Bountifield

Years ago I asked what anyone might know about an organization called CTI, promoting sustainable technologies for global agriculture. I've never found anyone in my local circle who had an answer. A little online research just now revealed that they have been rebranded as Bountifield, with a focus on Africa, providing support for improved and sustainable post-harvest technologies, such as storage and getting crops to market. Ninety percent of the farmers they help are women. It seems critical work to reduce hunger and food waste, and to improve the lives of rural women. You can read all about it and support them through this website https://bountifield.org/

The status of rural women

Just now reading a spam blast from Episcopal Church world headquarters, I learned that this year's UN meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, from the end of February into March in NYC, will have the primary theme of empowerment of rural women. There'll be lots about agriculture and food security on the agenda.

The papers of the pre-conference can be accessed here:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/egm.htm

I have not had time to read them, so this is a note as much to myself as to my readers. About a third of the papers seem to be directly on agricultural topics and who knows how many indirectly. Several are on ecological topics.

Anglican women will be represented among the ngo's meeting at the same time as the UN conference in the center ring. One question I have, though, is why rural poverty in the US is seen by the Episcopal Church to be an issue primarily for indigenous peoples. True, there's no poverty like reservation poverty - but there's lots of rural poverty among other racial and cultural groups. But then, the Episcopal Church is not known for its rural consciousness - in fact, less and less so.

another podcast

I'm listening right now to a relatively new (this spring) podcast, "The Queens of Green".
Deborah Koons Garcia and Temra Costa interview leaders of change in food, farming and related issue arenas.

Sometimes they interview one another, as in the one I'm listening to now, where Temra talks about her book "Farmer Jane" - about how her undergraduate studies in international agriculture and women's studies came together.

Women (30 are included in the book) are leaders in the sustainable food movement, they say - not just as concerned mothers, but as farmers, chefs, and so on. Temra excerpts her book, and both hosts manage to get in personal details and opinions ranging over a variety of related topics.

The interests reflected in the weekly 26 minute interviews are both regional (north and central Califorinia - it helps to know where the intersection of Ashby and San Pablo is) and global.

Here's their web site: http://www.thequeensofgreen.com/

You can also download the podcasts through Itunes.