About the Farm

We are a group of doctors who have been running a multi-superspeciality hospital for the past 45 years. On a personal note, I lost my father to lung cancer at the age of 60. He was a complete teetotaler, a strict vegetarian, and had never consumed tobacco, alcohol, or even paan. Yet, he developed small cell lung carcinoma, despite having no family history of cancer. This incident left us deeply questioning the cause of his illness.

Then, one highly reputed cancer surgeon told me, "Look, you can't avoid cancer because it exists in the food you consume daily." I was taken aback and asked, "How is that possible?" He explained that all over the globe, feeding densely populated areas is a challenge. Consequently, agro-scientists have been working to develop seeds that yield bumper crops. At the genetic level, this process involves inducing uncontrolled mitosis—the same fundamental mechanism we recognize in medicine as the uncontrolled cell division that characterizes cancer.

He explained that there appears to be a link between the relentless drive for higher crop yields and the development of cancer. This issue is further compounded by the extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers. His argument led us to consider that, in order to reduce the risk of cancer, we may need to completely rethink our approach to agriculture—from striving for ever-increasing production to accepting lower yields. As he put it, if we want to avoid cancer, we must, first, abandon the obsession with producing more and more, and second, recognize that soils require natural nourishment to yield wholesome, cancer-free grains.