Covid-19 paves way for a Slow food campaign against Cancer

Thiruvananthapuram: With researches pointing finger at fast-food culture as one of the triggering factors for cancer, a slow food movement was proposed by Ashakiranam, cancer-care project of Caritas India, to check the spread of the disease in the state.
The slow-food movement amid Covid-19 pandemic aims to promote organic farming in thousands of houses in the state and encourage people to partake food cooked using the vegetables grown in their backyard.
Titled ‘Jeevani’, the project will be formally inaugurated by agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar on Thursday. The project aims to prevent the source of cancer at grassroots level by promoting healthy lifestyle by producing, conserving and consuming good food.
Fr Paul Moonjely, director of Caritas India, said it was the rapidly increasing number of cancer patients in the state that prompted the organisation to propose the project. “Our activities include creating awareness and providing support in the form of palliative care and financial to the needy. After four years of cancer-care campaign, we now want to deal with the root cause of cancer — changes in lifestyle and food habits. Hence, we are promoting organic farming,” Fr Paul said.
The organisation has mooted the project also as a corollary to ‘Subhiksha Keralam’ project envisioned by the state government to address possible food scarcity if Covid-19 situation continues to be grave. “These days, people spend more time in their houses. There is a renewed interest in farming among people during this pandemic and we are trying to engage them in organic farming by providing all possible support,” said Fr Paul.
The project is implemented through social-service societies across 32 dioceses in the state. The aim is to cover over nine lakh families across the state. Ahead of the launch, 28,326 volunteers have enrolled for the project. A 20-member resource team has been formed to spearhead the initiative. The organisation will provide seed, manure and agriculture, in addition to offering support by resource people.
Fr Paul said networking with the government system, mobilising resources daily and awareness among people remains the challenge they face in their activities. Seeds and saplings for the project will be procured from dioceses having nurseries and open market.
“Kerala was among the leading states in agriculture, but now we have become a consumer state. The rice we eat now does not get stale and it is due to preservatives used in it. The idea of Jeevani is to make people understand the importance of cultivating vegetables they need to consume. A market-oriented exploitation is happening, and we need to promote sustainable agriculture,” said Haridas V R, climate change head at the organisation.