In 9th grade, one of my teachers taught us food meditation. Her room was always decorated with throw pillows, comforting rugs, and dark curtains that blocked out all light. There were tiny lamps that created an almost mystical feel. She passed around little raisins to all of us, and we sat there holding them in our hands. Running my finger on it, I discovered for the first time the varied textures of this raisin – the ridges and wrinkles on its surface, the little stem at the top. Collectively, this class of 15 sat with their eyes closed, thinking about the journey this raisin took to be there in our hands. I could imagine the farmers picking out the grapes, the many hours they would dry in the scorching heat of Indian summers, the slow evaporation of moisture. Later, as we ate it, it tasted different to me – like my senses were tasting the very stories and flavours of this one grape-turned-raisin on my tongue. 

 

I remembered this meditation again recently – however, this time, I tried not to think too hard about the people making it and the many injustices they face in the country I call home. I didn’t want to remember hungry workers indebted to plantation owners, female workers getting paid less than male workers, and young children working instead of studying to help support their families.

 

What would we find if we really stopped to think, “where does our food come from”? 

 

The Case of India: A History 

 

The agricultural industry in India has been a source of interest for many multinational corporations, going back to 1947 post-independence. While India remained a food-deficit country until the 1960s, relying on aid from the United States, things seemed to take a turn for the better as the Green Revolution was underway. Government-supported and backed by advisors from the US, farmers were incentivized to produce high-yield crops using fertilisers and gallons of water. To ensure the new crops would be purchased, the government planted purchasing agents in the wholesale market to buy grain, creating a supply for the Public Distribution System that distributed staples to the poor at subsidised rates (Dolsak and Prakash, 2020). 

 

Yet applying these western agricultural practices also created cycles of debt. As indigenous varieties were replaced by high-yielding ones, the new seeds also came with a high demand for water. Since farmers could not rely only on rainwater to irrigate their fields, they needed to buy water pumps and other equipment to continue farming. Corrupt business intermediaries stepped in to meet the demands with high-interest rates where government loans weren’t available. This shift away from the traditional farming of mixed crops also damaged the soil, so the anaemia needed to be treated with more fertilisers (Zwerdling, 2009). Unfortunately, such high use of fertilisers further caused physical and chemical degradation of the soil, increasing its salinity and altering its microflora (Nelson, Ravichandran, Antony, 2009). 

 

With the increasing liberalisation of trade, also came a division of farming land. Food grain was being replaced by export crops (Patnaik, 2009). This manifested in the international division of agricultural labour, as tropical lands such as India increasingly shifted to produce specialised crops like strawberries, edible oils, and flowers to meet the demands of Western nations (Patnaik, 2009). But the initial success of the Green Revolution was still being celebrated as grain production numbers increased while small farmers went out of business, to be replaced by commercial farms. 

 

The Case of India: Today 

 

When the government passed three bills pushing for further corporatization of farms, it was the last straw in a series of injustices. These systemic issues resulting from neoliberal agendas caused such widespread discontent that in 2020, farmers took to protesting for a year, despite unusually cold winters and the covid-19 pandemic, sleeping in their trucks only to resume the next day. 

 

When I think about where our food comes from, I think about these farmers (along with the lower caste labourers unrepresented in even these socialist narratives). Grains are exported from India to meet the demands for animal feed of the meat industries of the West, while increased production of wheat and rice has also shifted food habits for Indians to less nutritious diets leading to health problems like obesity, diabetes, and anaemia (Patnaik, 2009; Nelson, Ravichandran, Antony, 2009). And while the pandemic has caused increased anxieties for all of us, growing levels of unemployment and the worsening economy has hit a new low. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reported unemployment rates as high as 11.84% in May 2021. With it, as has been reported by The World Economic Forum and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the number of people facing moderate to severe food insecurity increased from 430 million in 2019 to 520 million in 2021. That is 90 million more people eating less than before, modifying their diets to cheaper foods, skipping meals, and eating less than enough because of a lack of money and resources. 

 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare estimated a record high of food grain production at 308 million tonnes in 2020-21. Based on economic models, India produces more than enough to meet the consumption demands of its people (Bhat, 2019). Yet 520 million remain hungry. While it is true that the agricultural reforms previously outlined have increased the grain outputs to meet the estimated demand for consumption for the entire population, in the face of this reality, is India actually self-sufficient? 

 

When I look to define food justice, I think of Gottlieb and Joshi’s (2010) definition, “a transformation of the current food system, including but not limited to eliminating disparities and inequities”. To me, this means not just access to food and eradicating hunger but also access to nutritious food produced and distributed sustainably. It includes questions of ownership and control of land, valuing agricultural traditions, and safe working environments for agrarian labourers. For me, with respect to all these measures, the India of today is only further away from food justice. 

 

Economic models are certainly important, indispensable even, but our assumption that numbers are objective is far from correct. The complex, multi-faceted reality cannot be simplified objectively to numerical values. Statistics are appealing, and theoretically solving problems can certainly matter in finding real-world applications, but when we rely on grain output as the measure for self-sufficiency, we really must stop and ask ourselves what this data is meant to achieve. When I hear of the 90 million people, I think of the little boy who dreamt. I think of many boys and girls like him, who, along with their families, are likely to be struggling to eat more than they did before. 

 

I don’t know how to solve these issues, but I also know many people are working tirelessly to find solutions. Samarpann, Kudumbashree, No Hunger Foundation, and so many more organisations and initiatives are encouraging and empowering individuals to support their communities. Little progress is still progress. 

 

How About You?  

 

If you were to stop to think where your food comes from, what would you find? What people and processes have played a part in the food you see stocked on your local grocery shelves? What can you do to express your gratitude to them? 

 

I love food meditations because they help cultivate a deep sense of oneness with this global community. The environment, the people, the food itself is so deeply interconnected, and this awareness inspires me to do better. How do you want to do better today? 

By Ashima Shukla

 

Some Links to Learn More! 

 

The Youth Food Network’s Food Justice Resources – the Canadian context 

 

The Industrial Food System – https://foodprint.org/the-total-footprint-of-our-food-system/issues/the-industrial-food-system/ 

 

International Food Policy Research Institute’s Food Security resources

 

Book – The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America, Edited by Julian Agyeman and Sydney Giacalone

 

Book – Global Meat: Social and Environmental Consequences of the Expanding Meat Industry, Edited by Bill Winders and Elizabeth Ransom

 

Book – Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups By Andrew Fisher

 

Book – Food Justice By Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi