So You Want to Know About the Environment

by Bijal Vachharajani

  2 http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

  1 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31082015/yes-warming-arctic-means-cold-winters-elsewhere-Boston-US-Asia

  1 https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record/

  1 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Bad-monsoon-killing-Telangana-farmers-crops-and-water-supply/articleshow/48367921.cms

  1 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/14/first-case-emerges-of-mammal-species-wiped-out-by-human-induced-climate-change

  2 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/26/climate-change-damaging-global-economy

  1 http://www.who.int/globalchange/environment/en/chapter6.pdf

  2 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/10/five-pacific-islands-lost-rising-seas-climate-change

  1 http://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/crafts/other-arts-crafts/science-projects-for-kids-weather-and-seasons7.htm

  FOOD

  THE MYTH OF ‘AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY’

  Hashim hated apples. His dad kept buying them, along with bananas. He preferred grapes and strawberries and even a banana sometimes, thank you very much. But they weren’t available all through the year, unlike the dreaded apples.

  His father would cluck at him and say, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ and make him eat up all the apple slices. One day, while reading the book The Tastemaker: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes But Fed Up With Fondue, Hashim had a eureka moment.

  So next day at breakfast, Hashim put on his best I-Know-It-All voice and informed his entire family that their dad’s favourite phrase didn’t come from a doctor. It was actually coined by a man called J.T. Stinson, an apple horticulturist from Missouri. According to the book, in 1904, Stinson used that line to promote apples at a world fair, and since then everyone thinks apple = healthy. ‘How about that?’ said Hashim. ‘A marketing line has somehow become a health mantra for at least a century now.’

  Hashim’s dad, who had turned a shade of red rather like a Gala apple, recovered quickly. ‘You do know right, that doesn’t mean apples are not healthy for you. An apple packs in fibre and Vitamin C. You need a healthy diet to keep the doctor away and that can include apples since they are good for you. So, Hashim, finish your apple.’

  Ah, parents shall never be told that they are wrong.

  Variety is the spice of life

  Our food system is complex and diverse, and that’s what makes it fun and interesting. Life would be dull as dudhi if you have to eat a gourd every day. Let’s take a look at the different kinds of fruits and vegetables that you can try.

  A for Apple, lots of apples

  In the Jurassic Age, when your parents and grandparents were children, they used to have something like two choices of apples! One was a crisp red apple and the other a golden apple that was tart and juicy. Both apples came from the hilly regions of the north—Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

  Today, take a walk down the supermarket aisle that stocks apples. At last count, we were importing waxy red Washington apples, pale reddish yellow Fuji ones (though these are now grown in India as well), candy Green apples, and crimson Red Prince, and Gala and Chilean apples. Closer home there’s Red Delicious from Himachal Pradesh, Royal Delicious grown widely in India, Golden Delicious from Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh, and McIntosh from Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. And that’s only naming a few apples! There are more than 7,500 varieties of apples in the world. If your parents once thought there were just two kinds of apples, now they know better.

  Of course, variety is good. But that’s the local variety. Too much variety of food that travels from different parts of the world to your market can be bad for the environment (more on that later).

  Did you know?

  There’s an apple called the Winter Banana Apple because it has a banana-like flavour.

  B is for Brinjal, lots of brinjals

  Brinjal is the easiest vegetable to spot.

  ▶There’s the big fat purple aubergine that looks like an obese but squat baseball bat. That’s perfect for roasting on the flame and making a baingan bharta or baba ghanoush.

  ▶The small eggplant, that’s shaped like an egg, makes a yum vegetable or stir fry. It comes in purple and green colours. And also in white!

  ▶The long and light green brinjal is used extensively in Maharashtrian cooking.

  So many kinds of brinjals and so many names for them! That’s called biodiversity.

  C is for Come on, you can take it from here

  Even though there is so much variety in food, we keep eating the same kind, like eating only basmati rice or just wheat at home. The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that since the ‘beginning of this century, about 75 per cent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost.’1

  Despite this, there’re still plenty of options being grown in the fields! Like different kind of flours made out of finger millet (ragi), pearl millet (bajra), and sorghum (jowar). They all have different textures and tastes, adding a lot more flavour to food.

  But because there’s market demand for one kind of rice or wheat, it becomes easily available and cheaper. And we get lesser biodiversity on our plates! Isn’t it boring to eat just one kind of food day in, and day out? Now that should give us some Fear Of Missing Out on cool food.

  RACK YOUR BRAINS

  Make a list of all the different varieties of fruits and vegetables you have ever eaten.

  For instance, there’s green lady’s finger, but you also get red okra (same veggie, different name)! Then there’re different kinds of cabbage—white and green, as well as a crunchy purple one.

  Climate-smart foods

  Millets are called climate-smart grains because they can grow even in drought-like conditions as they don’t need much water. They can also grow in high temperature and poor soil.

  A DINNERTIME THREAT

  If we were to get a rupee for every time we were told to eat up our food because children in Africa are starving, by now, we would be richer than Bill Gates. Okay, almost richer.

  Actually, what they don’t tell you is that with 204 million undernourished people, India is leading in the world hunger list. India has more undernourished people1 than all of sub-Saharan Africa.

  Why is that? Isn’t there enough food for everyone in the world?

  There is enough food to go around across the globe. In fact, according to Oxfam, we are producing at least seventeen per cent more food per person than we did thirty years ago2. Yet there are people who don’t have enough food to eat. At least a billion of them! Let’s take a look at some of the reasons:

  ▶Smallholder farmers (who own small pieces of land) are often forced to sell all their produce in the market at a loss, and don’t have enough to eat. And they grow the food we eat!

  ▶There are people who don’t have enough money to buy food, or don’t have access to nutritious food. Many can’t afford to buy good quality, nutritious food.

  ▶In some countries, buying junk food is cheaper than buying fruits and vegetables! Yes, the prospect of eating burgers and fries is exciting for a few days. It’s not really the healthiest option. And if that’s all you can afford to eat, then it loses its appeal quickly.

  LETTUCE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR FOOD SYSTEM

  How did we start growing all of this stuff? For that, let’s step back in the past.

  Human beings used to be hunter-gatherers. Small groups hunted for animals in the wild. They also gathered edible roots, nuts, berries (can you imagine, the kind of trial and error that had happened here? *Grunt*… do you think that mushroom’s tasting a bit off, Oops! Thunk!)

  But then, some 13,000 years ago, people began sowing seeds and growing crops. Animals were domesticated for meat, milk, and their skin.

  Then came the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and machines began to crop up in farms.

  By the twentieth century, there w
ere bigger machines to grow tonnes of food. Pesticides and fertilizers popped up around this time. As more food was grown, soil nutrition was being depleted at a faster rate, and synthetic chemicals were used to enrich the soil.

  And as farms became more mechanized, animals also began to be ‘grown’ in a manner that would be more economic and boost productivity. Cows, hens, pigs and goats were crammed into spaces called factory farms, with barely any space to move about. Food and water was provided to them, along with antibiotics and growth hormones.

  In the late twentieth century, genetic alterations were made to seeds so that plants can survive drought or fight against a particular pest. These are called Genetically Modified seeds.

  And now? In the twenty-first century, we are growing more food but not feeding our entire planet. We are forcing animals into battery cages, dingy sheds and crowded, unlit barns. Indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is harming the soil, making it less fertile and, thus, reducing yields. Food is processed until it’s almost unrecognisable; or, frozen or treated with processes so that it can be eaten even when it’s not being grown seasonally. Food is not always eaten in the same place it is grown in—this adds to the carbon emissions and increases food prices along the way because of transport.

  OKAY, SO WE ARE GROWING FOOD IN FACTORY AND LABORATORIES! BUT WE ALL NEED FOOD, DON’T WE? AND THERE ARE SO MANY HUMAN BEINGS THAT NEED TO BE FED. SEVEN BILLION, TO BE PRECISE.

  Absolutely, we need to make enough food for the entire population, but a lot of the crops grown today are not intended for human consumption.

  A look at where most of our crop ends up:

  Information source: National Geographic magazine1

  We need to take a closer look at our food system—how we grow and produce food today and for whom. A lot of the problem comes from unequal distribution of food. Some countries and people have more food, and some don’t. For example, if food prices shoot up, rich people can still afford to eat and buy food. Like say when tur dal and onions become expensive (it happens often, read the newspaper), many people can still eat it. But people with less money spend most of their income on food. So imagine if the price of dal becomes almost double, then they can’t buy it. And dal is a huge source of protein in our country.

  From farm to fork

  While farmers work hard to grow our food, they don’t always get a fair price for the hard work they do to grow our food. A lot of it goes to middle-men and companies, rather than the people who actually grew the food!

  Take for example, chocolate. Now if you pay Rs 110 for 100 grams of chocolate, then can you calculate who gets paid what in the food supply chain?

  Source: Make Chocolate Fair

  What do you make of this? Farmers get only a small amount of money that we consumers pay for the products we buy. That amount is not enough to make a living. The largest chunk of the money goes to big companies for processing, branding and selling the food. Is that fair? What do you think?

  Make way for Rachel Carson

  Superheroes save the world from evil villains who are determined to destroy it. But Rachel Carson’s modus operandi was way cooler than that. In 1962, she wrote a book called Silent Spring, where she talked about the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides after World War II.

  In her book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson wrote that DDT, aka dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was one of the pesticides sure to spark a cancer epidemic. It’s now a POP (not a rock star, duh) a Persistent Organic Pollutant. It stays put in fatty tissues of the body and can travel long distances. DDT is banned in many countries across the world. India has promised to phase it out by 2020, but we are still using it.!

  ‘Sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes—non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad”, to still the song of the birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on in the soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects,’ Rachel Carson wrote in her book.

  One year later, Rachel testified before the U.S. Congress, asking for new policies to protect the environment and human health. She is now considered one of the foremost environmental activists of our times.

  RACK YOUR BRAINS

  Look up more complex pesticide names and make a tongue twister out of them.

  ‘Deepa douses dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane on the dal in the dakshin.’

  Does something sound seedy?

  Across the world, people are demanding that their food should be labelled if it is genetically modified (GM). One thing is clear—if people are paying money for a product, they should be given the option to choose what they want to eat or wear. But the people who manufacture GM seeds don’t want to! For example, over 90 per cent of cotton in India is grown from GM seeds. It’s called Bt Cotton and it is resistant to certain pests and gives a good harvest for the first few years.

  But GM cotton seeds are expensive, and farmers have to buy a pesticide with it, which is also expensive. Many poor farmers can’t buy it, but they have no choice, because often that’s what most seed traders are selling in the market. Since they need the seeds, they are forced to borrow money from corrupt moneylenders at ridiculous interest rates. Then they are in debt for really small amounts, and unable to repay the moneylenders if their harvest fails.

  There are, thankfully, no known health hazards of eating GM produce so far. However, the pesticide that accompanies the seed often destroys the soil over time. And you know how they say once you harvest a plant, the seed can be sown again? Hybrid or GM seeds can’t be replanted, which means farmers have to buy new seeds all over again. Sounds like a waste.

  HANG ON A MINUTE, DIDN’T WE ALSO TALK ABOUT HOW AGRICULTURE IS A BIG CONTRIBUTOR TO CLIMATE CHANGE?

  Remember the Greenhouse Effect? By now you know that when it comes to contributing to global warming, it’s agriculture that emits one-third of greenhouse gases1. This includes making fertilizer, storing and packaging food, and clearing land for agriculture. That doesn’t mean you use it as an excuse to stop eating your dal-bhaji. Rather, it’s got to do with, excuse me, belching cows.

  Smelly cow, smelly cow, what are you burping and farting now?

  Cows have four stomachs2, and as they digest their food, there’s a lot of methane and carbon dioxide being produced to help the process along. Burps are the way these cows get rid of these ruminal gases.

  According to the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, some 132 to 264-gallon ruminal gas is produced every single day1. The FAO2 estimates that livestock supply chain emits some 44 per cent methane and most of it from burps. There’s definitely someone in your family, who after a good meal, belches in satisfaction. Now imagine hundreds and thousands of cattle belching at the same time. Or letting out methane super-powered farts!

  Apart from the cattle, farming requires a lot of water, and huge areas of forest land are cleared for agriculture, adding carbon dioxide to the air. That also is a big reason why wildlife is dwindling.

  RACK YOUR BRAINS

  If you were a scientist, and had to reduce cattle burps, how would you go about it?

  Researchers are looking at ‘backpacks’ to collect burps, for one solution. Others say cows that eat healthier food burp less. Can you think of a way to add less gaseous burps to the atmosphere?

  Postcard from Stephanie Weiss

  A world without chocolate, can you imagine?

  Stephy, as she prefers to be called, is a food adventurer from Bolivia. Here, she tells you about one of her favourite foods, chocolate. She believes a lot of problems can be solved by eating chocolate. But not just any chocolate.

  Did you know that the main ingredient to make chocolate is taken from cacao seeds? These seeds are first fermented and dried to make cocoa liquor, butter and powder.

  The place of origin of cacao is still debated. Genetic studies have demonstrat
ed that the origin of the cacao is from the Latin American Amazonia.

  Considered the ‘food of the gods’ by the ancient Mayas—in what today we know as Mexico and Guatemala in Central America—this crop needs certain conditions of sunshine, altitude and humidity to grow. That is why you will mostly find them growing near the Equator line. Today, most of the cacao is produced and exported from Ivory Coast in Africa. Together with Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon they produce 70 per cent of the cacao consumed worldwide.

  Cacao is still produced in South America today. Bolivian cacao, the country from where I am, is special. That’s because it is planted in the southern-most part of the continent and at a higher altitude than most cacao plantations around the world. Experts say this has provided Bolivian cacao with a special differentiation. In 2015, the cacao from the northern part of the Bolivian Amazon was ranked among the best cacao of the world.

  Even though cacao was successfully adapted to different parts of the world, it is under great risk! It is threatened by pests, fungal infections and climate change. Because of climate change, rain fed crops in Africa, as in other parts of the world, could reduce by half by the year 2020! Let’s not forget that even though you can eat and divide chocolate bars into equal pieces, the world of chocolate is still not fair. Many of the people that plant and harvest the cacao have never even tasted chocolate! They are paid poorly for hard work in extreme weather conditions. Most of the cacao leaves the countries of production to be processed abroad in Europe and other parts of the world, and this way most of the earnings do not reach the workers. Next time you eat chocolate, check the labels and try to see if you can find out where the cacao comes from… good luck!

  SO MANY PROBLEMS IN FARMING! WHAT CAN WE DO TO SUPPORT OUR FARMERS?

  Fewer and fewer farmers want to stay in agriculture in India. And who can blame them? They don’t get good prices for their produce, farming is hard work—it’s back breaking, imagine plucking cotton all day—seeds and fertilizers are expensive, and there’s little protection against climate change. But we still need food, don’t we? And we depend on farmers to grow that!