In a few short months an urgent question has absorbed people around the world. How and when do we end the COVID 19 pandemic? The answers depend on what actions we take. They also depend on recognizing the profound connections between our human health and the health of our ecosystems, economies, communities and societies. All of these rest on our agricultural and food system. Groundswell International works with family farming communities in West Africa, the Americas and South Asia to sustainably overcome poverty and improve lives. These communities are accustomed to facing crisis. They are pioneers innovating solutions on the front lines of global challenges. When they experience crises in their farming and ecosystems, created by political and economic dynamics and practices, it often motivates smallholders to organize and develop more agroecological farming and local food systems. Their choice is to change, migrate or perish. Similarly, when epidemics (like cholera in Haiti) or natural disasters (like earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal) strike, we have seen how communities’ capacities for resilience allow them to limit damage and recover. So who better to learn from about responding to a crisis like COVID 19, or longer-term crises like climate change and chronic diseases? Crises hit the most vulnerable the hardest. The World Food Program reports that COVID 19 may double the number of people facing acute hunger by the end of 2020.1 People around the world are already facing the devastating impacts of climate change. Non-communicable, chronic diseases tied to the Western diet and excess weight are now the leading cause of death in many countries. Our industrialized agriculture and food system are major contributors to these crises. Communities and social movements we support are reversing the downward cycle of ecological degradation, poverty and hunger, by promoting agroecology and strengthening local food economies. Lankoande Francois and his family in eastern Burkina Faso are an example. Like 20 million people in the West African Sahel, they face the collapse of soil fertility and food production, leading to chronic poverty and hunger. In response, they have organized with neighbors and tested ways to regenerate their barren land. They dig small planting pits to hold rainwater, learn rapid composting techniques, access local seeds with a shorter growing season, and regenerate trees on their farms instead of slashing and burning fields. After 4 years, Lankoande and his family have recovered six acres of land, are producing 3.5 times more food, and have enough grain stored for the year, with surplus to sell. They are part of a farmer-to-farmer agroecology network spreading these approaches across 80 villages. On eroded mountainsides in Central America, Haiti, and the Andes, farmers install soil and water conservation barriers, use cover crops to fix nitrogen and restore organic matter to soils, and diversify farms for improved resilience, production and nutrition. To escape debt and ensure food security, they mobilize assets in savings groups, community grain reserves, and seed banks. Cooperative farmer enterprises and alliances of farmers and consumers are working to rebuild local food markets. What lessons can we draw as we work to build back better from current crises?

中文翻译：

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从危机到健康的农业和粮食系统

在短短几个月内，一个紧迫的问题吸引了全世界的人们。我们如何以及何时结束 COVID 19 大流行？答案取决于我们采取的行动。它们还取决于认识到我们的人类健康与我们的生态系统、经济、社区和社会的健康之间的深刻联系。所有这些都取决于我们的农业和粮食系统。Groundswell International 与西非、美洲和南亚的家庭农业社区合作，以可持续的方式克服贫困并改善生活。这些社区习惯于面对危机。他们是在全球挑战前沿创新解决方案的先驱。当他们在农业和生态系统中遇到由政治和经济动态和实践造成的危机时，它经常激励小农组织和发展更多的生态农业和当地粮食系统。他们的选择是改变、迁移或灭亡。同样，当流行病（如海地的霍乱）或自然灾害（如海地和尼泊尔的地震）来袭时，我们已经看到社区的复原能力如何使他们能够限制破坏和恢复。那么，在应对 COVID 19 等危机或气候变化和慢性病等长期危机方面，谁能更好地学习呢？危机对最脆弱的人打击最大。世界粮食计划署报告称，到 2020 年底，COVID 19 可能会使面临严重饥饿的人数增加一倍。1 世界各地的人们已经面临气候变化的破坏性影响。非传染性，与西方饮食和超重有关的慢性疾病现在是许多国家的主要死因。我们的工业化农业和粮食系统是造成这些危机的主要因素。我们支持的社区和社会运动正在通过促进生态农业和加强当地粮食经济来扭转生态退化、贫困和饥饿的恶性循环。布基纳法索东部的兰科安德·弗朗索瓦和他的家人就是一个例子。与西非萨赫勒地区的 2000 万人一样，他们面临土壤肥力和粮食生产的崩溃，导致长期贫困和饥饿。作为回应，他们与邻居组织并测试了再生贫瘠土地的方法。他们挖小种植坑来储存雨水，学习快速堆肥技术，获取生长季节较短的当地种子，并在他们的农场上再生树木，而不是砍伐和烧毁田地。4 年后，Lankoande 和他的家人收回了 6 英亩的土地，生产的粮食增加了 3.5 倍，储存了足够一年的粮食，还有剩余的可以出售。他们是农民对农民生态农业网络的一部分，将这些方法传播到 80 个村庄。在中美洲、海地和安第斯山脉被侵蚀的山坡上，农民安装了水土保持屏障，使用覆盖作物来固氮和恢复土壤中的有机质，并使农场多样化以提高复原力、生产和营养。为了逃避债务和确保粮食安全，他们动员储蓄团体、社区粮食储备和种子银行的资产。合作的农民企业以及农民和消费者联盟正在努力重建当地的食品市场。