Poliana

Of all the essential things we need for survival, air is free.  Because its supply is abundant. You pay for air only when dissatisfied with its temperature. Conditioning of air, cooling and heating both, is generally paid for. Other than that, free air is taken for granted. We notice air only when we are short of it.

The fastest moving consumer good

Food is equally critical for survival. Unlike air, it is not free. In fact, that is one commodity we pay for every day. Food is the fastest moving consumer good. Out of habit, we consume three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The word breakfast is interesting. It talks about breaking a fast. What fast? The fast that we, unfortunately, have to suffer during our night sleep. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the three key milestones of our day. We perform different activities during the breaks between meals. No wonder that none of the readers of this article, nor its writer, really knows what hunger means. Just as air is appreciated only when we are deprived of it, hunger is understood only when food is unavailable.

In this age of globalisation, the availability of food is not global. According to UNICEF data, every 3.6 seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world. Tonight, at the restaurant table we may face the dilemma of stuffing our overfull stomachs with those last two slices of the giant pizza or letting them go. At the same time, five million people in South Sudan are experiencing life-threatening food shortages. South Sudanese able to get a single meal a day are considered blessed. In my own country, thirty million people are considered alarmingly hungry and malnourished, and 50% of the children are underweight. If the Sudanese hunger is partly war related, the Indian hunger is a result of not having enough food supply or the ability to access it. India’s second largest state Madhya Pradesh (72 million) is the epicentre of hunger. It ranks worse than Ethiopia and Sudan in the hunger index.

In our lifetime, the world has been adding 1 billion people every 12 years, taking the global population from 5 billion in 1987 to 7.5 billion this year. It is projected to reach 9 billion by 2042. All 9 billion would want two or three meals a day. Scientists may one day invent instant food pills made in labs. Even if invented, they are unlikely to be tasty, more like the e-cigarettes that failed to satisfy smokers. The world will have to rely on agriculture to feed the 9 billion.

Non-vegetarians may feel they have found a solution to the agricultural food crisis. In fact, meat-eating makes the problem worse. Chickens, cows, sheep and pigs need vast amounts of food and water. If the entire world were to become vegetarian, it will have at least two times more food and a lot more water than today. It takes 27 litres of water to produce one pound of potatoes, but 9000 litres to produce a pound of beef. (Interesting for vegans: It takes 1000 litres of water to produce one litre of milk). Meat-eating also eats up vast amounts of land. An Indian family living on rice, beans, vegetables and fruit can produce their food and live comfortably on an acre of land or less. An average American, who consumes nearly 300 pounds of meat a year, needs 20 times more.

Competition for land and water

Arable land is land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops. (Land on which cattle graze may be agricultural, but not arable). Only 10.6% of the world’s land is arable. Arable land per person is declining rapidly, in the last fifty years from 0.4 hectares to 0.2 hectares.

Water is in shortage, and agricultural lands have to compete with cities for water. Bio fuels are now produced on the same agricultural land. Fuel vs food is a burning debate. The fields that can feed people are diverted to feed diesel-hungry vehicles.

When food crisis exists and is certain to become acute, when demand for food far exceeds its supply, why do people keep migrating from rural to urban areas? Why are there shortages of farm workers everywhere?

City and village

Instead of working in nature, breathing fresh and clean air, eating healthy organic food, living in spacious houses; most of my family and friends prefer to work in air-conditioned offices with no open windows, stare at a computer screen for ten hours a day, eat a high calorie diet, commute daily for two to three hours either in overcrowded transport or in slow-moving traffic, breathe polluted air, and live on top of one another. Why?

Being a city-lover myself, this is a question I have often thought of. I mainly lived in two big cities, Bombay and Moscow. (I like to be surrounded by 10 million people.) Following is the list I had prepared to justify living in a city rather than a village. (1) 24-hour electricity (2) 24-hour water (3) Internet (4) gym (5) library (6) cinema halls (7) education (8) medical facilities (9) jobs and (10) people, lots of them.

After visiting Martin’s Bulgarian farm Poliana, I began to question this list for the first time.

Poliana, the Bulgarian farm

Martin, our WWOOF host in Bulgaria was very different from Jurek in Poland. Martin qualified as a Chartered Accountant, with an additional degree in international relations and worked for Price Waterhouse for many years. Later he was a successful corporate executive working as a finance director for a major oil company. He speaks in many languages, is a well-read intellectual, appreciates art and has a well developed aesthetic sense. Not really the profile of an organic farmer.

Nine years ago, taking advantage of the recession, he decided to buy 1000 hectares of agricultural land at throwaway prices. It was situated in South-eastern Bulgaria. The population of the village Poliana is 216. Martin gave up his blooming corporate career and became an organic farmer. The hundreds of hectares he bought now produce wheat, rye, sunflowers, lentils, organic almonds, organic walnuts, lavender, salvia, chamomile, dill and many herbs. He exports his herbs and other products to Germany and other European markets.

Parallel to that, the farm breeds sheep, cows, goats, bees, ducks, chicken, pigs, ostriches and other animals.

It is worth noting that Martin could have made lots of easy money by re-selling the land. Instead, he decided to cultivate it, and make money the hard way.

The most incredible thing on the farm was the guest house he has built overlooking the hundreds of hectares. The owners, the guests, and the WWOOFers stay here. This farmhouse is a modern palace - built tastefully, with all modern amenities, and a speedy internet. Mena was commissioned to paint murals on two walls in the outer coffee lounge.

Meeting Martin and the stay at his farmhouse shattered a few myths for me.

Agriculture can attract a city person. Martin admitted he had no connection with farms before. /Agriculture can be a profitable business. /The farmhouse had 24-hour electricity, 24-hour water, internet, lots of books, five-star interior and satellite television.

There was no gym, but I could run every day in the fresh air, sometimes not meeting a single soul or vehicle for hours. (True, a single horsefly once ran 21 km along with me, buzzing all the way without stinging me. I felt an immediate sympathy for horses). 

Yes, you can’t have millions of people around you in a village. But in the cities, how many amongst those millions have the time or desire to meet you? The megacity crowd is an illusion. Crowded metros have many lonely people. People are becoming self-centred (or Selfie-centred), and relations increasingly digital. I suppose a lack of people as an objection to rural life is no longer as strong. Sitting in Poliana, the Bulgarian village, I talked regularly with my parents and friends around the world on Skype and Facetime.

That brings down the list of the advantages of a city over village life to three. (a) Jobs (b) education and (c) medical.

Martin, with his example, showed that agriculture can be a good business. The career of a farm owner can be as lucrative as that of a corporate executive.

Education of children remains a problem in villages anywhere in the world. Adults can’t really move to rural areas until their children’s school education is over. However with the internet, self-education is no longer a problem.

Medical facilities are usually available in the nearest town. However, if you breathe clean air, work in nature, and eat organic food; medical access won’t be at the top of your mind. The longest living people on earth are found in the villages of Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy and Loma Linda, California. Not in the cities of London, Paris, Moscow or Bombay.

Takeaway

My biggest takeaway from meeting Martin and staying at his farmhouse in Bulgaria was that it is possible for city people to live and work in rural areas. In the modern world, most of the city amenities can be made available in a village. Food insecurity is one of the global problems, and will continue to be so during our lifetime. Shrewd decisions can make agriculture a successful business.

The problem of company can be solved by a bunch of like-minded people forming a commune and living on a farm.

Martin’s Poliana showed, against my expectations, that reverse migration can enhance the quality of one’s life.

Ravi