Breakthroughs in sustainable agriculture often come from studying peasant farming traditions, which represent an enduring commons of land stewardship. That’s the mission of Jadwiga Lopata, winner of the prestigious Goldman Prize for the environment for efforts to protect small farmers and their sustainable practices in her native Poland.
Poland’s small farmers successfully resisted collectivization efforts dictated by the Communist regime but are having a harder time surviving agricultural regulations imposed by the European Union in the name of economic efficiency, reports the International Herald Tribune.