Inga Alley Cropping providing land for life

Hands, M. R. June 2002.
Alley-Cropping as a Sustainable Alternative to Shifting Cultivation. Final Report. Project HND / B7-6201 / IB / 97 / 0533(08). Tropical Forests Budgetary Line. Commission of the European Communities. DG I. Brussels.

Hands, M. R. 1998.
The uses of Inga in the acid soils of the Rainforest zone : Alley-cropping sustainability and soil-regeneration. In : Pennington, T.D. and Fernandes, E.C.M. (eds.) The Genus Inga : Utilization. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. England.

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“A revolution of thought is necessary” – Interview with Cantave Jean-Baptiste

Interview > Cantave Jean-Baptiste is a Haitian agronomist and rural development practitioner with more than three decades of experience supporting sustainable agriculture and strengthening peasant organisations. He is Executive Director of Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL) in Haiti, and a founding member of Groundswell International. Farming Matters asked Mr Jean-Baptiste how family farmers can build resilience in Haiti, a country where an estimated 80% of the population lives in poverty.

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Food justice moving forward in the USA

Opinion by Navina Khanna.
Navina Khanna introduces the food justice movement in the USA, and how from the corner shop to Capitol Hill, communities are making waves, and fighting for fairer policies in both corporate and governmental sectors.

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Farmers in Focus: Advocate for sovereign seed systems

Holly Whitesides and her husband are trying to go “against the grain” of industrial agriculture in the United States. They use their family farm and their work on saving seed to convince other farmers and groups of the importance of a sovereign seed stock.

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Ecological Agriculture, Climate Resilience and a Roadmap to Get There

Environment and Development Series No. 14.
This paper looks at how ecological agriculture, by building healthy soils, cultivating biological diversity and improving water harvesting and management, can strengthen farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change. Accordingly, the authors call for a reorientation of policy, funding and research priorities from the dominant industrial agriculture model to ecological agriculture.

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Planning an Urban Market Garden in Toronto, Canada

This case study outlines the plan for a 0.5 acre garden in downtown Toronto. This market garden was part of Field-To-Table’s Urban Agriculture initiative and will complement ongoing rooftop and sprout growing. The Urban Agriculture Initiative sells vegetables and sprouts to the Field-to-Table Good Food Box, an alternative distribution mechanism available to all Torontonians.

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What we need is 40 acres and a mule

The case of Brent, a urban famer. The urban agriculture movement, sweeping across urban areas, from West Oakland to Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago to the Bronx and beyond, is a call to reclaim post-industrial abandoned lots, under-serviced public parks and vacant lots to grow fresh food for the people. The movement is often called “food justice” , representing the idea that healthy food for our people is a human right, not a privilege.

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