CLICK to hear a special Holiday Interview with Leigh! What's New?

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This website adds my voice to the current conversation regarding food, global aid and the environment. I think we need to concentrate on reassessing today's challenges, then review, reprioritize and rethink our approaches so we can take effective, concrete action and realize our goals.

Through visits to Africa, China and the Americas in the past decade, it became increasingly apparent to me that we are in the midst of a changing paradigm; water and food shortages abound and deteriorating soils and eco-systems seem the new planet-stressing norm that is leading us into a precarious situation.

This encouraged me to shift my own focus from art to agriculture, eradicating hunger and global sustainability. Another brighter voice, Lester Brown, supported my hunches with his new book, Plan B 4.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization, pointing out that only our focused call to action will really make the difference in stabilizing our planet for future generations.

This site will give examples of how we are learning to raise food and to work to ease the global crises through partnering with Heifer International. I will show examples of orchards, gardens, wildcrafting and livestock rearing as well as alternative energy installations.

Other projects highlighted here are those we have visited in the field with Heifer International. These innovative project partners have organized their own small plots of between 1/3 and 3 acres into sustainable farms where they are able to grow much of their own food, animal fodder and medicinal herbs. They also generate their own electricity and capture their own water. Much of what we have tried at our home and farm has come from observing these subsistence farmers. They have taught us the skills to look beyond the norm in tackling problems and finding creative solutions.

In all, I am highlighting the efforts being made by our family to become both more self-sufficient and more of a global community partner. I hope this website will persuade you to join me in your own garden and to consider supporting Heifer International's global work to end hunger and heal the earth in order that we may nurture our families and work towards helping others do the same.

Thank you,

Leigh Merinoff