"GUEST ARTICLE: FUTURE FOOD by ASHEIBAM BELE"

How to feed the World 9 billion people in 2050; eat safe and healthy food; global climate change; sustainable agriculture; fair-trade food; animal welfare; and so on. These are global scenario that I heard every time in lecture or any conference that I attended. I don’t know how many of us really care about the food that we eat daily. How they are produce? Are they safe and healthy to eat? Who is producing our food? And, thousands of questions continue behind our food. But, we never thought of producing own food or realize that is necessary. Because in present day, we all run behind money and thinking that money can buy everything; what we want to eat and whenever we want. And so forth. Kitchen garden turns into car garage. Fields turn into malls, complexes and factories. What shall we do now? Don’t worry! Many scientists, researchers and farmers are working day and night for our food. Just wait, buy and eat. One day we will realize that we are not eating food but eating slow poison. Why? Because we become lazy day after day; we want to live luxury life. Owing to this, few people are responsible for producing food for numbers of people. For instance, like Dr. MS Swaminathan, father of Indian green revolution, saved hunger and humanity since introduction of green revolution in India. Unfortunately, mechanized farming is not sustainable anymore in terms of fuels, synthetic fertilizers and chemicals and its impact on earth. He also pointed out the mistake of present farming and suggested for sustainable farming. He once said “We Need Evergreen Revolution”. The question is how? The answer is you and me. For this reason, the United Nations declared 2014 as “The International Year of Family Farming” which they believe family farming will ensure global food security; will reduce poverty; and maintain sustainable environment.

Let me come to Manipur now. I wonder when would be the day people start talking about good food. Like for example organic food, biological food, fair-trade food, animal welfare, etc. Do you know? Everything can be possible when we do farm/garden at small scale. For example, synthetic fertilizer can be replaced by compost or any organic fertilizers, weeds can be controlled by hand weeding or any other cultural methods, pest and diseases by improving biodiversity and crop rotation. Production can be maximized by introducing scientific design like permaculture. Whether you like it or not, time has come to think global and act local. The world is in your pocket. Most of us have smart phone, laptop, tablet, or whatever new technology we have means that the world is in our finger tip. But, our knowledge on food is very much less as compared to developed countries. Recently, I saw in social media and news showing statistics on how much money Manipur has spent on medicals annually. A lot! I believe good food and healthy environment might reduce the percentage to a maximum. I wonder whether the most advanced technology and the best infrastructure can help us to save when our daily food is contaminated with chemical residues and antibiotics. Believe it or not!  Some farmers in Manipur still use chemicals that were banned many decades ago (e.g. DDT). We don’t know whether they do it willingly or just a lack of knowledge. There are many things going on, but you have to know your food. Anyway, let me conclude, with the opportunity we had a chance to pioneer but discovered by someone else. Recently, there was a conference on the topic “Insects to feed the world” highlights the insects for feed and food are viable solutions for the protein deficits problem. The fee of the conference was 600.00 Euro. It was very funny and amazed to see the insects showed during the conference were the ones that we eat everyday and ate by our ancestors since the time immemorial.

“Time has come to know behind our food which I desirably like to call Future Food...!”

Written By:

Asheibam Bele Singh
Future Farmer
Master Organic Agriculture
Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

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