A Call to Preserve Auroville's Food System Dear Community, We, the farmers of Auroville, wish...

A Call to Preserve Auroville's Food System Dear Community, We, the farmers of Auroville, wish to express our concern over the recent pattern of administrative decisions which threaten the foundation of our community’s food system and long-term goal of food security. Farming in Auroville has never been easy, but the last two years have been particularly difficult as the farms have been squeezed into not only ecological and social challenges but also extreme financial difficulties. The majority of our small farms are struggling due to a lack of maintenance support for 2 years now, and this lack of systemic support is also a significant deterrent for young Aurovilians interested in farming. At a time when most older farms desperately need succession, we are missing a whole new generation of farmers to sustain our food system. Our distribution to community kitchens has dwindled, the maintenance cuts have meant that more and more farmers now need to put monetary profit first in their work, and the entire system is increasingly becoming competitive and individualistic. On top of this, some of our biggest and most productive farms are losing their land. Now.. about the land The stewards of Annapurna Farm were recently informed via a simple email that 100 of its 135 acres would be allocated for a new IIT Madras "sustainability" campus. Annapurna is now being asked to "relocate" to the Green Belt. As most in the community would know, farms cannot be "relocated"; farms grow slowly over many years, and it takes an immense amount of work and capital investment to make a farm productive and to maintain it. Annapurna is one of the very few farms that have managed to do this for over 30 years. Annapurna is one of Auroville’s oldest, most productive, and certified organic farms. The proposed "relocation" is completely unfeasible; you cannot move an entire ecosystem. Annapurna has built water tanks that hold over 50 million litres of runoff water. These tanks meet 90% of Annapurna’s agricultural needs - a tremendous feat in sustainable organic farming as most even organic farms rely on borewells. Annapurna is also the grain basket of Auroville, processing grains from five other farms that lack their own processing capacity. If the farm leaves the area, Auroville will likely not have its own grains anymore, and it will undo decades of land restoration work as water tanks of this scale are likely not possible elsewhere in Auroville. This is not an isolated event. It is part of a larger trend that is crippling Auroville's food sector. AuroOrchard has already lost 16 acres for the purpose of ‘land consolidation’. The rest of AuroOrchard and other outlying lands like Brihaspati are under similar threat of being exchanged. Buddha Garden, parts of Shambhala and Siddhartha farms, which are located in the MasterPlan area, have also been asked to "relocate" for the creation of a ‘VIP’ road, a shopping mall and an electricity substation - none of which exist in the Master Plan. Parts of Ayarpadi farm in the International Zone, the entire Kottakarai farm is in the Industrial Zone, and if the current pattern continues, they too will be asked to "relocate". On one hand, the current town planners demand a rigid adherence to zoning and the Master Plan which doesn’t offer much hope to the future of existing farms in the city area, and on the other hand, this rigidity seems to be followed only when it’s convenient as the decision about Buddha Garden demonstrates. The notion of consolidating agriculture into the Green Belt is flawed. Two failed farm attempts in the Master Plan area by the Auroville Foundation Office and Governing Board appointed Funds and Assets Management Committee - Unity Farm and Gratitude Farm - stand as a testament to the difficulty of this endeavor, despite several lakhs of start-up investment. Then there’s the Question of Money Sustainable organic farming is always more expensive than chemical farming (which has other hidden costs like increased expenditure on healthcare and ecological disasters) and in the current climate where every unit and service is being squeezed in the name of “financial viability,” most feel compelled to cut corners, and our collective health has been a casualty of this push. Most units, particularly our main community kitchen, have significantly reduced their use of food grown on Auroville farms either due to the price (which is now being set by Foodlink on a weekly basis) or, as we are told, that people don’t want to eat or buy local vegetables and grains. In Conclusion These massive shifts in Auroville agriculture come without any vision for supporting the food system of Auroville. There is no real and genuine opportunity for the farmers to talk to those making these decisions to come to a shared position of commitment towards Auroville-grown food. There is an urgent need to work on different components of our food sector. Auroville's land is a sacred resource, entrusted to us by donors to realize our core mission. Our farms are more than just food producers; they can be living laboratories for integral education, conscious evolution, and a new economic paradigm. Instead of being dismantled, they need to be at the heart of our vision. We appeal to those in a position of authority to reconsider their current course of action. How can we build The City the Earth Needs without planning how to feed it? Let's work together to develop a food plan that protects and improves our existing farms, prioritises Auroville produce, attracts a new generation of farmers, and creates a resilient, self-sufficient food system. If we are concerned about access to clean, local food and the food security of Auroville, then we need support and greater participation from both - the community and the administration - to imagine a way forward. Anybody interested in talking to us and working with us is welcome to write to us at [email protected] / [email protected] Core Group of the FarmGroup Anshul, Charlie, Priya, Sathyavanan, Tomas and Velmurugan