India's Organic Farming Revolution: What It Means for Our Global Food System

by Sapna E. Thottathil

Should you buy organic food? Is it just a status symbol, or is it really better for us? Is it really better for the environment? What about organic produce grown thousands of miles from our kitchens, or on massive corporately owned farms? Is “local” or “small-scale” better, even if it’s not organic? A lot of consumers who would like to do the right thing for their health and the environment are asking such questions.

Sapna Thottathil calls on us to rethink the politics of organic food by focusing on what it means for the people who grow and sell it―what it means for their health, the health of their environment, and also their economic and political well-being. Taking readers to the state of Kerala in southern India, she shows us a place where the so-called “Green Revolution” program of hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and rising pesticide use had failed to reduce hunger while it caused a cascade of economic, medical, and environmental problems. Farmers burdened with huge debts from buying the new seeds and chemicals were committing suicide in troubling numbers. Farm laborers suffered from pesticide poisoning and rising rates of birth defects. A sharp fall in biodiversity worried environmental activists, and everyone was anxious about declining yields of key export crops like black pepper and coffee.

In their debates about how to solve these problems, farmers, environmentalists, and policymakers drew on Kerala’s history of and continuing commitment to grassroots democracy. In 2010, they took the unprecedented step of enacting a policy that requires all Kerala growers to farm organically by 2020. How this policy came to be and its immediate economic, political, and physical effects on the state’s residents offer lessons for everyone interested in agriculture, the environment, and what to eat for dinner. Kerala’s example shows that when done right, this kind of agriculture can be good for everyone in our global food system.

Genres: Nonfiction

228 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Dorcas]

This started off pretty fascinating. I was particularly interested in the effects of pesticide on the workers who harvest pineapple crops, their fingernails were literally dropping off as a result!

But the book soon became so heavy in facts and figures that my eyes were crossing and I gave it up. You have to be VERY into this subject (I thought I was but I guess I'm not so much) to enjoy this. It reads like a college textbook.

And whoever finishes it deserves a degree.

I received this book free for review from NetGalley.

[Melissa]

This book starts out posing the question, "Is there an inherent conflict between sustainable agriculture and a globalized world?" Basically, should you buy only local produce because it's local and you're supporting your fellow countrymen, or should you buy sustainably produced food (organic, ethical, free trade, etc.) even if it is farmed 1,000 miles away? It's not something that we get a definitive answer for, but the author does give a highly detailed account of farming in India (mainly Kerala) and how things are slowly changing for the better. When farmers are taught better practices, they and their families are healthier (less exposure to chemicals) and less in debt (not having to buy all of the necessary fertilizers and pesticides required by conventional farming). In then end (not surprisingly), the author says a combination of government backing and consumer action (purchasing power) is needed to really move the organic farming industry forward in a big way.

This book should be studied by people in the industry, but for a casual reader, it can be a bit overwhelming at times. I hope all of her research will eventually find the right people and be put to good use.

[Bharath]

A good book if you want to know how organic farming is developing in Kerala, India; however there are many ideas repeated a lot of times throughout the book.