Never Ending Food Permaculture

Malawi

NeverEndingFood is  consisting of 3 homes, a classroom, small livestock, gardens, ponds, bee hives, forests, and fields in which, through Permaculture, they raise hundreds of species indigenous to the area:  foods, fuel, fertility, fencing, fodder, medicines, etc. Permaculture is all organic.

Lead Organization
NeverEndingFood, a family home and farm for Stacia, Kristof, and Khalidwe Nordin from which they do community outreach.
Country
Malawi
Timeline
1997-2003 August for their first home, 2003 to present for their current home.
Mission

NeverEndingFood, is the Nordin’s home and community-based permaculture demonstration in Chitedze, Malawi where they use and showcases many low-input, high impact ecological technologies for organic agriculture, water, sanitation, food and seed multiplication, processing, storing and sharing, sustainable energy, and much more. They have reached thousands of visitors in surrounding villages and a wide variety of organizations locally and internationally, they support an internship programme for their community to certify interested people in Permaculture, and partner with universities to host student attachments and conduct online sessions.  They are involved in several organizations related to these topics to spread solutions that address root causes of problems.

Context
Kristof and Stacia Nordin, the founders of NeverEndingFood, were invited by the Government of Malawi to work with HIV in 1997. Kristof focused mostly on awareness and prevention of HIV while Stacia, as a Registered Dietitian, focused on well-being of people living with HIV. However, in those days people didn’t share or know their HIV status, so instead she focused on strengthening everyone’s’ immune systems.  They studied the Malawian food systems and the connection to Earth’s health which led them to Permaculture, a design system for sustainable living.

 

Funding
The project is self-funded from the Nordin’s salary as well as some donations. It cost ~20,000 USD for the infrastructure (rammed earth and other buildings, seed bank, hand dug well, composting toilets, ponds, etc.) with ~10,000 USD annual running costs for staff and maintenance.

 

 

Strategy

NeverEndingFood follows Permaculture’s three Ethics:

  1. Care for the Earth – Air, Water, Soil, Flora, Fungi, Fauna, People
  2. Care for people – who are part of the Earth and need air, water, nutrition, medicines, shelter, love, respect etc.
  3. Fair share of resources – all the above in equitable systems tailored and flexible to needs.

Stakeholders involved

Their community.  Their immediate neighbors and land are their focus. They only partner with neighbors for their internship programme which lasts from 3 months to 2 years. Often the interns are youthful (under 35) but they’ve had a few older teachers also intern with us during their summer holiday.  Their home is open to anyone who wants to tour, so they get a wide range of people from around the world, often by word of mouth, but they are also very active on social media groups. They promote other Permaculture sites for visits a well, as their goal is to have Malawian run Permaculture initiatives.

Effects and impacts

Throughout the years the farm hosted several interns, who had the opportunity to change and grow thanks to the experience; many of them now live and teach Permaculture.  NeverEndingFood has had a steady stream of visitors and invitations to speak, advise, provide input, write, etc. because of their reputation. The farm’s land has healed and is now thriving. Thanks to many exchanges there is also some spread in our community, though the community is largely a rental community so ever-changing with new people. Permaculture is in line with all the agroecology principles.

Lessons learned 

Through their project and the practice of permaculture, the Nordins learned the importance of:

  • Working together with the community – geographically or within the sector you are part of and trying to improve.
  • Continually rethinking, reflecting, and innovating solutions.

In general, they realized Permaculture can solve many of the problems that affect Malawi and the rest of the world. Restoration of indigenous species and elimination of fossil fuel plastics are not getting the attention they deserve in Permaculture and other forms of Agroecology and we hope that more of you reading this consider including it in your life’s work.

Contact

Stacia Nordin, RD NordinMalawi@gmail.com
Picture credits: Kristof Nordin/ Never Ending Food