Where Does Our Food Come From?

Interacting with residents at a slum in Orissa

Elizabeth Jones is the Acting Public Affairs Officer.  Before joining the Foreign Service, she worked as an education consultant in Chengdu, China.  She has a degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Middlebury College.  In India, she enjoys shopping, traveling, and playing with her new Hyderabadi puppy.

One of my favorite parts about working in Public Affairs is meeting new people and organizing connections between Americans and Indians.  When James Godsil came from the U.S. to India to share his expertise on aquaculture, I got the opportunity to connect him with community leaders and farmers in Orissa. 

James Godsil is one of the co-founders of Sweet Water Organics, an innovative project that raises fish and vegetables in the same system.  Godsil is passionate about sustainable organic food for everyone, and the Sweet Water project shows how good food can be produced effectively and efficiently even in the middle of a city!

Since he was here to talk about sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, we decided that Orissa was the perfect place to go to learn more about farming, fishing, and water issues.  (Also, I had never been to Orissa, and I was eager to see it!) Our first stop was an urban slum in Cuttack where an NGO was working with tribal women to grow their own produce in organic kitchen gardens.  The villagers were proud of their work, and they had every right to be. Although they were constrained by space and resources, they were able to grow their own organic food and feed their families. 

Next, we drove out of the city to lush rice paddies and sugarcane fields where the farmers had set up an irrigation system from the river that runs through the city of Bhubeneswar.  The farmers told us that the river water, pure enough to drink 15 years ago, was now polluted with raw sewage and heavy metals from industrial waste. The farmers did not know what kind of health implications this pollution would have on them or the people eating food produced in these fields, but they knew there was something wrong.  The farmers were frustrated, they told us, because they were farming the same way generations before them had with simple, effective techniques, but the quality of the water was deteriorating due to factors out of their control.  They are communicating with scientists who test the water and submit reports to the state government, but it will take a long time to clean up the river and develop an effective waste management system other than the river.

   

My favorite part of the trip was seeing Chilika Lake, one of the largest lakes in India.  It is technically a lagoon and it is filled with brackish water as the rivers flow into the ocean.  Early in the morning we took a boat ride out into the lake on the search for Irawaddy dolphins, natives of India's brackish water bodies.  We were lucky enough to spot a few dorsal fins!  Speaking of fish, I also got to eat some delicious Oriyan seafood!



The Chilika Lake

Chilika Lake is surrounded by fertile land as the rivers flow into the lagoon.  We drove inland past green fields and small rectangular pond plots to visit a village of local fishermen and farmers who were struggling to raise prawns.  Despite their best efforts, bacterial infections plagued their prawns, killing them off.  The farmers were disappointed by their past failures, but they still struggled to participate in the prawn trade in Orissa, and they were eager to learn more about innovative methods in producing seafood.

The people I met in Orissa are struggling with the same question many in the U.S. are also struggling with: What should we eat? The question of how to feed ourselves is one that seems simple but is actually growing more and more difficult.  As the world develops and modernizes, many of us do not even think about where our food comes from, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to make sure the food we eat is healthful and the way we grow it is sustainable.  This deceptively simple issue is also controversial as it brings up issues of competition between small farmers and large industrial farms and food companies, preserving clean water, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers (just to name a few).  James Godsil’s visit was an excellent reminder of the importance of issues such as food security and environmental protection, which have serious consequences for both the environment and the health of individuals.

Nothing is Impossible

Guest Blogger- Celia Thompson 

Celia Thompson is the Chief of American Citizen Services.  She has served as a Foreign Service officer since 2005 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Mrs. Thompson trained as an Educator at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Texas and taught English in Thailand, South Korea, Colombia, and Ethiopia before joining the Foreign Service.  She speaks Thai, Swedish, Amharic, and Spanish.

 Last week, I traveled to Bhubaneshwar, the capital city of Orissa (aka Odisha), to take part in two exciting events for International Women’s Day. It was the 100^th anniversary of this important holiday, and I felt greatly honored to get to speak about the women’s empowerment movement around the world. As the proud mother of two young beautiful intelligent daughters, Girl Power is something I strongly espouse.

The first event was put on by an NGO, and it featured a panel of diverse, distinguished women from Orissa: a human rights activist, a gynecologist who’s famous for her poetry, an Odissi dancer, a newspaper editor, a social worker, a university professor, and a director of a women’s college. We were all there to celebrate the launch of a new weekly newspaper called Janaani, meaning the Voice of Women. The exchange of ideas and opinions by the guests and the audiences was fascinating. 

Although I don’t speak Oriya, the panelists on my left and right graciously translated for me so that I could follow the main ideas. Topics included female foeticide, suicide, unmarried men and women cohabitating, the need to educate women in English medium schools, and discrimination against girls in the classroom.  I was greatly inspired by these women who spoke about topics dear to my own heart. It was heartening to meet Indian women who share my concern with the status of women.  It was also inspiring to meet women who do more than talk about the issues – they are turning words into actions and making an impact.

From there, I moved on to the second event. It was a meeting of women at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, an impressive facility that educates 16000 students and hosts the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, a boarding school that offers 12000 tribal children a free academic and vocational education. I spoke to a packed auditorium of women including college students, high school students, and university professors and administrators. 

After delivering a brief speech from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I opened the floor to questions. They wanted to know what I thought about the “invisible glass ceiling.” They asked about pay disparity between men and women in similar jobs in the U.S. It was the most exciting event I’d ever attended in my six years as a Foreign Service Officer. The women were eager to know more about women in the U.S., and I was delighted to talk about how far we have come in a brief period of time. 

I also told them how proud I was of American and Indian women’s efforts, and how the only limits we have in our struggle for female empowerment are the limits we place on ourselves. Women have come so far in the world, but we still have far to go. If women in India and women in the U.S. work together to advance the cause of Women’s Rights, nothing is impossible.

Orissa Calling

A diplomat’s life is not just a series of meetings and weighty discussions, as my first visit to Bhubaneswar demonstrated. I went to Bhubaneswar to introduce myself and to begin to learn about Orissa—now included in our Hyderabad consular district. I had a number of meetings with state government officials and NGOs that were very useful and informative. The most energizing elements of the trip, however, were three opportunities for exchanges with young people.

 The first was at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) where I had a chance to interact with students participating in the English Access Microscholarship Program the U.S Government supports. I was very impressed with how much English they had learned – one even told a joke in English, something I have a hard time doing myself. The teenagers asked me about a wide variety of subjects, including the differences between the U.S. and India, what they could do after learning English and about U.S. culture and traditions.

The visit to KISS was also a memorable visit because I addressed the assembled student body – some 12,000 children from tribal communities throughout Orissa. I have never spoken to such a large audience before. Even if most of them didn’t understand my words, they responded enthusiastically when I told them that just as President Obama broke barriers by becoming President of the United States, I was sure that the day would come when a tribal would become President of India.

Later in the day we visited a children’s library run by the NGO Bakul Foundation. Bakul is entirely staffed by volunteers, mostly students, who sat down to chat with me about volunteering, careers and how their generation has the confidence to try new things, adopt new lifestyles and embrace change.

My third interaction with young people was at Xaiver Institute of Management, where I shared some thoughts on the transformation in U.S.-India relations. The questions the students asked showed how their education at a Jesuit business school has broadened their minds.  Their interests ranged from global human rights principles to civil nuclear cooperation to outsourcing.

When I conclude an encounter with young people, I come away invigorated. So while by the calendar I aged three days during my visit to Bhubaneswar, I feel as though I came back years younger.