Organic farming has been recognized as safer, healthier and more sustainable, but consumers continue to question the merits of organic food at the grocery store. Are the higher prices worth the cost? Are organic products really better for us and the environment?
In India, as in other countries around the world, organic farming has been practiced for thousands of years, and a new book by a leading sustainable food advocate provides a very engaging example of how one state in southern India is remaking their society by requiring all farmers to make the switch to organic agriculture by 2020. In India’s Organic Farming Revolution: What it Means for our Global Food System, author Sapna E. Thottathil calls on readers to rethink food politics by focusing on the people who grow and sell the produce.
Readers will be introduced to the growing organic movement in India, a country home to more than half a million organic farmers, and will begin to understand the growing dialogue surrounding globalization and organic food. Following India from the government-run “Green Revolution” of the 1960s to a slow transition from chemical pesticides toward the more healthy and sustainable organic infrastructure, this book provides a fresh perspective on the organic/local food movement.
Thottathil has worked on environmental policy for numerous organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency. She was awarded the Udall scholarship for environmental leadership and currently serves on the National Advisory Council for the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network. Thottathil will speak at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 10.
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Book Happening
John Gurda
7 p.m., Nov. 11
North Point Lighthouse
2650 N. Wahl Ave.
Spend an evening with local historian John Gurda as he discusses Lake Michigan and its adjacent watersheds at the North Point Lighthouse to learn how these waterways have served as recreational channels, transportation routes and industrial corridors to the city for hundreds of years. This can’t-be-missed lecture and reception is open to the public for a cost of $35 per person. For more information, visit northpointlighthouse.org. To RSVP, email keeper@northpointlighthouse.org or call 414-332-6754.
