" What we eat is what we are "
Food is what keeps the life going in this planet. Every action we take has a relation to the food that we consume. In fact the food we consume has a direct relation to the very thought process in us. Many of us have forgotten this truth and often come under the grasp of the culture of fast food and over-consumption. The indent of this post is to encourage the readers to be consciously aware of the food that is part of our everyday life. We peep into a short history of human civilization. In the beginning of civilized living, humans were mainly an agrarian society and were totally dependent on nature. During this early period, the approach was primarily revolving under the cultivating and harvesting to achieve self-sufficiency. Our thoughts and activities were mostly focused on the food culture. With the iron age and the more recent industrial and information oriented societies, there has been a decline of proper food culture and its intake. Most of the present day food culture revolves around the need to satisfy the taste buds rather than the need to develop a healthy body and a healthy spirit.
The earlier generations considered food as the primary source of energy and often worshiped as a part of their religious process. Many of the festivals that we celebrate even today were associated with the harvest seasons and the solar positional shifts. The kitchen was maintained with utmost cleanliness, and housekeepers were to enter the kitchen only after the morning ablutions. Our ancestors did not have to purchase any of the household requirements from outside, everything was cultivated in their backyards and the agricultural fields. A natural soil ecosystem existed where the earthworms and other soil creatures helped in replenishing the nutrients and nitrogen fixation. We have hardly heard of any crop damage or use of inorganic pesticides back then. Most of the fertilizers came from cattle dung and other organic sources.
Last week while listening to the TED talk "Poison on our Plate", I was taken aback by the various cases of degradation that our food has gone through in the guise of the modernization of agriculture. The realistic nature of the situation, blows a major threat to the future citizens of this planet. The modern society has lost consciousness on the nutritional requirement of the food, and merely pretending to be on the road towards advancement. The daily consumables like fruits and vegetables heavily comes under the influence of pesticide. The present situation is bleak. Just imagine your responsibility on handing over the goodness of this planet to your children. Wouldn't you be held responsible if this planet is left in the vicious hands of mans unending plunder of nature? Only a social movement can change our declining food culture.
Biotechnologists and agricultural scientists are sending across the message of replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers. Crop rotation has been recommended for natural soil nourishing and nitrogen fixation. There has been efforts to set up backyard vegetable gardens, terrace cultivation and other home based agricultural methods. Bio-waste based methods are popularly taken by NGO's. The argument still goes are we doing enough. In our cityscape we might encounter large and small pieces of un-utilized land that can be brought in for one or the other cultivation. Ornamental gardening can be replaced by value bearing cultivation of fruits and vegetables. Variations in food habits to an extend might be helpful, for instance if we turn to other natural abundant food (like jackfruit) our dependence on other products would decline.
Food is what keeps the life going in this planet. Every action we take has a relation to the food that we consume. In fact the food we consume has a direct relation to the very thought process in us. Many of us have forgotten this truth and often come under the grasp of the culture of fast food and over-consumption. The indent of this post is to encourage the readers to be consciously aware of the food that is part of our everyday life. We peep into a short history of human civilization. In the beginning of civilized living, humans were mainly an agrarian society and were totally dependent on nature. During this early period, the approach was primarily revolving under the cultivating and harvesting to achieve self-sufficiency. Our thoughts and activities were mostly focused on the food culture. With the iron age and the more recent industrial and information oriented societies, there has been a decline of proper food culture and its intake. Most of the present day food culture revolves around the need to satisfy the taste buds rather than the need to develop a healthy body and a healthy spirit.
The earlier generations considered food as the primary source of energy and often worshiped as a part of their religious process. Many of the festivals that we celebrate even today were associated with the harvest seasons and the solar positional shifts. The kitchen was maintained with utmost cleanliness, and housekeepers were to enter the kitchen only after the morning ablutions. Our ancestors did not have to purchase any of the household requirements from outside, everything was cultivated in their backyards and the agricultural fields. A natural soil ecosystem existed where the earthworms and other soil creatures helped in replenishing the nutrients and nitrogen fixation. We have hardly heard of any crop damage or use of inorganic pesticides back then. Most of the fertilizers came from cattle dung and other organic sources.
Last week while listening to the TED talk "Poison on our Plate", I was taken aback by the various cases of degradation that our food has gone through in the guise of the modernization of agriculture. The realistic nature of the situation, blows a major threat to the future citizens of this planet. The modern society has lost consciousness on the nutritional requirement of the food, and merely pretending to be on the road towards advancement. The daily consumables like fruits and vegetables heavily comes under the influence of pesticide. The present situation is bleak. Just imagine your responsibility on handing over the goodness of this planet to your children. Wouldn't you be held responsible if this planet is left in the vicious hands of mans unending plunder of nature? Only a social movement can change our declining food culture.
Biotechnologists and agricultural scientists are sending across the message of replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers. Crop rotation has been recommended for natural soil nourishing and nitrogen fixation. There has been efforts to set up backyard vegetable gardens, terrace cultivation and other home based agricultural methods. Bio-waste based methods are popularly taken by NGO's. The argument still goes are we doing enough. In our cityscape we might encounter large and small pieces of un-utilized land that can be brought in for one or the other cultivation. Ornamental gardening can be replaced by value bearing cultivation of fruits and vegetables. Variations in food habits to an extend might be helpful, for instance if we turn to other natural abundant food (like jackfruit) our dependence on other products would decline.
