The Formal World Economy Was Failing Women and Small Farmers. So This Guy Built a New One.

Skagway Brewing Company built an aeroponic farm inside their brewpub to grow fresh lettuce year-round, successfully meeting the restaurant's full weekly demand and capturing brewing CO2 to boost yields.

Since 2015, the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, with support by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has worked to help dairy farmers transfer skills and opportunities to a new generation. Thus far, slmost 70 apprentices have graduated from the program as independent journeyworkers, and 59 farmer-apprentice pairs are currently active across the country.

A local energy cooperative in Colorado, Delta Montrose Electric Association, is spurring economic development through renewable energy. The program has allowed Delta County to diversify energy sources, and has become a tool for economic revitalization.

As jobs in America's coal mines dwindle, local Appalachian communities put resources and opportunity into the sustainable energy business. A nonprofit in Kentucky called the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development bridges the gap between the two industries by providing sustainable energy training and internships for former employees of the coal mining industry.

In rural Tennessee the unemployment rate can be very high, making it hard for inmates to find jobs upon their release, which then increases the rate of recidivism. The Rural Reentry Program has set up training programs for inmates while in jail in order for them to earn their certification and then find work at a local factory. This effort helps lower recidivism and balances the cost of imprisonment.

After Nepal's 2015 earthquake, many village women were left in financial devastation and struggled to support their families. The earthquake destroyed up to 90% of small enterprises and markets, so the United Nations Development Programme trained women how to weave. As a mode of recovery, the weaving industry has helped rebuild the economic and social structures through the Panchakanya group.

A UNM-Taos nursing program has been touted by the college and the hospital as a great example of workforce development in a community that has long struggled with economic development. As leaders continue to look for ways to diversify the economy beyond low-paying tourism and service industry gigs, the program might be one example of how to effectively merge education and workforce development.

In Zanzibar, hundreds of households too poor and remote to have access to the electrical grid are getting low cost solar power for the first time, from a group of local female engineers trained by and Indian NGO. It's the first of several "solar mamas" projects planned for parts of rural Africa, and it's turning some traditional gender roles on their head.

The effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and hotter global temperatures, are already having drastic impact on many communities, especially the rural, agricultural regions of countries such as Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Mozambique. Earthrise explores how people in these communities are learning new skills, implementing new techniques, and are striving in every way possible to adapt to these environmental changes while creating hope for sustainable growth in the future.

Two columns on microconsignment, a new variation on microcredit that helps poor people living in developing countries - particularly women in rural villages - start small social businesses without taking on debt or requiring previous business skills. The organization, Soluciones Comunitarias, partners with a non-profit and a university student program to manage the supply chain and other components of the business necessary to support the social entrepreneurs in successful micro-ventures.