Trent Brown, Australia
Uttarakhand was the last stage my journey. My research had already taken me to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. I had been trying to learn more about the potential of people”s initiatives for sustainable agriculture to make a difference for rural development – about how a small number of committed people can make big changes to their regions and to popular consciousness. In Uttarakhand, I would be learning about the Beej Bachao Andolan (BBA), a twenty-five year old movement to conserve traditional seeds and agriculture. Spending some time with BBA was an exciting prospect for me. It was an opportunity to meet with the surviving members of the Chipko Andolan, India”s most famous movement for social and environmental justice, and to learn more about the work that they are doing today. Continue reading