GEN International Newsletter June 2014 – Editorial: Ecovillages and Food Sovereignty

17 projects took the time to answer the questions on food sovereignty. The answers came from the USA, from Africa, from Asia and Europe. Thank you all very much. Of course this survey can never be representative in a scientific way, but it helps us to have an overview on the state and intention of the ecovillages on growing their own food. See the results: Read more

Come together locally,
cultivate abundance,
grow your own food without chemicals,
share and exchange with your neighbors,
generate income with the surplus,
save the seeds,
recycle your waste and make compost,
learn to treat water as a living being,
cook with solar energy (or biogas),
plant trees,
build sustainable models,
and join the global food revolution.
Philip Munyasia, www.otepic.org
Read more

Food sovereignty is a critical alternative to food security that asserts that not all ways of realizing food security are equal, says Victor Odula – GEN Ambassador from Kenya. He reports about the Rodi Ecovillage´s initiative to improve nutrition on the shores of the Lake Victoria. Read more

Northern Namibia produces food abundantly for their families, communities close by, and also the Namibian community at large; their food can be found in the local markets of most major towns, as well as the capital city. On a trip to her homestead, Clio Pauly found, tasted and enjoyed a traditional Permaculture and Gift Economy society. Read more

Japanese people believe that the land is a gift from the Ancestors. This is why they do not want to sell it. Therefore, local elders often ask the Konohana Family to manage their land. As a result, more than 95% of the land that Konohana Family uses is free, and sometimes the ecovillage gets paid to cultivate the land because the government will charge owners a higher tax if it is not used for cultivation. “The financial crisis happened, but it did not affect us at all since we produce most of our food by ourselves”, reports Michiyo Furuhashi. Read more

One of the biggest contributors to the global use of fossil fuels is food production. Each calorie of processed food requires an average of 10 calories of fossil fuels to produce, process, package, and transport goods from the farms and factories, all the way to the shops and dining tables of the world. Bahay Kalipay and Maia Earth Village in Palawan, Philippines invite intentional communities and ecovillages, to join the Global ‘FastfortheClimate’ movement. Sarah Queblatin and Pi Villaraza write about the background. Read more

Public parks, abandoned lots, pavements and even churches: in Sao Paulo every piece of land has the potential of turning into a community garden. After all, where food is planted citizenship grows! Henny Freitas reports: Read more

The Agro-ecological farm, El Peregrino (The Pilgrim), is a project whose economic base is food production for residents consumption as well as for sale to the public.The farm was founded 18 years ago in Vista Flores, Mendoza, Argentina, by Ignacio Pereyra and Ana Pérez. With their children, María Jesús, Rodrigo, and Azucena, the family began to unlearn the forms and structures that degenerate life, so as to be able to learn from nature and the life rhythms that foster well being in the World. A report by Vainilla con Canela, a volunteer at El Peregrino and founder of Canal Permacultural: Read more

On May 8th, something historic happened. The government of Colombia finally acknowledged that a black community owns the Caribbean islands it inhabits. After waiting for eight years, the community of Isla Grande and Isleta, in the Rosario Islands, managed to obtain a title that gives them Collective Land Tenure. They never thought they would have to go to the high courts, or that would become an example of the demands of basic rights of ethnic groups, but they did! By Paula Rangel Garzón1, Margarita O. Zethelius, and Carlos Duran: Read more

USA: Radical Governance Changes in Two North American Ecovillages Two North American ecovillages – Earthaven in North Carolina and Dancing Rabbit in Missouri – have recently implemented new governance and decision-making methods. “As an admitted community governance nerd”, Diana Leafe Christian says, “I am fascinated by how communities govern themselves and make decisions, and how they innovate new methods when things don’t seem to be working right. I’d like to tell you about these, because they exemplify a growing trend among communities internationally to innovate new governance methods or try alternative ones.” Read about Earthhaven´s change of methods here.

Read about Dancing Rabbit´s change of methods here

LAND AWAKENING is an independent feature documentary film. While volunteering at organic farms in the Mediterranean, Mexican-Canadian filmmaker and director, Raul Alvarez, embarked on a personal journey to learn about organic agriculture, and other technologies, to grow and gather food, creating an inspiring film about the goodness and generosity of the Land, but also about his own life transformation. In the GEN Europe conference 2013, Raul already showed his results. Now the documentary is finished. He reports about his work: Read more

To have peace in Israel-Palestine, the mentality of scarcity needs to be replaced with an awareness of abundance, because the conflict is based on the fear that there is not enough for everyone: not enough land, not enough water, not enough energy. In the frame of the Global Campus, in the process of founding GEN Palestine, Aida Shibli made another step in food sovereignty in organising seminars to create abundance on a farm of the Westbank. Frederick Weihe reports: Read more

The German community ZEGG wants to establish a circular economy, which they consider to be a sustainable model for the future. In this regard, they use renewable resources, turn waste into usable materials, and encourage decentralised cooperation for food production. Cordula Andrä reports: Read more

Only 20 months have passed since the “Federation of Damanhur” in Northern Italy started the latest pioneering self-sufficiency project of its community. They have called it “olio caldo 4” (Hot Oil), and aim to achieve food sovereignty for the community within one year. Within the community of Damanhur, with its 600 members and 25 ‘nucleo’ families, the project was entrusted to the nucleo Prima Stalla. Capra Carruba reports: Read more

The programme draws on the experience and expertise developed in a network of some of the most successful ecovillages and community projects across the Earth: Read more