The current model of development has meant ecological and social devastation across the globe, undermining security of basic needs like food for hundreds of millions of people. But there are alternatives, based on food sovereignty approaches, combining radical political and economic democracy, biodiversity, and worldviews that respect nature and people. Examples from India and elsewhere illustrate a framework for justice and sustainability, a Radical Ecological Democracy that is an alternative to development.

1. Food
Sovereignty, Social
Justice and Ecological
Sustainability:
Towards Eco-swaraj
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh /
Vikalp Sangam /
Global Tapestry of Alternatives

2. The social context
• Ecosystem-dependent people (60-70% of
India’s population): food, medicine, livelihoods,
fuel, shelter, clothing, culture
• Environmental destruction = livelihood, cultural, and
physical displacement, food insecurity…for hundreds of
millions of people

3. Several thousand years of living with nature
65-70% population dependent on agriculture
(including pastoralism / fisheries / forestry)
Traditionally, complex ways of using diversity of
crops, livestock, fish, etc
Diverse ways of life / knowledge systems
India’s agricultural heritage

4. Indias biocultural biodiversity: genetic
–Diversification within crops, e.g.
• Rice: 50,000 - 300,000 varieties
• Mango: >1000 varieties
• Sorghum: >5000 varieties
• Centre of diversity for rice, wheat, sugarcane,
legumes, sesame, eggplant, okra, citrus, banana,
mango, jamun, jute, ginger, millets….

5. Diversification within livestock:
•26 cattle breeds
•40 sheep breeds
•18 poultry breeds
• at least 35 dog breeds
India’s domesticated biodiversity: genetic

6. WHY / HOW THIS DIVERSITY?
Deliberate selection and adaptation by
farmers and pastoralists:
*resilience / buffer against disaster
*diverse needs (food, medicine,
cultural)

7. From forests, rivers, seas, grasslands:
• > 10,000 species used for food, livelihoods,
household & cultural purposes
•‘Wild’ foods: crucial supplement for ecosystem-
dependent communities
•In times of drought / other ‘disasters’, natural
ecosystems important source of food security
Uncultivated foods

8. Destruction of India’s environment
– >5.5 million ha. forest diverted in last 60 years
– >60% land degraded
– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out
– 40% mangroves destroyed
– 15 of the world’s most polluted cities
– Nearly 10% wildlife threatened with extinction
– Extensive chemical poisoning
Smitu Kothari

10. ‘Green / White / Blue revolution’ models (1960s-onwards)
•‘Development’ gobbling up agricultural, pasture, coastal lands
•addiction to outside seeds, water, fertilisers, pesticides, credit
•dependence on market, govt, moneylenders
•monocultures, loss of crop and livestock diversity
•neglect of dryland agriculture, shifting cultivation, artisanal fisheries
•From frying pan (state control) to fire (corporate control)
Impoverishment of marginal/small farmers: >300,000 suicides!
Destruction of India’s agriculture

11. Two Indias: Impressive Growth
• 5th largest economy of world, high growth rates, many of
world’s richest persons, 900 million mobile phones …

12. Depressing deprivation: continued food
insecurity, hunger…
• Upto 2/3rd population deprived of
adequate nutritious food
• World’s largest number of
malnourished and
undernourished
women/children
• Health care more and more unaffordable
• 60 million people displaced by
‘development’ projects; many more
dispossessed of survival resources

13. 5% Indians earn as much as rest 95%
Growing inequities

14. Towards alternatives

15. Alternatives to what?
Structural roots of hunger, deprivation, unsustainability
Concentration of power
Capitalism
State-dominated regimes
Patriarchy
Caste / race / ethnicity
Anthropocentrism
….
When people go
hungry, it is not food at
short supply … it is
justice

16. Resistance …
(to capitalism, state domination, patriarchy, communalism,
etc)
… is part of the
alternative

17. Resistance …
Protesting landgrabbing and ecosystem
damage
Resisting large commercial fisheries / farms /
industrial animal husbandry
Exposing impacts of chemicals
Investigating and exposing farmer suicides
Mobilising against GMOs
… and more

18. India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
Crafts
Shelter
Food
Energy
Governance
Livelihoods
Conservation
Village revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer
companies
Gender

19. •Empowering dalit women farmers, through collectives
•Securing women’s land rights
•Reviving traditional agricultural diversity / practices (millets)
•Creating community grain banks
Deccan Development Society: conservation,
equity, food sovereignty, livelihood security

20. Thriving in drylands
Nadimidoddi Vinodamma
3 acres
45 crop varieties (millets/pulses/vegetables)
Food sufficiency for family (1st priority)
Rs. 200,000 sale in market (with expenditure of Rs. 18,000)
Fully organic, all local seeds

21. Creating localised, cyclical economy
•Consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad organic food restaurant / shop)
•Linking to Public Distribution System
Deccan Development Society (contd)

22. Towards 100% organic, Kedia village
(Jamui), Bihar
Vermicompost replacing fertilisers
Herbal potions replacing pesticides
Mixed cropping revived

23. An individual revolutionary…
Natwar Sarangi
Narishu vill, Cuttack dist, Odisha
GenX: Jubraj Swain
Growing >400 varieties of rice
Seed albums and banks

24. Seed saving & home gardens in Western
Ghats: Vanastree
• Women-based network of local/native
seed savers (esp. vegetables / fruits)
• Revival of home gardens for food security

25. Sustaining wild foods
>8000 species (food, medicine, fodder)
Crucial nutritional supplement, buffer in drought
Documentation, festivals, regeneration

26. Maha Gram Sabha, Gadchiroli
(Mah)
• Stop mining!
• Federation of 90 villages
• Aims: sustainable livelihoods,
forest rights & conservation,
local governance built on
traditional decision-making,
women’s empowerment,
cultural identity

27. www.kalpavriksh.org
Urgently need recognition and support…

28. Dharani: farmer’s company
(facilitated by Timbaktu Collective)
Greater market access, better prices, all organic, relations
with consumers

29. Changing urban mindsets on food
Rooftop / backyard farming (>10,000
families in Bengaluru)
Organic, traditional food markets /fairs
Producer-consumer links (Annadata, Pune;
Confarm, Hyderabad)
Not-for-profit shops (reStore/OFM,
Chennai)

30. The government responds …
• Food Security Act 2013
• Organic farming support in 16 states
• Some states targetting 100% organic (Sikkim
by 2015; Ladakh by 2025)
• Forest Rights Act 2006
(but still marginal compared to dominant
policy; and even existing laws being weakened)

31. • Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture
(ASHA)
• Millet Network of Indian (MiNI)
• MAKAAM (women farmers’ network)
• Food Sovereignty Alliance
• Beej Bachao Andolan (Save the Seeds Campaign)
• Coalition Against GM
People’s movements

32. Alternatives across the world
C o m m o n sSolidarity
economy
Degrowth
Buen vivir / sumaq kawsay /
kametsu asaike
Ubuntu / ukama / unhu
Ecofeminism
Permaculture
Biocivilisation
Ecosocialism
Zapatista
Kurdish Rojava
Kyosei
Country
Transition
Nayakrishi
Agaciro
GNH Agdal
A g r o e c o l o g y

33. Ecological resilience &
wisdom
(rights of nature, conservation)
Radical democracy / swaraj
(direct citizens’ power, accountable
representative institutions, borderless
world)
Economic democracy:
Earthshastra
(producer sovereignty, localised
self-reliance, caring/sharing,
commons)
Social justice & wellbeing
(justice, equity of genders, ethnicities,
castes …)
Culture & knowledge
diversity
(new learning, knowledge
commons, celebrating
creativity, spiritual / ethical
deepening)
Towards a sustainable and equitable society
5 interconnected, integrated spheres
VALUES

34. Eco-swaraj:
Radical ecological democracy
(Radical = going to the roots)
• achieving human well-being, through:
– empowering all citizens & communities to participate in
decision-making
– ensuring socio-economic equity & justice
– respecting the limits of the earth
Community (at various levels) as basic unit of organisation, not
state or private corporation

35. • Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies,
ideologies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basic needs (swavalamban)
• Self-governance / autonomy (swashasan / swaraj)
• Cooperation, collectivity, solidarity, commons
• Rights with responsibilities of meaningful participation
• Dignity & creativity of labour (shram)
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity / justice / inclusion (sarvodaya)
• Simplicity / sufficiency / enoughness (aparigraha)
• Rights of nature / respect for all life forms
• Non-violence, peace, harmony (ahimsa)
• Subsidiarity & ecoregionalism
And most important, the spices!
Values & principles of
transformative alternatives ….

36. Challenges
Organic/nutritious only for elite? Why is organic, nutritious food so
expensive?
Food security vs. food sovereignty
Heavy subsidies to chemical, industrial food production (Rs. 80,000
crores for fertilisers!)
New generations not interested in agriculture
Large corporate take-over of food
Health programmes disconnected from agriculture/food programmes

37. Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):
practical collaborations, bottom-up visioning

38. Vikalp Sangams
(regional)
Andhra Pradesh: Oct 2014
Tamil Nadu: Feb 2015
Ladakh: July 2015
Maharashtra: October 2015
Kachchh: July 2016
W. Himalaya: Aug 2016
Kerala: April 2017
Madhya Pradesh: Sept 2017
W. Himalaya: Nov. 2018
(thematic)
Energy democracy: March 2016
Food sovereignty: 2016 & 2017
Youth: Feb 2017 & June 2019
National: Nov 2017
Peace in conflict areas: June 2018
Health: June 2018
Well-being: Feb / Oct 2019
Democracy: Oct 2019
Economy: Jan 2020
Coming up: Media; Arts; Data; Disability

39. Food Alternatives Confluences
Sharing, displays, collective cooking, village visits, anti-
GMO declaration … and lots of fun!

40. (or) www.alternativesindia.org
www.vikalpsangam.org

42. • chikikothari@gmail.com
• www.vikalpsangam.org
• www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org
For more information….
www.kalpavriksh.org