers program one step further by hosting a virtual film festival, showcasing stories from even more incredible youths throughout Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Honduras, and Nepal. The two-hour, first-of-its-kind event gave even more Youth Storytellers the chance to highlight their work capturing community-led and ecological farming solutions, spreading them locally, and changing the narrative globally on how to tackle hunger, poverty, and climate change.

Read more about the film festival on our blog.

Addressing the Global Food Crisis Through Agroecology: A Series By Chris Sacco

Over the course of Summer 2022, Groundswell International’s Director of Program Management, Chris Sacco, published a four-part article series on LinkedIn examining the roots of the interconnected, worldwide food insecurity and environmental crises and the need to accelerate ecological farming methods as a means to address them. 

Through the series, Chris offered a wealth of important information – including well-researched data – as he offered a critical look at the current, broken global food system and outlined the current food crisis, how the world has gotten to this point, and how we can reverse course. We feel this is an important read for anyone who cares about the future of our planet and the good of our fellow humans, as well as anyone who is interested in why we do the work that we do here at Groundswell International.

Learn more about Chris’ series on our blog and read all four parts on LinkedIn.

Global Conference 2022

During the week of September 19, Groundswell International gathered with our partners from fourteen different countries throughout the world in Andhra Pradesh, India, for our 2022 Global Conference.

The week included field visits and dialogue with the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming program (APCNF) to see how they are scaling agroecological transitions in that state and discuss how we can continue to learn from and collaborate with each other. We met with women farmers, learned about their wide network of self-help groups, and of various techniques to regenerate soil biology and land to improve production, lives, and climate resilience.   

Read a message from our Executive Director, Steve Brescia, summarizing the trip on our blog. We will share more of our experiences and lessons learned from this gathering in 2023.

Farmers’ Knowledge and Seeds in Mexico: Food Solutions via Mexico Seed Project

In 2022, we completed a three-and-a-half-year program in southern Mexico focused on strengthening indigenous farming communities and local NGOs to improve the management of their native seed systems. Groundswell’s Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, Edwin Escoto, provided an overview of the project, which “show[ed] us that feelings of empowerment are growing around working to strengthen local seed systems and bringing focus to those systems’ vital importance for families, not only for consumption, but also for food security”, and the results he witnessed in the field.

Read Edwin’s highlights of the Mexico Seed Project on our blog.

THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY: How Africa can Survive and Thrive

Groundswell International’s Director of Action Learning and Advocacy for West Africa, Peter Gubbels, contributed to “THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY: How Africa can Survive and Thrive,” a book in the Barefoot Guide Agroecology Series. Peter served as both a writer and editor for the book, which examines Africa’s diverse food systems and the impact they have experienced from the current climate crisis and the industrial food system. “The Climate Emergency” also shares stories of hope and regeneration as a result of the use of agroecology from farmers, pastoralists, fishers, indigenous peoples, women, and youth throughout the African continent.

Learn more about the book here, and read a free PDF version here.

“My Food is African: A Campaign to Improve Health and Support Farmers”

We always love to see our staff act to strengthen local alliances and movements, and Peter once again shared his knowledge on agroecology in Africa with IPPMedia for an article titled “My Food is African: A Campaign to Improve Health and Support Farmers”. 

The article, which quotes Peter extensively, discusses the use of agroecology in Africa, the diverse food systems throughout the continent, and the effects of climate change and food industrialization. The article also includes Peter’s reflections on the Uganda meeting of the Citizens and Agroecology working group, which he attended.

Read the article here. 

Report From The Field: Honduras

Groundswell International’s newest staff member, Chandi Guntupalli, Donor Relations Manager, hit the ground running and visited Honduras with Steve Brescia at the end of March 2022 for five days to meet with our partner, Vecinos Honduras, and discuss our plans for the Central American Dry Corridor. 

Chandi documented her first trip into the field on our blog.

Report from the Field: Senegal & Mexico

This summer Groundswell International staff member Ethan Scully, Grants Manager, had the opportunity to witness two of our programs in action during trips to Oaxaca, Mexico, and Thiès, Senegal, that took place over the course of a couple of months. Though on completely different continents with completely different cultures, Ethan found that farmers in Oaxaca and Thiès shared “an overwhelming sense of solidarity and loyalty, not only with other members of their respective communities but also with the land they cultivate,” a testament to what makes agroecology a desirable option for rural communities throughout the globe.

Read more about Ethan’s experiences in the field in a report on our blog.

Support Groundswell International in furthering our progress in 2023

We’re so grateful to our partner organizations and the important work they do on the ground in the communities we serve. We’re also grateful to all those who support Groundswell International and our partners in doing this important work. 

The progress we make each year is made possible by the financial contributions of supporters around the globe. If you’re passionate about increasing food security for rural communities, reversing the effects of climate change and food industrialization, and strengthening communities to build sustainable farming and food systems from the ground up, please consider donating to Groundswell International. 

You can also support Groundswell’s efforts for free every time you shop at Amazon by using AmazonSmile. Simply go to smile.amazon.com and choose Groundswell International as your desired charity, or in the Amazon app find “Settings” in the main menu (☰) and tap on “AmazonSmile” to set your charity of choice. Make sure to visit smile.amazon.com each time you shop on Amazon, and Groundswell International will receive a donation for every qualifying purchase you make, at zero cost to you.

Thank you for joining us in our mission in 2022, we’ll see you in 2023 as we continue our work and share more stories of hope, resiliency, and sustainable solutions from the field!

Field to Film: A Youth Storytellers Film Festival

Over the last several months we’ve shared stories of rural communities and local food systems throughout Central America and West Africa, as documented by the youths in those communities as part of our Youth Storytellers Program.

A joint effort between Groundswell International, our partner organizations, and these ambitious young people, the Youth Storytellers Program has enabled local change-makers to use communication as a catalyst to drive social change and shape the local and global narrative surrounding agroecology, climate issues, and how to ‘feed the world’, as they have written, filmed, and edited these videos and served as an inspiration to other young members of their communities.

Voices From the Field

So far, we’ve shared stories out of Honduras and Burkina Faso, documenting smallholder farmers, women entrepreneurs, and young innovators, including the strategies and techniques critical to their success and the universal elements they share with other farmers around the world. Through these stories, the Youth Storytellers have highlighted the improved resilience achieved by farming with nature instead of against it. They are shining a light on communities regenerating their local economies, fighting food insecurity, and establishing financial independence. 

We’ve been inspired as we’ve shared these first few stories with you, but there are still many more stories to share! This is why we’re now beyond excited to be able to enable even more Youth Storytellers from around the globe to make their voices heard and bring you new examples of empowerment, transformation, and triumph as we host our first-ever virtual film festival: Field to Film. 

Field to Film: A Youth Storytellers Film Festival 

On December 2, 2022, Youth Storytellers from Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Honduras, and Nepal will showcase their work capturing community-led and ecological farming solutions, spreading them locally, and changing the narrative globally on how to tackle hunger, poverty, and climate change.

Trailer edited by Mike Mastre.

We hope you will join us in learning from a new round of Youth Storytellers at this first-of-its-kind event. Spots are limited, so make sure to reserve your FREE ticket as soon as possible

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Global Conference 2022

During the week of September 19, Groundswell International gathered with our partners from fourteen different countries throughout the world in the Anantapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh, India for our 2022 Global Conference.

The week also included field visits throughout Anantapuramu, where government support has enabled Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RSS) to create a practice of community-managed natural farming that serves as a model for India, to observe the agroecological practices of the communities there. We met with women farmers, learning of their involvement in self-help groups within the community. We learned about the farmer-to-farmer network laid out for sharing resources as well as the various natural farming technologies in use. 

Below is a message from Executive Director, Steve Brescia, summarizing the trip.

Friends,

We just returned from a phenomenal Groundswell International global conference in India – jet-lagged, but super-charged.  We were generously hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming program (APCNF), perhaps the largest agroecology program in the world, and were able to visit and learn from women’s groups, farmers, and rural communities.  We also finished shaping Groundswell’s next Strategic Framework (2023-27), based on our planning process begun over a year ago.

global conference 2022

Nothing is easy in the world these days, but through mutual support and sheer tenacity we were able to gather 28 people (from 14 countries), representing our member organizations, staff, board, and allies.  We overcame the challenges of political unrest and violence in multiple countries, COVID-19, delayed transit visas, air traffic controller strikes, high ticket costs, and last-minute travel diversions and lost luggage.  While we’ve gotten pretty good at virtual coordination over the last few years, gathering together revitalized our human connections, energy and insights for the collective work ahead.

We are grateful to Vijay Kumar, who directs the APCNF program, and his great team for their support.  The APCNF program is built on strong social organizing – years of strengthening a vast network of women’s self-help groups (over 160,000 SHGs involved so far).  It supports them to test, adapt and spread effective agroecological principles and practices, farmer-to-farmer, as they work towards their vision of reaching 8 million farmers and farm workers and regenerating 8 million hectares of degraded land in the state of Andhra Pradesh by 2031.  

Many of the APCNF strategies resonate strongly with those of Groundswell’s member NGOs in West Africa, the Americas, and South Asia. What is profoundly different in Andhra Pradesh is the strong government commitment and to support millions of smallholder farmers to make the transition from chemical based to agroecological farming to sustainably improve their lives. 

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Working on Groundswell’s 2023-2027 Strategic Framework.

As is always the case, exposure to other experiences shines a light on our own.  It generates insights about how we can improve what we are doing now, and what larger possibilities exist. One way we plan to follow up is by coordinating small groups of farmers in 10 countries in West Africa, the Americas and South Asia to experiment with and adapt some key techniques to catalyze soil biology, productivity, and carbon sequestration.  Farmers will validate what works for them in their contexts, and what can be spread to others.  

We also look forward to sharing with you Groundswell’s updated Strategic Framework in the coming months.   Among other things, over the next five years we’ll build on our current successes and work to increase leadership opportunities for women, better mobilize youth, and strengthen territorial strategies to build healthy economies and climate change resilience based on agroecology. 

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Groundswell members visiting a successful agroecological farmer.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  I’ve heard others comment recently that imagination may be the resource we lack most in the world today.  The world is in crisis because we are locked into extractive ways of producing and living that have led us here.  Can we use imagination and collaborative work to make different choices, to spread real and regenerative solutions that already exist?

We see it happening.  In rural communities, agroecological farmers are working to create a critical mass of effective alternatives, that can catalyze change at community and landscape levels.  Women come together in self-help groups, building a sense of mutual support and collective power, and taking action to improve their land and lives.  We felt that same spirit of local solidarity and trust in our global gathering, along with our allies from Andhra Pradesh.  

We are part of a wider movement creating very real and hopeful alternatives.  As we left our gathering and returned each to our own countries, to local action and virtual coordination, we carry forward a great sense of what is possible in creating from the ground up farming and food systems that are healthier for people and the planet.

| Help us continue to support voices in the field.

Youth Storytellers in Burkina Faso: Part 2

Groundswell International collaborated with our partner organizations, Vecinos Honduras and Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD), to elevate the voices of local youths in Central America and Western Africa, allowing them to drive positive social change and shape the next generation’s global narrative. 

Our newest batch of videos out of West Africa come to us from three more inspired youths from villages throughout Burkina Faso. Through these videos, these youths share how their community members are transforming their lives daily.

Land Transformation Through Agroecology

Training in agroecology has helped members of the Bilanperga village in Burkina Faso to transform their land- and with it their lives- from barren, stony ground to thriving farmland. Farmers like Habibour Lankiande have learned techniques like zai cultivation and RNA to bolster their plants against drought conditions and to help their soil recover between growing cycles. Despite the labor-intensive work, Habibour says agroecology has improved her life, allowing her family to build financial independence, and has helped to foster a deeper partnership with her husband as they cultivate the land together 

Here, Habibour explains the process of zai cultivation and how it has impacted her life.

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Organic Farming and Catch Basins

Farmers throughout Burkina Faso continue to see the positive impact of incorporating agroecology techniques into their work. With training and support from ANSD, market farmer Michel Balima has switched from using chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers, as well as uses a catch basin to collect and store water for his tomato and corn crops. Through these techniques, Michel is able to cultivate healthier crops, even in times of drought, and with enough abundance to sell. 

As a result of his use of agroecology, Michel has transformed his life and that of his family by gaining food security, financial independence, and a new level of pride: “I’m proud of my work. The money I make on tomatoes and corn lets me pay for my children to go to school. I get to take care of my health and deal with family problems.”

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Youth Storytellers in Burkina Faso: Part 1

Groundswell International collaborated with our partner organizations, Vecinos Honduras and Association Nourrir Sans Détruire, to elevate the voices of local youths in Central America and Western Africa, allowing them to shape the next generation’s global narrative. We previously shared videos from youths in communities throughout Honduras, and now our first batch of videos out of West Africa come to us from three young storytellers from communities throughout Burkina Faso. Through these videos, our youth storytellers share the triumphs, empowerment, and resilience that they witness daily in their villages with the global community.

A Determined Woman

Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD) works in Burkina Faso to strengthen the capacity of local communities, especially women farmers, to lead and manage their own agroecology programs by providing training and resources. Burkina Faso native Marceling Sandwidi received training in agroecology and seeds from ANSD, resources she now uses to tend a nursery garden of moringa plants for sale. 

Despite initial challenges, Marceling has been able to generate income to provide for her family while also contributing to her community- the moringa plants she sells have many medicinal uses, including treating high blood pressure. Through Marceling’s nursery, this community is mutually building success.

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Farmer Jonas in Burkina Faso

Farmers in Burkina Faso are seeing their fields transformed through the use of agroecological techniques introduced to them by Groundswell International and ANSD. Pokiamo Nadinga and his fellow Burkinabe farmers have trained in water management techniques like utilizing stone contour lines to direct the flow of water to their crops during irrigation. Farmers who have adopted these agroecological techniques have seen a vast improvement in their fields, with Pokiamo saying he sees a notable difference in the success of his crops compared to those of farmers who have neglected to adopt agroecology. 

Through agroecology, Pokiamo has found food security and an increase in quality of life, saying “I have even been able to buy a bull, so honestly I am really doing well.” 

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Creating Financial Independence

“I encourage women to get ahead. With ANSD, you will never fall behind.” 

In the Burkinabe village of Silguin, women like Awa Kima are finding empowerment and transforming their lives with the help of ANSD. Describing her life as difficult before ANSD’s intervention, Awa is now building financial independence through selling salt at markets, and has now been able to buy herself a cart and donkey for transporting resources and can afford to pay to send her children to school.

Awa says that she, and other women in her community, are able to live better, more independent lives thanks to continuing support from ANSD.

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Addressing the Global Food Crisis Through Agroecology: A Series By Chris Sacco

Over the last few years, we have all grown accustomed to hearing about how our world is in the midst of one global crisis or another. While the COVID-19 pandemic had a large amount of our attention over the last couple of years, another looming crisis has been quietly and rapidly gaining traction: global food insecurity. 

As of 2020, 2.37 billion people globally did not have access to adequate food, an increase of 320 million people from the previous year. Over the course of the last few weeks, Groundswell International’s Co-Founder and Director of Program Management, Chris Sacco, published a four-part article series on LinkedIn examining the roots of the interconnected, worldwide food insecurity and environmental crises and the need to accelerate ecological farming methods as a means to address them. 

Addressing the Global Food Crisis Through Agroecology

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In the first part of the series, “Accelerating Ecological Farming to Address the Global Food Insecurity and Environmental Crises,” we are introduced to the food insecurity crisis facing the globe: an increasing lack of access to food for people all around the world. While current events, like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have certainly exacerbated an already dismal situation, this crisis has been building for a long time: millions of people globally have lived in a food crisis for decades, with the numbers of people who cannot access adequate food rapidly increasing each year. With this knowledge, Chris examines how the “global experiment” with industrial food production has long been a failure. 

agroecology

Part two of the series, “The Industrial Road to Ruin, Killing the Planet and Ourselves,” explores the industrialized “agricultural treadmill” approach to food production and the negative impacts it is having on the environment, the global food supply chain, and the small-scale farmers who struggle to compete with the mass-production of corporate-owned farms. Currently, the majority of the world’s agricultural exports are produced by a small handful of corporations who monopolize the industry. As industrial agriculture continues to attempt to increase its output and, more importantly, its profits, we are seeing more and more habitable land converted for agriculture purposes and an increase in the use of chemical-laden fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, all at great detriment to the environment. Long-term exposure to these chemicals poses great health risks to people, as well, both to the workers who farm these crops and the people who consume them in their food.

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The third article, “Agroecology Can Fix Our Broken Food System and Heal the Planet,” offers an argument for small-scale agroecology as a solution to the issues discussed in parts one and two of the series. A shift to small-scale agroecology will not only allow smaller producers to feed themselves and their neighbors without having to fight the monopoly of industrial agriculture conglomerates but has the ability to rehabilitate our planet’s ailing ecosystems. Chris explains how agroecology conserves and restores the biodiversity within local environments as well as restores ecosystem functions lost to degradation and abuse perpetrated by the corporate agriculture industry. 

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The final article of the series, “Bottom-Up Solutions to the Global Food Crisis,” looks to the future, outlining the necessary actions needed to address the global food crisis and move toward a more sustainable and equitable food system. These actions include financial and policy support of small-level producers, establishing grain reserves, and a reduction of non-food uses of potential food crops, ie. the use of food as biofuels, until the food crisis has been overcome. Beyond policies, these solutions include the important work already being carried out by organizations like Groundswell International and our partners. 

Through this series, Chris offers a wealth of critical information – including well-researched data – as he outlines the current crisis, how we’ve gotten to this point, and how we can reverse course. We think it’s an important read for anyone who cares about the future of our planet and the good of our fellow humans and anyone who is interested in why we do the work that we do here at Groundswell International.

Read all four parts of Chris’ article series on LinkedIn:

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