Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
mations occurred in our global food system. In the twentieth century,
agricultural systems became more homogenous and subject to more cor-
porate control and long chains of production that stretch from country
to country. Food now travels farther than ever before. Countries like
England currently import the vast majority of their fruit and vegetables,
often from places thousands of miles away. Farming is now less than 1 per-
cent of
Britain's GDP, and local farmers are continuing to lose their market
share.22 In the United States, the number of farms and the percentage of
people employed on them have both decreased, as a result of mechaniza-
tion and the ongoing consolidation of farmland.23 Farming is no longer a
lucrative profession for many Europeans or Americans, who are leaving
rural areas. This story is being repeated elsewhere in countries like India,
where farmers are moving away from agriculture and migrating to cities
for beter economic opportunities. My own parents are one such example,
having left behind their agrarian roots in India for other professions in
the United States. Furthermore, fueled by programs such as the Green
Revolution, contemporary agricultural production has become increas-
ingly dependent on inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and fossil fuels, lead-
ing to environmental degradation and food safety problems. Agriculture
has become a significant source of environmental degradation and health
risks, from
E. coli
outbreaks to groundwater contamination, often from
unknown and faraway sources.24
The confluence of these factors—from the invisibility and complexity
of contemporary food chains to economic hardships faced by farmers—
has helped to spur a movement in several places to support local farmers
and their produce.25 In Kerala, the issue of local food is also intimately
related to broader discussions about the future of agriculture in the state.
Farmers and government officials increasingly accept that the status
quo of chemical agriculture and the Green Revolution have distressed
the state's agrarian sector so much that a change is needed. Despite any
agreement, these discussions are influenced by the intersection of several
factors, including ever-evolving definitions of nature and questions about
how to best conserve it, the historical relationships particular cultural
groups have had with nature and land in Kerala, and the state govern-
ment's own changing environmental priorities.
