Life in the Sonoran Desert Part II: Interview with Nina Altshul of TOCA

Brooke Smith, March 11, 2011

Nina Altshul recently began working with the beginning farmers at Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) in southern Arizona. TOCA is a community-based organization dedicated to creating a healthy, sustainable, and culturally vital community on the Tohono O’odham Nation, and a recipient of the WhyHunger’s 2010 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance award.

Nina’s indefatigable passion for her work and her community has inspired action and innovation around the world (she originally hails from Slovenia). On top of that, she’s a great tour guide —introducing us to local Tohono O’odham farmers, chefs, students and elders, and touring us through large and small scale growing projects, emergency food pantries, clinic-based gardens and emerging farming education projects stretching 75 miles across the desert from Sells to Ajo. Here she talks about her motivation for all of this amazing work.