Last week, Dhrumil (of We Like It Raw and Give It To Me Raw fame) asked me to do a post for his My Way series.  I was really excited to get to do one of these posts, and it just went up today.  Check it our here.

–Rishi

Happy New Year everyone!

Ro and I would like to thank all of you for your love and support.  We’re both excited for the new year and look forward to bringing you all some great new recipes, videos, and info posts and also learning from all of you.

Wishing everyone well,
Rishi

How the international policies that govern the way we grow and trade food are leading to starvation, obesity, poverty, environmental pollution, and injustice.

There are millions of starving people struggling in regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We’ve all known this for years. The usual explanation is that there are simply too many people and not enough food. And the usual proposed solution is to grow more food using new biotechnologies to increase yield. The truth is that people starve as a direct result of policies that govern the way we grow and trade food. To me it’s clear that the foreign policies of Western governments are actually based on the profiteering of Western-based corporations. In a world where the vast majority of humanity is still engaged in agriculture, the common people are suffering.

Growing Food: Traditional farming is NOT backward

In old world agricultural communities, farmers have developed the means to fertilize and cultivate their land through thousands of years of accumulated traditional knowledge. Farmers in South America know that corn and squash grow well together; farmers in India use the Neem tree as a natural pesticide. These farmers live in balance with their local environment and grow enough food to sustain themselves and their communities, while selling the surplus. The West came in with a new dogma: the “best” way to farm is by using high-yield seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides to maximize crop yield. On top of that, countries should specialize in producing a few different foods, and import the rest.

What has been the result? Previously sustainable communities are now dependent on buying seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides (inputs) from Western corporations. The chemicals from these inputs deplete the natural minerals in the soil, so every year farmers need more and more to reach the same yield. They now only grow a single crop and they depend on the cash from selling that crop. Many farmers are going into debt as they put more money into inputs and get less and less yield from their chemically burnt soil. In India, over 20,000 farmers have committed suicide because of indebtedness and starvation.

Trading Food: Agribusiness sets the rule of the game

An agricultural subsidy is money the government pays to farmers (and agribusiness) to supplement their income and manage the supply of produce. Western governments first started subsidizing farmers because agricultural is not a stable commodity—in some years there is good harvest, and in some years there is drought. As time went on, Western countries became increasingly urbanized and farms fell under the control of large agribusiness corporations. Today, only about 2% of the U.S. population is still engaged in agriculture. This means that when we subsidize agriculture we subsidize large corporations. On average, $16 Billion a year is given to agribusiness in the U.S. in the form of subsidies. We subsidize our crops so much, that farms sell staple produce for LESS than its own cost. The result is a very cheap and abundant supply of food.

So what do Western countries do with all their cheap food? Well, we eat a lot of it. This has lead to a large scale obesity epidemic in the U.S. But we also export it to other countries. This is where organizations like World Trade Organization (WTO) come in. Going along with the doctrine that countries should specialize in a few products, the WTO advocates for free trade in agriculture—meaning no tariffs. A tariff is a tax on imported goods—tariffs make the imported product more expensive to defend the domestic producer. When developing countries remove their agriculture tariffs in a global economy, their farmers are put into direct competition with overseas producers. All that cheap, subsidized food from the West floods the markets of these countries. Developing countries do not have the means to subsidize their agriculture so heavily. Local economies, local farmers, and local produce are wiped out. Large agribusiness firms from the U.S. and EU effectively “capture” these markets. While millions starve, and billions are indebted, the Western companies reap windfall profits.

The truth about starvation

There is enough land and food in this world to feed every person. However, because the policies for growing and trading food are dominated by corporations that are primarly concerned with their bottom line, millions are no longer able to sustain themselves. DEMAND JUSTICE.

–Rohit

I just thought I’d post up a few pictures of the postures I demonstrate in the videos to make them as clear as possible.

Upright Sitting Posture
This posture is for those who have trouble sitting in any of the other postures.  Notice that I am not resting my back against the backrest, but am sitting away from the chair with my spine straight and shoulders back.

Vajrasana (Lighting Bolt Posture)
Here you can see I have my knees together and my ankles together, and I am sitting down on my heels.  My hands rest on my knees, and again I am keeping my shoulders back, opening my chest and allowing my breath to flow deeply.  My spine is also naturally uplifted in this posture.

 Sukhasana (Easy Posture)
This is a normal cross-legged sitting position.  However, you can see that I am taking care to keep my spine as straight as possible, and my shoulders back.  My knees are out farther than in the other cross-legged postures, so there is less stress on them.  Still it is not as easy for me to stay upright in this posture for as long as in the other cross-legged postures.

Ardho Padmasana (Half-Lotus Posture)
Half-Lotus eases some of the stress on my lower back and allows for the natural uplifting of the spine which occurs in vajrasana.  However, it requires more flexibility in the knees and ankles than sukhasana.  If there is enough flexibility, one can stay in this posture for pro-longed periods of time, with little difficulty.

 Padmasana (Full-Lotus Posture)
Full-Lotus is the most difficult of these posture to achieve because it requires great flexibility in the knees, ankles, and hips.  If it can be maintained without discomfort, however, it is the most comfortable seated position for prolonged periods of time.  The spine is completely uplifted, and the sit bones create a natural platform to hold your body’s weight.  Even the hardest surface is comfortable for padmasana.

I hope these photos clear up some of the questions people have asked me.  If you would like any further clarification, feel free to send me an email.

–Rishi

Since I got back from India, I’ve been wanting to do a series of videos on pranayama, since most of the videos I found that actually explained the techniques well were in Hindi.  Now that I finally have some free time, I’m going to really get these started.  I’ll try to make these as easy to follow and as full of useful information as possible.  I won’t go into too much detail, however, because there is a lot of supplemental info about pranayama all over the web.

So here they are, the first two videos in our series on pranayama:

Pranayama - Part 1: Introduction

Pranayama - Part 2: How to Sit

If you have any comments or questions about the videos, please leave them below.

I hope you enjoy these!

–Rishi

(click to enlarge)

Since we’ve started putting out all our indian recipes, I’ve seen a lot of other chefs coming up with some really great Indian recipes.  I just found these two great recipes on the Raw Gastronomy.  I haven’t actually had a chance to try them out myself, but from the ingredients and the pictures, I get a good feeling.  Try them out, and tell us what you think.

Link to Chana Masala and Saag Recipes

Sorry about the broken link earlier!

Well we finally had time to look over the problem some people have been having with viewing our site in Internet Explorer.  It was a simple little problem, but just took me awhile to find.

So now you can enjoy Roshis.com the way it was meant to be seen!

Woohoo!

-Rishi

P.S.  If anyone is still having problems, just leave a comment below or shoot one of us an email.