New Government’s Agenda: Fix our food

In April-May, Hong Kong, Singapore and Nepal banned the import of certain Indian spices due to the presence of ethylene oxide—a carcinogenic chemical used as pesticide. Ironically, this happened at a time when the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s Central food regulator, increased the maximum limits for certain unregistered pesticides to be used in spices and herbs by as much as 10 times. The outpour of negative reactions was obvious. Time and again, India has failed to set up an effective system for pesticide management.

The so-called default values for unapproved pesticides undermine the pesticide registration process set up by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. This means that many other pesticides that are not approved for spices or herbs for reasons such as lack of safety data, can still be used. This is wrong. Considering the limited routine surveillance in India and reluctant disclosure of food surveillance data, such use will likely go unchecked. To make it worse, the tenfold raise in maximum levels of pesticides will legitimise a much higher presence. All this for spices and herbs that are integral to Indian diets and kitchens.

But if the new government takes cognisance, this can be a big opportunity to fix pesticide mismanagement in the food system. This will safeguard the trade and livelihood prospects of producers, while protecting Indian consumers from exposure to toxic pesticides. This means, our food laws must not allow use of any pesticide in a crop for which it is not approved. This also means that the maximum residual limit of a pesticide in a crop must be set, once it is approved. It should be done based on the science of acceptable daily intake (ADI) of a particular pesticide. Our agriculture extension services need to be aligned to help farmers reduce pesticide use and check industrial tactics that promote irrational use.

The core of the solution lies in sustainable agriculture approaches that help phase out pesticides. The Centre and states have a critical role in adopting and promoting holistic agriculture. They must promote and incentivise the transition towards agro-ecology practices such as natural or organic farming. Key to this is helping farmers connect with markets to sell produce at remunerative prices. With less than 5 per cent of the net sown area under organic or natural farming, India can do much better, much faster.

We also need sharper action to make our agriculture practices more climate-friendly and resilient to shocks. It is critical that our farmers are adequately protected against the vagaries of extreme weather events, which are much frequent now. Here too, the agro-ecological practices offer multiple advantages, thereby calling for greater budgetary allocations. By moving away from chemical-dependent practices, soil health improves and water and energy are conserved. Further, cost of inputs and dependence on markets decrease while maintaining or increasing productivity and better incomes. Reduction in use of chemical fertilisers will not only help reduce on-farm and off-farm agriculture emissions but also the burden of subsidies that the governments have to bear. Money saved here can be a big reason to consider investing more in agro-ecological practices.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rice cultivation and dairy sector in particular need attention. In the case of rice, part of the success will depend on how governments overcome the challenge of upscaling water management-based practices like the alternate wetting and drying and the system of rice intensification. In the dairy sector, the success will depend on how well the governments are able to strike a balance between productivity, emissions and resilience, such as through indigenous breeds and nutrition-based interventions in feed and fodder.

A carefully considered and phased approach would suit the Indian scenario better. Options that can help reduce emissions and offer co-benefits can be more useful. Successful mitigation will happen if the solutions designed and promoted are farmer-centric, simple and cost-effective, and offer clear incentives for adoption. India’s approach to mitigation needs to remain integrated with adaptation.

Unhealthy foods

Around the same time when the reports on pesticides in spices came out, there were also reports about higher levels of sugar in a popular baby food in India as compared to those sold in foreign nations by the same company. Such double standards by foreign multinationals are possible only due to weak regulations that have led to a blatant disregard of the nutrition needs of infants. No wonder, with high levels of addictive sugars, many consider baby foods as the first junk food. Earlier, reports about high level of sugars in a so-called health drink had created a furore. This is because our laws on packaged food marketing and claims have gaps that can allow such drinks to be promoted as healthy due to fortified vitamins and minerals, while ignoring the unhealthy ingredients like sugars in them. The nutrition labelling laws for packaged foods help companies hide more than they tell and mislead consumers.

If the new government is serious about containing the non-communicable disease epidemic, it must aim for a front-of-pack labelling law which informs the consumer choice in a simple and effective way and can push food companies to use less sugar, salt or fat. In addition, India needs a framework to check marketing and advertisements of these ultra-processed packaged foods. If sports and entertainment celebrities continue to endorse such foods, and the advertisements are bombarded across all kinds of media, it will be impossible to develop healthy food habits in children.

Antibiotic resistance crisis 

Antibiotics are becoming ineffective because bacteria are becoming resistant to the drugs used to treat them. The phenomena, called antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is considered a silent pandemic and a threat to humanity. Antibiotic misuse and overuse in animal-food systems is one of the key drivers of this crisis that can cause 50 million deaths worldwide annually by 2050, show studies.

Just like most countries, India is revising its national AMR action plan for the next five years. The first five-year action plan had only limited success. The need of the hour is a prioritised, stronger action at the Centre and in states to reduce antibiotic overuse and misuse in rearing dairy, poultry and fish for food. We must phase out the use of antibiotics as growth promoters and their use for so-called disease prevention, which does not prevent disease. We need to regulate feed and unsupervised availability of antibiotics for use in farms. We must have standard treatment guidelines for different food-animal sectors. Antibiotics for saving human lives in hospitals and intensive care units must not be used in animal farms.

This will need a multi-sectoral and holistic approach. It also means promotion of antibiotic alternatives. The work done by the National Dairy Development Board through the use of traditional herbal (ethnoveterinary) medicines can be scaled up in the dairy sector and similar efforts can be explored and encouraged in other sectors. We also need to understand, invest and incentivise approaches that help attain biosecurity and required vaccination levels along with better rearing conditions and housing systems. These ultimately help reduce the occurrence of diseases at farms and thereby the need for antibiotics. This also requires better diagnostic and veterinary services.

We need to aggregate and put in the public domain data on how much antibiotics are used in animal food systems and the extent and kind of resistant bacteria and antibiotic residues found in food from animals and fish. FSSAI’s milk survey of 2018 revealed presence of residues of several antibiotics. In 2014, Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, highlighted antibiotic residues in chicken meat. In 2010, it found antibiotic residues in honey.

This was first published in the 1-15 June, 2024 print edition of Down To Earth