complex systems today I wanted to I want
to change your mind about that last year
my sister my sister decided to grow some
beans green grass and she took a handful
and she hydrated some cotton wool with
some water and then she placed the beans
in there and left for a few days to grow
bean sprouts during this time I also had
my job where people food and health unit
shout-out to my yoga teacher and during
this time we learned about how farming
directly impacts our environment and our
health so clearly I knew everything
about the topic and was like I can help
my sister out I know what to do and so
when she decided to do that and they
grew I was like we can grow something
with soil it can’t be that difficult
being an expert I am and absolutely
think I’m March I marched my sister
downstairs and we chose some soil based
on roundness and things started to grow
and soon our balcony was full of plants
like this but then we did a hitter road
look we didn’t have any more containers
and my mother refused to part with her
takeaway food so okay something else my
sister again suggested that we go to the
movies she’s really the the drive behind
this whole project and so when the
movies watched it wasn’t that great but
afterwards we picked every popcorn box
there was from the top to the bottom
and popcorn has this ability the popcorn
boxes rather they’re not paper but
they’re not plastic so if there’s too
much water in them they let the water
pass but if there’s too little or enough
they still retain their shape and we
just started growing things we had
coriander and peppers and tomatoes then
it was full our balcony is full of this
stuff so let’s say you know you growing
is hard and you hit some roadblocks you
won’t believe me if I tell you
but the one of the biggest roadblocks
that hit me were my animals these two
ate the leaves ate the fruits peed in
the soil it was terrible but there was
another problem myself to go to my
mother Simran what are the plans this is
advice that I can continue to ignore for
several days and instead of a plants
garden and vegetable garden I had a
plant graveyard so how did I solve this
simple these big farms have very complex
systems they have a lot of money and a
lot of skills towards the plants this is
stuff I didn’t have and so I compromised
and what I did was I took a water bottle
and cut holes in the top and put it in
the soil and this proved to be efficient
the plants didn’t die but I’m saying
that I grew things why should you to
begin with it reduces the distance it
takes for the food to reach you food
miles is the concept that calculates
keep the distance your food takes to
reach you plus the energy takes for it
to reach you in that condition more
often than not when we buy exotic fruit
from other places
it requires rapid transportation which
is air freight and refrigeration all of
which increase the co2 emissions in the
world and increase your own and our own
carbon footprint this can easily be
solved if you buy a bunch of mint from
the supermarket just put it in some
water and let the roots grow for a while
and after that’s done you put the mint
in some soil you you’re a farmer you
have
mint plant another reason you should
grow your own and we should all grow our
own food is because it reduces the
dependency on fossil fuels the packaging
that our food comes in it’s bright and
shiny and plastic and clear
that’s all fossil fuels additionally
fossil fuels make chemical fertilizers
don’t even get me started I don’t know
what what’s in my stuff
I don’t do chemistry but this brings me
to my main point when you grow your own
food you know what what goes in it water
okay and you know the process and you
get the rewards so next time when I ask
the question who is a farmer or what a
farm is I don’t want you to think about
a small-scale shamba or some huge
monoculture farm with thousands of
workers I want you to think about you
[Applause] [Music]