These are some hot Dusshera Dancers. The next video is of traditional Garhwali dancers. The best was when Hanuman went around beating the crowd with his stick!
Sorry I didn't catch the part where the ladies stand on top of the guys as they go around in the circle!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Midnight in Mussoorie
(Written Oct 28)
What an incredible night. The air is so clear here at 2000 meters, and the Harvest Moon so near and so bright, it hurts to look right at it. The lights of Mussoorie follow the mountain ridge as it runs mostly West to East, climbing to the highest point, Lal Tibba, where I stay in a cottage in the Professor's flower garden. His marigolds, cosmos, nasturtium and Mexican sage are all blooming wildly now, and his two dogs, Sita and Rushka protect the garden from the marauding monkeys.
Yup, monkeys.
It's been so nice to finally have access to a kitchen. I've been experimenting some, and it's very gratifying when I create the same smells that come out of the homes that I walk past at mealtimes. I've also had some pretty comic disasters with the pressure cooker. Let's just say, I'm glad I wasn't cooking beets in a newly painted kitchen!
Mussoorie has a long history of foreign missionary presence, especially up here in Landour. I'm the beneficiary of it I guess, as I've been studying Hindi at the Landour Language School, where they've been teaching Hindi as a second language since the 1800's. At Char Dukan, the little square (actually, it's a triangle) down the road from where I live, there are 4 cafes (char = 4, dukan = shops), and a little garden where there's laundry drying, children playing, and usually some foreigners sipping chai and studying their Hindi. It's also where the dudh wallahs (dairy men) stop to water down their milk on their way into town.
The shops make some western-style food, too. Initially I was very excited by the idea of pizza and waffles, but it's worn off, and I'm back to rice and dhal now. And rai when I can get it (another beloved GLV). There's also lots of Tibetan and Chinese food in town. It's interesting to think, I'm closer to those countries than I am to Andhra Pradesh at this point. We went to a Tibetan restaurant the other day and ordered one of practically everything on the menu because the names were so great -- Momos, Thukpa, ThenThuk, Chopsy, ThingThang. We sat there for about a half an hour, until someone came to tell us that there wouldn't be any food available for another 3 hours, when the boy gets back from the market!
The nights are COLD, and I'm sleeping under a blanket that's so thick, I think it might actually be a thin mattress. The best thing about Mussoorie, besides the vistas around every corner (yes, those are the Himalayas behind the monkey silhouette), is the walking I get to do. It's the first Indian town I've been in where I can walk without being harrassed (too much) by men and cars. When I first got here, I got altitude sickness for about 2 days, and walking up the hill to school put me into respiratory distress. Now I'm walking up and down the hills every day, and feeling much stronger. But I'm put to shame by the coolies that make the trip up and down the mountain multiple times every day, carrying loads for people like vegetables, or say, a REFRIDGERATOR on their back. They bear alot of the weight with a rope over the crown of their head, and I hate to think what they're C-spine films look like.
The Hindi language is pretty hard. There are about 38 letters in the alphabet, then a whole other set of combination letters. I wish I had more time to stay here and learn it, but I'm headed to Dharamsala soon. I'll be on a retreat for a couple of weeks and won't be able to blog, but hope to keep in touch as soon as I can.
Hope everyone got visits from the full moon fairy this month!
Navdanya
From Jaipur (in the State of Rajastan), I travelled by train, then bus, then vikram and another local bus, and finally by foot to Vandana Shiva's organic farm, Navdanya (in the far northern State of Uttarkhand). She runs a school there, Bija Vidyapeeth, and I came to take the Food Safety and Food Security Course. Really, it was about Global Nutrition, exploring the questions: What is eaten by people around the world, and why? How healthy and stable are our systems of growing and distributing food for people and the planet?
Lecture titles included: The Politics of Food; Health and Nutrition; Genetically Modified Organisms and Food Security; India's Indigenous Food Heritage; Nutritional and Medicinal Plant Gardens; Navdanya: a Response to Threats to Food Systems from Globalisation. We also went on farm walks, visited the seed bank (what a feeling of reverence!) and a local Tibetan Buddhist Stupa, and had cooking sessions where I learned to use the grinding stone, and continued to roll out very imperfect chapatis.
The farm is such a lovely spot. It draws a wonderful international group of students, including Zenobia, my roommate and guru from Oakland, and the rest of the lovely folks in the foto I'm going to try to put up. A couple have standout blogs: From Karen Rideout, a PhD student in Food Systems
and Nathan Leamy, funny guy and Watson fellow spending the year following bread around the world
Nights there were already cold, so Thank You, lovely and talented Paige, I've been wearing my wrist warmers and I love them! Each night, we'd hear dueling muezzim from 3 different mosques nearby. The calls reached a fever pitch and lasted almost all night as Ramzhan came to a close. In the morning Anna would play her harp as we made our way to the palapa in the middle of the dewy fields to practice yoga. Followed by a fantastic breakfast of puffed amaranth cereal. Yes, the place is a little slice of heaven. And I haven't even mentioned the mango orchard.
Our course was lucky to coincide with a special event: Vasundra. 200 organic farmers came from states North and South to celebrate their cause. It was great to interact with them and hear their stories. I'll try to post a picture or two.
When I was back in Andhra Pradesh, working with BREDS, I saw on the local level, the impact that national policies have in the lives of the villagers. Here at Navdanya, I've been learning a bit more about the other end of the equation: the bigger forces behind the Green Revolution, the companies that exploited these technologies, and the alphabet soup of international organizations that propagate them (WTO, IMF, USAID, etc).
The development of hybrid seeds that promised to end hunger with increased yields coincided with the advent of chemical fertilizers. Lucky thing, because they actually don't have increased yield unless they're getting increased amounts of inputs: water, fertilizer and pesticides. Interestingly, the fertilizers came from arms manufacturers looking for something else to do with their product after WW1. They converted their nitrogen-fixing explosives technology to nitrogen-fixing fertilizers. Bombs can still be made from fertilizer (remember Oklahoma City). These companies were very powerful, and continued to be through these new (forced) markets.
Why do I say forced? Well, the Green Revolution technologies were prostelytized round the world. IMF and World Bank were so impressed, in fact, that they made essential aid contingent on adoption of Green Revolution technologies. And the results have been devastation of perfectly adapted indigenous systems of agriculture that usually involved mixed cropping. And many other effects that I've described in previous posts(the environmental effects, the social devastation epitomized by farmer suicides, increased mechanization with reliance on petroleum products and contributions to global warming, as well as displacement of marginal farmers dependent on seasonal agricultural work, etc, etc, etc).
If we compare yields from farmers that practice traditional mixed cropping with those that have adapted highly mechanized, input intensive hybrid crops, we see that overall, mixed cropping actually gets more out of the land per unit of input. The traditional way is better adapted, sustainable, incredibly efficient and just superior. Frequently folks that advocate for these traditional methods get accused of being "against progress, for poverty", but this ignores the profoundly detrimental effects of "progress" in this instance. Vandan Shiva shows clearly in her books how it's the huge MNCs that are actually benefitting (Cargill, Monsanto, etc), while farmers and consumers suffer decreased quality and security of our food and environment.
So, the bottom line is: eat fresh, locally grown food from farmers that farm in an organic/sustainable way. It's good for you, it's good for the farmer, it's good for the planet.
Next stop, Mussoorie. Hopefully I'll learn chotti Hindi.
Lecture titles included: The Politics of Food; Health and Nutrition; Genetically Modified Organisms and Food Security; India's Indigenous Food Heritage; Nutritional and Medicinal Plant Gardens; Navdanya: a Response to Threats to Food Systems from Globalisation. We also went on farm walks, visited the seed bank (what a feeling of reverence!) and a local Tibetan Buddhist Stupa, and had cooking sessions where I learned to use the grinding stone, and continued to roll out very imperfect chapatis.
The farm is such a lovely spot. It draws a wonderful international group of students, including Zenobia, my roommate and guru from Oakland, and the rest of the lovely folks in the foto I'm going to try to put up. A couple have standout blogs: From Karen Rideout, a PhD student in Food Systems
and Nathan Leamy, funny guy and Watson fellow spending the year following bread around the world
Nights there were already cold, so Thank You, lovely and talented Paige, I've been wearing my wrist warmers and I love them! Each night, we'd hear dueling muezzim from 3 different mosques nearby. The calls reached a fever pitch and lasted almost all night as Ramzhan came to a close. In the morning Anna would play her harp as we made our way to the palapa in the middle of the dewy fields to practice yoga. Followed by a fantastic breakfast of puffed amaranth cereal. Yes, the place is a little slice of heaven. And I haven't even mentioned the mango orchard.
Our course was lucky to coincide with a special event: Vasundra. 200 organic farmers came from states North and South to celebrate their cause. It was great to interact with them and hear their stories. I'll try to post a picture or two.
When I was back in Andhra Pradesh, working with BREDS, I saw on the local level, the impact that national policies have in the lives of the villagers. Here at Navdanya, I've been learning a bit more about the other end of the equation: the bigger forces behind the Green Revolution, the companies that exploited these technologies, and the alphabet soup of international organizations that propagate them (WTO, IMF, USAID, etc).
The development of hybrid seeds that promised to end hunger with increased yields coincided with the advent of chemical fertilizers. Lucky thing, because they actually don't have increased yield unless they're getting increased amounts of inputs: water, fertilizer and pesticides. Interestingly, the fertilizers came from arms manufacturers looking for something else to do with their product after WW1. They converted their nitrogen-fixing explosives technology to nitrogen-fixing fertilizers. Bombs can still be made from fertilizer (remember Oklahoma City). These companies were very powerful, and continued to be through these new (forced) markets.
Why do I say forced? Well, the Green Revolution technologies were prostelytized round the world. IMF and World Bank were so impressed, in fact, that they made essential aid contingent on adoption of Green Revolution technologies. And the results have been devastation of perfectly adapted indigenous systems of agriculture that usually involved mixed cropping. And many other effects that I've described in previous posts(the environmental effects, the social devastation epitomized by farmer suicides, increased mechanization with reliance on petroleum products and contributions to global warming, as well as displacement of marginal farmers dependent on seasonal agricultural work, etc, etc, etc).
If we compare yields from farmers that practice traditional mixed cropping with those that have adapted highly mechanized, input intensive hybrid crops, we see that overall, mixed cropping actually gets more out of the land per unit of input. The traditional way is better adapted, sustainable, incredibly efficient and just superior. Frequently folks that advocate for these traditional methods get accused of being "against progress, for poverty", but this ignores the profoundly detrimental effects of "progress" in this instance. Vandan Shiva shows clearly in her books how it's the huge MNCs that are actually benefitting (Cargill, Monsanto, etc), while farmers and consumers suffer decreased quality and security of our food and environment.
So, the bottom line is: eat fresh, locally grown food from farmers that farm in an organic/sustainable way. It's good for you, it's good for the farmer, it's good for the planet.
Next stop, Mussoorie. Hopefully I'll learn chotti Hindi.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
All the Rajputs in Jaipur
Travelling from the South to the North was like going to a totally different country. The language is different (in Andhra Pradesh, the language is Telegu, in Jaipur, it's Hindi). The people look different (in the South, people tend to be darker-skinned and shorter, in the North folks look more Arabic, or Persian). The food is different (still fantastic, and still, lots of rice and dhal). And mostly, the character of the people is different. In Jaipur, there are lots of forts and palaces. I think that's reflected in the personality of the people here -- there's much more 'edge', to put it very lightly. I've never been harassed by men in the South like I have been up here. I've definately been the object of curious, sometimes bewildered stares, but up here it feels predatory. I think Rajastan is especially like this, so I'll wait and see how it is in other Northern states.
I'm here in Jaipur for another Su Jok course. Unfortunately, I got sick again, and haven't been able to attend all of the course. But the lectures I did get to were really interesting. Su Jok starts out pretty straightforward. The course reviewed the body correspondence points on the hands and feet. Then it integrated basic acupuncture theory of the 5 elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). OK so far. Then it added a 6th element to complete the 6 Ki Theory. Okay, I got that and actually found it really helpful.
Then it integrated chakras into the 6 Ki Theory. Groovy! Chakras were described in ancient Ayurvedic texts. I think of chakras in this way: just as the heart is the central pump for the circulatory system, and the lymph nodes are concentrated areas for the network of lymph flowing in the body, the chakras are the spots where nadis converge. Nadis are the pathways that life energy or prana or Chi flows through the body. In the Chinese tradition, they're called meridians. Not only do nadis converge in the Chakras, but the energy is amplified and accelerated there. Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel, and you see the symbol on the Indian flag. So, by addressing any issues at the chakra level, you're intervening in a kind of esoteric, but very fundamental and powerful way.
Then the course started getting very metaphysical. We talked about brightness and darkness, and the figures started looking like Kabbalistic drawings of the structure of the universe. At this point, my fever started climbing, and I had to experience my own little period of chiaro-scuro in my bed. There was a TV that sometimes worked, so I got to catch up on the latest Bollywood movie song videos. :]
SRK in Om Shanti Om and Chack De, Saawariya, You are my Soniya!!
I did enjoy my time in Jaipur, though. They have the Anokhi flagship store, I met some very nice folks from all over the world (Nigeria, Israel, Mexico, Italy, England, etc), and we shared many mediocre meals and much Bob Marley (and Enrique Iglesias) at the Chit Chat Shack. The architecture and the place really started to grow on me, but I resolved to learn some Hindi before I spend much more time up here. I need to learn how to say, "Stop staring at me! I'm not a monkey in a zoo!"
Elisa and her crew helped me celebrate a wonderful birthday with a fantastic meal at an incredible heritage rooftop restaurant. Te extrano y espero que regresaste a Monterrey bien de salud y espiritu!
Here's a foto I took at the Amber Fort and another of me and my favorite rickshaw wallah, Ramlal. He's crazy and we got along great. We sang Bollywood songs as he pedalled me through the Jaipur traffic. He assigned me (without knowing anything about my blog) a Hindi name -- Tara.
It works.
And I have to give a shout out to Ashok Kothari Garu, the organizer of the course. He is Yang Ming all the way. He is Hotei, the smiling Buddha with the big belly. He is an incredibly kind and generous person and I thank him for ALL he did!
Hope you finally got some rest, ji!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Last Mega-Modules
We did it! We talked about Humanure composting without getting laughed out of Pathapatnam.
This week Asha and I did another couple of trainings. One on infectious diseases, and the last one was about musculoskeletal conditions. We started by talking about different kinds of germs: viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic. Then we profiled some of the common culprits around here: Malaria, Filaria, Cholera, Typhoid, TB, Dengue and Chikkin-gunniya (the virus with the best name, but not very fun to get). We talked about how they get at us, what they do to us, what we can do to fight back.
But the part that's most compelling to me, is disease prevention. We talked a lot about personal hygiene and community hygiene, especially fecal contamination in the environment. Some have explained to me that Indians are historically used to organic trash, and that's why they don't think twice about tossing foil paan wrappers or ANYTHING in the street. But even organic waste serves as breeding ground for flies. Especially human waste. Driving the road at night is like a scene from a Monty Python movie. Every few minutes, your headlights land on someone's knobby knees as they squat roadside, relieving themselves right there.
There is a very serious lack of infrastructure for handling trash and waste here. Trash is generally burned, which is horrible because burning plastic releases all kinds of carcinogens into the air. The sewers (when they exist) are just open canals in the villages and towns, but these STINK and are very gross. Flies breed there and carry foulness on their feet then they land on food and children, spreading disease. Some villages make efforts to clean them regularly, but they're using bleaches that just filter down into the water table.
But here's the exciting thing: in India, 85% of trash is still organic, which means, it's compostable. So not only can we clean up the environment from ugly, stinky pollution and disease-breeding feces, we can actually use the trash and waste to enrich our primary agricultural resource, the soil. Testing shows that thermophilic composting followed by about a period of ageing (just leaving it be) eliminates all the dangerous germs from the compost. And if there's any concern at all, the compost can be used on horticultural (tree) crops instead of field crops.
Staffers definately were challenged by some of my suggestions about composting and Humanure composting in particular, but they were receptive and curious. The questions were very realistic and showed people were interested. They asked about how we can talk to villagers about this, and specific questions about construction of compost piles. I think in this area, where everyone goes outside, it would be fairly straightforward to construct compost heap cum latrines. We're all hoping the next AJWS volunteers will pursue this further, at least starting with composting of organic trash. If anyone is interested, Joe Jenkin's very funny and informative book The Humanure Handbook is available online at weblife.org.
My proudest accomplishment, is that I learned the names of every attendent at the trainings.
My favorite question, came at the end of the day of course: "Madame, can you please explain what is nanotechnology?"
The last module was about musculoskeletal issues with emphasis on prevention with daily practice of Surya Namaskar. The Surya Namaskar, or Sun Salutation, is a pretty accesible series of yoga postures that stretches all the major muscles, gets the blood and breath flowing, and can be practiced on deeper levels to cultivate inner calm and mindfulness. We also did some pranayama (breathing exercises). The field staffers totally got into it. For some of the women, it was their first time wearing salwar khameez suits since their wedding (usually married women only wear saris, and it's hard to do yoga in a sari). Everyone really appreciated that this incredible Yoga practice is their own native wisdom tradition, their inheritance.
Lastly, Asha taught a short course on Su Jok (more on Su Jok in my next post about Jaipur). The initial levels are very accessible, and a really great modality for people to use for themselves, especially when doctors are rare and expensive. She was her usual dynamic, charismatic self and did a great job.
It was all pretty intense, and I loved it! After it was all over, we had a meeting with all the staffers and they presented me with some gifts and told me how much they appreciated the trainings. I was really holding back the tears. I left very soon after the last training -- I had to get to Jaipur for an advanced Su Jok course and it's 1800 kms away!
Monday, October 29, 2007
And another thing...
Well, a few more things about nutrition, since food IS one of my very favorite subjects.
Can we please cross potatoes off the list of food items that qualify as vegetables? Here, a meal usually consists of rice, dhal, a vegetable side dish, and maybe roti, too. All too often, the vegetable side is potato (or bitter gourd... yuk!) There's never enough GLVs for me (green leafy vegetables).
Also, we have to examine the methods of cooking being used. Often the vegetables here are heavily fried, or cooked so much the vitamins are all gone. On the other hand, there are some traditions that enhance the bioavailability of nutrients, like soaking and sprouting the legumes and grains. Phytic acid in the seed coat can block mineral absorption. Sprouting eliminates phytic acid, and also begins breaking down some of the harder to digest sugars and proteins, so sprouting makes the food more digestible and more nutritious. It also means less fuel will be used because they'll need less cooking time.
Other traditions, like vegetarianism, are a mixed bag. I saw so much anemia in the south, particularly among women. And the average diet was so deficient in protein. Some meat would have been really helpful for many people, but that's not an option for so many because of caste or cost restrictions.
Please bring back the ragi!
One last point about nutrition... It doesn't really matter how much 'nutrition food' you swallow, if you're suffering from chronic diarrhea because your water is contaminated. Nothing will be absorbed. The issue of public hygiene will factor largely in the next module about infectious diseases. The astute reader says "Wait! I thought you said the next module is all about composting?" Aha! Soon you will see how it all ties together...!
SPROUTING AND COOKING DHAL
Here's how I was taught to sprout dhal (for example moong dhal):
Soak them overnight. The next day, place them in a colander with a plate underneath to catch the water. Cover the colander with a damp cloth and wait 8 hours or so for small legumes like moong, maybe 12 hours for black eyed peas, even longer for channa (garbanzo beans) etc.
Once they're sprouted, you can cook them like this:
If you've got a grind stone or molcajete, grind garlic and ginger to a paste (or just mince them) and fry in ghee or other good cooking oil.
Add chopped onion and tomato, and whatever spices you like from your daba -- turmeric (haldi), cumin (jeera), mustard seeds (sarsun), bishop's weed (ajwain), asafoetida (hing), curry leaves, etc. Oh, and of course, chili.
Once that's fried and soft and your kitchen smells fantastic, add the sprouts, and a little stock or just plain water, and some small-chopped, peeled potatoes. In 15 or 20 minutes the beans and potatoes should be cooked all through.
It's delicious and nutritious!
;]
Can we please cross potatoes off the list of food items that qualify as vegetables? Here, a meal usually consists of rice, dhal, a vegetable side dish, and maybe roti, too. All too often, the vegetable side is potato (or bitter gourd... yuk!) There's never enough GLVs for me (green leafy vegetables).
Also, we have to examine the methods of cooking being used. Often the vegetables here are heavily fried, or cooked so much the vitamins are all gone. On the other hand, there are some traditions that enhance the bioavailability of nutrients, like soaking and sprouting the legumes and grains. Phytic acid in the seed coat can block mineral absorption. Sprouting eliminates phytic acid, and also begins breaking down some of the harder to digest sugars and proteins, so sprouting makes the food more digestible and more nutritious. It also means less fuel will be used because they'll need less cooking time.
Other traditions, like vegetarianism, are a mixed bag. I saw so much anemia in the south, particularly among women. And the average diet was so deficient in protein. Some meat would have been really helpful for many people, but that's not an option for so many because of caste or cost restrictions.
Please bring back the ragi!
One last point about nutrition... It doesn't really matter how much 'nutrition food' you swallow, if you're suffering from chronic diarrhea because your water is contaminated. Nothing will be absorbed. The issue of public hygiene will factor largely in the next module about infectious diseases. The astute reader says "Wait! I thought you said the next module is all about composting?" Aha! Soon you will see how it all ties together...!
SPROUTING AND COOKING DHAL
Here's how I was taught to sprout dhal (for example moong dhal):
Soak them overnight. The next day, place them in a colander with a plate underneath to catch the water. Cover the colander with a damp cloth and wait 8 hours or so for small legumes like moong, maybe 12 hours for black eyed peas, even longer for channa (garbanzo beans) etc.
Once they're sprouted, you can cook them like this:
If you've got a grind stone or molcajete, grind garlic and ginger to a paste (or just mince them) and fry in ghee or other good cooking oil.
Add chopped onion and tomato, and whatever spices you like from your daba -- turmeric (haldi), cumin (jeera), mustard seeds (sarsun), bishop's weed (ajwain), asafoetida (hing), curry leaves, etc. Oh, and of course, chili.
Once that's fried and soft and your kitchen smells fantastic, add the sprouts, and a little stock or just plain water, and some small-chopped, peeled potatoes. In 15 or 20 minutes the beans and potatoes should be cooked all through.
It's delicious and nutritious!
;]
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The First Mega-Modules
Where do you begin, when your goal is to teach about "Infectious Diseases", or "Women's Issues", "Nutrition", or "Musculoskeletal Issues"?
That's why I called them "MEGA-modules"!
Ladies first. We got about 30 female staffers together and reviewed anatomy, the menstrual cycle. We discussed some of the common conditions that village women have to deal with, and also about family planning. Magically, my whiteboard drawings turned out really well. The field staffers asked questions that led to great discussion about things like Kegel's excercises (moola banda!) and we of course laughed a LOT. It was really fun. I think the whole trip to India was validated when someone said, "Madame, I've had 3 babies, and never knew what was happening in my body until you just explained it."
The nutrition module was also great. The posters I found in Hyderabad were really useful, as was information I got from the Weston A. Price Foundation website http://westonaprice.org (sorry I tried doing links for all the sites in this post but none of them worked!). We started off talking about macronutrients and micronutrients. What they are, what they're good for, and what the good sources of them are. I really emphasized food sources over supplements, which inevitably leads to political issues. Especially issues of food safety and food security, which happens to be the name of the class I'll be taking in October at Navdanya. More blogging about that in the future, I'm sure, but for now, I'll give the example of vitamin A.
Here in India, Vitamin A deficiency has been a huge problem in certain regions, and it's notorious for causing vision problems, even permanent blindness from scarring of the cornea. This is almost incomprehensible given that India is the land of the mango, and there's tons of papayas, too. Some of the most vitamin A rich foods around! Interventions have consistently been to give vitamin A supplements, but this can backfire, as it did with the UNICEF campaign in the state of Assam in 2001. Dozens of children actually died, probably because of accidental overdose.
Vitamin A toxicity is nearly impossible to reach if you're getting it from FOOD sources (unless you're really overdoing it on the polar bear pate). So, it seems to me, if international and governmental organizations really wanted to do the right thing, they'd make sure everybody has access to mangoes or papayas or eggs... basically, the variety of foods that people need to stay healthy.
Instead, they seem to be doing just the opposite. The diet in India, and elsewhere in the world, is becoming increasingly impoverished, with people abandoning traditional foods that are highly adapted to growth conditions in this area. In India there are dozens of varieties of millets and sorghums like ragi, jowar, bajra. These traditional foods almost invariably are SO much higher in nutritional content (protein, iron, calcium, etc). They're also delicious, but they don't play so well in the international market.
It's hard to find these grains in India now, because farmers face all kinds of pressures (mostly from the government responding to international trade bodies) to grow "Green Revolution" cash crops of... white rice and wheat. ONLY, white rice and wheat. Now that's where people here get most of their calories, but those foods don't supply nearly enough protein, healthy fats, or micronutrients!
For folks who get really excited learning about this stuff like I do... I found some provocative articles about this in the Hunger issue of The Little Magazine http://www.littlemag.com/hunger/index.htmland at the India Together website http://www.indiatogether.org/. Also, the Nutrition Foundation of India http://nutritionfoundationofindia.res.in/nutrition.asp
has listings of nutritional content of the common foods in India, as well as some other interesting publications.
These "Green Revolution" crops are also wreaking havoc with the indigenous social systems and the indigenous ecology. Every week there's another article in the newspaper about a farmer suicide. There have been thousands of farmer suicides across India in the past few years, but especially in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. Pointedly, the most common method is by drinking the pesticides that the "Green Revolution" crops are so dependent on. The price of the hybrid seeds, the pesticides and the fertilizers is what has put these farmers into hopeless debt in the first place. Vandana Shiva writes passionately about this at http://navdanya.org/news/04july15.htm.
Getting back to health issues, the use of synthetic fertilizers and heavy irrigation on these crops also messes with the mineral content of the soil, so in some areas in India the soil is deficient in necessary minerals, and in other areas, toxic levels of accumulate. The petrochemical fertilizers add only NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), but organic fertilizers and COMPOST replete the whole spectrum of necessary micronutrients, along with providing lots of other benefits to the soil. Organic fertilizers have been used on these fields for THOUSANDS of years, keeping the soils rich and productive, and keeping the foods grown on them full of the nutrients necessary for humans. It's the industrial chemical fertilizers along with the Green Revolution crops that have recently come in and messed with the minerals. I'm going on about all this COMPOST stuff because it plays a big role in the next module... (and cause I love compost!)
BREDS has been involved in some projects promoting kitchen gardens (or nutrition gardens, as I like to call them) with some successes and some challenges. We explored this idea again, in the context of nutrition, and Gandhian ideals of garam swaraj and swadeshi (self sufficiency and sovereignty). The field staffers were energized to do more work in this area in the future, and I hope the next AJWS volunteers are also interested in pursuing it.
Staffers also brought up a lot of questions that the villagers commonly ask them. There are lots of misconceptions about what foods are healthy for pregnant and nursing women, or for babies when they reach 6 months and are ready to add solid foods to their breastmilk diet. There are lots of beliefs about how food variety needs to be restricted for these groups. It was great to build their confidence in answering these questions with common sense responses. Some of the ideas passed down from Grandma are really wise, but some are like the pot roast story.... we can use our own judgement to decide what's best for our families.
So this leads to what was probably the most important point of the nutrition module. Repeatedly studies show that the most consistent correlation with good family nutrition is NOT (as you would think)
* How much food is produced in a country. Nor is it
* How rich the country is (REALLY, this does not correlate as consistently as...)
The best way to ensure that families are well fed, is to make sure Mom is well educated. There are lots of reasons for this, and the field staffers had lots of insights. Basically, an educated, empowered woman has the tools to feed her family better. It was a really lively discussion among all the staffers, male and female.
Well, that was a long entry, and I've got two more modules to go. Now I get a weekend off to rest my voice. The newspaper had an article about 4 village women getting beheaded -- a young boy got sick and died and his father decided these ladies are witches, and caused the death of his son, so he got together a group of men and cut their heads off. Another article about Naxalites setting off bombs on the road outside of Vizag. I feel so mournful for those people, and so grateful for the peace in my life.
That's why I called them "MEGA-modules"!
Ladies first. We got about 30 female staffers together and reviewed anatomy, the menstrual cycle. We discussed some of the common conditions that village women have to deal with, and also about family planning. Magically, my whiteboard drawings turned out really well. The field staffers asked questions that led to great discussion about things like Kegel's excercises (moola banda!) and we of course laughed a LOT. It was really fun. I think the whole trip to India was validated when someone said, "Madame, I've had 3 babies, and never knew what was happening in my body until you just explained it."
The nutrition module was also great. The posters I found in Hyderabad were really useful, as was information I got from the Weston A. Price Foundation website http://westonaprice.org (sorry I tried doing links for all the sites in this post but none of them worked!). We started off talking about macronutrients and micronutrients. What they are, what they're good for, and what the good sources of them are. I really emphasized food sources over supplements, which inevitably leads to political issues. Especially issues of food safety and food security, which happens to be the name of the class I'll be taking in October at Navdanya. More blogging about that in the future, I'm sure, but for now, I'll give the example of vitamin A.
Here in India, Vitamin A deficiency has been a huge problem in certain regions, and it's notorious for causing vision problems, even permanent blindness from scarring of the cornea. This is almost incomprehensible given that India is the land of the mango, and there's tons of papayas, too. Some of the most vitamin A rich foods around! Interventions have consistently been to give vitamin A supplements, but this can backfire, as it did with the UNICEF campaign in the state of Assam in 2001. Dozens of children actually died, probably because of accidental overdose.
Vitamin A toxicity is nearly impossible to reach if you're getting it from FOOD sources (unless you're really overdoing it on the polar bear pate). So, it seems to me, if international and governmental organizations really wanted to do the right thing, they'd make sure everybody has access to mangoes or papayas or eggs... basically, the variety of foods that people need to stay healthy.
Instead, they seem to be doing just the opposite. The diet in India, and elsewhere in the world, is becoming increasingly impoverished, with people abandoning traditional foods that are highly adapted to growth conditions in this area. In India there are dozens of varieties of millets and sorghums like ragi, jowar, bajra. These traditional foods almost invariably are SO much higher in nutritional content (protein, iron, calcium, etc). They're also delicious, but they don't play so well in the international market.
It's hard to find these grains in India now, because farmers face all kinds of pressures (mostly from the government responding to international trade bodies) to grow "Green Revolution" cash crops of... white rice and wheat. ONLY, white rice and wheat. Now that's where people here get most of their calories, but those foods don't supply nearly enough protein, healthy fats, or micronutrients!
For folks who get really excited learning about this stuff like I do... I found some provocative articles about this in the Hunger issue of The Little Magazine http://www.littlemag.com/hunger/index.htmland at the India Together website http://www.indiatogether.org/. Also, the Nutrition Foundation of India http://nutritionfoundationofindia.res.in/nutrition.asp
has listings of nutritional content of the common foods in India, as well as some other interesting publications.
These "Green Revolution" crops are also wreaking havoc with the indigenous social systems and the indigenous ecology. Every week there's another article in the newspaper about a farmer suicide. There have been thousands of farmer suicides across India in the past few years, but especially in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. Pointedly, the most common method is by drinking the pesticides that the "Green Revolution" crops are so dependent on. The price of the hybrid seeds, the pesticides and the fertilizers is what has put these farmers into hopeless debt in the first place. Vandana Shiva writes passionately about this at http://navdanya.org/news/04july15.htm.
Getting back to health issues, the use of synthetic fertilizers and heavy irrigation on these crops also messes with the mineral content of the soil, so in some areas in India the soil is deficient in necessary minerals, and in other areas, toxic levels of accumulate. The petrochemical fertilizers add only NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), but organic fertilizers and COMPOST replete the whole spectrum of necessary micronutrients, along with providing lots of other benefits to the soil. Organic fertilizers have been used on these fields for THOUSANDS of years, keeping the soils rich and productive, and keeping the foods grown on them full of the nutrients necessary for humans. It's the industrial chemical fertilizers along with the Green Revolution crops that have recently come in and messed with the minerals. I'm going on about all this COMPOST stuff because it plays a big role in the next module... (and cause I love compost!)
BREDS has been involved in some projects promoting kitchen gardens (or nutrition gardens, as I like to call them) with some successes and some challenges. We explored this idea again, in the context of nutrition, and Gandhian ideals of garam swaraj and swadeshi (self sufficiency and sovereignty). The field staffers were energized to do more work in this area in the future, and I hope the next AJWS volunteers are also interested in pursuing it.
Staffers also brought up a lot of questions that the villagers commonly ask them. There are lots of misconceptions about what foods are healthy for pregnant and nursing women, or for babies when they reach 6 months and are ready to add solid foods to their breastmilk diet. There are lots of beliefs about how food variety needs to be restricted for these groups. It was great to build their confidence in answering these questions with common sense responses. Some of the ideas passed down from Grandma are really wise, but some are like the pot roast story.... we can use our own judgement to decide what's best for our families.
So this leads to what was probably the most important point of the nutrition module. Repeatedly studies show that the most consistent correlation with good family nutrition is NOT (as you would think)
* How much food is produced in a country. Nor is it
* How rich the country is (REALLY, this does not correlate as consistently as...)
The best way to ensure that families are well fed, is to make sure Mom is well educated. There are lots of reasons for this, and the field staffers had lots of insights. Basically, an educated, empowered woman has the tools to feed her family better. It was a really lively discussion among all the staffers, male and female.
Well, that was a long entry, and I've got two more modules to go. Now I get a weekend off to rest my voice. The newspaper had an article about 4 village women getting beheaded -- a young boy got sick and died and his father decided these ladies are witches, and caused the death of his son, so he got together a group of men and cut their heads off. Another article about Naxalites setting off bombs on the road outside of Vizag. I feel so mournful for those people, and so grateful for the peace in my life.
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