We are what we eat.

How many of us know,
what we are actually eating?

How many of us know,

what food does to environment
before it comes to our plate

How many of you know,

what food does to farmer,
who is producing that food?

Do you know? have you ever thought?

How many of you think
if you are eating food,

about the farmer who has produced it 
or fate of the farmer who has produced?

You know, some of the questions

which grappled me when I was
studying my agriculture.

While doing my Ph. D. in agriculture 
I had a choice,

Like every young boy in 90's

I was also crazy about 
getting into Indian Civil Sercvice

Reading the Indian Economy 
I really understood about Indian Economy

by reading for an exam.

Finally by time I got into services,
I was selected for Indian Revenue Service.

But, I also had a choice of joining as 
Agricultural Research Scientist.

It was tough choice.

I made my choice as joined as 
Agricultural Research Scientist.

I thought, "I should continue 
working with farmers."

But, that didn't last long,
I'll come to that.

Before I come to that, 
let's understand ,"What is our food?

What we are eating? How safe is our food?"

All of you saw this news, sometime back

Pesticides residues in soft drinks 
and bottled water.

But, forgot the next day.

Have you ever thought,

How pesticides residues come into 
this bottled water or soft drink?

If bottled water and soft drink had 
pesticide residues,

The water you used to make tea or coffee
also must be having,

But we never worried about it.

The news is short the next day
we forget about it.

This must be a memory,
Noodles having heavy metals.

How many of you've thought,

how did this heavy metals reached 
in the Noodles?

If lead has to added in Noodles,

Probably lead is more costly than Noodles.

Nobody will add it but it came.

If ingredients used to make Noodles
had the lead,

The "Aata" which you used to make 
your "Chapati" also must be having.

Or the Samosa which you're eating
also must be having. Right?

But we don't connect the dots.

Same is the story when we hear about
pesticide residues in vegetables.

You all get horrified. 
But, forget it in the evening.

We all think if we buy food at good place 
or eat it in good hotel, it's safe.

Food is only as safe as it is grown.

End of pipe solutions doesn't work.

The pesticides which are 
used in agriculture,

less than 1% actually kills the insects,
99% gets into the water,

get into the air 
and comes back to your food.

You look at it very casually.

Everything happened around us
you look at it casually.

I'll give you one example,
While having the lunch I saw people

painting there, what was that?

Spray Paint.

Where does it go?

Part of it goes on to the board,
part of it into the air.

You all were eating there.
It comes there.

We all are educated,
We feel we can make connections.

We never make.

And we expect that farmer will
make those connections.

and produce safe food for all of us.

I think that's where disconnect between,

What we observe, what we know,
and how we act is the serious problem.

It's not only about the pesticides,

do you know the eggs 
that you buy in the market

what kind of eggs you buy in the market?

Applied eggs.

Half cloyed means they are produced without 
male & female meeting together.

That's why if you hatch the eggs,
they won't make chickens.

But how they are produced?
They are produced by using estrogens

And what happen to those estrogen?

When you eat those eggs?
they'll come back to you.

That's one reason today
pivot in girl child has advanced.

Gynic problems in women has increased.

Breast development in men has increased.

Do you know last year's India Today's 
survey shows that,

the largest number of plastic surgeries 
done in India of to remove breast in men

you got into that situation 
where fruit is supposed to be healthy,

is creating all that problems.

It's not just pesticides or antibiotics
are growth hormones,

which are used in production.
But also how they are processed.

You might have heard the last one week
10 days doing rounds in all the media

artificially ripened fruits.

But why fruits are ripened artificially?

All of you want to fruits in off season.
How will they do it?

If you want mangoes in May,
how do you get mangoes?

You have to cut unripened one's 
ripen it artificially and sell it.

Banana's which are seeing uniformed yellow

What are they? 
They all are carbon ripen.

The apples the shiny apples which you see,

What are they? When were they produced?
Where were they produced? Do you know?

California apples, 
you get apple from California

Can you keep it fresh?
They are coated with wax.

Go back to your home, 
take apple from your fridge.

Just scratch it. You'll see the wax.

We are eating all that.

The watermelons which are red in color,

they are injected with injections, color.

They are injected with growth hormones.

The milk which is sold,
we have seen in news last several years,

the reports which say, "The milk is 
contaminated with synthetic milk."

If you want to have milk 
at 40 rupees a liter thats what you get.

We want food cheaper,

and there is competition 
between the companies

They pay low to the farmers,

They also contaminate it 
and get away with that.

All brands that sold in Hyderabad,

prone to have contaminated with synthetic milk

GM Foods, How many of you know about this?
How many of you've heard about this?

BT Brinjal, to tell you simply,
what BT Brinjal is?

when pesticide is sprayed from outside 
it damages the environment.

Like I said,"99% goes into the environment
only 1% kills the insect."

So scientist thought why not we produce
pesticide in plant itself.

So plant produces insecticides.
So which ever insect eats plant will die.

But what happens to us?
Who eats that.

So there are several bio safety questions
in front of us which were never addressed.

What you see here, yellow, white,
golden rice which is going to come soon

You know why it was done?

They say "vitamin A deficiency 
is serious problem, so we will produce

vitamin A in the plant."

If you eat that rice you can have 
as much as vitamin A as possible.

But do you know vitamin A is 
fat soluble vitamin.

So it's not just enough to have vitamin A,
but you also need to have enough fat.

But if you have enough fat in your food
you don't need golden rice.

In 2005 we came across a farmer in Guntur,
Who was cultivating BT Bhendi.

We were shocked.

I said "How did you get it?"

He said,"Company gave me the seeds."

We went to the company.
They said,"We are doing a trial."

We went to the government.
Government said,"Yeah, That is seen."

They said, "You are not permitted."
Those were taken off in 2005.

2013, similarly we came across a cotton,