About me - Priya Vincent

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I have a somewhat ‘patchwork past’ having done lots of different jobs and having had an education that didn’t follow the usual path. Somehow this has led me to where I am now doing the work I love to do, which is growing healthy food in an Earth friendly way.  I love to spend some time each day working with the soil as it is through this that I connect in a visceral way with the Earth and its needs.  This work has been a potent part of my spiritual and emotional growth and what I learn through doing it continues to surprise me. Who would have thought that the powers that be in Auroville (you can find out more about the spiritual township of Auroville at www.auroville.org) would decide to put a road through Buddha Garden, the farm I set up?  Who would have thought that as this happened, someone would ask me to help them set up their farm in Malaysia? Who would have thought that this would give me the push to create this blog for a worldwide audience?  

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MY BACKGROUND

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I was born and educated in the UK and worked as a nurse, radiographer and teacher as well as a wide range of other jobs in factories, shops and offices.  Having missed getting to university while at school I got my university entrance exams at evening classes and went later as a mature student.  I eventually received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Surrey (UK).  Subsequently I worked for fifteen years in various market research companies and it was during this time I married and had my first daughter Mary.  After the breakdown of this marriage and being on my own for a while I met a new partner and gave birth to my second daughter Emma, and later my third daughter Rachael.  Soon after Emma arrived we went to live in Malaysia where, partly as a result of my own experience of childbirth, and partly because of the wonderfully diverse Malaysian population, I became interested in traditional birth practices.  I decided to carry out research on the subject which led to my writing and publishing three books on traditional birth, breastfeeding and infant feeding.  After four years in Malaysia we lived for a short time in Yemen and then Malawi and eventually India where my partner died.  

 

I found my way to Auroville in 1996

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MY FARMING

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I started Buddha Garden Community Farm in Auroville in 2000 and always saw it as my contribution to the community.  There are now a team of us that work together on what has become a productive eight acre farm.  I am passionate about Buddha Garden being not only a farm for growing food for Auroville but also being a place of research and education for anyone wanting to grow their own food.  Over the years the farm has hosted a range of educational programs for a wide range of people.  From very young children having their first experience of being on a farm to helping secondary school students set up their own vegetable garden.  From individuals wanting to know how they can grow food in flats and small gardens to university researchers and practising farmers wanting to see and know how they can develop their practice. Buddha Garden exists to demonstrate that there IS a working alternative to the many food growing techniques that do not support the natural process on which our future food growing depends.

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From the beginning many people came to Buddha Garden wanting to learn about ways of food growing that give us healthy food without harming the Earth.  They came wanting not only to learn, but also to experience our farming activities; sometimes looking for a food growing ‘system’ they could use at home.  While I was happy to show them what we did, the practical techniques we used were often of limited use to them unless they were growing food in the same kind of climate.  In any case it soon became clear that, for me, growing food required more than just a series of techniques.  As the farm developed, I found myself developing in different ways.  Working day by day on the land I found myself becoming intimately connected with it. This brought about a change in approach that I saw was as much needed as the practical changes that were needed to grow food on the land in ways which did not harm the Earth. 

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I explore this in more detail in my book ‘Hands and Earth Together’ which is on sale in Amazon and will be soon be available from this site.  Although there is information about practical techniques that some might find useful (depending on where they are in the world) it also attempts to show the process of inner development and connection with the land where they are working.  Which I think is as important for the future development of their project as changing their food growing techniques.  In the book I call this the development of their ‘inner sun’ that complements the outer sun and all the natural processes that rely on it and on which our food-growing depends.

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The fragility of many of our food systems has been highlighted by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic unfolded in the world it has brought to our attention the many unsustainable ways of growing food -  ways which depend on the exploitation of natural resources and people and add to the present climate emergency.  It has made many more people aware of just how dysfunctional some food systems are, especially when they deliver food that is too expensive or lacking in nutrients for a large proportion of the population it serves.  It is clear that other ways of growing food need to be found that sustain rather than deplete the Earth and that food systems must change to better serve people with more nutritious food that everyone can afford.  More people practising Earth friendly food growing is one step towards a more equitable food system that provides healthy food for everyone.  One aim of my book is to provide a basic understanding of the Earth friendly  food-growing approach we use in Buddha Garden and the tools needed to develop a similar food growing practice anywhere in the world.

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Recently I was asked by Ashok to help him set up an organic farm in Malaysia called Chempaka Kuning.  He was inspired by Buddha Garden and other Auroville farms like Annapurna and is in the beginning of preparing the land and growing food.  I am finding it a very interesting process finding the right practical  techniques to use in a very different climate and in an environment where there are very different expectations of farms and farmers.  Doing this has for me highlighted the need for food growers to be conscious of their own inner development as well as the outer development of their food growing project within the natural and political environment in which they work.  For, as I have found for myself, that although the outer development is important it is this inner development which provides the vision and inspiration for the ongoing future development of my food growing.  It is with this in mind that I have set up this blog.  I hope it will serve both the people who come to Auroville and Chempaka Kuning to learn about what we do as well as people who would like to do food growing or are already doing so and seek support for their work.