By Norma Carolina Mejía | Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador The production of sugar comes with high ecological and human health costs. Producing sugar requires intensive water use for irrigation during the dry seasons of the year, depleting aquifers and artisinal wells that supply water to families and communities. Currently, there are no laws in… Read more »
March 9, 2023
“Bitter Sugar” Campaign Seeks to Eliminate Agrotoxins in Sugar Industry
By Norma Carolina Mejía | Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador The production of sugar comes with high ecological and human health costs. Producing sugar requires intensive water use for irrigation during the dry seasons of the year, depleting aquifers and artisinal wells that supply water to families and communities. Currently, there are no laws in… Read more »
By Norma Carolina Mejía | National Coordinator, ARUMES The issue of agrochemicals in El Salvador deepened with the so-called Green Revolution between 1960 and 1980, which introduced the sale of agricultural technology, improved seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The improved seeds were more resistant to pests and had higher yields, if the appropriate chemical fertilizers… 
By Doris Evangelista | ARUMES, Joining Hands El Salvador As ARUMES, the Joining Hands network in El Salvador, we have worked for the past 8 years to build spaces for collective advocacy work and strengthen efforts, in coordination with other local organizations, to improve agricultural policies and eliminate toxic pesticides from agriculture in El Salvador…. 
El Salvador farm families share in solidarity By Doris Evangelista | ARUMES, Joining Hands El Salvador *Names and locations have been changed to protect identities due to ongoing crime and gang violence The community of Coatepeque* is an agricultural community, in El Salvador where families are large and traditionally children, grandparents, and grandchildren all live… 
Reflecting on 8 Years of Joining Hands El Salvador By Doris Evangelista | ARUMES, Joining Hands El Salvador Para la versión en español Doris speaks to the media. Photo courtesy of ARUMES.In September of 2011, I decided to quit my job and gave myself some time to look for a new one. I had one… 
Pressures on food accessibility and safety concerns contribute to Salvadorans’ desires to flee By Valery Nodem | Presbyterian Hunger Program Names have been changed in this article to protect the identities of individuals for safety reasons. Last December, I traveled to El Salvador to visit our partners working with the Joining Hands network Asociación… 
Sugar industry contaminates food, water, and health in El Salvador By Doris Evangelista | Asociacion Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador (ARUMES) “How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?” – Jane Goodall In El Salvador, most farmers do not own the land they work and… 
Joining Hands networks continue to advocate for change despite the long and unpredictable road By Doris Evangelista | Coordinator of Asociacion Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador, Joining Hands El Salvador In August, I traveled from El Salvador to Peru to gather with Joining Hands leaders from Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Bolivia, and Peru to share experiences with each other:… 
On October 14, 2016, leading up to World Food Day, agricultural and indigenous communities from across El Salvador came together to call for an end to the use of chemical pesticides at a national level. Those gathered protested the harm that agrochemicals pose to human health and the health of the environment. “We see the…