A Visit from Vandanaji

“Wherever you are, even if all you have is a balcony, declare your seed freedom.” With this rallying cry, Dr. Vandana Shiva, the international face of Navdanya and the anti-GMO movement, called the interns at the Navdanya farm to action in creating a resource handbook for the “Seeds of Freedom, Gardens of Hope” international campaign for seed freedom.

On Sunday, Vandanaji visited the Navdanya farm and sat with the interns for about an hour, learning a little bit about our interests and sharing an abundance of her knowledge. We covered topics ranging from genetically-modified seeds to open source knowledge, seed-saving to the commons, health care to physics.

As she imparted her knowledge, Vandanaji called us toward communal living and communal action. Addressing Garrett Hardin’s notion of the Tragedy of the Commons, she pointed toward communal management of the commons, which is practiced effectively in India in some areas even today. Even in the United Kingdom, she said, it took years to kick people off of the common lands in order to privatize them, the basis of Hardin's theory. With the notion of the Tragedy of the Commons, we lost the idea of community and our capacity as self-regulating entities. These are the notions that we seek to regain through community gardens (something many of the current interns expressed some interest in) and seed freedom.

Last year, Navdanya launched the Seeds of Freedom campaign for seed freedom, with its Fortnight of Action 2 October – 16 October, in response to the double pressures of having to purchase GMO seeds yearly from the patent-holders and the reduction of alternatives through WTO and government rules and loss of local knowledge and seed stores. This year, they are expanding the movement to become “Seeds of Freedom, Gardens of Hope” to use the existing community garden movement to increase the involvement of cities and strengthen the seed-saving movement to increase Bija Swaraj or seed-sovereignty.

Most importantly, Dr. Shiva called on us and individuals and communities everywhere to get involved. Real freedom, she said, comes from collective self-organizing. Laws will follow behavioral changes, but we cannot wait for the laws to change to begin acting since the legal framework is so heavily controlled by corporations.

A Series of Observations

There are a few things I would like to share about India and Navdanya that don’t fit into any particular theme, so I thought I’d dedicate a blog post to them.

The suffix “-ji” added to any name is used as a sign of respect. Periodically, I have heard it in the context of “Gandhiji,” but nearly every adult gets addressed as “-ji” here. It can also be added to ordinary words, such as “namasteji” (hello and goodbye) or “danyevadji”(thank you).

We had a session with the Gandhi Legacy Tour group from the United States, which is led by Arunji Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. More to come later as I read Gandhi’s An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth and do a little more research on how Navdanya’s mission fits into Gandhi’s notion of self-sovereignty.

Kamalji is the cook. One morning, I saw him and said “Namesteji, Kamalji” in an excited voice, and he replied “Namesteji Imliji,” and then dissolved into giggles. Elizabeth, another American who was walking with me at the time, said, “Sometimes I feel like he’s just mocking us.” I later found out that he was, in fact, mocking us. Specifically, he was mocking me. It turns out that “imli” means tamarind in Hindi. So now Kamalji and I have a relationship based on the fact that he finds my name hilarious.

Before I got here, Margaret always told stories of Jeetpal. Now I’ve met Jeetpalji, and I understand why she said he inspired her to learn Hindi. He's taught me a lot, too.

I can already tell that I’m really going to miss Navdanya when I move to the next portion of my trip.

We had the greatest few days of storms about a week ago. While I really enjoyed the thunder, lightening, and downpouring rain, this is like it is during monsoon season. And it doesn’t usually do this at this time of year. It could seriously damage crops. Climate destabilization, including changes in rainfall patterns, has been part of the predictions about climate change for a long time.

I’m spending so much time around Westerners – mostly people from the U.S., but also Canada, Italy, Spain, and Greece. There is someone from China as well. This is not only true of the farm, but most of my experience in India so far.

I get cravings for the weirdest things. Right now, I want real maple syrup. Thanks for reintroducing me, Amos and Cheryl.

Food sanitation is just a little less important now. We had to borrow (yes, borrow) some rice for someone’s computer because she spilled tea on it. The kitchen staff made sure that we knew to bring back the rice when we were done with it. But it was going to be cooked, and it was dried out in the open anyway.

Foreign travelers should take probiotics not antibiotics. Broad spectrum antibiotics can kill everything in your stomach, making you unable to digest the foods you are eating easily.

I am on the other side of the world, and almost everyone I need to communicate with speaks my language.

In india, if you dig through the earth you won’t get to China; you might get to South America. If you dig from England, you will get to Australia.

Digging for Roots

The turmeric field is in the back of the farm, behind the storage shed. We dig out the roots with a simple tool designed to chop at the dirt to easily dig into it, tear off the leaves, place a small shoot of the root back into the ground, dump the roots into a water bucket to rinse them, and take them up to the roof of the storage building to dry. The next day, some people will cut the roots into smaller pieces, and they will continue to dry. After the turmeric dries, Navdanya will send it to a mill to be ground and then use it in the kitchen sell it in the stores.

Working in the turmeric fields at Navdanya, I feel like I am reaching out to the foundations of agriculture. We work our way through the fields, digging up the turmeric roots, pinching off a piece and replanting it in the soil, and taking the larger part to wash, cut, and dry for processing.

The Agricultural Revolution was not so much a revolution as a slow transition from foraging to permanent agriculture. Some societies even tried agriculture and returned to foraging for their food sustenance. As the women were foraging, they noticed that they could replant portions of whatever it was they were taking and return later that same year or the following year to harvest the produce again.

Root vegetables were an easy way to use this practice. The women began to notice that if they left a potato or a piece of turmeric or ginger in the ground, it would grow a new plant, so they began to intentionally leave behind root pieces for this purpose. Slowly, many societies became more sedentary and used these processes along with others to produce their own food in a single location. Although the process was a little more complicated than this, the general move happened somewhat in this fashion.

In many communities, this move toward sedentary lifestyles through the Agricultural Revolution began the process of social stratification and the growth of societies into larger units as labor became freed up for other pursuits such as the development of writing and intellectual pursuits. This formed the foundation of our modern societies.

Yet today, so many educated people are returning to the land, returning to the very process of root harvesting that started the whole thing. As Nikola, an intern from Greece, said, it is precisely because he has two degrees that he wants to get into farming and work with his hands.

The Magic in the Mantra

A little-known song written by John Lennon, “The Happy Rishikesh Song,” says “The magic in the mantra will give you the answer.” The Beatles are said to have opened up the West to Eastern philosophy and religion with their visit to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh in 1968. This past weekend, four of us interns went to Rishikesh on a whim.

Rishikesh is set at the base of the Himalayan foothills along the Ganga (in English, Ganges), and is named after Lord Vishnu, “Lord of the Senses.” With its location on the Ganga, Rishikesh is considered by Hindus to be a holy city. It is 100% vegetarian, as decreed by law. Many people, including the Beatles, travel to Rishikesh to meditate, practice yoga (in fact, the presence of so many yoga centers in Rishikesh is the direct result of tourism), or bathe in the Ganga. In fact, their stay in Rishikesh was one of their most productive songwriting periods.

The whole trip is only between two and three hours from Navdanya. Going there cost us each 15 Rupees for the bus to Dehradun, 78 Rupees for the bus to Rishikesh, and 40 Rupees to get to the hotel area. It was a little more expensive returning because we opted for an auto into Dehradun for coffee and then out to Navdanya for our class on composting. Each of us paid only 300 Rupees for two nights in two rooms on top of the hotel, with a beautiful view of the mountains and the surrounding city.

Our stay in Rishikesh included an Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga session with a very talented yogi, an Ayurvedic massage, a toe-dip in the Ganga, and some excellent Western food!

During our yoga session I tried a half-lotus vinyasa (flow-based yoga) movement, and was impressed with how well I do. Like so many things I’ve done here, this has added another goal to my list for when I return home. I’m definitely a long way from a successful half-lotus vinyasa movement, but it is definitely possible. I tried a few other things, but didn’t do nearly as well – my balance is definitely lacking.

My first ever massage was also a wonderful experience. I opted for an hour-long full-body Ayurvedic massage. Ayurveda is a traditional system of medicine in Hinduism based on the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) and balance that stresses herbal remedies. Though there are some problems with modern practices of Ayurvedic medicine, traditional medicinal practices have shown a lot of results from the herbs and other substances used. My massage was simply a full-body massage that included oil.

Dipping my feet in the Ganga was a wonderful experience. Though I didn’t experience any sort of profound religious moment, it was nice to have water run between my toes, which have mostly been snuggled inside multiple pairs of socks for the past few weeks.

While we were hanging out on the ghat (the stairs that go down to the river), a few people set up for and performed some sort of religious ritual that included music played through a loudspeaker, singing, incense, and movement. I also saw a couple women performing some sort of individual ritual right where the ghat meets the Ganga. One woman seemed to be ceremoniously throwing some trash in the river. I don’t understand that tradition, but as I said then, I will do my best not to judge – especially since I do not understand.

The setting at the base of the Himalayas was quite possibly my favorite part. Oh, if only Indiana were not so flat! Though I generally love waterways, something about those mountains took much of my attention away from the Ganga. I was sad to leave, which was mostly focused on the mountains. Though on clear days, Navdanya has a slight glimpse of the distant Himalayan foothills, being right next to them is something magical.

Talking Shit

Animal dung (“shit” is in very common parlance here, but I’ll stick with one of the words that is more acceptable to the American ear) has been used for centuries as a building material among many cultures around the world. In India, it still is. Today, we spent a few hours patching holes in the wall of the seed bank and re-covering the floor in a mixture of clay and cow dung. In talking about cow dung, I will be referring to this clay/dung mixture simply as “cow dung.”

Cow dung is excellent at regulating temperatures, which is why it is such an important building material in the seed bank, where the temperature needs to remain relatively stable to ensure the viability of the seeds. Seed saving is one of the main reasons the Navdanya farm exists, helping to maintain a genetic diversity among the crops that farmers can grow in India against the growing threat of hybrid and GMO seeds and seed patenting.

In addition to the building itself being made from cow dung, a few of the storage methods for the seeds also use cow dung. Baskets are woven and covered in cow dung to maintain a stable internal temperature, and large metal containers used to store seeds are sealed with cow dung. Though Navdanya uses other methods of seed storage in order to provide examples for farmers to use the option that best suits their available resources, these two methods are considered to be the best for safely storing seeds for use next year.

The process is simple: take clay, mix in water and cow dung, apply to the necessary surface, and smooth out with water. To re-apply the floor, use a more liquid moisture than used on the walls. Sheela Didi, one of the staff members here, taught us the process and supervised our work, frequently chiming in with “Sister, you missed a spot.” (“Didi” in Hindi means “sister” as well.)

The floor after our re-application.

Those of you who know about my job perhaps already know my favorite part of the tours I give at Traders Point Creamery: the manure. I love talking about the recycling process that we use and how much sense it makes compared to industrial farming models. Well, Navdanya also recycles cow dung other than as a building material: composting. The primary method of composting is vermicomposting, but their worms live a very different life than mine do at home: they only eat cow dung. Navdanya has found that this type of processing of the manure and the use of only dung in the compost pits provides the most beneficial nutrients to the fields.

The cow dung must sit in the shade for 10-15 days to dry out. The moisture level is tested by squeezing a handful of it – if a few drops of water come out, it is perfect; if no water comes out, they need to add some water; if a stream of water comes out, they leave it to sit longer. They add it into the worm pits (again, created with simple construction so that the farmers they train can easily replicate the process) with 1 kg of worms for 150 kg of dung, let it sit for about 45 days, turning it after 30, and then harvest it and put it on the fields within 6 months (if they aren’t applying it immediately, they put it in jute bags and store in the shade).

Many of the other composting methods also use cow dung in various quantities and methods. Anandji, our teacher for the composting lesson, said that cow dung is more beneficial than that of other animals, although dung from other animals can be used.

Finally, there is a biogas generator on the farm that seals cow dung in an anaerobic environment and captures the methane for use in cooking. We were told that they only get enough to make the chai here, but there are only six cows on the farm, and they do so many other things with the manure as well.

Perhaps this is why cows in India are considered sacred, along with their use as draft animals and to provide milk out of plants that are inedible to humans.

Pooja for Dadaji's Granddaughter

Here is a blog post I wrote for the Navdanya interns blog: http://bijavidyapeeth.tumblr.com/post/40002600179/pooja-for-dadajis-granddaughter

New Seeds, New Beginnings

Navdanya. The name was chosen as a play on Hindi words: “Nine seeds,” “new seeds,” and “new beginnings” are all proper translations of the word "navdanya." Today I arrived at the farm without my travel companion(s) and a few days later than planned. A month here stretches before me, both a vast length and a short speck of time. The area is gorgeous: fresh air, beautiful plant life, shades of the Himalayan foothills in the background. When I arrived, the temperature was probably above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but it is rapidly cooling off. It was warmer than in Delhi, but I have now donned my winter coat again.

Upon my arrival, I was immediately treated to lunch, followed by registration and a farm tour. I made friends with one of the calves and a few of the puppies. Along with another volunteer who arrived last night, I was introduced to many new plants whose names I have already forgotten and will, I am sure, slowly re-learn over the next few weeks. The seed bank is gorgeous with the plants hanging from the roof (one method of seed-saving; Navdanya tries to model economical and multiple forms of the different methods they use so that the farmers they train can develop the methods that work best for their circumstances). There has already been talk about lessons on composting and seed-saving particularly for us interns/volunteers.

Today begins my journey of digging in to where I am. I have spend a lot of time over the past few months dreaming, and I’m sure I will not be able to completely escape it here. But my time here will be dedicated to digging in to what I can learn specifically in this place, at this time, and with these people. Or at least to do my best to do so.