Recent years have brought a series of shocks to farmers in India: diminished groundwater, expensive seeds, and climate disaster to name a few. Soils in particular have been severely depleted. After seeing the devastated soils—and communities—in rural India in 2010, Marilyn McHugh and Chris Kennedy created The Hummingbird Project to help farmers restore soils. It is making a difference.

And in Goa, Clea Chandmal is using permaculture, to address the related problem of farmer suicides. Don’t miss her TedX talk – one of the clearest presentations on restoring soils we have seen.

Initiatives like these are living models for real change, enabling people and planet to thrive.