Punjabis Are Poisoning Themselves - A Must Read Plz!

[msp4realmf]

My beloved Punjab is fast-tracking itself toward ecological disaster; poisoning its farmers with nefarious cancers and toxin related respiratory ailments; “…the children of Punjab are in the throes of a grey revolution. Even those as young as ten are sprouting tufts of white and grey hair. Some are going blind. In Punjabi villages, children and adults are afflicted by uncommon cancers.”

Having read the article "Chemical generation: Punjabis are poisoning themselves" in the Economist [Link: http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/gre...tory_id=9856023]; I find it heart-breaking and astonishing at the sheer lack of foresight and regulation that accompanied India’s 1960s green revolution.

It seems that the Punjab has been used as a genetically modified testing ground for every half-baked, chemically packed seed strain ever developed. India’s central government has been complicate in the establishment of an unregulated genetic “madhouse” where the need for higher agricultural yields has superseded issues of health and ecology.

Punjabi and Indian politicians must be held accountable for this idiocy; Punjabi political parties such as the Akali Dal “…needs to scrap its populist policy—reintroduced in 2005—of providing farmers with free electricity. Though a great vote-grabber, the policy encourages farmers to pump water up from their tube-wells both day and night.”

As Sikhs, our community finds pride in our agricultural achievements in the Punjab, California’s Central Valley, the Canadian Prairie lands and now northern Italy; however this pride (which in some instances borders on the arrogant) masks the reality inherent in the legacy of the Green Revolution; that it has led to the rampant use of pesticides and untested seed stains which threaten farmers health and the delicate ecological balance of the Punjab. Virulent and pesticide-resistant pests such as “..the American bollworm, an unpleasant cotton blight, and rice-leaf folder” are now endemic within the Punjab when previously there were unknown.

A water table decrease of 55cms per year from 1993 - 2003 is not sustainable!!!; Punjab will die and wither if action is not taken now.

The Guru Granth Sahib is full of allusions towards the sanctity of nature and ecology; Waheguru and nature are one and the same thing - a reality indivisible as we are from Waheguru and nature ourselves. The cause of ecology and sustainable development is a basic tenant of Sikh philosophy and thought.

Diaspora Sikhs must help agitate for agricultural reform and assist our brothers and sisters move toward more sustainable farming practices circa the 1950s. The politicians of the Punjab must be held to account. The chauvinistic and populist policies of the Akali Dal should be highlighted and exposed for the reactionary, short term-ism that they really are.

Sikhs have amongst the best agricultural scientists in the world (Professor Baldev Singh Dhillon, Dr G S Chahal) and the Punjab Agricultural University has an excellent domestic and international reputation for policy formulation and research [Link http://www.pau.edu/], with these resources there is reason to be optimistic that Punjab can turn this potentially catastrophic situation around. There have been precedents set for this kind of turn-around phenomena (US policy toward the dust bowls of the US mid-west, the EU Common Agricultural Policy, the Set aside policy).

We MUST educate our brothers and sisters in the Punjab to the reality of pesticide use and intensive farming practices; the Punjab governmental report “recommends they [Punjabi farmers] use rice and wheat straw for mulch instead of burning it, rotate their crops, use a range of different seeds, manure their fields, and so on. In short, it recommends many of the agricultural practices that the green revolution swept away.”

Whilst Punjabi's in the West enjoy a level of lifestyle and access to education that Indian Punjabis can only aspire to; I believe that it is incumbent upon us, i.e. all western Punjabi's, to educate Indians of this silent menace, which is tantamount to an invisible Chernobyl.

[S1ngh]

I have half dozen articles showing that punjab is becoming toxic land from bathinda to Gurdaspur.. cancers and various dozen uncommon diseases... its very very sad

[msp4realmf]

To be honest, i too have heard rumors of Punjab's high rate of cancers and ecological degradation for a couple of years now; but it was only after reading the piece in the Economist did it hit me that the effects of intensive over-farming are real and are happening in the Punjab right now. See http://www.punjabenvironment.com/ for a comprehensive report.

This ecological degradation will only increase in the coming years with the onset of adaption/mitigation procedures due to climate change. I feel strongly that we as the Sikh Kaun -- a Sikh Sangat, really need to take climate change seriously and devote time and resources into tackling the fallout from global warming.

Punjab will suffer, but our Indian brethren closer to the equator will suffer even more with the Deccan Plains predicted to succome to desertification with a 2 degrees warming of temperature.

The petty flotsam and Jetsam of religious politics will become irrelevant. We must all start working together.

[Hum Aisay Apraadhee]

Pesticides are a huge problem because they're used all the time and many times per year by thousands of farmers in Punjab. And pesticides are linked to cancers and birth deformities.

So...one solution is to use genetically modified crops.

We need to find plants that are naturally resistant to the pests. Then we need to take the pest-resistance genes and introduce them into whatever crops are susceptible to those pests. Then the crops will possess genes that help them fight those pests, and we won't have to spray any pesticides.

Hmmm...I hope that made sense.

It seems like that's the only way to dramatically reduce the use of pesticides.

Any other ideas?

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa.

Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

[msp4realmf]

Pesticides are a huge problem because they're used all the time and many times per year by thousands of farmers in Punjab. And pesticides are linked to cancers and birth deformities.

So...one solution is to use genetically modified crops.

We need to find plants that are naturally resistant to the pests. Then we need to take the pest-resistance genes and introduce them into whatever crops are susceptible to those pests. Then the crops will possess genes that help them fight those pests, and we won't have to spray any pesticides.

Hmmm...I hope that made sense.

It seems like that's the only way to dramatically reduce the use of pesticides.

Any other ideas?

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa.

Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

The answer is within our grasp but it requires creative thinking by politicians and farmers; the dense 250 page Punjab Government report of the issue identified the basic solution “recommends they [Punjabi farmers] use rice and wheat straw for mulch instead of burning it, rotate their crops, use a range of different seeds, manure their fields, and so on. In short, it recommends many of the agricultural practices that the green revolution swept away.”

I.e. a reversion to the farming techniques the Jatt farmer last used circa the 1950s. This would mean a corresponding drastic decrease in yields; maybe as drastic as a revert to the 1950s era yields.

This economically would be tough for farmers; but this hit now is much more appealing than a future total collapse of Punjabi farming all together due to complete soil exhaustion

Dr. James Lovelock concept of Gaia, and the earths ability to heal itself should be seized upon; if left alone with conservative crop rotation; Punjab will heal itself and "sweat" out its toxins....we as consumes will have to get used to less variety and cosmetically "ugly" produce. Pests are part of Waheguru; i personally dont care whether the cotton i wear has been infested with blight or the apple i eat has been home to worms.

[Hum Aisay Apraadhee]

To "sweat out the toxins", the farmers must stop using them. If we keep dumping pesticides into the environment, the toxins will keep accumulating. Crop rotation is good, but the crops are still susceptible to pests. So if they do use crop rotation and such, will they not spray pesticides?

Pesticides kill pests, but plants that are naturally resistant to pests don't necessarily kill pests. They have something in them that repels pests.

Pests normally destroy crops, so if cotton is infected, I don't think it'll survive.

In Canada, they grow genetically modified potatoes and tomatoes (and other stuff). These crops are resistant to certain pests that they'd otherwise be susceptible to...this gives the farmers a larger yield. Plus the farmers don't have to spray pesticides to ward off those pests.

'My' idea may be too far in the future to be of any help to Punjab.

The thing is that Punjab needs to take some sort of step (very soon) to reduce the toxins.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa.

Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

[ParnaamShaheedaNu]

This is so sad and such an important concern, this should be our biggest concern out of all of the threads on this forum right now. Is there anything we can do to help? There must be some way we can all get together and help this situation, even if it means putting pressure on politicians. There must be something. Any ideas, Singho?

[ParnaamShaheedaNu]

bump