The A-Z of Agroecology course happens every year at Navdanya's Earth Institute founded by Vandana Shiva. The course covers the basics of sustainable farming techniques and ideas with teachers from across the globe. I attended the course in 2014 and learnt a lot through some amazing people.
It was here that I met Marilyn and Chris, the founders of The Hummingbird Project who taught us about soil ecology and even conducted a fun scavenger hunt for microorganisms by letting us use their microscopes on soil samples we collected from different places. It was a great way to understand how good soil is alive and teeming with life.
Marilyn and Chris|Source|
In addition to their education programs, they were part of an effort to create an open source online seed exchange in the form of the Cleveland Seed Bank. They also collect seed stories and broadcast them through seed trucks to promote good news and spread optimism. They're one of the largest seed libraries in Cleveland and aim to connect seed savers and farmers through authentic seeds. Despite a government bill declaring seed libraries illegal, they still opened up new libraries and kept going at it. Today, they have around 200 members with over 500 types of seed for exchange.
Along with the seeds Chris and Marilyn wanted to provide a brief summary of the seed's history and germination type and requirements. They were printing out this information from a MS Word file and asked me if I could find a way to make it look better. I happily obliged, and these are the seed cards I came up with.
Explorations
Final Seed Cards
These images are up on behance, but I thought I should share the stories of the people behind them that enabled me to make them in the first place. Visit The Hummingbird Project and Cleveland Seed Bank to get to know more about them and the wonderful work they do.
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