“We are coming from a century that was characterised by massive use of chemical toxic compounds. Later they were re-adapted and re-sold on the market as chemical compounds for agriculture, making us believe that without chemicals there would be no food security. We are now discovering that the agricultural system that is based on chemicals and fossil fuels entails high costs for the planet: water pollution, soil contamination, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gases which produce climatic instability. Even the emerging chronic diseases, such as cancer, autism, infertility have been associated with agrotoxins present in the food we consume daily. Any chronic disease can be connected to toxins and nutrient-less food.
The chemical compounds used in agriculture are damaging our guts, killing the beneficial bacteria that we need. In our intestinal microbiome there are billions of bacteria that enable miraculous transformations thanks to the good food that we eat. These transformations then result in good health. This is the reason why our intestine is defined as our second brain.
The health of the planet and the health of the people are one. Alternatives do exist and are based on regenerating health of the earth through agro-ecology, conservation of biodiversity, promotion of local economies and food systems “from field to table”. Health, starting with the soil, to plants, animals and humans must be the organising principle and the aim of agriculture, commerce, science, of our lives and of international trade.”
Dr Vandana Shiva – President of Navdanya International
Over the past years, Navdanya International has been central in research and campaigning to demonstrate the deep connections between the way we produce our food and our health. As well as, denouncing the unsustainability of the industrial and globalised food system, which produces food contaminated with chemical compounds and low in nutrients.
Also read:
Food and Health, a Manifesto for a better living
Food for health: the right to health is to live healthy lives
Navdanya International launched the campaign Poison Free Food and Farming 2030 – an invitation to women and young generations, citizens and people in institutions, indigenous people everywhere, farmers, producers and consumers of food, local communities north and south, from the local to the global, who are already mobilising to defend the earth and future generations, to create a unified movement for change.
The report The Future of Food, Farming with Nature, Cultivating the Future gathers evidence of global resistance against the industrial agrifood system, as well as examples of good ecological practices among farmers, local communities and civil society organisations.
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