Organic farming, as a way of cultivating crops has captured the fancy and imagination of the health conscious people. Given the economics of agriculture and the complications of supply chain management, packaging and wholesale commercialization of agriculture, there has been a laser focus on increasing the productivity per hectare of farmland. Scientists, biotechnologists, free trade theorists and policy makers of the different government agencies have advocated vociferously in favour of achieving efficiency in agriculture. The question is: at what cost? It shall only be humble on our part to accept that life is full of trade-offs and agriculture is no exception. Organic farming needs to be put into the templates of agricultural economics and assessed objectively to see if the claims made by organic food producing companies and organic farming communities can stand the test of rationale.

For a moment let us think of the planet and people, ahead of the profits. While it is true that organic farming like any other agrarian activity is business and that the bottom line has the last say, let us keep it at that. Let us not enable bottom line to have the first word. Across the entire third world that consists of the South Asian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and Burma), large parts of Central and Sub –Saharan Africa and Latin America, there are communities of farmers that have been led into thinking that conventional farming can raise productivity, bargaining power and market share while enabling better standards of living. It is unfortunate to state though that the ground realities are contrary to the soapy bubbles of peppy optimism that are punctured too soon in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. Most communities that have practices traditional farming that is based on the extensive usage of pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified crops have led to an increase in the production of food crops while drying up the water table, destroying the local ecosystem, contaminating the soil, water and air. Traditional farming has always relied on the usage of artificial reagents that leave a trail of impact on soil, water, air and most importantly on food. There are several pesticides that are known and clinically proven to be soluble with water inseparably. Residues of these chemicals on food do not go away even after being washed several times and also cause cancer.

At Gourmet Guru we work closely with indigenous communities across the world to spread awareness about organic farming and the health benefits of organic food. Think organic food, think organic farming and save the planet and its people.