Sunday, January 13, 2008

Peacemaking and then agriculture

Over the last thirteen days since the last post, I have been to Chandigarh, Navdangan Agriculture Centre near Dedredun, and now back to Delhi. Most mermorable.



I spent three days and four nights in Chandigarh, a 50's planned city with wide boulevards and roundabouts. Here, I presented the American Gandhi to six youth audiences amidst much media coverage. The diversity of groups included an outstanding middle/high school assembly attended by the Mayor and other dignitaries, another middle school youth group, two University classes, a Women's College, and a women's litteracy valedictorian graduation. Like in 2005 I was treated "as Gandhi", even as I spoke as The American Gandhi. Over 2000 attended, a truly memorable experience. The message encouraged serious commitment to nonviolence amidst all the changes humanity is undergoing.



From Chandigarh I took a bus to Dedredun to see Vandana Shiva's agriculture center, a 45 acre experimental farm emphasizing organic farming, seed saving, GMO (genetic made organics) resistance, local farming democracy, and women's uplift. I toured the farm with a Global Exchange tour led by Arun Gandhi on its last day. I recommend the visit and volunteering there to anyone able.
The bus ride was an exciting five hour adventure: a two way highway through villages with road construction interrupting at times. Modern tractors pulling carts, horse or ox drawn carts, often loaded with sugar cane (which our bus driver once pulled a few from), walkers, bicycles, motocycles, busses, trucks of all conceivable descriptions, cows, dogs, and pigs made up the users. Yes, we are all one!



The farm once was used for fossil fuel fertilizers and herbicides, giving little support to natural growth or birds. Now, it is a living organism with many birds.

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