We have an incredible announcement to share! 

For the third year in a row, Agros International is the recipient of the Climate Smart grant from Rick Steves’ Europe. 

In late 2019, Rick Steves’ Europe launched their Climate Smart Commitment — a program designed to pay back the environmental debt created by their travelers flying to Europe to join their bus tours. At $30 per person for the 30,000+ travelers, they invested $1 million in a self-imposed carbon tax to creatively mitigate this carbon footprint. 

Agros and Rick Steves’ Europe share the belief that sustainable, climate-smart agribusinesses are the key to helping Central American farmers exit poverty permanently. We are so grateful to Rick Steves & his organization “Rick Steves Europe” for continuing to commit to climate-smart practices around the globe. 

In 2019, his documentary “Hunger and Hope” was released. For those of you unfamiliar, you can find that documentary here. 

With their support in 2020 and 2021, we launched several new programs. We… 

• Established a vermi-compost production and training facility 
• Created a tree nursery that produced 41,000 seedlings 
• Built a water irrigation system 

• Installed a hydroponic module 
• Teach farmers the technical skills required to ensure these programs are maintained, 
• Optimize and expand the hydroponic module 

The donation helped Agros provide 97 subsistence farmers in the village of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, with training on climate-smart agriculture practices. Since the start of the project, 63 of those families have shifted the way they see agriculture production, increased their crop yields and household incomes, decreased their use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and adopted water-conserving irrigation systems. 

You can read more about Rick Steves’ Climate Smart Commitment and his work with Agros International here. 

Why Rick Steves Invests in Agros

Our goal at Agros isn’t simple charity. Instead, we help families diversify their income, become self-sufficient, and pass down the knowledge needed to flourish to future generations. This combats hunger at its root causes. Ending global hunger in our lifetime is a goal that can be achieved. Your support expands Agros’ holistic, long-term solutions to ending global hunger and poverty. 

For over three decades, Agros has been called to walk alongside farming families in rural Latin America as they journey out of poverty and toward prosperity. Climate change is a profound new challenge in that equation. It has a new, daily, life-changing, negative impact on the families we serve, and we dedicate ourselves to helping those families build lives of dignity and prosperity — no matter what challenge lies ahead. 

Learn more about how Agros is fighting to end global poverty in Central America when you sign up for our email updates or follow us on social media. You’ll stay up to date on our progress and learn how you can join the fight to end global hunger permanently.

You can also make a donation. Your gift helps to break the cycle of poverty and create paths to prosperity for farming families in rural Latin America.