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I am back from India and still trying to make sense of the experience. India, of course, is a mass of contradictions, one of which is its state of technological development. My hotel room, for example, had an excellent Wi-Fi signal but it was not possible to access it. It was secured and had to be paid for but the hotel had not figured out how to collect the money. Result: no Internet access (they said they were working on it).

Here are just a few snapshots of what I saw of the food-and-health scene in India:

• From the International Herald Tribune, September 27: “Food is going to be like oil, a product that gets more expensive as China and India get richer…There is a growing population that is improving its standard of living and wants to eat more.”
• From the New Delhi Express, September 30: the percentage of extremely poor people in India (those earning up to 7 rupees—17 cents!–per day) fell from 26.1% in 2000 to 21.8% in 2005, but the proportion of the population that earns less than $2 per day rose to 77%–meaning 836 million people. This means that India’s new prosperity is doing some good for the rest of the population, which means 350 million people.
• If you want food in small villages on the road from Delhi to Jaipur, or anywhere else in rural areas around Delhi, the easiest option is to buy it at small stands, of which there are many, everywhere. All of them sell 3-ounce bags of Frito-Lay chips for 20 rupees (50 cents). Frito-Lay is owned by PepsiCo; its ability to distribute products to the remotest areas is truly astounding. Pringles are also ubiquitous in this part of India, but they are very expensive–65 or 70 rupees a tube, an amount close to the average daily income of 2/3 of India’s vast population.
• From a medical doctor who works in a mobile clinic: “We expected to be treating infections but instead we are overwhelmed with type 2 diabetes and hypertension.”
• Newspapers reported that the municipal water authority in Hyderabad has been selling water to Coca-Cola at one quarter of the price it charges community residents.
• Regulation of genetically modified foods is under dispute; the environment ministry is refusing to deal with the health and safety concerns even though his ministry is supposed to. Cornell University scientists are conducting tests in India of GM eggplants.
• New Delhi is a sprawling city of small, low buildings and hundreds of thousands of tiny shops–but for how much longer? Its finance minister says India must open its $330 billion retail market to foreign investors, but doing so “will require convincing mom-and-pop stores across the country that the entry of big players would not affect their jobs.” This may be a hard sell. Wal-Mart is first in line. As the Wall Street Journal put it last month, “International expansion is critical for Wal-Mart…A typical store will stand between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet and sell a wide range of fruits and vegetables.” In Delhi, fruits and vegetables are sold from street stands. There are no large supermarkets in this city of 14 million people. Small (very small by our standards) supermarkets are just coming in. They mostly sell packaged foods. Most people in Delhi buy fruits and vegetables at street stands or mini farmers’ markets, of which there are many.
• Small grocery stores in Delhi sell Kellogg Chocos (the equivalent of Cocoa Puffs) cereal with a cartoon of a young Krishna on the package. When I bought it, the clerk handed me a free Krishna game CD. The back of the box says: “Being a mother is difficult, more so in the mornings.” The solution? Chocos! As it explains, “1 serving of Kellogg’s Chocos = Fibre of 2 chapattis + Calcium of 2 glasses of milk.” On the side panel: Chocos “provides adequate energy and nutrients for the body and brain, helps improve school performance, helps keep weight under control, and helps you feel full.” Marketing to children has arrived! I showed photographs of this box in the lecture I gave on Gandhi’s birthday.
• McDonald’s restaurants are all over Delhi. They serve hamburgers (20 rupees) but in this largely vegetarian country mostly sell things like Chicken Maharajah Macs, Wrap Paneer Salsas, and Shahi Paneer McCurry Pans (55 to 65 rupees).
• I thought I knew Indian food. Wrong. I did a sampling one night at Dilli Haat, a state-run market that has food stalls (and gorgeous handicrafts) from the major regions of India. The cuisines are different, each more glorious than the next.

I was able to go to Dehradun, a 6-hour train ride north of Delhi, to visit Bija Vidjapeeth, the Navdanya (“nine seeds”) center where Vandana Shiva and her colleagues run an experimental organic farm, a seed bank, and an educational facility to teach farmers how to grow “biodiverse” crops (they also run courses for visitors).

Most farmers in India have less than an acre of land. By biodiversity, they mean growing multiple crops—grains, legumes, vegetables that complement each other–on the small plot, rather than one cash crop like rice or some other grain. One of these plots planted in rice might bring a farmer 5000 rupees ($125) per year, but out of this he will have to buy seeds, fertilizer, and food for his family. Planted in multiple crops, a farmer can sell the higher value items, feed his family, and triple his income to 15,000 rupees ($375) per year, enough to bring the family out of dire poverty and send the kids to school.

Navdanya gives seeds to farmers and teaches them how to use them; farmers are expected to return the seeds the following year or give seeds to two other farmers. Its programs are in 17 Indian states and Navdanya seeds have gone to about 100,000 farmers so far.

Half of the 20-acre farm is trust land planted in mango trees. The rest is experimental plots, the garden, and the buildings for lectures and dormitories. It is in a valley at the foot of the Himalayas, and beautiful country in sharp contrast to Delhi’s sprawl.

I am leaving this afternoon to give the annual Howard lecture at the Navdanya Center for Biodiversity run by Vandana Shiva. This lecture, held on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, is named after Sir Albert Howard who helped found the organic farming movement in India. The lecture celebrates sustainable non-violent agriculture in India.

I’m not sure about the electronic arrangements and I will be doing some traveling so I may not be able to keep up with the postings. In the meantime, take a look at the China bloggings of Jim Harkness, who heads the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and is in China visiting organic farms and other innovative agricultural initiatives. Jim is fluent in Mandarin so what he hears does not get too lost in translation. I will post if I can. Otherwise, I’ll be back October 6.

In case you missed CNN’s weekend investigative report on America’s obesity epidemic, you get another chance online. I was interviewed for it and appear for 5 seconds right at the beginning. I’m always suspicious of programs that show lots of pictures of overweight people (with heads discreetly cut off); they usually miss key points as well as being insensitive. I’m curious to know what you thought of it. CNN went to a lot of trouble to do all those interviews and all that filming. What did you learn from it? Do tell.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is running a “Junk-Free Schools Video Contest” (see information about how to enter). It invites young filmmakers to make the case for getting junk food out of schools. The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate for iTunes and CSPI will showcase the video on its school foods website. Deadline: November 1, 2007. Get busy!

Today’s New York Times quotes me discussing the “cupcake problem,” the deal breaker in many attempts to get junk foods out of schools. I don’t have anything against cupcakes–I love them too–but in reasonable frequency and size. Friends with school-age children tell me the kids are bombarded with sweets in school for birthdays, rewards, trades, and treats. Cupcakes have become the flash point for arguments about who should control what kids eat. I, of course, think schools should set a good example. Your thoughts?

An Israeli colleague tells me that What to Eat is out in a Hebrew edition. I haven’t seen it, but he knows this because he reads Haaretz. I can’t read the article, but I had a great time with the interviewer, Shahar Smooha, and, if the cartoon (!) is any indication, it must be a lively story. Translations welcome!

Today’s question: “Dr. Nestle, any suggests of a group fighting listeria/listeriosis to fund? Given your expert stature, you are my best source. ..My father was Dxd [diagnosed] with this around May 1 after being admitted to hospital apr 19 – But the suffering from it and cost of it – what if my mom hadn’t had a spare $100,000 – unbelievable. And I am sure insurance covered another million or so. In 5 mos.”

Here’s my thought: Listeria are among those newly emergent bacteria that arrived along with industrial food production. They are especially nasty because they grow happily at cold temperatures. I’m not aware of groups specifically devoted to fighting this one, but there are excellent groups working on food safety issues in general. One is STOP–Safe Tables Our Priority–created by mothers of children who died from the effects of eating hamburgers contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7. The food safety issues are the same. Both bacteria would be less of a problem if we had a better food safety system. But let’s ask: does anyone know of any groups working specifically on Listeria issues?