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The Hummingbird Project

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Commenced:	01/08/2011
Submitted:	13/10/2012
Last updated:	07/10/2015
Location:	Cleveland, OH, US
Website:	http://www.hummingbirdproject.org/
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Living Soil Saves Lives, India (Fall-Winter 2012-13)

Project: The Hummingbird Project

Posted by Marilyn McHugh over 11 years ago

Based on the tremendous success of the first Living Soil training, THP returned to India to establish additional soil labs in the suicide belt.

The Living Soil Saves Lives project empowers individuals and communities to be more self-reliant and regenerative through organic farming methods. We provide training for rural Indian farmers on the soil food web and various composting techniques with the goal of assisting their transition back to natural, organic farming methods.

The Hummingbird Project’s successful Living Soil Saves Lives campaign funded our travels throughout the suicide belt to six states in four months. We personally trained over 1,000 at-risk farmers, instructors, students, and even government officials about the importance of living soil and organic farming methods. THP provided the supplies and training to establish two soil microbiology labs in India and one lab in Thailand.

Our first successful Living Soil courses were taught at an organic farm in northern India that forms part of the international organization, Navdanya, which is directed by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a renowned scientist and organic activist. Navdanya is devoted to reducing dependency on GMO seeds, training farmers in organic methods, and re-establishing sustainable agriculture throughout India.

Our microscopy program provides a missing piece to Navdanya’s existing farmer training, where farmers learn different methods of making compost, natural pesticides, and organic farming techniques. The visual proof and presentation of the underlying biology of living soil was absent from the courses, which makes our project “a fertile seed in fertile soil,” as Dr. Shiva describes it—a seed of knowledge and hope that the farmers are eager to cultivate. (Please see the Living Soil Educational Courses project for more details.)

In addition to strengthening our collaboration with Dr. Vandana Shiva and her organization, Navdanya, we have developed new relationships with several reputable NGOs doing outstanding work throughout India and whose goals parallel those of THP’s—to create sustainable communities by educating and empowering individuals to improve quality of life while fostering stewardship of the earth.

We look forward to returning to India in August 2013.

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