Global Agriculture
Common Table Project Focuses on Sustainability Issues for Rural, Indigenous Farmers
After two years of collaboration and international discussion, the
Common Table Institute has prepared a grant proposal to put their
discussions into action.
The institute formed from the Common Table project, started in 2007 to
give a global perspective to rural agriculture issues, especially food
sustainability.
A group traveled from Alma to Mexico in the summer of 2007 to meet with
Mexican farmers and rural community leaders, including representatives
of the indigenous Tarahumara. A 15-member Mexican delegation, including
four Tarahumara, then visited Michigan in the summer of 2008.
Common Table participants last summer visit a Michigan farm.
The institute focused their ideas into four main categories: economics;
education and communication; biology, health and environment; and
public affairs.
From an economics perspective, the institute aims to partner with rural
and indigenous farmers in both countries to provide assistance in
marketing goods using economics and business students from Alma,
according to Ed Lorenz, director of the public affairs program at Alma
College.
The institute also would strive to use the media to educate the public
in Mexico and the United States about rural life and food information,
specifically to show how the increased cost of organic farming is
offset by the benefits of human and environmental health.
Sustainability is a serous issue for rural and indigenous farmers, says
Lorenz. Not only can the technologies and practices necessary for
achieving sustainability be cost-prohibitive, but heavy use of
pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizers can damage the health of people
as well as the environment. Another part of the institute’s plan looks
to help small farmers find and finance technologies that are efficient
and promote sustainable farming.
The institute also aims, through continued discussions and education,
to influence agricultural policy by making sure the concerns of small
farmers are heard and considered.
Initial fund for the forums in Mexico and Michigan were provided in
part by a grant from the W.K.K. Fund of the Grand Haven Area Community
Foundation, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as part of a
trustee mini-grant program designated by Dottie Johnson, the wife of
former Alma College Trustee Mart Johnson.
More information on the Common Table Institute
is available on the Web. The Institute welcomes
input from the Alma community on moving the project forward.
— Amanda VanLente-Hatter
Posted: Thu, November 20th, 2008 at 2:33PM
