Food & Water featured

UN Backs Seed Sovereignty in Landmark Peasants’ Rights Declaration

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On December 17, the United Nations General Assembly took a quiet but historic vote, approving the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas, by a vote of 121-8 with 52 abstentions.

The Dark Side of Innovation for Family Farmers: Reflections on an International Symposium on Innovation

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This post explores rapid rise to prominence of the term ‘Innovation’ within agricultural development, and presents some reasons why it is an inadequate framework to address the deep injustices in contemporary food systems, especially as they relate to family farmers and other small scale food producers.

Spotlight on Urban, Vertical and Indoor Agriculture

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Should food be grown in cities? If so, how? These questions have a long history, with the last few hundred years taking in the Garden City movement where towns were designed to include homes, industry and agriculture, the ‘Victory Gardens’ of the First and Second World Wars and, more recently, the food miles debate.

Bison are Back, and That Benefits Many other Species on the Great Plains

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Today some 500,000 bison have been restored in over 6,000 locations, including public lands, private ranches and Native American lands. As they return, researchers like me are gaining insights into their substantial ecological and conservation value.

Lackan Cottage Farm Design

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Lackan Cottage Farm is the product of permaculture design, which can be seen in everything from our natural building products, to our waste and water treatment, energy production, and food growing. It is constantly evolving and growing with our own permaculture experience.

How Native American Diets Benefit From Tucson’s Indigenous Seed Bank

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The organization’s Native American Seed Request program distributes up to 10 free or low-cost traditional seed packets, annually, among individual Southwest Native Americans, and regional tribe members who live elsewhere. 

Istanbul Restaurant Offers Job Training and Other Services for the Homeless

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Explaining the many barriers former sex workers, abuse victims, and the homeless face at getting a fresh start in life, Tükrükçü says her personal experiences helped her understand that what is needed most to build a new life is skills.

Oxford Real Farming Conference 2019: Ten Years On, it’s into the Mainstream

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Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove’s repeat appearance this year for the 10thanniversary of the Oxford Real Farming Conference, makes a bold statement about the conference’s rising profile – like it or not, it is entering the mainstream, carrying its weight against the long-standing Oxford Farming Conference.

The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and El Beir, Arts and Seeds.

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In 2014, I founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library. The Library and associated El Beir Arts and Seeds symbolize this core belief: that agriculture is truly comprised of both “agri” (traditional farming practices) + “culture” (the associated lifestyle/livelihood traditions essential to a community’s identity).