Culture

Sahaja Samrudha (Bountiful Nature)

Smith Island Environmental Education Center

India

USA

They’re “more than just an NGO,” Sahaja Samrudha’s website explains. They represent a “People’s movement” to preserve traditional farming practices, conserve the rich biodiversity of India’s indigenous crop varieties, and revive and rejuvenate dying villages. They do so by facilitating the exchange of knowledge, seeds, support, and more through a network of farmers all around India – using publications, workshops, trainings, and melas (fairs or festivals) to get the word out. They’re also behind the brand “Sahaja Organics,” created to make it easier for organic producers to connect with those who want to purchase their products. To learn more, visit Sahaja Samrudha’s website, or read “Over 5000 Organic Farmers Are Reviving Traditional Crop Varieties. Thanks to One Organization.”Photo by sandeepachetan.com travel photography (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

http://www.sahajasamrudha.org/index.htm

« May 2019 »

For the 250 residents of Smith Island, in the Chesapeake Bay just a few hours from Washington, DC, life revolves around the same things it has for more than 300 years: crabbing and oystering. The Smith Island Environmental Education Center, managed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, focuses on the integral role of the island’s watermen culture in environmental stewardship of the bay. Students and teachers throughout the state come to experience living on “island time” in tune with the cycles of nature, and to listen to residents speak – in their distinctive local dialect – about the economy, culture, and future of the island. Learn more about Smith Island in this Atlas Obscura article, and about the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Smith Island program here.

http://www.cbf.org/about-cbf/locations/maryland/facilities/smith-island-environmental-education-center.html