Today on REV On Air we have on Sidney Etienne, the incredibly inspiring founder of Grown in Haiti - an organisation focused on reforesting Haiti and building community based solutions to food insecurity and environmental degradation. Grown in Haiti was founded in 2014 with the creation of a small nursery of diverse food bearing trees. Since then, they have planted and freely distributed well over 6,000 trees that people are not only already eating from, but also profiting from harvests.

As Sidney recently described to Vogue: “Food security is definitely an important issue. My neighbours literally own mountains, huge fields, and I watch them on a yearly basis working these entire fields, barely making $100 annually. The fact that the whole commercialised food system has driven even farmers out of the loop of their own food source is very upsetting, to say the least. [This is about] finding a way to feed ourselves and our families, share with our neighbours and still find a way to seek profit if we care to, without destroying the land and the planet in general.”

This is a conversation about the incredible power we all have as individuals to create serious change in the world, and Sidney’s dedication to the earth and the people of Haiti is hugely heartening, particularity as the island reels from one climate change caused disaster after another.

Cora and Sidney discuss the benefits and the absolute necessity of regenerative agriculture, how to dismantle colonialist food systems and work on food insecurity on local levels and with local communities, and how every individual can spark a bit of a revolution in their own way. 

Follow Grown in Haiti and their work here: https://www.instagram.com/growninhaiti/