In a recent TEDx event in Wageningen, The Netherlands, Steve Sherwood, Swift Advisor and Board member of Swift grantee Groundswell International shares his experiences in Ecuador transforming his families’ relationship to the food system.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeVcyYQzk_w&feature=youtu.be

Stephen Sherwood is an organic farmer and food activist based in Ecuador as well as a lecturer and research fellow with the Communication and Innovation Group at Wageningen University. Over the last 25 years, he has supported rural people’s movements throughout the Americas, seeking social change in favour of healthier, more sustainable living and being.

He and his colleagues have contributed to major innovations in rural development practice, including: the introduction of farmer-led experimentation and farmer-to-farmer extension methodologies in favor of the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture through the successful promotion of green manures and covercrops, Integrated Pest Management, seed management, and water harvesting.

Stephen has co-founded agroecology movements in Central and South America as well as a number of exciting organizations, including the global grassroots development partnership Groundswell International (www.groundswellinternational.org) and the philanthropy PeaksOverPoverty (www.peaksoverpoverty.org).