Encouraging life as farmers - “Your Own Tomatoes Really Are Sweeter”
Encouraging life as farmers - “Your Own Tomatoes Really Are Sweeter”
"My father was 103 years old when he died a year ago. In the countryside, he ate his own healthy fruit and vegetables, and he drank alkaline water from a stream. I know, it's an ideal situation that definitely doesn't exist everywhere, but I want his life to serve as a testimony that living in an unpolluted environment with basic but sufficient facilities offers a certain guarantee that one will live a long and happy life."
But one must match words to deeds and Zenaida (Zen) Delica Willison is exactly this kind of person. She will be retiring this year from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She hopes to establish her own demonstration farm that will feature organic agriculture together with her husband, who also works for the UNDP. They already own 5 hectares of land in Batangas City, about 100 kilometres outside of Manila. "I am fortunate that my husband and I feel the same way." There is already a lifestyle centre for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including vegetarianism, called the Talumpok Lifestyle Center. The ground floor is used for lectures, workshops and for enjoying meals. The second floor includes the bedrooms. There is also a church. "In 1986, my life changed radically when I joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is the best thing that ever happened to me."
The idea is that this project will serve as an inspiration for others to get involved. Delica Willison and her husband want to show city dwellers that life outside the city also has its significant advantages and charms. "The way you lead your life can serve as an example to others. There are never any absolute guarantees that what you do will have an impact. But, in your life, you have to do what you can within the realm of possibilities."
The lifestyle they are promoting is patterned after NEWSTART: The N stands for Nutrition. Delica Willison: "You have to eat the right foods in the correct quantities and at the right time. We will teach people how to cook well and with good ingredients." The E stands for Exercise. "We need to be active: move, walk, ride a bicycle, climb, etc. Even in rural areas, people are no longer used to walking far to go to work or school for example: they use scooters or motorbikes." The W stands for Water, which underscores the importance of "drinking a lot of pure alkaline water to help neutralise the acid levels in our bodies. At least eight glasses a day." The S, for Sunshine: a source of vitamin D. The T stands for Trust in God, which Willison says is at the core of a righteous lifestyle. R stands for Rest: we need at least eight hours of sleep every day, Delica Willison claims, plus a full day's rest every week. The last T stands for Temperance. "Do not use anything that is bad for your body, such as alcohol, tobacco or drugs, and don't exaggerate the good things either."
The farm is not yet fully operational. "We are busy planting trees. Fruit trees such as mango, coconut, banana, avocado, papaya, and tamarind. But also mahogany and nara. And there are also vegetable gardens." A lot of people have come to look, especially city dwellers from Manila and Batangas. "They enjoy coming here, to get away from the polluted city and become reinvigorated by the country life. After they establish themselves here they will begin to offer seminars, lectures or visitors can enjoy Zenaida's brother's bonsai garden or his koi carp pond. People will be able to camp here by simply pitching a tent. Guests will not be required to pay, although most visitors donate some money for cleaning. After their stay, visitors return to their urban lifestyles because very few people are willing to get their hands dirty. And farming is not easy, I know from my own experiences. When people are still young, they hear that they have to get good grades in school, that they have to study hard so they can get a nursing job or something equivalent in the United States or Europe, and there attain a luxurious lifestyle. That is the mentality of entire generations of Filipinos: their hope lies in the West. So why should they learn to plant tomatoes and grow fruit?" Yes, a diploma is important, but not at the expense of a holistic lifestyle.
Delica Willison believes that an integrated approach is necessary to make country living appealing again. "This should begin at school, where youngsters could learn how to plant tomatoes in school gardens. They should be taught to appreciate this type of work. Children have to experience how it is to taste the fruits of their own labour - they really do taste sweeter!"
The demonstration farm and the lifestyle centre are seamlessly aligned with her great desire: the revitalisation of agriculture and the revaluation of the countryside. "My perspective has always focused on the local community."
Dreaming Our Own Dreams
As a young student in the early seventies, Delica Willison was actively involved in opposing then-Filipino President and dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda. Delica Willison was eventually arrested in 1974 and received a substantial prison term. She was imprisoned together with her two-year-old daughter. She was eventually released after spending 801 days in prison due to international pressure organised by Amnesty International. "But we have to dream our dreams and be prepared to pay the price to make those dreams come true."
Delica Willison studied nursing, sociology, business administration and public health in the Philippines and development practice including humanitarian and refugee law in England. She is considered an expert in the field of disasters and disaster risk reduction and has built up an impressive track record. "Natural hazards turn into a disaster only when vulnerable people are not able to cope. For example, because they are completely unprepared. This goes for natural disasters such as typhoons, but also manmade disasters. Thus, it is important to design prevention, mitigation, preparedness and emergency response measures. It is my job to point this out to governments, organisations and people in general." She has been based in Bangkok since 2005, where she works as a UNDP advisor in the field of disaster risk reduction.
She admits it was 'pretty tough' putting her ideals into words, "because there are so many problems in my country that are screaming to be addressed all at once: corruption, unemployment, low productivity. But if I had to start somewhere, I would start in the countryside. I want to encourage farming once again."
This desire obviously comes from her dislike of Asia's mega-cities. "Practically all of Asia's cities are terribly congested. There is an utter lack of discipline. Not only is traffic a stinking mess, but it is also next to impossible to walk on a sidewalk or get around easily because of how shops, restaurants and workshops sell their goods. Regulations are not enforced. We are so unhealthy because of the lifestyle that urban living promotes. If the countryside were to be redeveloped, we could encourage people to go and live there."
Magnet
The economic possibilities that cities offer act like a magnet for the rural population, for whom the economic prospects are indeed "very small" and the chances of improvement virtually nonexistent. "Because it is becoming more and more difficult to be a farmer due to the land issues, farmers end up migrating to the city where they often end up joining the growing informal sector. They are then faced with housing, health and safety issues. If something unforeseen happens in their lives, if they suffer a setback, this can quickly turn into a personal catastrophe. Because they have nothing and nobody to fall back on. In the countryside, at least they could still grow their own food."
It won't be easy to convince farmers to remain behind in the rural areas, or to encourage former farmers to return to the countryside, where there is often the threat of political armed conflict. "Militarisation has a negative impact on local farmers, who are subject to various restrictions. This is coupled with the increasing cost of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and agricultural machinery, and the difficulties in accessing low-interest credit. So, any migration back to rural areas must go hand in hand with various incentives such as the promotion of organic farming, setting up and providing good health care services, and organising the sale of agricultural products. All these things have to occur simultaneously."
The city is attractive for many real reasons: there are more economic opportunities and children have a better chance of getting a good education. "That is true. That is why it's not enough to say that people 'must' return to the countryside. Education in rural areas must improve considerably by, among other things, paying better wages to the teachers so that the good teachers will not abandon rural community schools. Today, the best teachers head to the city, where they can earn more, and the bad ones stay behind. It's also equally important to have a good health care system in place. In rural areas, at present, there are no doctors, not even midwives." This health care doesn't even have to be expensive. "In the cities, health care is about hospitals and expensive medicines. But in rural areas, there is a lot of knowledge about traditional health practices, herbal medicine and preventive care."
Each region needs to utilise its own specific resources and measures. A fishing community is different from a peasant village in the mountains. "If you know that a certain community is unable to grow rice or grains, but it excels in making special handicrafts, then you have to support the latter. Each community produces what best fits that particular community. Make sure that these communities can sell their products to each other, so they can take as much advantage as possible of each other's expertise. This requires a proper transportation system. I don't claim that this is the only solution, but it could be a hopeful step in the right direction."
Delica Willison thinks that the city will continue to be the centre of cultural and intellectual life. "There will always be people going to the cities. That's not a development I want to stop. But I do want to see a balanced approach between urban and rural areas. If you promote resilient cities, you should also promote resilient rural areas. The same goes for safety, health care, education, and tourism: distribute things fairly across the country. I'm not advocating lowering the development of developed areas. But start developing underdeveloped rural areas. We need to correct these skewed kinds of development.
Nurse becomes a disaster expert
Zenaida Delica Willison (1950) was brought up taking care of others. In her village, her father was a traditional herbalist with informal training who healed people for free using simple means and medicines using bark, leaves, water, and heat. Young Zenaida also wanted to be a doctor, but her parents didn't think that was a good idea. Instead she was encouraged to become a nurse. After two years, she switched to business administration at the Lyceum of Batangas, where, like so many of her generation, she got involved in protests against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. She eventually relocated to Manila. After four years of protesting against the dictatorship, she was arrested in 1974 and jailed together with her two year old daughter. Delica Willison studied in the Philippines and in England. She has worked in disaster risk reduction her entire working life and also serves as a consultant for various organisations. Her daughter now works in the same sector as her mother.
Read more about this subject
-
News / 19 May 2022
Response to government’s letter to parliament on implementation of the Glasgow Declaration
Both ENDS and 95 other organisations* today sent a letter to State Secretary for Finance Marnix van Rij and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher calling on them to implement the Glasgow Declaration in full. In this agreement, which the Netherlands and 33 other countries signed at the Glasgow climate conference, the signatory countries pledge to stop all public funding for fossil projects by the end of 2022.
-
Event / 18 May 2022, 10:45 - 12:15
UNCCD-COP15: Monitoring Tree Cover and Enhancing Decision Making Tools Across Africa’s Great Green Wall
Join us for an open space for a reflection and exchange on a new dataset, developed by WRI, to monitor regreening efforts, and its applications in the Sahel.
In the drylands of Africa, land degradation threatens the livelihoods of millions of people. Fortunately, there are promising initiatives emerging all over the continent that are turning the tide. Throughout the Sahel, for example, vast tracts of land along the Great Green Wall have been restored by local communities. They have nurtured the plants that spontaneously spring from the soil, protecting young sprouts from cattle and other hazards.
-
Event / 16 May 2022, 13:00 - 15:00
UNCCD-COP15: How funders can best support agroecological initiatives by local communities in drylands
Join our dialogue on how to set up more and better financial mechanisms that can support agroecological initiatives of local communities living in drylands.
The land degradation neutrality (LDN) response hierarchy of Avoid > Reduce > Reverse land degradation is an overarching principle for LDN implementation, which guides people in planning interventions to achieve LDN. The hierarchy articulates which interventions should be prioritised based on their potential to maximise the conservation of land-based natural capital, recognising that avoiding or reducing land degradation is generally more cost-effective than efforts to reverse past degradation. As value for money is highest in the Avoiding and in Reducing Land Degradation response, a smart way to spend money is to support sustainable land management approaches like agroecology that work with nature, not against it.
-
Event / 16 May 2022, 13:00 - 15:00
UNCCD-COP15: Community Initiatives to Disseminate Agroforestry and Agroecology
Join our event, providing space for an interactive discussion among COP15 participants on multi-actor collaboration and the financing of community-based restoration
-
Letter / 15 May 2022
Both ENDS Comments and recommendations on the Bank Group’s Environmental and Social Policy of the AfDB Integrated Safeguards System
This letter by Both ENDS to the African Development Bank is a comment written in reaction to a draft version published by the Bank of its Environmental and Social Policy as part of a formal public consultation held by the Bank. This comment was sent to the bank along a joint submission letter with other CSOs, and specifically responds to the overarching Policy.
The bank's flexible requirements for clients and national standards for risky projects dilute safeguards. Project approval should be predicated on specific and binding targets for compliance and reflect input from communities involved.
-
Letter / 15 May 2022
Joint Submission of comments and recommendations to the Public Consultation on AfDB Integrated Safeguards System
Together with 29 other CSO's, we've submitted our comments and recommendations in the Public Consultation on the AfDB Integrated Safeguards System. These include that the Bank should prioritize community-led development and human rights-based approaches; protect natural resources and tackles environmental and climate crises; raise the bar on access to information, transparency and accountability; facilitate participatory processes in policies, programmes and projects; and end inequality, poverty, and the cutback and privatization of vital services.
-
News / 10 May 2022
Lobbying for local and sustainable practices during the UNCCD summit
From May 9 to 20, the 15th Conference of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (UNCCD COP15) will take place in Abidjan, the capital of Côte d'Ivoire. Governments, policymakers, civil society organisations and scientists from countries all over the world will discuss the problems around drought, land degradation and desertification that are increasing. Colleagues Nathalie van Haren and Stefan Schüller will be there, as will a large number of representatives of organisations with which Both ENDS has been working together for decades. But what is the purpose of the meeting, what is discussed and why is it important to be present? We asked Nathalie and Stefan.
-
News / 29 April 2022
In Memoriam: Khadija Catherine Razavi (CENESTA)
Both ENDS mourns the death of Khadija Catherine Razavi, founder of CENESTA – Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment in Iran.
-
Event / 26 April 2022, 10:00 - 11:30
How can civil society actors ensure inclusivity in their land governance work with communities?
Both ENDS and the Land Portal Foundation invite you to the first webinar in the Whose Land? - Inclusive Pathways to Land Governance series, which aims to provide a platform for stakeholders engaged in land governance to exchange on the importance of inclusivity and meaningful participation of all relevant actors in both formal and informal land governance processes.
-
Dossier
Make Innovations work for all: reframing Intellectual Property Rights
It sounds so logical: patents and other intellectual property rights protect investments in innovations, allowing more innovations to be made from which the whole world can benefit. Such as new medicines or drought-resistant crops. But in practice, these property rights often have the opposite effect, hindering access to innovations for those who need them the most.
-
News / 25 April 2022
Call for sign-on: No to UPOV in Indonesia
The European Union (EU) continues to demand that countries of the South introduce plant variety protection rights according to UPOV 91 in free trade agreements. This is happening in the ongoing negotiations of the EU with Indonesia, trying to take away Indonesia's flexibility to implement a law that suits its own needs and priorities. We therefore call to sign our letters on this subject to the European Commission and the Indonesian government.
-
Letter / 22 April 2022
Letter to State Secretary Heijnen about the MTCS certificate
Both ENDS, also on behalf of FERN, NCIV and Milieudefensie, sent a letter to Vivianne Heijnen, the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, about the MTCS certificate. In practice, this Malaysian timber certificate appears to tolerate the violation of indigenous land rights and intimidation of indigenous organisations. The Netherlands should therefore suspend the approval of MTCS in its purchasing policy, among other things.
-
News / 15 April 2022
IDB stops funding for two controversial dams in Guatemala: ground-breaking decision
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has taken a unique decision to withdraw from the construction of two controversial dams in Ixquisis, Guatemala. Both ENDS has supported our partner AIDA for many years in its fight against the dams. Tamara Mohr and Pieter Jansen explain why this decision is so exceptional.
-
Publication / 12 April 2022
-
News / 31 March 2022
Well-deserved recognition for small grants funds!
We are exited about the news that Ms MacKenzie Scott decided to entrust substantial funding to a wide range of small grants funds from Both ENDS' partner networks*. These small grants funds are unique as they are set up and led by people, often activists themselves, from the country or region in which the fund is based. Most mainstream conventional funders admit they have difficulties reaching community based organisations and grassroots groups themselves. Small grants funds know better than anyone how to reach local communities, who to support and what kind of financial as well as non-financial support is most needed. Thus, they bridge a wide funding gap. Both ENDS applauds this recognition of the important role of these funds in the funding landscape. We hope this encourages more funders to join!
-
Event / 25 March 2022, 16:00 - 17:30
NGO CSW66 Forum Event: Feminist Action for Climate Justice
What does feminist climate action look like and what does it lead to? Join us to hear from grassroots activists who will share their lived experiences and recommendations for equitable, just, and sustainable strategies to tackle the most pressing issue of our time. Global Greengrants Fund and the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) will formally launch our joint campaign commitment to support these frontline climate solutions alongside the UN Women Generation Equality Forum’s Feminist Action for Climate Justice Action Coalition. Register today to learn how to mobilize more and better support for feminist climate action.
Register here!
-
News / 22 March 2022
World Water Day: just climate solutions already exist
These past weeks we have been joined the #WeWomenAreWater campaign to put the spotlights on just climate solutions of and for women, girls, trans, intersex and non-binary people around the world. The campaign started on International Women's Day (March 8th) and ends today, on World Water Day. Just climate solutions already exist but these initiatives are grossly underfunded, and the people implementing them are also those most impacted by climate change and climate-related water scarcity. Therefore, we would like to highlight, especially today on World Water Day, some of these solutions below. And we also have a special message from the colleagues at Both ENDS working on inclusive water governance.
-
News / 18 March 2022
International Forests Day: the importance of forests for livelihoods and a healthy environment
Today is International Day of Forests. An ever more important day, as the amount of forest and forested area's on this globe is shrinking at a fast pace. One the main causes is our ever increasing demand for products such as soy and palm oil from area's that have been deforested for their cultivation. The current proposed EU-deforestation law to prevent this, is not strict enough and does not include the protection of other crucial natural areas such as grasslands, savannas and swamps, as well as the human rights of the millions of people living in these area's. During these past few weeks we therefore participated in the campaign #Together4Forests, calling on citizens to send a letter to their own responsible ministers. The campaign paid off: almost 54,000 letters were sent to European ministers across the European Union, demanding a strict forest law that guarantees the import of only deforestation-free products in Europe.
To celebrate this International Day of Forests, we would like to emphasise the great value of forests and other natural areas, directly or indirectly, for the livelihoods of at least 2 billion people. Below, we selected some examples that show how, throughout the world, local communities use many different ways to collect and produce food and other natural products in a sustainable way, while protecting and restoring the forests and forested area's they are so dependent upon.
-
Event / 15 March 2022, 11:00 - 12:30
CSW66 Side Event: Feminist solutions for the environmental and climate crisis
Join us at the 66st UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) for a critical conversation about the intersections of climate, gender and sustainable development. Land defenders and gender rights advocates will join ministry representatives from Sweden, Chile and the Netherlands in a discussion about feminist leadership in protecting land, promoting climate solutions and supporting truly sustainable development strategies. In this session, we aim to explore how governments and feminist climate movements can best work together to tackle the root causes of the climate crisis.
Register here!
-
Press release / 7 March 2022
New report: investment in agroecology necessary for healthy global food system
A recent study by Profundo for Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib shows that investment in agroecology is necessary for a sustainable and inclusive global food system. Today, some 768 million – one in ten – people suffer from hunger or a severe shortage of food on a daily basis. Conflict, economic stagnation caused by the Corona epidemic, and the climate crisis present an immediate threat to the production of and access to sufficient nutritious food. Agroecology, a form of agriculture that places small-scale farmers, the natural environment and short supply chains at the centre of food production, makes communities in developing countries more resilient and helps them combat hunger. The study concludes however that major donors, including the Netherlands, are so far providing insufficient support for agroecology.