I realized recently that I have mentioned a few times that I am staying on "a compound," but I never quite elaborated on what that is. For those of you who know specifically where I am staying, you can think, "Oh she is just talking about Mahyco again." But if you don't know what that is, it probably sounds like I am right in the middle of a bad sci-fi movie or something. But fear not, my India experience is not rooted in becoming some strange experiment, and I swear I haven't been made into an alien avatar yet. So, to avoid further confusion, here is my little explanation of where exactly I am staying.
I am staying on a research facility which is owned by Mahyco, or Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company. It is part of the Barwale foundation, which was founded by Ben's grandfather. The compound, as I call it, is made up of a colony where scientists and their families can live, the labs, greenhouses, the office building, a new facility where guests can stay, and our house. Mahyco is a company that works to create hybrid and genetically modified crops to be sold throughout India. They have a number of hybrid crops on the market already, and one BT (basically you use a bacterium to alter the genetic makeup) crop, which is cotton.
Now that you have a basic idea what Mahyco does, I feel like I should touch on the actual topic of genetically modified foods. GM gets a really bad name in the United States, mostly because Monsanto is pretty much the only big name that people know of, and they give the whole business a bad name. Then you have companies like Greenpeace which also try and paint it as something evil, to be avoided at all costs. Keep in mind, this is all coming from a person who loves supporting local farmer's at farmers markets and frequents the food co-op regularly. I do take the environment very seriously, but the fact is, it simply doesn't make sense to expect that organic farming practices are at all realistic here.
In a country with as big a population and as low an average income as India, the most important thing becomes using land to its fullest potential to make sure that everyone can eat. So the way I see it, you have three options in farming practices. There are pesticides, organic farming, and genetically modified foods. Pesticides are probably the only common ground between environmentalists and the food scientists that you would find here. While they do increase yield, it is at the cost of environmental health and safety, placing it far away from the ideal situation. Then you have organic farming. Basically this involves a lot more work on the part of the farmer, and considerably lower yields. Lower yields, if widely adopted, would lead to higher food prices, which would lead to a large percentage of people not eating. Then you have genetically modified foods. GM requires considerably less pesticide, yet the plants are far more insect and virus resistant and produce a much higher yield. All in all, you are producing the food required to sustain a growing population, without compromising the environment's health.
Basically, I agree with a lot of organic farming principles, but organizations that completely exclude GM as a possibility are being stubborn. I agree that our focus should be health and stability of farm land, but GM in no way compromises that. I understand the desire to try and leave crops as basic and natural as possible, because environmental conservation is extremely important to me. But when you look at food production on a larger scale, it is made of a series of hybridizations that have been going on for thousands of years. Food production as a process is rooted in humans taking wild plants and domesticating them to suit their needs. It is not realistic to think that we can go on growing plants the way that they occur in nature on a large scale. Think about the rubber-band theory for example, in which a rapid development of one area of society necessitates the development of all others. With modern medicine increasing the average life expectancy, we have more or less passed our planet's carrying capacity. If we are going to use technology to increase the size of our population, it only makes sense that technology is required to sustain it. And that is why what Mahyco is doing is so important. You do see people starving here, but Mahyco tries to change that without compromising the integrity of this beautiful country itself.
I am staying on a research facility which is owned by Mahyco, or Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company. It is part of the Barwale foundation, which was founded by Ben's grandfather. The compound, as I call it, is made up of a colony where scientists and their families can live, the labs, greenhouses, the office building, a new facility where guests can stay, and our house. Mahyco is a company that works to create hybrid and genetically modified crops to be sold throughout India. They have a number of hybrid crops on the market already, and one BT (basically you use a bacterium to alter the genetic makeup) crop, which is cotton.
Now that you have a basic idea what Mahyco does, I feel like I should touch on the actual topic of genetically modified foods. GM gets a really bad name in the United States, mostly because Monsanto is pretty much the only big name that people know of, and they give the whole business a bad name. Then you have companies like Greenpeace which also try and paint it as something evil, to be avoided at all costs. Keep in mind, this is all coming from a person who loves supporting local farmer's at farmers markets and frequents the food co-op regularly. I do take the environment very seriously, but the fact is, it simply doesn't make sense to expect that organic farming practices are at all realistic here.
In a country with as big a population and as low an average income as India, the most important thing becomes using land to its fullest potential to make sure that everyone can eat. So the way I see it, you have three options in farming practices. There are pesticides, organic farming, and genetically modified foods. Pesticides are probably the only common ground between environmentalists and the food scientists that you would find here. While they do increase yield, it is at the cost of environmental health and safety, placing it far away from the ideal situation. Then you have organic farming. Basically this involves a lot more work on the part of the farmer, and considerably lower yields. Lower yields, if widely adopted, would lead to higher food prices, which would lead to a large percentage of people not eating. Then you have genetically modified foods. GM requires considerably less pesticide, yet the plants are far more insect and virus resistant and produce a much higher yield. All in all, you are producing the food required to sustain a growing population, without compromising the environment's health.
Basically, I agree with a lot of organic farming principles, but organizations that completely exclude GM as a possibility are being stubborn. I agree that our focus should be health and stability of farm land, but GM in no way compromises that. I understand the desire to try and leave crops as basic and natural as possible, because environmental conservation is extremely important to me. But when you look at food production on a larger scale, it is made of a series of hybridizations that have been going on for thousands of years. Food production as a process is rooted in humans taking wild plants and domesticating them to suit their needs. It is not realistic to think that we can go on growing plants the way that they occur in nature on a large scale. Think about the rubber-band theory for example, in which a rapid development of one area of society necessitates the development of all others. With modern medicine increasing the average life expectancy, we have more or less passed our planet's carrying capacity. If we are going to use technology to increase the size of our population, it only makes sense that technology is required to sustain it. And that is why what Mahyco is doing is so important. You do see people starving here, but Mahyco tries to change that without compromising the integrity of this beautiful country itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment