Considering the chemicals used while farming and its consequent entry into our bodies, perhaps it’s time we seriously looked at organic farming
The ‘Formalin-Fish’ scandal that hit Goa and other states got me thinking about chemicals in our everyday lives.
Grocery shopping is akin to spending time in a familiar chemistry lab. Food preservatives, food colouring, enhanced taste makers, excess sugar and salt are chemicals that do not faze us. Nor do we bat an eyelid at plastic packaging because it preserves food and serves as a visual differentiator between similar products. However, there is some concern about pesticides, fertilisers and chemicals used to enhance the visual appeal of fresh produce and play with their ripening process. Who hasn’t asked fruit vendors if the whitish powder on the mango was ‘carbide’, something liberally sprinkled to promote ripening? Homes now soak fruits and vegetables in the hope of washing off chemicals, while there are companies selling purifiers to remove all traces of chemicals in fruits and vegetables. According to Wired, an American magazine focusing on the intersection of new technology, culture, economy and politics, humans have found or made 50 million different chemicals, most in the last few decades. The US Environmental Protection Agency has 84,000 chemical substances in its directories which may be in commercial use. One can’t escape the fact that chemicals are the building blocks of life and commerce. However, do we need all chemicals?
The Green Revolution
The Green Revolution raised yields and so helped farmers and the nation. Then, it was difficult to conceive of the problems that would crop-up in the future.
In the Ministry of Agriculture report titled National Project of Organic Farming, Dr Mangala Rai, a former Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Education says, “For example, at the starting of green revolution in sixth decade, we used to get 50 kilogram food grains by applying major nutrients of one kilogram nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. Now by applying one kilogram nutrients, the capacity of our products has decreased by five times.’
Pests like the boll weevil and white fly are growing resistant to pesticides/insecticides. Thus, creating a vicious cycle where farmers are compelled to increase dosage of chemicals to increase yield and keep their crops safe from pests, which ultimately causes further decline in soil fertility and increased resistance in pests.
These chemicals reach us through food and water. Chemicals from agriculture leach into ground water or find their way into surface water.
Bio-accumulation and Bio-magnification
Bio-accumulation is the build-up of chemicals in one’s body. Bio-magnification is the build up of chemicals as one eats those lower in the food chain.
Being on top of the food chain, humans bear the brunt of both bio-accumulation and bio-magnification.
Besides food, the other sources of chemical exposure are cosmetics, personal care items, adhesives, non-stick pans, habits like smoking, etc and even flying. Frequent fliers are exposed to flame retardants as plastic and other plane interior parts are soaked in them. All these chemicals add up in our bodies. Today, babies are born with chemicals in their bodies as they are transferred from mother to child via the umbilical chord and breast milk. Is there a way to reduce the ubiquity of chemicals in our lives?
Is chemical free agriculture viable?
There are doubts whether chemical free agriculture is capable of feeding the growing billions. Those suggesting organic or chemical free agriculture can feed the world’s population have been labelled “delusional hippies”. Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug said of organic farming, “If we tried to do it, we would level most of our forest and many of those lands would be productive only for a short period of time.”
The above Armageddon-hued crystal-ball gazing is based on studies indicating organic farming yields being 10-20% lower than conventional chemical farming. However, greater understanding has been developed on these figures. It is now understood that these numbers are for agriculture in developed countries like the US where agriculture is chemically-ridden. But the story for other economies is very different. Brian Halweil, a senior researcher at Worldwatch, writes the following on the organisation’s blog, “In the world’s poorer nations where most of the world’s hungry live, the yield gaps completely disappear. University of Essex researchers Jules Pretty and Rachel Hine looked at over 200 agricultural projects in the developing world that converted to organic and ecological approaches, and found that for all the projects – involving nine million farms on nearly 30 million hectares – yields increased an average of 93 percent. A seven-year study from Maikaal District in central India involving 1,000 farmers cultivating 3,200 hectares found that average yields for cotton, wheat, chilli, and soy were as much as 20 percent higher on the organic farms than on nearby conventionally managed ones.” According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the world currently wastes one-third of the food produced for human consumption, 1.3 billion tonnes. This is a health, socio-economic and environmental disaster. According to the UNFCCC, landfills emit 3% of Greenhouse Gases. One need not expound on the multiple benefits of food waste prevention.
The viability of chemical-free agriculture feeding the planet increases with the reduction in food waste. It would be easy to demand chemicals in agriculture and food products be banned. But are we, as a society, willing to go to rehab for this chemical addiction? It would require changing consumption habits and business practices, which is not to say it is not happening. According to an Ernst & Young and ASSOCHAM report, India is exporting 300 organic products in 20 different categories to 20 countries. There are 835,000 organic farmers cultivating a total of 1.49 million ha. The report adds, “The current Indian organic market is estimated at `40,000 million and is likely to increase to `100,000-120,000 million by 2020.” However, organic produce does not come cheap and, therefore, its market share is less than one percent.
Green Revolution 3.0 has begun. Are there enough reasons to be part of it?
