NAU\u2019s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals<\/a> is supporting Native American tribes on a new initiative: food systems. Earlier this month, ITEP assisted the Navajo Nation with the launch of its gardening challenge, which encourages tribal members to plant gardens, an integral part of the tribe\u2019s tradition and culture.<\/p>\n\u201cITEP was honored when the Navajo Nation Vice President, Jonathan\u00a0Nez, asked for our assistance with this program to serve the Navajo communities,\u201d said ITEP\u2019s Executive Director Ann Marie Chischilly<\/strong>. \u201cWe worked collaboratively with many other growing programs and will continue to offer our services,\u201d she added, referring to multiple initiatives within the institute.<\/p>\n\u201cThe Navajo Nation president and vice president decided that physical health, public health and the health of the nation are\u00a0going to be one of the cornerstones of their administration during the remaining three years,\u201d said Ron Hubert<\/strong>, an adjunct professor and consultant for businesses, communities and tribes incorporating strategies for environmental sustainability.<\/p>\nHubert said Nez was inspired after traveling to Cuba with other Native American tribal leaders. The group viewed Cuba\u2019s practice of using individual and community gardens rather than large industrial farms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe realized food is a key for health, especially becoming self sufficient and having access to healthy and affordable food,\u201d Hubert said.<\/p>\n
The Navajo Nation is providing seeds for tribal members with the help of Navajo Nation gardening groups, so people can reconnect with their heritage while growing their own food items.<\/p>\n
The gardening challenge, taking place throughout the reservation\u2019s 27,000 square miles, is part of a bigger initiative at ITEP, whose leaders decided about a year ago to add food programs to their portfolio of trainings. ITEP supports 500 tribes in the United States with information and training related to renewable energy, water, air quality, climate change and other environmental issues.<\/p>\n
Additionally, ITEP is coordinating and facilitating a food systems conference in October for\u00a0the Navajo Nation\u00a0to examine progress and develop a three-year implementation plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As tribal leaders realize the many benefits of growing food locally, they are working to gain information on best growing practices. NAU\u2019s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals is supporting Native American tribes on a new initiative: food systems. Earlier this month, ITEP assisted the Navajo Nation with the launch of its gardening challenge, which encourages…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":44495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1520,340,1106,1518,1521,1519,1522],"class_list":["post-44494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-ann-marie-chischilly","tag-institute-for-tribal-environmental-professionals","tag-itep","tag-jonathan-nez","tag-native-american-food-systems","tag-ron-hubert","tag-tribal-food-sovereignty"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}