YEAR ROUND FRESH PRODUCE-LOCAVORE MOVEMENT GETS A BOOST

Almost all fruits and vegetables are seasonal in nature available only during certain times of the year. Seasonality of crops, because of the over riding influence weather conditions have on the growth of these plants, has been the greatest drive engine for development of many food preservation and processing technologies ever since man set his foot on this planet millions of years ago. Technologies like canning, dehydration, salt and sugar seeping, freezing, refrigeration, irradiation, etc help to prolong the life of fresh produce very significantly. However the products made by these technologies always fell short of the expectations of the consume who invariably cherish fresh foods if they are available all year round. As earth has different weather zones across the latitudes and longitudes with varying temperatures, humidity, sun shine and rain fall, every country has a typical crop foot print and enables them to tap global markets during times of short supply. However this factor is slowly being marginalized after the development of technologies such as green house production and hydroponics. Here is a take on this emerging trend.

But increasingly, farmers from West Virginia to Maine and through the Midwest are going indoors to produce tomatoes and other veggies in demand during the winter months. "There's a huge increase in greenhouse operations," Harry Klee of the University of Florida tells us. "This is unprecedented, the level of opportunity," says Mock, whose business is booming. And surprisingly, according to skeptical foodies like chef Todd Wiss, the best greenhouse tomatoes come incredibly close to reproducing that taste of a perfectly ripe, summer garden tomato. "It's amazing," Wiss says after trying a greenhouse-grown Gary Ibsen's Goldheirloom tomato. These are a far cry from the flavorless supermarket tomatoes typically found this time of year. When tomatoes are shipped long distances, they're usually harvested before they're ripe, which compromises taste. Plus, as we've reported before, some of the flavor of those supermarket varieties has been accidentally bred out. The advantage of the new greenhouse model is that the tomatoes are grown not far from the cities where they're sold and eaten. And it's the locavore ethos that's driving this trend. "What's harvested today will be delivered to stores tomorrow," says Paul Mock of Mock's Greenhouse and Farm in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. Mock's business has boomed in the last few years, as retailers such as Wegmans and Whole Foods in the D.C., metro area snap up his heirloom and cherry tomatoes, as well as cucumbers and lettuces. "There were times I had to pound the pavement" to sell produce, Mock says. Now he's being paid a premium, since "locally grown" produce is in high demand. "I'm finally having fun." The taste of Mock's tomatoes starts with the seed. He uses only organic varieties, including cherry and several heirloom varieties. Allison Aubrey/NPR Now even New Englanders can get summertime-tasting, fresh tomatoes grown not too far from home. In Maine, Backyard Farms is leading the way. And vertical greenhouses are changing the landscape, too, from the new garden spot at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole, Wyo., which is just getting started. So how do they grow? Many of these operations are turning to hydroponic farming, which means the plants are not grown in soil. As we've reported before, soil is one key component of tomato flavor, but it's not the only one. The hydroponic tomatoes get their nutrients (and fertilizer) from liquid solutions fed directly via irrigation hoses. This typically requires less water and less land than traditional farming. In fact, it uses up to 10 times less land and seven times less water per pound, according to Kate Siskel of BrightFarms, a company that's scaling up local produce by building greenhouses at or near supermarketsMock says there's another advantage of indoor growing: "We've had very little damage from bugs." And he's been able to avoid using chemicals on the leaves or fruit of his plants.

Local food movement which started some years ago advocates consumption of food produced nearer to the consumption centers and naturally cities and urban areas where food consumption is greatest cannot afford to grow food crops on precious urban lands which are extremely expensive besides lack of infrastructure to support agriculture in a big way. Of course feeble attempts are being made to adopt urban agriculture in a limited way and these include sky roof gardens, terrace gardens, balcony gardens, gorilla cultivation, etc but their impact is rather limited. Advent of green house technology and hydroponics which require limited land with high production potential has opened up enormous possibilities to promote locavore conscious consumers who frown upon the destructive impact of commercial agriculture which churns out safety-suspect foods with large carbon foot prints. Hydroponic technology may revolutionize the concept of agriculture production in the coming years and offers a ray of hope for the future of this planet and health of the denizens.

V.H.POTTY
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KEEPING FRESH PRODUCE SAFE-A NEW INNOVATION

According to some estimates almost 40% of the fresh produce grown in the world are spoiled due to physiological changes and microbiological spoilage. How far this is true may be difficult to assess because there is no unanimity on the subject of post-harvest food losses among experts. But one thing is certain that a significant quantity is lost, especially in countries where preservation facilities and cold storage infrastructure are limited. Even in rich countries there are considerable food losses at the consumer level, some conscious and others inevitable. Recent reports about the prevalence of "vegetable anxiety" syndrome among the house wives in western countries, especially during the summer season, due to their inability to save all fresh produce purchased at lower costs is a manifestation of this lacuna. As seasonal gluts in fresh produce are very common and the capacity of the refrigerators is generally not high, most of the items purchased end up in the garbage bin. While food industry in developed world have the wherewithal to minimize spoilage during its journey from the field to the fork, it is the at the consumer end, whether house holds or commercial caterers, where most of the wastage occurs. A simple technology developed recently is being touted as an answer to this vexed problem and here are some details of the same according to the scientists who claim several advantages for the new technique.

"Berries turning to moldy mush, dying an ignoble death in the blink of an eye; beautiful greens transforming into brown slimy leaves; mushroom sprouting new forms of fuzzy life within their gills -- these are the tragedies that befall too many a kitchen. In fact, 25 percent of the world's food supply is lost to spoilage. The Massachusetts-based company, Fenugreen, aims to address this waste with its simple innovation, FreshPaper. Fenugreen was founded by two friends, Kavita M Shukla, inventor of FreshPaper, and Swaroop Samant, a medical doctor. Kavita developed and patented FreshPaper while in high school, after she stumbled upon its spices and botanicals in a medicinal hot drink given to her by her grandmother in India to prevent a reaction to contaminated tap water. The five-inch square paper is comprised of edible organic botanical extracts, and is simply placed into refrigerator drawers, cartons, bags and containers with produce. With no zeolite, sodium permanganate, charcoal, or plastic, a sheet extends produce life by two to four times. The simple magic happens thanks to a secret mix of herbs -- similar to what are used for medicinal purposes -- that inhibit bacterial and fungal growth, as well as degradative enzymes. Sheets can be used and reused over the course of two or three weeks and then composted."

There are many simple methods to preserve food but most of them are suited only for commercial applications. The good old preservation techniques like salt steeping, sugar infusion, sun drying etc are still suitable for house holds but they have the inherent drawback of changing the flavor, texture and taste typical of the food preserved. Use of a specially treated paper strip in the refrigerator to avoid early infection with mold and fungus, as reported by the scientists above, if proven by further trials, may be a boon to the house wives who can store more fresh produce for longer time without any fear of rotting before use. Probably this is the first time that a low tech process is available to the consumer for practicing at home. Added to the advantage mentioned above, since the paper is impregnated with natural plant extracts with proven anti-bacterial credentials, its use is considered absolutely safe with no risk to any one. While the "inventors" have every right to patent their findings, care needs to be exercised not to impose heavy financial strain on users through a high pricing strategy. It is worth while for governments in many developing countries to buy the technology outright by one time payment and disseminate the same widely for use by house wives.


V.H.POTTY
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SAVING THE FRESH PRODUCE-NEW TECHNOLOGICAL INTERVENTION

Food waste is a "magic mantra" used in many developing countries to advocate use of modern technologies to reduce the wastage and extend the food supply chain. It is true that many crude practices, mostly manual in nature, which are in vogue in developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America in the fields as well as the post harvest handling practices lend them selves to some wastage which can be targeted under any program for reducing wastes. There are a multitude of technologies available to agricultural industry which can not only reduce waste but also safeguard the quality of the commodities from the farm to the consumer table. Of course there severe constraints at economic, technology adoption and logistical levels to transplant these technologies. Supply chain is vulnerable to many aberrations that can cause non-uniform quality among shipments from the farms and traceability is the new mantra being promoted in developed countries where field practices, packing shed operations, transport infrastructure, storage depots and retailer's facilities are largely automated. It is here that the new RFID tagging technology will be useful for better management of perishable produce coming from different sources and exposed to varying environmentsl conditions. Here is a take on this new development with exciting possibilities for organized industry.  

"One of the major problems is that much of our food travels long distances and through many hands as it journeys from farm to plate.  And as it travels, the temperature often changes dramatically.  Vegetables sit in the extremely hot sun after being picked, for example, and even the temperature within a refrigerated semi varies widely. While eating more local food is one answer to the problem (the food then travels far less), better tracking of food as it is stored and transported would also allow for more produce to reach our mouths less expensively. Today Intelleflex, a company based in Santa Clara, California, announced they have made this technology possible.  The system uses RFID tags and a cellular reader that includes a global positioning device (GPS), to help identify a case of tomatoes sitting at the airport, for example.  But beyond that, the tags also now record temperature and time data and immediately sends all the information to a cloud-based network. This system has several benefits over what currently exists in the food industry.  It allows companies to more easily manage produce and to better gauge the shelf-life of food.  Tomatoes sitting in the sun on the runway for hours then should be sold before those that sat inside the cool airport before being loaded onto the plane. But perhaps most importantly the company says using the reusable tags is cheap.  At $1 a use or less, ensuring a $500 pallet of fruit arrives safely to consumers is cost effective even for small producers.  The system also does not require expensive software to run it, and makes the data available to producers via the cloud".

In western countries the quality and safety of fresh produce are extremely critical because of the food habits that encourage consumption of many fresh fruits and vegetables which do not undergo pasteurization or any other disinfection process. Most food poisoning episodes revolve around these produce materials which carry the infection from the field to the market or are vulnerable to cross contamination during transportation and storage. RFID tags will definitely facilitate tracing of consignments which are exposed to severe storage or freighting conditions and help them to be brought to the market faster than others. Probably the whole world will have to move towards such a regime in future to prevent unwanted food pathogen contamination with potential to cause damage o the health of the consumer.

V.H.POTTY
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FRESH PRODUCE CONTAMINATION-INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY INITIATIVES

Episodes of contamination of fresh produce with bacterial pathogens and the attending adverse consequences are becoming increasingly common in many wealthy countries and the impact of such incidences of contamination is more with people in these countries because of two reasons. First the immunity level of the population to several pathogenic bacteria encountered in foods is relatively low, making them easily susceptible to their effect on health. Second the habit of consuming fresh produce like lettuce, broccoli, tomato etc in salad preparations is a part of their food culture making them highly vulnerable to food poisoning more frequently from these sources. It is against such a background one has to appreciate the action taken recently in the US to launch a public-private research initiative worth about $ 10 million to evolve technologies which can pre-empt such risks in consuming salad vegetables produced in different regions. 

"To fund the study, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing a $5.4 million, three-year grant and produce industry partners are kicking in nearly $4 million in in-kind support. The University of Maryland will be working with Ohio State University, Rutgers University, University of California, Davis; University of Florida, University of Delaware, USDA and the FDA. In its news release, UMD said agriculture producers are already testing for pathogens in irrigation water, fertilizers and other soil amendments, as well as in produce just before and after harvesting. Some 200,000 separate tests will be analyzed by the researchers. The team will conduct a series of controlled experiments by region to gauge how various practices affect levels of pathogens. "Producers, processors and consumers must be assured that the good practice standards apply to their region - that what works on a big farm in California, makes sense on a couple dozen acres on the East Coast," Buchanan said. "No group's protocol will be approved and enforced without scientific validation," Buchanan added. "The science must be solid enough to withstand domestic legal challenges and international trading disputes." He emphasized: "Guidelines, standards and regulations need to be based on solid science or we'll end up with legal wrangling rather than safer salads."

The collaborative project will have far reaching implications because whatever remedial measures are developed, they will have much better chance of getting accepted by the user industry with least reservation. The industry has been using certain techniques to ensure pathogen-free salads and these also will be subject to validation independently to confirm or modify such practices. Though some industry has been pleading to allow irradiation for pasteurizing fresh meat, clearance was not forthcoming from the authorities concerned due to apprehension that the processors may pass of low quality food products after irradiation as prime quality ones, defrauding the consumer. Many countries have a lesson to learn from the above project which only can solve common industry safety problems affecting the society at large. This mode also effectively utilizes the tremendous knowledge that is bottled up in the universities for the good of the nation.

V.H.POTTY
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FOOD :"DESSERTS"!-NEED FOR A REVISIT OF VENDING POLICY IN URBAN AREAS

In almost all urban regions of the world street hawking of fruits and vegetables are not permitted because of their pollution potential to the highly sanitized environment. With the advent of organized retailing in many countries the phenomenon of street hawking has practically disappeared and in many towns and cities separately earmarked areas are made available with necessary facilities to clean up after the assigned time of operation. The so called Farmers' Market which exit in almost all countries in the West come under such a category though the avowed purpose is to provide local foods which are supposed to be cleaner, safer and healthier with minimum carbon foot print. As the city grows the distance between such markets and the dwelling points gets longer and longer making it difficult for many citizens to undertake such travels due to economic and other reasons. These areas are now being designated as "Food Desserts" because of non-availability of fresh and protective foods for many residents in such places. Pragmatic city administration bodies are getting increasingly sensitive to this problem and are bringing about policy changes to convert these desserts at least for a week into a "flood" through limited time sale of fresh produce in trucks in different neighbor hoods. Here is a take on this emerging trend which is interesting to watch for its impact   

"Once a week, in a neighbourhood of high rises in North York, a van pulls up at a specified time and opens its back doors. The people who live in the towers quickly make their way to the vehicle, where they buy foods such as potatoes and coriander, bananas and carrots before whisking their groceries back to their apartments. Within minutes, the van pulls away, leaving no trace of what just happened. It might sound like something more shady than vegetables is on offer, but it's a scene that gets repeated across our city for one simple reason: In many Toronto neighbourhoods, it's illegal to sell produce from a vehicle on the street. It's forbidden in Scarborough and, for most of the year, in Etobicoke. If you want to sell from the back of your truck in North York, you'll need $2-million in liability insurance. Yet these are the same areas that the city's own research has identified as "food deserts" – predominantly low-income neighbourhoods in the inner suburbs where people live farther than 1,500 metres from a supermarket and typically don't own a car, and where there is below average public transit access, making lugging groceries home an arduous task. In Toronto, parts of Scarborough, North Etobicoke and North York fall under the "food desert" designation, and many residents procure more accessible produce on the street from less-than-legal purveyors".

It may be worth recalling the changes that is taking place all over the world regarding street hawking of various consumer products including food products and the Food Truck phenomenon in the US and the Hawkers Center in Singapore are prime examples of renewed thinking on the part of the urban planners  to recognize the relevance of street vending and its social impact. In India NDDB was vested with the responsibility of distributing milk, edible oil and horticulture produce through the cooperative organizational mode linking the farmers and consumers for mutual benefit. It is another matter that this body succeeded with milk but has not made ant impact in the other two fronts. It is time NDDB reworks its strategies to set up centrally operated "handling" centers in the vicinity of all important urban conglomerates and offer to the hapless consumers fruits and vegetables of prime quality at affordable prices. Of course urban real estate situation is very bad and setting up kiosks with modern facilities for vending these perishables is out of question. It is here that NDDB must use mobile facilities for delivery at strategic places in a city at scheduled timings. This will be a great boon to the citizens who is suffering from the unbearable burden of food inflation largely contributed by the galloping prices of fruits and vegetables!  

V.H.POTTY
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FARMERS' MARKET VS VENDORS" MARKET-A POLICY DILEMMA

One of the most visible changes taking place in some of the wealthy countries is the phenomenal growth of farmers' markets which are supposed to offer fresh produce directly from the farmers to the consumers in the neighborhood communities. The major factor for the large scale patronage of these markets by the consumers is the progressively ebbing confidence on the ability of organized retailing sector to provide products in fresh condition with assured quality and safety as expected by the consumers. Not that all farmers' markets are able to satisfy the consumer but majority of them are well organized and deliver products to the full satisfaction of the buyers. Generally the number of farmers' markets in an urban community is limited forcing many to travel quite some distance to reach them but with transportation never a constraint for citizens in wealthy countries, those who are particular to buy really fresh produce do nor mind this minor inconvenience. Many farmers' markets are organized in places and facilities provided by the civic authorities and sanitary conditions are overseen by them. Having convinced about the relevance of farmers' markets, there is a clamor for setting up more such centers in cities that will spare the customers the need to travel through busy city streets. Here is a view point from a citizen in Canada regarding the importance of farmers' market to the urban community.

"First off, the Calgary Farmers' Market is not a true farmers' market. Only about half of the vendors are farmers. It is as much a food court and craft market as a true farmers' market. I also don't buy the argument that the city should be supporting a farmers' market because it connects consumers with producers and will lead to a stronger sustainable food policy. It's a nice, altruistic idea, but I don't think the city should be in the behaviour modification business. As Jeremy Klaszus recently pointed out in the Calgary Herald, other cities subsidize their major markets. But in Calgary's case, if we were to do that, we would have to subsidize not only the Calgary Farmers' Market, but also the Crossroads Market and Kingsland Market because they have a similar business model. I recall one letter to the editor in the Herald asking about why there's all the media fuss over the Calgary Farmers' Market, as it's not the city's only farmer's market — good point. Rather than imitate what other cities are currently doing or looking to the past, I say let's look to the future and develop a new Calgary model for farmers' markets. I propose that instead of a major downtown market that requires Calgarians to drive across town to get to it, we develop more modest, year-round farmer/food producer-only markets in each quadrant of the city (all three current major farmer's markets are currently in the south)".

Whether one calls it farmers' market or by any other name the concept is very sound and world over such markets must come up to link the grower to the consumer. Of course there will be stiff resistance from whole sale distributors and large retailing giants as their business may be affected to some extent. In a country like India there are scattered road side vending practice in almost all cities while some rudimentary facilities are built in some towns and cities for selling fresh produce. Unfortunately those who sell the produce are not real farmers but vendors who get their materials from the government controlled marketing yards. What is required is a genuine farmers' market where individual farmers are allowed to bring their produce directly to the customers. Archaic laws which come in the way of implementing such progressive new ideas must be scrapped. Farmers' markets, functionally designed with all necessary facilities must be built in almost all townships in the country for the benefit of both farmers as well as the citizens of the country.

V.H.POTTY
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GUERRILLA GARDEN!-WHAT IS THAT?

Whether it is a fad, curiosity or dedication, urban farming or gardening is increasingly being promoted in the US as well as Canada and people involved seem to be excited about joining such a movement in large numbers. It is not sure whether such type of initiatives would solve the food problems and overcome the pessimism of people about the safety of foods delivered to them by the organized sector of food trade. However what is to be admired is the enthusiasm with which people are queuing up before urban administrations in many cities to allot plots to them for farming. Here is an example from Vancouver in Canada where urban gardening has become literally a craze!

"Five years ago, there were only 780 community garden plots in Vancouver. Now there are 3,400. City planners faced with unrelenting clamour for more spots are striving to boost the number to 5,000 in the next decade, says Mary-Clare Zak, the city's social-policy director. With waits as long as three years for the city-serviced community garden plots, many people are turning to unauthorized "guerrilla gardens," one of the most impressive of which was started by a wheelchair-bound man along unused railroad tracks by Granville Island. "He was surprised that nobody stole his tomatoes," Tracey says. "Now all along the tracks you can see, the neighbours have taken it on." Throughout the city, green-minded property owners are also contributing to the urban agriculture boom, letting small-scale farmers and neighbours use their yards to grow food, often in exchange for a share of the produce, Tracey says".

One of the advantages of urban gardening is that the greenery created inside the city premises provides some relief from carbon pollution as they act as C02 sinks. Besides who does not like the refreshing environment provided by the greenery amidst concrete cement structures that distinguish urban areas from agricultural lands. Involvement of whole families in such efforts expose them to the intricacies involved in agriculture. Why are they called "guerrilla gardens" in stead of the well known terminology "urban gardens"?. Probably many gardens are created on plots sanctioned by the city authorities, considered legal but a significant number have come up in public places, abandoned city land and other non-decrepit places not frequented by people and since they are not legal they are being called guerrilla gardens. While authorities are lenient on such "farmers" because of the benefit society derives from such endeavors, it is a tribute to the honesty of citizens in these places that the produce raised in unauthorized lands are rarely stolen!

V.H.POTTY
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PRESCRIPTION "PRODUCE"-PROMOTING HEALTHY EATING

The prescription system universally accepted as a way of regulating sale of some drugs and avoiding their abuse has served mankind well though in some countries the enforcement lacks teeth. Antibiotics which form the front line of defense against communicable diseases and others caused by pathogens are loosing their power because of the resistance developed by indiscriminate use though newer and more powerful versions are continuously being developed by the pharmaceutical industry from time to time. The recent reported rBGH misuse in India for boosting vegetable production and extensive application by the meat and dairy industries in some western countries are examples of such abuse. The faith and hope that take people to doctors and specialists are based on the presumption that latter know what is good for the patients. The prescription system therefore must be viewed with sanctity as it strengthens the mutual relationship between physicians and their innocent patients. Now comes the news that the prescription route is being tried for a non-medical purpose for achieving the almost impossible task of persuading youngsters to consume more fresh fruits and vegetables.

"Doctors at three health centers in Massachusetts have begun advising patients to eat "prescription produce" from local farmers' markets, in an effort to fight obesity in children of low-income families. Now they will give coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient's family to promote healthy meals. "A lot of these kids have a very limited range of fruits and vegetables that are acceptable and familiar to them. Potentially, they will try more," said Dr. Suki Tepperberg, a family physician at Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, one of the program sites. "The goal is to get them to increase their consumption of fruit and vegetables by one serving a day." The effort may also help farmers' markets compete with fast-food restaurants selling dollar value meals. Farmers' markets do more than $1 billion in annual sales in the United States, according to the Agriculture Department. Massachusetts was one of the first states to promote these markets as hubs of preventive health. In the 1980s, for example, the state began issuing coupons for farmers' markets to low-income women who were pregnant orbreast-feeding or for young children at risk for malnourishment. Thirty-six states now have such farmers' market nutrition programs aimed at women and young children".

Whether such a practice is compatible with the Hippocrates oath taken by the doctors in serving humanity through medicine may be debatable as fruits and vegetables cannot be viewed medicines but if the ancient saying that "food is thy medicine" is taken literally doctors are justified in prescribing these new "medicines" as they can reverse the symptoms of over weight which is increasingly being considered as a "disease". This is indeed a novel experiment and results are worth watching. A larger question that may defy an easy answer is what happens to youngsters from rich families who have the necessary resources to buy these protective foods, still binge on calorie rich foods with sickening regularity. It is doubtful if these youngsters would listen to their family doctors whom they might be visiting only during the time of sickness. Probably the only alternative could be using another equally important social institution viz the school where eating fruits and vegetables may be made compulsory during a specific time of each day under the supervision of the teachers. Instead of dumping thousands of crores of rupees on midday school program with doubtful end results, a part of the funding can be diverted to a "protective food" program to be made compulsory to all students.

V.H.POTTY

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"AGRICULTURE ONLY" ZONES-NEW AUSTRALIAN CONCEPT

Loss of fertile agricultural land consequent to the sky rocketing land prices near the towns and cities is a cause for worry in many countries. The real estate developers looking for land for developing their mega building projects provide lucrative incentives for the farmers to surrender their land and this trend has produced many millionaire ex-farmers with loads of money, not knowing what to do with it. Though there are constraints and restraints in transferring agricultural land from a genuine farmer to a non-agriculturists as per the law of the land, there are ways of getting around such impediments known fully well to every one involved in land purchase. While suburban lands appreciate in price at a slower pace, such a development puts pressure on core urban lands which command astronomical rates as part of a vicious cycle. Such a trend is sought to be broken by the Australian authorities in Sydney by considering a policy that will reserve lands around the city only for farming.

"Swathes of land in the Sydney Basin could be set aside for farming and market gardens under a proposal the state government is considering to stem the loss of agriculture in outlying suburbs. Under the idea, likely to rile developers vying for greenfield space on the city fringes, new planning powers would be developed to establish the farming-only zones. The Primary Industries Minister, Steve Whan, will reveal the proposal today at a conference on Sydney's food security and health hosted by the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils".

This is a model worth studying for its impact on the prices of urban lands which get restricted due to bar on expanding around the core city area. A major advantage of such a policy decision will be the assured lung space that will accrue to the citizens who live inside the city perimeter and significant improvement of the quality of the environment. Barring industrial development near the urban centers will have far reaching impact on the overall quality of life of people who live there.Probably GOI can consider such an approach in dealing with the urban chaos that confront the nation to day due to uncontrolled growth of the towns and cities, without concomitant development of infrastructure to support such huge populations. Whether the land mafia that controls most of the urban areas in the country will allow such a radical policy changes is another matter.

V.H.POTTY

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FRESH VS FROZEN FOODS-THE NUTRITION "TANGLE"

Any food processing operation is bound to affect the original nutritional content of the food processed, though such products have other advantages like longer shelf life and better safety. There are many technologies being applied for converting less stable and more vulnerable fresh raw materials into more stabilized products for consumer convenience. In terms of nutrient and quality loss, shorter the lapse of time between harvesting and processing better chances the food has in preserving its quality. Also true is the fact that more rigorous the processing, greater will be the nutrient loss. A new dimension has been added to this debate when frozen foods were rated as better than fresh ones as being marketed to day. Probably there may be some substance in such a claim.

"The frozen food industry has been commissioning research from scientists to support its claims. Last month Birds Eye, which makes a frozen "traditional beef dinner", published a study from the respected Institute of Food Research in Norwich about the loss of nutrients and vitamins in fresh food. It turns out that fruit and vegetables can reach shops nine days after being picked, and stay on shelves for four days after that. The scientists found that these fading green beans could lose up to 45 per cent of nutrients, broccoli and cauliflower 25 per cent, garden peas up to 15 per cent, and carrots up to 10 per cent. By contrast, Birds Eye's garden peas had up to 30 per cent more vitamin C because they were zapped into suspended animation within hours of being harvested".

Under the conditions prevailing in India, foods whether fresh or frozen, may not make much of a difference as far as nutrition is concerned because more than 90% of the fresh produce marketed in the country come from hundreds and thousands of small farms with no certainty about their origin or quality. It is left to the consumer to "feel" the quality of produce and select the ones "perceived" to be good. As there is no reliable information on nutrient changes from the point of harvest to the point of sales, it is difficult to speculate on this issue. But one expects a few large scale players who market frozen produce in the country to have appropriate backward linkages and therefore more control on the quality of raw materials procured for processing. To that extent one can concede the point that frozen foods are superior to fresh produce, unless one plucks the fresh ones from the kitchen back yard for immediate cooking!

V.H.POTTY

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PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES-GETTING AROUND THEM

Are the fruits and vegetables offered in the market really safe? Is it inevitable that one has to go for organically grown fresh produce, though they are economically unaffordable? What will be the consequences of consuming fresh produce items containing traces of one or the other chemical pesticides used by the growers in the field? These are questions that worry the consumers all over the world. Unfortunately there does not seem to be definitive answers that can assure any one, in spite of thousands of studies dealing with different aspects of pesticide residues in food. It reflects on the credibility of the food scientist as well as the industry that out of 100,000 publications on organic foods, scrutinized recently by experts, only 12 of them were found to be scientifically carried out as per correct experimental protocols acceptable to all. Where does one go for answers to queries like the ones above?

"As questions are raised on the role pesticides may play in ADHD and in other health problems, you'd be hard-pressed to find an expert who doesn't advise that people, especially pregnant women and small children, reduce their pesticide intake as much as possible. The top recommendation? Eating an entirely organic diet, which has been shown to significantly lower people's exposure levels, says Hopkins pediatrician Goldman. If that's not financially reasonable, given the generally higher cost of organics, it also helps to carefully wash all your fruits and vegetables -- conventional, frozen, organic and otherwise -- in cold water. Benbrook, for one, recommends bypassing fancy produce washes for the equally effective combo of mild soap and a washcloth or brush. And then rinse thoroughly. But be aware that you can't scrub away all the risks. "It's best to actually try to eat your way around pesticides . . . because most pesticides don't wash off, and seep into those blueberries or apple," says EWG's Wiles, who notes that the USDA data on pesticide levels is collected after produce has been washed, peeled and prepared the way you'd normally consume it. As a result, he suggests eating organic when possible and otherwise relying on what his organization calls the "Clean 15." These are conventional fruits and vegetables with the lowest levels of chemicals: typically thick-skinned, heartier, easier-to-grow produce with peels that you throw away, such as onions, avocados, corn, pineapples and mangoes. Then there's the "Dirty Dozen," those foods with the highest average levels of pesticide residues. These are usually highly perishable fruits and vegetables with soft skins, such as celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines and sweet bell peppers".

A critical look at the report quoted above brings out an interesting fact that consumers will have no choice but to go for certified organic foods costing almost 50% more, if variety is needed in the diet! Many nutrition experts decry the practice of peeling, polishing and other processing steps practiced to prevent depletion in the nutritional value of foods consumed every day. On the other hand the inherent dangers posed by pesticide residues are forcing consumers to remove the protective coats from food produce to protect them selves against adverse effect of pesticides on health. A Hobson's choice indeed!

V.H.POTTY

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