Food, Sustainable Democracy etc.

[Surya Pratap]

Hi all of you,

The days following the Jeevan Vidya workshop has been very important in my life. I have never found myself at such blissful crossroads. Heres sharing some reflections and ideas.

The idea of my school next year has evolved into the next level. I have decided to integrate a "food,  lifestyle and living in harmony with nature" component in our curriculum. I am thinking very critically on what I think, eat, dress and see. I am attending a series of programs with Navdanya   to understand ways of sustainable living and beauties of nature. Find the programs here: http://www.vandanashiva.org/?p=397

Initially most of my thoughts after the workshop were around firefighting and troubleshooting. But I have realised whats needed is to step back and make sense of everything as one whole. So I have decided to read, research and experience a whole of things to investigate the proposals offered during the Jeevan Vidya workshop. I will keep this group posted on those. In the same spirit, i would recommend you a video and a book that I have come across in the last few days:

1. What to eat -Personal Responsibility or Social Responsibility by Marion Nestle

Find the video here. It has enhanced my understanding from where Vinish ji had left in the workshop. Hope you will enjoy too.

2. Earth Democracy - Vandana Shiva

This book is about justice , sustainability and peace. It connects to a huge extent all those aspects which Vinish Ji had exposed us to during the JV workshop. You can buy the book here or ask me for it, I have a copy.

I believe all of us would benefit more if we shared our experiences here. Also I am planning to start my own unit  for making ayurvedic home made cosmetics and medicines for common usage. Anyone wants to partner, research and team up for this?

Warmly,

Surya

[lalitha krishnamurthy]

Namaste,


Thank you all for keeping the group going... Thank you subhashini , Deepa Rupesh, Vinish  and Surya for the the inputs.I am lisiting afew videos which i watched this week. .Navadarshanam is a group  where i spent a for a couple of days as apart of a retreat from TVS school. More about the group from their  web site please.


Surya, I can offer you my time ( long distance ) to document any home remedies that I can gather.

How many of us know that  anti biotics are not useful in case of any viral attack?


Take care all..
regards
lalitha

http://www.navadarshanam.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzFgiylop4
http://vimeo.com/18230123

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[Karuna Morarji]

Surya, I meant to send this response to your mail to the whole list, since I thought others might benefit from and wish to join in this conversation...

Dear Surya,

 

Thank you for sharing your reflections and resources on food.  Your thoughts on including "food, lifestyle and living in harmony with nature" in your school curriculum seem sound indeed, as does your decision to thoroughly examine these issues for yourself.  Navdanya and Vanadana Shiva’s work should help you in connecting a lot of the dots…  And Marion Dixon’s video also looks promising.  I can try to compile a small list of similar food-related resources if you have the time and energy for more... 

For now, here is a link to a brief essay by Wendell Berry (a wonderful American poet/farmer/philosopher) called “The Pleasures of Eating” which simply but clearly lays out how why concern for food is important, and provides several pointers as to what we can do to eat responsibly.  http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating

I am also attaching a useful document that has names of various food stuffs in all major Indian languages.

 

One small suggestion in terms of school curriculum would be to try to include resources for a school kitchen-garden, and a school kitchen.  I think activities and learning about food, health and personal/social responsibility can easily be centered around these (and even lots of other learning, about anything from social sciences to mathematical concepts...).  And as we have observed with Naman, children really enjoy participating in real, meaningful work!  I don’t have direct experience of setting something like this up, though a friend and I had written a fairly detailed proposal to start a garden and kitchen project at SIDH where we were based earlier and I can send this to you if it would be helpful… 

Best wishes
Karuna