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  • Fresh and Local

    Slovak farmers meet increasingly sophisticated demand by growing tomatoes with a flavor that can’t be imported. Greenhouse-grown tomatoes serve as a good example of how modern-day Slovak farmers are using the latest technology to bring produce to the market with taste rivaling that of home-grown.

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  • Upper Valley farmers use variety of strategies to limit contributions to climate change

    Agriculture accounts for 10 percent of greenhouse emissions in the U.S. according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This article details efforts by small farmers to reduce carbon emissions as part of a larger fight against climate change. Some of their methods include things like switching to solar power, not tilling the soil, using horses rather than tractors, and recharging the soil with organic matter. For some of them- it's yielding results.

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  • After a century of dispossession, Black farmers are fighting to get back to the land

    In the U.S., a movement of Black farmers is trying to reclaim their legacy as agrarians. Only 1.7 percent of farms were run by Black farmers according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Black farmers are forming collectives, creating land trusts, creating conferences.

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  • Rivers of Milk, Islands of Prosperity

    A dairy cooperative in Ukraine has brought jobs to farmers in the region and allowed them to work together to sell their milk on the market. An international nonprofit helped the Andriyivka Prosperity cooperative get off the ground. While villagers were skeptical of joining at first, and there are still challenges with operating the cooperative, there are 129 members that sell their milk. “The cooperative has halted the extinction of the village, allowing young people to stay in their homelands and have jobs and a livelihood,” says one of the villagers.

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  • Fighting the Mafia on Its Own Turf

    La Placido Rizzotto is one of nine farm co-ops in a network of properties that were seized from Sicily's Mafia and reused to create a productive alternative to the area's crime-based economy. Part of the Libera Terra (Freed Land) network, La Placido Rizzotto employs 22 people and its farm, winery, and tourist inn generated nearly $900,000 in sales in 2019. The government has confiscated thousands of properties in its effort to hurt the Mafia economically, but managing the properties remains a challenge that the "social use" movement addresses. Libera Terra's model has been copied by an Argentinian co-op.

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  • Seafood Delicacies Find Their Way Into Home Kitchens

    After restaurants closed due to COVID-19 and tariffs were implemented on exports to China, fishermen and women in the United States had to shift their business model to sell directly to consumers. For example, Get Hooked, a subscription-based community-supported fishery in California that delivers daily catches to customers, saw their business double after the pandemic hit. This new model allows home cooks to support local suppliers and explore new foods.

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  • Cooperation and Chocolate: The Story of One Colombian Community's Quest for Peace

    Plagued by an internal war, a group of villages in Colombia created a “Peace Community,” declaring themselves neutral in the conflict and focusing their efforts on cultivating the 150 hectares of cacao trees in collectively owned plots to sell to global markets. While villagers still experience violence, the earnings from their crops go into a collective pot and the community decides together how to distribute the funds. “To them, this is actually a very profound act of transcending traditional capitalist society models and building something together,” says an anthropologist who has studied the community.

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  • California Farmers of Color Need More Support During the Pandemic. Can Private Efforts Help?

    The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the ways in which the food system is broken, but governments, NGOs, and philanthropists are working to address the discrepancies by connecting small-scale farmers of color with businesses that can purchase their produce at fair rates. “For the first time, they felt connected with a real community. For the first time, they felt they were getting paid what’s right for what they’re growing,” a business advisor for one of the operations explains.

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  • This Kauai Nonprofit Is Trying To Change How People Buy Their Food

    Food hub projects are gaining momentum in Hawaii as a means to connect farmers with customers. The projects go against the narrative that produce should be sold to big-box supermarkets, and instead focuses on "allowing farmers to concentrate on farming and creating a seamless ordering system so consumers can order food online for delivery or availability at central pickup points."

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  • Indian Women Turn to Ancient Grains to Feed Their Families and Their Futures

    In the face of climate change, the nonprofit SABALA is working with nearly 2,000 women farmers in India to participate in millet farming, which can also strengthen community food security and empower women. Using traditional farming techniques, farmers can cultivate 15 to 20 of the climate-resistant crops on a 1-acre plot. Due to the success with millet farming, nearly 300 of the women came together to start a cooperative to process surplus millets and sell the grain to the local community.

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