borderjumpers | Motley Moose – Archive

Working with the Root

This is the first in a five-part series of my visit with the Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development and the projects they support in southern Ghana. Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog.

The Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (ECASARD), based in Accra, Ghana, is a unique organization. Not only has it brought together members of the Christian and Muslim faith-based communities to help improve the lives of farmers, it also collaborates with farmers groups, NGOs, policy-makers, and research institutions. “We can’t do it on our own,” says King David Amoah, which is why ECASARD works with these different stakeholders.

Established in 1991, ECASARD works with some 32,000 farmers in 7 regions of southern and central Ghana.

Their goal, says King David, is to both increase food production and reduce rural poverty. They do this by promoting innovations that are affordable, environmentally sustainable, socially just and culturally acceptable.

One of the most important things they do, according to King David, is the promotion of pilot projects. “Farmers can’t afford to experiment {with different technologies},” he says, “but ECASARD can fund pilot projects,” allowing farmers the freedom to try new things without taking on all the risk.

Their greatest success, says King David, has been “bringing farmers together to organize themselves” into associations and cooperatives, particularly for women. ECASARD “works with the root. We don’t go to big-time farmers,” according to King David, “we go to the villages.”

In addition, ECASARD helps farmers understand the business of farming by helping them connect to markets. Having a market, says King David, gives farmers the incentive to produce more. ECASARD is also making farming a more attractive option, particularly for youth. “If you take farming seriously,” according to King David, “it can be your livelihood and make you a rich man {or woman}.

Stay tuned for more about our visits with the farmers groups ECASARD works with on the ground, including palm oil processors, an association of rabbit and grasscutter farmers, a women’s dairy cooperative, and a women fishmongers association.

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John Jeavons and Jake Blehm on Building a Truly Sustainable Agriculture

In this regular series we profile advisors of the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we feature John Jeavons, Executive Director of Ecology Action and Jake Blehm, Assistant Executive Director at Ecology Action in Willits, California. Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Name: John Jeavons

Affiliation: Ecology Action

Location: Willits, California

Bio: John Jeavons is the Executive Director of Ecology Action of the Mid-Peninsula, a 501 (c) (3) organization. He is known internationally as the leading researcher and method developer, teacher, and consultant for the small-scale, sustainable agricultural method known as GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini-farming. He is the author of the best-selling book How to Grow More Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine (Ten Speed Press), which has gone into seven editions in seven languages, plus Braille. There are over 550,000 copies in print worldwide. He has authored, co-authored or edited over 30 publications on this high-yielding, resource-conserving Biointensive approach, including a five-part, peer reviewed article that appeared in The Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. Jeavons’ food-raising methods are being used in 141 countries and by such organizations as UNICEF, Save the Children, and the Peace Corps.

Name: Jake Blehm

Affiliation: Ecology Action

Location: Willits, California

Bio: Jake Blehm is the Assistant Executive Director at Ecology Action in Willits, California. Ecology Action has provided training and education in the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method of organic mini-farming to people from nearly 140 countries over the last 40 years. He has worked in sustainable and organic agriculture for over 25 years, working in over 30 countries and visiting an additional 20 countries for agricultural service-learning and education, volunteering with organizations such as ACDI/VOCA and Winrock International. He was worked in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Mali, Ghana, Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras and several other developing countries. He began his career as a biological control producer and consultant, and later moved into leadership and organizational development work with agriculturalists. He is an alumni of the California Agricultural Leadership Program, and was the Director of Programs for the California Ag Leadership Foundation. Before joining ecology action, he was Director of Operations at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Jake received his B.S. in Agricultural Business/Economics at Colorado State University, his M.B.A. in Organizational Development from California Lutheran University and a Certificate in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

What is the relationship between agriculture and the environment? It very much depends on the type of agriculture practiced. The methods, practices, and inputs all affect our relationship with farming. Most conventional agricultural systems deplete natural resources and the environment’s ability to produce or maintain sustainable ecosystems on which all species depend. We need to change this relationship to a healthy one.

What role can agriculture play in alleviating poverty and hunger worldwide? For the majority of the world population, small-scale subsistence agriculture provides the only significant opportunity for addressing poverty and hunger while building sustainable fertility and conserving resources. Healthy and vibrant local agro-ecosystems with appropriately developed infrastructure and markets can provide food security and economic opportunity.

Can you describe how GROW BIOINTENSIVE practices work and how they can help improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers? When properly used, the techniques included in GROW BIOINTENSIVE sustainable mini-farming can build the soil up to 60 times faster than in nature, while making possible per unit of production:

* 67 to 88% reduction in water consumption

* 50% reduction in the amount of purchased fertilizer required

* 94% to 99% reduction in the amount of energy used

* 100% increase in soil fertility, with an increases in yield

* 200% to 400% increase in caloric production per unit of area, and a

* 100% increase in income per unit of area.

What kinds of policy changes would you like to see implemented immediately to alleviate poverty and hunger? One good place to start would be to sequentially reduce crop subsidy payment programs. When the United States and European Union make farm subsidy payments, it changes commodity prices worldwide, and makes it very difficult for farmers from smaller developing countries to compete. These farmers are forced out of the market, and the U.S. or other G8 countries end up needing to provide food aid or other economic assistance. A better concept for agricultural support payments may be to pay farmers to build their soil fertility, sequester carbon, improve the soil’s water-holding capacity, reduce nutrient loading and develop better ecosystems. These would provide multiple benefits and everyone would win.

Can you discuss the relationship between consumers in the United States and global hunger? When consumers demand a food supply that is not fully sustainable, we support a farming model that depletes our soil and degrades water, air, and species biodiversity. This, in turn, decreases our ability to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. Why not support living, regenerative, local farming systems that support the improvement of the natural resources upon which the Earth depends?

Why should consumers in the United States care about the state of agriculture in other countries? Because a world with food security and social stability benefits us all.

What could be done to encourage more investment in an agriculture that assists with the alleviation of global poverty and hunger? A relatively small percentage of the developed world’s “security and defense” budget could provide the education, training, tools and other resources needed to increase food security, improved nutrition, healthy ecosystems and increased economic opportunity for hundreds of millions of people. It simply takes the courage and political will to begin the building of a more fully sustainable world that works for everyone.

In Candide, Voltaire points the way: “The whole world is a garden and what a wonderful place this would be, if only each of us took care of our part of the garden!” Each of us is needed. And building a truly sustainable agriculture is an essential part of building sustainable communities. In order to accomplish this, we need to shift our perspective. We need to stop growing just crops and begin growing living soil!

Photo Credit: Amy Melious

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:

1. Comment on our daily posts — we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.

2. Receive regular updates–Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.

3. Help keep our research going–If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.

Using Livestock to Rebuild and Preserve Communities

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog.

For pastoralist communities like the well-known Maasai in Kenya, livestock keeping is more than just an important source of food and income; it’s a way of life that has been a part of their culture and traditions for hundreds of years.

But, in the face of drought, loss of traditional grazing grounds, and pressure from governments and agribusiness to cross-breed native cattle breeds with exotic breeds, pastoralists are struggling to feed their families and hold on to their culture.

The key, however, to maintaining the pastoralist way of life, at least in Kenya, may also be the key to preserving the country’s livestock genetic biodiversity, as well as improving local food security.”Governments need to recognize,” says Jacob Wanyama, coordinator with the African LIFE Network in Kenya- an organization that works to improve the rights of pastoralist communities in Eastern Africa, “that pastoralists are the best keepers of genetic diversity.” (See also: The Keepers of Genetic Diversity)

Anikole cattle, for example, a breed indigenous to Eastern Africa, are not only “beautiful to look at,” says Wanyama, but they’re one of the “highest quality” breeds of cattle because they can survive in extremely harsh, dry conditions-something that’s more important than the size and milk production of the cattle, especially as climate change takes a bigger hold on Africa. And indigenous breeds don’t require expensive feed and inputs, such as antibiotics to keep them healthy.

More than just a consistent and reliable source of food, Anikole cattle also help preserve the pastoralist culture and way of life. Though most pastoralists recognize that many of their children might choose to go into the cities instead of continuing the nomadic herding lifestyle of pastoralists, the preservation of Anikole cattle and other indigenous breeds will allow those that choose to stay to feed and support their families and community for years to come. (See also: Maintaining Links to Tradition in a Changing World)

And, similarly, in Mozambique, the International Rural Poultry Center of the Kyeema Foundation and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics are promoting livestock as more than just a means to improve food security.

The two organizations are partnering to work with farmers-most of them women-to raise chickens on their farms. Because women are often the primary caregivers for family members with HIV/AIDS, they need easy, low-cost sources of both food and income. Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer. (See also: Prescribing Improved Nutrition to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa)

In Rwanda, Heifer International is helping farmers use livestock to rebuild their homes and improve their income after the devastating genocide that occurred 15 years ago. Heifer began working in Rwanda in 2000, introducing a South African dairy breed, known for its high milk production, because, according to Dr. Karamuzi, “no stock of good [dairy cow] genes” was left in the country after the genocide.

And he says that these animals help prove “that even poor farmers can take care of high producing cows.” Heifer has certain conditions for receiving cows-including that farmers build a pen and dedicate part of their land to growing pasture-which made people skeptical, especially when they were used to letting animals roam freely to graze on grass. But as people began seeing the results of Heifer’s training, they become less suspicious and more interested in working with the group.

And these animals don’t only provide milk-which can be an important source of protein for the hungry-and income to families. They also provide manure, which provides not only fertilizer for crops, but also is now helping provide biogas for cooking to households raising cows in the country as part of a the National Biogas Program. And they give families a sense of security as they, and the entire country, continue to recover and rebuild. (See also: Healing With Livestock in Rwanda)

To read more about how smallscale livestock can improve food security and preserve and rebuild communities, see: Teacher Turned Farmer. . .Turned Teacher, Got Biogas?, Conserving Endangered Animal Genetic Resources in Kenya.

Photo Credit: International Livestock Research Institute

“Greening” Fisheries Could Calm Troubled Waters

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Fishing is a critical means of providing food, livelihood, trade, and economic growth in many developing countries-as well as the United States. In many small island developing nations and coastal countries – such as Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and Ghana – fish provide at least 50 percent of the population’s total animal protein intake. And approximately 43.5 million people’s year-round incomes depend on fish production while another 4 million’s depend on seasonal jobs as fishers and fish product workers.

Yet, despite the important role of fisheries in maintaining economic and social well-being, “fisheries around the world are being plundered or exploited at unsustainable rates,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Speaking about the preview release of the UNEP’s Green Economy Report: A Preview, Mr. Steiner argued that the current fishing industry “is a failure of management of what will prove to be monumental proportions unless addressed.”

The Green Economy Initiative report, scheduled for release later this year, argues that investment in “greening” the economy across a range of sectors – including agriculture, fisheries, and water – can drive global economic recovery and lead to future prosperity, job creation, and improved environmental conservation.

Currently, some 52 percent of the world’s marine fisheries are fully exploited and producing at- or close to- their maximum limits. Another 28 percent of the world’s marine fisheries are categorized as overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion-a producing less than their maximum potential. And when fisheries collapse, there is more than just the loss of fish life to worry about: livelihoods, communities, and entire economies are ruined.

Though the current outlook on fisheries may be troubling, researchers say that all is not lost. According to the Green Economy Initiative’s report, an $8 billion annual investment in rebuilding and “greening” the world’s fisheries could have a positive, and lasting, impact on the fishing industry worldwide. Researchers say this investment has the potential to both increase fish catches and generate $1.7 trillion in long-term economic returns over the next four decades.

Some possible methods for “greening” fisheries highlighted in the report include providing job training in alternative jobs industries; reducing the size of fishing fleets to limit excess harvesting capacity; and providing additional funding for fishery management to expand marine protected areas.

To read more about fisheries and the impact of the fishing sector, see: Catch of the Day: Choosing Seafood for Healthier Oceans, Farming Fish for the Future, and Vital Signs Online: Global Fish Production Continues to Rise.

Acting It Out for Advocacy

This is the final blog in a three-part series about FANRPAN’s work. It was co-written by Sithembile Ndema, FANRPAN’s Natural Resources and Environment Programme Manager and Danielle Nierenberg. Crossposted from Nourishing the Planet.

The Food and Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network’s (FANRPAN) Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) project aims at strengthening the capacity of women farmers influence in agriculture policy development and programmes in Southern Africa. It doesn’t sound especially entertaining-but it has some innovative strategies for bridging the divide between women farmers, researchers, and policy makers.

FANRPAN is using Theatre for Policy Advocacy to engage leaders, service providers, and policymakers; encourage community participation; and research the needs of women farmers. Essentially, theatre is being used to explain agricultural policy to people in rural areas, and to carry voices from the countryside back to government. Popular theatre personalities travel to communities in Mozambique and Malawi and stage performances using scripts based on FANRPAN’s research, to engage members of the community. After each performance, community members, women, men, youth, local leaders are engaged in facilitated dialogues. The dialogues give all community member-especially women-a chance to openly talk about the challenges they are facing without upsetting the status quo. More importantly, it allows women to tell development organizations what they really need, not the other way around.

Ultimately, FANRPAN hopes to train women community leaders to use the theatre advocacy platform to discuss other issues and problems in their villages, including HIV/AIDS. And because this project involves all members of the community, it doesn’t alienate men, but includes them in developing solutions.

For more information on FANRPAN and its work in Africa see the following www.fanrpan.org

David Lobell on Finding Food Security in a Changing Climate

Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

In this regular series we profile advisors of the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we feature David Lobell, Assistant Professor in Environmental Earth System Science, and a Center Fellow with the Program on Food Security and the Environment, at Stanford University.

Name: David Lobell

Affiliation: Stanford University

Location: Stanford, CA

Bio: David Lobell is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in Environmental Earth System Science, and a Center Fellow in Stanford’s Program on Food Security and the Environment. His research focuses on identifying opportunities to raise crop yields in major agricultural regions, with a particular emphasis on adaptation to climate change. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Lobell was a Senior Research Scholar at FSE from 2008-2009 and a Lawrence Post-doctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2005-2007. He received a PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University in 2005, and a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude from Brown University in 2000.

Recent Work:

• The Poverty Implications of Climate-Induced Crop Yield Changes by 2030

• Robust Negative Impacts of Climate Change on African Agriculture

• Climate Change and Food Security: Adapting Agriculture to a Warmer World

What is the relationship between agriculture and global hunger? Agriculture plays a critical role in hunger, both in providing the food to eat and providing the income with which to purchase basic needs. I think it’s a remarkable success that agriculture has historically been able to keep average food supply per capita at sufficient levels, even with rapid population growth. But obviously there are a lot of problems with access around the world and there is a lot of progress needed just to keep up with growing demand.

What is the relationship between climate change and agriculture? At a fundamental level, climate change will force most institutions involved with agriculture, ranging from poor farmers to international companies, to rethink how they do business. The pace of changes we are seeing, and will continue to see, are unprecedented in agriculture’s history. For some, climate change will provide great opportunities to grow and expand, but for most people, especially in the developing world, it threatens to make harsh conditions even harsher.

Can you explain how agriculture can help farmers to both adapt to and mitigate climate change? There are a lot of proposed strategies for adapting to climate change, as well as for using agriculture to mitigate emissions. Without going through each, I can say there is a general need to be more rigorous in evaluating these options, how well they actually work, and thinking creatively about new options and potential co-benefits. For example, some strategies to improve soils could help both for mitigation and adaptation, although exactly how much is not yet clear. I also expect that agriculture will only be able to do so much, and other measures like improving social safety nets will be important.

What sorts of innovations, projects, policies, etc, would you like to see implemented to address hunger and climate change? In general, I think more overall investment in agricultural research will be important, as well as sharing knowledge and resources, such as genetic material, across borders. I would also like to see more effort to identify ongoing actions happening on the ground, and to evaluate their effectiveness. I think this is an area where the Worldwatch Institute is doing a great service.

Why should food consumers in the United States care about the state of agriculture in other countries? My own reasons for caring are that I am convinced agricultural improvements represent a key pathway out of poverty, and that reducing poverty and human suffering is a worthy goal. With climate change, I also think the countries that caused the problem have some responsibility to help identify solutions.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:

1. Comment on our daily posts — we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.

2. Receive regular updates–Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.

3. Help keep our research going–If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.

1,000 Words About Ghana

Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

We understand why Barack and Michelle Obama made Ghana their first stop on the African continent.

When you touch down in Accra (or anywhere in Ghana), you are greeted with the word akwaaba or welcome and the place is buzzing with activity: construction projects, vendors hawking antennas and groundnuts to commuters, roads being built and new investment.

Ghanaians boast about their stable democracy – they just peacefully transitioned governments in a 2009 election decided by only 40,000 votes. And we visited several projects across the country, each reinforcing the fact that people in this country are working hard to lift themselves out of poverty.

In Abokobi, just outside of Accra, traveling with the Ecumenical Association for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (ECASARD), we met with women who are using dairy cows, donated by Heifer International, to make yogurt to sell to local businesses and schools. These woman are working collaboratively on to rear dairy cows and bees, and process the resulting honey and milk.

In the village of Akimoda, we met the “King” of the village who is working with farmers to grow and market moringa, a plant known as the green gold of Ghana because of its health benefits for people and livestock.

In Kasoa we met small-scale livestock farmers who are raising grasscutters – large rodents which, to the locals at least, are considered a delicacy.

And in Cape Coast we met with a group of women fishmongers who are working together to process and sell fish. There we also met Mr. Emmanuel Akai-Taylor who is a farmer-innovator that developed a local vaccine distribution program for poultry.

Also while in Cape Coast, we visited the Cape Coast Castle, where slaves from all over Africa were imprisoned before being shipped to the US and Europe. We walked through the ‘Door of No Return’, which was the last thing some two million slaves saw before being loaded on to what the slave traders referred to as “floating coffins”. For every one slave that made it to the US, at least four others died somewhere along the journey.

We learned that slaves were forced to walk to their prisons from all over West Africa. And once they arrived, hundreds were packed into dark dungeons with little food and water. The ones who survived were then herded on to ships, leaving behind their homes, their families and their culture forever. As disturbing as this was to hear, it only strengthened our admiration for the resilience and strength of Ghanaians.

We ended our journey with a visit to the Kakum National Park to watch birds and monkeys at eye level as they walked along their 350 meter high ‘canopy’. Located in a small rainforest about 35 miles from Cape Coas, the walk through the tree tops is a lot of fun, and while we are both afraid of heights, we even managed to look down a couple of times to enjoy the breathtaking views.

Though we didn’t see much of the beach, the Cape Coast sits along the Atlantic and the sound of the waves crashing around you undoubtedly beats the docile murmurs of a Caribbean island. If you have the time, waste an afternoon away, watching the ocean, sipping beers at the restaurant “the Castle,” with live Rastafarian music playing most of the weekend for free.

We found a terrific organic restaurant called Baobab with tons of vegan food (and the only place you will find a soy latte within 200 kilometers). They make fresh fruit smoothies and are located just a short walk from Cape Coast Castle. The best part is that all proceeds benefit a local childrens charity in the area. They have a terrific gift shop next door that turns recycled water bags into purses and wallets. One block away (and near the local market) is a fun and tasty restaurant called Chic Herbs with excellent lentil burgers.

If you are looking for a hotel, we can recommend a comfortable budget hotel called Mighty Victory ($25.00 USD per night for a double room), which had hot water, wireless internet, and even air-conditioning.

If we’ve piqued your interest in Ghana, you should know that Delta is running direct flight from Denver and New York City. You will fall in love with this terrific country (just make sure, before you hop on the plane, to you get your VISA (about $55.00 USD) in advance).

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:

1. Comment on our daily posts — we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.

2. Receive regular updates–Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.

3. Help keep our research going–If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.

Improving Farmer Livelihoods and Wildlife Conservation

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Earlier this week, we highlighted Nicholas Kristof’s OP-ED in the New York Times about Gabon, a country in West-Central Africa where the rights of farmers are frequently in conflict with wildlife conservation efforts. One young village chief and farmer, Evelyn Kinga explained that she doesn’t like elephants because they eat her cassava plants-a crop her livelihood depends on-because she doesn’t benefit from rich foreigners who come to Gabon for eco-tourism.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, says Raol du Toit, Director of the Rhino Conservation Trust in Zimbabwe. His organization works closely with farmers on the ground to help communities realize that protecting wildlife can be in their own best interest.

du Toit promotes “landscape-level planning” that takes into account the needs of wildlife, the environment, and farming communities. Rather than relying on development agencies and governments to decide where cattle fences should go or where farmers should plant their crops, local communities and stakeholders need to be part of the process. Development aid, says du Toit, should follow what local stakeholders need and perceive, not the other way around. Additionally, the Rhino Conservation Trust provides classroom materials for schools so that students may learn the connections between sustainable agriculture and wildlife conservation at an early age. (See also Helping Farmers Benefit Economically from Wildlife Conservation)

And du Toit is not alone in his effort to improve the lives of farmers, as well as protect wildlife.

In Tanzania, the Jane Goodall Instutite (JGI) started as a center to research and protect wild chimpanzee populations in what is now, thanks to their efforts, Gombe National Park. But by the early 1990’s the organization realized that in order to be successful it would have to start addressing the needs of the communities surrounding the park. JGI was planting trees to rebuild the forest but members of the community were chopping them down-not because they wanted to damage the work but because they needed them for fuel and to make charcoal.

In response, JGI started working with communities to develop government- mandated land use plans, helping them develop soil erosion prevention practices, agroforestry, and production of value-added products, such as coffee and palm oil. “These are services,” says Pancras Ngalason Executive Director of JGI Tanzania, “people require in order to appreciate the environment” and that will ultimately help not only protect the chimps and other wildlife, but also to build healthy and economically viable communities. (See also: Rebuilding Roots in Environmental Education)

In Botswana, the Mokolodi Wildlife Reserve is doing more than just teaching students and the community about conserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, they’re also educating students about permaculture. By growing indigenous vegetables, recycling water for irrigation, and using organic fertilizers-including elephant dung-the Reserve’s Education Center is demonstrating how to grow nutritious food with very little water or chemical inputs.

When school groups come to learn about the animals, the reserve also teaches them about sustainable agriculture. Using the garden as a classroom in which to teach students about composting, intercropping, water harvesting, and organic agriculture practices, the Wildlife Reserve helps draw the connection between the importance of environmentally sustainable agriculture practices and the conservation of elephants, giraffes, impala, and various other animals and birds living in the area.(See also: Cultivating an Interest in Agriculture Conservation)

In the Fight Against the Spread of HIV/AIDS, There is no Silver Bullet

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

In the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, there is no silver bullet.

And as we travel throughout sub-Saharan Africa we are seeing dozens of innovative ways that organizations, governments, and individuals are working to fight the disease.

One of the organizations that stands out, thanks to their variety of innovative strategies and approaches to combating the spread of the disease, is the Solidarity Center , an AFL-CIO affiliated non-profit organization that assists workers around the world who are struggling to build democratic and independent trade unions.

We want to share with you three different ways they are making an impact on the ground as we visit projects across the continent.

1) Changing Behavior with Worksite Education and Testing

Johnson Matthey in Germiston , South Africa , just outside of Johannesburg , sees 600 workers pass through its doors every day, heading to work on an assembly lines to make catalytic converters that are inserted in cars to reduce pollution, complying with South Africa ‘s auto environmental emissions standards.

As we arrived there last January, Percy Nhlapo, a trainer with the Solidarity Center , was leading a discussion with a group of workers, correcting misconceptions about contracting HIV and urging participants to get tested. The Solidarity Center is working in partnership with the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA), an industrial affiliate of the country’s largest union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), to provide free HIV/AIDS education and HIV counseling and testing to several thousand manufacturing workers a year (literally going from plant to plant providing trainings).

Following the HIV/AIDS education session, more than 200 workers voluntarily agreed to be tested. At the testing area, we spoke with registered nurse Dorothy Majola, who said that before workers are tested they are given private counseling, and then she administers two separate tests – both with 99.99 percent accuracy – to ensure correct results.

Within ten minutes of being tested, workers receive their results. The companies work in coordination with NUMSA and the Solidarity Center , agreeing to host the HIV/AIDS outreach, allowing workers to attend and get tested at the beginning and end of their work shifts. Before each outreach, shop stewards mobilize their co-workers to participate in the HIV/AIDS activities at their workplace.

1,000 Words About Kenya

Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Our entry begins in Maralal, Kenya, a place mostly known for its wildlife. And as we made the seven hour, bumpy trek from Nairobi-half of it on unpaved roads-we saw our fair share of water buffaloes, rhinos, impala, and giraffes. But we weren’t here to go on safari. We were here to meet with a group of pastoralists-livestock keepers who had agreed to meet with us and talk about the challenges they face.

Although most of these people don’t have access to cable TV or even radios, they do have a good sense of the challenges their fellow livestock keepers face all over Kenya. They are aware that climate change is likely responsible for the drought plaguing much of East Africa, killing thousands of livestock over the last few months. They know that conflict with neighboring pastoral communities over water resources and access to land makes headlines in Kenya’s newspapers. And they know that many policy-makers would like to forget they exist and consider their nomadic lifestyle barbaric, as our guide Dr. Pat Lanyasunya, a member of theAfrica LIFE Network, explained.

What surprised me most about these livestock keepers is their understanding that the world is changing. They know that many of their children won’t live the same kind of lives that their ancestors lived for centuries. Many will choose to go to the cities, but they said if their children become “landed,” they want them to maintain links to the pastoralist way of life.

Speaking of the ‘big” city, Nairobi, we had some unforgettable site visits there. Driving through the crowded streets of Kibera, (an urban slum in Nairobi), it’s nearly impossible to describe how many people live in this area of about 225 hectares, the equivalent of just over half the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Anywhere from 700,000 to a million people live in what is likely the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa–it’s hard to count the exact number here because people don’t own the land where they live and work, making their existence a very tenuous one. Often people are evicted from their homes (most of them wooden shacks with tin roves) because the city government doesn’t want to recognize that Kibera exists. But it does. And despite the challenges people here face-lack of water and sanitation services and lack of land ownership are the big ones-they are also thriving.

We met a “self help” group of women farmers in Kibera, who are growing food for their families and selling the surplus. These groups are present all over Kenya-giving youth, women, and other groups the opportunity to organize, share information and skills, and ultimately improve their well-being.

The women we met are raising vegetables on what they call “vertical farms.” But instead of skyscrapers, these farms are in tall sacks, filled with dirt, and the women grow crops in them on different levels by poking holes in the bags and planting seeds. They received training, seeds, and sacks from the French NGO Soladarites to start their sack gardens.

The women told us that more than 1,000 of their neighbors are growing food in a similar way-something that Red Cross International recognized during 2007 and 2008 when there was conflict in the slums of Nairobi. No food could come into these areas, but most residents didn’t go without food because so many of them were growing crops-in sacks, vacant land, or elsewhere.

These small gardens can yield big benefits in terms of nutrition, food security, and income. All the women told us that they saved money because they no longer had to buy vegetables at the store and they claimed they taste better because they were organically grown-but it also might come from the pride that comes from growing something themselves.

When we got to the union office in Kerecho, Kenya, union officials were elated to see the staff of the Solidarity Center. Over the last couple of months, more than 6,000 tea workers joined the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU). To help them win more members-and continue to grow-the Solidarity Center provides resources to hire organizers, conduct trainings, and offer communications and transportation support, according to KPAWU branch secretary Joshua Owuor Maywen.

The union, despite having more than 200,000 members in the agriculture sector and representing some of the most vulnerable workers, has still lost density over the last two decades. During this time, companies are trying whatever they can to cut costs, including implementing child labor, mechanizing the plucking industry–according to one of the workers: “the machines pluck everything including snakes and spiders, while the tea pluckers pluck tea”-and hiring casuals or “temporary” workers at lower wages and reduced benefits.