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20. Natabar Sarangi - The Source
1 year ago
Natabar continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed with local farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350 varieties.

But it’s not just about the indigenous rice seed of India or about the survival of a sustainable agriculture system with the knowledge of over ten thousand years.

It's about a global phenomenon taking place where a non-sustainable system systematically destroys a sustainable one, where short term profit has the power to overwhelm common sense and the consciousness of many millions, where progress is not progress but the wanton destruction of an eco-system and environment we will never be able to replace.

Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers throughout the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the damage taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we will lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a truly sustainable system of food security.

Assistant editor/producer Chintan Gohil chintangohil.com

for more information on the Indian agricultural crisis
devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/
  • Daniel Klein plus 1 year ago
    Really enjoyed your video. Thanks, beautifully shot and meaningful. I've spent some time in India and would love to film there.
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  • kumar.anilsr 1 year ago
    Great ,Thank you for sharing with us.Danke
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  • Nice mini-documentary Jason. Just curious if you think that the population of India would be able to be fed from organic farming. I was there this summer for 3 months and the overpopulation of cities overwhelmed me. I find it hard to believe that organic farming would be a solution, but agree that the environment is going fast.
  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    Its a complicated issue and it does not come over at my first attempt to make something on the issue. Its not an issue of production, its an issue of distribution. The world already produces enough food to feed twice the population. The new agricultural models have nothing to do with feeding the world and more to do with control of agricultural and food markets. India will not be producing food to feed its people. It will be producing GMO grains under licence to American companies to produce food for cattle and bio fuels to off set out carbon emissions. Agriculture is the second largest contributor to climate change and much of this comes from oil-based inputs in fertilizer, pesticides and machinery. This/our system of agriculture is a failed system and when paired with corporate control and an agenda based on profit maximisation, farmers in developing countries will only become indebted, losing their land and their environmentally protective role. India has almost 70% of its population who directly survive off its land, the government plan to move 85% of the population into urban environment. These are unskilled uneducated people of a lower cast. They have no hope. India has no industrial base and its population is exploding. For the rural people there is little hope. There is a report written by the IAASTD on the site I have put up. Hundreds of scientist funded by the world bank and the UN over four years have come to the conclusion that intensive agriculture heavily dependant on high inputs is not the solution.
    Organic agriculture is by no means the answer to feeding the world but it is part of a larger picture. We need to work with scientist to develop and enhance what we already have, not destroy it then create a synthetic polluting corporate model.
    Have a look at the IAASTD report. We just need to change our self-interest driven habits and begin to understand who is driving policy.
    I hope that makes a little more sense ? jason
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  • Christopher Ives 1 year ago
    Amazing!
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  • DeepHundal 1 year ago
    This is awesome! I've been following the farming crisis in India for years and haven't seen anything like this before.

    ps. are you using a canon 7d for this?
  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    this is all a bit of an experiment at the moment. want to try to develop the idea and look at people who understand and are able to give a narrative. Am working on a few different ones and editing it all down to make it tighter. Have been using a 5D because of the full frame. Thank you for your comment. Take care. Jason
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  • Rajwinder Singh 1 year ago
    amazing work Jason!!!

    the gmo problem is so big in India - especially in bread-baskets like Punjab - farmers have been brain-washed by the Monsantos and scientists sponsored by the same companies that they do not believe it is possible to even cultivate without the need of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers.

    sry for winging...but ur work is truly inspirational...for reporting so well the issues that India and rest of the world caught in the strangle hold of these companies..

    congrats..
  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    thank you Rajwinder, sorry for the late reply but been on the road for the last month trying to get a book together. Just uploading another short one. And yes. Its amazing what they are getting away with and then telling us our lives are at risk by people who want to hurt us. Oh the irony! For the love of money.. Take care jason
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  • Elissa Bogos 1 year ago
    This is really wonderful. The shots are beautiful and the message is such an important one. It's both heartbreaking and uplifting. I wish Mr. Sarangi the best in his work.
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  • ümit kıvanç plus 1 year ago
    Thank you for informing us. And well done!
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  • JRoss 1 year ago
    Inspirational!
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  • Ashis Panda 1 year ago
    A wonderful portrait, and amazing clarity and video quality too. Watched it many times over.

    Many thanks for this.

    Would you be able to provide the details of the soundtracks used, and if there are longer versions of the tracks available online somewhere.

    Shall look forward to your other films on thesourcefilm.org.
  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    thank you. working on more, not Natabar but others. One just being uploaded on the Worm Man.

    Music is from old Oriya film music. the first is called Jhilmil Jhilmil Raate, the second one is Chandrama Eko and finally is the great Ananda Shankar and Cyrus. Take care. Jason
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  • Baljeet 1 year ago
    Wow, how did you find this gem (Natabar). This man is the missing link between sustainability and over dependency on GM crops, When i was in Andhra Pradesh every other day in the papers you could see a case of farmer forced to take the extreme step and taking their own life AND the main case was GM cotton. I dont think the government in Indian has still learnt anything from this. Great work again Jason.
  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    Its not the Indian government its the US that is behind all of this. We sell all our control driven technologies to so called developing countries. These are not governments or politicians, these are greedy little businessmen taking all they can before they are replaced by another one. All part of the same machine. Will keep putting them up I just need to get them out there and for mainstream society to begin to understand what is really taking place. Thank you for your comment. Jason
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  • Wonderfully beautiful both in content and cinematography Jason! Thank you for this gift!
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  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    thank you for your comment. Am just uploading another one on worms in Orissa.. Jason
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  • Nicely done. Love all the white space, really lets the content soak in.
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  • Ron Sparks plus 1 year ago
    I am really inspired by your videos, you have great technique, the filming looks great but it doesn't take away from the story or make me think, "humm i wonder why the guy with the camera is doing that." I am just sucked into the story and the visual just make it all feel like i'm there.

    This is what I have been struggling when does cinema style take way from the story, espeically when dealling with the poor and the hungry of the world, but you seem to have a style that works. Its both in the filming and the editing.

    anyway thanks, seems hard to find good models.
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  • the source project plus 1 year ago
    I think its just the photography background but also the fact that I care so much. Spending time at the FCC's and dinner parties listening to these empty self absorbed tossers living this bizarre fantasy that somehow they are doing something while being paid to turn what they consider poor people into a human zoo. I've had it with the development organisations, not all but most. If you spend time with the subject and demonstrate that you understand and care about the issues then the subject responds. The problem is, is that most people are thinking too much about themselves too much and that where they fuck up. take care J
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  • Jeen m Thankappan 11 months ago
    Glad to see this.. Very much natural ... Good camera work..

    Thanks!!
  • the source project plus 9 months ago
    sorry, just seen your comment. Thank you. J
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  • Jason MacKenzie 11 months ago
    You had me at the sound of the rice sweeping. Your work is true. Keep it up.
  • the source project plus 9 months ago
    But I think i need to work on my sound a little bit, but thank you. j
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  • Campbell McLean 11 months ago
    Great subject matter. Totally agree. You have a very good eye too. What are you using for audio recording and which lenses do you like to use with your 5D?
  • the source project plus 9 months ago
    sorry for the late reply, not often on line. I was using on camera sound as it's just me but sometimes carry a zoom recorder with me and it is a 5D with a 50mm 1.4. It's all I seem to use these days.. J
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  • MeMi 10 months ago
    Documenting a culture at its best! I agree it is well crafted. I like how you fuse those powerful images into the story without canibalizing each element in a good documentary.
  • the source project plus 9 months ago
    I think a lot of it comes from being connected to the subject and the issue. The more you understand the more you feel and see. Thank you
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  • Myrna A-K Fau 10 months ago
    Excellent! Thanks for sharing this information in such a beautiful way.
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  • the source project plus 9 months ago
    thank you . j
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  • shahzeb 7 months ago
    Beautifully shot i loved it...
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  • the source project plus 7 months ago
    thank you Shahzeb J
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  • StudioSputnik 5 months ago
    Nice story... beautiful footage... nice colours... how does one get such colours ?
  • the source project plus 4 months ago
    just a little three way colour pushing and pulling and then there is India and all its colour.. J
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  • KATE FLINT 5 months ago
    I have watched this and other Source Project videos, over and over and they say so much, so well. I am giving a talk next week, about seed saving (my passion) and would so love to show this video but it seems I cannot download it. Can this be changed please??
  • the source project plus 4 months ago
    I'm so sorry Kate, I have been in Uganda and no email for three weeks. I allow all the films to be used and often unlock them for people, the only reason I ended up locking them was because of and American production company who were trying to cheat me. Sorry I missed you mail. Let me know and am more than happy for you to have full access to them. Jason
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  • KATE FLINT 4 months ago
    That would be wonderful ,Jason, as I give talks about the importance of saving seeds etc etc, from time to time, and I don't usually have access to the internet at the venue. My email is katevag@gmail.com and I have a blog called Vegetable Vagabond.
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  • Zaino Bustos 3 months ago
    Muy beuno
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  • Black Ticket Films 3 months ago
    One of our favourite videos on food security!
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  • Maggie Smith 2 months ago
    Hi Jason - I was up late last night looking for video clips on this topic to share with some of the groups we work with in northeast India. For the past 12 years, I've been travelling to Assam to work as a volunteer with tea growers, farmers, students and people from all walks of life - who are slowly starting to become aware of what's happening to their seeds and their soil. You can read about Fertile Ground's work on our website: fertile-ground.org

    I would love to be able to share the images and the content of your film with some of the young activists we're involved with - Samir Bordoloi from Prakriti-Save Nature, Pompy Ghosh from Adarsh Seuj Prakalpa, and others.

    My contact info is on the website. Please let me know if you'd be willing to share your video with people in the northeast. And if you'd like to visit this region and see some of the inspiring work being done by our partners, there, just let us know!

    My sincere thanks for the important and inspiring work you are doing........

    Peggy Carswell, Fertile Ground: East/West Sustainability Network
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  • K Red Atjecoutay 1 month ago
    In the past many parts of north America had wild rice, which the indigenous people harvested for over ten thousand years as you may know the same has happened in our homeland like many parts of the world, there are some small groups like White Earth Reservation a small plot of land left for the first peoples of that region who are still harvesting rice, I find this very interesting, because I have been doing research on the practical life ways of every-day life of my people the Anishanaabae, of the mid and eastern canada who co-exsisted with nature in the past, not any or maybe very few harvest wild rice that I know of in present day.
    In The past the main foods were Berries, maple sugar, fish and rice, the ojibwa who are the Anishanaabae prided them selves on there hunting abilities of which was a very difficult skill to have, so the main foods are just as I stated and the hunting culture of my people was and is grossly exaggerated by the "story Tellers" of the Occidental people I am simple writing this as to state some kind of comparison with what has and is happing in North America and your video of Mr Sarangi Thank you very much

    Kerry Red Atjecoutay
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