Posts Tagged ‘volunteer on a farm’

Ulaa Series: Why Agricultural Service Can Serve Our World

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Too Much Urbanization…

To continue on with yesterday’s theme, our world has shifted heavily out-of-balance, with the majority of its weight officially city-centered.  This has left farmers out in the cold, leaving them to literally starve, and leaving many urbanites perilously close to starvation.  

A Loss of Agricultural Knowledge…

In our culture, and in our world, there has been a glorification of non-manual work, which has resulted in steadily subsiding respect and knowledge of farm work.  As Barbara Kingsolver writes in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, “Most people of my grandparents’ generation had an intuitive sense of agricultural basics…Few people of my generation, and approximately none of our children, could answer any of those [agricultural] questions, let alone all.  This knowledge has vanished from our culture” (8-9).  And that is endangering all of humanity.

 Yesterday we talked about how many farmers are forced to sell their farms and move to a city in search of money-making opportunities…Many never find their pot of gold, and end up living in a slum, paralyzed in their inability to use the agricultural skills they have.  But today I want to talk about the farmers who stay on the farm…

Farmers are Hurting…and Suffering…

 The ABC and BBC are doing a co-production on Indonesia.  This week’s focus was on West Timor, an agricultural center of the archipelago.  In the West Timor, the people, the farmers, are suffering rampant malnutrition.  The reality is a laundry-list of nutritional travesties:

  • 50% of children under 5 years older are malnourished
  • 80% of children under 2 years old suffer iron deficiencies
  • 35% of women are anemic
West Timorean children

West Timorean children

West Timor traditional home

West Timor traditional home

Why is this happening?  Why, HOW can the very farmers starve when the nutrients are all in their own backyards?? There are a variety of reasons.

a West Timor mother with her baby in the hospital

a West Timor mother with her baby in the hospital

 Why are They Suffering???

First: lack of nutritional education.  Recently, there was a widespread propaganda campaign in West Timor urging farmers to eat rice, rice, rice.  The propaganda left an imprint on the people, and now many farmers sell all of their produce to get more money, some of which they use to buy rice, which means they do not get most of their essential nutrients.  Therefore, if only there was more nutritional education in West Timor, perhaps many Timoreans would be better-nourished and have the vitamins they need.

 Second: climate change.  Global warming is shortening, and in some years stopping, the rainy season.  Each year less and less food grows because of the decrease in rain.  Historically, there has been the growing season and the harvesting season.  Now, West Timoreans have added a third season: the starving season.  Now people in West Timor speaking of “the starvng season” as if it is a regular part of the year, something they have to work around.  Things like cattle ranching that used to thrive in West Timor are now barely able to exist because of the droughts, and the people really are starving.

How Can We Help???!!!

 Because of dangers posed in this region, there are fewer and fewer aid workers every year, and West Timoreans sink closer and closer to starvation.  People here speak of the Lost Generation, because the children of today are so malnourished. 

 This story is being repeated all over the world.  Because of climate change and because of a shift in the way we think about respectable work, the farmers are becoming more and more ostracized from society. 

 But we can all help to re-shift our world back into balance.  Yesterday, Nick wrote in his blog about how ecotourism, of which agritourism is a big part!, can reallllllllllllly help in our efforts to curb climate change.  He sites amazing examples of places where people used to make their money by economically devastating endeavors such as rainforest logging, etc., and now because of the rise in ecotourism, they make their living as guides for tourists through these very rainforests that they used to chop down!!  In many of these places, deforestation has stopped and has been replaced by a surge in ecotourism.

In my eyes, I believe that agritourism, or rather agricultural service, is the best way to be an eco-tourist.  It allows you to travel to exotic places, or places close to your home if you’d rather, while participating in ecologically friendly endeavors AND learning more about agriculture–the thing that keeps us all alive.  By being an agricultural service worker, you are helping to restore the urban/rural balance that our world desperately needs.

Come Help at Ulaa…

There are thousands of opportunities for you to volunteer on a farm.  Just check out WWOOF, and you can see so many listings in so many countries, your vision will blur!! Or move to France and apply for one of the 80,000 farm jobs they have open! But I am here to advocate for Ulaa because it has a special place in my heart…The week I spent at Ulaa was one of the best weeks of my life…I believe in the potential of Ulaa, but only volunteers can bring out its full possibilities.  So I am calling you readers to come to Ulaa, and help bring it to its potential!! I think, I know, it can be the experience of a lifetime.

To learn more about Ulaa, visit the following websites:

  1. The Ulaa Blog
  2. Our Intentional Community Page
  3. Our Facebook Fan Group
the fields of Ulaa

the fields of Ulaa

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Posted in Environment, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Ulaa Service, Winter Break | No Comments »

Ulaa Series: Why Volunteering On A Farm Can Really Make a Difference

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
a crowded train in Mumbai

a crowded train in Mumbai

Each year, the human race becomes more and more urban.  In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman recaps how,

“In 2007, the United Nations Population Fund’s executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, issued a report stating that in 2008, more than half of humanity will be living in cities,” (page 28). 

This is the first time in the history of humanity that we as a species have become primarily city-folk.  And, as Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said, “we [the cities] are not ready for them [the millions of migrants],” (Friedman 28).

an over-crowded Indian street

an over-crowded Indian street

 The reason for this mass-migration is the allure of opportunity.  Industrial agricultural giants make independent farming quite difficult.  Thus, millions of farmers are forced to leave behind their farms to try and stay afloat in the city, where there is hope of a different kind of occupation, perhaps factory work or domestic labor.  As Thomas Friedman sums up, “People in India and China leave their villages and cram themselves and their families into megacities not because they actually like living that way, but, in many cases, simply because that is where the jobs and opportunities are” (168). 

A very sad part of this reality is that millions of these migrants don’t find opportunity, and wind up living a slum life, a life filled with the violence and degradation that accompanies acute urban poverty.  As Newsweek writer Sudip Mazumdar, a former slum dweller himself, recalls:

“Slum life is a cage.  It robs you of confidence in the face of the rich and the advantaged.  It steals your pride, deadens your ambition, limits your imagination, and psychologically cripples you whenever you step outside the comfort zone of your own neighborhood.” (Man Bites ‘Slumdog’ 1)

slum-pictures

Another very sad part of this reality is that as millions of people are being driven off of the farm, many of those millions are losing their knowledge of our earth and the origins of our food.  Many people who have a vast knowledge of agriculture simply cannot afford to keep farming.  Thus, the ensuing result of this mass migration is that we as a human race are becoming more and more removed from the very thing that keeps us alive: food.  It is incredible that we all eat (if we are fortunate!) 3 times a day, and yet know very little about where each morsel of nutrients we ingest comes from…It’s actually a bit scary if you think about it! 

It surely can not be sustainable to have a society that ostracizes our very food producers. And people are catching on to that.  And so, thank goodness, there are many efforts going on now to empower the village, to empower the farmer.  A week and a half ago, I blogged about Fairtrade, and how consuming Fairtrade goods empowers the small farmer more than we can imagine.  So don’t stop buying those Fairtrade goods! :-)

But you might also want to consider spending time on a farm yourself, getting to know the work involved with growing our food.  Especially in times such as these, with a global economic crisis eliminating urban jobs left and right, the farm might be a good place to learn a few new tricks of the trade.  A recent article in The Economist magazine called “Back to the Farm” (from the print edition dated March 5, 2009) detailed how in France alone, there are 80,000 farming positions open across the country.  With unemployment at 8.3% and increasing, many French people are considering finding a job on the farm. 

This is not to say that a farming life is better than a city life.  I only mean to say that when we can allow small farmers to farm, there will be better balance in our urban areas and in our rural areas.  Working on a farm might not be for everyone, but perhaps you can give it a shot through a little volunteer time spent on the range.  It can only promote awareness of the importance of farming and heighten your own awareness of the balance within our world. 

Remember: the enchanting, organic Ulaa farm is waiting for you…

come open the gates of Ulaa!

come open the gates of Ulaa!

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Posted in Environment, Service, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Ulaa Service, Winter Break | 1 Comment »