agriculture

In West Oakland, California, where liquor stores have replaced markets, People’s Grocery is creating a healthy alternative, offering access to organic produce. Through urban gardens and local farms, People's Grocery supports a culture based on connection to the land, sustainable agricultural practices, and regenerating community.

Permaculture expert Penny Livingston-Stark shows how natural systems can teach us better design practices. Learning to work with the earth not only creates a healthier environment, it also nourishes the people who live in it.

Indian social activist Medha Patkar explains how the economic development model being imposed on India’s farmers is neither inclusive nor sustainable. As natural resources become commodities and farming families lose the capacity to fulfill their own basic needs, Medha believes that the consumerist paradigm may end up destroying living communities.

Stephan Fayon, director of an international seed bank in Auroville, India, explains how preserving the diversity of seeds insures against the breakdown of large-scale industrial agriculture. Today the supermarkets in the developed world are full; but if unsustainable systems of agriculture collapse, will we know how to nourish ourselves?