agriculture – Seeds of Good Anthropocenes

Better World Cameroon: Permaculture—The African Way

Positive social and ecological change requires connections: Connections between the past and the future, connections between humans and their environment, and connections between vulnerable members of society and the tools they need to improve their lives and make positive change. Better World Cameroon is making connections –the African way. This organization aims to bring permaculture practices to rural Cameroon to build the capacity of local people to make positive change [...]

Anna Kusmer2017-03-23T09:31:28+00:00Food system|Comments Off

Yachay City of Knowledge: A New City of Technology, Research and Innovation

“New Cities” are planned cities, generally conceptualized and constructed in partnership between government and corporate actors. While this phenomenon has resulted in a mixed-bag of mostly non-sustainable boondoggles, there is no doubt that these cities represent a vision of the future – new ways of people living together and relating to one-another. While these visions of the future may not be shared by all, they are visions worth noticing. Yachay [...]

Anna Kusmer2017-02-14T21:40:54+00:00infrastructure, Urban|Comments Off

Gardening the Sahel

by Lea Billen & Deborah Goffner Can multiplying small-scale “re-greening” in the form of women-run communal fruit and vegetable gardens make a difference for local populations in the Sahel? The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGW) is a Pan-African project consisting of a contiguous series of landscape-scale interventions designed to cross the African continent with the goal of improving environmental and human well-being in the [...]

Garry Peterson2016-09-30T08:36:19+00:00Food, Food system|Comments Off

Farm Hack: open source technology for small-scale resilient agriculture

How can small-scale farmers network to share ideas, innovations, and inventions to increase the resilience of sustainable agriculture and rural economies? Before the industrial revolution, low-input agriculture was the norm, but now, farmers must make a conscious choice if they want to avoid large scale mechanization. Many small-scale farmers in the US are discovering new means of food production and in the process, innovating tools and equipment. Innovations can range [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-08-02T14:00:42+00:00sustainable living, United States|Comments Off

Philippi Horticultural Area Food & Farming Campaign

How can a unique agricultural area on the urban fringe of Cape Town, South Africa be protected to provide ecosystem services, fresh produce for low income city dwellers, and a local model of agro-ecological farming? The vast green fields of the Philippi Horticultural Area are an incongruous sight, in the midst of one of the most densely settled areas of the Cape Flats, an expanse of gritty, peri-urban townships [...]

Megan Lindow2016-07-23T01:31:30+00:00community, Food, Food system|Comments Off

Urban Office/Urban Farm

Using urban farming to grow food and promote a beautiful work environment in central city

Garry Peterson2016-05-16T08:01:53+00:00business, Food, infrastructure, Technology, urban ecology|Comments Off

Santropol Roulant

How can an organization address urban food security and social inclusion while meeting the shifting needs and interests of a community? The word “roulant” in French means “rolling” which conjures an image of some kind of cycle or circle –something that gives back. Cycles and interconnections are often hidden from urban life, despite their omnipresence. Sometimes organizations can bring these cycles to life and build new connections within urban spaces. [...]

Anna Kusmer2016-04-14T15:50:01+00:00Food, Food system, Social Seeds|Comments Off

Adaptive Resilience in Drylands (ARiD) in Ricote, Spain

Can the knowledge developed by observing a small dryland village adapt to climate change be used in other places? In spite of the challenges they pose, drylands have been successfully settled by humans over time, and constitute a “hot spot” for the study of adaptive resilience in dry climates. Ricote, in SE Spain, provides an example of adaptive resilience in drylands. For over 1000 years, the village of Ricote (c. [...]

ciararh2015-10-13T09:05:45+00:00Food system, Integrated social-environmental, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Building a more resilient world requires redundancy. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure seed bank located in the remote Norwegian Svalbard archipelago that aims to provide a backup to other seed banks and global biodiveristy. Wars, natural disaster, and conflict have destroyed seed banks in the past. This project help promote sustainable agriculture and prevent agro-biodiversity loss by maintaining the genetic diversity necessary to restore and enhance agricultural crops. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault provides [...]

Garry Peterson2015-09-30T14:00:00+00:00Conservation, Food|Comments Off

Yahara Pride Farms

Yahara Pride Farms (http://www.yaharapridefarms.org/) is a coalition of farmers, business people, environmentalists, technical experts and government employees that aims to decrease nonpoint pollution in the Yahara watershed, Madison Wisconsin. YPF engages farmers directly in changes in farm management practices to decrease nonpoint pollution. YPF is experimenting with manure digestors, cover crops, deep injection of manure into croplands, and other new and innovative nutrient management practices. The programs include monitoring to evaluate the effects of the practices.

Garry Peterson2015-02-06T01:00:02+00:00Food, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Seeds are existing initiatives which hold potential to shape the future. They are likely not widespread nor well-known. They can be social initiatives, new technologies, economic tools, or social-ecological projects, or organisations, movements or new ways of acting that have that appear to be making a substantial contribution towards creating a future that is just, prosperous, and sustainable.

We gather seeds from diverse research disciplines, communities of practice, and individuals that have different world-views, values, and problems. This diversity means that not everyone will agree on the importance or value of every seed.