It may sound quirky, but as a kid I really liked the hummable jingles of pesticides — kisan urea, kisan urea, or the Sultan Rahi-like loud and thundering voice that alone could kill all the sundi that were eating up the wheat and cotton crop. Never once did I think that I was in anyway helping in promoting our kisan bhai to veer away from the age-old organic farming, till years later.
If you surf through the websites on organic food, and there are scores of them to befuddle you, you will learn that what was being done, before the Green Revolution started stalking our fields was, just right. We may not have seedless watermelons, but the ones that we have, are more natural and therefore healthier.
However, there are disadvantages to the whole organic food thing. It is comparatively expensive, tends to ripen faster and growing organic food requires more labour. They also cannot produce quantities large enough to drive down the costs and make their ware competitive with the non-organic variety. Therefore, it seems that the old, unfashionable way of growing food is on its way out. Or is it?
The West, after infecting itself with years of unbridled use of pesticides, fertilizers and bio-engineering, is trying to rediscover its past. People are now avoiding fast-foods and are now opting for slow-foods. Fast-food chains are being sued for causing irreparable damage and organic food and organic farming is taking on a whole new meaning. In the US alone, organic food sales have dramatically risen to a monumental figure of $7.8 billion.
It is keeping with this trend that websites are sprouting all over the place. Organicfood.co.uk claims to be UK’s premier organic food and lifestyle magazine. This site holds a “world of information free of pesticides and ‘Frankenstein Foods’”. It also maintains that it gives people a chance to make choices about what food is best for them.
There are top ten reasons, here as well, as to why we should go organic, one of which states “Going organic is the only practical way to avoid eating genetically modified (GM) food. And by buying organic food, you are registering your mistrust of GMO’s and doing your bit to protest against them”.
Once you are sold to the idea it helps you with buying organic food through their ‘Where to Shop’ link, “with detail of organic home delivery and our database of organic retailers all over the United Kingdom”.
The Organic Lifestyle section is full of information and organic ideas with articles about organic food, personalities, recipes, organic issues, health and beauty. But perhaps what is most interesting is their extensive Herb Directory giving you a list of all remedies the herbal way.
And if you log on to www.ootw.co.uk you will read how in 1995, over 2,000 individuals united behind a shared vision of shops that would present a direct challenge to destructive consumerism. The Creative Consumer Co-operative Ltd. was formed with its members investing money to establish shops under the trading name of Out of this World. “Our shops in Nottingham and Newcastle (UK) are now successfully providing the country’s widest range of ethically sourced goods” is what they claim.
Their household products include an eco-friendly range of washing powders and cleaning products made from biodegradable ingredients and packaged in recyclable materials, stationary and gifts made of recycled paper, stationery and wrapping paper, plus letter-writing kits made out of disused sea charts and ordinance survey maps etc. But best of all they offer an excellent selection of gluten-free and other foodstuffs for customers with special diets. Little wonder then that in 2002, Out of this World won the award for UK’s best established retail sore.
One can also log on to www.organicconsumers.org, the website for Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a grassroots network of over 500,000 people, and you will realize what all that is being done by civil society in promoting food safety, organic farming and sustainable agriculture practices, in the US and internationally. They provide consumers with factual information so that they can make informed food choices. Genetic engineering, irradiation, toxic sludge fertilizer, mad-cow disease, and rBGH are some of the issues that they have addressed.
“Our campaign strategies include public education, activist networking, boycotts and protests, grassroots lobbying, media and public relations, and litigation.”
They also publish one print newsletter by the name of Organic View and two electronic newsletters — BioDemocracy News and Organic Bytes.
The latest on their agenda is that GM foods should be labelled so that the public can choose to avoid them. “Consumers worldwide are concerned about GM foods precisely because science has not shown them to be safe,” states Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s National Director, “Even the British Medical Association has called for a moratorium on these foods until they can be adequately tested for their health impacts.”
They are also running a campaign - the Safeguard Our Students and have set four SOS goals:
* KICK junk foods and junk food ads out of our schools.
* START converting school lunches to healthier menus, using organic and transition to organic ingredients (no pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, irradiation or genetically engineered ingredients). Offer vegetarian options.
* STOP spraying toxic pesticides on school grounds and in buildings and convert to integrated pest management practices.
* TEACH students about healthy food choices and sustainable agriculture through school garden projects and curriculum materials.
In fact, if we can learn a thing or two, our schools can initiate such a campaign too.
At the home front there is website www.pakissan.com which has come up with The Pakissan iVan. Inaugurated by Prof Ata-ur-Rahman, the van hosts a modest Internet ready equipment and setup. The aim is to go door-to-door and provide Internet training to the farmers and community youth; give orientation about agri-web sites like the Pakissan.com; improve upon our efforts based on farmers’ feedback, encourage the local community to connect to internet; initiate the formation of Pakissan Tele-centers. Regular trips to different farming areas will be planned in coordination with farmer organizations. However, there is not much on how far they’ve been successful in bringing IT to the grassroots.
It may sound quirky, but as a kid I really liked the hummable jingles of pesticides — kisan urea, kisan urea, or the Sultan Rahi-like loud and thundering voice that alone could kill all the sundi that were eating up the wheat and cotton crop. Never once did I think that I was in anyway helping in promoting our kisan bhai to veer away from the age-old organic farming, till years later.
