At the recent elections the World Board of the organic movement’s international governing body, IFOAM, there was a major changing of the guard. Vanaja Ramprasad  was one of the members newly elected to the ten-member World Board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. She is the director of India's Green Foundation and she has a passionate interest in “the real reasons for third world poverty and hunger”. In this interview she explains: "My interest in the work was inspired by the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it". She declares that organics offers "the only future if the planet is to survive"

Paull, John

English

Vanaja Ramprasad, the director of India's Green Foundation, was recently elected to the ten-member World Board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). She has a passionate interest in what she describes as “the real reasons for third world poverty and hunger”. In this interview with John Paull she explains her dedication to the cause of organics: : "My interest in the work was inspired by the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it". She declares that organics offers "the only future if the planet is to survive"

The Australian National University

ʻMy  interest in the work was inspired by  the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it. I have in the last fifteen years focused on this aspect by  working with the small and marginal farmers who eke out a living in the fragile ecosystems of the semi-arid tracts …ʼ - Vanaja RamprasadBoard changes at IFOAM’s World BoardBy John PaullFenner School of Environment and SocietyAustralian National University, Canberra.The medieval Vignola Castle of Vignola, Italy, is a picture-perfect venue for a mini-coup. At the recent elections held at the fortress for the World Board of the organic movement’s international governing body, IFOAM, there was a major changing of the guard. The outgoing president Gerald Hermann of Ger-many withdrew his nomination half way through the voting process. And while the ripening corn and wheat in the countryside surrounding the cas-tello awaited reaping, a new crop of organic gov-ernors was harvested. Vanaja Ramprasad had travelled from Bangalore, in the central southern Indian state of Karnataka. She has a passionate interest in “the real reasons for third world poverty and hunger”  and was one of those newly elected to the ten-member World Board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. Vanaja was the only candidate with data projector slides in Sanskrit and citing the Upanishads in her presentation. Not to mention singing a short rendi-tion of We Shall Overcome.Vanaja is the director of India’s Green Foundation. The foundation’s projects include “reviving traditional storage and exchange of seeds through Community Seed Banks”  - there are now about fifty such seed banks. A key role the Green Foundation undertakes is “the revival of traditional agricultural methods reintroduced in conjunction with modern organic techniques”.Vanaja is interviewed here by John Paull about how she sees her new role.John: Congratulations on being elected to the IFOAM World Board. How does it feel to be on the new IFOAM World Board?Vanaja: It is the culmination of my life long commitment to a cause and there is a sense of up-holding a responsibility to fulfill the expectations of the members who have vested their faith in electing me to the board.John: What do you hope to achieve as a member of the IFOAM World Board?Vanaja: I hope to be able to give an added thrust to main stream the organic movement which hith-erto has been referred to as the alternative move-ment . John: What is so important to you about Organics?Vanaja: Organics follows nature’s order of evolu-tion and therefore it is complete within itself . Acres Australia, 2009, 17(2): 31                                                                                                            IFOAMVanaja Ramprasad, newly elected IFOAM World Board member and director of India’s Green Foundation  Unfortunately the definition of organic has been narrowed to the use of certain technologies.   In short, organic systems are a way of life and not just a technology to produce food. John: What are two key concerns you have for Organics?Vanaja: One concern I have is that the political will is lacking since corporations rule the world.     The only option is for different movements to converge to bring pressure on governments.  Two, it is being hijacked by certification bodies and corporations who have the edge over small groups in achieving the economies of scale.John: How does being from India, and/or being steeped in the Indian Vedic traditions, shape your views of Organics?Vanaja: Food is sacred in the Indian context. In the rituals from birth to death, food is an offering to the higher spirits and hence has to be untainted.   Everything in nature is a reflection of the self Tat twam asi (The spirit is not only in you but all other beings and everything that is).   All flora and fauna come with a certain con-sciousness and the relationship we build with food. It is part of the spiritual evolution with the ultimate goal of reaching unity consciousness.  Therefore organic food grown to enclose the sa-credness is central to people’s culture. This notion of the sacredness of food rejects the idea of ma-nipulation at the cell level and engineering of life. John: Can you briefly tell us about your work in the Green Foundation?Vanaja: When I look back on the fifteen odd years of hard work to follow a dream, it has been a tremendous learning process without training as an agricultural specialist.   I worked from my heart and rarely from my head and the people who participated in the idea of sav-ing their seed always had something to teach me.   It was a humbling experience to see the diversity we are endowed with and how we have failed to honour the inheritance to conserve it for the future generations.   My interest in the work was inspired by the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it.  I have in the last fifteen years focused on this aspect by working with the small and m a r g i n a l farmers who eke out a living in the fragile ecosys-tems of the semi-arid tracts. It is also true that it is the subsistence farmers in the dry lands who are the custodians of the diversity.  But the small farms, farmers and their diversity are disappearing. It is also seen that this diversity which is at the heart of organic agriculture is be-ing pushed to internal exile.  I also saw that if we have to resist the onslaught of monocultures and the push for genetically modified seeds in the name of increasing produc-tion we will have to continue to work with the diversity of the dry land regions and that the con-cept of productivity based on diversity has to be re-defined.John: What lessons have you learned from seed saving projects in India?Vanaja: One big lesson I learnt was that genetic material is continuously evolving and cannot be conserved in gene banks under artificial condi-tions of minus 20 degrees.   People living in poverty are always being hood-winked and challenged by misleading promises of prosperity.   There is an urgent need to redefine poverty and development.   It is very easy to lose the heritage rather than conserve it unless the farmers are involved.   There are many lessons that taught me the futil-ity of chasing the mirage of development. John: What are the threats and what are the op-portunities for Organics?Vanaja: The biggest threat could come from a naïve understanding of what is organic and per-petuate a belief that the organic movement cannot feed the community of poor.   It is a self defeating myth that industrial system of agriculture based on fossil fuel or the science of genetic engineering alone will feed the world.   Wrapping the organic movement into a vacuum pack to be marketed in high end supermarket is the biggest threat.   The opportunities lie in the agro-ecological un-derstanding of food production, creating commu-nity supported agriculture and marketing opportu-nities that support the producer directly. John: How do you see the future of Organics?Vanaja: This is the only future if the planet is to survive. Different social movements supporting different causes such as indigenous communities, or women’s movement or nature conservation or human rights have to come together and find a common goal because food is central to human survival.                                                                ❑E: john.paull@anu.edu.aupostprintAcres Australia, 2009, 17(2): 31                                                                                                            IFOAM

Board changes at IFOAM's World Board

Organic Eprints

ʻMy interest in the work was inspired by the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it. I have in the last ﬁfteen years focused on this aspect by working with the small and marginal farmers who eke out a living in the fragile ecosystems of the semi-arid tracts …ʼ - Vanaja RamprasadBoard changes at IFOAM’s World BoardBy John PaullFenner School of Environment and SocietyAustralian National University, Canberra.The medieval Vignola Castle of Vignola, Italy, is a picture-perfect  venue  for a  mini-coup. At  the recent elections held at the fortress for the World Board  of  the  organic  movement’s  international governing  body,  IFOAM,  there  was  a  major changing of the guard. The outgoing president Gerald Hermann of Ger-many withdrew his nomination half way through the voting process. And while the  ripening corn and wheat in the countryside surrounding the cas-tello awaited reaping, a new crop of organic gov-ernors was harvested. Vanaja Ramprasad had travelled from Bangalore, in the central southern Indian state of Karnataka. She has a passionate interest in “the real reasons for third world poverty and hunger” and was one of those newly elected to the ten-member World Board of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. Vanaja was the only candidate with data projector slides in Sanskrit and citing the Upanishads in her presentation. Not to mention singing a short rendi-tion of We Shall Overcome.Vanaja  is  the  director  of  India’s  Green Foundation.  The  foundation’s  projects  include “reviving  traditional  storage  and  exchange  of seeds  through Community  Seed Banks” -  there are now  about ﬁfty such seed banks. A key role the Green Foundation undertakes is “the revival of traditional  agricultural  methods  reintroduced  in conjunction with modern organic techniques”.Vanaja is  interviewed  here by John  Paull  about how she sees her new role.John:  Congratulations  on  being  elected  to  the IFOAM World Board. How  does it feel to be on the new IFOAM World Board?Vanaja:  It  is  the  culmination  of  my  life  long commitment to a cause and there is a sense of up-holding a responsibility to fulﬁll the expectations of the  members  who  have  vested  their  faith in electing me to the board.John: What do you hope to achieve as a member of the IFOAM World Board?Vanaja: I hope to be able to give an added thrust to main stream the organic movement which hith-erto has been referred to as the alternative move-ment . John:  What  is  so  important  to  you  about Organics?Vanaja: Organics follows nature’s order of evolu-tion and therefore it is complete within itself . Acres Australia, 2009, 17(2): 31                                                                                                            IFOAMVanaja Ramprasad, newly elected IFOAM World Board member and director of India’s Green Foundation  Unfortunately the deﬁnition of organic has been narrowed to the use of certain technologies.   In short,  organic systems  are a way of life and not just a technology to produce food. John: What are two key concerns  you have for Organics?Vanaja: One concern I have is that the political will is lacking since corporations rule the world.     The only option is  for different  movements to converge to bring pressure on governments.  Two, it is being hijacked by certiﬁcation bodies and corporations  who have the edge  over  small groups in achieving the economies of scale.John: How  does being from India,  and/or being steeped in the Indian Vedic traditions, shape your views of Organics?Vanaja: Food is sacred in the Indian context. In the rituals from birth to death, food is an offering to the higher spirits and hence has to be untainted.   Everything in nature is a reﬂection of the self Tat twam  asi  (The spirit  is  not only  in you but  all other beings and everything that is).   All  ﬂora  and  fauna come  with  a  certain con-sciousness  and  the  relationship  we  build  with food. It is part of the spiritual evolution with the ultimate goal of reaching unity consciousness.  Therefore organic food grown to enclose the sa-credness is central to people’s culture. This notion of the sacredness of food rejects the idea of ma-nipulation at the cell level and engineering of life. John: Can you brieﬂy tell us about your work in the Green Foundation?Vanaja:  When  I  look  back  on  the  ﬁfteen  odd years of hard work to follow a dream, it has been a tremendous learning process without training as an agricultural specialist.   I worked from my heart and rarely from my head and the people who participated in the idea of sav-ing their seed always had something to teach me.   It was a humbling experience to see the diversity we are endowed with and how we  have  failed  to honour the inheritance to conserve it for the future generations.   My interest in the work was inspired by the deep desire to understand the reasons for the disconnect I saw between the food system and the distancing of the very people who produced it.  I have in the last ﬁfteen years focused on this aspect by working with the small and  marginal farmers who eke out a living in the fragile ecosys-tems of the semi-arid tracts. It is also true that it is the subsistence farmers in the dry lands who are the custodians of the diversity.  But the small farms, farmers and their diversity are disappearing. It is also seen that this diversity which is at the heart of organic agriculture is be-ing pushed to internal exile.  I also saw that if we have to resist the onslaught of  monocultures  and  the  push  for  genetically modiﬁed seeds in the name of increasing produc-tion we will  have to continue to work with the diversity of the dry land regions and that the con-cept of productivity based on diversity has to be re-deﬁned.John: What lessons have you learned from seed saving projects in India?Vanaja: One big lesson I learnt was that genetic material is continuously evolving and cannot  be conserved  in gene  banks  under  artiﬁcial  condi-tions of minus 20 degrees.   People living in poverty are always being hood-winked and challenged by misleading promises of prosperity.   There is an urgent need to redeﬁne poverty and development.   It  is  very easy to lose the  heritage  rather than conserve it unless the farmers are involved.   There are many lessons that taught me the futil-ity of chasing the mirage of development. John: What are the threats and what are the op-portunities for Organics?Vanaja: The  biggest threat  could come from a naïve  understanding of what is  organic and per-petuate a belief that the organic movement cannot feed the community of  poor.   It is a self defeating myth that industrial system of agriculture based on fossil fuel or the science of genetic engineering alone will feed the world.   Wrapping the organic movement into a vacuum pack to be marketed in high end supermarket  is the biggest threat.   The opportunities lie in the agro-ecological un-derstanding of food production, creating commu-nity supported agriculture and marketing opportu-nities that support the producer directly. John: How do you see the future of Organics?Vanaja: This is the only future if the planet is to survive.  Different  social  movements  supporting different causes such as indigenous communities, or women’s movement or nature conservation or human rights  have  to come  together  and ﬁnd a common goal  because food is  central  to human survival.                                                                ❑E: john.paull[a]anu.edu.aupostprintAcres Australia, 2009, 17(2): 31                                                                                                            IFOAM

Board changes at IFOAM's World Board

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