Vegetarianism and vegetation

This article is about the relevance of vegetarianism in the present day world. As highly evolved among the animals the human beings have certain responsibilities to maintain and respect the ecosystem balance and functioning. Consequently it is not at all advisable to continue to kill the animals and eat them. If we have to follow the path of live and let live we should not kill the animals. We are not given any special rights to kill the organisms. The alternative is to follow vegetarianism and cultivate plants. Some people argue that the plants are also living organisms and how we can kill them. The answer here is that the plants have totipotency. Totipotency means total potency i.e. if any branch of a tree is cut the plant can regenerate a new branch in that area. However if a man's hand is cut the hand is lost once and for all. Except, however, for the recent stem cell research that shows some possibilities of regeneration. As otherwise one can reap the benefits of growing the plants still allowing them to live. Plants supply all the essential nutrients and the prerequisite is that different plants have to be considered at various points of time in a day or in a week for our routine dietary needs. Uprooting and felling of the trees for short-term benefits is undertaken not only by locals but also by educated lot who have close association with powers that be. This should not be the case.
Consuming animals can be traced to barbaric age when animals are directly consumed or after barbecuing. A time was there when cannibalism was also present. It is another thing that cannibalism exists even now as reports come here and there. The other reasons for not following strict vegetarianism can also be traced to shortage of supply of plant sources. But this cannot be an excuse, as every effort should be made to increase the arable land. Special efforts should be taken to convert the wastelands and barren lands into cultivable land.
It is not only aesthetic to have long green pastures but also to have enough production to ever increasing demand of food grains. There is a report that shows that we are importing pulses to the tune of more than 3,000 crore rupees. It is a pathetic situation that we have to import pulses. The best solution to increase the pulses output, which is also eco-friendly, practiced for ages, is alternate cropping of cereals with pulses. The advantage of using a legume crop (pulses) as an alternate crop is that these plants have the capacity to fix the atmospheric nitrogen symbiotically with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Though this is nature's best antidote for recycling of nutrients it has not been fully explored by farmers. Year after year we spend several thousands of crores of rupees on chemical fertilizers. This leaves us not only dependent on chemical fertilizers every year but also medicates our body with all sorts of chemicals. This also includes pesticides, fungicides that we use to prevent pests and pathogens. To avoid application of these chemicals biopesticides have been suggested. Application of suspension of cow dung is good for crops as the cow dung provides not only nutrients but also protection from pathogenic organisms, as many saprophytes in dung will prevent the pathogens.

The cyanobacteria (blue green algae) also fix atmospheric nitrogen but mostly live independently. These organisms are also used as biofertilizers. Without spending any additional money the cyanobacteria can be grown wherever ponds or other such stagnant water bodies exist. They should not be mistaken for the green algae (e.g. Chlorella, Scenedesmus, Chlamydomonas) that also grow in such stagnant waters. By experience one can distinguish between a green alga and a cyanobacterial colony. The cyanobacterial bloom has to be collected from the ponds and filtered through 10 µm filters. This way most of the bacteria, fungal spores, unialgal cells and protozoans can be filtered. The remaining cyanobacterial filaments can be washed in fresh sterilized water. They can then be dried and kept ready for spreading in the agricultural lands. These cyanobacteria are particularly helpful during a rice-crop. Otherwise they can be used during any cereal crop. This is a very cheap method. Advice of the agricultural scientist for the identity of the organism should be taken. These cyanobacteria fix atmospheric nitrogen and minimize the cost to be incurred for nitrogenous chemical fertilizers. Our Government, which spends crores of rupees for fertilizer subsidies, can escape from this unnecessary expenditure. The industrial lobby and some vested interests may not want the subsidies to go but to ever continue. While western countries (developed countries) are shifting to organic farming we are still continuing the practice of chemo- farming. It is high time that we shift back to organic farming and eco-friendly approaches. Careful planning and proper management of the crops are prerequisites for higher production.

Several innovations can be introduced within the framework of sustainable agriculture (organic farming). Invariably the organic farming uses cow dung for composting along with plant remains from previous crop, or if earthworms mediate the process then the process becomes vermi-composting. Irrespective of the nature of the manure or compost prepared cow dung seems to be the central point. It can be seen from the above that cow dung is indispensable in all the preparations. If that were the case we should introspect ourselves as to how important it is to take care of cows. This could be the reason why cows are considered holy in our tradition. Instead of killing them we should follow the principle of live and let live. The cow dung is also used in the production of methane a component of biogas.