Small Farmers. Big Change.

While many folks in the U.S. (and Congress) are still coming to terms with the fact that climate change is a very real phenomena that we will have to come to grips with sooner or later, most small farmers have long since given up the luxury of this uncertainty as the changing climate is affecting both their crops and their livelihoods. Some of you have been reading about our small rooibos farmer partners in South Africa and the project that Equal Exchange is helping them implement.

Recently, we received this photo of the soil erosion control and “greening” project undertaken at the Heiveld tea court with assistance from Equal Exchange. Run-off water that would otherwise cause erosion is captured to provide water for indigenous trees, and surplus water is channeled into a surface dam. The trees will provide a green shelter belt for the tea court. Read more about this project, our rooibos farmers, Heiveld and Wupperthal, and Equal Exchange’s partnership with them here. For more information on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 recently passed by Congress, which includes funding for international climate change strategies, click here.