Happy World Food Day!

On World Food Day, 16th Oct 2013

Let's not forget the small farmers whose big efforts feed the world.

Conversations

The kind of agriculture being practiced in the country can be largely classified under non-organic farming that involves usage of genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides and fertilizers and farming that is done organically, the former being the one that is more widely preferred.

Non-organic / synthetic farming is chemical intensive and cultivates monocultures for the benefit of harvesting a greater produce and getting government subsidies. Organic farming, on the other hand, uses no chemical based pesticides or fertilizers but is not supported by government subsidies. The importance of biodiverse farming where nutrients from one crop benefit the ones around it, is one that cannot be appreciated by chemical aided farming. Non-organic farms work towards the growth of a single crop by eliminating the growth of other native or seasonal varieties, poisoning the soil and affecting microbes and insects who form the biodiversity on the farm.

Organic farming is directed towards the use of natural means to meet the needs of pest-control and fertilization of the soil. Biodiversity is a benefit for organic farming through mixed farming as it provides a balanced environment in the farm where different crops support each other around the year, the farmer benefits from a fall back crop in case of a poor harvest of the cash crop and pests are controlled by their predators. What can be inferred from this is how biodiversity can be promoted along with organic farming. To understand if biodiversity is prevalent in organic farming, I decided to look at the organic food system.

Organic food minimizes processing, additives and preservatives. However, it is more expensive as the production costs of organic farming is high and is labour intensive. Though it is recommended for its nutritional values and sustainable principles, organic produce is only afforded and consumed by the higher and upper-middle classes. It was only among these classes that I was able to identify the prevalence of organic food and could discuss the inclusion of biodiversity in their processes:

Places and People:

Fabindia Organics, CMH Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore.

One of the most popular names in organic food in India, Fabindia call their system Inclusive Capitalism, one that gives a fair share of the profit to the farmers and producers. Fabindia introduced me to organic certification.

Phalada Agro Research, Magadi Road, Bangalore.
Phalada Agro process and package the food products sold by Fabindia, 24 Letter Mantra and other organic food industries. Their website mentions a traceability option through which one can get in touch with farmers. Their initiative strives towards "contributing towards the conservation and restoration of biodiversity."

The Farmer's Market - Indiranagar, Bangalore.

The market was a congregation of people who grow and produce organic food and lifestyle products and is held once a month in Indiranagar. I was able to speak to Vishaklakshi of Buffalo Back Organics, who has broken the myth that organic farming cannot meet the productivity attained by non-organic farming. She collaborates with several farmers who maintain biodiverse, organic farms and markets them under her brand.

John Fennessy runs Hamsah Organic Farm in Sarjapur, Bangalore and after the first year of low productivity, his patience was rewarded with a great, green bounty in the years to follow. According to him, his only pest-control is biodiversity. The farm has developed an eco-system in which each pest has it's own predator and the produce does not suffer. He uses herbal pesticides such as neem extract instead of chemicals.

Finally, Govind Shivkumar, Investment Manager at LGT Venture Philantrophy, had lots of useful information to share about consumption patterns in cities. He maintains that it is not a matter of quantity but quality of food that affects the health and well-being of city dwellers. Processed food is largely consumed while horticulture is in the decline. Farm area around cities that was used for growing fruits and vegetables is now being used for building townships. As a result, fresh fruits and vegetables are absent from our daily consumption and are sold at prices that cannot be afforded by all.

Here's a gist of all that I could gather from these conversations:

These opinions, experiences and insights will be most useful in shaping the stories as examples of how biodiversity can become part of industry, livelihood and lifestyle in the city. Living with bio-diversity is not that hard to achieve, it is merely a matter of how we choose to shape our food systems.

Consumption Patterns

A simple way of understanding the link between us and the food we eat is to observe the forces involved:
There is no particular stage that controls what is grown and what is eaten, it can be seen as a dynamic system. What we demand as consumers is what the farmer is compelled to grow and the market to supply.
On the other hand, we can only stock up in our cellars what is available in the market. A useful way to observe this system and how it affects society is through consumption patterns, in which all three forces are visible. To achieve this I accessed the National Sample Survey of India and various articles and discussions such as this one that observe the changing habits and patterns in our food consumption.

One of the main inferences from the NSSO was the fall in demand for coarse cereals (ragi, jowar, bajra, millets) observed across all classes in society. Also, there is a shift towards processed food among both rural and urban consumers as the consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits has declined. Without a doubt, the change in food consumption has an effect on the health and well-being of society. The coarse cereals have served as a source of micro-nutrients in various forms across India. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the only natural source for vitamins and minerals, the deficiencies of which are evident among the lower class who cannot afford to purchase them. And processed food, rich in sugar, salt, fat and preservatives has shown its impact through rise in cardiac diseases, diabetes and obesity.

A healthy, balanced diet is one that involves an intake of a variety of foods in their appropriate portions. As important as diversity is in nature, it is vital in our diet in the form of Dietary Diversity. Our country, with its varied soil and climate distribution can cultivate this diversity and meet our dietary needs. However, the ill-health rampant in the country stand witness to the fact that there is great disparity in accessibility to a healthy diet. A monoculture diet as opposed to a diverse diet can be observed in all classes of society. For one, rice and wheat have become the only cereals that are widely consumed. Not only do they fail to compensate for the nutritional value of millets, they are also expensive to become a part of the households of economically weak.

 The matter of concern is that the availability of millets and the land usage for their cultivation is diminishing. At a political level, the Public Distribution System largely distributes only rice and wheat as cereals, forcing a monoculture in both the fields and the diet. The conservation of millets and their consumption on a larger scale is a necessity to maintain agrobiodiversity. Millets have a greater capacity to grow in harsh conditions as opposed to rice and wheat that require continuous irrigation and fertilizers to grow as a monoculture in incompatible conditions.

In recent times, millets are being promoted and revived (read here) in an attempt to draw attention to their health benefits and decline in consumption. They are also emerging as a trend among the elite and the health conscious, at higher prices. As can be read in this article, it is a foolish act on our parts to have forgotten the importance of a diverse diet and the richness of millets, and instead turn first towards cereals rich in sugars and carbs and then towards expensive health fads when the answer to well being was always the inclusion of the array of millets that our land has to offer. To really appreciate the change in diet over the years, here's a blogpost worth reading.

Topics to explore

From the feedback that I received after the first seminar, the most important was to focus on the topics that need to be explored further. The topics were then assessed for relevance :

As can be seen, Monocultures, the link between Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity and the need for Indicators are topics that have more scope for exploration. They are more inclusive and not specific to a class or gender, and can help us look at conserving Biodiversity as a collective responsibility.
The other topics can be auxiliary in understanding the effect of degradation of Biodiversity and be explored to a lesser degree. 

Visit to NBA, Chennai

On the 15th of July, 2013, the Communicating Biodiversity team* visited the National Biodiversity office in Chennai. The meeting gave us a great overview of the kind of initiatives that are being taken for the preservation of the country's biodiversity. The current focus is strengthening the implementation of the Biological Diversity Act and Rules with focus on its Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)Provisions through the UNEP-GEF and MoEF Project. 

We were fortunate to speak to the individuals, including the Chairman, Mr. Balakrishna Pisupati, about their initiatives and could gather many interesting facts about Biodiversity Management.

For one, the NBA has undertaken an exhaustive valuation of the countries biological resources by engaging and training village youth, traditional healers, womenfolk and local communities to identify and record the biodiversity in their vicinity in Peoples Biodiversity Registers.

It was note-worthy to see how Biodiversity was being geographically categorized under Wetlands, Forests and Agriculture to define the various ecosystems. Culturally, Biodiversity was identified in medicinal herbs, sacred groves and seasonal plants. Even though valuation focuses on the economic value of Biological Resources, their health and nutrition benefits were also highlighted. It was made visible to us how various livelihoods and practices are closely  linked with their ecology. The importance and vastness of the country's Biodoversity could be appreciated in just listening to the various details that the NBA initiatives cover. 

As for the Communicating Biodiversity project, we were given the freedom to explore various forms, narratives, subjects as long as we did it with sensitivity and empathy. The power of storytelling as a mode of communication is something that the NBA believes in and Dr. Balakrishna gave us several examples of how innovative communication such as board games or textbooks created from People's Biodiversity Registers can enhance people's understanding and interest in the subject of Biodiversity.

For us, it was extremely motivating to see their interest and enthusiasm in designing new modes of communication. Which leaves us with the responsibility of delivering something that does justice to this freedom. The task now is to pick the right themes, choose the appropriate form and design a powerful story.

* You can view the progress of the animation being created for the project on Harshvardhan's blog http://backyard-biodiversity.blogspot.in/

Movements that Inspire - Food Democracy

Food Democracy is a concept that brings together farmers, concerned citizens and agricultural scientists. It defines a framework in which the people of a country actively participate in the food system and the policies that surround it. The movement began in the mid-1990s as a response to the increasing corporate control and lack of consumer participation in the food system. To relate this back to biodiversity, it allows farmers to grow local varieties that are otherwise lost in cultivating monocultures, it gives the people the right to say no to genetically modified species and gives them control over traditional knowledge and can choose the direction in which agricultural research should head. Conserving biodiversity thus becomes a collective responsibility, guided by the concern of healthy lifestyles and balanced eco-systems on the farm.

In India,Vandana Shiva is the ambassador for agro-biodiversity and food democracy. Her foundation Navdanya, provides the farmers from the foothills of the Himalayas to conserve plant species in a seed-bank, gives them the opportunity to practice bio-diverse farming and has set up learning centers where traditional and innovative knowledge is exchanged. They have also empowered women across generations, who are the custodians of cultural knowledge and wisdom through the Grandmother's University.

A global initiative that one can draw inspiration from is Excluded Voices. Their food democracy movements across the globe have brought farmers and agricultural scientists together to share knowledge and opinions about the future of agriculture. Participatory videos and maps helped the farmer groups document traditional methods of farming  and endemic varieties of plants and animals. They used role play to understand perspectives of key players in the food production system. Citizen Juries help create a collective voice that demands food sovereignty. They even brought together farmer groups from various countries as a gesture of solidarity and pride. 

India and Biodiversity

To gain insights about the discussions that surround Biodiversity in India, I read Ashish Kothari's Understanding Biodiversity. The text gives a detailed background of Biodiversity management in India, the threats to Biodiversity and what measures have already been taken. It was a great way of understanding the subject with respect to the diversity that our country harbours based on availability of resources, various livelihoods, cultural differences, disparity in class and addresses the debate on Intellectual Property Rights on traditional knowledge. The book also cites examples of inspiring people and movements that have preserved and maintained biological diversity in India.

A comprehensive and concisely written study on the ecological issues in India from the National, Urban and Agricultural perspectives is Anil Agarwal's Politics of Environment. The study helped me identify a few topics that can be explored further.

The topics identified were:

Diversity gets transformed into Monocultures. This can be said for the cultural diversity in cities and the biological diversity in farms. Furthermore, cultural diversity is born out of biological diversity.

Urban migrants are not economic refugees but ecological refugees, displaced by building of dams, mining, deforestation, etc.

The biggest ally for an ecologically / socially sound environment is Womankind.

We do not yet know how to construct a social / economic / ecological indicator for urban residents to detect depleting biodiversity.

Of these topics, one will be explored further to shape the narrative of the storybook.