There's a cause worth supporting

According to an on-line article in the International Herald Tribune, "Jesús León Santos is a Mixtec Indian farmer who will soon plant corn on a small plot next to his house in time for the summer rains. He plows with oxen and harvests by hand. Under conventional economic logic, León is uncompetitive. His yields are just a small fraction of what mechanized agriculture churns out from the vast expanses of the Great Plains in the United States. But, to him, that is beside the point. Over the past two decades, León and other farmers have worked to reforest and reclaim this parched land, hoping to find a way for people to stay and work their farms instead of leaving for jobs in cities and in the United States. León and the farmers' group he helped found, the Center for Integral Campesino Development of the Mixteca, or Cedicam, have reached into the past to revive pre-Hispanic practices. To arrest erosion, Cedicam has planted trees, mostly native ocote pines, a million in the past five years, raised in the group's own nurseries. As the land has begun to produce again, León has reintroduced the traditional milpa, a plot where corn, climbing beans and squash grow together. The pre-Hispanic farming practice fixes nutrients in the soil and creates natural barriers to pests and disease."

Rico says you can contribute here to fund this project and others. Do it today. Rico did.