“Isn’t it strange? Punjab, the food bowl of the country, exports wheat but imports atta (wheat flour),” asked the noted food policy analyst Devinder Sharma. Speaking at a public dialogue on ‘Health, Environment, Agriculture and Safe Food’, held at the Gandhi Bhawan, Punjab University here today. He said while the government’s emphasis had remained on intensive farming to produce more food, thereby contaminating the environment and human health, people of Punjab were actually looking for safe and healthy food. “Much of the atta that is imported into Punjab comes from Madhya Pradesh where it is known to produce wheat without using any chemicals. People don’t look for an organic certificate but believe in what the flour mills say”. The public dialogueconcluded that the dichotomy between food safety and food security is a false and opportunistic discourse created by vested interests. Policy focus must now shift to food safety and nutrition security as an integral part of food security.The Public Dialogue was organized by Kheti Virasat Mission, Natural Biodiversity (Society) and Department of Gandhian and Peace Studies, Punjab University. The dialogue was supported by Vatavaran Atey Samaj Bachao Morcha and Dialogue Highway.
“The model of food security built in Punjab, focusing only on production and yield had ignored all other environmental and health aspects. leading to severe environmental and health problems. Still worse, the income of farmers did not keep pace with increasing production as a result of which 98 per cent of rural households are reeling under debt. The worsening agrarian distress is reflected in the spate of farm suicides that continue unabated. Punjab therefore has to rethink about its farming, shift to ecological agriculture and provide a remunerative assured income package to farmers. We have to move away from mono-cropping, external-input-driven chemical farming” said Kavitha Kuruganti of Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA). “Moving to non-chemical agriculture will not impact food security as is being pointed out, and let us be clear that the shift to non-chemical farming is no longer a matter of choice but has become necessary.”
The public dialogue followed a round table to re-initiate a joint people’s platform with convergence of farm, environmental and health movements, focused on reviving, protecting and improving Punjab’s farm profitability and sustainability.The platform is seeking to place citizens’ issues at the forefront of electoral processes, given the agrarian and environmental crisis facing Punjab. Giani Kewal Singh (former Jathedar, Takht Damdama Sahib), Dr GPI Singh (public health expert), Satnam Manak (senior journalist), Gobind Thukral (senior journalist), Sukhdev Bhopal (Nature Human Centric People’s Movement), Dr Amarsingh Azad (public health expert), Pishora Singh Sidhupur (farmers’ leader), Adv. Navkiran Singh and Journalist Harmir Singh etc., are all part of the initiative. Various social, religious and cultural organisations are also involved in this process.Focusing on the latest developments related to GM mustard, Kavitha Kuruganti said that GMOs allowed in the world have mostly come in through illegal means or plain scientific subterfuge. She said that the current application which has reportedly obtained a green clearance from a regulatory sub-committee also falls in the same category. “The GM mustard developed by Delhi University is a herbicide tolerant GMO, which means greater use of chemicals in our farming, consequent environmental and health impacts including creation of ‘super weeds’, greater toxic residues in consumer foods and most importantly, displacement of rural women from their employment opportunities. Such a GMO application should not have been entertained by the government in the first instance. It is indeed unacceptable that not only is it proceeding forward inexorably towards our farms and plates, but 100 crores of taxpayers’ funds have been spent on it. This GMO is unneeded, unwanted and unsafe. The state government has promised that it will write to the Centre, and it is time that it intervened in the matter firmly, and protected the interests of ordinary citizens of Punjab”, she said.
Both the speakers pointed out that GMOs are a means for big corporations to take control of our food systems. They said that unless citizens speak out strongly against toxic technologies, these corporations will continue to profiteer at the expense of both farmers and consumers. The experience of many organic farmers in Punjab is quite encouraging, and if consumers step forward to support many more farmers to shift to organic farming, it will be a win-win for both farmers and consumers. They called upon all political parties to spell out their stand on the future of Punjab’s agriculture clearly, and how they would ensure food safety for all citizens. They put out a call to all citizens concerned about GM foods, who want to add their voice to the resistance building against approval of GM mustard in India to give a missed call at 04433124242.