Navdanya and the Organic Market

Navdanya and the Organic Market

“We are teaching the farmers to grow money.” Khali Ji – Bija Vidyapeeth Manager

Navdanya's two main missions are to teach farmers to grow organically and to save seeds to preserve biodiversity in India. My observation while volunteering at Bija Bidyapeeth is that the organization is very successful in both of these missions. I have seen and been a part of a few farmer trainings, compost workshops, and seed saving workshops here on the farm. There are so many great minds working on these projects, yet I can't help but develop some of my own criticisms. Delicious organic food such as dal, vegetables, nuts, and brown rice are grown right here on the farm and consumed gratefully on a daily basis by the staff and volunteers. However, I cannot help but see the disconnect between Navdanya and the local community. Where are the CSA's? Why are these children so tiny? Are any of the vendors outside of the gate selling organic? Are any of the neighboring farms organic? Do any of the neighboring farms use chemicals? Well, I'm about to find out. I hope.

Organic farming is important to India because it is a movement away from chemicals used in conventional farming that pollute precious water resources. The organic methods Navdanya is sharing with farmers also improves long-term soil fertility and quality. Organic production provides farmers a fair price and healthy working environment. Since my initial interest in food systems during my undergraduate years I have always agreed with the benefits of organic food. However, since living in Montana and observing the importance of local food within communities, I have grown to appreciate the benefits of local food in creating an increasingly important transparent food system. This is why, when learning more about the Navdanya model I have many questions regarding its sustainability and areas where improvement might be needed. Organic is a great start, but I don't see any long-term viability in just trying to grow organic.

These questions have helped me and a couple of other interns organize a project getting to know more about the local community and the disconnect, if there is one, from Navdanya. And if there is a disconnect is it the responsibility of the farmer or the consumer to gain access to organic food? Or is it the responsibility of no one? Is the issue a matter of education? Of course organic can't be forced on anyone, but fair access to this ethically produced food surely must be an option. With the help of the Navdanya staff and translators, another intern and I will be setting out to interview neighboring farms, not only the ones Navdanya works with, but also the farmers Navdanya has not been able to reach, or those who can't be convinced to change.

In the beginning stages of this project I have so far learned that organic farming appears to be more of a niche in the market, rather than a movement to change food systems positively. Although its a rather blunt way of saying it, I have learned from the staff here, that the main incentive for farmers to grow organically is to make more money, rather than save the world. And while I agree that farmers do in fact deserve more money, the benefits of organic food are not equally shared among consumers. According to the Navdanya staff, Navdanya's organic products are marked 20-25% more expensive than non-certified food products. Also, all of Navdanya's organic trained farmers (500,000 around the India!) sell their products to Navdanya, which are then, in turn sold to urban markets where Navdanya can get the highest price for organic.

The ultimate goal of the interviews and project is to get an overall idea of the local food system around Navdanya. Is any of the local food farmed organically without being certified? And is this food sold to the local community? Do any of the farmers around Navdanya farm with chemicals? Do any of the produce stands in Dehradun sell organic produce? Would the local community buy this produce if they knew it was organic? And do they know the benefits of farming organically? As I continue to enjoy my time here in India I will be focusing on these questions and hope to develop a better understanding of different options for creating a viable food system that is fair for both the producer and the consumer. While my economic background is slim to none I know this is also an important area to understand. I hope to continue developing these ideas while I am here especially since many communities in India seem to be divided on this issue. However, thanks to the work of Navdanya organic farming is an actual option for India and many communities are learning the benefits and able to question other more conventional farming practices.

Pictures from the community around Bija Vidyapeeth campus.

Rekha's Chai Masala

After the grand Mehrangarh Fort, my second favorite stop in Jodhpur was a small spice shop secretly tucked behind a pharmacy. We had just stopped in to buy some sunscreen, but like many Indian shop owners, Rekha ji pulled us in for chai, as well. However, as we stepped into her backroom, which also doubled as her family's home, we encountered shelves of spice mixes. She pulled one packet off the shelf and told us to take a seat while she taught us to make chai. This is what I learned:

Ingredients

Cardamom (increases energy and improves digestion)

Ginger (cure for cough and cold)

Black Pepper (a good source of sugar-free energy)

Nutmeg (lowers cholesterol and gets rid of pimples (crush with milk and apply to problem areas))

Cloves (painkiller)

Cinnamon (clears sinuses)

Mace (flower of the nutmeg)

Black Tea Leaves (delicious)

To make four cups of chai she measured out four cups of milk, four teaspoons of black tea tea leaves, roughly one teaspoon of spice mix, and four teaspoons of sugar into a small saucepan. She advised bringing the mixture to a boil five times rather than boiling straight for five minutes. Boiling for five minutes straight will kill all the good bacteria in milk so she removed the pan from the heat every five times it came to a boil. She then used a small strainer to pour the mixture into the cups. After enjoying the best chai I've encountered since being in India, we ended up filling our bags with pouches to make everything from chai masala, to tikka masala, rice pudding, and fish curry.

Jodhpur

I had the privilege to take a trip to the state of Rajasthan with six other Navdanya interns this past week. Rajasthan is just south and west of Uttarakhand. The journey started with a 22-hour train ride in the infamous sleeper class from Haridwar to Jodhpur. My first experience in sleeper class included jail-bar covered windows; families constantly stopping to take our picture, chat, and introduce us to their extended family; eating samosas and bananas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and a hole in the floor of the train acting as a toilet. In the end this all made for a journey I quite enjoyed. And it all cost me only $5!

The adventure to Jodhpur was for both work and pleasure. The plan was to attend a music festival in Jodhpur before heading to Kishangarh to interview a few Navdanya trained farmers to learn more about Navdanya's work. However, after making it to Jodhpur we found out the farmer had to leave town and would not be able to meet with us until next week. After saying, “Oh well, It's India” we decided to just enjoy the music festival for a few days and forgo the farmer meeting. The RIFF Folk Festival in the Mehrangarh Fort was the absolute jewel of the trip, and Jodhpur itself was absolutely fascinating. The little alleyways made a maze through the city, with a treasure at the end of each one. Textile shops, spice racks, lassi stands, and way too fancy jewelry stores could be found around each corner. The historic English-style buildings and monuments also revealed a hint of charm in an otherwise typically chaotic and crowded Indian city.

We spent almost the entire first day touring the many passages of the Mehrangarh Fort and eventually took a surprisingly-good audio tour of the place. After the fort we all decided to eat at the first  restaurant we could all decide on. It was at this restaurant on top of the Blue House that we discovered the famed Makhania Lassis of Jodhpur. None of us could tell you what a Makhania Lassi actually is, but, we could not stop gloating and reminiscing about them for the entire trip. I can tell you that lassis are a cool and refreshing drink made of curd (like yogurt) and come in many different flavors. After trying a few other spots throughout the trip, we decided the Makhania Lassis probably contained some form of butter, a really sweet syrup (maybe saffron), cardamom, and sometimes cashews. Another favorite of mine during the trip also included just a plain old saffron lassi near the Clock Tower. We also enjoyed a variety of curries and traditional Rajasthani dishes in a select few of the many rooftop restaurants all over Jodhpur.

The RIFF Festival was somewhat expensive and also quite fancy, so we only bought tickets to one show on the main stage. There were a few free shows we enjoyed such as the 5:30am sunrise devotions and the opening evening show including the story of Krishna and another involving transvestite dancers. The show we did buy tickets for proved that the festival was more a fancy concert, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. We started the night with delicious appetizers and a glass or two of wine and ended the night getting up with most of the crowd and dancing with the last band. The show started with a family of traditional Rajasthani musicians, then added the Band of Brothers from Australia, and ended with a group of musicians from Reunion Island. All in all, having the opportunity to see camels, lots of sand, and a completely different setting than what I am used to here in Northern India, I am definitely looking forward to my next train trip and all the adventures awaiting me here in India :)

Excited for the journey with our early-to-bed berth mates!

Offering our autographs on the train.

Arrival in Jodhpur to view the fort with a beer.

Fort from above and 'Blue City' below.

Makhania Lassis!

Everyone in Jodhpur must visit the Omelette Shop near the Clock Tower. A cheese masala omelette in between four pieces of toast for less than $1! The contender across the street is worth a visit, as well :)

Show with Rajasthani musicians at Mehrangarh Fort.

Dehradun's Organicity

Over the past couple of weeks I have learned that I am interning with some fascinating individuals all very active in food systems back in their respective countries and communities. And so when word spread around Bija Vidyapeeth that there was indeed an organic market in Dehradun, we all jumped at the opportunity to attend one afternoon. Often tempted by the sweet biscuits and packaged foods we can find at the end of the road in between meals we were all excited to explore a greater variety of fresh fruits and vegetables from the region. However, as our driver headed into Dehradun and through the bustling city center, the crowded streets blocked by cows, littered with potholes and pedestrians suddenly transformed into some sort of order. The roads became lined with trees, large mansions, an actual white line painted down the middle of the road, and each lane only had one car, rather than two and a half. We were in the suburbs. And rather than being dropped off at a typical farmers' market we have all become so fond of at home, we were dropped just inside the gates of a beautiful, English-style mansion. We were then ushered into the grand foyer of this home where we were eagerly greeted by about seven vendors. The atmosphere was a mix of what I would imagine it would be like to have tea with senior citizens in a country club that also happened to be a Whole Foods store.

Each vendor was marketing organic food that included many ready-made items such as: organic pizza, sushi, lemon tarts, tulsi tea, wheatgrass, and even egg salad sandwiches to raise money for children in Nepal. And while we all gluttonously enjoyed the food, this is not quite what  expected. We all ordered a plate and sat around a tea set to talk more about Organicity with the founders. It was apparent that none of the vendors, besides those raising money for a cause were really present to make money, but more to socialize and even talk about how awesome the organic movement is. I left the market with a perspective that farming to many of them was more of a hobby to these organic vendors than a way of life. They seemed to have obtained land that happened to have avocados or guavas growing, and then hired help to sell these products to the organic market.  


In fact, the organic market in India has been somewhat disappointing to me. While Navdanya is encouraging organic agriculture to move away from pesticides, I can't help but notice that many organic products I see in town are over-priced convenience foods. And I have doubts that chemical agriculture will be transformed from the foyer of a mansion in the suburbs of Dehradun. More needs to happen in the fields, in the everyday markets, and in the homes of even the most resource-poor citizens. Education, availability, and community outreach were all missing from this 'Organicity' which I think is what disappointed me the most.

Banner hanging in the front lawn.

The lone vegetable vendor.

The Rice Harvest Begins!

The time to harvest rice has arrived and the soreness remaining in my body three days after threshing indicates the amount of human labor that goes into obtaining the small grain that is a staple in so many countries.

Rice grows in paddies as I showed in an earlier post. At Navdanya, once the paddy is ready for harvest it is first clear-cut with a sickle-shaped hand saw and laid in piles in the field to dry.

Bundling the rice for transport after drying in the field.

Using a bicycle to transport the crop to the threshing area.

After a day of full sun the rice is then ready to be threshed, forcing the grain from its stalk. Here's an action shot:

The rice, still in its husk is then laid out on a flat surface to again dry in full sun before it heads to the mill to be de-husked. I was told the rice from Navdanya is sent to a village outside of Rishikesh to be milled (about an hour away) but I have also seen fields in the area that have their own mills.

Is Nature Not Good Enough?

Living at Navdanya I am confronted with the woes of chemical farming on a daily basis and feel a need to post points of discussions we have had especially over the last couple of days during the Bhoomi Festival (Earth Festival) here at Navdanya. The Bhoomi Festival, which was a smaller group than what I had anticipated, brought together activists and farmers from the United States, Kenya, Australia, Europe, and of course India. I was especially amazed at seeing the Kenyan farmers working alongside the Indian farmers. Both groups have the same struggles trying to establish sustainable agriculture practices in a world dominated by Western agricultural practices involving machinery and pesticides. However, these small and poor communities cannot afford to keep on paying for the seeds and technology involved with sustaining this new agriculture. Their land is also not suitable for growing crops only tested for a short time and therefore are robbing the soil in both India and Africa of not only nutrients but water as well.

During the Bhoomi Festival I attended a workshop discussing arguments against Genetically Modified Seed Advocates. The basic idea was that GM crops are unnatural and we are not sure how nature will react to them in the long run. Organic farming has been practiced for hundreds of years, with the only qualms being that organic results are not fast enough for our impatient technology upgrades. The three main arguments for GM crops are that they have higher yields, use less chemicals, and are climate friendly. We discussed the facts against these statements with Dr. Vinod Bhatt (Navdanya employee) and Debbie Barker who works for the Center for Food Safety in the US.

A few things that GM Advocates don't tell the farmers they are selling seed to in India and Africa is that these seeds will continue increasing in price and that they have to buy new seeds each year rather than saving seeds like in traditional agriculture. There also has been no increase in yield in the use of the GM seeds, as well. The overuse of pesticides and herbicides are also leading to the creation of "superweeds" and even "superpests" that even the worst of the worst chemicals can't destroy. Some GM Advocates also try to promote GM crops by saying that they are climate friendly because they sequester carbon or are drought resistant. However, the only GM crops currently approved for use are the herbicide resistance and Bt crops, which do not do much to save the environment.

My favorite was hearing Dr. Bhatt's quote from his mother when he asked her why she didn't farm with chemicals. She said, "Using chemicals to make plants grow faster is like making a baby grow very fast. The baby becomes big fast but does not have the brain of an adult". So, just like babies need special care for proper development so do plants. I have also learned that farming does not just mean growing plants, but in fact a huge part of agriculture is growing soil, as well. The amount of labor that goes into just preparing the soil at Navdanya is a huge part of the success of this farm. The different composts and their applications require a lot of time and nutrients from the cattle on the farm.

Another analogy I really appreciated was from Alan Imei from Shumei International. He described the farmer as a conductor of an orchestra. Everyone in the orchestra from the viola to the cello from the seed to the tractor plays a different role that comes together. And in fact the conductor and the orchestra are a small piece of what matters in the big picture. The biggest piece of the puzzle in agriculture is the audience. Once the audience is happy and healthy then the farm is in sync.

There is so much more to say about organic agriculture and the topics I even brought up here. I am definitely enjoying learning about the practices here at the farm, but can't help feel uncertainty in the model because the organic food is sold for a much higher price and therefore isn't pleasing the entire audience of the food system. My goals here at Navdanya will be to observe the organic practices here and suggest ways to make the products more affordable. The work here requires a lot of human labor, which is why it is so expensive. But if the farmers can't even afford their own food that they are growing, then what is the point? I hope to discover alternatives to marketing these products while still maintaining the organic practices that are restoring and maintaining fertile land that can grow a healthy food system.

A Real Indian Wedding

The fact that I was invited to a wedding within my first three weeks in India is a pretty good example of the tremendous hospitality I have observed here. Sunil, a field-worker here at Navdanya invited a few other interns and myself to his wedding up in the mountains north of Rishikesh this past weekend. Hearing about how amazing Indian weddings are we all jumped at the chance to attend a "Real Indian Wedding". Whether he was just being friendly to invite us we will never know. We heard it was good luck to have foreigners at your wedding, anyways.

I know everyone's first question is, "What did I wear?", but I will get to that in a moment. First, getting to the wedding was an adventure in itself. The information for directions to the wedding were left in the office for us to use. The only problem was that they were all written in Devangari Script... so, not only was the invitation not in English, but not even English letters. Luckily a few of us are beginning to learn the script, so we deciphered some of it, but left the rest up for the taxi driver we would once hire when we got to Rishikesh. In the office we were told the village was about 20km from Rishikesh.

We arrived in Rishikesh on Saturday and took the afternoon to look for something to wear and a gift for the newlyweds. We brought the wedding invitation around town to hire a taxi to the wedding. But the more people we showed, the farther and farther away the wedding seemed. We were eventually brought to a taxi stand and told the village on the invitation was actually 100km away! With our outfits and gift (a handmade marble vase) already purchased we decided to make the long journey. This involved getting up at 5am the next morning to meet our taxi by 6am. Our "taxi" was a Jeep with no shocks whatsoever driving on a pothole-littered, 8-foot wide, twisty mountain road. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, though. My camera does not do justice to what it was like seeing the sunrise over the terraced mountainside of northern India.

We arrived at the village by 9am and were then loaded into another Jeep with other wedding guests onto an even skinnier mountain road for another hour-long journey dodging schoolkids and large cattle. By the end of that ride we had all become good acquaintances with the other guests we met in the Jeep. Once out of the Jeep we suspected we were at the wedding when we saw Sunil adorned with many 10-ruppee bills and a crown with a white-pearl viel standing next to an ornately dressed donkey.

 However, we saw no bride and no bride family. Sunil's sister told us that we would then hike 5km down to the village where the ceremony would take place. I am still amazed that the Indian women's skinny plastic sandals stood a better chance than my mountain-hiking Chacos. I fell three times during the steep journey down to the riverside village.

Once at the village we were greeted by the bride's family singing under an archway. We all just stood and watched while a few drummers and a keyboardist (who also hiked down with us) played music in the background. We were then shuffled into a tiny, cement schoolroom where we watched Sunil sit for a little bit and were served chai and some Ritz-style crackers that tasted like hard-boiled eggs. After that we were brought outside of the schoolroom for the first round of many dances. I felt like a giant next to the tiny Indian women asking me how we dance in the United States since I had obviously never danced to Indian music in my life.


After five minutes of dancing we were brought to this rundown hotel style building where we were served breakfast- even though it was noon. "Breakfast" consisted of a fried bread and some dal with a dumpling in it.

Then we were brought back to the schoolroom where Sunil and his bride were seated. They just sat there while their picture was taken over and over again. During the twenty minutes of picture taking none of us saw a smile from either of them. The bride, Kusum, looked like she was about to be locked in a cement room for the rest of her life, and Sunil looked like he would rather be watching football. This was an arranged marriage, like many of them in India are, so Sunil and Kusum had only met once before. They did, however, talk on the phone every week while he was here at Navdanya and she was in this tiny village over the river and through the woods, which is quite uncommon.

After the picture-taking we were brought outside for even more picture taking, although this time it included the family and us! We were brought right up front with the whole family to take a picture with Sunil and Kusum. After this, Louise (another intern at Navdanya) and I were then escorted back to the hotel-type facility, while the three boys we were with were asked if they would like to have some "Indian Wine". Louise and I danced a bunch more with the girls of Sunil's family until it was time for "lunch". When the boys reappeared they explained that the wine turned out just to be watered down rum. Lunch consisted of rice hand-scooped onto our plates by the chef and topped with dal. We all sat on the ground in a big circle and ate with our hands.

Unprepared for a big trek that day none of us had brought much water so we had nowhere to wash our hands and eventually just gave into drinking the tap water in the village. Honestly, if this adventure doesn't result in "Delhi Belly" I feel pretty confidant I could eat almost anything here in India. And remarkably, none of us have felt sick at all, yet!

This was the trash can. We thought about hiking our plates out, but there are no trash cans even in the city.

After lunch the boys were invited to drink more wine and smoke while Louise and I were asked to join the women inside the hotel stretching out on beds and talking about our lives back in France and the United States. Louise is only 20 so she was off the hook, but me, being 26 and not even married left them all quite surprised. When we headed back outside to dance Louise and I realized the actual ceremony of the wedding had been going on that whole time and no one was really watching. A few of the bride's family members were sitting around and taming down the new calf they just received, but otherwise everyone else was dancing  and socializing. We then presented our gifts by standing in line and receiving the marriage mark (a red mark on the forehead sprinkled with rice) and gave the same to Sunil and Kusum.

Louise and I in our fancy new outfits with the drummers who provided the music during the ceremony.

By the time we were ready to march back up the hill the boys were plenty dehydrated and a little loopy. Tradition in Indian culture is that once the bride is married she must then move to her husband's village and never see her family again. The joyfulness on the dance floor drained as we all watched Kusum being pulled out of her house screaming and crying like a little kid. She was shoved into a small red carrier that was then marched up the hill followed by Sunil on his donkey.

The hike up, especially for the boys proved to be physically exhausting. The small villages we passed through along the hike up provided us with candy and water from unknown sources. We reached the top just before the sunset and just before the goat herds started heading back down the hill. We were invited to sit in the same Jeep as Sunil and Kusum and Sunil's sisters on the way back into town. We attempted to dance and sing to music on the sisters' cell phones in order to distract ourselves from feeling carsick and looking out the window at the scary windy road in the dark. And by the time we had reached the village Kusum had fallen asleep on Sunil's shoulder, making their solemness throughout the day all seem like an act. We then finally arrived back in Rishikesh by 10pm and rewarded our successful 16-hour journey with pizza!