The Hazards of Modern Agriculture

In order to fully understand the goals and direction of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture Institute, it is necessary to have a perspective on modern agriculture. Agriculture is one of society’s most basic needs and activities–an activity that has been at the heart of every culture throughout the ages. The focus of agriculture should be to provide an abundant food supply for the nation in a healthy, cost-effective and sustainable manner.

Most recently, the ever-increasing trend in agriculture has been towards large-scale, chemical-based farming. Harmful chemical fertilizers, non-degradable pesticides and herbicides have destroyed the life of the soil, causing widespread erosion and sterility. Food has become polluted with the byproducts of these applications, sacrificing quality to unhealthy growing and processing practices. There is a continual emphasis on killing–killing predators, insects, weeds, bacteria–anything and everything that is outside the mono-crop system. The whole food chain is thus polluted with poisons and killing agents, and the natural balance of species in the environment is completely disrupted.

In addition, the production and sale of agricultural products have become focused on packaging, marketing, convenience and shelf life, with the result that fruits and vegetables are harvested long before they are ripe and have developed their full nutritive value. Unripe foods are then chemically or unnaturally ripened at the convenience of the market.

Imbalances in World Agriculture

It is also obvious that the overall organization of world agriculture is imbalanced, since some poor nations still face food shortages, even though the world has an abundance of unused land.

Farmers everywhere are working hard, yet they remain underpaid, and receive only a small fraction of the money spent on food by the consumer. In fact they receive a much smaller fraction of the food dollar than they received 100 years ago. In the US, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century farmers received 41 cents for every dollar of food sold in the market–now it is less than 9 cents.

However hard the farmers work, they remain at the mercy of the vicissitudes of Nature. Even in organic agriculture, no matter what the farming techniques may be, if Nature is not supportive, if the weather is not conducive, if there is sun when rain is needed and rain when sun is needed, then the farmers and the nation will suffer. Only the Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture program addresses this fundamental issue of Support of Nature.

Erosion of the Soil

The most basic threat to the health of our food and food production systems begins with the soil. The earth is continuously discarding its old worn-out skin and renewing its living sheath of soil from the rock beneath. Unless the equilibrium is disturbed, a mature soil preserves more or less a constant depth and character indefinitely.

Soil erosion disrupts this natural equilibrium. It is accelerated by human mismanagement through aggressive cultivation technologies, uncontrolled deforestation, or the destruction of natural vegetation by overgrazing. Erosion is the modern symptom of maladjustment between human society and its environment.

Conventional agriculture has resulted, almost invariably, in a catastrophic decrease in soil fertility. The illusion that fertility can always be restored by applying huge amounts of artificial fertilizers has been shattered by the recognition that fertility is not merely a matter of plant-food supply (for even exhausted soils usually contain ample reserves of plant food), but is also closely connected with soil stability. An exhausted soil is an unstable soil; Nature has no further use for it and removes it bodily.

Under normal conditions a fraction of an inch of soil may become exhausted and be removed in a century. Under human control the entire depth of soil may become exhausted and be eroded in just a few years. At present about 10 million hectares of the world's arable land (0.7 per cent) is lost every year through soil degradation. The world is now losing some 2 billion tons of topsoil per year, and productivity of about one-third of the world's arable land has been severely impaired due to accelerated erosion.

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture Institute will educate farmers to improve soil conditions and reestablish the stability and nourishing life-force in the soil for balanced crops. This will establish a healthy world family, now, in this generation, and for all future generations to come.

Genetic Engineering Permanently Endangers the World Food Supply

The most dangerous of all the technologies that have come to the forefront in recent years is the genetic manipulation of food and seed sources. Thousands of years of perfect evolution in accord with all the Laws of Nature are being sacrificed to misguided business interests. These genetically engineered organisms that are being created not only contain dangerous toxins and allergens, but may crossbreed with the natural plant populations, creating irreversible changes within the earth’s ecosystem. This threatens the health of present and future generations along with the safety of our food supply itself.

The manipulation of the core blue print of life itself is very serious. Manipulating the genes of the food is altering the natural intelligence of the plant, and these changes will be self perpetuating and irreversible. There is no way to ever get back the original, natural genetic code. In just a few years, genes from viruses, bacteria, insects, animals, etc., many of which have never been in any food supply before and have nothing to do with life, have been added into the food gene pool. These added genes change the natural sequence of the DNA.

There has not been any systematic testing on GMO foods, especially in regards to their effect on the holistic values of life, and on subtle, long-term changes they might have on the quality of human life. Most countries do not require the labeling of GMO food. There is no way for the individual to decide if he or she wants to be a "guinea pig" or not.

Furthermore, the forcing of chemical and bioengineering farming methodologies onto developing nations has in many cases completely undermined their ancient cultural practices, and actually led to food supply problems. Whole nations are becoming food dependent on the wealthy, powerful nations, which makes the poorer nations even more vulnerable for their essential needs.

As GMO’s threaten to rewrite the nature and viability of life in the next few years, it is very important that people all over the world support natural agriculture, Vedic agriculture. Everyone must now take action to insure agriculture survives as a viable profession and the health of the world is protected. (See Appendix 8 for more details and public press reports.)