HAFA supports Hmong farmers strength to overcome challenges

HAFA greenhouse ginger

During 2021–2022, farmers incorporated over 30,000 crowns of asparagus, 1,000 raspberry canes, 15,000 day-neutral strawberries, and over 500 pounds of ginger rhizomes into their farming operations and applied to the USDA EQIP program to obtain financial support to purchase and erect high tunnel structures, implementing tactics to fulfill their long-term visions, which focus on combatting climate change and investing in premium and perennial crops. HAFA supports Hmong farmers strength to overcome challenges, become stewards of the land, and turn ideas into plans, thoughts into actions, dreams into reality, and overall, has provided a pathway to intergenerational and community wealth.

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Ka Maha ʻUlu o Koholālele – The Breadfruit Grove of Koholālele

Ka Maha ʻUlu o Koholālele, literally translated as “the breadfruit grove of Koholālele,” is a community-led food system project transforming approximately 80 acres of former sugar plantation and current eucalyptus plantation lands in Koholālele, Hāmākua, Hawaiʻi, into Hawaiʻi’s largest regenerative ʻulu (breadfruit) agroforestry system.

Accordingly, we wanted to be very intentional about who we invited into the process of planning and planting this space. Between September – October 2021, we worked with Ola Design Group to draft a baseplan for the Kilohana section of Ka Maha ʻUlu (Figure 5), which we would utilize in November to lay out and plant our first 65 ʻulu trees.

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Livestock on the Land

livestock on the land sheep

Livestock on the Land is a story by Practical Farmers of Iowa about the ways that farmers are building a regenerative agriculture by centering their operations around the animals they care for. Whether it’s through rotational grazing or cover crops or fertility for crop fields, livestock hold the key to protecting our soil, cleaning up our water and even providing habitat for wildlife. But most importantly, livestock give farmers a chance to get started, grow businesses, provide for their families, work together, and ultimately, bring back the next generation to start it all over again. View the video…

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Practical Farmers of Iowa: Cover Crop Options to Improve Soil Health

noah and caleb in red clover field

Because small-grains crops like wheat or oats are harvested in mid-summer, the many weeks remaining before winter presents opportunities for a panoply of cover crop options to improve soil health. Noah Wendt and Caleb Akin farm together near Cambridge in central Iowa. Among other reasons, they use small-grains crops in their rotation in order to facilitate cover crop mixes for the purposes of high-quality forage for grazing cattle and for boosting soil fertility.

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The Cultural Conservancy Hosts a Powerful Gathering

The Cultural Conservancy meeting

In August 2019, we were honored to host a powerful gathering of Elders, Traditional Knowledge Holders, Native youth, farmers and community allies to come together and listen to the land… the gathering quickly became a space rich with the revitalization of language, traditional knowledge systems, Native sciences and land relationships.

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Garden Warrior Alumna Joins the Dream of Wild Health team

Dream of Wild Health

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.

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Climate Justice Alliance

Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) project

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.

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Practical Farmers of Iowa

Practical Farmers of Iowa workshop

PFI uses farmer-led investigation and information sharing to help farmers practice an agriculture that benefits both the land and people. Their values include: welcoming everyone; creativity, collaboration, and community; viable farms now and for future generations; and stewardship and ecology.

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