About Grow Grenada
Grow Grenada is a conscious realization that the closer we are to the earth, the closer we are to a peaceful and prosperous future. We are in Grenada where the land is fertile yet there are “idle hands and idle lands” where we believe a sustainable form of agriculture can provide people with food, livelihood and growth for the individual as well as the community. We adhere to the philosophy and practices of permaculture and apply it to the local context.
We advocate:
1. Plants and information for people that want to grow things should be affordable and easily accessible.
2. With the natural availability of organic solutions to applications of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, we believe that chemicals are obsolete and destructive to cultivating healthy growing conditions.
3. The soil web is a complex and integrated system that is destroyed by tilling and disrupting the soil layers. We believe that we need to cultivate soil that is not tilled or disrupted.
4. We discourage “slash and burn” clearing of land and we believe that nearly every organic element of converting land for agricultural use can be used to create and sustain healthy growing conditions. Fire is an extremely inefficient expenditure of energy and resources and should be used sparingly, if at all.
5. Permaculture promotes the observation of natural processes and environments. As much as possible we want to plant things in ways that imitate nature instead of bending nature to our will and convenience.
6. We want to impress upon people the value of education and potential for innovative enterprises in agriculture in Grenada. There are many marketable opportunities that can be taken advantage of ranging from growing crops to sell at market, to secondary products, to products and services aimed at the organic agricultural industry. Growing things in Grenada is equivalent to growing money.
7. Fukuoka Masanobu, a progenitor to the permaculture movement, said, “The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” We believe that through conscious action we improve ourselves and our communities by becoming closer to our food sources, being aware of the interconnectivity of nature and understanding how we can provide for ourselves by being good stewards of the earth.
Growth has a variety of definitions, but we believe in the quality of life vs. standard of living. Economic growth is achievable but moreover we hope to help people grow in their consciousness. Every time you see “Grow Grenada” we want to cheer you on towards a better you and a better Grenada.