ON THE FARM
This week we celebrate the return of Mo Aristegui of High Desert Composting. Mo has been in Uruguay, visiting family, and it’s been fun to chat with her about her observations and adventures during her trip.
Welcome back, Mo!
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New in the Store
Actual size: 2″ x 3″Defend Human Rights stickers. $4 each.
We also have strawberries, sorrel, apricot sprite agastache, flora pearl appleblossom dianthus and autumn sunset rudbeckia.
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Rod’s House
This week our eggs went into homemade noodles and those went into chicken soup. Nona provided garlic, ranch and bacon knots, sandwich bread, AND a cake.
We will serve through March, so our winter cooking season is quickly coming to a close. If you’d like to contribute a dessert, main or side just send an email to coordinate.
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Now Reading
“Born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a Welsh father, steeped in both literary and scientific traditions, Jessica J. Lee is a perfectly placed observer of our world in motion.”
“Saving seeds is an act of belief in a future that the present tells me cannot exist, but I do it anyway.
Two things can be true at once.”
Learn more.
LOCAL
Homeschool Days: Make the Museum Your Classroom
“Social studies lessons for homeschool students in 3rd-8th grade at the Yakima Valley Museum
Lessons are developed and taught by experienced educators and align with Washington State Standards. Students enjoy a lesson with hands-on activities and receive a guide with suggested museum exhibits and readings for further exploration. Lessons are offered every month on the 2nd Wednesday of the month beginning January 14th from 10:30 to 11:45.
Attendance is $10 per student and includes museum admission. Free for members!
Advance registration is required, click here to register.
Topics include:
Indigenous peoples and their cultures
The Columbian Exchange
Immigration
Yakima Valley history
History of the conservation of our environment”
(Source: Yakima Valley Museum)
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Eastern Washington Farmworkers Fight their own Legislators to Win Labor Rights Withheld for Nearly a Century
“Today, America’s farmworkers are overwhelmingly Latino, including in Washington. The continued exclusion of farmworkers from labor protections perpetuates a system of oppression based on race that proponents of Senate Bill 6045 say is downstream of slavery.
“There’s no other reason for exclusion except racism,” says Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the United Farm Workers, the nation’s largest agricultural workers union.
‘This isn’t about cattle. This isn’t about crops. This is about civil rights.‘”
(Source: Inlander, Feb 18)
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MasqueRave:
Mask-Making Workshop | March 7
10:00am–12:00pm & 1:00–3:00pm (with a one-hour lunch break)
“Join renowned artist Brian Kooser of Blue Bear Puppet Lab, a beloved Washington-based creative studio known for its large-scale puppets and joyful public art. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn paper mâché mask-making techniques and leave with a custom mask finished up to the painting stage. All supplies included. Ages 10+ welcome with a guardian.”
(Source: Mojo Studio)
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As Trump Turns His Back on Environmental Justice, States and Cities Must Step Up
“Local and state cumulative impacts laws can provide needed protections for communities where the federal government is failing, and make fertile ground for future federal progress.”
(Source: Common Dreams, Feb 19)
WA STATE
Global Earth Repair Convergence
May 7-11 2026
On-Line From Anywhere in the World
Or In-Person At The
Historic Fort Worden State Park & Conference Center Port Townsend, Washington
on the Olympic Peninsula
“A groundbreaking gathering of global change-makers dedicated to restoring ecosystems, regenerating our planet, and fostering community. Join over 500 participants in-person and thousands more online for five transformative days of learning, collaboration, and celebration.”
(Source: Global Earth Repair Convergence)
NATIONAL & BEYOND
Free Human Rights Poster!
“You Have the Right To… is a brand new poster that Woven Teaching has created for your classroom. Help students learn about the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights–rights that every person is entitled to. Free to U.S. based educators.”
(Source: Woven Teaching)
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LISTEN (1 hour): Immigrant Rights are Human Rights
“Angelina Godoy, founding director of the UW Center for Human Rights, unpacks how immigration enforcement has slid toward secret-police tactics, how Washington state data is being quietly weaponized, and why ‘immigrant rights are human rights’ isn’t just a slogan, it’s a legal and political battleground. It’s dark, funny, furious, and grounding all at once: a group therapy session for a moment that demands clarity, courage, and boundaries.”
(Source: In the Meanwhile, Jan 23)
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The Human Rights Game
“The Human Rights Game can be utilised with the curriculum areas; Intercultural Capability, Ethical Capability, Personal and Social, Humanities Civics Citizenship, Humanities History, and Physical Education.
The first aim of The Human Rights Game is to make a positive difference by teaching children and teens about their rights, freedoms and responsibilities as individuals and groups of individuals in educational settings. We underpinned our educational game with the United Nations 30 Articles and its three pillars (Freedom, Equity, and Dignity) so that it has contemporary relevance and authenticity.
The second aim of our game is to help students learn how to make better choices in a rapidly changing world whereby mores, customs, ethics, and values are learnt from non-traditional sources often with materialistic and prejudiced underpinnings. Much of the learning takes place through discussion, short storytelling and problem-solving.
The third aim of our game is to help minimize school-based bullying. One of the key learnings associated with participation in gameplay is learning how to be respectful. If students are being respectful, it is virtually impossible to bully.”
(Source: Human Rights Educators USA)
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(3 Hours) Free Human Rights E‑Course
“Do you know your rights? The fact is, most people can’t name more than a handful of the 30 human rights we all share. Yet these same rights guarantee our safety, our security and our very lives. This interactive course offers an introduction to human rights and outlines their development through history up to the present day. It teaches you about the world’s most important human rights documents and every article of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Start right now, because when you know your rights, they can never be taken away.”
(Source: United for Human Rights)
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WATCH (70 MINS): One Model, Many Pathways: The Farmland Commons in Practice with the Farmers Land Trust
“Ian and Kristina share a series of real-world case studies that show how this single model is being applied in dramatically different ways across geographies, land types, and communities. From landowners donating land while retaining a life estate, to families securing first right of lease for children and grandchildren; from discounted sales and thoughtful transitions, to land donations made for reparations with donors joining Farmland Commons boards; to next-generation farmers stepping into long-term, secure leases, these projects reveal the many ways they are meeting landowners where they are and shaping land transitions that honor people, place, and future farmers. What excites us most is the adaptability of the model and the deep relief and possibility it creates for landowners and communities alike!”
(Source: Women, Food and Agriculture Network, Feb 18)
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LISTEN (68 MIN): The Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest with Paul Koberstein
“Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest alone holds more total carbon than any national forest in the country. That scale of storage is central to Paul’s point: the science doesn’t say we’re powerless. It suggests that we can still influence the climate back toward something more stable. If fossil fuels loaded the atmosphere with excess carbon, then forests, if protected and restored, can help draw it back down. Forests have stabilized the climate for thousands and thousands of years. Whether they continue to do so depends largely on us letting them do their job.”
(Source: Crude Magazine, Feb 12)
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Spring 2026 Restoration Forestry Internship
Dates: April 26-June 20, 2026
Application deadline: March 15, 2026
“Interns will have the opportunity to hone their skills and experience in:
Process-based restoration practices
Regenerative food production
Ecological forestry
Permaculture
Natural building
Agroforestry
The Center for Rural Livelihoods (formerly Aprovecho) has been a leader in sustainable living for half a century. Our 40-acre campus, outside Cottage Grove, Oregon, is a living laboratory for agroforestry, habitat restoration, ecological forestry, natural building, appropriate technologies and grass-roots organizing.”
(Source: Center for Rural Livelihoods)
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Raising Children With Roots, Rights & Responsibilities:
Celebrating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
“A curriculum designed for young children and their parents.”
(Source: Human Rights Educators USA)
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The Restoration Academy
“The Restoration Academy is a flexible and interactive workshop format that connects on-the-ground restoration implementers to the global vision of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It equips local actors with tailored knowledge, peer learning opportunities, and practical tools to scale up ecosystem restoration around the world.
Whether you’re working in a community forest, a degraded wetland, or a dryland ecosystem — the Restoration Academy is here to support and amplify your impact.
Why host a Restoration Academy?
Empower your network: Bring restoration practitioners together to learn, share, and grow.
Widen your circle: Gather a diverse range of stakeholders and perspectives on restoration.
Use proven tools: Access tested training modules, facilitation guides, and session templates.
Build community: Join a global alumni network of restoration champions.
Adapt it your way: Customize the format based on your region’s priorities and time.”
(Source: United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: 2021-2030)
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Human Rights in the Era of Globalization
Reclaiming justice, Accountability, and Dignity in a World Shaped by Power and Inequality
“Not all forms of growth and development are human rights-friendly. Development has to demonstrably give protection to the most vulnerable and impoverished in society to be fully human rights-friendly.
The values we must advocate for from now on under the new human rights paradigm are thus underpinned by international human rights law that, in the future, needs to be incorporated into national laws—in part through our future political struggle for this and through our action as watchdogs of their enforcement. Our human rights work should, therefore, begin at home.”
(Source: Meer, 15 February)
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LISTEN (21 MINS): Learning from our Forbears to Protect Human Rights
“The legacy of civil rights activist, Dorothy Cotton and the Citizen Education Project.
We’ll hear from Laura Braca who helped start the Dorothy Cotton Institute to take Cotton’s method for fostering civil rights to inspire and support people who want to protect global human rights.”
(Source: In-Between Places, June 2022)
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Plan International Youth Leadership Academy
“A year-long social impact fellowship by youth, for youth, hosted by Plan USA’s Youth Advisory Board. It centers on the Leadership Project deliverable. Throughout the course of the year, each participant will ideate, design and implement their own local advocacy project related to gender equity.
The Youth Leadership Academy is open to all U.S.-based young people ages 14-18 who are currently in grades 8-11. We value diverse perspectives, identities and experiences, and encourage passionate individuals to apply!
Plan is happy to offer financial aid, as we are committed to ensuring the YLA is accessible to all, regardless of financial circumstance.”
Apply to join the YLA
(Source: Plan USA)
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Permaculture Solutions
(56 MINS) Part 1
(62 MINS) Part 2
(62 MINS) Part 3
(Source: Permies.com, Febraury)
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Truth: OHCHR and Transitional Justice
“The right to truth about gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law is an inalienable right linked to the State’s duty to protect human rights, conduct effective investigations, and guarantee effective remedies and reparation.
It is enshrined in international binding instruments such as the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and in a variety of other instruments such as the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law.”
(Source: United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner)
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A Hollow Bone: Terry Tempest Williams
“Standing inside this era of uncertainty, where climate collapse is converging with real threats to our democracy—regardless of one’s politics—we are in a season of change. Regina and I are both friends and neighbors in the Interior West. We have long devoted ourselves to the care of wild lands and wild lives, and the human communities that support land health, recognizing environmental justice is justice for all species, not just our own.”
(Source: Emergence Magazine, Dec 2025)
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Phew. A lot of content this week!
I’m going to take that as a good sign. :)
Onward!
Maria
