Here are just a few stories from Fair Trade Olive farmers in the West Bank…
(Photos and stories by Vivien Sansour)
Abu Adnan Abed El Salam
Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oil Producer from the village of Faqua
A NATURAL ENVIRONMENTALIST
Abu Adnan does not talk about a global movement to save the earth. He doesn’t know much about Greenpeace or the Kyoto Protocol; but he does know everything about keeping his soil healthy and fertile, and the terraces he builds to protect his soil make his mountainous piece of land a visual paradise.
A farmer since childhood in his home village of Faqua in the Jenin district, Abu Adnan Abed El Salam, who is now 78 years old, has built over 60 terraces in his lifetime, one stone at a time. When people come to talk to him about the “new” trend of organic agriculture he smiles. “My grandfather, my father, and I have been planting trees all our lives without using any chemicals.” He declares proudly, “I have a thousand olive trees, and I remove all the weeds from under each one of them with these bare hands. I never get tired.”
He is aware that he could buy a bottle of pesticide for 70 shekels and get the job done in half a day, but such an idea would be considered criminal in his book.
WORKING BY HAND
Using an old cycle and his bare hands, Abu Adnan, bends the weeds, cuts them, and piles them to carry for his sheep. “My sheep don’t eat anything that doesn’t grow in my land. Is there anything more beautiful than the land?”
TRUE ROMANCE
And if you spend a day with him in his fields you would know that he is right. He and his wife, Siham, consider their days working together in the field to be the most romantic experience. They don’t go out to the movies or to fancy dinners, instead they pick wild Zataar, sage, and grape leaves together. They take water breaks next to their well where Abu Adnan drops a bucket and brings out fresh clear rainwater for his wife to enjoy. Their snack is some grapes, a piece of bread, and zataar to keep them healthy. Depending on the season they eat wild Milk Thistle and Sinari, a wild thorn that has a crunchy and juicy stem that keeps ones body hydrated while working in the sun.
RECONNECTING WITH THE TREES
The father of six children, Abu Adnan is proud to say that his eldest son, Adnan, who used to work as a day laborer inside Israel has returned to the land and his daughter and her family, have joined the Canaan coop and are planting almonds and olives. Before Canaan started buying Abu Adnan’s olive crop, Abu Adnan says that he came to a point where despite a life time of serving the trees he almost stopped loving them because no matter how much he took care of them he knew that at the end of the season he would have no where to sell his crops. Today, he says, “I reconnected to my love for the trees and I even planted new ones because I am encouraged and I know my hard work will be appreciated by people from all over the world. I will be rewarded by the end of the season. Why do you think I am spending all my days in the field? Because I want to offer Canaan the same healthy olives I eat in my home and I know there will be people who will buy and love them.”
And now his sons and daughter who grew up knowing the smell of soil, the taste of cool rainwater from their father’s well, and the taste of organic olives are continuing the family tradition of growing organic foods. This makes Abu Adnan happy because he says, “the day I die I will die in peace because I know that my children will be taking care of my fields.”
CONTENTED HEARTS
However, Abu Adnan’s relationship to nature is not limited to taking care of his trees. He and his wife don’t carry cell phones and they don’t need watches to tell them when the day begins and when it ends. Their clock is the sun and when it comes up it is time for work and when it starts to fade away they load the weeds on their donkey’s back and stroll down to their village enjoying an evening walk to their home where they cook a hearty dinner and prepare for the next days work. They both attribute their health and strength to their life style and what they describe as their “content hearts” because they believe that there is nothing more sacred than the humble meal and the simple life of the earth.
Rwada Kader
Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oil Producer, Nos Ijbeel.
LIVING BY THE SEASONS
Rawda, also known as Um Hamza, is popular in her village of Nos Ijbeel in the Nablus district. Her day begins at six in the morning with a cup of coffee, the morning news, and then feeding her chickens. Set on a beautiful hilltop, Um Hamza’s house is surrounded by ancient terraces of olive trees, almonds, and an abundant amount of tumrac bushes that she plants each year. A fully sustainable farm, Um Hamza knows each season and what it entails. She plants beans amidst her trees and saves some of their seeds for planting the next year.
When walking in her well kept terraces one can indulge in the fresh taste of her produce that she loves to offer to her guests. Fava beans, wild oregano, olives, onions, garlic, lentils, wheat, tumrac, lettuce, cauliflower, and turnip greens are just some examples of the things she will make sure you try because she knows that her produce “has flavor”.
While Um Hamza still has to buy basics such as sugar from the market she is adamant that eating should be about enjoying and not just getting full. Her big blue eyes sparkle as she explains the benefits of eating vegetables in season. “Aside from the health benefits, there is the added appetite that comes from a year of joyful anticipation for your favorite fruit or vegetable.”
An artist at heart, Um Hamza loves literature and she is no stranger to the world of academia. She earned a degree in Islamic Law and went on to study Public Law before she returned to their village of Nos Ijbeel. That is when she started raising chickens as a way to survive. But today, Um Hamzas re-found love for the land is not just about survival it is a way of life that Um Hamza and her farmer coop in Nos Ijbeel are engaged in.
ORGANIC ON PRINCIPLE
The only woman farmer in her coop, Um Hamza leads the other farmers in her village with vision and commitment to organic agriculture. When she thinks of people using pesticides or herbicide she feels outrage because she says “we endure occupation and political hardship, the only friend to us is the land so how can we poison it with chemicals?”
While Um Hamza lives alone with her only son Hamza, 13 years old, she also opens her home to other kids from the family who come to eat and study in her house.
When asked how Canaan Fair Trade impacted her life, her smile widens as she speaks with gratitude. “I am a survivor and I will do what it takes to make ends meet but with the situation being so hard I almost lost hope in ever being able to market my olive oil. When Canaan Fair Trade approached me, I asked my brother to help me buy more land and I planted 2 acres of olive trees. Now I feel at ease, I know that every year someone will come and buy all my crops and that gives me so much emotional and economical stability.”
SCHOLARSHIPS OFFER HOPE
Her son Hamza who loves drawing and architectural engineering is very excited about Canaan because he knows that doing well in school could qualify him for a scholarship from Canaan that would pay for his engineering career. His drawings that include tractor designs, schools, and farmland fill the heart with so much hope because it says that the new generation that once felt despair is finding encouragement through their parents work and their heritage. Unlike most young boys who aspire to move to the city and never come back to their village, Hamza is determined to further his education to better the lives of his farming community. The son of a tenacious woman, Hamza is very proud of his mother whom he says, “works harder than any man I know.”
He loves Canaan Fair Trade because since it started he began meeting more people from the outside world who come to visit his village and is proud to know that people in the U.S. and Europe love the olives his mother grows.
While Um Hamza appreciates much of modern technology she feels that it is a two edged sword “because even though technology has given us comfort it has taken away from people the appetite of eating.”
This is why she wants everyone to try her delicious olive oil because she is certain that once you taste her olive oil you will find your body reconnecting with your natural appetite for healthy foods!
Mustafa and Shafaq Jarar
Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oil Producer, Jarar Family Farm
FATHER OF THE TOWN
Mustafa Jarar is an organic olive oil producer from the village of Burqein in Jenin District. He is known in his village as Abu El Balad, a term in Arabic that literally translates as father of the town. It is used to describe a community elder who can solve feuds and problems between people in the village.
Taking after his father, Mustafa is indeed Abu El Balad and his counsel is sought after by almost everyone in Burqein. Since he started working with Canaan Fair Trade his home has become what his wife, Shafaq, calls an International Center. When people from other countries who are interested in organic olive oil and fair trade initiatives come to visit their village Mustafa and Shafaq offer their home.
Over the past four years the Jarar family hosted people from over five countries and they say this makes them very happy because through these visits they feel connected to the world. “We are always surprised how little people around the world know about us. Often people come here and they have bad ideas about who we are. When they stay with us, share our food, and pick olives with our family they start to feel at home.”
WELCOMING THE WORLD
Mustafa and Shafaq’s son Mahmoud is very grateful for the olive oil business but he says for him it has nothing to do with the economic progress. He is happy that since Canaan Fair Trade started buying his family’s oil he has been able to tell the story of his people to the outside world. He says, “Before I never imagined that internationals cared to know anything about us. I never thought I could communicate with them because I am limited to Palestine. But when they started coming I developed friendships that have changed my life.”
Mahmoud who is a freshman at the American University in Jenin says he would like more internationals to come to Palestine “because we cannot go visit them so it means a lot when they come to visit us and learn about our lives.”
REDISCOVERING HOPE
Mahmoud is one of six children in the Jarar family who are constantly being impacted by the cultural exchange olive oil trading has created. As youngsters they are not only finding excitement in meeting the world in their home but they are inspired to create more opportunities for their village. Mahmoud is organizing a youth group in the village of Burqein that wants to invite people to sports activities and historic tours of the Melkite Church of Burqein that is considered one of the oldest churches in the world.
In that same life-force, Mustafa feels that Canaan Fair Trade came at a crucial time in the lives of young people who were depressed. As the Burqein coop representative, Mustafa says that hiring young people to work in presses and encouraging them to work in their land has had a major social impact. On a personal level he explains that before Canaan Fair Trade, his eldest son stopped wanting to go to the field and his whole family became disheartened and would only go pick enough olives for the family to eat and they would leave the rest of the crop to waste.
EMPOWERING WOMEN
Mustafa’s wife, Shafaq, sees the social impact of participating in the fair trade coop from a woman’s perspective. She says, “When Canaan Fair Trade started asking women if they want to work in making Maftoul the women were hesitant. Some women even said no because they were afraid that it would be socially unacceptable for them to work. Today, all the women want to make Maftoul and they wait for the Maftoul season with great anticipation.”
The Jarar family olive oil is one of Canaan’s finest olive oils. Due to their proximity to the Canaan Fair Trade olive press and the uniqueness of their land their oil is bottled as the Estate Olive Oil and is enjoyed by hundreds of people around the world. According to Mustafa this makes him feel very proud because he now knows that he is part of a global culture of organic producers. And as Shafaq likes to say, “I exist through my olive oil and for my family and I it is a source of income and high spirits.”
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Vivien is a life style writer and photographer for Canaan Fair Trade, capturing the stories of the farmers of the Palestine Fair Trade Association for the wider world. These stories show how Canaan Fair Trade has empowered 1700 farmers and their families in its short history. “Fair trade is helping our farmers reconnect to what is beautiful about their communities.” She says. Vivien helped with much of the co-ordination of RAP, translating, connecting, writing, and photographing.
