Nurturing environmental values through gardening

“Most of what is called growth today is waste. A sustainable human community must be designed in such a manner that its way of life, businesses, economy, physical structures and technologies do not interfere with nature's inherent ability to sustain life.” - The systems view of life, Fritjof Capra.

This stems from every one of us being ecologically literate. Eco-literacy is a critical skill. Therefore should be an important part of education. School nutrition gardens are a great platform for children and the school community to anchor eco-literacy and the systems in nature. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi has developed guidelines for this, thanks to consistent work by the Farm2Food Foundation who uses farming as a pedagogic tool to teach science, mathematics along with other life skills.

Our Earth Ambassadors were introduced to the know-hows of initiating a terrace garden in their localities by Researcher Deborah Dutta who studies how school farms motivate pro-environmental actions. Her research focuses on how this emerges in the community through farming and how can we design an intervention that will promote such actions.

Thank you Deborah for sharing your thesis work with our Fellows.