Dinner Discussion with Sapna Thottahil

Join writer Sapna Thottathil for an intellectual and culinary tour of food and farming in southern India. Sapna's new book, "India's Organic Farming Revolution," calls on us to rethink the politics of organic food by focusing on what it means for the people who grow and sell it—what it means for their health, the health of their environment, and also their economic and political well-being.

Taking readers to the state of Kerala in southern India, she shows us a place where the so-called “Green Revolution” program of hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and rising pesticide use had failed to reduce hunger while it caused a cascade of economic, medical, and environmental problems. In their debates about how to solve these problems, farmers, environmentalists, and policymakers drew on Kerala’s history of and continuing commitment to grassroots democracy.

In 2010, they took the unprecedented step of enacting a policy that requires all Kerala growers to farm organically by 2020. How this policy came to be and its immediate economic, political, and physical effects on the state’s residents offer lessons for everyone interested in agriculture, the environment, and what to eat for dinner. Kerala’s example shows that when done right, this kind of agriculture can be good for everyone in our global food system.

Sapna will discuss her book over dinner cooked by local chefs Simran Singh and Stacie Dong. Join us for a peek into modern Indian food and agriculture.

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Simple Gujrati Dhal with Three Chiles

Fraz Bean (Stir fried Green Beans)

Potato Raita

Kachumber 

Basmati Rice 

Homemade pickled onions