The unliveable conditions of Delhi, which has served as a capital over nine eras, are a product of the non-sustainable paradigm we have adopted in the
last 20 years.
The data is clear: 50 per cent of all greenhouse gases come from industrial chemical farming. The automobile boom in Delhi has led to uncontrolled pollution increasing in the city. The minor benefit of shifting between fuels (petrol-diesel to CNG) has been reversed because of increasing number of cars being added each year. While it is the rich of Delhi who pollute, the poor in our villages are being blamed.
No villager burns straw, because it is a valuable source of fodder. Only Punjab has been driven to burning it because for two aspects of the Green Revolution. First is the dwarf varieties of rice and wheat, which no longer have a prominent role in the integrated farm and animal food systems. Second is the introduction of combined harvesters, which leaves a very tall stubble after harvesting. Such is not the case with manual harvesting.
Indian agriculture is being destroyed by forcing more and more people to migrate to cities, deregulation of environmental laws and giving a priority to a fossil fuel economy, even though our towns and villages have been lived sustainably for centuries by living consciously in a biodiversity- based economy.
Today, farmers of Punjab are driven to burn the stubble left after the giant mechanical harvesters have done their job. This too is the result of a fossil fueldriven agriculture and economy.
The solution to Delhi’s pollution problem and to make it a livable city is by making our villages livable again. The non-viability of our agrarian economy is a result of globalisation and neo-liberal polices based on free trade, corporate control and destruction of sustainability. If farmers practice organic farming and get a farm price for their produce instead of being pushed in to GMO farming and getting trapped in debt, which pushes them to suicide, they will provide healthy food for the nation and mitigate climate change, as I have outlined in my book Soil Not Oil.
Every city should be a ‘food smart city’ with shorter distances, so huge container trucks are not moving longer distances with polluted food laden with chemicals and
toxics. Instead of citizens becoming sources of pollution with their automobiles and cars, they should stop destroying their health not just by polluting but by eating food
polluted with chemicals. The answer lies in an urban gardening movement that will make our cities more livable, more green and more healthy, while also making nutrition poison-free food accessible to urban people at reasonable costs. We deserve to live in a garden, not a gas chamber.
Dr Vandana Shiva is an environmental activist and author