This short documentary had it’s start when filmmaker Tony Macias began interning at SAF (Student Action with Farmworkers) in 1998. Retorno 360 tells the story of an Oaxacan migrant, Inocencio Melchor Hernandez and the family he left behind.

Interview with filmmaker Tony Macias:

AH: What compelled you to tell this story?

TM: So many stories that I’ve heard about migration focus on the negative aspects that drove people to leave their homes and families behind. Everyone from Amnesty International to the New York Times churn out chilling statistics and horrifying stories of the migrant journey- of people working themselves to the bone for little pay, of those who exploit them, and of those who have died in the crossing. It is important to tell this side of the story- in North America, we are facing a humanitarian crisis of extraordinary proportions and we can make a case for change by documenting the mass migration of people. I wanted Retorno 360 to be different, though.

I believe if we want to engage people in work to change this reality (both non migrants and migrants alike), our approach must be different. When I think about migration, I no longer think about the statistics or the policy debates, the economic impacts of immigrants and the terrible trials they undergo in migrating. I think about my friends and loved ones who have made the journey, and for me they are whole people who aren’t just migrants and who don’t have just one reason for migrating. By telling complex stories about farmworkers and others whose voices are not heard in our society, we are helping them speak out to those who ignore them.

AH: How did you become involved in creating this documentary?

TM: I first got involved in documentary work when I served as a SAF intern back in 1998. I was working in South Carolina doing health outreach services for farmworkers, and got training and equipment from SAF to tell a worker’s story of reaching the “American Dream.” As a member of the staff from 2004-2009, I coordinated the documentary program and worked with the committee that initiated the Petrow-Freeman Documentary award. This scholarship was designed to support former SAF volunteers who wanted to build on the documentary work they began as interns or fellows, by giving them the support and some funding to pursue a new project on the lives of farmworkers in the US. I was working with another organization (Witness for Peace) in Mexico when SAF reached out to me to apply for the award. We agreed that already living and working in the Mexican sending state of Oaxaca would give me a unique opportunity to reach out to a former migrant that had already returned home.

AH: How long did it take to produce this documentary?

TM: I received the award (to complete the project ) in early June, and spent about 3 months on and off looking for a person to collaborate with. I finally met Ino in August and worked with him and his family for the following 4-5 months, making over 20 visits to his town in total.

AH: What message do you hope viewers will take away from this story?

TM: That there are as many reasons for migration as there are people migrating. There is no simple explanation for such a complex phenomenon, and therefore there’s no easy solution, either. To effect change in the lives of migrants, we must first listen to them tell their stories, and Retorno 360 is just one opportunity to do that. Migrants live among us nearly everywhere we may call come. It’s my hope that every one of us could find someone who’s far from home, listen to their story, and do some of what we attempted to do with this project.

AH: What are the main goals for SAF?

TM: SAF’s mission is to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other’s lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change.

AH: How can people get involved with SAF?

TM: Getting involved with SAF is easy! You can visit the bilingual SAF website at www.saf-unite.org to learn more about our important work, and sign up for our email updates on the main page. SAF offers internships, fellowships, and other volunteer opportunities every year. We also organize events and actions year-round across the Southeast and in other parts of the US. We’re also part of a large network of farmworker justice organizations throughout the country.

To learn more visit SAF Website: www.saf-unite.org

Last week The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Norman Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M announced a new collaboration based in South Africa at the Ukulima Farm Research Center to advance African Agriculture and Fight Hunger.

“It is my hope this collaboration will improve agricultural productivity across the African continent” said Mr. Buffet, “particularly for Africa’s poorest farmers.”

Interview with Dr. Edwin Price, Director of The Borlaug Institute:

Dr. Edwin Price at Ukulima Farm

AH: Is this a brand new initiative?

DP: No, Mr. Buffet has been involved in Africa in resource conservation and farming for quite a long time. He initially began largely focused on natural wildlife conservation, came to the conclusion that conserving wildlife, preserving wildlife in Africa was going to require feeding people. So he increasingly engaged in supporting agriculture research and agriculture development projects in Africa for that purpose. He began the farm that was announced yesterday as much as five years ago in the earliest stages of it and he brought it up to an operating level and attracted early collaborators and partners from various private research organizations as well as Universities and international research centers. So that group of partners has been working for three years or so. He’s asked that Texas A & M University, specifically the Borlaug Institute, with which we share the vision for Africa to become more involved in the management of the farm. And so what was announced yesterday was the new designation of the Borlaug Institute as the management entity for the nature conservation trust of South Africa, which is the operator of Ukulima farm.

AH: What are the goals?

DP: The goals are really to develop technology, usable by small African farmers to get their productivity up, to get their yields up. Maybe even to introduce resource saving technologies, energy saving technologies possibly. Working with minimum tillage, conservation farming. As well as advanced techniques – we really haven’t taken anything off the table in terms of looking at all the possibilities there are for improving small African farm productivity. We know that the need is there to improve small farm productivity in Africa and in a lot of places. We’ve been working cooperatively in other regimes in the Middle east for example where they face some of the same problems. Nevertheless we’re focused in this case through Ukulima Farm on small African farmers.

Our namesake, Dr. Norman Borlaug passed away a couple years ago but had made his early breakthrough in modern agricultural productivity in developing countries of Asia. He had enormous impact. At the time of his death he recognized, and despite his ten years of effort in Africa that the job still had to be done. In fact his parting wishes with colleagues was: “Don’t forget about Africa, I want you guys to carry on my work in Africa. So in that regard he felt that Mr. Buffets’ objectives and our objectives were highly consistent. And we are very pleased to have a partnership with him.

AH: How much of the work is this organization having to focus specifically on contending with water issues?

DP: Water issues are major. Both water quality and water availability. And also making sure you don’t impair water quality or availability through your technologies. So it’s both a problem for the input as well as what you leave for others, so it’s definitely a concern for the work. And we have some really good scientists who are coming on board to work with us on the hydrology and all about water use. Of course, our partners we’re working with now, for example Penn State University who was working there actually before we came on board is doing some very advanced work. For example on the root structure of plants – how root structures have an impact on the efficiency of that plant in utilizing water. That is really one of the foremost projects being undertaken on the farm right now. So yes, water is a major concern. Soil nutrients, natural processes in the soil that help to conserve soils’ fertility and feed plants at the same time are also a concern. So it’s not only a matter of the water. In fact Mr. Buffet has been party to recent discussions of something they call the Brown Revolution. And that is gaining a better understanding on soil management in tropical and underdeveloped countries.

AH: For those who would ask: Why focus on Africa, why not focus on the US, or why not focus on other areas, how would this organization respond?

DP: We think we’ve got to be working on these issues everywhere. In fact, the resources that we bring to the table from Borlaug Institute are the resources of Texas agriculture Agrilife research. We have 15 research experiment stations in the state of Texas in different regions faced with water concerns, flow, quality concerns, pest concerns all of that. So we regard the work in Africa as part of a worldwide fabric of effort to confront the problems of food security, water use and soil improvement in sustainability. And as far as Mr. Buffet, he is a farmer in the US himself. In fact, almost everything he does on the farm in Ukulima he has a companion project of the exact same treatments being undertaken on his farms in Illinois.

The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture webpage: http://borlaug.tamu.edu/

Video by: Lindsay Crisler Email: lcrisler@gmail.com

From the filmmaker:

Heinz Thomet owns and farms Next Step Produce with his wife Gabrielle and their three daughters in Newburg, Maryland. One of the only organic farmers in the region, Heinz’s operation is USDA certified organic selling locally and in Washington, D.C. at the DuPont Circle Farmers Market. Being farmer though is more to Heinz, here he talks about what it means to him and to the world.

Video by: Tim Wimborne Chief Photographer, Australia and New Zealand Reuters News

Video by: Megan Oriana Erskine

From the filmmaker:

Casual Country Charm is a “survey” piece meant to provide a short story on the agri-tourism development in a rural town in Michigan. With the decline of industry like tool and die, Baroda is turning to its agricultural heritage and America’s food reawakening to revive its downtown economy.

Here is an excerpt from that website describing the organization:

The MDG Achievement Fund is an international cooperation mechanism whose aim is to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) worldwide. Established in December 2006 with a generous contribution of €528 million Euros ($US710M) from the Spanish Government to the United Nations system, the MDG-F supports national governments, local authorities and citizen organizations in their efforts to tackle poverty and inequality.

In this podcast, we spoke with Wael Rafea, the gentleman who leads the Pro-poor Horticulture Value Chains in Upper Egypt project. He spoke with us by phone from his office in Giza, Egypt.

Video by: José Maurício da Costa
From the filmmaker:

A short film showing through images the process of sugar cane extraction in the rural area of Brazil. The images was captured by Natalia Nunes and I next to her family small farm where we lived times ago. The infographics are illustrative and have only an aesthetic function. The music, inspired by a theme of “There Will Be Blood” soundtrack, is a composition of 5 lines, each one with a little variation on its beats per minute.

This video is a continuation on the account of “Gemma: In the Kitchen” recently given to Fortnight Journal. Hard working twenty-two year old Gemma Matsuyama shares with the viewer her warmhearted and delightful dream of the cafe in her mind that she hopes to create, own and operate one day.

Fortnight Journal: “Honoring the Past, Archiving the Future”

I first met Jennifer Trehane of the Dorset Blueberry Company when she came to the Whitesbog Blueberry Festival in southern New Jersey in 2008. Whitesbog is the birthplace of what has become a global commercial blueberry industry.

Dated March 1951, the letter seen below tells just part of the story about how commercial blueberry plants traveled first from southern New Jersey on the Queen Mary to England for the first time. The young plants were then picked up from the South Hampton docks by Jennifer at the request of her father and so began her spirited life as a blueberry grower and educator.

Jennifer Trehane and her son David

Video by nathan m peracciny

From the Throw To Grow Team:

“Food is medicine.” Lan Thai

Our next installment of the Throw To Grow Profile series, features Lan Thai, Chef & Founder of Happy’s Hawai’i. Happy’s Hawai’i combines innovation, a sense of community, with traditional Vietnamese cooking. All to create fresh and sustainable food that keeps guests smiling.

Happy’s Hawai’i is committed to providing foods that contain no artificial preservatives, no artificial flavorings, NO MSG, and NO GMO. Happy’s only uses organic chicken and local grass-fed beef.

In this piece, Lan describes where her journey began, and what drives her to run a company and create food with awareness.

You can enjoy Lan’s cooking every Sunday at the haleiwafarmersmarket.com.

Learn more about Happy’s Hawaii at:happyshawaii.com

Enjoy!

More Throw To Grow Profiles coming next week.

To learn more visit: Kickstarter the Throw To Grow project

Mahalo!

ThrowToGrow.com