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Society NATURE will respond to every input it receives. This may apply to our wildlife, a plant or even to soil. That response will not be in the form of a reward or punishment. It will be in the form of a consequence. We are confronted with an unhappy consequence. The incidence of cancer in Punjab is on the increase. Chemicals entering through the soil to the groundwater are contaminating the water. People are consuming water and toxic substances, in their residual forms, from certain crops. The religious ethos in Punjab does not permit the use of tobacco. What is causing cancer if it is not tobacco? Is it the effects of chemicals? What are the practices we are adhering to, that are causing such peril to our people? Can we correct those practices? The answer to this conundrum unfolds. The 1912 Nobel Prize-winner, Dr Alexis Carrel in his book Man, the unknown warned with brilliant clairvoyance that our only hope for a healthy world is to sustain a harmony in the soil. He confirmed that the soil was already being disturbed by modern techniques of agronomy. To live in a healthy world, he explained, solely depended on the fertility of the soil. Only organic humus replaces soil and brings about fertility. Undoubtedly, plants chemically fertilised, look lush and attractive. Unfortunately, those plants have watery tissues. That results in the immunity of the plant declining and becoming prone to pests and disease. Without replacing the exhausted elements from the soil, the nutritive value of the food we eat is deficient in vitamins. An abundance in the yield of crops does not imply sufficient vitamins. During the past century, chemicals came into our world. By a sinister coincidence, so have life-threatening diseases entered into our world. This was elucidated through Dr JD Weissman's research. Is there no solution? Effects of chemicals One man who read Carrel's work comprehended the ramifications of the after-effects of chemicals. His name was Dr. Albert Howard, a British colonial officer serving in India. He became the founder of the "Organic Movement". Howard began experimenting by applying fresh humus. This included returning animal and plant residues into the soil. Every blade of grass, all leaves that fell, all weeds that were cut found their way back into the soil. This decomposed into humus. Thus began a new cycle of life. An Anglo-Saxon dichotomy claims that weeds like people can be friends or foes. Prof. J. Cocannouer, a soil scientist (USA) has researched on “Weeds: Guardians of the soil”. His first significant observation was that weeds draw up moisture by their “miles-long” root systems, thus breaking up hardpan in soil. Cocannouer further proved that our crops have lost their ability to go deep into the soil, unlike their “wilder” ancestors. His experiments revealed another fascinating discovery. If there is enough “tunnel space” formed by weeds, many shallow feeding crops will successfully grow their roots deep into the soil. Weeds through their lives break up soil, providing aeration. Dying, they gift fibre. Can weeds be harmful? In certain circumstances they can be. An invasion of a type of a weed in an area where it is absent indicates a decline in the soil. The farmer will thus know where they belong and where those weeds do not. Different weeds can alert a farmer. Weeds of the buckwheat family and certain ferns will tell us that the soil is high in acidity. A farmer should know the causes; excess acidic fertiliser, water-logging and poor drainage have attracted these weeds. Hardpan-formed soils occurs after years of chemicals. Weeds like field mustard, horse nettle, morning glory, quack grass, or pineapple weed, will appear where hardpan soils are formed. There are farmers in different countries who respect weeds. For example, various South American weeds are termed Verbas Sacradas (sacred herbs). Working with nature Weed management is obviously a subject closely related to the health of the soil. Simply killing them in “one fell swoop” with chemicals may not be beneficial at all. A farmer may be reluctant to revert to a system of no chemicals. Our farmers could begin with a select control plot. The results would inspire him to gradually work with nature, not against it. We could be inspired by JI Rodale's research from policies in China. In China, organic agriculture feeds 900 million people. Their agriculture is on arable land equal in size to the US. There is no starvation in China. This is happening without huge doses of chemicals and insecticides. What policy do they adhere to? Composting of organic material, with labour-intensive methods of farming. The horrors we read about as a result the ill-effects of chemicals, the frustrations experienced by farmers if a food sample has more than the permissible limits (ppm) of residual effects of chemicals is now unnecessary. The Earth which to us is the Garden of Eden is not forever lost. Its revival lies no deeper than a few inches into the soil.
Country life more risky Contrary to what many believe, living in the city is far less risky than in the country, according to a study released recently that takes into account all major forms of death from injuries. Although homicides in cities far outpace those in rural areas, overall the risk of dying from some form of accident or injury is 20 per cent greater in the most rural counties of the United States than in the nation's biggest cities.
"It turns out unintentional injuries dwarf intentional injuries," Myers said, and those types of injuries occur much more often in rural areas. Part of the differences in the study may reflect reduced access to trauma centers, which are staffed with doctors who are trained to handle life-threatening injuries. And since most trauma centers are clustered near large cities, rural dwellers may be more at risk of dying from life-threatening injuries. Myers and colleagues studied government data on all injury-related deaths from all 3,141 counties across the US from 1999 to 2006. They excluded deaths caused by the 9-11 attacks, which the researchers deemed too anomalous to be counted. Of the nearly 1.3 million deaths during the study period, the overall rate of deaths caused by accidents was 37.5 per 100,000, compared with 17 per 100,000 for homicide and suicides. The most common causes of injury-related deaths were motor vehicle crashes, which occurred at more than twice the rate in rural areas as they did in cities. Overall, car crashes caused 27.61 deaths per 100,000 people in most rural areas and 10.58 per 100,000 in most urban areas. That may be because people in rural areas are more prone to drive on highways at high speeds, and some studies have shown people in rural areas are less likely to comply with seatbelt and child restraint laws than are individuals in urban areas. When the team looked at firearm-related deaths, they found no significant difference in the overall risk of death between urban counties and rural counties, but there were significant differences in the trends by age. In rural areas, for example, children aged up to 14 and adults over 45 had the highest risk of dying from a firearm injury, but among adults aged 20 to 44, the risk of a firearm-related death was much higher in urban areas, and the risk was about the same for youths aged 15 to 19, regardless of where they lived. The study did not look at the number of people who were injured but survived their car crashes or gunshot wounds, which might reflect whether people in urban areas simply have better access to healthcare than people in rural areas who have life-threatening injuries. — The Independent
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The findings may give pause to people tempted to flee cities for the bucolic ideal of rural life, says Dr Sage Myers, a paediatric emergency medicine specialist at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, whose study was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. “As you moved further and further away from cities you got less and less safe. Even going into the suburbs dropped your safety a little bit and is a little counterintuitive,” she said. Myers said when people think of their personal safety, they tend to think about intentionally inflicted injuries, such as being attacked or shot, but the researchers found that the risk of dying from an accidental injury is 40 per cent higher in the nation's most rural counties than in its most urban.