echoes of eco - vivekananda kendra · maintained in “the most important possession of a country...

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Echoes of Eco

In this issue:

Extracts from our book “Akshaya

Vikas” –

The Happenings

Visions of Wisdom:

Man is just one among many

forms of life

‘Re-source - Reciprocity along

with Regeneration

Modern science – living by

distorting values

“O men, live together mutually

with good manners. Converse

mutually with love. Your minds

being similar should attain

knowledge. The thoughts of all

of you be similar. Mutual

company also be alike.

Conscience also be alike. Minds

also be similar with each other”.

- Rigveda

Message of Oneness

November, 2016 Vivekananda Kendra- nardep Newsletter Vol:8 No:9

Echoes of Eco - Newsletter, Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, November 2016, Vol.8 No: 9

Extracts from our book “Akshaya Vikas” – Development

with a Human Face

FOOD, DIET, NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY

Shri.N.Krishnamoorthy

Prelude

Ostrich: There should be enough food, equitably distributed to all

human beings. Rich in nutrition, good in taste and sufficient

calories of food should be made available to everyone. That should

be the global ideal.

Swan: Theories of calories, food distribution etc. are based on old

values and conjectures that the human body burns food to produce

heat similar to a steam engine that bums coal to produce steam to

Human body can work with fewer calories

“The most important possession of a country is its population. If this is

maintained in health and vigour everything else will follow”

– Albert Howard


propel a ship. The human body works in a different

manner. It can work with fewer calories of food

energy when it is well relaxed. Human body has an

enzyme-chemistry that can work miracles, synthesise

elements, at ordinary working room temperatures.

Human systems can digest food material and absorb

nutrients from it with varying levels of efficiency.

There can be a "no waste-system" also if a person so

wills.

Parrot: Still our ideal should be to give as much food

to each Indian as an American is getting today. And

the whole of India should have strong food security

wing .

Swan: Americans eat in an inefficient manner, feeding

40-50% of their food grains to pigs, poultry and

cattle and consuming animal food. All these living

beings are pretty inefficient in converting grains into

non-vegetarian food for man. The food grains

produced in the world today can feed 250 b. people in

the Americans' eating style, 400 b. people in the

Italian consumption level or 1100 b. people at the

Indian level. Sooner or later men and nations have to

pay a great deal of attention to their eating styles.

Ostrich: We should bring more land under the plough.

More fertilizers and better biotechnology should do

the trick of solving the food problem.

"We should bring more land under the plough…"

Parrot: There is very little scope for more land for

grain cultivation. Already environmentalists are

crying hoarse that their rain forests are being

destroyed.

Swan: Food can be grown under less irrigated, rain-

fed lands, if people are ready to stay fed by

coarse grains such as millet, amaranthus, ragi, etc.

Otherwise there is very little scope for increasing

cropland area or more fertiliser input. Already

crop varieties have reached saturation points of

fertilizer intake. Hereafter more fertilizer will

not mean more grain output.

Parrot: Then breeding technology and science alone

can solve our problem. Biotechnology is the only

way out.

"Environmentalists are crying hoarse.....”

Swan: We are entering a grey area there. Already

biotechnologists have expressed concern, that in

meddling with the genes of plants and producing

hybrid seeds, we are in for surprises, because,

what problems these man-made seeds will pose for

us we do not know. So far they have proved to be

prone to diseases. The way out is to restrict the population, change the eating style, put in hard physical work so as to be able to digest coarse grains. A substantial percentage of human population may have to switch over to vegetarian food from the grain intensive, land-intensive, non-vegetation varieties.

* * * * * * * *

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1006491.Albert_Howard

Training programme "Cost effective Bio-

manure" was held at Technology Resource

Center on 24th May. 21 participants

attended the training. Shri.S.Rajamony

was the resource person.

“Insects and fungi are not the real cause of plant diseases but only attack

unsuitable varieties or crops imperfectly grown. Their true role is that of

censors” – Albert Howard

–

Happenings this month:

Sustainable Agriculture



Sustainable

Agriculture

Happenings this

month:

Green Health Home,

Green health home worked for 5

days and treated 132 patients.

National seminar on “Ethno Siddha

Varma medical practices” was held at

Vivekanandapuram on 15th and 16th

November. 230 Vaidyas and doctors

attended. Dr.V.Ganapathi and his team

acted as a resource persons.

Participants checking the Terrace garden

kit

Demonstration - plants used for preparing

bio-pesticides

Workshop on “Awareness, Documentation &

Standardisation of Varma medical

practices” was held at Technology

Resource Center on 14th November. 62

Vaidyas and doctors attended.

Dr.V.Ganapathi and his team acted as a

resource persons.

Training programme on “Bio-pesticides”

was held at Technology Resource Center

on 5th November. 09 participants

attended the training. Smt.S.Premalatha

and Shri.S.Rajamony were the resource

persons.

Dr.Ganapathy demonstrating varma chikisha

on a patient

National Varma seminar at Eknathji hall

of Gramodaya park – The hall was packed

with the participants

Participants preparing medicine for Varma

chikisha

Training programme on“Terrace Garden”

was held at Technology Resource Center

on 26th November. 15 farmers attended

the training. Smt.S.Premalatha and

Shri.S.Rajamony were the resource

persons.

Shri.A.Balakrishnan, Vice President,

Vivekananda Kendra inaugurated the

National seminar



Shelter and Renewable

Energy, Water



Renewable Energy

Happenings this

month:

Networking

“Neither in theory nor in practice does one farmer in a hundred realizes

how important it is to cultivate, cultivate, and cultivate.” – Albert Howard

District Mission Committee Meeting was

conducted by the Dept. of Horticulture,

Nagercoil on 24th November. 20 people

attended. Shri.Rajamony represented

Vivekananda Kendra – Nardep.

Shri.Rajamony interacting with the

beneficiaries

Training programme on “Community

Involvement – A key to water

management” was held at Technology


participants attended the training.

Shri.V.Ramakrishnan was the resource

person.

Shri.C.Vijayaraghavan explaining the work

done by VK-NARDEP in the field of

Water management

Shri.V.Muneeswaran interacting with the

participants with the help of different

models of Biogas plants

One day Training programme on “Bio-

methanation Plant” was held at Technology


participants attended. Sri.V.Ramakrishnan

and Shri.V.Muneeswaran were the

resource persons.

Workshop on “Azolla technology” was

held at Malayanvilai, Agasteeswaram on

29th November. 20 beneficiaries

attended the programme.

Shri.S.Rajamony was the resource

person. The programme was sponsored

by Dept. of Agriculture, Govt. of

Tamilandu

Beneficiary proudly standing near the Fixed

type Bio-methanation plant

Construction of Bio- Methanation

Plants

Fixed type 1 cum – 5 nos.

Fixed type 2 cum – 1 no

Portable type 4 cum – 1 no.



.

Workshop on “Goat farming” was held

at, Agasteeswaram on 30th November.

23 beneficiaries attended the

programme. Smt.S.Premalatha was the

resource person. The programme was

sponsored by Dept. of Agriculture,

Govt. of Tamilandu


The planet has not succumbed to

appropriation by modern science

everywhere. Indeed the outward

symbols of science – agribusiness

food, nuclear reactors, gigantic dams

– are facing rebellion across the

globe. And if those who have tasted

the empty fruits of modern science

are disillusioned with them, others

have refused to taste them at all.

Millions of farmers, for instance,

reject the modern rice strains

manufactured by cereal research

centers controlled by agribusiness.

Citizens across the planet are

rejecting modern allopathic

medicines to varying degrees.

Millions of ordinary people reject

the idea of living by the distorting

(and distorted) values associated

with modern science.

The new wisdom of systems theory,

now taking charge of reconciling the

biosphere and the economy in some

impossible balance – having one’s

cake and eating it – has to accept

the humiliating assumption that man

is just one among many forms of

life. What greater vanity and

vexation of the spirit? The harder

it is for man to recognize that what

he has placed under the sun has not

made him much better, the harder

it is for him to recognize his basic

reality, an always tragic reality. And

it is only human, too human, to try to

change or forget this reality.

Man is just one among

many forms of life ‘Re-source - Reciprocity

along with Regeneration Modern science – living by

distorting values

‘Resource’ originally implied life. Its

root is the Latin verb surgere, which

evoked the image of a spring that

continually rises from the ground.

Like a spring, a ‘re-source’ rises again

and again, even if it has repeatedly

been used and consumed. The

concept thus highlighted nature’s

power of self-regeneration and called

attention to her prodigious

creativity. Moreover, it implied an

ancient idea about the relationship

between humans and nature: that the

earth bestows gifts on humans who,

in turn, are well advised to show

diligence in order not to suffocate

her generosity. In early modern

times, ‘resource’ therefore suggested

reciprocity along with regeneration.

Vivekananda Kendra – nardep, Kanyakumari-629702 Phone:91-4652-246296 www.vknardep.org


Vandana Shiva Environmental

activist and anti-globalization

author

Visions of Wisdom

“The appearance of a pest should be regarded as a warning from Mother

Earth to put our house in order.” – Albert Howard

–

Jose Maria Sbert Mexican under

Secretary of Planning and Editor of CIDOC

Informa

Claude Alvares Environmentalist,

Editor of the ‘Other India Press publication’ and

Director of the Goa

Foundation

http://www.vknardep.org/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Foundation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Foundation

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