The education section includes a high-level introduction to the issues of industrial agriculture, animal factory farming and the global food system,
as well as the impact of food loss and waste on hunger, food insecurity, sustainability, and climate change.
Separate web pages provide a basic introduction to the following concepts as potential solutions to address the problems associated with industrial agriculture:
Regenerative agriculture
Agroecology
Permaculture
Agroforestry
Food sovereignty
Urban farming
This section may be expanded in the future.
What is Possible!
The highlight of the education section is the 'What is Possible!' page, with the aim of creating a crowd-sourced database of 'what is possible.'
By providing a spatial view, it showcases global case studies that practice various aspects of sustainable and regenerative farming and living.
Users can add their farm or project to one or more categories. These categories include:
Urban Farming - urban farming, urban permaculture, diverse backyard gardens, community food forests...
Projects with Social Impact - farming/gardening projects or farmer movements addressing food sovereignty, peasant/migrant labour rights, poverty, hunger, and health, as well as racial, ethnic and gender equity.
Market Farming - examples of educational, influential, diverse, or profitable no-till/minimum-till small-scale farms practicing regenerative farming methods.
Community/Cooperative Farming - community farms, cooperatives, or producers and groups with Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) certification...
Appropriate Technologies - small-scale, environmentally sustainable, locally autonomous, inexpensive technologies and solutions: (solar cooker/oven, grey water, biogas, water
desalination, composting toilet, retained-heat cooker, solar water heating, compost heating, compost water heating, rocket mass heater, rocket stove, solar dryer, water pump/irrigation, wind energy...).
Alternative Buildings - environmentally sustainable building with local natural or recycled materials: (cob, adobe, superadobe, straw bale, bamboo, rammed earth, recycled material…).
Community Forestry.
From the central page, once you choose a category (or subcategory), all related farms and projects will be displayed on the map.
Currently the database is being seeded with some exemplary farms and projects. The hope is to have global input in order to make this a more comprehensive and effective learning tool.
The spatial presentation of farms on the map can aid in choosing farms that are located close to or in the same agroecological zone as the user's region.
For example, selecting the 'food forest' category allows users to view all globally inputted food forest examples. If a user is interested in projects within the temperate zone, they can easily choose them on the map for further study.
Similarly, a permaculture practitioner will be able to locate all permaculture projects involving water management (e.g. swales on contour, keyline design, water retention earthworks, ponds, rainwater harvesting)
and study them further in order to customize a solution for their topography and ecosystem.
Enthusiasts will be able to easily query courses, workshops and training in permaculture (e.g. PDC certificates) and market farming.
There are many well known permaculture and market farms that offer online courses as well as in-person workshops, internships and apprenticeships.
Great work is being done by many non-profits, NGOs, and various private/public groups in the terms of food loss/waste recovery, projects with social impact, community forestry,
appropriate technology (especially in developing countries) and natural building.
A database and spatial representation of such initiatives can provide much-needed exposure to organizations and their work,
where people can be inspired to start or engage in similar endeavors or simply get involved in established projects.
Guidelines for adding your farm or project
In order to add or update your farm or project, you'll need to be logged in. If you do not have an account as a farm or organization
within one of the available agricultural regions, you can create an account as a 'general user'.
For privacy reasons, especially for private urban farms, if you do not want to pinpoint your exact location on map and provide your address, you can simply locate a
public place or water body within the general region and in the address field mention "***Location not exact***".
If you find your farm or project on the 'What is Possible' page (which may have been added by the website admin or another user),
and you wish to have it removed, please notify us via email, and we will remove it.
Only farms that do not use chemical inputs (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers…) and
genetically modified seeds can be added to the page.
This page is not simply a database of organic or permaculture farms. Regional pages act as a database of all farms and organizations within a region.
Please add your farm or project only if you think it has an educational value, rather than just for the purpose of promotion. It would be helpful to first review the work of other farms and projects on this page for context.
In the future, farms/projects may be vetted before addition to the database. For now, we reserve the right to remove any farms/projects that do not add value to the page.
Apart from your main website address, you can add up to ten web links, which can include videos
(e.g., YouTube, Vimeo), web pages with text and pictures, articles, and speeches / lectures (e.g., TEDx, recorded workshops and webinars).
Videos, in particular, can have a significant impact in providing an overview of an operation. Including several videos,
each introducing or delving into different aspects (e.g., design, water management, mulching) of a farm or project, would be highly beneficial.
You do not need to provide step-by-step instructions; just an overview of the working system to show 'what is possible' in your region is still very helpful.
In addition to highlighting the positive aspects of the farm or project, it would be extremely helpful to provide an overview of the challenges
you are facing, especially in the context of weather extremes and climate change, and the strategies you are employing to mitigate them
(example).