SUSTAINABLE DIVA MAG SELECTED STORIES WRITTEN
BY Caroline S. Asante
Women in Sustainable Farming
Ecuador
Women in sustainable farming and the banana industry, represent a crucial resource in farming and comprise nearly half of the agricultural labour force in low and middle-income nations.
With approximately 400 million small farm holders in the agricultural sector, both female and male farmers and workers play a vital role to the balance of successful crop production. Yet in many countries, gender equality is severely lacking in regard to agricultural opportunities combined with unequal access to financial, productive and technological resources for women.
However, many admirable female farmers are making strides in sustainable farming practices including Ecuadorian farm owner Fanny Arajuo Duran, a small banana producer in the city of Machala-El Oro, Ecuador - the largest exporters of bananas in the world.
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Why Climate Artist Rachel Marks is Saving books from Landfill by Caroline S. Asante
Paris, France
Artist Rachel Marks creates installations to reflect how societal habits and consumption demands are harming nature and sentient beings. An American-born artist and performer now living and working in Paris, she moved permanently from Oklahoma, USA more than a decade ago to study at the l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art et Design of Grenoble France and explore her creativity.
As an artist, Rachel's main focus is the forest preservation and brings #discardedbooks back to llife by using them in her large scale art installions. The idea is simple: Use #upcycling books saved from landfill and turn them into art pieces. For the artist this fulfil her passion to increase environmental salvaging, inspire audiences to appreciate nature and give discarded books destined for landfill, a new lease of life.
How your shoes are impacting the planet one sole at a time
by Caroline S. Asante
Worldwide
Fast fashion includes your feet:
Whilst the fashion industry focuses primarily on clothing and is in the spotlight for its exploitation of people and planet, awareness about what we wear seems to stop at our ankles. Focus on fast fashion and its negative environmental impact, often takes front stage when we examine our conscious approach to clothing and trends. However, we rarely think about the shoe industry and what shoes, sneakers and trainers' ecological impact has on the planet.
With not as many consumer eye-balls focused on the manufacturing and supply chain footwear sector, the industry appears to have been given an easier ride it interms of consumer awareness. "The footwear industry, in relation to worker rights, ethical regulations and marketing transparency is a decade behind the fashion clothing industry " says Tansy E. Hoskins, who is the author of the best selling book FOOTWORK - What Your Shoes Are Doing To The World.
Gab Bois - On Reflecting life as Satire Art by Caroline S. Asante
Montreal, Canada
Born and based in Montreal Canada, Gab Bois (she/her), is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose creative practice focuses on photography. She has participated in several group and solo exhibitions, including the Chromatic Festival in Montreal, The Coming World at the Garage Museum in Moscow, The Mania Exhibition in Manchester and No Commission during Art Basel in Miami.
Her unique style and interpretation reflect the satire of modern life, personal circumstances and environmental awareness of nature, using plants, soil, flowers, fauna, food, people and technology. Her work she says is of a deliberate reflective nature, aimed at mirroring her own experiences and opinions.
