History
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For all of us, sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship is a deeply personal issue. Trinidad grew-up during the Guatemalan Revolution where his village was persecuted for practicing sustainable agriculture techniques, a sign that they were organizing. For the rest of us, our life-paths in environmental justice were first laid when we lost our Nicaraguan friend Alix Fermin in a 2004 fishing accident. Declining fish populations (due to pollution and overfishing) and exploitative markets kept Alix and his family poor. All he could afford was substandard fishing equipment, and it ultimately took his life, leaving behind his three-year-old son, Fabian, and widowed wife, Gissel. Having lost a friend we loved and admired, we were inspired to help his family. We wanted to do something that would create a lasting and significant change. After talking with Alix’s family, we launched a fundraising campaign to build them a house they could rent for stable income. We raised $8,000 and that summer flew to Nicaragua to help build the home.
As we worked side-by-side Alix’s family, we realized that it really was possible to make important differences in the world, even with very little outside support. We’d always known about environmental justice issues; the world’s suffering is broadcast nightly on the news. But this experience took our intellectual understanding of these issues and transformed them into living, breathing, and urgent people, rivers, oceans, forests and soils.
Speaking with local friends, we learned about how that year’s petroleum price spikes had ravaged Nicaragua. Many were struggling to send their kids to school or to buy medicine. Again, we were inspired to foster change and began a biofuels project to empower small communities by helping them gain petroleum independence. We traveled around Central America training community leaders and non-profits in biofuels production, hosting international conferences, and helping found three biodiesel demonstration centers. During the project, as we learned about soil erosion, increasing food prices, and pesticide poisonings of farmers and their families, we realized that our hopes for sustainable development hinged on agriculture.
We spent the next few years dedicating ourselves to study and exploration of sustainable development. We learned through internships, academic study, grants, travel, and in-field work. Now, we have united to form Semilla Nueva, a non-profit dedicated to helping communities sustainably grow yields and build community integrity.
Timeline
November 2003 - May 2004 We travel to Nicaragua and meet Alix
September 2004
Alix dies in a fishing Accident
September 2004 - May 2005
Fundraising at Whitman College and in Ashland Oregon for
Build-A-House Project
May 2005 - August 2005
Construction of home in Nicaragua
August 2005 – August 2006
Biofuels project
September 2006 - May 2007
Team does academic study, travel, internships, and in-field work
May 2007 - May 2008
Community organization and Water project in India
May 2008 - February 2009
Continued formal study in sustainable development, travel, and in-field
experimentation with new development approaches.
February 2009
Formation of Semilla Nueva
