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The Rich are Getting Richer on the Backs of Working People

In recent years, the economy has continued to degenerate, with growing income inequality and a corresponding increased attack on workers’ rights. Incomes for the top 1% have grown 7 times faster than the bottom 90% since the 1980s.  Real wages have fallen or remained stagnant, while the cost of living continues to skyrocket. This reality has been exposed and exacerbated during the COVID-19 crisis, as “frontline” workers, from the fields to the meatpacking plants to the grocery store, have borne the brunt of the pandemic with disproportionate rates of infection and fatalities. From meatpacking workers to Instacart shoppers, corporations are capitalizing on the crisis to undermine worker rights, safety, and welfare – and pocket the savings.

And it is not just food and agriculture chain workers. Amazon workers are organizing in Alabama to take on one of the biggest corporations in the world to fight for basic human dignity. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon has raked in record profits, propelling Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to the richest person in the world.  In fact, Jeff Bezos could pay all Amazon employees and contractors a bonus of over $100,000 and still be as rich as he was before the pandemic. At the same time, Amazon workers have faced low pay, unsafe working conditions and an employer hellbent on denying their right to organize for better conditions.

Corporations Have Weakened Protections for Working People

The current crisis for workers didn’t happen by accident. In fact, workers’ rights have been eroded over the course of the last generation due to the watering down of federal labor law and anti-worker policies, through misclassifying employees as “independent contractors” to deny them their rights, so-called “right-to-work” laws at the state level and pro-corporate decisions from right-wing justices.

Labor organizing has been in the crosshairs of big business for over a generation. And the results have been terrible. The decline in organized workplaces has coincided with the rise in income inequality and poverty in the United States. The reduction in unionization rates in the U.S. even negatively impact public health. Historically, the very idea of middle-class life has been built by people organizing for fair wages, healthcare, retirement and safe working conditions. In short, bringing democracy to the workplace has proven to level the playing field for workers. Considering the widespread attacks on workers’ rights and precarious employment in the United States, almost half of Americans polled shows they would join a union if given the option. Worker empowerment and fair wages are needed more than ever.

The PRO Act Would Protect Working People and Fair Livelihoods

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021, known as the PRO Act, is the most comprehensive piece of labor legislation the U.S. has seen in years. At present, approximately 75% of large employers hire firms to stop organizing efforts, with 40% charged with violating labor law. Workers are getting outspent by massive disinformation campaigns, as was visible in California recently. Instead, we need far-reaching legislation to safeguard worker organizing in the workplace and provide legal recourse for violations of workers’ rights.

The PRO Act aims to protect workers’ basic rights by:

1. Introducing meaningful, enforceable penalties for companies and executives that violate workers’ rights. Currently, employers who violate workers’ rights face no civil penalties and workers are barred from bringing lawsuits against employers who violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
2. Expanding workers’ collective bargaining rights and closing loopholes that corporations use to exploit workers. Right now employers can “misclassify” workers as independent contractors, denying their right to organize.
3. Strengthening workers’ access to fair union elections and requiring corporations to respect the results. Current laws empower employers to stall union elections and retaliate against workers organizing their workplace.

From Extraction to Regeneration – Time to Put People First

As we look to the future and the critical priority to shift to a green economy, those jobs need to be dignified jobs. Green jobs must be good jobs. Worker empowerment in the workplace must accompany the massive transformation needed to decarbonize our economy. We need a Just Transition to take us from our current extractive economy to a regenerative economy that prioritizes the wellbeing of people and our planet.

Fair trade was founded on the principle of solidarity: uniting farmers, workers, and activist consumers in a joint effort to fight for basic human and economic rights. In fact, the PRO Act and other campaigns for worker empowerment reflect the parallel values of the fair trade movement. Democracy in the workplace, empowerment and fair pay should be something we all support.

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How Farmer-to-Farmer Trainings are Spreading New Solutions to Climate Change

In the fall of 2017, Grow Ahead, a partner of Fair World Project, successfully crowdfunded a farmer-to-farmer training in Nicaragua. The training brought together more than twenty farmers and participants from around the world, mostly coffee farmers from Central and South America. Fair World Project and Grow Ahead’s Ryan Zinn caught up with one of the participants, José Fernando Reyes of Norandino Cooperative in Peru, to hear more.

Please tell us a little bit about your organization and the work that you do.

Norandino Cooperative is located in the northern part of Peru. We have been working for more than twenty years with small-scale organic, fair trade producers of coffee, cocoa and sugarcane to sell their products into the specialty markets for organic and fair trade. In addition to selling the products of our campesino members, we also focus on caring for the environment, creating equal opportunities for men and women, and practicing agroforestry on our lands.

We started out by selling coffee into niche markets in both the U.S. and Europe and are now selling approximately 90,000 bags annually. [Editor’s Note: One bag of coffee is approximately 152 pounds, so 90,000 bags is equal to 13,680,000 pounds of “green” unroasted coffee per year.] In 2000, we began to see that there might be opportunities to sell sugar, specifically panela, an unrefined sugar that you see commonly in Central America. We started producing a small amount, approximately eighteen tons in 2001, and we are now selling 600 tons of organic, small-farmer grown sugar per year. We have also been working with small-scale banana farmers.

In 2007, we took the next step in securing control of our coffee chain for producers and built our own benefício, a centralized mill to process our coffees. We now process coffee both for our own members as well as for other cooperatives, currently about 400,000 bags per year. We also set up a savings and loan cooperative to provide financial services not just for our members, but also for the rest of our community here in northeastern Peru.

Currently, we are building a processing plant to extract cocoa liquor, one of the key ingredients in chocolate manufacturing. This all fits in with our general vision of growing and marketing high quality products and adding value to them, so our small-scale producers are able to capture more stages of the supply chain and increase their income that way.

How many families are part of Norandino Cooperative?

There are currently 5,500 families who are associated with the cooperative.

How long have you been with the cooperative?

I have been a member of the cooperative for eleven years.

Can you tell us a bit about the farmer-to-farmer training in Nicaragua that you participated in?

Generally, these trainings amplify our vision. You learn new things, but they also allow you to understand others’ realities, to compare and to see what is working there and what you can do more of in your own country. It is very interesting to me to see a project in Nicaragua that brings together monkeys and reforestation, or how COMSA in Honduras is using biofertilizers to regenerate the soil. So, it is really about looking for the best ideas and adapting them to your own reality. But if you do not see it in action, it is less motivating, and you might not really understand. For example, if someone had asked me before this what I think about a carbon credit project, I would have thought it was a big joke, but having seen it, how it works and how it was developed, I can see that it is possible to develop a system like that, and it seems like something that would be possible to do in our own country.

The training itself focused on reforestation projects and the work of Taking Root, a Canadian organization who is doing very interesting work, both at the community level through their reforestation program, and through the software that they have developed to track trees planted and the resulting impacts. It is a very interesting reforestation project because it combines organic methods with the production of coffee and trees intercropped for timber.

Taking Root was very specific about the methodology for work in the field: that it is not just how one designs the plots of land, but also how the data is gathered and systemized, and how they generate periodic reports for clients … and then also how field monitoring must be done. Generally, we found it interesting because it is a new topic here in South America, and very little is known about how it works and what sort of requirements must be met, from software to systems to the sort of work that needs to be done at the community level to make such a project function.

Can you tell us a bit more about the others at the training, and what you learned from them?

It was interesting to talk to people from all over, to learn about the reality of other producers in this movement. For example, Hussen Ahmed from Ethiopia told us about his composting experience. He worked in the rose industry on a project using not just wasted roses but also the stems and branches as biomass for compost, which is good both for the flowers and the small-scale producers of Ethiopia.

It was really interesting to meet the folks from COMSA cooperative because their understanding of organic production is very, very advanced. It was also quite interesting to talk to my fellow Peruvians from CENFROCAFE and Sol y Café, cooperatives located in the central forests, and see the reforestation that is being done under their organic plans. They are doing it to comply with organic standards and to combat deforestation, but not at the level where we could make economic use of it over the medium- to long-term in the carbon credit market.

So, it sounds to me that for the participants, the carbon credit markets would be something secondary, as their main focus remains cultivating organic, fair trade coffee, sugarcane and other crops, but that this carbon credit project could be maybe a second or third focus?

Yes, obviously we are not going to get into the global carbon trading market just for the sake of trading. That is still a new thing in Latin America, and there is not much experience or interest yet. But we keep seeing more customers, and coffee traders especially, who are interested in the development of a carbon inset program, and that seems like it has the potential for us to develop additional income streams in our supply chains. We usually see that if a producer is working in his fields and taking care of the environment just as a conventional producer, there is no advantage to be had, and no payment for that work. But if the cooperatives implement reforestation programs and certification programs for carbon credits, that could provide additional income and a motivation to continue that stewardship, and they would see positive economic results both in the medium- and long-term.

And now, coming back to your cooperative, how do you plan to keep the momentum going and apply what you learned?

Well, at Norandino, we have our own reforestation project for the certification of recovered forests and a certification for the carbon credits that we developed with our coffee customers to offset their emissions. Through this project, we have reforested more than 250 hectares with native trees as well as some varieties that are useful for timber.

Co-op Coffees is one of our strategic allies with whom we have been working for many years, and then we have also been working with Equal Exchange and Theo Chocolate, as well as with La Siembra in Canada, as some of our principal allies. We have been working on the issue of climate change from several angles. Firstly, we are working to implement our reforestation plan with native trees, as well as some species that can be used more for industrial purposes. Also, we are developing a stronger organic fertilizer to increase coffee production. We have an educational program on organic farming and environmental issues. We are already thinking of starting a program to certify the production of seeds for coffee, cacao, sugarcane and trees. And we are thinking about entering the timber industry in the medium-term through reforestation and the production of certified timber and wood products.

We continue to be in conversation with Co-op Coffees about facilitating more of these exchanges and establishing some sort of Latin American platform, so we can see what is the most urgent. What we need to do is incorporate the carbon credit system into our system of organic production. Obviously, there ought to be some better adaptations and improvements. And the theme of seeds and cooperative education also is very good. So, I think that there is a clear vision, both for Norandino and also for our work with Co-op Coffees.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for Norandino at this time?

One big challenge we have is around capturing as much of the added value as we can from the products that our members grow. We talked earlier about the coffee processing plant that we built, as well as the facilities to process cacao liquor. We also have a plant to pack up and automate the sugar production.

Another challenge that we have, on a very different theme, is how we mitigate the effects of climate change at the farm level. We have developed a reforestation program, a program for developing organic fertilizers to help make the plants more resilient, and an organic education program. It is imperative to make changes at the farm level, to change the mentality, and to continue to rehabilitate the forests and the water, because the impacts of climate change are global and do not stop for anyone.

What has that changing climate looked like in your community?

Obviously, the coffee leaf rust disease has destroyed so many crops. Then there have been varying temperatures in Peru which has also reduced our yields, and there is not much water available. The seasons are not as they were; what used to be winter has changed. There are very dry phases with drought, and then a lot of rain all at once.

Are there any final thoughts that you would like to share with our readers?

As a cooperative, Norandino has cast our lot with organic farming. We want to work with small-scale farmers from peasant communities. I believe that our work, both for the cooperative and for all of us as human beings, is to tend to the natural world. At Norandino, we are doing that through growing high quality products and doing the reforestation work we talked about.

I would encourage consumers from the U.S., and from all over the world, to think about what their role is in tending to the natural world, and, hopefully, to include choosing products like ours that protect the environment and support opportunities for economic development in communities that have been less favored historically.

This interview has been translated from Spanish, lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Carbon Credits: A Short Primer

Carbon Credit

This is a financial construct that attempts to quantify the cost of greenhouse gas emissions, specifically one ton of carbon dioxide (often just referred to as “carbon” or “carbon emissions”).

The Kyoto climate accords of 1995 created the framework for trading these credits, with the goal of regulating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global climate change. There are now multiple markets for trading these credits, both government mandated and voluntary.

Carbon Offsetting

This describes the process by which carbon emissions are reduced in one place to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. On a consumer-facing level, you may see them marketed to “offset” the emissions related to a package you have sent or a trip you have taken. It is this process of buying carbon credits to offset emissions that is being referred to when you see a company make a claim about a product being “carbon neutral” or even “carbon negative.”

Not all carbon credits are created equal, however. While the number of trees planted as part of a community-led project on a small-scale farmer’s land may be the same as the number planted by a distant venture on a vast monoculture plantation, the overall impact on the planet is not the same.

Carbon Insetting

This describes the process by which activity leading to emissions reduction or carbon sequestration takes place within the context of an organization’s supply chain. This is the model described by Fernando of Norandino Cooperative when he speaks of their work with coffee buyers.

Taking Root is a non-profit organization based in Montreal (Canada) that develops social reforestation projects in collaboration with small-scale farmers in Nicaragua. Its activities are funded through the sale of carbon footprint management services and reforestation carbon offsets to businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 2007, Taking Root’s mission is to use reforestation as a tool to restore ecosystems, improve livelihoods and tackle climate change. It follows the “Plan Vivo” standard, a holistic reforestation framework that emphasizes community participation, using native tree species and protecting critical watersheds

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What is Regenerative Agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture is often characterized as a holistic approach to agriculture that emphasizes the restoration of soil health. It builds upon the experiences and traditions of the organic practices and movements that preceded it. Those practices include conservation tillage, mulching, composting, cover cropping, crop rotation and restorative livestock integration – techniques drawn from the experiences and traditional knowledge of small-scale farmers.

The benefits of regenerative agricultural practices are multifold, including carbon sequestration, increased resiliency in the face of drought and extreme climate events, and improved production. While approaches and experiences will vary depending on a given agricultural scenario (row crops, agroforestry, livestock, etc.), regenerative practices in general are low-tech, often inexpensive and relatively easy to implement.

Regenerative agriculture prioritizes the utilization of on-farm fertility and resources. The traditional techniques that regenerative farmers utilize greatly reduce the need to purchase off-farm fertilizers, pesticides and fuel. These practices not only reduce costs for farmers, but build up soil and support farm resiliency. One simple way to understand regenerative agriculture at the farm level is to think of the farm and soil as a bank account. Industrial agriculture depletes the account by extracting nutrients, water and human dignity, leaving the farm worse off each year. Regenerative agriculture, on the other hand, adds to the account by gradually improving soil, increasing the farm’s capacity to produce safe and healthy food, and generating real value for farmers over the long term.

Given all this, why are more farmers not practicing regenerative agriculture today? The barriers are the same as those that have plagued farmers, including certified organic farmers, for decades: corporate consolidation of supply chains, including seed supplies, vanishing access to land, and unfair pricing and trade policies.

From Broken to Regenerative: Transforming our Food System

Regenerative agricultural techniques have the potential to feed the world and cool the planet, as increasing soil organic matter through proper regenerative management at a global scale can sequester multiple gigatons of carbon. But soil health is just one piece of the food system puzzle. To successfully transition from our broken industrial food system, rife with exploitation and fueled by destructive chemicals and fossil fuels, we need to transform that system into one which can bear the true costs of growing food.

To ensure that regenerative agriculture’s impacts and benefits are far-reaching and swift, we need to focus on several key economic aspects of the food chain: building solidarity with small-scale producers, supporting fair prices and practices for producers and workers in the supply chain, and raising the minimum wage. Furthermore, small-scale farmers must be afforded key protections as stewards of natural resources and the primary producers of food for the planet. Unfair trade agreements and national policies slanted towards big agribusiness are undermining small-scale farmers’ economic viability. Natural resources, such as land, seeds and water, are currently being privatized and stolen at an alarming rate. The commodification of the food system must stop if we are to sustainably feed a warming planet.

According to the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, small-scale farms around the globe are from 100% to 1000% more productive than industrial farms on a per acre basis. Measuring not just the yield of one or two commodities from a single farm, but the total production, including food, fodder, fiber and medicinal plants, it is clear that smaller farms overwhelmingly outperform larger farms. While large plantations can technically be certified organic, or even fair trade, they are incapable of competing with small-farms in terms of ecological, economic and social impact. Not all small-scale farmers practice regenerative agriculture, but regenerative agriculture is best practiced by small-scale farmers.

Numerous studies have demonstrated how buying from local businesses and farms has a multiplier effect, with money recirculating many times locally, magnifying the positive economic impact. Fair trade farmer organizations in particular have been especially effective at leveraging fair trade sales to create community and economic development programs that foster resiliency and self-determination. Large plantations, even those with ecological or social certification, ultimately do not have the same net positive impact as do small-scale farms, since monies ultimately leave the producer communities.

False Promises

Though a small, but powerful, subset of the U.S. population denies the existence of climate change, corporate agribusiness is actively scheming to capitalize on the impending climate crisis. Under the banner of “Climate-Smart Agriculture,” agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Yara, the world’s largest agrochemical and fertilizer companies respectively, are rebranding themselves as “climate smart.” Monsanto is now promoting its GMO crops as “ecological” no-till, in addition to purchasing start-up companies developing biologically-based pesticides and inoculants. Technical “fixes,” like the corporate climate smart agriculture approach, might have some negligible impact on reducing emissions or erosion, but they will not fundamentally enhance farm resiliency, as their objective is market consolidation, not the improvement of farmers’ livelihoods.

Small-scale diverse farms have proven to be more resilient in the face of devastating climatic disasters, like hurricanes and droughts. As noted by Eric Holt-Giménez, small agroecological farms in Nicaragua fared significantly better than large, conventional farms during Hurricane Mitch. This experience is reflected in rural communities, as extreme climate events, such as severe droughts, rains and radical temperature variations, have become the norm.

Fair for Farmers

Over the last 100 years, corporate-driven industrial agriculture has been forced on farmers at home and abroad. Characterized by hybrid seeds that function only with external inputs, like chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and the use of specialized equipment and irrigation, industrial agriculture has imposed a model commanding short-term production over long-term sustainability. Farmers have seen increased yields, but also increased costs, often accompanied by lower prices, cutting deeper still into farmers’ margins. Compounding this problem, supply chains across various sectors, from grains and produce to meat and dairy, have been consolidated in the hands of a few large corporations, creating a de facto monopoly and driving prices still further down. According to the National Farmers Union (NFU), “farmers and ranchers receive only 15.8 cents for every dollar that consumers spend on food.” The rest is consumed by processors, traders and retailers. Low prices, coupled with high input costs and unfair competition, leave small-scale family farmers in a precarious position.

Many of the tools that have emerged from industrial agriculture have facilitated farmers’ ability to cultivate and harvest more acres with less labor. However, with falling farm gate prices and rising debts, many farmers have been forced to seek off-farm income. Interestingly, many farmers have actually recorded greater profits by reducing the number of acres cultivated, while increasing the diversity of crops and animals managed. Regenerative agriculture has the potential to support more families and to grow more nutritious food.

Paying for the True Costs of Food

If farmers and ranchers are to employ regenerative agricultural practices, feed their communities and cool the planet by sequestering carbon, they must be adequately compensated for their work. The fair trade movement provides an important framework to organize for the future. Fair trade principles, like long-term direct trading relationships, payment of fair prices and investment in community development projects, offer a road map for holistic and regenerative production. Fair trade certification is one pathway to appropriately compensate farmers for the true costs of production.

While the system of fair trade certification has its flaws, it does offer a model by which we can think about incorporating premiums for organic and social production into the cost of goods. Fair trade criteria establish a minimum price for a given item plus a premium for social development projects.

Fair trade also prioritizes close connections between buyers and farmers. By shortening supply chains, removing intermediaries and facilitating more value-added activities at origin, a larger percentage of a product’s value stays local in the producer community. These phenomena have a multiplier effect, spurring the development of local entrepreneurship and new services for local communities.

In addition to incorporating more farmers into fair trade relationships, it is critically important to create capacity to process fair and regenerative products. Though there are hundreds of millions of farmers and billions of consumers, the processing sector, from coffee roasting to grain milling, is small, consolidated and usually out of reach for many small-scale farmers. More development and investment is needed in local post-harvest processing sectors to make them dynamic enough to accommodate a wide range of products from diverse small-scale farms.

From Regenerative Agriculture to a Just Economy

To practically implement regenerative agriculture at a significant scale, all workers will need to earn living wages. For truly regenerative production, the end price must take into account the true costs of production, ultimately resulting in higher food costs for consumers. Slow progress has been made in recent years to raise minimum wages at the local, state and federal levels. The regenerative agriculture movement must actively support these efforts to ensure the future success of regenerative agriculture.

Embedding fair trade in regenerative agriculture actually represents a tremendous opportunity as well. As farmers continue to retire from farming, or abandon it due to an unfair marketplace and climate pressure, we will need a massive influx of new farmers. As the marketplace demands more regeneratively produced products, climate change forces farmers to incorporate more resilient tactics, and governments adopt true cost accounting methodologies for agriculture, regenerative agricultural practices will be inevitable. While the transition to regenerative agriculture will not be without its challenges, it represents an historic opportunity.

Regenerative agriculture will incentivize new jobs – from new farmers and researchers to post-harvest processors and compost operators. The momentum toward a regenerative economy presents a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-employ millions of people with meaningful, quality work. A critical first step in advancing regenerative agriculture is supporting the transition of current farmers, along with recruiting and training new farmers. A regenerative future will not only safeguard and sustain the 800 million small-scale farmers currently at risk, but it will also support a new generation of young farmers.

How to Grow a Fair Food System

There is a lot of work ahead to transform our food system and fully embrace regenerative agricultural principles. Here are a few steps that we can all take to help get us there:

• Support committed brands sourcing from small-scale farmers. In the absence of a holistic standard or seal for regenerative agriculture, the best way to vote with your dollars is to support committed, mission-driven brands that source from small-scale organic and fair trade farmers.

• Engage in the political process. To realistically move the needle towards regenerative agriculture requires a redoubling of efforts to restrict chemical agriculture, dismantle corporate agribusiness monopolies, and eliminate subsidies and crop insurance programs that drive destructive practices.

• Fund the transition to a regenerative future. Small-farmer organizations in the developing world have limited access to the funds they need to invest in long-term projects and capacity building. Through Grow Ahead, Fair World Project’s partner organization, you can lend or give directly to small-scale family farmer organizations. Learn more at GrowAhead.org.

• Transform institutional purchasing. Every year, government entities, including schools, hospitals and prisons, spend billions of dollars on food procurement. By shifting even a small fraction of those public procurement purchases toward products made with truly regenerative practices, we can catalyze a massive spike in regenerative production.

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As a child, you likely heard some variation of the cliché, “Eat all your food; there are starving people in the world.” While hunger remains one of humanity’s greatest challenges, the underlying causes are not as clear as one might think.

Shockingly, one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is lost or wasted. In the underdeveloped world, upwards of 600 million tons of food are lost annually due to poor infrastructure, lack of access to food processing facilities, and unfair markets. In the United States, 33.5 million tons of food waste are sent to landfills each year. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that the direct cost to producers of food that goes to waste is currently $750 billion annually, excluding the seafood industry.

Food waste and loss not only contribute to the global hunger crisis, with close to 800 million food-insecure people, but they account for a significant amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of methane. According to the FAO, “Without accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from land use change, the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated at 4.4 gigatons (billion tons) of CO2 equivalent: as such, food waste ranks as the third top emitter after the U.S. and China.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food waste in the United States accounts for approximately 17% of total methane emissions. And pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane on climate change has been twenty-five times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period.

In the Global North, efforts are underway to reduce food waste at the consumer level by reducing portion sizes at restaurants, reforming food date labeling and educating consumers about proper food storage. Additionally, retailers and manufacturers can drastically reduce food waste by adopting widely available best practices. In the underdeveloped world, where most of the food loss occurs closer to farms and local communities, significant positive impacts can be gained via inexpensive investments in regional markets, refrigeration and local transportation. Lastly, composting food waste and scraps (coffee grounds, banana peels, etc.) can not only reduce methane emissions, but can return nutrients to the soil, close the nutrient cycle and even stimulate carbon sequestration. To have any impact, however, all these tactics and interventions must be institutionalized.

But, again, we should be clear about the true underlying causes of hunger. While addressing food waste and loss will reduce GHG emissions, it will not necessarily alleviate hunger. In fact, many countries that suffer from hunger, often also have food surpluses and/or export food abroad. At the global level, there is actually an overproduction of food, with more than enough to feed an ever-growing population. As Frances Moore Lappé has remarked, “Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but [by] a scarcity of democracy.” Hunger, and food waste and loss, are symptoms of larger, structural issues, like debilitating national debts, unfair trade agreements and poverty. Indeed, addressing the root causes of hunger, food loss and climate change will require a radical transformation of the global food system.

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A Tribute to the Work of Berta Cáceres, Indigenous Rights Leader

Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home on March 3, 2016 in the community of La Esperanza, Honduras. Berta cofounded the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) in 1993, a grassroots organization that struggled for indigenous rights and the environment. Berta had dedicated her life to human rights and environmental justice, and was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for her work.

I first met Berta Cáceres in the early 2000s while working in Chiapas, Mexico. I was fortunate to work with many organizations in the region, including COPINH. After decades of military dictatorships, the lost decade of the 1980s and six years into the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, frontline communities and activists were deepening their analysis and strategy. Emerging at the time was a growing recognition of the shared experiences and challenges in Southern Mexico and Central America: extractive industries like mining, damming of rivers, privatization of natural resources, biopiracy, and land grabbing. Rural communities were especially vulnerable after enduring the onset of so-called free trade agreements including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Spearheaded by Gustavo Castro and others, local organizations embarked on a new era of cross-border alliances and joint campaigns, linking frontline organizations and struggles throughout Mesoamerica.

Gustavo Castro, director for Friends of the Earth Mexico-Otros Mundos Chiapas, was with Berta the night of her assassination in Honduras. He was injured in the attack and the lone witness to Berta’s murder. The Honduran government prevented Gustavo from leaving for close to a month, while his lawyer was illegally suspended and under constant threat. Gustavo was finally permitted to return home on March 30th, but only after massive pressure on the Honduran government by international human rights organizations.

Latin America has a long history of human rights violations and ecological destruction, often masked as development. For years, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have funded mega projects like dams as a means of bolstering unaccountable governments and saddling countries with huge external debts. From the 369 Mayans killed in 1983 by the Guatemalan Army for opposing the Chixoy Dam on the Rio Negro, to the $15 billion Yacyretá Dam boondoggle, dubbed “a monument to corruption” by former Argentinian President Carlos Menem, which has displaced thousands of Argentinians and will displace thousands more if ever completed. Displacement often comes without proper consultation and compensation, while having disastrous environmental impacts. The sad irony is that most displaced and impacted communities rarely access the electricity or irrigation created by the dams. These mega projects simply reinforce the inequity and injustice in these communities.

Local organizations and activists have not stood idly by in the face of ever-expanding threats to their livelihoods and communities by extractive industries and corporate agriculture. These organizations have a rich history of not only opposing destructive and unaccountable intrusions, but also developing people-centered alternatives. This opposition, however, has led to massive persecution. Latin America, has a long legacy – stretching back to before the dark years of military dictatorships – of persecuting human rights defenders, community organizers, and peasants. Honduras is known for being one of the world’s most dangerous countries, and ranks high in murders of environmentalists with (according to Global Witness) 109 killed between 2010 and 2015. This phenomenon is not limited to Honduras, however; it is a global crisis. According to Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Institute for Science, Technology and the Environment’s “Global Atlas of Environmental Justice,” there were more than 1,750 environmental conflicts globally last year alone.

At the heart of Berta and COPINH’s struggle was Agua Zarca Dam, a series of dams on the Gualcarque River managed by the Honduran corporation, Desarrollos Energéticos S.A., or DESA. The Gualcarque River is lifeblood of Honduras’ Indigenous Lenca people and damming it would cut off their water and destroy their livelihoods.

Early on, Berta and COPINH filed federal complaints against the project, bringing their case to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, as well as the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which was funding the project. Despite massive opposition from the Lenca, Honduran environmentalists, and the international community, the Honduran government and DESA pushed the project forward. With no recourse left, COPINH organized a blockade to stop the dam’s construction, an effort that was immediately met with violent reprisals from DESA, private paramilitaries, and the Honduran Army. Community leaders were murdered, COPINH members were beaten, and Berta began receiving more death threats, all with impunity and government complicity. Still, COPINH’s efforts have achieved some success, with Agua Zarca’s future in jeopardy as the IFC and Chinese investor, Sinohydro, have pulled out of the project.

Berta’s struggle is set against the backdrop of accelerating efforts to exploit global strategic resources and U.S. foreign policy. In 2009, left-leaning President Manuel Zelaya was removed from power in a coup d’etat supported by the United States. Zelaya represented the latest trend in Latin America toward more populist governments seeking to develop a path independent of U.S. intervention. Under Zelaya’s replacement, Porfirio Lobo, community-displacing mega projects like Agua Zarca accelerated, as did the persecution.

The United States has a long and disgraceful legacy of intervening in Latin American politics, from the early years of gunboat diplomacy and Operation Condor, to economic intervention in the 2000s to counter the “Pink Tide.” In the aftermath of the coup, then Secretary Hillary Clinton pressured allies in the region to deter Zelaya’s return to the presidency, claiming in her memoir, “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.” “Restoring order” via elections translates into backing presidential and congressional candidates sympathetic to the United States.

Honduras reflects the extraordinary challenges facing frontline communities, and especially indigenous people, around the globe. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, remarked, “You cannot delink the fight of indigenous people for their lands, territories and resources from the violence that’s committed against indigenous women (and men), especially if this is a violence that is perpetrated by state authorities or by corporate security.”

To date, little progress has been made to hold Berta’s murderers accountable. Four individuals have been arrested in connection with her murder, but the Honduran government has refused to accept the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ involvement in the case, and popular sentiment is that these individuals will take the fall for the establishment.

In the months after Berta’s death, the struggle of frontline communities facing mega extractive industries, and the persecution of environmental rights defenders, have made global headlines. Despite increased oppression, activists in Honduras and abroad have dug in, continuing to campaign for democratic and people-centered development.

Berta was fond of saying “They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.” She leaves behind a legacy, organization, and family defined by absolute commitment to defending human rights.

May we have the courage to follow her lead.

The post “Berta Did Not Die. She Multiplied.” appeared first on Fair World Project.

The industrial food system is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Industrial agriculture practices like Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), overuse and abuse of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and fossil fuel-intensive transportation all generate significant amounts of GHGs and underpin an inequitable and unhealthy food system. Conversely, small-scale regenerative organic farming emits far less GHG and, adopted at a large scale, has the potential to help reverse climate change by building soil organic matter and sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Up to one-third of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide is from depleted, mismanaged farm and rangeland soils, and it can be sequestered back into soil through regenerative organic practices like rotational cover-cropping, minimal tillage, holistic managed grazing, and not using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that disrupt soil biota that build soil organic matter.

But despite the serious threat that climate change poses to humanity in general, and to small-scale farmers in particular, government and market support of proven solutions to climate change, like small-scale regenerative agriculture, receives little assistance or safeguards. Supporting and developing small-scale regenerative farming will require significant resources, research and awareness-raising. To successfully confront the challenges of climate change and feed the world, small-scale farmers will have to play a critical role.

Experience has shown that farmers around the world learn best from their peers. Emerging from Central America in the 1970s, the “Farmer-to-Farmer” movement has fueled the training of thousands of peasant farmers by facilitating the exchange of experiences and best practices. This movement is based upon community empowerment, traditional knowledge, and local innovation and cooperation.

Fair World Project (FWP) and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers (CLAC) have partnered together to conduct a contest for all CLAC members to share their experiences and best practices in confronting climate change in their communities. Twelve small-scale farmer organizations from seven Latin American countries participated in the contest. Farmer submissions demonstrated impressive steps taken by these organizations to adjust to the growing challenge of climate change adaption, and to also diversify their farm economies, promoting on-farm innovation, including improving soil fertility, among other practices.

Cooperative Sugar Cane Growers of Costa Rica, CoopeVictoria RL won the contest and a $3,000 cash prize to expand and continue their work. CoopeVictoria RL stood out among the proposals for the originality of its experience, the ability to turn problems into solutions, and its focus on involving community members in training, education and awareness, increasing its impact on 3,024 member families. CoopeVictoria RL’s member families have experienced major problems with pest and disease control as a result of climate change-fueled temperature changes. Incidences of erosion have increased in recent years as well, due to unseasonal and intense rain storms. As a result, farmers have seen their production fall and have experienced loss of income. To address these challenges, CoopeVictoria RL is stabilizing and building up soil fertility by recycling sugar cane and coffee waste, returning nutrients to their fields and reducing erosion. CoopeVictoria RL is also mitigating climate change through their biodiesel program. By collecting residential and commercial cooking oil, their communities are safeguarding local water sources from contamination and burning cleaner fuel in their vehicles.

Other inspiring experiences include Colombia’s San Isidro coffee producers. For thirty years, San Isidro has been developing conservation activities, promoting environmental education, and implementing best practices and diversification of agricultural production with the participation of young people. In recent years, San Isidro’s producers have experienced increased severe droughts and insect attacks, both exacerbated by climate change. San Isidro’s producers are not only facing climate change, but local challenges as well, including deforestation in neighboring regions. To address these challenges, producers have taken steps to improve soil vitality and reduce pesticide use, as well as to obtain and manage their own forest preserves where native species, including endangered bird and tree species, are conserved. These preserves also play an important role in ensuring a steady and clean water supply.

Farmer-to-farmer campaigns have proven to be the most impactful and cost-effective method of scaling up and growing skills, like regenerative organic farming. To build off this experience, FWP will continue to facilitate future contests with producer networks, including in-person farmer-to-farmer exchanges.

To learn more and to contribute to this program, please visit:
www.fairworldproject.org/farmerexchange

The post Small-Scale Farmers Confront Climate Change appeared first on Fair World Project.

Read the full story here.

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“Agroecology is political; it requires us to challenge and transform structures of power in society. We need to put the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture and the commons in the hands of the peoples who feed the world,” according to the declaration of the International Forum of Agroecology.

The post Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology appeared first on Fair World Project.

Of special interest was photo contest sponsored by the AgriCultures Network and World Rural Forum.  The theme of the contest was “Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth.”

Click here to learn more and see the other entries.

The United Nation’s has declared 2015 as International Year of Soils (IYS).

According to the UN General Assembly:

The specific objectives of the IYS 2015 are to:

• Raise full awareness among civil society and decision makers about the profound importance of soil for human life;
• Educate the public about the crucial role soil plays in food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development;
• Support effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources;
• Promote investment in sustainable soil management activities to develop and maintain healthy soils for different land users and population groups;
• Strengthen initiatives in connection with the SDG process (Sustainable Development Goals) and Post-2015 agenda;
• Advocate for rapid capacity enhancement for soil information collection and monitoring at all levels (global, regional and national).

For a beautiful look at the incredible role soils play, please take a look at Lily Film’s “Symphony of Soil”

Symphony of the Soil – Trailer from Lily Films on Vimeo.

The post International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) Concludes; 2015 is the International Year of Soils appeared first on Fair World Project.