PRI&#39;s Living on Earth originally covered this story. For more, listen to the audio above.
&quot;You cannot separate agri with culture,&quot; Ríos told &quot;Living on Earth.&quot; Just as a range of opinions creates strong culture, diversity in crops creates a strong agricultural system.
In Ríos&#39; native Cuba, agriculture was once based on a Soviet-style system of monoculture and pesticides. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, which effectively deprived Cuba of its biggest trading partner, Ríos and others were forced to think of a better way.
Rather than transforming and homogenizing the earth, Ríos worked with farmers to create a low-input, sustainable agricultural system that respected the environment and its diversity. He also helped create &quot;seed fairs&quot; where farmers could exchange knowledge of agriculture and culture, integrating traditional and scientific knowledge.
&quot;I originally thought that I was going to teach the farmers to improve seed diversity,&quot; Ríos told the Goldman Foundation. &quot;After I started working with them, I realized they were going to teach me how to create better crop yields.&quot;
Today, the system Ríos pioneered is paying off. Ríos was recently awarded <a href="http://www.goldmanprize.org/2010/islands" target="_blank" title="Goldman Prize" rel="noopener">The Goldman Environmental Prize</a>&mdash;which is sometimes called the Green Nobel. More importantly, there are more than 50,000 farmers in Cuba currently working with Ríos on farming practices and participating in seed biodiversity systems.
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Hosted by Steve Curwood, &quot;Living on Earth&quot; is an award-winning environmental news program that delves into the leading issues affecting the world we inhabit. <a href="../living-on-earth.html" title="Living on Earth">More &quot;Living on Earth.&quot;</a>
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