Guiding Principles
Adopted and extended from original work by Friese, Kraft and Nabhan [1], “some guiding principles that might help us along”.
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Support and create the regeneration of Nature.
Now, more than ever before, by adopting
cultivation principles that are gentle to the earth and ecosystem, we
need to grow a diversity of food
crop varieties in our fields and orchards in order to adapt to changes,
and to keep our food and ecosystem healthy, resilient, and dynamic.
Explore, celebrate and consume what diversity can be found locally.
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Honor producers and trust Indigenous knowledge.
Farmers’ problem-solving skills
in combination with embracing indigenous
knowledge are key assets for
coping with and adapting to climate change, assets that have not yet
been sufficiently honored, understood and drawn upon by our community.
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Individual agency for change.
Consumers – eaters, chefs, or makers –
need to vote with both their forks and their wallets in support of more
diverse and regionally self-sufficient food systems, positive environmental impacts, and to
lower their carbon footprint by whatever means they have available to them.
Consumers also need to vote at the ballot box for more climate-friendly
policies associated with resilient and healthy local ecosystems.
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A holistic ecosystem response to scarcity of natural resources and climate change.
Responding to climate change requires holistic and resilient ecosystem approaches
impacting water, soil, and biodiversity to ensure adaptation to a changing
environment. Such approaches should focus on the restoration of the dynamic
connections between intensively managed agricultural lands and the natural
ecosystem for the overall health of humans and the planet.
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Cooperation and Collaboration;
We need to empower local communities that link farmers, foragers, fishers, and
ranchers with chefs, makers, consumers, and educators to be codesigners of
local solutions to global change, and then creatively transmit their solutions
to other communities for adoption, refinement, rejection or adaptation.
Therefore, we subscribe and adhere to the Statement of Co-operative Identity as
detailed and maintained by the International Co-operative Alliance [2].
References
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Afterword, Chasing Chilis, Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail; Friese, Kraft and Nabhan; Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont; 2011.
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Cooperative identity, values & principles, https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity.