MOFGA's El Salvador Sistering Committee

MOFGA’s El Salvador Sistering Committee maintains a relationship between MOFGA and two Salvadoran grassroots organizations working toward sustainable agriculture. The committee explores issues such as organic certification, free trade, marketing, mining, climate change, etc., that affect farmers in both countries.

Several delegations from Maine have visited El Salvador, and delegates from El Salvador have come to Maine to tour farms and participate in the Common Ground Country Fair.

Each April, the El Salvador Sistering Committee hosts an Empty Bowl Supper in Belfast to raise funds for the ongoing collaborative work. Dinner guests make donations to the efforts, enjoy a hearty meal, and take home beautiful, handcrafted bowls made by Maine artisans. We are always looking for donations of handmade bowls (including seconds!) from potters.

The MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee has been interviewed on WERU-FM (which is sistered with Radio Sumpul in El Salvador) several times. To listen to these programs, click here.

U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities

The MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee works closely with the U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities (USESSC) network, a grassroots organization of U.S. citizens and residents who have ongoing partnerships with small rural communities in El Salvador. Those partnerships began in 1986 as a citizen-based response to the U.S. intervention in El Salvador’s civil war. Today, 17 U.S. sistering groups are paired with Salvadoran communities or organizations in six of El Salvador’s 14 departments. The Association for the Development of El Salvador, or CRIPDES, facilitates these efforts. Sister Cities works to connect and strengthen movements for social justice in the United States and El Salvador by sharing experiences, support and accompaniment. The organization strives to build a new kind of globalization, one built from the ground up and united by human values of justice and solidarity. More information about Sister Cities.

Delegation Reports

We report on our delegations and on other work of our committee in The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener (The MOF&G). Here are feature stories about our work:

MOFGA’s Salvadoran Sisters Address Food, Water, Environmental and Social Issues, Summer 2017 MOF&G

MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee – 15 Years of Solidarity, Winter 2016-2017 MOF&G

Strong Interest in Local Organic Foods in El Salvador, Summer 2015

The Fight for Sustainable Agriculture in El Salvador, Spring 2015 MOF&G

Optimism in El Salvador, Fall 2010 MOF&G

Another Successful Exchange with El Salvador Herman Summer 2007 MOF&G

Dyeing with Indigo, Summer 2006 MOF&G

Third MOFGA Delegation to El Salvador, or, “Maine Organic Coffee Growers” Travel to El Salvador, Summer 2005 MOF&G

The Challenges to Food Security Posed by Neoliberal Globalization, Winter 2003-2004 MOF&G (Juvelina Palma’s keynote speech at the 2003 Common Ground Country Fair)

MOFGA’s Herman@s: Let’s Create Our Own Free Trade Agreements, Winter 2003-2004 MOF&G

MOFGA Members Have Productive Visit to El Salvador ‘Sister’ Farms, Summer 2003 MOF&G

The Struggle for Agricultural Sustainability, Fall 2002 MOF&G

Information for Prospective Members

Welcome! ¡Bienvenid@!

Dear Prospective Member of the MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee,

Thank you for your interest. This information should give you some ideas about our work so that you can determine whether and how you might want join us. If you have ideas that you’d like to discuss after reading this information, or if you’d like to attend our next meeting, please contact us at the address below.

Our mission is to create solidarity among small farmers and community organizations in Maine and El Salvador. We promote economic and social justice and environmental protection through sustainable, organic agriculture and sustainable communities. Through this mutual relationship we hope to put a human face on the impact of globalization, learn from each other, and educate people in both countries. We are a committee of MOFGA, formed in 2001 and consisting of a dozen or so members, both farmers and non-farmers. We hold a monthly potluck supper and meeting, usually in Lincolnville and usually on the third Sunday of the month. We make decisions through consensus.

Our work has included the following:

Coordinating, hosting and funding a two-week tour of Salvadoran organizers and farmers to Maine in September 2003. The focus of the tour was the effect of globalization on agriculture. The delegation impacted hundreds of people through farm tours, college and high school classroom visits, panel discussions, a keynote speech and talks at the Common Ground Country Fair (CGCF), a meeting at the Maine Department of Agriculture, and other contacts.
Coordinating an eight-member delegation from Maine to El Salvador in 2005 to build solidarity, tour projects of our sistering organizations (CCR and CORDES), educate and be educated, and discuss developing a marketing plan. We have coordinated several delegations from Maine to El Salvador since then.
Hosting several tours of USESSC members in Maine.
Raising funds by marketing Salvadoran products.
Educating Maine people about food and farming, here and in El Salvador, through talks, presentations at the Common Ground Country Fair, reports to MOFGA, newspaper articles and radio shows.
Communicating regularly with our sisters in El Salvador.
Exploring ways to support Salvadorans’ efforts to accomplish organic certification.
Representating our committee on the Board of the national US/El Salvador Sister Cities Network.
Participating in an international encuentros (meetings) in El Salvador.

You may become involved with our committee in one or several ways. For example:

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Paul and Karen Volckhausen
MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee Co-Chairs
1138 Happy Town Rd.
Orland, Maine 04472
[email protected]