organic farming

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most humans were engaged in agriculture. Our relationship with nature was immediate. Within just a few generations, however, for many people across the world, their link with the land has been severed. Food now arrives pre-packaged (often precooked), preserved with chemicals and contains harmful pesticides, micro-plastics, hormones and/or various other contaminants. We are also being[Read More...]

There have been several assertions on the part of the union government at high levels that natural farming will be promoted by it in a big way. While natural farming has been interpreted often in different ways, generally the meaning sought to be conveyed is that ecologically safe practices to produce healthy food free of harmful chemicals will be promoted[Read More...]

Colin Todhunter Farmerless farms manned by driverless machines, monitored by drones and doused with chemicals to produce commodity crops from patented genetically engineered seeds for industrial ‘biomatter’ to be processed and constituted into something resembling food. Data platforms, private equity firms, e-commerce giants and AI-controlled farming systems. This is the future that big agritech and agribusiness …

From time to time there are disturbing reports of environmental ruin in various green revolution belts of the country. The most prominent such belt is that of Punjab-Haryana-Western UP and Terai belt. Here from time to time we hear of very serious reports of water depletion and pollution, serious harm to soil health, burning of crop residues and other forms[Read More...]

After the acceptance of the demand for the repeal of three farm laws, the minimum support price (MSP) issue is now the main remaining issue between the government and the farmers’ movement. Unlike the simpler issue of repealing or not repealing the three controversial laws the MSP issue is a more complex issue which needs to be more carefully integrated[Read More...]

Lucy Davies Ever since I offered my 2-year-old daughter a banana in a playgroup & she yelled at the top of her voice for some unfortunate reason, “IS IT ORGANIC?!” I’ve had an aversion to the word organic. I groaned inwardly as everyone else’s eyebrows nearly left their foreheads at the sound of such a …

Written by Kunzang Deachen, Chozin Palmo and Jigmet Singge Ladakh – high on the Tibetan Plateau at the northern extreme of India – is the place we call home. The vast majority of Ladakhis are villagers, who have, for centuries, provided for most of their physical and emotional needs through interdependent webs of relationship with the land and with community. We[Read More...]

According to recent official data of Himachal Pradesh government, its efforts  to spread natural farming practices among farmers have led to 56 per cent reduction of costs of farmers and 27 per cent increase of income among farmers who adopted these practices. This happened under the natural farming prosperous farmers scheme ( prakrit kheti khushhal kisan yojana).  According to leading[Read More...]

When Yogesh Gandhi set up his medical store in Phaltan about 100 km from Pune in Satara district of Maharashtra, he invited his uncle, natural farmer Babulal Gandhi, to make an inauguration speech. “We should not be having medical stores in our cities – we should instead provide good food and a clean environment, one that fosters health and well-being.[Read More...]

Colin Todhunter The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an assortment of high-profile figures and policymakers are pushing for unregulated gene-editing technologies, the rollout of bio-synthetic food created in laboratories, the expanded use of patented seeds and the rollback of subsidies and support for farmers in places like India. These neoliberal evangelists despise democracy and …