In this interview Jen Henry talks about how she first become involved in farming through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model program and what challenges she and her sister, Aby, face as new farmers.

Jen and Aby formed Siren Song Permaculture a locally based consultation and garden design company. They specialize in creating edible landscapes using permaculture principles - everything from small projects installing herb spirals and keyhole gardens, to large projects that include entire edible landscape designs. All of our garden designs include food for humans as well as habitat for beneficial insects and birds and provisions for any other wildlife that you would like to encourage or discourage from your property.

She was interviewed by Ruth Ann Barrett of EarthSayers.tv on August 11, 2011 in Portland, Oregon.

Almost a billion people live without clean drinking water. We call this the water crisis. It's a crisis because it only starts with water -- but water affects everything in life. Health. Education. Food security. And the lives of women and children, especially.

We can end the water crisis in our lifetime. But first we have to let everyone know it's happening. Learn how water changes everything -- and share this with everyone you know. Visit our website here.

Matt decided to get a Geoscience single-subject teaching credential at UC Irvine, and after several years of teaching Marine Science (chemistry, biology, ecology, and other related topic concerning the world’s oceans) and ROP Environmental Horticulture (career technical education in using plants for beauty, shelter, and food) at Northwood High School (Irvine, CA), he became extremely interested in the connection between the food we eat and the negative impacts of modern agriculture on the health of the oceans (acidification, ocean warming, dead zones, etc.), so he telephoned his old Peace Corps friend Nathan.

In 1999, Matt and Bobbie Brown met Nathan McFall in a small village, Kuma-Dunyo, in Togo, West Africa. They worked with farmers, non- government organizations, and students introducing and implementing environmental awareness and education programs, soil conservation techniques, and animal husbandry.

After serving as an Environmental Protection Extension Agent teaching farming and environmental education in Africa for two years in the Peace Corps, Nathan found that his passion was in living close to the Earth and in a community where it truly takes a village to move through life well.  

In 2010 in collaboration with Matt Brown, Benjamin Green and Bobbie Brown, Nathan formed Food Waves focusing on producing organic food for the local Portland, Oregon market, they see their mission growing farmers in a movement they call small acre stewardship.

Food|Waves promotes sustainable agriculture as a long-term solution to major environmental issues facing the overall health of the world’s soil, water and people. Our aim is to develop future farmers by providing the technical and financial support necessary to learn how to grow organic food for local consumers.

Videotaped July 2, 2011 by Ruth Ann Barrett of EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability with music by Benjamin Bogosian. 

Over the last two years, Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet (www.NourishingthePlanet.org) team has travelled to 25 sub-Saharan African nations - the places where hunger is greatest - and uncovered a treasure trove of innovations from farmers' groups, private voluntary organizations, governments and universities. This is a trailer of the movie, click on image to buy book.

Anna Lappé is a widely respected author and educator, renowned for her work as a sustainable food advocate.  Named one of Time’s “eco” Who’s-Who, Anna is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund and has for more than a decade been a key force in the growing international movement for sustainability and justice in the food chain.

Voices of Sustainability: Where meat and animal products come from by Moopheus who is a family farm advocate. Visit www.themeatrix.com.