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About Us
Mark Hare '87
Mark Hare graduated from Warren Wilson with a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a focus in International Development and went on to earn his Master’s in Forestry from Michigan State University. He put these degrees to good use: after graduating, Mark worked as an international volunteer for the Peace Corps in the Natural Resource Program in the Dominican Republic and later in Nicaragua. During his time in Nicaragua, Mark worked at the Ebenezer Center outside Niquinohomo as a specialist in community development, soil management and agroforestry. Mark and his Ebenezer Center colleagues had six acres of land on which to experiment: they raised goats, rabbits, and chickens. They planted nitrogen-fixing leguminous vines, shrubs and trees to restore the quality of the area’s highly eroded soil. The manure from the goats and rabbits went to help produce California red worms, which helped nutrients to become absorbed into the soil.
Work at the Ebenezer Center prepared Mark for his current work in Haiti, where he moved in 2004. He works with the MPP, which in Haitian Creole stands for “Mouvman Peyizan Papay,” or “Farmers’ Movement of Papay.” The MPP started very small, with just a few members, about 30 years ago and has since grown into a larger grassroots movement tying together thousands of community groups and farming cooperatives throughout Haiti. In his work with the MPP Mark aims to help families diversify and integrate small animal production with vegetables and other crops around their homes. He and 14 colleagues are using a small plot of land to find innovative ways for families to sustain themselves: they are raising goats, chickens, and California red worms; they are planting living barriers using leguminous tree species; and they are establishing fruit and forage tree species and producing lots of vegetables, many of which are grown in stacks of tires to keep them out of reach of the neighbors’ livestock. The project is called the “Road to Life Yard.”