Editorial: Cultivating health and healing
Amid intersecting crises, agroecology reminds us that we have power and agency to choose health – for both people and planet, as this second issue of Rooted Magazine demonstrates. Current…
The forest is life: Restoring the health of people and place in Benin
As a child, I saw python deities draped from branches, heard the stories of my ancestors who hid from European slavers among roots, and drank the medicinal teas and wild…
Food as medicine: The Bagobo Tagabawa’s holistic health traditions in the Philippines
The Bagobo Tagabawa people, an Indigenous tribe in Mindanao, Philippines, have a long history of using plants for healing purposes. Today, their related knowledge and practices are jeopardised by various…
Social Pickle: Building new micro and macro communities in the UK
The Social Pickle collective in Sheffield, UK is building community from the ground up, nurturing diverse microbial communities that inhabit the soil, water, plants and gut. What began with fermenting…
The potential for wellbeing offered by the indigenous Kyrgyz horse
The indigenous Kyrgyz horse, a unique breed adapted to mountain ecosystems, used to be a strategic agroecological companion for nomadic communities but has been in steep decline since the 1950s….
Short stories: Healing with agroecology
Besides allowing us to stay healthy and prevent illness, food grown through agroecological approaches is being used around the world to help people heal and get better. Growing foods without…
Aniceta’s amaranth: A story of resistance, memory and life in Guatemala
“Gather grain and seeds and gather the shoots, for times of drought and hunger are coming. Sharpen your weapons, for enemies hidden behind the mountains and hills will not be…
‘Dirt is not just dirt’: Growing healthy communities in the UK
Two community gardens in London are bringing people together to grow food, with love. Antiracist, anticolonial, intergenerational, rooted in indigenous and ancestral wisdom, and strongly connected with nature, these gardens…
Poem: Tincture
And, in a community garden in North London sumptuous, fecund soil sends a charge of good energy through the soles of a brown-skinned barefoot baby, learning that dirt is not…
How GMO and hybrid seeds impact farmers’ mental and physical health: An interview with Susan Owiti of the Kenyan Peasants League
Kenyan farmers won a significant legal battle on the 7th of March 2025 when they secured a conservatory order from the Court of Appeal in their case against the government’s…
How agroecology grows emotional resilience in Colombia
In Colombia, the relationship between agroecology and health has been studied mainly from a physical health perspective, focusing on the reduction of exposure to harmful substances and the creation of…
Urban agroecology fosters collective health in Brazil
Urban agriculture is transforming cities across Brazil by strengthening public health, food security and environmental justice. Over an 18-month period starting in 2022, action research in six metropolitan areas uncovered…
Self-care and community care with medicinal plants in São Paulo
In the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil, women are cultivating medicinal plants in community gardens, creating spaces that promote health, social connection and environmental care. The women-led Agroecological Peripheral…
Short stories: Urban initiatives for health in Quito
A trilogy of short stories from Quito, Ecuador illuminates the importance of urban agriculture in cities, where people often lack connection with nature and its cycles as well as with…
Poem: We Can Plant a Seed
Way back yesterday In the glow of night time fires We sat around steamy bowls Carving up mounds of foo foo Then dipping our hands in hot soups Mouths long…
“We can’t talk usefully about sugar without talking about the plantations”: An interview with Lucy Aphramor
Lucy Aphramor (they/them) is a radical dietitian who puts a critical spin on food beliefs many of us take for granted. Lucy explains how structural inequalities and white supremacy are…
“Farming resonates with caring”: A dialogue between South African nurses-turned-farmers
Historically, farming and good health were on a continuum for the Xhosa people of South Africa. Over time, however, the food and farming systems in the Eastern Cape province have…
Opinion: The tackling of structural obstacles must accompany ‘Zero Hunger’ policies in Brazil
The semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil, where rural women have long struggled with food insecurity and water scarcity, is a place of resilience. For generations, women here were responsible for…
Caretakers of life: How the Ogiek forest people in Kenya are revitalising ancestral practices
The word ‘Ogiek’ means ‘caretaker of flora and fauna’. Fittingly, the Ogiek people of Kenya have long relied on traditional hunting and gathering practices as their primary means of survival….
Short stories: How traditional seeds and foods are improving health
Seeds and foods that are rooted in ancient traditions and practices can be a major contributor to people’s physical, mental and spiritual health. Women farmers in the North East of…
Poem: An ode from the bacteria below to the plants above
This is no place to exist alone sand . silt . clay . or stone. – i will bind you – this is chemical this is electric it cannot be…
Resources on health and agroecology
A selection of recent reports, toolkits, manifestos, methodological frameworks, websites, films and webinars focused on policy for agroecology from partners around the world. The Farming ChefsChefs-turned-farmers based in Portugal share…
