She owns an olive grove with an area of just over one hectare, which she cultivates according to Naturland Fair guidelines. "I have a very close bond with my olive trees, I know every tree". She is the mother of four children, and her husband works as a truck driver. The maintenance and pruning work in the grove is done by the individual family members, sometimes assisted by outside labor. But at harvest time in October, all six Baramehs work together.
In Palestine, more than 100,000 families make their living from the olive harvest, cultivating about 80 percent of the land used for agriculture. Here, agri-culture in the true sense of the word encompasses the rural farmer lifestyle of many Palestinians. The olive farmers’ cooperative Canaan Fair Trade wants to preserve and at the same time create global market access to this tradition.
Behind Canaan is the cultural anthropologist Dr. Nasser Abufarha. He also founded the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) in 2004, thereby laying the foundation for organic agriculture in the West Bank. The two organizations have since complemented each other: PFTA advises, trains, and supports small farmers in converting to organic farming, while Canaan Fair Trade provides a trading and distribution platform for over 1,100 Palestinian smallholder families in 43 villages. About 40 employees process, market, and export the produced raw materials and finished products.
Basema Barameh grows many things for self-sufficiency in her garden, from chickpeas to mint and parsley to beans and potatoes. Her orchard offers an immense variety: clementine, cactus, lime, orange, pomegranate, lemon, walnut, and fig stand close together here.
They all grow in harmony with nature. This is because Naturland considers and certifies the entire farm, not just the olive grove alone. Thus, the organic standards always apply to all branches of the farm: livestock, vegetables, fruit, and cereals.
360° Fair: Naturland Fair from North to South
In 2010, Naturland enhanced its standards with the voluntary Naturland Fair trademark. It stands for organic and fair from a single source. It guarantees that farmers worldwide can make a living from their products and is a base to create added value for nature and people. Naturland Fair standards specify responsible entrepreneurship, fair prices, trading relationships based on partnership, societal engagement, support of local economies, and social commitment. One of the first cooperatives in the Naturland Fair network operating according to these principles is Canaan Fair Trade.
"We women and mothers have the duties to pass on the ancient tradition of olive culture to the next generation, to transmit agricultural knowledge to them."
Being president of the local women's association, Basema Barameh shows her community stewardship. She regrets that schools and universities in many places still focus solely on conventional farming methods. In her view, the future is in modern technology that makes the hard field work much easier. In Basema Barameh's view, these are not opposites, but perfect complements that would also make it possible to get young people interested in cultivating olives again.
Canaan Fair Trade shares this understanding and offers farmers workshops that enrich their ancient knowledge with new, innovative approaches. For example, they learn about the advantages of olive branch prunings chipped down into wood chips as mulch material, and planting more food-producing trees and vines such as figs, pomegranate, grapes, carob, and almonds.
In a social entrepreneurial spirit, Canaan Fair Trade accompanies Palestinian farmers to economic independence and gives their children educational opportunities by awarding scholarships. At the same time, the Naturland Fair partner has launched the "Trees for Life" program to reforest olive groves destroyed by the Middle East conflict. This benefits small farming families and enables young farmers to enter the olive oil market.
In addition, Canaan Fair Trade also strives to improve environmental stewardship by raising awareness of the food’s impact on the environment. Small-scale regenerative agricultural practices improve soil and water quality, protect biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately, they counteract climate change – and benefit everyone.
"The past generations have planted so we eat. And we plant so future generations will eat."
In their day-to-day work, Basema Barameh and the other farmers behind Canaan Fair Trade align all their efforts to protect their land, their people, and their culture. Their cultivation requires a lot of work. If done fairly, it not only protects the people and ecosystems involved but also secures the basis of life for future generations.
This text is a translation. No guarantee can be given for the correctness.
