Friday, September 05, 2008

Family Gardens in Mexico

The Christian Science Monitor had an interesting article on the food crisis and how families in Mexico City are confronting rising prices with backyard gardens. “Mexico City Launches Community Gardens”, provides more interesting stats on the food crisis that is affecting the world. Mexico has already put a freeze on the prices of food staples and now they are helping establish community gardens. As I watch my own humble garden grow, I realize that the power of growing your own food isn’t so much the nutrition as it is the satisfaction found in putting a seed in the ground and watching it emerge, grow and provide sustenance.

Many of our partners are working with coffee-farming families to help them create small organic gardens that provide healthy vegetables and fruits and help build economic independence and health. Our program staff made some great pictures of one program managed by our partner FomCafé in Oaxaca, Mexico. Check it out at our Flickr page. And our partner STIAP, who has been working in biodiesel, is beginning a permaculture/gardening project this year to provide food for their community in rural Guatemala.