{"id":231337,"date":"2023-03-13T12:01:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T12:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=231337"},"modified":"2023-03-12T06:44:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T06:44:04","slug":"holi-the-colours-of-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/03\/holi-the-colours-of-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Holi: The Colours of Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Celebration of Holi and International Women\u2019s Day<\/p><\/div>\n

8 Mar 2023 – <\/em>This year, International Women\u2019s Day<\/strong> falls on the same day of Holi<\/strong>, the festival of colours, joy and diversity: 8 March. On this day, millions of people take to the streets to celebrate the coming of spring by throwing coloured powders. Over the years, however, these colours have become increasingly unnatural and often toxic as industrial chemical production has supplanted traditional, natural production.<\/p>\n

On the Navdanya farm, at the Earth University, we teach how to produce these colours naturally by extracting them from plants<\/strong>. These are the colours coming from biodiversity, reminding us how important diversity is, in nature and in our society.<\/p>\n

More than 20 years ago, Navdanya started the campaign to recover the use of natural ingredients to produce colours for Holi, and initiated the Diverse Women for Diversity<\/strong><\/a> movement<\/strong>, which gathers women from different regions and nations of the world, diverse in culture, religion and socio-economic conditions. At the WTO summit in Seattle in 1999, we declared our common goal: \u2018biological and cultural diversity as the foundation of life on earth. Therefore, we stand for self-sufficiency, self-reliance and solidarity, locally and globally\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n