Posts tagged "Agriculture"

Story Hill Farms: A Place For Refugees to Harness Their Skills

“There’s still seedlings to be planted, winter storm waste to rid and tractors to be repaired, but those caring for the land at Story Hill Farm in Dunbarton are prepared to see both crops and business prosper come springtime.
At the 56.8 acre farm, 14 refugee farmers tend to their own plot of land, which are equally divided into sections. Through the Manchester-based nonprofit Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success, refugees are able to farm their own crops and keep 100 percent of proceeds.”

…. “Refugee farmers of Somali Bantu, Rwandan, Burundi, Congolese and Bhutanese backgrounds have plots of farmland on Story Hill Road in Dunbarton.
The growers provide about 40 different crops that are consumed mostly by American customers and 20 different crops consumed mostly by members of the refugee community. Shopping the produce, customers will find zucchini, cucumber and arugula, as well as other vegetables native to the refugee’s home country.

A Cooperative Farm for Refugees Joins the New Nonprofit Economy

More: http://refugeesuccess.org/fresh-start-farms

Pre-Columbian Crop Cultivation Patterns Reveal Extensive Native Societal Networks

“By studying lost crops, archaeologists learn about everyday life in the ancient Woodland culture of the Americas, including how people ate plants that we call weeds today. But these plants also give us a window on social networks. Scientists can track the spread of cultivated seeds from one tiny settlement to the next in the vast region that would one day be known as the United States. This reveals which groups were connected culturally and how they formed alliances through food and farming.”

 

Agroecology: Opportunities and Challenges

 

Agroecology has a pivotal role to play in the future of our food systems. If it is co-opted by reformist trends in the Green Revolution, the agroecological countermovement will be weakened, the corporate food regime will likely be strengthened, and substantive reforms to our food systems will be highly unlikely. However, if agroecologists build strategic alliances with food sovereignty and agrarian movements—at home and abroad—the countermovement will be strengthened. A strong countermovement could generate considerable political will for the transformation of our food systems.”