This session brought us through agricultural-biology, environment and its past present and future. Prof Shahi has mentioned the quote ‘When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability. He did explain the quote, that is, sustainability can be only attainable when we know how to renew our resources and while we are consuming them. He also mentioned that Singapore takes on a different angle in this, that is, sustainability is attainable if we use less of what we have in hand. Both have their stand in defining the word sustainability. However, as much as it sounds compelling that we start to grow our resources, it sounds too drastic and unrealistic. It might be true in the case of agriculture where we could plant and re-plant as long as the land remains fertile. Even the land runs out of its fertility and that’s when resources are put in to make the better out of the land. We are not able to grow new land but work on what we have. As much as we should embrace opportunities to grow our resources, our current path to sustainability is reducing our use.
A very interesting concept which Prof mentioned was the introduction of ‘farmists’ as opposed to farmers. Farmers are known to have a rigorous and brainless job since the start of agriculture. However, turning the job role into a smarter one, which increases the farmer’s productivity, seems like a more lucrative business in farming. This has been discussed in class and it has been mentioned the challenge is in changing and teaching these farmers to adopt a new business style. Looking at India, 60% of the land is agricultural land, which shows the magnitude of number of farmers. And going through training programs for them seems like a huge hurdle. However, this idea should not be shunned as a gradual movement into turning farmers into ‘farmists’ might just be possible and may turn the agricultural business.
Moving on to the presentations, most of them have touched the agro-biology on GM food. Many pros and cons of GM food have been discussed. I feel that we are already in the era where most of our foods are genetically modified and even if they are not direct products of genetic modification, they initial ingredient could have been tampered with. As for labeling, companies should provide information about the contents of the product. More detailed information about the process of manufacturing of the food product could be updated on the company’s website. However, even then, the truth and credibility of the information given is doubtful. As agreed by some of my class mates, what you do not know does not hurt you. And I think many of us are living by this example, where they usually ignore given labels, and even if we might chance upon the labels, we do not take the extra step to understand what our food contains. Guess we all are still leaving it upon the government and food industries to decide what is good for us and what is not.
Topic on agriculture was not my favourite one, yet this class induced and evoked so many intriguing questions. I would rate this 10/10!
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