Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
currently either discussing or have organic farming policies in place, some
of which were inspired by organic farming within Kerala. Many visitors,
including Vandana Shiva, have repeatedly come to the state to learn about
and laud its organic farming efforts. India is now one of the fastest grow-
ing areas for organic production, and over half a million organic farmers
are located in the nation.67 And in India, more than twenty other organic
certification organizations have been established since the formation of
Indocert.68
The diversity of Kerala's organic farming movement
—from policy to
certification, from Palakkad to Wayanad—illuminates that a broad spec-
trum of farmers and communities are yearning to break from India's Green
Revolution. Even as the state's organic agricultural movements evolve in
many different directions, they remain united in their mission to revolu-
tionize an agro-food system reliant on chemicals, monocrops, and fickle
markets. Farmers are reclaiming more of their agricultural processes and
practices, to ensure that pesticide poisonings, suicides, and plant disease
epidemics become phenomena of the past.
