Please join us in supporting farm communities around the world as they work to grow their own food in a lasting way.
FRB visitors on a recent trip to Guatemala worked side by side with program participants to make an organic fertilizer called "bocashi" that they could use on their fields and in their greenhouses. Want to give it a try on your vegetable garden? Here are the recipe and instructions. PROCESS FOR MAKING “BOCASHI” ORGANIC FERTILIZER
Bocashi is a solid fertilizer for soil only. It was created in Japan, and Bocashi is the surname of the person who invented it.
Vernon Sloan has always self-identified as “just an old pig farmer from Williams County, OH.” He and his wife, Carol, have been deeply involved with Foods Resource Bank (FRB) since its inception, as visionaries, planners, growing project leaders, and board directors. They’ve also joined FRB on visits to program communities in the developing world, and are heartened by the many ways FRB “grows lasting solutions to hunger.”
As FRB grew and its overseas programs began to include small animals – rabbits, goats and chickens for their potential for a fast turnaround on protein – Vernon would occasionally ask, “But, what about pigs?”
Well, several of FRB’s programs (in Colombia, Serbia, and Nicaragua, to name a few) now include improved pigs, often crossing them with native animals to combine improved red meat production with the hardiness of local breeds. The local communities make the decision, when appropriate, to include pigs. FRB, its implementing member organizations and their in-country partners provide training and access to the improved breeds. In the Colombia-Sincelejo program, Durocky Landran pigs offer less fat, increased length and lean muscling.
Angola…now that is a country you don’t hear too much about. Part of what I love about FRB is our member’s willingness to work in difficult contexts, in places many of us have to look up on a map to truly know where it is. Honestly, I have yet to meet anyone that has Angola on their top ten list of places to visit before they die. That could be because most of the people I know don’t speak Portuguese, the national language of Angola, or perhaps because it was recently in the throes of a long civil war.
I watched a program this week that reminded me of the power of food. The program is a travel show that documents the trip of a British chef, Jamie Oliver, who explores the US by seeking out the food and tastes of the local areas he visits. This particular episode took him to the Navajo reservation in Arizona. The community has been struggling to find a way to combat a high rate of obesity and diabetes, especially amongst the younger members of their community. One way that they have been trying to combat these trends is to try and encourage the younger generation to once again become familiar with the traditional recipes. This program only gave a quick glimpse into this world, but it showed that as the community came together over the planting of crops and the preparation of the traditional foods the community was becoming aware of ways to be healthier and was keeping alive cultural traditions that were generations old.
A couple of years back, FRB had guests from our development programs traveling with staff and host families here in the US. We were having farmers and staff members of our in-country partners in the US for 10 days to visit a few of our community projects and participate in two significant events in the state of Iowa, the Iowa Hunger Summit and the World Food Prize.
It was 4 a.m. on a springlike day in February and I was in a taxi on my way to the airport, bound for one of my trips overseas. Following our exchange of “Good Mornings” and his confirmation that my destination was the airport, it was too dark to see the face of my driver as I sleepily wondered about his accent.
We rode in silence for several minutes before he spoke. “You have very heavy bags. Are you going to Africa?”
