A dear friend recommended the book ‘Sapiens’ to me last year. Started listening to its audiobook on Audible on and off while doing some chores at home. They say podcasts exist only because chores exist, I feel the same way about audiobooks too. The most fascinating thing to me is how the author Harari alludes to humanity’s success as a species to ‘myth-making’. We have succeeded to this scale because of our ability to cooperate amongst ourselves based on unifying forces of the myths. “It is our collective fictions that define us”. And in the same context, he talks about Agriculture. That its the most “unnatural” thing to have ever happened. “History’s biggest Fraud.”
Fast forward to today. ‘Natural’ Farming exists. ‘Natural’ Living does too.
I have been on a slow and deliberate learning curve trying to understand agriculture since my undergraduate years. As a person native to the Maximum City (Mumbai), the passion for exploring the rural probably came from the absolute lack of any connection to it. Six years later, I am a part-time steward to our family farm and I feel like I’ve just begun.
Given my humanities education, I have started problematizing the very narratives that inspired my journey. That of an “organic world”. Pure,natural,uncorrupted food. A very romantic view.
When I first started exploring this alternative worldview I was reading up a lot. I used most of my academic courses especially in economics and development as a way to research organic farming. When I finished reading Fukuoka’s One-Straw Revolution I remember feeling like my life changed forever. It is about an agricultural scientist’s journey of living off the Earth successfully. A philosophical masterpiece.
Natural Farming has picked up momentum in India. While the notion of working with nature is native to India — many environmentalists, farmers, and leaders have built a body of knowledge around natural farming. Many states have institutionalized programs to promote the same.
“Natural Farming”- An Oxymoron or Hope for a Climate Positive Future?
Here Harari comes to the rescue to say that, inherently there is nothing Natural about Farming. In fact, it is the path to Domestication. Whether we domesticated the plants or the plants domesticated us is another story. The opposite of Domestic is Wild. Which is Nature’s way.
So does that mean all organic and natural farmers are kidding themselves?
Absolutely Not. The merit lies in recognizing that “natural/organic farming” is essentially inspired by nature. Permaculture as a school of thought offers us a perspective that is inspired by Nature — its patterns and cues. It seeks to bring care for the Earth and all its beings to the center of its practice.
“Natural Living”
The whole premise of Natural Living is that humans are but one part of Nature. The starting point of this conversation is also Harari. Who rightly points out that there is nothing ‘Natural’ about society or civilization in itself. So can one really live a ‘natural life’? Here again, you can only take inspiration from Nature.
Natural Living takes many forms like veganism, raw, plant-based whole food, alternative healing therapies, and so on. While this approach may seem simplistic and exclusive — experimenting with what works for us in this space is a good idea. Because if one can take care of their needs while minimizing the negative impact on their body and the planet — nothing like it.
Going Organic
“Gandhi’s romanticization of the village is analogous to the manner in which upper castes today idealize organic living. I am not questioning the validity of going organic, but the narrative and attitude that builds around it is often othering and lacks social sensitivity.”
A friend recently shared TM Krishna’s tweet with me asking me how I feel about this. Truth is, I can see why he would say this. In retrospect, my starting point may have also been similar. Organic is a term that is used and ‘misused’? today. The way the notion of purity has seeped into the narrative around organic “pure” food is definitely not socially sensitive. Nothing is “dirtier” than the dirt in which plants thrive.
Having said this, eating healthy, minimally processed, traditional food needs to get hyped and accessible. Because the more demand we create the better the market will build. This is where I think people going organic come into the picture. While definitely, the language needs to move beyond notions of purity to food safety, Triple Bottom Line efficiency, and inclusivity.
