When
I saw this, I was reminded of an incident long ago, our son, who was and is a
food lover, was found gorging on cheese slices (a novelty which was introduced
by Amul at that time). He could down a few of them without a thought. We told
him, “You should think of how this will impact your health, before you eat so
much of this”; the 12 year old famously responded, “You think, I eat”.
Our
son who said that years back, today does think about his food; about its health
impacts and maybe also its environmental impacts but not as much as we, his
parents, do. We have become, since the last decade, very conscious about our
food (adverse health impacts, low nutritional content, lack of taste)and its
food print (toxin load, food miles, food wastage, fair prices for farmers, loss
of agro-biodiversity due to narrow choice of foods, corporate control) on the
environment and society. Therefore we
decided a few years back to opt for organic (certified and non-certified),
local and seasonal. We have managed fairly well.
While
evangelising about this, we encounter objections about price, availability and
opinions about it being a fad. To that our response is let us pause a moment and think about how
much we are willing to do for our children, their health, their careers, their
future, why is it that their fundamental
need for healthy, toxin free food is
neglected? Why can’t we invest some time and money in it? Yes, it is an
investment, not an expense. In addition, through this process of eating local,
seasonal, organic (natural), the environment benefits, and that will be our
biggest contribution to our children’s future- much more than the education,
opportunities and wealth that we will give them.
We
have personally only succeeded in buying local; the next move for us is to grow
our food. Growing food is one of the simplest and most effective ways of reducing
our foodprint on the planet. Urban Leaves, through its community gardens, is
providing that precious skill; empowering us to grow our food naturally. It is
also one of the ways to combat toxins and pesticides in food. Another important
facet of this is to reduce food wastage in our homes.
At
this juncture I can’t but bring up the issue of genetically modified (GM) foods,
which is the other serious threat to our food safety and sovereignty. Even
though no GM food crops have been approved in India, many of the refined oils
that we consume today contain cotton seed oil (and cotton seed oil is also sold
directly); almost 95% of cotton in India is Bt cotton. It would be terrible if
we jump from the cauldron of pesticides into the fire of GMOs!
Three
years back Indians opposed Bt brinjal and let the government know that we want
to be GM free. But currently a bill has been tabled in the Parliament , during
the last session, called the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India
(BRAI) Bill , which if passed, would
create a single window mechanism for clearing GM crops without taking into
account public opposition or opposition even from state governments. One of the
fundamental flaws in the bill is that the regulatory authority will be housed
with the Ministry of Science & Technology whose mandate is to promote GM
crops. The Bill has provisions that would curtail disclosure of information, restrict
contesting the decisions of the BRAI, almost no avenue for public participation
and diluted legal liability
Our
governments (state and centre) and politicians need to hear from us loud and
clear that we do not need GM foods and we do not want this BRAI bill! We also
want a ban on toxins in our food. Let us act at a personal and collective level
to bring about this change- by eating right, reducing food waste, growing food
and speaking up. So on this World Environment Day, let us Think, Eat, Save and
Act to protect our food and seed sovereignty, and environment.
Sreedevi
Lakshmi Kutty
Devi
is one of the founding members of Urban Leaves
