After having survived the first full lockdown in the beginning of 2020, we have now entered the second one, this time with an increased sense of seeing all this as a ‘wake-up’ call. Srila Prabhupada spoke so many times on this topic from the very beginning of the movement and yet sadly over 50 years later it is still a weak aspect of the Krsna consciousness movement. So our ‘lock-down’ can be a ‘wake-up’ to developing our Radhadesh self-sufficiency program.
Radhadesh has over its years made a number of serious steps in overall self-sufficiency. We have our own woodchip heating system, our own well water and get over 50% of our own electricity from solar panels. But yet we still missed something very important – any development in growing our own food. Enter Thibaut with the ‘Premaculture project’. Based upon his many years training and practice in permaculture techniques, he is now pushing forward our food growing aspect. This project is incredibly important to Radhadesh and its visitors in that it will be a big step towards not being completely dependent on the modern global economic system to have such a basic need as food. What to speak of the obvious huge advantage that the quality of the food will far surpass anything you buy due to being free from the unlimited chemical exposure the modern food chain is based on. And to top it off, the ayurvedic system has endless praises for the ‘pranic’ quality of the food that is grown in your own back yard. Most modern foods having been packaged, handled and processed in so many ways, end up stripped of all their original prana. Food benefits us not just in terms of carbs, proteins, vitamins etc but also in terms of the very life-force coming from Mother Bhumi, our planet Earth. We have just started but we are delighted with the progress so far.
Prabhupāda: “My idea is that all our centers should be self-supported. We do not like that idea that for your support you have to go 100 miles to get your bread. That is a very dangerous drawback. You produce your food locally and then support yourself. The main problem is what to eat, where to sleep. So we get some place and support ourselves by producing our own food. We have already begun in New Vrindaban, New…, West Virginia, Virginia, and similarly in other centers, we are producing our food, grains, vegetables, fruits and milk. That is sufficient. But we don’t kill any animals. That we don’t do.”
Room Conversation with Professor Durckheim German Spiritual Writer – June 19, 1974, Germany
Self Sufficiency…moving forward
