Navdanya (‘Nine Seeds’) movement

Has anybody heard of this? Heres a little background to jog your memories.They anticipated issues of genetic engineering and patenting in the late 1980s. It supports participative, ecological and sustainable alternatives.There are seed banks to conserve and distribute indigenous genetic resources, they aim to promote organic agriculture
They have these ‘Freedom Zones’ in villages which is agriculture that is free of corporate inputs: seeds, chemicals, patents and genetically engineered crops.
Its based in India, but i was wondering where abouts. I was shown pictures of this place by a professor a long time ago, never thinking i would go to india. but now that i am i would love to go along and have a chat with them about the evils of monsanto, golden rice and the dreaded green revolution!
Jenn xx

In May 2003, i visited the navadanya shop at Sankri [road head to Har ki Doon Trek] to buy the Seabuckthorn juice extract. It was so delicious that I wanted another bottle from their Delhi address [which was written at Sankri]. My Delhi based friends also wanted to buy fresh stock because we had cleaned out the Sankri store. When they went to the Delhi address, they were told, the outfit had shifted. The Sankri store is still very much in existence, inside the official GMVN guest house. Even i would like to get their Delhi address.

I suspect they will be present all over Uttaranchal wherever the bus stops last and cannot go ahead furthur. This is their principal sourcing zone in Uttaranchal... anybody going deep into the mountains could inform us.

is it a shop?
i was under the impression that it was a farm. well if it is a shop i would certainly be interested in supporting the cause and purchasing some organic products.

The place at Sankri was a shop which sourced its products locally. Could i say it was a shop-cum-farm-outlet?

lots of information on their website:

http://www.navdanya.org/

If it weren't for Norman Boarlaug's mexican drwarf wheat and the "green revolution", India would not have been self sufficient in food production, and probably millions would continue to die

" Eventually, in the 1960s, the program was expanded to teach local farmers in Pakistan and India to cultivate the new wheat properly. The results were wonderful:

* Pakistan produced 8.4 million tons in 1970, up from 4.6 million in 1965.
* India's production was 20 million tons in 1970, up from 12.3 million 1965."

http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/borlaug.html

well india did become self sufficient in grain between 1975 and 1984. yet,hunger persisted. the majority of the poor were still undernourished because they lacked purchasing power.only minority capitalist farmers had growing marketable surpluses. Income disparities increased, only the better off reaped the benefits.
Regional disparities widened, Big producers in the ‘winning’ regions of the North (Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh) made the biggest gains. while western and southern regions stagnated. the GR focused on intensive monoculture, which is a bigger gamble.this of course increases insecurity for those least able to afford it. Traditional strategies of biodiversity were abandoned in favour of high yields. Use of biodiversity offsets risk, this risk led to a series of ritual suicides of farmers who had one bad harvest and were unable to pay the loan sharks from whom they had borrowed for the initial investment required for the GR technology.
it is no coincidence that the GR with its focus on mechinisation, benefits those involved in the implementation (i.e the ford and rockerfeller foundations produce farm machinery and fuels)Biotechnology has positive potential for food security and human development.But it cannot achieve this potential if its only governed by market forces. Profit motive will prevail over entitlements.
while biotechnology can produce more food , it is not getting distributed to those who need it most.
thats my 2cents anyway,
Jenn xx

Borlaug: In spite of biotech's great potential, access is a problem. Most of the research on crops is conducted by private enterprise and corporations hold patents on their inventions. Farmers in developing nations have little resources. How can they afford these patented products? Global governments need to seriously address the problem.
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/borlaug.html
in his own words...