“The potato is sad” – this phrase we heard frequently on our tour in the rural area of Chinchero, near Cusco, Peru. Water stress leaves no choice; rural communities, because of the need to adapt water management to the climate crisis, started to plant water: But in order for this resilience not to be directly consumed by an excessive use of water resources by urban centers, it is necessary to understand the necessary reciprocity in the territory.
This week we talked with the Brazilian scientist Everlon Rigobelo, a professor at the Paulista State University (Unesp), an agronomist and an expert in microbiology, who has a proposal to save our soils from degradation : using bacteria as fertilizer. Professor Everlon’s initiative caught our attention when we met it in a scientific magazine and we found it curious, but talking to him, we understood that his idea is to revive the steps that nature took to strengthen life on earth.
This week we were chatting with Kourtnii Brown, one of the founders and directors of the California Alliance for Community Composting . We talked about a law approved in the State of California in the United States, which invites us to make the planet a better place, and above all to do it, from our home. This Law seeks that 75% of the organic waste produced in the houses and premises of cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco or San Diego, be converted into the compost that will be used by farmers in the state of California for food production . Some have called this new product, ie home and commercial composting, the “ Brown Gold ”.
Composting is produced with organic waste from homes and commercial premises such as peels and seeds of fruits, vegetables , bananas, food waste, fallen leaves from trees or mown grass in gardens; Kourtnii tells us with total conviction: “Speaking of organic waste, if it was ever alive, it will be again.” These organic products are separated from the rest of the garbage, deposited in special containers and kept under certain temperatures and conditions, so that they do not produce bad odors or mosquitoes and so that the result is a useful compost for growing food .
This Law came into effect in 2022 and is revolutionary in every sense of the word. First of all, and it is obvious, it has the advantage of changing the use of synthetic chemical products for organic products to feed the soils destined for food production. Organic waste provides natural nutrients and contains the necessary microbes for the fertilization and regeneration of soils . In addition, as is known, organic waste from homes and commercial premises is responsible for 50% of the methane gas in the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas . Giving them a sustainable treatment alleviates the health of the environment.
But the novelty of the Law is also in its social aspects. Its community spirit makes it different. They proposed that the solution to the problem of waste and soil depletion should not be of an industrial nature, as has happened in many countries, where a large company disposes, uses and markets organic waste. Kourtnii tells us, “With industrial strategies, waste is often placed near low-income communities, and truck congestion can make environmental problems like air quality worse . It can also worsen social justice problems. For example, when they export their “waste” to another community instead of using it for some benefit of their own”. With the California Law the intention is that they be thelocal community organizations that manage and direct the places necessary for the logistics of the program and benefit from the economic resources obtained. The communities represented by their organizations, such as the Alliance in which Kourtnii participates, are the ones who decide how the compost is collected, stored and transported. They also carry out intense virtual and face-to-face educational work so that people in their homes, institutions, or in commercial premises can contribute to the success of the initiative.
The law is ambitious in its goals: they expect that in the year 2025 of the 26 million pounds of organic waste that are produced annually by homes and commercial establishments in the state of California, 75% (20 million) will be composted. Despite its demanding goals, composting is not mandatory for people in their homes or for business owners. The law invites, persuades. For those who are mandatory, it is for the governments of large cities and small municipalities. They must guarantee that the necessary mechanisms exist for logistics and demonstrate compliance with the respective composting percentage.
California’s community composting law is a collective effort where each link: households, social organizations, local administrations, has a commitment. Without everyone’s participation, the initiative can fail. But the benefits are also collective, they are a sign of a new socially and environmentally sustainable economy.
Wild edibles have been part of indigenous community diets for centuries. Now chefs, scholars and farmer collectives are trying to document the medicinal and nutritional value of these wild foodVer completo
A cow stands in the pasture and grazes, a chicken scratches next to her. This is how many people imagine livestock farming. In reality, however, not all farm animals have regular access to the outdoors. When it comes to hens, only one in ten hens has regular access to the outside. This would change with the factory farming initiative. A more animal-friendly attitude is one of five demands of the initiators.
On the basis of this law, the community has been made aware of a problem that most countries in the world are facing, namely the enormous amount of food that is thrown away because it is not sold in supermarkets, which presents a double problem : It is one of the main sources of pollutionof the planet and question the ethics of an opulent society that produces more food than it needs while condemning those who cannot pay for it to starvation.
Jairo Restrepo is an institution in the field of global agroecology; his name and that of his project, which he baptized “Cow Shit ” are confused and give the impression of being the same. He was born in Colombia but his life path is linked to other countries and particularly to Brazil, from where 40 years ago he began to irrigate the entire world with a proposal that is at the same time a philosophy of life, a social project and a daily practice: Organic agriculture. better known as agroecology .
This week we meet with Antonio Arbeláez, a former resident of a Colombian city who one day decided to return to the countryside and adopt a new identity: that of “ neocampesino ”, that is, a person who works in the fields and agriculture without initially that would have been his trade or profession. He began practicing agroecology but was soon faced with a harsh reality: “Without seeds there is no agroecology” and ours are in danger. That is why for 10 years, together with 45 other people, they have been part of a network that is dedicated to caring for life, carrying out a very particular task: they are custodians of native and creole seeds in the department of Quindío (Colombia).
This week our meeting was with Janna and Bill Beckler, partners for 20 years of Slope Park Food, one of the oldest food retail cooperatives in the world located in Brooklyn, New York, which has inspired and continues to inspire people from several countries to build a new business model for the sale of food and that has been called “the most beautiful social project in the United States”.
This unique initiative was born in the 70’s in the heart of New York . A group of neighbors in the Slope Park section of Brooklyn started a “buyers club” to shop for groceries together and save money and time. That idea was transformed into a cooperative that now has a large store where they sell food and household products for its 20,000 members who are in turn the owners of the company and its employees.
Only those who are members can buy in the cooperative. In order to do so, they must work there for three hours a month, performing the logistics and administrative functions that every food distributor needs. This model is the one that allows them to reduce prices of up to 30% in many of the foods and products they sell. For example, Bill, who in his daily life is a professional, in the cooperative three hours a month is in charge of dividing and packing the cheeses and canning the cinnamon. Janna, who is also a professional, helps whoever needs it to transport the purchased food to the car or the train. She sometimes performs other functions: “I often work at the cash register. I love being there, because I can see all the products and at the same time talk to people”.
The operation sounds easy but behind it there is a huge sense of belonging and a need for community ties. The goals of the Cooperative are both personal and collective: They tell us that they have set out to achieve three things: “First we want to have very good quality food at a good price. Second, we want to gain a community experience . Finally, the cooperative gives us the opportunity to support a small business instead of the big supermarkets”.
The type of products sold in the Cooperative is also thought from the perspective of the common good . They favor organic products, purchases from small local producers and processors, and have made a point of having a limited number of shelves of products that contain high percentages of sugar. One of their characteristics is that they do not have a marketing department nor do they receive money from large producers to display their products in the most visible places in the store.
When we asked them what they value about belonging to Slope Park Food and what role it plays in the neighborhood, they told us with conviction: “It is their center of gravity. Many members decide where to live according to the location of the cooperative. She brings many values to our lives, for example, in the relationship with our food, our community. The most important thing is that the time we spend in it is very pleasant. It is not work that pays us, it is work that gives us value because we are producing for our neighbors and community.”
This ingenious associative and community business model has inspired, especially in recent years, the creation of similar forms around the world. An article published on TheNews.Coop portal , the English-language cooperative dissemination body, highlights that at least 18 new markets have been opened in recent years in Europe, with a similar scheme, and acknowledges the influence of the experience of Brooklyn neighbors. Three of these new organizations are the cooperative La Louve (la Loba) located in the heart of Paris, The Bees in Belgium and Alter Coop in Luxembourg.
There is no doubt that the collective ownership of food distribution can be one of the most ingenious and promising solutions to face the rise in food prices and to build the long-awaited fair trade for producers and consumers. It is also a path that gives us back sovereignty over our food.
Listen to the full interview translated into Spanish:
Watch the full interview in English here:
Images taken from: https://foodcoop.film/es/el-documental/