The news is that another Indian scientist, Rattan Lal, has just won the 2020 World Food Prize, WFP (ANN, 12 June 2020, “Rattan Lal: Meet The Man Who Took Inspiration From Shastras, Puranas To Help 50 Crore Farmers[1],” Live Mint). The very first scientist winner of the WFP, MS Swaminathan, also an Indian scientist, is the Father of India’s Green Revolution, winning in 1987, “for spearheading the introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties to India’s farmers[2].’
And you know what?
On their own, those Indian scientists won the WFP by occupying completely opposite scientific poles on soil health for the growing of food!
Swaminathan was for the Green Revolution with its 100% reliance on chemically enriched soils;
Lal is for the Black Revolution (my term) with its 100% reliance on organically enriched, blackened soils. (superimposed image of soils from Ensia[3])
In 1968, when Mr Lal graduated from the Ohio State University, OSU, with his PhD in Soils, I was already a disciple of organic agriculture after reading and absorbing the contents of the 2 books of Ohio gentleman farmer Edward H Faulkner, Plowman’s Folly (published 1943) and Soil Development (1957). In 1968 when I taught at the College of Agriculture of Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao, I produced my own syllabuses to teach Horticulture in 4 subjects: Floriculture, Olericulture, Ornamental Horticulture, and Pomology – with organic agriculture written in from the ideas of Mr Faulkner. (You can ask Nicky “Right Livelihood” Perlas about them, as he was one of my A students at that time.)
Studying at the OSU for years, Mr Lal must have read the books by the Ohio gentleman farmer. To me, the original thinker of the Black Revolution (remember, it’s my term) is Mr Faulkner.
The WFP news make it appear that the Black Revolution in Mr Lal’s mind started within him and has lasted until today, no mention of anybody else’s ideas contributing to his thoughts, theories and experiences. This is a common problem with scientists and journalists when they fail to do background research first!
In any case, it is earth-shaking that the World Food Prize has given the exact same award to 2 opposing world views when it comes to agriculture and climate change! Chemical Agriculture vs Organic Agriculture.
The only problem with Organic Agriculture is that its proponents have made it "a religion,” in the words of PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. Such that in the Philippines, you have to be certified as an Organic Agriculture practitioner by a body after 5 years and paying thousands of pesos – which a poor farmer cannot afford.
What is wrong if the poor farmers practice organic farming without that certification, and just label or call their harvests “organically grown” or “naturally grown”? Then the poor farmers can become rich by the sweat of their brow waging the Black Revolution.
Thus I declare:
Practicing the Black Revolution, the poor farmers we shall not always have with us!@517
[1]https://www.livemint.com/news/india/world-food-prize-rattan-lal-man-who-took-inspiration-from-shastras-puranas-to-help-500-million-farmers-11591935428304.html
[2]https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/laureates/19871999_laureates/1987_swaminathan/#:~:text=Swaminathan,-INDIA&text=Dr.,rice%20varieties%20to%20India's%20farmers.
[3]https://ensia.com/features/soil-health/
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