oct 12th, 2008
food is a national security issue at least as much as energy is. the indian government too has paid practically no attention to food security while expending a lot of effort on a search for energy security (to give them the benefit of the doubt). this is criminal neglect. india *has* to become a major producer and exporter of food, especially organically grown food; this will be a huge strategic win for the country as food is, with water, about the most primal need any nation has.
bad food and bad food production techniques destroy the land, the aquifers, and the general health of the population. note: the US's health-care spending is skyrocketing and will soon be 20% of GDP, but americans are becoming obese, diabetic and unhealthy at an alarming pace, thanks mostly to the products of bad food policy including high-fructose corn syrup. this is what fast-food does to you.
we have to get away from oil-fueled food; and also from 'food-like substances' promoted as actual food. as usual, the sun is the best, and inexhaustible, and nonpolluting, source of energy with no radioactive waste or global warming headaches.
traditional indian agricultural practices which emphasized polyculture have been all but forgotten in the mad rush to oil-based 'green revolutions'. they need to be revived.
and this more sustainable agriculture can also sustain a lot more employment. this article calls for more americans to return to the farm; fortunately for india, we still have a lot of people who have never left the farm in the first place.
and losing farmland to 'development' is a bad idea. the farmers of singur may turn out to have been right, after all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?pagewanted=all
there was a recent 'slow-food' event in san francisco that talked about the merits of old-fashioned, slow-cooked, locally-based food. and a conference in delhi recently on related topics
http://sloweb.slowfood.com/sloweb/eng/dettaglio.lasso?cod=3E6E345B187d42C75CHyN2B800CB
food is a national security issue at least as much as energy is. the indian government too has paid practically no attention to food security while expending a lot of effort on a search for energy security (to give them the benefit of the doubt). this is criminal neglect. india *has* to become a major producer and exporter of food, especially organically grown food; this will be a huge strategic win for the country as food is, with water, about the most primal need any nation has.
bad food and bad food production techniques destroy the land, the aquifers, and the general health of the population. note: the US's health-care spending is skyrocketing and will soon be 20% of GDP, but americans are becoming obese, diabetic and unhealthy at an alarming pace, thanks mostly to the products of bad food policy including high-fructose corn syrup. this is what fast-food does to you.
we have to get away from oil-fueled food; and also from 'food-like substances' promoted as actual food. as usual, the sun is the best, and inexhaustible, and nonpolluting, source of energy with no radioactive waste or global warming headaches.
traditional indian agricultural practices which emphasized polyculture have been all but forgotten in the mad rush to oil-based 'green revolutions'. they need to be revived.
and this more sustainable agriculture can also sustain a lot more employment. this article calls for more americans to return to the farm; fortunately for india, we still have a lot of people who have never left the farm in the first place.
and losing farmland to 'development' is a bad idea. the farmers of singur may turn out to have been right, after all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?pagewanted=all
there was a recent 'slow-food' event in san francisco that talked about the merits of old-fashioned, slow-cooked, locally-based food. and a conference in delhi recently on related topics
http://sloweb.slowfood.com/sloweb/eng/dettaglio.lasso?cod=3E6E345B187d42C75CHyN2B800CB
2 comments:
Both WB govt & Tata CANNOT be absolved of the damage they have done to the fertile farmland and the ruthless massacre of defenceless people there.Betrays the quality of due diligence done.
It is not going to be that easy to resume cultivation.As tonnes of fly
ash have been deposited there.
Each State has something positive about it , which , ideally ought to be focussed upon. The much promising & environment friendly Jute industry was given a brutal burial by the revolution loving hypocritical leftists of WB.
Rajaji had rightly warned NOT to divide India on linguistic lines as that would " only lead to tribalism. "
India does not lack in human resources. Lack of synergy & cruel politicians are solely responsible for the sorry state of affairs.
"... the merits of old-fashioned, slow-cooked, locally-based food."
We are perennially busy reinventing the wheel and conferring doctorates on ourselves.
" locally based " reminds me of the following fact:
Rajasthan was quite fertile and drought free.It was an ill informed ruler who introduced babool (not native to Rajasthan) which resulted in desertification.
Vital lesson there to alert us Hindus. Inimical fanatic predatory ideologies parading as *religions*/*different paths to reach God* have been relentlessly wreaking nothing but havoc.
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