Gulu, Uganda

We have arrived in Gulu to the modest home of our gracious host Peter Odoch and his wife Naomi. My head is filled with dust, my nose, tainted by the smoke of burning fields and my eyes wide open to the daily life of rural Africa. Today I met the kids, the instructors and saw our Freedom in Creation building for the first time. It is a moment I have anticipated for over four years since first meeting Andrew and learning about the child soldiers of northern Uganda. The children greeted us in song and the instructors assigned unto me an Acholi name, "Ochen, the one who came after." The kids are beautiful, attentive, full of life, warm smiles and motivation. Around 20 or so children gathered around to watch me gnaw a piece of sugarcane. We presented to them the collaborative banners from the US, Ghana and South Africa along with an explanation of our journey around the world by ship in the name of "Freedom in Creation". The kids were engaged and excited to know that those in the international community are thinking of them. As we gathered with leaders afterwards to discuss the program and month ahead I am reminded of the challenges of development. Mismanagement and the history of "aid" reliance runs deep, but this is solidarity not charity. Our staff is strong, competent and ready to move forward with greater clarity and purpose than before. With diligence the next month will involve the hiring of full time staff, the clearing of land, drilling boreholes and collaborative art projects. The time is short; we must make each day count.

Searching for Equality in Cape Town

With my feet firmly on land my new found equilibrium brings clarity in reflection. The past few months have been a whirlwind of new countries, people and experiences. These experiences have challenged me in new ways, bringing broad global processes into local perspective. From the demand for sugarcane biofuels, land tenure and farmers of the Amazon region Brazil, cocoa farming and the slave trade of Ghana, and the post Apartheid townships of South Africa there is never a substitute for personal experience. Ultimately it's what defines our world view, our perspective and for some of us.. our call to action.

Cape Town, South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most stunning cities I will ever visit. Sheltered by Table Mountain, the sage brush juniper landscape of the American southwest meets a rocky coastline, scattered with houses, posh waterfront restaurants and the newly constructed World Cup soccer stadium. The air was dry and hot with each passing day as beautiful as the last. Wow, so this is South Africa. On day two we ventured into the vineyards of the Western Cape. The most famous being Stellenbosch with its well established vineyards a relic of the agricultural expansion of the Afrikaan past and a symbolic icon of South Africa's prosperous economic future with a brand for the world's finest wines.



On day three I visited Robben Island the once British tool for silencing political patriots such as Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and now president Jacob Zuma. The visit proved insightful in understanding the hardships of the apartheid era and the struggle for freedom in South Africa. As our guide mentioned, the roots of oppression run deep and require a generation by generation approach to complete integration and equality. Will the BEC, the Affirmative Action of South Africa bring integration or discourage national unity? Traveling from the shi shi shops of the white Cape Town waterfront to the slums of a black Cape Town township the next day I quickly understood the struggle ahead for true equality. Less than two weeks ago I was at the dungeons of Western Africa's principal source for the transcontinental slave trade and now in a country that less than 20 years ago stood divided by color. Do the the same inequalities now divide us by class, opportunities for health care, education and economic opportunity? Will the people rise up as they are now in Egypt and Libya to demand basic freedoms? History will soon write itself.



Our final day was the ultimate reward as students from the Freedom in Creation Chapter at Semester at Sea, Andrew and I undertook an art project with kids from the Capricorn Primary School, a model school in a Cape Town township. As Andrew and I disembark the ship in Cape Town and head to Uganda I must say that I am forever grateful for Semester at Sea program. The interactions with students, faculty, and life long learners were a source of great encouragement to myself and our work in Uganda. I hope they too find the journey a source of optimism, paradigm shifting thought and inspiration for action.

Today we relax and write emails from Uganda's capital Kampala. Tomorrow we move onward to Gulu. Another chapter begins.

Ghana by bus

• Fresh off ship, large containers and trucks filled with cocoa, the smell of vinegar and fermentation, Takoradi taxi, Sunday market, charcoal and plantains, paint and burning rubber, hot sun hustling, STC bus to Kumasi, 5 hour ride, sit and stare at the countryside, THIS is Africa

• Kumasi, Presbyterian guest house, cooler nights, eggs and toast, new day, largest open air market in W. Africa, plastic bowls, cow hooves, kente cloth, assorted clothing, hordes of people, overpopulated? pungent odors, decaying trash bags, voices, claustrophobia, equatorial heat and sweat, 70% of the world will be urban by 2050, will it all be like this?

• Visited a cocoa farm today, rich resources of cocoa and fruit trees, economic poverty and illiteracy, lots of questions, certifications and value to small farmer livelihoods, six deep taxi ride, police checkpoints mishaps, returning in a pile of dust, parched mouth and lips, eyes wide open

• Africa is beautiful chaos, smiling faces, dark skin, people, books and culture, Kente cloth, bright colors, long tradition, pride of the Asanti kingdom, kings and weavers, twee not English

• Accra, the capital of Ghana, traffic, fumes, women carrying goods for sale, tattered buildings, no skyscrapers, long taxi rides, more cedis, road projects, bustling all hours, the next Cape Town? polite children in school uniforms, parents picking up their kids from school, ordinary people, paint, dirty hands, smiling faces, intercultural exchange, love, understanding, travel, Freedom in Creation.

• Touring the castle and dungeons of Cape Coast, 16th century history, millions of slaves, British, Portuguese, Spanish, human capital, cheap commodities, profit, pitch black dungeons, 15 x 45ft / 200 + men, feces, flies, no food or water, death for many, slavery for the rest, a minority rules the weak, system perpetuates injustices, economic oppression… modern day times, cocoa, mining, brick making, farmer households and child labor, governments, multinationals and the poor, has slavery ended?

• Fufu with Ron and Gretchen, shade = shelter from the equatorial sun, reflection on the days behind, new friends, one last taxi ride and conversation, filth and exhaustion, back in Takoradi, the ship, farewell Ghana

From Brazil to Ghana

Crossing the Atlantic brings forth an odd sense of grandeur. Certainly a moment in life where the world (in this case the Atlantic ocean) becomes bigger than I am, humbling me enough to pause, close out the chaos and appreciate the moment of crossing such a large body of water by ship. It’s been three weeks onboard. Andrew and I have been busy giving lectures about our work with Freedom in Creation in Uganda, coffee and conservation in Dominican Republic, ecological economics, child soldiers and conflict and nonprofit management to a ship board community of 600. Over 50 students have stepped forward to get involved; either to host a FIC chapter at their school, start a collaborative art project or to bring the "Story of Freedom" exhibit to their home community. The excitement is palpable. The opportunity to share, to learn and to travel to new countries continues to enrich my worldview as it regards people, politics and development.

We spent ten days in Amazonia, Brazil; six along the river and four in the bustling port town of Manaus. The air was thick with humidity, the sun equatorial and the people I encountered; open to share their way of life. Along the way we had the opportunity to interact with diplomats at the US Embassy and visiting lecturers from the University of Amazonia. Our conversations were rich as we discussed Brazil’s status as a rising international superpower, the on coming demand for biofuels, avoided deforestation, flavella uprisings in Rio, trade policies and the Brazilian socio-political systems. Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, which will provide the country with its ultimate test to become, rather than forever to be called, "the country of the future."

We are now just three days from Ghana. Today we learned that over 60% of the world’s cocoa comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Child slavery is an issue and one the industry has reluctantly chose to deal with sufficiently. See the BBC film "Chocolate: The Bitter Truth." As we cross the Atlantic we must reflect that there are more people today in slavery than there were at the time of the transatlantic slave trade. We have to do more! Much as in coffee; traceability, monitoring and evaluation is difficult. Fair Trade certification plays an important role in addressing some of these issues. As consumers we must demand this kind of due diligience from companies with our purchases. This Valentines day, tell Cadbury, Nestle and Mars they can do more. Purchase only certified products!! More from Ghana soon.

Confronting the Coffee Crisis

In response to a talk I gave Carra Lee posted a nice blog entry in hopes to inform those back home. Check it out. http://CosmicCowPie.com/

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Confronting The Coffee Crises:

On our way to Brazil, the largest coffee exporter in the world, we had the opportunity to listen to Lee Gross explain his Masters research on small scale coffee production in the Dominican Republic. We are traveling down the Amazon River on the ML Explorer with the Spring 2011 Semester At Sea voyage learning new concepts from the theme: Thinking Globally to Acting Locally on a daily basis.


Lee Gross sharing research on Spring 2011 Semester At Sea
The information Lee shared was really an awakening for me to really embrace the concept of supporting “Certified Fair Trade” products.

I must admit I have been on the outside looking in with really understanding the importance of using my consumer dollar to support the environment and small scale farming families. Lee’s presentation “connected the dots” for me in understanding why we should buy “Certified Fair Trade” products.
Interesting facts about coffee production:
• 25 million families are “sustained” by coffee and its connected production products
• Shade grown coffee helps with soil conservation, provides habitat for bird life and consumptive fruits to families
• Brazil produces 1/3 of the world’s coffee
• Small production farms would be the size of a backyard in an American subdivision.
• Coffee is handpicked by millions of laborers and grows in remote mountainous areas. The largest cost to bring the coffee to market is the transportation by mule to the cooperative and export overseas
• Coffee is harvested only one time a year which creates a cash flow problem for small farmers
• Coffee is the 2nd most traded commodity in the world behind OIL
• Most small coffee growers receive $1 to $1.40 per pound
• President John F. Kennedy started the ICA International Coffee Agreement regulating coffee prices
• In 1989 the ICA was terminated which has resulted in an extremely volatile coffee market
• It takes 5-7 years from planting a coffee tree to harvest
• Farmers have all the risk with weather, disease and pests
• 63% of the coffee market is controlled by 5 big corporations: ie. Kraft, Proctor & Gamble, Nestles, Tchibo. who in 2001 at the heart of the coffee crisis experienced significant earnings
• Coffee can be differentiated through specialty coffee organizations, which purchase the highest quality coffee i.e. Starbucks, Green Mountain, Cooperative Coffees, Peats Coffee. Coffee can also be differentiated by purchasing single origin coffees
• Fair Trade is a certification, which ensures that farmers are paid a minimum price ($1.38-$1.50) plus a social premium for good practices, democracy in organization and additional premiums for organic production. Coffee by any roaster can be Fair Trade certified
• Certified Fair Trades growers have to produce products under specific condition to obtain the certification
• Many developing countries spend more in military expenses than in the education of their people
• There is no incentive to grow organic so only the consumer can help the farmers by paying more for certified products
• Organic certifications certify the productions method
• Fair Trade certifications certify the process of trade (i.e. labor practices, minimum price, transparency, etc.
• Many farmers do not have title to their land and cannot obtain loans
How can you help make a difference in supporting small farmers? Follow the links below for a cliff note lesson!

1. Read about the Certified Fair Trade products, Specialty Coffees and Relationship Coffees. Don’t buy coffee in a can. Know where it comes from and that workers were paid a fair price. Buy certified and single origin coffees. Be a conscious consumer, your dollar speaks!

2. Be willing to pay more to help the environment and sustainability of the world. Support companies who can ensure transparency in process, social and environmental best practices.
3. Learn more about injustice happening everywhere and share with your friends.


Coffee bean sorting
When I posted information about the class and helping small coffee growers on facebook the first person to comment was my friend Sadie Harris from France. She has been buying Certified Fair Trade products for years and makes a conscious effort to support the movement. Many Europeans are acutely aware of how this impacts the world. Traveling around the world, learning from educators in all fields of sustainability is certainly helping me connect more dots! We are taking the global lessons and applying them to our local practices!

One person DOES make a difference and if that person shares with one other person who becomes aware of the environment and injustice then modifies their buying behavior the world can change. Remember to Buy Certified Fair Trade Products!

I am excited to hear back from you! Read all the links and then let us know how it touched your life and what you are doing to share?

This post took days to finish with the bad Internet connection so thank you for your patience! More to come Connecting The Dots Around The World! Be sure to check out the contest to visit one of the seven wonders of the world!

My Semester at Sea

The blogging has begun. First, a thanks to all who supported me to make this trip possible. The first few weeks have been busy with orientations, lectures and getting my sea legs. Leaving the Caribbean island country of Dominica offers time to reflect on the week behind. For those of you I forgot to say goodbye to, allow me to explain that I have joined the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea program’s faculty as an interport lecturer with my friend Andrew Briggs. Andrew and I are here to share our global development experience. Andrew is an alumni of the program and has since gone on to found, Freedom in Creation (FIC), a nonprofit working with war afflicted children in northern Uganda through art as therapy, water development and education. I’ve supported Andrew for a number of years, now as a board member, while continuing my own work with coffee farming communities and conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean. Semester at Sea is truly a one of a kind study abroad opportunity. Our contribution as lecturers will be to provide students with some real world applications for their theoretical studies as they circumnavigate the globe on this four-month journey. Our travels over the next month will take us from The Bahamas to Cape town, South Africa via Dominica, Brazil and Ghana. After our arrival in Cape Town on February 23rd Andrew and I will fly to Uganda where we will spend two months supporting FIC's programs in Gulu.

Small is Beautiful in Amsterdam

On my way to Amsterdam I read “Small is Beautiful” by German economist E.F. Schumacher. Schumacher says,

"from an economic point of view the central concept of wisdom is permanence. Nothing makes economic sense unless its continuance for a long time can be projected without running into absurdities."

Now biking through the streets of Amsterdam I can only ponder it's wisdom in urban design. Separate lanes full of bikers and pedestrians, buses and trams, few cars and tight narrow boat canals for channeling people rapidly through this bustling city of hashish, art, food and amusement. As an American I am humbled by the wisdom of European life which has for centuries allowed its proliferation from a limited natural resource base. There is no denying European expansion beyond its boundaries for needs, but out of this scarcity has come conservation, or a "wiser use of resources." I think about our global society, one pushing the very thresholds of its planetary confines. But do we see it as such? Schumacher pronounces,

“ that the cultivation and expansion of needs is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace. Every increase of needs tends to increase one's dependence on outside forces over which one cannot have control, and therefore increases existential fear. Only by a reduction of needs can one promote a genuine reduction in those tensions which are the ultimate causes of strife and war.”

In America we have much to learn from history and from our mother Europe, a much wiser and older continent. I feel as if we are a stubborn child that first must fall down and cry before being picked up, brushed off and patted forward in the right direction. I pray we are fast learners. As a global society we need collective agreement on planetary boundaries and a renewed focus on the production from local resources for local needs for the peace, prosperity and permanence of civilization.

Te lo cuido

"I'll take care of it for you" were the words uttered by my friend Cameran's next door neighbor as she departed her home leaving her motorscooter behind. Yet another a reminder that Dominicans are some of the most hospitable people on earth. A culture so utterly hilarious it makes you content with every passing moment.

I will start with an apology as this is my first blog from the DR on the last day of my trip. The reality is... it was as full and exciting as I anticipated, challenging me in new ways to grow personally and professionally. My first week was spent presenting the results of my research to development organizations (USAID) in Santo Domingo, organizing meetings for Vermont Coffee Company with the local coffee association in Jarabacoa, and hosting a focus group with the community at Finca Alta Gracia. Everything came full circle. My lips spoke many promises during my time here which have now all been kept. This was important to me as a researcher.

I am committed to see the processes started on this trip through to fruition. As a result of our meetings there will be significant increases in the purchases of shade organic coffee from the Pico Duarte region. Encouraging farmers with higher prices who practice organic agriculture under shade tree cover should discourage those from abandoning their coffee for high input monoculture crops such as squash and beans. When replicated across the landscape these changes can restore ecosystem function to increase water conservation, reduce soil erosion, provide habitat for birds and provisions of food to households.

Financial transparency in process and diversification of income and consumption will be critical to the sustainability of rural livelihoods and the landscape. 80% of coffee farmer households in the Pico Duarte are food insecure. Tradeoffs exist between day labor and time to produce food crops for consumption. Migration is high, so is the costs of labor and simply providing higher prices for a product is not enough to meet families basic needs. Less than 4% of 161 people surveyed go to college, 21% finished high school and many households lack the basic resources needed to pay for proper medical attention during times of illness. In this multi capital asset approach to the "well-being" of a household we must do more.

In response volunteers at the farm "Fina Alta Gracia" Ria Shroff and Eli Berman along with owners Bill Eichner and Julia Alvarez created a Dominican nonprofit, the Alta Gracia Foundation. The foundation will serve the coffee communities of the Pico Duarte through a variety of social programs from literacy education to agriculture extension and small business micro-finance. A percentage of all coffee proceeds sold under the Cafe Alta Gracia brand will go to the foundation. A partnership between a for-profit business and non-for-profit organization should ensure long term financial stability while allowing for the flexibility to meet local needs and desires.

Returning to the States tomorrow I can only hope that as I start my schedule on Monday I am more cognizant of the social, economic and environmental interconnection of this world. A world where even as I leave for my home more than 2000 miles away I can turn and make one final promise to my Dominican companions, "te lo cuido", I'll take care of it for you...

The help that Haiti needs.

The ONE campaign has started a debt cancellation petition addressed to the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. I know many of you have been supportive of the Jubilee Movement in Africa and understand the role of debt incurring international loans, not project specific grants for development.

Haiti's financial and ecological debt serve its greatest challenge in the years ahead. As millions of dollars in relief pour into Haiti in the coming weeks and months debt cancellation is an option that should be explored as part of aid packages to chart a long-term vision for Haiti's future.

Authors Jared Diamond in "Collapse" and Tracy Kidder in "Mountain beyond Mountains" present excellent biographies of Hiati's political and ecological history. Haiti's current state is strongly tied to its exhausted resource base as a result of colonization by the French, strong private property rights based on subsistance farming and corrupt political dictatorships in recent decades.

A new course for Haiti's recovery should be supportive of programs that address the link between sustainable resource management, human health and well-being. There are a number of organizations working on these fronts such as Partners in Health, TREES for the Future, Oxfam International and the United Nations Development Programme.

I am constantly reminded of Wangari Mathai's quote from above, "Suppressed, hungry and poverty stricken people are not concerned by environmental degradation even though they are the first victims of environmental degradation." The people of Haiti live in constant recognition of this truth in their daily struggle for survival. International response to alleviate the short term suffering of natural disasters while meeting long term goals to develop, improve governance, political stability, and meet basic human rights (food, education, sanitation) serve the greatest challenge of this new decade. Haiti is long overdue for such a concerted international response. How will we respond?

Dominican Republic Coffee Video

Video

Gund Institute presents CRF-sponsored research at ESA meeting

http://conservationresearch.wordpress.com/

Lee Gross of the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics recently presented a poster at the Ecological Society of America’s Millennium Conference on “Water-Ecosystem Services, Drought and Environmental Justice” in Athens, Georgia. Results from a year-long study, supported by the Conservation and Research Foundation, were presented on the relationship between ecosystem services conservation and farmer livelihoods in the Pico Duarte coffee region of the Dominican Republic. Community partners included Finca Alta Gracia, IDIAF (a Dominican agroforestry research institute), and the 160 member Association of Coffee Producers in Jarabacoa (ASCAJA). Baseline information on livelihoods, farm biodiversity and agroecological management was collected through household surveys, community focus groups and farm biodiversity transects from 43 households in 7 communities. Preliminary findings suggest that smallholder farms under shade and organic management yielded significant levels of native tree and fruit species biodiversity compared to that of larger producers. Integrated strategies to support smallholder farmers who practice ecosystem service conservation (e.g., provision of fresh water, biodiversity protection, and carbon sequestration) are being evaluated. For more detailed information on this project see the Eco-Index.

"For whom will I walk and advocate?"

For those of us engaged in community development, either as a humanitarian, environmentalist, or both it serves us well to remind ourselves why we do what we do. To ask the tough questions. Amongst all the travel, new relationships and beautiful landscapes are we using our time and talents to the greatest possible benefit? I thought this review of a recent speech given by a friend of mine, Andrew Briggs captured the idea of why we serve and an important question for many of us as we try to impact this world for the better.

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I had an opportunity to hear Mr. Andrew Briggs speak during “The Freedom in Creation” exhibit at Queens University on September 30th 2009. What a privilege it was to meet this gentle, humble man. Andrew began by emphasizing the importance of getting involved as a community, and how rewarding it can be to be a part of a humanitarian service project. Andrew’s journey started with short-term service projects that made him feel “self indulgent.” He soon began to desire a greater sense of world view in ways he hadn’t experienced before. He felt the service projects were a tremendous blessing, but when he began walking with “one community,” his blessings increased with a sense of responsibility and empowerment to go long term. Therefore, he asked himself this important question: “For whom will I walk and advocate”.

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1410068979

Smallholder Shade Coffee Farmer Livelihoods and Ecosystem Services Conservation in the Pico Duarte Region of the Dominican Republic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOBbll_-WS4

A short trailer from our documentary footage on the lives of shade coffee farmers in the Dominican Republic. More to come. Special thanks to Michael Skillikorn for putting this all together!

Pictured: Arelies, secretary of the Jarabacoa coffee association (ASCAJA)
Freddy Montoya, member of ASCAJA
Jose Cruz, member of ASCAJA

Se vende: Cafe Dominicana

After a summer's worth of research, memories and new friendships the time has come to go home. Instantly, 2 months compressed into a flicker of memories and hundreds of pages of questionnaires in my backpack. Undoubtedly this next year will lend much time for reflection as I complete my master's degree in Vermont.

Over the past two weeks I've had the pleasure of hosting my brother and Dad here in the DR, showing them my work and discussing with them some of my preliminary findings. The truth is overwhelming, as the majority of coffee farmers I interviewed are struggling to hold on to their farms and meet their families basic food necessities as they compete in a global commodity market second that only to oil. Despite these challenges, Dominicans have been producing incredibly rich coffees for more than three generations.

On an uplifting note I am confident that my research at the community level will make a difference as much help is on the way through external investment, BUT I WANT TO DO MORE. So following an afternoon conversation with my brother, we decided we would purchase some coffee, paying double the price, but offering the ability to connect our friends and family in the States with farmers directly here in the Dominican Republic. After all, over the course of the summer I've had a number of friends contact me about bringing some of those magical beans home to them and there are some exemplary alternative trade networks out there to follow including one started by my professor, Ernesto Mendez during his time at UC Santa Cruz.

All coffee is whole bean, shade grown at altitudes of 800 meters or more; pulped, dried and roasted at the ASCAJA association factory in Jarabacoa, DR. Coffees may be purchased at the prices below, future supply will be dependent upon initial demand.

Shipped to your home:

$12.99 lb Organic
&11.99 lb Conventional

Burlington or Atlanta Area available for pickup

$11 lb Organic
&10 lb Conventional

Quantity is limited, please contact me directly at: leehgross@gmail or my brother Parker in the Atlanta area at: hoyasoccer15@gmail.com. Checks for purchase should be mailed to:

Lee H. Gross
41 Lakeview Terrace
Burlington, VT 05401

Biodiversity Transects

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=122cc8ee67cd998c&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1