A social enterprise celebrates their first year in operation

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

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." 

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Photo: A look inside Turba Farm's greenhouse. Courtesy of Agritecture.

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.

Source: Agritecture