Jul 13, 2022
An image of Turba Farm, a women-led organic & regenerative farm by Farms Not Arms, after one full-year in operation
Editor’s Note: The design collective Farms Not Arms recently celebrated the completion of their Turba Farm’s first year in operation. Following up on the article ‘Farms Not Arms Tackles The Refugee And Food Security Crises,’ the Agritecture team decided to interview Jehane Akiki, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Farms Not Arms and Turba Farm. The following article details the team’s journey to this victory - specifically how they’ve navigated Lebanon’s economic meltdown. Learn more about this design collective’s impact in their First Year Report here.
As a farming entrepreneur, setting up your farm for success is an uphill battle before ground is even broken.
Now, imagine the additional pressures you’d have to bear if your farm’s financial viability was threatened by a massive economic crisis - rapid inflation, excessive currency fluctuations, and a deteriorating market. How would you navigate this chaotic instability?
A look inside Turba Farm’s greenhouse
Meet Farms Not Arms (FNA), a design collective that recently celebrated the completion of their social enterprise, Turba Farm’s, first year after navigating Lebanon’s scary economic meltdown.
To truly celebrate this enterprise's accomplishment, we must first contextualize the problem. According to The World Bank, Lebanon is sinking into one of the most severe global crises episodes. Their GDP plummeted from US$55 billion in 2018 to US$18 billion in 2021.
As a systems designer, strategist, and social entrepreneur, Jehane Akiki, Co-Founder & Managing Director of FNA, shares that “Lebanon is unique in its food insecurity considering the country doesn’t suffer from a lack of arable land. In actuality, it was once the breadbasket of the Middle East. Once an agrarian country, Lebanon went through a 15-year civil war that changed this.”
A post-war government restructuring meant that “the agricultural industry was neglected in favor of banking, tourism, and financial services, helping imports more than exports.” Matters worsened when the economic crisis in 2020 meant “the local currency was devaluing and in freefall, reducing people's incomes and purchasing powers. And, since 85% of food is now imported, the cost of food became much more expensive.”
Driven by this need, Akiki decided to use her passion for social entrepreneurship to co-create a new model for national food security through co-founding Farms Not Arms. This collective worked together to build a regenerative farm model as a solution to food security, climate change and social cohesion. The same model was then applied to create Turba Farm, the women-led regenerative farm that was founded in April 2021 in Zahle, Lebanon.
“We want to grow as many things as possible in the country, spread awareness through education and partnerships, and bring the country back to a better place than it was pre-war. Our aim is to see this local organic food become much more commonplace. ”
Diagram explaining how the Farms Not Arms team set up Turba Farm for success
To build a path towards this envisioned change, the FNA team “designed a regenerative farm that has a greenhouse in which we’re experimenting with low-tech hydroponics - specifically, a nutrient film technique (NFT) system, and a deep water culture system. Our long-term goal is to find a way to close the loop between the two, having some of the outputs from the farm feed into the hydroponics, like creating compost water.”
In this first year, the team solely ran a soil-based regenerative farm, Turba Farm, while running some experiments with low-tech hydroponics. Akiki shares that “the regenerative soil-based farm performed beyond expectations. The success made us realize that when working with soil, you must invest in the soil’s health and regenerate it. Because of this, we’re applying many different agro-ecological regenerative principles - when everything is in full bloom, you see how a variety of crops are densely grown next to each other and are working symbiotically to grow and create this living ecosystem.”
Diagram exploring the breadth of the Farms Not Arms team’s impact - particularly in terms of food produced, amount donated, and number of jobs created within the community
FNA’s First Year Report lists that 8000 lbs have been produced, 700 people have been impacted, 700 lbs have been donated, 400 people have received donations, and 20 jobs have been created in this short time.
As of presently, the farm donates a portion of the harvest and sells the rest to ensure they’re being self-sufficient financially. “We do our donations through community-based organizations and the Lebanese Food Bank, but also to camps and locals that we know are in need of food.”
Akiki shares that one of these communities is a collective of women that “started creating their own pantry products out of the produce - traditional items like chili paste, organic ketchup, and more. This was something we hadn’t even anticipated. When we heard about their initiative, we hopped on board and are now employing these women to create these products that we sell to customers and in farmers’ markets. It’s been great to see this domino effect from our donations, creating jobs for women and creating products that can make additional revenue in the farmers market.”
Farms Not Arms is now turning the tide, moving the Lebanese population away from viewing farming as an undesirable profession and, in turn, encouraging local production, and participating in building a local network of organic farms to work together towards food security.
Farms Not Arms’s vision is to work collectively to create systems-wide change, to have a community center on the farm - “a space for sustainable organic agriculture where there is more collaboration, support, and knowledge sharing.” They are already part of a grassroots collective being built by the few local organic farms around preserving and growing native and heirloom seeds. They believe these are key for a truly regenerative system. And, while still in its initial stages, this network of farms is already exchanging knowledge and resources.
Akiki is hopeful about the future of agriculture, especially with upcoming generations. “More millennials and Gen Z’ers are showing interest in farming, their environment, and in understanding where their food comes from. We’re bringing on volunteers and are happy to be able to nourish this change.”
Turba Farm’s produce on sale at the local farmers market, featuring herbs, leafy greens, carrots, cabbages, pantry products, and more
To get this far, the FNA team faced numerous challenges that proved instrumental in the decision-making process.
Financial viability - “Our particular challenge with the economic crisis is that we're paying all of our expenses in dollars while produce is sold in the local currency. So, there's always this volatility.” The FNA team works around this by exploring different distribution channels. “We’re selling directly to consumers, with CSA-style boxes, and in farmer's markets, and we’re starting to change mindsets around local production.”
Adaptability - “You constantly have to accept that there are things beyond your control, and be willing to change certain things - like how we deliver, who works on the farm, at what time, etc. Overall, it’s made us more efficient because we had to work with and adapt to the wider system.”
Weather & resource limitations - “We had to succumb to the climatic restrictions and recognize that we couldn’t invest in expensive approaches to make the hydroponics work. These challenges instructed how we move forward as a business - focusing on just NFT, because of the rising electricity and fuel costs.”
Maintenance & weeding - “In operating an organic farm, the first couple of years have a lot of maintenance work regarding pests and weeds. While we’re building a living system to deal with this [with the companion planting and trees that are not yet mature], we must constantly be tweaking it. I believe this creates a much more resilient and effective farm but needs a lot of hands-on work.”
A look at Turba Farm’s crop growth during the Fall of 2020
This is why Akiki and the FNA team are thankful for the support of Agritecture.
She shares that “in all of this, Agritecture has been a tremendous help. The team helped us figure out how we can adapt to climatic and resource restrictions - make our hydroponic greenhouse low-tech, and how to apply the regenerative side of the equation to experimental hydroponics. They’ve been a helpful contact in establishing connections in the industry and gaining exposure with the right people. We’ve even found clients through Agritecture!”
Looking to the future, FNA is keen to further build out the FNA model for national food security while making Turba Farm financially viable as a social enterprise. A vital piece of this is “figuring out ways in which we can package our model so that it can be replicated by governments, municipalities, and individuals globally so that all can benefit from it.”
