Developing The Living Soil

Farmers in a class getting to use equipment at the Living Soil lab.

Sometimes it takes a wedding and a yearlong honeymoon on a worldwide scale to prompt an initiative for people who have lost hope. About five years ago, Marilyn McHugh, a biologist, and Chris Kennedy, a teacher, embarked on this exact adventure. During their honeymoon they volunteered on a variety of development projects in East Africa. That's what set them on the pathway to service. Their focus has become those areas of the world where the people lack resources.

Along the way, this husband and wife team partnered with Dr. Vandana Shiva and her organization, NAVDANYA. Navdanya means "nine seeds". This organization, based in India has created 122 seed banks throughout India. They form a network of seed keepers and organic producers within 18 states throughout the country.



Marilyn and Chris joined in by providing training for farmers from rural India on organic farming techniques, such as composting, and explaining the cycle of nature, with the goal of helping these farmers transition back to organic farming. They also established two "Living Soil" labs which allow farmers to see the difference between soils that are fertilized chemically and the healthy soils enriched by organic farming methods.

Since they first started, they have continued to provide courses for India's farmers at Earth University on the grounds of the Navdanya farm in Dehradun, India. This current course is taking place throughout this month. In addition, THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT, which is the US organization established by both Marilyn and Chris, also has a few other initiatives.

The Living Soil Training initiative has so far trained more that 2500 farmers throughout six states in India and was also offered as a Soil Food Web Workshop in June with TreeYo Permaculture here in the US. This organization has also taken a page from Navdanya and started the Cleveland Seed Bank initiative to preserve local seeds particularly adapted to that environment. Another initiative is the development of a Wordpress Seedbank Plugin, which is a software connection to Wordpress that turns a blog into a seedbank community. This is the same software used by the Cleveland Seed Bank. There are several languages in which the software comes and more translators are increasing its applicability.

Hands-on during organic farming course at Navdanya farm.

Recently, The Hummingbird Project has started a Sustainable Schools Initiative in Kenya. The program is to provide education and infrastructure for sustainability in low income regions of Kenya. For the past four years, the program has been in development at Daraja Academy, where students learn about using renewable local resources and preservation of the low amounts of water in the area.

This is an active, vibrant couple with some great ideas and an organization that is reaching out to people who would otherwise become marginalized. Instead, they are at the forefront of change and development.

(Left to right): Chris Kennedy, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Marilyn McHugh.

Thanks to this article from Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/marilyn-mchugh-the-hummingbird-project/; and the above links.

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