Where will our Food come from?
Food has been and is undoubtedly the most critical aspect of our lives and our culture as humanity. Not just us, for all life, nutrition is essential and without it no life can grow and progress. It is interesting to note that the food of an organism also evolves as the organism evolves biologically and culturally.
As descendants of apes, we started our journey as hunters and gatherers, feeding mostly on wild plants and animals. We developed a keen eye to recognise the edible wilds and their effect on the human body. Gradually, we started favouring plants that are edible, more nutritious and delicious and as the more we would eat these fruits or vegetables, the more we would spread their seeds. This led to our development as horticulturists where our landscapes evolved with us while the wilderness was still preserved.
Eventually, we noticed this pattern and could see that this ability to modify the landscape could be used to grow even more food in the way that we wanted, and promoted us to an agriculturist society.
As descendants of apes, we started our journey as hunters and gatherers, feeding mostly on wild plants and animals. We developed a keen eye to recognise the edible wilds and their effect on the human body. Gradually, we started favouring plants that are edible, more nutritious and delicious and as the more we would eat these fruits or vegetables, the more we would spread their seeds. This led to our development as horticulturists where our landscapes evolved with us while the wilderness was still preserved.
Eventually, we noticed this pattern and could see that this ability to modify the landscape could be used to grow even more food in the way that we wanted, and promoted us to an agriculturist society.
Since the beginning of agriculture up until today, agriculture itself has evolved radically and now we longer depend on nature alone for nutrition. We have food, physical, chemical and biological tools to manipulate the biodiversity and the natural cycles of growth to maximise the returns and to grow enough food for everyone.
Despite these advancements, the number of people going without food, across the world, is increasing every day. However, while 1 out of 7 people in this world is starving or undernourished, interestingly, 1 in every 7 people is also obese.
It is not a bold conclusion to say that the problem of hunger is not about the availability of food. While some people grow up in scarcity, some others grow up in an unhealthy abundance. This lopsided global distribution of resources in general and food, in particular, is the root cause of our failing health either due to the lack of food or because of too much of it.
Since the Second World War, our agriculture paradigm has shifted dramatically to keep pace with the evolving industrial and economic paradigms. The culture of monocropping thrived during the hard realities of the changing social structures in farming communities. Even though many people around the world are waking up to the destruction that monocropping and large-scale mechanisation in farming has caused, some still believe that it is the only way to produce high-yields and even more advanced technologies like genetic modification must be utilised if we are to ever solve the challenge of feeding the world.
Interestingly, though, over 70% of the food that we eat comes from farms smaller than 25 acres, managed by communities and families for subsistence, and not from large mechanized mono-crop systems as we are made to believe. Also, small farms are 4-5 times more productive than large farms because of their intensive diverse cropping integrated with animal rearing.
So where does large scale industrial agriculture fit in this story and how can it help if production is not the primary challenge?
The industrialization of farming has led to large scale disempowerment of small farmers, degraded rural lands and culture and polluted our soil, water and air. In this paradigm, the poor stay hungry no matter how much more food is produced on this planet.
Our emphatic stress on strategies and policies to feed the world are focused only on producing more food, while completely forgetting or ignoring the qualities of the food. It is scientifically proven that the quality of the food has plummeted severely as compared to what our wild ancestors had or even what our grandparents from two to three generations ago. As the world wakes up to appreciate the subtle nuances of relationships of humans with nature, with other humans and within themselves, the subtle qualities of food and their relationship with human health must also be considered and appreciated. As a global collective, feeding the world population is rather an insufficient objective. That all on this planet should have access to clean and wholesome food of the highest vibration, could be an idea worth aspiring for.
The trend of people moving from agriculture to an urban culture is on a rise in India and across the world. The degradation of rural life and ecosystems has forced people to migrate to already densely populated cities with the hope of employment and a better life. The move from a village to a city is not only a physical one but also a psychological leap from collective to individual identity. Families are also not as big as they used to be and as large families break into smaller nuclei, there are fewer hands on the agricultural fields. Mechanisation has helped in this regard to some extent but has disturbed the long-held balance of self-reliance in agricultural communities.
All this has meant a degradation of the culture of the land and poses a real threat to the sustainability of agriculture beyond our time. The sustainability of agriculture is not only about the ecology.
Despite these advancements, the number of people going without food, across the world, is increasing every day. However, while 1 out of 7 people in this world is starving or undernourished, interestingly, 1 in every 7 people is also obese.
It is not a bold conclusion to say that the problem of hunger is not about the availability of food. While some people grow up in scarcity, some others grow up in an unhealthy abundance. This lopsided global distribution of resources in general and food, in particular, is the root cause of our failing health either due to the lack of food or because of too much of it.
Since the Second World War, our agriculture paradigm has shifted dramatically to keep pace with the evolving industrial and economic paradigms. The culture of monocropping thrived during the hard realities of the changing social structures in farming communities. Even though many people around the world are waking up to the destruction that monocropping and large-scale mechanisation in farming has caused, some still believe that it is the only way to produce high-yields and even more advanced technologies like genetic modification must be utilised if we are to ever solve the challenge of feeding the world.
Interestingly, though, over 70% of the food that we eat comes from farms smaller than 25 acres, managed by communities and families for subsistence, and not from large mechanized mono-crop systems as we are made to believe. Also, small farms are 4-5 times more productive than large farms because of their intensive diverse cropping integrated with animal rearing.
So where does large scale industrial agriculture fit in this story and how can it help if production is not the primary challenge?
The industrialization of farming has led to large scale disempowerment of small farmers, degraded rural lands and culture and polluted our soil, water and air. In this paradigm, the poor stay hungry no matter how much more food is produced on this planet.
Our emphatic stress on strategies and policies to feed the world are focused only on producing more food, while completely forgetting or ignoring the qualities of the food. It is scientifically proven that the quality of the food has plummeted severely as compared to what our wild ancestors had or even what our grandparents from two to three generations ago. As the world wakes up to appreciate the subtle nuances of relationships of humans with nature, with other humans and within themselves, the subtle qualities of food and their relationship with human health must also be considered and appreciated. As a global collective, feeding the world population is rather an insufficient objective. That all on this planet should have access to clean and wholesome food of the highest vibration, could be an idea worth aspiring for.
The trend of people moving from agriculture to an urban culture is on a rise in India and across the world. The degradation of rural life and ecosystems has forced people to migrate to already densely populated cities with the hope of employment and a better life. The move from a village to a city is not only a physical one but also a psychological leap from collective to individual identity. Families are also not as big as they used to be and as large families break into smaller nuclei, there are fewer hands on the agricultural fields. Mechanisation has helped in this regard to some extent but has disturbed the long-held balance of self-reliance in agricultural communities.
All this has meant a degradation of the culture of the land and poses a real threat to the sustainability of agriculture beyond our time. The sustainability of agriculture is not only about the ecology.
We must ask ourselves, who will grow our food in the coming decades?
At the same time, migrants in cities find themselves out of job and relegated to a life in slums adding to the pressures of an already struggling urban system. People tired of degenerative city life are moving to rural areas in search of a simple life and with an aspiration of connecting with nature. Thus, we see a flow of people in both directions but with very different skills, temperaments and aspirations.
At the same time, migrants in cities find themselves out of job and relegated to a life in slums adding to the pressures of an already struggling urban system. People tired of degenerative city life are moving to rural areas in search of a simple life and with an aspiration of connecting with nature. Thus, we see a flow of people in both directions but with very different skills, temperaments and aspirations.
The future of agriculture stands between the traditional farmers, some of whom are tired of the ecological (climate change, wildlife, consequences of green revolution) and social (cultural and economic) pressures while only some have the resources to experiment with a different way, and the new educated aspirant wanting to go back to the land, caught in a tight balancing act of individual growth and collective prosperity.
The agriculture of the future cannot dismiss the social without which there will be no culture. This future of agriculture demands not only a new way of farming but a new way of social organization, of people coming together, spontaneously or by design, forming families and communities to support each other and to help dream and realize this task which is beyond an individual. This coming together of people for a purpose and not social obligation would require a new ethical framework beyond religion and dogma. The first condition of farming will be collaboration, which alone could lead to the empowerment of the future farm and farmer.
The second important condition for future farmers will be to think of succession. A farm as an enterprise has been sustainable because the children of farmers have continued farming after their parents and have passed on the skill and the responsibility to their children. With more and more opportunities for learning and expressing oneself, it would be morally wrong and socially regressive to expect farmers’ children, irrespective of the economic state of the farm, to take up the work of their parents. For intentional communities of today, the option of new people joining the community in future would be a solution but there must be a space for this and an integration plan that can take care of the social challenges this would present.
The situation may be more challenging for individuals, couples and families who have moved to the land for a simple life. The collective effort in this going back movement must go on without people having to reinvent themselves again and again which presents its limitations and costs excessive resources. A vision for succession and visualization of systems that can outlast human lives could be the key to supporting sustainable changes at various scales of human organization.
In this vision, the consumer and the farmer will not be two different entities. Growing your food, all or a part of it will be a service to Mother Earth and a service to self. It will be a way to learn the intricacies of natural patterns, the mechanisms of life and the role of human beings in this complex web. At the same time, cooking will help build a relationship with fire, to participate in the transformation of food substances to enhance their nutrition or to conserve for the future.
Our work is, then, to discover a new way of farming and eating, a way of sustaining and even enhancing planetary and human health.
The agriculture of the future cannot dismiss the social without which there will be no culture. This future of agriculture demands not only a new way of farming but a new way of social organization, of people coming together, spontaneously or by design, forming families and communities to support each other and to help dream and realize this task which is beyond an individual. This coming together of people for a purpose and not social obligation would require a new ethical framework beyond religion and dogma. The first condition of farming will be collaboration, which alone could lead to the empowerment of the future farm and farmer.
The second important condition for future farmers will be to think of succession. A farm as an enterprise has been sustainable because the children of farmers have continued farming after their parents and have passed on the skill and the responsibility to their children. With more and more opportunities for learning and expressing oneself, it would be morally wrong and socially regressive to expect farmers’ children, irrespective of the economic state of the farm, to take up the work of their parents. For intentional communities of today, the option of new people joining the community in future would be a solution but there must be a space for this and an integration plan that can take care of the social challenges this would present.
The situation may be more challenging for individuals, couples and families who have moved to the land for a simple life. The collective effort in this going back movement must go on without people having to reinvent themselves again and again which presents its limitations and costs excessive resources. A vision for succession and visualization of systems that can outlast human lives could be the key to supporting sustainable changes at various scales of human organization.
In this vision, the consumer and the farmer will not be two different entities. Growing your food, all or a part of it will be a service to Mother Earth and a service to self. It will be a way to learn the intricacies of natural patterns, the mechanisms of life and the role of human beings in this complex web. At the same time, cooking will help build a relationship with fire, to participate in the transformation of food substances to enhance their nutrition or to conserve for the future.
Our work is, then, to discover a new way of farming and eating, a way of sustaining and even enhancing planetary and human health.
Anshul
Auroville, India
Keywords: Conscious food, Agriculture, Organic Farming, Hunger, Social development
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