Nick, Author at Ceres Trust

Garden Warrior Alumna Joins the Dream of Wild Health team

In 2019 Dream of Wild Health hired their first Garden Warrior alumna, Faith Gronda, to the Dream of Wild Health team as a seed intern. Faith had participated in the Garden Warriors and Youth Leaders programs at Dream of Wild Health for several years before applying to be an employee at Dream of Wild Health to help teach the younger generations of youth at the farm during the 2019 summer.

McIntosh SEED’s Teas and Trees Program

McIntosh SEED’s “Teas and Trees” program is continuing to experience growth. The program was created specifically for women, girls, and the NextGen of landowners of African-American landowners. The program is designed to educate, empower and encourage women and girls to be good stewards of the forested lands that they own or will inherit.

Solidarity Farm/Pauma Tribal Farms awarded California’s Climate Smart Farm of the Year

Solidarity Farm, in partnership with the Pauma Band of Luiseno Indians, have transformed their farming operation into a working, outdoor laboratory for a variety of new and rediscovered techniques to combat climate change.

Breadfruit Diversity

The work of the Breadfruit Institute to conserve and study the world’s largest repository of breadfruit diversity at the National Topical Botanical Garden in Hawaii is educating and inspiring individuals and organizations around the world to embrace regenerative organic breadfruit agroforestry.

Climate Justice Alliance

CJA’s Our Power Loan Fund was developed as a vehicle through which to move capital away from the extractive economy and into a regenerative economy that shifts control to the people, advances ecological restoration, drives racial and social equity, and relocalizes most production and consumption.

Herbicide-Free Campus, a campaign to ban herbicides at schools

Mackenzie Feldman is a 23 year old from Honolulu, Hawaii, and is the founder of Herbicide-Free Campus, a campaign to ban herbicides at schools. Her campaign originated at UC Berkeley, was expanded to all UC campuses and then broadened to schools across the US. Her work is inspired by the fact that Hawaii— where she is from— is ground zero for industrial agriculture, and they do the most GMO seed testing in Hawaii out of anywhere in the country.

Maka’aka Farm, Waihe’e, Maui

The farm at Mākaʻaka continues to serve as a distribution point for taro huli, a food source for local families, Hawaiian cultural and taro events, a repository for unverified varieties, a monitored reverification site for in vitro plants, a field lab for recording morphological characteristics and traditional planting practices, and a classroom for high school and at-risk youth, college students and teachers, as well as the Halau o Hāloa cohort.

Agriculture and Climate Change

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Protect Our Keiki Coalition Brings Dewayne Lee Johnson to Hawai`i

In 2019, the Protect Our Keiki Coalition hosted a speaking tour in Hawai’i featuring Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, a former school groundskeeper from California who was regularly exposed to Monsanto/Bayer’s glyphosate-based herbicides. Lee shared his story with community leaders, policy makers, and government officials. After the Board of Education community meeting with Johnson, the Hawai`i Department of Education prohibited herbicide use on school grounds.

Concerned Citizens of Richmond County: Reflections Event

In 2019, NC DEQ issued 3 permits to allow Enviva to expand in North Carolina. In November, we held a press conference to share our experience of being impacted by Enviva’s facilities. After the press conference, we held a community reflections event to hear from and support people who are directly or indirectly impacted by Enviva and other extractive industries.