It’s funny how every semester I take a bizarre smattering of classes across many faculties and yet somehow common themes always seem to emerge from all my courses. This semester I have been doing a lot of thinking about the unbelievable pervasiveness of the colonial foundation upon which our society is build. I realize it’s not an original discovery but this term I have begun to recognize the power of our colonial past in shaping our entire perspective on the world, past and present. I have also been struggling with just how difficult it is to break free from this this mindset that was constructed by imperialism over the centuries and infused into my understanding of literature, history, and even science.
It was Dr. Shafik Dharamsi’s talk that really solidified for me a lot of ideas that were swirling around in my head which I was having a hard time pinning down. As I have been trying to plan an international internship, I was struggling to articulate my motivation in wanting to undertake this international experience. At the forefront of my mind was the fear that I would fall victim to the obvious pitfalls of international volunteerism. It got me thinking about my own biases about India, the country that so fascinates me.
I began thinking about how Western hegemony is really at the root of most of the ecological and social turmoil caused by agricultural reforms in India. This is the basis for the socially constructed concepts that don some countries developed and others developing, as Dr. Dharamsi discussed. I find these terms to be highly problematic and indicative of a deep seeded problem that underlies the burgeoning unsustainability of India’s food system. The West is touted as the pinnacle of progress. Less affluent nations and their citizens strive to achieve the prosperity they perceive in the West. Richer nations in turn, “help” these poorer countries progress by investing money in a manner that perpetuates their conception of what constitutes development. Inherent in this foreign aid is judgment. Countries of the Global South are often perceived as backwards or less than. Western knowledge is held in higher regard than traditional locally adopted practices and knowledge systems. Well-intentioned Western governments, organizations and individuals often lack a basic understanding of culture and have an ingrained disregard for the value of traditions. In many cases, helping countries to “develop”, perpetuates the colonial framework built by imperialism over the centuries and ultimately sustains poorer nations’ dependency on the West, which further exacerbates the South/West disparity. In order to deconstruct the challenges of India’s food system, we must consider the colonial histories that created the divide between developed and developing countries in the first place.
As a westerner, planning to go abroad to intern with an organization doing work in the field of food systems, I am afraid that I will become part of this problem. It’s difficult to overcome the thoroughly engrained Western biases I have grown up with. I think it is important that the world shifts its development paradigm. Instead of imposing a top down system where we try to go in and fix the problems we perceive in the Global South, we need to reflect on the ways we might be able to learn from cultural traditions and practices. It seems ironic that as we frantically try to back step away from the industrialized corporately controlled food system – with a revival in farmers markets, community supported agriculture and urban farms – on other side of the world countries are eagerly shedding their pastoral traditions. Why would we inflict on others a system that is failing us? A wealth of knowledge and vast diversity of wisdom exists around food globally but if we continue to belittle these cultural practices, we will loose them to homogenization. In the West we stand to learn a lot from the food cultures of the Global South and our immigrant community. An equitable, just and respectful exchange of knowledge across the cultural divide could greatly enhance the social, economic and ecological sustainability, cultural and biodiversity, and equality of our food system globally. By undermining the legitimacy and value of traditional knowledge systems in India we are diminishing the stability and sustainability of our local and global food systems. We are missing an opportunity. All parties could benefit from the establishment of a lateral discourse that would allow for a mutual exchange of valuable food systems knowledge and would foster a more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable food system. I hope to become part of this conversation.