Tuesday 3 November 2020

Back to the Food Future in India?

There is an interesting account of the actions of Babita Bhatt and other botantical heritage enthusiasts, in India, attempting to restore the biodiversity of crops in that country (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/03/mind-boggling-variety-the-food-crusaders-preserving-indias-heritage-aoe). The start of India's problem appears to have been the presumably well-intentioned 'Green' Revolution of the 1960s. This placed a premium on high crop yield, whilst largely ignoring their effects on soil preservation and food taste. In subsequent years, it also encouraged the use of pesticides and genetically-modified strains. As a result, many of the varieties of foods, that were formerly available, largely disappeared. What Bhatt and others have done, is to raid community seed banks to greatly increase food biodiversity in parts of India. The move does appear to be popular but is not available throughout the country. There is slightly dodgy talk of 'super foods' (this might mean tasty and healthy rather than the products being all-cures) but the general approach is to be applauded. One of the main problems, in world agriculture, is a reliance on too few monocultures. That is one reason why crop diseases can be so devastating. It's always good to have alternatives and 'variety is the spice of life'.

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