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  • From: karen sutherland <karen AT rootsfarm.info>
  • To: Western Massachusetts Permaculture Guild <westernmapermacultureguild AT lists.thepine.org>, Market Farming Community Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>, EHCWM AT yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Help for Roots Farm, Dominica
  • Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2018 17:10:38 -0400

So many of you have asked how you could help us survive and recover from Hurricane MARIA which in one night in September 2017 destroyed our farm, an investment of some 17 years, along with almost all Dominican agriculture.  Apologies that the rigors of day-to-day survival here and the difficulties of communication have delayed my response and also keep me from answering individually.

Brief recap and update:  Category 5++ Hurricane Maria packing winds in excess of 220 mph danced a ( beginners) Argentine tango down the spine of Dominica. Our farm at 1600-1800' got kicked to death. 17.5 acres of mostly interplanted tree and root crops just reaching 1st year of commercial productivity after 16+ years of hard labor, intermittent weather catastrophes (like the terrible landslides from TS Erika in 2015 followed by the damages from the winds of TS Matthew) and heavy financial investment which effectively converted all assets (except land) into now unpayable loans.  (Other undeveloped rainforest land will have to be sold to pay off those loans, hopefully to someone who will treasure and preserve what is left of the postMaria forest).  Government assistance in the past has been limited to treated seeds, synthetic fertilizers and Ag chemicals along with discounted prices on treated seedlings. 5+ months post Maria, we have not received any aid to rebuild.

We have cleared the rubble and replanted a market garden with short term crops for some income to keep our and our long time farmworker's family eating and paying (some) bills.  We are now about ready to start cleaning and replanting the farm proper.  We have no financial resources left to rebuild (or income to repay the crushing debt required to establish the farm).

Weather has been very difficult and challenging since Maria:  WIND!  RAIN!  Continuing lack of any electricity, of infrastructure, including communications, of supplies in local stores that have been able to reopen, frustrations and time sinks at every turn, stress everywhere, further increase the difficulty of recovery.  Market conditions are dismal both due to infrastructure failure and the exodus of people post Maria without the usual tourist and snowbird influx.  Lack of refrigeration and income keep people from buying vegetables.  Only a handful of restaurants and eco-inns have reopened, further depressing market opportunities.  Hirable farm workers have been lured out of agriculture by the bigger bucks in building and road reconstruction.  Disheartened landowners allow their land to be used by immigrants who abuse the land and produce with herbicides and pesticides and erosion-producing methodologies, while flooding the local market with produce being sold at under true production costs.  Government aid to farmers has distributed treated seeds, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.  We have as yet been offered nothing we can, in good conscience, use.

What would help us most is actual experienced physical help with clearing land of fallen trees, with weeding, with pruning, with carpentry.  We have a 2 bedroom guest apartment (see Facebook: RootsFarmGuestApartment) -- currently no electricity but otherwise comfortable and clean -- in which helpers could stay.  (Andwe do expect electricity to return in next few months.)  Perhaps potential contributors might wish to donate to a fund to help defray transportation expenses for a volunteer worker.  I have just set up a Paypal account for RootsFarm AT protoscape.com to receive any such help.

And, of course, there is the matter of the worker(s) themselves.  Anyone interested in a few weeks or more of hard work amongst beauty and hope in Dominica?

If no one is able to come, any moneys raised would be used instead to purchase and ship untreated seeds or phytosanitarized replacements for at least some of our hundreds of lost fruit and nut trees (mangosteen, lychee, rambutan, mamey, etc. etc. etc.) that will not otherwise be available in Dominica;  and/or such organic supplies as iron phosphate slug bait or bird and trellis netting; or farm/marketing tools/equipment such as coolbot storage,  Ez-up market protection, etc.

Other helpful actions:

Come to Dominica and tell your friends.  A work exchange at our farm would be great and allow us the pleasure of meeting you, but even a standard "vacation" here or elsewhere on the island would help the economy in general.  

Help us find ethical conscious buyers who will continue to share with nature our (was and will be again) gorgeous rainforested land we have to sell and who will not be developers who open up the land and with it the entire surrounding area to standard development.  We have a Facebook page (written before the storm): Gorgeous Tropical Rainforest Land for Sale.


Sometimes good things emerge from tragedy -- Dominica is currently proclaiming itself on a path to be the world's first climate resilient nation.  (Whether this is fund-raising verbiage or path to a real change that includes not just technological "fixes" but also changes in peoples' consciousness, hearts, minds and behaviors remains to be seen).  We are pushing the understanding that resilience must include LONG TERM self-sufficiency, which means regenerating so land remains full of life, and that resilience requires diversity in crops and techniques and solutions.  We would be so grateful for help demonstrating that naturally based farming systems can be key to both short and long term survival, sanity, resilience.  Without successful demonstration, people will continue to rely on the short term, narrowly-measured-productivity enhancing chemicals and techniques which are destroying the health of our earth.  

I am thankful to you all for your concern and support.  

All best wishes,

Karen Sutherland 
Roots Farm Organic Produce













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