Organic farming is an idea whose time has come

Organic farming is the new buzzword. With Gujarat being the latest entrant, 9 States – Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland – have formulated organic farming policies. In addition, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Goa are in the process of framing organic farming policies.

Presiding over the formal launch of the Gujarat Organic Farming Policy at Ahmedabad on May 16, I said that organic agriculture is an idea whose time has come. Globally, India is the fastest growing market when it comes to organic foods. Against 11.3 per cent annual growth being seen in the US for organic foods, India is much ahead. According to the India Organic Food Market Forecast and Opportunities: “the organic food market revenues are expected to grow at a combined annual growth rate of about 25 per cent in the period 2014-19.”

Gujarat’s organic farming policy was prepared after an elaborate consultation process involving more than 1,200 people across 7 different locations. This participative process lasting over 8 months included 650 farmers, 130 scientists and 80 women, says Kapil Shah of Jatan, the Baroda-based voluntary society that initiated the policy formulation process. Gujarat has allocated Rs 10-crore in the current fiscal to promote organic farming.

Interestingly, along with organic foods, there is also rapidly growing market for milk of desicows. Rich in minerals, and known to prevent some of the lifestyle diseases like Type-1 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and autism, the demand for A2 milk – as it is called – is growing. At a number of places across the country, small dairies comprising native cow breeds have sprung up. Haryana is among the States that have announced financial support for small dairies of native cow breeds. Rajasthan too is encouraging the shift towards native breeds.

While State Governments are keenly formulating organic farming policies, the desired shift towards enlarging the area under organic farming practices is not keeping pace with the growing demand for organic foods. This is primarily because of the lack of clarity at the political as well as policy planning level. Somehow policy makers are still not convinced whether the country’s food needs in the times to come can be met from non-chemical farming systems.

Strangely, while India is a signatory to the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), I find most policy makers are unaware of its report, released in 2008, which looked at different technological options in the light of climate change, water availability, loss of cultivable lands, existing trends in population growth, and rural/urban food and poverty dynamics. The report categorically states that ‘business as usual’ are not the answer and advocate a shift towards non-chemical farming as the only sustainable way ahead.  

I therefore think there is an urgent need to make IAASTD report a mandatory reading for senior bureaucrats/scientist-administrators. At the same time, non-chemical farming practices will only get a fillip when a suitable subsidy regime is crafted. It is primarily because chemical fertilizers, pesticides and seed are subsidized in a manner that these become cheaper than the organic inputs that farmers are lured towards the chemical-based farming systems. The need now is to provide financial support for organic inputs, including farm-yard manure and natural farming products like panchkavya.

In the quest to increase food production, there has been a complete disregard to eco-system services. With 2^ndgeneration environmental impacts now becoming pronounced, ascribing an economic value to eco-system services like maintaining soil fertility needs to be calculated. A healthy soil leads to a health crop, which in turn leads to healthy living. The advantages from preserving and conserving a healthy soil therefore are multifarious and needs economic support to make this viable for the farmers. At the same time, organic farming needs to be backed by research and development. Agricultural Universities must shift the plant breeding approach from the existing thrust on breeding improved crop varieties which are responsive to chemical fertilizers to being responsive to organic resources. This is what I call as organic breeding. 

And finally, the banking system too needs to provide farm credit for organic farming systems and also for keeping native cattle breeds. At a time when consumers demand for organic is on an upswing, national policies have to be in tune with the changing times. Let’s not be caught napping.#

Organic food is an idea whose time has come. 

ABPLive.in May 18, 2015. goo.gl/qEkbju

Like Yoga, it’s time for an International Day of Safe Food

Not only yoga, with health problems accentuating in the recent past, the trend is also increasingly moving towards safe food. But while the popularity of yoga received a shot in the arm when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion of celebrating an International Day of Yoga was accepted by the UN, safe food has yet to get a political backing.

Although Michelle Obama has taken to organic farming in the premises of the White House, and is known to serve chemical-free food to guests, she has still not been able to convince the UN to have a special day marked for safe food. Nevertheless, the preference and intake for non-chemical farm produce has grown globally over the years, and is growing at a phenomenal pace.

According to the Soil Association’s Organic Market Report 2013 sale of organic food has grown by more than 25 per cent since 2008. While in the US it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14 per cent between 2014 and 2018; in India too, the growth looks very promising.

The Indian organic food market is likely to grow by a phenomenal annual compound growth rate of 19 per cent between 2012 and 2016.

Interestingly, not everyone keen on organic food is banking upon an organic certification. For several decades now I have seen farmers in Punjab and Haryana, comprising the wheat bowl of the country, keep a small patch of cultivated land free of chemical pesticides and fertilizers for home consumption. While they drench the crops meant for the market with whole lot of pesticides, they ensure safe food for their own consumption.

I have also watched with interest a silent food revolution taking place. In the entire northwestern parts of the country, more and more households are relying on organic wheat – the Sharbati variety – coming from Madhya Pradesh. The organic wheat that is being imported from MP comes with no certificate. It is only through goodwill and faith that people are willing to pay a higher price for what they are told is a better quality produce. The atta from Sharbati wheat is relatively expensive but people are willing to pay a price for healthy food.

Several years back, India Today (Oct 15, 2007) had reported on its growing appeal in the metros. In a report entitled Grains of Gold, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Grains+of+gold/1/1561.html) it wrote: "India's granary Punjab still produces the lion's share of the country's wheat. But when it comes to taste, quality and other attributes, Madhya Pradesh's Sharbati tops the charts in demand in the metros. The lustrous, golden-hued grain commands premium price, being re-christened golden or premium wheat in wholesale and retail markets of Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad or simply, MP wheat in major North Indian markets like Delhi.” 

The primary reason behind the increasing consumer preference for non-chemical food products are the resulting health impacts. More and more people now realize that most babies born today carry persistent pesticides and other chemicals in their bodies. Lately, scientists have found 21 different chemicals in umbilical cord blood. With lifestyle diseases becoming more and more common, people are linking it to the food they eat. So whether we like it or not, the world is quietly moving towards safe food.

This will require changes at two levels. First of all, there are essentially two kinds of improved crops that have been developed by agricultural scientists: the high-yielding varieties (HYV) that need chemical pesticides to be sprayed to take care of insects and pests; and the genetically-modified (GM) crops that creates poison within the plant to kill certain kinds of insects, and at the same time require potent chemicals to be sprayed from outside too keep the other pests under control. Agricultural scientists need to now shift research focus towards organic breeding of crop varieties, which means developing crop varieties that are responsive to organic farming methods. 

Secondly, it’s time that the government steps in to encourage farmers to move towards non-chemical agriculture. Every year, huge stocks of wheat in Punjab and Haryana are spoiled in storage. At the same time, huge quantity of Sharbati wheat is imported from Madhya Pradesh to meet the local demand.

You will agree it will make tremendous economic sense for the Punjab (and also for Haryana) governments to encourage farmers to grow wheat without chemicals to cater to the growing local preference rather than allow its chemically-infested wheat to rot. And I see no reason why this can’t be done. If Punjab government can provide a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per acre for the paddy farmers to shift to cotton cultivation, I am sure a similar amount can be provided to wheat farmers to shift from chemical farming to non-chemical farming.   

Source: Like Yoga, it's time for an International Day of Safe Food
http://www.abplive.in/india/2015/01/07/article471236.ece/Like-Yoga-it%E2%80%99s-time-for-an-International-Day-of-Safe-Food

Absolute power comes from absolute control over food

Ever since I was a child I have been drinking milk bought directly from a small dairy in my neighbourhood. When I moved to New Delhi, for some months I managed to get my direct supply of milk from a neighbourhood supplier. But soon, the buffalo-keeper moved out his animals under pressure from builders. This was almost two decades back, and since then I am left with little option but to buy processed milk.

However, there are millions in India who can afford to avoid intake of processed milk and I think they are the lucky ones. I wish I could still buy my daily requirement of milk from the small neighbourhood dairies that dot the outskirts of New Delhi, and elsewhere.

I was therefore shocked when I viewed the accompanying video on YouTube.

Police raiding an organic grocery shop in California.
http://bit.ly/bmCNfu

This is certainly outrageous. But this is a grim pointer to where the next battles would be fought. It is not water, as many people believe, but food that will be putting nations at war. You can clearly see, if you want to, where it is coming from. Multinational food giants have been slowly but steadily gaining control over food. They know that absolute control over food is the road to absolute power.

The process of takeover of food simultaneously began on several fronts. It began with Green Revolution in the late 1960s, which was essentially to provide controlled technology to increase farm production in developing countries. This was followed with Structural Adjustment Programme that the World Bank/IMF pushed seeking policy changes through the 150-odd conditionality's that came with every loan. To provide more teeth to the process, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have been brought in.

Technology is now controlled through the instruments of Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and unhindered grain trade is made possible by the unjust obligations that developing countries have been made to accept under the so-called free trade paradigm. To complete the control over the entire food chain, the third actor in the game -- food retail -- is now being moved across the national borders. G-20 is pushing for compliance, asking member countries to streamline the norms that facilitate the entry of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Multi-Brand Retail.

Internationally, the food trio -- Monsanto/Syngenta as symbol of the technology providers; Cargill/ADM among the major food trading companies; and Wal-Mart and Tesco representing food retail -- have formed an unholy alliance They operate in unison, making the governments fall in line. Food laws are being changed everywhere across the globe to make it easy for the trio to operate. WTO is helping to push farmers out of agriculture thereby making it easier for these multinationals to march on. IPR laws are bringing the necessary changes in national laws in conformity with internationally designed parameters bringing private control over technology.

The process of takeover of food is now complete.

But there are still irritating impediment on the way to absolute control over food. Alert and conscious consumers are not giving up so easily, and they are gaining in strength. Even in the United States and Europe, more and more people are realising the dangers of processed foods, and silently moving away to organic foods. The annual market for organic foods is growing at a phenomenal 20 per cent. This has to be stopped. So the regulators are now working overtime to outlaw organic foods. The underlying objective is to limit your food choice. You will be left with no option but to buy what the food giants want you to buy. Hobson's choice, isn't it?

In the name of food safety, which is a misnomer, food laws are being changed. S 510 is one such law that the US is considering to bring in. One of the world's most corrupt body -- US FDA -- is at work. It is working overtime to outlaw organic food. The prescription is simple: GM food is what you should be eating, organic food is bad for your health. That's the best it can do. The police raid in an organic store in California therefore is just the beginning. You wait and watch. The day is not far when the police will enter your kitchen. In the name of Mendel in the Kitchen, Nina Fedoroff, presently science advisor to the Secretary of State, is working hard to police your kitchen.

There are some who realise the threat ahead. This is what someone wrote in the comments section of the YouTube: I go to my apt garbage bin and search out empty general mills cereal boxes and various gmo containers, wash them out and sterilize them and place my organic foodstuff inside because I don't want to be dragged down to jail. I can't afford a criminal record, to maintain my job.

I don't know what is happening to the United States. Whenever I see the Statue of Liberty I can't miss the tears in her eyes. Only the Americans refuse to see it. As my film-maker friend Ajay Kanchan often says: America is the country where civil liberties have been mortgaged to the multinationals. People live in virtual tyranny. I am in complete agreement. I can only feel sorry for fellow Americans. But I can assure you the world outside is waiting to help you, to pull you out of the police rule. Come, let us join hands. Let us try to regain our control over what we eat.

And if you still believe, the police is acting right. Read this letter (from someone with the user name 12dogpal): 'They did not ban the H1N1 virus infection at the factory pig farm in Mexico where the virus was released. The pork was still sold in the USA. They didn't close the Wright County Egg farm for poisoning the food supply, they didn't close Wal-Mart for passing out e.coli beef. They didn't stop the drug co's from putting out dangerous drugs, lets face it folks, your government is your worst enemy.'

How true?

As Jawaharlal Nehru had said during the days of the British Raj: Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might. Start by saying no to S 510. Remember, regaining control over our food is the ultimate freedom.