At theClinton Global Initiative in September it was announced that the SFA and Timberland had fulfilled their joint pledge of planting 5 million trees in Haiti in 5 years. While making the announcement, Chelsea Clinton also highlighted the exciting news that the SFA will have its first commercial product on the shelves at more than 400 Whole Foods Markets in the U.S. beginning in January. It is an all-natural energy shot being produced by Kuli Kuli and made with Haitian smallholder-grown moringa that has been processed into powder by women farmers.

Within a week of those announcements came the premiere of Kombit: The Cooperative, a new documentary film by Found Object that traces the inspiring story of how the SFA came into being through an innovative partnership with Timberland.

Since it’s founding in 2010, the Smallholder Farmers Alliance has grown far beyond its modest origins as a pilot program committed to planting trees in Haiti. We now apply a self-sustaining social business model to building agricultural export markets, creating a wide range of rural farm enterprises and services, and running several community based initiatives to empower women farmers. And we still plant a million trees a year.

We have also grown beyond Haiti. Impact Farming is a new U.S. 501c3 non-profit that builds on what has been accomplished by the SFA by expanding the model internationally, advocating for smallholder farmers throughout the developing world through media, education and in global forums.

Impact Farming has already been working behind the scenes with Kuli Kuli and Whole Foods on the new moringa project. Last week it was announced that Impact Farming and the SFA are collaborating on a comprehensive feasibility study to explore the possibility of reintroducing cotton as a crop in Haiti, this time with smallholder farmers involved as both growers and exporters. Look for more such collaborations in the future.

Regards,