March, 2007
Vidgyan Ashram is a school outside of Pune in the village called Pabal.

Places visited and experiences had while traveling in India for the first time from October, 2006-March, 2007.
the walks through the forests in the mountains behind mcleod ganj are amazing. once off the road and away from the exhaust fumes that plague every town-- small and large alike-- the mountain paths are pure tranquility. one led me around the mountain to a village that farms on the steep slops using terraces. sheep and their young grazed on the young green grass. small plots on the terrace below held thriving herb gardens with cilantro. a friendly pup who accompanied on my walk attempted to grab a little sheep's neck and was quickly shooed away by the nearby hearders. From this mountainside I saw some of the most breath taking sunsets of my life.
I also visited the Norbulingka Institute, a beautiful school/craft center for tibetan refugees outside of Dharamsala. i went with a friend from the farm course who has a tibetan store in seattle and is married to a tibetan. there, they practice traditional tibetan crafts like textiles and wood painting and carving. i met a 20-year old who studies language there. the rest of his family is in tibet. when i asked him how he got to the school, he told me he walked for 28 days. In the last couple weeks, there was a news story of shooting at the tibetan/indian border-- chinese officers shot and killed two tibetans trying to get to india. it reached the news because a couple of tourist hikers happen to see it and photographed it.
Vegetarian’s paradise! The two eating options here are “veg” and “non-veg”. “Veg” is default? Brilliant! Unlike the US, where many Americans choose to be vegetarians because of the various health, environmental, and ethical reasons, the choice to be veg or non-veg here has more to do with religion. "Good" Hindus are veg. My flatmate is non-veg just for the purpose of rebelling against Hinduism (and it's caste system, etc.). However, women do not have equal opportunity to engage in such rebellion. In some circles, women are strongly discouraged to eat meat along with foods such as onion and garlic, which are all considered to create heat and increase sexual energy.
The food is highly accessible, although I was an India food lover before arrival. All the food I’ve had is delicious and I just avoid the spicier dish if there is one (in the villages we’ve visited, the food is a lot spicier). Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of buying organic food from local farms here that I do in northern California, which means my toxic-free diet is no more. I buy produce from stands set up in the market. I don’t know where it’s grown (the vendors won't tell you). Some veggies are probably from the northern state of Punjab, which like California is to the US, is the bread basket of India. Oranges come from the nearby "orange capitol" and other fruits like bananas and pineapples come from the south. On the highway the other day, I saw a truck with an open-air trailer packed full with broccoli and cauliflower—exposed to the smog, fumes, and particulates all the way. Yummm. Grapefruit seed extract is my miracle medicine that balances out the bevy of chemicals I consume.
I buy organic grains, pulses, and spices from Navdanya, all of which come from Uttaranchal, the state to the north of Delhi towards the Himalayas. My favorite favorite breakfast item is popped amaranth. It’s sooooooooo good with raisins, soaked almonds, bananas, and milk. Yes, I’m drinking cow’s milk again—actually it’s buffalo milk. Between the chai and amaranth, I feel like a calf I drink so much milk. The two alternatives are Indian-made soy milk and Silk soy milk. I stopped drinking Silk in the US because it’s owned by the Hain food group, which abuses organic standards. But the soy milk from Indian companies comes spoiled. So I tried the Silk soymilk but it is really expensive (150 ruppees compared to 15 for milk) and spoils almost as quickly. You know how the expiration date for packaged food in the US is like four years away? Well, here the date is like a week away. So, we know where all our expired food goes. After asking around, I have learned that the main milk company here ‘Mother’s Milk’ uses the same chemicals (antibiotics and hormones) as industrial milk companies in the US. I was interested to learn that here, when you get your bag of milk (everything comes in plastic bags), you boil it. This way, it keeps much longer (1-2 days instead of 8-12 hours) for us folks without refrigeration.
Other fruits I’ve enjoyed here are apples, guavas, pomegranates, and custard apple. For lunch and dinner, I’ve had Indian food for almost every meal though it’s possible to get other kinds of food. We often get food out or on the street because it’s so cheap and good. I’ve experimented some with cooking but am still developing my skills and it stinks to cook in a kitchen with no equipment. It’s no problem to whip up some rice and a veg but there’s little hope of getting any good roti(bread) out of electric burner. But last night I was asking around the neighborhood for fresh rotiand stumbled upon a bit of serendipity. One of my neighbors has a stand where he sells drinks and candy. But he also sells proper Indian meals to go with dal, rice, veg, and roti. For 25 rupees. Woo hoo!
My ethnic deviations from Indian food have included Italian, Greek, and American. American chains are pretty common—we’ve visited Pizza Hut, and TGIF (a “cool” place where a friend wanted to meet for happy hour i.e. really sucky, smokey, with bad, expensive food). Though I must admit that Pizza Hut was really good. McDonalds we refuse to go to but it’s all around.
Coffee shops are increasingly popular—especially because they’re an acceptable place for men and women to interact normally (=talk). Most of these places serve American desserts like ice cream, cake, and milk shakes. You can also buy cigarettes at them. Traditional desserts are kulfi, a delicious kashew-based ice cream, kheer- rice pudding, rasgullaa- cottage cheese balls in sweet syrup, and jalebee- deep-fried dough swirls in rosewater syrup.
Surprises/Observations
There’s a whole range of modes of transportation here including walking, public transportation (bus and metro), cars, bicycles, motorcycles, auto rickshaw and taxi. People carry impressively large loads on their head, in carts, and on bicycles. The most impressive I’ve seen is a system of carrying a huge load on the back with a strap that ties the load to your head so the strap goes across the forehead.
In general, getting around is a rather frenzied, chaotic but surprisingly safe process. However, there’s a whole different set of safety standards one adopts once you set foot in this land. Seatbelts are virtually unheard of. Even if cars have them, they are clearly never used (stuffed in the seat or broken) even though it’s the law in Delhi. Everybody runs lights. It’s like lights are a guide for who can go next when there’s heavy traffic. Otherwise, people just drive on through—I don’t get exactly how it works. There are few accidents and collisions despite driving very closely together because traffic moves slower, on average, and people are used to it. Drivers beep their horns constantly to let other drivers know they’re there. When traveling, you often encounter beggars who weave in and out of stopped traffic in the middle of the street, selling goods such as magazines and rags, or just asking for money. Constantly—drivers always have one hand positioned over the horn. It’s used as a courtesy. Trucks and cars on the road have signs painted on the back of the vehicle, “Horn please.” Lanes are also a very rough road guide that are seldom observed. It’s common practice to drive down the road in two lanes at once.
Most of the Hindi I’ve learned is for the purpose of communicating and bargaining with auto rickshaw drivers. These are small men who work under terrible conditions (exposed to smog all day, and most of the smoke to boot) and most speak little English other than the price of a ride. Many of them are pretty slimey and will try to get away with as much as possible, especially from a Western woman. For example, when bargaining, a driver may take a lower price and say if the passenger agrees to make one or two stops. This is some sort of scam in which drivers drop tourists off at shops for 5-10 minutes before dropping them at their destination. Then, there’s the “no change” scam in which drivers claim they don’t have change even though they do. Finally, there’s the total sleeze ball scam. The other day, we went to a market that was closed. Noticing western girls with no place to go, this guy approached us to ask what we were looking for and accompanied us to another market. He successfully found a store with what we were looking for and then took us to the India Government tourist office to get some travel info. As the driver was bringing us back, our guide asked, “Can I ask you something and you will promise not to get angry?”.Yeah, okay, what? “Do you want to sleep with me tonight?” Disgust.
To avoid all of this insanity, I enjoy walking—the most relaxing mode of transportation here—until you encounter a road, of course. There are few crosswalks. To cross six lane roads is kind of an art of locating the slow cars driving down the road, stepping in front of them, and making eye contact with the driver. I often opt to find a crossing buddy—another crosser whom I can just follow across—and think about how I should’ve brought my snow boarding helmet to India instead of a winter jacket.
The Status of Organics in India
When I started working for Navdanya, I was happy to meet Kavita Singh. She is a nutrition educator, who works with schools in Delhi to encourage them to serve local, organic food. Connecting schools and farms in this way was the topic of my dissertation so I was thrilled to learn about the program here.
Navdanya works with about 15 schools out of hundreds in Delhi. Navdanya visits schools during parent events to conduct outreach by selling food and handicrafts, and distributing literature about organic agriculture. She also organizes farm field trips, school assemblies, and other educational events for schools.
On October 12th, we accompanied Kavita to St. Columbus school for 3rd-8th standards. At the event we set up tables to display Navdanya’s educational literature on land and water conservation, organic farming, and children’s books. A group of students from the 8th standard helped sell products ranging from hand-crafted notebooks and lampshades, to grains, pulses, oils, and Diwali gifts. We also took orders from the teachers for a delicious organic plate of barnyard millet tabouli and vegetable cutlets with coriander chutney.
This event was well-attended and there was a steady flow of parents who were either already familiar with Navdanya or who were interested in learning about the organization. As advocates of organic farming and food, were delighted to inform families on the benefits of going organic! We were happy to see that many individuals took membership forms or bought educational literature, along with organic goods to take home.
Generally speaking, this type of program faces the same issues as Farm to School programs in the US. Namely, organic food is most accessible to folks with more education and more money. The school system here is highly competitive and costly. Often, up to half of the family income is used on education. It is through going to a good school that parent ensure their children will get a good job—or a job at all.
When I asked Kavita if any of the schools they work with serve lower income populations, she replied that none of the parents can afford to buy their food. This is understandable considering it’s about four times the cost of other food. I was surprised to learn that few Navdanya employees purchase any of their food products because it’s so expensive (a café worker only makes about $750 a year). There are a number of solutions to this problem, most of which consist of subsidizing access to healthy food to the poor through public and private entities. For example, the government of Belo Horizonte, Brazil has a great program in which the city subsidizes the cost of farm land, food production and distribution so that all people are able to afford healthy meals at Retaurants Popular (People’s Restaurants) and schools. Check out: http://www.smallplanetinstitute
Addressing the gap in access also means evaluating the strategies used to create a sustainable food system thus far. While adoption and regulation of organic standards by government bodies serves to legitimize efforts, it has also turned ‘organics’ it into a bureaucratic program imposing fees, rules, and regulations on farmers. These are strong disincentives to the formation of a new food system, meant to create direct connections between producers and consumers.
Corporations have established a strong presence in the international food system because there is so much profit to be made by industrializing the process of eating. Food is processed and packaged to create products that can sit on shelves for years. This is even happening with fresh produce, like apples and bananas that can sit unripe for months until they are gassed, causing them to ripen. Organic food is the new darling of corporate food because it has the highest growth sector in all food categories. And since governments have started regulating organic, it is easy for lobbyists and corporate lawyers to define what organic is and what it isn’t—thereby defeating the whole purpose. Meanwhile, they’re pressuring countries around the world to grown genetically modified seed. Since it is impossible to regulate the wind, it’s only a matter of time before the majority of the food system is contaminated. Worst of all is the damage done to farmers who have been given no option but to become reliant upon inputs in the form of genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides & fertilizers, and other biotechnologies that result in economic and ecological debt.
In India, the fact that the term ‘organic’ is used here seems to miss the point altogether. There’s nothing new or technological about organic agriculture. The organic and sustainable agriculture movement simply stands for the return to traditional farming methods in which people work in harmony with animals and land to produce food and preserve the ecology. India has been doing this for hundreds of years and when the British arrived to teach Indians about agriculture, they found they had nothing to teach, only learn. Fortunately, there are agricultural communities in India that have not been reached by unsustainable farming methods. These are the farms to look to for lessons about how to re-build our food system and the best teachers for farmers disconnected from traditional farming. Involving children is an ideal way to bring up a generation of people who value sustainability. The student musicians who performed at the school we visited are an inspiration to us all.
Soon after we arrived, we took a 5-hour train trip north to Navdanya’s farm, outside of Dehra Dun in the foothills of the Himalayas. There, we took a course entitled “Women and Food Sovereignty.” This course was taught by Dr. Melaku Ward, an Ethiopian scientist. Though the course got off to a rough start (instructors changed, course content changed with less focus on women, and there were numerous problems reported by participants about the registration, enrollment, traveling, or payment process). But after a few days, we settled in and began to get to know one another. There were about 20 of us from 12 countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, India, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, Canada, UK and US. The strong African contingent was the most beneficial part of the course, as they brought a valuable perspective about their work with sustainable agriculture in countries heavily preyed upon by agriculture biotechnology corporations.
For ten days, our schedule was:
7A Yoga
8A Breakfast
9A Shramdan- service to the community in which we either cooked, cleaned, or worked in the field
11A-1P Morning lecture
1P Lunch
2-4P Afternoon lecture
4P Tea
6P Evening yoga
7P Dinner
One of the best parts of the course was the yoga (and the lemongrass tea. oh, and all the food--yummm)! In the morning, we rose with the sun and performed asanas (poses) in the open air at the beautiful farm with flowers, lemon trees, rice, and millets growing around us was excellent. The evening yoga teacher, Lalitha Ganguly, is a great teacher and transformed my practice. She has trained at Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram for over 20 years in Chennai (S. India) and now teaches in Pune (Central West India). During the evening sessions, she worked with us solely on pranayama (breathing) and provided very useful exercises for us to take home with us. She emphasized the importance of remembering our breath in all aspects of our lives, not just during yoga. This is very similar to the philosophy of Jin Shin Jyutsu, which I also practice. A great exercise is sitting quietly and taking 36 relaxed breaths—so rejuvenating!
The lectures had a lot of interesting information on various issues in international agriculture. We also got some hands on experience on the farm like visit the seed bank. ‘Bija Vidaypeeth,’ the course site, means School of the Seed. It was co-founded by Satish Kumar and Vandana Shiva for the purpose of saving seed in response to seed patenting and bio-piracy practiced by agriculture, chemical and pharmaceutical multi-national corporations. By taking indigenous knowledge from farmers and villagers and altering it slightly, these companies make huge profits off of seed, chemicals, food products, and medicine. And of course none of the profits are returned to the village.
The seed bank at Navdanya has hundreds of varieties of rice and pulses stored in special containers that maintain proper moisture level. There are about 30 rice varieties in production at the farm currently. The seed bank itself was built with cow dung walls. Just as the cow is revered as holy here, so is its waste and for good reason. It is both a great insulator during the winter and keeps the room cool during the summer. Cow dung walls are also a natural insect repellent—good to protect us from those Malaria, Dengue, and West Nile-ridden mosquitoes flying around. All the structures at Bija at built of cow dung with aluminum roofing. Cow dung walls are made simply by mixing cow dung with enough cow urine and a bit of straw to make a solid but moldable consistency.
All the farm structures and systems were built with sustainability in mind. Troughs that carry waste and rain water to the fields surround the living structures. There is a huge solar panel for electricity (used to power lights and fans). The main grass hut where the group gathers for yoga and meetings is built atop a huge rainwater catchment. The farm as a whole was an excellent model for the course participants in this regard, as many of them hope to start similar farms in their communities.
To stay in contact and to collaborate in the future, we created the “12 Seed Initiative,” for the 12 countries represented at the class. This is an exciting, concrete outcome of the course and the forum can be viewed at http://groups.google.com/group/12seedinitiative. We also interviewed several of the participants to profile their organizations. Interviews will be aired on radio stations in California (and webcast) upon our return. Here are the brief descriptions:
Jack Wafula
Kenya
SMART Initiative with women farmers, gender, and AIDS issues. Many men refuse to work. Women farm, raise children, and expected to have food on the table when men get home from lying in the sun.
They work to convert farmers to organic by
The primary issues they address in their work are lack of soil fertility, deforestation, malnutrition, and access to information. They use local resources to manage soil fertility and translate educational material into the local language. To address malnutrition, they plant crops such as corn and cassava to provide all essential nutrients.
Challenges they face are light rainfall, drought, and insufficient means for extension to reach all areas. They have experienced success of farmer mobilization to grow and market crops together. They also have successfully networked with other organizations to share information. They hope for Kenyan farmers to go organic and to save their own seed. They want to develop a Global Alliance to share experience, technology, and information to further development of organic movement and capacity building.
Peter Anthony Kindimba
Ileje rural development organization
Pobox 160 Itumba,Ileje
Mbeya, Tanzania.
The primary issues they face are food security, market access, gender issues, and local use of resources. To address gender issues, they encourage community members to share resources equally. Agriculture companies come to their farmers with GMO seeds and their organization is working to instead promote organic farming. They encourage farmers to use local resources in stead. Challenges they experience are unsustainable farming methods, food provision for families, and marketing of their products. To solve the problems of farmers, they need assistance in production, trading, and from financial institutions. So far, they have experienced success in formation of farmer cooperatives and networks of farmer groups to overcome their struggles. He hopes to continue farmer collaboration to assist marginalized farmers and to create an information exchange.
Ayele Kedebe
Ethiopia
They work to bridge the gap between policy and public understanding by holding public meetings on current legislation. They focus on deforestation, waste management, and the growing population. Working with a network of ten groups, the Forum distributes Green Awards to recognize progress around the country. They publish a tri-annual magazine publication to address the problem of government owning the media. They have experience success in growing environmental awareness and by working with many organizations for cumulative change. They hope to that their work will result in environmentally literal citizens in Ethiopia.
Check out www.ringo.com, search for my name, and look in the Bija Vidyapeeth album for more photos.