jackson at drishya

History of food :

Organically grown food was the only kind of food existent in India and most of world till about the 1950’s. Infact, the practices associated with organic farming were developed over centuries of humans practicing agriculture.
In around the 1950’s we faced some of the most severe famines, as did most of the world. Apparently. Norman Borlaug spawned the Green Revolution in Mexico in 1945. He set out to save the world’s hunger – with modified grains and cereals and chemical fertilizers and pesticides for all.
The revolution worked, really well for a long time, with food production going into surplus. The produce increased, as did the population and seemingly their appetites for the chemically infused foods and the old ways were conveniently forgotten.

And then, the real effects of the revolution began to show – deadened lands, farmers in debt and poison being pumped into the environment everyday. Everyone talks about Organic farming saving the day – but its hard to feed the population of billions from a farm that relies purely on nature…
ACKSON AT DRISHYA (graphic novel bit 2) - About Jackson, the real deal on use of pesticides. – Types of sustainable gardening, Statistics on amounts of pesticides and fertilizers kg/ ha used in countries, and number of organic farms in countries. Time line mapping the progress agriculture and food sector up until the recent years. The Drishya plants – what’s grown and the process – The grey water system being built.
J: That’s pure bullshit I hope you know. Well, most of it is.

Me: No its not, that’s how it happened, things were organically grown from the ancient times, things got bad because of draughts and famines and the green revolution fed the hungry… And its still popular because organic farming can’t pro…

Jackson shakes his head dismissively.
J: The green revolution and this crap about feeding the hungry is a bag full dog crap. Yes the hybrid seeds were great for a while and worked real good with the insecticides, pesticides and the fertilizers and we jumped over the pot hole, but we did that only to land into a larger one.
Me: There were famines! One can look up any history and see that…
J: Yes, There were famines, but there were plenty of draughts and famines before that, ever wonder why the green revolution didn’t come before? And the practices of organic farming were lost way before the green revolution began – The industrial revolution itself changed the way crops were cultivated. Monoculture had permeated the farming circles leaving the crops susceptible to diseases and very vulnerable during any changes in weather patterns.

Me: Okay, so the green revolution didn’t come about to help the poor and the hungry… why did come around then?
Jackson: First of all there isn’t anything called the green revolution. It’s a false terminology coined to sell off these so called “revolutionary inventions” to farmers around the world.
See after the second world war ended the governments of the countries at war esp. the USA, were left with these tremendous surplus of warfare chemicals, mostly ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate also happens to be an excellent source of nitrogen for plants. Now they needed to keep the chemical companies runninf, incase of another war and yet do away with the sulplus. So first they thought of spraying America’s forests with the surplus chemical, to help out the timber industry. But agronomists in the Department of Agriculture had a better idea: Spread the ammonium nitrate on farmland as fertilizer. They ofcourse started the xperimentation OUTSIDE their soil, in mexico – where the “green revolution” first started. People had also been working on producing better and hardier hybrids of grains by then. So armed with these better grains Norman Borlaug, sowed the seeds of chemical agriculture in Mexico. Ofcourse the produce increased with the better seed varieties and the diseases subsided for the time being, so the whole world, especially the third world countries picked up on the revolution.

Jackson waits for me to ask a vaguely intelligent question as I stumble over words and thoughts.
Me: w – what?... So what we’re wating today was used to kill people before – I mean all the nerve gasses and the bomb constituents?...

J: Didn’t really stop there, the Vietnam war introduced even deadlier chemicals which are not used in lawns – ever heard of agent orange?...

I shake my head and look pretty much petrified.

J: well its sold as 2- 4- d, mostly banned in the USA by now, but India still uses it pretty thoughtlessly. This chemical was used as a part of “herbicidal warfare” in Vietnam. They sprayed the entire forest and villages with this chemical and people developed cancers and grotesque mutations…

Me: (shudders) – Alright I get it. So, If we know all of this why not just change? I mean I know the yields are smaller in an organic farm …

J: again, not true – the same yields of grains can be grown organically with lesser energy and no pesticides… In fact right now in India you have enough food produce to feed each member of the population sufficiently. Just most of it is lost because of negligence during storage and transportation.

Me: really? Then why are we still stuck here?
J: Because the market has already introduced crops into the agricultural sector that are highly dependant on these pesticides and fertilizers and all these year of monoculture have sapped whatever fertility and nutrition was there in the soils. And even if someone does start farming organically, the water system already has tones of chemical pumping into it and cross pollination always happens and the winds carry these chemicals across…

Me: well yeah, that’s why the farmers now are in such huge debt – nothings growing and they have to keep buying more and more fertilizers and new seeds. Wow, and all those mutations up in Punjab and farmer villages up north!! You think…

J (shrugs): quite possibly…
Alright, now stop walking around on the newly laid bricks…

Me : Whoops, what exactly are you working on out here?

J: A grey water system. Now go help out in the garden. Shoo.
Me: Hmmm, I’ll be back with more questions later though.

J: (grunts).

The grey water system.

The garden.


Agricultural timeline :

Neolithic/ prehistoric age - 10000 B.C onwards This was the age of agricultural innovations as many new tools and practices were invented due to compulsion of planting, sustaining and harvesting the crops. Use of wooden and earthen tools as well as some domesticated animals are major highlights of this period.

- first evidence of crop harvest
- 7000 BC – Cattle and Poultry Farming.
- American agriculture develops
Religious references -
- Ramayana – “All dead things – rotting corpse/ vile garbage returned to earth are transformed into whole some things that nourish the earth. Such is the alchemy of mother earth.”
- Mahabharata (5500 bc) – “The celestial cow provides the soil with fertility.”
Historical age – 2500 BC onwards It marks the introduction of metals in agricultural tool making.
Mechanicals improvements in agricultural implements and development of storage and irrigation method marks the highlight of this age. For the first time, trade in agriculture also started, becoming the precursor to modern agribusiness industry.
- Windmills built in Babylon.

- Rig veda – “Feed the soil as you feed yourself.


Feudal age – 500 BC – 1700 AD This period is chiefly characterized by expansion of agriculture and irrigation and consolidation of agricultural methods. Use of fertilizers, in form of natural manures to boost production was a major breakthrough of this period.
-alcohol, sugar, coffee and other such processed foods were introduced to the world.
- Holy Quran – “Give back to the soil a part of what you take from it.”

Scientific Age : 1800 onwards The world was seeing a rapid rise in its population. This was also the age of imperial expansions in Asia, Africa, Americas and oceanic countries.
These led to exploration of new methods and practices in agriculture. It also resulted in increased attention on commercial form of agriculture that was based solely on profit than subsistence purposes. Agriculture trade assumed global proportions and many new economies thrived on specialized production of one or other agricultural products. The modern inventions in biotechnology and genetics that have completely changed the form of agriculture production. New variants of seeds and plants are manufactured in laboratories and genetically modified to suit particular consumption and commercial needs.

1860 – 70 – Louis Pasteur – pasteurization of milk
1945 – WW2 ends, Green revolution in Mexico.
1972 – International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement.
2000 – GMO goes world wide.
2000 – 2005 – world population doubles.

2005 – 2006
26 mn hectares on land is under organic agriculture in the world.

It’s a 36 billion US $ industry.

2.5 mn hectares are in India, With most of it being exported to the US where 30% of the demand stems from.

2008 - 2009 – N Korea using the highest amount of fertilizers in the world faces complete starvation of its population. India, Bangaladest and countries in south and Eouth East Asia are headed for similar times.


2005
Pesticide use kg/ha

USA – 1.50
Japan – 10.80
Korea – 16.60
China – 2.25
India – 0.38

2002-03

Country Fertilizer used (kg/ ha) Population (billion)
Korea 357 0.004
Japan 247 0.012
Netherlands 172 0.001
Bangladesh 158 0.014
Germany 153 0. 08
Pakistan 109 0.014
UK 106 0.005
India 89 1.049
China 71 1.302
USA 47 0.030
Australia 5 0.001


Karnataka – 2nd highest fertilizer use in the country - 74.90 kg/ha