In rural Appalachia, an Army veteran is battling the federal government to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp on American soil. But his project is about more than a single crop—it’s about restoring a sense of place and giving family farmers new opportunities to sustain an endangered way of life.

For hundreds of generations, the Gwich’in people of Alaska and northern Canada have depended on the caribou that migrate through the Arctic Refuge. With their traditional culture now threatened by oil extraction and climate change, two Gwich’in women are continuing a decades-long fight to protect their land and future.

Grantee Midori Takashima and other local activists protest against a proposed nuclear power plant in Kaminoseki, Japan. See what’s at stake in Sea of Miracles—directed by Dan Malloy.