ISCOWP September 2013 update

Click here for the latest from our friends at the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

The Teaching Garden at The Small Farm Training Center

In a previous blog exactly a year ago here on HuffPost, I shared the philosophy of "simple living and high thinking" as presented by the eminent Vedic teacher/scholar A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In carrying the timeless wisdom of the bhakti-yoga tradition to the wide world outside of India, Swami Prabhupada was determined to create a profound paradigm shift that would carry our sense of civilization forward by harkening back to our natural foundation. This foundation not only consists of yogic practices designed to help us recover and restore the natural state of our being, as souls devoted to the Divine and all life, but it also consists of an ecologically-sound, agrarian way of life which in many ways is the polar opposite of the urbanized, industrialized, and technologized model of civilization we are deeply conditioned and committed to.

Swami Prabhupada dared to say that the agrarian model of life was not a backwards step. He wanted to us to understand that our reconnection to the simple life of the land was not only the most necessary forward step for our civilization, but also that it was the most necessary forward step on the journey towards our own spiritual self-realization.

Terry Sheldon, one of Swami Prabhupada's original students, has carried forward this aspect of Swami's misison with his service creating The Small Farm Training Center (SFTC), part of the New Vrindaban temple and community in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. The Small Farm Training Center is the flagship project of the Green Wheeling Initiative (which we have previously blogged about here and here). Terry has been at the cutting-edge of political and spiritual thought throughout his life, from the radical streets of Berkeley in the 1960s to the historic spread of the bhakti-yoga tradition across the Eastern and Western world. Now he shares the conviction and living example that the local food movement, and the paradigm shift towards ecologically-sound agrarian living, is the true and most essential earthly and spiritual revolution of our time.

From the Small Farm Training Center website, Terry writes:

The Small Farm Training Center (SFTC) is a land based educational center and a hands-on working organic farm. Our purpose is to create community -- a web of supportive relationships -- by making locally grown organic foods readily available and affordable with the use of simple technology.

Although I've spent 30 plus years farming and gardening in Appalachia, I don't consider myself a "local." You might say I'm spoiled. My grandfather's farm in Northern Michigan, where I was raised, is both flat and fertile. West Virginia hillside farming is daunting. The soils here -- like the air, the streams and the people themselves -- have been used and abused for 150 years.

The "real" locals, those who can trace their heritage back for two or three generations, love Appalachia. That spark of original mountain culture permeates their very being, Unfortunately, their bodies tell a different story. Morbid obesity and diabetes are the norm. That's the price you pay when you no longer grow what you eat and eat what you grow. Like most Americans, their industrially grown food is starving them nutritionally while fattening them for the "big round-up" by the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.

Something is out of balance. The Small Farm Training Center is one of many local organizations challenging this dying paradigm. We farm, we garden, we teach, we encourage, we improvise and most importantly we listen to input. We also call a spade a spade when it comes to identifying the political, economic, cultural and spiritual stumbling blocks to restoring the environment and securing a safe, stable food supply... We nourish both person and place.

For the past month I have been participating in the SFTC apprenticeship program with Terry and the SFTC. The program is a fountain of hands-on knowledge in relation to the ABCs of organic farming, biodiversity, composting, and the fine arts of constant sowing, seeding, and weeding. However there is an extra layer to how Terry approaches the idea of teaching and sharing. For him molding an apprentice means molding a paradigm warrior. He writes:

All privately held corporations are living a lie. They believe we live in a world where capital has the right to grow and that right is higher than the rights of people, If you're one of those people who passively accept corporate domination of America's food supply and political life, be forewarned, we don't. Corporations are no more a part of the natural order than the English monarchy was 200 years ago. They want us to believe that industrial agriculture is the only way to feed the world. That's a lie. They want us to believe that it is cheaper to destroy the earth than to take care if it in real time. That's another lie. At the heart of their economic system and theory is the proposal that life is too expensive. We disagree. We choose life and we're going to tell our own story. We're looking for paradigm warriors who can expand the conversation and are fluent in the language of inclusion, kinship and possibility.

The Small Farm Training Center apprenticeship program is about:

Learning by doing, and then teaching it to others -- that's how you earn your degree in bio-citizenship. Yoga, vegetarian cooking, and the care of farm animals -- especially milk cows -- are additional features of our curriculum. We also regularly distribute surplus organic veggies to soup kitchens and local charities. Turn off the boob-tube, shut down your laptop and pick up your hoe.

Being an apprentice here is about developing the courage to literally make the change happen, to be part of the global movement which draws us back to the foundations of natural community and civilization. It is about getting that sacred soil lodged in your fingernails and on your hands like a true badge of honor. It is about understanding the essential art of "no-harm" farming and the real definition of sustainability, as we'll discuss more in our next Yoga of Ecology blog.

For now, let me take you on a tour of one of the two gardens that make up the Small Farm Training Center. Today we will show you our Teaching Garden, and in our next blog we will check out our eight-acre Garden of Seven Gates. Join me!

The 1/2 organic Teaching Garden provides foodstuffs and flowers for the New Vrindaban community and guests, for the sacred prasadam food offerings to the resident Deities Radha-Vrindaban Chandra, and for the outreach efforts of the Green Wheeling Initiative.

The Teaching Garden stands with feet in both new and old paradigms, honoring and participating in the progressive ecological movement of our time by showing an example of a cow-centered farm. The practical and philosophical aspects of the Garden are based on the principles of Vedic village ecology, from Indian culture, one of history and humanity's most advanced and ecologically sound systems of agriculture.

All fertilizer in the garden comes from the community's resident cows and goats, demonstrating that real fertility comes from living in harmony with our fellow living entities. The honoring and protection of our fellow animal community members is a deep and essential spiritual principle which insures karmic harmony and the sustainability and evolution of the soul towards self-realization for everyone involved with the Garden.

The Teaching Garden is an example of small-scale biodiversity, empowering the local community with local food culture. The tillers of the Garden offer workshops and tours which explains the ABCs of organic farming in relation to small-scale backyard gardening, market gardening, or the art of selling and preserving organic produce, and mini-farming, growing a wide array of foods for the local community without capital-extensive, external inputs.

The Garden also has a strict reuse, recycle, and restore ethic in relation to our mechanical assistants. Hence our trusty tractor, which has been in operation since the 1940s.

Tromboncino squash, which is resistant to squash bugs. Take that Monsanto!

Our mint collection includes lemon-mint, chocolate mint (which tastes like a York peppermint pattie), peppermint, and spearmint.

Dinosaur kale, whose dark-green leaves have a delicious nutty texture and remain firm in texture when cooked.

Some of the Garden's resident sunflowers. Nectar for the eyes and soul.

ISCOWP July 2013 update

Click here for the latest from our friends at the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

 

The Green Wheeling Initiative

My hands in the soil eco-theology transcending my nature-deficit-disorder Farm Yatra summer tour continues as I return to a place I called home for two very formative years in my life: the New Vrindaban bhakti-yoga spiritual community, located in the Appalachian foot-hills of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, where I had previously lived as a monk in the bhakti tradition. New Vrindaban is the home to the Small Farm Training Center (SFTC) project, a "land based educational center and a hands-on working organic farm" with the purpose of creating "community -- a web of supportive relationships -- by making locally grown organic foods readily available and affordable with the use of simple technology." The SFTC wants to create "paradigm warriors" who can "expand the conversation and are fluent in the language of inclusion, kinship and possibility" in relation to our existential ecological crisis. I'll be here for over a month and I will be blogging on the many facets of this dynamic and spiritually revolutionary project.

For my previous Yoga of Ecology blogs on my time with the biodynamic Episcopal sisters at Bluestone Farm in Brewster, NY, click here and here.

The photo above is an epitome of the potential and reality of urban agriculture. This is the 18th Street Overpass Garden in Wheeling, W. Va., one of the community gardens which is part of the Green Wheeling Initiative. The image juxtaposes so much of what it means to try to create a green-collar economy, a sense of ownership and empowerment over one's local community and local food sources. The beautiful garden, deep in its nourishing color and emanation of a literally life-giving aesthetic, stands in contrast to the huge modern sculpture of the overpass, a type of "artwork" which has long outlived its fashion and utility. The billboard in the background advertises for a local funeral home. One can suppose the ad is hardly needed. There are few more eternally profitable and stable businesses. In a place like Wheeling and in Appalachia, in the "belly of the beast." where nearly one in four people live below the poverty line and where West Virginia has the highest obesity rate in the country, questions of life, health, death, and food culture hang ominously in many spoken and unspoken places. If one can empower the people of Wheeling to create their own local, healthy, and ecologically-sound food culture, then one is creating justice, spiritual hope, and real honest-to-goodness happiness in a place where such things seem to have been long since lost in the most visceral and essential sense.

Standing in the Overpass Garden is Terry Sheldon, one of the founders and movers of the Green Wheeling Initiative, and the head of the Small Farm Training Center project at the New Vrindaban community near Wheeling. I had previously worked with Terry during my time as a monk in New Vrindaban, and I have also written about the SFTC project here. The GWI is an extension of Terry's vision of his own work and service to the local community, driven by his understanding and his spiritual obligation to share the wisdom of the true sustainability of the soul. It is a vision of "no-harm" farming, as Terry writes:

West Virginia is hurdling towards local foods. The day is coming when grocery store shelves will be stocked with blueberries from Beckley rather than Beijing. Kudos to the ag. economists, policy makers in state government, NGO think tanks (like The Hub) and the growing numbers of pioneer-spirited, small scale farmers and gardeners statewide. That's the good news.

Now the bad news. Most West Virginians aren't paying attention. They reside in urban and rural food deserts where affordable healthy food is out-of reach. They suffer from junk food malnutrition, buy inexpensive processed food, drink large amounts of soda and are reducing their life expectancy. Their diseases--chiefly diabetes and obesity--are not preventable without lifestyle change from the bottom-up.

Simply stated, the local foods movement is out-flanked and out-financed by the titans of the fast food industry. Following Big Tobacco's lead, fast food advertising is targeting youth, the poor and the uninformed. No number of feasibility studies or private foundation grants can usher-in a local food economy from the top down. Why? Because the food choices and self destructive eating addictions that drive West Virginia's health crises are the result of policies favoring commodity-based agriculture over community-based agriculture. It currently takes approximately 25 acres of land to satisfy the average West Virginian's appetite for an animal-centric diet.

Our vision of the future? Home economics classes returning to the public school curricula. Small scale organic "farmetts" dotting the suburban, city and small town horizons. Food mentors, not armed guards, in every school, every day-care and every housing project with the skills to teach every child the basics of a healthy-food lifestyle.

The Green Wheeling Initiative is a down-home, ground-up, grass-roots revolutionary food justice and cultural movement which is responding to the food crisis which threatens not only our health and well-being, but the integrity of life for so many living entities on this planet. It is those entities on the margins, because of their race, economic condition, their species and what is considered the correct utility of their existence, who are the most unjustly treated in the trenches of this crisis. The GWI is a response of environmental justice that represents real courage, clarity, and compassion.

The goal of the GWI is simply the restoration of the very idea of community that has been lost in the industrial-technological civilization of the overpass. The 18th Street Overpass Garden is not the first garden ever to rise in that particular neighborhood of Wheeling . Before the overpass went up, there was a real sense of place which has been now been paved over. The folks behind the GWI are trying to remind people that their backyards are something that truly belongs to them. They are trying to remind people that the bounties in those backyards can provide them with a quality and quantity of life which no corporation or outside interest has the right to co-op. It is the inalienable right of the people in this and any community to cultivate, grow, share, and enjoy the fruits of their very sustenance.

The motto of the GWI is "We Are Wheeling's green future... collaborate, collaborate, collaborate". In their mission statement they write:

Our mission is to build a local food production and distribution system that saves energy, creates jobs and circulates more money into the local economy. We partner with local farmers, community gardeners, schools and businesses to make fresh food available and easily available. We are Wheeling's green future.

In the past few years, Terry, along with co-founders Danny Swan, the pioneer of East Wheeling Community Gardens and a regular vendor at Wheeling's Farmer Market, and Gene Evans, an adjunct culinary arts professor who is currently teaching in Parkersburg, W. Va, have created a community garden network of 20+ gardens in the Wheeling area. In short time the GWI attracted the attention of private foundations such as the Hess Family Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, who have given the GWI over $80,000 in grant money. The GWI regularly offers organic community workshops in the Wheeling area and its influence and inspiration continues to grow (pun intended) upon a wide and diverse swath of peoples in the Wheeling area (check out local reports on the GWI here, here, here, and here.)

There are also five ongoing raised-bed garden projects in local schools in the Wheeling-Moundsville area. Some of the current initiatives of the GWI include a grant-funded study on "Bringing our Food Dollar Back Home", which would explore shifting 10 percent of the local economy towards community gardens and localized food cultivation, along with urban-gardening micro-grants which would serve as a clearing house for persons interested in start-up money for community gardens. The GWI is also developing a campus ecology project, which would help to create strategies for measuring the ecological footprint of local universities and colleges. Students would design their own audit projects for their schools. An initiative is also in the works to help make SNAP (food stamps) double in value at the Wheeling Farmer's Market when people use them to purchase healthy, locally grown foods.

In our next Yoga of Ecology piece we will take you on a tour of a day in the life of the Green Wheeling Initiative.

Green Wheeling Initiative on Facebook.

Govardhan Eco-Village Receives IAA Olive Crown Award

Click here to read the full article from Radhanath Swami's website

The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (an international body of Media & Advertisers) conducted the Olive Crown Awards for the year 2013 in Mumbai on the 1st of April. A Special Jury Award was conferred upon the Govardhan Eco village (GEV) in recognition of its continued efforts towards environmental sustainability. On behalf of the Govardhan Eco village, the award was collected by Shri Hrishikesh Mafatlal, Shri Kushal Desai and Shriman Gauranga Dasa.

Under the inspiration and guidance of Radhanath Swami a dedicated community began the development of the GEV in 2003 with the aim of demonstrating the principles of self-sufficiency and localized economy and highlighting the importance of living in harmony with nature by presenting a sustainable living model. Gradually they have developed fundamental aspects of the eco-village including organic farming, cow protection, education, rural development, alternative energy, eco-friendly constructions and sustainable living.

ISCOWP March 2013 Update

Click here for the latest from our friends at the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

ISCOWP Update January 2013

Click here for the latest from our friends at the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

ISCOWP November 2012 Update

Click here for the latest from our friends at the International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

ISKCON Devotee Elected To Council of Eco-Village Network

From Madhava Smullen at ISKCON News 

Sunset over the bell tower on Krishna-valley's main square (Somogyvamos, Hungary)

An ISKCON devotee, Radha Krishna Das, has been elected to the highest managerial body of the Global Eco-Village Network (GEN) Europe.

GEN describes itself as a constantly expanding group of intentional communities and eco-villages, that bridges all cultures and aims to create a global pool of wisdom for sustainable living.

GEN Europe serves Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and consists of fifty full member communities and over one hundred supporting members.

In becoming a part of their managerial body, Radha Krishna Das—who is also a member of the board of directors at ISKCON Hungary’s Krishna Valley eco-village—joins four other council members.

There’s president Macaco Tamerice, from the Damanhur community in Italy; Thomas Heuser, from ZEGG in Germany; Alfonso Flaquer, from La Base, the first straw bale dwelling community in Spain; and Jana-Momo Mohaupt, from Tamera in Portugal.

Radha Krishna was asked to run for election in the council when GEN Europe held its annual conference at Krishna Valley in July of this year.

The GEN Europe Council - Radha Krishna Das is in the back left corner

150 people from 35 countries attended the 12-day conference, making it the largest international meeting of non-ISKCON members ever held at Krishna Valley.

All were members of eco-villages and sustainable communities around Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

And all were very impressed with the 660-acre sustainable Krishna Valley farm, where 150 resident devotees produce almost all of their own food—including grain, honey, sixty different varieties of vegetables, and more than 600 fruit and nut trees—without the use of any pesticides, chemicals, or artificial fertilizers.

“After they saw the farm, we spoke for some time, and they asked me to run for election in their new council,” says Radha Krishna Das. “GEN Europe is an association of eco-villages who are trying to change the direction of the world, and to show good examples of how to live in harmony with nature. So of course I was delighted to.”

This means that Krishna Valley is also now a member of GEN. According to Radha Krishna, this is a very positive development for the ISKCON farm.

GEN Conference at Krishna Valley

“Not only can we share our experience with them, but we can learn a lot from them too,” he says. “There are eco communities that are part of GEN that have been running for thirty to forty years now, and have a wealth of technical and social development experience we can benefit from.”

For example, Radha Krishna explains, a Portuguese eco-village advised Krishna Valley on how to develop their water management system so that they could retain rainwater on their land during the dry summer months.

“For the past two years, we didn’t have rain for 3 or 4 months,” he says. “It was a catastrophe. The cows could not graze, and we had to put hay on the pasture just so they could eat something. But now, with the help of our friends from Portugal, we can keep the grass green and the cows can graze nicely.”

Radha Krishna believes that becoming a member of GEN could help the progress of not only Krishna Valley, but all of ISKCON’s eco-villages and farm projects.

“All of these eco-villages have had their own problems, which in many cases are very very similar to the ones that we’ve had—the social issues, the economic issues,” he says. “So we could learn a lot from each other’s failures and successes.”

Radha Krishna Das explains Krishna Valley's cow protection program to GEN Conference-goers

Many ISKCON rural communities would be eligible to become members of GEN—the only two requirements are being a group of at least 10 to 15 people who live together and work towards sustainable living; and paying an affordable annual membership fee.

Member communities become a part of an organization that is funded by the European Union, the European Voluntary Service, and the German Foreign Ministry. They can avail of special training and education programs recognized by UNESCO, attend GEN’s annual conference for a reduced fee, and vote at GEN’s general assembly.

Of course, ISKCON would also get the chance to network with people all over the world striving for the same goal of living off the land; people who are highly experienced in all the elements of sustainable living such as landscaping, water management, and energy efficiency, as well as getting grants and funding.

“GEN wants to share its information with as many people as possible, and truly hopes to change the direction the modern world is going in,” says Radha Krishna.

“In the future, we even hope to change governmental regulations and laws to become more favorable towards the development of eco-villages and intentional communities.”

Related Stories:

• ISKCON’s Eco-Valley Project at the Copenhagen Climate Summit
• D.C. Gardener Encourages City Temples to Go Green
• Simple Living at the Krishna Eco Farm, Lesmahagow, Scotland
• ISKCON European Farm Conference Held at New Vrajamandala, Spain
• ISKCON`s Global Village Initiative Committee Meets In Mumbai
• Pillars of Sustainability: Conference in Krishna-valley, Hungary
• Cows and Children Protest Outside the Hungarian Parliament
• Dozens Of Small Churches In Hungary Fear Loss Of Status Due To New Politicized Law On Religion
• "Sir! Where Can We Graze?" – Cows To Demonstrate In Front of the Hungarian Parliament
• Krishna Valley Visitors Learn Sustainability and Mud-House Building

Read more:http://news.iskcon.com/node/4714#ixzz2ByCw7es7

ISCOWP Update October 2012

Click here for the latest from our friends at The International Society for Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

ISCOWP Update August 2012

Click here for the latest from our friends at The International Society For Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

New Vrindaban Takes A Step Towards Sustainable Energy

The valley barn in New Vrindaban

From Madhava Smullen at ISKCON News

ISKCON’s West Virginia community New Vrindaban has taken another step towards the self-sufficiency that Srila Prabhupada envisioned for it when it was founded in 1968: the community has installed two brand new solar energy systems this year.

Behind the project is ECOV, a non-profit entity formed in the late 1990s with the special focus of realizing Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on living off the land and the cows.

“One solar system was installed on the roof of the community garden building, across the street from the Radha Vrindabanchandra temple,” says ECOV board member Chaitanya Mangala Dasa. “It was activated in the spring, and produces power for a garden shed and guest center.”

Meanwhile, the other system was installed at the Valley Barn, where the majority of New Vrindaban’s sixty cows and bulls reside, on June 12th. Consisting of 26 panels and measuring 42 feet wide and 10 feet high, it produces power for the barn’s lights and animal care equipment, as well as for ECOV’s offices.

In the first week, the two systems produced 114,000 watts of electricity between them; overall, the garden system produces 3 kilo watts per hour, while the barn system produces 5.2.

Holstein Steer grazing outside New Vrindaban Valley Barn

The systems are not independent from the grid, but instead are designed to feed back into the main grid, which will continue to be available.

Both systems are designed to produce enough electricity for the buildings they’re attached to so as to result in a zero dollar electric bill.

“Solar power is a renewable energy source that can help reduce our carbon footprint,” Chaitanya Mangala says.

The new solar systems are currently in a testing stage, as ECOV staff study how well they perform in West Virginia’s climate—the area only gets 150 days of sun a year.

The information they gather will guide future decisions on whether they install more solar panels or investigate other, more efficient types of renewable resource systems.

Even if solar power is chosen as the main energy source, other systems will be incorporated as well, as New Vrindaban moves towards becoming more and more energy efficient. ECOV staff are currently also looking into wind power and bio gas power, which would be run by extracting methane from cow dung.

“Srila Prabhupada clearly stated forty years ago that the main business for New Vrindaban was to develop the simple village lifestyle with residents dependent upon the land and the cows,” says Chaitanya Mangala. “This matches perfectly with the buzz today about developing local economies and minimizing the distance between production and consumption.”

Srila Prabhupada was also a strong advocate of locally produced products, stating, “Anything grown in the garden, that is hundred times [more] valuable than what is purchased from the market.”

ECOV staff are also working towards this goal, planting their own crops in a small demonstration garden as well as the five-acre Garden of Seven Gates. The aim is for the New Vrindaban community to be able to subsist as much as possible on self-produced vegetables rather than those purchased at the grocery store.

The community is also working towards growing all its own flowers for use in the temple, while ECOV staff have planted two hundred fruit trees and berry bushes on the New Vrindaban property.

Manjari, a Brown Swiss Heifer in the Valley Barn which is being powered by solar panels

“All these activities, along with our recent introduction of solar power, represent practical steps towards lessening our dependence on the fossil fuel based economy, and show by positive example that we’re acting on the important instructions that Prabhupada gave us,” Chaitanya Mangala says.

Related Stories:

• The Yoga of Ecology: Simple Living, High Thinking
• New Vrindaban: Green Wheeling Initiative Gains Momentum
• 8 religious wonders to see in the U.S.
• Transcendental Kirtan Rave at New Vrindavan
• Attention Vendors: Festival of Inspiration
• D.C. Gardener Encourages City Temples to Go Green
• British Town Grows Its Own Vegetables and Witnesses Reduced Crime
• Bhaktivedanta Manor's New Goshalla Wins Prize for "Design Excellence"
• New Vrindaban Organic Gardening Inspires Local Sustainability
• Pillars of Sustainability: Conference in Krishna-valley, Hungary

Read more: http://news.iskcon.com/node/4480#ixzz236gelVUv

D.C Gardener Encourages Other Temples To Go Green

Shyam Gopal, gardener at ISKCON of Washington D.C. and his "friend"

From Madhava Smullen at ISKCON News

As environmentally-friendly living becomes more and more of a concern in a modern society where Earth’s resources are fast running out, ISKCON has an increasing responsibility to set a good example.

After all, our philosophy is based upon our founder’s oft-quoted aphorism “Simple Living, High Thinking”—the practice of living naturally from the land while focusing on solving life’s mysteries.
This responsibility doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of ISKCON’s rural communities—it’s also something city temples can join in on, thus lending our society much greater credibility in the eyes of the public.

One of those stepping up to the plate is Shyam Gopal, gardener at ISKCON of Washington D.C.

As well as offering good advice for other temples interested in going green, Shyam is walking the walk himself. That’s something U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama—
who encourages home gardens and planted one on the White House’s South Lawn just 17 miles from the ISKCON temple—would appreciate.

Shyam, 34, comes with quite a pedigree. The son of a gardener and a forester in Berkeley, California, he studied environmental science at UC Santa Barbara, worked as a park ranger and an eco-tourist guide, and served at the ISKCON farm in Mauritius before moving to D.C. in March of this year.
On only one third of an acre at the temple in Potomac, Maryland—a D.C. suburb—Shyam has already coaxed an impressive bounty from the earth.

Eggplants from seeds

“We have heirloom and lauki squash, golden and green zucchini, hybrid and cherry tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, and Thai, serrano, habanero, and cow-horn chilis,” he says. “We also grow eggplant, cabbage, okra, bitter-melon, cucumber, cantelopes, pole beans and bush beans, beats, carrots, mixed lettuce, various pumpkins, and two-foot long watermelons.”

He has to pause for breath, before reeling off a spiel that sounds like a Simon and Garfunkel song. “Then there are all the herbs: basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, dill, fennel, fenugreek, and cilantro.”

With all these, the garden is ISKCON D.C.’s main source of organic vegetables, its sole source of herbs, and a considerable supplement to its overall food purchases.

And that’s not all: the temple doesn’t have to buy any flowers for its presiding Deities in the summer time, when rows upon rows of African, Mexican hybrid and double bloom marigolds, as well as red roses, white Tuber roses, and even seven-foot-tall sunflowers are available to make beautiful garlands with.

All this abundance is no accident. Shyam Gopal cares so much about the plants, which he calls his “children,” that he’s often spotted talking or singing to them. In the future, he’d like to set up some outdoor speakers to play them Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan.

This is nothing to laugh at. Shyam’s holistic, natural gardening techniques are no conconction— they’re embedded in both scientific and Krishna conscious principles.

Morning harvest on July 4th

“In trying to debunk the old research done on playing music for plants to improve their growth, researchers, for instance on the TV show Mythbusters, have only found that they couldn’t disprove it,” Shyam says. “It actually works.”

Plants, he explains, respond to music of all types—classical, ragas, heavy metal, and poetry— as well as simply being spoken to, with vigorous growth, more flowers and larger fruit development. They don’t have favorite genres; they simply like the interaction and are stimulated by the vibration.

“As I’m checking the plants for fungus, damage and pests every day by hand, I talk to them,” says Shyam. “I just say, ‘How are you doing?’ or ‘Oh, you have a problem here.’ And when I harvest from them I say ‘Thank you, we appreciate what you’re giving us for the Deities. You’re doing a great service.’ After all, they’re souls, just like me. I was a plant before. It was a rough life. So although they may not understand my words, I want them to feel on some level that they’re not living in vain.”

Shyam, following the best practices in permaculture, organic gardening, and biodynamics,
is considerate in all areas of his work. Seeing the soil as a living system full of complex, interdependent relationships, he avoids tilling once his garden beds have been made so as not to destroy this infrastructure. Instead, worms, which are carefully protected, do the tilling for him.

He also avoids walking on the beds in order to let the roots breathe. And rather than feeding the plants directly, he feeds the soil—considered to be “the stomach” in natural organic farming— with “Actively Aerated Compost Tea.”

Cantelope

This is made by blowing a household air pump, such as those used for an aquarium or air mattress, into a tank of water holding a “tea bag” made from cheese-cloth. The “tea bag” is filled with worm castings, a high quality compost created by feeding worms vegetable scraps and manure. This liquid compost mixture is aerated for 24 hours, then molasses and seaweed are added.

“Molasses increases good bacteria, and seaweed has natural plant growth hormones, which helps plants to uilize sunlight and photosynthesize better,” says Shyam. “It also acts like a B complex vitamin, boosting their immune system and reducing stress when you transplant.”

As he develops his garden, Shyam Gopal will also add Rishi-Krishi, the ancient farming techniques of sages described in the Vedas, to his practices.

Some of these techniques, written about by the great Parashara Muni in Krishi-Parashara and by Kashyapa in Kashyapiyakrishisukti, coincide with biodynamic principles, and thus are already being practiced in the ISKCON D.C. garden.

For instance, Shyam Gopal works by the lunar calendar, planting seeds as the moon is waxing, and pruning, transplanting and composting as it is waning. He also plants different items on the days the waxing moon goes through different constellations: for vegetables it’s the fire sign; for leaf crops, the water sign; for flowers, the air sign; and for roots, the earth sign. This, amongst all his other practices, makes for tastier and healthier crops.

Shyam encourages other devotees, at any level of experience, to start their own natural organic gardens at their temples or homes.

Morning harvest on July 6th

For beginners, he advises, “Start small. Don’t get overwhelmed by giving yourself way too much work. Start organic—there may be a pest or problem you can’t control organically at some point, but at least start organic and learn that way. And start with things that are easy to grow: herbs, tomatoes, a few flowers for your Deities.”

Specific local knowledge is key in gardening, Shyam says, so get advice from local gardeners in your area who know the local conditions. Your nearest university’s agriculture extension office or its website can also be an excellent resource for this.

Another key to gardening is awareness. “Observe how your plants are growing in different conditions,” Shyam says. “Go outside and check the weather every day. Get to know how reliable your local weather report is, compared to the actual weather. Get a simple rain guage and measure the rain. Get in touch with the cycles of the sun, moon, and seasons.”

Finally, Shyam encourages ISKCON temples to go green by purchasing biodegradable silverware and plates, since so many are used at every Sunday Feast and festival. He also suggests using shredded paper and cardboard boxes in the garden as mulch, and using all rotten vegetables as compost, not allowing anything to go to waste.

“Once you get started and build your knowledge base, it only gets better and better,” he says.

Shyam Gopal is happy to help other ISKCON temples go green and increase their fruit, flower and vegetable production. To speak with him and receive educational resources which he says have benefitted him greatly, please contact him at syamagopaldasa@gmail.com.

Related Stories:

• Simple Living at the Krishna Eco Farm, Lesmahagow, Scotland
• ISKCON European Farm Conference Held at New Vrajamandala, Spain
• ISKCON`s Global Village Initiative Committee Meets In Mumbai
• Pillars of Sustainability: Conference in Krishna-valley, Hungary
• Gita Nagari Farm Shares Bounty with City Temples
• New Vrindaban: Green Wheeling Initiative Gains Momentum
• Tech Conversion: India's Richest Shrine Goes Green
• Hindu Groups Agree To Address Climate Change
• New Vrindaban Takes a Step Towards Sustainable Energy
• British Town Grows Its Own Vegetables and Witnesses Reduced Crime
• Bhaktivedanta Manor's New Goshalla Wins Prize for "Design Excellence"
• New Vrindaban Organic Gardening Inspires Local Sustainability

Read more: http://news.iskcon.com/node/4534/2012-07-19/dc_gardener_encourages_city_temples_to_go_green#ixzz236fIRUuG

Simple Living, High Thinking

From Chris Fici at The Huffington Post Green

In the late 1960s, when the acclaimed Vedic scholar/teacher A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada brought the timeless tradition of bhakti-yoga to the Western world, his vision of spiritual renewal for a society caught up in the throes of tremendous upheaval included a bold yet elementary cure.

Coming as he was from the sacred Indian village of Vrindavan, from a culture where sustainability and a respectful relationship with the Earth where inherently coded into the fabric of life, he knew that the massive disconnect in society at large was the effect of being disconnected from our most natural heritage. Borrowing a phrase from Mahatma Gandhi, who had influenced him as a youth, he challenged and inspired some of his first students to imbibe the ideal of "simple living and high thinking."

Swami Prabhupada understood that the complexities of modern life could be a serious impediment to one's spiritual growth. If one could live very simply, off the grid as much as possible, growing one's own food and providing for one's own necessities, and following in the traditional and modest cultural example of bhakti-yoga's heritage in India, then the possibility of enlightenment even amidst the insanity of 20th-century life would be strengthened.

Now, over 40 years later, as life in the 21st century presents its own set of complications, "simple living and high thinking" is more prescient and vital than ever. Many of Swami Prabhupada's students who took up this challenge have struggled and failed yet endured to create the kinds of rural communities and cultural examples that he wanted.

During my time as a monk in the bhakti-yoga tradition, I worked for one year with Terry Sheldon, one of Prabhupada's students, on his organic farm project in the Ohio River Valley near Wheeling, W.Va. His Small Farm Training Center (SFTC) is Terry's offering to the world on how we can practically, theoretically, and spiritually understand our relationship to the planet which gives us our life, breath, and heart.

As Terry explains:

Although I've spent 30 plus years farming and gardening in Appalachia, I don't consider myself a "local." You might say I'm spoiled. My grandfather's farm in Northern Michigan, where I was raised, is both flat and fertile. West Virginia hillside farming is daunting. The soils here -- like the air, the streams and the people themselves -- have been used and abused for 150 years. The "real" locals, those who can trace their heritage back for two or three generations, love Appalachia. That spark of original mountain culture permeates their very being, Unfortunately, their bodies tell a different story. Morbid obesity and diabetes are the norm. That's the price you pay when you no longer grow what you eat and eat what you grow.
Something is out of balance. The Small Farm Training Center is one of many local organizations challenging this dying paradigm. We farm, we garden, we teach, we encourage, we improvise and most importantly we listen to input... We nourish both person and place."

While I was there, this city-slicker suburban Super Mario kid learned how to plant, grow, and harvest a number of different vegetables and fruits, how to drive a 60-year old tractor, how to use mulch and goat poo to fertilize, how to pull weeds out with the right torque so they don't grow back, as well as helping Terry bring some of his work, ideas, and motivations into the digital world, into a blog that eventually became the Yoga of Ecology.

I was drawn to Terry initially because of the stories he told me of his days in the "radical" hotspots of Ann Arbor and Berkeley back in the 1960s. The spirit of his youth has not dulled a bit, due to his deep-rooted spiritual convictions. He wants those who join him to become "paradigm warriors":

"If you're one of those people who passively accept corporate domination of America's food supply and political life, be forewarned, we don't... They want us to believe that industrial agriculture is the only way to feed the world. That's a lie. They want us to believe that it is cheaper to destroy the earth than to take care if it in real time. That's another lie... We disagree. We choose life and we're going to tell our own story. We're looking for paradigm warriors who can expand the conversation and are fluent in the language of inclusion, kinship and possibility."

Terry's vision, like Swami Prabhupada's, is expansive, dynamic, and rooted in the earth and in the spirit. He advocates eight key tenets of sustainable development, including food independence, vegetarianism, cow protection, and an ecological framework based on the wisdom of the Vedic tradition of India. From the bottom of his heart, Terry wants to change the very soul of our over-burdened and over-stimulated shared cultural mainframe into something which can point us towards the sustainable and eternal.

Terry offers an internship program open to anyone who shares his inspiration and who would like to help him make it spring up from the ground. My own experience working with him has helped me to deepen my own calling in terms of understanding how to bring our spiritual and ecological concerns into working harmony.

Alongside all of this Terry's vision connects to the communities around him in the Ohio River Valley, through the relationships he has cultivated with local soup kitchens, environmental organizations and universities, and urban gardening initiatives in Wheeling.

If you have a "green thumb", if your fingernails are constantly caked in dirt (like Terry's), or if you simply desire to make our ecological footprint more sane, then Terry is a fountain of knowledge to take advantage of. He is one of many "paradigm warriors" helping us to understand the sacred and essential calling we all have to the planet we live on, and to the many sources of life and spirit that surround us everyday.

Follow Chris Fici on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChrisFici

ISCOWP Update June 2012

 Click here for the latest from our friends at The International Society For Cow Protection (ISCOWP)

The Yoga of Envrionmentalism

From our friends at Govardhan Eco-Village

‘Environmentalism’ is the new religion today. Seeing through the mirage of the so-called development, many are realizing the detrimental effects of industrialization. The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat nourish us a little, if not sap away our wellness. Our co-inhabitants on this planet are becoming extinct day by day, reducing their presence to mere museums and encyclopedias. Seeing this rapid degradation of planet earth, Environmentalism is gaining fast acceptance, especially among the intellectual sections of the society. But what does Environmentalism profess?

Environmentalism is an ideology and a social movement aimed at environmental conservation and improvement by establishing a balance in our actions. It advocates changes in national policies, industrial practices, public behaviors and individual lifestyles to bring about this harmony between the humans and the earth. In short environmentalism expounds a way of living, an eco-culture based on certain higher values. Such an ideology is not something new, for it was integral to the Indian spiritual culture.

 

Often times we attribute religion or spirituality to have its basis only in the metaphysical. Something dealing with in the physical realm may not seem to be connected to the domain of spirituality. One might hence wonder about the link between environmentalism and spirituality. But in actuality the traditional Indian ideology holds environmentalism to be as sacred a concept as ‘yoga.’ The very meaning of the word yoga is ‘to connect’ and the metaphysical connotation is to connect the individual self with the supreme divine.

The sacred Indian texts, the Vedas, interpret the entire cosmos to be the personal energy of the Supreme Being and hence is as sacred as the Supreme Being. While simultaneously decrying the pantheistic viewpoint of labeling everything in nature to be God, the Vedas present a culture of respecting nature to be divine and godly. The Vedas explain that the planet earth is a divine property of God and whatever resources we get from this planet have to be gratefully accepted and utilized back in the service of God. Thus by establishing this mood of servitude and respect the Vedic lifestyle indirectly propounded environmentalism.

The culture of caring for the planet is an integral aspect of the Vedic culture. Seeing the divine connection between the Nature and God will naturally make our every action eco-friendly. The Vedic lifestyle does not condemn development, but encourages sustainable development brought about by acting in a responsible way. Thus our every interaction with nature is one of knowledge of the divine connection among humans, nature and God. This is the essence of the yoga of environmentalism.