Regenerative Agriculture | Spiritual Study | Cooperative Development

Revolutionary Farming for People and Planet is a 10-day permaculture and cooperative leadership program, in which participants develop the skills to apply environmental stewardship in everyday life. Workshops explore gardening as a form of climate adaptation and food sovereignty, and are combined with field study and cooperative projects as a living sustainability lab. The daily routine includes opportunities for yoga and meditation and learning with a working farm on 84 acres in the beautiful Catskill Mountains, Mahicantuck (Hudson) Valley.

Regenerative Agriculture and Food Sovereignty 

Covering the basics of growing food in a self-sufficient and organic manner, the program offers a series of workshops and hands-on experience in plant care, garden design, soil health, water management, and food processing. Following the principles of permaculture, participants will learn how to create human systems of growing food aligned with and supported by natural systems. Workshops demonstrate how these principles can be applied to a home garden, orchards, and farms, and how they can enhance biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem services. See below for a list of workshops with certified permaculturists, watershed conservationists, and food justice activists. 

Neohumanist Spiritual Study

Understood as a universal worldview, Neohumanism is the application of humanist values to plants, animals, and the environment. It is marked by the continual effort to expand one’s sense of community. Daily spiritual study, including collective meditation, yoga asanas, and democratic discussions explore Neohumanism and how it could be applied in our society. Workshops draw upon the activist study booklet Tools to Change the World. 

Cooperative Development and Independent Projects

Following democratic principles, the program features team building exercises, cooperative games, and opportunities for participants to co-lead sustainability projects on the farm. Collective meals, cultural events, and film screenings are part of daily life, and are shared with other staff, volunteers, and retreat goers at Ananda Viplava. The culmination of the program includes a farm tour and presentation of participant-led projects, followed by a farm to table dinner for the local community.

Schedule : May 19th - 29th

Each day includes 1-3 hours for educational workshops, 1 hour for cultural events, and 3-5 hours of farm apprenticeship. Two hours are reserved for collective meditation and yoga asana classes are offered as interested. 

Objectives

As an opportunity to develop self-sufficient food systems, the training program will give you the skills and confidence to grow your own food, nourish biodiversity and ecosystem services, and initiate cooperative projects of your own. Discover how permaculture and local food can mitigate climate change all while creating justice in our economy. 

Registration

Register with the link below, hosted by our sister organization Path of Bliss. Scholarship application available here. Thank you and we look forward to working together!

av.revolutionaryfarming@gmail.com

Workshops and Events

  • Regenerative Agriculture and Food Sovereignty 

    • Plant Care Workshop

      • Vegetables, Grains, Herbs, Flowers

      • Planning and planting garden

      • Seed Saving and Transplanting

      • Companion plants and natural pest management

    • Orchard Care and Design Workshop

      • Planning and planting orchard

      • Fruit Tree Pruning: Peach, Apple, Pear, Mulberry

    • Soil Health Workshop

      • Compost, Vermicompost, and Mulching systems Microbiology Tea

      • Inoculating Woodchips with fungi and indigenous microbiology

      • No Till, Cover Crops, and Rotational Planting

    • Watershed Management and Irrigation Systems Workshop

      • Workshop on water conservation and watershed restoration by local ecologist

      • Workshop on building rainwater catchment systems

    • Garden Design and Rewilding Landscapes Workshop

      • Selecting, designing, and planting pollinator friendly gardens

      • Plant cycles and succession

  • Neohumanist Spiritual Study

    • A series of lectures and group discussions around Neohumanism and its application in agriculture, conservation, and the climate adaptation movement.

    • Collective meditation twice a day, personal instruction upon request

    • Optional yoga asana classes

  • Cooperative Development

    • Democratic workshops and cooperative games with Tools to Change the World study guide provides an analysis of injustices within the food system, and solutions for a cooperative and just economic system based on bio-regional self-sufficiency. 

    • Cultural events and Film screenings

    • Collective meals

    • Co-lead a farm project, i.e. rainwater catchment, hot frames, irrigation systems, community garden, farm stand, seedling sale

    • Co-host, organize, and prepare a Farm to Table dinner for the local community, including a farm tour and presentation of your independent project

Dada Gananathannada

Dada Gananathannada has been an acarya  since 1991. In this role he has managed schools in the Caribbean, done administrative work in our central office and worked for 14 years running an organic peach farm in Los Angeles, California. He arrived at  Ananda Viplava Master Unit in 2014 where he is developing our vegetable and fruit farm.


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Acarya Viveka

Acarya Viveka (Bruce McEwen), PhD, ERYT500, has practiced yoga and meditation daily since early 1972. Viveka’s training included intensive study in India which qualified him to give personal meditation instruction. Viveka has taught yoga and meditation classes continuously since 1997 and has organized and led numerous weekend yoga retreats. Viveka is a co-founder and faculty member of Ananda Marga Yoga Teacher Training, a Yoga Alliance accredited program that has trained over 150 yoga teachers. More recently he has completed a 300 hour training in “Therapeutic Yoga” with Kaoverii Weber, director of Subtle Yoga Training Institute. Drawing on his professional background as a research scientist with the New York State Department of Health and a faculty member of SUNY- Albany, Viveka takes a rational yet compassionate and loving approach to the spiritual science of yoga. One of Viveka’s main interests is helping people to manage stress and avoid becoming overwhelmed with anxiety or depression.

Wilder Nicholson

Wilder Nicholson is a farmer, filmmaker, and cooperative developer inspired by the power of local food. Wilder is a co-owner and manager of sales and marketing for Midcoast Microgreens, a cooperative supplying year round nutrition in Maine, and co-stewards a flock of sheep and goats for dairy, fiber, and land management services. Wilder is a certified permaculture designer, and draws on Haudenosaunee roots to fulfill farming as a basic human right and a way to secure healthy thriving ecosystems. A yoga practitioner and teacher, Wilder is inspired by the dynamic balance of self realization and service to humanity.


Prakash Laufer

Prakash Laufer has been a student of Prout, the Progressive Utilization Theory propounded by PR Sarkar, for the past 50 years. He has been a dancer since the early 1970s and Has a Masters in Dance-Movement therapy from Antioch New England. He has been a social entrepreneur and worked with many social-justice and community non-profits over the years focused on service to humanity and spiritual development. He currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Prout Alliance and on the Board of Master Units Retreats Inc, which manages Ananda Viplava. He is the parent of 5 grown daughters, 4 adopted from around the world, with five grandchildren.He has been a regular practitioner of meditation and yoga for 50 years.


Dada Rainjitananda

Dada Rainjitanandahas been an acarya since 1985. He also is a experienced yoga teacher registered with Yoga Alliance, USA. He began his acarya work in East Africa managing children's schools and then traveled through Europe teaching yoga and meditation. Since arriving in New York in the year 2000 Dada has taught personal meditation practices to hundreds of people, has lectured in many colleges and has given Webinars (online seminars) in English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. At Ananda Viplava Master Unit Dada is helping to develop our program and retreat center as he continues to lecture and teach meditaiton techniques.


Acarya Devanistha

Acarya Devanistha (Jody Wright) teaches meditation and offers guidance to aspirants looking for a personal spiritual practice. She is a mother of five grown children, and a parent educator with a specialty in infant massage, adoption and breastfeeding. She has been an active student of Prout (Progressive Utilization Theory propounded by P. R. Sarkar) for many years - and works for social change in many areas of our society. Currently she serves on the ProutSisters international Steering Committee, and on the Advisory Committee for Proutist Universal in Denmark. She lives in Massachusetts, travels extensively world-wide, and visits Ananda Viplava as often as she can.