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For 10,000 years , farmers in Kurdistan , a region in northern Iraq , have cultivated a wealth of native crops that spread throughout the world . yellowish pink , chickpeas , and onions flourished in the field , wheat berry and barley in the foothills . Today , after years of wars , sanctions , and droughts , this portion of the Fertile Crescent is endangered . A team of colleagues and I move around through Kurdistan , filming a documentary about the region ’s effort to recover its farming vitality . The project was acquire in conjunction with the educational opening Iraqi Seed Project . The interactive Web docudrama , This Is Fertile Ground , was just released , and a more comprehensive film first appearance in October .
Many Kurdish farmer conserve traditional method of harvesting . At the foot of the mickle , farmers burn grain with a scythe and amass megabucks of barley on their book binding . Cultivated and wild grains have been ubiquitous on the Kurdish landscape for a longsighted clip ; wheat , barley , and lentil were first domesticated here around 8000 B.C.Read more in our account , Kurdistan : Recovering a Garden of Paradise . Photo by : Anna Laurent . VIEW THE COMPLETE GALLERY
During our filming , we converge official in parliament and government who urged that a home Reconstruction Period admit an embrace of the region ’s longsighted tradition of sustainable agriculture and crop diversity . In cities and villages , we heard about efforts to preserve a culture of botanic literacy , especially after the national seed bank was put down in a 2003 flak . A scientist we interview spoke of a secret cache of ejaculate she gathered and forget in her cellar , while Hero Ibrahim Ahmed , the first lady of Iraq , line her twelvemonth - long pursuance to regain endangered plants , admit an indigenous Burgundy wine cultivated carrot . “ It was truly the garden of promised land , ” says Jamal Fouad , former government minister of Kurdish factory farm who now runs a teaching farm with his wife , Cathy . “ There is nothing that can not grow in this grunge . But things must vary for our farmers . ”
Since ancientness , local herbalist have prescribe the abundant , edible Milk River thistle ( Silybum marianum ) for many ailments . Modern Kurdish pharmacology research expands on traditional applications , identifying its germ as an effective treatment for liver disease . picture by : Anna Laurent . see THE COMPLETE drift
It ’s an easy metaphor to employ , but the regrowth of the Fertile Crescent is take root .
A industrial plant shop possessor shows a rosiness in the greenhouse . His shop grows out of the rubble of a destroyed building . He tend the plants with his son . Before opening the shop he was a schoolteacher ; he loved plants and hoped that selling them would be profitable enough to allow for his home . Photo by : Anna Laurent . VIEW THE COMPLETE veranda
This article appeared in the July / August 2012 takings asIn Bloom Again .
