Prabhupada: If people produce food grain in all the lands available all over the world, they can feed ten times population than it is at present. Krishna has made such arrangement.
New Scientist – Africa alone could feed the world
“Some 1.6 billion hectares could be added to the current 1.4 billion hectares of crop land [in the world], and over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and Latin America,” concludes the report, compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
If further evidence were needed, it comes in a second report, launched jointly by the FAO and the World Bank. It concludes that 400 million hectares, straddling 25 African countries, are suitable for farming. go to story
See also:
Economist – Cornering foreign fields
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China buying up farmland around the world…
Produce food from the land
excerpt from lecture on Bhagavad-gita 13.35, Geneva, June 6, 1974
PRABHUPADA: So Krishna, being asked by Arjuna, He’s giving the knowledge that this body is called kshetra. Kshetra means field of activities. Just like in agricultural land. You get a piece of land, and you produce your own food grain, or as you like. The government gives you a piece of land, and you have to pay a little tax, and you can grow your food grains as you like.
Similarly, as we wanted, Krishna has given us this body. Now we can work with this body as we like. If you want, you can utilize this body for higher elevation, or you can utilize this body for your nonsense purpose and go to hell. That is your choice. Just like somebody is using this body, undergoing austerities, penance, according to the spiritual, regulative life, and one man is using this body only for sense gratification, drinking and sex. So it is my choice, to utilize this body as I like, and I also reap the result.
The same example: You are given a field, a piece of land. You can grow twice, thrice in a year very nice foodstuff, sometimes pulses, sometimes paddy, sometimes the mustard seed. Any land… In India, we have seen that a cultivator produces three, four kind of food grains in a year. That is the system…That is the system that in India every man is producing his food grains independently. Now it is stopped. Formerly, all these men, they used to produce their food grain. So they used to work for three months in a year, and they could stock the whole year’s eatable food grains. Life was very simple. After all, you require to eat. So this Vedic civilization was that keep some land and keep some cows. Then your whole economic question is solved.
Now, in this country, Geneva, I heard there is… I am tasting the milk, first-class milk. I think the world’s best milk. Unless one has got his own cows, one cannot get such nice milk. But I hear also that because there is excess production of milk, they have decided to kill twenty-thousand cows.
DEVOTEE: Last year, they decided to do it, but apparently they didn’t do it. They wanted to do it.
PRABHUPADA: Just see how much foolish proposal it is. So for want of God consciousness, this mischievous intelligence can be found. The whole economic question can be solved. If you have got excess, then you can trade, you can send to some place where there is scarcity. But every man should produce his own food. That is Vedic culture. You get a piece of land and produce your family’s foodstuff.
But they are… What they are doing? In Australia, in Africa, they have got enough land, but the government… Maybe they have no sufficient men to utilize the land, but they won’t allow any outsider to go there who can produce. I have seen in Africa. Very, very large tract of land was lying vacant, nobody is producing any food. They are producing coffee. That is not the local men. The Britishers who have gone there, They are producing coffee, tea, and keeping some cows for slaughtering. This is going on. In Australia, also, I have seen.
…People should eat sumptuously, not overeating. Overeating is bad. Not undereating. Yuktahara-viharasya yogo bhavati siddhaye. Yuktahara, as much as you require, you must eat. Yajnarthe… Annad bhavanti bhutani [Bhagavad-gita 3.14]. Either human being or an animal, they must get sufficient food, and that means anna, food grains. So I have studied it very thoroughly. If people produce food grain in all the lands available all over the world, they can feed ten times population than it is at present. Krishna has made such arrangement.
In the Ishopanishad, Invocation], it is said, purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udachyate. In the creation of Krishna, there cannot be any scarcity. Everything is sufficiently there. Purnam, it is complete, perfectly made, either this planet, that planet. Everywhere, the living entities are there, and Krishna has made provision for every one of them. There is no question of scarcity. But people are not obeying the orders of Krishna or the authorities, that “You produce…” Annad bhavanti bhutani. Even in Bible, it is said, “Thou shalt not kill.” They are not producing food grains, and they are killing the animals and eating.
How they will be happy? It is not possible. Most sinful activities. You produce your food. The bull will help you. And the cows will supply you milk. They are considered to be father and mother. Just like father earns money for feeding the children, similarly, the bulls help producing, plowing, producing food grains, and the cow gives milk, mother. And what is this civilization, killing father and mother? This is not good civilization. It will not stay. There will be catastrophe, waiting. Many times it has happened, and it will happen because transgressing the law of nature, or laws of God, is most sinful. That is sinful. Just like you become criminal by transgressing the law of state, similarly, when you transgress the law of God, then you are sinful. So this example is given: idam shariram kshetram. That means to own a certain piece of land is the basic civilization. Everyone must have a portion of land to produce his food. There will be no economic problem.
And we have seen even in our childhood that poor men, the laborer class, servant, they came from village in the town. We were residents of town, Calcutta, The servants class, they would come… Everywhere, not in Calcutta, everywhere. The villagers would come, and the small salary. Even in our young days, we were paying salaries to the servants, twelve rupees, fourteen rupees, without any food. And still they would save at least ten to twelve rupees out of that. And this money, the servant would send to his wife at home, and as soon as there is two hundred rupees, he’ll purchase a piece of land. And in this way, when he has got sufficient land for producing food for the whole family, then he would no more come to city for working. We have seen it.
That means as soon as one has a land sufficient to produce, he is safe. His food problem—that is the real problem—is solved. So people are not being trained up to… In America, I have seen. Now the farmers, the father is working on the farm, and the sons, they do not come. They live in the city. This is the tendency all over the world. They are not producing food grains. Therefore there is scarcity. There is scarcity of food.
Especially in a country like India where the population is very big and there is no land available, there must be scarcity of food. Especially the Britishers, they have divided India: Pakistan and Hindustan. So all the food grains are there on the Pakistan side, and in the Hindustan side all the industries are there. So they are fighting. They have no industrial facilities, and they have no agricultural facilities. All policies. They would fight all along. The Britishers wanted that “You have taken your independ ence. All right, you’ll suffer all the time, fighting between your…” This was a policy. So it is going on nicely.
So anyway, the whole world situation is degrading, that people are not producing their own food. This is the problem, real problem.
Kshetra-kshetra-jna. This example is given. As every man must possess a piece of land… Therefore this… Because it is very common thing, this example has been given. Kshetra-kshetra-jna. So as we till our land and gets foodstuff according to my labor, according to my intelligence… Food grains I can produce once twice, thrice, if I work hard. Generally, they work two times: three months, three months. And those who are very lazy, they work three months. But even working for three months, they can acquire foodstuffs for the whole year. That I have seen.
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