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Agroecology

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. 

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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:

Youth Storytellers in Honduras: Part 3

Intro / Part 1 / Part 2

Groundswell International collaborated with two of our partner organizations, Vecinos Honduras and Association Nourrir Sans Détruire, to elevate the voices of local youths in South America and Western Africa, allowing them to shape the next generation’s global narrative. Our last batch of videos out of Honduras come to us from three more young storytellers from communities throughout the country. Through these videos, these youths demonstrate the triumphs, empowerment, and lessons learned that they witness daily in their communities.

Women’s Local Market

In Concepción de Maria, Groundswell International and Vecinos Honduras have aimed our efforts on the ground at empowering locals, particularly women, to strengthen their communities both in the economy and the health of their neighbors. Through education in ecological farming and business practices, women entrepreneurs have gained the ability to sustainably farm natural, healthy foods like fruits and veggies and then hold markets to sell those foods, amongst other products, to their neighbors. This has empowered the women of Concepción de Maria to bolster their local economy while improving the health of their families and community.

Watch the video below or on YouTube:

Family Farmers

In communities throughout Honduras, family farmers are solving grain shortage issues by buying local grain and working with Vecinos Honduras to source space and fertilizers and work in collaboration with other farmers in the farmer-to-farmer programs. Growing food locally provides better access to healthy food for these communities and allows locals to provide for their own families without having to rely on chemically or genetically modified commercial offerings.

Watch the video below or on YouTube:

AE Local Resources

Farmers in communities across Azabache, Honduras, are rethinking organic farming and their relationship with the environment thanks to their partnership with Vecinos Honduras. Training from Vecinos Honduras has empowered local producers to develop new ways to provide food to their families and neighbors that don’t contaminate natural resources, including the use of amino acids to strengthen their crops and using microorganisms found in their mountains. Says farmer Pedro Chavarria, through their partnership with Vecinos Honduras, local farmers have “realized that we were really in a part of the world where we had all the resources to work without the need of chemicals.” 

Watch the video below or on YouTube:

Youth Storytellers in Honduras: Part 2

Intro / Part 1

Groundswell International collaborated with two of our partner organizations, Vecinos Honduras and Association Nourrir Sans Détruire, to elevate the voices of young storytellers in South America and Western Africa, allowing them to shape the next generation’s global narrative. The newest round of videos in our Youth Storytellers series comes from some exceptional youths in Honduras.

Income Generation

The Los Cavales Número Uno community of Azabache continues to be empowered by Groundswell International and Vecinos Honduras’ support of local development. In this video, Youth Storyteller Yesica Lagos discusses both her and her neighbors’ experience with Vecinos Honduras’ program, with Yesica describing her involvement with Vecinos Honduras as “one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.” 

With training and support from Vecinos Honduras, Yesica’s community is seeing a regeneration of its local economy as locals find success in various business enterprises- including wood carving, motorcycle workshops, sheet metalworking, and even Yesica’s own snack business- enabling this community to generate their own income and gain independence from outside middlemen. As her community continues to build on its success, Yessica says, “They have left a legacy in our lives, in our communities.”

Hear more in Yesica’s own words by watching the video below or on YouTube:

Yaneth: Local Markets

Youth Storytellers are not only using their videos as a way to illustrate their community successes to the global community but as a call to action to their local communities to participate in their own empowerment and community building. In the area of Guarumas, El Tránsito, and Canadelaria, Vecinos Honduras supports community members in creating local markets that allow entrepreneurs- who have learned skills in their trades through training provided by Vecinos Honduras- to offer their products to the public, growing the local economy and reducing the need to travel to other areas for goods. 

Watch the video below or on YouTube:

Farmer Experimentation

“A producer with vocation is the one who works harmoniously with nature.” 

For decades, farmers in the El Corazon de Maria region of Honduras have felt the hard effects of climate change. Formerly a sawmill called La Sierra, El Corazon de Maria experienced much deforestation that has altered the local environment, creating lasting consequences for the local farmers, their community, and their culture.  

Training from Groundswell International and Vecinos Honduras has taught local farmers better practices for working with the land they live on and adapting the seeds of their ancestors to the current climate situation, allowing them to no longer have to rely on GMO seeds brought in by outside groups, and creating harmony between the farmers and the environment they live in. 

Watch the video below or on YouTube: 

Report from the Field: Senegal & Mexico

By: Ethan Scully

If you’d asked me a few months ago – “What do Oaxaca, Mexico, and Thiès, Senegal, have in common?” – I might have assumed it was a trick question. What could these North American and West African regions, which speak different languages and are located on opposite sides of the globe, possibly share with each other? Now, thanks to the generosity of our in-country partners and the small farmers they support, I can begin to tell you.

I joined Groundswell in October 2020, and ever since then, I’d been waiting for a chance to see just one of our programs in action. Now, in the span of two months, I’ve had the opportunity to see two! 

At the end of May 2021, Steve Brescia, Christopher Sacco, and I traveled to Thiès for Groundswell West Africa’s Regional Conference and to meet with our colleagues from Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, and, of course, Senegal. With Agrécol Afrique hosting, Groundswell’s West Africa network partners had an invaluable opportunity to meet and share lessons, experiences, and results from the various programs they’d been implementing over the past year, while also discussing plans for years to come. Having studied French for a couple of years and spending a semester in France during college, I was excited to be putting it to use again and felt comfortable despite the fact I was on an entirely new continent. 

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After two days in the conference room, it was finally time to go out into the field and see everything that, until then, I’d only been able to see on paper. Over the next three days, Agrécol took all of us to agroecological market gardens, a processing facility, and a restaurant, all owned and operated by women’s savings and credit groups, who, with Agrécol’s aid were inspired to come together and make better lives for themselves and their families. What I saw in the field made it clear this type of food system truly supports and uplifts those who labor, as well as the environment.

Almost a month later, Steve and I were off again, this time to Oaxaca to attend the closing meeting of Catalyzing Resilient Farmer Seed Systems in Mexico, a project carried out by eight organizations across three Mexican states, with the support of the WK Kellogg Foundation. Here, the various farmers and organizations involved would come together to exchange knowledge and lessons learned throughout the project’s duration.

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Now, if I said I was comfortable in Senegal because of my French, let me just say it was the complete opposite in Mexico. I started taking Spanish lessons about 3 months ago, and the thought of having to speak it with anybody other than my tutor was, shall we say, disconcerting. Imagine how I felt when on my first night there, my colleague, Groundswell’s Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, Edwin Escoto told me I would be taking an hour-long bus ride to Nochixtlan at 6:00 in the morning to tag along on some farm visits to get the farmers’ thoughts on how the project went and their hopes for the future. 

That didn’t exactly put my fears to rest, but as soon as I hopped off the bus, I was made to feel at home by my colleagues at Centro de Desarrollo Integral Campesino de la Mixteca (CEDICAM), who encouraged me to stumble through half-broken Spanish sentences over breakfast, just like the amazing hosts they are. If there’s one thing I’ll take away from this trip, it will be the amazing hospitality I was shown by everyone who was kind enough to welcome me into their home or serve me a hot meal. 

Throughout the rest of the week, now with Steve and Edwin there to translate for me, we were able to witness extremely powerful conversations between farmers from across the country living in similarly harsh conditions, all turning to agroecology as a means to reclaim cultural traditions and secure their future economic and food security. It was astounding to see everything they’d accomplished over the past three years and extremely encouraging to hear about what they already had planned for the future. 

Now to return to the original question – “What do Thiès, Senegal, and Oaxaca, Mexico, have in common?” To me, the answer is as clear as a glass of Mezcal, something I was also lucky enough to share with my hosts in Oaxaca. The farmers I met in both regions have an overwhelming sense of solidarity and loyalty, not only with other members of their respective communities, but also with the land they cultivate, and industrial agricultural systems have completely ignored these two basic building blocks of a healthy food system. 

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I believe this speaks to why agroecology is often seen as such a desirable alternative for rural communities aiming to reclaim their sense of autonomy from external actors directly or indirectly destroying their land and cultural heritage in exchange for short-term profits. As intersecting environmental and economic crises continue to impact communities living at the frontlines of climate change, we must remember that those best positioned to design and implement solutions are often the ones who are impacted by them on a daily basis. I’ve been fortunate enough to witness this truth firsthand, and it’s part of my work with Groundswell to share this as far and wide as possible, and I look forward to doing so with the help of my colleagues and our network partners around the world.

Youth Storytellers In Honduras: Part 1

Intro

The first round of videos in our Youth Storytellers series come to us from some young change-makers in Honduras. Our Youth Storytellers have filmed and edited these videos to demonstrate the successes in their communities. 

Merlin Aguirre

In Honduras, we are working alongside our partners at Vecinos Honduras to foster enterprises at the local level in order to regenerate local livelihoods and build the economies of rural communities. Vecinos Honduras provides education for members of the community, particularly young people, to learn skills and trades that allow them to gain financial independence and bolster their local economy. Through these efforts, over 650 people, including over 70 young people, have been able to form savings and credit cooperatives, mobilizing over $510,800 in savings.

Youth Storyteller Merlin Aguirre is one such youth in the Los Cavales Numero Uno community of Azabache. The son of a single mother, Merlin joined the El Esfuerzo Local Saving and Credit Union youth group Alianza Juvenil at age 20, where he received training from Vecinos Honduras to make metal silos and quickly started expanding his tinsmithing skills. Now, at 26 years old, Merlin owns his own tinsmith shop, Hojalateria La Bendición, where he crafts and sells metal silos, bread recipients, metal tubs, chimneys, accessories for coffee grinding machines, signs, license plate frames for vehicles, and more. Merlin’s skills and entrepreneurship are helping to revitalize his local economy by allowing his neighbors to buy the items they need locally – to store grain to increase food security and gain independence from middlemen, process agricultural products, avoiding smoke contamination from cooking fires in homes, and using motorcycles for local transport.  Merlin is also teaching his craft to other youths to enable his community to build success together.

Watch the video below to see him demonstrate his craft:

Women’s Empowerment

A large focus of Groundswell International’s work is on empowering women in rural communities around the globe. Women in the Concepción de María region of Choluteca in Honduras have been empowered to find their voices and take their places as leaders in their communities thanks to practical training and education from our partners Vecinos Honduras. Community members explain that while women used to feel timid, the education they have received has instilled confidence in them to make their voices heard and has left women feeling that they are now on an equal level with the men in their communities.  

Similarly, community analysis and refection facilitated by Vecinos Honduras has helped everyone in the community to better understand and relate to each other. Many men now see more clearly the contributions that women have always made to their families and communities in so many ways, which has fostered deeper respect and collaboration in the community as men now contribute equally in their homes and families. 
Watch the video below to learn more about how the people in these communities are thriving:

Youth Storytellers: Empowering the Next Generation

Agroecological farming and resilient local food systems are more effective and beneficial for people and our planet than industrialized agriculture. The need for a just transition from fossil fuel-based agriculture and dependence on food imports is even more evident with the high inflation of food and chemical fertilizers that are impacting millions. Scaling agroecological and local market alternatives are essential for nourishing people and reversing climate change. Yet, the false narrative that continues to dominate globally is that industrialized agriculture must ‘feed the world.’ This is a mindset that we work alongside our partners to change.

A large part of our mission at Groundswell International is to empower the communities we work in because we know wholeheartedly that the people in these communities are the real change-makers at the core of the success of our programs. This is especially true of young people.

The Youth Storytellers Program

With this in mind, in 2021, we piloted a Youth Storytellers program with our network partners Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD) in Burkina Faso and Vecinos Honduras in Latin America. We supported our partners to identify interested young people in program communities and facilitated them to retain basic communications training and equipment to produce brief videos on local success stories. 

Since then, our Youth Storytellers have documented the lives of smallholder farmers, including the strategies and techniques critical to their success and the universal elements shared with other farmers around the world. They have highlighted the improved resilience achieved by farming with nature instead of against it. 

The Youth Storytellers have shared their videos locally with their communities through social media and gatherings, inspiring others to action. Now we’re taking the opportunity to finalize and translate 15 videos to share with you to allow these youths to shape the narrative internationally in 2022.

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These Youth Storytellers are not only reshaping the global narrative surrounding how to ‘feed the world,’ but also working to inspire and empower other young people where they live. Youth Storytellers like Edras Amado Benegas in Honduras have led by example and gained a sense of agency as they recognize, document, and strengthen the power of community-based organizations to spread real solutions.

Edras explained, “I want to motivate other young people who are going through difficult situations, and who do not feel they count. I invite them to get involved, and find the opportunity to participate and be heard.”

It has been absolutely amazing to watch our Youth Storytellers use communications to drive positive social change, and we’re excited for you to see what they have to offer as we continue to find ways to make local voices heard globally in 2022.

Watch these Youth Storytellers in action here.

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