Food & Agriculture

In the past 50 years agricultural production has soared with improved technologies and increased mechanization and specialization.  Although this change has helped to feed the hungry, there have also been significant costs, both to small and local farmers and their environments.

Greengrants supports members of a diverse grassroots movement who are using ecological farming techniques to grow healthy food and create sustainable livelihoods.

Team for Reformation of Education and Environmental Services

India

In the 1970s, the ‘Green Revolution’ transformed India’s agricultural industries, increasing agricultural production across the country. However, this expansion came at a price—the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers, the harmful effects of which weren’t felt until years later. Today, much of India’s farmland is still heavily treated with chemicals, a practice that continues to threaten public health, the environment, and future agricultural production.

In order to address these problems at the local level, Greengrants awarded the Team for Reformation of Eduation and Environmental Services with $5,000 to encourage the use of organic farming methods. The project focused on teaching women in Bangarpet, Kolar District, how to implement and manage organic techniques. Ultimately, this grassroots movement towards organic will ensure that farmland is useable and productive far into the future.

Genetically modified (GM) organisms are organisms whose DNA has been altered through the techniques of genetic engineering. Since the first genetically modified crop—a tomato—hit British shelves in 1996, genetically modified seeds and crops have spread around the world at an alarming rate.

In the countries where they are allowed, GM crops are fast replacing traditional varieties. However, the safety of these genetically altered foods for both people and the environment remains a question. Not knowing the long term effects, the disappearance of traditional crops in favor of GM crops presents a potentially devastating threat to food security and environmental sustainability. At Greengrants, we believe that local communities, and not agribusiness, should determine whether genetically modified crops are a part of their farming practices.

The Campaign for a GM Free Karnataka

India

The introduction of Bt Brinjal—a genetically modified variety of eggplant—has been a controversial topic in India, and for good reason. In order to make Bt Brinjal pest-resistant, a gene is introduced into the eggplant DNA that causes the vegetable to become toxic. U.S.-based Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (which is both the developer of Bt Brinjal and the major advocate for its commercialization) claims that the eggplants are only toxic to insects. However, both local consumers and scientists have expressed doubts. Many suggest more testing is necessary before the eggplant can be deemed safe for consumption.

In 2010 Greengrants awarded $3,600 to Anitha M, a Karnataka activist, in order to fund a Campaign for a GM Free Karnataka. The goal of the campain was to prevent the introduction of this crop and its potential contamination of other food crop varieties. The campaign organized awareness-raising workshops, mobilized like-minded organizations, composed a blog, managed a listserv, mapped Bt Brinjal varieties, and worked to conserve the traditional Brinjal seed. As a result of this campaign and others like it, the Indian government called for a moratorium on the introduction of the eggplant in February 2010.

The overuse and abuse of pesticides has had devastating effects on human populations and their environments worldwide.  Pesticides leak into the groundwater, poisoning the environment. They’ve been shown to cause birth defects, infertility, and cancer. However, harmful pesticide practices are still commonplace in many parts of the world, and in many communities, exposure to pesticides is an unquestioned fact of life.  Our grantees are working to ensure that communities are aware of the dangers of pesticides and that all are empowered to make their own decisions about pesticide use.

Ecology, Cultural Diversity, Health

Slovenia

Under 2009 European Union legislation, each EU member state must develop a national pesticide action plan to address the use of harmful pesticides and their effects. This legislation poses challenges to Slovenia’s underdeveloped system of pesticide oversight. In order to meet the demands of the legislation, the country must build its capacity for pesticide management.

A Greengrants’ grantee since 2004, Slovenia’s Ecology, Cultural Diversity, Health organization is the only major NGO working on pesticide issues in Slovenia, and it has stepped into a leadership role. In 2010, Greengrants gave the organization $3,500 to build its capacity to meet the EU legislation requirements. The grant will enable the organization to bring together groups organized around related issues—health, organic farming, consumer protection, etc.—so that it can collect relevant information on current pesticide usage. With this information, ECHOo is moving forward in designing a draft for the Slovenia national action plan

Since the early 1990s, most of the world’s wild fisheries have been harvested beyond capacity. Meanwhile, dams destroy fish populations in important rivers, pollution harms aquatic ecosystems, and the coral and mangrove forests that sustain fish populations are disappearing.

In this devastating situation, the interests of local fishing economies and ecologists are aligned advocating for an alternative: incentivizing and empowering local fisheries to manage marine resources.  Greengrants supports small-scale local fishers working to secure their rights and establish these types of community-managed, marine protected areas.

Malindi Marine Association

Kenya

Fishing villages along the central coast of Kenya had thrived for more than a thousand years on the rich stocks of marlin, red snapper, and barracuda.  But in the late 1990s, these same villages faced desperation and poverty. The change came with the arrival of the enormously destructive commercial shrimping industry and its illegal trawlers. These large boats indiscriminately inhale marine life, kill it, and spit out all but the shrimp.

In 2004, a $2,000 grant to the Malindi Marine Association (MaMa) allowed the group to turn the tide on illegal trawling and protect the seas. MaMa used the grant to set up an office, purchase a used motorcycle—which organization members used to travel a 75-mile stretch of coast and organize local fishermen—and pay for media to bring the issue to public attention. In the end, MaMa’s activism forced the government to address shrimp trawling for what it is—a socially and ecologically devastating practice.