FRUITS AND VEGETABLES-RECOMMENDATIONS AND REALITY

According to nutritional experts daily consumption of 4-8 cups of fruits and vegetables can ward off many avoidable health problems and in almost all national diet recommendations this guidelines are enshrined. But there are many practical problems in realizing this objective, except in case of a few while leaving a vast majority vulnerable to default on this account.

The recommended daily consumption when translated into weight works out to about500-600 g of fruits and vegetables a day per person. On a national scale the requirement is estimated at 550 to 660 million tons per year for a population of 1.1 billion in India. It is unlikely that a production of this magnitude is achievable in the foreseeable future in spite of the Rs 15000 crore horticultural mission of the Government of India (GOI) launched last year. Assuming that the country is able to rise to this demand, the gross maldistribution, enormous wastage due to the high perishability of these crops, seasonal nature of production and wide disparity in the purchasing power prevalent to day, all make it impossible to attain the objective.

Extent of wastage is a debatable point with widely varying estimates ranging between 20% and 40%, no body being wiser to the real situation prevailing at different stages of growing, harvesting, storing, preserving, distribution and consumption. With a grossly underdeveloped infrastructure for low temperature storage at the production points, transport carriers, cold storage, processing units, retail outlets and consumer end, a substantial quantity must be getting spoiled making them unsafe for consumption. The pioneering F & V Project of NDDB in early eighties in Delhi region in organizing cooperative production and scientific handling and distribution of fruits and vegetables could not be replicated elsewhere in the country very successfully. Increasing attention from private corporates like Reliance and some of the organized retailers may alleviate the situation to some extent but not to any dramatic extent. 
 
Fruits and vegetables are rich in many nutrients including vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, flavanoids, anthocyanins and many photochemical found to be useful in preventing many illnesses and there is no substitute to them in the diet. High cost and limited availability make it difficult to inculcate the habit of consuming vegetables from early childhood and this leads to increasing alienation of the youngsters from these protective foods. It is a sad reality that fruits are sold at prices in the range of Rs 35-120 per kg and exotic ones like strawberry commands  astronomical prices, leaving only papaya and banana to the poor. As for vegetables being seasonal in nature, there are wide fluctuations in the prices and limited facilities for long term storage restrict their availability drastically. Poor are left with only minor leafy vegetables, about a dozen in number, sold by the road side vendors cheaply. It is a matter of conjecture
whether consuming leafy vegetables every day has any adverse health impact as they are implicated in formation of kidney stones. 
 
Is India condemned to be a country with no capability to protect its population from malnutrition especially with regard to fruits and vegetables? Can horticultural mission accomplish the task of dramatically increased production and equitable distribution? Will the opening up of the agricultural produce marketing to private players worsen the situation by way of uncontrolled cost escalation?. These are questions that will have to be addressed by the planners in the country.
 
One of the possibilities that can be considered is whether an incentive scheme can be thought of for encouraging urban dwellers with some spare land to go in for production of vegetables, at least for self consumption so that pressure in the fresh produce market is reduced to some extent. At a local level the town municipalities can be entrusted with administering a scheme that will offer reduced property taxes to those registered for vegetable growing projects. The rain harvesting schemes so successfully implemented in some states is an example that can be considered for vegetable growing also. Building cold storage in fresh produce marketing areas will enable growers from the rural areas to spread their selling season significantly. As suggested in an earlier report in this blog, some sort of urban-rural alliance can tie up the growers with the urban dwellers for mutual benefits. If India is not to become a sick nation with physically weak
population, action is called for now. No wonder we are one of the weakest performers in global athletics and games involving physical stamina and staying power. 
    
 V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

GULAB JAMOON? YES; SUGAR FOR COFFEE? NO

Does it sound logical for any one to wallop a gulab jamoon and then opt for coffee without sugar? Yes, there is a logic. And some science too.

Eating is a dilemma for people with sugar compromised health conditions such as those with pre-diabetes and Type II diabetes problems. There was a time not long ago when rice was avoided by diabetic patients, replacing it with wheat obviously to prevent quick build up of sugar in the blood. With so much known to day about the dynamics of glucose metabolism in humans and incidence of diabetes, it is possible to plan diets precisely to counteract any risks associated with food consumption and consequent glucose surge. The concepts of glycemic index (GI) and gycemic load (GL) are very useful in selecting foods for people who want to control blood sugar levels on a day to day basis.

Coffee without sugar is a very common symptomatic response to diabetes once upon a time and even to day many practice drinking sugarless coffee regularly. But with the easy availability of non-glucose yielding alternate sweeteners like apartame, neotame, acesulfame, sucralose, maltitol, stevia glycosides etc, one need not sacrifice sweetness for protection against hyperglycemic incidences. Taking the examples of gulab jamoon and coffee, many people love to eat jamoon but are afraid of fast glucose influx into the blood that may cause hyperglycemia. If a medium sized jamoon is consumed the likely GL may be about 15-20 while a cup of coffee can also cause a GL of 15-20. Thus for the sheer delight of eating a jamoon, one will always prefer to sacrifice sweetness in coffee to have a control of blood sugar.

It is desirable that information about GI and GL is available to the consumers to make scientific choices vis-a-vis the foods purchased from the market. But what about the logistics in generating the necessary data if GL declaration on the label is made mandatory for the food industry? The GI data already published in the literature are not considered very reliable with conflicting values attributed to the same food by different authors due to many practical reasons. It may be absolutely necessary for each manufacturer to determine GI values for each of their products and the carbohydrate contents in them to arrive at reliable product specific GL values. Neither the limited facilities available to generate the data nor the high cost burden to be borne by the industry makes it easy to introduce this system in the near future unless the Universities and Public funded analytical laboratories and food institutes take up this on a mission mode with
government support. Earlier it is done, better it will be for the consumers.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

PESTICIDES OR LEAD? WHAT AN OPTION!

Many might be wondering in to day's world, whether there is any thing that is safe to eat. With rapid economic growth and unprecedented changes in life styles, man seems to be losing his control over every thing that needs to be controlled whether it is water, air, environment or food which he has not bargained for. Even an affluent country like USA where quality of life is supposed to be very high due to rapid industrialization, excellent infrastructure and high per capita income, food poisoning occurs at sickening regularity. How can a poor country like India stave off such calamities with ineffective control regimes and unorganized food trading with practically no food chain accountability? But surprisingly very little is heard about food poisoning in this country except for some occasional reports of such incidences in some mass feeding programs. One reason could be the absence of any centralized monitoring programs or systematic documentation systems to keep track of such incidences and affected consumers , where ever and when ever it happens do no go public, obliterating any records.

The pesticide residue controversy raked by an NGO in Delhi and the consequent national outcry mostly orchestrated in the media is still fresh in the memory of many in India. Whether the alarms raised was genuine or based on scanty and inappropriate data used for justifying the dangers is still not clear though a recent report questioned the veracity and reliability of the endosulfan values in soft drinks published by one of the investigators from IIT. Imagine the damages caused by such fudged results on the industry both economic and brand credibility and how such irresponsible acts get condoned in a liberal country like India. There was a time when consumer was bombarded with insinuations that practically every food in India was unsafe because of pesticide residues including breast milk!

Now comes another report from Karnataka about high lead content in natural resources like water that gets transferred to food chain easily. It was claimed that eating vegetables purchased in Bangalore markets would sap the health because of high lead content in them. In a 'study' conducted by a few B.Sc students, it was reported that Coriander leaves collected from the local markets had lead values from 2.62 to 24.29 ppm while safe limit is only 2.5 ppm. What is intriguing is that the results expressed were on dry weight basis and if they are factored into fresh leaves probably the values might be between 0.35 to 3.3 ppm. Considering that coriander leaves are consumed in very small quantity when ever it is included in the food, is there a justification in raising a hue and cry, that too in a news paper, with no peer review system to validate the results and always looking for sensationalism for catching the attention of the readers? Of course the findings cannot be dismissed lightly and warrant further critical appraisal.

Another plant material 'studied' was water hyacinth from a few lakes near Bangalore in which the 'researchers' found lead contents in the range of 4.95 to 102.45 ppm. They drew prompt 'conclusion' that the milk distributed in the City also must be high in lead without verifying the real situation. It is sad that half baked results are published by responsible news papers like Deccan Herald and it is equally deplorable for the authors of this study to splash it in the paper raising alarms all around. A proper way for any scientific study to be aired is through peer reviewed scientific journals to command respect, sanctity and credibility. The craze and cravings for publicity and attention by the scientific community reflect a dangerous trend that must be curbed by all means and at any cost in the interest of the country.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

GLOBAL FREE TRADE-CHASING A MIRAGE?

The question that defies an answer is whether a global agreement for free trade amongst the members of World Trade Organization is ever feasible at all with conflicting interests between the 'haves' and the 'have nots', the two opposing sides in this war of attrition. The tortuous negotiations which started in Doha some years ago for arriving at a negotiated agreement for barrier free trade in all sectors of food and agriculture, raw materials and and finished goods was expected to be wrapped up during the recent Geneva Conference in June 2008. If the biased news reports emanating from developed countries are to be believed, the trade talks collapsed because of the 'intransigence' of two countries, India and China. India was particularly criticized for standing against the might of the rich nations because it was considered too poor a country to take a stand against them.

The truth of the matter is that the rise of the two Asian Giants whose economy continue to grow at impressive rates, is a bitter pill to the dislike of many developed countries including EU community, USA and Japan. The 'head I win, tail you loose' mindset of these economically affluent countries is not conducive for any agreement with out sacrificing the right to live for millions of farmers in Asia, Africa and South America. The most contentious issue was the agricultural subsidies, that is prevalent in almost all countries across the world in the name of protecting the interests of their farmers in a fiercely competitive global market. What is appalling is the fact that the farmimg community in developing countries constitute more than 70% of their population while that in industrialized nations hardly makes up 2%, many of whom are millionaires enjoying affluent life styles . In contrast average land holding size is less than 2 acres in most of the poor countries,indisputably unviable sizes while farmers in rich countries hold thousands of acres as individual holdings. Penury and abject poverty seem to be the hallmarks of the lives of these poor farmers on whom the West wants to heap further misery through its cruel trade dictates which if accepted may become the 'last straw on the camel's back'!

In a world trade valued at $1 trillion, even if there is no universal trade agreement the estimated value of aggregate loss to the international trade will be less than $ 70 billion. Rich countries are apprehensive that if the subsidies being provided by their governments to the extent of $1-2 billion a day is stopped, their exports might suffer due to high cost of production, threatening the viability of the agricultural sector as a whole. It is forgotten that if there is a need due to shortages, importing countries do resort to imports at whatever is the global bench mark prices at that time. Recent massive imports of wheat by India to tide over the grain crisis at prices much higher than that prevailing in the local markets is an excellent example of how prices alone do not determine the compulsions for global purchases. It is sad that business interests far outweigh humanitarian concerns, ignoring utter deprivation and frequent farmer
suicides in countries like India and the West continues to refuse to see the reality, still demanding on the developing countries to commit 'harakiri' by not insisting on the 'safety net' provisions for their farming community in any future trade agreement!

While every inch of available land worth cultivation is being tapped in the developing countries, farmers in the West are given cash incentives not to cultivate their fertile land, fearing price melt downs at the market due to excess supply! It is said that hunger for some is an opportunity to others and this is what is evident from the stonewalling of trade negotiations at Geneva by the West. If they are guided by true human values, they must allow free trade at least in food crops with protective safeguards for the poor countries to impose tariffs on imports at times of distress. A magnanimous gesture by the West to unilaterally lift their trade barriers will go a long way to ensure peace in the world and avoid mega scale human tragedies in future. After all the stake is only worth $ 70 billion, a small price to pay to live and let live fellow dwellers with dignity on this planet!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

SALADS VS SUBJIES-INDIAN DILEMMA

The food eating cultures distinctly differ from country to country but if a simple division is possible, it can be based on habits vis-a-vis consumption of cold foods. Those countries where refrigeration and freezing technology and the vast infrastructure necessary to manufacture and retail cold foods have been well established, are in the forefront as far as consumption of cold foods is concerned. By definition a salad is a 'dish, usually cold, of raw or sometimes cooked vegetables or fruits in various combinations served with a dressing or molded with gelatin and sometimes with sea food, poultry, egg, etc'. Lettuce and spinach usually form the base in green salads or garden salads and vegetables like cucumber, peppers, mushroom, spring onion, red onions, avocado, carrots, celery and radish are also used in various combinations to make different types of salads evolved in different countries of the west.
 
Salads are welcome diversion in a predominantly animal food based diets as they provide many health maintaining nutrients like vitamins, minerals, beneficial photochemical and dietary fiber. Besides the sensory experience offered by salads is complimentary to the palate satisfaction derived by eating meat products. In the modern calorie-rich food world, salads are supposed to be calorie-lean as vegetables are rarely sources of high calories except avocado. A cup of salad usually contains not more than 25 calories recommending itself as an ideal filler food creating satiety. Advent of dressings which are now part of any salad has changed the situation as many of these dressings are fat based raising the calorie content 5-6 times compared to those without dressings.
 
In India traditionally, especially in the north, cucumber and onion along with a slice of lemon at ambient conditions, served as an 'eat along', side dish for the main meal to make the eating more enjoyable and probably is the nearest to the western concept of salads. But it cannot be a substitute to a garden salad for the reason that nutritionally it is not comparable to the latter. The diversity of Indian food makes it up by including in the regular menu at least on 'subjie' which is nothing but a sauteed vegetable alone or in combination with others. Vast variety of vegetables available in the country makes it possible to have a number of different subjies which are part and parcel of the dietary regimes in all parts of the country. Cooking, often under severe conditions may lead to some losses of vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Folic Acid, variously estimated at 10-30%. This is more than compensated by the absolute safety of these
products having undergone thermal processing.
 
The comparison between salads and subjies is unavoidable in the wake of frequent food poisonings from Salmonella, Listeria and E.Coli reported in countries where salads and cold foods are consumed. In India the vegetables eaten cold are peeled (cucumber), surface layers removed (onion) and mixed with acidic lime juice making them more safe. Major danger is posed by Tomato which are grown with contaminated water in some regions and absence of rigorous packing shed protocols of washing with disinfectants. But consumers are more diligent, unlike their counterparts in affluent countries where it is assumed that the products in the retail markets are safe and the fresh produce is always washed well at home before consumption. With organized retailing growing at a frenetic pace, Indian consumer may also slip into such a  mindset in future not auguring well as the safety vigilance system in the country is nothing to crow about as of now to meet such
challenges ahead.
 
  
 V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

'IRON' PAPER-GOOD FOR FOOD PACKING?

It is a matter of great concern that plastics have become omnipotent in almost all spheres of life and many countries are facing severe environmental problems due to accumulation of these biologically indestructible materials. While burning off presents the problem of dioxin pollution of the atmosphere, dumping often causes choking of drains in many urban areas besides adversely affecting the soil quality. Recycling is fraught with its own problems too, though the recent reported use of plastics for road building is a welcome development. Many states in India have put in place a ban that is supposed to prevent use of thin plastic carry bags for shopping purposes.

As an alternative to plastics, paper has been touted and many supermarkets in many developed countries provide bags made from recycled paper to their customers in place of plastic bags. Even re-use of plastic bags was promoted with incentives so that their use can be multiplied several times before disposal. Years ago in India itself use of cloth bags was advocated especially for distribution of grains through the PDS though very little was done to pursue the proposal. Compared to many other countries, in India there is an active market for old news papers which are collected from house holds by small dealers for supply to recycling industry or making of paper bags which were predominantly used in most of the mom & pop stores. Because of the low tearing strength of paper, consumers do not prefer paper bags, especially the ones made from recycled paper.

Normal paper, depending on the thickness can be a strong material but it is brittle in nature with poor tearing strength. There have been many developments that have made possible stronger paper materials but invariably they fall under the special category with high price tag beyond the reach of many users like retailers and packaging industry. As far as food products are concerned paper has excellent barrier properties but use is limited because of its poor strength. In combination with other materials like aluminum, paper is still preferred for making laminated pouches for packing many food products. Waxed, glassine, Kraft and grease proof papers are still in use in industries like meat, dairy, frozen vegetables, baked goods, butter, ice cream, etc as they have high resistance to fat, oil and grease and are capable of high flavor retention. Multilayer sacks with 2-6 plies of paper also are extensively used. The corrugated cartons which happen to be the work horse for the transportation of almost all industrial products are based on Kraft paper.

In a recent development in Holland, paper materials with tear strength better than cast iron was found possible by subtle innovation in the paper making process. Called the nano paper, the process involves treating the wood pulp the basic raw material,with enzymes and pulverizing to generate fibers with 10 u diameter which were then swirled into tangles that are 10-40 nanometer wide for making the paper. The web like structure created and the strong adherence between the fibers make the paper very strong with high resistance to tear. Obviously such developments will be covered by patents and how far they will be economical remains to be seen.

Food packing is a delicate balance between the imperative to protect the contents from damage, physical, chemical and vectorial, and the compelling need to make it consumer friendly so that contents are easily accessible. Whether the new 'iron' paper is amenable to the two critical needs will decide its ultimate use by the industry.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

FOOD PRODUCTION-HOW ABOUT AN URBAN-RURAL ALLIANCE?

Green revolution of sixties seems to have lulled countries like India into a false sense of security and inadequate efforts to achieve incremental production through sustained inputs have led to a situation of food shortages to day. In spite of reams of reports produced by so called experts and specialists, India is sliding into a deeper and deeper abyss especially with regard to oil seeds and pulses. Passing the buck for this tragedy is a national past time and cannot retrieve the situation. Many reasons, some logical and some only excuses, have been attributed to this sorry state of agriculture in the first decade of 21st century. Fragmented land holdings, archaic agri practices, unpredictable rain patterns, interstate water disputes, improper and 'not in time' inputs to the farmers, eternal rural debt burden all play a role in not allowing the country to reap the full potential for food production. Even the massive debt redemption policies
announced in the 2008-09 budget might not improve the situation.

India is a rural country with about 70% of its population concentrated in 5,00,000 and odd villages with very rudimentary infrastructure and low literacy. Though the agricultural production has increased considerably, the net per capita availability of all foods except milk and sugar has been declining due to faster population growth than that in agriculture. Cooperative movement which was successful in the milk sector but failed in other areas could have consolidated fragmented land holdings into viable entities capable of applying modern input intensive technologies but over attachment to land, both sentimentally and for financial security, makes it difficult for the owner-farmers to take up collective farming. The excellent example of the Tibetan refugee settlement in Karnataka in setting up a collective farming system for maize with 5000 acres of land alloted to them is worth following by the indigenous farmers through out the country. If India has a place amongst the top maize productivity countries in the world, it is due to the poineering efforts of these farmers. On the other hand contract farming has taken a root in the country, especially in certain commercial crops, thanks to the processing and export industry. This has established beyond doubt that market pull, ready resource availability at critical time and remunerative prices can still make the farmer produce at levels higher than that presently achieved.

The urban-rural divide is pronounced when it comes to wealth which is concentrated in the towns and cities that make up the urban landscape. Excess wealth in urban areas is invariably invested in many forms expecting highest possible returns. Why not such wealth be directed to the agricultural sector? Why not think of a scenario where viable alliances are forged between urban households and rural folks in agriculture or horticulture by evolving workable models to ensure mutual confidence? There was a time not long ago when private enterprises were soliciting urban customers to support production of rice which is the staple in exchange for regular supply of rice to them at prices significantly less than that prevailing in the market. Insufficient confidence on the private players and operations by some unscrupulous elements did not allow this experiment to succeed. However involvement of big companies backed by government, similar to the banking industry, can revive this concept.

ITC Ltd has shown that organizationally mobilization of farmers can be easily achieved as they have done with wheat and soybean. If this logic is further extended ITC could be allowed to launch schemes that will attract urban funds in exchange of assured delivery of the staples at reasonable prices. For this necessary infrastructure for procurement, processing, storage and distribution will have to be put in place. There can be many companies who may be willing to invest on this model and their investment into active agriculture can be beneficial to the farmers as well as the urban consumers. There are models else where in the world involving urban dwellers even investing their spare time, besides capital for production of vegetables and fruits in the suburban areas nearby in return for a share of the crops for their self consumption. The concept will have to be worked out further to evolve a model that can have most chances of success under Indian conditions.


V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/