EARTH’S VITALITY AND THE POWER OF

HAPPINESS
(A call for organic farming)
Keynote address by
The Hon’ble Jigmi Y. Thinley,
(Former prime minister of Bhutan)
Chairman, Gross National Happiness Centre, Bhutan,
At
The College of Bio resources and Agriculture, National Taiwan
University
April 1st, 2014.

Most learned Dean Shyu Yuan-Tay,

Distinguished Faculty members and students of the University,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure and honour for me to be at this great University as a

guest speaker. A University is where young minds and their
mentors dream together to transform society. It is where they find
the purpose, inspiration and the means to realize their visions. It is
here that the past, present and future are brought together and
thoughts and bodies of existing knowledge challenged. It is these
great institutions of learning that must dare to act more for the
greater good of society even as they are rightfully concerned with
the immediate success of their students in the zero-sum game of
our fiercely competitive world.

The topic I have been asked to speak on is well chosen for it is of

grave and immediate concern to society today. Everything
beginning with survival to the amazing progress that human race
has achieved, is attributable to the vitality of earth and its
bountiful gifts. But we have now reached a stage when earth has
lost much of her power to give and to support humankind’s dreams
of happiness.

1
The conventional GDP based model that has served us well in the
past is driving our pursuit of limitless economic growth in ways
that ignore the planet’s ecological boundaries or the finite nature of
its natural resources. It is killing what we are beginning to realize
is a fragile planet - a vulnerable organism - that must live in order
to support life. If and when it dies, so will all life that depends on
it.

When life itself is threatened, as it indeed is, the question of

sustaining the material prosperity we have achieved or its
continued growth, albeit with unconscionable inequality, does not
even arise. Unless we are able to find a new and saner path that
respects Mother Nature and helps restore its vitality, all that we
have accomplished will be lost as, with suicidal tendency, we
accelerate recklessly toward the precipice of extinction.

Human society is like a rudderless ship in a turbulent sea. We have

no vision - only endless wants. We are in desperate need of a
development path that will lead us to fulfilling the real needs of
both the mind and body – the material, spiritual and emotional. We
urgently need to redefine wealth and prosperity as being of the
kind the pursuit of which will give rise not only to our own
wellbeing and happiness but that of all others around us. We need
a vision – a shared goal of happiness that will unite all of humanity
and give us the cause and the power to heal our ailing planet.

My country Bhutan, which entered the modern world from a

period of isolation in 1961, examined the established rationale for
development. We questioned the prevailing models guided by the
common goal of endless economic growth at any cost. We saw
many nations that had compromised their sovereignty, identity,
culture and environment on the way to ‘prosperity’ and were not
prepared to make such compromises. We wanted development of
the kind that would strengthen our sovereignty and give to our
people the ability to pursue and fulfil their innermost yearning.

2
Recognizing happiness as the common desire of every citizen, His
Majesty Jigme Singye the Fourth King of the Wangchuck dynasty,
declared the purpose of development and the responsibility of
government as the creation of an enabling environment that would
facilitate the pursuit of happiness for any citizen who aspires for it.
Thus, He established Gross National Happiness as Bhutan’s goal
and set our country on a holistic development path founded on the
four pillars of socio economic progress, environmental
conservation, cultural promotion and good governance.

The fruits of pursuing GNH over 4 decades have been rewarding.

We have made good progress in raising our people’s socio
economic wellbeing in an equitable manner while having promoted
cultural growth and maintained environmental integrity within the
framework of a vibrant democracy. Our comparative success
impressed our development partners and attracted the attention of a
pensive and reflective world since the turn of the century in1998.

The interest in GNH has grown especially after the multiple crises
in 2008. The economic downturn; mounting climate change
consequences; food and energy crises amid depleting natural
resources; depressing social, health and mental problems;
unconscionable inequalities and spreading conflicts in the world
make clear that the world needs to mend its ways. And the world is
waking up.

Scientists, economists, academics, corporate leaders, civil society,

ordinary farmers, working people, are calling for an honest
assessment of our fundamentals. The special advisor to the UN
Secretary General, Dr Jeffery Sachs and director of the Earth
Institute reported recently that, “the world is now in the midst of a
major policy debate about the objectives of public policy. What
should be the world’s Sustainable Development Goals …?” In the

3
introduction to the 2nd edition of the World Happiness Report, he
informs that, “In July 2011, the UN General Assembly passed a
historic resolution. It invited member countries to measure the
happiness of their people and to use this to help guide their public
policies. This was followed in April 2012 by the first UN high-
level meeting on happiness and well-being, chaired by the Prime
Minister of Bhutan. At the same time, the first World Happiness
Report was published, followed some months later by the OECD
Guidelines setting an international standard for the measurement of
well-being”.

The Secretary General, in his 2013 report entitled, “Happiness:

towards a holistic approach to development” advises that, “the
new goal should embrace the emphasis on human wellbeing and
include the use of metrics that go beyond standard income
measures, such as surveys of subjective wellbeing and happiness,
as introduced by many countries and the OECD”. The countries he
credits for such initiatives are France, Italy, Japan, Qatar, the UK
and Bhutan. There are many others as well, including Thailand,
Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Belgium. He also lists the European
Union, the OECD and almost all the UN agencies. These are
indeed, encouraging signs.

Certainly, directly or otherwise, agriculture must offer its own

share of solutions. As agriculture and its conventional practices are
a primary cause of the deteriorating health of our planet and as this
is the college of bio resources and agriculture, I wish to focus the
remaining part of my lecture on organic agriculture as the means to
reviving earth’s vitality through the power of a vision of
happiness.

4
Organic agriculture is not only relevant to today’s world. It is what
is necessary for the survival of all living beings. The central role of
organic agriculture in paving the path towards a safer and happier
world cannot be overstated.

In the last one century, the culture of managing bio resources and
growing food has changed dramatically in ways that are at once
beneficial and harmful; praiseworthy and shameful. It has reasons
to be proud of its achievement in feeding the majority of our
population that has doubled from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion in
1999 to reach the current figure of over 7 billion. But it must also
acknowledge that in the process it has made this world less safe,
less hospitable and less capable of sustaining life and, indeed,
agriculture itself. Its share of responsibility in the deteriorating
state of the earth, like all other human activities, is no less than that
of industry, commerce, technology, urban expansion or ill
conceived macro economic policies. In raising productivity and
profit, modern agriculture has made gains at the cost of irreparable
damage to the planet’s vitality.

The time has come to question every standard, norm and

convention governing agricultural practices even where they may
generally be praised as successful. We need to examine closely and
objectively the deeper consequences of synthetic fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides, genetic engineering and industrial farming.
We need to be honest and bold to admit the mistakes we have
made or continue to make and not be fearful of the short-term
costs.

Since agriculture is the foundation of all civilizations, I believe

organic agriculture, as the only way of growing sustainable food,
must constitute a primary thrust in any new development
paradigm. In its flourishing is the basis for human security and in
its failure lies the cause for insecurity and conflict within and

5
among nations. Without food security, there can be no other
security. And without sustainable agriculture, life itself is not
sustainable. But if agriculture is itself a cause for insecurity and
harms the environment, poisons water and becomes hazardous to
the health of humans and other life forms, then it betrays its very
purpose. Therein lies the wisdom of organic farming.

I shall enumerate 8 key reasons why the transition to organic

farming is urgent:

1. Soil erosion and loss: Agriculture is dependent on the topsoil

which averages a mere foot in depth. Whereas, it takes over 500
years for the formation of a single inch of topsoil, researchers
have found that human action and natural processes are causing
the loss of over 24 billion tons of it each year. According to one
Cornell University study, “India and China are losing soil 40
times faster than it is replenished, while 30% of the world’s
arable land is rapidly becoming unproductive due to erosion.”
And some 40% of world’s agriculture soil is classed as either
degraded or seriously degraded due to ‘biodiversity loss,
nutrient depletion, acid rain, and soil compaction’.

An article entitled, What If the World’s Soil Runs Out?

TIME.com of Dec 2012, reported that “A rough calculation of
current rates of soil degradation suggests we have about 60
years of topsoil left. All the while, desertification is advancing
to render desolate approximately 6,000,000 hectares of
agricultural land each year affecting some 75% of the world's
drier lands. At this rate, studies indicate that we will produce
30% less food over the next 20-50 years’ against the projected
demand for 50% more food production.

It is most unfortunate that agricultural practices have

6
 contributed to the development of this state of affairs that
threaten the viability of agriculture altogether. Our conventional
agricultural practices using chemical fertilizers do not support
soil formation. Rather, they serve as convenient substitute to,
and discourage the sensible ways of replenishing and raising
soil fertility.
2. Synthetic chemical dependence: Dependence on pesticides
and herbicides has risen dramatically and continues to escalate
especially in the developing countries. While the immense
benefits of fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides are
undeniable, their harmful effects, both of the immediate and
long term nature, on soil, biodiversity, ground and surface
water, air and consequently, human health, are far greater in
scale. So many factors, circumstances and interest groups have
conspired to create near absolute dependence of crops and
farmers alike on synthetic chemicals to make farming
unsustainable.
Much of traditional wisdom has been abandoned, lost and
undermined due to the myth that without chemicals, neither soil
nor crop can support productive and profitable agriculture. This
myth must be shattered by bringing to the fore the growing
scientific evidence that the combination of time-tested and
innovative organic farming are in fact, more productive while
raising soil fertility.

Unless organic agriculture comes in to cleanse and wean the

addicted soil, crops and farmers away from such excessively
dangerous chemicals and practices, we will kill the very soil on
which agriculture depends. Agriculture will fail society if it
does not shift to the sustainable practice of organic farming.

3. Oil and natural gas depletion: It was inevitable that in the ‘age
of hydro carbon’, agriculture too should come to rely on this
fast depleting source of energy as a consequence of dependence

7
 on its agro chemical products, farm machinery and
transportation. Scientific evidence suggest that oil and natural
gas reserves will run out within 40 and 60 years respectively at
current rates of consumption while in fact, projections for their
consumption will continue to rise. This has led some to predict
that in the post carbon era, crop yields will go down to levels
that may not be able to support more than 3 billion people,
meaning that there would be large scale starvation and food
based conflicts. This would appear to be true especially if the
principal grain exporters such as the U.S.A., Canada, Europe,
Australia and Argentina are unable to adjust their petroleum-
based industrial agriculture to non fossil fuel based production
methods.

Traditional and sustainable ways to raise soil fertility and reduce

crop disease and loss to pests need to be revived and fortified
with new approaches and methods that will take advantage of
the scientific and technological advances we have made mainly
on the fringes of mainstream agriculture.

4. Water scarcity: Water is no more in abundance on our ‘water-

rich’ planet. More than 40 percent of the people on our planet
are reported to be suffering this bitter truth. In 2012, FAO
predicted that “by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in
countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and that two-
thirds of the world’s population could be living under water
stressed conditions.”
Agriculture currently uses 70 per cent of world’s water to
irrigate about one fifth of cropland. While agriculture is
responsible for the most inefficient use of water, its demand and
share of this dwindling precious resource is increasing
especially in the face of long droughts and other effects of
climate change and soil degradation. This is despite huge tracts
of croplands having become fallow because of soil denudation

8
 or for lack of water as mountains lose their snow cover, glaciers
disappear, lakes dry up and rivers fail to bring life to the fields
they once irrigated. This led governments to heavily subsidize
irrigation.

As surface irrigation sources decreased, the shift of subsidy to

ground water pumps is causing rapid depletion of aquifers,
which, according to the UNEP, recharge at rates of only 0.1 to
0.3 percent per year. World Watch Institute informs that in
some places in India and China, ground water levels are falling
more than 4 meters per year while the United States draws
groundwater at rates 25 percent greater than the natural
replacement rates. Many states of the prosperous USA are thus,
vulnerable to extreme water poverty in the not too distant future.

Clearly, water disputes or conflicts between and among

farmlands, cities, regions and nations are inevitable as upper
riparian inhabitants and common beneficiaries become less
amenable to sharing what is becoming increasingly scarce. Time
Magazine, in an interesting article in December 2012, reported
that water issue, which will soon reach a crisis point, ‘is already
causing conflicts in India, China, Pakistan and the Middle East
and before climate change and food security really hit, the next
wars are likely to be fought over unsustainable irrigation’.

All the while, in the developing countries, water pollution by

urban, industrial and agricultural discharge is rendering much of
what is available, poisonous and unfit for human consumption
or irrigation. The need for sustainable, clean and more efficient
use of water has become paramount and most urgent.

5. Climate distortion: This occurrence is devastating our farms

and farming communities that are naturally sensitive to weather
events. International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual report
states that ‘Global warming is set to continue unabated with

9
temperatures rising by 20% by 2035, putting the world on track
for a temperature increase of 3.6 degrees C, far above the UN
target of 2.0 degrees’. According to the journal, Geology, even
if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C
(3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with
rising sea levels far higher than at present. What impact this will
have on the approximately 10% of the worlds population living
in low lying areas and agriculture is unthinkable.

As a result of global warming and for other reasons that we are

yet to understand, natural disasters and extreme weather events
are playing havoc on agriculture. Severe storms, droughts,
flooding, pest infestations and diseases have disrupted farmer’s
life and livelihood around the world. Yet even as the number
of climate related natural disasters has reportedly
doubled in the last ten years , predictions are for more
frequent and severe disasters. It is now widely
acknowledged that the tragedy of typhoon Haiyan is the
result of society’s avoidable “climate madness”.

Understandably, the main victims are the poor farmers in poor

countries. Least prepared, least comprehending, and most
handicapped, they are unable to bear the heavy cost of
adaptation and mitigation while our aid dependent governments
in particular, have little capacity to help. The unpredictable
weather and disruption of seasonal patterns have made
traditional wisdom and experience irrelevant. The result is
further dependence on synthetic chemicals, the so called miracle
seeds and strains, and the rich and powerful that have robbed
them of their pride, dignity and independence. No wonder, in
one country alone, some 250,000 farmers committed suicide
rather than face the shameful consequence of indebtedness
when their crops failed.

10
6. Rising Population: According to the Population Reference
Bureau, each day, almost a quarter-million people are added to
the roughly 7.1 billion in existence. Statistics show that there is
enough food being produced to feed the world’s entire
population and that the problem lies with distribution or
accessibility. But the bottom line is, given the insurmountable
political, economic and logistical problems that stand in the way
of compassion and efficient distribution, there is not enough
food to go around. That is why according to FAO, there are 852
million people world wide who suffer from hunger, 870 million
victims of chronic undernourishment and 66 million primary
school-age children who attend classes with no food in their
stomach. All the while, life supporting natural resources –
‘food, fresh water, soil, energy, and biodiversity-are being
polluted, degraded, and depleted’.

Various estimates project a need to increase food supply by

three times in the next 40 years to meet the basic needs of the
world’s population that will have mushroomed to 11 billion
people by then. How can that be done, given the circumstances
under narration?

7. Diminishing croplands: World Watch Institute maintains that

‘Increases in food production, per hectare of land, have not kept
pace with increases in population, and the planet has virtually
no more arable land or fresh water to spare. As a result, per-
capita cropland has fallen by more than half since 1960, and
per-capita production of grains, the basic food, has been falling
worldwide for 20 years’. This is not to speak of the soil
degradation due to loss of fertility and erosion, which, according
to a study for the International Food Policy Research Institute,
compels, an estimated 10 million hectares of cropland
worldwide to be abandoned annually. An equal area is
‘critically damaged’ each year by salinization in large part, as a
result of irrigation and/or improper drainage methods’.

11
 Sadly, much of the replacement to meet the increased
production needs come from the world’s forests at a rate of
some 130,000 square kilometers each year, the clearing of
which is a big contributor to climate change. If this trend
continues, WWF predicts that the world will have no more than
10 percent of forests remaining by 2030. And agriculture,
ironically, will have been the primary cause.

8. Dying Ocean: As the ocean comprises 71% of the planet and

supports 80% of life on the planet, it is only natural that we
should see it as an alternative agriculture base that ought to
produce more. But human indiscretion has not spared it as well.
Today, the fragile ocean ecosystems have been grossly abused
and are not only threatened but dying due to pollution including
agriculture chemical runoffs, excessive overfishing and
acidification which has increased by 30% since the industrial
revolution.

Fish stocks are collapsing to such an extent that according to a

BBC report in September 2012, ‘Global fish stocks are
exploited or depleted to such an extent that, without urgent
measures we may be the last generation to catch food from the
oceans’. National Geographic supported this with a report from
Science Magazine that world fish stocks may run out by 2048.
Much less than offer itself as an alternative food source, the
ocean too, like the dying soil, is also a helpless victim robbed of
its bountiful capacity to give.

These eight reasons alone make clear why agriculture as we know

it cannot go on. The 5th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change which will be formally released on 4th April
confirms much of the distressing trends that I have brought to your
attention. These provide convincing argument for organic farming.

12
But how might we understand organic farming when many dismiss
it as irrelevant and old fashioned?

Organic agriculture means very much more than just not using
chemicals, it is a whole system of working intelligently and with
deep understanding of nature. It is not about returning to
primitive, inefficient ways of farming. It is about discovering and
innovating more effective and efficient means to ensure that
organic farming, as already proven empirically, is as productive as
conventional agriculture while it can be far more. It is about
building on traditional wisdom, learning from our recent
experiences and mistakes, living in symbiosis with nature so as to
help sustain the flow of nature's bounties. It is about employing the
best of science, technology and minds to ensure that agriculture,
the foundation of civilization remains firm, progressive and
resilient. It is about sensible, sustainable agriculture.

I believe one of the world’s biggest mistaken notion is that going

organic is a choice. But from the perspective of food security and
sustainability, there is no choice. The simple cause of survival
demands it and necessitates it. There is no doubt that humankind
has the ability to feed everyone on earth healthily and sustainably.
No one need go hungry or live in grinding poverty. Just as
sustainable farming is an ecological imperative, it is fully viable
economically.

The good news is that more and more people, on becoming health
conscious, are switching to organic food and are willing to pay
more for it. And as the world-wide middle income population
grows, demand will rise. It is reported that within a little over two
decades, the worth of global market for organic food has grown to
about 60 billion US dollars from its humble beginning with North
America and Europe as the principal consumers. This is
attributable to rising consumer awareness and fairly aggressive
marketing efforts. However, with the economies of these regions

13
being in the dole drums, there is the possibility of the market being
surfeited. This raises the concern that it may lead some of the
producers to switch back to conventional agriculture. But it is
expected that this condition will be short lived and that the Asian
market, in particular, will grow rapidly with others following suit.
In the medium and long term, the market for organic produces and
products is bound to undergo huge expansion.

This university’s commitment to organic farming must not be

compromised by the volatilities of the market. It must stay true to
the long-term interest of the farmers and of society. It must remain
mindful of the reality that the ultimate well-being, happiness and
the very survival of the human race together with all other sentient
beings will depend on organic agriculture.

The Royal Government of Bhutan on its part, will relentlessly

promote and continue with its endeavour to realize the dreams we
share of bringing about a global movement to transit to organic
agriculture so that crops and the earth on which they grow will
become genuinely sustainable; so that agriculture will contribute
not to the degradation but rather to the resuscitation and
revitalization of nature.

But our commitment to ecologically responsible action goes

beyond agriculture. It also explains why the forests of our country
have been nurtured to expand their coverage to 80% of our
territory, and that 50% of our land has been brought under full
environmental protection in national parks and wilderness areas.
Likewise, it is for this reason that Bhutan vowed at Copenhagen to
remain a net carbon sink for ever.

14
The holistic development approach that we call Gross National
Happiness or GNH, also enables us to understand and appreciate
the broader ramifications and indeed, benefits of going organic in a
way that can dispel simplistic notions of organic farming. For us in
Bhutan, going organic is literally treading the GNH path. It is
about strengthening the four GNH pillars of ecological resilience,
socio-economic wellbeing, good governance, and cultural
promotion.

It seems reasonable to expect that the new economic paradigm that

the international community may or may not be able to agree on,
will probably incorporate most elements of the GNH model. But
even if the world cannot agree on a single paradigm, I am hopeful
that the broad principles on which consensus is emerging will
guide the development of the pathways that each country will
determine for itself. I am certainly confident that sustainability will
be the one common guiding light. And it is in this respect, that
organic agriculture must lead the way to a future of wellbeing and
happiness for all mankind on a planet that is ecologically
revitalized, resilient and fully capable of providing the invaluable
ecosystem services.

In the ultimate analysis, the future of the planet and that of human
society rest on the shoulders of the youth of today. It will depend
on how you as ordinary citizens, professionals and leaders in
business and industry or government and politics will think and act
not only for yourselves but for the greater good of society. As
university educated citizens, you bear the major share of the

15
enormous responsibility to shape the future of Taiwan and to bring
calm and happiness to our deeply troubled world. I wish you well!

TASHI DELEK

16