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- Home[one_half] PROBLEM [tabset tab1="Farmer Suicides" tab2="Villages for Sale" tab3="Environment"] [tab]It is estimated by the National Crime Recrods Bureau, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs in India, that over 200,000 farmers have committed suicide since trade liberalization in 1991. There are many reasons, all of which center around a new farming paradigm, dominated by foreign multinationals, and a lack of education and interest in preserving the native diet, and traditions of the nearly 400 million farmers in India. The rising costs of inputs, such as seed, chemical fertilizers and petrol, compounded with environmental degradation of soils and water, has pushed many farmers to the edge. With little social support and the threat of violence or land takeover from private money lenders when the farmer cannot pay back their debts,the farmer drinks the very pesticide they used on their field. [/tab] [tab] Entire villages like Malwa in India’s cotton belt or Butal Khor in Punjab were put up for sale do to the inability of all the villagers to pay escalating debts taken out to cover the rising cost of living and farming. Rising input costs on pesticides and seeds for example, coincide with cutbacks in subsidies for the Indian farmer meanwhile subsidized competition from the U.S. drives down the price for their crops at the market. These agricultural refugees are then forced to leave their ancestral land for menial jobs in India’s overpopulated and polluted cities to live on less than $2.00 a day, or die of malnutrition. Government policies have shifted toward favoring corporate farming , the biotech industry, and western style chemical agriculture, slowly divesting the poor people of their only economic security – their meager land holdings. [/tab] [tab]Modern agriculture imposes “external costs” that are seldom reflected in the price at the market place. Monocropping and poor water management have lowered water tables to alarming levels all over India, particularly in Punjab.The surface wash off from conventional fields sprayed with herbacides and synthetic fertilizers have saturated water ways with nitrates, salts, pcbs, organochlorines, creosote, and sulfates causing dead water zones, eutrophication and higher levels of cancer where these have entered the drinking water supply. Monocropping destroys the biodiversity of an area, and thus compromises the natural defenses of the area against blites and infestations, forces the farmer to use more water, and moves other beneficial inhabitants of the ecosystem to the fringes. The use of genetically modified seeds, is not only dangerous because of a lack of long term testing on broad spectrum public health effects but gm seeds erode the diversity of the public seed supply. [/tab] [/tabset] [/one_half] [one_half_last] SOLUTIONS [tabset tab1="Sponsor a Farm" tab2="Funds" tab3="Membership" tab4="Participate"] [tab] Our Sponsor a Farm program links your generous contributions directly to practical on the ground solutions. This program includes donations of micro-livestock, poultry facilities, bag gardens, cattle and fodder, chickens and chicken tractors , organic workshops and debt relief. This program assists villagers who are near to selling off their land do to economic hardship including debt crisis. It also helps provide nutritious food and supplemental income. Consider that 350 Indian rupees or just $7.00 buys enough seed to cover half an acre of land! And those seeds will seed future crops with proper management. These gifts keep on giving and no matter what the size of your contribution, you empower people to feed THEMSELVES and their community. Click here to Act Naturally and Sponsor a Farm! [/tab] [tab]Act Naturally offers three funds – Khet Jyoti Fund, Heartwood Fund and the Act Naturally Ashram Farm and Community Garden Fund. The Khet Jyoti Funds sets aside money and resources to transition Indian farmers in debt crisis from chemical dependent agriculture to self-sufficient organic farming over a four year supervised transition period. The Heartwood Fund covers the cost of operating our non-profit including employee salaries and bills. Our fiscal ability to give is directly proportional to the strength of this fund. We also have a community test farmnorth of Rishikesh India that we are raising money for as well. You can donate to the Act Naturally Ashram Farm and Community Garden Fund and get two nights free stay as members once the site is completed. Read More About Our Funds![/tab] [tab]Our members can contribute monthly, annually or make a lifetime donation. Act Naturally members get a voice in shaping our future programs. They receive a monthly newsletter, breaking news updates, discounts on travel to India at select locations, two night free stay at the Act Naturally Ashram Farm and Community Garden outside of Rishikesh, logo’d merchandise and more. Read More – Become a Member[/tab] [tab]Volunteers are the lifeblood of any non-profit. Act Naturally relies on volunteers for every level of our operation. We work with volunteer placement organizations, colleges that require students to perform community service as part of their curriculum, Craigslist, social networking, community list serves and other non-profits set up to help source volunteers. Our volunteers help insure organic standards are followed, work with other NGOs to devise location-specific solutions, run our social networking outreach, compile research, document farming failures and successes through various media channels and get their hands dirty digging and planting. There is something for everyone. Inquire About Volunteering Today![/tab][/tabset] [/one_half_last] [one_third] The Khet Jyoti Fund or Farm Light Fund was set up to provide debt relief to farmers in dire situations in India’s suicide belt. As a condition of paying off the debt, Act Naturally gifts the farm a four year committment of suppot, transitioning them from chemically dependent to organic self-reliant debt free farming.End the Cycle of Dependence – Support the Transition to Organic Farming in India! ::: Read More – Activate Now.[/one_third] [one_third] Sponsor a Farm. Gift micro livestock, cattle & fodder, chicken tractors and chickens, bag gardens, organic education and debt relief! Sometimes a small gift can make a big impact. Although Act Naturally is focused on problems whose scope can seem daunting, there are small ways to help, that take less time to implement and have big rewards. ::: Read More -Activate Now. [/one_third] [one_third_last] [/one_third_last] [one_third] Get Involved. You too can Act Naturally! Get involved. Become an Act Naturally member, volunteer, or host a speaking or fundraising event in your neighborhood. New volunteer opportunities are posted monthly. [/one_third] [one_third] The Heartwood Fund Heartwood is the old and central woody core of a tree. If it decays, the tree will weaken, lose its shape and fall. In this way Act Naturally has set up the Heartwood Fund to cover administrative and operating costs. The fortitude of our Heartwood Fund is proportional to our fiscal ability to give and carry out or necessary programs. Help sustain the vision! [/one_third] [one_third_last] Act Naturally Ashram Farm and Community Gardenis a community test farm north of Rishikesh.Guests can stay in our 10 room guesthouse and enjoy organic food grown onsite. We employ local people and accept volunteers from across the world. ::: Read More – Help build the dream! [/one_third_last] [three_fourth] [h4]Latest News[/h4] News From the Fields The Agrarian Crisis Is the Drive Toward Corporate Farming -Shockingly Honest – Nero’s Guest by P. Sainath Nero was a Roman Emperor who murdered his own mother. Tacitus, a senator and historian wrote in his book, Annals that, Nero during gladiator matches he would lite his garden parties with the burning carcasses of Christians. The guest lists … Continue reading → Farmer Suicides: Why? Farmer Suicides: Why? India is home to 1.25 billion people 722% of which live in villages. As much as 60% of the work force works in agriculture in some capacity. Over the last two decades however, more and more people … Continue reading → NPR covers the Green Revolution, “Green Revolution’ Trapping India’s Farmers In Debt” Part 2 Listen to NRP radio coverage here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102944731 ‘Green Revolution’ Trapping India’s Farmers In Debt by Daniel Zwerdling As the world’s population surges, the international community faces a pressing problem: How will it feed everybody? Until recently, people thought India had … C […] NPR covers the Green Revolution, “India’s Farming ‘Revolution’ Heading For Collapse” Part 1 Listen to the NRP radio coverage here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102893816&ps=rs India’s Farming ‘Revolution’ Heading For Collapse by Daniel Zwerdling Farmers in the village of Chotia Khurd in northern India don’t realize it, but they symbolize a growing problem that could become a … Continue readi […] The Dying Fields “To my generous, courageous and compassionate readers, I believe this movie is a must see for everyone concerned with the farmer suicides in India. I solute the filmaker Jagdish Baghwati. May we all live healthy, harmonious lives not at the expense … Continue reading → [/three_fourth] [one_fourth_last] [h4]Facebook[/h4] [/one_fourth_last]
- About UsAct Naturally is a not for profit organization of activists, writers, friends, farmers, family, tribe, and anyone concerned with genetic modification of our food and animals. We provide information, literature, lectures and local chapters that created mobilization groups to disseminate knowledge on the dangers lf privatizing our food and water supply. We have six programs that offer relief and support to farmers on the brink of starvation or suicide. These programs include cattle and fodder, seed stock, poultry facilities, and bag garden donations. They also include debt relief, education and a fund for covering our operating expenses. We are funded only by donations. Feed. Seed. Succeed. Act Naturally is a non-party direct action international network who promote non-violent biodiverse, and independent agricultural practices to solve problems in health and food security. We partner with farms and communities, and other N.G.O’s to provide debt relief, seedstock, backyard poultry facilities, livestock and fodder, bag gardens, and organic and indigenous farming workshops and education. Though our primary focus is on the effects of globalization and privatization on traditionally agrarian communities we also strive to facilitate understanding on other issues of privatization. Act Naturally believes that to increase India’s food security, the export of India’s soil fertility to other countries must stop. The structured water and nutrition in the food itself and the resources used in producing the food such as water, soil, labor and energy move from local peoples who would otherwise benefit and grow their community from the activity of farming when food is exported. Because the mouths that eat the food, and those in charge of distribution decisions are often times thousands of kilometers from the hands that produce the food, the conditions and needs of the farmers and producing community are often overlooked. The generational environmental & human impact increases in order to meet export demands by further putting an unnatural demand on the environment and simultaneously shifting the focus from internal food generation and security into profit generation. We do not discredit all the benefits of exporting however we believe that all countries, be it India, Africa or the United States, should feed their people first, and the rest of the world second. Our Main Goals To increase public awareness of organic agriculture and biodiverse farming practices, nutritional appropriation by industry, and issues in national food security. Reduce reliance on external inputs into the farming system. Organize participatory campaigning to shift government policy toward national promotion of organic agriculture and to secure financial and technical resources. Create linkages between the farmer and the consumer. Promote urban gardening, community gardens, bag gardens, kitchen gardens, seed saving and gardens for clean air through our Grow Your Own India campaign. Act Naturally has six key programs that are member and donation supported in order to achieve our mission: Sponsor a Farm Khet Jyoti Fund Heartwood Fund Act Naturally Ashram Farm and Community Garden Fund Member supported donations and participation Volunteers We recognize you recognizing us. Thank you.
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