For months, farmers in India have been protesting against three farm acts passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020.

To provide some context for these massive and historic protests, we speak with anthropologist Andrew Flachs about farming in India. He and Patty discuss a wide range of related topics, including the impact of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 70s on Indian farmers, genetically modified seeds, food supply and distribution, human migration and climate change, land and the right to water, and the corporatization of agriculture.

Andrew Flachs is an assistant professor of anthropology at Purdue University. His research focuses on sustainable agriculture, food studies, the anthropology of knowledge, and political ecology. He is the author of Cultivating Knowledge: Biotechnology, Sustainability, and the Human Cost of Cotton Capitalism in India (University of Arizona Press, 2019).

You can read his recent Edge Effects essay, “Farmers Living and Dying by Cotton Seeds in India,” here.

Cover photo by Nandhu Kumar on Unsplash