Mathieu Labonne, Scientist

A majority of the food in Western countries is produced through chemical farming processes. Born approximately 60 years ago, Chemical farming applies the rules of industry to farming: mechanization, chemical treatment and management through scientific knowledge.

This model had been successful to some extent and certainly was a necessity in the context of the baby-boom era following World War II. But as more side effects of conventional farming emerge, it is apparent that the chemical farming process is based on a misconception of Nature: pollution of soil, pollution of water, greenhouse gases emissions leading to global warming.

Agriculture represents more than one fourth of the global greenhouse emissions. This is mainly due to meat consumption, which requires the cultivation of a large amount of  crops, as well as the fact that nitrous oxide emissions are emitted by spreading fertilizers.

Actually, the end product of cooperation with Nature can be amazing and agriculture production should head in this direction.

It is evident that agriculture today requires a significant revolution. One solution is organic farming. In a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), experts concluded that organic farming could feed the world much more easily than industrial farming, contrary to what the current mindset imagines.

As opposed to conventional farming, organic agriculture tends to cultivate crops in total respect of the environment and consequently  tries to cooperate with Nature and its cycles. At the basic level, the rules of organic agriculture are simple: the use of chemicals is prohibited.

Soil is not just an ingredient for plant development, but is a living being that nurtures the plant. Chemical farming feeds the plant with chemical fertiliser while organic farming encourages the life cycle through the transformation of organic matter into compost and humus.

Take for instance, the Findhorn gardens, the biggest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Scotland and UK, which demonstrates how love can help grow food as well or better than technological techniques.

These concepts can be summed up with the term “permaculture,” and encourages more people to adopt the practice of farming in collaboration with Nature. Cultivating one’s own garden with love and respect is both an amazing experience to grow spiritually and a way to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Today agronomy faces two possibilities: continue in the same paradigm of chemical farming by promoting GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) or understand its drawbacks and explore (or re-explore) collaboration with Nature, in order to feed the growing number of hungry people worldwide.

As Amma says, poverty, hunger and destruction of Nature worldwide can cause more pain than another World War. Thus, we should contribute to a more sustainable and balanced world, by choosing to consume in a conscious way: local, seasonal and organically grown products!

Usually when people see a tree, they think what they can get from it – maybe some fruit. That is our attitude. Other people see the tree as a source of money,  and will cut it down and sell it for thousands of rupees. But do we ever try to get anything out of our biological mothers? No. Even on her deathbed, when she can’t talk or move, we simply sit near her and take her hand in ours and stroke the skin. We will never try to get anything out of her, but still we sit near her, looking at her face because we love her. Similarly, if we understand that Nature is our mother, we won’t try to get anything from her either – Prakriti Sameeksha (Nature Talks) by Swami Jnanamritananda Puri (GreenFriends)