The visual aid I created for my internship presentation at Columbia University

1. I made a 17 page PDF booklet of the FLD for AGC’s Library
for Food Sovereignty. Here is a sample below:
FINAL OUTPUT
Farmer-Led Documentation in Hanoi, Vietnam
#IStandWithFarmers
AGC’S MISSION
A Growing Culture aims to create a global coalition
connecting farmers with the resources they need to
contribute to an ecologically sound food system and
prosperous planet.
The mission is carried out through the three pillars of the
organization: information exchange, outreach and advocacy.
METHODOLOGY
• Co-workers arranged meetings with farmers they knew
• We walked through the farm and observed the tools/materials
used for particular method
• My co-workers became familiar with the essential information
required for FLD
• They would begin talking in Vietnamese, then they would
translate the information for me
• If I had additional questions, I would ask in English and they
would translate the answers to me
OBJECTIVES
•Multiple farmer-led documentation (FLD) articles
• Support farmers to contribute to and utilize the
Library for Food Sovereignty
• Collect farmer input
• An outline of suggestions for integrating climate change
resilience and climate appropriateness into the platform
to be shared with our developers
• A document detailing farmer Library input collected while
in Vietnam
• Find ways to channel farmer input into academic climate
change resilience and risk assessment tools to recognize
the validity of farmer experiences and knowledge.
www.agrowingculture.org
www.ccspin.org
Author’s contact: esivagnanam@yahoo.com; www.linkedin.com/in/emilenesiv
FLD documentation requires patience and the ability to think
abstractly – sometimes words, phrases, or concepts simply do
not translate, and you have to learn to describe words, or be
flexible and accept that you just may not be able to
communicate a concept across cultures.
I found there seemed to be a “translator-language bias”–
when concepts were translated to me I would record the notes
in my notebook, sometimes inherently changing the
grammar. Therefore, the information went from farmer `
translator  me  final output. I am interested in learning
about methods to correct this when a translator is necessary.
LESSONS LEARNED
Emilene Sivagnanam,
Columbia University
7/27/2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks to the i-Nature team, Pham Trang and Tran Dung, for supporting me, allowing me
to speak to your personal contacts, and translating for me. This wouldn’t have been possible
without you two.
Collecting information for the farmer-led documents was only
a small part of my internship. Most of my time was spent in
CCS’ office, working on proposals for i-Nature, editing
documents, and creating my final output booklet for AGC.
Most importantly, I learned a lot about organic, zero-waste
agriculture, which personally bridges the gap for me between
my interest in climate change impacts and agriculture.
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
My summer internship was spent in Hanoi, Vietnam, where
the NY organization, A Growing Culture (AGC), supported
my work in Hanoi with the i-Nature team, which is a
program at the Center for Creativity and Sustainability
(CCS). I learned about zero-waste, organic farming, and was
able to meet with farmers using zero-waste technologies and
document their methods.