About Harvest » Sustainability

Green Bees

Nancy O'Mallon — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:17:17 +0000

Bees & VCC = The greenest public structure in Vancouver

Video by: Stefan Morel

From the filmmaker:

The Vancouver Convention Centre was minted as the city’s newest architectural wonder, at the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The greenest public structure on Vancouver’s ever-rising urban skyline, the VCC was engineered with a host of sustainable features: a green roof with “resident” bees (and beekeeper), reclaimed BC timber, watershed preservation systems, etc.

Just Another Worker….

When asked about what it was like filming all those bees, Stefan said:

When I filmed the bees+hives, I wasn’t wearing any protective gear: no beekeeper suit, no hat, no net…and despite the intense summer heat, the sweat dripping down my face and the stress of the bees on my lens…I didn’t get stung once! Just goes to show you: if the bees understand that you mean them no harm, and you can relax into their buzzing environment, they’ll welcome you into their hive. I was perceived as just another worker:)

To view additional work from the filmmaker visit: stefanmorel.com

About Harvest, LLC shares stories about food and agriculture. Subscribe to receive stories about the science, history and relevance of agricultural crops grown and harvested around the world.

In Depth Interview with Multi-Award-Winnng Director Mark Dodd

Nancy O'Mallon — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:36:40 +0000

Mark Dodd is an award winning photographer-filmmaker who has worked world-wide for 20 years with the BBC. Visit his website at www.1080films.co.uk to view this and other projects

AH:What is the film “The Man Who Stopped the Dessert” about?

MD:The film is a documentary about Yacouba Sawadogo. He’s an illiterate African peasant farmer from Burkina Faso which is in kind of in, if you imagine Africa, it’s west in the center, just below the part of the Africa called the Sahel which is a big band of arid land below the Sahara Desert, which stretches to the west all the way over to the East. Burkina Faso is kind of on the left hand side in the west. It’s a landlocked country, and it’s one of the poorest countries on the planet.

And the stories is about, well it’s about his life story really. It wasn’t intended as a film about conservation. I was attracted to Yacouba’s story because of who he is, and what he’s achieved, and his humble beginnings. And that was really important to me in the film to show the story through his own voice. So if you see the film, there’s not much narration, and it’s really about Yacouba telling us about what he’s achieved. And what he’s achieved is amazing. He’s – over 20 years, he’s turned vast areas of dry, bone rock hard soil into fertile land, and he grows crops in it now, and the crops are feeding thousands of families. His techniques have been exported, and they’re feeding thousands of families. He’s grown a forest there from scratch. Certainly it’s got a large forest. I think it’s 20 acres or, or 20 hectares, I’m not sure what that is in acres. But it’s – he’s an amazing chap. Yeah, and that’s the story of the film.

Yacouba Sawadogo

AH:How did you come to learn about the work of Yacouba?

MD:That was pure chance. I had a friend, an English friend who happened to be living in Burkina Faso in 2007. I just went over there to visit him just to see what he was up to, and not a lot to do in that part of the world, and he suggested one day we go and visit this interesting farmer as he called him. So we went town to Yacouba’s land, and my friend actually speaks French. Yacouba doesn’t speak French; he speaks his indigenous language, which is Mòoré. So we had to bring with us someone who could speak Mòoré and French, and then actually translate it from French to English; it was quite a tortuous task. I didn’t know to expect, well I wasn’t expecting anything.

We turned up, Yacouba wasn’t around, so we kind of wait under the shade of a tree. And then after about a half an hour or so, we hear the sound of this moped coming through the bush. He must have been in his 60′s at the time, this gentleman arrived in a kind of long brand smock with a pick ax over his shoulder and got off, and that was Yacouba Sawadogo. He showed me around his land, around the forest, around the fields. And I thought, this guy’s done some impressive things. So we all sat down and interviewed him formally, and that took about, over an hour or two. And that – by the end of the interview, I thought this story has to be told. And at that point I decided I wanted to make a film about Yacouba and his life. I had no idea how I was going to do. But at the time, I was a BBC staff cameraman, so I thought I’ll take this story home and offer it to BBC to be made into a film.

Team with PM

AH:What exactly is the Sahel and what are some of the ways his work has impacted the people living there?

MD:The Sahal is a huge band of land between West Africa, and all the way over to the eastern side. It’s below the desert, below the Sahara desert, it’s beyond the fertile zone. So it’s kind of a semi-arid area. And it’s a very unforgiving part of the world. It’s very dry, and not a lot grows there, and they have extended periods of drought. And through the 1980′s, there was very serious droughts across that part of the world. But at that time, Yacouba was just starting on his kind of investigations into trying to do something into reverse the process of desertification, which was going on long, where you had areas of land which was being cultivated, which was being degraded both by the climate change, and also human intervention, cutting down trees for firewood, that kind of thing.

Once you’ve lost the ability to feed people, and villages start to close down, people leave villages in great numbers. And Yacouba was trying to find a way to stop all this. And what he did was he kind of reinvented an ancient farming technique called the Zai, which is Zed-a-i in the local language. And what that technique was at the time was just kind of scratching small shallow holes in the ground during the rainy season, and planting seeds in the holes. And that was getting limited results, but it wasn’t very effective. What Yacouba did was he resigned the pits; he made them much wider, made them a lot deeper. And he started to add compost in the pits, organic matter, and then he planted the seeds in the Zai pits.

But probably one of the most important things he did was he started preparing the land during the dry season which was actually a bit of a gamble for Yacouba because you weren’t allowed to do that. Local tradition said you’re not allowed to touch the earth in the dry season, and there’s no kind of rational behind it, it’s just that’s how it was done. So by doing this, he caused big problems, he got a lot of people’s backs up, and he suffered for that. People thought he was a mad man doing that kind of thing digging holes in the dry season. But he continued doing it. But he had a lot of opposition from people; the village elders didn’t like what he was doing. And one day when he was off his farm, he went to town into the local city to have a meeting there. And while he was there, some people, we don’t know who it is burnt down his newly planted forest and his crops. So he had a lot of opposition at the time. But he continued doing what he’s done, he’s worked through it, and his techniques have now been communicated through other families in the area, and he’s just had an amazing success with what he’s doing. And of course now since the films been made, he’s on the radar of the, well a lot of the top level. UN Secretary General Bank Ki Moon actually referred to Yacouba Sowadogo in a recent convention as the man who stopped the desert. So he’s kind of up there now. Listen to the Bank Ki Moon Speech at UN Radio here.

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AH:What is Zai and what are some of the challenges Yacouba has faced in getting people to adopt this technique?

MD:I guess what happened was they could see the results he was achieving. What happened was the year, the first year he did this Zai technique, the improved version where the holes were deeper, and with the compost. And the other thing he did was he planted trees amongst the crops as well, which has the effect of slowing down of land erosion when it blows, the trees slow down the wind, the trees also gather dust, and the dust settles underneath the trees. It helps – all these things added together help. He also puts termites in amongst them. Termites, if you have termites, they will actually break down the soil a lot. So that was termite’s help. He does all these little techniques, and they’re all little simple, little quite simple but when added together, they have these really effective results. And the – because it’s simple, the ideas are easily communicated, and that’s another idea to success that you got to be able to have simple ideas so people can just replicate the ideas. But I guess the reason why people, he’s a lot turned was they could see the results he was achieving the year, the first year he did it, it was a bad for rainfall. But even with the low rainfall, he achieved really good crops, and when he went into town to tell people about this, they didn’t believe him. They said, “Its been a drought year, what are you talking about?” So he had to battle the people in town, the kind of agricultural people to come and have a look. Say look – they couldn’t believe what they saw when they arrived there.

AH:He has developed such an incredible technique. I think the beauty behind it is the simplicity in the fact that aside from labor, there are no costs…

MD:That’s right, and this is important. And prior to that, what happened, all foreign agencies would come in, and they’d kind of impose technical solutions to the problems that required plant, and machinery. And machinery requires maintenance, and requires fuel, and it also, these techniques were imposed, they weren’t to build on anything that was indigenous. And the thing about Yacouba’s technique is that it’s a homegrown solution, and the people, the farmers feel ownership of the solution. And once you have ownership of the solution, then you’re kind of halfway there. And of course it’s a simple solution, it doesn’t require lots of skills, obviously there’s a certain amount of training required, and Yacouba does train people. He does, he has people visiting his farm where he trains people in his techniques. And what he’s doing now is he’s going out of his farm to other villages and teaching people in other villages because obviously this certainly can go, and go, and go.

AH:Have policy-makers taken notice of this work?

MD:That’s a hard one to gauge because what policy policymakers have taken note – I think they have now, I think they have. I think the thinking now from policy makers, they learned the lessons of the past, they know that parachuting in ready-made solutions doesn’t really work. And what does work is engaging the local people. Dr Chris Reij, the Dutch scientist is a real baton holder for this kind of process, he’s the Dutch scientist that you saw in the film, and he’s really backing a large movement in that part of the world called the “African Re-Greening Initiative“. And this African Re-Greening Initiative is based on local solutions, what local people have done, and it’s – what the outside aide does now is it really helps the local people with the solutions that they’ve already produced. It just helps them develop those solutions, and communicate them.

Mark Dodd filming Yacouba as a boy

AH:The music was fantastic, can you tell me about the music in your film?

MD:The music was a mixture of – well actually to me the music is absolutely crucial to any production. I wanted the music to feel not like a documentary, I wanted the documentary to feel more like a cinema experience than a documentary which is why its been, I think its been screened so many times in cinema’s. But the brief to the person who wrote the music was I wanted it to feel like a cinema experience. And I kind of, I think he did it, I think he did it.

Children running in village

AH:How has this film changed you personally Mark?

MD:It’s – oh my – how has it changed me personally? I guess its made me more willing to take risks because at the time when I first started the project, I had a safe job at the BBC, I was a staff cameraman, I had a regular income. And in order to make the film, I had to quit my job, and that was a bit scary because that was in 2008. And about a month afterwards, the world collapsed financially. So that was a bit of a worry. But Yacouba, his example is very inspiring not only in obviously what he’s done for the people there, but his whole attitude towards life, and about how he just gets on and does it. So I guess yeah, it’s probably made me a bit more happy to take risks.

AH:Where is the film screening next and what lies ahead?

MD:The next film screening as I understand that there’s two film screenings coming up in Austria. It’s in film festivals – it regularly appears in film festivals all over the world. I get emails all the time from film festivals asking to screen the film, which is fantastic. Normally you have to submit your films, and they’re actually coming to me and saying, “Can we screen it?” And so that’s great. And that’s happening all the time. So the next ones in Austria. But we actually went back – talking about screenings, we went back – I don’t know if you’ve seen the clip on the website. We went back last year to screen the film in Yacouba’s village.

AH: I loved that clip!

MD:Yeah, wasn’t that amazing? To me, it was the highlight of the whole process going back there. I mean, obviously this is my first film as a producer. Prior to that I was just a cameraman, so at the end of the day I would hand over the rush of the tapes and kind of wave goodbye. So this is my first film I’ve kind of written. So obviously, it was a huge amount of emotional attachment to it. And it was such a relief when we screened the film in his village and everyone went mad for it. And it was just such a privilege. Yacouba loved the film, and I think we did his story justice, he seemed to think so.

To learn more and to purchase the film visit: www.1080films.co.uk/yacoubamovie

About Harvest, LLC shares stories about food and agriculture. Subscribe to receive stories about the science, history and relevance of agricultural crops grown and harvested around the world.

Loyola University Tends Field with Horse Power

Nancy O'Mallon — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:49:40 +0000

Video by: Jenny Kane

From the filmmaker:

Lane Linnenkohl of Equus Oaks Farms plows a quarter of an acre of land on Loyola University’s Ecology Campus in Woodstock with Percheron Draft horse power. The land will be used to plant organic wheat for the university.

To view additional work from the filmmaker visit: jennykane.com

About Harvest, LLC shares stories about food and agriculture. Subscribe to receive stories about the science, history and relevance of agricultural crops grown and harvested around the world.

We Farm

Nancy O'Mallon — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:17:24 +0000

A Worldwide Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing Network

For more information visit: wefarm.info

Vert: Social Enterprise Engineered From Bags

Nancy O'Mallon — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:54:59 +0000

Dell Social Innovation Challenge Submission

Vert is a project that was created as a submission for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge. It’s creators shared with us that their motivation for starting the project where not financial, that rather they hope to “contribute to the debate on agriculture, technology and food security” adding that it also explains “quite nicely” what they aim to accomplish.

From the filmmakers:

Vert is a social enterprise that will (1) promote food security and economic development in Africa; (2) stimulate fair and responsible off-farm employment opportunities in Nepal and Chad; (3) reduce the use of environmentally hazardous plastic bags in Europe and the U.S.; and (4) raise awareness amongst European and U.S. consumers of the food security challenges faced by African farmers. Overall, this project will result in greater quantities of better quality food for small-scale farmers in Africa, less pollution from disposable plastic bags in Europe and the U.S., and improved livelihoods in Africa and Nepal.

To learn more about Vert visit: dellchallenge.org/projects/vert

Facebook: facebook.com/VertBags

The Four Distinct Pillars of Sustainable Food

Nancy O'Mallon — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:21:13 +0000

Sustainable Food Systems, Part 2

In our previous conversation with John Turenne we learned he is nationally recognized for breaking new ground in the food industry. In this conversation with the inspired President and founder of Sustainable Food Systems, we learn how he got his start in creating his breakthrough company.

AH:What did you do to get started serving sustainable food?

JT:Now keep in mind this was 2001-2002, where an institutional food service, this was not the terminology. We’d started to hear a little bit about organic student movements, about thinking about organic food, and things like that. But I figured it was just a trend, and let me learn about it, and it was that process of learning the big picture of food and the impact that those of us had on so much in that kind of environment, could have on so much and so many in the world around us, that I started to realize: This is not a fad, It can’t be a fad. It can’t be something that comes and goes. This has to happen.

AH:Where did you start?

JT:As I learned what I call, you know, the four distinct pillars of sustainable food, and my decisions could impact whether it be first pillar the environmental impact that food has on the planet. The second pillar was the impact of our local or communities and small farms, and who are we supporting when we spend our dollars? Where does the food go, and what’s happening to our small or mid-size farmers? The third pillar I came to understand was the social concerns about animal welfare, human rights in food production – all those nightmare stories that we’ve come to learn about and the social impact of food production.Then the fourth pillar I came to realize was the sustainability of our own health and well-being, and the physical impact that the food I was serving had on the bodies of my customers. When I stopped and realized that there were negative impacts on all those pillars, you know, I said, It’s more than just bottom line driven. We have to figure this out. We have to come up with a way to change this, and turn this Titanic of an institution at Yale and start providing a better program. So we went through a whole – I could go on for a long time with just the systems and the processes that we came up with to make these changes, but we did it. And once we did it, and once I understood the systems that could be put into place to make it work at an institution like Yale, I realized: This can’t just be happening here, it has to happen on a bigger picture, and farther out.

“It’s the direction I’m going…”

AH:What came next?

JT:I approached my own company and I said, Look, you know, we operate hundreds of universities, not to mention thousands when you start figuring the hospitals and the schools and all the places that our company manages. Let’s start looking at this and doing what we did at Yale at other places. It’s the direction that our industry has to go. And the response I got was: Thank you so much for what you’ve done here at Yale, we think it’s wonderful, but it’s not the direction we really see us wanting to go. And my reaction before I could shut my mouth was: It’s the direction I’m going, thank you for 25 great years of employment, I’m going out.And I started a company, which is Sustainable Food Systems, to start helping others do it. And that was seven years ago.

AH:Can you walk me through a typical day of yours now?

JT:Oh, gosh, it varies, Nancy. But ideally the biggest thing that we focus on is being hired by a private school, let’s say, or a hospital, or even a public school district, to provide kind of like three levels of service if you imagine a menu, you know, like in a restaurant. So the first appetizer or the first service that we provide is called “Identification and Planning.” So we go into – let’s use a private school as an example. We’ll go into a school and immerse ourselves into their food service, understand their current program as it pertains to – I’m going to go back to the systems that I’ve established based on what I learned way back at Yale, and have fine-tuned since – but use this system to assess where they currently are, and then create a plan on where they can go, and how they can make improvements to become more sustainable. That’s the first level of service, we present that back to the client – to the school, or hospital system, or whoever. And say, “Here are the steps you can do.” Again, it’s very systemized so that it’s almost impossible to fail, because it is also a step-by-step approach; it’s not about doing too much, too fast.

AH:How much push-back to you get from people working in the kitchens?

JT:Initially, a good amount. You know, I can tell you, having come from the trenches, change is hard. And we’ve worked in places with like on the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution in West Virginia where I’m walking into a school kitchen with some of these ladies that have been cooking for 30 years, and they’re looking at me saying, Who are you? Where are you from? What are you going to do to me? What are you going to do to my life and my job? What usually the technique that helps get over that initial hump is, you know, my team have these values and principles that make sure we convey to say, It’s okay, we come from your world. I’m not just some passionate, crazy advocate screaming for change. I know what you go through. I did it. You know, I’ve been there, and I know what your challenges are, but I’ve got some cool ideas that can help take what you’re doing and do it even better. And you’re going to probably teach me a few things, too, because you’ve been doing this for so long in your home, and your school here, which is really your home, I’m a guest. I respect that, I’m here as a guest, but let me help try to figure these out.

AH:It seems you are teaching them a whole new ecosystem and how to directly affect the health of the people they are serving.

JT:Absolutely, Nancy. Part of our structure is two-fold; you just nailed it. It’s when we need to convey the technical way to go about changing – the “how,” and if you were standing in front of me you’d see me, I talk with my hands a lot here – but the “how” is the hands, you know, how to go about cooking this, changing this menu, or writing a menu a certain way. But that’s only half the matter, we also teach and train people “why” we need to do this.

Ramps: A Rite of Springtime

Nancy O'Mallon — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:39:40 +0000

How to Harvest Ramps Properly

Spring to many means it is the time to find, seek and cook up ramps, and this video by Jim Gop explains how to harvest them correctly. Sometimes found in farmers markets, ramps are a type of wild onion, ramps actually belong to the lily family. To learm more about ramps, check out The Redeemed Gardner blog.

Growing Cities: “Urban Farming has a Lot of Potential”

Nancy O'Mallon — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:22:43 +0000

Growing Cities is a documentary film that examines the role of urban farming in America and asks how much power it has to revitalize our cities and change the way we eat.

Documenting Urban Farmers Across the Country

When I first saw the trailer for the documentary, “Growing Cities“, I knew I wanted to know more about this large-scale project that is documenting the development of city farming across America.

We’d love to see more people growing their own food, says filmmaker Dan Susman of one of their hoped-for outcomes from this film. Working on the film with his Co-Producing partner, Andrew Monbouquette, Susman added: People are trying to figure out ways to connect…..food is a great unifyer.

Filmmakers: Andrew Monbouquette & Dan Susman

Growing Cities: A film about Urban Farming in America

The project is officially launching a Kickstarter campaign today to raise completion funds for this upcoming documentary on urban farming. To view the trailer and contribute to Growing Cities, click this link:www.kickstarter.com/projects/growincities/growing-cities-a-film-about-urban-farming-in-ameria

Rooftop Farm

About Harvest Podcast interview with Director Dan Susman:

Listen here:

“What the heck is sustainable food?”

Nancy O'Mallon — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:01:54 +0000

Sustainable Food Systems, Part 1

John Turenne first spoke those words a relatively few short years ago and is now a nationally recognized for breaking new ground in the food industry. Chef, President and founder of Sustainable Food Systems, LLC, John is now a leader in the national movement for healthy sustainable food systems. It was our pleasure to speak with him recently and learn about how he got his start in creating sustainable food systems.

AH: How’s everything going John?

JT: Never had it so good. No, seriously, things are going very well. I’ve taken on a challenge or a career now for the last almost seven years. I don’t know how much you know about my background, but I came from the dark side of 25 years in institutional food service working for a large corporate food service contracting company, and then had gone through this change and epiphany while I was the executive chef at Yale. And realized that those of us in institutional food service had a huge responsibility and could do things a whole lot better, and after doing it myself now I’m on a mission to help others do it – so.

AH: So was there a moment, an epiphany you had at some point?

JT: Yeah – no, no, I’m chuckling because there was. I mean, there was kind of a big picture moment, and I can even point to a clear moment were I realized food had a face, I guess, is the way that I put it. So, again, just to understand the background of working for 25 years for Aramark, which I’m not sure if you know who they are?

AH: Yes

JT: My career was based on how well I performed fiscally, bottom line, profit and loss driven, and I worked my way up to significant roles and responsibilities running several large private school, or college and university food service programs; whether it was Wesleyan University or Yale University. I’m to the point where I still tell people on Friday afternoons I get the ticks in my neck because that’s where every week I would come to realize whether or not I made my forecast for profits for my company, or for my clients, for the schools.

AH: Okay

JT: You know, that’s all I knew, and it all kind of changed one Friday afternoon while I was working at Yale University – it was late November, a day in 2001, which I was out at the Yale Bowl – the Yale football field – studying up for the Yale-Harvard football game which was going to take place the next day. My cell phone rang, and it was my boss, you know, saying, Meet me at the president’s office, we have to sit down and meet with a parent. I said, you know, my first reaction was, You know, time out a second here. You know I’m pretty busy here, and it’s your job to meet with parents, and I’ve never been called to the president’s office. What the heck’s going on? Who is this? He said, It’s Alice Waters. Do you know who Alice Waters is?

AH: Yes, of course!

JT: Okay. So I knew her very well from having had a chance to get to her restaurant, and also that month’s issue of Gourmet magazine had ranked them the top restaurant in the United States. And this is the woman that wanted to meet with me to talk about how I was serving and feeding her daughter. So the first thing I had to do was pick up my cell phone off the ground, and the second thing was to stop stuttering and say, you know, What does Alice want with me? I had to give her a tour and meet with her and talk to her about the food service program that we had a Yale to serve the kids. Well, she had just convinced the president of Yale that we needed to look different at the type of food we were serving – 6,000 students, you know, three times a day, seven days a week for about 200 days a year – 230 days a year – and start considering the more global impact that that food had besides the cost and financial impact on our budgets.

AH: So what happened?

JT: So the president was enamored by what she was talking about and decided he would charge Aramark with figuring out what this wild, passionate, crazy woman from California was talking about, and how can we do it here in our world, you know, serving our students. So the proverbial stuff, Nancy, rolls down hill, as you can imagine, and when the president of Yale went to the president of Aramark, who in turn went to the vice president of Aramark, and it eventually got to the executive chef who was yours truly, and I had nowhere else to turn, and it was, well, figure out how can we make this happen, this sustainable food program – which is what Alice talking about – here at Yale? I loved challenges and always took on whatever the latest fad, trend, fashion was, and I assumed the same. And I said, I’d be happy to, but I have one question: “What the heck is sustainable food? Someone help me out here. I literally and figuratively had to go to school and understand the bigger impact that food has.

To be continued…..

Farm Trekking Adventures: Colombian Coffee Growers

Nancy O'Mallon — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:46:05 +0000

Sachamama Nature Reserve, Salento Colombia

We are so pleased to bring this story about a dedicated family in Columbia who is growing coffee. They have embraced and adopted the ways of slow food and land reclamation and in the process, established their own way of growing and selling coffee. The filmmakers behind the story are Lisette & Ryan Cheresson. For many months they have been traveling around, across and through Latin America on a mission to connect with the people they meet and to share their stories.

Video by: Cheresson Docs

From the filmmakers:

Not all coffee farms are created equal. Pedro Lorenzo Burgos Grajales and his wife Maryori grow coffee in a different way, and for reasons other than distribution. This is their story.

View more of their adventures visit: cheressondocs.com