Kick start this new year on a wise and healthy note with a mouthful of millets. Learn more about their varieties, benefits, and environmental importance. ************************************* Hi friends! Have you ever reflected upon the usual grains that we eat every day? Apart from the most popular, wheat and rice, there are a lot of other cereals that we consume like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi), and buckwheat (kuttu). Most of these are local foods and are prepared on special occasions like fasts or festivities...

The story of how a village got its first toilet. *********************************** G Nandakumar is a young farmer in Diguvapalem, a remote hamlet and a chronically drought-prone area in southern Andhra. In 2019, I met him on a school hiking trip, as part of our Geography classes. 'Nandu,' fondly addressed as so, was keen to upgrade his village by pursing some sustainable environmental practices, like organic farming. However, he lacked the resources to execute his vision. So, as a young student, I was very inspired by his ideas and wanted to help...

Hunting animals used to be central to the survival of most human communities over most of human history, whether it be for food or medicines or to use their fur and skin as clothes and rugs. Communities had developed ways to hunt animals without overexploiting them, such that the animals and humans could survive together. While we try to inculcate the values of sustainability in people today through classes and lectures, such values used to be a matter of common sense. If you kill all the animals this year, what are you going to hunt next year?...

What we decide to do today is bound to have an impact on our tomorrow. Therefore, it is up to us to determine the kind of world we want to develop for our future and leave behind for our next generation. We are already witnessing manifold consequences of rising global warming and climate change in the form of extreme weather events. Think about droughts, floods, forest fires, and many such catastrophes. We all are aware that increasing carbon emissions are largely responsible for disturbing our climate...

Food that is good for us and for the environment, understanding what ‘food systems’ are, how they cause climate change, and what the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit is all about. **************************************** Babbi jumped out of the car and looked around the unusual farm. There were bushes interspersed with different kinds of trees and small patches of vegetables. Nearby, was a yellow patch of mustard crops. She could hear a cow moo at a distance too...