The RIAC-Joven (Red Internacional de Agroecología Comunitaria – Joven) is a youth movement that transcends borders to defend Agroecology and Food Sovereignty in rural and urban communities. Indigenous, Afro-descendent and

Youth Blooming Agrarian Lands and Community Life Solidarity Economies and Agroecological Coffee: The Flourishing of AgroEco's Youth   What happens when youth lead in connecting a solidarity economy based on

Youth Blooming Agrarian Lands and Community Life Return to the Land and the Commons: The Flowering of Growing Justice   Growing Justice, located in Watsonville, California, is a youth-led initiative

Youth Blooming Agrarian Lands and Community Life   Donate today!   Agrarian lands and community life bloom when youth work alongside their elders to save and sow seed, nurture the

Youth, Agroeocology and Commercialization: The blossoming of CAJAC We continue our fundraising campaign sharing our collaborations with youth in the Maya homelands of southern Mexico. Here, campesino families give life to

Youth Blooming Agrarian Lands and Community Life Seeds of change: The blossoming of RIAC-Joven Dear Friends, Agrarian lands and community life bloom when youth work alongside their elders to save and sow seed, nurture

  Dear Community & Friends,   The Community Agroecology Network (CAN) works in close collaboration with Tierras Milperas. Since 2015 our youth group, Growing Justice, has worked alongside campesino families in food justice efforts and

SUPPORT CAN IN 2023 BUILDING SOLIDARITY NETWORKS FOR OTHER ECONOMIES     Building solidarity networks for other economies requires us to re-imagine our relationships and work towards more just interconnections. Thank you for joining CAN in strengthening

SOLIDARITY NETWORKS FOR OTHER ECONOMIES Dear Friends, Solidarity economies focus on reproducing life and livelihoods, over generating a profit. This difference is everything to the women in the Danilo Gonzales Cooperative, the Denis Gutiérrez Cooperative and

In 2020 CAN was approached with a proposal to become the fiscal agent of an emerging organized group of farmworkers and campesinx families within the community gardens of Watsonville and Pajaro. After years of working

Work with a small but incredibly active International team focused on accompanying small scale farming communities in rural Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, and California's Central Coast towards a just food sovereign future with agroecology. See full

We are grateful to CAN Co-Founder Steve Gliessman for his many contributions as he steps down from his role as Board Chair. During his tenure, he established agroecology as the organization’s guiding tenet, built

Roberto harvesting corn planted on the hillside of his coffee forest. Roberto Enrique Jiménez Ruiz 22 July 1953–28 June 2021 A gentle giant is a person who has widespread positive impact on the

A message from our founders.   As the pandemic, climate chaos, and societal injustice have challenged us this year, one thing has stood out for us as co-founders of CAN—the word COMMUNITY in our name has

When the corona virus pandemic hit, indigenous peoples around the world began organizing a response that centered their community’s spiritual and physical well-being. For Ka Kuxtal Much Meyaj, native seeds grounded their response. Protecting the

The Community Agroecology Network (CAN) seeks an experienced Operations Manager and an experienced Development and Communications Director.  The Operations Manager will ensure that CAN’s infrastructure and systems effectively support staff and partners both programmatically and

The seeds for CAN’s birth were planted in 2000 when we visited agroecology graduate students who were doing participatory action research with farmers in coffee growing communities in El Salvador, Mexico, and Nicaragua. In each

Small farmers and farmworkers are at the frontlines of building just food systems—planting seeds of justice with their communities. Seeds build power and justice when farming communities maintain control of their seeds and land,

We are bombarded with non-stop crippling news: a government shutdown over building a steel wall on our southern border while Central American refugees and migrants face criminalization and forced separation from their children. In

Growing Justice (GJ), a diverse group of 12-19 year olds from Watsonville, California, meets weekly to learn about the food system and identify what they like about their community, and what they would like to see

Pathways to Resilience: An Agroecological Approach -- in collaboration with Agroecology & Livelihoods Collaborative at University of Vermont   by Linda Lonnqvist, CAN project manager, on attending her first Agroecology Shortcourse   So Much Talk

The CAN Associate Director position will work closely with the CAN team and our partner organizations to build the organization, further develop the network and promote CAN’s mission and programs. The ideal candidate will

The documentary film, “Ending Seasonal Hunger in Nicaragua” explores food cultures, agroecological farming practices, and innovative solutions to improve diets and reduce seasonal hunger among smallholder coffee farming families in northern Nicaragua. It captures breathtaking tropical

The Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC)* at the University of Vermont (UVM), in partnership with the Community Agroecology Network (CAN), announce the 2017 International Agroecology Shortcourse. The course theme is: Pathways to Resilience: An Agroecological

The Agroecology Training course was held in Marracuene District, Mozambique, which is approximately 25 kilometers north of the capital Maputo. In October 2016, CAN co-founders and board members Steve Gliessman and Robbie

In December, CAN Executive Director Roseann Cohen, Associate Director Heather Putnam and Project Manager Maria Eugenia Flores traveled with executive team members of the coffee company Keurig Green Mountain (KGM) to visit CAN's Food Security

Seedbanks and farmer-led experimentation enhance local food sovereignty and climate change resiliency in rural Nicaragua. Seedbanks are important reservoirs of genetic diversity that help subsistance farming communities secure their supply of quality, locally-adapted seed. This

In October, Heather Putnam, CAN's Associate Director, visited CAN's partner organization the UCA San Ramón. The first thing I noticed upon arriving to the northern department of Matagalpa was how hot and dry it was

Environmental Science & Policy just published a new study by Marcia DeLonge, Liz Carlisle, and Albie Miles. The authors took on the challenge of finding the answer to an unanswered question: how much federal money

In October, I visited the two first level cooperatives that produce CAN's AgroEco® Nicaragua Coffee, and meet with the cooperatives and women's groups participating in AgroEco®. I came away from my visit to the cooperative

Adriana with home stay mom, Dona Emelda, in La Reyna, San Ramon, Nicaragua Adriana Murguia completed a senior internship documenting forms of seed saving as her senior exit for the Environmental Studies

Rome, Italy.  The group of world-wide experts on sustainable food systems (IPES-Food) held their 4th meeting in Rome, Italy October 16-17 in conjunction with the FAO Committee on Food Security meeting and World Food Day.

In 2014, the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) founded the Partnership for Gender Equity. The objective of this strategic initiative is to illuminate how gender inequality at origin impacts coffee outcomes and the well-being of producers

On September 29, 2015, at the 4th International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM4) in Geneva, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) International released Replacing Chemicals with Biology: Phasing out highly hazardous pesticides with agroecology. This new

Check out Lucas Oliver Oswald's article (August 12, 2015) in Grist: "Can we level the playing field for coffee growers?"  Oswald does an analysis about the changing coffee industry and the rise of direct trade. CAN

Celebrate Agroecology at UC Santa Cruz and Around the World Friday July 17, 2015 4-6 pm Cowell Ranch Hay Barn UC Santa Cruz Campus (near main entrance) Santa Cruz, California Agroecology World

In early June, CAN Executive Director Rose Cohen and Associate Director Heather Putnam traveled to the Central Highlands of Veracruz, Mexico to meet with CAN network partners there and visit rural coffee-growing communities where CAN

CAN Associate Director Heather Putnam recently visited the Zona Maya in Quintana Roo, Mexico to meet with women's groups working with CAN and the Intercultural Maya University of Quintana Roo (UIMQRoo) to improve household

Community Agroecology Network’s (CAN) Food Security & Sovereignty in Las Segovias, Nicaragua project was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Sustainability Award. Roseann Cohen, executive director of CAN, Maria

WhyHunger has released its first agroecology publication, “Agroecology: Putting Food Sovereignty into Action.” The publication shares the knowledge and perspectives of 10 social movement leaders who are working to “scale up” agroecology around the world.

"Sustainable Farming through Agroecology" with Stephen Gliessman and Mark Bittman  CAN Board President and co-founder Stephen Gliessman is giving a lecture on March 30 for the online course, Edible Education 101. This course was

CAN Executive Director Roseann Cohen and Associate Director Heather Putnam traveled to Vermont to participate in a workshop that held from January 8-10, 2015. The workshop brought together three groups who have a vested interest

Nyéléni, Mali La Via Campesina has published the Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology on its website. The Declaration was produced by delegates from diverse organizations and international movements of small-scale food producers.

Global Justice Now, a social justice organization based in London, England, has just published a report that says “…small-scale farmers are the key to addressing food issues across African countries.” The report From the Roots

3 February 2015: The coffee leaf rust (la roya) has reached the Central Highlands of Veracruz, Mexico and small-scale coffee farming families are working to quickly respond to the blight before it further impacts their

Agroecology, A Global Movement: Tracing Our Roots and Looking Forward July 12-25, 2015 Sustainable Living Center University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Santa Cruz, California Learn more

CAN Board president Steve Gliessman (Professor Emeritus of Agroecology, UCSC) and CAN Executive Director Roseann Cohen head to Washington, D.C. to attend “Design for Resilience in Smallholder Farming Systems: Symposium and Consultation on Agroecological Principles,

CAN Associate Director Heather Putnam made a visit to our partner organization the Union of Cooperatives in San Ramón (UCA San Ramón), Nicaragua the first week of December. Our ongoing partnership with the UCA San

Ben Valdez has been an active FoCAN student leader for the past two years and is currently completing a field study with CAN's partner organization VIDA AC in the Central Highlands of Veracruz, Mexico.

Update from the Field Suraya Arslan, CAN field intern 27 October 2014: The digital revolution has come late to Nicaragua. The country ranks last regionally and 114th globally in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development

CAN seeks to improve food security and sovereignty (FSS) in rural communities in Central America and Mexico. We promote a combination of strategies that aim to increase local availability and accessibility

Most of the world's food insecure people live in marginal rural environments. A recent study with coffee producers in northern Nicaragua’s highlands helps explain this “hungry farmer paradox.” These small-scale farmers experienced

The Garcia-Díaz Family, La Pita, Nicaragua. Photo: Mara Nielsen STUDENT PROJECT: January 2014 In January 2014, Mara Nielsen took part in CAN's International Field Study program and spent two weeks living with the

ANNUAL REPORT: Year 4 — November 1, 2012 – October 30, 2013 Through the Food Security and Sovereignty in Las Segovias Project the Community Agroecology Network (CAN), in collaboration with our partner organization PRODECOOP, RL,

CAN's co-founder and chair of the Board of Directors, Dr. Stephen Gliessman, (Professor Emeritus of Agroecology, University of California, Santa Cruz) has been appointed to an international panel of experts on sustainable food systems. The

Community Agroecology Network (CAN) has joined coffee importer Ético: The Ethical Trading Company (ÉTICO), the British NGO Social Business Network, local coffee roaster Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company, the Union of Cooperatives in San Ramón,

Food and Agribusiness Institute hosts a food-security conversation with youth organizers visiting from Latin America. The youth are participants in CAN's 3rd International Youth Exchange for Food Security & Sovereignty (April 8–16). Coffee Brewbar tasting with the youth