I (Hari Pant) am a Masters in Science from University of Madras and a retired veteran of Indian Army, where I served for 33 years. Since retirement in 1977, in the rank of Brigadier, I have been involved with providing holistic healing services to the community including Homeopathy, Ayurveda and Thermal Acupressure at my home town Bhimtal (India) in the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand. The State of Uttarakhand is mostly hilly/ mountainous and has borders with Nepal and Tibet.
My interest in alternative healing practices took me to study at Schumacher College in the UK in 2007 & 2008. At Schumacher, I came under influence of my friend, philosopher and guide Cathrine Sneed of The Garden Project, SFO, USA. This led to my complete transition from profession of arms to farms. With the support of my friends at Schumacher and my mentor,Cathrine Sneed, in 2010 I was an Apprentice at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). My studies at the UCSC farms and Garden convinced me of a need to establish a sustainable organic community in my home state to start a grow a farmer campaign and reconnect young people from all over the globe to the source of their food from farm to fork. Grow a farmer campaign is very relevant in the Himalayan region where farmland has been abandoned to real estate speculation and younger generations is more interested to play on face book Farmsville - a game about farming- but have never watered any plant and are far removed from where their food comes from !!
