http://soilandfood.org Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:43:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In June 2011 we organized a farmer exchange down to southern Malawi (Thyolo and Machinga) to learn more about what communities were doing with regards to climate change adaptation. We learned about how to make fuel efficient cooking stoves using local materials by building a kiln. The farmers who came ... http://soilandfood.org/cookstoves-for-climate-change/ Rachel Bezner Kerr gave a presentation about some SFHC research findings on crop diversity and food security, at the annual meetings of the Ecological Society of America meetings in Austin Texas. The presentation was part of a session entitled "Revolutionary Ecology: Defining and Conducting Stewardship and Action as Ecologists and ... http://soilandfood.org/presentation-at-the-ecological-society-of-america-meetings/ Twelve farmers and staff traveled to Zambia this past week to take a five day course on sustainable agriculture. They were hosted by Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre, which has run various courses for farmers on sustainable agriculture for many years (see http://www.loyno.edu/~katc/aboutus.htm for more information about Kasisi). The experience was ... http://soilandfood.org/farmers-staff-attend-zambia-course/ The community promoters are visiting the 200 farmers doing participatory experiments on climate change adaptation to measure yields and assess the experiments to date. Lizzie Shumba, the SFHC Coordinator, is hopeful that the experiments will yield good results this year, as the rains were reasonable. We'll be reporting back to ... http://soilandfood.org/community-promoters-assessing-yields/ Our work has been called a 'third way' for addressing hunger and food insecurity in the Global South, in a recent article by Raj Patel in Foreign Policy: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/04/can_the_world_feed_10_billion_people?page=full Dr. Patel visited SFHC in 2009 to learn more about what we are doing, and has kept in contact over the past two ... http://soilandfood.org/foreign-policy-article-highlights-sfhc/ A story about SFHC's work has been highlighted on 'The Link' a Radio-Canada website focused on the links between Africans and Canadians: http://africa.rcinet.ca/2011/05/04/malawian-small-scale-farmers-improve-skills-with-help-from-researchers-in-canada-and-malawi/ Rachel Bezner Kerr and Paul Mkandawire were both interviewed for this story. http://soilandfood.org/sfhc-story-on-radio-canada-website/ The nutritional results of SFHC have been the focus of a recent story on the website of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92425 This story has received positive attention from other sources, including a blog about agricultural biodiversity - see http://agro.biodiver.se/2011/04/agricultural-diversity-improves-health/ http://soilandfood.org/article-about-sfhc-on-un-website/ A recent article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights the critical role that agrobiodiversity plays in improving soil fertility, incomes and food security, while enhancing ecological sustainability and providing more stable yields. The study examines the ecological and economic role that a more diverse cropping ... http://soilandfood.org/biodiversity-article-in-pnas-includes-sfhc-work/ SFHC is highlighted on a recent radio programme on the BBC radio 4. Click on the following link to listen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12061998 The broadcaster travelled to Malawi and highlighted the work of SFHC as a future alternative for Malawi. Lizzie Shumba (project coordinator) and Enoch Chione (community promoter and FRT member) are both ... http://soilandfood.org/bbc-radio-highlights-sfhc/ Rachel Bezner Kerr, Peter Berti and Lizzie Shumba recently had an article published in Public Health Nutrition which documents the positive nutritional effects which SFHC has had on children's growth, in villages which are actively involved in SFHC. The full abstract is listed in our 'Research results' section. The article ... http://soilandfood.org/new-article-in-public-health-nutrition/