World | India
Organic farming only way to avoid debt
Hoping the government champions the cause of farmers, Vandana Shiva asserts: "Changing the way we produce food and distribute it is vital and it should be left in the hands of our farmers, not international seed and food companies like Monsanto and Cargill."
- By Nilima Pathak, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 September 18, 2010
- Image Credit: Nilima Pathak/Gulf News
- Vandana Shiva
New Delhi: Vandana Shiva is an acclaimed environmental activist who has taken up cudgels with the government and is fighting for changes in the practice and paradigms of food and agriculture. A physicist, she has contributed 25 years to develop sustainable agriculture and farmers rights in the country.
Reacting on farmers' suicides and the food crisis, she emphasises: "We need to reduce [the] cost of production so that farmers don't get into debt. And the only way to do it is by promoting organic farming, which has gone from its presence in India to the world. The difference is we earlier referred to it as ecological farming. And now while we are hesitating, the world is implementing it."
Hoping the government champions the cause of farmers, she asserts: "Changing the way we produce food and distribute it is vital and it should be left in the hands of our farmers, not international seed and food companies like Monsanto and Cargill."
The activist speaks to Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
You have said that the wrong policies of the government have been responsible for the prevalent food insecurity.
Yes. After independence, we introduced the land reforms, created a universal distribution system and supported the farmers to grow food. India had a huge population in rural areas because it was viable to stay there and since farming was a chief occupation, farmers became prosperous and we overcame starvation.
But all the three pillars of food security are now being undone. The government is wiping out land reforms. Aligarh, Singur, Nandigram, Niyamgiri — every hot spot has the same issue. While the farmers and tribals say — ‘this is our life' — the government is grabbing their land and handing it to the industrialists. Now, if you take away the fertile land of the farmers, how will you have food security?
Similarly, the fair price is being negated by the economic policy of 1991, which was put in place under pressure from the World Bank and in 1995, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
And what do these rules convey?
These rules allowed the giant company Monsanto to make money out of our farmers by selling, patented and genetically modified, costly seeds. So, in areas where they sold Bt Cotton seeds, we've had high numbers of farmers' suicides, because the farmers are paying for Monsanto's profits. On the other hand, Cargill uses the WTO rules to dismantle our structures of production. Oil seeds are one example. India was the biggest producer of oil seeds in the world and the most diverse with mustard in the north and coconut in the south. But in 1998, the soya lobby managed to manipulate the government to change the rules. Soya started getting imported and mustard was banned on the grounds that it was being manufactured by hand. Overnight, the soya lobby grabbed the Indian oil market. So, while the Americans grabbed the market, Indian food security worsened.
What other aspects would you hold responsible for the food crisis?
A major aspect has been the change in domestic laws, which took place because of these foreign companies. We had the Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperatives Act. And since marketing was under the cooperative sector, no trader could have too much trade and there was a two per cent tax.
But these cooperations have changed the laws and created private mandis.
This is behind the entire food storage crisis, because they have deliberately destroyed the public distribution system. They have enough people in the government who are working for them.
And that's why when the Supreme Court recently directed the government to distribute grains to the poor free instead of it rotting in the warehouses, the government refused.
The administration has become so corrupt and complex that the really poor aren't getting food and half of India is starving. But the government machinery is watching because they want the system to collapse, so that they can say — farmers are unable to produce seeds, only Monsanto can. We can't distribute food, only Cargill can. The small vendors can't sell and only Walmart can.
Surely Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cannot be anti-poor. Isn't he always for the common man?
The PM is honest. But he is committed to an economic model, which is called the new liberal model that's based on free trade. But free trade means freedom for cooperatives, not for people.
And even though, in theory, he thinks he is doing liberalisation, what he's in effect doing is handing over the food system to corporations indirectly by his thinking and his ideology.
He has actually signed a deal with the United States government on agriculture, on the board of which sit Monsanto, Cargill and Walmart! They are driving India's food and agriculture. So, we shouldn't be surprised that we have the food security crisis.
Have you met the PM and apprised him of such issues?
I have met him many times and explained that we should promote organic farming and let farmers have their seeds. But it resulted in setting up a committee! You can't govern by committees. You have to govern by enlightened policies.
What about the Food Security Bill the Congress President Sonia Gandhi is so fervently pursuing?
I call it the fig leaf (a covering consisting of anything intended to conceal something regarded as shameful) on an emancipated body of the hungry. It's an attempt to make it look like you're doing things for food security, when all your policies are working against it. If I could, I would tell her to get Monsanto and Cargill out and give the farmers their rights back and the people the right to food.
How would you explain to the layman the right to food and the Food Security Act (FSA)?
They are two different things. The right to food means food is not a commodity and that which provides the fundamental right to people. But if it's a commodity, then the first right is of the cooperatives, who drive maximum profits out of it.
Unfortunately, the PM sees it as a commodity. I only wish at least the Congress President realises it as a basis of the fundamental right. FSA is pathetic and all it does is maintain that farce of the targeted public distribution system that is pushing the poor to hunger. The sad thing is that the incoherence and disintegration of the system is not being perceived by the decision makers, because they are not at the hurting end.
What logic do you see when the PM says that the courts should stay away from policy issues and the government cannot distribute food grains for free to the poor?
I do not understand why the PM is totally misplaced on this account. He says it's a policy matter. But it becomes a policy matter only if you think in terms of economics of commodification. Otherwise food is a social justice issue and an ethical matter. As children, we were taught not to waste even a grain of rice. But here millions of tonnes of grain are rotting, which is a sin, if you think of it in an ethical context.
Food is not a tradable commodity. And it's in the jurisdiction of the courts to remind the government when it forgets its duties towards peoples' rights. But now, with this neo-liberal market fundamentalist model, you either have the fundamental rights or the market fundamentals. The latter is leading the PM to say that food is only about selling and buying. And therefore, he says the courts cannot interfere. But the courts are right and he is wrong and history will prove it.
Experts have divided opinion on Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's firmness towards environment, which is also related to food. What's your take?
I work closely with him. And I can say that he is doing right. Bt brinjal was an environment issue and he took the correct decision. But then there are efforts to take all this away from him. They are trying to now create a new law to undo the law on Environment Protection Act, under which we got the moratorium. There are deliberations to create a new Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Act, which would allow co-operations to get quick approvals.
Are we anywhere near the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)? What is the solution?
The MDGs were set in 2000 to be achieved by 2010. It focused on reducing [the number of] hungry people across the world by half. But in the case of India the number of hungry people has doubled.
The solution is very simple and no rocket science is required. The first thing is to respect the rights of the people and their needs. Second is to look into systems of conservation and protection of nature. And third, have a decentralised distribution system.
Every village, district and state should have a food bank. I see no reason why the states should be begging the Centre for food from Food Corporation of India warehouses.
- Vandana Shiva was born on November 5, 1952 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
- She was educated at St Mary's, Nainital and at the Convent of Jesus & Mary, Dehradun.
- She completed her B.Sc in Physics followed by M.Sc in the Philosophy of Science, at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
- She secured a Ph.D from the University of Western Ontario.
- She opted to further pursue interdisciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy at the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
- She has contributed a great deal on bio-diversity, bio-technology and genetic engineering.
- Vandana founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology that led to the creation of Navdanya, which means nine crops that represent India's collective source of food security.
- Navdanya's main aim is to support local farmers, while rescuing and conserving crops and plants.
Qualifications and achievements: Through the years
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