Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
industrial agriculture, has not lessened the number of people without
enough to eat in India. In 2010, several million tons of food grains, worth
millions of dollars, roted in Indian silos. Meant as bufer stock to stabi-
lize food prices, these grains were never distributed and went to waste, in
spite of the fact that millions of people in India are malnourished.46 The
situation repeated itself in 2011 and then again in 2012.47
More disturbingly, over a quarter of a million Indian farmers have
commited suicide since 1995, due to unbearable debt burdens they built
up while trying to industrialize their agriculture. In a biterly appropriate
gesture, most of these farmers took their lives by drinking pesticides.48
The list goes on, and it is hardly limited to India: dead zones in the
Gulf of Mexico, deforestation in the Amazon,
E. coli
outbreaks from fresh
vegetables, and biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia can all be linked to glo-
balized industrial agriculture. And yet, as Eric Holt-Gimenez of the non-
profit Food First points out, “We already grow enough food for 10 billion
people . . . and still can't end hunger.”49 Indeed, it is estimated that, on an
annual basis, we produce four billion tons of food globally, yet up to two
billion tons —
half
of all the food produced—are not consumed by people
because of factors such as poor distribution and waste.50 Our agricultural
status quo is leading to social and environmental degradation, while still
failing to feed the world's population.
Is it possible for organic farming in India to remedy some of the ills
of modern food production without becoming similar to industrial agri-
culture in its financing, labor practices, and focus on monocultures? Can
Kerala's organic farming movement and its 2010 organic farming policy
ameliorate the social and ecological problems of the state's agrarian sec-
tor? After having spent a year and a half with farmers and policy makers
in Kerala, I believe the answer to both questions is yes. More than that,
Kerala's growing organic farming movement illustrates that farmers and
their communities in the developing world are recognizing that the way
our food system is structured must change. Organic agriculture is provid-
ing one concrete and immediate avenue for reform.
During my fourteen months in India, I witnessed many examples
of civic engagement, farmer empowerment, and positive changes in
