Ashi and I prepared the paddies for planting rice - a muddy, back-breaking job of making little dams and dykes from the earth to be able to evenly irrigate the fields. Ashi, a Burmese refugee living in Northwestern Thailand, didn't speak English and I don't speak Lisu, his hill tribe language and so we communicated with gestures and smiles. Besides rice, this farm was producing rubber, fruit, pork and fish.

Nagaraj tills out the weeds between the rice rows at the Annadana Farm outside Bangalore, India.

Goal waters fresh seed beds at Annadana Farm.