“If you give a man a fish,” the old adage runs, “ you feed him for a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”  So what happens when you give a man a video camera?

That’s precisely what several organizations, including the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) hope to find out by distributing video cameras to farmers in India to promote local, sustainable agriculture in the billion-person nation.

After learning how to use the cameras, the farmers began recording their own ways to keep diversity levels high in the food they produce, and to preserve their farmland so that it remains productive for many generations.

The project also seeks to improve the social status of women in India, by involving them equally in the production process. This both empowered the women making the film, and by creating a video record of the women’s involvement in the process, spreads that empowerment wherever the videos are viewed.

While most attempts at promoting sustainability work from the top levels of government downward, this grassroots method of people communicating farmer-to-farmer could have a ground-breaking impact in the fight against climate change.