> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.possibilities.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Soul & Soil Pt. III - URL: https://www.possibilities.news/palestine-organic-farming-cooperative/ - Published: 2025-10-16T12:00:52.000Z - Updated: 2025-10-22T21:36:37.000Z - Description: Cooperatives have a rich history in Palestine. Hear from one activist who is in a cooperative in the West Bank. - Author: Yessenia Funes **This edition is available to all (except the paid exclusives). Support my work and upgrade to paid** [**here**](https://www.possibilities.news/#/portal/signup) **for as little as $5 a month.** 💗 ****| R E A D E R | T E S T I M O N I A L |** I find your perspective and voice illuminating and enjoy looking at the world through the lens of Possibilities. --- **LISTENING:** *to María Zardoya's angelic voice* **FEELING:** *excited for an eventful evening* **SEEING:** *my homegirl work alongside me* Ramallah is the central city of the West Bank. It's a cosmopolitan much like any other — bookstores and vendors line the streets. In many ways, however, it's a city unlike any I have ever visited. As the sun moves across the sky, various calls to prayer erupt across the city in a language I do not understand. And as the sun sets, the youth spill into the streets, hookah smoke and talks of revolution filling the air. Ramallah is also a city under occupation. Across historical Palestine, you should move with the caution of someone being surveilled. You should always carry your passport. You should be prepared to answer questions by young men with guns. In Ramallah, you can breathe a little easier, though. But just a little. I enjoyed my few days in the city back in April. I wonder what the energy feels like there now after Israel released 88 Palestinians — some held captive for decades — to their families and loved ones. On Monday, a bus [arrived](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/palestinian-prisoners-return-home?ref=possibilities.news) in the city with the shrunken bodies of men whose souls the Israeli government tried to suck out of them. Who knows? Maybe some did lose their souls. I hope that their daily prayer calls help them heal. That the land and trees and soil guide their souls back home. I interviewed a woman who's a farmer in a Ramallah village. I'm sharing her story this week — one of stewarding the land in concert with its natural rhythms. She's remaining anonymous for her safety. --- **READ PARTS I AND II** [**HERE**](https://www.possibilities.news/palestine-botanical-gardens-mazin-qumsiyeh/) **AND** [**HERE**](https://www.possibilities.news/palestine-olive-international-volunteer/)**.** **Cooperatives have a** [**rich history**](https://medfeminiswiya.net/2022/03/04/co-ops-an-old-but-new-alternative-to-development-in-palestine/?lang=en&ref=possibilities.news) in Palestine. For the unfamiliar, a cooperative is essentially a worker-owned business. There are lots more in-depth definitions that I won't get into, but [here's](https://ica.coop/en/cooperatives/what-is-a-cooperative?ref=possibilities.news) some information if you're interested. Anyway, in Palestine, I largely know about agricultural cooperatives where farmers grow organic produce and share knowledge and benefits. The farmer and activist from Ramallah works in a cooperative where tree seedlings are sold for a low cost. Her journey into the field isn't a generational one like many other Palestinian farmers I've spoken to. It reminded me of the Black city farmers I've met who turned to the greenery as a reprieve from the concrete. Like many of those individuals, she first connected with the soil as a hobby. When her community decided to open a nursery, she stepped up to take her interests to the next level. Like many agricultural organizations, her cooperative also invites volunteers to assist during harvest seasons. Some volunteers literally farm. Others organize or fix fences. Some people come from abroad. Many, however, are traveling from within Palestine — neighbors helping neighbors. Since Oct. 7, 2023, fewer and fewer volunteers have come, but they haven't disappeared altogether. Every Sunday, there's someone arriving to help. Usually a local. The cooperative doesn't work on many farms that face settler attacks. Not anymore, at least. They gave up trying to tend the lands near or beyond the apartheid wall. Shootings or attacks or tear gas would often follow. The settlers wouldn't let them harvest in peace. She hopes to see more volunteers return. When I asked her why this moment commands urgency, especially around volunteers, she told me through a translator the importance of bearing witness. "People need to see with their own eyes the realities of Palestinians — the stress, the risk, the endless harassment we face in our own villages. These lands are ours, yet we cannot access them. Many times, our lands are confiscated. It's important to convey our reality to the world so that, hopefully, something changes." Change can't come soon enough. 🌀 #### Subscription FYIs You can always adjust your subscription [here](#/portal/account/plans). The newsletter has several tiers, so if you're able to give more or need to give less, please adjust it as you see fit. I'm also giving paid subscribers a first look into my children's book. I [wrote](https://www.possibilities.news/a-year-of-possibilities/) about this last year, but here is the [landing page](https://www.possibilities.news/childrens-book/) where I'm keeping track of all the editions where you can find what I've shared so far. Send agents my way! **The newsletter ends here for free subscribers.** [**Why not upgrade?**](https://www.possibilities.news/#/portal/signup) ## Rest in Power **While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.** At least [one person](https://www.juneauempire.com/news/alaska-flooding-leaves-1-dead-and-2-missing/?ref=possibilities.news) is dead in Alaska after Typhoon Halong sent its remnants to the coast Monday, bringing life-threatening floods to Alaska-Native villages. Heavy rains brought river floods to various parts of Mexico last week, leaving at least [66 people dead](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/dozens-still-missing-days-after-mexicos-mass-flood-2025-10-15/?ref=possibilities.news) and dozens still missing. The nor'easter that brought wild winds to New York this weekend left at least [three people dead](https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/12/weather/noreaster-coastal-storm-flooding-wind-climate?ref=possibilities.news). ## Currently Reading Nina Lakhani gets personal in [this piece](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/oct/09/extreme-heat-deaths-autopsy?ref=possibilities.news) on heat-related deaths for the Guardian. Let's remember the people we've lost. I miss reading Darby Minow Smith's work, so what a joy it was to read [this piece](https://www.hcn.org/issues/57-10/whats-it-like-to-be-a-cow/?ref=possibilities.news) for High Country News on what it's like to be a cow. Emily Sanders never lets the fossil fuel industry get away with [its bullshit](https://www.exxonknews.org/p/study-oil-companies-are-not-part?ref=possibilities.news). This [essay](https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/moon-boots-na-mee-parenting-fear-grief-healing-597?ref=possibilities.news) by Na Mee for The Sun Magazine has nothing to do with climate, but I loved every single sentence. Ahmad Abushawish writes for [Prism](https://prismreports.org/2025/10/06/gaza-children-childhood/?ref=possibilities.news) about the children of Gaza: "Even their imaginations are shaped by survival and confined by fear. Instead of learning to count stars, they count explosions; instead of recognizing the taste of fruits, they identify the smell of gunpowder." I just got home from hearing Julian Brave Noisecat speak on his book tour, and I highly recommend reading this [New York Times essay](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/magazine/smoking-weed-with-dad.html?ref=possibilities.news) about his experience smoking weed with his dad. ## Poetry **RENEWAL** how do we begin anew? do we let go of the past? shed our skin and molt? like the sinful snakes of lucifer? or is renewal a reaping? not the biting of an apple— but the planting of its seed nurturing and harvesting dirt and death and immortality is this how I begin anew? do I close my eyes and dream? sleep and awaken like the deciduous trees come spring for now, I must shed not like the sinful snakes of lucifer but like the sacred serpents of mesoamerica like the trees that explode in a fury when the winds demand a tribute I offer myself in place of the leaves this is renewal— a return, an undoing, a rush of memories \-ylf- ****What are you reading and seeing? Share in a comment.** **Two more weeks of Soul & Soil. Have you been enjoying? I'd love your feedback. xx** \- Yessenia