Farmer is working photograpy contest
Hello steemit community!
By making a decision to participate in the contest, I've made a quick search in folders with the photos and I've decided to prepare a bit unconventional post. It will be about the farmers but I will include in my story whole community and people who helps to sell their products.
preparing compost (humus) which will be available for every farmer in the village
Story is very personal. It's about the village Curanipe in Chile, where I've spent over a month volunteering and helping at works for some basic food.
Community is called Huertas a Deos and it's a group of Santiaguinos (people who lived in Santiago, capital city of Chile) who decided to leave the big city, move out to the small town and help local community to sell their products.
packing the products for sale in Santiago. Huertas a Deo helps local farmers to compete with agriculture corporations
Before their arriving, there were few problems in Curanipe:
- First of all, small local farmers couldn't compete with big companies and it was nearly impossible for them to sell their products
- second of all, monocultures were negatively influenting the environment. Local fauna and flora were endangered
- finally, soil needed to be fixed after recent tsunami (it was in 2010)
horse as the main transport. Ecofriendly and practical
Huertas a Deo has changed the city in many ways:
- they created the net between local shops and farmers so now vegetables in every shop in around comes from Curanipe, not from the big markets which imports it from the agricorporations
- they launched the website for citizens of Santiago where they can order fresh fruits and vegetables from Curanipe farmers. It's more expensive than food from supermarket, but it's ecological and with premium quality. They organize delivery of orders to the capital city once per week.
- they motivated local restaurants to collect food leftovers which are used to produce compost (humus). Compost can be collected by the local farmers - they can pay for it in fresh vegetables. That vegetables goes for free to the restaurants which participate in the program.
- they created some place where everyone can donate some seeds. They take care of the seeds until it's changed into the small plants. Plants can be taken by farmers for free.
- finally they organize some trainings and debates about ecological and efficient farming. Trainings are available for free
working as the community means working more efficiently. Here, neighbours and volunteers visited somebody who needed chicken coop and built it in few hours
I believe that kind of cooperatives are the future of farming. It gives equal chances to all the people who produce food, helps to fight with international corporations, has a positive influence for the environment (no pesticides, bigger diversity - no monocultures), for our health and helps to fight with global warming (shorter chain of supplies, natural fertilizers). I'm really happy I could become part of that community for a month and learn so much from them.
everyone can donate seeds to the community and special volunteers will make sure plants will grow from them. On the photo you can see me at work
Mayority of the local farmers produce vegetables and fruits but some of them has cattle and chickens. If they do have cattle, it's usually 3-4 cows, not 500 like in bigger companies
All the photos published in this post belongs to me.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comment. I realize it's unconventional way to participate in this contest, but I thought that story is worth to share and Huertas a Deo deserves some appreciation for their work :)