Shaileen Swan understands the healing power of farming.
While she worked as a senior recreation therapist at a psychiatric facility in Syracuse, New York, Swan helped patients grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a small courtyard. The sense of community and pride that the garden instilled for patients was enough for Swan to realize she wanted to explore the ins and outs of farming.
Brandon Chase’s personal and professional goals include living sustainably, spending time outdoors, and opening a tortilleria in Washington State.
Molly Clark came to UVM to get a broader perspective on sustainable agriculture.
The environmental studies graduate student from the University of Pennsylvania enrolled in UVM’s Breakthrough Leaders for Sustainable Food Systems Professional Certificate Program last summer for a high-level understanding of food, farms, and sustainability.
By M. Jahi Chappell, Saulo Araujo and Ernesto Mendez
The Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at Coventry University (UK) recently hosted a workshop to “collectively strengthen relationships, learning/analysis and collaboration for people who are involved in research and knowledge work that advances movements for agroecology and food sovereignty”. We are grateful to have participated, and for the deep and thoughtful organization and facilitation that allowed us to move this objective forward. As scholars and organizers seeking to strengthen agroecology and food sovereignty in the North American context, we used the workshop as an opportunity to discuss potential actions for the future. This blog sets out some of this thinking and highlights the need for renewing collaborations between academic researchers and grassroots movements groups, based on building trust and mutual understanding.
Read the first blog in this series on Indigenous Peoples by Carol Kalafatic on the Agroecology Now website.
By Sara Klimek
Today I balanced two tomatoes in my hands. In my right palm, a bright-red, uniform, perfectly round Roma from the Shaw’s produce department, just screaming at me to dice it up and put it on top of a sandwich. In the other, a slightly oblong, heirloom variety grown at the local Intervale Community Farm.
