Debates on the origins of COVID-19 point towards two threads—one, that the virus jumped over from... more Debates on the origins of COVID-19 point towards two threads—one, that the virus jumped over from bats to humans through wild pangolins as the intermediate host, possibly at a seafood market in Wuhan, China and second, it came from factory-farmed domesticated pigs in Wuhan. In both cases, the source of the problem lies in our food production and consumption model that is destroying the diversity of nature, both species and their habitats, and creating conditions for repeated zoonosis. Over the last two decades, viruses have jumped the species barrier over to humans, leading to SARS (through civet cats in China), MERS (dromedary camels in the Middle East), Swine flu (pigs in North America), Nipah virus (pigs in Malaysia) and avian influenza (through infected birds; World Health Organisation, 2020). Moreover, the very same processes that have produced conditions for viruses to emerge and infect human beings are also compromising our immunity by converting us into standardised consumers eating standardised foods with low nutritional diversity, thus, hurting our health. In this essay, I argue that transforming our food systems to re-value the variability of nature and enhancing our ability to work with variability can provide a resilient response out of this crisis. Opinion
International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 2016
Evaluating shared access to ICTsBook Review of "Public Access ICT across Cultures: Diversify... more Evaluating shared access to ICTsBook Review of "Public Access ICT across Cultures: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society," Edited by Francesco J. Proenza, Cambridge: MIT Press 2015.Two decades ago when the dot com revolution was at its height, the "information for communication technologies (ICTs) for development" movement had just taken off. It sought to bring the benefits of ICTs to the masses through the deployment of desktop computers in telecentres across the world. The movement floundered with poor network connectivity, expensive machines, arduous maintenance costs and little relevant content.With the advent of mobile and laptop technology, attention shifted away from the public provision of access to the internet to personal ownership of ICT devices through programs such as OLPC (one laptop per child) and facilitating connectivity through mobiles. With the growing numbers of middle income households joining the elite in shifting to private acce...
In this conversation, Bharat Bhushan Tyagiji, national award winning farmer from western Uttar Pr... more In this conversation, Bharat Bhushan Tyagiji, national award winning farmer from western Uttar Pradesh, and social anthropologist Richa Kumar, together attempt to analyse the alternative perspective of Tyagiji on the current crisis of farming in India, especially Punjab. Unlike typical alternative perspectives that uncritically glorify ‘tradition’, romanticise nature, and dismiss science and machines, Tyagiji’s views are refreshingly different. His focus is on the present; he is not enamoured by tradition or by so-called traditional knowledge. At the same time, he seeks to put science back in its place—within a larger discourse and appreciation of the knowledge of living in this world with meaning and purpose. He argues for working with scientific knowledge rather than dismissing it entirely, and he wants to use technology as part of a system that also centrally values human labour. But before we can change agriculture, he argues, we have to first contend with questions of how we wa...
Through ethnographic interviews with soybean traders in a mandi in western Madhya Pradesh, this p... more Through ethnographic interviews with soybean traders in a mandi in western Madhya Pradesh, this paper explores the intersection of the online market created by new technology with the physical market of commodities, intermediaries, and life in the mandi [market yard]. Known as ‘dabba’ in local parlance, the online futures market was much maligned by traders who described it as “nothing but satta [speculation].” Ironically, traders who should benefit most by hedging their risks on the futures market had, instead, stopped participating altogether. This paper argues that the criticism expressed by traders needs to be taken seriously because they form the backbone of the agricultural marketing system in India and their lack of participation takes away from the credibility and completeness of information on the online futures market.
This article argues that the repeal of the farm laws and even meeting the demand of the protestor... more This article argues that the repeal of the farm laws and even meeting the demand of the protestors to reduce corporatisation of agriculture and enhance the role of the state through expansion of guaranteed procurement is unlikely to bring significant positive transformation for farmers or consumers. Indian agriculture was remade through an industrial logic by harnessing science and technology, not by corporations but by the might of the state in the 1960s during the Green Revolution. Beyond its well-known negative environmental and livelihood impacts, I show how this logic also transformed diets and damaged the health of people. Challenging the tropes of food security, modernisation, efficiency and quality that have been used to justify the perpetuation of this logic, I argue that only by tracing the relationships that have led to the present, can we begin to unravel them and reimagine a healthier and more sustainable agrarian future.
Debates on the origins of COVID-19 point towards two threads—one, that the virus jumped over from... more Debates on the origins of COVID-19 point towards two threads—one, that the virus jumped over from bats to humans through wild pangolins as the intermediate host, possibly at a seafood market in Wuhan, China and second, it came from factory-farmed domesticated pigs in Wuhan. In both cases, the source of the problem lies in our food production and consumption model that is destroying the diversity of nature, both species and their habitats, and creating conditions for repeated zoonosis. Over the last two decades, viruses have jumped the species barrier over to humans, leading to SARS (through civet cats in China), MERS (dromedary camels in the Middle East), Swine flu (pigs in North America), Nipah virus (pigs in Malaysia) and avian influenza (through infected birds; World Health Organisation, 2020). Moreover, the very same processes that have produced conditions for viruses to emerge and infect human beings are also compromising our immunity by converting us into standardised consumers eating standardised foods with low nutritional diversity, thus, hurting our health. In this essay, I argue that transforming our food systems to re-value the variability of nature and enhancing our ability to work with variability can provide a resilient response out of this crisis. Opinion
International Journal of Education and Development using ICT, 2016
Evaluating shared access to ICTsBook Review of "Public Access ICT across Cultures: Diversify... more Evaluating shared access to ICTsBook Review of "Public Access ICT across Cultures: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society," Edited by Francesco J. Proenza, Cambridge: MIT Press 2015.Two decades ago when the dot com revolution was at its height, the "information for communication technologies (ICTs) for development" movement had just taken off. It sought to bring the benefits of ICTs to the masses through the deployment of desktop computers in telecentres across the world. The movement floundered with poor network connectivity, expensive machines, arduous maintenance costs and little relevant content.With the advent of mobile and laptop technology, attention shifted away from the public provision of access to the internet to personal ownership of ICT devices through programs such as OLPC (one laptop per child) and facilitating connectivity through mobiles. With the growing numbers of middle income households joining the elite in shifting to private acce...
In this conversation, Bharat Bhushan Tyagiji, national award winning farmer from western Uttar Pr... more In this conversation, Bharat Bhushan Tyagiji, national award winning farmer from western Uttar Pradesh, and social anthropologist Richa Kumar, together attempt to analyse the alternative perspective of Tyagiji on the current crisis of farming in India, especially Punjab. Unlike typical alternative perspectives that uncritically glorify ‘tradition’, romanticise nature, and dismiss science and machines, Tyagiji’s views are refreshingly different. His focus is on the present; he is not enamoured by tradition or by so-called traditional knowledge. At the same time, he seeks to put science back in its place—within a larger discourse and appreciation of the knowledge of living in this world with meaning and purpose. He argues for working with scientific knowledge rather than dismissing it entirely, and he wants to use technology as part of a system that also centrally values human labour. But before we can change agriculture, he argues, we have to first contend with questions of how we wa...
Through ethnographic interviews with soybean traders in a mandi in western Madhya Pradesh, this p... more Through ethnographic interviews with soybean traders in a mandi in western Madhya Pradesh, this paper explores the intersection of the online market created by new technology with the physical market of commodities, intermediaries, and life in the mandi [market yard]. Known as ‘dabba’ in local parlance, the online futures market was much maligned by traders who described it as “nothing but satta [speculation].” Ironically, traders who should benefit most by hedging their risks on the futures market had, instead, stopped participating altogether. This paper argues that the criticism expressed by traders needs to be taken seriously because they form the backbone of the agricultural marketing system in India and their lack of participation takes away from the credibility and completeness of information on the online futures market.
This article argues that the repeal of the farm laws and even meeting the demand of the protestor... more This article argues that the repeal of the farm laws and even meeting the demand of the protestors to reduce corporatisation of agriculture and enhance the role of the state through expansion of guaranteed procurement is unlikely to bring significant positive transformation for farmers or consumers. Indian agriculture was remade through an industrial logic by harnessing science and technology, not by corporations but by the might of the state in the 1960s during the Green Revolution. Beyond its well-known negative environmental and livelihood impacts, I show how this logic also transformed diets and damaged the health of people. Challenging the tropes of food security, modernisation, efficiency and quality that have been used to justify the perpetuation of this logic, I argue that only by tracing the relationships that have led to the present, can we begin to unravel them and reimagine a healthier and more sustainable agrarian future.
Uploads
Papers by Richa Kumar